Winter's Blanket

by TheLonewolves215

Calm Before the Storm.

It had happened, quite abruptly one afternoon as he sat on his porch watching the world trudge by on nothing but it's apparent Pony-power.

He craned his neck toward the sky as the first few flurries began, and so did every other creature on the dirt street, surprised at the turn of events.

"Isn't it fall?" The human, Mar, asked himself while putting a hand out to let a few snowflakes land. Their quick departure from the world through the heat of his palm only served to solidify a point.

That it was indeed snowing.

Now, don't get him wrong. On Earth, fall was relativistic. On it, the region, climate, and even the weather had a part in whether it was to snow or not, even if it wasn't winter.

Here on Equuleus, however, the ponies lived in what many would call, a 'Paint Frost on the Windows' type of world. This, in due part to the Pegasi being able to control the weather itself made it shockingly apparent that you could plan for the up-in-coming claws of rain or snow.

This was not planned.

He knew this, due part in the fact that, one: It was fall, and two: he was friends with the lead weather mare of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash.

He stood up from his porch chair, peeked over the lip of the roof, and sure as the sun was bright and yellow, the rainbow streak flew by. He just barely got her attention as she bolted over his home.

"Oi, Rainbow!" He yelled, waving to her.

The streak of prismatic energy turned coarse and flew toward him.

'...'

"Oh--"

Thankfully, as he flinched backward, holding his arms up to protect himself, the bolt stopped just in front of his house.

"I'm a little busy, Mar. What's up?"

He pulled his arms apart to see the pony that's been helping him live these past couple of days. Or, rather, one of the ponies that have been doing so, and smiled.

"Uh, yeah. Is it supposed to be snowing?" I asked, pointing at the darkening cloud cover above.

"No, actually. It's not." She answered, quite annoyed. "I mean, I take one second to myself, and all of Ponyville goes to Tartarus."

"That's... well, not nice." He said with a small frown. "When's it getting under control?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to fly up there and try to clear it up." She said, still with a excessive amount of bite behind her words.

I lifted my hands in surrender and chuckled.

"No need to be so hostile."

Her frown disappeared into a soft groan.

"Yeah, your right. It's just hard you know? I'm the only reliable weather mare this side of the Everfree Valley, and it's just tough, you know?"

"I'd help if I could." I replied with a grunt and waved her off. "Go do it, Number One."

Her smile made the world a little bit brighter for me.

"You got it." She waved a hoof at me and blasted off into the sky.

I turned to my home and went back inside.

Now, I liked Rainbow. I really trusted her, and her ability, but it never hurt to get second and even third opinions. He pulled a radio out from his cabinet and began to fiddle with it absently as he walked around the kitchen.

He pulled the antenna out, turned the power on and was greeted with static.

He then turned the knobs on the side until it's growl turned into a low moan, then a garbled squash of words, and finally to actually speaking as he hit the sweet spot.

"This is your host, High Wire, on the shouting box, coming to you live from the towers of Canterlot."

I didn't know why, but I already hated this dude...

"Now, what's important, I hear, is that there's a runaway blizzard in effect."

That piqued my interest straight away.

"The nasty snow storm is expected to last for awhile until Royal Weather Patrols can get it under control, you dig? It's headed straight over the Everfree Valley, and is expected to come barreling through Mt.Canterhorn late during tomorrow evening. It won't be affecting Canterlot, but residents of Ponyville should beware."

My eyes widened in surprise.

Well, this wasn't at all what he had planned for today, but that's what happens when it starts snowing in early fall.

He shook his head and chuckled.

Thankfully, prepared for such occurrences, he turned to the basement door and rubbed his hands together.
~~~
"Come on you clouds! Break!"

With a rough shout, Rainbow Dash attacked the cloud formation again, succeeding in sinking her hind legs deep within the freezing cold storm front. She yelped in surprise and shot straight back to free herself for what must have been the thousandth time today.

"Come on, Dash. You got this." She puffed her cheeks out, and roared a battle cry as she tackled the cloud next to her.

Shoving the pony right into a body prison of torture.

She cried out and flapped her wings as fast as they would go, breaking the hold it had on her. She turned back to the cloud and glared, only to become down-trodden as it reformed it's shape.

"Eh, huh. I guess it's just not my day..." She sighed.

"Rainbow!"

Turning to the source of the shout, the fastest flier in Equestria spotted one of her friends, Twilight Sparkle below the muck of clouds and dashed down to land right next to her.

"Sup, Egghead?"

"Really?" Twilight asked, arching a brow at Rainbow.

"You know i'm playing around. What do you need?" She waved a hoof at Twilight dismissively.

She pulled a scroll from her saddlebag and unfurled it, trying to keep the snow off at the same time with her magic and pointed at it.

"The Princess has issued a Weather Alert."

Dash's eyes widened.

"No way," She grabbed the letter and looked it to and from. "Am I in trouble?!"

Twilight was just as surprised at Rainbow's worry as she was that it was snowing right now. She brought a hoof up to her face and slapped it.

"No. It was a mishap near Dodge Junction. Apparently while transporting a huge bundle of snowflakes, the Pegasi lost their grip on the net and they all dropped into a large formation of clouds! Now, we have the mother of all blizzards coming straight for us!"

Rainbow shook the letter clean of snow and chuckled nervously at Twilight.

"Oops."

"Never mind that. We need to prepare for the worst! It's going to be absolute chaos in a few short hours!"

"Wait, can't I just take care of this? I mean, I am the fastest flier in all of--"

"Can you even break the layer outside of the storm?" Twilight asked, lifting a brow.

"O-Oh," Rainbow said. "You saw that?"

Twilight shook her head.

"Just come back to town. Everypony's worried and I would really appreciate it if the lead weather mare where there to calm them down just a little bit."

With that, Twilight left.

With a short snort, Rainbow Dash turned back to the cloud cover.

"You think your so tough, eh?" She seethed at the dark formation.

"Well, let's see what you have to say about this!" She flew off like a rocket and went back to kicking the clouds in vain.
~~~
Bottled water?

Check.

Candles?

Check.

Games for when you get bored?

Check.

Makeshift Generator?

Not check...

Where in the world was that gen--

A hasty knock on his doorway interrupted him as he was bending toward the stairs to take another quick peek for his generator. He groaned and went to answer it.

"This had better be important! I'm expecting a storm front to hit u--"

Before he could even finish that sentence, a purple blur shot past the door frame and into his house. It came to a stop just near the mountain of supplies and turned to him in a panic of flurried words.

"Maryouneedtogetoutofherepronto,there'sastormcomingand--"

He politely reached over and muzzled the frantic mare with a hand.

"Now, try again?" He asked as he let go.

Twilight Sparkle breathed in, and then,

"Youneedtogetoutofhere,there'sastor--"

Muzzled again.

"You know, this isn't very productive for our time here."

She shook herself free and sighed.

"There's a storm coming. Your coming with me."

"Oh? And who made you the boss?" He asked as he walked to his supplies and began shifting through the bottles to count them.

"Why, Princess Celestia of coarse." Twilight answered confidently. "She made it expressly obvious that you should be moved to some place safe. You know how it is."

"Actually, I don't." I said, standing tall and looming over the little pony.

Her confidence waned as her stature became apparent.

"W-Well, she said to help preparations for the storm. Cut the branches off the trees, clear the debris, relocate the animals and maybe even--"

"Excuse me?" I asked, stopping her.

"What?" She asked.

"What was that last one?" I asked, feeling a bit of rage boil forth.

"Cut the tree branches?"

"Try again."

"Clear the debris...?" She said.

"Warmer."

"R-Relocate the animals?" She yelped.

"Right, well thank you for stopping by, Twilight Sparkle, but you can kindly leave now." I said with a snarl, picking her up and tossing her into what I could only assume was a snow pile. I could barely tell past the tint of red I was seeing.

I slammed the door, causing enough of a tremor that the stacked water bottles and game boxes fell.

Then, I just stood there.

Shaking.

I was so sick and tired of hearing that slang get shot off at me.

Animal. Monkey. Creature, monster and cretin.

I walked over to the recliner that I was able to get one of the ponies in town to make, and sat down quietly to let my rage die down.

As I fumed silently, I hardly noticed the storm outside beginning to pick up.
~~~
Rainbow Dash's short cry was drowned out by the wail of the wind as she attempted to fly, taking the wind into account, she had almost made it down to two hooves before getting rocketed back up. She clung to a cloud in sheer terror, waiting for the billowing horror to stop just enough for her to close her wings.

This wasn't a good time to fly.

That, coupled with her natural instinct to take flight to get out of danger, was not making the best of situations.

She tried desperately to work between instinct and training as she worked her body to keep herself stuck firmly on the cloud below her.

They taught her in flight school, that if ever she where to find herself in a situation where the wind was to powerful, to form a cloud sanctuary. Basically, form the clouds around you to create a room that you could sit in until it blew over.

Trouble was, she'd be stuck in that room for a good while, and probably freeze to death while doing it.

Pegasus coat's could handle a lot of things, but the frigid climates within a blizzard was not one of those things.

Many a good flyer, even Soarin', where taken down as wind and water froze their wings solid.

She opened her eye just enough to catch a glimpse of a house as the cloud cover parted and then closed again. She gasped as she recognized the porch on it's front, even from the bare glimpse.

Mar's house.

Pure thought took over as she pushed herself up, making sure to keep her wings closed.

She only had one shot at this...

There was a window at the top of his house.

If she could just get enough power to dive, she'd make it to the window.

But could she?
~~~
Mar's train of thought ruptured like a bubble in a rough tailwind as his head shot up from a loud shattering noise. His fingers twined together as his mind bounced the situation around in his emotion addled head.

The third floor's window broke?

Shooting to his feet, he knew that he had to take precautions to close off the breach, otherwise he'd have one hell of a mess to clean up afterword.

It was a room he barely ever used to begin with, the third floor, but if he didn't do it, then the roof would start to leek.

He grabbed a sturdy piece of wood about the size of the window from what his memory could have told him, along with a hammer and nails and bolted up the stairs with them.

He neared the door, when suddenly he heard it.

Moaning.

As in, pain filled moaning, like someone was in the room already.

His blood curdled as the moans turned into one long scream. He could just make out the sounds of someone trying to scrape up to their hooves, and then falling back down again under it.

He opened the door and gasped out loud.

The window was broken. And below it, Rainbow Dash laid, bloodied, covered with glass. It wasn't much to begin with, but even the small amount was deadly. She shouldn't have tried to move.

Forgetting entirely about the portal to the storm above her, he went over and pulled her out of the pile.

He bit past the pain of the glass cutting into him, and turned away from the mess to bring her downstairs.

He stopped right at the couch and very slowly put her down.

"God... oh for the love of..." He muttered, looking around.

All these useless candles and games, and no first aid kit?

He went to the kitchen, where some candles where already lit, burning and providing at least some light in the darkness, and threw open his many cabinets. Searching, like a lost man for a map. Finally, he had done it.

First aid kit in hand, he snatched a cloth and attempted to turn on his faucet.

"No water?" He growled, tossing the knob back to off. Frozen.

He went for a water bottle, turned the cap straight off and poured it onto the cloth.

He took both that, the kit, and the empty bottle and went straight back to Dash.

He looked her over, swore under his breath and popped the kit open after dropping the bottle.

"Tweezers, tweezers..." He chanted, filling through the kit.

"No tweezers?!"

Ponies and their hooves!

With another growl, he shoved the first aid kit and turned to the injured pony. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do, before he took a few calming breaths.

"No! No. Panic's the enemy."

He breathed until he was steady of hand, and covered it with the cloth.

And then, he went to work.

He pulled shard by shard out of Dash by hand, bringing pained groans and hisses from the mare until he was sure that he got it all out of her back and wings. He had to make sure, however, and as he worked his fingers over the delicate, now ruffled feathers, Rainbow's eyes opened.

"Don't move." He commanded simply.

Obeying for the time being, Dash just groaned and looked at him without moving.

"W-What happened?"

"You crashed through my window." He said, again staying as simple as he could make it.

She hissed in pain yet again as she flinched. His hand found a particularly sensitive spot between one of her primaries. There was some glass as well, but not anymore.

"Didn't think that you where home..." She said softly as he continued his search.

"And that's supposed to make me or you calm?" I asked with a huff. "You could have been seriously hurt, Dash. That, and I wouldn't have found you until something really bad happened."

She looked away, pride hurt.

"I-I didn't mean to--"

"Where where you? Why weren't you home?" I asked, shaking my head again.

"My home's a cloud, Mar. Can't really sit in there for to long in this." She sighed.

"Still. You could have went to someone else's. Pinkie's. Twilight's. God... I should have let you in when you where here this morning. I should have--"

"Please..." Rainbow sniffed, covering her face with a fore arm.

"No! I should have stopped you from going! I knew something bad was going to happen, but this?" He gestured to her wings and back. "God, i'm such an idiot! I'm a moron. A complete an utter waste of spa--"

A light sob stopped him from shouting.

He looked down to it's owner as she cried into her fore arm.

"O-Oh, Dash. Don't cry."

"Why? I'm the moron! Why would you beat yourself up over me?" She cried, rubbing the trail of tears away.

He froze.

Why was he beating himself up?

"I-I--"

It hit him like a bag of bricks.

More firmly, he answered her.

"Your my friend, Rainbow. Actually, no. Your like a sister to me! You've been there for me since the start. Sure, you treated me like a spy for a short while, but those where fun times!"

Her sniffles returned as she turned her head to me, wincing at the pain as she did so.

"You don't mean that." She said.

"I'd miss you, Dash. And don't you ever tell me that I wouldn't." I growled.

A small smile played at her lips, but the sound of the wailing wind finally broke through the walls. The eerie sound caused us to jump, and Dash gasped in agony as she did so. I turned to the door, and frowned.

"You need the hospital, and now there's no way I can get you there..."

It was just one of those days...

Comments

[OPMightDeliver]

Cool! I like Mar, but I think the non OC characters are a little bit off. Looking forward to the next chapter!

[TheLonewolves215]

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I'm glad that you like 'em. Of coarse, this is my first story, and it's sort of a practice run so any feedback that you have on the story would be wonderful.