I was so hungry.
A thin layer of snow coated the quiet town of Ponyville. The residents were sleeping soundly in their cozy beds for the day ahead. They called it Winter Wrap-Up Day; it was a large community event where all the ponies would clean up the snow and ice in preparation for spring. To our race, however, it was the start of a long hibernation until the next winter.
Ponies see us as evil spirits who feed off anger and conflict. During the wintertime, I’ve seen teachers warning their students to get along lest they attract the menace known as the Windigo. They teach how we feast off angry emotions and freeze the hearts of ponies. It is, to an extent, true.
We Windigos do feed off fighting and hate, but we don’t do it for the sadistic pleasure of it or because we’re agents of Tarturus; we must do it because it’s our only way to survive. Spirits can’t sustain themselves off burgers and hayfries. The truth that they won’t accept it that we must take the life of another to save ours.
That winter, all of my kin had either gone back to hibernate or had been warded off permanently by the ponies, but you may hear tales among my kind about certain Windigos who stayed behind in a desperate and futile search for food, and that year those stories would be about me.
As Windigos spend more time without food, they weaken until they eventually vanish into nothing. Nobody knows what happens to those poor few. We can spend dozens of years without eating, thankfully, but eventually the gnawing hunger begins to wear you down until you become clumsy and reckless. This became my undoing.
I flew circles over the dark Ponyville in the ice cold air searching for food. The night was spotted with bright stars and the moon sat suspended in the center of the sky. I felt confident because I knew that the smaller towns of Equestria are the best hunting grounds because ponies there seem to regularly get into arguments or conflicts. We also don’t usually have to worry about interference. Few Windigos are brave enough to risk going to Canterlot lest they find themselves face-to-face with Princess Celestia after being caught trying to feed off her subjects.
As I slowed down and waited for food to appear, I heard the soft crunch of hoofsteps in the snow beneath me. I looked down and saw a young colt shivering in the cold as he walked up to his front door. The colt had a tan body and a scruffy yellow mane and tail. Around his waist he had a saddle bag carrying rolled up pages of sheet music. In his eyes I could see disappointment and sadness, so I decided to watch him for a little while. The young pony opened the door and slipped inside. I descended to look inside the house through a kitchen window. A single lamp illuminated the room where an older older mare lay sleeping on the couch. She had the same tan body but smooth, long brown hair. I deduced that this mare was his mother.
As the child stepped inside and went for the stairs, the mother woke up with a yawn and glanced over the couch. The mare smiled and sat upright.
“Honey! How did the music contest go? Was it fun?” she asked. The child shrugged and mumbled back. He unhooked his bag and dropped it to the floor.
“It was okay.”
The mother pressed on, excited, and asked, “How’d you do? Did you win first?”
“Yeah...”
As the child began to walk up the stairs, his mother raised an eyebrow and her smile faded into a concerned look. “What’s wrong?” She asked.
He sighed and stared at the wall next to him. “I didn’t see you there,” he finally said, “I thought you were coming to watch.”
She frowns and gets up from the couch. “Grande, I’m sorry. I had to take care of your sister.” I remarked to myself how odd of a name Grande was.
“You said you’d be there no matter what,” He snapped back at her.
“We’ve already had this discussion before. Your sister is just a foal and she needs a lot of attention right now. You know this already,” the mother replied sternly.
He turned to his mom and snarled. “You said you’d be there! How come whenever you make a promise to me you never keep it?”
His mother absently brushed snow out of his messy mane to distract herself from the conversation. “Listen, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it and I’m sorry you’re so burdened by your sister, but it’s going to be like this for a while. I’m going to try to your next big event, okay?”
He slapped her hoof away. “Just forget it!” She recoiled in shock and Grande turned back around and stomped to the door. He reached for the knob and glanced back at his mom. “I didn’t even want a younger sister. It’s just like you to play favorites!” He pulled the door open and shivered when a cold blast of air hit him. He doesn’t wait for a response and walks into the night, slamming the door behind him.
The entire ordeal was quite a show, and I decide that this young colt would make the perfect meal for me. Children are easy; they get angered easily and tend to overreact to situations. The mother watched her son walk out in shock, then growled and stomped her hooves on the floor, screaming, “Where do you think you’re going? Get back here this instant young man!”
Her son ignored her screams and stalked away from his home. I flew up into the air and followed him. A tear rolls down his cheek, and he blinked it away angrily. He rubbed his eyes and groaned.
I decided to start feeding off his anger right then and there. I slowly followed him like a shadow, feasting off his emotions and watching him break down in the snow. It felt so good to satisfy my appetite after such a long time. I felt energized, strong, and hungry for more as ice began following the child’s hooves. Soon enough, he would be frozen solid. The wind around me began to howl as it grew faster and snow began to fall from the grey clouds above.
I saw Grande struggle more and more to move his legs until he collapsed face first to the snowy ground. He curled up and started sobbing into his fur, shivering and gasping for air. Ice slowly made its way onto his legs and began slowly creeping upward.
I heard hoofsteps on wood coming from one of the nearby houses. I turned and saw lights turning on inside a building that I can only assume was made to look like a gingerbread house. A wooden sign right by the mailbox had a large picture of a cupcake with the words “Sugarcube Corner” etched under it. The door swung open and the light from inside shined brightly on the colt. He blinked in surprise as a pink pony literally bounced out into the cold and down two wooden steps into the snow.
The pony had a bright pink coat and a slightly darker poofy pink mane that resembled cotton candy. She had a smile that stretched from ear to ear and excited blue eyes. The pony merrily skipped over to the colt. “Don’t worry! The bakery will be open again tomorrow! And the next day! Then the day after that! Then the day after the day after that!” I got the impression that she consumed plentiful amounts of sugar and caffeine. She smiled and offered a hoof to Grande, who slapped it away and tried to curl up more tightly
“Just… Leave me alone, Pinkie Pie,” he said back, “Please?”
Pinkie’s smile faded slightly and she backed away a bit from the young colt. She knelt down in front of him to look him directly in the eye and said, “What’s wrong? You know I couldn’t live with myself if I saw a friend cuddled in the cold and crying.” She curled in a ball and shook vigorously to demonstrate her point. “And I didn’t do anything about it!” She stood back up and met the colt’s eyes, the warm expression of a mother on her face. “It’s okay, you can tell ol’ Pinkie!”
He sighed and was silent for a moment, then said, “It’s just some stuff going on at home.”
“Aaaaaaaaand?”
He added, “Well, I got into an argument with my mom, okay?”
Pinkie nodded. “Oooh, I get it!” She said, “You wanted your mom to be at your performance this afternoon so you could show her how good you’ve gotten at the piano but she didn’t show up because she had to take care of your little sister and you didn’t feel important or cared about so you left, right?”
He looked at her with wide eyes and a gaping mouth, and I have to admit I was amazed too; there was no way that could have just been a guess. “How d-did you...?”
Pinkie winked and said, “Just a hunch!” It must have been some sort of inside joke, since he chuckled slightly.
I was beginning to become frustrated and annoyed; Pinkie Pie was going to ruin everything. She was so happy and positive about everything it made we want to vomit. She stands up and sits down again next to the colt, pulling him close in a disgustingly adorable cuddle.
“Hey, let me tell you something,” Pinkie whispered in the his ear, “I know how you feel. I grew up with three sisters, and a lot of times my parents couldn’t make everyone happy. Your mom cares about you both equally and she would do anything for the both of you. I know that for a fact!”
Grande shuffled in Pinkie’s embrace and said, “I don’t think so.”
“Okay, but here’s a braintickler. Name me one time where your mother didn’t try to do everything she could for you.” He opened his mouth but has trouble speaking. He didn’t have an answer. Pinkie lightly punched his shoulder. “Told you.”
He sighed. “I guess, maybe, you’re kinda right.”
“Kinda right?” She chuckled. “Think about it. Just you wait until your sister grows up a bit and is more independent. She’ll look up to her big brother for everything and it’s your job to set a good example for her. You’ll be one of the most important people in her world, right?”
He chuckled and nodded. “You really think so?”
“Of course! You’ll be like a celebrity to her! Grande Song! The best older brother a filly could ask for!”
Grande wrapped his arms around Pinkie’s neck and hugged her closely. It felt like I was being stabbed by a knife. I was so hungry! I had this kid before Pinkie showed up. I watched angrily as Pinkie rubbed the top of the his head and grinned wide.
“You should probably get back, and maybe apologize?” Pinkie said. “You don’t want to catch a cold, do you?”
He nodded and got back up on his hooves, smiling. “Thanks, Pinkie.”
“Aww, don’t you mention it!” she replied playfully. She nudged him with her foreleg. “If you want to talk more, stop by the bakery tomorrow. I’ll cook us up some cookies and we’ll have a little get together! It’ll be like a tea party without tea! Unless you want tea. Do you want me to make some tea?”
“Pinkie…” he said with a smirk on his face. She giggled in response and shrugged.
“Okay, maybe later!”
He smiled and galloped to his house, turning back to wave to Pinkie. “See you later, Pinkie Pie!”
“Okie Dokie Lokie!” Pinkie called back happily. She smiled as she watched him go. She stood back up and bounced back into the bakery, turning out the light.
I pursued the child, desperate. It was like fate was taunting me by waving food in front of me and then ripping it away. I hoped and prayed foolishly that the mother was still mad and that they would start back at square one again. I just wanted so badly to eat.
Grande returned his house and hesitated as he raised his hoof to open the door. He took three deep breaths and pushed it open. I went back to the window and spied inside. The mother was sitting on the floor staring blankly at the wall. She had puffy eyes and tears were still streaming down her face. She quickly looked up as her son entered and smiled, but it quickly faded into a worried expression. She jumped to her hooves.
“Where have you been?” she asked in a shaking voice. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?” It seemed she wasn’t sure whether she was more angry or relieved. “You know better than to just storm off like that!”
Grande jumped and wrapped his forelegs around her shoulders and hugged her tightly, trying to control his voice. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean what I said. I didn’t mean it!”
The mother relaxed and rested her head on his trembling shoulder. After what seemed like an eternity, she said, “I know you didn’t.” She grinned slightly when her son breathed a sigh of relief. ”Things are going to be different for a while, you know? I know how disappointing it is that I couldn’t make it, but sometimes life throws things at you that you don’t expect. You know I never wanted to upset you.”
He smiled and looked up at her. “No, its okay, I get it.”
She took a deep breath and nuzzled his mane. “You’ve matured so much since you were younger, you know that? You’re a good kid, so don’t ever think that you’re not.”
“Deal.” He replied, somewhat embarrassed “I love you.”
When those words were spoken, a tiny pink flame appeared above them both and danced around in the air. It disappeared and reappeared right above the house. I looked up at in fear and amazement. It quickly grew brighter and larger until it formed a burning pink heart that lit up the neighborhood with pink light. Lights flicked on in the nearby homes and I heard faint murmurs of confusion coming from them. I stared at the heart in pure hatred. It continued expanding and I could feel the heat of it pressing against me.
It didn’t make any sense. Those two should have been fighting and yelling at each other. The colt should hate her. Things like this should tear relationships between ponies apart. That’s what my fellow Windigos would all tell me. Could we have been wrong about the ponies? They valued friendship and family above all else. We thought they were trivial desires, but were they, perhaps, something much stronger than any of us had thought?
The mother looked him in the eye and finally said to her son, “I love you, too.”
The heart exploded into a huge wave of pink fire heading straight towards me. I tried to fly away but was overwhelmed by the immense heat. It scalded my body and I thrashed as the burning pain ate away at me. I tried hopelessly to hold my ground against it, but it was too much to handle. I was thrown into sudden darkness as the image of the embracing mother and son faded from my mind.
I was so hungry.