Chapter 13 “Melting Ice”

The warmth of the sun made the cold snow be slightly more bearable, the pack running around to stretch their legs. Ember lowered his head towards the ground, picking up a faint scent of squirrel and following it. Crescent ran beside him, as she was learning how to hone in on a specific scent and track whatever it was she was following down. Her eyes were focused in front of her, and her ears were perked, listening closely for any sound of the small furred creature jumping around in the snow.

Even though he was in his wolf form, the Lead couldn't help but beam at the sight of his daughter acting like the Alpha she was. She soon darted past him, pouncing onto the squirrel and holding it down with her paws. She then held its head in between her jaws, turning it until its neck snapped. She turned around and walked back towards the others, who congratulated her.

. “Atta girl, Crescent. Using the good old run and gun tactic.”, Nicky said.

“Thank you, Miss Nicky. I'm glad I have a mentor like you to show me the ropes.”

“Aw, stop it. You're being too kind.”

“She's got a point,” Quetzal put in. “You're as good at teaching hunting skills as I am at teaching things about medicine and intelligence.”

“Ok, now you guys are making me blush. You're too sweet.”

“Alright, girls. We have to keep moving if we want to get back to the cave early.”

“Yes, Alpha. Sorry.”

Ember turned his head forward, continuing down the path they were going currently. A small pond came into view, and it was as quiet as most large areas were during the winter. The water’s surface looked like a mirror, shiny and clear as the sun had melted the first few layers of thin ice. The Lead stepped out to the bank, laying a paw down onto the ice. It cracked beneath it, and he felt the cold water lap around the bottom of his paw. He gestured for the others to come over, then lowered his head to take a drink. They all quickly transformed.

Speckle, as usual, had to be the adventurous one, and she jumped into the pond, splashing those that were nearby. Her head popped above the surface, and she swam back to shore, shaking herself dry. Sirena shielded her face with a wing as the cold droplets flew through the air. “Geez, Speckle. I know you're the morning swimmer type, but I didn't think it'd go this far.”, she muttered.

“What can I say? It wakes me up.”

“I can tell.”

The others simply ignored the unicorn and kept with their task of taking in as much water as they could, as this was one of the few water sources nearby. Once they finished, they changed back and started on their way down the path they had came from. Just outside of the cave entrance, Firefly paused before transforming and outputting an idea she had. “Hey guys, I just thought of something. It's going to be the beginning of spring sometime next week, right? So how come we haven't done a snowball fight yet?”

The others glanced at each other, trying to come up with a reasonable answer but failing.

“Well, Firefly. A lot of things have been happening these past few months. I guess it just slipped our minds.”, Ember finally said after a few seconds of silence.

“I know. Maybe it can help get out some of the stress we've been having. I know it'll help me for sure.”

The Lead shot a quick glance to Quetzal, who simply shrugged. “Does everyone agree on this idea?” A series of yes’s and nods answered him. “Alright then. Let's play, shall we?”

Three walls of tightly packed snow stood in a widely placed square in the middle of the clearing. The group of 12 were split up like this: Ember, Quetzal, Nicky and Crescent were behind one wall, Speckle, Mark, Limelight and Dust were behind the second wall, and Sirena, Firefly, Collin and Mist were behind the last wall. Each of them had a pile of snowballs beside them, ready to be fired.

Ember poked his head over his wall to lay down the rules. “Ok, everyone. The first team to still have players behind their wall wins. You get hit three times, you're out. Unicorns, no using your magic to cast spells to make the snowballs explode; that applies to you especially, Speckle. You're only using it to throw snowballs and make them if you run out. Pegasi, no flying over your wall and air striking others. Oh, and please don't throw too hard. We've got little ones.”

The four young ones instantly looked at him, annoyed expressions across their faces.

“So we’re good? Great. Quetzal, if you could do the honors?”

The dragon hybrid nodded and her horns glowed, a large ram horn suddenly appeared out of thin air. She brought the end of the horn to her lips, blowing into it. A loud, long note rang out, signaling the start of the fight.

Snowballs flew through the air, landing in many different places. Each team held strong, ducking and dodging when necessary. Soon though, hits were landed, taking out a member from each team, and they went to go stand on the sidelines, watching as those that remained continued to fire at each other with the hard white orbs. The teams whittled down until Ember, Nicky, Collin and Sirena were the only ones still standing. Both pairs weren't going down without a fight, and they showed it in their well placed shots. The earth ponies ducked behind their wall as snowballs rained down over their heads.

Nicky leaned over quickly and whispered in the Lead’s ear. He ran the idea through his head for a few seconds, then smiled wickedly and nodded. They worked together to place a rock inside of a fairly large snowball, Ember peeking his head over to see where the pegasi were. When he didn't see them, he proceeded to get the loaded snowball and threw it over, yelling “INCOMING!” as it flew through the air.

Apparently, Sirena was telling Collin something herself, and by the time the dark blue pegasus could react and shield himself, the rock filled snowball crashed onto his head, stunning him and making him dizzy.

“Well put pine needles in my fur and call me a porcupine…” he said all drawled out before slumping over.

Sirena looked shocked for a second, then her eyes turned red with anger and she stepped out from behind the wall. She heard the laughter coming from behind the other wall. The other pair peeked over a few seconds later, their faces becoming pale once they saw her expression. Ember gulped nervously, starting to go towards her to go check on Collin, but her ears flattened and she growled at him.

“What was that for? First you hit him, now this! What did he do to you?”

No words came from the red stallion, he stood frozen in place. Quetzal in the meantime had taken the liberty of checking on Collin herself, relieved to find that he didn't have any major damage to his head, just a small bump had rose from the impact. He stirred a few minutes later, trying to regain his senses. He sat up slowly, looking over at scene in front of him. “W-what happened?”, he asked sluggishly, catching the attention of Sirena. Her eyes faded back to magenta as she came up to him, gently grasping one of his front hooves. He looked at her stomach, reaching out with his other hoof and placing it against it.

“I'm going to be a father.”, he murmured softly, mostly to himself.

She nodded, placing her hoof on top of his. Ember still stood in place, only moving when he saw the exchange. His stomach churned, as if he was nauseous, but there was no reason for it. He turned around and walked off, his face downcast for more reasons than he could count.