//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Friends in Cold Places 
// Story: The Northern Winds 
// by LCpl Azure Blaze 
//------------------------------//

	"Come on, Fluttershy!" yelled Applejack over the howls of the wind, "We have to keep moving if we are ever going to catch up to Twilight!"
"A-applejack. Please wait up." mumbled Fluttershy, but it was so faint that Applejack could not hear her over the wind. The two ponies had gone back down the path that they went and during the time that they had been traveling it had gotten dark and a fierce blizzard had manifested. A large amount of snow accumulated on the path making it completely invisible to anyone who would be looking for it which forced Applejack, who once again took the lead, to wander aimlessly into the cold dark night. Fluttershy could barely keep up with her, especially since her shattered goggles limited her sight dramatically and her silent cries to slow down never reached Applejack's ears. It was only a matter of time before Applejack passed out of her range of sight.
"Applejack?" she cried stopping dead in her tracks, "Applejack! Where are you? I can't see you anymore!" The only answer she got was the howls of the wind and ice flying by her head. She tried turning on her thermal vision goggles to try and find Applejack but the shattered goggles prevented her from seeing at all so she shut turned them back off again in order to regain what little vision she had.
"Okay, Fluttershy, keep calm," she began talking to herself, "You're alone in a frozen wasteland in the dark but that's okay. It's not like there is anything else out here other than your friends."
Just then she heard a heavenly voice echo from behind her saying, "Do not lose hope little one." Fluttershy quickly turned around to see what made the voice and off in the distance she saw a bright white light glowing through the snow and darkness getting closer and closer to her. Fluttershy backed up slightly and looked around her to see if there was a hiding spot she could take refuge in but she found nothing but snow. When she turned back to face the light she found a tall white glowing alicorn mare with a beautiful white mane and a cutie mark depicting what seemed to be a breeze carrying snowflakes standing tall before her staring down at her with her soft blue eyes. Fluttershy's first reaction was to lie down and cover her face in fear.
"Do not be afraid young one," the alicorn said, "I assure you, I am one of the few creatures in this place who you can call friend."
Fluttershy uncovered her face and looked back up to the alicorn to see her raise her horn into the air. The horn began to glow with white magical energy forming a sphere at it's tip which then expanded rapidly and engulfed both ponies in what seemed to be a protective half sphere. The wind and snow blowing by Fluttershy's ears stopped. As she looked outside the protective bubble she saw the blizzard still raging but now completely ignoring the area covered by the half sphere.
"W-who are you?" asked Fluttershy in a scared tone.
"I could ask you the same question." replied the white alicorn, "After all, you and your companions are the ones who are intruding on my domain. However, I see that you are of no threat nor are you here with evil intentions, therefore an introduction is in order. My name is Queen Galacia, master of the northern winds and rightful ruler of the Frozen North and all of it's citizens. The ones who aren't imprisoned in ice that is."
"What happened to your citizens?"
"It is a long story that I will share with you later, but right now it seems your friend is in need of some assistance. Applejack, was it?"
"Yes, um, your highness. I lost my friend, Applejack, in the blizzard not too long ago and I can't find her. Can you help me?"
"I can help you help yourself," replied Galacia. "But you must hurry. Your friend is fatigued from her travels and can not handle the storm upon us alone."
"Can you stop the storm?"
"Unfortunately, I cannot. This storm is not of my doing and does not answer to my call. It belongs to a dark stallion named Hoarfrost, lord of despair. But that is a story for another time, now we have to worry about saving your friend for it won't be long before she succumbs to the cold. Look to the ground, young one, and the path shall be made clear to you."
Fluttershy looked at the ground and saw hoofprints in the snow leading off into the distance. As she focus her gaze on the hoofprints the white light, which was being emitted from the alicorn, faded and the snow and wind began to fly by Fluttershy once more. When she looked back up Galacia had vanished from sight completely. Fluttershy looked around to try and find her once more but there were no signs, not even hoofprints in the snow. She turned back to the hoofprints in the snow and said to herself, "Of course, the hoofprints. Why didn't I think to follow them before? I better hurry, I don't want them to be filled with this snow before I find Applejack."
Fluttershy began to follow the hoofprints through the dark snowstorm, each hoofprint getting fresher and deeper as she traveled until she saw a figure lying in the snow covered by a thin layer of snow.  As she got closer she was finally able to identify the figure as Applejack.
"Applejack!" she yelled out in her soft voice but no voice came in reply. "Applejack!" she yelled out once more running to her friend laying on the ground in the snowstorm. When she got to her she rolled her onto her back. Applejack's goggles as well as her face guard were completely frosted over but Fluttershy could still see her breath puffing out of her mouth in the cold, signifying that she was still alive.
"Come on, Applejack, wake up. I need you with me." whispered Fluttershy.
"I told you your friends can't stop the cold," came a dark growling voice from the distance. "But you didn't listen and now you and your friends will all perish in these wastelands. My wastelands."
Fluttershy looked up to see who was speaking to her and she saw, off in the distance, the same blue eyes she saw in the maintenance tunnel surrounded in a cloud of black smoke.
"The rest of them were easy. This one, however, had a bit of fight to her but it wasn't long before even she lost hope and fell before me."
The cloud of smoke and eyes began to rapidly travel in a circle around Fluttershy causing her to shy back and watch defenselessly.
"All of your friends are dead and now you too will die. All you have to do is give up all hope."
The circle the smoky figure was making kept creeping closer and closer to Fluttershy and its words tore at Fluttershy's mind. On top of that the wind blew harder and the snow fell faster, each snowflake slapping Fluttershy's face as it blew by. The shadowy figure continued to get closer tormenting Fluttershy with it's words until Fluttershy remembered the words of Queen Galacia, 'Do not lose hope.' and yelled, "NO!" louder than she had ever been before.
Immediately the shadow stopped and stared at her. "I refuse to believe my friends are dead! I know for a fact that they are still alive. Applejack is alive as well and we are going to overcome you and your storm!"
The shadow stood there growling to itself before finally roaring out with rage yelling, "HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME!" as it began to charge at the yellow pony. As the shadow charged a massive black stallion with glowing blue eyes and a white mane materialized. Fluttershy flinched and covered her head with her hooves, preparing for the worst when suddenly a familiar white light returned and she heard a loud crash above her head. When she looked up she saw the massive shadowy figure standing there, repeatedly charging against a magical wall which had formed around her.
"Hoarfrost!" echoed the angry voice of Queen Galacia. Fluttershy turned to see where the voice had come from and saw Galacia descending from the sky, landing beside her. "You will not touch these ponies."
"Ah, if it isn't my beloved Queen Galacia," mocked Hoarfrost. "Enjoying your imprisonment?"
"It isn't the imprisonment that makes me bitter as much as the foul stallion I am imprisoned with."
"I see the feeling is mutual then," growled Hoarfrost, "Tell me now, why do you protect this filly with such vigor?"
"I am not the one who cast this protection spell."
"But, if you didn't then that means..."
"Correct. This filly is in fact a guardian of hope."
"Impossible! I killed the last guardian of hope! I watched his hope fade from his eyes, for I was the one who took it from him!"
"Guardians of hope are not born, Hoarfrost, they are made. From the youngest of earth ponies to the eldest of the pegasi and even the least magically gifted of the unicorn, all have the ability to wield the power of hope but few posses enough of it to be called a guardian."
Hoarfrost snarled to himself once more, "You win this time, Galacia, but soon I will be free and once I am our endgame will decide who is better and who is dead!"
"Leave this place. There is nothing more you can do here."
Hoarfrost growled at Galacia and then turned to Fluttershy and said, "We will meet again, guardian, and when we do I'll make sure Galacia isn't around to stop me from what I will do to you."
Hoarfrost huffed brutally at Fluttershy, who was safely behind her own sphere of protection, causing her to flinch once more. Hoarfrost had one final chuckle as he then turned back into a smokey shadow and vanished from sight causing the wind and snow to die down a bit.
"A g-guardian of hope?" whimpered Fluttershy as the protective sphere around her lowered, "I've never heard of them before."
"I wouldn't expect you to know of them. This is the first time that any outsider has even come close to our dwelling. Guardians of hope are in charge of keeping the hope of the ponies around them kindled. Hope gives them strength, like the courage you showed towards Hoarfrost. Because you had faith that your friends are still alive, that hope gave you courage that you may not have known you had before."
"But what was that protection spell? I'm not a unicorn, but you said I was the one who cast it."
"The magic flowing through the skies recently is a special kind of magic. It has a mind of it's own and seems to ignore unicorns and their influence and favor those whose hope is strong, those who specialized in mastering this magic were called guardians of hope. The magic went dormant, however, when the last guardian fell to Hoarfrost but for some reason it has awoken once more and Hoarfrost is tapping into it's power to allow himself to manifest outside of his prison and cause these blizzards. The only way to stop the blizzards is to free Hoarfrost from his prison and defeat him once and for all."
"That must be the magic my friends and I are looking for."
"Indeed it is, and I will help you to find it if you and your friends agree to help me stop Hoarfrost."
"I'm sure if you talk to the rest of my friends they'll agree to help but I can't speak for them right now. I mean, we were sent out here to stop the blizzards in Equestria and if helping you defeat Hoarfrost is the only way to do it we don't really have any other choice."
"If that is what you believe then I will show you the way." Galacia pointed off into the distance. "Travel in this direction as far as you can and help will find you by the morning they will take you the rest of the way. As for me, I will be watch from afar and make sure you and your friends arrive at you destination without any more trouble from Hoarfrost."
"What about Applejack? Is she going to be okay?"
"Your friend will be just fine. The help I am sending will take care of you both but until then you're going to have to be her legs as well as your own. I must go now. Do as I have instructed and you will be just fine. We will meet again in due time."
Galacia began to walk off into the distance but was stopped by Fluttershy saying, "Wait." Galacia stopped and turned around, "Thank you."
"For what?" replied Galacia, "I simply helped you help yourself."
Applejack moaned and Fluttershy looked down to her. She scraped the frost off of her goggles and saw her squinting her eyes. When she looked back up Galacia had vanish just as quickly and mysteriously as before and, once again, there were no hoofprints in the snow except for her own, despite the amount of action that happened in the area.
Fluttershy looked back down at Applejack and said, "Come on, Applejack, let's go get you some help." Fluttershy reached down and grabbed a loose strap coming from Applejack's suit with her mouth and began dragging her in the direction Galacia pointed out stopping here and there to make sure that Applejack was still doing okay. As she kept going she felt more and more fatigued until eventually she got to the point where she too began to blackout herself. She fell face first into the snow next to Applejack, breathing heavily. With her last bit of energy she lifted her head up to look at Applejack who was still out cold. As she did she saw a dark figure came out of the distance from over Applejack's shoulder which was the last thing she remembered before she finally gave in to her body's demands for rest.
Applejack woke up with thick matted white fur in her face and the massive body of which the fur belong to lying down on her body. The sun was trying to fight its way through a layer of clouds and the snow had stopped falling altogether. Snow was blowing by being carried by the wind in what seemed to be small moving pockets of mist. She struggled to try and get out from underneath whatever it was that was lying on top of her but it was of no use, it was too heavy for her to move with her own hooves. When she struggled the huge white mass seemed to notice and began to rise onto it's four clawed feet and turn around. As it turned around it rose and stood on its back two feet. Once it was facing Applejack it let out a mighty roar which startled her into backing up sightly while still lying on her back. The huge monster stood there a while until Fluttershy appeared from behind it.
"Oh, you're finally awake," she said, "Good morning, Applejack, I hope your nap wasn't too cold. Frost Claw here did the best he could to warm us up." Fluttershy scrubbed the monster's belly and it let out a kind growl of approval.
"Fluttershy! What is that thing?"
"He's a polar bear of course! Up until now I have only read about these creatures, this is the first time I've ever seen one up close and personal. He says his name is Frost Claw and that Queen Galacia sent him to help us."
Frost Claw growled and shook his head in affirmation.
"Hold up now," said Applejack, "Queen who?"
"It's a long story," replied Fluttershy, "It all happened after I lost you in the blizzard."
"Yeah, sorry about that," said Applejack in an embarrassed tone, "I didn't realize I left you until it was already too late."
"Applejack, you haven't been yourself lately."
"What? I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm sorry, but I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been hustling everyone lately, and not in a good way. It's gotten so bad that you left me in the blizzard all by myself."
Applejack hung her head and sighed, "You're right. I'm sorry but I've been worrying a bit much bout my folks back home. Since we live out on the countryside our resources are limited. I just wanted to fix this 'problem' we are having as fast as possible so I don't have to come home to find my family... well... you know."
"Applejack, I'm sure your family will be just fine if not better."
"You think so?" said Applejack raising her head.
"You need to have a little more faith in your family. They are stronger than you may think."
"Your right. How could I have been so blind as to doubt my own family."
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, thank you Fluttershy," said Applejack rising to her feet, "Now let's go find Twilight and stop the blizzards. Together."
"Actually, Frost Claw here is supposed to take us somewhere else."
"Woah, woah, woah, just you wait a second. The bear is supposed to take us somewhere else?"
"Just trust me on this one, Applejack. We'll meet Twilight there."
"Okay then," Applejack said in a awkward tone, "Lead the way then... um... Mr. Claw."
Frost Claw lowered the front of his body to the ground and gave a mild growl.
"We aren't going to follow him, Applejack, we're going to ride him."
Applejack's face was suddenly filed with joy when she heard Fluttershy say that. "Now that's more like it!" she said with enthusiasm as she ran to the huge bear and hopped on his back. She then turned to Fluttershy and helped her up as well. "Alright, Frost Claw, we're set up here. Let's see what you've got in ya."
Frost Claw rose up of the ground and began speeding off into the distance at an astounding pace.
"YEE-HA!" yelled Applejack, "HI HO FROST CLAW!"