Re:Harmony

by starcross7

45 - The Frozen North

Captain of the Northern Division Wild Flower hovered off the catwalk and landed on the deck to survey the damage. The cloud floors had been uplifted from the recent battle inside the deployment hangar, and instead of outright repair, the pegasi worker caste were ordered to disassemble it instead of it repairing it. From the reports, one hundred soldiers had to be called in to tackle and capture the enemy who had burst in through the hangar door like a Gaean missile. Such a tale would be unbelievable in the minds of pessimistic realists, but Wild Flower believed that during sparring and honor battles, one hundred or more pegasi were order to challenge the likes of the Empress Commander.

She was so close to decimating the groundlings when this mysterious enemy severely damaged her Nimbostratus Cloudship. The shame of her retreat would eventually be relayed to Cloud One. Then again, if she could present this captured enemy as a trophy, honor would be regained. Nopony would blame her if her operations were unexpectedly thwarted by a lone rebel operative whose strength may rival that of the Empress Commander.

Weak as they were, the worker caste was still proud to serve the Empress Commander, even if they, in all unlikelihood, should be the last line of defense should the warrior caste fall. Through her subordinates, Wild Flower commanded them to maintain the upkeep of their Romanesque Cloudship colored in alternating whites and darks to instill the warrior spirit of all worthy pegasi. This might seem impractical to spend so much time in decorating a floating warship, but all pegasi must be reminded of the Heavenly Valhalla they would enter once they die gloriously in battle.

Satisfied with her quick survey, Wild Flower then trotted over to the secure level of the brig. Her stallion second-in command, Vice-Captain Milky Way and two guards sharply saluted in her arrival, and a simple nod from her put them at ease.

"Did she say anything?" asked Flower.

"Nothing," said Milky Way. "All our torture methods seems to strengthen her instead of weakening her. I have to say, that is remarkable for a pegasi who has no record."

"No record?"

"Her Heaven's Insignia does not show up anywhere in our databases," he continued. "There are partial matches, but after doing a deep scan of the fur and skin, hers is legitimate. You don't suppose she is the supposed Alicorn of legend?"

"Those menacing demons that nearly destroyed the world? I sure hope not."

"But this pegasus took down a hundred of our warrior-soldiers before another hundred were called in to capture her. The Empress-Commander wouldn't want us to execute a strong pegasus without us trying to sway her to our side."

"Lead me to her, then."

"Yes ma'am."

The group trotted further down into an area whose floors were not made of hard clouds, but steel. A special cell sealed by heavy doors lied at the end of the hallway, and Milky Way opened it by letting the security scanner scan his exposed Heaven's Insignia.

The heavy doors whirred open laboriously, and the overhead lights of the claustrophobic metal cell flickered on. Shackled in each hoof, wing, and tail, the bruised white pegasus with the insignia of the sun welcomed her captors with an arrogant smile.

---

The fiery breath of his became the spark to rouse his friends back to their hooves. They were still buried underneath layers of snow, but the sudden burst of warmth gave everyone the strength to dig themselves out.

Spike and the others burst out from the layers of snow as if they breached out of water. Almost all of them let out a loud gasp for air before immediately clattering their teeth as they succumbed to the chills of the Frozen North. They all staggered around half-dazed before Twilight whistled out to them for roll call.

"Is everypony here?" Twilight asked.

"Here!" cried Applejack.

"Um, here," replied Fluttershy.

"Over here, baking marshmallows by the smoldering wreckage with Gummy, Angel Winona, and Owlowiscious," said Pinkie Pie.

"I'm here," replied Spike.

Everyone had a moment of silence, as if they were waiting or hoping for another one of their party to answer the roll call. Alas, no other pony answered, and Twilight hid her sadness by turning slightly away with her head lowered.

"Okay, everypony," said Twilight. "According to the blizzard survival books I read, we have to gather everything we can use as sleds and as our tent. Search the wreckage. Take what you can and what we need. Applejack, you can lead Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie over there. Spike and I will lead our animal friends over here."

Obediently, he ran alongside Twilight, and so did the animals. That devil of a bunny stood between him and his tutor. He had serious eyes, like he wanted to lead the troupe himself, but him sneezing broke down his cute commando image. The other animal friends did not appear to fare well, but they soon scattered off not very far to gather supplies. Spike followed Twilight while lifting random debris of metal along the way for anything useful to find.

"So, Twilight," started Spike, "there was a book that talked about surviving a blizzard."

"It was more like an autobiography," said Twilight as she magicked a piece of smoldering metal before flinging it towards the horizon. "It was about a sports team whose plane crashed on a snowy mountain range in the southern continent."

"Did they survive?"

"Only a few ponies did. Didn't mean to scare you Spike."

"There were a lot more scary things in the Labs underneath Gaeaopolis."

"I suppose that I can tell you that they survived by eating the flesh of their dead teammates."

Spike gulped, and nearly threw up at the thought of cannibalism despite himself and his animal friends being from different species. He did not want to think about eating his friends. He did not want to think about his friends eating him. Ponies eating meat was not unheard of.

At least backtracking through the littered skeletal wreckage of the airship distracted him from these terrible thoughts. Under Twilight's direction, they scrounged up the food that spilled from the storage room as well as extra parachutes, clothing, and tools used to make the four sleds that Applejack had started on working on. They worked fast, and Pirnkie singing songs about working in the snow and freezing to death made things go a lot faster. That and the sun going down motivated them to finish as quickly as possible.

On the first night, they camped in the relatively safety of a large hull of their broken airship. On that first night, he helped Twilight review all of their food and tools they were to sled off further into the Frozen North. She allowed him to sleep upon the first yawn, and although he wanted to help more, the unicorn gently gestured to sleep alongside the rest of their friends.

Into the night, he watched Twilight pour over the maps she recovered from the wreckage, and right before he fell asleep, he watched Applejack wake up to join her in the planning. They had a brief talk upon which Twilight shed a tear over the mentioning of Sunny. After that, the two hugged each other. Morbidly, Applejack smiled rather happily as she prolonged her hug with Twilight.

They set off at daybreak after a very brief breakfast. Twilight took the lead of the party and lit a magenta beacon on the tip of her horn so that no pony would get lost. While they had four sleds and four ponies to tow them, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, owing to their natural Earth Pony strength, ended up being the ones towing two in tandem for the majority of the time. Twilight and Fluttershy took over after a brief rest, but it soon became apparent that one of the ponies would not have the strength to pull the sleds, let alone walk on her own.

On the next day, one pony fell. It was Fluttershy.

Part of the reason was because Angel Bunny had stopped moving, but the yellow pegasus could only put up a brave front for so long. The outward signs of a cold and fever chills did not bode well, and the ponies had to leave one sled behind and carry Fluttershy and Angel Bunny on another.

Spike tried his hardest to not think about the story of the ponies whose plane crashed into the mountains.

The natural, or rather the frightening exuberance of Pinkie Pie bouncing and singings in the bleak snowfields provided ample motivation to carry on. Perhaps she was a little too exuberant. Spike watched her pull several feet ahead against Twilight's warning. She even volunteered to pull three sleds at once against Applejack's warning. Many times she would bounce up and fall into the snow, but would get up almost immediately like the gophers Twilight had described to Spike during his lessons. For almost a day or so, Spike believed that Pinkie Pie's unbridled cheerfulness would help the group pull through and help them reach their destination.

Even her exuberance had its limits. At the latest hop, Pinkie Pie fell through the snow. This time did not get back up. Applejack quickly galloped over and lifted her up by the tail like a frozen Popsicle. The pony was so cold, and she was almost purple like Twilight. Even more disturbing was that her face froze with a slasher-like smile on it.

On that night, they warmed Pinkie Pie as best they could in their makeshift parachute tent with a small fire. A puddle of water had formed at a corner from all the snow and ice that melted off of her. She was no longer as comically stiff as ice, but now she shivered and sneezed in her blanket. Fluttershy had stopped moving, but Twilight assured Spike that she and Angel Bunny were still alive.

Spike slept feeling a little guilty that his own breath warmed him his body. He offered to use his flames to warm the fires, but again Twilight told him to save it for an emergency.

It was really starting to look like an emergency. As the days passed, Twilight and Applejack started to look worse, and Gummy stopped moving. Spike checked their pulses and confirmed them to be alive, but he was getting more and more worried. It did not help that they were running out of food. Even as an omnivorous dragon, he really did not want to eat anyone.

Somewhere along the trek, they had to ditch two more sleds, and they lost their parachute tents. Both Twilight and Applejack, though tired and exhausted, had to hastily construct an igloo and pull everyone in before the sun went down for the day.

"Let me start a fire," said Spike.

"It's okay Spike," said Twilight. "We still have several more flint and kindling left."

"That's what you said last night."

She gave him another small block of a meal bar they had rationed off, and several more to give to their unconscious friends. He did not have the heart to tell Twilight that he had been skipping his meal or breaking off pieces of his share to give to the others. Right now, their food barely amounted to a morsel.

He knew that Twilight had been lying about having plenty of flint and kindling left. She made him count how many on the first night, and the next night would be their last. Spike went to bed and forced himself to suppress his growling stomach. He watched Twilight keep watch at the front of the igloo as he tired to fall asleep.

Then Applejack got back up again and sat next to her before making sure if any of their friends were asleep.

"Here ya go, Twi," Applejack whispered. "You can have my last half of government-quality cornbread. It tastes like barf, but at least it's better than nothin'."

"No, you can have it," said Twilight. "I already ate."

"I haven't seen you eat."

"I eat when you girls are asleep."

Applejack stood silent for a moment. "Lemme see your pack."

"What for?"

"Lemme see your pack."

Twilight reached over and dumped all the contents from her saddlebags. There was nothing but socks and other assorted dirty laundry.

"Twi, why would you lie to us like that? I thought we divided all the food evenly."

"Don't worry Applejack. I'm used to starving like this. It was part of my training as a Magisister."

"Sunny told me to look after you. I may not like her as much as I should, but I always keep my promises to the ponies I can trust. Now take my cornbread and eat it."

"Then let me see your pack."

"Um, mine is full."

"Applejack."

Applejack sighed. She reached over dumped the contents out of her saddlebags, and it too contained socks and other dirty laundry.

"So, you and I..."

"We both thought..."

"But we already knew all along."

The unicorn and the earth pony burst into quiet laughter at the ruse they tried to play for the sake of their friends, and it tragically backfired.

Before Spike fell asleep, he watched both Applejack and Twilight split the half of the stale cornbread and eat it. He almost wished that they would have shared the meal, but he was too hungry and too weak to say anything. At least those two remained upbeat. For one thing, those two were awfully chummy. Close even.

On the next day, Spike woke up to find Twilight unable to move. He shook her twice before Applejack came over to the unconscious unicorn. He could see the panic in her eyes as the rebel mare evaluated the dire situation, but shortly afterwards she went outside into the violent blizzard to prep for immediate departure. One by one and in silence she dragged the mares and the unconscious pets onto the single sled. Only Owlowiscious and Winona were the only animals that could still move, and they shivered together in the igloo until Applejack began her move.

"Applejack, do you need help pulling the sled?" Spike asked.

"I'm all right Spike," she replied. "Just carry your pack and keep an eye on our friends."

He tried to, and the first one he was concerned about was Applejack. Underneath her coat and scarf, Applejack grunted audibly past the blizzard winds as she pulled the sole sled containing pony bodies, one hibernating devil rabbit, and one toothless baby alligator frozen in his poker face stare. It did not seem like they went far. Even past the flurries, Spike could see the faint outline of their igloo encampment from the night before.

A few hours later, Owlowiscious could no longer fly. After he rested on a vacant part of the sled, he stopped moving. Silently, Spike and Winona communicated to one another to catch up ahead to the stubborn mule of a rebel pony, who had been stuck on an incline for several minutes.

"Let me help you," Spike said.

"I got this lil' buddy," said Applejack. "I got a few more feet to climb on this dumb snow hill."

Sadly, the hill was only several inches high.

"Applejack," said Spike. "You're not thinking straight. You're just climbing in place and--"

The rebel mare lost her footing. When she fell, the sled slid backwards and threw off their riders. The sudden crash did nothing to rouse its occupants, who lay unconscious with snow rapidly gathering on top of their bodies. Their puller finally ascended the "hill", but then stumbled left and right before collapsing.

"Applejack, get up!" Spike cried while Winona worriedly circled around her favorite pony.

"Too tired," the orange pony mumbled.

"Our friends are counting on you! I can't pull everypony by myself!"

"You couldn't, even if you had all the gems you can eat. Just go. Go and take Winona with you. You got a sibling waitin' for you at Sewer Town. You don't have to die here with us. The rest of the Elements can wait."

"I'm not leaving all of you!"

"You're right. You shouldn't leave us. You got some code you gotta uphold."

"I know."

"Then you know what you must do."

"What must I do? Applejack? Applejack? Wake up. Wake up! Don't die on me!"

The little dragon shook her so many times until he tired out. He stepped back to give what could be one last look of his friends who lay scattered about in the snowfield. His stomach growled painfully as he shivered, and thoughts about the pony survivors of the plane crash entered his mind. He turned his back to dispel thoughts of eating his friends and he continued the trek on foot with the dim hope finding help.

He wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing. He could have ignited one of the logs or tinder they brought with them, but even his own dragon breath could not stay ignited in these winds. Several layers of coats, shirts, and hats couldn't protect his cold blooded reptilian body. Soon, his breath could no longer warm himself. He took several steps before the baby dragon collapsed to the ground. Spike could already feel the snow piling on top of him while the Border Collie frantically circled around him.

"Just go," he said to Winona. "Leave us."

Winona kept circling around the dragon, nuzzling him like how he tried to wake up Applejack, and she continued to do so until she suddenly became quiet. The dog didn't freeze up and collapse like the rest of her companions. Instead, she sat beside the fallen baby dragon wagging her tail happily as a figure in the most luxurious white fur coat approached the two.

He felt himself being lifted up without any hoof touching him. It was the familiar feeling of magic, and he almost believed that Twilight had miraculously recovered and placed him on her back. However, this was an entirely different pony--a mare no less. And that feeling of magic felt more like a warm and tender massage.

She smelt good. She felt good. Spike could happily fall asleep on this pony's back forever and ride off into the heavenly city of sparkles and lights.

Comments

[Xaldon Ajide]

Damn We Need to get Sunny Free asap.

[xTSGx]

It was familiar feeling of magic, and he almost believed that Twilight had recovered and placed him on her back. However, this was an entirely different pony--a mare no less.

Hey, looks like Rarity's next. Also,

*throws dice*

C'moooon Empress-Commander Rainbow Dash!

[ALIENwolve]

This has become a pointless walk through "show, don't tell." I am out.

[GMZ_Casper]

And…the situation got worse for both Sunny and the gang. But, for one side, at least hope was found in the place of Rarity. Kinda am curious to where all this nonsense about the Elements of Creation and Alicorns come from... But, I’m sure the answer will come up...and the one responsible for spinning it.

C&Cs:
...vice-captain Milky Way and two guards sharply saluted in her arrival...
> Capitalize ‘vice’ and ‘captain’.
"Good. Vice-captain, lead me to her."
> Capitalize ‘captain’.
The ponies constructed four sleds for each of them to tow in addition to their food and supplies their animal friends and any pony who was unable to walk anymore.
> Comma after ‘tow’ and ‘supplies’. Replace ‘who’ with ‘that’.
...but once her twice, she cast a barrier spell when she and Applejack needed to construct an igloo in the snow.
> Change ‘her’ with ‘or’.

[starcross7]

2894261
Also fix'd. Thanks.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

well Spits being a traitor. didn't expect that.