• Published 2nd Jan 2018
  • 2,886 Views, 80 Comments

Living Darkness - vildtiger

  • ...
9
 80
 2,886

PreviousChapters Next
Attempt to Stop Winter

Note: This happens a month after the last chapter.
made from the episode "Tanks for the Memories"

Ponyville is preparing for winter by taking down the leaves by the yearly race. This time Rainbow Dash didn’t race as she is way more interested in the upcoming winter. This winter feels special for her because this will be the first one she will spend with her pet tortoises Tank. “Once we get autumn cleared away, it'll be hello, winter!” She declares to the flying tortoises and lands on a cloud, to her disappointment, Tank is not as thrilled as she had hoped. The tortoises yawn instead. “Was that a yawn I just saw?” Tank responses with another yawn.
Leaving the cloud, Rainbow Dash grabs Tank, demanding. “How can you be tired when the most exciting time of the year is right around the corner? And don't forget the best part –“ She throws up him higher into the air in her excitement. “Our first winter together!” But again, Tank is not showing any sign of excitement. Rainbow flies over to him and nudges the tortoises awake. “Come on, wake up!” Tank wakes but not by much, maybe he will when she tells her pet what she has planning they will do in their first winter. “We'll have a ton of snow for our extreme sledding!” She can see it, them sliding down the snowy hill with such a speed that those standing nearby will be covered in their snow trail. Rainbow grabs Tank and points at the lake that in a matter of days will be frozen solid. “And over there, we can play horse hockey.” Adding. “With no shoulder or arm pads!” For a cool pony like her does not need such things and there is a reason why she called her pet Tank.
But again, Tank seems more interested in a nap than the plans she has for their winter. This is starting to worry her, so Rainbow Dash decides to ask Fluttershy what is wrong with her pet.

**Fluttershy's cottage**

“There you go.” Fluttershy gives the newly fallen leaves to the skunks so they can make a comfortable bed for their long sleep. Then she flies over to check on Heavy who has offered to help her out tucking the animals that soon will be sleeping the winter away. “How is it going?” She asks him about the task of sweeping the remaining leaves into the den for Harry, her companion bear.
Heavy let's go of the boom in his mouth. “Almost done.” and looks at Harry that hums in agreement, holding an armful of leaves. Fluttershy is happy to see that Heavy has gotten good friends with Harry and has also been helping his sister Zhanna to understand that all the animals living near the cottage are—

“Fluttershy! Something is wrong with Tank!”

Fluttershy jumps in her startle from Rainbow Dash sudden arrival. Recovering, she eyes the close to sleeping tortoises to then at Rainbow Dash’s worried expression. “Take him inside.” She requests and Rainbow speeds inside the hut, Fluttershy turns to Heavy. “When you are finished, could you feed the birds?” She requests.
Heavy glances to the many feeding spots for the birds and muses. “Will spill seeds.” and she replies. “That’s okay, the birds will figure it out.” and Fluttershy flies into her cottage. Here she checks Tank’s heartbeat.

“Well?!” Rainbow Dash asks impatiently.

“I suppose his heartbeat could be a teensy-weensy-eensy bit slower than usual... “ Fluttershy replies and Rainbow, thinking that is something to be worried about tells her. “Okay, so give him a vitamin or something!” Fluttershy eyes the tortoises, sleeping on the soft pillow. It’s pretty clear what is going on with him. “I don't think he needs that.” And before she can tell Rainbow what is going on with her pet, Rainbow Dash comes up with her own conclusion. “Maybe we're just staying up too late. Uh, too many Daring Do stories.” And pets her tortoises, it pleases Fluttershy to see that her athletic friend is willing to show her softer side around her pet. “Oh, that's not it either.” She replies and has to step back when Rainbow Dash flies a tad too close to her face, demanding. “Well, what's wrong with him then?!”
“Nothing! He's perfectly fine.” She assures her and Rainbow Dash lets out a sigh of relief and leans up against her sleeping pet. With her calmer, Fluttershy can finally explain: “He's just going to hibernate.”

Wait what? “You do realize he's not a bear, right?” Rainbow points out. Fluttershy giggles and explains while she picks a book from her shelf. “When the weather grows cold and less food is available, many animals hibernate to conserve energy.” She shows her pictures of both rabbits and bears doing this hibernate thing. “It's like taking a really long nap during winter, and then they wake up in spring.” Fluttershy flips the page and shows her a picture having a tortoise as Tank sleeping in an earthy den. “And see? Even tortoises do it! When the time comes, Tank will leave and dig into the ground.”
Rainbow Dash stares at the picture and the words of Fluttershy ring through her head. Tank will leave her? For this hibernating?

“But don't worry. He'll reappear when the spring sun warms the ground back up.” Fluttershy assures her friend but to her great surprise, Rainbow Dash straight out denies this fact.

“Come on! Tortoises don't hibernate! Somepony put that picture in there as a joke.” Rainbow Dash retorts and slams the book shut, she refuses to accept that Tank will leave her for this weird hibernating.

“It’s not a joke.” Fluttershy points out but Rainbow Dash won’t hear of it. “Rainbow Dash, Tank needs to hibernate.“ She tells her friend, Tank will suffer if he stays awake during winter, a Tortoises like him cannot produce their own body heat so they hibernate for the winter. “It's healthy for him, just like sleeping is healthy for us.” She tries to explain for Rainbow Dash but the other pegasus did not seem to understand as she snorts a laugh and with a bit rude thanks she leaves the cottage. “Where are you going?” Fluttershy asks confused.

“To get a second opinion from a real reptile expert.” Rainbow replies and flies off to find someone who can tell her that Tank won’t be hibernating.
She visits Spike at the Golden Oak Library, he’s not alone though. Fortunately, it’s not Twilight, she is too busy cleaning up autumn with the others. Nope, the one staying cooked up inside is Medic, he does not take the increasing cold that well, plus like his partner: is a giant egghead. Bit weird not see him and Heavy together though, but Rainbow Dash does not really pay it much mind as she has bigger things to worry about.
Ignoring the white un- eh alicorn, Rainbow Dash asks for Spike opinion about Tank’s well being.

Those questions coming from Rainbow Dash feels quite insulting, more so when she does not get the huge difference between him and Tank. “I told you, Rainbow Dash, I'm a drake!” Spike tells her annoyed. But of course, Rainbow does not hear him.

“Come on! You're practically twins!”

Spike deadpan the sleeping tortoises besides him and is not amused Rainbow thought they are alike. “I have more things in common with Gable than Tank.” Spike points out and groans when Rainbow asks, again not listing to him. “But if you don't have to hibernate, why should Tank?!” and he exclaims now really annoyed. “Because he's a tortoise and I'm a drake— a dragon and dragons do not hibernate!”

“Same family though, right?”

“NO!” Spike shouts and is happy Medic is willing to lend him a hoof on this.

“Unfortunately Spike hasn’t permitted me to investigate if his fire is what makes him warm-blooded.” Medic remarks, can’t help but grin from the wary look said dragon gives him. Anyway back to Rainbow Dash’s small issue. “But with Fluttershy’s talent with animals, then I assure you; if she says tortoises hibernate, then I guarantee tortoises hiber—“ “Well, what would you know?! You’re not her partner!” Rainbow Dash angrily interrupts him and before he can retort back, the blue pegasus has left with her pet.
Blinking of this aggression from Rainbow Dash, Medic turns to Spike but the young drake can only shrug in his own confusion of why Rainbow Dash did not want to hear them out.

**Next day**

Almost every one of the group is now outside and helping to prepare for the fast approaching winter.
Rainbow Dash is too, but she’s still set on having a grand winter with her pet tortoise. She pushes the big clouds filled with snow to its spot like any other pegasi. “These things are heavy! Chock full of snowflakes! We're gonna have such a killer time in the snow, Tank.” She tells her pet, then notices her tortoise is not flying behind her like he did not long ago. She spots Tank on the ground, digging a hole. “Tank!”

Seeing that Tank is about to sleep the winter over, Pinkie Pie trots over. “Aww, look at the cute wittle Tankie, all snuggly-wuggly, getting ready to hibern—“ “Don't say that word!” Rainbow Dash roars and yanks up Tank from the ground. Pinkie jerks away in surprise but like always she recovers quickly and asks in her cheerful self. “Which one? "Snuggly"? "Wuggly"? "Tankie"? "Hibernate"?”

Rainbow slams a hoof on Pinkie’s mouth. “That one!” Pinkie Pie removes her hoof, pointing out. “I was just saying how cute he—“ but that is nothing cute about that word. “If you think hiber... – you know.” She can’t make herself say that horrible word. “That napping thing – is so cute, why don't you go do it?!” She shoves Pinkie away, shouting after her. “Somewhere far away from here!” She then notices that Pinkie Pie wasn’t alone, most of the other bearers— plus her own are there, now staring at her. “What are you looking at?!” She yells angrily at them for staring at her like that. “Pinkie Pie and I are just having a conversation!”

Heavy shakes his head, he heard from Fluttershy that Rainbow Dash is for some refusing her pet to go through hibernating. He might not be as smart on animals like his partner but even he knows that if an animal wants to hibernate then it should. “Rainbow pony is silly, get upset over small such pet want hiber—“ Pinkie hushes him, clinging to his neck. “Don't say that word! That's what started this all!” She whispers and yells at the same time.

While Heavy is giving Pinkie a weird look, Twilight Sparkle tries to reason with her very upset friend. “We all know how upset you are about Tank. But you shouldn't take your anger out on your friends.” And Rainbow practically explodes. “Who said anything about anger?! I didn't say anything about anger! I'm not upset! And I am not angry! Do I look angry?!” She demands, looking ready to explode again.

“You look angrier than a drunk wasp with a bomb on its back.” Demo replies while the others have a look that clearly reveals that his words suit Rainbow’s denial of being angry. He's not really surprised that Rainbow Dash starts shouting again, but do wish she didn't do it at his face. “I told you I am not angry!” and she speeds over to her pet. “Come on, Tank! Let's get out of here!”

With Rainbow gone, Applejack think she knows what is going on, she has quite the personal experience about loss but… it does not make much sense. “Denial and then anger. Sounds like she is going through the grieving progress but...” She turns to Fluttershy in confusion. “Why would she do that for Tank? It’s not like he is dying.” Fluttershy shrugs with a quiet. “I tried to tell her he will wake up at spring but… I don’t think she heard me…”
Sadly there isn't much they can do about it since Rainbow Dash is clearly not in the talking mood, so they decide to get back to work.
Applejack does take notice that Sniper keeps glances to where Rainbow Dash flew off too but something is keeping him from going after her. She does wonder why but know that it's not really her business.

**At Rainbow’s home.**

“I need you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, not sleepy-eyed and scaly-tailed!” Rainbow Dash exclaims to her sleeping pet. “Which... is exactly what you are. But get up anyway!” She cries out loud, but Tank didn’t do that, he’s busier being tired and closer to the dreaded hibernation. “You can't hiber–“ she stops herself from saying the word, afraid saying it will make it happen. “…You know. What about all the primo things we're gonna do together this winter?” Rainbow Dash asks Tank and lists up all the things she had planned for them to do: “Building snow ponies, starting snowball fights, sipping hot cider by the fire.” All broken by the tortoise snoring. “Don't you wanna do those things with me?!” She yells as she takes all of this as a sign Tank does not want to be with her.
Tank snaps out of his sleepy state for only just a moment to give her a smile… then falls back asleep. So Tank wants to be with her but this hibernating thing is what keeps him from doing it? “So Tank's only hibernating because it's cold, right?” Rainbow Dash eyes her sleeping pet and muses to herself. “Well, I'd rather have him awake in the heat than asleep in the cold...” and in order for him to be awake, it has to be warm which means… she gasps in realizing. ”I just have to stop winter!” She exclaims and although it is wrong; she much rather wants it to stay summer than having to say goodbye to her beloved pet.

Outside, everyone in Ponyville is cleaning up and preparing for winter. The pegasi doing most of the work as they all have the magic over the weather.
The turned humans that have wings help on that part too, just as they did last year as well.
Soldier pushes one of the many snow-filled clouds to the sky, then stops when he realizes he has no idea where these clouds should be located. So he turns to the nearest pony and asks. “What’s the location for these clouds?”
“Over by Clear Sky.” The stallion replies, pointing at the direction.
Soldier follows his hoof and where he pointed seemed like a random spot. “There’s clear sky everywhere.”
A mare flies over to them. “Yo, Clear Skies right here!” She smiles widely but that’s only making Soldier the more confused. “But there are clear skies over there, too!” He exclaims, pointing at a spot in the sky not having any clouds, right behind the male pegasus.
and the mare replies. “That's Open Skies!”
This is getting confusing even for him! Holy liberty he does not understand pony names. “There are open skies everywhere maggots!” He tries to tell the two, not noticing that Scout and some other pegasus have stopped their jobs and watching the whole scene.
The stallion titles his head and explains him. “I'm not everywhere. I'm right here!”
Soldier stares at the stallion, taking a deep breath and at least tries to get an understanding before he breaks protocol the president gave him and snaps someone’s neck in his frustration. “So you're Open Skies.” The stallion nod. “and you're Clear Skies.” The mare nods, Soldier then gestures to the sky. “Then what's all that?” and the two replies as if it was that simple.
“Open, clear skies!”
None of them saw Rainbow Dash has come swooping and stole their snow-filled clouds. When Soldier did he asks. “Where'd our fluffy clouds go?”
“Fluffy Clouds? He's over there!” The mare named Clear Sky replies and points at a male pegasus with a mane very much like Pinkie Pies. That’s where it gets enough for Soldier. “Your names makes no sense! Get some proper name soldier!” He shouts at the two.
The stallion smiles sheepishly. “I’m not Soldier, that’s you.” and said turned human facepalm so hard it can be head all the way to the ground.
Soldier did not notice Scout and the other stallion are rolling on their cloud, laughing.

Grinning on how easy that went, Rainbow Dash hides the clouds inside a hollow tree. “Stopping winter is gonna be a breeze.” She tells Tank and after have forced the clouds properly into the hole, she grabs her pet and flies off. Right there Pyro walks by and as she passes the tree, the clouds burst out and cover the adult drake’s left side in snow. Pyro stares at the snow now covering her side, a bit confused where it came from.

***************

The next days, Rainbow Dash is doing everything in her power to stop winter from coming to Ponyville. She burst any cloud, removes the ice from the water and whatever she can think of to make sure the warmth of summer will stick around. But even with her speed, Rainbow Dash is unable to outwork the united effort from everypony else in Ponyville and at the week’s end, there is more snow than sunshine.
Realizing this, Rainbow is heartbroken and begins to mope around on the clouds, not sure what else she can do to stop Tank going to sleep. That's until her eyes catch the city/weather factory of Cloudsdale. She hesitates though, it’s one thing to sabotage the other pegasi from bringing winter to this area but stopping winter by the source? That’s extreme, even for her.
Tank yawns again, less responsive than ever. Rainbow Dash eyes her beloved pet, and knows if she does not try; she will lose Tank. So Rainbow heads for Cloudsdale: for her pets sake.
She arrives at the cloudy city and sneaks past any residents in case they want to stop her from removing winter.
She swiftly flies over to hide in a patch of cloud, peaking her head up when the sound sends every worker at the factory to lunch. “Perfect.” Rainbow Dash smirks and hides again, allowing the workers to leave. With the last one out, she grabs the cloud and sneaks inside the factory.
Inside the factory, Rainbow Dash gets past the few stragglers of workers with the more asleep than awake Tank in tow. She spots the room she’s looking for and quickly heads inside.
Inside are large machines having early stages of clouds and tubes behind that are filled with water. “We're in, Tank! Now we just gotta figure out a way to shut it down.” She tells her pet and flies over to one of the tables, looking into a magnifying glass. “Sabotage snowflakes? I think we gotta go bigger than that.” So she leaves the newly made snowflakes alone. She does stop to strap Tank to a lamp as the tortoise is getting bit in the way and she flies over to the large machine, following the pipes that all lead to the making of patches of clouds. “Hmm. We could get rid of these clouds, but... that's still not big enough.” She blows the empty cloud off her hoof and turns to the largest machine in the entire room, the tank holding all the water Fillydelphia brought to Cloudsdale in their tornado event. “Slam dunk!” Rainbow Dash cheers that she found the mother load and flies over to the huge tank. “With no water, they can't make clouds or snow! They can't make winter!” Unaware she got a third party in the room next door.

Hearing the voice of Rainbow Dash, the third member leaves the glassed lightning bolts alone and heads into the cloud making part of the factory. The first thing he saw was some turtle that looks more dead than alive, dragging the lamp it is attached to towards one of the machines. Before the turtle got itself turned into soup, Scout grabs the leash binds the animal to the nearby stair fence. Turning away from that near disaster he turns to Rainbow, who is now trying to break the tubes bringing water to the other machines. “Uh... what are you doing?” He asks her confused, he’s not close enough to sense her emotions but he still gets bad vibes from this scene.

Rainbow Dash freezes up as she has been caught but the moment she notices it’s just Scout, she returns back to her work of removing the tubes from the huge water tank. “Sweet timing, could you help me removing this?” Scout walks slowly closer, for once he does not have that cocky grin on his face.
“But wouldn’t that remove all the water for the cloud making?” He asks her in a slow, unsure voice, Rainbow Dash smirks down to him. “It sure will.”

Okay, now he not only can sense her emotions; which are hard to describe other than they hurt but he also understands that Rainbow Dash is seriously going to sabotage the whole place. He just does not understand why. “Why are you doing this?”

“Are you going to help me or what?” Rainbow Dash instead retorts annoyed, he does not move, so she figures she might as well do this alone.

“Why are you sabotaging the factory?” Scout asks back as he approaches her slowly. He’s wary, he does not fully understand but the emotions he’s getting from her is putting him on edge. She kicks one of the tubes and water spews out rapidly, he jumps into the air to get away from the water, now getting frustrated about this destructive behavior from one who was more excited about winter than Heavy. “Rainbow Dash! Why the hell are you doing this?!” He demands her to answer.
Rainbow Dash turns away from the second tube and at him, then her eyes go somewhere else, her emotions change to something he is very familiar with: fear of losing something, or rather... someone. Scout follows her eyes to that snoring turtle and that confuses him. “You’re doing this for a turtle?” He asks slowly. He never had a pet as a kid, ma had other things to worry about than a pet, like keeping track on a bunch of boys. That made him think of why his mother did barely have time for herself, and that makes him angry. “You are sabotaging this whole place for a stupid turtle?!” He asks Rainbow Dash harshly, confused and angry to why she does all of this for an animal.

“He’s not stupid!” Rainbow Dash snaps back, kicks the second tube and lands hard on the soaked floor not far from the flying half changeling, she is more than ready to fight this colt, he might be fast but being part changeling makes him a sucker to kicks: she learned that when the changelings invaded Canterlot. “He is my pet and friend! And if I let winter come I… I… I have to say goodbye!!” She shouts at him.

Those words throw his mind back to long before Miss Pauling came to recruit him, back to his early childhood. He’s not sure if it’s a real memory or not, only that thinking about this obscure scene of watching his father drive off without a word. Once his only memory of the man, and brought him pain and anger for so many years. He has never spoken it out loud, but he’s still afraid his father will remember why he left in the first place and do it again to both him but also his two sisters. No, he— he can’t think about that now! This is not the same, she is acting stupid because of a pet, this is not the same! Scout shakes angrily his head that Rainbow has unintentionally made him think about Spy. But that early abandonment taught him a harsh lesson. “Whatever you like it or not…” He straightens up and meets Rainbow Dash’s desperate gaze with his furious glare of the reminder to why he does not like to be alone. “No matter how much you fight, how much you try to stop it: you can’t.”

“I will make Tank better! I will stop winter!!” Rainbow Dash shouts.

“It won’t change anything!!” Scout retorts back with his pelt giving off small bolts of electricity. Oh, how he knows that fact painfully well. “Delay it all you like but it will come. Your pet will—“

“Don’t say that word!” Rainbow roars, takes off and flies hard into Scout, knocking them both into the cloud making machine which starts making clouds, or at least it tries to but without water, it only overheats itself.
Ignoring the danger, Rainbow Dash kicks Scout in the chest with a determent. “No matter what: winter won’t come to Ponyville!”
Scout cries in pain from the kick, he was lucky this didn't happen in his former shape, otherwise; Rainbow Dash could've done some serious damage on the weaker shape. Still hurts like hell getting kicked into the organ that works as a changeling's stomach. Ignoring the pain, Scout gets on her side and even with his more harmless shape, he can still be scary when angered. He bites her neck and throws her into the snowflake machine.

The whole room spin for a moment but she recovers just fast enough to see Scout come for her again, shooting him a glare, Rainbow Dash gets up and they start a hoof fight. She fights for her pet’s sake, while he, much to her unawareness simply fight because she started it. Too busy trying to hurt the other, none of them saw that the spilled water has reached one of the machines.

Good thing someone else was in the room.

"Knock it off!" Sniper jumps in between the two, causing just enough startle from both to hear his next words. "Get the bloody hell out, now!" Sniper snaps at them. One of them realizes the threatening screeching sound coming from the machines and the thick smoke beginning to surround them. Rainbow Dash forgets all about Scout when she notices the smoke will endanger Tank. Ignoring the two turned humans she swiftly flies over to her pet and leaves to bring him to safety.

Scout glares at where Rainbow flew out, he is really angry but also confused and that does not really sit well in his mind as it makes him angrier. He lets out a frustrated scream and kicks on the machines there starts to screech louder. He's too angry to care though.

"Scout." Sniper calls, admittedly worried for the speedster behavior. He has never seen the kid like this. Scout snaps to him, he looks ready to attack but Sniper knows he won't. Kid's eyes are dazed, he's too upset to do anything rash. "Let's get out from here." He tells Scout and gently grabs Scout at the neck, guiding him out before anyone come to check the room.



**Four days later**

After having repaired the damage that unexpected happen to the cloud making machine room, Cloudsdale went right back to work and at day’s end, the last snow cloud has left and Cloudsdale can move on to bring winter to the other towns further south of Equestria.
Everyone is out enjoying the snow after weeks of hard work bringing winter.
All except one.

Rainbow Dash stares at the snowy landscape outside from her window, feeling like she’s trapped in a pit of tar, not having the strength to get free…Rainbow Dash can’t bring herself to anything else than lie beside Tank, feeling worse for each yawn he’s doing.

Outside and below Rainbow’s house, Fluttershy and Applejack walk over to Twilight Sparkle, with the earth pony saying. “Heard from Sniper that Rainbow Dash is not doing so great.” Twilight nods she is indeed correct, Rainbow Dash has been acting weird all winter preparation, but now she has really gone down the dumps. “Any idea what happened?”
But all Twilight can do is shrug, musing. “I tried to speak with her, but she completely ignores me.” She glances to where he left not long ago. "Even ignored Sniper." Which says a lot since the turned humans have some personal connection to their partner.

All three look up to their pegasus friend’s home. “She hasn’t left her home for three days, it’s not like her.” Fluttershy muses somberly.
Rainbow never disappears like that, not even when a new book of Daring Doo is out. Applejack, having a slight frown on her face turns to Twilight Sparkle. “If it’s okay for you princess, maybe you and Fluttershy should speak with Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy nods in agreement with Applejack.

Twilight frowns sadly of the “honorary” title Celestia gave to her. “Applejack, I am not…” She sights, not feeling up to this discussion at the moment. So instead she turns to Fluttershy. “Let’s speak with Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy nods and the two flies up to her home.
They both walk inside, finding Rainbow Dash moping on the bed with her pet lying beside her. Fluttershy steps over to her, asking worriedly. “How are you feeling, Rainbow Dash?”

“Whatever…” Rainbow Dash replies in a miserable voice like she is devoted of all hope.

Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle exchange worried glances with one another, so Twilight walks over to her, asking. “Isn’t there anything we can do to help with whatever you are dealing with?” She wants to help but has no idea what is going on with Rainbow Dash and that is really frustrating, more so when Rainbow is only responding with a sad and dismissive. “Whatever…”
“What has made you like this? You usually love winter.”

Rainbow Dash lets out an annoying sight, doesn't the princess understand she does not want anyone around. “Didn't you hear me, princess?” She asks the accended unicorn, ignoring the frown Twilight has on her face. “I said 'whatever'.” She turns back to mope besides Tank. “I don't know if you're here to cheer me up or what, but I'm fine.”

“But—“ Twilight tries but Fluttershy stops her. “Let me handle this.” The yellow pegasus walks over to Rainbow Dash and says with a hard tone her partner at times uses when he gives somepony tough love, one she knows her friend needs right now. “Rainbow Dash, your winter is going to be pet-less.” Rainbow Dash sits up, at first with a startled expression on her face, then it breaks under the tears flooding Rainbow’s eyes and she burst out crying.

Twilight turns to Fluttershy in an utter surprise of such a strong reaction from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy explains her. “This has been bothering her all autumn, and unless she lets it all out: she won’t get past it.” Twilight nods slowly, although she admits she does not fully understand it as Tank will return at spring.

**Meanwhile inside Everfree forest**

From the shadows, Spy and Sniper are watching Scout stalks around the frozen lake at this glade, now and then attacking a tree as if it offended him.
Sniper glances to the blue changeling before he leaves without a word. Spy watches the Aussie leave, not entirely sure what Sniper's angle is from giving him a heads-up about his son is not doing so great. He can think about that later. Turning back to the glade, Spy does not have to sense his son’s emotions to know the young man is deeply troubled, about what he does not know but has a good guess from how Scout has been very keen on keeping his distance from him ever since the merging. It seems the BLU side of Scout is again causing havoc in his mind. Spy can’t really blame the kid though. He is after all the reason why his son is dealing with this problem, to begin with.
Spy knows he is supposed to be there for his son but ignoring the years of training Ace put him through is not that easy. It has been drilled into his mind that letting people get close to him gives the enemy a target, Spy does agree on that but... not having anyone close… it is terribly lonely and, well in his current form, he will starve if he pushes people away. He does mentally kicks himself to go out there before his son accidentally hurts himself in his upset state.
The moment his son notices his presence, he goes in defense mode. “Fuck off, I don’t need you to gloat at me!” By lashing out.
Spy is not bothered by it, his son hasn’t yet learned how to make hurtful insults but must say; this was one of the better ones. “I’m not here to gloat.” He replies the sparking in anger Scout, and knowing it will put a lit on the rage, he turns around and moves to leave, saying. “But I can see I am not wanted.”

“Wait..!” Scout calls without really thinking, realizing his mistake and embarrassed he showed he didn’t want Spy to leave. “I...” Letting out a growl he tries to hide his true feelings and turns his back to Spy. “Whatever, just leave me alone.” For a painful time, he hears no movements and the emotions he is sensing does not reveal what his father is thinking. When Spy finally does move, Scout mistakes it him leaving which causes a lot of pain, only to be sharply replaced with a surprise from feeling his father’s hoof on his shoulder. He looks up to Spy, into those stoic but sympatric reddish orbs. “You don’t deserve this.” Spy speaks, and Scout blinks in confusion, he does get it from his father’s next words. “The fault is solely mine.”
Scout remembers that when ma did speak about his father, she always mentioned that he was quite the martyr. He remembers he mistook it for his father to be dead but now he sees Spy thought he solely deserved the pain his departure caused. Scout wants to say something but he’s not sure what, maybe that him leaving made life hell for him? But he knows his father did it with best intentions.
“This is stupid...” He finally speaks, for really, shouldn’t they both just get over it and start over?

For once, Jeremy got a good point, this is stupid as there is nothing they can do about the past other than getting the best out of what they have. “You look cold.” He remarks to Scout and starts to leave the again confused colt. “I’m sure there’s enough hot chocolate for you too.” Well aware Scout loves that stuff, his sisters' heritage that trait as well.
Takes a moment but after a small laugh, Scout follows him. “Sure.” Having that iconic grin of his back, that’s more like it, Spy smiles and both returns back to the hut.

**An hour later. Rainbow Dash's home**

The blue pegasus has gotten all the tumult of emotions out of her system from crying and slowly, she accepts the words everyone have been telling her: she cannot stop Tank from hibernating and she now knows that it was wrong of her to even have been trying. Picking up Tank, Rainbow Dash admits with a new wave of tears ready to fall “Oh, Tank... I'm sure gonna miss you.” More so when her beloved pet slowly touches her hoof in the sign he too has accepted this and glad she understands this needs to happen.

Out near the now frozen lake, ponies are having fun skating and sliding down the nearby hill.
Engineer is holding a sled, allowing his son and Apple Bloom to get properly on it before he pushes it down the hill, much of the joy for the two kids. Down at the lake Spike is skating gracefully around, broken when Pyro catches everyone on the lake when she makes a belly slide as if she is a giant penguin. She and those the caught ends in a large patch of snow, they get their heads up from the snow, Spike leaving the whole patch when he happed to be right underneath Pyro’s head. The ponies stare a few seconds at the scene before laughing along with the two drakes.
Further away, Scout is building a snowman, just as he puts on the head, he gets startled when Laverine squeaks his name, somehow got onto his back without him noticing. He stares at his little sister, then to the snowman where Sauda stands with a deep frown in an attempt to figure out what it is. He laughs and shows them how to roll a ball. The two girls are quick to copy him and Scout has fun teaching the two how to build a snowman, much to the delight of the two watching parents.
Rarity and Derpy pass Soldier who is engaging in a snowball battle with some kids, one of them includes Derpy’s child and both walk to the nearby glade of trees. Here they meet Applejack and Pinkie Pie doing a bit of a snowball fight with Demo. Twilight having a conversation with Heavy, Zhanna and Fluttershy, who is holding a silver dove.
Not long after they have joined the group, Rainbow Dash appears, carrying Tank in a bag, telling all those who decided to come. “I thought you guys might like to say goodbye to Tank. He's ready to hibernate.”

Pinke jumps. “You're using the word!” and exclaims excitedly to the others. “Oh, she's using the word! And when Tank finishes hibernating, I'm gonna throw him the biggest welcome home party ever!” Then realizes that is not right. “Or wait. Should it be a 'welcome above ground' party? Or a 'happy wake-up' party? Maybe an 'it's about time!' party!” She did not see Heavy rolls his eyes with his sister staring dumbfounded at her.
Rarity did and smiles in agreement that their pink friend do at times overthink the naming of a party.

“I'm glad you're feeling a little better, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack says and puts down the snowball. Rainbow Dash nods in agreement. “Yeah, me too.” Walks over and digs away the snow so the still soft earth is exposed. She puts down Tank and he walks into the dirt, digging himself deeper inside. With only the front still free from the dirt, she asks him. “So, you really wanna do this hibernating thing, huh?” Tank nods, well if that’s what he wants then… she has no right to stop him.
The others say goodbye to Tank as the tortoise digs himself deeper into the ground until the snow above coves the hole. With that, the others leave.
Twilight Sparkle do stay by Rainbow Dash’s side and asks her encouragingly. “Well? Ready for some winter fun?” Rainbow has to decline for now though. “Uh, I'm gonna hang here and read to him a bit.” She walks over to the spot where Tank is hibernating and pulls out the newest book of the Daring Doo series. “That little guy can never get to sleep without a bedtime story. I'll be right there.” Twilight nods and leaves them be.

Rainbow Dash opens the book, then stops when she notices a shadow above her. She smiles weakly. “I know you’re there.”
A few seconds pass, then Sniper jumps down from his spot, awkwardly walks over to her. Rainbow Dash titles her head slightly, she figures he wants to say something to cheer her up but Sniper has never been good at talking about emotions. That’s okay, having him around is enough, so with that iconic smirk of hers. “So, you wanna read this or should I?”

Relieved he does not have to try and comfort her as that’s really not his area, Sniper chuckles of the reminder how their friendship started, takes the book and quickly checks the cover. What he sees is very amusing. “’Daring Doo and the Arachne Queen’ hm, sounds like an interesting story.” He muses at the cover of Daring Doo doing a sort of bull riding on a giant spider with a gold spot on its back, he notices a griffin with missing wings in the background. Well isn’t that a reverse role?

“It’s one of the best!” Rainbow Dash grins widely. “I haven’t gotten that far yet, only where Daring Doo has recruited a griffin companion that can’t fly but he’s more of an egghead really.” Sniper chuckles and opens the book from where she has come and begins to read, unaware that he already know what would happen in the story.

Author's Note:

this is a long one and I have been very busy, so forgive me if I have missed a few grammar mistakes.
I have been trying not to put episodes from seasons past 4 but I felt I needed to with this one.

PreviousChapters Next