A Rose's Journey

by VioletRose13

The Frozen North Part 1

“Wow! I-I had no idea th-th-th-that it would be so c-c-c-cold up here. How do Pegasi manage?” Violet shivered as the ship passed through a bank of thick dark clouds.

“It’s a mystery.” Sunset replied.

“Ugh, how much further do we have to go until we finally reach our destination? I’m bored.” Discord complained.

“You’ve been saying that twenty-eight times already! It’s getting annoying; give it a rest.” Tempest grumbled.

“Well excuse me if I’m growing impatient, Miss Berrytwist.” The draconequus glared at her; she gave him the same glare.

“I told you NOT to call me that.”

“To-MAY-to, po-TAH-to. If I still had all of my powers right now, we wouldn’t even be up here and we probably wouldn’t even be in this mess.”

“But you don’t have all of your powers and you have no say in the matter; no one does. So there’s nothing you can really do about that, is there?”

“Oh, the things I would LOVE to do to you right now…”

“Oh yeah?”

“Will you two quit it already?!” Gallus retorted as he pushed the two creatures away from each other. “Your arguing is getting us nowhere.”

“Gallus is right. We’re all tired of listening to you ninnies fight. Either you suck it up and be quiet or just stand there and bicker like bratty, whiny babies.” Captain Celaeno added as she held a compass in her claw. “Luckily, we’re still heading north… even though we can hardly see anything in this cloudbank.”

Discord was about to speak before Tempest stomped down on his tail with her hoof and saying, “If you mention doing anything with your currently nonexistent powers again, I’ll snap your wings in half and throw you overboard myself.”

He kept quiet; Princess Skystar and Silverstream desperately tied to suppress their laughter. Discord glared at the two hippogriff cousins, which quickly made them go silent.

“Hey! Something is coming into view!” Starlight commented before she spotted something in the distance; everyone ran to the edge of the ship to see what it was.

“Whoa, what is that?!” Capper exclaimed.

“That’s… the Crystal Empire!” Violet replied, her eyes wide with wonder.

“Wow! It’s so beautiful from up here!” Ocellus cried as she gazed down at the crystalline city.

“Yes it is, but this is NOT the time for sightseeing.” Tempest intervened.

“Hey! Maybe someone down there can help us!” Celaeno suggested.

“That’s a great idea! Princess Cadance and Shining Armor will—” Sandbar exclaimed before he was interrupted by a loud rumble of thunder, followed by a huge bolt of lightning streaking across the sky.

Discord licked his finger and raised it into the sky and a chilling wind came from the south. He looked at Tempest with wide eyes.

“Oh no.” She muttered. “…A blizzard is coming.”

“A blizzard?!” Sunset and Starlight screamed.

“We need to get outta here!” Violet yelled.

“Secure the rigging, lock down the cargo! Everyone, get below deck and prepare for impact! Things are gonna get pretty bumpy!” Celaeno commanded as everyone went down below as fast as they could.

“Aww no, I HATE storms! Especially thunderstorms!” Violet cried as she fell to the floor and covered her face with her hooves in terror.

“It’s okay, Violet.” Sunset said kindly. “This storm will pass before you know it.”

“Brace yourselves!” Tempest yelled from above deck.

The storm came and it was fierce. Lightning flared, thunder boomed, snow and hail rained down, and the airship swayed, rocked, and bounced about as if it were a toy in a full bathtub; this went on for a good thirty minutes.

“The ship is getting clobbered out here!” Gallus commented.

“We need to do something!” Ocellus added.

“But what can we do?! We hardly have any power!” Princess Skystar cried.

“But we have to think of something! If we stay in this storm any longer, we’re all gonna DIE!” Smolder said.

Violet squeezed her eyes shut and out her hooves over her head in terror; she didn’t want to die this young.

‘No, I don’t wanna die! Not now! I haven’t done anything with my life!’ She screamed in her head as tears started to fall down her cheeks.

But Violet was so scared and confused that she failed to notice her horn had started to glow. Sunset and Starlight noticed the new light and looked at Violet curiously.

“Violet? Are you okay?” Sunset asked.

“What are you doing?” Starlight added.

Suddenly, the wind stopped and there was a loud crash. Everyone froze and looked around, unsure of what was going on.

“Uh… what just happened? Why is everything so quiet?” Violet asked, opening her eyes and sitting up.

“I have no idea.” Sunset commented.

“Yoo-hoo, ahoy! You can come up now, everypony.” Discord said as he poked his head down below the deck. “And by the way, you are NOT going to believe this.”

The group made their way back up to the deck, looked around, and saw that the ship was in the middle of nowhere. And the worst part of it was that there was ice and snow everywhere… but the strangest thing was that the ship itself was still in one piece. The entire group was baffled by this, especially Violet.

“That storm must’ve blown us miles away from the Empire.” Captain Celaeno pointed out.

“MEEOOOW!! It’s so cold out here! How can anypony stand to live all the way up here?! We’re in a total wasteland!” Capper hissed with a shiver.

“Not to mention, the ship is stuck in all of this snow.” Discord said as he inspected the undercarriage of the ship.

“And from the looks of it, we’re completely lost.” Starlight added.

“So what are we gonna do?” Skystar asked.

“There’s only one thing we can do.” Tempest said as she hopped off of the ship; everypony else followed suit. “We’ll need to walk the rest of the way.”

“Through all of this snow and ice? We’ll freeze; it’s impossible!” Silverstream whined.

“Only if you believe it is…” Violet said before trotting over to Tempest.

“Yak agrees! We walk.” Yona added, stepping forward.

“There must be another way.” Discord complained.

“It’s the only option we have. Unless anyone else has a better idea…” Tempest said; no one dared to speak up. “I didn’t think so. Now let’s get going, everyone. I can’t really tell, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be dark soon.”

And with that, Tempest started to trek through the frozen wasteland with the rest of the group following after her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you really think she’s gone this far, Captain?” Crab Claws asked Jackpot Spade who was standing at the helm.

“Oh yes, Crab Claws.” Spade replied, not turning his gaze away from the compass in his hoof. “I know she went this way; I can feel it.”

“Um… are you sure that’s not the three slices of pie and cake and the two bags of candy you’ve just eaten talking?” Crab Claws reluctantly asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Spade asked.

“Nothing, Captain. I’m just saying… you’re starting to look a little pale.”

“Pale, me? Ha! I can assure you, Mr. Claws, that I am perfectly f—”

Suddenly, a dizzy and sickening feeling suddenly overtook Spade. He wobbled on his hooves and he couldn’t balance himself as he tried flapping his wings; his stomach felt ill and his face grew pale.

“Ugh, okay. Maybe I should…” Spade started before his first mate stopped him.

“Way ahead of you, sir.” Claws said. “I already prepared your cabin. Now, you just go and rest while I take it from here.”

“What? No! What am I saying? I need to…” Spade retorted before he started to gag.

“Now, now; not another word, Captain.” Claws said as he pushed the captain away from the helm. “You go into your cabin and rest; you need it. And be sure to keep a bucket nearby.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll go, if it’ll make you happy.”

“Good, good… I’m serious about the bucket!”

“Not again.” Squid Ink muttered.

“The Captain’s made himself sick again.” Sea Sponge and Star Fish said in unison.

The cabin doors slammed shut; Spade hobbled over to his bed, collapsed onto it, and instantly fell asleep.

Comments

[Asolem2]

“You’ve been saying that twenty-eight times already! It’s getting annoying; give it a rest.” Tempest grumbled.

You counted

“But what can we do?! We hardly have any power!” Princess Skystar cried.

How ?
And yes Andante did it i know, but they are miles away from her and it didn't seem like she took anything from them like Tirek (or Starlight) did, so how does what Andante did work and how is it still affecting them (especially Discord, who wasn't even there) ?

[alarajrogers]

9240129
Gotta agree with this. Sirens can't steal magic and shouldn't be able to steal Discord's magic, given how powerful he is (Tirek had to take all the magic in Equestria except for the alicorns' before he could do that). This is basically a transparent way to nerf characters who should have been able to defeat this particular gang of baddies without trouble. Also, with his body shape, I don't think Discord would survive a trek through miles of snow and ice without any kind of winter gear or his powers. He's going to lose a lot of heat through his tail because scales have no cold protection and he's too skinny to hold much heat. He's furry, so he's better prepared than a human with no gear, but that's not saying much.