"Hey Blank Flank, gonna blow up Town Hall next week? Or are you sticking to smaller targets like the bakery?"
'One would think bullying stops when you grow up, but it doesn't.' Grimoire thought to herself. She ducked her head down and tried to pull the cape over her flank despite it being fully covered, but she knew it was no use. Her bare white flank would still be there, a pale reminder of her failure. 'What use is a unicorn that can't do magic?' She hissed at herself, looking up at the sky.
Clouds were being moved in by the pegasi, and it looked like quite the storm was on the way. Grimoire continued trotting away from the stallions teasing her towards the woods. She could have some privacy there and wanted to get some practice in before the storm started. The woods not only provided privacy for her concentration but the protection of other ponies as well. Her "magic" was, for lack of a better word, volatile. She had never been able to do standard magic not even at the level most fillies can operate at. Anything above basic levitation always ended in utter disaster. Last week she tried to do a heat spell and ended up blowing a huge hole in the wall of the bakery. Mrs. Cake was sympathetic but upset about losing a wall, and a bunch of pastries with it. When she offered to help with the repairs she was quickly denied and asked to leave.
Grimoire arrived at a clearing, smiling at the stillness of it all. She needed all of her concentration for practice. With such little ability, she had tried everything to find her talent, with little avail. However, what she found was almost as bad as not finding anything at all. She could do one brand of magic successfully. More or less. She braced herself, yellow-green magic swirling around her horn. She stared at a small patch of grass on the ground, willing a creature into existence. A bunny. Her magic flared, shooting a green flame towards the ground, a shadowy shape forming in the flame. The fire died, as Grimoire looked at the creature, sighing. It was the furthest thing from a bunny.
The creature was smaller than a rabbit, but walked on two legs, most of the time. It was covered in gray fur speckled with black spots, and in a sense had bunny ears, except they were longer, hung to the side of the thing's face and dragged on the ground after the creature when it walked. It had 4 eyes, the second set smaller than the first, and a sort of squid-like beak at the mouth. Grim stared at it, a bit dissatisfied. This is what her magic was. She has the ability to summon, but whatever she tries to summon, instead of materializing properly, she gets these eldritch things. Bunnies always come out as what she referred to as UnBunn. 'While not worth much, at least, my magic is consistent.' she thought to herself. Steeling herself, she tried to summon a canary, which usually spawns as a floating eyeball with black tentacles coming out of the back, when she heard some rustling from some foliage nearby. "Who-...who's there?" she called, very uncomfortable with strangers seeing her magic. Three ponies stepped out of the shadows of the tree line, and her heart sank. These three ponies had plagued her since her grade school years. They were cruel, and never really knew when to stop, which had made her life in Ponyville so unbearable at times, she had considered moving. Sideline stood forward, glaring at her.
"What is that- that thing?" he asked disgustedly, kicking at the UnBunn. Grim stepped in front of it, taking the blow to her left hoof.
"That thing is not one of your soccer balls to kick around. It has feelings." She tried to put on a brave and confrontational face, but her voice was a fluctuating mess of pitches and tones.
Sideline laughed, "That? Having feelings? You should put the poor thing out of its misery. Look at it, it's almost as ugly as you!" The ponies behind him snickered at his comment, stepping forward. "Look, Blanky, we figure that things like that don't belong in Ponyville, and the pony who creates them? That's even worse. Look at them! They're evil, and you're just toying with them. So do us all a favor and get out of town before you get us all killed."
Grimoire stood there in horror, looking at the three ponies closing in on her. "N-no. This is my home.." She looked for an exit frantically, finally seeing one by way of a thorn bush. Pushing one of the ponies down, she scrambled towards the bush, diving in as they chased after her. Thorns dug into her fur, cutting her and tangling her mane, but at least they wouldn't follow. Wiggling out of the bush on the other side, she ran for as long as she could before collapsing of exhaustion. However, her eyes flickered open when she felt something soft touch her nose. It was cold, and melted on her warm wet nose. She looked up, almost gasping in shock when she saw the dark clouds above her, a torrent of snow falling slowly to the ground. 'I need to get home. The snow is going to be covering everything soon.'
She started heading back in the direction of the clearing, hoping Sideline and his goons were gone by the time she got there. However, Grimoire slowly started noticing the increasing amount of time it was taking to get back, as well as her unfamiliarity with the area she found herself in. She shivered, trying to huddle in her cape for warmth, but the snow was coming down heavier than before, and she soon felt her hooves becoming heavier with every step. She walked for what felt like hours, trying to find anything that looked familiar, but every step just seemed to make her colder. She finally collapsed next to a tree, trying to find any shelter from this flurry. She was shaking like a leaf, the puff of breath from her exhalations forming less steam as even it chilled. She tried doing a bit of magic, hoping to catch something on fire, but everything was wet and coated with snow. Her magic gleamed for a time as it attempted to rescue her, but even that went dim as the frost overtook her. She lay there, blinking to clear the snow building on her eyelids. Everything slowed, and all she could feel was biting cold. Everything was still.
Twinkle Twinkle Grim opened her eyes. She heard the soft twinkling of bells. The small bells they use in music. It was a light, airy sound. She struggled to stand as her muscles tensed and screamed for her not to move. She trudged through the snow towards the bells, trying not to think of the cold. Her hooves started to bleed as the snow sliced into them, but she didn't care. The music the bells were making was beautiful. She couldn't help but smile, even as tears rolled down her face, freezing as fast as she could make them. She climbed her way to the top of the hill, staring straight up into the sky.
It was the snowflakes. They swirled and danced through the sky like ice skaters and ballerinas. They were beautiful, from the way they moved to the way they looked, but nothing could compare to the way they sounded. Whenever one flake hit another a chime would sound, pristine and clear. They all made different chimes at all different pitches , forming a winter symphony of sounds indescribable by words. Grimoire watched in awe, getting weaker as she stood, but incapable of taking her eyes off of them. The sound filled her head and she felt her heart welling up through her throat. She didn’t feel the biting chill anymore, and that terrified her. Everything was gone, everything was white. These snowflakes had blanketed her mind as white and empty as the hills around her. The world around her was pillowy expanse of muffled sounds and painful steps. But this. This cacophony of tones and mixed harmonies sounded out like a light in the dark, bright and clear. She could feel her heartbeat slowing as her blood ran colder and colder, the sense of impending dread of losing this world mixing with the beautiful hope this music gave her was not unlike the mixing of two colors of paint, forming a beautiful, but strange color of unknown hue. This color painted her insides and made her feel less alive than she ever had, but what a perfectly gorgeous color it was. Her vision was fading to black, pinpointing on a single snowflake. She remarked to herself that it reminded her of a pattern she once saw on a stain glassed window as a filly. One more, small smile for a long forgotten memory, then everything was gone, but this little moment she had found. She sighed, still smiling weakly, when a voice interrupted the song.
"Hey! What are you doing out here? Are you okay?" A tall, pale blue pegasus floated down to her, looking her up and down. "You shouldn't be out here, it's freezing." The mare flipped her braided white mane to the other side of her body, looking at Grimoire with concerned eyes.
Grimoire's eyes lowered to meet the pegasus's. "Do. Do you hear them?" Grimoire asked, her voice nothing a hoarse, haunted whisper. The pegasus nodded a bit.
"I make them. It's my talent." She remarked, turning to show Grimoire her cutiemark, an icy blue snowflake formed of music notes. Grimoire nodded weakly, barly comprehending what was being said to her. She looked at the other pony, and back to the sky.
"It's so cold. How can things this beautiful be so cold?" Grimoire started collapsing to the ground. The pegsus saw this, nudging her.
"Hey, don't go down on me! How long have you been out here?" She said worridly. Grim didn't reply, just shuddered as she lay on the ground. She felt the pegasus lift her up, and put her on her back. Grim opened her eyes, feeling the wind on her face as they flew through the sky.
Author's Note
It's nice to finally have this written! It has been in my head forever, and to finally see it in writing is very fufilling.
Epilogue
Alto Stratus untied the braids from her mane and tail. The mare she had found in the woods was suffering from severe hypothermia, and she was nervous about the poor pony pulling through. The nurse said he would retrieve her when the unicorn woke up, but waiting was not Alto's strong suit. Her pacing was making the other ponies in the waiting room uncomfortable, and more than one had started fidgeting. Finally, the nurse opened the door and motioned for her to come back with him. Alto almost bowled him over before realizing she couldn't lead the way. Out of the two of them, only one knew which room the mare was in. He looked at her with a mixture of annoyance and impatience, and she knew he probably had other patients to attend to.
The door opened and Alto saw the mare sitting up in bed, sipping on some soup tentatively. She trotted over, smiling. "It's good to see you're awake."
The unicorn smiling at her, putting the spoon down. "It's all thanks to you, I hear. I wish I knew how to thank you." The unicorn bowed her head to Alto, tears welling up in her eyes.
Alto shook her head. "It's alright, honest. I'm glad you're okay...You don't remember what happened?"
The mare shook her head, seeming to concentrate intensely. "I-I remember feeling cold.. and hearing bells. These, absolutely beautiful bells. But. Other than that, it's all blurry or dark."
Alto gave a tight-lipped, sympathetic smile. "What were you even doing out there? You should have known a storm was coming."
The white unicorn seemed to deflate at the question. "I...W-well. You see I got lost running.." She was clearly dodging the question, watching the nurse leave. As soon as the door was shutting behind him, she looked at Alto again. "Some. Bullies came after me in the woods, and... I ran." She sighed, seemingly at her own weakness.
Alto Stratus blinked a few times, trying to comprehend this. "Bullies? What are you, a filly?" Seeing the mare's negative response to this, Alto spoke up, "I didn't mean that to be cruel. I just, what kind of mare still gets bullied? I would think most ponies would have grown out of that."
The unicorn shrugged. "I thought they would. But being a blank flank and a freak apparently warrants harassment at any age."
Alto looked at the mare for a long time. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her pale purple mane was clearly singed in some areas. She has this defeated look about her, and Alto didn't believe it was the hypothermia. This was a mare with little hope. This was somepony who needed a friend. "Hey, after you get out of here. How about me and you get something to eat. We can talk all about these bullies, and I'll go give them a piece of my mind."
The unicorn's eyes brightened up almost instantaneously. "You really want to?" Her voice, still hoarse, had brightened and sounded very excited at the prospect.
Alto nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Me and you, we'll hit the town," she held out her hoof to the unicorn, "I'm Alto Stratus. Storm extraordinaire, and snowflake aficionado."
"My name is Grimoire," she giggled, taking Alto's hoof, "I am an expert in nothing."
"That'll change one day. I can feel it." Alto smiled at Grimoire. "Well Grim, get better. Eat, sleep, and do what the docs tell you. I'll see you soon." Alto gave a curt goodbye nod, heading out of the hospital, smiling at the snow on the ground, glittering in the dawning of a new day.
