Snowblind

by CrowMagnon


Its Cold, Icy Sting (pt. 1/3)

Snowblind
by crowmagnon




Its Cold, Frosty Sting, pt. 1


Earlier...

Derpy groaned to herself as she tried once more to assure Applejack that she really wanted to help, but the scary griffon had threatened her and trapped her in the suit of ice that surrounded her body. Whenever she said anything, though, the rich pony couldn't even understand her!

Sure, Applejack was probably just scared. They were all scared. Derpy herself was terrified and confused by what the griffon Princess had done to her. That didn't mean Applejack had to yell at her... Derpy didn't like ponies yelling at her, even if she did mess things up sometimes.

That nice Mrs. Fluttershy never yelled or made fun of her like some ponies did, but the scary griffon had taken her away. Derpy really, really hoped nothing bad was happening to Mrs. Fluttershy.

Miss Rarity was usually nice, too, but she'd been acting meaner than Derpy remembered her being. Especially around Mrs. Fluttershy, which was weird because Mrs. Fluttershy was all about making ponies feel happy. She even had a special necklace that she got for being the best at making ponies happy. It was like the griffon's meanness was contagious, and everypony was extra-grumpy because of it.

Derpy was just about to find a corner to curl up in and stay out of the way when she felt a shift in the air coming from Miss Rarity's direction. A cold breeze tickled across her sensitive feathers, her wings being the only part of her not completely covered in ice by the scary griffon's magic. This drew her attention to the unicorn who was the source of that cold.

It didn't make sense, but a lot of things didn't make sense to Derpy. Nevertheless, the fact that Miss Rarity would occasionally get so much colder than the rest of the room felt like the sort of thing that would confuse even smart ponies like Lieutenant Sparkle or Dewdrop Decimal. After all, ponies were warm, not cold. Everypony knew that, and if everypony knew it, Derpy was pretty sure that it was supposed to be true. Why would Miss Rarity be so cold, then?

Derpy certainly wasn't the only pony to notice the temperature dropping around Rarity. Sweetie Belle and Spike were shivering as they clung to her, probably hoping to help warm her up. As bad as things were, Derpy couldn't help but smile behind the icy face plate as she got one of her eyes to focus on the heartwarming family.

To her surprise, Rarity suddenly but gently nudged the children away. Spike tried to cling to her, only to be held away by pale blue magic while she stood up. Looking up at her, the confused baby dragon asked, "Mommy?"

"Mommy just needs to talk with her friend Applejack in private, so wait here for a few minutes," Rarity told them sharply. "If you need to do something, help the Cakes make..." She trailed off, staring at Sweetie Belle for several awkward seconds before self-correcting to, "help the Cakes serve some treats."

Derpy frowned with dismay as the children were kept at a distance while her wing feathers picked up the changes in air pressure caused by Rarity's plunging temperature. She chewed her lip, trying to figure out what she should do. She knew that she wasn't a very smart pony, but she had always tried to be one who helped whenever she could. At the moment, it didn't matter why Rarity was freezing, only that she was.

A while back, Derpy had been feeling bad she had made a hard landing while carrying a fragile package. Even though that tree had jumped in front of her from out of nowhere, she was responsible for the damages. As nice as her boss Silver Script was, he had no choice but to dock her pay for a while, and seeing how disappointed he was had sent her taking refuge in the clouds above Ponyville. She hadn't even noticed that the cloud she had chosen to hide out on on was a raincloud until she heard a minotaur's bellow followed by a soaked Mrs. Fluttershy flying up to her.

Derpy smiled under the helmet of ice that had been placed on her as she thought back to that time. She had been so sure that Mrs. Fluttershy was going to be angry with her that she had simply tried to bury herself in the cloud until she felt the other pegasus giving her a hug. Not grabbing her to pull her out and tell her what she did wrong. Just a hug, because Mrs. Fluttershy had seen somepony who really needed one.

At that moment, Rarity needed to get warm, and Derpy was going to help her.

In hindsight, she would later realize that approaching Rarity while covered from head to hoof in scary-looking armor was sort of a silly-filly thing to do, but at that moment she was a mare with a purpose.

-----

The Present...

Gertrude strode back into the bakery's interior once more, looking more regal and confident than ever before. As she passed Applejack and Apple Bloom, who were huddled together with Fluttershy, she clicked her tongue in disdain.

Applejack peered up at the griffon while holding her little sister against her barrel. The businessmare's green eyes looked at her pleadingly as she begged, "Please, let Apple Bloom go, too..."

With a scoff, Gertrude retorted, "I thought that you wanted to be closer to your little sister. I am giving you the chance to spend the rest of your lives together." The edge of her beak curved up into a cruel smirk as she saw the color drain out of the earth pony's face, though it didn't last long before her expression slipped back into icy stoicism. In a sudden motion, she grabbed Applejack by the throat, lifting her up off the ground. "Consider this a lesson on Generosity. It has its limits. Look at you now... This morning, you were a mare of wealth and status. Now you are nothing but a naked beggar, scavenging what little warmth that you can find when the cold grip of Winter grasps you in its talons."

Applejack struggled in Gertrude's grasp, beating her hooves against the griffon's arm with as little effect as if she were trying to dent steel. Apple Bloom shouted hoarsely and tried to reach her, but Fluttershy held her back to keep the filly out of Gertrude's reach.

As the businessmare tried desperately to breathe, she caught sight of her other friend. "Rar'ty... help... me..." she barely managed to croak out, but the unicorn simply took a seat next to Gertrude's ice-armored minion and looked back at her with blank white eyes.

"You brought this on yourself, Applejack," Rarity coldly replied, to the shock and horror of Apple Bloom and Fluttershy. Even the armored pegasus seemed startled at these words, but Rarity paid none of them any mind. "You don't know what Winter is really like, but I do. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a unicorn to do anything but the basest grunt work on a rock farm? How long it took me to learn how to make even the poorest gems grow in my own garden? Ever since I got my cutie mark, I had to struggle and toil just to keep myself fed. Any time that I wasn't in the field got spent making blankets and patching up the shack my employers lent me so that I wouldn't freeze when Winter came. You? All you ever had to do was tell a servant to turn the heat up. I've had to make sacrifices to hold onto what was important."

"Rarity, no..." Fluttershy felt her heart twist in her chest as she wished that she could do anything meaningful besides keeping Apple Bloom out of harm's way.

Rarity sneered back at her. "You'll have to beg harder than that after what you tried to do, Fluttershy. If seeing Applejack suffer is the only way to make you understand--"

"But I don't understand," Fluttershy interrupted. "Applejack is your friend too, isn't she?! I just can't understand why you would be willing to let her get hurt just to get back at me for... for I don't even know what! We're supposed to be friends, but friends don't do this to each other!"

Fluttershy held Apple Bloom tightly as she looked away from Rarity, and up at the griffon. "It doesn't make any sense! You had one of the Elements of Harmony before us, right? You said that you and the Princesses were friends back then, so why can't you just try talking to them? Doesn't that friendship you used to have mean anything to you?"

Gertrude's body went stiff and rigid. One by one, her talons slowly loosened their grip until Applejack fell to the floor, gasping to refresh her air-starved lungs as the giant griffon abandoned her to loom over Fluttershy. Gertrude growled, "You stupid, naive little creature..."

Rarity quickly interjected, "Remember, you promised me that she was mine to deal with as I please!"

"She still is," Gertrude responded with a snarl, leaning down to look straight into Fluttershy's eyes. "But you can't truly appreciate why, can you? You don't understand why you all deserve to be punished, because you think that our actions are the product of petty spite, don't you? Madness, even? You think that we have forgotten what it means to know love and friendship. Allow me to correct that misconception. Let me tell you of a day, long ago..."

-----

The ground trembles beneath my paws and talons as battle rages on before me. My Knight-Captain, Gunther, flies like a blur. The armor of enchanted ice that I crafted for him turns him into a streak of white as his spear harries his foe. The hulking canine that he does battle with howls, the corona of flame surrounding it flaring brighter and hotter with every strike. Even enchanted ice should have melted in such temperatures, but Gunther's held strong and solid.

Luna sits in the grass beside me, her wings flaring up as the small, blue pegasus-unicorn hybrid cries out, "For victory, Sir Gunther! The blazing behemoth is no match for thee!"

Though I wince from the blast of sound coming from the younger Equestrian Princess, I cannot help but feel a swell of pride within my breast at the confidence she has in my Knight-Captain's abilities. A feeling that is only marginally faded by the coughing fit which follows the verbal explosion. With great concern, I ask her, "Are you well, dear Luna? You are not suffering from some malady, are you?"

"Neigh, Gertrude," Celestia replies from the other side of Luna. "Our shy little sister is merely unused to employing the Royal Canterlot Voice." Her tone is teasing, but filled with love as she leans down to nuzzle her coughing sister. A smile warms my face as I watch the younger Princess flush and attempt to lean away from the display of sisterly affection. To have her elder sister outsize her as a mother does her filly surely compounds the embarassment, but such is inevitable as the mixture of unicorn and earth pony blood running through Celestia's veins has caused her to grow taller and stronger than all but the very mightiest of earth pony stallions.

Eventually giving in and allowing the elder Princess to have her way, Luna simply accepted the nuzzling and pouted as she whispered, "Nor do I imagine I ever shall be, sisters. For what purpose should Equestria's rulers have to bellow like berserkers, in any case? 'Tis a silly custom that should have faded away with old Unicornia."

"Be mindful how you speak of your ancestors, dear Princess, or old Platinum may just rise up from her tomb to haunt you," came another familiar voice, playful and masculine with a Trottish brogue. The owner of that voice reclined in the shade of a nearby tree, apart from the others save for a small zebra filly who was napping peacefully beside him despite the sounds of battle raging nearby. Together, the two blended so fully into the shadows that they almost seemed to be part of the tree itself.

Looking over her shoulder at him, Luna giggled and replied, "If grandmother wishes to visit in such a manner, I do hope that she will provide sufficient forewarning that I might bake her a cake."

"You have never offered to bake cakes for me, dear sister," Celestia whined.

"Because, dear sister, you already have a sizable portion of the castle kitchens dedicated solely to that purpose."

I arch an eyebrow at Celestia as the elder Princess is now the one to grow flushed, sputtering with indignation as Luna and our friend beneath the tree burst out into laughter. "The royal appetite is not a matter of public record, Luna! And to enlighten the rest of you, raising and guiding the sun each day requires a great expenditure of energy. Cake merely happens to be an effective means of restoring my vitality." The haughty, offended sniff with which she punctuates her rationalization only serves to redouble their laughter, and I find myself joining them.

Our mirth is interrupted by a sudden yelp from the Sun Dog, and we quickly turn to see Gunther stabbing his spear into his opponent's backside. The giant flaming canine jumps into the air while covering his wounded rump. Gunther immediately takes advantage of the opening this gives him to flap up after his opponent, then grab his burning tail and yank upward, sending the Sun Dog spinning end over end in the air.

With the Sun Dog too dizzy and disoriented to see it coming, Gunther flies straight up into the sky until he is barely a dot against the blue, at least for most of my companions. I smile with overflowing pride and love as my telescopic vision allows me to clearly see my Knight-Captain perform a tight, agile turn that most pegasi would envy, then dive down once again to strike the Sun Dog and send them both hurtling to the ground.

The devestating explosion of rock and soil rocks the ground on which we sit, and only the magical shield thrown up by Celestia and Luna keep us from being pelted by debris, as little as such would actually harm any of us. It does have the effect of waking little Shangwe, however, who yawns widely and rubs the sleep from her eyes before noticing the cloud of dust surrounding us.

"Oh, did someone finally win?" Shangwe picks herself up and walks to the edge of the shield in order to get a closer look at the aftermath. "Was it the dog, or was it the griffon?"

The dust eventually begins to settle enough to see a sillhouette through the cloud, and I gasp with joy at it takes the shape of my Gunther.

My jubilation over his apparent victory dims somewhat, however, when I can better see that his body is caught in one of the Sun Dog's giant hands, and he struggles to squirm free. Even so, I smile as the Sun Dog begins to climb up out of the crater formed from their sparring.

With a laugh like bubbling magma, the Sun Dog's flames fade and flicker out as he sets Gunther back down on the ground. "Now that was a mighty blow," the mighty canine exclaims with his typical boisterousness. "You're a right dragon-slayer with moves like that."

The Sun Dog gives Gunther a brotherly slap across his back with a hand which has been used to dent mountains. Gunther merely shakes his head and laughs in good cheer. "Mark my words, one of these times, I will be the one who lands the final strike." The two warriors, dirty and battered, make there way back to us as our pony friends dispel their barrier. When he stands before me, Gunther bows. "I hope that I have not disappointed you, my Queen."

I shake my head with a fond smile. "Never, Gunther. On the contrary, I only hope that you have not grievously wounded our Warden of Summer."

This draws a bellow of laughter from the Sun Dog. "Ha! Nothing wounded but my pride, and considering the worth of my opponent, that will heal quickly!" He then sits down with a mighty thump, causing him to wince and massage his injured rump.

Shangwe approaches the giant dog with an impish smile, and tilts her head. "'Pride' is what you call that portion of your anatomy? Celestia would have us believe it is named 'vitality.'"

Each of us stare at the zebra filly, trying to comprehend how she could make a joke involving something which was said while she supposedly napped. And then, as one, we stop trying to make reason out of our Element of Laughter's antics, allowing mirth to overcome us. Out of us all, none laugh so loudly as Celestia and the Sun Dog themselves.

-----

Fluttershy listened until Gertrude's voice trailed away, her story ended. Through it all, the pegasus had tried to find any of the emotions that she must have felt back then in her present visage, but there was nothing to see but the cold mask of detachment in Gertrude's face and voice. "I see... that must have been a very special day to you, but--"

Gertrude interrupted, "There was nothing special about it at all. What I described to you was nothing more than one day of the friendship I shared with them. There were thousands of other days just like it, but I would not have traded the memory of any one of them for the entire world. That... that is what they stole from me. That is what they have to pay for." The griffon looked down at Apple Bloom as the filly cowered against Fluttershy. "That is why your sister has to pay. When your life is full of precious days, you will be betrayed, and they will be stolen from you. Better to end this now, before she gets the chance."

Gertrude slowly turned back toward Applejack and held her talons out to the side. "Do you know what my name means, you filthy wretch? It means 'maiden of the spear.'" Applejack's eyes widened in horror and slowly backed away as ice formed in Gertrude's talons, taking the shape of a spear of ice as long as the griffon's body. "Before he betrayed me, my Gunther's skill with the spear was such that he earned the respect of the Sun Dog himself, and everything he learned, he learned from me. But I will not need one iota of that skill to gut a soft, greedy parasite like you, will I?"

Apple Bloom couldn't move as Fluttershy held her tight, but she could hoarsely shout, "No... No, don't hurt her! Please don't hurt mah sister! PLEASE!!" Fluttershy whimpered, covering the filly's eyes as Gertrude stalked closer and closer to Applejack.

"Listen to what you've done," Gertrude sneered. "She is crying for you. After all you have done, she is crying for you. You disgusting sow... Money-grubbing flea... Child-murderer..."

"Wh-what?! I've never hurt a foal in my life," Applejack protested, shock and confusion mixing with the crushing terror she felt as Gertrude cornered her. "D-don't you still want the Elements of Harmony? Twilight will never let you near them if she finds out that you have harmed one of us!"

Gertrude hesitated, but only for a moment as she raised her spear. "I don't need the Elements anymore. I don't. I don't need them. I just need to make them pay. I need to make you pay!"

Applejack saw the spear start to come down toward her. Her eyes reflexively clenched shut, and she cursed herself in her thoughts as she realized that if she was going to die here, then the last thing she saw should have been Apple Bloom, after all the difficulties that they had suffered through before they could begin to reconcile.

Instead of a piercing pain, however, Applejack felt something heavy and cold slam against her, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She wheezed and nearly threw up from the impact, but as she opened her eyes, she found that she had been saved from the spear by another pony who had thrown herself in the deadly lance's path. A pony who wore armor made of the same enchanted ice as the spear itself.

With a roar of maddened frustration, Gertrude struck the armored pegasus with a backhanded blow that sent her flying. "Mutant! Worthless freak! I told you what I would do if you defied me!" The temperature within the bakery plummeted as a cold mist seeped inside, swirling around the enraged griffon. "None of you ponies will leave this place alive! None of you! I will skewer your corpses on pikes and parade them in front of your Princesses as I--"

Gertrude's threats were cut off by a very sudden, very loud, and very inappropriate belch which erupted from the pony who had thus far remained out of it. Gertrude's attention immediately snapped toward Rarity, brow furrowing in confusion as she saw the unicorn spit up a small cloud of purple smoke, which coalesced into a scrap of parchment before her very eyes.

Upon this parchment were three words. The blank whiteness drained from her eyes, immediately returning them to their natural blue as she cried out, "COVER YOUR EARS," doing so with her front hooves. The other ponies immediately followed her example.

Gertrude, either unwilling to release her spear or utterly failing to understand what was about to occur, did not.

Within moments, the Warden of Winter wished that she had.