Mysterious Arrival

Twilight couldn't remember a colder winter. Hearth's Warming was only two weeks away and it was already snowing heavily. In fact, it was snowing so heavy that the trains had problems reaching Canterlot. The alicorn didn't wish to think how was it like in the Crystal Empire. Only the thought of it made her shivver.

Luckily, it was pretty warm inside of the Golden Oak Library. Usually she would spent such a cosy early evening reading a book, but today she had promiced Spike to bake a big, gem- covered cake just for him. Why? Well, Spike wasn't exactly in the mood. While all of the Mane 6 took part in the adventures related with Hase's return, which took over two years, including him learning about friendship, Spike was... well, he was left aside. He only took part in the first adventure, the New Equestrian one, and even than all he did was strolling around without even trying out his wings, because he thought they would stay forever, and watch Hawk ( and later Hase ) steal his girl. He hoped again, when the last spring, while Hase and all of his forms still weren't separate,  Rarity broke up with him ( because he was strongly affected by Stark from the inside) , but after they dissapeared for a month instead of a week, leaving Spike completely alone, and returned, Hase was her hero again. And why did he wonder it would end up this way? Hase was a hero, one of the most powerful ponies in the whole world, and more importrant, he went beyond friendship by sacroficing himself to save Rarity and all of them.

And who was Spike? A small, purple baby dragon with green spikes, that constantly tried to prove himself worthy for respect. Hay, he didn't even save Applejack from the timberwolves. And now, with all of those heroes around ( well, even he was a hero for a while... but only in his own comic book. And yet again in this comics his friends were better superheroes than him. It was true, he saved them from the Mane- iac, but still... they remained heroes after they got out, while he didn't. Well, they actually preferred their real identities, because in the comic book only Fluttershy had simillar powers( but a different colour and more control) and everypony else had a totally different kind of power... well, it was confusing for everypony ) , there was nopony to be saved. Would Captain Equestria, the Shyulk, War Marechine ever need his help? No! And now,  after she spent the fall with her friends, Rarity was on the Moon, way further than Spike could possibly go. He had a reason to be depressed. With all of this S.H.I.E.L.D. , Moon ruling etc. jibberrish Spike felt alone.

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse it turned out the girls were going to be away for the two weeks before Heart's Warming, leaving the town quite an empty place. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted AJ to investigate a possible germaneian threat, together with the Black Widow and Hawk. Stark had asked Dash to help him with the pursuit of a mysterious supervillain from Stalliongrad, called the Crimson Dynamo. It sounded like if his comics had came true, but Spike wasn't a hero. He couldn't oppose the germaneian threat nor the Crimson Dynamo. He was just Spike.

Rarity wished to spent Heart's Warming with Hase, on the Moon. She wasn't going to appear again, at least not until January. Pinkie was visiting some relatives in Manehatten. And Fluttershy.... poor Fluttershy! A general of the equestrian army claimed, that Fluttershy's transformation could have been used to make the army stronger than ever, and chased her through whole of Equestria!

Shining Armour took him to the court several times, but the court never said he was guilty, since he only wanted the best for Equestria. The so-called general Thunderbolt Ross was the general of the " modern " part of the army. This part was equipped with latest A.I.M. technology ( Hase left the company to Wanda, since moving the factory was a nightmare scenario) of machineguns, tanks and " choppers "  ( even Twilight had no idea what they were ) . Now, led by the general, they were chasing Fluttershy around the country, hoping to extract her powers. Only Fluttershy and her friends knew her powers weren't a gift, but a curse: the Shyulk was a monster, led only by rage and when Fluttershy was turning into the Shyulk, she could barely control herself.

Those were dark times. And above all stood Spike's love problems. The small dragon didn't blame Hase for taking Rarity. After all, judging by his sacrofice, he loved Rarity truly, but he got annoyed when the stallion started sending him moon dragonesses in an act of redemption. They were beautiful, Spike admited, but the spark wasn't present. Spike felt it and suspected, that those dragonesses missed it too. They only came because Hase asked them to, and probably from compasion. Spike didn't need compassion. In a result of this since the middle of november he only sat, locked in Twilight's room. Twilight had nothing against it, she could still sleep on the couch, but she was very upset. She wrote a letter to Hase, asking him to stop sending those dragonesses, and luckily he showed some understanding and stopped teasing Spike. In the reply letter he wrote, that he only ment good. Twilight believed him, but this didn't change Spike's mood. For all of those weeks he only came out to eat and once when he helped Twilight with the installation of the furnace. For the rest of the time he was upstairs. The purple alicorn hoped this cake would ligt up his mood at least a little bit.

The mare took a quick glare upon the clock. It was already 6 o'clock and luckily, she soon heard the baby dragon coming down the stairs.

" Spike! "  she exclaimed "  Guess what I've got you? "

Spike looked at the cake, small signs of surprise appearing on his face. But soon they vanished, replaced by his bad mood:

" Cake? Twilight, you... you didn't have to. "  he replied, murmuring so quiet that Twilight almost missed out what he said.

"  Oh, come on, Spike! Cheer up a little! Those sapphires are ... "

" From Rarity?!? " Spike nearly jumped in the air from enthusiasm, which made Twilight feel a little uncomfortable

"  Nooo, but they are the best money can buy. "  her reply caused the baby dragon to frown again.

" Oh. " he noticed, speaking without any feeling, something highly unusual to him

" As I said, you didn't have to. "

"  Well, I didn't, but I wanted to surprise you! The whole of it is for you! " Twilight left the kitchen and sat on the couch, leaving Spike alone with the cake. The purple alicorn hoped he would eat at least a third of it. She sat in front of the fire and levitated a nearby book next to her. Following her commands, the pages unfolded. The mare sunk in her book in front of the warm fire, unaware of what was happening outside.

Blizzard. Snow. Ice. Not her favourites. The mare struggled to keep her progress. The worst was behind her back. The pony looked behind. Nothing could be seen, but somewhere out there was the town centre. The winds there almost blew her off the ground and that was something she certainly didn't want to happen. Getting blown off  the ground in such a storm would probably kill a pony. Nopony could of survived such thing. Absolutely nopony.

She got distracted by her thoughts and a sudden change of the direction of the wind caught her unprepared. The wind pushed her off her hooves  as she slid forwards. Her hooves couldn' t keep her, since now she was sliding on ice. The multiple coats and scarfs covering her, which were ment to keep her warm, were waving behind her back. With horror the mare stared in front of her. At first it was only the snow, but soon a yellow light and a shadow appeared and the pony realised her trip would come to a halt very soon.

BAAAAAAM!

Twilight had fallen asleep while reading her book, but the sudden and pretty loud thud woke her up. Her surprise quickly passed, as she supposed it was snow falling from her tree. She closed her eyes again and while she was trying to remember what she was dreaming about and continue with the dream in her own imagination, something she liked to do after waking up, another sound, this time totally different, was heard.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

There was somepony at the door. Who would possibly want to wander in such harsh weather conditions? And it was dark already. Twilight realised it wasn't going to be somepony she knew. It was probably a late traveller, who would ask for shelter in this late hour. The purple alicorn wan't going to let that unknown anypony to freeze to death, that was sure.

As she pulled the door with her magic a strange something came in. The blowing wind was so cold that Twilight hurried to shut the door closed as soon as possible, catching one of the strange things, that hung from the thing.

"  Oh, sorry! "  Twilight didn't want to make the unknown creature angry, so she opened again and waited for two seconds untill the stranger got away from the door, and closed again.

Now, after she took a closer look, the purple mare realised this wasn't a monster or something simillar, it was just a pony, dressed with at least 5 wet coats and tangled with dozens of scarfs, covered with ice crystals. After she thought about it for a second Twilight decided, that if she had to wander in such weather she wouldn't do anything else. The concealed pony was shivvering strongly, something, that could be seen even from outside of the countless layers of clothing. The princess rushed to aid her unexpected guest. It took her whole three minutes to figure out how to untie those scarfs and take them off. After she counted them, it turned out there were 10 of them. The purple mare left them near the furnace, so that the ice crystals would melt, and slowly took off the five coats, hanging them near the furnace too, to finally reveal the pony.

It was still wearing a woven pullover, a hat and jacket, so by so far the only thing Twilight knew about her guest was, that his or her coat was light yellow, yellow like the inside of a lemon. The lavender alicorn realised her guest would want something warm to drink, so she rushed to the kitchen. Surprisingly, she found Spike there, sleeping on the table, and the dish were the cake stood, or used to stand, was empty. The frosting around the baby dragon's mouth revealed, that he had eaten the whole cake, something, that made Twilight happy. However, as she started making noises with the cups, the spoons and the other things needed to make hot chocolate, the baby dragon woke up too. Surprised by his friend's energetic hot chocolate preparing, the sleepy Spike looked at the clock. It was ten to midnight!

"  Twilight, wh.. what are you doing so late in the evening? " the surprise took the dragon out of his sleep completely.

"  I'm making hot chocolate, as you can see. "  the mare noted, as she sipped three tea spoons of cocoa in the cup and put it on the cooking oven.

"  But... why aren't you asleep? And who is going to drink that chocolate? I must admit, your cake was extremely delicious, so I don't have any space left for a chocolate... "

"  It isn't for you. " Twilight interrupted him " Neither is it for me. "

"  Who is it for, than? Owlowiscious? "  the thought of that made Spike smile for the first time since weeks.

Twilight laughed at that suggestion, but her reply came soon enough:

"  No, Spike. We've got a guest. "

" But who can it be? "  the purple dragon wondered " The Apples? The Cutie Mark Crusaders? None of them is so silly to wander in such a blizzard! "

" It isn't anypony you or me know. It is probably one of those ponies who travel around equestria no matter of the weather. " the purple mare replied.

Curious, Spike went to the end of the kitchen and looked in the living room. Sudden panic took him over as he ran back to the table and jumped on it, completely confusing Twilight. He nearly jumped on her, whch caused her to step back and push the cup with the chocolate off the oven. Luckily, she caught it with her magic beforeit could spill.

"  Spike! "  she told him "  What are you doing? "

"  I think you know that mare well enough, Twilight. "  Spike's voice sounded like if there was a big trouble.

The both of them sneaked to the end of the kitchen, only showing their heads from behind the corner.

The guest was indeed a mare with a yellow coat, and she quite resembled a pony Twilight hoped she would never meet again.

"  Sunset Shimmer. I bet she isn't coming here with peaceful purposes. " Spike whispered and closed his hand in a fist.

"  I am not Sunset Shimmer if you wonder about that. "  a reply from the unknown mare was something they expected at least. She wasn't even looking at them!

"  Everypony thinks I am her, but I am not. I'm even not a unicorn! " the mare didn't sound insulted, she spoke like if it was an everyday procedure for her.

Twilight and Spike showed from behind the corner. The mare was sitting on the couch, and indeed she wasn't a unicorn but a pegasus. Her mane and tail had simillar colours to the one on Sunset Shimmer's mane - red and yellow, but those were only some streaks, while most of the mane and tail of the mare, that was long and fell down on waves, was orange. Her wings had the same colour like her coat, except for the tips of her feathers, which were orange like her mane. Her eyes, unlike the one of Sunset Shimmer, hadn't got the slightest sign of blue but were completely green like the forest. A warm smile stood on her face, but she was still shivvering. She looked a bit like Spitfire the Wonderbolt, but she wasn't her either. She looked far nicer than the leader of the Wonderbolts, who wanted complete obedience from the rookies. And her mane fell down instead of going up.

"  I share no connection to Spitfire. "  the mare guessed their thoughts again.

"  Than... what's your name? By the way, I'm sorry for spying on you. "  Spike apologised. The pegasus smiled and said him her name:

"  It doesn't matter, I would of done the same if a pony, that resembled Sunset Shimmer, arrived in my house without any warning. My name is Fiery. "

"  Fiery, I am... "  Twilight wanted to introduce herself, but her guest smiled and interrupted her:

" No need for that, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You're quite popular these days. "

"  Just Twilight, thank you. It is getting annoying. "  Twilight blushed. She would be never able to get used to ponies calling her " Princess " and bowing. It just wasn't ment for her.

"  I would also guess so, Twilight. "  the mare's shvvering became weaker.

"  Fiery... that's an odd name, beg my pardon. "  Spike spoke

"  Spike! Don't be rude! "  Twilight told him, but Fiery just smiled and replied:

"  No, it isn't rude. Such name isn't common, I admit. Ponies meet me and when I introduce myself, they think I'm going to immeadietly get something on fire. Of course, I have never set anything on fire.. on purpose, I mean. "  Spike liked the last part of her reply.

"  But what other name would you give a filly with such cutie mark? "  the pegasus moved her tail of her flank and revealed one of the most strange cutie mark Twilight had ever seen. It was a huge sun, covering her entire flank and one of it's rays even went a little down her hindhoof. It was a big yellow circle, surrounded by an orange oreol with red rays coming out of it. The purple alicorn had never seen a cutie mark so big.

"  Wow. And what's your special talent? "  Spike asked.

"  And that's the most confusing thing about it! I have no idea what it should mean! "  Fiery laughed "  Now seriously, really, I haven't got any special talent. I've got this cutie mark since I was born. It's confusing, I know, but I don't have any idea how is my yet undiscovered talent related to the sun. It is one of the reasons I travel around Equestria. "

"  Would you be so kind to tell us what the other reasons are? Since I think this isn't the reason you got in mind while crossing that blizzard. " Twilight spoke to her.

"  Indeed it wasn't. I thought the weather would be better today and that I would be able to stay at a local hotel, but in this storm I just tried to find shelter from the wind, while it blew me all the way to this place. "  the pegasus replied.

The purple alicorn remembered, that the hot chocolate was still in the kitchen and she rushed to get it. As she returned, she saw, that Spike was having a conversation with their guest.

"  But still... I do not understand. Why didn't your parents name you before getting your cutie mark? "

" That's the most confusing part. My mother... well, she isn't my true mother. In a cold winter night like this she found me in a basket, covered with a blanket. By that point she had no other foals, so she chose to keep me. I don't know how is it possible, but back than I had my cutie mark. It was there, while I was still a baby. At first, in my foalhood years, I thought this was a good sign and that I need to focus over the talents related to the sun. But I never found mine. My mother and later my younger sister were always behind my back. I would probably never leave... if they didn't want the unthinkable. " Fiery replied to the dragon's question.

"  And what's the unthinkable? "  Twilight decided to join the conversation.

The pegasus mare turned to the purple alicorn and for a part of the second Twilight saw horror in her eyes. Unexplicable horror. It looked like "  the unthinkable " was something Fiery wouldn't gladly want to speak about.

"  I... I prefer not to say what it is. "  the horror could have even been senced in her voice. Twilight thought it was probably a dark part of the past most found exciting, but for Fiery it was traumatizing, so she decided to give the mare a rest for today and find out more about her on the next day, if she could.

"  You may take my bed. I hope Spike won't have anything against it. "  she smiled warmly and happily noticed how the fear dissapeared from the pegasus's face.

"  Really? For me? Thank you! " pure thankfulness, another trait distinguishing her from Sunset Shimmer, could be senced in the mare's reply.

The mare flew upstairs, while Twilight rest herself on the bed. Spike curled up near her and she fell asleep with a smile on her mouth.