War Pony: Song of A Snowbird

by CreeperZone

When Blood Runs Cold

“The blizzard... It wiped their tracks clean... AGH!” Silk kicked at the snow, his face strained and hurting, his blistering red cheeks were tipped with an icy wetness. “I'm not going to let that bastard get away so easily.” He huffed under his breath, past a shivering set of teeth.

“Silk, this isn't you.” The undaunted navy blue unicorn stood at his side, her hoof wrapping itself around his back, the cold bearing down between the cracks of affection. “Please, let's just keep going... Forget about all of this.”

“Lunar.” His eyes caught her's by surprise, they were soft and filled with ruthlessness. “Thank you, really. I appreciate that you just want to help me, but I cannot let this chance slip through my feathers. I'm going to find Midnight and I'm going to... I have to...” His throat burned, but he just swallowed. “I have to get my revenge, Lunar... He betrayed me, and I wouldn't be able to call myself a pegasus if I didn't protect my honour, and he defiled everything our race stands for... Sorry, it's a pegasus thing... You wouldn't get it.”

“Maybe I wouldn't...” Her breath shivered out in a sigh. “And I don't know if this is an Earth Pony thing... But thinking about this practically... It's impossible. We've already lost track of him and the snow's covered any tracks he left. It's been hours, we might never be able to catch up to him again. We have to let go.”

“F-Fuck...” His head fell against hers as it sought for warmth, “You're right... I'm just... Agh... G-Guess the sky isn't the only thing clouded right now... I'm sorry...” He straightened his shoulders and took a deep chilling breath, “Mmf... But... If we do. If we do see him...” He looked deep into her. “I'm going to do what I have to... And we won't have any arguments about it... Okay?”

“Fine... That's a deal. But we're not looking for him... Ya?” She managed to lift her freezing hoof up enough to ruffle his hair.

“Ya.” He chuckled, “I think the weather's clearing up too... That's good at least.”

Lunar gave him a soft squeeze around the shoulders, “Yup... We should find some shelter and warm ourselves up... Then get to walking to Cloudsdale, right?”

“Yeah... Yeah... Let's go...” His feathers scrambled around his bag to yank out a crumpled up map which he swiftly unfolded to reveal dozens of scribbly markings. “R-Right...” While he looked over the last town they had just been to his feathers pulled out a flimsy compass.

“You know w-where we are?” She huddled over and lit her horn to improve Silk's visibility on the map.

“We should be... Somewhere here off the road... If we keep going north west we should find a forest that we can shelter in.” He packed away the map.

“Lead the way.”

---

It was a few weeks of eventless travel, avoiding confrontation and intermediate bouts of starvation. Silk's rage quelled through the days and nights as Midnight slipped more and more from his thoughts, beginning to focus on the future and on Lunar, keeping her and himself fed quickly returned to being his primary goal.

What little they managed to steal from earth pony villages on their travels kept them afloat, though the stress of being caught each time was building up with each desperate attempt. But whether they wanted to or not, today they had to try again.

The Pegasus and Unicorn sat side by side against a dead tree that dripped chunks of icy white fluff, both of their faces weary, blistering red and completely sleepless.

“So... How hungry are you?” Silk's head fell against the tree bark.

Lunar solemnly nodded.

“Who should go then…? I ca-”

“You did it last time.” Lunar stood up, lumbering her weight up and holding it with a hoof against the tree. “It's my turn.”

“Lunar... I can go again. I don't mind...” His bloodshot eyes gazed up to her, his hoof tugged at his furred coat, closing it to his chest.

“N-No... It's fine. I'll do it. Wait here.” A magic wrapped itself up around her hood and thick woolen hat, covering up her horn as she stepped on through the snow.

“Good luck...” Silk was left to watch her hoofprints in the snow, Lunar taking a valiant march towards the town. She kept her head low but her eyes peeled, trotting for a few dozen minutes before she was close enough to touch the outermost building of the town.

She pressed up against the logged wall of the short wooden cabin, pressing her ear against the barrier. She couldn't hear anything inside, and she hadn't spotted any guard stations on this side of town on her way in, so it seemed she was in the clear. “Okay... Just this house... Y-You can do it, Lunar...”

With her back up against the wall, she gingerly crunched through the snow to arrive at the front corner of the humble home, her head peeking out the side to a dead street, not a pony in sight, the entire road covered in masses and piles of snow.

Her head kept scanning the area as she trotted around the front and reached the door, looking through the window on the way confirming her assumption that the home was empty. She bit her tongue as she thought about the possibility of the house being abandoned and empty, though her hoof did not hesitate to press on the door handle.

It creaked open to a soulless room.

Lunar took a step inside, giving the door a soft kick shut once she found herself encompassed by walls. It was dark, only a few streaks of sunlight managed to slip through the snow-sheeted glass windows and land inside, showing Lunar the table with knocked over chairs, a small serving of two plates holding a slice of bread each coated in stale jam. “Oh, great golly...”

Dropping all active subtlety, Lunar bolted over and shoved the slice into her mouth, it was cold, lacking in flavour, and the best thing she'd eaten in months. Immediately followed by the second serving she couldn't help but gobble up herself. “M-mmn... Momma... Just like our jam was...” She wiped the tears wetting around her eyes and took a sigh, her head darting around for signs of further sustenance, she still needed something for Silk.

Searching through the houses' cabinets and drawers lead Lunar to uncover a bounty of old bread reserves, hay and preserved fruits, more than she's eaten all month. The first pieces she stuffed into her bags without a second of doubt, though once she found more and more, she paused, her heart pulling at her sleeve as the hunger churned in her thoughts.

“Argh... Just... E-Enough to survive...” She shut the cabinet and with a quick glance through the window, she left the house and shut the door, the beating in her chest causing her to sweat as she returned to the snowy road. She expected the pressure of fleeing from a theft to tail her as she rushed back the way she came, though she felt herself run from nothing but the silence that seemed to live in the town.

Lunar couldn't help but stop.

She turned around, her eyes turning from one corner of the horizon to the other.

Empty.

Before she could contemplate why the village with food-filled homes was so hollow, she tripped on her next step, tumbling into the snow.

She quickly lifted herself right back up, shaking the snow right off of her face, fixing up her hood as it folded back. “Ahh...” Her hooves were atop some large baggy bump in the road, it felt soft and almost squishy, so it wasn't any normal rock. Her eyebrows crossed as she pressed down with her legs, the rough sensations of shifting mass impeding itself against Lunar's wool-wrapped hoof leading her to begin digging at the snow, thrashing her way through the mound until a soaked through coat showed itself to her.

“N-N-No...” The jacket was ragged and bloody, but it wrapped a fresh body inside. Lunar's hooves began shaking more deeply than any cold could make them, both legs dredging through more and more of the snow, pulling out more visuals of the corpse beneath her. She discovered young ice-sheeted wounds, strained muscles blistering and a partly detached head, face stilly gasping for air from a snow-filled mouth.

Once she saw that, Lunar turned away, back towards the town, taking a few steps as she began dry-heaving, her stomach refusing to give up the food it just took in moments ago, her heart churning and eyes filling up with tears.

The horror in the pony’s face, the uncovered scent of rotten blood... It brought back the memories.

Once the pain resided, her head pulled up to gaze upon the mounds of snow slipping away from her vision as they fell down the horizon. The mounds... The piles of snow scattered through the streets in an uneven spiral.

“LUNAR!” Silk came barreling down the hill, kicking his way through the snow, “Are you all right? What's going on?”

She didn't respond, she couldn't, she didn't know how.

Having not spotted an Earth Pony yet, Silk fearlessly galloped right up to her, “L-Lunar, what's going on? Are you oka-aahh! Shit!” Silk pulled himself back before he could trample over the exposed corpse stuck beneath the snow. “W-Why is there a body Lunar…?” He trotted around the body and up to the stunned Unicorn, seeing her empty stare outward onto the streets of snow piles. “A-Are those…?”

“Bodies...” The world shattered in the icy breath escaping her lips.

“B-But the buildings... They're all intact. If Pegasi or Unicorns, everything would be torn to the ground and pillaged... That can't be possible.” Silk steadily wandered forward towards the next visible lump of snow.

The sharp fizz of Lunar's horn grabbed at the snow he trotted to, yanking and pulling until the long-dead hoof of a pony was pulled out in front of him, while Lunar just hung her head. “It was... It was those Unicorns...”

“By the sun...” Silk gulped as the body unearthed itself, hearing Lunar's crunching hoofsteps come up behind him.

“This... This is what they did to my town... M-My... F... Fa... A-ah...” Her breath quickened to the point of hyper-ventilation, devolving into pure sobbing.

“Lunar...” Silk fell into her and held her ever so closely, the stumps of his wings reflexively trying to hug her. “Let's get out of here... You don't need to see any more of this.”

She shook her head. “F-F... Food...”

“Food..”

She nodded, her hoof waving at the homes lining up behind Silk's back.

“R-Right... I suppose... We shouldn't let any rot... Come on, I'll help you walk, Lunar.” He pulled her legs around his shoulders and led her down the road, stepping far away from the bumps as he quickly scanned the buildings. “L-Look, there's an inn. It should have the most food, if there's any left here.” He motioned to a large and wide wooden construct with smashed in windows and a half-opened door stuck in place from the snow that built up against it.

Lunar just held her head low and let herself be brought to the doorway.

“One moment...” Silk let go of her to bash the door in with his shoulder, finding that some roadblock lay on the other side. Though even then it only took a few good bashes to knock whatever it was away and allow the door to swing open. “O-Oh fuck...” He looked down and saw another dead pony with their neck gorged open. “L-Lunar don't look, it-” He turned his head to see Lunar staring down at the pony with a deep, resonating hatred. “Lunar”

“It's one of them...” She slipped in by Silk, standing over the dead body. It was wearing dark-plated armour and had a horn poking out from its ruined helmet.

“O-One of them.. Oh... Shit. Is this one of those assassins?” Silk shut the door behind them good, shielding them from the icy breeze.

Lunar nodded, her magic activating and pulling the obsidian dagger out from her bags. She floated it down to the assassin's throat that had been cut wide open, running the tip across the open and frozen wound.

“L-Lunar? What are you doing?” He took a step in.

She plunged the knife into its neck, right where the wound already set. The dagger slotted into the pony like a puzzle piece in a jigsaw, “And they were killed with this type of dagger...” She yanked it out again, causing the gash to be opened up further. “Good. Whoever did this put up a good fight...”

“Yeah, they sure did.” Silk's eyes were then guided over by Lunar's floating dagger as it pointed to the other corner of the tavern, another dead assassin laying against the floor. “Woah...”

“Yup...” She sheathed her weapon and took a sigh, wiping away tears once more. “Mind if I... Lie down for a bit…?”

“Please.” Silk helped push her along, bringing her down the nearest hall to find an open room with a waiting empty bed. “Go rest, I'll pack our bags with any supplies I can find. Okay”

A faint smile appeared on her muzzle, “Okay... Thank you, Silk.” She gulped, turned to look him in the eye and hugged him close. “I love you...”

Silk's shoulders locked up for a moment when he heard her, but they gradually fell back down to relax in her friendly embrace. “I love you too... Go rest now.”

She nodded and threw her bags down, too exhausted for words now, she slumped into the room and collapsed into the thick cloth sheets of the bed, going out cold in mere moments.

Silk watched her for just a few more seconds, listening to her breathing soft for a while. He wished so many good things for her, she deserves to be happy, he thought before he picked up her bags and shut the door for her.

---

The sun was falling.

It'd been hours of Silk going through and picking food out from the homes surrounding them, by the end of it he had every bag and pocket filled with the most amount of the least perishable of foods he could find. Grain, jams, rations and hard vegetables leaked from every flap in his and Lunar's bags. As well as finding a few useful survival tools, including a lighter, pocket watch and a Earth Pony pistol with a few dozen bullets for it.

With those bags he came gracefully into the room Lunar was asleep in, setting them down for her at her bedside before sitting at the room's single-seating table. He hoisted his bag up onto the table's surface and slumped down against it, getting some shut eye himself.

Shortly after her waking up, Lunar nudged the Pegasus awake, “Hey... We should get going before the sun goes down.”

He groaned, clenching his eyes and rubbing off the sleepiness. “Yeah, we should.” He yawned and stretched out his legs and stumps of wings.

“T-Thanks for gathering all this food... It looks like it should last us till Moonstone.” She tried to smile.

“Yeah, we're really lucky... Unlike these ponies were.”

They held a second of silence together.

Lunar cleared his throat, “Why... Do you think they did this? The assassins.”

“O-Oh... They are looking for something probably... I dunno...” She sniffled.

Silk quickly slid up to wrap his hooves around her, “I'm sorry, you don't need to think about them, let's just go.”

She nodded in response, and within the next hour they were packed and out of the town.

Not a single word was spoken as they trotted past corpse after corpse hidden beneath the blankets of snow.

That evening was a little easier than usual, they hadn't worried about where their next meal would come from since they left the massacred town. With potential months still ahead in their journey though, the constant lethargy was still getting to them over time, though the larger portions did help ease that pain.

But that quiet night in a far off frozen over forest where they were camping, Silk awoke with the moon still at the top of the sky in sweats, panting as his spine shot up. “AH! Shit... Ahh... Just a bad dream... Just a bad dream, Silk...” He turned to look down at Lunar sleeping right next to him, feeling her warm hooves wrapped around his legs within their small, camouflaged tent.

It was strange for him to feel so hot and cold at the same time, but sweating forehead demanded, beated for a cool off after his nightmares.

He undid Lunar's grip on him and snuck out of the tent just to catch a quick breath and wipe himself clean, the freezing night hitting his face with a blissful cool. “Ahh.” His eyes were softly closed as he wiped away at his face, drying it from his sweat.

Then he opened them up fully, taking the sight of a motionless night in, the pitch-black slate of clouds blotting out nearly every strand of moonlight, the little bits that managed to slip on by illuminated the landscape like an organic polka-dot pattern of light.

Silk thought back to his childhood summers. He did miss that intense sun beating down on his wings as he first learned to fly with Mercy... She was so far away now, and the world, so much colder.

Just before he planned to get back inside and finish his night's rest to the best of his ability, something caught the Pegasi's eye. It was more than a mile off, where large mountains triumphed over the flats and valleys. It wasn't much, but his keen vision focused in on a flickering orange glow coming from the side of the cliff-face.

“A, campfire.” His interest was sparked and soon burning.

He went back into the tent just to grab another cloak which he wrapped around his already fluffed up body, covering most of his face too, leaving only the tip of his nose and a sliver of his eyes exposed to the elements as he zipped the tent shut and went to trot.

It was only about a mile off, and dredging through that distance in snow took less than an hour, but each step closer focused his vision further, giving him a clearer picture.

From the way the shadows appeared, there only seemed to be a single pony there, and scanning the sides of the mountain gave no clue how an Earth Pony would scale such a height as the fire stood within an alcove atop a cliff edge. Wait... If an Earth Pony couldn't get up there...

A winged creature would have no problem getting up that high, especially since it hasn't been snowing recently, so nothing would weigh them down either. Why would a Pegasus want to camp in a mountain though? If they have wings, wouldn't they just fly into the clouds and camp there?

Before much more would cross Silk's mind, the pony from atop the cliff emerged from the alcove and stood off the edge of the cliff, the foot of his hooves pressing half over the edge, their fur was dark and backlit by the campfire, and it seemed like the pony was sobbing. He was sobbing. Drying his eyes with his dark feathered wings.

“Midnight...” He grit his teeth and huffed.

Silk didn't know why he was here, why he was alone now, or why he was crying, but Silk didn't care either. What he did care about was the fact that Midnight seemed to be... On the edge. And his heavy breathing and tears along with him continuously pushing himself closer to falling made it seem like he was going to jump.

“Do it... Do it, you bastard... Let me watch as you put an end to your own miserable life...” He spat out under his breath, a ferocity Silk had never known about was overflowing within him. He kept his eyes fixated on Midnight as he dangled on that edge.

Something snapped in Midnight's mind though, a sudden dart away from the cliff and a loud eruption of swearing only muffled by the large distance between them faded as he escaped back into his camp.

Silk wished he could just fly up there and plunge a knife into his heart.

But he couldn't. All he could do is dwell... Dwell, or prepare a real attack.

Silk began sprinting back through the snow.

---

“S-Silk... What are you doing...?” Lunar awoke, rubbing her eyes in a daze, incredibly unsettled to find Silk so wide awake, scribbling on a map while cross-referencing his compass. \

“I found him, Lunar. He was in that cliff. I saw him fly east just a while ago when the sun came up.” He didn't spare her the glance.

Her heart sunk, “You did...?”

He nodded and stood up. “Yes, and I've been looking at this map... And if my memory serves me right there is a Pegasian encampment in the clouds only a dozen miles away, I'm going to go there and tell them where he went. Surely they'd be looking for Commander Hurricane's traitor son.”

“And what then? Then can we keep going to Moonstone...?” Lunar's voice wavered, and she hid her stirring face by starting to pack up her sleeping bag and started to get dressed.

“After I get to kill that stallion... I'll try catch up to you, but for a few days you'll have to walk alone... I'm sorry, but I have to do this.” Silk joined her in packing and soon they trotted out the tent to gather that up too.

Lunar took the tent folding as time to gather her thoughts, “I know this is really important to you... I just hope you don't get hurt. Can you promise me that? That you won't get hurt?”

It took a few moments, but Silk had to shake his head. “I'm sorry, Lunar. This... This is dangerous, and I'm not going to make a promise I can't keep.” As Lunar's head slumped, Silk stepped up to hold her close. “And in case I do not come back, just keep going, Lunar, you have so much more to live for than me. Thank you, seriously, thank you for everything you have done for me. You have saved my life and showed me such compassion, the kind I've never known... I love you for that, and I know you will do that to so many more ponies. I'll try catch up to you, but this could be my last chance to retake my honour. And if I have to die for that, I will. Any Pegasus would. But you aren't a Pegasus, you don't have to die for me... After all, you're an Earth pony, right?”

Silk pulled back and looked her in the eyes as they burned up with tears with a passionate smile, “So, don't wait up for me, Okay? I'll find you if I can.”

Lunar nodded, choking up and holding back her tears.

“Thank you... Goodbye, Lunar. I'll be heading west to that base, you keep going north. Be safe.”

“Goodbye, Silk... I love you as well, be safe too... Please.”

He smiled, a tear freezing down the side of his cheek.

“I'll try.”