"Starlight Glimmer?" Silica echoed.

"Umm, yes, that's me," Starlight Glimmer replied with uncertainty.

Where am I? What happened? How long was I out? Where are Spike and Rarity? Wh--

The confused thoughts were like a tidal wave engulfing the unicorn. Starlight felt as if she had just woken up from the longest slumber of her life, a deep sleep filled with bizarre dreams and nightmares that cycled endlessly through her mind. She remembered the trek into the crystalline cave. She remembered Spike's startling sneeze. She remembered dangling over a bottomless pit. She remembered the sheer terror that had been the last thing on her mind before everything went black. Had she somehow survived the fall? Or was this just another dream?

"How did you get down here?" Silica asked.

"I... I came down into the caves with a few friends," Starlight replied frantically. "We were mining for crystals, and then I fell, and then I must have dozed off, and then I somehow ended up here in--"

"What did your friends look like?" Silica cocked her head with curiosity.

"Well," Starlight began as she scratched her head, "Rarity is a white unicorn with a purple mane. Her cutie mark has three diamonds. And Spike is a baby dragon."

Silica gasped.

"A baby dragon?!?"

"Umm, yeah..." Starlight looked off to the side nervously.

"Huh. I've never met a dragon before. I've always thought they were way down south, where they say the winter dares not reach."

"You've never seen a dragon before?"

"Never in my life," said Silica. "Nor have I met this 'Rarity,' either. Where did you come from?"

"Oh, we were sent from the Crystal Empire."

Silica's eyebrows furrowed.

"The Crystal Empire? Umm, you OK? The Crystal Empire has been gone since before I was born."

Since before she was born? What the--?

"W-what do you mean, it's 'gone'?" Starlight frowned. "H-how long have I been down here?"

"Beats me," Silica said with a shrug. "I only just found you."

"What... what year is it?" Starlight stammered again.

"35, Lunar Era."See footnote A

Starlight's pupils grew and she shivered nervously.

35, Lunar Era? But that means--

"You OK, Starlight?"

"No... no!" the unicorn shouted. "I'm NOT OK! This... this can't be! This must just be a horrible dream, right? Or I'm dead. None of this is real. You aren't real, Silicon."

"Silica," the earth pony corrected with a concerned frown. "And, well, yeah, it's 35 LE. What year was it when you got stuck down here?"

"5 LE..." Starlight whispered.

30 years?!?

"That's 30 years!" Silica exclaimed, as if she had just read Starlight's mind.

Tears began to fill Starlight's eyes for the first time in decades, and she collapsed on the stony cave floor. 30 years had passed, and even though Starlight was with this mysterious earth pony down in the cave, she had never felt so alone before. Her friends had probably been worried sick and eventually given up when they weren't able to find the comatose unicorn in the subterranean depths. Were they OK? Had her mentor, Twilight, forgotten about her? Where was Sunburst?

Silica sat down next to Starlight and offered half of her coat to the bawling unicorn.

"Relax, Starlight Glimmer," said Silica in a low voice. "I can take you back to my place, if you like. It's a wee bit rustic... but it's warm and cozy. I've lived my entire life in that cabin. My family might even let you stay a while."

"Would you... really do that, stranger?" Starlight whimpered.

"Of course!" Silica beamed. "We love travelers. Ponies from all over Equestria travel through the Northern Wastes and pass by our little trading post. They're welcome to stay a night or two in the guest room if the blizzards are really bad. Such is life after the disaster before I was born."

Starlight stared curiously at the earth pony.

"Disaster?" Starlight asked slowly. "What disaster?"

"Oh, that's right," replied Silica with a facehoof. "You've been frozen since before then, right?"

"You're telling me. So what all happened?"

Silica got up and motioned with a hoof for Starlight to do the same.

"I can tell you about it on the walk back to my place."

Starlight grunted and struggled to get up.

"Come on, Starlight," said Silica. "We've got to get going. I've already been down here for hours and I really need to get back before dark."

"I'm trying!" Starlight snapped. "These legs haven't moved for 30 years, you know."

"Sorry," Silica replied with a downtrodden sigh. "I would just rather us not get stuck in a blizzard as soon as we get out of the cave."

The two ponies got the mining equipment together in Silica's pack and began the trek back up to the surface...

"AHHHHH!!!"

Starlight let out a shriek as soon as the two ponies finally got out of the cave. It was getting dark and a furious blizzard was raging across the northern plains. The unicorn's shriek was drowned out by the howling wind, and she huddled close to Silica under the earth pony's warm winter coat as they began the long walk back to the Pumice home.

"Relax, sis," said Silica. "Never been in a blizzard before, even before the disaster?"

"Well, I've been in snowstorms before, but this? How in Equestria do you ponies deal with this? Why can't the pegasi just clear up the sky?

"Ahh," Silica muttered. "I suppose I should tell you about the disaster. That should clear things up."

"I'm all ears. Well, they're kinda frozen, but you know what I mean."

Silica chuckled a bit and began to tell the story of what had transpired almost 30 years ago, based on a combination of oral tradition and what she had learned in the community school as a filly.

"It all started before I was born. This really evil dude called the Blizzard King showed up from the Storm Kingdom far to the south of Equestria and waged war on the capital city of Canterlot. The heroes of old and the princesses there fought a long battle and eventually lost. The good pony folk were thrown out of the city and the Blizzard King took the magic of the princesses so that he could 1. send them off to the sun and the moon, and 2. shroud the land in an everlasting winter."

"What about the Crystal Empire?" Starlight asked with a look of horror strung across her face.

"Ah, yes. So the Crystal Empire was the last stronghold of the good ponies. They managed to live in a fragile state of peace for a few years, but it wasn't long before the Blizzard King was able to remove the city's defenses and break in. You ever hear about the changelings?"

"Of course. I used to be good friends with one of them. Their king, in fact."

Silica stopped in the snow abruptly.

"You knew their KING?!?"

"Yes," said Starlight. "King Thorax."

"Some of the good changelings rejoined their evil counterparts," Silica continued as she started walking again. "They joined forces with the Blizzard King in exchange for keeping their land free of snow. So, long story short, changeling spies snuck into the Crystal Empire and created an opening for the Blizzard King to take over. The remaining princesses and heroes went missing, and nopony knows what happened to them. The Crystal Empire was torn to pieces by that monster, the Blizzard King, and now hardly any of it remains. Now, the good ponies who are left live in small communities across the frozen frontier, or if they're wealthy, one of the cities like Canterlot."

"That's a lot to take in," Starlight remarked with a frown. "Everything that I grew up with is gone now."

"So... tell me about yourself, Starlight Glimmer. Where were you from before you got stuck in the cave? The Crystal Empire?"

"Oh, I'm from a little town in the middle of nowhere. Moved around a bit, got in some trouble, and then finally settled down in Ponyville with some good ponies who helped me grow from the horrible mare I used to be."

"Ponyville, eh?" Silica remarked. "Isn't that the town with the crystal castle? Where all the old heroes used to live?"

"Yeah, that's the place," Starlight said with a nod. "And those very heroes were good friends of mine. Very good friends. I hate knowing now that they must have gone missing..."

Silica stopped in the snow again and turned to Starlight with her jaw dropped open.

"Wait... SAY WHAT?!?" Silica exclaimed, even louder than the howling wind. "You were FRIENDS with those ponies?"

Starlight couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"That's right. The six bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

Silica almost fainted.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! That's so cool!"

"That's right, Silica," Starlight grinned a little. "Remember how I mentioned the name 'Rarity' when I woke up?"

Silica nodded.

"She was with me when I got lost. And Princess Twilight's assistant Spike, a baby dragon, was also there."

"I wonder if they went looking for you."

"Probably," said Starlight as her ears drooped in sadness and the pair began walking again. "But I was so far down that there was no way they could find me."

The pair walked on in relative silence. The blizzard was beating down on the plains as hard as ever, but the ponies pressed on. It continued to get darker and darker, to the point where all the pair had to light the way was the lamp on Silica's hard hat, which she had turned back on when she realized the duo wasn't going to return home until after dark.

And then the light flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

And then it shut off for good.

"Ugh!" Starlight cried out, frantically searching for her partner somewhere beside her. "We're not gonna get stuck out here, are we?"

"Starlight, you're a unicorn. Can't you use your horn as a lamp?"

The pair fell silent for a moment. Starlight focused her magic from her horn and soon a glow began to envelope the space around the two ponies.

"Sorry," Starlight said with a frown.

Silica giggled a little and the group continued on through the ever-deepening sea of snow. Starlight's horn wasn't too bright, but it was enough to shine about as far as five pony lengths into the fog. The snowfall quickened and the wind crashed harder than ever into the winter coat wrapped around the duo. Starlight couldn't help but shiver with every step she took. Her hooves were almost completely numb and if it weren't for the coat wrapped around her--as well as Silica's body heat--her legs would have gone numb, too.

How does this pony not complain? thought Starlight. How does she even survive?!? It's cold as Tartarus out here.

"How much longer, Silica?"

Please say 'soon.'

"As long as it decides to take, Starlight Glimmer. So probably a while."

I knew it.

"How can you handle this?"

"Aww, my little filly," Silica replied in a childish tone. "You can't handle a wee bit of cold? Even though you've been frozen? Well, guess what? Mommy's not always gonna be there to give you a blanket. You're lucky I'm even sharing this coat with you."

"Sorry, didn't mean to upset you..." said Starlight.

"Meh. I guess I'm forgetting that you've been gone for 30 years."

The pair fell silent for a few seconds, before Silica continued.

"No offense."

"None taken," Starlight replied, rolling her eyes.

The two mares continued walking over snowdrift after snowdrift, sinking a few inches further into the snow with each and every hoofstep. The wind died down a bit, but the fog was still a curtain around the vast landscape. And before Starlight Glimmer knew it, a short wooden fence emerged through the fog ahead.

"See?" exclaimed Silica as she climbed over the fence in unison with her unicorn companion. "We made it."

The pair walked forward a few more paces before finally reaching a log cabin situated comfortably in the middle of the snowy field. It was a modest-looking cabin, but certainly not a tiny one. The home was about two stories tall. It was capped with a triangular roof coated completely with snow and surrounded on the edges by sharp-looking icicles that pointed down toward the sea of whiteness which enclosed the four walls of the abode.

A sign above the plain red front door read "Pumice Fine Gems & Jewelry." Silica knocked a few times and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal a bluish gray earth pony who looked to be middle-aged. The pony had light green eyes and both a mane and tail as gray as most of Silica's body.

"Silica!" the mare inside cried out. "Where in Equestria were you? And who's the stranger?"

"Mom, this is Starlight Glimmer. I found her trapped in the caves and offered to bring her back here. There's nopony sleeping in the guest room, is there?"

"Starlight Glimmer, eh?" Silica's mother muttered with a frown. "Come in."

Starlight and Silica trudged inside as the door shut behind them, careful to stamp on the mat in front of the door in order to keep from tracking snow into the house. The front room was neat and tidy; a smooth hard wood floor shined as if it had just been mopped clean. Rustic-looking furniture--some of which was oddly made of stone--covered the room.

"Starlight Glimmer, Starlight Glimmer," Silica's mother muttered to herself before turning to the pinkish unicorn. "Your name has a familiar ring to it. But it's strange. I don't seem to remember meeting you."

"Starlight," Silica butted in. "This is my mom, Limestone Pie."

Starlight gasped, her pupils dilating.

"Limestone... Pie?" Starlight asked slowly. "Pie? Wait a minute..."

"Is there a problem, Starlight Glimmer?" the older-looking mare asked with a frown.

"Do you happen to have sisters named Pinkie and Maud?" Starlight asked with a puzzled expression.

Limestone Pie gasped.

"Pinkie? Maud? How do you know...?"

"I was good friends with them. Before I was frozen in a cave and the disaster hit."

"Wait, wait, wait," Silica interrupted, turning to Limestone and Starlight, who stood face to face. "Starlight? You knew Aunt Maud? But who's this Pinkie...? Wait..."

Limestone Pie sighed and looked into her daughter's yellowish eyes with a hint of sadness.

"Silica--" Limestone began with a gulp, "--and Starlight, please take a seat on the couch. We have a lot to talk about."

Author's Note

Footnotes:

A. The Lunar Era refers to how many years have passed since the return and reformation of Nightmare Moon.