A Cold Heritage

Winter, in his increasingly worried state, paced back and forth among the snow covered trees, the town Ponyville was very much visible from his perch and although it was in the middle of the day, it was freezing, not that Winter noticed all that much. The wind was slowly whistling its way through the branches, seemingly opposite to Winter’s owns thoughts that were racing around in circles.

‘Okay, so the army has clearly been stopped, no biggie, I just need to lay low for a while… but what if they don’t ever push back? What if they lose even more ground? What if we lose entirely?’ Winter shivered as a very strong gust of wind caught him off guard, making him regain some composure however.

‘It’s fine as long as I stay here, nothing bad could happen in a small town like this, it’s not like I would stand out being new or anything, because nopony knows each other in a small town like this now do they!’

Winter shut his eyes tight and tensed up.
‘Stop thinking like that, that gets me nowhere… I just need to get my accent back, get a room somewhere and get an inconspicuous job.’

“Phew, this is gonna be harder than I thought.”

He began his descent down the hill and towards the road.

‘I had better enter town from the road so I don’t draw any unwanted attention.’

Winter’s every step was a struggle through the thick snow as he lifted each hoof as high as his torso in every step. He could hear the sloshing and crunching of his strife over his light panting, the frosty air only making the beads of sweat on his face even less comfortable.

‘I’m going to murder whichever weather jockey thought that it was a good idea to up the icing dosage.’

The pain was finally worth it as winter placed his hooves on solid ground once again. Feeling slightly more energised being able to walk on a hard cobblestone road, Winter increased his pace as he trotted downhill towards the town.

‘No need to worry. I’m no longer being shot at, which is nice, solid ground is beneath me and I am entering territory that I once called my country but in a twisted confusing set of events is now considered enemy territory. Fan-bloody-tastic.’

Applebloom was bored, there was nothing that she could do with her sister in the state she was in. She sat on a bench outside the house and buried her head in her yellow forelegs, if Rainbow Dash could get so much pleasure from sleeping then there was no reason why she couldn’t. As she sat there her thoughts began to pick up. She could hold a crusader meeting and try to get a cutie mark that they hadn’t thought of yet, although they were running out of those, not to mention it would be a walk to Tartarus and back just to find her friends in this snow. Or she could just sit there and nap for a bit.

“I think I’ll just go with option two for now.” Applebloom yawned to nopony in particular in her southern accent.

She closed her eyes and began to relax her muscles only to be startled by a powerful chilly breeze that sent shudders down her spine.

‘Darn it, I just can’t get a break can I?’

Applebloom swung around and slipped off the bench only to be greeted by the stinging cold snow that shot up her hooves. She painfully bounced her way towards the road into town to avoid long amounts of time touching the ground. Exclaiming when she stepped in a fresh puddle and stumbling away and onto the slightly warmer dirt track.

She began to walk to the boutique to see Sweetie Bell. It usually wasn’t that far but in this cold it may as well have been miles. As she made it to the main road she noticed somepony she hadn’t seen before, he was a light blue stallion with dark blue hair, he appeared almost oblivious to the cold as he was wearing only a simple brown jacket and a dark brown hat similar to Applejack’s. Applebloom noticed as he drew closer that he appeared to be somewhat lost in thought with his eyes mostly scanning the town blankly.

‘Weird.’

Winter’s thoughts were way ahead of him by now.

‘What if they have some sort of secret service that is specialised for finding enemy troops hiding in their small towns? That would be the end for me, they would take me away in a carriage to have information extracted from me! Oh god, what if they think I have info? I don’t have any info! But they don’t know that! What if they’-

“Hiya mister!” a squeaky voice shouted out from surprisingly close.

Winter jumped out of his skin but quickly composed himself. The voice had come from a young red-haired yellow filly that had an accent Winter could only assume to be southern.

The little filly spoke up again.

“You new in town?”

“Umm…” Winter hesitated and reclaimed his old accent. “Yeah I am actually, umm… can you direct me to the town square?”

“Oh sure,” she beamed, apparently delighted to help. “Just follow the road down that way.” She pointed towards the part of town with the little centrepiece tower.

“Ok, danke” Winter smiled back, following her hoof towards what would probably be the best place to find work.

As he continued to walk he noticed a large barn and farmhouse over to his right, a familiar setting that brought back memories of his colthood. He chuckled at the good times he had in his family’s barn with Tink and Froth, they would play all sorts of games like chasey and have hay fights that always ended up in a very long clean up session.

‘I wonder how they are doing these days.’ Winter mused over this for some time as he made his way into what seemed to a small suburban area. A fountain caught his eye from another street so he strayed from the main street and followed the road to this nice little monument.

On his way he noticed a lovely little sweets shop, it appeared to be built to look like a gingerbread house. It had a magnificent roof that looked like it was made out of chocolate topping with a lining of icing. At the side was a candy cane wind gauge and on top was a cupcake inspired second floor with blazing candles and pink frosting.

‘Wow this is amazing! I definitely need to buy something here.’ Winter looked in awe at the sight. ‘Screw the fountain; this has a cupcake roof and an icing sugar thingy and a creepy pink pony staring at me and- wait what?’

Surely enough there was a frizzy haired pink mare staring at him suspiciously; her eyes were narrow as if she were trying to figure him out. ‘Could she know somehow?’ her stare was unblinking and the sweat was beginning to build up again on Winter’s forehead. He smiled nervously and began to walk up towards the fountain.

That was when it happened, a look of realisation shot into her eyes as her jaw dropped in shock.

‘Oh no…’ Winter quickly darted into an alley and started to panic again. ‘I’m screwed, she recognised me. I’m going to get arrested and’-

“WELCOME!”

Everything went black.

The orange rays of the setting sun woke Winter from his alleyway. He shook his head a little as he stood up and checked his surroundings. The pink pony was nowhere to be seen. He stretched out his cramped up limbs and looked over himself, he had thin layers of snow falling off his back and his hat was crooked.

“I should find somewhere to sleep before night comes.” Winter mumbled to himself, making a mental note not to get side-tracked next time he wanted to get something done.

He slowly began to walk out of his hiding place and dust himself off, the beams of sun now more visible due to the limited cloud cover. The town square was just around the corner by the fountain apparently. So Winter headed off in that direction.

Quite a few ponies were outside at this time of the day which made sense to Winter since it was a work day. Most of them were chatting with friends while others were closing down stores and other businesses. Youthful couples were beginning their evening courtships as the late sun’s light glazed over the town.

As the buildings opened up into a small circular clearing, Winter made his way into the town square and immediately noticed a significant change. Everything here was still open, all the stalls and stands and buskers were still running. Winter looked around and observed the busy scene as he made his way over to the food market.

‘Farmers are always looking for good workers aren’t they? I’d say that I’m qualified for that kind of work, besides… who wants to work in a candy shop with… that thing prowling about.’

Winter quickly checked over his shoulder to make sure that the pink pony from before hadn’t returned. A quick scan of the alleyways and hiding places eased his worries, he turned his head back around just in time to narrowly avoid bumping into a cart full of apples.

“Woah!” Winter exclaimed as he made a sharp stop just inches from the owner of the cart. She gave him and unimpressed look as he reared back.

“Watch it sugarcube.” She bitterly retorted, pulling her cart around him.

“I-I’m sorry miss, I was j-just”-

“Be more careful next time.” The words rolled of her tongue bluntly.

Winter retreated back a few steps to give her room before noticing something on the side of her cart. A banner with something written in large black letters:

Farmhand wanted

Requires previous agricultural experience

See Applejack between 4:30 and 5:00 for interview

Sweet Apple Acres

Winter smiled to himself as he saw this, he finally found exactly what he needed. He looked up into the sky to see the sun just beginning to set, being the middle of winter that made it roughly four-ish. Winter chuckled to himself.

‘I guess you learn some useful things in the army’

He began to walk off in the direction of the farm, his perfect hiding place awaited.