The Brightest Shine

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The next morning, Shining awoke slowly, instead of with her usual hard jolt from sleep to 'awake and in third gear.'

Something smelled unbelievably good. She also couldn't see...and for some reason, didn't care.

"It's me, Shining," an accented voice remarked. "Squall and Pie woke up early and baked something."

"Nopony's gone to find out. Last I heard, they were still talking and laughing in there, and I, for one, wasnae going to interrupt them while they sounded like that."

Shining rubbed a hoof against the side of her head and unclipped the horn cap, leaving the blindfold in place and just loosening the strap of the protective item on her forehead.

"Not again. I always felt weird eating the cinnamon rolls after I found out the butler and housekeeper..."

And there it was. Their unspoken history, the divide that had kept them so close and so far apart for years, finally acknowledged aloud.

"I used to be right scandalized by that, before my mum explained that the 'Mrs.' was Silver Chatelaine's courtesy title and not for real."

"I used to ask father to get evening theater tickets, so Pennyworth could have the same night off as Mrs. Chatelaine."

"Oh, Mater invariably threw a fit about my being too young to go out to anything after dark, they'd get into a row, dinner party would be cancelled after Mater ran off to visit school friends in the country and father went off to his club, which left me the run of the library, the junior staff an evening out and our butler and housekeeper a secret date."

"I wonder if that's how Mum got them," Verdant mused. "Just a few times, she'd come home and tell me to put my best hat on, we had tickets for the lower gallery, and we'd go out and see a play."

"Most likely. Mater tended to give theater tickets they weren't using to Pennyworth, and I suppose he converted the box seats to gallery ones."

"You could send fourteen people to the lower gallery for the price of two box seats."

"That's what I told Mater, but did she listen? She used to ask me whom I'd seen in the box at the children's matinees she sometimes sent me to with Nanny and was disappointed when I never brought home any gossip. You couldn't see the play as well from way over on the sides."

"Did you ever tell her you'd switched the tickets for the gallery and sent all the junior maids' children?"

"No, but I did get caught. And grounded. And she confiscated my slide rule for an entire week."

"If it makes you feel better, 'The Lost Treasure' and 'The Secret of the Breezies' were both worth it."

"So...do you need me to lead you out of here so you can get that blindfold off?"

"Yes, please," Shining smiled. "I'm sorry to be such a bother with this damned claustrophobia."

"I think I know why you've got it, though. Mum told me about the time with your little cat..." Verdant trailed hesitantly off, Shining following beside her.

"That's it in one," the physicist agreed neutrally. "I did get to keep my cat, though."

"...Did she ever give you the books I burned or tore? I tried not to mess up the important part."

"I was. I resented my father for what he did, I resented society for not letting us meet and be friends, I...well, I was at that age where you really only have two emotions, 'resentment' and 'ooh, shiny!'"

"You know, like when you learn a new application of a theorem or discover a specialty, get all obsessed on it and can't talk about anything else for weeks?"

"Like when I first read about geothermal energy, or that torsional vibration phase I went through, I bet."

"Did I ever! I actually built a wee engine and tested it with different offset weights." Verdant smiled at the memory. "It was good enough to power a floor buffer, that's how I got the scholarship to the university's service training school. And then there was my particulate matter ignition phase, that ended almost as badly as yours did..."

It was pretty startling to Spec and Flare when Verdant and Shining appeared, reminiscing and chatting like old friends, but there had been so many weird things already, it seemed easier not to question it...especially when some scientific or social reference caused them to crack up into peals of inexplicable, joyous laughter. Nopony wanted to jinx it by asking what had changed, and after about a week, hardly anypony remembered what they were like before. Verdant soon grew comfortable with giving orders the way Shining used to do, albeit in a nicer tone, and Shining got used to tactfully asking insightful questions about others' work the way Verdant had had to hint and insinuate before, lest she get an earful.

The strangest, though, was when Sand Storm accidentally got them confused, putting a hoof on Shining's shoulder and following her for a few minutes before she asked him if he wanted to help with an especially fiddly aspect of the evener. He went absolutely scarlet, Verdant was at his side a moment later and once he heard them speaking, it was easy to tell the Earth pony from the unicorn.

"How could you possibly confuse those two, even without your sight?" Squall ribbed him that evening, near their sleeping bags.

"It was a mistake, okay?" Sand Storm grunted. "They're the same height and their manes feel the same."

"Only their accents do. Their voices are actually similar. Listen to them talk with your eyes shut sometime, it's kinda hard."

"Well, yeah. Shining Mind smells like coffee, books and impatience. Verdant smells like...like sunshine, and the way the air smells when it's just stopped raining on a hot day. And orange leaves."

"...The orange ones have a particular smell?" Squall was only avoiding the giggles through the application of military discipline, and even that couldn't keep the smile out of his voice.

"The autumn ones, you know, like when it's just starting to get cold and the leaves start to fall, plus there's cider and warm sweaters, friends and family coming to say hello, lots of cumulus moving in from the eastward breeze, fluffy enough to hide in with your special somepony -shut up, Squall!" poor Sand Storm objected as his comrade burst into hysterical laughter. In a wounded tone he whispered, "She smells ...nice."

"I do not doubt you, my friend," Squall barely controlled his glee. "It is just that a poetic description from you is a bit like an erotic dance from Commander Hurricane. You might be able to imagine it, but actually witnessing such a thing is an experience it takes significant alcohol to recover from."

Of course, the shoe was on the other hoof by the next morning. Squall and Pie had somehow become the de facto quartermasters of the mission, and while they got along swimmingly, the hours of close-proximity work had led to an unusual problem, possibly the first of its' kind in the little, multispecial community they had, however improbably, formed from the disparate groups.

"Not for more than a few hours," Squall explained proudly. "And neither will anyone else here, provided I can find what I need for poor Sand Storm."

"I don't believe you," Pie remarked, half-admiringly, but with a playful challenge in her voice and her raised eyebrow. "You've actually got a cure for the common cold?"

"I would not call this a cure," Squall clarified. "It merely soothes the symptoms and accelerates the body's natural ability to resist the illness, causing recovery to occur in a greatly reduced interval."

"As you say," the earthbound pegasus replied. It was a phrase he used frequently, and one which Pie was beginning to have a slight problem with. Specifically, the combination of respectful acceptance of her opinion, so rare from male unicorns, and his gentle, slightly exotic accent, were causing her to feel what could only be described as an inconvenient crush on her coworker.

And it was inconvenient! Some of the dreams she had had about him lately...well, it just wouldn't do to think too much about it and risk damaging their working relationship. After all, working with Squall was rapidly becoming the thing Pie looked forward to every morning when she woke up.

She realized she'd been silent for awhile and quickly plunged her snout into a bag of supplies, then emerged with the first thing she pulled out.

"Iff thiff it?" she asked. Squall looked at the small metal tin clamped in her teeth and raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly, no, but I can think of something else that will be very useful for."

"Yes." Squall smiled. "My grandmother uses it to make hot cocoa. As most ponies do."

"Mine, too!" Pie smiled back. Their eyes met, and lingered. Too long. She had to cover this lapse somehow, so she stammered a followup. "I, erm, how does she make it?"

"Of course! It adds to the warmth of the beverage and truly brings out the flavor. How does your grandmother make hers?"

"Mint leaves?" Squall perked up. "That does sound very good! I think we have both of those spices, even if they won't be as fresh as we might wish them. However did she get fresh mint leaves in the wintertime?"

"She keeps a little window box herb garden," Pie explained. "Every fall she brings it inside to keep warm, so it's never really winter for her fresh herbs, and she's never without something she might need for a recipe."

"My grandmother would like her, I think," Squall nodded thoughtfully. "She keeps an herb garden, but my grandfather made her a greenhouse with a little woodstove, so it is always as warm as her homeland no matter how cold it gets outside."

"Isn't it obvious?" Squall elegantly gestured to his cobalt-gray coat and winked one of his slightly more teardrop-cornered eyes. "My Naniji is a Zebra."

"Oh, really?" Pie's smile was fascinated rather than puzzled. "That might explain how different and delicious your cooking is."

"As you say," Squall nodded. "Naniji is one of the finest cooks I have ever known, and as a traditional healer, she has accomplished things even the finest doctors Pegasopolis has to offer considered impossible. It was how she found acceptance after marrying my grandfather, when there was still such prejudice and fear of Zebras. There still is, but there are many pegasi who respect her now because she has proven her skill and her generosity." The grounded flier's face took on an expression of solemn pride. "Even our commander Steady Hoof, have you noticed the trust with which I am honored?"

"He and I were once in what soldiers call 'a bit of a jam,' and afterward, he wasn't quite himself. I stayed at his side and helped him until all was right again, but it was taking him to Naniji for her medicine that made the great difference. I could never have accomplished what I have without her wisdom. She taught me all I know about healing, understanding the pains of others, running a bountiful kitchen no matter how strained your resources or how limited your equipment and especially good cooking."

"I hate prejudice, don't you? All that ugliness to each other, but especially poor Verdant."

"I cannot hate it. I can only pity the ponies with such ugliness in their hearts. And it is not our dear earth pony colleague who is to be pitied, but...well...any stallion or mare who underestimates her. The way she has Sand Storm nibbling out of her hoof these days, she reminds me a little of Naniji."

"They do not need them," Squall shrugged. "Their culture is not so aloof as my grandfather's or that of the unicorns toward other beings. If a Zebra wishes to know what it is to fly, she has only to ask the birds and the butterflies, to hear their songs and gaze upon their colors, and in the dreamtime, they can fly just as we do...well, did, in my case."

"It is not that kind of pain, my sweet Pie. Physically, I feel only a little ache, and that not often. It is the feeling of disappointment, knowing that the sky may well be closed to me without pain, just as the caverns and small rooms of this world are closed to our poor Shining without fear. I know that my wings may well recover, but there may be permanent damage, and while I hold out hope that my family is well and that my Naniji will know something to help heal me physically, in the meantime my heart is sick. I was once capable of so much, and now I have so comparatively little to offer my brother soldiers and our new friends. It is painful to me."

It was startling how matter-of-fact his tone of voice could be when he spoke of his own troubles.

"I'm sorry, Squall. Is...is there anything I can do, to make it easier, or just to take the edge off of it?"

"You are already helping to bind up a wounded heart," the pegasus officer smiled. "When I work beside you, and we talk, we laugh, it is like the sky."

"And I am glad that even in this place," Squall gestured to the basalt around them, the simple chemical lamps giving everything a not-unpleasant glow, "even in this place, it is possible for ponies to speak of their families, to trade recipes from home and to miss their grandmothers a little bit."

"Don't they always? I have been writing letters, of course, even with no way to mail them, and that helps."

"So have I, actually," Pie smiled, before sighing. "I don't even know if my grandmother is okay."

"As you say," Squall nodded. "And it is very nearly the same as having dear Naniji here. You are a talented medic, and your cooking could make the Pegasus High Command overlook your wings."

"For apple tarts like you made last night, they would insist you did and that you were simply an intelligence officer who was good at concealing them," Squall's smile was just a little silly and Pie smiled back.

"My grandmother taught me to cook, like yours did." Pie explained. "She's the head pastry chef at the palace of Unicornia, you know."

"A pastry chef?" There was an impressed, rather than the usual bemused or disgusted tone in Squall's reply. "Pastries take years to master. You must be proud of her."

"You know, I am, rather." Pie's smile was genuine, if still a little shy. "A lot of ponies don't think chefs are very prestigious."

"If ponies could eat prestige, I could perhaps understand that idea. Pastry tastes much better."

"Is that how you got your name?" Squall asked. "I mean," he blushed slightly, "your cutie mark -not that I was noticing on purpose...no offense..."

"None taken," Pie smiled. He noticed my cutie mark! "It's kind of a funny story, actually."

"We have time," Squall smiled. He looked like he might have been wondering what a figure-eight on its' side with a pie in each circle meant.

"I'm sure you've heard the expression 'humble pie,' haven't you?" Squall nodded and Pie shrugged. "It's kind of true. Pie was considered a peasant food for many years. It was considered so lower-class, for so long, that most nobility and essentially no royalty had ever even heard of it. My grandmother entered a competition for a place as a kitchen assistant at the Palace when she was a girl, and the rivalry for what was basically an unpaid internship got especially fierce. Some other filly or colt stole half her ingredients, so she improvised, making the best she could with what she had on hand to work with."

"Right in one!" Pie grinned. "Queen Argentum and King Aurum had never tasted such a thing, and Grandmama always was an amazing chef. She was hired immediately as the first specialist pastry chef in Unicorn history, given a salary and a small apartment in the Palace, and in due course, she married my grandfather. He started out as a hall colt and worked his way up to Palace Butler before he retired."

"Very much so. My uncles and aunts each had their specialties, and Mama is a confectioner. I was the first grandfilly, though, and since Mama was working so hard on her own career and Grandmama had so many ponies working under her, she wound up looking after me the majority of the time."

"I bet they would be friends," Pie smiled. "Grandmama taught me all kinds of things about pastry, but it was the measuring and estimating I really liked. I learned the customary, the imperial and the metric systems of measurement, how to duplicate and halve recipes, how to do the figuring to extrapolate how much of every given ingredient we'd be needing even weeks in advance, the precise deltas of increasing and decreasing temperature to make the most effective use of the ovens and equipment, the exact dimensions needed for every dish...I loved it."

"They really are, and I suppose I can admit that now," Pie's brow furrowed a little bit. "If I ever see my family again at all, it'll be because of my math skills, not the flakiness of my crusts or the caramelization of my glazes."

"I wouldn't say I regret it, exactly," the mare scratched her mane thoughtfully. "It's one of those stories where they tell you you'll look back and laugh, and I'm getting to the laughter now, but it was a long time coming."

"Well, Grandmama decided to trust me with making a simple pie, a recipe of hers that she'd made hundreds of times, one of the Princess Platinum's favorites. Very basic, very straightforward, something even royalty recognize as pure comfort food. She was having an 'at home' with just a few select courtiers, so it wouldn't even be noticed in the Great Hall, and wouldn't matter if it wasn't quite a hundred percent perfect. Ideal assignment for a little filly just starting out, eh?"

"That, and Grandmama had also prepared her famous rolled butter scones and a selection of berry tarts, so the pie would never be missed if I failed completely, but I didn't know that, you see," Pie sheepishly continued. "I was a basket case. I was convinced that I'd make the pie too big, or too small, or I'd make a perfect pie and it'd go missing, all kinds of things. So I decided, just in case, I'd better make a backup."

"But then I was worried that I'd make too much and then we'd have a surplus of pie. It has to be eaten before it goes bad, you know, and there is only so much room in the iceboxes. Plus, I might use up too many ingredients, make the wrong flavor..."

"Yep," Pie sighed. "So I decided to mathematically calculate exactly how much pie was appropriate. I took a standard Palace-issue pie plate, measured from the center to the rim to figure out the length of a slice, then I started trying to work out just how many pies I would need to feed everypony at the party at least one piece, but not more than three pieces. I started baking while I worked on it, trying to find out the exact amount of pie necessary, which is really a kind of surface-area problem, but then the fact that pies are round got into it, and while I came up with a number I could use to define the question, anyway, well..."

"It didn't stop, Squall. It just kept going. I kept finding more and more digits, getting closer and closer to true precision. I was so excited, too, finally having a number I could use to estimate the proper amount of pie, or any circular pastry, really, from desserts to entrees to aperitifs, even tiny little hors d'oeurves, if they were round, I'd be able to figure out just how much I needed to make the exact right amount, with no wasted ingredients, no unused oven time, no futility, no waste, no excessive strain...just pure, mathematical perfection. It would be the pinnacle of all culinary engineering, a basis for all future chefs to work from, and my name would someday be as famous as Grandmama's."

"It did," Pie sighed, smiling even as she blushed. "I was so focused on getting even more digits in my special number that I completely spaced on the fact that I was making crusts, preparing fillings and even putting finished pies into the oven."

"Ultimately? I have no idea. Grandmama came and found me somewhere in the middle of the second thousand."

"I had prepared thirteen different flavor bases and was trying to accomplish something like four different specialized spice profiles for each. Grandmama stopped me before I finished, though."

"Well, my mother was furious, but Grandmama stepped in and saved the day. She had the kitchen colts put together a tiered pyramid, cut the pies and placed them on plates she numbered with a chocolate glaze on the side, then arranged it all beautifully and put sheets of numbered list paper onto silver clipboards for the Princess and each of her guests."

"Invented the Royal Festival of Dessert, yes. On the spot and just to keep me out of trouble. The Princess and her guests spent all night and fourteen different ballots selecting a favorite, then Grandpapa announced a charity auction for the various recipes, as well as antacids and pink bismuth. It raised an impressive sum for the orphanage, as I understand, enough that Mama revoked my grounding early."

"Every day. What we are doing, though, may be what ensures there even is such a thing as a grandmother in a century's time. That is what motivates me to keep going...that, and one other thing."

"...I don't have a family of my own, Squall. I mean, I have a family, obviously, but...I'm not even seeing anypony, and it doesn't seem likely that I'll..." She trailed off, looking into the deep blue eyes of the pegasus she thought about every night before she went to bed and woke up every morning wanting to see. "You know, I really never asked to have a crush on you. This is most inconvenient."

"Inconvenient?" The cobalt pegasus looked at once delighted and a little puzzled. "What can be ill, if you return the esteem, the affection I feel for you?"

"Well, we have a really great working relationship, and it's just so complicated to feel...wait. You...I..."

"I have held you in great esteem since you nicked me with that roulette. That respect has grown to affection and I feel that even if we were not here beneath this mountain, even if all were well and we had only to step outside to return to our homes and our families...I do not think I could do so if it meant losing you." Squall took her hoof in his. "I am the grandson of a pegasus who left the clouds behind to be with the Zebra he loved. Is it so hard to imagine, a unicorn and a pegasus?"

"Squall..." Pie breathed, wanting so much to close the distance between them, but still afraid, and not for her own feelings. "You're grounded for now, because of your injury. We're in a pretty unusual situation here, and there's no guarantee that we're even coming out of this mess alive. If you and I start a relationship, then you get your wings back, I get my place at the university restored, maybe even a shot at tenure for saving the world and all...how would we make that work? The day would come when one of us would resent the other for taking their world away."

"My clever friend, I am well aware. It is difficult even for pegasi from the same hometown to form a life together. But there will be clouds above your university, there will always be weather to look after, and even if we must make the best of what is odd about how we met, I think we have every reason to hope for our days, however few or many may remain, to be together and happy, if that is what you wish."

"I worry, too, but it is strange how even the worry about whether we will live to see tomorrow has had to join the back of the queue, compared to the worry that I might die without telling you how I feel." Squall held Pie's hoof a moment longer and sighed. "I admire you. I take joy in your every word. I long for your company whenever we are parted. I find that I have more to live for in your smile than in any endeavor of wings or hooves. Even if you cannot return my every feeling, even if the love you bear me is that of friends, merely to know that there is something in your heart for me, that is more than I have ever dared to ask for."

And for the first time since the sun fell, Pie felt hope growing in her heart, and realized that there was already something else there with it. She held Squall's hoof just a moment longer, then pressed it to her heart.

"It may have started as respect for a good, decent pegasus and grown into the love that I bear a friend," Pie breathed, barely able to believe this was happening, "but what I feel for you now..."

Squall was gentlecolt enough to spare her having to speak her answer aloud. It was already in her eyes.

Steady stuffed another bag of oats into the bulging saddlebag, shivering beneath two coats and grumbling as he hoisted the heavy bag onto his back to begin the trek back down with lunch. As the frigid cold outside had begun to gradually seep in through the walls of the igloo on the surface, it was becoming less habitable by the day, and so far, his requests for help had fallen on deaf ears. After dropping off the supplies with Squall, who, it had turned out, had a better grasp of culinary construction than most of the mares, Steady went to find Shining and her group.

Shining, Spec, Verdant and Pie were still gathered around the lava pool where he had left them, a single obsidian stone rotating slowly in their collective magical fields as Verdant made small changes to her miniature volcano to keep the temperature right. There was something reassuring about watching them work, a kind of matter-of-fact confidence that radiated from the group as they worked to seal the cold-shocked stones and repair spells with names he couldn't even pronounce.

At length, Squall appeared with steaming bowls of fresh oats and dried strawberries, spiked with just a touch of spices that would have been worthy of note at a proper restaurant, let alone hundreds of meters underground, working with nothing but military fare. As the scent wafted across the work circle, eyes closed for hours in concentration twitched, stomachs growled, and Pie stood up and stretched her legs.
“Oh, thank you, Squall, that smells wonderful!”

One by one, the other mares abandoned their task, set down the stone in its heated cradle, and trotted over to where Pie had nuzzled up to Squall and begun helping him pass out the bowls. Once everyone had tucked in, Steady broached the subject that was foremost on his mind.
“Shining? I know how important the work you're doing is, but we can't delay any longer. I need to borrow a couple of members of your team this afternoon; The small trickle of heat coming out of the cave mouth isn't enough to keep the igloo warm, and I need help to divert some of the larger steam tunnels up to heat the place.”

Shining looked up from her meal with a frown that was usually reserved for uppity graduate students.
“Out of the question. If we're to have any chance of finishing the repairs in time, I need everyone. You'll just have to make do.”

Steady shook his head in irritation.
“We can't. Flare and I have been working on this with some help from Squall when we can get it, but digging and diverting tunnels isn't easy for Pegasi, and some of this will involve handling the super heated steam coming from deeper below.”

The strain of laboring so long began to show in her voice as Shining shot back, “So it will take a little longer. If we postpone the repairs, the cost in lives could grow even larger outside!”

Steady's own irritation, exacerbated by nearly twenty five hours without sleep egged him on as he stood up and closed the distance between them.
“And if we don't do something soon, we won't have food to eat for much longer! It's getting dangerously cold inside the igloo, and I won't risk my ponies again!”

Shining got to her own hooves as she shot back,
“So then divert the steam tunnels yourselves; we can't stop working, and we can't stop eating either!”

Shining's horn was now the only thing keeping the two of them from butting heads as Stead fumed,
“And just how do you suggest we move clouds of boiling steam without magic to shield us? You have to lend me several ponies now to fix this, or I'll need one of you on a regular basis once it gets too cold to go up on our own!”

There was a strained silence as Shining and Steady glared at each other, each searching their sleep-deprived brains for further arguments to win the point. However, before either of them could find their next point, Verdant broke in with a look of exasperation.
“Oh for the love of... Did neither of you stop to think how we're going to go about lighting the sun once it's ready? Did you plan on carrying it up the tunnels while it was burning? I was already planning to divert a lava tube up there for the eventual lighting, and if it's getting that cold already, then I had better do it sooner rather than later.”

She passed her empty bowl to Squall as she stalked off,
“Honestly, you two have been going at it for days now! We'd all have a lot more peace around here if you'd just snog each other already!”

Steady watched her go with an uncomprehending frown, while beside him, Shining's expression slowly softened into one of surprised understanding.
“What is she-”

Steady's question was abruptly cut off as Shining suddenly closed the distance and kissed him, his eyes shooting open in the most ridiculous startled expression. After a moment, he seemed to catch on, and followed her lead as Shining wrapped her hooves around him. The others around the circle couldn't help but exchange smug glances for a moment, but eventually, they each picked up their bowls and wandered off, leaving the two of them alone in the steam.

Though the other couples had long ago marked out sleeping areas for themselves in more temperate areas, Shining's claustrophobia meant that she and Steady remained confined to the steamy main cavern, not far from the hot springs. The entrance to one of the tunnels provided some relief from the stifling heat, but after tossing and turning for nearly an hour, Shining finally gave up and gently prodded Steady.
“Hey, you awake?”

The pegasus rolled over and snuggled up closer to her, ignoring the heat.
“Mrrmfmf... Do I have to be?”

Shining sighed.
“I can't sleep tonight. I don't know if its the heat or this rash...” she trailed off as she bent around and scratched herself in a very unladylike manner that made Steady smile.

“Well, I'm not surprised. You have a lot on your mind, its hotter than Tartarus down here, and given that you never leave, you're working on a bad case of jungle rot.” He rolled over and stood up. “Its been more days than I care to remember. How do you feel about a trip to the surface?”
The change in her posture and breathing was instantaneous as she tensed up, but he continued. “You do fine down here with the steam hiding the walls. Do you think you could make a little bubble full of steam just around your head? You'd only need to hold it for a few minutes.”

“But... But what if I lose it?! If I have a panic attack in those tunnels...”

Steady gently took her in a tight embrace.
“But you won't, because I'll be right there with you the whole way.”

If possible, her eyes widened further,
“But... I can't! I can't risk losing you!”

“And you won't, because I know you would never hurt me.” Steady replied calmly as he leaned back and kissed her gently.

Shining returned his kiss, and after a moment she opened her eyes again, but the meticulous researcher within her couldn't help but ask in a wry tone,
“And that time we first met?”

Steady actually laughed.
“Well, what love story doesn't have its rocky moments? I still want to take you up.”

“To prevent you from becoming Tarzane, queen of the jungle? Yes.” He ribbed her gently. “Now come on, put that bubble together and let's go for a walk. We have to work on this fear eventually, and now is as good a time as any.”

Shining sighed, but after a moment she closed her eyes, concentrated, and formed a small bubble of steam and vapor just around her face.
“Like this?” She asked, looking blindly in his direction.

“That's it.” Steady approved as he reached out and took her by the hoof, “Now just hold that for a few minutes and we'll be at the surface in no time.”

The trip to the surface took almost fifteen minutes as Steady had to guide Shining around and over every obstacle, but with kind words and great determination, she eventually felt the frosty air against her coat once more as she stepped from the cave and dropped the blinder bubble.

“I did it... I did it!” Steady was practically beaming as she bounced up and down with joy. “I actually did it!”

Steady nuzzled her cheek affectionately, and applauded her,
“You found a way around your fear, and that's a start. I'm proud of you, Shining.”

The frozen air felt so good against her face she found she didn't really mind the cold yet, and after weeks below, always trotting carefully to avoid walking into something in the steam, Steady watched her break into a gallop as she made a joyful circuit around the inside of the igloo.
“Oh, that feels so good!”

“I'll bet, we've all- OOF!” Steady managed as the mare tackled him to the ground and snogged him.
When she finally came up for air, his usual expression was tinged with concern. “Shining... You know I love you, but... are you sure this is the best time?”

Now it was her turn to look down on him with that wry smile.
“Don't tell me you've gone puritanical on me now? Doesn't your own military have provisions for when a mare is with foal?”

Steady nodded, still not entirely convinced,
“Well, yes, what military wouldn't? I know you'll be just the same mare I love today, I'm just worried about what happens eleven months from now...”

Shining leaned in close and rubbed noses with him, a smile never quite leaving her face.
“Steady, our world is dying, and I'll be damned if I'm going to spend what could be the last months of my life celibate because of what might happen. In eleven months we'll either be back with our tribes, or we'll all be dead, and...” she paused to nuzzle the inside of his neck, “and I don't want to go, wondering what I missed.” She lowered her body onto his, heedless of the icy ground. “I love you, Steady, and if this is all the time I get, well... I want to spend it with you.”

Steady relaxed beneath her with a sigh as he wrapped his hooves around her and smiled wryely.
“Well we certainly won't be the first. I think Flare and Spec are the only ones left who aren't expecting, though it certainly isn't for a lack of effort.”

“Well you know what they say about soldiers...”
Shining murmured as she kissed him again.

Some considerable time later, the cold finally got the better of them, forcing Shining and Steady off the igloo floor in search of coats. Shining returned wrapped up in a white parka that perfectly showed off her black mane and paused to strike a somewhat ridiculous pose, as she asked provocatively,
“Ready for more?”

Steady, wearing a drab blue and gray military officer's coat couldn't help but laugh,
“Hey, give a stallion a minute, okay? Besides, didn't we come up here for an actual reason?”

An itch on her hock chose moment to make itself known, and Shining paused to grind the offending skin against the ice wall, all the while wearing a pouty expression that looked at once absurd and adorable on the physicist.
“What? Sex is a reason.”

Steady made a show of putting hoof to face as he reminded her,
“The weather? Spec keeps us up to date on the temps back home, and while they're still falling, they haven't gotten anywhere near as cold as we have. Don't get me wrong, I could buck the ice block out of the doorway, but it's no easy task getting it sealed properly again, and the diversions we made in the cave down there are doing a pretty good job of keeping it temperate in here.” He trotted over and placed a kindly hoof on her shoulder. “I need you to teleport us out there long enough to make our log entry. Besides, there's still plenty of night time left.”

Shining rolled her eyes. “Oh, very well. But I'll have you know that since we've been stuck down in that cave, our work days have been getting longer and our nights staying about the same. Did you know we were awake thirty-one hours yesterday?”

Steady's brow furrowed in consternation,
“Really? It felt like a normal day to me...”

“I suppose I should have expected it; without the sun to set a day-night schedule, this is usually what happens.” She paused to kiss him slowly, finally pulling away to finish, “I just resent anything that impinges on our time together.”

A low rumbling boom echoed across the igloo, freezing both ponies to the spot. For a long moment they stared at each other in silent confusion.

“Was that... thunder?”
Steady asked, a sliver of hope creeping into his voice. Shining looked alarmed, but she forced down her worry and straightened up. With an effort, she formed the softly glowing bubble around her and illuminating nearly twice the area of their small green chemical lantern.
“I don't know, but until we're sure, don't leave the shield.”

With a 'Snap!' the bubble containing the two ponies appeared outside the wall of the igloo into total blackness. Another crack of thunder ripped through the sky invisible overhead, and as the booming echos faded away, Shining lit her horn and stabbed her beacon upward, revealing a low ceiling of clouds.

“What in the world?” Steady muttered to himself. “I thought you said all the water was already wrung out of the sky?”

A single drop of rain fell with a splash on the ground next to them, then another, and soon as they watched in astonishment it began to rain in earnest. Another clap of thunder boomed in the blackness above them as the rain began to steam off the ground and run into puddles just outside their bubble.

For the first time in weeks, Steady felt himself really relaxing as he sighed;
“So that's it. We're finally out of danger.”

As he looked across however, Shining's eyes hadn't left the rain outside, and her expression was one of deep mistrust bordering on terror as she asked,
“Steady? Do you still have the notebook with you?”

Shining jerked the notebook from his hoof, ripped out and crumpled up the last blank page, and set the paper wad on fire with a burst of magic.

With a flick of her magic, the wad of smoldering paper flew outside their bubble and landed in a large puddle.

Shining and Steady both leaped back as the fireball flashed nearly a meter into the air and disappeared an instant later. Steady's eyes were wide as he looked from the puddle to Shining and back again.

“Take the reading.” She stated in an alarmingly flat tone as she proffered their thermometer. Steady took the device and after a look back, carefully pushed it through the bubble into one of the puddles that had formed against the edge of their bubble. After a moment, he pulled it back in and took the reading with a look of confusion.

Shining still hadn't turned her head away from the small ring of light in the darkness that surrounded their bubble, and as she spoke again in that flat voice, Steady felt a chill run down his spine.
“There is nothing wrong with your thermometer. You can't get a reading because it's no longer warm enough to register on that scale.”

“Steady, the temperature out there is now over one hundred and eighty degrees below zero C.” She finally turned to look at him, a look of real fear in her eyes as she explained, “Because that's about the point at which oxygen condenses into a liquid and falls as rain!”

There was a long silence as the two of them stared at each other in the dim glow of bubble and lantern. Around them, a careful eye would note that the puddles had begun to boil as the frozen water ice gave up what was left of its heat to boil the oxygen rain back into clouds of vapor.

“This isn't going to last...” Shining finally said, her alarm building. “Oxygen may condense first, but nitrogen and argon are only a few degrees away, and when they start to rain out...!”

“Steady, the atmosphere is only made out of oxygen, nitrogen and a bit of argon! If it all rains out, then in another few days we'll be breathing vacuum out here!”

Steady's eyes had gone wider still as he processed what she was saying. “You mean we won't be able to breathe?!”

There was another long pause, but when it was over Steady snapped to attention facing her.
“What do we have to do?”

The question jarred Shining out of her trance, and her eyes flicked quickly back and forth as she spoke rapidly.
“We need to keep a reserve of air. We have heat and water down below, but if all the air runs off this mountain, I don't know how long we can last.” A gurgling sound in the darkness made her head snap up, and she lit her horn to reveal one of the gutter channels carved into the igloo disgorging a steady stream of oxygen onto the ground.
“The pools! We need to get Pie and Spec up here right away and channel the runoff into some of the pools and low spots! Verdant can help open up underground channels to deliver the liquid into the cave, but we have to hurry! I don't know how much-”

An ear-splitting 'Crack!' followed by a deep rumbling growl sounded from somewhere further up the mountainside, and fearing a landslide, Shining and Steady spun about, directing the light of her horn at the noise. They weren't far off. A short distance away and a hundred feet up, a slide of boulders and gravel had broken away in the intense cold opening up the mouth of a shallow cave. The rock slide had stopped well short of them, but as the dust cleared, they could make out strange white shapes rushing downhill towards them.

Steady dropped into a fighting crouch and spread his wings, only to feel Shining grab him in her magic.
“Don't! Wait...” She gestured with a hoof. “Can't you see?”

Steady looked. The windigoes were running on the ground, their usual moans now howls of pain as the rain drove down into them, sending them stampeding in all directions. The oxygen rain was eating into them, burning holes in their skins of liquid water mist, and sending off a shower of frozen ice pellets as they ran. One of them had seen their bubble and came running towards them, desperate for any shelter, only to put a hoof into one of the puddles a few yards before them.
The effect was like a pony sticking a leg into a crucible of liquid steel; its' leg simply went into the three inch deep puddle as though it was a bottomless hole, and the creature screamed and stumbled as it slid across several more puddles, each taking large chunks out of its wounded form. Steady watched in horror as the thing came to rest a few yards away, spasmed violently, then lay very still.

Shining slowly released her magical grip on him as they watched the ethereal form gradualy begin to freeze.
“No, they can no more survive in this cold than we can, they probably hid in that cave for shelter just as we did. Steady, it's one hundred and eighty degrees below zero out here! That's cold enough to kill even the oldest trees and all their seeds! The only green things that will ever grow here again will be what's carried back here: only mushroom spores can survive this level of cold! Buck's sake, even if we flipped a switch and fixed this right now, it would be decades before the grass and weeds started to come back, and we'd have to bring all our own crops and trees with us! These old growth pine forests all around us? We may be the last ponies alive who'll remember they were ever here.”

The last of the screams and sounds of the avalanche had finally died away, leaving only the comforting sound of a soft spring rain. The two of them stood staring out across the snow covered forests of pine that would never bloom again for a long time.

“We'd better get going.” Steady managed at last. “You and your team have work to do if we're going to survive this.”

Shining shook herself and agreed.
“Yes, I'll send you down to get the others at once while I stay up here and begin trenching out some flood channels and-”

A loud splintering 'KRACK!' from down the hillside interrupted her, and in her horn light, Shining caught a glimpse of a particularly huge pine disappearing from view over the edge of the mountain side. As it fell, it struck other trees, which fell against more trees yet, and soon the entire north side of the mountain was nothing but one huge roaring landslide as the frozen trees fell, splintered into shards, and tumbled down the mountain sending up a huge cloud of frozen wood dust into the oxygen rain. The noise was so incredible the two of them just stood and listened as tens of thousands of trees were swept from the mountain and ground into hoof sized chunks by the fall and the cryogenic cold. Steady took a tentative step forward, but Shining blocked him with a hoof.
“We may have to run in a moment...”

They saw the blinding light from the explosion a moment before the blast wave raced back up the mountain, and Shining teleported them back inside the safety of the igloo. Even from nearly a kilometer away and behind huge blocks of ice, the blast was deafening, and flakes of water ice rained down from overhead.

“HOLD ON!” Shining screamed as the blast died away. Steady held her tight, not understanding what was going on, but trusting her judgment. A moment later, the first of the new landslides started by the blast ignited in the oxygen rain, starting a cascade of fresh explosions, fresh avalanches, and fresh clouds of highly flammable wood dust that formed a chain reaction and spread down the mountain side and up the next mountain. Hundreds of huge explosions rocked their mountaintop igloo, and only the absurdly overbuilt structure protected them from the hurricane of fire outside that rapidly laid waste to anything even remotely flammable.

Shining and Steady clung tightly to each other until the explosions began to grow softer and more distant. As they climbed unsteadily to their hooves, all the ponies who had been down below came racing out into the igloo in a panic.

Shining just looked at the assembling ponies, and with a thought, formed a much larger bubble around the entire group.
“Come on, girls, I'm going to need your help for this.”

The wide eyed unicorns shared an unsteady glance, then lit their horns to link up, and with a 'Pop!', the entire group teleported outside, onto the edge of the mountain meadow overlooking the valley below. There was a collective intake of breath as they all took in the burning hellscape around them.

Where, only moments before, the land had been frozen and dark, the only light under the clouds coming from their own horns or lanterns, now, the very land was burning. The static spark that had ignited the wood dust cloud had started a conflagration that was already spreading out to the edge of their vision, many kilometers distant, and the huge booms of entire mountain forests igniting at once were clearly audible even at this distance. The harsh red light of their immediate surroundings now came mainly from the towering infernos in the valley floor. The oxygen rain had been falling long enough to run down the hillsides and form deep pools and streams on top of the frozen ice of the original mountain streams. While the explosions of dust and small wood scraps had been incredible, most of the flammable wood chunks had finished tumbling down the mountain side where they came to rest, smoldering, in the pools of liquid oxygen. The resulting fire now towered into the sky, higher than the mountain they stood on, and only their combined shield held back the intense heat that was scorching everything around them sending up clouds of water steam. The harsh red light coming off the fires along the valley floor was punctuated now and again by a fresh white flash and loud rolling 'Boom!” from somewhere off in the distance.

They all stared out in silence for some time, but within minutes the fires began to shrink and the icy wind return as the modest amount of water melted by the fire began to fall again as snow. At length, as the darkness began to return once more, a despondent Flare asked,
“So is that it? Is there any reason to hope anymore?”

Steady shook his head in shock,
“Nothing could have survived that. The only reason we're still here is that igloo and the kilometer of bare rock between us and the nearest scrap of wood.”

The group slowly turned inward to look at Spec, who was pulling a notebook out of her saddlebags.
“I won't be silent about this twice! I still have the temperature recorders back home in the unicorn kingdom, and they're still working. It's cold back there, and getting colder, but it's nowhere near this cold!”

“But... that's not possible...” Pie stated in confusion, “There are limits on how large a temperature difference there can be across a distance like this!” She grabbed the notebook in her magic and compared the local temperatures with those back home. “This isn't possible! If there was really a difference this big, we'd have a huge hurricane on our hooves as the cold and warm air tried to mix and even this out. There must be something wrong with your recorders!”

Spec whipped around to face her.
“With all three hundred and twenty six of them?! No. The data doesn't lie.”

Verdant stamped a hoof in frustration as the mix of snow and ash began to fall more heavily around them.
“But then how?! The only way that could be true is if...”

The unicorns had all gone silent as a far away look washed over them leaving the pegasi confused and worried.
“What? If what?” Sand asked worriedly.

“If something was affecting the weather, preventing the normal exchange of warm and cold air...” Shining said slowly. The pegasi suddenly found all eyes on them as she asked. “Have you noticed anything... odd about the weather lately?”

Sand raised an eyebrow as he asked,
“You mean besides the ball freezing cold?”

Spec had caught on as well now, and she prodded Flare gently.
“Yes, beyond that. Flare, which way has the wind been blowing the last few weeks?”

There was a pause as she thought about it, then,
“From the north I guess. It's been blowing almost due north ever since we started this trip...”

“Well, in a fire like this, it'll be blowing in every direction.” Flare stated matter-of-factly. “The updrafts and currents are always chaotic, that's what makes forest fires so difficult to handle.”

There was a long pause as they all took another look at their surroundings. Now that they looked, every wisp of flame, every trail of smoke, all of it was drifting up, but also southwards, always southwards. Suspicion was building on her face as Shining held out a hoof.
“Somepony give me a feather.”

There was an awkward shuffling, but Steady plucked a modest wing feather from his wing with a wince and passed it across to her. The air inside their shield bubble was still, shielded from the winds and fire outside, and holding the feather high aloft in her magic, Shining let it go and watched as it drifted slowly back to earth.

There was a long silence as they all stared at the small feather laying on the ground, but at length, Shining spoke,
“We've had it wrong this whole time... This is no natural dust cloud...”

Even Squall looked startled as he figured it out.
“But it must be! How in the world could this be-”

“Artificial?!” Shining almost shouted. “I don't know, but look at the evidence: The temperature has been falling for months, maybe years without obvious cause. The sky is blocked out overhead, and the further north we go, the worse it gets. When we finally stop here, it gets even colder, and now we know that some kind of magic is driving the wind ever southwards, making this intense cold possible in the first place.”

Spec and Flare shared a worried glance,
“But, who would want to freeze the entire world? Nothing can live in this extreme cold!”

Shining thought about it, then pointed a hoof north, over the dieing fire in the valley.
“I don't know, but I have a feeling if we follow this 'wind' north to it's source we'll soon find out.”

All of them strained to see anything in the direction she pointed, but nothing was visible save fire and darkness. After a long moment steady broke the silence,
“Then it looks like we have a different destination once the sun is repaired, but at the moment, we still have other problems. Shining, is there any reason to think it's going to get warmer now?”

“No. We've just burned every scrap of firewood for kilometers, and you can already see the snow returning.”

“Then we have work to do, don't we? You said it yourself; if it continues to get colder, it's only a matter of time before all the oxygen rains out of the air, and when that happens, we're going to be in bad shape if we don't save some of it now.”

This seemed to bring them all back to the present, and, turning their backs to the dying flames in the valley, Steady and Shining quickly doled out the work. With three unicorns providing the bubble shields, the team was soon put to work diverting every drop of the oxygen rain into the pools and low places in the former meadow atop the mountain. In a short time the igloo was permanently sealed up to trap their air inside, and soon the pegasi were at work sealing off the tunnels below.

Outside, Pie and Spec dug rapidly with their magic to divert the increasing rain into a basin as Shining carved out huge ice blocks and set them in a ring, trying to turn the entire meadow into a lake. Fortunately, the meadow already had a mild depression in the center, and with a few dozen blocks in a couple of low spots, the stage was soon set for a mountaintop lake.

As the last of them teleported back into the igloo, Verdant was still at work growing the hollow tubes that would deliver the liquid where they needed it. The pegasi army's wealth of combat supplies had not included cryogenic valves and piping accessories, so as long as they stayed on site, Verdant was now the only pony who could operate the stone plumbing and keep them all breathing, a fact they were keenly aware of.

“I think we're done outside.” Spec breathed heavily as Flare swooped in to steady her, “Any rain that falls out there now will stay on the mountain top.”

Verdant paused in her work and opened her eyes.
“Good, now we've got a fighting chance. I've got the first two pipes grown, but I've a question to ask, and none of the others know: do I draw from the top or the bottom?”

Pie looked confused for a moment before Shining clarified.
“Ah, she has a point. Oxygen begins to rain out at one hundred eighty three degrees below zero C, but argon is going to follow when it gets to one hundred eighty six below. Argon is less than one percent of the atmosphere, so it doesn't really matter, but nitrogen starts raining at one hundred ninety six below, so in another thirteen degrees, we'll have both oxygen and nitrogen in the ponds we just built.”

Steady had been working very hard to keep up over the last few weeks, even reading some of Shining's books that might help out, and now he spoke up proudly as it all clicked into place.
“And when that happens, Verdant needs to know which will float to the top! Hold on, I've got this!” He called as he pulled out one of her chemistry texts and began skimming through. “Ah, here we go! Liquid nitrogen has a specific gravity of point eight, while liquid oxygen is one point one.”

“What? Shining's been tutoring me on this: The specific gravity of water is one, so anything greater than one is going to sink, and anything less than one is going to float on water. Given that nitrogen is point eight and oxygen is one point one, the oxygen will sink to the bottom of the pools, and you can tap into them at the bottom.” He finished with a gesture to Verdant.

Shining had been listening with growing interest, and now as Steady finished, she stalked over with a wicked grin.
“You... You've been practicing...”

With a lunge she knocked him over and snogged him as the others smiled or groaned.

“Not again.” Spec lamented. Flare arched an eyebrow back at her partner and kissed her as well.
Spec's squicked-out look gradually gave way to a dreamy gobsmacked expression as Flare finally came up for air.
“You're done out there, right?”

Without another word, the white orange pegasus scooped up her partner and flew off for the cave mouth while the other couples quietly left as well, secure in the knowledge that they were safe with each other.

The Brightest Shine

by Cozy Mark IV

Ch. 9 Community