It was a bright and cold winter early afternoon by the time Winter Skies was so rudely awoken by her best friend and flying partner, Whirlwind. For a pony who worked the night shift weather patrol, "Afternoon" was an ungodly time of day. It had been nearly 50 years since the Royal Pony Sisters had defeated Discord and turned him to stone. To speak to some of the older ponies, they would never complain about having a defined time of night and day. Nor would they complain of the lack of chocolate milk, cotton candy clouds or soap flake snow storms or wind storms that smelled maybe TOO much like flatulence. They were grateful for what they now had, but Winter Skies wasn't one of those older ponies. At the age of 16, she had little on her mind but work, sleep and studying. It was hard enough for her to maintain her night job and go to school in the day. The weekends were her saving grace and, to disturb her rest on one of the few days she could sleep in was inviting trouble.
"Come on, Winter! Time to get up and face the day!" Whirlwind called to her as he stuck his head through her open window and past the blacked out curtains that kept the sunlight at bay. "You need to do more with your life then work, sleep and school!"
This kindly advice was met with a flying pillow to the face.
"Ugh....what time is it?" Winter Skies asked as she pulled the blanket over her head. "Its bright enough to be high noon.."
"Well, you aren't far off. Its 1pm"
"You're joking?"
"I'm not"
"You are one dead Pagasus" she quipped angrily.
"Come on Winter, seriously. I haven't hardly seen you at all outside of school since you took that night job as a weather pony 6 months ago. We hardly hangout or practice our flying or any of the fun stuff we used to do." He rubbed the back of his head nervously, scruffing up his green mane slightly. "Plus, I kinda miss ya. Its not the same doing our tricks with other ponies"
Winter Skies sighed and rubbed her eyes, then lifted the blanket off her head. It took a little while for her eyes to adjust before she gave an annoyed look at her friend.
"You could have come in and knocked on the door like a normal pony, instead of some creepy stalker sticker your head in my window."
"Hey, you're the one who has her window open in WINTER TIME. Its cold as ice in here. I have no clue how you aren't sick." He said with concern in his voice.
Winter Skies just chuckled his concern away. "Conditioning. Its so cold at night that the cold weather during the day just feels warm to me. The first few weeks on the job were really hard, so I started leaving my window open for small amounts of time during the day. It helped not going from a warm house to the freezing cold of night, so I just kept doing it for longer and longer periods of time. Plus, my Cutie Mark -is- a snowflake with a frosty breeze blowing over it. That might be a clue cold is kinda my thing."
"You're weird" he said with a smirk.
"Takes one to know one, jerk" she laughed.
"So, you coming out or....." he trailed off knowing full well he couldn't make her do anything she didn't want to do. He never could. He couldn't make her take easier courses in school with him. He couldn't make her take the less advanced flying courses he wanted to take. He couldn't even make her take a job during the day time. She was all about pushing herself and he usually just came along for the ride. He didn't really know why until a few years ago and that was another he couldn't, and wouldn't make her do.....love him as he loved her.
"Hello? Tundradale to Whirlwind. You okay?" She asked.
He closed his eyes and snapped out of his thoughts. "Huh? Oh...yeah, right. I'm fine. So whats it going to be? Come on, fly with me." He perked up and offered the best smile he could.
"Oh fine, I guess I can take a break. I kind of wanted to talk to you about some things that have been happening at night. Its been a little strange but I don't really know what to make of it." She said, a slight pitch of concern in her voice.
"Sure, we can talk about anything you want. Lets go!" He flew backwards and out of her window. She shut it tight and fixed her curtains. It was dark again, glorious dark. She let out a sigh and walked over to her vanity. She brushed her mane and tail, putting a single braid in each. She did some slight preening to her wings and stood back to admire her work.
"Good enough." She smiled and went down stairs opening the door and taking flight. Before long, the Pegasus caught up to her friend. She recommended they grab something to eat while they talked. Later on, as they sat at the local diner, Winter Skies leaned forward.
"So" she began. "What do you know of Princess Luna?"
