The Brothers Don't

Shining Armor caught himself nodding off. The heated shield flickered like a dying candle for just a moment.

"Hey! Wake up!" Zephyr shouted, waving his forelegs around wildly. "Don't you go falling asleep and let me freeze to death, Capitano!"

"Jeez, all right," Shining Armor groaned, shifting to a less comfortable position. "No need to scream at me."

Zephyr smiled. "I figured I would take on that responsibility myself. You do your magic with that pretty horn of yours, and I keep the wizard awake with my beautiful voice."

"Don't call my horn pretty," Shining droned. "That's weird."

"What, you've never checked out another stallion's horn before?" Zephyr asked. "There's nothing wrong with a little peek now and then."

"What are you talking about?" Shining shook his head. "Zephyr, please, just shut up."

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

"There is no way to lighten this mood!"

"Tell you what, let's put a pin in this discussion," Zephyr said, pretending to stick a pin into the air with his hoof, "and move on to a fantastic idea I had about forty seconds ago."

Shining groaned and dropped his chin to the pink, glowing ground.

Using his hooves to draw a shape, Zephyr asked, "Is your expertise limited to dome-shaped magi-shields?"

Without lifting his head, Shining gave Zephyr an inquisitive glare. "No," he said.

"You can do cubes, too? Pyramids? Sphericisms?"

Shining stood up. "That's not a word, but I think I'm getting your point."

"Sphericism is a word we use in the mane therapy industry," Zephyr said with a serious, half-lidded expression. "It refers to any sphere-ish or sphere-esque shape into which one, like myself, might be able to shape an especially stress-filled mane."

"You say the most pointless things."

"One such sphericismal style," Zephyr continued loudly, "is the Mace Embrace. Would you like to take an uneducated guess as to what the Mace Embrace is, oh captain my captain?"

Shining's teeth ground together. "Something spiky," he growled.

Zephyr nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Exactly! So..." He pointed up at the shield. "Think you can make a spiky sphere we could push through the ice and snow?"

Shining's eyebrows raised. He glanced around at the pink shield and hummed to himself. "Actually..." he said. Squinting in concentration, Shining sent a flash from his horn that rounded out the bottom of the shield and applied little spikes to the outer shell. "Huh... that's not a bad idea."

"All right!" Zephyr reared up and wiggled his hooves. "Let's get pushing! We'll find the others before the storm get through, mark my words!"

"Don't curse us, please," Shining said, and aided Zephyr is turning the sphere around them, rolling their new bubble through the heavy, falling snow.