The master and the windigo

by stupidswampdragon

10 - Return

"Mind yer' step, youn' lady."

Lyra grumbled something along the lines of I think I can handle a stair on my own, only piping up when she arrived to the "...thanks anyway" part. That pony was just trying to help her. There was no reason for her to be rude in return.

No reason other than her grumpy mood, that is.

She hadn't had the best of mornings. She hadn't slept well. She had never realized how actively she slept; she kept moving and rolling around. Well, she'd sure noticed it last night. With her stitched wound, all those involuntary movements had kept waking her up at least once every hour.

No sleep made Lyra a grumpy pony.

Just as much as repeatedly being bugged about that other issue did.

Only after a rather loud outburst around two in the morning had Bon promised to stop yapping about the viscount. She'd mostly kept to her word, too; though she had managed to sneak in a few questions every now and then. Sometimes obviously in a tongue-in-check manner, just teasing Lyra for her 'briefest and most screwed up love story ever'; other times actually testing her, genuinely trying to pry something interesting from her.

Too bad Lyra hadn't been joking when she'd said she didn't know the viscount whatsoever. And she grew more and more irate every time somepony asked about the affair, always implying that she should have known something.

She was incredibly glad how that annoyance would soon come to a stop. About one and a half days after she had boarded the train, to be precise. Once the frozen north and all their craziness was a safe distance away from her.

She hopped up the stairs in one go. It was better than struggling her way up, minding her wound at each step. It wasn't any more difficult either; she had already learnt how to land properly with only using her left leg. Only her bag objected to the jump - it slid forward as she landed, the sling rotating around her neck. Conservation of momentum reared its ugly head and the heavy luggage pulled the unsuspecting pony along. Lyra may had been able to land smoothly with one leg, but she wasn't good enough to also stop herself at the same time. She staggered forward, right towards the other side of the train car; then proceeded to give the wooden surface a hug. A hearty bear hug.

Ow!

The sole witness to the embarrassing scene was the other passenger present. The red pegasus was quick to react. He jumped to Lyra and bit onto the sling of her bag; it wasn't much help, but it was enough to keep the dazed musician from collapsing.

"I tolf ya' to be ca'eful!" he grumbled, the leather sling firmly perched between his teeth.

"Right, right..." Lyra absent-mindedly threw whatever came to mind. She didn't actually listen to that pony; she was already moving forward instead, escaping the scene of her embarrassment. She dragged her nameless helper along for a few steps and then stumbled forward when she was released.

---

"You're nuts," Bon sighed. She held a hoof to the side of her head and made a face, looking as if she had been the one who had tackled a train.

"You try hobbling on three and then we'll talk about it," Lyra snorted loudly. Her head and her wound may have hurt, but her pride took a much harsher blow than either of those. Mind over matter it was, and from the worst kind. She made sure she avoided looking at Bon; she didn't need further criticism. Her attention went to the sling of her bag instead. She unlocked the metal hook at the bottom and the bag fell freely, landing at her hooves with a dull thud.

In hindsight, that didn't seem like the smartest thing to do. She had no idea if Bon had packed anything fragile in there, after all.

Well, I'm pretty sure nothing fragile is in there, Lyra bit onto her lip. Not any more!

Another small thing she could fuss over. Yay.

"You want help with that? It could be heavy," Bon pointed her hoof at the bag. That she didn't break into a panicking tantrum was a rather positive sign regarding the bag's contents.

"I'll manage," Lyra hissed and yanked the bag upwards with her magic. Her grip was strenuous, though; beyond the mundane everyday usage, her magic was always more tuned to small and precise movements, such as pulling the strings of a lyre. She wasn't accustomed to lifting heavy objects that way; and the bag was pretty loaded. She could already tell so from the little time she had spent carrying it... all the way from the luggage room to the train platform.

It was really thoughtful of the lodge crew to get their stuff delivered to the train station when they checked out.

Lyra watched the bag float upwards all the same, the amber aura persisting against the pull of gravity. It wasn't a pleasant exercise, that was for sure; the strain was making her shake and sweat, almost as much as if she was doing the lifting with her own hooves. All the greater was her surprise when the load disappeared from her back; the bag jumped upwards and fell into into the overhead bin.

"Stop showing off," Bon withdrew back to her place with a wry smile. "You don't need to impress me, you doofus."

"I wasn't showing off," Lyra pouted and took her own seat, taking her chance to take a good look around.

The train was almost like the one they had arrived in a few days ago. Brightly painted wood everywhere, the red and gold colours dominating the rest. The spacious inside of the car was divided by panels; each of those almost pony-high. They were short enough to maintain the feeling of a large open air space, yet tall enough to give the illusion of smaller, almost-private rooms as well. All of those 'rooms' were alike; each next to a window and having six cushions.

Unlike on their way to the mountains, the train was almost empty this time, though. There weren't so many guests in the Dancing Lights this time of the year, and the few who came were in no hurry to leave. There were exactly two other ponies travelling in the same car - and they had taken the furthest corner for themselves, chattering and giggling with little restraint.

"Sure you weren't," Bon sighed and leaned back, her back knocking against the red-painted wood. "I know that because you're not the kind of pony who ever does that. Period."

"Ha! Sure am not!" Lyra beamed with pride. The gears in her mind kept spinning nevertheless, and she came to a rather alarming conclusion shortly afterwards. "Wait. Were you... being sarcastic?"

"Nope! I would never!" Bon shook her head wildly. "I am no good with sarcasm. At all."

"Oh- okay," Lyra raised one of her eyebrows. That was a suspiciously specific denial, but she couldn't quite put a hoof on why it had struck her as so strange. In the end she just let the whole issue slide with a shrug and hopped onto the cushion closest to the window. "Can't believe we're really going home."

"Yeah. We spent more travelling than vacationing," Bon cast a longing look at the white mountaintops in the distance.

Lyra yanked her eyes back and spent a few moments studying that expression. Bon also looked tired - she had also woken up at least half the times Lyra had last night - but even so, it remained easy to spot how much she had regretted being forced to go away.

She was really looking forward to this, Lyra thought to herself with a frown and turned to the window, bumping her head against the cold glass.

"I'm sorry," she muttered in a faint voice, her warm breath drawing white clouds onto the transparent surface.

She had been so busy with her own woes that she hadn't thought about the situation from any other angle. Not like taking Bon's needs into consideration would have changed anything; they couldn't have stayed in that château no matter what. But not giving a single thought about her friend's feelings... Lyra felt quite wretched when she realized that omission.

"Did you make all of that story up?" Bon cocked her head to the side, her voice as distant as the mountains she held her gaze on. "The one about the ponies who wanted you dead because of the amulet."

Lyra almost broke into a yell; only the timely bite on her tongue prevented that. She sprang from her place all the same and leered at Bon with a fiery glare, her emotions plain as day on her face.

"Then stop apologizing about it," Bon smirked at her agitated friend. "I'll get around to skiing again some time, don't you worry."

"Oh," Lyra mumbled and sat back down. Her anger faded as fast as it came, the hotness also disappearing from her face. She was solely tired once again.

"I'm pretty sure I couldn't find another friend like you though," Bon carried on with a chuckle. "So stop spouting nonsense. I'd only accept your apology if you never came back."

The odd warmth returned to Lyra's cheeks; so she rubbed a hoof on her face and turned back to the window. She wasn't sure if that hid or telegraphed her embarrassment, though.

"If I could have remained calm enough to listen to you, that is," Bon giggled and stretched her hooves, finishing her sentence with a yawn.

Lyra's lips curled into a barely noticeable smile. She hadn't known all that many ponies, to be honest; and certainly no-one had stood by her as Bon did. She remembered thinking about that last night, between her short sessions of deep sleep - about how she had survived in the cold wilderness. It went against the odds for sure. Even she wouldn't have bet on herself to make it, to be honest. She would have expected those miracles to only happen in the fancy tales she provided the background music for. Fancy escapades that ponies wrote, fantasies with fair doses of wishful thinking. She had always believed it was so naive, thinking everypony was capable of pushing past their limits just because they believed in something. She clearly remembered sitting in the orchestra pit and rolling her eyes at those pretentious thoughts.

Yeah, sure. If only it was so easy.

Then came herself. A pampered musician who defied the cold, the snow and a deep wound at the same time. How she had kept dragging herself forward, even when it would have been easier to just lie down and sleep. But she hadn't done any of that. She hadn't succumbed. Not even when she was so tired, so cold and so sick of the whole thing.

She couldn't help but think she had Bon to thank for that. Something to return for... no, something to return to.

Something to look forward to.

That was the source of her stubborn perseverance.

"Who needs a magic amulet anyway," Lyra giggled to herself as she smeared a wavy line onto the window with her nose.

The line ended abruptly. An odd feeling took hold of her, making her pause. She remembered a silver necklace with a sparkling blue gemstone... one she had found in the snow. A true one-in-a-million stroke of luck that was, bumbling over such a precious item during a practice run! Too bad she had lost it when she had been admitted into the infirmary. She felt really stupid for not having asked where it went. That wasn't the strangest thing though...

There was something odd about that necklace itself.

There was something crucial about it. Something extremely important. She just couldn't recall what. She was sure she was forgetting something - like a puzzle which had a few parts pulled out and thrown away.

But what? What could she have forgotten if she could recall everything else with such clarity?

She kept grinding away at that weirdness - for a few moments, after which she ignored the whole matter with a shrug. It was only natural for her to have odd sensations lingering in her head. She was at death's door, after all.

"Easy for you to say that now," Bon turned to her with a wry grimace. "Even I felt worried you wouldn't make it through that awful weather. So there may have been something to that necklace, don't you think?"

"Oh there was... there definitely was," Lyra mumbled absent-mindedly and pushed her nose against the window. "But see... the amulet was really useful, yeah. However! That wasn't what made me come back. There was a much greater force helping me out there. That's all I'm saying."

"Really?" Bon perked her ears up and leaned closer to her friend. "What's that? C'me on Lyra, spit it out! Don't you dare go all cryptic on me now!"

"Friendship," Lyra turned her gaze to the side and gave the beige earth pony a playful pat on the nose.

Bon didn't seem to get that reference. She pulled back and stared in front of her, eyebrows wrinkled; she looked more confused then she had been before hearing that 'explanation'.

Lyra giggled at that scene. She would explain to Bon, one day; but she didn't feel like doing so right now. She wasn't sure how to explain herself properly, for starters. Bon already knew the bare details of those days anyway - and given the adventure she had endured, Lyra was pretty sure they would talk about those days for a long time to come. So she sighed and turned her gaze back to the outside world, content with her decision. She would have that talk - just later. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

Like the windigo that was still sitting beneath her window, looking at her with pleading puppy-like eyes.

"What the-" Lyra recoiled at the sight, then pushed her face back against the window so hard that it clanged. "Don't tell me you're still out there!"

Snowy made sure to remind her master how she was a product of long-gone ages. She had approached the train with great reluctance, ranting about the whistling, smoke-puffing, obviously evil piece of metal all along the way. Then she flat out refused to board.

In her struggle with the bag, Lyra had kind of forgotten about that detail.

"Who's out there?" Bon blinked confusedly, staring out the window herself. "I don't see anypony."

"I'll, uh... I'll explain," Lyra stammered and turned around. She burst out of the 'room' and headed towards the exit of the car. She only stopped to listen to a loud whistle cutting through the air; the train was to depart in a few minutes. "I'll explain everything but there's something I gotta' do!"

"Where you even going?!" Bon yelped. She was clearly puzzled by the string of incomprehensible actions and followed Lyra as soon as her shock receded. "Lyra Heartstrings, if you don't explain everything to me right this instant, I swear to Celestia I'm going to make you wish you stayed out there...!"

---

"Took you long enough. I was really beginning to wonder if you'd never get around to using the powers I gave you."

The green robed pony balanced on the top of a flagpole atop of the train station. Neither the winds nor the swaying metal posed any difficulty to her. Not that they could in the first place; her ethereal form shrugged off such trivialities of the tangible world.

She wouldn't have objected much if somepony had accused her of showing off. She could afford that little risk though; no-one but her comrades could see her until she wished so. That left nopony to scold her - and, indeed, nopony to even witness her crazy act. In a way that absolved her of both the punishment and the crime.

Not that she would have cared much for either naysayers or supporters. All those colourful folks around her; they were nothing in her eyes. They may have moved, walked or talked, but they came and went without leaving a trace. Even those that tried. Nothing they cobbled together lasted long enough to make a difference. They were shadows, the whole lot of them; and she had already learnt to ignore such superfluous details. An efficient mind is a lean one.

The flagpole was merely the best vantage point. She had been able track the cyan unicorn and her windigo as they had arrived at the train station from there; she had even seen them as they had taken their seats inside the train, chattering with one of those unremarkable mongrels along the way. A beige earth pony, by the looks of it.

The Source's sole reaction was a shake of her head. Once.

She's wasting time, doing that.

Then again, living a life had its own inertia; an unseen force so difficult to overcome. And this subject - Lyra, as she called herself - was still fresh. It was natural she would keep acting how she used to while she was a passing shadow herself.

She's just like the rest of them, the Source admitted. There was a brief tinge passing through her head; a feeling she wasn't accustomed to.

Regret. No, it wasn't that definite... what was it, then? Doubt?

It had to be doubt.

How odd, the Source tilted her head. The surge of the odd feeling had ebbed and disappeared, leaving only curiosity in its wake. Try as she might, the Source couldn't recall the last time she experienced that sensation. She always had been methodical; nothing she did lacked reason. That was the only way she could hope for a success.

Did she depart from that path?

She had been toiling away at the task for so very long, after all. She saw countless opportunities, some promising and some barely glittering; all of them ending in abysmal failures. None of them could overcome the inertia of who they were; their souls gravitated back to their origin, weighed down and crushed by the shadow they used to be.

True enough; those failures had their own qualities. Many of them were outright admirable. Even the Source could admit that much.

They just weren't what she was looking after.

A loud whistle and a puff of white smoke arose her from her introspection. The locomotive beneath her started to move, the wheels struggling but finally grinding away at the rails.

I was doubting, the Source mused as another whistle tore through the air. I was definitely having doubts just now.

It was a perplexing sensation. Success may have eluded her, but she wouldn't have done anything differently if presented with the choice. She never regretted anything. So why would she doubt?

Quite a peculiar moment that feeling picked to surface, too.

There are no coincidences, the Source reminded herself.

If this subject, this Lyra, could evoke that feeling in her; a feeling no other subjects did; then that was a splendid justification in itself.

She felt relieved and disappointed at that realization. It was good to know she was as single-minded as ever; but on the other hoof, it was depressing to lose the most unique aspect of a test iteration.

"No matter. There's no stopping once you've used this power," the Source tracked the departing train with her gaze, brushing her earlier pondering aside, casting it into the wind. "I can't wait for you to start playing in earnest."

The wind picked up. It blew over and into the ancient fortress, showering the rooftops with snow and tearing into the flags that were hung around the place. The thick fabrics dangled around with mindless fury, their poles protesting with metallic groans.

Only the green robed pony stood strong. It took minimal effort on her part; she only had to ignore the weather, a feat that came particularly easy to her. Her only thoughts were centred around the participants in her game - and she kept returning to the most fresh one of them.

"Well, I'm positive your case will prove to be most interesting. Don't prove me wrong."

---

Bon tilted her head back, the water bottle in her mouth almost becoming vertical. The clear liquid sloshed around in the glass and finally disappeared; then the pony opened her mouth. The glass fell by her side not long after, landing between two cushions by the stroke of blind luck.

"I don't get it," she rubbed her weary eyes and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I absolutely don't get it."

"Oh come on! I'm not trying to explain difficult stuff like compound interest," Lyra pleaded and gestured towards what looked like an empty spot of air. "It's simple, really! She's standing right there, even as we speak!"

"Master, I don't think she would be able to see me, no matter how hard you try," Snowy scratched the back of her neck. "Besides, I don't think I like where this lecture is going... you're trying so hard that I feel like I'm developing existential angst."

"I'm sure you'd be fine even if you did that! You were deathly afraid of trains a few hours ago and now you're riding one already! So quit fretting and get an idea already!" Lyra shut the windigo up with a well placed jab. "Seriously, you're the most useless ghost I've ever had trailing me!"

"Really? There were others?" Snowy blinked at the remark.

Lyra only answered by throwing a piercing stare the windigo's way. Snowy gulped, lay down on the floor and hid her head under her legs.

"You're scaring me," Bon grimaced and held a hoof to her right eye. "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have trusted those shams in the Dancing Lights. Don't worry, Lyra. We'll be home tomorrow... and then I'm going to have a doc take a look at your head. A real one."

"I haven't gone insane!" Lyra burst into a louder yell, successfully attracting the attention of the other two passengers in their car. "And no, I haven't hit my head either. I was just talking to Snowy here. Snowy, say something!"

"She still can't hear me," the windigo muttered from the floor.

"You're not helping!" Lyra sneered at the poor creature.

Truth be told, she wasn't helping her own cause too much either.

"Oh-kaay... say, Lyra, what about taking a little nap?" Bon patted the cushion next to her. "I know you didn't sleep much last night... and, well, neither did I. So I'm sure you're as sleepy as I am, haha! This hot air isn't helping either..."

Just as on their way to the mountains, the train was moving with the heaters working at their highest setting. Both Lyra and Bon were drenched in sweat, drinking one bottle of water after another; at the generous prince of two bits apiece, the train company was making a small fortune on them. It was a little worse for Lyra; the salty sweat made her bandage itch like crazy, and she couldn't really do anything about it. She had tried to rub it when it got too bad, but the white textile absorbed her movements all too well. She had to push real hard to get some effect; but that made her wound hurt renewed in turn, so she had quit struggling rather abruptly.

She simply ground her teeth instead. She also imagined herself slapping the living daylights out of the pony who had set the heaters to 'toast'. That helped... a little. Her shoulder still itched, after all.

All in all, she felt uncomfortable in many interesting ways. Being sleepy wasn't among them, however.

"You still don't believe me," she sighed and dipped her head low. A few drops of sweat landed on the floor right away, her nose acting as a miniature roof channel. She cast a longing glance at the window and shook her head. Rubbing herself against the cold glass may have felt good, but was also beneath her dignity.

For now.

"Look, I already said I'm sorry! What more can I do?" Bon smacked her head into the separator panel behind her, also throwing her hoof into a cushion at the same time. "I'm used to you claiming outlandish stuff. I laughed when you thought you saw a flying spaghetti monster, remember? But you never acted this convincingly before. Frankly, Lyra? This isn't fun any more! You're simply being crazy... and I would really appreciate if you had quit this prank already."

Lyra groaned loudly and shook herself. Her mane flung all the way around her, slapping her on both sides; and also showered her immediate environment with drops of sweat. That would have been a rather unwelcome move in a crowded train; thank Celestia that wasn't the case.

"I'm so not in the mood for this!" Bon yelled and slammed her on the head anyway. "Didn't I tell you to stop being weird!"

It wasn't the force of the blow, but Lyra collapsed immediately. She narrowed her eyes and glared at Bon; but she dare not say a word. She forgot in her excitement - and later frustration - how close she was to the threshold of Bon's patience. A good general always knew when to abandon a lost battle, and the sulking Lyra withdrew to the floor.

Bon registered the victory by huffing loudly. She sprang up and turned to the window, making sure the move was as flashy as possible. She was done and the conversation was over.

Without anything else to divert her attention, Lyra felt the minutes take forever to pass. The monotone clacking of the train was making her head ache, each clack louder and louder until they became colossal bangs of a storm drum, the thunderous noise reverberating inside her head. The heat didn't stop tormenting her either; she was sweating profusely, the thick streams of salty water gathering on her forehead, dripping into her eyes, seeping under her bandages and generally making her as miserable as possible.

Having had almost died out there, she hated the cold as much as anypony possibly could. But she couldn't recall being so fed up during her entire struggle back to the château than she was now, lying in a slowly growing pool of her own sweat. She could at least imagine herself looking all sorts of cool when she was daring the snow, after all. Right now, she only felt uncomfortable and utterly humiliated. No silver lining to that.

Clack.

Clack.

Ca-clack.

Clack.

Having spent most of her life pulling chords to all sorts of paces, Lyra could easily get the hang of that rhythm. Clack. Clack. Ca-clack. She kept her eyes on Bon, making sure the earth pony wasn't looking her way; then she lifted her head from the floor... and let it crash back down when the train jumped again.

It wasn't a big hit nor did it sound like one. It was so minor, in fact, that Bon didn't even take notice; she remained in the same posture, staring out the window while fuming in complete silence.

Dang, Lyra grumbled and rose her head back up again. A little higher this time, actually.

"Is Master feeling all right?"

Lyra glanced to the side and found herself locking eyes with a perplexed windigo. She moved her gaze back to Bon, but her friend was still busy acting as if she had been paralysed. Lyra would have been terrified of such a Bon - that foreboding calm was like a volcano preparing to erupt - but this once she felt glad she wasn't being chewed out just yet.

"No," she whispered, her lips only moving on the right side of her mouth. "Not really."

"Figured that much," Snowy remarked and went back to hiding beneath the dubious safety of her legs.

That's all you were curious about?! Lyra thought and threw her head against the floor. This impact was forceful enough to knock her teeth against each other; but it got no other reaction either.

"So hot in here..." she turned to whining instead. That seemed like a safe topic. Bon was also sweating, so surely she wouldn't take affront to complaining about something that plagued both of them.

"Yes," Bon hissed, her blue eyes narrowing to a slit. "Quite hot."

Oooh frig, Lyra gulped at that concise reply. Somepony was in trouble.

"That reminds me... I spent my whole night on the top of a drawer," Snowy lifted one of her legs, allowing her to sneak a peek at her Master with one eye. "Would it be a problem if I..."

"Sure, sure! Whatever!" Lyra whispered absent-mindedly. She was much more focused on the threat of an angry Bon unfolding right in front of her eyes; she could care less what a stupid windigo was about to do. She tried to organize her thoughts, imagine what Bon could attack her with and build counter-arguments to them; or she could have simply pre-empted the whole argument by apologizing and confessing her mistakes, a tactic that had always proved successful in the past. She really didn't want to admit to Snowy not being real, but there was no way she could prove the existence of a creature only she could see or hear. If only-

A wave of chill ran down her side. Lyra had no idea where it came from, but she felt really happy about it nevertheless. It was such a welcome relief from the oppressive heat that she lost the track of her own thoughts. She leaned towards the cold, stretched her neck and broke into a purr, a most satisfied grin on her face.

Her own little heaven.

"This is sooo nice," she gave in to the urge and broke into a shiver. She felt completely rejuvenated and got better by the moment.

"Is... is it? Yay! Hurra- I mean- splendid!" she heard Snowy exclaim, the windigo's voice uncharacteristically happy. "I'm helping!"

Lyra popped her eyes open and blinked at the celebrating windigo. Snowy was still lying on the wooden floor, but she was no longer hiding her face from the sight of her Master. Her head was held high, her ears perked all the way up; she was looking like a flag hoisted high, confident and proud.

It didn't take more than a passing glance at that sight to make Lyra feel incredibly dumb. She had been roasting for hours long, going as far as talking about her personal cooling system without ever getting the bright idea of actually turning the thing on.

There was only one way she could react to that. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and smacked herself in the face.

"Okay, I guess I do need to get my head checked."

"Stop it," Bon seethed and moved her eyes to the left, her piercing stare going right through Lyra. "Hitting yourself won't help you one bit."

Lyra recoiled at the icy voice and snapped her attention to Bon with a terrified gulp; but she recovered her smug confidence right in the next a moment.

Snowy unknowingly handed the winning card to her. All she had to do was to play it properly.

"It's hot in here, isn't it?" she grinned and ran a hoof down her wet mane. "It would be sure nice if we weren't turned into roasted ponies, eh?"

"We already asked the crew about that. You also heard they can't adjust the heating," Bon snorted and turned her entire head towards her astoundingly annoying friend. Her face was like a bad sculpture - an abstract shape bereft of emotions. "You won't score any brownie points with acting so inane. Do you even know how angry I am at you?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in for a sound lesson," Lyra made a nervous giggle and ran her hoof down her mane. "That's why I'm trying to get back on your good side... before it's too late, hehe. Snowy, could you come over here? To the window, I mean."

"I just told you to stop this nonsense-" Bon growled. If her tone was of any indication, she would have breathed fire if ponies were physically capable of such feat.

Her anger-induced explosion was cut in the bud however. Her mouth - already moving as she was forming a word - dropped and remained hanging; her eyes darted around, her intimidating stare nowhere to be found.

She couldn't see Snowy prancing in front of her, but she could feel the cold the windigo left in her wake. That was enough to finally shatter her previously invincible confidence.

"Oooh," Snowy purred like a cat as she arrived to the window. She stamped in one spot, turning around and around as if she was looking for a place to settle. "It feels very nice in this spot! There are... hmm, what's this... two straight lines of heat, just beneath the floor. How curious! Curious and most filling, yes. Not too hot but very well regulated, mm."

Lyra watched the windigo break into a shiver, the faint outlines of the creature growing more pronounced.

"Two lines of heat," she repeated the words absent-mindedly. She could only think about the words with some seconds of delay, the unusual image tying down most of her mind.

"Lines of heat?" Bon also joined into the echo-game. She had the advantage of not seeing the ghostly windigo, so her head remained a little clearer. "The steam pipes to the heating could be running there I guess, but... but how would you know about that?"

"Steam pipes... ha! Hadn't thought of that," Lyra laughed. She shifted back to her left, to her original spot; she was only following the cold, and Snowy moved to her other side.

"You hadn't thought... yeah, I guess you wouldn't think of such things," Bon mumbled. She looked all sorts of confused as she turned to the window. The joints in her neck appeared to malfunction; her head only moved in short, clearly separate jumps, like gears that were not oiled and now ground against each together.

That was the sweetest sign for Lyra in the last... well, in the last few days. Even if she was happy about having escaped Bon's wrath, she was still marginally happier back when she had crossed the ridge and saw the black rocks of the Dancing Lights appear in front of her.

"Care to add anything?" she yanked her muzzle upwards, staring at Bon like how the warlords of old days would look at their defeated enemies.

Sweet, sweet victory.

"It's... nice and cold..." Bon muttered and collapsed onto her cushion, her eyes still darting around the window. It was obvious how she was trying - trying real hard - to spot something, anything there; but kept coming up empty nevertheless. "Could you... could you repeat that story again?"

"Only since you asked real nice," Lyra smirked and licked her dried lips. That reminded her of something and she yanked two bottles of water from the overhead bin. She opened both of them and was about to send one Bon's way when a new idea struck her. She turned to Snowy with a sly grin and floated both bottles to her.

The windigo glanced at the see-through bottles and promptly drew a blank. She gazed at her Master, at a loss and awaiting for some instruction. Or just a vague description. Or really anything about what she was supposed to do with two ordinary bottles.

"Some cooling, if I may?" Lyra asked with a warm smile and a slightly overly sweet tone. She wasn't trying to be sarcastic; she just assumed that her intent was clear enough on its own. "Don't freeze them to ice, though. I want to drink this."

"Ah-ha!" Snowy nodded. Her confidence returned to her right away; she was back to doing what she did best. The windigo's eyes flashed and Lyra felt her unicorn magic getting disturbed by an unseen force; but nothing else happened, only the train rocked a little as it crossed a pair of intersecting tracks.

"Done and done," Snowy gave her master a salute.

Lyra promptly retrieved the bottles. It was easy to tell that they were indeed cold; their sides were moist. She yanked one bottle to her mouth and took a gulp. It was the best drink she had in a long while, the cold water soothing her mouth and her insides like the legendary medicines of silly theatre plays.

"Aww... this is good!" she exclaimed and lifted the bottle in the air, giving Snowy a curt nod. She then grabbed the other bottle and passed it to Bon. "Here, drink up! It's all cold and everything."

Bon eyed the moist bottle as if it had taken its own cap off and was waving it at her. She sniffed the glass bottle and rotated it around, inspecting every inch of its surface with utmost care.

In the meanwhile, Lyra took another sip from her bottle and chuckled to herself. It was really funny to see Bon get so paranoid and suspicious all of a sudden. Almost adorable.

Bon finally gave in and shrugged. She clasped her hooves on the sides of the bottle and poured some into her mouth.

"It's... cold!" she gasped and broke into a cough. Her surprise was so high that she forgot about swallowing properly and choked on the water. "It's cold water!"

"Well duh," Lyra knocked her bottle against the side of her head. "Snowy's a refrigerator - she makes stuff cold. Can't quite turn water into wine yet though."

"I'm a... refrigerator?" Snowy tilted her head to the side and scratched her temple. "I'm not quite sure what that thing is, but... I suppose I can be anything Master wishes me to be..."

"It was a joke," Lyra sighed and pushed the cold bottle against her forehead.

"I know it was a joke," Bon groaned and mimicked the idea, holding the cold glass against her head with a hoof. "I'm surprised, not stupid."

"Wait, what? I wasn't talking to you!" Lyra waved both her front hooves at her friend. "I know you're not stupid!"

"So refrigerators are some kind of jokes?" Snowy sank even deeper into confusion. "It's really astounding how much Equestria changed over the years."

"Oh - you were talking to your imaginary pet?" Bon raised one of her eyebrows.

"No! I mean yes, I was talking to- NO! She's not an 'imaginary' pet! For Celestia's sake, she just cooled your water!" Lyra yanked her hooves back and used them to keep her head from exploding. "And you! No, no, no! Refrigerators are things! Things you use to cool things down! I mean other things! I mean- DARGH! You're making me sooo confused!"

"It's all right, Master!" Snowy hit a sympathetic tone. "I became rather good at being confused. I could give a few pointers if Master so desires."

The wrinkles above her eyebrows becoming one straight line, Lyra wondered if she should try and throw her bottle at the creature.

---

"So she's... standing here? Right here, I mean?" Bon waved a hoof across Snowy's blue shape.

The windigo endured the experiment quite stoically. It helped how she wasn't looking that way; she had grown pretty bored with being made to sit in one place and had started to fiddle around, distracting Lyra from retelling her tale. The outside world zipping by excited her for some bizarre reason though, so the window became a perfect way to distract Snowy in turn.

"Yeah," Lyra nodded. "You just waved, well... through her."

"Oh!" Bon bit onto her lip and yanked her hoof back, looking at the appendage as if she was expecting something to show on it. "Awkward."

"Yeah," Lyra made another, shallower nod and reached for her bottle of water. She had seen ponies outright walk through Snowy already, so she wasn't entirely moved by such sights any more.

"And she can her me speak," Bon continued her recount of the tale. Or, well, whatever details she considered important of the whole thing.

"Sure can," Lyra's third nod became so small that even she wouldn't have classified it as one. "You do hear us, right, Snowy?"

"Why are the rocks moving so fast when the stars are sitting still?" Snowy responded, her eye still locked on the world outside.

"Sure she does!" Lyra declared without much fanfare. "And as for your question... I guess they are a little further away, don't you think?"

I don't think she has ever travelled this fast before, she thought to herself as she took a better look at the windigo. Heh. She's almost like a foal, in a way. So easily amused.

"Spooky," Bon broke into a shiver and settled back onto her cushion. "Never thought that amulet would have really been magical. Neither did the viscount, I guess..."

"Wait, it was the viscount's amulet?" Lyra blinked with a quizzed face, then shook her head. "Never mind that! I think they did, actually. I mean, I was sent there so I could get into trouble and awaken Snowy. Then they thought I had failed and tried to get the amulet back from my corpse, remember?"

"No, I don't. I'm actually actively trying to forget about that," Bon groaned and bumped her head into the cushion next to hers.

"Forget? Why!" Lyra sprang to her hooves. She towered above her friend and was one step short of stomping into her side. "Which part of tried to murder me did you miss?"

"The part where you had any solid evidence and didn't just jump conclusions," Bon sighed and rolled until her face was completely buried into the cushion. "As things are, it's just your word against a noble's. Good luck with that!"

"I have always told Master that poking the upper caste is a bad idea," Snowy took the chance to proclaim her hard-earned lessons about a society that mostly stopped existing a few hundred years ago. "Well, at least Master got to keep her head! I was always worried that-"

"So what if I don't have any? They still lured me into a trap!" Lyra cut into her ghost's words without the slightest care.

"I thought it was you following somepony into a place you clearly knew you had no business in," Bon mumbled. It was a little hard to understand her - the cushion filtered her voice just a little too well.

"So what! They still counted on me falling into that pit! Or... well, a pit. Sooner or later," Lyra pouted and turned away angrily, pacing back and forth in the small area their 'room' was. "So what if it was an accident! Let's look at it a little differently. It didn't have to be me - it could have been anypony else! It could have been you, don't you understand that? You said you were worried about me... well how do you think I would feel if you never came back? How will the friends of the next poor bloke feel?"

Bon didn't answer to that one. She just shuddered.

"And you know what's the worst thing? They will try again," Lyra declared with absolute confidence. The mere thought upset her too, turning her light steps into loud bangs. "They don't know that I walked away with Snowy... so they will keep trying to get her out of that amulet. We both know what that means, right? Ponies are going to suffer... until somepony braves up and does something!"

"And what do you suppose we do?" Bon pulled her legs to her torso and rolled to the side, looking up at Lyra from the ground. "Let's say we went to the Guard. What would you tell them? That a respected viscount is running dangerous experiments, under the guise of a ski park? All to crack a magic amulet that had a windigo inside? I'm sure they would all start running at your behest and reprehend that evildoer right away... instead of just, you know, giving you a few pills and sending you to a psychiatrist."

"You're such a pessimist," Lyra rolled her eyes and made another circle in their confined space. "They would at least look into the case! That would be something. They could uncover something."

"Yeah. They could uncover that you got half-frozen after an accident and came back so out of your mind that you broke into a train station!" Bon joined in the eye-rolling and relaxed, her head plopping back onto the red cushion. "Face it, Lyra. This is a losing battle. You can't win this game."

"So what! I'm not letting this just slide! You know - all it takes for evil to win is that good ponies do nothing!" Lyra flung a hoof at the separator panel, the thin piece of wood booming loudly under her attack. The move hurt herself just as much; but the pain only served to feed her fury, reminding her just how she got wounded in the first place. "Looking the other way... that just don't feel right and you know that!"

"I only know that you spend too much time in theatres for your own good. You're too used to shining knights riding into town and saving the day, followed by an aria and a shower of flower petals," Bon explained with a dry chuckle. "I get your point though... sorry if I upset you. I'll try to... well, I'll try to think of something. Does that sound good enough?"

Lyra chewed on thin air as she mused. That was a little more than a hollow promise and she knew that much. She had no reason to be happy about it. It was actually a realistic promise on the other hoof, much closer to practicality than her unreasonably high expectations.

"Fine," she made a frown and sneaked a glance at her aching, bandaged shoulder. "I'll hold you to this one, though! So you better-"

"WOAHH!" Snowy broke into an excited yell, pretty much out of the blue. She also sprang up and glued her face and front hooves onto the window, her excitement palpable. "There's a HUGE fire out there! I like! I like! I like! I like! Master! Master, can we go there?"

Seems like my ghostly foal found her candy-shop, Lyra facehooved. She remained in that posture until she has calmed down a little; then she hobbled to the window herself, curious about the disaster her windigo had spotted.

She was relieved to see there was nothing such going on, however.

"Oh! Oh, you mean that thing," Lyra quenched a laugh and tried to pat the windigo on the head. Her hoof went through the ghostly figure, so strictly speaking it was a fail; but she was sure it was the sentiment that counted. "That's no fire, you silly ghost. That's Canterlot."

She could see why somepony not versed in the modern Equestria would make that mistake, however.

The capitol was a remarkable construct. It sat on a steep mountainside, its pearly white walls and golden domes glistening in the daylight; and its many tall towers dancing in the light of a thousand torches and other light sources at night. The tracks of their train didn't get too close to it, so the city was just a huge, incredibly bright spot on an otherwise dark mountain. It was kind of natural that a windigo would confuse that kind of light with a fire - especially if it happened to be a glutton, imagining snacks wherever the possibility arose.

"Canterlot," Snowy echoed the word, her crimson eyes losing focus for a split second. "I... think I remember that name. Old Master used to mention it in passing. Something about an old hag moving in there after she 'took the whole throne for herself'... or some such. Old Master used to grumble a lot, so I can't remember all of those with clarity..."

"Whelp... that's rich, calling Celestia like that. Didn't your old master's family, like, receive their very land from her?" Lyra shook her head in disbelief. "Sounds like he was a nice fellow. I bet he had a LOT of friends."

"Celestia? Hmm, no... I don't recall that name either," Snowy pulled her face back from the glass, leaving a small patch where the surface fogged up immediately. "He didn't receive the land from anypony such for certain. It was somepony else... some other royalty. That sponsor must have fallen out of grace however. I remember old Master receiving the news of that! He was livid - more livid than I ever saw anypony be. He broke all the furniture in his rage, even splintered the rocks in the wall. It was really quaint, him acting like that."

"As I said, he must have been a real nice-" Lyra groaned - right until she noted Bon settling to her side. Her friend wound up sitting right inside Snowy, looking as if the earth pony had a blue aura shimmering around her.

Lyra's reaction to that awkward situation was a little less responsible than she hoped it would be.

Woah... that looks wicked cool.

"Canterlot, huh?" Bon eyed the distant city with a yawn. She didn't look all too interested whatsoever - and Lyra couldn't blame her for that.

The novelty of that sight had worn a little thin when one could see it every time she peeked out the window.

"WOAH!"

Bon and Lyra recoiled and spun around in perfect unison, both of them ready to scream at the startling voice. There was no need for anything such though. A red pegasus was standing behind them, his eyes measuring both of them with a quizzed stare. Lyra recalled him; that was the pony who helped her into the train earlier.

Snowy had acted agitated until she saw Lyra calming down; then she went straight back to staring at Canterlot.

"Is there a problem?" Bon came to first.

"Nah, it's cool," the pegasus blinked and shuddered. He opened his wings and made a few beats with them, filling the air with red feathers and mixing the hotter air of the wagon with the cooler one that Snowy generated. "I mean, I came to ask what ya'll were yellin' 'bout... but t'is really cool in 'ere. How'd ya' do this?"

As Lyra had to admit, that was a really tricky question. Mostly because the only answer she could think of wouldn't have been appropriate to say to a complete stranger.

"I haven't the slightest!" Bon shrugged and broke into a deceitful giggle. "I guess the heating broke down here? It was like this all the way here."

"Really? Aww, ya' couldda' told us! We're burnin' up over thar'!" the pegasus folded his wings and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Yeah... somepony thinks these trains are running through the frigid north I guess," Bon giggled again and poked her friend in the side.

Lyra may not have been a certified mind-reader, but she had no difficulties in deducing the motive behind that move.

Help me out a little, will you? Say something already!

"I... uh... yeah. It's really hot in here," she mumbled, then got to watch as Bon struggled to keep herself from slamming her face into the nearest solid object.

"No kiddin'. Hey..." the red pegasus glanced away with embarrassment, and everypony knew what he was going to ask even before he got to actually asking. "...would ya' mind if me and me buddy came ova' 'ere? I know it's a lil' awkward, but we're 'bout ready to go mad in that sauna."

Lyra was pretty sure she didn't want any other passengers that close. She had made some good progress in introducing Bon to Snowy and didn't want to be stopped just now; not to mention the other topics she also wanted to discuss.

On the other hoof, just flat out refusing that request could have made her look like a jerk.

Then again, she didn't know that pegasus. In which case she couldn't have cared less.

Though, if she viewed the situation as a test of principles...

"Sure. Hop over here," Bon shrugged, demonstrating her immunity to the never-ending mental loops Lyra had been prone to.

"Thanks, miss'. Much appreciated!" the pegasus gave them a token bow and then turned away from them, waving wildly with a hoof. "AYE! BUD'! AYE! COME OVER 'ERE! YA' WON'T BELIEVE HOW COOL THIS 'ERE END IS!"

Well, I guess we covered enough ground for one night, Lyra thought as she moved onto the cushion closest to the window. She felt a lot more comfortable since she had cooled down; so she might as well make the most of the uncomfortable situation.

Time to take a brief nap!

Comments

[Shadow-silver]

A brif nap. Really Lyra? You,re gonna sleep the whole way there

[stupidswampdragon]

The best thing to do on a train, really!