Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Winter

Snow slowly, lazily drifted through the air, pushed this way and that by the wind. It came down in soft, large flakes, clusters that peacefully set themselves down over the ruins once they touched the ground and remained there undisturbed, building up piles and coating everything in a thick layer of white. There was no heat to warm up what was left of the city, no ponies living there and no other animals either. The stone was cold, and the snow didn't melt. It was undisturbed, free to build up without being crushed.

Soon it would cover the entire city. If it kept snowing long enough, even the tallest pile of rubble might have been submerged. Assuming the snow didn't collapse under its own weight before growing that tall, of course. It would be, perhaps, fun to see some pony or other creature walking through the place once it had stopped snowing. See them fall deep into it, in holes tall enough to fit their whole height, and see them stumble around as they ran into the hidden remains of the city under the snow.

But then the snow would be ruined. It would have holes, and places where some had melted down. To be fair, yes, all the snow would melt down in time. The seasons would shift again and the temperatures would rise and the snow would all melt or evaporate. It would turn to water and soak the ground below, and then mix with the mud and turn dirty. And perhaps it would melt in the day, but freeze again in the night, turning to ice. And the ice would melt again during the morning, in ugly and half-frozen puddles filled with dirt.

But that wouldn't happen for a while still. It was snowing, right then. Still snowing. Snow coming down from the sky in large and soft flakes that danced through the air on the soft bouts of wind and then touched the snow already on the ground and stayed there, not melting, building higher and higher. The sky was cloudy, but not quite as dark as a storm would make it. The Sun was still there, behind the clouds. But covered, so it couldn't warm the land and melt the snow. The snow wouldn't melt for a while still. The air was cold, and the sky was cloudy, and more snow kept falling down and piling up.

It wouldn't have happened like that, had the city still been inhabited. The warmth from the houses and the ponies and the busy streets and all the buildings with their fires and their life would have melted the snow when it first fell. It would have taken long for it to cool the streets and the rooftops and the walls, sacrificing itself. And then, what? Ponies would clean it away, and push it out, and salt the streets so no more snow would pile up in them. Maybe out of the city, in the fields, snow would be allowed to grow, but even then they would walk over it and ruin it.

One had to wonder if it would have been possible to build tunnels, underneath the snow, if it was left to build up for long enough undisturbed. But then, there was the risk of ruining it still. Better not to try.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

A town abandoned to the snow. And I can't help but think of that one bit of Holidays Unwrapped where Sunset reads a snowflake's mind. If that was how it worked in the human world before the Behemoth, one can only imagine what weather systems are like these days.

Also, cryptic Pinkies are cryptic.