Blizzards of the Morning Eclipse

by MindilsaBreeze

Chapter II

I ruffled and unfolded my white wings a little, sighing in slight pain and satisfaction as I stretched their sore limbs and let my snow white feathers feel air for the first time in hours. I looked at Luna, who was now awake and bouncing with unbridled energy, doing the same thing with her own small blue wings and attempting to fly with them. Beside her, Laurel was smiling as Luna buzzed around the room, grinning like crazy.

She was doing some progress and could fly pretty well, but she still occasionally bumped into the walls with a loud thump, usually with her falling to the floor in a daze. That never stopped her, however; after shaking her head a little, she would jump back into the air and try again, and the whole cycle would repeat in a matter of minutes.

Our mother was not a pegasus, but only a unicorn, so she couldn’t help Luna with her flying lessons. It was supposed to be our father’s job, but since he had passed away, by default, the responsibility had fallen to me.

Laurel said I am a good teacher, since I was able to teach Luna more in a week than she was able to do in a month. When she said that, I told her I thought it was a little too harsh on herself, but she told me it was the truth and I just had to accept it. I quickly shut my mouth after that.

Still, it doesn’t mean that Luna is a complete professional at what she does, but it’s better than flapping them and getting nowhere at all.

It was fortunate that Luna is still small, so she could still lean in the cottage; once she grows, she cannot fly anymore- it’s too dangerous for her to do it outside, since everypony believed that she and I are only unicorns, not full-fledged alicorns with both a horn and a pair of wings.

Both Laurel and our father, Chert, believed that we should never tell anyone of our ‘uniqueness’- as far as they (and I) could tell, Luna and I were, and probably always will be, the only Alicorns in all of the kingdom. We don’t know why- we know many couples of a unicorn and a pegasus, but they never had given birth to a filly or colt with both of their parents’ wings or horn. They either got one or the other, or, if they’re lucky, neither.

Still, for some odd reason, we’d agreed with that our secret, as well as our safeties, were our first priorities.

So, since then, we have been living ‘undercover’, so to speak- always wearing our hooded coats when outside, never opening our wings in front of anypony other than each other and Laurel- many things like that, just to stay as low as possible.

It’s a pretty boring and humble life, but, with all honesty, it isn’t all that bad- there are always worse circumstances anypony could go through.

I turned around, grabbing the basket of berries we had collected earlier and sat down in front of Luna who was now tired from her whole flight ordeal and was panting with her tongue sticking out, bringing myself into eye level with her.

I pushed the overflowing basket to her, pointing out the different berries with a little excitement in my voice.

“Look Luna!” I said, singling out an individual berry and bringing it close to our eyes. “It’s your favorite- blueberries!” I hand it to her. “You want some?”

She tentatively gained the berry with her own blue magic and studies it for a moment before breaking out into a wide grin.

“Thanks, ‘Tia!” she squeaked, nibbling happily on the first berry before grabbing another.

I smiled a little and chuckled to myself, getting back up onto my hooves and picking up the basket as Luna gets tired and rushes off, possible to play with our mother, who slept peacefully in the other room, unaware of Luna’s approaching tackle.

I heard the yelp from Laurel soon after I set the basket on the table, preparing the sort the nuts for tonight’s dinner. I planned the crush some of the nuts with the flour we traded at the market for bread and the butter from Baka, the cow who regularly gave her dairy products to some of her neighbors. The rest we would store and possible trade at the market for an occasional treat for the three of us.

The berries, however, were used right away- after we separated out the firm and the weak, mashing the weaker ones for jam, we would either eat them or bake some of them into a assorted berry pie.

After, of course, we give the once every two week shipment of food to King Malson and his Prince Sombra.

I felt a growl grumble deep in my throat, despite the happy squeals Laurel and Luna made behind me. Stupid Malson and his stupid Sombra and his stupid laws and his stupid Windigos...
I found myself muttering silently, then shook my head to clear it.

Though the King called our time the ‘Era of Pure Snow’ since he believes we are all in prosperity and that his rule makes the world a better place, everypony else calls it the ‘Era of the Dark Winters’ since everypony else knows otherwise. Under an iron hoof and with help of his Windigos, King Malson’s word is always law. He and his forces enforced every law, and if anypony ever did break the law... well, it was never very pretty.

The most difficult thing was that Malson’s so called ‘laws’ were usually never fair- sometimes, he would arrest a pony because of a minor trip up, and, worse, he would arrest just for the fun of it. It was absolutely horrendous, but there was nothing a pony could do- just stand there, and watch.

Unicorns, despite their magic, were defenceless, too- apparently, the Windigos’ blizzards were magic dampening, and the only things an average unicorn could really do was levitate objects and do simple spells- no protection or offence spells were possible. Pegasi, too- Blizzards made it difficult to fly anywhere, other than near their own home.

Malson said it was to make everypony equal with the other, but we all know it’s to prevent any chances of a rebellion. He’s too obsessed with power and his status as the Unicorn King to have it taken from anyone ‘weaker’ than him.

I sighed. The last time anyone had ever tried to defeat his linage was almost a thousand years ago, when Malson’s ancestor, Malson the First, was on the throne. He was also the one who ushered in this terrible ruling, so it is no surprise that Malson wants to follow in his ancestor’s hoofsteps.

“Celestia?”

“Yeah, mom?” I turned towards her, my sorting almost finished. With my magic, I picked up the basket, now full with today’s shippings, and handed it to her.

“Thanks.” Laurel picked it up with her own glowing red magic while I collected the rest and stored it in a jar.

“LUNA!” I hollered. “WE’RE GOING OUTSIDE!” Laurel looked at me, annoyed, while Luna poked her head through the door.

“Coming, ‘Tia!” Luna giggled, then sped towards me.

My eyes widened. “What the-” Her body hit me with full force and we fell towards the ground, and I let out a groan as Luna jumped on me, laughing.

“That was fun! Again! Again!” Luna said, and I was about to throw a smart remark at her when I decided it wasn’t worth it. Instead, I sighed, getting to my feet and told Luna to get her coat on with a grumble.

While Luna was getting her coat on with the help of Laurel, I gazed outside the window, resting my chin on my hooves. Every other Sunday were always extremely dull- it was Shipment Day, and the Royal Militia were coming to collect the food.

To make things worse, it was the twenty-fourth collection week- it meant that our Quarter’s Delegate, a scrawny little unicorn mare with quite a temper, possibly from the fact she’s the only mare of all of the twelve delegates in the kingdom, was coming as well. It was common knowledge that whenever the Delegate came to a village, a random pony was always be arrested and taken to the capitol to be executed.

The purpose of it, like the magic-dampening blizzards, was to completely prevent any rebellion further with the threat of death. It worked very well, but it’s consequences were devastating for not just the family, but the whole village, too. Since their village was small, it had a residence of only three dozen or-so ponies. Because of this, everypony knew just about everypony else, so everypony, not just family members (if they have any) were devastated no matter who was chosen, especially so if it were a filly.

Oh, I hope it would not be me...

“Celestia!” Laurel called, snapping me out of my thoughts. “We’re done- time to go to the Gathering.”

He words were so chilling, I shivered.

Author's Note:

Hello there! Sorry for that somewhat-Hunger Games reference there at the end. It going to be NOTHING like the Hunger Games series, except for one little thing...
And, LUNA WILL NOT BE CHOSEN AND BE REPLACED BY CELESTIA. Just needed to clear that up.
I also have some announcements:
-Is there anyone out there who is willing to be a Mod?
-And, is there anyone who would like to draw some cover art?
Thanks X3