//------------------------------// // Chapter VI: Hot and Cold // Story: Frigid // by Yuri Petrovitch //------------------------------// Damian hated mornings, he really did, each time the sun came over the hills and went about maliciously destroying his peaceful slumber Damian swore that one day he'd have his revenge upon the super-heated ball of gas. This morning wasn't so different from all the others, yet at the same time something felt out of place. The young man's mind tried to come up with a reason for this feeling, but thinking this early was like trying to run a marathon through quick sand and the process came up with little other than his back was sore. Well, I always hate this part, so lets get this over with, with a bit of effort a pair of sleep crusted eyes opened to be greeted with a wall of blue fluff. "What the?" Damian said, or he would have hadn't his words been muffled by the fuzz. I don't remember buying a blanket like this. The fluffy blanket was warm and strangely heavy; it wasn't really until he heard it snore that Damian realized that was alive. With both his arms Damian managed to gently remove the creature from his facial region, and as he looked down at the culprit of the unwanted cuddles his memory came back to him in a flood. On his chest was was the still sleeping form of a midnight blue miniature horse. The horn that jutted out from a messy azure blue mane as well as the pair of wings on it's back painted out the painful fact that Damian had been stranded in some god awful fairy tale. The first rays of sunlight drifted through the smashed open windshield and illuminated the wreckage; all Damian had to say was that taking away the shadows and revealing the mess didn't do his plane any favors. Jagged metal poked out from tears in the hull, the controls in front of the pilot where smashed beyond recognition, and snow covered pretty much everything including the razor sharp glass and obstacles that could easily injury anyone not careful enough. The Aurora had seen better days for sure. Looking around the cabin of the dead Twin Otter the Human found himself sitting in his old pilots chair with the back rest reclined into a makeshift bed or sorts, Well that explains the back pain, at least it wasn't as bad as last night in that cave though. The other fantasy-land critter had taken Riel's chair and was curled up on it, and if the rhythm of it's breathing was any indicator it was still asleep as well. The snow white fur seemed to blend in with the surroundings, and if it weren't for the pink mane and tail the unicorn like creature would have had the best camouflage. Another bout of snoring on Damian's lap returned his attention to the smaller sibling. Briefly the young man questioned why the little filly had landed up on his head, memories of his old Labrador Retriever doing the same thing back in earlier days in life came to mind. Shrugging the thoughts away the man carefully removed the curled ball of fluff enough so that he could escape from being it's mattress. As soon as contact was removed from the pony the winter cold invaded Damian's body, generating shivers the rocked his body as the heat drained from him. "Damn it sonny, I told you not to mess with the thermostat!" The little voice in the back of Damian's mind chimed in to give his little two cents. "Now put that heated horse pillow back on top of us and go back to sleep! Goodness knows you need it." How about no. I have a lot of things planned today, and I need to get some warm food in me more than I need a few extra z's. Now shut up and stay out of my head, its bad enough that I'm in the crazy situation as it is that I don't need a mental breakdown on top of it. "Well I could go for some flapjacks right about now. Oh, and I'm sorry to say this but your stuck with me because I am you, and I can't exactly leave me now can I?" The voice laughed back. "I really hope there's a psychiatrist in this world." An enormous yawn cracked across Luna's mouth as she woke from her slumber. Luna had seen the weirdest dream ever the night before; in it there had been a bazillion Humans all around her. They had lived in a city greater than any other in the world; the city had been made a maze of mountain tall towers, each trying to reach the heavens. Below the trunks of the massive shimmering monoliths streams of Humans of all shapes and sizes went about their daily lives in what looked like utter chaos. There had even been more machines that the Humans had used to ride around in. It was totally crazy. Not wasting any time, Luna jumped out from the Human sized chair and promptly began to wake her big sister in the traditional way; by jumping up and down on Celestia's rib cage and rump. Accompanying the ceremony was a chorus of giggles as the pony squirmed under the barrage of hooves on her flank. "Enough Lulu, get off of me!" Celestia shouted as she threw her younger sibling off and launching her into a pile of soft snow below the cabin seat. Luna poked her head above the rim of the chair and giggled. "Sorry Tia, I just had the strangest dream and I just have to tell you all about it! There were tons of Humans everywhere, a city filled with all these towers that where twice as tall as any mountain, and there were a bunch of these-" Luna was cut off as a white hoof quickly plugged her mouth. Celestia looked down her foreleg at her sister with a scowl of mild annoyance, but then as the tips of Tia's lips curved up ever so slightly Luna knew that she wasn't in too much trouble. "That's real nice Luna, but you could have told me when I woke up normally; at the very least you could try to wake me up in a gentler way. Besides, how many times have I told you not to jump on me?" "439 times now, and counting," Luna grinned back as innocently as possible with puppy dog eyes. Celestia sighed in semi-defeat as she watched the heart melting display of manipulation in front of her, she could never stay angry at her little sister for too long. With the rough awakening, Celestia had enough of her senses alert that she noticed that their Human friend had disappeared from sight. "Lulu, did you see where the Human drifted off to?" As the blue filly shrugged back Celestia began to worry, just a tad. After a few minutes of searching all around the inside and outside of the crashed machine both sisters came to the same conclusion that the Human had left. The Human's large bag had also disappeared, and there was a fresh set of tracks in the snow that led deep into the frosted forest beyond the crash site. "I can't believe that creature left us like this! And here I thought that I had finally made a new friend too!" Luna cried out in frustration as she punted a pine cone across the clearing. "I was going to tell him all about the places we've been to and teach him how to read the stars; but now he's gone." The filly's body relaxed as Luna sat back onto her haunches and sniffed, "It's not fair that he left right after I met him...He didn't even say goodbye..." Celestia could sympathize with Luna's frustration, feeling just as abandoned; though this wasn't something that she hadn't expected to happen so soon. The feeling of being left behind because ponies saw you as dead weight or a freak of nature always cut deep. There wasn't much to be done about the Human now accept the reality and move on, and at the very least there was still everything that the alien creature had left behind. Walking over to her sister Celestia placed a comforting hoof around her sister's shoulders and brought her into a warm hug, "It'll be fine Lulu, I'm still here with you and we can make new friends later if you want." The soft words managed to at the very least brighten up the downtrodden pony enough that she leaned back into the hug with a brittle smile. On the other side of the Aurora Damian had just turned from picking up some tinder and firewood for making breakfast, the rucksack full of branches weighing down on his back. He had been gone for the past hour and the rumbling his stomach hadn't subsided; apparently a few energy bars and a cup of water could carry him so far. As the Human rounded the broken tail of the Otter he noticed the two horses having a little sisterly moment. "Aww, isn't that just adorable! They look like a fuzzy Yin and Yang!" The voice cooed at the sight, "You really should join in on that action." "Yeah, no thanks. Those two look like they're having a very personal moment, so I'll just keep my distance for now," though a bit of a jerk he may be, Damian wasn't someone to barge in on someone else's privacy. After setting the bag filled with twigs down, Damian set to work on building another fire pit, as the one he had made the night before had melted deep down into the snow. In the original's place was a meter deep pit fill with ash and charcoal, so it wasn't really usable anymore. Learning from that mistake Damian had come up with an idea of using a panel or a door as a more suitable fire pit to prevent the snow from melting from under the fire. Damian remembered seeing a large strip from one of the shredded wings lying about near where the talking ponies had been sitting. Though he didn't really know why those two had been hugging like that, and since the atmosphere didn't seem like the kind you could just waltz in on, Damian decided to hang back and out of sight by the tail of the Aurora and wait till they were done. The Human had enough on his plate that he wanted to avoid any drama bombs if at all possible. With everything that had happened over the past two days, getting ambushed by a posse of phantoms and crashing into the side of a mountain range, dealing with nearly fatal wounds and no hope for a rescue, and to top it all off he was having his sanity cracking with schizophrenic voices. All the evidence pointed out to Damian that two things could have happened to him: He could have had a stroke or went into a coma, or that this was the weirdest circle of hell he could possibly think of. The addition of apparently real mythological talking unicorns that could use magic of all things didn't help in the slightest. I'm not even a virgin! So if we went with the traditional lore then I wouldn't have these freaking unicorns hanging around me, right?! The man internally screamed. "If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say that it's because you have you butt's virginity still intact," the Voice snickered. Damian simply deadpanned, "I hate you so much, you know that?" The Voice just laughed back, "Of course I do." As Damian walked around the corner of the Aurora something rammed into his stomach, knocking a bit of air out of him. When he looked down Damian came face to face with that white winged unicorn, which had a look of pure shock plastered all over her face, like she'd just seen a ballerina dancing bison wearing a tutu. For a brief moment Damian pondered why the horse could even make that kind of face considering that she was from an entirely different species, yet at the same time the creature had some unnervingly Human qualities, like high pitched screams for instance. The younger blue unicorn noticed the commotion and looked over to notice the arrival of the alien. Luna's eyes widened with surprise and she immediately rushed over to the two. "W-wha? Where did you-? We thought that you left us! My sister and I were-" The pony was talking a mile a minute and was obviously very confused for some reason. If Damian hadn't held up a hand to stop her, he was sure that the tiny creature might have continued on aimlessly rambling like that. "Alright, hold up. What's this even about? I couldn't have been gone more than an hour and you two act like I fell of the side of the world," the young man crossed his arms as he waited for an explanation. Both ponies exchanged glances with one another, unsure of what they were supposed to say. It wasn't until a minute passed by without anyone saying anything Celestia took the initiative. The unicorn awkwardly stepped up to Damian and began rubbing one of her front legs with a hoof. "Well umm, when we woke up and noticed that you'd left with your bag we thought that you had abandoned us behind..." The pink maned pony lowered her head and began pawing at the snow, her name had escaped Damian's memory, but he was sure that it had started with a C or something. The other one, Luna, was looking back up at the much taller Human with wide eyed silent joy for some reason. It was odd to see her mood be flipped around just like that in a span of a few seconds. Maybe she's Bipolar? Can a magical baby unicorn even be Bipolar to begin with? It slowly began to click in the back of Damian's mind, and he was starting to get the gist of what had happened. Even if they were weird ass story book animals they were still kids after all, any kid would have acted the same if they woke up all alone in a strange place. Though, perhaps there was more to this, Celery seemed like a smart enough person...pony thing...whatever, to wait at least a bit more before she claimed that he was gone for good. A sliver of a smile crested Damian's mouth as he shook his head back and forth. "Heh, I guess you guys would panic if I just up and left like that. It's too bad I couldn't have left a note, but then again you wouldn't have been able to read it so it would have been pointless." "You could have woken us up," Luna huffed mildly annoyed that she had gotten so upset about something like this. Odd that you would say that Ms.Smotherington, even after I was trying to be a gentleman before and not wake you up. Damian bent down on his knees and looked directly into the large emerald eyes of the filly, "And you could have not slept on my face last night, so I think we're even." Once again Luna huffed at the Human as she walked over to her sister's side, sticking her tongue out at Damian once she reached a safe distance. "I left to get some more firewood, and in a few minutes I'll have something to eat. So, what do you guys eat for breakfast anyways?" The crackling fire that Damian had made was had started to thaw out his frozen legs, leaving a warm roasted feeling in the retreating cold. Perhaps he shouldn't have had his legs so close to the fire pit, but a third degree burn was well worth it if it meant not freezing to death; seriously, it was like minus fifteen degrees Celsius outside. With some of the scrap metal Damian had fashioned not only a decent platform for the fire, but also with some added scraps of aluminum he had fashioned a roughly made stove to cook his food on. Currently there was an Instant Meal Package, IMP for short, sitting above the flame. If the label was right then inside the metal bag contained Vindaloo curry with potatoes. Sitting next to Damian were the two ponies, both were eating out of their own bags with immense difficulty. Holding the spoons with their hooves and using them to scoop out the soup like meal out of the bag proved to be troubling to say the least. After getting frustrated at using the Human plastic cutlery Celestia used her magic to scoop out a portion, her magenta eyes widening as she chomped down on the spicy food. Thank god that the shipment had only been for vegetarian packages; otherwise I'd have to deal with that whole being an Omnivore thing and possibly scare them off. "This food of yours is amazing!" Celestia said when she finished eating her mouthful of curry, "I've never tasted anything like this!" Beside Celestia Luna gave a satisfied burp as she wiped away some sauce from her muzzle, the filly had given up on using the spoon and instead had dived her mouth into the bag, "Yeah! This stuff is yummy!" Damian gave a soft chuckle as he picked up his own cooked packet from the fire. With only a few spoonfuls the meal was halfway gone, and so was the rumbling in the man's stomach. Out of the corner of his eye Damian noticed that the two ponies were watching him eat with slight unease. "What? Do I have something on my face?" The two horses shifted their eyes away from him, but he still managed it get an answer out of 'Celery' after he stared long and hard enough to make her sweat. Something about the way they had been avoiding his gaze was a dead giveaway that they has something to say, yet still nervous enough that they didn't want to speak about it. Celestia swallowed a limp in her throat and faced the Human, "W-well...it's just that we noticed that you have a set of f-fangs. Most creatures that have those are predators and eat meat, possibly Pony meat...Seeing you eat just now reminded us about them." The mare was slightly trembling when she spoke; keeping a constant eye on the Human's mouth as if it was a viper. Oh, I guess that explains the odd behavior. Placing his spoon back into the bag Damian set his meal down in the snow next to him and put on as reassuring smile as he could. "You girls can relax, I'm not gonna eat you." Both mares blew out a sigh of relief at hearing the news. "Phew! For a moment there I was sure that you ate meat," Luna grinned as she went back to eating her potato curry. Damian began to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, "Ummm, actually I do eat meat-" Too late did the young man realize that he had accidentally let slip a sensitive bit of information, at that moment he mentally kicked himself in the head. After the causal mention of meat eating by their company both of the sister's eyes grew as large as dinner plates with primal terror. A millisecond later they were cowering behind a snow dune. "Great going there Einstein, you sure have a way with words don't you?" The voice snarked from deep inside Damian's mind. Damn it! Now I need to put them back at ease, or else I won't be able to find out where that village is! Things had escalated pretty fast with just that one word; meat. It should have been obvious that mentioning that you like steak in front of a purely herbivore race is a fucking big mistake! At the moment the two spooked magical critters were chattering something between themselves at the far end of the clearing, the muttering stopped when they noticed that the Human was approaching their hiding spot. "Um, I'm sorry about the miscommunication, but let me just clarify that I don't eat talking ponies!" "How do we know that!? You could just be luring us into an elaborate trap!" Luna shouted across the distance Damian halted his advance to put his hands on his hips, "For starters I could have killed a hundred times over and eaten you long ago, but I didn't now did I?" Some of the heat from the filly's challenging glare evaporated. "Also, did you find any chunks of meat in that food I gave you? No, you didn't, that's because Human's don't always have to eat meat." "I guess that makes sense...but that doesn't explain that hide on your hooves!" Celestia pointed a quivering hoof to Damian's boots, "What kind of twisted creature uses another's skin as clothing!?" "Let's see you try and explain that away Mr.Diplomat," The Voice commented annoyingly with a hint of satisfaction from the dilemma. God I wish he had a mute button. Back in reality Damian's brain was churning away, attempting to come up with a solution to this firecracker of a situation that had suddenly exploded in his face. Seriously, this was like the thousandth time something had gone from "Alright" to "World Ending" in ten seconds flat. "Well... You see that's actually fake leather... It's not real." Celestia's pink eyes narrowed as she took a closer look at the Human's footwear. "Hmmm, I guess you're right...There's no way somepony would be as sadistic and cruel as to fashion clothing out of another creature. Sorry about that." She looked up from her inspection and gave back a sheepish smile. Well, this is kinda awkward. I guess I never really thought of it that way until just now. That unicorn really has a way of unintentionally making you feel like a god awful person. "Yeah, I guess I really should have mentioned sooner that I was an Omnivore." "Ahwm-nee-vor?" Luna asked from beside her sister, Well ain't you just a little bundle of weaponized cuteness and diabetes. "It means that I can basically eat anything. Not that I'd want to mind you." "Oooh!" The explanation seemed sufficient enough to clear things up that Luna and Celestia decided to abandon their guarded stances behind their dune. After the ponies apologized for their rudeness and calling Damian a monster they settled back down at the fire. Since Damian had left his bag in the snow it had gone cold; though he had to admit that sometimes curry tasted better chilled, and it certainly damped down the spice a few notches. Although Damian liked curry, he didn't like his food spiced to the point where it was flaming hot. Well, at least they seem to adapt pretty fast to things; I guess living alone in the woods made them hardy like that. "So, what are you going to do now Mr. Walker?" Celestia asked. Damian scratched his chin bristles with a finger in mild thought, "I'd say the best course of action right now is to head to that village you mentioned before. If nothing else I could figure out where I am exactly, and perhaps I could get some clues as to what those spirits where that crashed me here." "Did I just hear somepony say spirits?" Luna's eyes widened with excitement. "...Yeah, there were three of them in total. Each of them looked kinda like you guys but more like a regular horse, and they were also ethereal. They attacked my plane and from what I can tell it was them that put me here in this world." "WAIT! I think I might have seen them before!" Luna shouted as she jumped in front of where Damian sat. "When I saw your airplane fall out of the sky I also saw those three ghosts! Now I get why they ran off and didn't try and help you!" "Well, I want to find out where they are so I can return the favor and make them pay," the way that Damian had said those words sent a shiver up Celestia's spine. The human's voice was calm, yet there was darkness in the man's eyes that unsettled the pony. There was a short silence before Damian spoke again, "Celery, last night you also mentioned something about tribes and such, could you tell me if this village belongs to any of them?" Celestia gave an irritated frown at the Human for mistaking her name, "My name is Celestia, not some vegetable," the young white and pink mare said. "And as for Pine Village, it's a town of Earth ponies. They mainly stick near the forest edge, but I'm not so sure that they'd like to see you..." The bush pilot raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And why wouldn't they want to see me exactly?" Both Celestia and Luna looked away as they began to fidget nervously, "...They don't like anyone that isn't an Earth Pony..." From the way that Celestia said that and their hesitance talking about the village probably meant that they had a first had experience with the hospitality those ponies had to offer. "A town full of racist talking ponies! My, isn't this going to be a fun little adventure," Once again the Voice was back. "That certainly throws a monkey wrench in my plan... But will they still be open enough to allow a bit of trading? I was going to trade my cargo for some supplies I need and perhaps a warm bed." "I-I think they would," Celestia nodded in agreement with herself, "They're a logging town that's this high up in the mountains, so I think they'll be willing to trade for the food they can't grow." "That's great to hear, now all I need to do is get down this mountain. Thanks for the info." Finishing off the last of his meal the man rose up and walked back to his crashed plane. "Wait!" Luna cried as she ran up to the Human's leg before he could disappear into the bowels of the metal wreckage. Damian stopped at the hatch and looked back down at the small blue filly. Luna's watery giant emerald eyes, along with her quivering lip and pulled back ears made the filly look like a puppy with denim blue dyed fur, "Can we pwease come along with you? I promise to be good!" Damian stared the pony down as he towered over her, his face was ridged and he had an uncomfortable lack of emotion. For awhile nothing moved or made a sound as Luna bombarded the stone faced Human with her charm. Eventually the man sighed and shook his head in defeat. "I'll be here for the next two hours or so packing up my stuff... if you still want to come along with me by the time I'm done then I guess-" Damian was cut off as Luna jumped up at him and attempted to wrap her tiny limps around his torso in a hug. "OhThankyouthankyouthankyou! You're the best!" With that Luna jumped down from a startled and slightly bewildered Human to run over to her sister. "Come on Tia! We need to head back home and pack too!" A warm smile grew on Celestia's muzzle as she was dragged along by her hoof; she looked over to Damian and saw that he was slightly flustered by Luna's antics. "Thank you." "Hurry up then; I'm not going to wait all day for you to get back," Damian grumbled, "I'm burning daylight as it is, and I don't want to head down the valley at night, so move it before I change my mind."