Snowflake Frost

It had been about two months since my birthday. Silver and I were at strip mine, but neither of us felt like practicing. The silence that had fallen was ruptured only occasionally by a bird or a gust of wind. We sat back to back, looking at nothing in particular, we were quietly thinking. After a long while, Silver spoke. "There's nothing here for us, Snowflake." she paused for a moment. "Iron Valley is dying, and there's nothing here for us."

"Silver, we have our friends, our families."

"That's just it. All that's here is our families. You don't see what it's like in the mines, they're drying up." She waited for me to speak, but I had nothing to say. She was right, and I knew, the town was dying. "There is something out there, out of this town, out of these mountains. Snowflake, we have our lives ahead of us."

"Silver..." I wanted her to stop, I wanted her to be wrong.

"We can't live with our parents forever, Snow."

Silver was right, I knew she was, but I didn't want to leave my family to die with the town. With reluctance, I spoke "Okay, so say we do leave: what do we do? Where do we go? We can't just run away." I needed a plan.

"Well, you'll never be able to use magic publically in Equestria, right? And you might never find your cutie mark without it. So what if-" I knew exactly where she was going with this.

"Silver, we can't just leave Equestria"

"Sure we can!" She said "Listen, in the east there are the Griffin Kingdoms, just full of opportunity. They have all sorts of species, not just griffins, but ponies, wolves, zebras, catfolk, even wyverns. Everything imaginable lives out there. If we went there, you could actually live up to your real potential. You might raise eyebrows, but no pony would shun you for being a magic pegasus." It would be dangerous, I knew, but it was the only way I could use my magic without fear of persecution. Then an idea occurred to me.

"Why don't we pay my birth family a visit before we go?" I shouldn't have cared about them, but I still felt a mixture of curiosity and anger. I'd never seen them before. Why had they had abandoned me? Why was I born a pegasus? Why not at least find a family to adopt me? I had plenty of questions to ask them.

"Are you sure you want to do that? They left you, why not just leave them?" Silver meant well but I really needed to do this. I deserved some answers.

"Look, it's only a two day flight from Canterlot to Baltimare, why don't you go and get us a ship to the Griffon Kingdoms? I'll fly to Canterlot, pay the Frosts a visit, and meet you in Baltimare. It'll get us out of Equestria a bit faster than if we both went to Canterlot."

"You serious?" She stood up. Without her to hold me up I fell over backwards. "We can go? I honestly never thought I'd get you to leave!" She was ecstatic, bouncing up and down around my prone form and smiling all the while. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Let's go." Suddenly I was hoisted upright and into the air by a familiar red magic. Silver had decided to drag me along.

"Silver, put me down!" I was promptly dropped, and only my wings saved my face from an imminent collision with the ground. "I still have to tell my family. I want to convince them to move out." I probably couldn't get my parents, but maybe Bronze would leave.

We walked back to town, finalizing our plans. It would take me most of a day to fly to Canterlot, and so I'd have to spend the night. I'd have the next day to find my birth parents, Dew Frost my father, and Night Frost my mother. The Frost family was nobility, so records of their names were not hard to come by, but getting to talk to them might be difficult. After that, I'd fly for two days to Baltimare, where Silver and I would get a ship out of Equestria. She would leave Iron Valley the same time as I, Baltimare was a good three day hike, two at a hurried pace. She'd get there first, but only by a day or so. We decided that we should meet outside the train station, simply because we knew there was a train station. If we had a hard time finding each other, we'd just launch magic fireworks. Duh.

By the time that town was in sight, we had agreed that we would leave tomorrow. I would only have this evening to convince my family to leave. Silver and I parted ways and I returned home.

Our family house was in a state of disrepair. As I walked up, I noticed a new patch where some of the sun dried paint had flaked off. The fence around what served as a yard was falling apart. I'd always known that the house was this bad, it just never seemed to matter until now. I opened the creaky door and walked into the kitchen. The clop-clop-clop of my hooves was overshadowed by the creaking of the floor. I walked up to my room and retrieved my stash of bits. 7 years of savings in this town equated to no more than a thousand five hundred bits. I would need saddlebags, but all I had were those old school bags. I hadn't worn them in forever, and when I tried them on, it became clear that the straps would just not fit. I would have to take a trip to the general store. I turned to leave, only to have my path blocked by Bronze. "What were you doing?" he asked.

"Bronze, there you are. Look, I'm leaving, and you should too. This town has no future, and you have a life to live." I hoped that would be enough, but in retrospect, I should have taken things a little slower.

"You're doing what now?" He looked at me like I was crazy.

"I'm leaving." I repeated, pausing a little in the middle.

"I thought I'd misheard you." He sighed "You can't just take off and leave mom and dad here."

"They're miners, that's all they know, they won't leave. I hope you will though, hell, maybe you can get them to go with you. I want you to find a place, find some town where you don't have to live like this. Live your life Bronze." He looked torn. I think he knew I was right, and just didn't want to give up.

"I... I can't. Mom and dad-"

"Can make their own decisions." I interrupted. "You're nineteen Bronze, you should be going places, doing things, moving forward. You don't belong here." He looked unmoved "If you need proof, look at your flank." Almost everypony in Iron Valley had a mining related cutie mark, mom and dad had pickaxes for theirs. Bronze, like Silver and I, had no cutie mark. It might have been a low blow, calling him a blankflank, but if it got him moving than it was worth it. I picked up my bit bag in my mouth and flew out my window.

When I touched down, I stowed the bits under my wing. The coins pressed up against my fur and made me feel a little more confident. I strolled along with a bounce in my step, I was finally doing something. I felt all giddy, like a child with a new toy. I had an adventure to get to. At the town store I purchased some tough looking brown saddle bags. I was about to leave when I realized that every adventure calls for some adventure gear. I ended up buying the bags, 50 feet of tough rope, a black cloak with a hood and wing holes, and a simple water skin. I also bought a nice knife. "Just in case." I told myself. I was about to pay when a sleeping bag tempted me. I knew I'd be sleeping on clouds, but what about after we left Equestria? I bought it too.

I stopped by the market stalls to see what food I could get. I needed something that would last a while, I didn't want to be starving on my way to Canterlot, perhaps I'd even get something for the trip to Baltimare. I ended up with some oats, nothing tasty but they'd keep me alive. All in all it cost me one hundred and thirty five bits, leaving me with one thousand three hundred and sixty five. I told myself that I needed to keep track of money carefully, at least until I had a steady supply of income. I had no idea how difficult getting money in the east would be, so conserving my money could be important.

I walked back to the house with my new gear. I wore the cloak, I don't really know why but I liked it. When I walked in my mother was in the kitchen. She was most likely preparing some sort of dinner, but I didn't ask. I knew that I'd never change her mind, so I simply asked "Mom, would you ever leave this town."

She turned to me, and saw my cloak and bags. Her eyes grew larger, surprised, but she didn't comment. I think she knew this was coming. "No, never" came her reply. I understood her, I expected that answer. I only tried once more.

"Dad wouldn't either huh?"

This time, just "No."

I knew I could never change them, so I didn't try. When my dad got back I just told them that I was leaving, that I loved them, but that I might never see them again. I told them everything, and they were surprisingly accepting of it. We had dinner that night in peace, Bronze said nothing about if he was leaving or not, and I didn't ask. I knew that my parents couldn't have taken it if they thought that they'd lose their other son as well.

The next morning I awoke at dawn. My parents cried when I left, but we all knew it was for the best. I double checked my gear, then left as I often did, through my window. I would miss my family and my brother, but only one part of that house would I miss: my window. As I flew over the town I knew I had made the right choice. The grey ground, the pathetic houses, everything screamed poverty.

As soon as I spotted Silver, waiting on the trailhead to the path down the mountain, I swooped down next to her. She greeted me with a simple "Took you long enough, hornless."

"Yea yea, did you tell your family?" I didn't doubt her but I had to be sure.

"Yes, yes I did." It was good enough for me. I'd miss her for the next few days, but at least I knew I'd see her again. With a hug, a kiss, and a promise to meet up in Baltimare, we parted ways. I only had one thing left to do.

I took to the skies. It was late enough that Soft'd be working, and it didn't take me long to find the only other pegasus in the sky. "Soft!" I shouted, and she stopped shoving her cloud around.

"Silver told me you were leaving, why are you here?" Her question made sense, but Soft was the only other friend I had. I couldn't leave without saying goodbye.

"I'm here to formally resign," I paused for a moment "and to say goodbye, of course." I offered my hoof for a hoofbump, but Soft decided that a hug was better.

"I'll miss you, dork." she whispered as we hugged.

"You too" I said, and with that I left for Canterlot.