THE YEAR WITHOUT SAPPHIRE
PART 2
"Wait, you mean that the unicorn was actually a member of the dark horn?!" Sapphire exclaimed in such shock that she made the mistake of making one fatal move in their twentieth game of checkers.
"I said that like five minutes ago!" Snowbreeze retorted with a mildly annoyed look until a wicked smirk appeared on her face, moved her checker piece and gave a loud cheer. "Yeah! I win! In your face, Sapphire!" Snowbreeze exclaimed as she hovered over the bed now and put her hooves to together and began to gesture as if she was being hailed by a large crowd of ponies.
"Oh sure, like after the twentieth game and only because I was so shocked by what you said that I messed up." Sapphire countered with a mildly annoyed smirk.
"Hey, no need to get all sore after you lost. I'm just that awesome." She boasted egotistically as she landed back onto the bed with a light plop.
Upon hearing this, Sapphire raised her left eyebrow with a mock curiosity expression. "Oh really? Wanna prove that you're 'that awesome' again?" She asked with a smirk.
It was then that Snowbreeze looked to the clock and suddenly gave a loud yawn. "Nah, I'm beat. Lets call it a night." she replied as she hopped off the bed and over to the chair.
"You got that right, nineteen times." Sapphire remarked with a cheesy grin.
"Oh sure, rub it in why don't you?" Snowbreeze retorted with an annoyed expression as she rolled her eyes.
"Hey, what about the rest of what happened while I was out? You aren't done where you? it was just getting good." The Alicorn remarked aloud curiously.
"Nah but I'm really sleepy. Time flew by almost as fast as me." Snowbreeze remarked aloud followed by another loud yawn.
"You really are Rainbow Dash's ancestor." Sapphire remarked aloud with a smirk, scooted herself back, and laid her head down onto the pillow.
A few short minutes past and though Sapphire had suddenly realized just how tired she was, she kept looking over at her friend who was uncomfortably trying to find a position to fall a sleep in on her chair. "Ya know, this bed is big enough for two." Sapphire remarked aloud which caused Snowbreeze to snap one eye open, then two and look at her.
"Uh, I'll pass." Snowbreeze remarked uneasily as she once again attempted to find a comfortable spot to fall asleep in.
"Come on, Snowbreeze. You obviously can't fall asleep easily in that wooden chair. Besides, this bed is really comfortable." She attempted to insist.
Once again, the Pegasus's eyes popped open as she looked at Sapphire while she scooted over. There was obviously enough room for the two of them. "No thanks, I'd rather not let ponies get the wrong idea about us." She replied in the same uneasy tone as she closed her eyes once more and faked snoring.
"Oh, for the love of Luna, Snowbreeze." Sapphire remarked aloud with an annoyed eyeroll at her friend's obvious display of homophobic paranoia. "Fine. Sleep in that thing. I'm sure you're the most comfortable Pegasus in the world." She added and sighed. "If you change your mind, I'll stay on this side of the bed." She finished as she closed her own eyes and quickly fell fast asleep.
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"Um, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" A voice said aloud which caused Sapphire to flutter her eyes open drowsily and realized she was facing Snowbreeze in her bed.
The Alicorn sat straight up in such an abrupt fashion that she had stirred the Pegasus who was sleeping soundly up until this point. "N-No! It's not like that at all! She was just having a hard time sleeping and I offered to let her sleep next to me, that's all!" Sapphire exclaimed to Dr. Doodle in a fast paced tone as her face burned scarlet.
It was then the comical occurred as Snowbreeze became aware of the precarious situation she was in. As if the Pegasus had been struck in the rump by lightning, she seemed to eject off the bed only to land on her head as she hit the floor. "Yee-ouch!" She exclaimed as the lower half of her body slumped to the side and hit the floor with a soft plop and moments after and clumsily stood to all fours. The Pegasus's face was just as red as Sapphire's if not more so.
"Alright, Alright. No need to get paranoid around me." He replied with a light chuckle. The donkey never honestly thought anything was going on between the two but couldn't resist the urge to play this innocent joke on the them and much to his delight, they reacted almost exactly as he had hoped.
"Anyways, your labs came back and we noticed a small fluctuation in them but its nothing to be worried about I'm sure." He said as he resumed his professional attitude towards the Alicorn.
"How small are we talking?" Sapphire asked worriedly.
"It's nothing to worry about. It was so small that the lab team missed it on the first pass of the test but it came up on the second." Dr. Doodle replied casually.
"Okay…" Sapphire replied uneasily. She wasn't sure if he was trying to sugarcoat something much more serious or not but she trusted his judgement.
"Well, I have other patents to attend to so I'll leave you two alone." He said after a brief silence and as if to get another inner laugh, winked at the two before he left.
"Oh, great! Now the doc thinks we're lovers or something!" Snowbreeze exclaimed aloud angrily.
"Oh come on, Snowbreeze. He was obviously just joking around." Sapphire replied as she rolled her eyes at the Pegasus.
"And if he wasn't?" Snowbreeze asked, still not convinced.
"We'll calmly explain it again to him, that's all." Sapphire replied casually though she was getting rather peeved at her friend's homophobic behavior.
"Oh yeah, like that's going to work!" Snowbreeze retorted bitterly.
"Would you cut it the buck out?! He was joking! Dear Luna, Snowbreeze. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had something against ponies who were attracted to their own gender." The Alicorn remarked irritably at her friend.
"N-Nah! I don't have any problem with them at all!" She exclaimed defensively. "I just don't want anypony to think that I've jumped to that side of the fence is all." She added though her voice was little more than a mutter as she said this. Sapphire however, understood every word.
"Whatever." She said aloud before she blew her mane to the side. "Gotta think about getting this thing trimmed." She remarked aloud in an attempt to change the subject.
"If you want." Snowbreeze remarked before she let out a sigh.
"What? Do you like it like this or something?" Sapphire asked curiously.
"Sorta, yeah." She said until her eyes widened in a mild paranoid fashion. "N-Not that I mean anything by that!" She exclaimed defensively.
"Ugh, just cut it out, will you? Seriously, you're so homophobic that I'd swear your face would be right next to the definition in the Equestrian dictionary!" Sapphire said before she blew her mane to the side once more.
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The two young mares now at in the hospital cafeteria as Snowbreeze scarfed down plate after plate. "Just because they are giving us this food free of charge doesn't mean you can empty their food supply." Sapphire remarked with an annoyed stare at her friend who stopped stuffing her face upon hearing this, swallowed down what she had currently in her mouth, and laughed nervously at the Alicorn.
"So, care to continue telling me what happened while I was out?" Sapphire asked curiously.
"Oh, right! Now where was I? Oh yeah!" She said as she began to continue where she left off.
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"No Fairweather… my father didn't kill them." He replied as a malicious yet seemingly psychotic grin appeared on his face. "I did!" He exclaimed which was met with shocked gasps by everypony in the hospital room while Fairweather dodged yet another blast of magic though this one had managed to scratch the Pegasus's right hind leg and while not a direct hit, still caused the Pegasus to cry out and fall to her underside for a moment before she opened her wings and began to hover in place.
In the next moment, Fairweather launched herself into Horus, knocking the two through the window and into the city streets. "How could you serve such low-life creeps! Everypony in this city respected you! They viewed you as the son to the savior of this city! How could you betray them?!" She roared at the unicorn as his horn began to glow once more.
"Like these low-life simpletons mean anything to me. The order serves a higher cause, Fairweather! These ponies are insignificant to the new world we have planned for them! " Horus exclaimed before he shot a beam of magic at the Pegasus who dodged it only for the spell to suddenly pull a u-turn and hit her squarely in the back.
Fairweather hit the ground as she cried out in agony while Horus approached her. "Let me let you in on a little secret." He said as he walked up to her and whispered the following into her ear: Once we have all the elements of harmony in our possession, no pony will be able resist us, not even your legendary Alicorn!" He exclaimed with a devious grin as he channeled magic into his horn as he held her up, preparing to strike the final blow.
Suddenly the unicorn was suddenly knocked away from Fairweather by a blast of magic which allowed the Pegasus to hit the ground limply with a thud. "Who dares?!" Horus roared aloud only to suddenly notice a very large crowd of Pegasi, unicorns, and earth pony's glaring daggers at him. It was in fact the same crowd that hadn't left the front of the hospital since he himself had silenced them.
Horus looked about himself in shock until it dawned on him what Fairweather had done. "Y-You tricked me?!" He roared as the weakened Pegasus stood up, grinning ear to ear at him.
"What's wrong, Horus? Get caught in the heat of the moment?" She jeered knowingly before she turned to the crowd. "You see this unicorn? He's the one responsible for the terror you all had to endure today!" She shouted out to the crowd which was met with gasps and angered cries.
"It was the Alicorn who saved you all! She lays in there at this very moment, fighting for her life that she nearly sacrificed for all of you!" Fairweather continued as she pointed a hoof to the hospital room. "Are you going to allow this unicorn to harm her?!" She called out to the crowd.
It was then that several more beams of magic short forth at the unicorn who was quick to dodge the shots. Quickly realizing he was outnumbered fifty to one, he glared at the Pegasus. "You will rue this day, Fairweather! I swear it!" He roared as he channeled magic into his horn and disappeared in a flash of magic.
"Wow, what a meanie-pants." Pinkie Pie remarked aloud as she stared through the shattered window once the unicorn had disappeared.
"You said, Pinkie." Snowbreeze replied in a whisper so no pony heard her.
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Ponies once again gathered in town square but this time for a different reason as Fairweather, Bluesteel, Snowbreeze, and Dr. Doodle.
(Play "Louder than Words" now!)
"I stand before you, not as the daughter to the savior of this city, not as a Pegasus, but as a fellow mare who loves this city as much as you do!" Fairweather exclaimed as she began her speech but stopped for a moment before continuing. "Some of you may have heard that we have an filly in Manehatten hospital who has the features of a Pegasus and Unicorn…" She continued but stopped once more briefly before she continued. "I am here to tell you that those rumors are true!" She exclaimed which caused the ponies in the crowd to begin muttering aloud amongst themselves.
"This filly, this Alicorn, is the true savior of this town! Not my parents nor Bluesteel's!" She began once again which caused the crowd to mutter much more loudly this time. "It is time we told you all the dark secret behind our city's survival! We will not harbor any ill feelings towards you if you wish to slur us, insult us, or even wish us harm! Our only request is that you hear us out completely before you begin!" She exclaimed but paused again to allow the crowd to take this statement in before she continued. "Since the end of the three hundred year war, you all know how our city rose from the ashes of nearly nothing and struggled to hold itself up in the beginning only to suddenly flourish a short time later. This is because our parents allowed themselves selves to give into our weakness and let a dark organization take hold of our city! That organization is known as The Order Of The Dark Horn!" She exclaimed aloud and paused again which was met with loud horrified gasps by some and confused mutterings amongst most of the crowd.
"I am ashamed of my parents…" Fairweather continued as she hung her head low before the crowd for a long pause before she flung her head up and looked to the crowd again with a sense of pride. "The Dark Horn thinks they can just trot back into our city and regain control over it just as they did to my mother and father, using clever words and threats to sway them into submission!"
"But I am here today to tell you that I am not my mother or father! I will not bow down to terrorists! I will not bow down to thugs! And I sure as buck will not bow down to the order of the dark horn!" Fairweather exclaimed before she pointed a hoof towards the direction the hospital is in.. "They come, even now, to take the life of the true savior of our city! The Alicorn named Sapphire!" She continued only to pause yet again. "A filly who is barely old enough to be on her own and yet she has done what we could not, have not done for the past thirty years! She drove them out, freed us from their dark grip!" she continued only to stop and allowed the crowd to take this in before she continued. "I will not ask you to protect her, I will not ask you to fight for her, but I will ask you to fight for this city, for our freedom!" She finished which was met with a chorus of cheers much to her delight.
Once the cheers died down, she began to speak again. "The Order Of The Dark Horn thinks that our city can not thrive without them. They think that we fight amongst each other so much." She said and paused for a brief moment before she continued to speak once more. "I look to each one of us and I am ashamed to admit that they are right!" She exclaimed which was once again met with mutterings amongst the crowd. "However! We can change our city's fate! Do you wish to know how?!" She asked the crowd as she pointed her hoof around to each mare, stallion, and foal. "It starts, with each one of you! That's right! Only you can change our city's fate but you must make the choice, not me! I can not force you to look to your fellow earth pony, unicorn, or Pegasus and treat them with the same dignity and respect you treat your own race! Just know this: If we continue down the dark road our city had been traveling upon for the last thirty years, we will prove the dark horn right! Now tell me, do you want to prove them right? Or do you want to prove them wrong?!" She exclaimed once more which was met with cheers again.
Fairweather stepped down from the stage as the cheers continued to ring out with a proud smile on her face. "Wow, nice speach!" Snowbreeze remarked with a big smile at the mare.
"Thanks but its not over yet." She said as she walked behind Snowbreeze and began to shove her on stage.
"H-Hey! What are you doing?!" The Pegasus exclaimed in a panic only to suddenly realize the entire city's eyes were now on her.
Snowbreeze's entire body frozen as the poor Pegasus suddenly found herself frozen in stage fright. "Psst! Say something!" A familiar voice exclaimed in a hushed whisper which caused the snow white mare to look to her left to see Pinkie Pie on stage with her.
"Uh… Hello?" Was all the pegasus could utter out to which Pinkie Pie slammed her hoof against her face and groaned aloud.
"Follow my lead!" She whispered then turned to look at everypony. "Hi, everypony! How are you all doing?!" She exclaimed to the crowd despite none of them could see or hear her.
"Pinkie you Lead-erm, you idiot! They can't see or hear you!" Snowbreeze hissed only to gawk at the crowd who began to give her strange looks. For a moment, the Pegasus realized she had just stopped herself from flinging her most common racial slur to the pink pony but she had bigger problems at the present time than to figure out why she had stopped herself, she was on stage in the view of possibly hundreds of ponies.
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"Wait, you actually stopped herself from flinging a racist remark at her, even though she was getting on your last nerve? I don't believe it." Sapphire joked aloud with a grin upon her face though Snowbreeze seemed to take offense to the joke.
"Hey! I'm not the same mare I was a year ago, okay? I've changed for the better." she retorted bitterly.
"Right, you went from racist to homophobic." Sapphire joked once again.
"You know, you can be a real jerk at times." Snowbreeze remarked aloud with a glare at her friend, stood up, and walked away from the table.
Sapphire blinked twice in mild shock from what had just occurred. "She knew I was joking, right?" Sapphire remarked to herself as she stood up and followed her friend towards the cafeteria doors. "Hey, Hey, Hey! You know I was only kidding around right?" Sapphire asked, her ears folded back in with a guilty expression on her face.
Snowbreeze went to reach for the cafeteria doors, stopped, and sighed before she looked back at her. "You know, Sapphire. I've grown up a lot while you've been out. I'm not the same filly you knew a year ago." She said before she pushed the doors open and walked through them.
Sapphire was quick to catch up to her friend as she trotted along side her, taking note of a fact she hadn't really noticed until now, she was walking. "Say, I noticed you're walking. I thought you hated walking?" She remarked curiously.
"I'm not as strong a flier as I used to be, that's another thing that changed." She exclaimed with a mild sadness in her voice as she spoke.
"Wait, I feel like I'm missing something here. What happened?" Sapphire asked curiously as she quickly trotted in front of the Pegasus and stopped her. "You can still fly, can't you?" She asked worriedly.
Snowbreeze looked to her friend, a sense of shame overcoming her. "Yeah but not nearly as well as before. Turns out that fall we took did a lot more damage than I thought." She answered depressingly before she walked past her only to stop. "I can only fly for like twelve hours straight now at days before my wings start to hurt like somepony took a iron mallet to them."
"But you can still fly though! That's at least something right?" Sapphire said encouragingly to the Pegasus as she walked next to her.
"That's not the point, Sapphire!" Snowbreeze snapped only to fold her ears back guilty before she sighed aloud. "Look, we Pegasi take pride in our ability to fly faster than anypony could hope to run in Equestria. It was a pride I was raised with. I can't even go faster than an earth pony athlete these days without my wings starting to hurt like nothing funny." She added and sighed aloud once more. "I mean, yeah. It helped humble me down a lot and sorta helped me curb my racist attitude towards other ponies but my pride has been dealt a blow, Sapphire. A blow that it will never recover from." She added as the two made their way back into Sapphire's hospital room.
"I understand. I guess I can relate in a way since I was raised as an earth pony by my parents. When Rarity said I didn't know anything about being an earth pony, it really ticked me off but she had a point." Sapphire remarked aloud as she sat on her bed with Snowbreeze on the other end.
"And what's your point?" The Pegasus asked bitterly.
"My point?' Sapphire asked in confusion at first until she realized that her friend expected her to follow up with something inspirational. "My point is…" She trailed off until the words finally came to her. "It doesn't matter how we are raised. Sure we all are raised with a pride that each race of pony has but what matters is who we become, not who we are raised as." She said as she placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder who smiled back at her.
"I guess you're right." Snowbreeze replied though she still seemed to be in a depressed funk which the Alicorn took note of.
"Hey, I got an idea, how about you keep on telling me what happened while I was out?" Sapphire asked curiously.
"Alright." Snowbreeze replied as she began to resume her story.
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Follow my lead!" She whispered then turned to look at everypony. "Hi, everypony! How are you all doing?!" She exclaimed to the crowd despite none of them could see or hear her.
"Pinkie you Lead-erm, you idiot! They can't see or hear you!" Snowbreeze hissed only to gawk at the crowd who began to give her strange looks. For a moment, the Pegasus realized she had just stopped herself from flinging her most common racial slur to the pink pony but she had bigger problems at the present time than to figure out why she had stopped herself, she was on stage in the view of possibly hundreds of ponies.
"Psst! Try telling them about Sapphire!" Pinkie exclaimed once again in a hushed whisper.
"So, uh… you all know about my friend Sapphire thanks to Fairweather but there are many things about her that you all don't know." She began only for her to trail off as a few soft coughs echoed throughout the crowd.
"Go on!" Pinkie Pie encouraged.
Snowbreeze took a soft gulp before she continued. "So uh, yeah. Did you know that when I met her she was working on a farm with some earth ponies? Crazy world we live in huh?" She began only to pause as if seeing what the crowd would think. When they seemed to actually be interested in what she was saying, this gave the Pegasus a minor confidence boost as she continued. "So yeah, those earth ponies were actually her parents! Can you believe it? I mean, I could barely believe it myself! This mythical Alicorn born from earth ponies, that's like beyond crazy! I mean, couldn't of the guys upstairs have had a couple Pegasi be her parents or something? That would make so much more…" She began to say only to quickly realize she was starting to get dirty looks from the crowd and trail off.
"So, um… anyways! Yeah, she was raised as a farm pony and when I first met her, I didn't even know what she was! See, she was born in an earth pony town on the outskirts of the earth pony nation and let me tell you… they really didn't like Pegasi or unicorns! Heck, that's how we met! See, I was trying to order from this cafe and this Lea,lea…erm… Earth pony was being really rude to me, refusing to serve me and all and just when I was about to tackle the guy, she stops and manages to save his hide!" She exclaimed to the crowd only to receive looks of minor disbelief from the crowd.
It was then that the Pegasus sighed aloud. "Okay, Okay, so she saved my flank from getting stomped into the dirt but anyways, that's not the point! The point is that ever since me and Sapphire started traveling together, she has put her wants and needs before herself! She even got herself beaten half to death and nearly raped just to save my hide!" Snowbreeze exclaimed and paused to allow the crowd to take this in which resulted in loud mutterings amongst the crowd.
"She's helped so many ponies and has never asked for anything in return! But you know what?" Snowbreeze said to the crowd, her self-confidence now nearing its peak. "Its our turn to help her! I know Fairweather said that she didn't want to ask you to fight for my friend but I am! She has given the ponies of this nation so much and has gotten so little in return! In almost every town we have been to, she has done something generous for the ponies there and never once asked for anything in return! You all owe her your lives and if any of you have a lick of decency to you, you'll do everything in your power to help not only this town but her as well!" Snowbreeze exclaimed as she pointed her hoof towards the crowd. She had hoped this would inspire them to help her but when it seemed that her words had no effect, she sighed aloud.
"Fine! Don't help her! But I won't sleep, eat, or do anything else until I know she's safe and you all should be doing the same!" She exclaimed angrily as she jumped off the stage and began to walk away.
"That speech was… interesting?" Fairweather remarked aloud nervously as the Pegasus walked past her.
"Save it. We all know they won't do anything for her. They only care about themselves. The dark horn's right, this town's going to go to the manure pile in less than a year." Snowbreeze remarked bitterly as she walked away from the others and back towards the hospital.
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"Wow, that's a grim ending." Sapphire remarked aloud depressingly.
"Hey, I'm not even close to done yet!" Snowbreeze replied with a smirk.
"Really? I don't know how things could have turned a one-eighty from that. I mean, you said it yourself. They didn't even seem to care about me." Sapphire remarked curiously.
"Heh, that's what I thought too. Until the next morning that is." She replied as she continued to tell her tail.
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The Snow white Pegasus was rudely awakened the next morning by the loud trotting of hooves and voices outside due to the fact they had only patched the window up and had not replaced it as of yet which allowed all sounds from outside to be heard quite clearly. "Oh great, it's another mob demanding Sapphire's head." The Pegasus remarked aloud bitterly as she stretched her legs and walked to the front desk only to gawk in shock at the sight that beheld her.
"Please! One at a time!" The desk nurse pony exclaimed in a semi-panicked tone as earth pony, Pegasus, and unicorn alike continuously placed what could be none other than gifts on the front desk.
"Make sure the Alicorn gets this!" One ponty shouted followed by another shouting the same thing.
"Uh, what's going on here?" Snowbreeze asked uneasily to the front desk pony who was having a hard time sorting through the rather large pile of gifts.
"You got me. They all just started piling in no sooner visiting hours started and said these were all for the Alicorn." The nurse remarked as yet another pony placed a gift on the front desk.
"What?!" Snowbreeze exclaimed in disbelief as she gawked at the pile of gifts that was quickly growing larger by the second with each stallion and mare who walked in.
It was then that a familiar face managed to shove his way through the crowd and walked up to her. "Quite a crowd, isn't it?" Dr. Doodle remarked with a smirk.
"I'll say! You sure those aren't all just cleverly wrapped timebombs or something?" Snowbreeze asked skeptically as she looked over at the ever growing pile of gifts.
This remark earned a hearty laugh from the donkey. "Haha, I doubt it. You and Fairweather's little speeches had more of an effect than you think. "We've had ponies walking in all day aside from the ones bombarding the poor desk nurse with gifts who swore they would protect Sapphire with their lives. Heck, one even handed me this." The doctor remarked as he gave Snowbreeze a small scroll.
The Pegasus opened it and went slack jawed as the paper rolled for several feet before coming to a stop at the front desk even though it wasn't even close to unrolling.
She then curiously began to read it.
We the stallions and mares of manehatten hereby announce the founding of the A.P.B. "Alicorn Protection bureau).
All who join will swear their unwavering loyalty to our cause and do everything in their power to protect the Alicorn known as Sapphire.
Those wishing to join need merely to sign their names below:
Snowbreeze's eyes scanned the list of seemingly endless names below, unable to tear her eyes away no matter how much she couldn't believe what she was reading. "I've gotta be dreaming..." Snowbreeze finally managed to blurt out.
"Nope, you're wide awake young filly but if you like, I can ask one of the nurses to poke your rump with a needle to see if you wake up." Dr. Doodle joked with a smirk.
"Haha, no thanks. It's just this is a lot to take in and I mean a lot! Yesterday they were all acting like I was being some kind of featherflank since I was asking them to help me protect Sapphire and now we got this?" Snowbreeze remarked as she gestured to the list and gifts.
"I know. It's almost unbelievable." Dr. Doodle remarked as Snowbreeze began to reroll the scroll back up.
It was then that the two heard a soft ticking, looked at one another with worried glances which became panicked when an alarm rang out. "Get down!" Dr. Doodle exclaimed as he tackled snowbreeze away from the front desk as the nurse behind it suddenly fled in terror.
It was then that an explosion erupted from within the pile, destroying most of the gifts and half the check-in desk as well. "Yeah… Its unbelieveable alright." Snowbreeze remarked aloud bitterly once the two were sure the coast was clear and stood up to their hooves.