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// Chapter 3: A Cordial Breakfast 
// Story: Ice and Shadow 
// by ChronicleStone 
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     Lily trotted out of her room and almost instantly shielded her eyes from the blinding white of the snowy conditions outside.  The curtains had been pulled in her room, so the sudden increase in light stunned her where she stood.  She took a few blind steps ahead when her hoof struck something on the floor, causing her to stumble and look down.
Sky Streak was lying on the floor, a cream-colored blanket draped across his back.  His front legs were prone in front of him, and he lay sleeping softly on the hardwood floor of the house.  Even though the fire under the mantle had died out several hours ago, the room was still warm.
Lily blinked, half in adjustment to the light, half in surprise.  She had prepared a room for Sky before he arrived, and she had shown him where it was.  So why hadn’t he used it?
Cuddles came up from beside Lily and, seeing an available warm body, sauntered right over and curled up next to the sleeping pegasus, who only twitched and muttered something unintelligible in his sleep.  Lily smiled in spite of her confusion.  He’s kinda cute when he’s asleep…but aren’t they all?
She softly made her way into the kitchen and began preparing for breakfast: blueberry pancakes.  Blueberries, along with most things, thanks to the storm, were hard to come by, but Sky was a guest, and Lily felt a certain obligation to make him feel especially welcome.
She moved about the kitchen, mixing ingredients in her bowl as she grabbed other items from cabinets and the pantry.  She had a pot of cold apple cider before long, and she was pouring the pancake batter into a heated pan when she vaguely heard voices coming from the living room.  It was only a matter of moments before Sky’s head came into view, blinking in much the same manner as she had done when she came into the living room.
“Ugh, good morning,” he said in a deeper-than-expected gravelly voice.
“Good morning,” Lily returned in a cheerful, sing-songy fashion.  “Did you sleep well?”
“I did.  Your…um…floor is very comfortable,” he said, and she thought she detected a tinge of regret in his voice.
“So, why didn’t you use the bedroom?” she asked as she flipped a pancake.  “Do you prefer the floor?”
Sky made a sound that Lily assumed was a chuckle.  “Oh, no.  It’s just that…well, I’m here to ensure the safety of the ponies in this village.  And I think I’m just able to do that better when I can see the door.”
Lily nearly dropped the batter bowl in shock.  “You…you slept on the floor because you were worried about my safety?”
Sky looked genuinely surprised.  “Well, yeah.”
Lily’s mouth went dry and her tongue felt it was stuck to the roof of her mouth.  Who is this pony? she thought.  He’d sacrifice his personal comfort for somepony he’s never met before?  In the end, all she found to say was, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”  His mouth opened in a wide yawn, which he promptly covered with his hoof.  “Whoa, sorry about that.”
“I guess you’re not much of a morning pony,” Lily replied with a smile, finding her voice again.
“Not really.  My parents said I was a night owl, and I think they were right.  Even now, I still like to go flying on clear nights more than I like to go in the sunshine.  The cool breeze, the way the stars flicker in the blackness, the simple serenity…I just love it.”  His voice was distant, as if he were recalling some pleasant memory in nostalgia.
“Well, you weren’t flying last night, were you?” she teased.
He laughed.  “No, of course not.  But it’s easy to stay awake at night now, so I just stayed up and read a bit.”
“What were you reading?”
“Boring stuff.”
She gave him a curious, yet mischievous, look.  “I’m sure it was,” she replied, her tone dripping in sarcasm.  “The best stuff is always boring.”
“Of course it is.”
Lily just rolled her eyes.  “If you’d like, you can start a fire and start warming the cider.  The matches are in here,” she said, opening a drawer with magic.
“Oh, the fire’s already going.  I’ll just take the cider,” Sky replied, reaching out to take the pot in his mouth.
“Already going?  How did you do that without matches?  Or magic?”
It was Sky’s turn to flash a smug grin.  “I’m just full of tricks.  Pay attention; you might see a few more,” he said, taking the pot and retreating from the kitchen.  
As she watched him go, Lily happened to catch sight of his cutie mark: it was a pair of clouds, one above, one below, and they were split by a bolt of lightning running horizontally between them.  She arched an eyebrow in curiosity, deciding to hold her questions until breakfast was ready.

A short time later, Lily and Sky were seated at a low table, complete with plates stacked with enticing blueberry pancakes.  Each plate was accompanied by a mug of steaming cider…and of course, Cuddles sat in a corner, licking up every drop she could out of her own dish.
“Syrup?” Lily asked, holding up a bottle of dark liquid.  “It’s straight from the Painted Forest, and they say that’s the best place for it!”
Sky leaned in to read the label.  “‘Painted Pony Syrup’,” he read.  “Sounds…interesting,” he added hesitantly.
“Oh, it’s better than the name suggests.  Here, try some,” she said as she poured a bit onto Sky’s pancake stack, not waiting for him to protest.
“Whoa, hey, not so much!” Sky said, tilting the bottle up with his hoof.  “What was that for?”
Lily moved the bottle over to her own plate, where she poured a bit onto her own pancakes.  “I’m just expanding your horizons,” she said.
Sky looked at her, apparently slightly irritated.  “I can usually do that just by taking a quick trip through the sky.”
“Well, since you can’t do that right now, I suppose this will have to do, won’t it?”  She smirked at him in triumph.
Sky merely remained silent and cut himself a slice of pancakes.  He took a bite and chewed it for a moment before swallowing.
“Well, what do you think?” Lily asked.
“The pancakes are great.  The syrup?  It’s alright, I guess.”
Lily’s face turned into a pout.  “You’re just sore that I made you have some!” she accused.
“You’re right,” Sky agreed, lifting his mug and taking a sip.  “Cider’s good again, as well.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You’re probably right.”
Lily groaned and took a few hasty bites.  For a minute or two, they were completely silent.  Finally, Lily broke the silence.  “You’re better at this teasing thing than I am.”
Sky quickly swallowed the mouthful of food he was working on.  “Well, I did grow up with a younger sister.”
“Does that make you sarcastic and good at teasing?” she asked.
“It does if you’re a big brother.”
“Oh, of course.”  She was silent a moment, then, feeling that the conversation needed to shift gears a bit, changed the subject.  “Last night, you asked me about the significance of my cutie mark.  What’s the story behind yours?”
A shadow seemed to pass over Sky’s face as she finished her question.  For a moment, he looked like a lost little pony, staring into the face of a horrific nightmare.  He looked tired; old, even.  But the vision was gone in a split second, and Sky looked normal again, if not a little sorrowful.
Supposing that she had touched upon a sensitive subject, Lily decided to retract her question.  “Oh, I’m sorry…I didn’t realize that it was a touchy issue.  You don’t have to answer.”
Sky gave her a look of compassion and reassurance.  “No, it’s alright,” he began.  “I got my cutie mark when I was still just a colt in Cloudsdale, before my sister was born.  I was flying around the city just before a storm was scheduled to pass through.  But the storm arrived a bit ahead of schedule, so I got caught in the middle of it.  The drafts in the thunderhead clouds were so strong that I couldn’t fly in a straight line for long, and the lightning made it really dangerous.  I was terrified.”
“My goodness!” Lily exclaimed.  Her pancakes sat half-eaten and cooling on her plate.  “What did you do?”
“Well, I screamed my head off for a minute or two.  Then, I gathered my wits and figured out that the drafts in the storm were more of a rotation as they rose, so I just flew with them until I gained enough momentum to propel myself out of the thunderhead cloud I had been in.  My parents told me that when they saw me fly out, the cloud lit up with a huge lightning strike.  It was after that incident that we discovered my cutie mark on my flank.”
“That’s a good story, Sky,” Lily commented.  “But that’s not all there is to it, is there?  When I mentioned your mark, you looked so…”
“Stricken?” Sky offered.
“Not the word I was going for, but it’s an appropriate one.  Would you tell me the rest of the story?”
Sky closed his eyes as he appeared to try and compose himself.  Lily took the opportunity to cast a small calming spell to help him.  After an uncomfortable pause, Sky spoke, but his head still hung and his eyes remained closed.  “It was six months ago now.  I was working to enter the Service, and the Council gave me an assignment to investigate Everfree Forest.”
“Where’s that?” Lily asked.
Sky opened his eyes and looked at Lily, apparently surprised by the question.  After a moment, he closed his eyes again and answered, “It’s south of Canterlot, just outside Ponyville.”
Lily tried to envision that in her head.  It was vague, but she felt like she had a firm enough grasp on where it was to be able to continue the conversation.  “Okay,” she replied.
“Anyways, the Council was concerned about a great deal of fear surrounding the forest, so they sent me to see if I could find the source of it.  I met some new friends along the way, and together, we found the source of the darkness of the forest: it was a Chimera.  Or at least, that’s what we thought it was.”
A question rose in Lily’s mind, but she suppressed it as Sky continued.  “The Chimera and I engaged in a fight, and at one point, I gathered the clouds together and rode a lightning bolt into the Chimera.  In the end, the Chimera retreated, and my friends and I survived.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?  You won, and nothing bad came of it, right?” Lily asked, a little confused.
“But the Chimera wasn’t destroyed…only defeated.  But it told me that we’d meet again, and I can almost feel it breathing down my neck at times.  It’s waiting for the right time to strike.”
“Are you scared of it?”  She was suddenly aware that she had become thirsty, and she hastily took a drink of her lukewarm cider.
Sky opened his eyes again, but there was no hint of fear that she could see in his face.  “It was a terrible fight.  But I’m not really scared for myself; I’m worried about what it could do to Equestria.  Every minute that it goes unchecked is another minute that it has to terrorize ponies everywhere.”  He looked back to his own cutie mark.  “That’s why the story isn’t over yet.  This mark on my flank isn’t about what I’ve done in the past; I believe that it’s a sign of what’s still to come.”
Lily contemplated his words silently.  “You know, there’s a lot more to you than meets the eye.  And I suppose that you’ll probably keep surprising me as long as you’re here.  But something tells me that in the end, you’ll win out.  And who knows?  That may surprise even you.”
“Perhaps so,” Sky nodded.  “But for now, I have another task to attend to.”  He looked at the unfinished breakfast before them.  “Do you want to finish, or are we pretty much done here?”
Lily took a glance around.  “Somehow, I suspect that we’d be better off finishing this off.  You’ve probably got a lot planned for today.”
“I most certainly do.”
She smiled.  “Then let’s start with breakfast and take it one step at a time.”