A Winter's Tale

by Evilhumour

Chapter Two

“You’re late, Captain Pansy,” harbourmaster Fair Winds said as he went through the logbooks from the other merchant captains; there was a long list of airships to check in today and a serious need to go through their manifests carefully as to prevent anypony smuggling anything into the nation as the winter weather progressed. The food that the dirt lickers from the southeast had sent was to the letter but the usual excess and abundance in trade were on a subtle decline. If what the other harbourmasters had reported was accurate, and there was no reason to suspect them of falsifying documents to him, then the overall import of food was going to get pricier to the point where even the most basic foodstuffs were going to become luxuries sooner than later. Hence why he had moved to a house located on the mountainside to begin digging out a more secure cellar to store his food.

“I am aware, sir,” Pansy spoke to him with a slight rasp to his voice. Flicking his eyes up to Pansy, Fair Winds could see that he had been in another fight. The young stallion had the beginnings of a black eye with other bruises starting to form over his coat, his lip was torn and providing the rasp. His uniform was scuffed and torn in places and his hat was squashed in from the brawl he’d found himself in. “You have my apologies, sir.” Pansy stated as professionally as he could, taking his logbook out from his captain’s jacket inner pocket and placing it on the table. “You will find everything you need here, sir.”

Fair Winds stared at the papers for a moment before turning his attention back to Pansy and decided to have a bit of fun with him. Pansy was such a stickler for the rules despite being a former free pirate, although he technically still was a pirate, that he could trust the colt to be on the level but that same adherence for the rules could really make him squirm. “Tell me, Pansy, what was so important that you decided to be late.”

Pansy predictably squirmed, his ears flicking to the side as he tried to figure out how to say something that wouldn’t cause him trouble yet report what had happened at the same time. He shuffled on the spot and was about to speak when some sort of commotion outside caused Fair Winds to raise a hoof to halt Pansy. Turning his attention to the door, he was about to call out to his adjutant when it opened up and General Hurricane himself stepped into the office.

The General was a towering stallion covered in pegasus silver forged armour that held the fabled Spear of the Storms, muscles clearly defined under his golden coat. His black mane was cut to perfect precision, his feathers oiled to military perfection, and he presented a flawless smile on a face that had managed to remain untouched in the countless battles the stallion had been in against the beakcats save for a dignified scar across the snout, the General seemed to be taking in his entire office, and thus him, as if they were old friends. Of course, that wasn’t the case and the General must be here for some reason, and he would skin Pansy if he had ruined things by appearing like the mangy dog he was.

“Sir, it is an honour to have you he-” he began, snapping a proper salute to him - annoyingly Pansy had been quicker and somehow stiffer despite being roughened up.

“Harbourmaster Fair Winds, I need to speak to Captain Pansy,” the General said, cutting off any chance for Breeze to protest. “I will leave you to your work; by the amount of logbooks you have here for the winter season, you will need all the time available to properly archive what was brought in.”

“Yes sir, right away sir,” Fair Winds replied, snapping a salute to the General as the two left the office. Pansy stared up at the stallion who was still smiling broadly as they walked out the doorway, only for it to drop when the door closed behind them, Hurricane grabbing Pansy by the muzzle and examining his bruises for a moment before letting go. He then waved forwards an aide that had the General’s cutie mark, a lightning bolt splitting open a cloud, on their breastplate.

“Have a team investigate Fair Winds; these marks are still swelling which means that they cannot be older than thirty minutes. Any Harbourmaster that can be aware of this and not take action must be a part of the problem.”

“Sir, I-” Pansy began to protest only for the General to silence him with a look.

“Do not try to protect them or dismiss this, captain,” the General told him. “We are a strong nation because we have rules of law and we must be forever vigilant to smother the seeds of corruption before it grows into an inseparable grove of vines bringing us down to the mud.”

“Yes sir,” Pansy replied, feeling a sense of pride from this stallion's wise words. They were taking a slow walk along the harbour with the General's bodyguards keeping public a wide breadth away. “What might I do for you, sir?”

“The Luster, that is your ship, correct?” the General asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes sir,” Pansy answered with a smile on his face. “It has been in my family for several generations.”

“Yes, I am aware,” the General said with a huff. “It is a quick and nimble ship, unlike my own Stormbringer.” With a tilt of his head, Pansy stared at the massive military flagship that was docking, with its rows upon rows of cannons aimed and polished to blinding gleam. On her decks were the elites of the military, each hoofpicked by the General himself. He could spot a few of the other legendary pegasi that had served with the General back in the war with the beakcats; the bloodthirsty Zephyr Gale flicked his pink mane behind his yellow-coated ears as he ran his close combat knife over a whetstone, the green-coated Dust Shatter was talking to a grey mare with his sword over his shoulder and on the crowsnest was Thunderbreak, the last of the legendary Blood Rain squad. They were named as such for when the four fought together, all that would remain was blood.

The General himself more than likely had more names in the beakcats’ lands; he was the one that had ended the war between the two nations after the string of defeats from the Pegalopsians. No matter what had happened, the pegasi simply could not win until the General, a mere captain at the time, had started to lead the fight. Every fight he led, the Pegalopsians had begun to win and push back. With each victory under his belt, the General had risen in rank and popularity until he’d gained the rank of general and eventually was able to get the war to a standstill, with some negotiations between the General and Glaucus, the beakcat leader that had also risen in power and fame during the war. After his successes, the public had finally ousted the old and ineffective monarchy and installed him as their leader.

Turning his head back to pay attention to where they were going, Pansy could spot the Luster and felt a swell of pride in his chest. His crew was busy at work unloading the loot they had pilfered from the griffons. Even though they had made peace with the beakcats, it was more of a truce as both of their nations were always itchy for some reason to go to war.

“Permission to come aboard, Captain Pansy?” the General asked him as they stood in front of the gangplank.

“Yes sir,” he snapped a salute to the General before he walked up onto his ship.

“Hey Pansy, that was quick,” Salty Mist, his first mate, said with a smile as he paused from directing the rest of the crew from their work, although it seemed that it was highly unneeded as Wave Crust, Guiding Point, Soft Spray and Far Sight were working efficiency on their own. “Is ever-what happened? Do I need to get Tsunami up here?”

Pansy winced slightly at the mention of their doctor, if that was what he actually was. Tsunami had come from the Far East several decades ago, back when his father was Captain of the ship, and provided odd remedies that actually proved more effective than the local concoctions. Tsunami at times claimed to only understand his own language but Pansy had caught him more than once following what was said perfectly.

“There’s no need to bother him,” Pansy said, shooting a wary look down the hold for the old pegasus to suddenly spring out and lecture him as if he was a colt again. “Merely got into a disagreement with… other ponies.” Pansy trailed off, not wishing to start something now.

“With who, Pansy?” Mist asked, walking over to him. “This is something that needs to stop.”

“I agree completely, Mister Mist,” the General said, causing every pony on deck to freeze. Pansy let out a sigh of relief as they didn’t just blind salute him but instead put down the stuff they were holding first before offering him a proper salute. It showed his crew had brains and were not just mindless ponies. “But knowing the pride of my captains, and his previous occupation, I doubt he will confess easily.” Pansy’s ear flicked at that comment, doing his best not to react to the remark. The General continued to look around the deck, eyeing the masts before nodding his head. “Yes, this will do just fine.”

“Sir?” Pansy asked, feeling unease at those six simple words. His feelings were proven when the General rounded on him and placed a sealed message into his hooves.

“As of now, I am requisitioning this ship,” the General said causing a murmur of surprise to run through his crew before Pansy silenced it with a look.

“I am… honoured you would chose the Luster and we will be more than glad to serve you, sir. I-”

“You are misunderstanding me here, Captain Pansy,” the General said, stepping closer. “I am in need of a ship like this one for an upcoming meeting of great importance. My Stormbringer is fast but her bulk slows her down too much. The Luster will provide the speed I need right now and I will only have a crew that I trust with my life. That,” the General said indicating the sealed scroll with the General’s cutie mark as its wax seal, “will inform you of your new ship and new orders, captain Pansy.”

Pansy felt a clamp over his heart at this news and while a thousand things raced through his mind to say to the General, the only thing he managed to ask was, “What is to become of my crew?”

The General gave him what could only be called a dirty look, as if the General was annoyed at being challenged in such a way. “They will need to find positions elsewhere; your new ship only requires the crew of one,” Hurricane said with a smug look on his face that told Pansy he had just lost any chance at hiring a crew for this new ship. “You will be given ten minutes to disembark and take whatever belongings off my ship before my personal flight crew sees to clearing out any remaining trash.”

Pansy was now gritting his teeth as he did his best not to outright punch the stallion in the face. Insulting him was one thing but his ship and his crew were another thing altogether. Still, duty came first and he bit off a “yes sir” to Hurricane who simply grinned and walked off his ship.

Pansy watched him leave for ten seconds before turning around and stalked into his private room with Mist on his hoofs. “Captain, he’s joking, right?” Mist asked as he trotted alongside of him.

“You heard him, Mist,” Pansy said in a low voice.

“But we’re not actually going to give up the ship, are we?” Mist peered over his shoulder, putting his face close to Pansy.

“We have our orders.”

“But Pansy-”

“We have our orders!” Pansy shouted, glaring at Mist. “Now go gather your stuff and be ready to shove off.” He leaned in close to the pegasus. “Do you think I wish to do this? To give my ship to that blowhard?” He snorted angrily, shaking his head. “But we’re outnumbered and outgunned. We can’t do anything if we want to live.” He flew up to a secret compartment hidden near the ceiling of his cabin as so few ever looked up, even pegasi. It was highly detailed like the rest of his ship’s paneling so there was no real indication that this section was special.

As he opened the hideaway hole, he looked at the panelling showing his family’s legacy. As a fourth generation of free pegasi, each one had engraved their life's story on these walls. It had been his greatest day when he had inherited this ship from his father and now it would be gone for good.

Taking out his belongings, he slung them into a bag before making his way out of the cabin for the last time.

---

Cookie pushed her way through the muck, the mud sucking her hooves in, as she made her way towards her apartment building. Grunting, she pulled the door open, it dragging on the stone floor before she managed to create enough of a gap for her to squeeze past. Stomping her hooves on the carpets to clear them of the garbage, she looked around the lobby before giving her coat a shake, splattering the walls with the grime from outside.

Smirking to herself, the gold-coated mare trotted up the stairs to her single bedroom apartment. Wincing in pain as she reached for her keys, Cookie paused and frowned as she saw her door was unlocked. There were only two ponies that would be able to enter her apartment; Marble Arrow the complex manager and…

Pushing the door open with a snort, she stared at the stallion sitting at her table. He had a simple smirk on his face. If it wasn’t for his guards standing by him, she would have given into the urge to buck him through the window for that look on his face alone.

“Ah, my dear, it is so good to see you again,” the stallion said placing down the golden inlaid teacup down her table. “It has been too long sinc-”

“What do you want, Puddinghead,” she did her best to hold her anger in, his guards giving her a look and tilting their spears down to her.

“Come on, my dear, surely we are past such anger at this point in our lives,” he said with a grin that just made her blood boil, and by how his grin grew she could tell he was aiming for this reaction. “Is it wrong that I wish to check up on you, my dear?”

“Why, are your spies giving you crap again?” she raised an eyebrow at him, with the leader of the Earth ponies shaking his head.

“No no, they are doing their jobs just fine, Cookie, but I do like to see firsthoof for myself; part of being a leader and all.” He chuckled at her growls, which just infuriated Cookie even more for letting him getting under her skin. “While this was quite fun, it will be awhile before we can have another chat.”

“And why is that, chancellor; you’re going to get your mouth wired shut?” Cookie shot back, enjoying the annoyed look he gave her.

“While my business is none of yours, Cookie, as you are a citizen of my republic, you have the right to know that your leader has business to attend to outside of this grand and free land of ours.”

“So as you are going to be leaving, why don’t you practice that right now?” she snarked, holding the door open for him to leave. He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly put off at being unable to have the final word without looking petty. With a restrained huff, he strode out of the room with his guards following him, leaving her door open.

Tilting her head, Cookie took in the fact that Puddinghead would be gone for a while; she might finally be able to do the same. With a smile on her face, Cookie turned and closed the door behind her.

---

Clover pulled the cloak over her body, partly to stay warm and of course partly to hide her bare flanks. She tightened at the thought, feeling even more embarrassed than she already was. Once again, she got lost in her books and it cost her another job. Her rent was past due as it was, and she had no idea how was she was going to pay this mon-

“We said watch where you are going!” a voice shouted at her, with some unicorn’s magic creating a shield in front of her, while others overlapped and did their best to empower the first unicorn’s spell.

Yipping in surprise, Clover looked up to see several guards glaring at her in front of a rather fancy-looking palanquin. She could see that the guards had shocking spells prepared, crackling in the air and she was worried that she was about to be in severe pain when somepony called out, “What is the delay?”

Clover felt her heart sink as she saw Princess Platinum stick her head out from behind the cloth with her guards creating more complex shields around her, and the princess doing the same though she was doing colourless magic to hide her spell. “Who are you, little one?”

Despite being scared out of her mind, Colver couldn’t help but get annoyed at that comment. She knew she wasn’t the biggest of ponies but she absolutely hated being mistaken for a foal. It was very irritating and made getting jobs difficult when ponies didn’t take her seriously. “Clover, your majesty,” she said, doing her best to bow before the now slightly flustered mare. “I beg your forgiveness; I was distracted… by personal matters.”

The princess huffed as she leaned back into her palanquin. “Then learn how to deal with it without getting in my way, peasant.”

“Yes, your majest-”

“I am late as is,” she huffed with her guards pushing Clover to the side as they made their way to the castle. “Some buffoon was to make me a pair of shoes, and the idiots failed to do so on time.”

Clover gulped, now knowing that the special client she had delayed the shoes on was the princess. Ducking out of the way, she watched as the guards and palanquin passed with her mind racing in panic.

If the princess found out it was her fault, which she undoubtedly would, Platinum would come after her to make her pay for the consequences. She had to get out of the city and fast; that was for certain. Clover quickly made her way to her home.

---

Entering the tent behind Snöstorm, Snöflinga could see the angry glares from his father and brothers and was wondering if this would be a night to speak up or not, though it was rarely ever a night for him to talk. No one wanted to hear from the fourth son of the chieftain that had unwelcomed ideas.

“So good that you could join us, boy,” his father spat which was a clear indication that he was in serious trouble tonight. “Snöstorm, thank you for seeing him in.” His father’s tone shifted to something that was the closest to pleasant that Snöflinga had ever heard from him.

“It was no problem, chieftain,” his brother bowed his head, walking towards the open spot beside his father and Pyry, his other brother. Lumimyrsky, his third brother, was standing next to Pyry, with his nephew, Snöboll, on his side. His mother was on his father’s other side, with his brothers’ wives and Aputsiaq, Snöstorm’s oldest daughter, at the far end of the chieftain’s table. Behind them were the rest of his family, sitting on ice crafted benches, all of them giving him disappointed looks.

WIth a sheepish squeak, he quickly made his way past the scowling elders and was walking towards the back before his father extended his neck causing Snöflinga to pause. “Where do you think you are going, boy?” His father glared as sharply as he spoke. “Next to Lumimyrsky. Now.”

Snöflinga gulped, ears flattening as he moved next to Lumimyrsky, standing out even more than he would have if he had just gone to the back where he belonged. He was shorter than his brother, who had come from a different mother than him, less bulky than Pyry who had also come from another mother and less magically adept than his oldest brother whom he actually did share a mother with.

She was probably the only being that could actually get his father to listen to them, even after the time when she had left for unexplained reasons, only returning after several years’ absence and being immediately accepted back without any question.

Yet she rarely spoke these days and just watched everything.

“Good,” Snjóstormur, his father, said with a haughty air, looking at the elders and then at the members for their tribe on the other side of the tent. “Now we can begin properly.”

Snöflinga did his best not to wilt even more with how everywindigo was openly snickering at his father openly berating him again, instead focusing on his father’s words as the elder windigo continued speaking, his eyes on Snöflinga the entire time as if he was challenging him to interrupt. As usual, he wasn't sure if his father was expecting him to actually speak up or not; on one hoof, this was a very important matter, and he expected nowindigo would appreciate him bringing up his own views, while his father would be more than likely be angered by him wasting time. But on the other hoof, if his father did actually want him to speak up and he didn’t, then he would feel immense guilt for failing to do so, and just knew he would be receiving looks of pity from his family for months.

“We have serious matters to deal with,” Snjóstormur said with scorn in his eyes, telling Snöflinga he had failed to meet his father’s expectations again. “As you all know, we have our migration to begin shortly.” Snöflinga flinched while his brothers and nephew all straightened their backs with pride and the rest of the tribe began to stomp the ground. “Snöstorm, you are to take your windigos and go to Unicornia for your harvesting. Pyry, go forth with your men and take them to that Earth Pony Free Democratic... whatever it is called, kingdom. Lumimyrsky, you have the pegasi in Pegalopse with your skördare.” Snöflinga watched as large portions of the gathered windigos stood up, his brothers eyeing their teams with pride. “Snöboll, you will take the elders with you as I hope I can trust your other uncle to take care of the young and old.”

That caused a stir, with windigos sharing confused and concerned looks between them, Snöboll frowning at the pronouncement. Of course, no one dared to say anything to Snjóstormur. Regardless of the insult of not even being named in this important discussion, Snöflinga felt his chest begin to loosen and a smile began to appear on his -

“I beg your pardon, chieftain,” Snöboll began, holding his head low while giving a glare towards Snöflinga. “And I do not question your decisions, of course, but the safety of the young and the old is essential and he has shown very little respect towards the proper etiquette that such a task would require, such as arriving on time.” He again bowed, his head nearly scraping against the floor. Snöflinga gave a mental snort; his nephew was treading a fine line in being deferential to the chief while at the same time arguing at his decisions to give Snöflinga this honour. “What, pray tell, kept you away from us? That was so important that you chose it over our chief's summons?”

“I was observing the pegasi,” Snöflinga replied hotly as he decided to mix truth and an excuse that might keep him out of trouble. He was about to add in a lie about watching out for their vessels when Snöboll snorted loudly with the other windigos snickering again.

“And watching and awing them again, weren’t you?” Snöboll said, glaring slightly upwards at him, the windigo was still younger than him.

“Ye-es, but-” Snöflinga began to fire back only for Lumimyrsky to snort dismissively at him.

“You think you can do better than my windigos in keeping an eye on them or were you doing what Snöboll said and you were watching the ponies again?” his brother grinned with his fangs widening as Snöflinga started to squirm as he guessed the truth.

“So what grand ideas do you have this time?” Pyry asked acidly with the gathering beginning to break down and more windigo were openly enjoying this.

“Certainly not one of those time keepers they have,” Snöstorm snorted with more windigos laughing and Snöflinga struggling to find some way to regain control of this whole mess.

“Well boy?” Snjóstormur asked with a grin on his face but his eyes were again challenging him. “Do you have anything to say to these claims?”

Snöflinga tried to say something, anything but while his lips moved, no sound left his throat with more windigos laughing at his inability to speak this time. All save his mother, of course, who just looked pityingly at him which was even worse and made him feel even smaller.

Snorting disapprovingly, Snjóstormur silenced the room with a glare before narrowing his eyes on Snöflinga. “We will talk later boy,” his father said before flicking his eyes to his brothers and nephew. “My orders for you remain the same.”

With a bang of his hooves on the floor, the formal meeting was dissolved for the moment and servants began to bring in the food while the windigos began to mingle towards the center of the tent while Snöflinga allowed himself to be pushed backwards.

He was certain his father’s lecture would be more devastating and humiliating than usual, with Snöflinga shaming him by being unable to defend his father’s trust in him.

With a sudden burst of inspiration and clarity, Snöflinga took the distraction to slip through the tent’s flap and take off into the night in his spöklik form.

Comments

[Asolem2]

So many jerks, Platinum could almost be described as being the least punch worthy of them all... and thats saying something

And I'm really curious about Cookie's relationship to Puddinghead

[Evilhumour]

9974886
Oh trust me, you will want to punch her equally as the rest at the end.

[Asolem2]

9975581
I don't doubt it