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Beauty.

Everywhere around him, the soft and sparkling white flakes fell and added to the thick layers that had already accumulated over the harsh, rocky ground. In the dim light of the evening hours, he could see nothing but the endless landscape of infinite white frozen water surrounding him.

The sky was filled with snow.

The ground was covered in snow.

He was covered in snow.

…Until the moment he released the energy stored in his leg muscles and sent himself up and out of the pile he had been sitting in.

What had seconds before been a serene scene of winter, filled with only the howling wing and crackling sounds of the snow freezing itself under the surface, became a chaotic mess of frolicking hooves and cheerful laughter. The previously undisturbed blanket of white was thrown high into the air, many of the fallen flakes colliding with the newer ones before tumbling back down towards the ground below.

In the middle of the sudden commotion was a young reindeer with his face aimed up at the snow he had just tossed with his antlers. Each flake that fell had a chance of landing on his thick, fluffy coat and harmlessly sticking to the buck’s insulated outer layer. His eyes twinkled with wonder, trying to track each flake’s path down from the sky as it fell. It was an impossible task, of course, but that didn’t stop his excitable young mind from trying. His gaze flicked from one snowflake to the next, quickly losing track of each one and switching to the next.

As he stood there, transfixed by the beauty of the blizzard, the layer of snow that he had disturbed quickly filled back up until most of his damage was undone.

He lost track of time as he stood in place, watching the sky as if it was performing for him. Not even the painful emptiness in his gut could detract from the amazement he felt. His eyes barely blinked, even when flakes happened to land on his face. The clouds above were so featureless that they almost looked like a dark gray void from which the snow was being created. The buck had never seen purity before.

When he finally regained himself, a few inches of snowfall had already gathered on his body. A quick shake sent the flakes sprawling down to the ground, but not before the stinging winter wind made them dance again for the young reindeer’s enjoyment.

He let out a few happy noises before resuming the trek that he had originally taken a break from. As much as he wanted to continue watching the blizzard progress around him, he knew he had to go.

His mother and sister were waiting for him.

As were the rest of his tribe.

He could not let them starve.

A bit of anxiety filled his chest when he recalled the reason he had wandered off in the first place. Would they be mad at him for scavenging on his own? Or would they just be upset that he had eaten the few bits of grass he had managed to find under a thick layer of frost? It wasn’t enough to actually gather and transport. The frozen vegetation was hardly a mouthful, so he assumed it was best served fueling his search for more.

The frigid air whipping against his fluffy coat did little to make him uncomfortable. In fact, the young buck was exceptionally adept to the blistering cold, even more so than even his tribe’s elders. His fluff was thick and warm, keeping his core temperature right where it was supposed to be, even during intense snowfalls such as this one.

The only source of discomfort for him had been the aching in his gut, before it had been sated slightly with the crunchy bits of frozen greens he had found. He had gone out to find food for his mother and sister…or perhaps even his whole tribe if he was lucky enough. After a few night cycles, though, it was looking futile for the young one.

He marched forward, towards where he had decided was the correct way back to his village. Normally, he would guide himself back home using the distant light from the fires that were lit outside the elder’s huts. The blizzard made it impossible to see that far, even if the firewood hadn’t been too cold to burn.

Without the guiding light of fire, he trusted his instincts. They had never led him wrong before! His instincts told him to go out and search for food, and he had found some!

His instincts guided him aimlessly into the blizzard.

Even as the winds intensified to the point of making him stumble, he just giggled and pushed himself back to his hooves. In his mind, the wind was playing with him instead of battering him; knocking against him like it was a game of chase.

At some point, he could no longer keep his eyes open against the ferocious winds trying to push him backwards. He didn’t seem to mind. Despite everything that he should have been thinking, he was still having fun. Perhaps his youth made his playful nature override his survival sense. Maybe it was his way of keeping his hooves moving even after his body should have given up.

Eventually, the wind picked up and knocked him over again. The violent air roared against his body like a furious beast, attempting to scare him away from its territory.

But instead of fleeing the way he had come from, he kicked his hooves into the air and laughed uproariously. The snow was so deep around him that, on his back, his hooves could barely reach the surface world. In the cavity his body had carved into the snowbank as he fell, the sounds of the blizzard were silenced somewhat. He could finally open his eyes and look up at the sky again.

Instead of the dark gray the clouds had been before, he noticed at that moment that a glowing blue haze had settled into the ether above. The strangeness of it only added to the beauty of the blizzard.

The young buck positioned himself so that he could better see the area he had blindly stumbled into. He peeked only high enough above the snow to see; any higher and the wind would blind him again. To his surprise, the blue glowing haze was moving. It was high above, swirling in rapid circles and nearly making him cross his eyes.

Something about the patterns that the glowing shape moved in struck him as unnatural. But regardless, he felt no fear. Where another buck might have seen horror, he saw beauty. He sat in his little cave of snow, curiously tracking the movements in the sky high above him. It took him some time to realize it, but the shape in the sky had direct effects on the winds and snow that fell. The air was whipped in the same direction that it flowed, carrying the snow with it. When the haze changed shape or speed, the blizzard followed.

An excitement overwhelmed his body upon his revelation. He lashed out from his hiding spot and burst up from the snow, sending another cloud dancing into the harsh winds around him. Instead of walking against the blowing air like he had been, the young one took off in a merry prance along with it. The snow and howling wind seemed to dance with him as he jumped over and over, the dwindling energy in his body just barely keeping him warm.

He existed in a trance at that moment, but it was a happy trance…a gleeful hypnosis that filled his bouncy body with the will to go on despite the fire in his core quickly losing its fuel.

If Evermore was as his elders described it as, he had reached it. He could see his father again! He would miss his mother and sister, of course, but they too would join him in eternity one day.

Strange, though...he was told he would hear the chiming of bells that would signal his arrival…maybe he was just still in the process of entering.

He didn’t know how long he danced with the blizzard before collapsing in a heap. With his chest heaving and eyes glazed over, the buck let the snow fall over him and blanket him in its soft comfort. A strained laugh escaped his throat and exited through the wide smile that remained stuck on his face.

The sound of the air blowing past him was the only thing to keep him company as he got closer and closer to entering the deepest sleep a reindeer could ever take.

But he didn’t feel lonely.

He was never alone.

A pair of glowing blue eyes high above the earth had been watching him. He had seen them during his dance, but had been too focused on his movements to stop and ponder them. Now that he was done, he could use his remaining time to look back up to meet their gaze.

The eyes were centered inside of a glowing blue form that he couldn’t quite make out. The swirling shape in the sky had lost a lot of its intensity since he had started his dance. The shape that looked down at him was the same color as the circle had been, but was stopped in place.

The blizzard calmed. The wind lost more of its stinging bite. Eventually, it was reduced to little more than a silent breeze. The snow still fell, but gone was the violent nature that it had held for many cycles.

The young reindeer could hear himself breathing for the first time in recent memory. A tremendous feeling of peace washed over him as the silence took hold of the landscape. He couldn’t feel the ache in his gut anymore. His strained breathing no longer hurt. Filled with such a sense of calm and acceptance, he started to close his eyes to the outside world. Maybe when he opened them again, he would see his father’s wise features looking back down at him.

But when he reopened them, it was not his father that he saw. Instead, it was the same blue orbs that had been watching him from high above. This time, however, they were right there next to him.

The buck blinked up at the glowing eyes and strained his own to make out what kind of figure they belonged to. Even being so much closer to him, he still couldn’t quite make out the features.

The snow he had fallen into had been cleared sometime between him closing his eyes and opening them. This allowed him to stretch his legs out and crack the joints that had been nearly stiffened solid. A series of pops echoed out from his limbs, the sounds of which seemed to spook the owner of the blue eyes staring down at him. They retreated back a few steps…but they made no sounds. Their movements carried no weight, almost as if they were floating above the ground other than standing on it.

On shaking legs, he slowly rose back to his full height and blinked the sleep from his eyes. True to his perceptive hearing, the owner of the eyes really did not touch the ground. They hovered slightly above, almost like a ghost. He studied the shape for a while as the shape studied him in return. He took a step closer, only for the figure to retreat back two more paces. Not wanting to scare it, he stopped advancing and took a relaxed stance exactly where he had fallen.

The shape was starting to become clearer to him the longer he looked at it. It wasn’t the same shape as a reindeer. It wasn’t the kind of shape he had ever seen with his own eyes before.

The closest form he could place it to was the delegates of the pony tribes he had seen his elders working with, though those beings had been much smaller than the one in front of him. They were also much rounder, while this entity had narrow and sharp features. Yet…there was a feminine softness to the eyes that remained fixed on him. The strangest thing about it was that their body had no back half. Instead, their form trailed off onto haunting wisp.

For the longest time, the two stared at each other, neither daring to make another move. The only sound in the clearing was his steady breathing. The other being didn’t seem to have to breathe.

Then a sharp groaning noise emanated from his middle, bringing with it an intense pain. The hunger that had been plaguing him for many moons and brought him to rest in the snow had returned. The brief bit of energy he got from his nap ran out and sent him back down to the frozen field under him. A noise escaped his throat that resembled a blanch, only much weaker and raspier.

The sudden movement and noise startled the entity, who floated back a bit and widened its glowing blue eyes. However, once it saw that the buck had simply collapsed, it drew closer than it had been. It looked over his fallen form, gaze darting from limb to chest to find the source of the creature’s ailment.

His stomach growled again, causing him to groan.

After a few moments of silence, he felt a breeze flow past his cheek fluff. Upon looking to the side, he saw something miraculous:

A clean patch of grass, hardly even frozen. It hadn’t been there before, of that he was sure. Without hesitation, his stomach took control of his body and forced him to slide a bit closer to the cleared section of previously-frozen earth. His mouth tore at the grass, ripping it from the ground and taking some roots with it. He hardly cared that he ended up with some dirt in his teeth. The feeling of finally having some fresh food entering his system was too relieving for him to care.

He munched and munched until there was not a speck of green left in the small clearing that had been made. The whole time, the entity circled around him and watched with an intense curiosity, not unlike his behavior during the blizzard.

For the first time in so, so long, he felt his shrunken stomach filled with life-providing food. It was somehow almost as fresh as a summer grazing. Summer…something he wished he could remember.

The buck chomped a few mouthfuls of snow and let them melt before swallowing the accumulated water, effectively washing his meal down. After feeding his hunger and thirst, he took time to lay there and recover. It was quite awhile before his body started to remember how to process food. Eventually, though, he felt some semblance of energy returning to his limbs.

He looked up and saw that the entity was still around him, silently watching and studying, tilting its head at his movements.

“Thank you…” he spoke suddenly, his voice hoarse from not speaking for days. The glowing blue shape looked him in the eyes, its color gaining a bit of vibrancy. Even if it hadn’t understood his words, it seemed to pick up on his intended meaning through his tone.

It swirled in place once before returning to its favorite position next to him. He watched the way its ethereal body flowed behind it like a constantly crashing wave. Every movement it made was graceful in its own way, and bold in a likewise unique fashion.

When he had gathered enough energy to stand, the buck grunted and pulled himself to an upright position. The mental fog that had clouded his mind and tainted his senses over the past however many days slowly started to lift. Without the constant ache of hunger, he could finally start to think normally.

The clearing around him was definitely not close to his village. How far had he deliriously wandered into the blizzard in search of food for himself and his family?

Had his mother and sister survived the blizzard…?

The anxiety that had been previously muted thanks to his delirium was starting to creep back into the forefront of his mind. He looked around at his new environment, noting that much of the area around the clearing was still buried in many hooves of snow. It wouldn’t be very likely that he could find his way back home on his own. Not with the snowfall concealing every landmark he had ever known. Even with his stomach full for the time being, he had wandered for multiple days…blindly…in the blizzard that had consumed his entire country.

His eyes drifted from the entity to the patch of ground that he assumed it had cleared for him. Would it be able to do that again? Could it clear a path home for him?

“Who are you?” he said after another few awkward moments of staring at one another. Its eyes glowed brightly as he spoke, but a head tilt signaled to him that it still didn’t speak his language. That would definitely impede his plan to get home…

Maybe a game of Fall Along would help them understand?

He moved to the edge of the spot they had cleared, tried to pick the direction he thought home might be in, and lowered his fuzzy antlers to the very beginning of the frozen section. The entity didn’t retreat anymore as he moved. They must be starting to grow comfortable with him.

With a small grunt and another few pops from his stiff neck joints, he suddenly thrust his head into the air and sent a heavy section of fallen snow scattering into the calm breeze around him. This achieved its effect of clearing a small section away in the snow; enough for him to walk on. But it was nowhere near as clean as the ground the entity had cleared. Where their efforts left the grass untouched by snow or ice, his area still had a thick layer of ice separating him from the grass below.

The glowing shape’s eyes widened and got even brighter as he sent the snow soaring over his head, leaving it to trickle back down over his fluffy coat. He looked at it expectantly, waiting for any sign that it understood.

The glowing blue eyes practically sparkled at him.

In response to his little display, the entity took off in its own little circle, kicking up a fluff-load of snow in its wake. The buck’s eyes grew wide with awe as the natural magic swirled around the field and surrounded them in dazzling white wonder. More of the grass was exposed as the ethereal being took the accumulation and ran with it. It galloped with obvious confidence around him in such a spectacular way.

His fascination with the blizzard earlier was partially caused by his hunger-fueled confusion. Yet there he was, standing and staring with just as much adoration. He couldn’t look away from the dance being done around him. His hooves frantically twisted around each other in order to keep his face pointed at where the entity was at any given moment. This frantic spinning quickly made him dizzy, but he hardly cared. It was just too beautiful for him to perceive anything else.

As it finished its dance, it came to a stop in front of him and struck a proud pose as the massive amount of disturbed snow came down around the two of them like a miniature blizzard. The way the flakes fell was so natural, as opposed to the haphazard clumsiness of his own performance.

Despite the oddness of playing around with a still-unknown winter spirit, he found himself huffing a bit and kicking his hooves at the recently exposed greens. The calf-ish display seemed to delight the entity even more.

A chilling chortle of delight rose from the direction of the spirit. The buck tilted his head at…her? The giggle was very feminine, despite the sharp features he could make out on the entity’s facial features.

He hadn’t just imagined it.

As the last flakes fell back down to rejoin their kin, the young reindeer felt an increasing warmth growing in his chest. Something about the playfulness of the spirit calmed the worries that had been building inside of him. She wasn’t scary at all, despite the supernatural nature of her.

If the elders saw her, he had no doubt they’d break out every sacred protective item they possessed. But she wasn’t attacking him. She was very nice. Why else would she have saved him from starving and kept him alive?

The buck took a chance and jumped back over to the snow he had lifted earlier. He sent his antlers skyward again, shooting the snow more directly at her. She recoiled for a moment but quickly joined the merriment. Another echoing laugh escaped her as she picked up a second load of snow with her magic and sent it flying at him. His snow passed through her harmlessly; her returned fire practically knocked him over. Before she could think that she might have hurt him, though, he regained his stance and took off.

He pranced through the thick mounds, kicking up clouds of white as she chased him. Everywhere he ran, she followed.

The elders would have never approved of him behaving like this! He was always expected to act as the buck of his family, ever since his father passed. No playing, no joy, just sparring with the older bucks and taking care of the two females left living with him in his hut.

Even without hearing the bells of Evermore ringing for him, he was sure he had found it. No other explanation made sense. Why else would he be dancing with a winter spirit in an endless expanse of glittery white powder?

He had never known such joy.

His face was adorned with a wide, gleeful smile. He couldn’t be quite sure, but he had a feeling that hers was as well. The few glimpses of her face he caught as she chased him revealed that the sharp features had softened. Her face was no longer as angular as it had been when she had first looked down at his limp body.

She suddenly looked much closer to the pony delegates he had seen years earlier. Rounder…more gentle.

Cute…

Her bubbly laughter only increases the feminine appeal she suddenly radiated. He had no idea who she was or why she was playing chase with him, but it just felt right.

Without him realizing it, she had flowed around his body in a spiral so that she was completely encircling him as he ran. Her essence stretched and changed to take his shape.

The snow and wind picked up around them. The steady snowfall that had replaced the blizzard was once again overtaken by the harsh wisps of winter. As for the buck, he didn’t notice anything different until a chill passed through his entire body, bypassing his fluffy coat and seeping directly into his core.

His eye widened in shock at the foreign feeling tingling throughout his very soul. Every sense he had was overwhelmed by the strangely soothing icy sensation.

“Wah!” he choked out as his hooves left the familiar touch of the ground below. He didn’t have to look down to know he was being lifted from the ground. Into the whipping winds he flew, somehow immune to the snow that should have been stinging his eyes. His legs were moving on their own, completely out of his control. The blue aura surrounding them guided his muscles where they wanted to go.

And where they wanted to go was up.

Higher and higher, far above the mountains. Higher than any reindeer had ever been. The cold air grew more frigid, though he couldn’t find it within himself to be bothered by it. He was too preoccupied by the endless snow cloud he had entered. The inside of the cloud was even more blinding than the blizzard had been, letting him see nothing beyond his own nose.

But still, his legs pumped against the freezing winter air. They galloped ever higher until he finally saw the light of day break through the thick cloud cover. As his legs slowed to a stop, he looked around. Luckily, his head and neck still seemed to be under his control.

It was unlike anything the young buck had ever seen. As far as his eyes could see, there was an almost flawless cover of cloud. It formed a fluffy surface on which his hooves finally settled. The sunlight that had been obscured to his tribe for months shined down and enveloped him.

The glowing blue aura surrounding him faded slightly as the spirit unraveled herself just enough to face him. She reached up with an ethereal hoof and cupped his cheek, guiding his frantically wandering gaze back to her own. Her touch was more solid than he thought was possible. Upon contact, he felt a sudden connection to her that wrapped his heart up in the fluffiest of internal hugs. Her eyes bore into his, forming a bond that drained his body of any weight or worry that still remained.

There, in the sky high above anything he had ever known, he heard a Windigo speak for the first time in recorded history.

"I accept," she said with the prettiest voice he had ever heard. With her declaration still echoing into the air around them, she leaned her ethereal face forward and removed any distance between them. Her icy blue lips met his and changed his life forever. With a sudden eruption of strange and unknown winter magic, the buck's eyes became just as blue as hers and their features morphed together to become one. In the very last moment before becoming something else entirely, the buck saw a dark shape hovering in the distance, watching history being made.

His glowing blue eyes blinked in confusion.

That dark blue winged pony surely hadn't been there the first time he had experienced all of this.

The...first time...?

His mind reeled with a sudden understanding of what was happening. As the realization hit him, the world blurred out of focus and the beautiful spirit's presence was robbed from him once more.

And he awoke.

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Author's Note