//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Wingless 
// by Ryonne 
//------------------------------//


CHAPTER 3


        A flutter of snowflakes caught onto Rainbow Dash's nose. She looked down at them, crossing her eyes to get a better view. Sighing, she shook her snout quickly, flinging the ice to the ground, and began to trudge through the deep snow. The heavy coat's soft wool and overly large size was an excellent defense against the bitter cold hanging in the air. At this, Rainbow smiled as she stepped through the snow. Across the clearing, Wintry was tapping her hoof expectantly as she stared deep into its multitude of trees.
        The conifers extended to kiss the sky, jutting out from the horizon as skyscrapers would in Manehattan. Bits of snow hung on their long branches, which dipped from the weight into the bushy undergrowth. Above, mighty mountains punctured the skyline, with their snow-capped tips touching the clouds and their deep valleys extending ground level. All over, small ponds littered the countryside, and lengthy rivers trickled down the tall hills. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened. She suppressed a gasp of surprise as she stood in an amazed stupor.
        "Wow, Wintry," she said, shifting her gaze to the waiting unicorn, "this is awesome!"
        "I know," replied her friend, somewhat dreamily. "This has been my world my entire life. It's why I stay on the constant move: so that I can renew its beauty with every new home." She shifted around, and slipped off of a tree stump she had been resting on. "Anyway, we need to get moving. It's best to catch 'em by surprise. They'll move on if we're too late. Oh, please let them be there."
        Rainbow Dash nodded in reply. After a second of staring at the forest, Wintry began to walk, stepping directly into the bush. Almost instinctually, Dash moved to jump into the air, but quickly found that her wings were suppressed. A wave of fear washing over her, she peeked backwards, only to see her coat fastened tightly around her body. Her muscles relaxing, she let go a sigh of relief.
        "Oh, yeah, that," she commented to nopony in particular. Raising her voice, she continued, "Well, that's kind of dumb, isn't it?"
        Wintry halted and turned round. "Just keep with it, Dash," she replied, shifting her gaze forward and continuing on. "Though it may seem inconvenient, it's only to keep the cold out. Come on."
        Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and nodded. After joining Wintry in the underbrush and narrowing her eyes in an excited expression, the two walked on for a while, neither one specifically speaking to the other. The only sound was the faint calls of the birds that echoed through the trees as the two ponies crushed sticks beneath their hooves. After a long period of walking, the mighty trees gave way to a wide clearing. As the clouds began to part, the sun shone on a single cracked sign at the field's edge. Dash drew closer and locked her gaze on a few familiar words.
        "Welcome to Ponyville."
        Something within Dash's mind a memory stirred. She recognized this sign. Somewhere, in the vague recesses of her mind, she could remember seeing it before. Stepping to the side, she peered around its edge.
        Despite the wool of the coat, a cold sensation washed over Rainbow Dash as she stared at a single house, half of it reduced to rubble. As she walked into the town, her gaze passed over several more houses. A few of the buildings had rotted away, leaving only a few floorboards and support beams still standing. Others had frozen over, barring all access to their contents, and perhaps, Dash thought as another chill ran down her spine, their residents. She shook the feeling off as she continued on her path. Meanwhile, Wintry had produced a large crowbar and was banging it on one of the rotting doors.
        "Wintry, what're you doing?" Dash called out as she cantered over to the unicorn.
        "Come on, open up!" she yelled, ignoring the mare. "Open up, you idiots!" As she spoke, her assault against the door grew stronger, until she was putting leaning fully into it, pausing at intervals to catch her breath. Finally, the door gave way and the unicorn crashed through the hole. Dash followed, jumping through and offering a hoof to help Wintry up. She rose shakily to her feet and returned the crowbar to a small leather holster on her back. "Well," she said, "they certainly aren't stubborn."
        The interior of the building looked almost no different than its exterior. With every step Dash took across the rotting floorboards, a cloud of dust flew into the musty smelling air. A few areas of the house had frozen over completely, and coverings of snow had collected near many of the broken windows which shed the only source of light in the dark house. A strange silence hung about the room. Dash crossed the floor and met Wintry, who was standing in a small corner next to a lump of trembling covers against a wall. She was lightly tapping the lump with her crowbar.
        "Wintry, what're you--"
        "Sh!" The unicorn turned round abruptly, raising her weapon to her lips. After a moment of staring into Dash's eyes, she looked back at the covers, holstering her bar.
        "Alright, alright, don't hide!" the unicorn said reassuringly, "I'm good. It's Wintry, remember? Remember Wintry?"
        With a sudden shift of the large, furry mass, the covers slipped off. A single, nervous, glowing eye peeked out of the shade, followed by another. Soon, an entire pony slipped out of the covers, brushing itself off as it studied Wintry. It turned from her to Dash, and stopped cold.        Another moment and it was rushing towards the door, away from the newcomer. In a flash, Wintry was at the door, blocking its escape.
        "It's good!" the surprised unicorn said, "It's good! Calm now. She's a friend. No need to worry! Just calm down, alright?" The peculiar gray pony gave a short whimper in response. It was at this time that Dash caught a good view of the newcomer. It was completely gray, from head to hoof, with a matching mane. Directly under its mouth was a large seal, covered completely in stitches, which seemed to act as its mouth. Two glowing white eyes punctuated its face, and its flank was completely barren, though it appeared to be a fully grown mare. The pony shuffled around nervously as Dash studied her.
        Rainbow Dash turned to Wintry, whose eyes were still locked on the pony. "Who's that?"
        "That," Wintry answered, "is a native of this land. I've never been able to fully understand them, but they're quite friendly. They populate these small ruins. While they don't exactly live sanitarily, sleeping here's definitely safer than the woods, so I can't judge them. Terribly frightened of strangers." Wintry walked over and patted it on the back. "This is Dash. She's nice."
        The mare nodded and looked over at the pegasus.
        "You had anything to eat today?"
        Another nod.
        "It's the problem with these things," the unicorn sighed, turning to Dash. "Totally mute. You can't get any words out of 'em. Still understand you, though. And very loyal." Wintry turned to the door and motioned to both ponies. "Come on, guys, we need to get out of here." Nodding, Rainbow Dash followed suit. The native, who had been watching the pegasus intently, mimicked the nod and followed Dash's path.
        As the group walked out into the town, Rainbow allowed her gaze to wander about the environment. Her eyes locked on a long, tall building and she cocked her head. Something was familiar about it, but she couldn't quite put a hoof on exactly what. As she grew closer, her vision became hazy. She tried to focus her eyes as she studied a sign at the building's doorway.
        "Sugarcube Corner"

        ~~~

        Dash found herself sitting in a small room, which was covered from top to bottom in a cloudy haze. Before her was a table, but nothing beyond there was visible. As she squinted, she could just make out the darkened silhouettes of five other ponies beyond the fog. Now, as she listened closely, she could hear them too! She could faintly pick up giggling, and the ponies chatting amongst each other. As she took a deep breath in, she could smell the scent of sweets, and something baking in the other room.
        As she sat there, her mind completely boggled by the sudden occurrence, she could just make out a voice calling to her from somewhere in the distance. "Rainbow..." She looked around, and turned left. Directly beside her was a completely pink pony, a wide smile painted across her face. As she stared into her deep blue eyes, three words echoed through her mind.
        "An earth pony."
        The words made her muscles relax. They were pleasant to hear, and caused a pang of nostalgia to cross her mind. However, the clouds began to circle, and soon her entire world was swirling violently, the fog encircling her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut. Through the darkness, two eyes peeked through.

        ~~~

        Indeed, both Wintry and the native were staring at her. The faint voice of the unicorn spoke, as if muffled, into her mind, and she began to come back to her senses.
        "Dash? Dash? Are you okay?"
        Rainbow found herself on the ground, turned over on her back. Her eyes shot open, and she frantically waved her hooves around, trying to find a comfortable position to stand. She could hear Wintry let loose a giggle. Quickly, the pegasus stood and shot the mare a piercing glare. This only elicited another giggle before she turned away. The native looked on ever so curiously. Sighing, Dash stood upright and walked over to the unicorn, holding back the urge to clobber her in the forehead.
        "Don't you dare laugh at me, you--" Dash paused mid-sentence. Wintry had her eyes trained on the tree line. She wasn't even paying the smallest sliver of attention the mare. "Wintry, what's wrong?"
        "I hope we don't have to find out," she answered, her eyes still trained on the edge of the forest. Turning, she looked down briefly, then up once more. "We'd better get going. It isn't wise to hang around here when night falls."
        "Why's that?"
        All of a sudden, the sound of a stick cracking echoed across the field. Rainbow stopped, and turned to face the forest. There, in the pitch black shade beneath the leaves, peeked out a few pairs of gleaming yellow eyes, unblinking. As the three ponies looked on, a few of them stepped forward into the dying light of day. At first glance, Dash assumed them to be average natives. They had the same blank flanks, eyes, and even stitched over mouths. However, as she squinted against the setting sun, she could make out a few differences. Their coats were absolutely black, and their manes were all a dark shade of purple. As they gathered into groups, the pegasus turned to Wintry.
        "What in Equestria are those things?" Dash questioned, staring on at the still, silent group, who were all staring at the trio of ponies.
        "They're the hostile natives, known as the ‘Nasties’ in friendly native terminology. They--"
        Before Wintry could finish her sentence, the entire group broke into a charge. Beside the two, the friendly native's eyes curled into two small, glaring dots. Suddenly, he began to charge at the Nasties himself. However, the second the two met in the middle of the field, he was instantly knocked aside as the group advanced, heading straight for the unicorn and pegasus. With a loud grating sound, Wintry drew her crowbar, holding it in the air beside her face.
        "Dash! Take this!" Wintry shouted, throwing a large stick in her direction. The pegasus caught it with her mouth midair, and instantly turned to see the a Nasty only five feet away. Then, both sides sprang into action.
        Rainbow Dash swung her stick at one of the Nasties’ heads, and it connected with a sickening crack. The pony fell to the ground, its legs sprawling across the floor as it let out a faint moan. Swiveling around on her hoof, she found herself face to face with another. This one had opened its wide mouth, revealing rows of shimmering, sharp teeth. Dash, her mouth hanging open, desperately attempted to shift away as the pony jumped her. Feeling a stab of searing pain, she looked down to see the pony's mouth latched on to one of her legs, blood trickling down its chin. Dash acted quickly, throwing the pony off and hitting it with the now heavily-damaged stick.
        "Dash, help!" Dash turned to notice Wintry, who was desperately swinging her crowbar at a group of oncoming Nasties. However, she was too far away to reach her on hoof. With her wings restrained, there was no way she could reach her quickly enough. Unless…
        Dash quickly stripped off her coat and spread her wings. In a flash, she was over to Wintry, biting the back of one of the Nasties. As she flapped her wings as hard as she could, she began to lift the pony off the ground. The monster kicking around under her, she flew into the sky, directly over the forest. Then, in one single action, she threw him through the air, watching as he dropped toward the trees. Turning, she repeated the action with another. When she saw that Wintry was doing fine with her battle, she quickly swooped down and assisted her.
        There were two Nasties left. Rushing into the center of battle, Dash turned round and bucked one of them directly in the face, turning to see it fall to the ground. Swiveling to face her rear once more, she caught sight of Wintry. The unicorn was levitating a large, limp object before her, swinging it around as an ensuing Nasty lunged at her. Around the object, she was defensively swinging her crowbar, trying to land whatever hits she could. As Dash turned to approach her friend, she got a better view of what exactly Wintry was using to defend herself. Now, she could see that it was large, and gray. As her gaze ran up the supposed shield, she caught sight of something that made her mouth drop open.
        The two dim yellow lights of the native's eyes.
        She acted quickly. Breaking into a gallop, she charged Wintry, quickly turning round and bucking the helpless Native out of harm's way. In doing so, she opened herself to the wide attack of a Nasty, who quickly jumped forward to take a large bite out of Dash's leg. She cringed, but stayed put, keeping herself between the monster and her own friend. Then, with the swift kick of her foreleg, she brought the pony to the floor.
        Both ponies turned to stare at the last Nasty, who had left himself completely open in the middle of the field. He looked left and right, and then, calculating his odds and deciding they weren't exactly in his favor, quickly twirled around and galloped into the forest. Dash spread her wings and prepared to give chase, but Wintry quickly stuck out a hoof, preventing her from moving forward.
        "It's not worth it; let him run."
        Rainbow sighed and retracted her wings.
        "Alright," said Wintry, shifting around on her hooves, "that was close. Too close. We'd better get going. Now."
        "Hold on a second," Dash said. She turned and stared at the fallen native, who was spread out across the floor, breathing heavily. His body was covered in scrapes and gashes, and a few deep bite marks decorated his neck. Beside him, a scene of carnage stretched out. The bodies of Nasties were sprawled across the ground, some giving forth labored breaths, but others totally still. A multitude of feelings were rushing through Dash's head; some were of a deep sense of horror, and others of awe. Besides in storybooks, she had never seriously seen death. This was the first time she had taken another creature's life. It was oddly exhilarating.
        However, her eyes narrowed as they fell on the body of the Native once more. She crossed the field and placed a hoof on his coat, attempting to shake him awake. After a few small, easy nudges, one of his eyes opened, only to close once more. His breath was coming out with much difficulty. It sent a shiver down Dash's spine. Turning, she locked eyes with Wintry, who had followed the pegasus.
        "Wintry--I--How could you--Why did you throw that native in front of you back in the fight?"
        Wintry raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
        "You used somepony who you called a friend as a pony shield." Dash's words were half sputtered out, and her two eyes were burning with a fiery light.
        "It's only a native." Wintry's expression was grim, but more or less blank. "Their main purpose in life is to protect their tribe. If they die doing so, they'll have achieved their greatest goal. There really isn't too much to say besides 'I'm sorry.' Just leave him, and we'll move on."
        "I--" Dash coughed, and stamped a hoof on the ground. "No! You can't just…" Dash dropped to the ground, and put a hoof on the native's body. "He's still breathing, and his heart rate's fine. I think. If we can get him back to the shelter, we can fix him up. We can't just let him die here."
        Wintry rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Alright. If you want to save him, you can." She turned around and began to walk through the snow, back towards the forest. Dash, biting onto one of the native's hooves, began to drag him across the ground, taking glances behind as she did so. The white unicorn walked close ahead. Her head was turned towards the forest, and her visage was decorated with a look of contemplation. As she walked, she clicked her tongue slightly. Finally, she spoke, peircing the silence that had formed between the two.
        "Dash. Frankly, I'm quite surprised. I had no idea you were that sensitive to this type of thing. I mean, this is nature." Rainbow remained completely silent. Hearing no response, the unicorn's ears pricked up, and she turned around, frowning.
        
        "You really have to learn to sacrifice a few lives if you want to get by in this day and age."