The Battle of Hearth's Warming

by XMark

Gathering Storm

Clover had never felt so vulnerable and alone.

The caravan had been slowed greatly after the battle with the bandits. Of their initial company of seven only four remained: Clover, Smart Cookie, Banana Split, and a young stallion named Hickory, who had received a large sword slash across his side. Private Pansy was walking alongside the wagon. If his injury was affecting him in any other way than restricting his flying ability, he didn't show it.

Every half hour or so they would have to stop and rest. Banana Split had injured a leg in the battle so he had been pulling the wagon at half his normal speed. They would not leave their dead in the wilderness simply to lighten their load. Nopony had even dared to suggest such a thing. With temperatures dropping after sunset and the snow falling anew, it would have been too dangerous to press on through the night. They had stopped in a clearing just off the trail and built a fire. They lay around the warming glow of the fire, the wagon parked on one side, blocking the primary direction of the wind.

Clover had volunteered for the first watch, since she doubted she would be able to sleep at all. She couldn't stop replaying the whole battle in her mind, imagining all the different ways she could have died. And even worse; imagining the lives she could have saved if she had been more prepared. She was the only one with magical powers, which could have been a major advantage. She ran the scenarios through her head, imagining how many ways she could have helped more. She thought of force fields, of blinding flashes of light, of teleporting behind the archers. But when it had happened it was all so fast and she barely had time to think, only to react.

She looked to the wagon and grimly thought that it was fortunate that the cold would keep the bodies preserved. She looked around to see the other ponies either asleep or trying to sleep. Beyond the flickering fire, the woods seemed to be a solid black nothingness, enveloping her. She had left on this trip with optimism and excitement, but now more than ever she longed for the comfort of home, so far away in the seemingly endless darkness. She began to sob quietly, hoping that those who had not yet found sleep wouldn't hear.

She was not so lucky. Private Pansy slowly rose, careful not lean on his injured wing, and walked to Clover. "Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry." she whispered, trying to compose herself. "I didn't mean to wake you. At least not until your turn to take the watch."

Pansy talked quietly. "No worries. I was feigning sleep while keeping alert and listening to the forest. On a night like this, your ears see further than your eyes."

"What do you hear?" she asked.

"Thankfully, nothing that concerns us. The bear will probably walk right on by."

Clover gasped, but then caught a sly grin on Pansy's face. She couldn't help but smile in return. "You got me, you jerk."

Pansy sat down and faced the fire. "There were times in my training and in my military service where I had to spend three or four nights without sleep. One night is nothing to me, so if you want company on your watch, or if you simply want to go to sleep, don't worry about it."

"I can stay up for a while longer." she said.

Pansy looked at her with a warm smile. "I was hoping you would say that."

This time she looked away out of unexpected nervousness, and was left not knowing what to say in response. She simply sat down next him, warm in the glow of the fire.

"You did well, you know." said Private Pansy. "I saw you deflect those arrows. I'm not a unicorn but I know that required a lot of skill."

"I really didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't ready."

"I'll let you in on a secret." he responded. "No matter how many times you see battle, you're never truly ready."

Clover nodded, and stared into the fire, wordless again.

Pansy broke the silence. "Let's not dwell on such negative thoughts. Tell me about where you're from."

"Oh. Unicornia? It's a beautiful place. A grand castle on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a colorful and active city, nestled in a valley between massive snowy mountains. I grew up in the wealthier side of the city, near the castle. And now I work in the castle under Starswirl the Bearded. Have you heard of him?"

"Can't say I have." answered Pansy.

"I'm always surprised at how few people know him. Starswirl, the creator of the amniomorphic spell! Anyways, I've always loved Unicornia. There's always something going on, some festival or other. Parades, street vendors selling magical trinkets, bards playing stories of adventure for coins. When I moved to the castle, I unfortunately saw some of the dark side of the city. The politics, the corruptions. But it's still a grand, beautiful place."

"I've only been there a couple of times, and I was on duty so I couldn't really take it in. I should visit some time when I'm on leave."

"I could show you around."

"I'd like that" he said, once again giving her that warm smile. "It seems you're feeling better now."

Clover blushed. "I guess so."

"Thoughts of home can comfort and warm you on the coldest nights." Pansy gazed into the flickering fire. "The sight of Pegasopolis is awe-inspiring, even for one who grew up there. Though we do not have magical abilities, there are those of us who can harness the innate magical energy in the wind and clouds. The cloud speakers - they are the ones who enchanted the clouds beneath Pegasopolis that serve as its foundations. These structures have remained in the skies for ages, and will remain as long as the cloud speakers keep the magic strong."

"Like keeping a fire going in the night." Clover said, not really knowing why those words came to her.

Pansy nodded. Looking at the fire, Clover realized it was beginning to die down, and the cold bite of the wind was making its presence known again. She floated a new log onto the fire and gently placed it down. They stared at the fire wordlessly as it spread across the new log, once again widening the circle of light. With a little trepidation, she rested her head on his shoulder.

She was still far from home in the cold darkness, but no longer quite so alone.

September 24, 1032 BCE

The early morning sun rose above the clouds, illuminating the floating city of Pegasopolis in a fiery orange. Commander Hurricane rose from his bed, careful not to wake the two pegasus mares he had shared his bed with after his return. He walked out to his balcony and looked out at the magnificent city. The massive white towers with banners streaming in the wind, the grand temple with its many columns, the city square with its many statues of ancient pegasus heroes. Though he took in the same view every morning, he would never tire of it.

The sky above was clear save for the faint wisps of cirrus clouds. Below the city, and far below the permanent clouds which held the city aloft, there was a nearly uninterrupted sea of clouds, completely obscuring any view of the surface.

A dark spot in the distance grabbed his attention. He rubbed his eyes and looked closer. It was a dark, massive cloud looming high over the others. He felt the wind blowing directly at his face as he looked at the monstrous cloud, and knew what that meant.

A storm was coming.

-

Clover woke up feeling comfortable and rested. She felt her head was resting on some kind of pillow and she was under a blanket. She stretched and began to pull her blanket away, thinking it was odd that the blanket was made up of feathers. Just when the realization hit her, she heard Pansy's voice.

"Careful there. That's my good wing."

Her eyes shot wide open. She stood up and blushed. "Oh... did I..."

"Yes, you rested your head on my shoulder and fell asleep almost instantly. I didn't have the heart to move you."

"Oh... uh... yeah, thanks."

"No, thank you! I appreciated the body heat. Pretty cold last night, you know." he grinned.

"Yeah, I guess I'm kind of hot." she joked. Why did she say that? In her mind she facehoofed. Stupid! She hoped that something would happen to break the awkwardness.

Pansy quickly stood up. "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?"

"I've had to piss for about two hours, and I can finally move now that you're awake. Seeya!" he dashed into the woods.

Clover laughed a bit, watching him run off. She caught movement in the corner of her eye, and turned to see Cookie standing there leaning against a tree, obviously having seen their whole conversation. "What is it with pegasi and unicorns? Us Earth ponies usually stick with our own kind, but there's somethin' about unicorn mares and pegasi stallions. I really don't see what y'all see in each other." she said, shaking her head. "Y'all are crazy."

Clover was relatively certain that she was a stone-cold corpse in the snow now, having died instantly from embarrassment.

They set off from their improvised camp site to complete their journey. They were now well-rested, and Banana Split's leg was in a better condition, so they made good time. Clover, despite her recent death, was in good spirits and once again feeling optimistic about her task. After four hours on the road they finally reached Palomino.

Clover was a little surprised at what she saw. Having never left Unicornia before, she had assumed that the Earth ponies lived in tiny ramshackle hovels. They had passed a few modest farmhouses, but as they reached the top of a hill and Palomino was in view, she was fascinated. The large walled city was nestled in the side of a mountain range. The large outer wall of the city formed a semi-circle, meeting the mountains on both ends. It was 20 feet high all around, made of stone. Every hundred feet or so were wooden watchtowers. Just outside the city wall was a moat, which was currently frozen over.

They approached the large main gate. The drawbridge was down, but the inner gates were still shut.

"You're back!" came the voice of a guard from one of the two towers flanking the main gate. "We feared the worst."

Cookie frowned, then yelled back up to the guard. "Only half of us made it, but we're all here. The dead are in the wagon."

"Bandits hit you?"

"Yup. We're dang lucky to be alive. A pegasus helped us fight them. He took a nasty hit to the wing and he ain't in no condition to fly yet, so we brought him with us. We also brought a unicorn, just to make it a complete set."

"Come on in, then. Puddinghead will want to see you as soon as possible."

The gates rumbled and slowly opened. They crossed the drawbridge and entered Palomino.

-

Sergeant Sprinkles adjusted her telescope, bringing the dark cloud into focus.

"That's a doozy all right." she said, taking in the impressive view. "Never seen one all by itself like that."

Command Hurricane stroked his chin with his hoof, thinking. "The winds are bringing that storm our way. It will hit Pegasopolis before the sun sets."

Sprinkles shook her head. "We'll be cleaning up the damage for weeks. And the cost of the repairs will be huge."

"There will be no damage." said Hurricane with confidence. "We will not let it reach the city."

Sprinkles smiled. "Yes, cloud bursting. I have already begun the preparations. Two full battallions should do the trick. We'll need to temporarily call some soldiers off unicorn guard duty down below."

"How soon can you get them ready?" asked the Commander.

"By midday we'll be at full strength."

"Do it. We'll need to tackle this with overwhelming force. No chances."

Sergeant Sprinkles saluted and flew off to begin gathering the troops. Commander Hurricane began to think of Starswirl's warning the previous day. Perhaps the old unicorn was right.

-

"Chancellor Puddinghead, at your service." said the jolly fat pony.

Smart Cookie's jaw dropped.

Puddinghead laughed. "Oh come now, I know the whole city has been calling me that behind my back. I've decided I quite like it. It's just so fun to say! Pudding! Puhh - ding! Puddinghead! Pudding.... head! I have half a mind to make myself a hat out of pudding but I'm afraid it would spoil quickly if it didn't spill out over my head first. And that would be a shame. A waste of good pudding."

"Are you serious, sir?" asked Smart Cookie, unable to tell whether he was being sarcastic about his nickname.

"As serious as someone named Puddinghead can be." he chuckled. "Which I suppose isn't very serious after all. Now, please introduce your two new guests."

"I'll let them speak for themselves." said Cookie. She looked first to Private Pansy.

Private Pansy saluted the Chancellor and spoke in his practiced military voice. "Private Pansy, sky security patrol, sector A-7."

"Did you say A-7?" asked the Chancellor. "You found my seagull!"

The Chancellor erupted into laughter. Smart Cookie chuckled a bit as well. Clover and Pansy did not understand what was being referenced. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"So you saved an empty food caravan," said Puddinghead. "How noble of you. I'm sure it had nothing to do with one of our magical unicorn masters being there."

That was definitely sarcasm, and Pansy knew it. "You know the pegasus rules of engagement as well as I do. I make no pretense of heroism. I was doing my job."

"And I'll make sure to put in a good word for you next time I speak with the pegasi. I appreciate that you serve the unicorns - they keep me rich and fed." he reared up and slapped his belly with his front hooves. "But still, maybe some time the two master races can discuss giving us 'dirt ponies' a bit more help every now and then? It's only fair."

Pansy shifted uncomfortably. "That's... not something I'm qualified to discuss."

"Speaking of which..." said Puddinghead, turning to Clover. "May I see your royal seal?"

Clover frowned. "I don't have one. I was not sent by the Princess, but I do have an important message for the Earth ponies."

"Sorry, little lady." he said. "Whatever you have to say, I can't do a thing about it. To be honest, I don't really do anything around here unless it's passed down from the dainty hoof of Princess Platinum herself. Hate to tell you that you wasted your time coming down here, but that's how it goes."

"What?" yelled Clover. "Ponies died to get here. A pegasus guard injured his wing protecting me, and you won't even listen to what I have to say?"

"You betcha. Come, have some pudding. It's the least I can do to make up for it."

A servant approached Clover with a bowl of pudding. Clover stormed off, grumbling to herself.

"More pudding for me then!" said the Chancellor.

-

High in the sky, two large battalions of a thousand pegasi each hovered in the air in battle formation. They wore only minimal armor with no helmet, and none of them were carrying weapons, since their mission was merely cloud control. Maneuverability was the primary concern for weather operations. Only the officers were dressed in their full armor and armed with swords or spears, as a way to show their rank.

The pegasi, as numerous as they were, were tiny specks in comparison to the gigantic black cloud that loomed before them. It was a solid dark mass of cloud that stretched from the ground all the way to the stratosphere. In the darkness of the cloud, they could hear a constant low rumbling of thunder.

Sergeant Sprinkles looked up to see a small wing of four scout pegasi flying out of the top layers of the cloud. They signaled from above, tilting their wings to the left to indicate the side that they should approach first. Sprinkles turned to face her squadron leaders.

"Commence phase one now!" she yelled. They flew to their own squadrons and each squadron flew off in turn towards the left side of the cloud, each one directly above the other. When they were all in position they began to fly in an advancing circular pattern. As they gained speed, a large tornado began to make itself visible, sucking smaller clouds into the whirling column. When the tornado was fully formed, they began to accelerate the forward motion of their circular flying pattern.

A sudden turbulence jolted through the tornado, and about a dozen of the circling pegasi were ejected from the tornado. Most of them had recovered from the sudden spinout, but some had lost consciousness and were tumbling helplessly. Nothing could be done to help them without risking the integrity of the whirlwind. They would hit the ground if they didn't wake up in time, but they all knew losses were inevitable with a tornado of this magnitude. Before this day, a 10,000 wingpower tornado had only been a theoretical proposition.

While the first battalion's tornado approached the giant cloud, the second battalion was already lining up for phase two, forming into a giant spear of a thousand pegasi, ready to strike at the left side of the cloud.

When they had reached the edge of the cloud, the pegasi of the first battalion simultaneously pulled away from the whirlwind. A handful of pegasi hadn't pulled out in time and were left hopelessly spinning in the center of it. Sprinkles knew that those pegasi were certainly doomed, but the losses were still lower than they had projected.

The tornado smashed into the side of the cloud with a massive whooshing noise. A freak lightning bolt arced out from the cloud and turned one unlucky pegasus into a rapidly plunging ball of fire. The cloud seemed to be groaning as the tall tornado twisted and lashed aggressively into its side, ripping out massive streams of cloud which dispersed into nothing.

The moment the tornado ceased to turn, the second battalion, all thousand pegasi in a line, bolted straight towards the middle of the compromised side of the cloud. They accelerated more as they got closer to the cloud, and as they crossed the sound barrier one by one a massive roar of a thousand small sonic booms in succession echoed through the sky. It seemed that the whole cloud from ground to stratosphere was shaking. A huge hole was ripped in the side of the giant cloud and the top of it began to fall down into the void as the last of the pegasi passed through.

Sprinkles smiled seeing their plans fall into place. Acceptable losses, and they had taken a huge piece of the cloud out already. The sky was even beginning to brighten. Three more passes and this giant storm cloud would be a minor flurry. She motioned for the first battalion to regroup for another tornado.

The sound was barely perceptible at first, and she thought it was simply a residual wind from the tornado. But then it got louder. The bottom of the cloud began to swell by itself, and the roar of thunder halted. As the last of the echoes of thunder disappeared, the new sound was unmistakable. Like a thousand horses whinnying. The four scout pegasi rushed back to the cloud to see what was going on.

When they reached the edge of the cloud it seemed to reach out at them and engulf them. Sounds of screams mingled with the strange whinnying.

Sprinkles' eyes went wide open when she saw thousands of wispy white horses flying out from the cloud. They were coming from below and above them, as if the cloud was full of them. Her confidence was immediately replaced by terror as she recognized the creatures from fairy tales she had heard as a foal. Creatures of ancient legend which were now a sudden reality bearing down upon them, thousands of pegasi strong but mostly unarmed.

The windigos were attacking.