“Help me lift this gun!” Frosty shouted.
Polaris opened his eyes and squinted in the daylight. ‘Oh thank goodness, it was all a dream!’ He thought.
“Help me… lift… this gun!” Frosty grunted again.
“Yeah, you were in my… nightmare. That’s what you said. Tirek came back and turned you into a little filly.” PW recounted, turning to face Frosty.
He saw her unsettled face and immediately knew something was wrong. “F-Frosty? What’s the matter?” He asked.
“Something’s wrong…” She said, still focusing on nothing in particular. “I can’t lift.”
“What do you mean?” PW asked.
She raised a hoof and slapped PW across the face.
“I’m awake!” PW shouted.
He hit himself to make sure and finally realized what just happened.
“Frosty… you slapped me… and it did not hurt. Something is very wrong.” He rose up and clambered out of his hammock.
“Help me!” Frosty grunted again, struggling to tip her D-16 up.
PW grasped the cool metal and, despite what little help he could provide, managed to help her secure it onto her back.
“What is going on, Frosty?” PW asked again.
“I woke up without strength. I have none, just enough to stand.” She detailed.
“I want to see this.” He grabbed Frosty’s left hoof and challenged her. “Try pulling your hoof away from me.”
She tugged and though PW could feel it, her force wasn’t overwhelming. The giant mare began huffing for air as she struggled.
“Holy shit, Frosty…” He muttered.
“You get it now?”
“Alright. Now I’m scared.” PW admitted.
“Pack your stuff up. We’re sitting ducks right now.” She cautioned.
PW did so with eyes shifting about for threats the whole while.
When he’d finished the pair departed their campsite. “We need to be going this way!” PW announced, motioning to the left.
“Are you sure, PW?” Frosty raised a brow at him.
“Yes.” He said, leading the way.
It wasn’t long before they came across a peculiar patch of blue flowers.
“Fuck.” Frosty cursed.
“What?”
She sighed and gestured to the flowerbed. “Two things. One: we just went in a circle. Two: it seems we both are afflicted by poison-joke.”
“Uh–oh…” PW realized. “So, your opposite is weak?” PW asked.
The titan mare leaned forward and tried to wrestle her assistant to the ground.
“Hmf! Agh!” She squeaked, unable to budge the much-smaller pegasus.
He nodded. “Right… wonder what my issue is?”
“I have a guess.” She ceased her struggles and brought her compass forth. Hiding the needle from PW she asked him to point to the south.
He pointed northeast.
“For the first time… incorrect.” She huffed
“No way! You’re joking.” PW complained.
She presented its face with a frustrated sigh.
“There must be some metal disturbance throwing it off in the ground!” He explained, grasping it. The needle did not waiver. “This thing is broken. Gotta be!”
“Look at the sun. It’s morning and if we were heading south it’d be on our left.” She shook her head.
PW turned and gazed at the sun for several seconds.
“Well don’t stare at it!” She rolled her eyes.
“It’s because we’re in the southern hemisphere! So everything is reversed!” He sputtered.
She stared at him. “That’s complete nonsense.”
“No it ain’t!”
“Okay, go ahead and take a sextant reading.” Frosty waved and fished the device out.
Her assistant held the object up but, try as he might, he couldn’t seem to find the sun.
Frosty took it back. “What are you even looking at?” She complained, seeing the mirrors were way off. She twisted the knob to a close estimate and then passed it back.
“Make it exact, now.” She ordered and watched as Polaris turned the knob back and forth, causing the error to grow again.
“Um; it says we’re at 720 degrees north?”
“Ugh!” Frosty brought a hoof to her forehead. “Polaris, you are unable to determine direction! That is your affliction!”
“Bullshit.” He shook his head.
“Don’t you ‘bullshit’ me!” She snapped. “And I think your loyalty to this Night-Mare is in question.” Frosty added, walking up to PW’s face.
The small pegasus reached out with his hoof and pushed her on her chest.
“Don’t you push me out of the way!” She growled.
“You do it all the time. Try and stop me!”
She lowered her muzzle. “I’m not playing this game. Push me all you want. Or, how about you stop being such a wet blanket?”
“All right, if you know where to go so much, lead the way! Then, when it’s obvious we’re not going the right way, ask me.” He retorted, crossing his hooves.
“At this point I’m almost convinced to just turn west, find the coast, and go south.” She said.
“That’s stupid. And you’d give us away.” He replied.
“Speaking of which. Keep your gun ready.” She muttered. “If that hotshot puma comes back I doubt things will go the same way.”
“That’s right, I’m large and in charge now!” he smiled, removing his pistol from its holster.
Over the next few minutes Polaris overtook his large companion four times, diverging in a way threatening to separate them. Frosty told him off for going so far ahead, but this only served to spur the pegasus on. She knew he wasn’t holding his bearing and it’d only be a matter of time before something terrible happened to them.
“Frosty?” PW called out, realizing he was alone.
“Ah-aha-ah!” A monkey cried out in reply. The exhausted, tired, aching stallion pushed aside some giant fern grass.
A great *HISS* greeted him and he backed away very slowly. Whatever was in the grass didn’t come out and he let out a shaky breath.
“They’re gonna find a plump anaconda or a skeleton with two large holes in its skull…” Polaris realized. “FROSTY!?” He yelled again.
No response. The day wore on, and before long it was lunch time.
PW, now realizing what he had done, began to break down and weep.
“I suck!” He shouted. “I suck, suck, suck! I put my all into her and some plant defeats me. Now I’m either going to end up dead or fired! Or, even worse, she will!”
He imagined attending Frosty’s funeral, at which a huge, beige-colored earth pony stallion charged over to him. ‘So you’re the sonuvabitch that failed my daughter?!’
Another stallion approached
‘I assure you Mister Hooves, this stallion is in big trouble!’ The boss grumbled, with not an ounce of consolation present.
“She’s gone! She’s gone!” Polaris collapsed to the jungle floor. He shook his head and looked ahead in despair.
The shape of a pony appeared beyond the undergrowth.
PW scrambled to his hooves.
“Frosty!” He cried in relief at the large shadow. “Frosty, I'm here now. I was an idiot but I cried myself out and I’m back!”
The mechanisms in her legs whined as she reared to her full height. He took several steps forward but she didn’t respond.
“Frosty? Is… that you? Are you okay?” He asked.
Something was different about her. At her full height, Frosty’s belly was below PW’s eyeline but this pony was taller than her. Much taller.
PW’s ears folded and he gulped. ‘We’re on the same team. She’s on my side.’ He reminded himself.
On trembling hooves he circled the plant separating them and greeted Recce.
“H-hi there! Um, I was ju–” He felt a crushing impact on the left side of his skull.
By the time his vision cleared he was staring up at the jungle canopy and had a terrible headache.
‘What was that?’ He gasped for air but found his mouth plugged. He blinked and looked down to a pale, size 11 hoof painfully smashing his muzzle. He looked up to its owner and immediately regretted making eye contact.
Under a wild, red mane, Recce's face was obscured by camo-paint that framed a pair of furious, brilliant green eyes. Polaris shuddered under her stare. It was several orders of magnitude more intense than when he made the mistake of mentioning Frosty’s real name for the first time.
“Mm–!” PW squeaked from under a hoof nearly the size of his face.
It was all he could muster with the wind knocked out of his lungs.
Her metal fingers clicked out, wrapped about his skull and began to squeeze.
Hard.
Polaris grimaced and finally found his voice.
“Mmf – Recce!”
Ope. PW found danger.
Oof. There is gonna be some serious social awkwardness coming up.
12006491
Yup, a very bad place to run into Danger-Mare!
12006694
Yup, somecreature messed up at HQ. Badly. Sad thing is- these things actually happen. For instance the WWII PT-346 & Co friendly fire incident on the South/South-West Pacific demarcation line.
Well this ought to be interesting.