“Where is that filly?” Celestia asked, tapping her hoof impatiently. She gazed longingly at the fresh salad before her, biting her lip as she waited for her younger sister. After a moment, she stood, grumbling to herself as she exited the kitchen, her hooves clacking against the stone floor.
“Luna?” Celestia asked, her hoof tapping against her younger sister’s door. Silence met her ears as she pressed her ear against the door. She bit her lip, knocking on the door once more.
“Luna?”
Celestia pushed the door open, her horn flaring as she illuminated the room in a golden glow. She narrowed her eyes as the lighte from her horn revealed a single piece of parchment, laying haphazardly against the straw mattress.
She crossed the room in a flash, her magic surrounding the letter as she unfolded it. Her eyes went wide as she scanned the letter, her horn sputtering out as she gasped in horror.
“Oh no...”
The snow bit at Luna’s skin, chilling her all the way to the bone. She squinted, a hoof raised in an attempt to ward off the snow and ice whipping through the freezing air.
“I can’t see anything...” Luna muttered to herself, another shiver wracking her body. She trudged through the snow, blindly walking deeper into the blizzard raging around her. Her wings hung limply at her side, her sides aching from her long flight. After hours of keeping herself aloft, she had finally had to resort to walking.
Night had fallen long ago, leaving the young filly alone and lost in an unfamiliar area. She concentrated, her horn sputtering small sparks as she forced what little magic she had left. A small ball of light appeared at the top of her horn, lighting the fierce darkness around her.
Luna stepped forward, straining her horn for as much light as the small filly could push through her horn. She walked through the snow for nearly an hour, resisting the urge to give into the shivers that wracked her body. Just as Luna thought she couldn’t walk any further, she stumbled upon a small cave entrance feet before her.
Luna ran forward, her hooves pounding the snow underhoof as she examined the small cave before her. She pressed forward, squeezing herself into the small entrance. With a grunt, she finally squeezed through the hole, her hoof kicking roughly against a hard rock as she fell.
The filly yelped, rolling onto her back as she pulled her foreleg to her chest, cradling the throbbing hoof tenderly. She rocked back and forth, cursing quietly to herself as her head turned, examining the small cave she found herself in. Luna took a deep breath, refocusing on the magic at the tip of her horn. The small light from her horn tip revealed walls of shiny crystals, their surfaces shimmering in Luna’s magical light. The crystals grew from floor to ceiling, forming the actual walls of the cave in many places.
“Wow...” Luna murmured, her horn flaring as she attempted to illuminate more of the colorful cave. She yelled out in surprise as magic streamed from the tip of her horn, crackling through the air only to be absorbed into the crystals.
She breathed hard, her heart beating wildly against her chest as the magic stopped flowing through her horn. Her jaw dropped as the crystals around her began to glow, casting colorful tints across her fur. To Luna’s surprise, the light revealed a massive cavern, rainbow crystals glowing far into the distance. From her vantage point, she could make out several tunnels branching away from the main cavern, working their way further into the mountainside.
“This is so beautiful...” She stepped forward, walking between two large clear crystals. She reached over, pressing against one of them with her hoof. Warmth pulsed through the crystal, a gentle pulsing that seemed to tune in with her heartbeat. “The crystals seem to be... thriving on my magic. I can feel... myself in them? No... It’s familiar... but I don’t know where I’ve felt this before.”
She leaned against the crystal, her tail flicking behind her as she curled up in a small ball. Luna rested her head on her fore hooves, staring out of the cave entrance into the snow whipping in the wind.
“Is this the right thing to do? ” A tear ran down her cheek, splashing onto the cave floor. “I miss ‘Tia... but I can help the earth ponies. At the very least, I... I can show them how to grow their food faster.”
She stared out into the blizzard, her eyes slowly drifting closed. As her eyes fluttered closed, she almost swore she could see a figure standing before her.
She was in a large field of grass, green spreading in all directions as far as the eye could see. In the distance, she could see the ground sloping up, heading upward to a large hill, framed in the silvery light of a full moon. She could just make out a figure seated at the crest of the hill, a mere silhouette.
She set off at a trot, gazing at the strange field around her. The grass stood perfectly still, not even swaying in an evening wind, only moving when she parted the grass with her hooves. As she got closer to the hill, Luna felt her heart pumping as the pony turned her way, her wings stretching out at her side, her horn casting a long shadow down the hill.
“‘Tia!” Luna screamed, a large smile on her face as she galloped up the hill.
“Luna?” The figure asked, her voice much higher pitched than Luna recalled. Luna slid to a stop, her hooves digging into the ground as she cocked her head at the silhouette, a silhouette which no longer showed a young alicorn, but a filly earth pony.
“Oh... Appleseed.”
“Who else were you expecting?” Appleseed asked, smiling at the filly before her.
“I thought... It doesn’t matter.” Luna said, moving to sit beside the orange filly. “How are you and the rest of the ponies doing?”
Appleseed sighed, her shoulders visibly sagging. “The blizzard followed us... I don’t know how. We were fine at first, but then the unicorns and pegasi arrived. Our tribes... our tribes started fighting over food again and before night had fallen the snow had arrived.”
“What! How is that possible?” Luna said, staring at Appleseed with her ears laid back.
“I don’t know... The elders of our tribe says it isn’t a normal blizzard. It’s caused by something... something called a-”
Luna sat up, her chest heaving. She blinked rapidly, spots appearing in her eyes as she blocked the sunlight with her hooves. The filly shook her head, images of a field of grass already fading into her subconsciousness. She stared at the entrance of the cave, a low sigh escaping her lips. She squeezed herself out into the open, stepping back out into the almost nonexistent blizzard.
Her horn flared as she once again warmed herself, ignoring the freezing wind blowing against her coat. She sighed, snow crunching under her hooves as she set off once again, heading in the direction the earth ponies had headed off in a week earlier. She frowned as her stomach growled loudly, her steps slowing.
As Luna walked, she gazed at the large clouds above her, rolling into and against each other. Snow fell from the clouds, thousands of tiny crystals sparkling in the air. An unearthly neighing came from above the clouds, sending a horrified chill down Luna’s spine that had nothing to do with the ice and snow. Even as Luna watched, the clouds parted, an ethereal hoof appearing in the space between clouds.
“Oh... Oh no.” Luna said, sucking in a deep breath as a large ghostly horse burst out of the clouds, a harsh winter wind following the beast.
“Windigo!” Luna screamed, her voice cracking in fear. She pushed forward, her hooves digging into the snow as she galloped after the elemental beast. Her mother had warned her of the dangerous winter creatures, but she never imagined she would actually see one. From her mothers teaching’s, she knew they never strayed far from their source of food. They fed on the misery of ponies everywhere, which also meant the earth ponies were close by.
She chased the creature for close to an hour, her tiny hooves barely keeping up with the much larger winter horse. She followed the creature up a rocky slope, her eyes darting to the left as the ground fell away. Before long, she was left running on a small winding path around a mountain side with a steep cliff mere feet away.
As she came sprinting around a corner, she dug her hooves into the ground stopping her mere inches from the cliff’s end. Her eyes went wide, not only at the close fall she nearly met, but the strange sight below her. Barely thirty feet below her sat dozens of large tents, ponies moving in and around the small structures, the foundations of houses set further out in the valley.
The surprising part was the fact that the earth, unicorn, and pegasus tribes seemed to be living together, cooperating in the face of the blizzard. earth ponies were pulling logs and other materials necessary for building lasting structures, while unicorns assisted the earth ponies with their magic. Above the group, Pegasi worked diligently, their hooves kicking holes in the cloud layer to try to allow some of the sun’s heat into the valley.
Luna crouched down, watching the tribes work together for the greater good, forgetting the threat above her for the moment. With an unearthly moan, the windigos made their presence known. Luna leapt to her hooves, her eyes darting to the clouds where the few remaining pegasi were trying to stop the windigos from reclosing the clouds.
Luna stepped forward, her mane flying in the freezing wind. Luckily, her mother had taught her the one most important thing: If you couldn’t beat the windigo with happiness, fire was an amazing substitute.
“Ponies, of all tribes! I can save you!” Luna screamed, her horn flaring dramatically.”I know how we can banish these vile creatures!”
She smiled, expecting the ponies below her to be clamoring over each other to hear her wisdom. Instead, they were too busy staring at a large cave entrance at the opposite side of the mountain to even pay her any attention.
A large flaming heart shot out of the top of the cave, rolling waves of magic spreading across the sky in large pulsing rings. Clouds broke apart, bright beams of sunlight flooding the valley. The windigos screamed, their groans of pain echoing into the distance as the magic banished them, along with the freezing snow they had brought with them.
Luna stared in amazement as the windigo fled, retreating as far away from the magical flames as they could run. Below her, the three tribes stood silent, gawking at the now clear sky above them.
“We have defeated the Windigo!” A purple unicorn said, her voice magically carrying throughout the valley. Her fur glistened in the sudden sunlight as she exited the cave the magic had come from, along with five other ponies. The ponies in the valley cheered, their hooves stomping on the sodden ground. The unicorn in the front lifted a hoof, instantly silencing the crowd.
“We did not defeat them with magic, but with a greater power than we ever imagined. Friendship!” The unicorn said, a large cheer rising in the valley once more.
Luna cocked her head at the display, stomping a hoof as set her wings out at her sides. She crouched down, preparing to leap down into the valley when a sharp jerk on her tail pulled her off balance, dragging her into a group of bushes behind her.
“Wha’! HE-” Luna grew silent as a white furred hoof covered her mouth. Her eyes followed the hoof, going wide as they spotted the pony the limb belonged to.
“Ohh Luna... You are in so much trouble.” Celestia said slowly, glaring at the filly below her.