Ch.21 A Soul’s Reprieve
~Chapter 21: A Soul’s Reprieve~
Downpour's dreams had been plagued by the yellow face of the stallion that had nearly killed him, if it hadn’t been for his brother’s well timed intervention, Downpour would have been dead last night. The thought that he had come so close to losing his life filled the stallion’s heart with an ice cold fear that made it impossible for him to sleep. Lying awake had proved to be just as awful, because he could see every pony and griffon that he had killed and each memory resurfaced in his head. He did his best to push the thoughts back down into his subconscious, but each time it felt as if they stole a piece of his soul away. Inside the pegasus was growing empty and he worried about how long it would be before he completely lost that part of himself that wanted to be a better pony.
“Morning,” Draft’s voice greeted him as the grey pegasus opened his eyes and yawned. “What time is it and how long have you been up?” Downpour tried his best not to let his inner feelings show through as he gazed at his brother.
“I think it’s a little after noon and I’ve only been up for a few minutes. It was cold so I couldn’t sleep very well,” Downpour replied. His body shivered involuntarily, as if to lend credit to his words. Now that Draft was awake, Downpour decided it might be a good idea to actually force himself out of his warm blankets, because even if he was feeling depressed, they still had an important task to complete. His muscles ached from the combined strain of the fighting he had been doing and the less than comfortable sleeping conditions, but after a slow stretch, they felt a tiny bit better.
“Really? I slept like a rock all night. I don’t think I moved a single muscle,” Draft replied cheerily. At least one of them was in a good mood, Downpour thought. “I gathered some of our stuff up last night, so it shouldn’t take long to finish packing and eat something.”
“Good,” Downpour stated.
“Yeah, so we’re almost in the Crystal Kingdom. I mean the mountains that divide us are just a short flight way, so we’ll be in a new country pretty soon. That’s pretty awesome don’t you think.” Draft began loading their bedding into the saddlebags as he spoke, but Downpour hardly paid any attention to what the younger pony was saying. He had caught sight of blood on the ground and it made his stomach queasy.
“Did you grab the key to that chest from their leader last night?” Downpour asked, hoping that the answer was ‘yes’ as he did.
“Uh, no I didn’t,” Draft called back. Can you grab it while I finish packing this junk up?”
“Mhmm, sure,” Downpour replied morosely, as he forced his hooves to take him where they had piled the dead bodies of the three stallions. Rounding the back corner of the wagon, he came face to face with the grisly results of what they had done to survive. Never before had the pegasus ever seen what remained after his fights, he was always on the move and never looking back. Now though, Downpour saw their cold, lifeless eyes staring vacantly outward from bruised and bloodied faces. When he caught sight of what remained after he had smashed a rock into one of their heads, his stomach lurched violently and a mixture of food and bile spilled onto the ground, splashing against his hooves as it came out.
Downpour spat the bad taste from his mouth and stepped around the pile of vomit so that he could get to the bodies. He was loath to touch the corpses, but without that key there was no way they could have opened up the chest. Taking a deep breath, he reached out a hoof and pulled the yellow stallion’s body from the pile, laying it out so he could reach into the saddlebags strapped on its back. Fighting the urge to vomit again, Downpour unfastened the bag and dumped its contents to the ground. There, among a collection of various useless objects, was his prize. He snatched the key from the ground and hurried away from the macabre sight before letting out his breath.
“Did you find the key?” his brother asked him when he returned to the front end of the wagon. Draft had finished packing up the rest of their supplies and was in the middle of eating, but the very sight of the food made his older brother sick.
“Yeah, it’s right here,” Downpour replied, holding up the small key to show the grey eyed pegasus. “Do you want to open up that chest now?”
“Don’t you want to eat first?” Draft asked.
“No, I’m not really hungry right now,” he replied. Draft shrugged his shoulders and continued munching on the apple in his hooves.
“Okay, just let me finish breakfast, err, lunch and then we can crack that baby open,” the grey stallion replied. Downpour nodded his head in agreement and took a seat next to his younger brother on the cart while he waited.
“Alright, I’m done,” Draft said as he tossed away the core of his apple. “Let’s see what’s in that thing.” The brothers got to their hooves and walked over to the enchanted chest. We’re finally going to get inside this baby, Draft thought, as his brother bent down and pressed the key into the padlock. Downpour twisted the key in its hole and the lock clicked open. Draft sucked in a breath as the anticipation built in him. His brother slowly lifted the lid and revealed a pile of bits, more money than Draft had ever seen in one place. His breath left him in a stunned gasp. “Ha… ha ha ha, we’re rich!” he exclaimed as he began to hop around in circles, giggling madly.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Downpour replied a few moments later. “Take a closer look at these bits.” His older brother passed one of the coins to him with a frown. Draft eyed the piece suspiciously, but it seemed like any other coin to him.
“What about it?” he asked.
“Look at the profiles engraved in them,” Downpour replied. Draft did as he said and eyed the coin closely, but there was an alicorn on it like always. Everypony knew that the princesses’ faces were on the front and back.
“Yeah, the princess, so what’s your point?” Draft questioned his older brother.
“It’s not a princess, it’s a queen. The Crystal Queen to be exact and on the back is the Crystal King.” Draft flipped the coin over in his hoof as he listened to his brother’s words and sure enough the images were of the Crystal Kingdom’s rulers, not their own beloved diarchs.
“Wait, so these bits are from the Crystal Kingdom?” Draft asked as he dropped the coins back into the small chest. The group of Equestrian criminals had been hiding a stash of Crystal Kingdom bits for some reason. “What’s that mean?”
“It means that if we want to spend these bits we’ll have to take them with us,” Downpour explained. “It also means that those stallion’s illegal activities extended beyond our borders. I’d rather not be caught with that much stolen money in a foreign country, so I think it would be best if we only take a small amount with us and stash the rest somewhere for now.” Downpour frowned again as he dropped the last bit back into the chest and closed the lid.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Draft agreed, “but I was really hoping we’d struck the jackpot. I was going to buy some souvenirs while we were in the Crystal Kingdom.” Downpour facehoofed before locking the chest back up.
“We aren’t on vacation here, Draft. We have a job to do, remember.”
“Of course I remember, but does that mean I can’t get a memento while we’re there?” Draft asked with a slight smile. For some reason it seemed to be easier to get under his older brothers skin than it usually was, so he was planning to take full advantage while he could.
“I suppose not, but wait until after we talk to the king alright,” Downpour admitted. After he’d spoken, the stocky pegasus took a look around before standing back up with a groan. “I suppose we should get going.”
“Mhmm, what are we going to do with the chest though?” Draft asked. If they weren’t taking it with them, then they were going to have to stash it somewhere nopony would accidentally stumble across it. The cabin was out of the question, not only because the stallion that had gotten away might return there, but also because it would mean backtracking.
“Good question. I guess I’ll carry it with us until we find a good landmark to hide it by, unless you have a better idea,” Downpour replied.
“Nope, that sounds like as good of a plan as any,” Draft agreed. The brothers walked back to the wagon and hefted their saddlebags across their backs. After latching them tight against themselves, Downpour picked up the chest and held it close to him.
“You ready to get some flying done?” he asked.
“You know I am,” Draft responded as he gave his wings a good stretch. They both took a running start and pushed off of the ground, their powerful wings moving them through the air with minimal effort. Even while holding a small fortune in bits, Draft’s older brother seemed to soar without any problems. A smile stretched across the grey pegasus’s face as he did what he had always done best, he flew.
Flying wasn’t improving Downpour’s sullen mood like it normally would have. Instead of easing his mind, it only gave him time to stew over his recent actions. How many had he killed? He thought back to the day he fought off the griffons with Strata and could remember at least three that died by his hooves. Another five Red Eyes had fallen to their deaths when he and Draft had fought against them, which made eight. Then there were the stallions that they had taken the chest from, he had slain three of them, so that was a total of eleven deaths that he was directly responsible for. There was most likely a special place in the deepest depths of Tartarus being prepared for him. The direction that Downpour’s life was headed was not one that he cared to follow, but he didn’t know if it was possible to wash the blood that he had already spilled from his hooves.
“You okay, bro?” Draft’s question roused him from his inner torment, but Downpour wasn’t willing to talk about what he was thinking just yet.
“Yeah, I’m, uh, I’m fine. This chest is just starting to get a little bit heavy,” he lied. “Let me know if you spot a landmark that we’ll be able to find on our way back so that I can drop this thing.”
“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out,” Draft said, with a hint of suspicion evident in his voice. Downpour figured his depression must have been fairly obvious and did his best to stow his emotions away, but it was hard not to dwell on the past. Focusing on finding a hiding spot for their newfound treasure helped take part of his mind off of things, but there was still a small voice in his head that continued to remind him that he was a murderer. Even if their deaths were unavoidable, he knew he should have tried harder to prevent them. After all, what use was there in living to see another day if you gave up your soul to do so?
“Hey, how about that?” Draft asked as he gestured toward the tallest oak tree at the foot of the Crystal Mountains. “I think that we’ll be able to find that tree again on our way back.” He wasn’t joking; the tree stood a good nine yards taller than any of the trees around it and was thicker by far. Anypony could have picked that tree out from a mile away.
“Yeah, I think that’ll work,” Downpour agreed as he adjusted his angle in the giant oak’s direction. His brother followed his lead and soon they were hovering above the canopy of trees, which had just begun to lose their leaves for the winter.
The brothers dropped below the tree line, dodging the widespread branches on their way to the forest floor. Even though the oaks were mostly barren, there were still enough large branches to block out most of Celestia’s sun and the ground was still damp from the previous day’s storm. Downpour could smell the earthy aroma of decaying leaves rising from the dirt beneath his hooves. He gazed around the forest and could see no signs that anypony besides them had been there in a long while, so it seemed like it would make the perfect spot to stash their coins until they could return. Downpour thought for a moment about the best way to hide the chest, but then it came to him.
“Draft, can you carve something inconspicuous into the tree, juts in case we forget which one it is for some strange reason. While you do that, I’m going to bury this thing down by its roots.” His brother nodded and set about strapping on his wing blades so that he could carve into the bark with their sharpened tips. Downpour popped the lid of the enchanted container open and dug out a couple small hoofulls of coins and dropped them in his bags, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about running out of bits before they left the Crystal Kingdom.
“Okay, I carved a ‘D’ into the tree,” Draft said as he stuffed his wing blades back into his saddlebag. If it was a joke, Downpour didn’t think it was a very good one.
“Good, now help me finish burying this,” he replied. The two brothers broke a sweat as they quickly dug a yard deep hole under the largest root protruding from the tree. Downpour dropped their chest into it and soon they had dirt piled back on top. After stomping the soil back down, they stepped back to admire their work, panting heavily from the task they had completed. If you knew what you were looking for, it would be easy to find, but Downpour doubted that anypony just passing nearby would notice anything amiss and his brother seemed to be happy with it as well.
“I think that’ll work. What about you, Downpour?” his brother asked him with a satisfied sigh.
“Yeah, it looks pretty good to me,” he replied. Just then the bluish pegasus heard his stomach growling like a timberwolf. Draft’s eyes widened with surprise. “I guess I’m kind of hungry after all that,” Downpour shrugged.
“You think? Maybe you should have eaten breakfast when I offered, because it sounds like your stomach is turning against you now,” the grey pegasus replied between chuckles. “We might as well just eat some lunch here.” Downpour didn’t want to spend too much time around the tree in case somepony walked by, but it didn’t seem as if ponies ever came by there, so he decided it would be fine. Draft tossed him a sack with some oats in it that looked as if they were on the verge of molding. They needed to buy some new food in the next town, Downpour decided as he sat down to eat.
“Seriously, Downpour, what’s your deal today? You seem really depressed and it’s starting to bum me out,” Draft asked his older brother. They were just about done eating lunch and Downpour hadn’t said more than a couple words, so Draft was getting a little bit worried. It wasn’t like his brother to be so reserved and quiet. Usually Downpour would be wolfing down food and making lots of unnecessary noise, but today he picked at his lunch and gave one word responses anytime Draft tried to talk.
“I’m fine,” Downpour replied. It wasn’t an answer as much as it was another attempt at avoiding conversation, but Draft decided to let it go for now. When his brother was ready to talk, he would most likely let him know.
“If you say so,” Draft sighed. The silence between the pegasus resumed as they finished the last of their meals. Draft’s mind was occupied with thoughts of his friends. He wondered how Spark, Strata and Inferno were doing on their way to the griffon homeland and how Star was dealing with the absence of the young dragon. He imagined that Chestnut and Silver were probably having a grand old time catching up with each other. It made the young stallion a little homesick thinking about all of them, but he knew that when he and Downpour finished their mission, they could all get together again.
Draft was so lost in thought that he didn’t even realize he had already finished eating the apple that he’d been holding, until his teeth connected with his hoof. He bit down hard enough that for a second, the pegasus feared that he had broken a few teeth, but when he felt in his mouth they all appeared to be fine.
“Ouch,” he said, tossing away the remaining core of the apple. “Well, I’m done eating now. How about you, Downpour?” He glanced at his brother, who had eaten maybe half as much as he had.
“Mhmm, I’m ready to go if you are,” Downpour responded quietly. The bluish pegasus’s sullen mood was starting to bother Draft more and more. The two brothers threw their bags across their backs once again and prepared themselves for the next leg of their journey. Draft was hoping that they could get across the mountain range and to a town by the end of the day, a feat that would have been insurmountable to any wingless pony, but one that pegasus could manage fairly easily if they put their mind to it.
“Okay, don’t forget this spot, because it might be awhile before we can make it back down this way. Who knows how long it will take to get this situation sorted out, after all?” Draft reminded his brother. After committing the location to memory, the grey eyed pegasus kicked off the ground and began pumping his wings, lifting himself back up over the tall trees around him. His older brother followed slowly behind a moment later. “You’re going to be able to keep up with me, right Downpour?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just worry about your self,” his brother replied with a slight scowl. If Downpour didn’t change his attitude soon, Draft had half a mind to do it for him. He simply shook his head in disbelief at his brother’s loss of spunk and began heading north once again. At least there was the pleasant feeling that soaring through the open sky gave him to take his mind off of his brother. Draft steadily pumped his wings and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing his long grey mane behind him, each stroke sending him higher into the sky, until he was flying above the clouds. His brother seemed to be keeping up well enough, so Draft decided to just focus on finding his own rhythm and let his mind wander free as they traveled.
Between the gaps in the clouds, Draft could see the terrain far below and it made him wonder how long traveling through the rough mountain pass would have taken for an earth pony or a unicorn. Being born a pegasus, he had a tendency to take his flight for granted and couldn’t imagine going through life without ever feeling the freedom that came with wings. It was no wonder that Spark and the others had been so ecstatic when they had first ridden in the sky chariot and yet, that was just a small taste of what it really meant to fly. A smile graced the winged pony’s face as he let the happiness of his memories wash over him.
Draft had finally stopped trying to get Downpour to talk, which was just fine with him. Most of his focus was on keeping up with the younger pegasus, who seemed to have decided he wanted to get to their destination as quickly as possible, but there was still a part of his mind arguing with itself about how terrible of a pony he had become. It was actually starting to irritate him more than depress him at that point. Just as he was considering starting a conversation with his brother to make the thoughts stop, Draft beat him to it.
“Hey, I know you’re being all morose and what have you, but I just remembered something.” Draft looked back at him as he flew, talking the whole time. “Didn’t you say that you had a little bit of herb stashed in your bag, because I’m pretty sure that we still have a rolling paper somewhere,” Draft told him with a smile. He was right and Downpour had completely forgotten about the herbs. It was the perfect way to improve his mood and he immediately began rooting around in his saddlebag for it. Opening a small pocket that he had added to the inside, his hoof touched the small bud.
“Yes!” Downpour exclaimed. He hadn’t meant to shout as loud as he did, but there weren’t many things that could compare to finding something amazing that you had forgotten about. It was like a surprise birthday present to his self.
“Ha ha ha, I thought you might have forgotten about that. Let’s find a cloud and roll that stuff up,” Draft suggested as he slowly dropped down to the cloud cover. The two pegasus landed on a particularly puffy cloud and promptly dropped to their flanks. Draft pulled out a lone rolling paper as his brother passed over, what the younger stallion assumed was, the last of their herb. With a deftness that unicorn ponies could never manage with hooves, Draft produced a medium sized joint. “So, do you still have your flint?”
“Mhmm, I got it right here,” Downpour replied, tossing the rectangular stone over to his brother. Draft dug through his bag until he came up with another paper and with a flick of his wrist, he lit it on fire. A few puffs later and the joint was burning beautifully for him. Exhaling a very large cloud of smoke, Draft held the joint out to his surly older brother, who snatched it up and proceeded to take a long, greedy drag from it.
“Oh, now that’s just amazing,” Downpour said, his words accompanied by a long trail of smoke that rose slowly above his upturned face. A smile crawled across his tattooed visage, the first one that Draft could remember seeing all day, as he fell onto his back with a contented sigh. Draft snatched the joint back from his brothers limp hoof before he could accidental drop it through the cloud and took another drag himself.
“Yup, that certainly hits the spot alright,” Draft said, dropping onto his back beside his older brother. “So, now do you feel like explaining what had your tail in a bunch earlier or are you still going to pout?” He turned his head to look at the black maned pegasus beside him, who seemed to be unsure of his answer. Draft didn’t bother breaking the silence that fell between them; he was going to let his brother open up at his own pace. It wasn’t often that the brash pegasus even showed his real emotions, so pressuring him to open up too much might cause him to revert back into his sullen mood.
“It, uh…” The words seemed to be hard for Downpour to find, but unlike him, Draft didn’t need a zebra glyph to remind him to be patient. “I’m just, err, I mean… I’m a bad pony Draft,” Downpour finally said. “I’ve killed griffons and ponies now. When I close my eyes, I see their faces and when I open them, I can see blood on my hooves.” A pained expression crossed Downpour’s face as he forced the words out. “I know I was only trying to survive, but there’s this voice in my head that keeps telling me I did wrong. A part of me knows that I should have tried harder to find a way through the struggles that wouldn’t have ended their lives.”
“You did what you thought you had to at the time,” Draft replied, trying his best to console his tormented sibling.
“That’s exactly what I told myself, but it’s just a lame excuse. The truth is that the voice is right,” Downpour sighed. Tears began forming in his blue eyes as he continued, the emotional pain he felt finally spilling down his face. “What I did was unforgivable and I don’t know how I can keep living with myself anymore.” Draft heard his words, but had no idea how to respond. He would have expected this reaction from Nature Spark, but to see his brother, his abrasive and carefree brother, being crushed under the weight of his own actions left the grey pegasus speechless. “For awhile I thought that saving Equestria was enough to wash the stain from my soul, but now I’m not so sure. How can I redeem myself from the deaths I caused?” Downpour stared into Draft’s eyes, as if he expected him to have a suitable answer.
“I-I-I really don’t know Downpour,” his little brother replied. Draft wished he did, he wished that he could tell his older brother something that would help ease the troubled stallion’s conscience, but sometimes there was nothing you could do to help the ones you cared for. This was one such time.
“It’s funny, I remember back in Canterlot I told Spark that I was prepared to live with what I had done,” Downpour admitted, “but I don’t think the full weight of my actions had hit me yet. Now that I’ve had more time to think, it seems insurmountable to even try to go on.” Draft passed the joint, which had nearly gone out during their conversation, back to his brother. After taking a drag, Downpour resumed speaking. “How about you? How are you holding up now that you’ve ended a life? Has it hit you yet, the fact that one of them may have had a family and that they all had hopes and plans for their futures?”
“To be honest, I’ve been trying not to think about it,” Draft replied.
“Well, let me know if you come up with an answer,” Downpour chuckled humorlessly. “I’d love to hear it.” Neither of them spoke after that. Instead, they sat upon the cloud and finished smoking as silence filled the air around them once again. Downpour didn’t even try to wipe away his tears and Draft didn’t try consoling him anymore. There was nothing either of them could do, except to keep moving forward with their mission and hope that one day they could be forgiven for their crimes.
The clouds passed by swiftly as the brothers flew over the frosty mountains that divided Equestria from the Crystal Empire, but Downpour hardly even noticed. Even the icy wind that blew across his face went unobserved by the pegasus. The cold feeling that gripped his heart was far more difficult to ignore however. The talk with his younger brother had done nothing to alleviate Downpour’s concerns, rather it seemed to have spread his emotional affliction to his sibling and now the two of them flew in mutual depression.
Every push of their wings took them closer to their destination and yet Downpour felt further than ever from salvation. He had stopped trying to push the dark thoughts from his mind; it was an utterly pointless endeavor to even try. Now his conscience ate away at his resolve, tempting him to give up and let the world fall into the very disarray that his own mind had. The only thing that kept him going was his brother flying steadily beside him and the thought of Strata, the hippogriff he loved. She had told him on their way to Canterlot that she could never hold what he had done against him. She had even told him of her own personal torment and now he could truly appreciate how she felt. Maybe if he was with Strata, she could talk him through his own problems, but they were miles apart and weeks from seeing each other again.
Downpour was so absorbed in his own self-loathing that he didn’t notice the heavy cloud cover that had settled in around him. A shout from his brother snapped him back into reality, but it was already too late. They were flying blind within moments.
“For the love of Luna, where the hay did all these clouds come from?” Downpour questioned as he slowly made his way forward through the thick storm clouds as ice began to form across his hide and feathers. In mere moments he was shivering from head to hoof. “Draft, where are you at?”
“I’m over here,” Draft’s muffled voice called out to him from somewhere in the middle of the gathering storm. It was hard to tell exactly which direction the shout had come from, but Downpour began flying in the general direction. It had begun to snow before he had made it over to his younger sibling, who was shivering just as hard as he was. Once they had met up, the pegasus started to raise themselves above the billowing clouds where they could see more clearly.
“Well, that was very stupid of us,” Downpour commented.
“Yeah, I guess that’s what we get for acting so whiny and depressed while we’re flying,” Draft agreed. Downpour spun in a slow circle, surveying the sky around them. The storm was one of the largest he had ever seen and it had accumulated astonishingly quickly. They were going to need a shelter soon or face freezing to death in a blizzard.
“Shit, this storm is huge. I must have really been out of it not to have noticed sooner,” Downpour said. “We’re going to have to land somewhere sheltered while we still have the chance. Before long I think there’s going to be so much wind and snow that we’d get lost and die trying to move on the ground.” Draft nodded his head in agreement.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Should we try to get all of the way across the mountains first though?” Draft asked. “I don’t really like the idea of spending the night in a cave where wild animals might wander in on us.” He had a good point, even if flying in a storm was dangerous, it was still far better than being attacked by whatever fearsome creatures made their homes in the rocky mountain range.
“Mhmm, that’d probably be for the best,” Downpour replied as they started traveling once more. “Just stay close by, because I don’t want to have to go looking for you again.” Draft nodded in agreement and they flew through the storm together.
“I can’t even tell if we’ve made it over the damn mountains from up here,” Draft huffed as he turned toward his brother, who seemed to be having as hard of a time seeing through the driving wind as he was. The snow was pouring out of the sky around them and Draft was beginning to lose feeling in his extremities as a result. “W-we need to find s-some shelter soon. If I get much c-colder I think my wings are going to lock up,” Draft said through chattering teeth. Every second they flew through the icy air he lost more body heat. Even the cloak wrapped tightly around him and the thick boots over his hooves did little to stop the warmth from leeching out of his skin.
“Alright, let’s dive down there and see if we can find a cave or something,” Downpour suggested. “Just be very careful, I’ve never seen a blizzard this bad before.” It was true; the storm around them had developed remarkably quickly and had come seemingly from out of thin air. Draft only hoped that this storm was a rare weather exception and not the rule in the Crystal Empire, otherwise he and his brother might not be able to finish their quest.
As soon as they had dropped below the cloud cover Draft was coated with a thick layer of snow. It clung to his mane, tail and wherever his hide was showing through. He could even see ice crystals forming on his eyelashes. They tried to find their way to the ground, but the freezing wind kicked around so much snow that pure whiteness was all that they could see and it became very disorienting in the changing winds.
“Downpour, are you still there?” Draft called out the question into the snow storm, but an answer didn’t come from his older sibling. From somewhere high above, the pegasus heard a ghastly wail on the wind, at least he thought it was high above.
“Draft!” he heard his brother’s voice call back to him, but it was faint over the sound of the wind. Draft called out again and his brother responded. They continued calling back and forth while they made their way to each other. “Draft!” Downpour called to him for the last time before they saw one another.
“Sweet Celestia, Downpour, I thought we were doomed there for a min-” The wail rose up once more, cutting off Draft’s words as it swirled around them on the wind. The brothers glanced upward in mutual unease.
“What the buck is that sound?” Downpour asked. “I’ve been hearing it every so often since this Celestia damned storm started.” His brother’s words triggered a memory for Draft and he realized what the sound might be, but it only made him dislike the snow storm more.
“Downpour, do you remember the story of Hearth’s Warming Eve?” he asked his older brother as he glanced around himself.
“Well yeah, who doesn’t? The head pegasus, earth pony and unicorn all got trapped in a blizzard because of Windigos feeding off of their hate for each other,” Downpour replied. A look of frightened realization crossed his face as soon as he had finished speaking. “You think that’s what this is? I don’t hate you though, honestly.”
“I know… I don’t think they’re feeding off of our hate for each other right now,” Draft replied in a solemn tone. At the sound of another wail both pegasus looked around nervously into the storm surrounding them.
“Okay, so why are they creating this storm and what the hay are they feeding on?” Downpour questioned.
“I think that they’re feeding off of the hate we have for ourselves,” Draft replied. It looked as if his brother was going to argue the fact, but instead Downpour’s mouth simply hung open in disbelief.
“I, err, you’re, oh buck me…” Downpour’s arguments were blown away with the bone chilling wind. “I think you’re right and if we don’t find shelter soon, I’m pretty sure we won’t live to see tomorrow,” Downpour replied. The next wail that carried on the wind sounded much closer than before.
“Let’s get to the ground, fast!” Draft shouted. The two brothers grabbed one another by the hoof and launched themselves down towards the ground, caring less about flying blind and more about being prey to the Windigos up above.
The Windigo involvement explained why they hadn’t noticed the storm until it was right on top of them and also why it was so severe. It didn’t explain where the Windigos had come from though. Draft assumed that they must have made a home in the mountains sometime after the first Hearth’s Warming Eve, but he couldn’t be sure. He had no doubt that Star would have known if she was with them, but he just wasn’t as book smart as the studious unicorn. Before Draft knew what was going on, he and Downpour crashed head first into a snow drift. It wasn’t the best landing he had ever made by far, but he was just overjoyed to have his hooves on semi-solid ground.
“Come on!” Downpour yelled at him as they began tromping through the piled up snow. There had to be a cave or outcropping of rocks somewhere, at least Draft hoped that there was. If not, then they would surely succumb to the elements.
Downpour wasn’t sure how long they had been walking or where they even were. In fact the only thing he was sure of, was that it was becoming difficult to keep his eyes open and he couldn’t feel anything below his knees. Three times he fell to the ground and Draft had fallen a couple times as well. They hadn’t seen anyplace to get out of the storm and it was becoming more and more difficult to see anything at all in the swirling white winds.
“Do you see anything yet?” Downpour asked his younger brother with the loudest voice he could muster, which wasn’t very loud at all.
“I can barely see anything, Downpour,” Draft replied quietly. Every step that they took sapped heat and energy from their bodies and the bluish pegasus was beginning to fear that he wouldn’t make it out of the blizzard.
“We, we got to, uh…” It was difficult for Downpour to even move his mouth and talk at that point. It felt as if his lips were frozen in place and when he tried to move them around, they wouldn’t budge. As he ducked his head and tried to push himself harder, the pegasus caught sight of his own hooves, which were actually beginning to freeze. There was a three inch thick sheet of ice creeping up his fetlock and expanding quickly. “Draft, I don’t, uh, I can’t do it.” He collapsed to the ground beside his little brother, who wasn’t really that little anymore, and felt something inside himself give out.
His own self hate had brought the storm down on them and now it was going to get them both killed, unless he sent his brother away. It was his fault that they were in this mess to begin with and Downpour couldn’t help but hate himself even more for it. He heard the blizzard beasts cry out above him as the frozen wind swirled around before his eyes. Draft didn’t have as much hate for himself as Downpour did, so there was a chance the grey pegasus could make it through the storm while the Windigos fed on him. It was the only way for the mission to be completed in the older stallion’s eyes.
“Downpour, you have to get, uh, up,” Draft said as he strained to lift his older brother back to his hooves. No matter how hard he pulled and strained the stocky pegasus wouldn’t move for him though.
“No, Draft, I can’t do it…” Downpour huffed. His eyelids felt heavy as he spoke and his entire body felt numb. It was kind of pleasant actually; he didn’t feel the sting of the ice on his coat anymore or the bitter bite of the wind on his face. “It’s my fault we’re dying out here… the only way, uh, only way you’ll make it… is to leave me…” It took what little strength Downpour had left just to force the words out of his mouth. He could hear Draft screaming something at him as he closed his eyes, but it sounded far away and unimportant.
“Downpour… bro, wake the hay up!” Draft screamed. His shouts were accompanied by slaps to his brother’s tattooed face, but it did no good. “Oh buck, oh no…” He tried pulling on his brother, but only made it a few yards before the snow bunched up around Downpour’s unconscious form too much to get through. He needed to make the job easier or he’d never make it. Draft dropped his saddlebags to the ground and started tossing every unnecessary object out of them to reduce weight. His hoof paused for a moment, hovering above his wing blades, before he gritted his teeth and tossed the metal weapon to the snow beside him. “You owe me one, Downpour…”
Soon Draft had managed to empty the useless junk from both of their bags and had switched everything important into his own. Then he used the sharpened blade of his sword to cut his brother’s bag into strips of tough material, which he tied around the stocky pegasus to use as straps to make pulling him around easier. As he knotted the last length of ‘rope’, Draft noticed the ice that had already spread over his older brother’s knees. If they didn’t find shelter and warmth soon, then Downpour was going to freeze to death, all because of the Windigos. Draft cursed the creatures above as he began once again to pull his brother across the frozen ground.
Even with the extra leverage he got from his makeshift harness, Draft’s progress was achingly slow as he pulled and strained with the dead weight of his sibling, who had ice covering all four legs. Draft flapped his wings and dug his hooves into the snow to gain traction, but he still fell to the ground several times during his struggle. His muscles ached, his grey eyes burned and he wanted nothing more than to give up and sleep right then, but there were numerous ponies counting on them and he kept pushing himself forward. Every step he convinced himself that salvation was just out of sight, that shelter was up ahead and finally he was proven right. There was a small cave in the cliff to his left and he headed for it with a renewed vigor at the thought of safety.
Once inside, Draft began to shove the snow that had blown into the cave into a pile at the entrance. It helped keep some of the biting wind out. It was painstakingly slow work and his hooves were numb and hard to move, but eventually he accomplished the task. The pegasus laid his brother on the partially cleared dirt floor and saw that ice had already covered most of Downpour’s body. He needed a fire immediately, so he dug the flint out of his bag, but there wasn’t much to burn. A search through the cave yielded a few scraggly plants and a couple small twigs, but nothing that would sustain a fire for long. “What am I going to do?” he asked himself in desperation.
Draft realized that his only hope was to burn the extra cloak he had brought and the cut up saddlebag he had pulled his brother with as well. Along with the little bit of brush, he could get a very small fire going for maybe twenty minutes, but it didn’t seem long enough to make a difference. It was the only option that he had to choose from though. Piling up the brush first, Draft struck the flint above it a few times before finally producing a small flame. Slowly he began to feed the fire everything that was burnable, aside from the two cloaks around his brother, the one around himself, their boots and the one saddlebag that held their food and medicine. He had even dumped out the bits they had brought with them.
The small flame wasn’t much to look at, but after hours in the snow, it felt amazing, like when Draft had first seen the princesses in all of their regal beauty. The heat melted away a little bit of the ice coating his brother, but it wasn’t much. Before long he had run out of stuff to burn and the fire died down, leaving them dark and cold once again. Fearing their deaths, the shivering stallion embraced his brother for body warmth and covered the both of them up in the cloaks. He could feel what little warmth he had absorbed being leeched out of his body as he began to weep.
“Please, Downpour, don’t die on me… I…” He tried to hold back the tears that were crystallizing on his face as he finished saying, “I don’t think I can make it without you.”
Draft hugged his brother tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. He had tried his best, and had done everything in his power to save them, but the Windigos had won. As the grey pegasus felt the last of his body heat leaving him, he closed his eyes and wept quietly. He shed a single tear for himself, another for his friends, one for the princesses, one for his country, one for his failure and the last two were for his brother. The last thing Draft remembered was hearing the soul chilling call of the wicked beasts that had caused their current plight and he cursed their name one last time before passing out.
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Ok this chapter was pretty good, not as fast paste at first but that is hardly a bad thing. I was wondering when the weight of killing would finally start to get to one of them, and I would say you pulled it off nicely. And then the twist with the windigos, the last time I had heard anything about windigos was in a different story with the play again. And you have written this in just the perfect way that it actually does what most stories should, feel real. Whenever I read I feel like I could almost be experiencing it myself.