Chapter Zero
Chapter Zero
Five Years Before
Cold. That is the first word I would use to describe Frigidus Mundi. It fits it snugly, like my coat on an extra freezing day. I don't like the cold. It makes me feel... hard inside. I feel there is something missing. The blizzard never stops... never... rests... What if the blizzard is trying to tell us something? To... warn us? What if we're not supposed to stay inside Santuary forever and ever? What if... the Elders are wrong...? We may never know.
Everypony murmured and mulled over the short journal entry our classmate, Ichigo, read aloud. Our teacher, Ms. Whinny glanced at Ichigo from her desk. It was in the back of the classroom, behind several rows of desks. Her eyes narrowed and she nodded slowly.
"Interesting..." she got up out of her squeaky revolving chair and walked to the front of the classroom. "You have brought up a topic that many have struggled with, young one." I raised my hand to speak exactly what was on my mind.
"What's to struggle about? Did you hear what he said? He said the blizzard would never end."
"He did not." Tsumi Sapling, an earth pony know-it-all with round little glasses said, glaring at me the whole while. I raised a brow and gave her a dull stare. "He was only asking. It was a simple 'what if'. Paying attention is a skill."
"Tsumi's right, Sparkling Note. Listening is key." Ms. Whinny looked up at Ichigo and smiled. That's right, she had to look up to talk to him face-to-face.
He was a human. A clan of his ansestors survived The Crash, when the two worlds, Equis and Earth collided. The Crash caused death and destruction of most of the population of both worlds, leaving the few hundreds of survivors to unite and create a new home together. They blended cultures in order to understand each other...explaining why the very unpony-like names were getting so popular. That was almost two hundred years ago. Only a little less than half the class were humans while the other half was made up of griffins, zebras, and ponies.
"Why would the blizzards continue?" a filly in the back asked.
"Yea. The Elders estimated that it would end during the summer like it always does." a human girl added.
"No, they said it would end earlier," a loud, human boy stated.
"It's the year of the Equinox, remember?" Tsumi said, finding the lack of information some of her fellow classmates had annoying. "The blue moon comes out for a whole month and it clears up outside. You can look it up on your DLS." I scowled. Know-it-all. Who wanted to bother with their DLS anyways? (Digital Learning Systems) devices that were like glasses and allowed us to have virtual training a when the blizzard got bad.
The blue moon came every nine years, shining and giving us an extra month of blizzard-free time. I'd always heard that it was beautiful but we were all too young to remember the last time it happened.
Ms. Whinny stomped her hoof and got the class to settle down. As the class quieted, I saw Ichigo give Tsumi a lopsided smile and give her a thumbs up. I rolled my eyes. It was my turn to go now. I raised my hoof, about to complain about the time, when the teacher smiled apologetically and addressed the class.
"Alright, class. Let's continue. Go on, Note." I trotted up to the front of the classroom and gave the class my most dazzling smile.
"For the assignment, I wrote lyrics for a song."
"A song? How interesting indeed. Alright, Continue." The class murmured to themselves as I prepared to sing. I'd memorized my lyrics so I'd look like a total pro in front of everyone. First impressions are everything and they were getting a first impression of my singing. I took a deep breath and sang.
Oh sweet skies, how we long for you
To feel your warm breeze
To feel your lovely heat
To frolic in your sun
Oh sweet skies, how we long for you
The sweet, sweet smell of daisies
The wonderous sound of waves
The soft, blazing sand beneath us
Oh sweet skies, how we long for you
Our only wish, and I'm sure you'd agree
All we want is for you to appear
Make us happy with your pressence
Of sweet skies, how we long for you
Just please come our waaay!
Sweet skies...
We long for yoooou
The class applauded and I smiled again. I knew they'd like it. It probably connected with them, since I knew they all longed for summer just to see the sun again. I walked to my seat quietly praising myself. I was right in the middle of Ichigo and Daphodil, a loud-mouth unicorn who was a little too excitable. Ichigo and some blonde human boy smiled at me. A zebra colt with two missing teeth whispered, "Good job, Sparks!"
"Thanks." I smiled and a human girl, the same one who spoke up before, went to the front of the room to give a presentation too. We all waited for her to start when there was a low rumbling in the distance. Ms. Whinny looked to her right and stared out the window. I dont know what she hoped to see. The blizzard was blowing, snow raining down and the sun nowhere to be seen. Blocked by the clouds, as usual.
There was another rumble, but louder, and the ground began to shake. Everypony got out of their seats and began to huddle together out of fear. There'd never been an earthquake here before and this one was big.
The ground shook harder, the walls creaking, and things started to fall from the ceiling. Ms. Whinny instructed us to go under the desks and not to move. We did as we were told. No pony was going to risk getting hurt with the nearest hospital two miles away.
"Sparkling! The ceilings about to-"
Crash
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Five Years Later
"Sparkling? Time to get up, sugar. We've got a whole lot'a stuff to do today," a cheerful female voice with a Baltimare accent cooed. I opened my eyes slowly and the first thing I saw was Daphodil's odd, wide grin. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes and stretching.
"Can't I get five more minutes?" I asked. Daphodil shook her pretty, blonde head and turned away from me to reach for my clothes.
"No way. Meetin' starts in fifteen minutes and I know how you take forever to get dressed." She started to paw at my clothes, glancing at me to see if I was up yet.
My room was a small square of space. It was barely furnished with only a creaky, lumpy bed, a small window showing the training fields outside, and s small nightstand to tuck away the few clothes I had.
I didn't like people or ponies going through my things so I got to my hooves and nudged Daphodil to the side. I had a feeling she did that on purpose because sh knew I wouldn't let her rummage through my clothes. As I picked an outfit, I heard a giggle behind me, confirming my belief. I decided to wear my black, waterproof boots with silver buckles, my red lace stockings, my soft, but durable red-and-black checkered coat and a cute, fluffy black scarf.
Daphodil smiled at my outfit as she looked me over. She was no stranger to style either. Her cute blue coat and beige knee high boots went perfectly with her brown fur and beige hat. She made a turning motion with her hoof so I struck a mock pose and and giggled. She pretended to faint.
"It's too cute. My eyes just died." I threw my stiff pillow at her and laughed.
"Shut up." I said, playfully. Daphodil grinned and caught the pillow in her golden aura.
"Darlin', if you think you can defeat me in a pillow fight, you are DEEAAD wrong."
"Oh really?" I made a crouched and leapt onto her, knocking her onto her back. I poked her in her belly, sending her into a fit of giggles. I didn't have another pillow so we couldn't actually have a pillow fight but it was fun, nonetheless.
"A'right, we seriously gotta go." Daphodil got to her hooves and offered me a hoof. I grabbed it and got up. We headed out the door and walked down the corridor.
All the girls' rooms were in one, long building and my room was in the back so we passed almost every door to exit. The building, besides the rooms, weren't anything to boast about, really. The cracked and blotchy tiles were cold to the touch and the walls were peeling, moldy and dirty. I was pretty sure that the dark stain right next to the door was blood but I wasn't about to deliberately deny myself sleep from finding out it really was blood and how it got there.
Once outside, we could see the building that housed the boys. It looked pretty much the same on the inside as ours. (I know because I had to do a Triple Dog Dare... don't ask) The outside of both were dull and weather worn and the windows faced the fields but were too dirty to actually see through.
We were not far from the building and when we were immedietly hit by a blast of frigid air. It wasn't too cold outside, only about two degrees. It was a great day. Some of the sky was actually visible and the blizzard wasn't knocking us off our feet. It was snowing softly and if it wasn't for the breeze, I would've left the extra layer of fluff for my coat back on my room.
We began to walk in the direction of the fields. The fields was where everyone trained. As we left the buildings behind, I noticed a tall figure, a shorter figure and a small one several paces ahead of us. I motioned for Daphodil to walk faster and we caught up with the figure in question.
It was Ichigo, Tsumi Sapling and a girl. The girl, Mitsuki, was a shy one and had her long, straight, blonde hair covering one of her big, brown eyes. She smiled at me and I returned the favor. We began to walk alongside them to the fields.
Ichigo wore loose and faded jeans with a bulky brown coat. He was a lover of all blades and skilled in throwing them. With his shaggy, dark brown hair and hazel eyes, he wasn't bad at using his looks as a weapon either. He gave us his usual lopsided grin in greeting.
Tsumi was wearing a fluffy purple coat with matching boots and a black-and-purple hat on her head. She was a know-it-all and sassy. Her cutie mark was a sapling branch curled around like a whip. She knew how to bring anypony, human or other, to their knees. Her dark blue mane was straight and ended in loose curls that bounced with every step and her fur was cream colored. She peered through the round glasses that rested on her nose and she gave us a small smile.
Mitsuki had on a thick, pink coat with blue jeans and pink boots. She had on black ear warmers and a pink hat. She was the most dangerous one I've ever met. She was extremely flexible and was able to move quickly to dodge attacks and hit the nerves on her opponent. With a few quick jabs, she would have you immobile and completely defenseless.
Daphodil's cutie mark was a pair of throwing stars whose ridges resembled the pedals of a flower. Her skillset? You guessed it. She could send out one throwing star into a flock of birds and all would fall to the ground, dead. Very good for retreating enemies.
I was a pinto. My fur was colored white-and-brown and my mane was a fiery red. I had green eyes and my cute mark was a picture of sound waves. I was very good to hoof-to-hoof combat and flexible (though not like Mtsuki) and very much capable of handling a knife, my skillset was my voice. I was able to raise my pitch enough that it can make somepony's eardrums burst. I knew different frequency levels so I could choose which would be best to use in certain situations. When I used this skill, I could stun my enemy long enough to finish the job.
We were a team. Our strength levels and skillsets were very different and sometimes we didn't work too well, but we were in training. There wasn't much to worry about... we'd get it eventually.
As we neared the fields, the one coaching us, a human male, shouted for us to head to the sidelines. A little more than half the group was already there so we just headed in that direction. The coach, Coach Mavis, was once a part of the Shadow Guard, an elite group who traveled to protect the land. A lucky few even traveled with the ruler of Frigidus Mundi, the Darkling.
"What's up, coach?" I greeted, "Why are we waiting here and not training?"
"What's the problem?" Ichigo asked. "I don't want to waste my time in the sidelines unless there's a good reason."
"Yea, why aren't we training?" a lanky, black-haired boy called from the group.
"What's the fuss about?" a chubby, brunette boy said. Coach Mavis was ignoring us and peering out into the distance. This only made us more antsy. What was he looking for? Was there some sort of test? The two other coaches were doing the same thing with their training groups.
"Coach, what's the deal?" a girl in pigtails demanded. The coach kept looking and I looked in that direction too, just to see what was so interesting. It was foggy far from here but I quickly realized that was not so. It was snow being kicked up from a vehicle.
A snowmobile!
None of us here have ever seen a vehicle in real life before. We've seen them in books and on the DLS but our towns weather was so bad most of the year that everything (except the hospital, which was the MOST important thing) was within close walking distance. Everypony started talking at once and pushing to see the snowmobile come.
"Oooh! This is just like that time we went on the DLS an' they showed us the humans on their snowmobiles, clearin' up the snow..." Daphodil nearly knocked me over when she started bouncing, literally, for joy.
"Wasn't that false, though?" Ichigo asked, "Ms. Whinny told us those things never existed. What were those other things the DLS showed us...I think they were called...cars?"
"Oh, I remember those. They held people INSIDE them...without being pulled by anything... Can you believe it?" Mitsuki added quietly.
"Heh. Nope." I chuckled. Tsumi merely gave us all a look that told us she thought we were idiots.
"Cars were a part of Earth culture, you nitwits. They weren't made up."
"Suuure, Tsumi, sure." I rolled my eyes. The know-it-all was wrong again! Tsumi glared at me.
"Idiots," she growled, and watched the mobile stop in the middle of the field and one of the two figures (humans) get off. It was a human. He was shorter than Ichigo, had dark, shoulder length hair and grey eyes. He was wearing a long trench coat and had on knee high black boots.
"Greetings all." he said in a calm, cool voice, "I'll be joining your ranks to train for the Shadow Guard."
"BY THE MOON, HE'S HOT! COME OVER HERE, DARLIN' AN' GIMME SOME SUGAR!" Daphodil shouted. All heads turned in our direction. I had the bad luck to be standing right next to her while she was jumping like a madmare.
"Why...?" I facehoofed and groaned.
To Be Continued...