The shrill singing of the cold winds mistress bellowed through out the frost covered valley. The bitter wind forces flakes of snow to skip across the ground. Barely noticeable is a man sitting on the cold ground, his back up against the trunk of a naked tree, raggedly breathing in the cold air of the night
His eyes are slightly glazed over as he seemingly rests peacefully on the icy path. The air burns as he slowly exhales. The tips of his fingers are numb from the cold. It's cold, so cold.
The dark sky seemingly weeping, its tears have frozen over into droplets of snow and cover the land and parts of his body. The feel of the cold air’s hands slowly climbing up his body as he gazes towards the sky.
What did I do to the gods to earn this as a reward? he thinks to himself.
The frosty airs hands now embrace his neck, their cold burn lulling him to sleep. His wish to deny the air its dream of giving him eternal rest slowly escapes him, along with his strength. As his eyelids slowly fall, a thought crosses his mind, causing him to chuckle. Loki has tricked another one, it seems.
His eyes clench shut as an unknown weight steps on his belly, spending the last of his strength.
The man started to stir, the feel of a radiant warmth from nearby; the heat lessening the cold airs grip on his body, letting warmth spread through him once more. The sound of something lurking along side the crackle of a fire fills the room. A silent murmuring, in voices her couldn't quite hear, resonate throughout the area.
Slowly, the man begins to open his eyes in an effort to grasp his situation. His vision isn't in the best of shape as he looks upon a hazy and dimly lit cave wall. His mind too, is glossed over as he slowly and painfully scans the room. With each turn of his neck, the murmuring in the room gets louder and the pain intensifies.
It's not long before his eyes rested upon the fire and what lied past it. If he wasn’t in such a state of exhaustion, he might have questioned what he saw, might have even tried to flee from it; for what he saw was two brightly colored and heavily deformed horses.
Before his head fell from exhaustion, he swore he saw one wearing a hat with dung on it. It extends its neck to impossible lengths and emitted a large gasp. After what he saw, he’d gladly welcome either sleep or death.
After what feels like an hour of uneasy sleep, he was awoken by voices. Voices that were chattering some distance away from his laying form. He can't make out what they're saying. Not yet. Groaning once more, the man rises up and opened his eyes. Pain screams at him from every inch of his body, demanding him to lay back down. He powers on through, despite its efforts to make him still.
He starts to scan the dimly lit cave, quietly looking for the voices he heard. His eyes rest upon two still figures in the distant side of the cave. Their large eyes shine bright with life, and fear, as they fixate on his every movement.
Looking around the cave, he scans for a close wall to lean against. Luckily, the man didn’t have to move far as it seems a wall was immediately to his left. Slowly, the man moved his body to lean against the wall, fixating his eyes to the figures.
After a moment, he decides to break the silence and uneasy stares with his own uneasy voice. “You the ones who dragged me into this place, away from the cold?" he asks, "If so, I must thank you with all my being... But I must also ask, what are you? I haven't seen anything like you before..." He stops to think to himself for a second before shaking his head and speaking his mind. “I’m not even sure you can understand me...”
They look at each other for a second before one returns its gaze to him. The fear in its eyes was replaced by utter joy as it seems to hop forward, a big grin on its face. The closer it gets to the fire, the more he can make out of what it is. It seems to be a pink horse like creature and appears to be wearing a pile of dung on its head.
When it spoke, it was as he had always imagined the chatter of a wild faerie might sound. “That’s a silly question! What are we? Why, we’re ponies of course! How about you, huh? What’re you?”
It starts hopping towards him when hear another voice. ”Uh, your Chancellorship, I wouldn’t get so close to it...”
The man can slightly make out what the other one looks like; It’s an orange horse wearing a puffy vest and a hat. It’s eyes waver with a bit of doubt. He slowly raises his hand, causing the pink one to stops. “I won’t cause any harm. Even if I wanted to, I’m not in the shape. It hurts just to speak.”
He lowers his hand, causing the pink one to start jumping towards him at a faster rate than before. “You asked what I was? I’m a Nord. A Nord farmer to be exact.”
”Oh!” the pink one exclaims. “You’re just like us!”
He raises an eyebrow. “I am? I see no resemblance. The only thing I can even think that match up with me, is the language.”
The orange one speaks up. ”She means we’re all farmers in here. When she said we’re ponies, she left out that we’re earth ponies.”
“There’s other types?” he replies, a hint of shock in his voice.
The pink one nods. “There are three types of ponies. The barbaric pegasi and the rotten unicorns! Both of them bully us and use us to grow their food... But that’s going to change when we find some new land!” She laughs a bit, but that laugh soon sounds forced.
The pink one is standing by the fire, now. Judging from her looks, she hasn’t eaten that much in a while. The same might be for the orange one. It’s silent for a moment again, mostly because he didn’t want to pry on their situation.
The pink one breaks the silence. ”Oh, silly me! We never said our names! I’m Chancellor Puddinghead, and that over there is my faithful advisor, Smart Cookie.”
The one named Smart Cookie tips her hat at the man but doesn’t release her uneasy gaze from him. ”Nice to meet you...?”
He smiles as she says his name. “Obekant. That’s my given name.”
She smiles back. “Nice to meet you, Obekant.”
“Likewise to you two,” he replies, nodding at them.
Puddinghead lets out a yawn and talks with a drowsy voice. “ I’m beat... We spent all night watching you...”
She walks over to Cookies side and lays down. Her voice, now sapped of all energy, spoke up. “I’ll be taking a nap... Wake me up when it’s time to leave...”
Cookie looks at Puddinghead and then back to Obekant. “I might as well follow suit. What she said wasn’t wrong... We were sorta scared of what you were...” she says.
Obekant rubs his head. “Then why would you help me?”
She looks down to the ground before giving her response. ”We... we couldn’t stand to see another being die like that.”
He gives off a warm smile. “Thanks. Never would I have thought that such kind beings would exist, but today I was proven wrong. I think it’s best for you to turn in as well. I feel a bit tired as well.”
She returns the smile.“I think I will.”
Laying down, she curls up and uses her tail as a cushion. Obekant gazes into the fire for a moment. The dancing flames play upon Obekants thoughts as he rethinks the past hours; the question of where he is, popping into his mind.
Leaning his head back against the wall, Obekant decides to wait until everyone is awake to ask questions. Sliding down, he returns to the bedding he woke up on and shortly falls asleep.