Vaporium

by GPVS

Chapter One: Frozen Friendship

Let’s start this story out cold. Five years ago my home was thrown into a brutal civil war; it started with a simple argument but quickly grew into a hostile conflict. The disagreement was a simple one, but one that could not be compromised.

You see, my town is not like your average Equestrian village that runs off of magic and pony-power. We’re located near the summit of Mount. Nightseer; completely surrounded by snow. Being at such a high elevation with such rough terrain makes it very hard to get your normal supplies up here, so we went with what we had.

My town is completely powered by steam. Before anypony starts asking why we chose this option let me tell you upfront, I don’t know. The town has been around for two, three hundred years and it was our ancestors who made the decision; it was a good one though.

For those who don’t know, creating steam basically requires two things; fire and water. The water was never an issue considering the tundra around us; fire came to us via the unicorn’s magic. We’ve had to adapt though, using pine and evergreen as source of fuel now. The reason we’ve had had to change our source of fire, and the reason we even had a war, was because of a group of unicorn radicals. They believed that using steam as a source of power disrupts the natural order of things and we should stop using it. Eventually they wrapped just about every single unicorn in town into this thinking, and begun the war.

It started out with a few average debates and the occasional physical scuffle. My family and a few of my friend’s families tried to stay out of it but eventually had to become peacekeepers, breaking apart two ponies at each other’s throats. We all thought that the fighting would stop; that ponies would just let it be water under the bridge or come up with a compromise. It never stopped.

The fighting began to get more and more intense, eventually to the point where ponies were using blades and other weapons on each other. No pony ever died, but a lot were badly wounded. My dad and a few of his friends, unicorns included, formed an official intermediaries organization and worked hard to stop the fighting. But it was too late; everypony was fed up to the max. So the unicorns made the ultimate choice.

They left. I haven’t seen a single unicorn in five years, not a one. The last one I saw was my best friend, Pine Frost, a week after the unicorns started leaving. She was just about to head out the city gates, but I had to stop her. I needed to talk to her one more time before she was gone forever.

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“Pine!” I yell running up to her, “Wait!”

“Jet?!” she jerks her head around to see me dashing up to her. I skid to a stop directly in front of her as she turns around to face me, “What are you doing here?”

“I have to see you off don’t I?” I say, “This could be the last time I ever see you,”

“Well, uh, thank you…,” she looks at me in surprise, “I’m really glad you came to see me,”

“No problem,” I breathe in, “Why do you have to leave Pine? I don’t want you gone,”

“You know why Jet; all the other unicorns are leaving. My family and I can’t be the only ones left in town, it just wouldn’t work out,” she says looking down at the cobblestone street.

“But not all of us hate unicorns,” I retort, “My family doesn’t, and neither does anyone else on Pop’s peacekeeping group,”

“I know that, you’re all good people,” she looks back up at me and gives a slight grin, “But that’s only a small ten out of hundreds.” Her head slumps back down, “I-I really wish I could stay, I really do; it just wouldn’t work out. I’m really, really sorry,”

“But Pine, I-,” I cut myself off as I see the streams of liquid running down my friends face.

“Jet,” my best friend to this day says, “Stop my tears, please.” She lifts her head and I can see the tear-ridden face of my friend. The months of seeing her parents stop fights between her friends, and the turmoil of having to leave those friends are all streaming down my friends face. I am taken aback by the sight of my broken-hearted friend, but push it all aside and do what I feel I must.

“Pine, don’t you worry,” I trot close to my friend and look her in the eyes, “It will all be okay.” I extend my arms, and wrap her in my embrace.

She freezes up at contact, but slowly eases into my arms. Resting her head on my shoulder she unleashes her sorrow into my coat and mane. Great sobs of agony echo off my friend as I hold her. I want to do nothing more but comfort her, nothing else but that. Neither of us cares for the cold, or for anypony who may happen to trot by. We just want to have as much of each other as we can, while we still can.
Eventually we break apart. It’s one of the worst feelings you can feel, leaving a friend like that. It feels like you’ve lost an arm, when in reality, you’ve lost your heart.

Pine lifts her head from a slumped position and looks me in the eyes, “Jet, I have to go now.”
I knew this was coming, I knew she’d have to leave some day when the fights started. But, I never wanted it to actually happen.

“I know; I’ve known that for a while,” I hold back my own tears, “Just come home soon, okay?”

“I’ll try Jet, but I don’t think that can happen any time soon,” she gives me a gray smile, one with no joy. Her azure eyes shimmer with regret and misery, tainted with the eventual loss of a friend. Of me.

“That’s fine,” I say, “Just try your best, I want to see you again soon.”

“Don’t you worry about that, Jet,” Pine says, “I’m coming back eventually.” The snow picks up and begins to rain down from the sky faster than before. White, frozen rain for a perfect offset to the current situation.

I look up at the sky, “The snow’s coming down pretty hard you should le-,”

“Thank you, Jet,” Pine cuts me off, “Thank you so much,”

“For what?”

“For being such a great friend,” Pine says grinning, this time an honest yellow one. “All this time you’ve been by my side, supporting me. I’m really grateful,”

“You’re welcome,” I say, “The same goes for you, thanks for holding out this long,”

“No problem,” she says turning around to face the forest clearing, “Now, I’m no good with goodbyes so I’m not going to say one.” She turns her head around to face me, “I’m coming back aren’t I?”

“You’d better be,”

“Good,” she slowly drops the grin, lets it slip like ice off her face, “See you later Jet,”

“See ya'," I can’t bear to wave as she trots off into the forest.

Until the brown coat and green mane of my friend disappear completely I stare at the clearing. My best friend, my lifetime companion, my physical offset, my ohana; is gone. Once her figure disappears completely I can’t hold myself back anymore; I cry. I cry and cry and cry and cry some more. I can’t tell if all of this shivering is from me shuddering from emotional pain, or the cold snow. I stand there for a while just letting my floodgates open up and let go of my pain. The pain never really goes away though; it just holds itself back until you’re vulnerable. Then it strikes you at night and the process begins again.

After I feel fed up with crying I turn away and walk back into town.

“Goodbye, Pine.”

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Author's Note:

Oh, I should probably mention that this story isn't a sad-fic'... It's just the beginning, the rest is upbeat and cheerfulO.o So, mod's, please note this before telling me to change classification...

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[Blue Belle]