A Winter's Tale

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six

Chapter One

In the cloudy mountain ranges of Pegalopse, the pegasus nation, there was a bustle of ponies shoring up the walls and buildings as the winter storms were starting to pick up again. Across the small district of Cloudsdales, a subset of the pegasi military junta headed by General Hurricane were busy taking in the resources gathered by the various sky captains who had visited the Earth Pony Free Democratic Republic and Unicornia, the kingdom of the unicorns.

Most of these resources were, of course, gathered by legitimate means as anything else would test the fragile peace between the three nations. As the various ships unloaded their wares to the direction of the harbourmaster to clean military standards, there was a ship moored in the furthest corner as if to say that if the ship was not seen, it did not exist. However, the Luster did exist and their captain saw to it that his crew worked to the standard expected by any citizen of General Hurricane’s nation despite the looks of contempt by the other crews. As a privateer, Pansy was used to this treatment but he did his best not to let it get to him.

As he trusted his crew implicitly to do their job without any issue, he made his way towards the harbourmaster office when Captain Narrow, Captain Straight and Captain Clear appeared from the crowd and Pansy groaned internally. He had hoped to avoid them entirely this time but those three had clearly spotted Luster when he had brought her in and made it their business to make his visit unpleasant.

“Hey, this is for official military vessels,” Captain Narrow said with the other two captains grinning on either side of him. “You will need to move to the civilian areas down below.”

With another internal sigh, Pansy flashed him a controlled polite look and told him, “You are fully aware that I am a captain, just like the rest of you-”

“Odd,” Straight said as he leaned into Pansy’s face with Clear preventing Pansy from moving away. “I didn’t know military captains had marks on their forehead.” With Pansy pinned, Straight tossed his hat to the floor and Narrow pushed his light yellow mane away, showing the branded P on his head.

With juvenile laughter, they knocked him to the ground and Straight placed a hoof on his back, pinning him the ground. “You might have been pardoned, but you’re still just a pirate, Pansy,” Narrow said, leaning into his face as Clear stepped onto his hat, flattening the crown to the base. “Don’t forget it and your place, Pansy.” Seething with anger, Pansy kept his mouth shut while they laughed to themselves again. They were walking away when Pansy drew himself upright and muttered something under his breath that the trio actually seemed to hear.

“What was that, pirate,” Clear spat at him, glaring furiously at the younger stallion.

“Nothing,” Pansy began as he tried to put his hat on when Clear threw him against the wall, sneering. Glaring back at him, he said, “Just that it is pitiful that you need three to beat me up.”

Pansy was fully aware that they would not let this pass and that no pony would bother to aid him, even in support of these three due to his past life, but sometimes things were just worth getting a beating.

Cookie stumbled as the stallion punched her, but she did not fall down. There was too much money riding on this for her to fall now, especially this early on.

Spitting out the blood, she ducked low and jabbed at his gut. It was like punching a stone wall but she had too much riding on this to flinch, to drop out now. She had just a few more rounds to go before and she knew that she could-

“What’s wrong, princess,” Crusted Pie chuckled at her, causing her coat to bristle with the crowd jeering. “Getting tired, princess?”

Snarling, Cookie launched herself at him, delivering blow after blow into his face before she spun around and bucked him in his chest, knocking him to the floor. “What was that, Crusted Pie?” she shouted at him, standing on his chest. “Are you getting tired, huh? Huh‽”

Cookie felt herself being lifted and pulled off of Crusted Pie with the crowd booing and jeering at the results of the bout. Struggling and fighting as she was carried into the backroom of the underground fighting arena, Cookie let out a grunt when she was dumped onto the ground in front of Bit Counter.

“Cookie, Cookie, Cookie,” Bit Counter said in a condescending tone, sitting behind his table and counting his profit. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Screw off,” Cookie snarled at him as she pushed herself upright and began to dust herself off. “I did the fight and I won.”

“Yes, you did but you were suppose to lose in the fourth round,” Bit Counter said with a glare. “Not win in the second round.”

Cookie snorted and shook her head. “Just give me my winnings, alright?”

Bit Counter just gave her a look before shaking his head and tossed her some money, not the full promised amount of course. Grumbling loudly as she grabbed her saddlebag, she stuffed her winnings into her money purse and made her way back into the main section of the arena before slipping through the crowds and finally out of the building.

Pulling her scarf tighter around her neck, she began to walk through the town towards her home, pausing in front of a statue of Puddinghead in the center of the wide street and glaring hatefully at it. Leaning backwards, she spat onto it before storming off to get out of the cold.

Clover scanned the pages of her book, using her yellow magic to turn the next page.

“Clover!” Fine Fit suddenly shouted, getting her attention. Jumping from her chair, Clover hurried over to where the voice had come from.

“Yes, sir?” she asked.

“Are the shoes done?” Fine Fit demanded, causing Clover to wince a bit before her ears shot upwards.

“Yes, sir, they are done!” she said proudly, puffing out her chest before bringing them in front of her boss. “See?”

“Yes, Clover, I do,” he said with an annoyed snort. “Did you also happen to forget that they were supposed to be delivered today as well?”

“Eep,” Clover squeaked as she ran off and went to grab the shoes so she could deliver them, only for Fine Fit to slap a wall of magic in front of her.

“Don’t bother, Clover,” Fine Fit said tiredly. “Shoe Sparkle, go give this to her majesty and inform her that the incompetent cobbler that delayed her Majesty’s order has been fired for the delay.”

“But sir,” Clover began only for Fine Fit to glare at her.

“Go and don’t come back,” he said, pointing his hoof to the door. Clover hung her head low, gathered her stuff and made her way out of the shop, doing her best not to tear up. This had been another failed attempt, and as she looked back at her bare flank, she wondered if she’d ever earn her mark.

She was so caught up in her own misery that she didn't see the pony that she walked into. With a squeak, Clover and the other pony were knocked to the ground, both of their belongings scattered to the floor. Muttering her apologies, Clover began stuffing her things into her saddlebags again. Once she’d gotten everything, she hurried out of the building and onto the cold streets again.

Snöflinga dove and leaned into the wind, doing his best to push himself forwards in his spöklik form. It was late, and he knew that he would be trouble when he got home but he just had to see the airships. He had hidden near the pony’s mountain and watched them come in for hours.

It was just awe-inspiring to see how much they had invented and created; Snöflinga had wished his own had taken the initiative and adopted some of their advances but it was not their way. Windigos had been migratory creatures and that is how it would always be. That was the wishes of the elders and the chieftain, and his father would never break from tradition, nor would he listen to Snöflinga’s ideas as the fourth son born. He would inherit nothing due to his position in succession, not with his older brothers with their mates and children, pushing him further down the line.

And yet he was still expected to be the perfect chieftain's son; to stand by his father and brothers during tribal meetings, even though he knew his voice would never be called for debate or council. None would address him save only to lecture him for what they viewed as his unbecoming behaviour concerning the ponies or unorthodox ideas about trying to adapt to become like the ponies. Or anything to do with the ponies that did not involve feeding off of their negativity.

Snöflinga let out a sigh as he spotted his clan’s tents, the meeting already underway with his brother Snöstorm glaring up at him, telling Snöflinga that tonight would be another one of those nights where he’d be asked why his five season old nephew knew better than him.

With another sigh, he headed for the tents, not looking forward to this latest lecture at all.

Chapter Two

“You’re late, Captain Pansy,” harbourmaster Fair Winds said as he went through the logbooks from the other merchant captains; there was a long list of airships to check in today and a serious need to go through their manifests carefully as to prevent anypony smuggling anything into the nation as the winter weather progressed. The food that the dirt lickers from the southeast had sent was to the letter but the usual excess and abundance in trade were on a subtle decline. If what the other harbourmasters had reported was accurate, and there was no reason to suspect them of falsifying documents to him, then the overall import of food was going to get pricier to the point where even the most basic foodstuffs were going to become luxuries sooner than later. Hence why he had moved to a house located on the mountainside to begin digging out a more secure cellar to store his food.

“I am aware, sir,” Pansy spoke to him with a slight rasp to his voice. Flicking his eyes up to Pansy, Fair Winds could see that he had been in another fight. The young stallion had the beginnings of a black eye with other bruises starting to form over his coat, his lip was torn and providing the rasp. His uniform was scuffed and torn in places and his hat was squashed in from the brawl he’d found himself in. “You have my apologies, sir.” Pansy stated as professionally as he could, taking his logbook out from his captain’s jacket inner pocket and placing it on the table. “You will find everything you need here, sir.”

Fair Winds stared at the papers for a moment before turning his attention back to Pansy and decided to have a bit of fun with him. Pansy was such a stickler for the rules despite being a former free pirate, although he technically still was a pirate, that he could trust the colt to be on the level but that same adherence for the rules could really make him squirm. “Tell me, Pansy, what was so important that you decided to be late.”

Pansy predictably squirmed, his ears flicking to the side as he tried to figure out how to say something that wouldn’t cause him trouble yet report what had happened at the same time. He shuffled on the spot and was about to speak when some sort of commotion outside caused Fair Winds to raise a hoof to halt Pansy. Turning his attention to the door, he was about to call out to his adjutant when it opened up and General Hurricane himself stepped into the office.

The General was a towering stallion covered in pegasus silver forged armour that held the fabled Spear of the Storms, muscles clearly defined under his golden coat. His black mane was cut to perfect precision, his feathers oiled to military perfection, and he presented a flawless smile on a face that had managed to remain untouched in the countless battles the stallion had been in against the beakcats save for a dignified scar across the snout, the General seemed to be taking in his entire office, and thus him, as if they were old friends. Of course, that wasn’t the case and the General must be here for some reason, and he would skin Pansy if he had ruined things by appearing like the mangy dog he was.

“Sir, it is an honour to have you he-” he began, snapping a proper salute to him - annoyingly Pansy had been quicker and somehow stiffer despite being roughened up.

“Harbourmaster Fair Winds, I need to speak to Captain Pansy,” the General said, cutting off any chance for Breeze to protest. “I will leave you to your work; by the amount of logbooks you have here for the winter season, you will need all the time available to properly archive what was brought in.”

“Yes sir, right away sir,” Fair Winds replied, snapping a salute to the General as the two left the office. Pansy stared up at the stallion who was still smiling broadly as they walked out the doorway, only for it to drop when the door closed behind them, Hurricane grabbing Pansy by the muzzle and examining his bruises for a moment before letting go. He then waved forwards an aide that had the General’s cutie mark, a lightning bolt splitting open a cloud, on their breastplate.

“Have a team investigate Fair Winds; these marks are still swelling which means that they cannot be older than thirty minutes. Any Harbourmaster that can be aware of this and not take action must be a part of the problem.”

“Sir, I-” Pansy began to protest only for the General to silence him with a look.

“Do not try to protect them or dismiss this, captain,” the General told him. “We are a strong nation because we have rules of law and we must be forever vigilant to smother the seeds of corruption before it grows into an inseparable grove of vines bringing us down to the mud.”

“Yes sir,” Pansy replied, feeling a sense of pride from this stallion's wise words. They were taking a slow walk along the harbour with the General's bodyguards keeping public a wide breadth away. “What might I do for you, sir?”

“The Luster, that is your ship, correct?” the General asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes sir,” Pansy answered with a smile on his face. “It has been in my family for several generations.”

“Yes, I am aware,” the General said with a huff. “It is a quick and nimble ship, unlike my own Stormbringer.” With a tilt of his head, Pansy stared at the massive military flagship that was docking, with its rows upon rows of cannons aimed and polished to blinding gleam. On her decks were the elites of the military, each hoofpicked by the General himself. He could spot a few of the other legendary pegasi that had served with the General back in the war with the beakcats; the bloodthirsty Zephyr Gale flicked his pink mane behind his yellow-coated ears as he ran his close combat knife over a whetstone, the green-coated Dust Shatter was talking to a grey mare with his sword over his shoulder and on the crowsnest was Thunderbreak, the last of the legendary Blood Rain squad. They were named as such for when the four fought together, all that would remain was blood.

The General himself more than likely had more names in the beakcats’ lands; he was the one that had ended the war between the two nations after the string of defeats from the Pegalopsians. No matter what had happened, the pegasi simply could not win until the General, a mere captain at the time, had started to lead the fight. Every fight he led, the Pegalopsians had begun to win and push back. With each victory under his belt, the General had risen in rank and popularity until he’d gained the rank of general and eventually was able to get the war to a standstill, with some negotiations between the General and Glaucus, the beakcat leader that had also risen in power and fame during the war. After his successes, the public had finally ousted the old and ineffective monarchy and installed him as their leader.

Turning his head back to pay attention to where they were going, Pansy could spot the Lusterand felt a swell of pride in his chest. His crew was busy at work unloading the loot they had pilfered from the griffons. Even though they had made peace with the beakcats, it was more of a truce as both of their nations were always itchy for some reason to go to war.

“Permission to come aboard, Captain Pansy?” the General asked him as they stood in front of the gangplank.

“Yes sir,” he snapped a salute to the General before he walked up onto his ship.

“Hey Pansy, that was quick,” Salty Mist, his first mate, said with a smile as he paused from directing the rest of the crew from their work, although it seemed that it was highly unneeded as Wave Crust, Guiding Point, Soft Spray and Far Sight were working efficiency on their own. “Is ever-what happened? Do I need to get Tsunami up here?”

Pansy winced slightly at the mention of their doctor, if that was what he actually was. Tsunami had come from the Far East several decades ago, back when his father was Captain of the ship, and provided odd remedies that actually proved more effective than the local concoctions. Tsunami at times claimed to only understand his own language but Pansy had caught him more than once following what was said perfectly.

“There’s no need to bother him,” Pansy said, shooting a wary look down the hold for the old pegasus to suddenly spring out and lecture him as if he was a colt again. “Merely got into a disagreement with… other ponies.” Pansy trailed off, not wishing to start something now.

“With who, Pansy?” Mist asked, walking over to him. “This is something that needs to stop.”

“I agree completely, Mister Mist,” the General said, causing every pony on deck to freeze. Pansy let out a sigh of relief as they didn’t just blind salute him but instead put down the stuff they were holding first before offering him a proper salute. It showed his crew had brains and were not just mindless ponies. “But knowing the pride of my captains, and his previous occupation, I doubt he will confess easily.” Pansy’s ear flicked at that comment, doing his best not to react to the remark. The General continued to look around the deck, eyeing the masts before nodding his head. “Yes, this will do just fine.”

“Sir?” Pansy asked, feeling unease at those six simple words. His feelings were proven when the General rounded on him and placed a sealed message into his hooves.

“As of now, I am requisitioning this ship,” the General said causing a murmur of surprise to run through his crew before Pansy silenced it with a look.

“I am… honoured you would chose the Luster and we will be more than glad to serve you, sir. I-”

“You are misunderstanding me here, Captain Pansy,” the General said, stepping closer. “I am in need of a ship like this one for an upcoming meeting of great importance. My Stormbringer is fast but her bulk slows her down too much. The Luster will provide the speed I need right now and I will only have a crew that I trust with my life. That,” the General said indicating the sealed scroll with the General’s cutie mark as its wax seal, “will inform you of your new ship and new orders, captain Pansy.”

Pansy felt a clamp over his heart at this news and while a thousand things raced through his mind to say to the General, the only thing he managed to ask was, “What is to become of my crew?”

The General gave him what could only be called a dirty look, as if the General was annoyed at being challenged in such a way. “They will need to find positions elsewhere; your new ship only requires the crew of one,” Hurricane said with a smug look on his face that told Pansy he had just lost any chance at hiring a crew for this new ship. “You will be given ten minutes to disembark and take whatever belongings off my ship before my personal flight crew sees to clearing out any remaining trash.”

Pansy was now gritting his teeth as he did his best not to outright punch the stallion in the face. Insulting him was one thing but his ship and his crew were another thing altogether. Still, duty came first and he bit off a “yes sir” to Hurricane who simply grinned and walked off his ship.

Pansy watched him leave for ten seconds before turning around and stalked into his private room with Mist on his hoofs. “Captain, he’s joking, right?” Mist asked as he trotted alongside of him.

“You heard him, Mist,” Pansy said in a low voice.

“But we’re not actually going to give up the ship, are we?” Mist peered over his shoulder, putting his face close to Pansy.

“We have our orders.”

“But Pansy-”

“We have our orders!” Pansy shouted, glaring at Mist. “Now go gather your stuff and be ready to shove off.” He leaned in close to the pegasus. “Do you think I wish to do this? To give my ship to that blowhard?” He snorted angrily, shaking his head. “But we’re outnumbered and outgunned. We can’t do anything if we want to live.” He flew up to a secret compartment hidden near the ceiling of his cabin as so few ever looked up, even pegasi. It was highly detailed like the rest of his ship’s paneling so there was no real indication that this section was special.

As he opened the hideaway hole, he looked at the panelling showing his family’s legacy. As a fourth generation of free pegasi, each one had engraved their life's story on these walls. It had been his greatest day when he had inherited this ship from his father and now it would be gone for good.

Taking out his belongings, he slung them into a bag before making his way out of the cabin for the last time.

Cookie pushed her way through the muck, the mud sucking her hooves in, as she made her way towards her apartment building. Grunting, she pulled the door open, it dragging on the stone floor before she managed to create enough of a gap for her to squeeze past. Stomping her hooves on the carpets to clear them of the garbage, she looked around the lobby before giving her coat a shake, splattering the walls with the grime from outside.

Smirking to herself, the gold-coated mare trotted up the stairs to her single bedroom apartment. Wincing in pain as she reached for her keys, Cookie paused and frowned as she saw her door was unlocked. There were only two ponies that would be able to enter her apartment; Marble Arrow the complex manager and…

Pushing the door open with a snort, she stared at the stallion sitting at her table. He had a simple smirk on his face. If it wasn’t for his guards standing by him, she would have given into the urge to buck him through the window for that look on his face alone.

“Ah, my dear, it is so good to see you again,” the stallion said placing down the golden inlaid teacup down her table. “It has been toolong sinc-”

“What do you want, Puddinghead,” she did her best to hold her anger in, his guards giving her a look and tilting their spears down to her.

“Come on, my dear, surely we are past such anger at this point in our lives,” he said with a grin that just made her blood boil, and by how his grin grew she could tell he was aiming for this reaction. “Is it wrong that I wish to check up on you, my dear?”

“Why, are your spies giving you crap again?” she raised an eyebrow at him, with the leader of the Earth ponies shaking his head.

“No no, they are doing their jobs just fine, Cookie, but I do like to see firsthoof for myself; part of being a leader and all.” He chuckled at her growls, which just infuriated Cookie even more for letting him getting under her skin. “While this was quite fun, it will be awhile before we can have another chat.”

“And why is that, chancellor; you’re going to get your mouth wired shut?” Cookie shot back, enjoying the annoyed look he gave her.

“While my business is none of yours, Cookie, as you are a citizen of my republic, you have the right to know that your leader has business to attend to outside of this grand and free land of ours.”

“So as you are going to be leaving, why don’t you practice that right now?” she snarked, holding the door open for him to leave. He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly put off at being unable to have the final word without looking petty. With a restrained huff, he strode out of the room with his guards following him, leaving her door open.

Tilting her head, Cookie took in the fact that Puddinghead would be gone for a while; she might finally be able to do the same. With a smile on her face, Cookie turned and closed the door behind her.

Clover pulled the cloak over her body, partly to stay warm and of course partly to hide her bare flanks. She tightened at the thought, feeling even more embarrassed than she already was. Once again, she got lost in her books and it cost her another job. Her rent was past due as it was, and she had no idea how was she was going to pay this mon-

“We said watch where you are going!” a voice shouted at her, with some unicorn’s magic creating a shield in front of her, while others overlapped and did their best to empower the first unicorn’s spell.

Yipping in surprise, Clover looked up to see several guards glaring at her in front of a rather fancy-looking palanquin. She could see that the guards had shocking spells prepared, crackling in the air and she was worried that she was about to be in severe pain when somepony called out, “What is the delay?”

Clover felt her heart sink as she saw Princess Platinum stick her head out from behind the cloth with her guards creating more complex shields around her, and the princess doing the same though she was doing colourless magic to hide her spell. “Who are you, little one?”

Despite being scared out of her mind, Colver couldn’t help but get annoyed at that comment. She knew she wasn’t the biggest of ponies but she absolutely hated being mistaken for a foal. It was very irritating and made getting jobs difficult when ponies didn’t take her seriously. “Clover, your majesty,” she said, doing her best to bow before the now slightly flustered mare. “I beg your forgiveness; I was distracted… by personal matters.”

The princess huffed as she leaned back into her palanquin. “Then learn how to deal with it without getting in my way, peasant.”

“Yes, your majest-”

“I am late as is,” she huffed with her guards pushing Clover to the side as they made their way to the castle. “Some buffoon was to make me a pair of shoes, and the idiots failed to do so on time.”

Clover gulped, now knowing that the special client she had delayed the shoes on was the princess. Ducking out of the way, she watched as the guards and palanquin passed with her mind racing in panic.

If the princess found out it was her fault, which she undoubtedly would, Platinum would come after her to make her pay for the consequences. She had to get out of the city and fast; that was for certain. Clover quickly made her way to her home.

Entering the tent behind Snöstorm, Snöflinga could see the angry glares from his father and brothers and was wondering if this would be a night to speak up or not, though it was rarely ever a night for him to talk. No one wanted to hear from the fourth son of the chieftain that had unwelcomed ideas.

“So good that you could join us, boy,” his father spat which was a clear indication that he was in serious trouble tonight. “Snöstorm, thank you for seeing him in.” His father’s tone shifted to something that was the closest to pleasant that Snöflinga had ever heard from him.

“It was no problem, chieftain,” his brother bowed his head, walking towards the open spot beside his father and Pyry, his other brother. Lumimyrsky, his third brother, was standing next to Pyry, with his nephew, Snöboll, on his side. His mother was on his father’s other side, with his brothers’ wives and Aputsiaq, Snöstorm’s oldest daughter, at the far end of the chieftain’s table. Behind them were the rest of his family, sitting on ice crafted benches, all of them giving him disappointed looks.

WIth a sheepish squeak, he quickly made his way past the scowling elders and was walking towards the back before his father extended his neck causing Snöflinga to pause. “Where do you think you are going, boy?” His father glared as sharply as he spoke. “Next to Lumimyrsky. Now.”

Snöflinga gulped, ears flattening as he moved next to Lumimyrsky, standing out even more than he would have if he had just gone to the back where he belonged. He was shorter than his brother, who had come from a different mother than him, less bulky than Pyry who had also come from another mother and less magically adept than his oldest brother whom he actuallydid share a mother with.

She was probably the only being that could actually get his father to listen to them, even after the time when she had left for unexplained reasons, only returning after several years’ absence and being immediately accepted back without any question.

Yet she rarely spoke these days and just watched everything.

“Good,” Snjóstormur, his father, said with a haughty air, looking at the elders and then at the members for their tribe on the other side of the tent. “Now we can begin properly.”

Snöflinga did his best not to wilt even more with how everywindigo was openly snickering at his father openly berating him again, instead focusing on his father’s words as the elder windigo continued speaking, his eyes on Snöflinga the entire time as if he was challenging him to interrupt. As usual, he wasn't sure if his father was expecting him to actually speak up or not; on one hoof, this was a veryimportant matter, and he expected nowindigo would appreciate him bringing up his own views, while his father would be more than likely be angered by him wasting time. But on the other hoof, if his father did actuallywant him to speak up and he didn’t, then he would feel immense guilt for failing to do so, and just knew he would be receiving looks of pity from his family for months.

“We have serious matters to deal with,” Snjóstormur said with scorn in his eyes, telling Snöflinga he had failed to meet his father’s expectations again. “As you all know, we have our migration to begin shortly.” Snöflinga flinched while his brothers and nephew all straightened their backs with pride and the rest of the tribe began to stomp the ground. “Snöstorm, you are to take your windigos and go to Unicornia for your harvesting. Pyry, go forth with your men and take them to that Earth Pony Free Democratic... whatever it is called, kingdom. Lumimyrsky, you have the pegasi in Pegalopse with your skördare.” Snöflinga watched as large portions of the gathered windigos stood up, his brothers eyeing their teams with pride. “Snöboll, you will take the elders with you as I hope I can trust your other uncle to take care of the young and old.”

That caused a stir, with windigos sharing confused and concerned looks between them, Snöboll frowning at the pronouncement. Of course, no one dared to say anything to Snjóstormur. Regardless of the insult of not even being named in this important discussion, Snöflinga felt his chest begin to loosen and a smile began to appear on his -

“I beg your pardon, chieftain,” Snöboll began, holding his head low while giving a glare towards Snöflinga. “And I do not question your decisions, of course, but the safety of the young and the old is essential and he has shown very little respect towards the proper etiquette that such a task would require, such as arriving on time.” He again bowed, his head nearly scraping against the floor. Snöflinga gave a mental snort; his nephew was treading a fine line in being deferential to the chief while at the same time arguing at his decisions to give Snöflinga this honour. “What, pray tell, kept you away from us? That was so important that you chose it over our chief's summons?”

“I was observing the pegasi,” Snöflinga replied hotly as he decided to mix truth and an excuse that might keep him out of trouble. He was about to add in a lie about watching out for their vessels when Snöboll snorted loudly with the other windigos snickering again.

“And watchingand awing them again, weren’t you?” Snöboll said, glaring slightly upwards at him, the windigo was still younger than him.

“Ye-es, but-” Snöflinga began to fire back only for Lumimyrsky to snort dismissively at him.

“You think you can do better than my windigos in keeping an eye on them or were you doing what Snöboll said and you were watching the ponies again?” his brother grinned with his fangs widening as Snöflinga started to squirm as he guessed the truth.

“So what grand ideas do you have this time?” Pyry asked acidly with the gathering beginning to break down and more windigo were openly enjoying this.

“Certainly not one of those time keepers they have,” Snöstorm snorted with more windigos laughing and Snöflinga struggling to find some way to regain control of this whole mess.

“Well boy?” Snjóstormur asked with a grin on his face but his eyes were again challenging him. “Do you have anything to say to these claims?”

Snöflinga tried to say something, anything but while his lips moved, no sound left his throat with more windigos laughing at his inability to speak this time. All save his mother, of course, who just looked pityingly at him which was even worse and made him feel even smaller.

Snorting disapprovingly, Snjóstormur silenced the room with a glare before narrowing his eyes on Snöflinga. “We will talk later boy,” his father said before flicking his eyes to his brothers and nephew. “My orders for you remain the same.”

With a bang of his hooves on the floor, the formal meeting was dissolved for the moment and servants began to bring in the food while the windigos began to mingle towards the center of the tent while Snöflinga allowed himself to be pushed backwards.

He was certain his father’s lecture would be more devastating and humiliating than usual, with Snöflinga shaming him by being unable to defend his father’s trust in him.

With a sudden burst of inspiration and clarity, Snöflinga took the distraction to slip through the tent’s flap and take off into the night in his spöklikform.

Chapter Three

Pansy let out a sigh and shook his head as he piloted the ship towards a small waystation, tapping his hoof as he waited his turn to dock.

He was stuck doing these supply runs which were barely anything in all honesty, being a crew of one. His mind drifted towards his old crew and wondered how they were doing in their other ships. He thought of old Tusinima, wondering how he was handling the change at being at someone else’s command and winced at the fighting that would come from the Far Eastern pegasus having to adjust to proper military procedures.

Despite being lectured by the old coot, he was still family in a manner of speaking and his father hadasked him to watch over him. And not only was the older pegasus long gone but so was the Luster, something that still made Pansy furious.

He was a Free pony, a fourth generation captain, and to have that blowhardHurricane come along and reduce him to this... it was enough to grind his gizzard, to use a beakcat expression.

Still, he had his honour and he would follow the orders he was given. He wasn’t one of those Pegasolopians who would abuse their system for their own gains or bully others to rise in ranks. Truth be told, despite the cloud city being the ancestral home of all pegasi, he’d never liked it because of it being sullied by those who had no trust, compassion or love for their fellow pegasi.

At that moment, one of the waystation attendants signalled to him, and he moved his ship in to dock. Time to focus on work again as the attendants hoofed the lines over towards him so he could tie his ship off, then waited for the attendants to start the unloading of his ship only for them not to do anything.

“Well?” he called out to them, staring at the Earth Ponies and unicorns with a frown on his face.

“Well what?” one shot back giving him a frown. “We just dock you up; you’ve got to unload your stuff!”

“And make it quick; we’ve got more than yours to dock!” the unicorn snapped with Pansy’s eyes widening and started to fidget on his hooves uncomfortably.

“Isn’t there a team or something that can do this?” he asked, looking over the railing with an uneasy look at the wooden deck and the ground.

“Why, ya got some sort of problem?” the Earth Pony said with a grin on his face.

“Yeah, what’s the issue, Captain?” the other pony snarked, bristling Pany’s coat.

Pansy was about to fire back himself when another a voice spoke up. “He’sclearly a Free Pegasus,” a mare wearing a cloak said, standing on the edge of the dock. Despite sounding like a mare, she looked small enough to pass for a foal so he guessed that she had to be a unicorn. “And from what I’ve read, Free Pegasi don’t evertouch the ground because they view it as sacrilegious.”

“Sounds like an excuse for them to be lazy plotholes,” the Earth Pony snapped at the mare, causing her to flinch and angering Pansy more.

His partner turned back to face Pansy and, sneering, added, “Either you get your stuff off or we’ll have to send you off.” He then glared at the small unicorn too, who had pushed her hood back to reveal a purplish-furred head with a mane that appeared to be a mix of purple, blue, and turquoise, and had a horn sticking out. “You going to help him, shrimp?”

She was backing up before she bumped into a taller mare who was giving the stallion a glare. “Of course she’s not, Iam,” she said, walking past the small mare and shoving her snout into the stallion before looking up at Pansy. “Right boss?”

Pansy barely hid back a smirk before he nodded his head. “They’re with me,” he said, moving to the gangplank to let the taller, light gold-coated mare board with the smaller pony scrambling past her onto his dock, and tilted his head towards the hold for the Earth pony, who went to grab the first load of cargo while the small unicorn lit her horn to grab several other boxes. Working in tandem, the two mares were soon finished unloading, and Pansy was able to get a receipt from the attendants.

Once that was done, he nodded to the two mares. “Coming?”

The two exchanged glances, then walked aboard once more. Retracting the gangplank and closing the hatch, Pansy returned to the front of the ship and lifted off, heading on his way.

Once he was certain they were safely out of the way of further traffic and wouldn’t risk a collision, he turned back towards the pair, who’d been standing quietly off to one side. “Thank you, so much, for helping like you did,” he said.

“Like she said, you’re a Free Pegasus,” the Earth Pony said with a roll of her eyes. “Your kind views the air and clouds and your airships as the only means to live and touching the ground would mean shame and banishment from the Free Pegasus community.” Pansy nodded his head at this, though it was not as big an issue due to there being no Free Pegasi around but the point remained. “Though I don’t know how you could tell.” She directed this at the unicorn who gulped before speaking.

“I read a lot,” she said with a bit of hesitation. “Including about the other nations. I… recognized the behavior. And your appearance. Your bangs are done in their style although they are shorter than normal, and your jacket is like theirs.” The mare walked towards him, using her magic to inspect him by lifting his mane before gasping with Pansy angrily stepping towards her.

“Is that a brand on your forehead?” the Earth Pony asked as she walked towards him, causing the unicorn to dance out of the way. “I thought only pirates got them, not Free Pegasi.” Pansy snorted, angrily flapping his wings before pointedly reminding them they were on his ship. “Your ship or not-”

“It’s former pirate,” Pansy snapped gruffly. “I was pardoned.” He was about to add something under his breath, when he was interrupted.

“So you’re a privateer then,” the Earth Pony said snorted. “Big difference.”

“Former privateer,” Pansy reluctantly admitted. “Just a merchant captain now.” He spat angrily on the deck. “The general took my ship and fired my crew… barely left me with any self-respect as it is.”

The other two mares looked startled at this, and finally one of them spoke.

“That does explain the dreary state of this ship,” the unicorn said timidly.

“You’re right,” the Earth pony tipped her head in agreement. “A true Free Pegasus ship would be better than… this!”

While he could not agree with her more, he was still the captain of this ship. “You’re both very free with your opinions when you’ve yet to give me reason why should keep you aboard my ship.”

“Beyond the fact that as a merchant captain, as you put it, you’ll need somepony to actually move things around so you won’t get your hooves dirty, captain,” the Earth pony said acidly.

He glared hard back at her, with the unicorn trying to separate the two of them before he heard some snickering. He looked at the Earth pony, whose face he was nearly in, eyes wide before she gave him a tiny bit of a nod to show she heard it too.

Flicking his eyes upwards to the crow’s nest, he saw the Earth pony doing the same, and the unicorn tilting her head at their sudden shift in behavior.

“Is something-” she started to say, when Pansy raised a hoof and waved it upward, causing the unicorn to lift her eyes, now widening, in that direction as well.

The laughter halted and Pansy could feel the stillness of somepony trying to be quiet. Pansy jerked his head to the base of the mast for the Earth pony, holding out his wing to tell her to wait. She frowned, but took the hint.

He knew that sooner rather than later, curiosity would overtake the stowaway and- he heard the scuffle of hooves above him and then dropped his wing as a flag. Seeing her cue, the Earth pony spun around and bucked the mast hard enough for the entire deck to rock. With a yelp, a white blur fell from the crow’s nest before a cold gust of air blasted across his face and a pile of fur and limbs was before him.

All three of them gasped at what was pulling itself together with a groan. Despite it looking like one of them, it was clearly not a pony - it was far longer and slimmer in body, leg and face. Each of them could feel the magical difference between them and it as well as the predatory fear that existed even though it was barely the height of Pansy’s chin as it stood upright.

Only for the unicorn’s magic to form around its hooves to keep it in place, causing the Earth pony to raise an eyebrow as she stopped midway from knocking it over.

“What are you doing on my ship, windigo,” Pansy demanded, doing his best best to force out any emotion in his mind, knowing that was how these creatures took over unsuspecting ponies.

The windigo’s eyes widened and its mouth opened but incredibly enough, it was actually stuttering like a normal pony would. It was apparently trying to beg for mercy but clearly was unable to form the words with frustration obvious on its face.

“Windigo, stop and breathe,” the Earth pony barked, causing the windigo to gulp and it tried to break eye contact with her but she wasn’t allowing the windigo do to so, repeating her commands again which seemed to cause the desired effect as the creature let out tired sighs of relief before it opened its mouth to speak.

“Thhh-thank you,” it, -he- said still stuttering but not to the point of being incomprehensible anymore. He was looking at the Earth pony while he spoke before looking back at Pansy, wilting under his glare. “I-I-i di-did didn’t mean t-t-to,” his stutter was starting to worsen again with his chest heaving as the creature was breathing hard again.

“Hey hey, look at me,” the unicorn said, dismissing her magic as she reached forwards and placed a hoof on his face. Both Pansy and the Earth pony tensed but the windigo didn’t flee or steal their souls so maybe she knew what she was doing. “Look at me, it’s okay,” she cooed at him with the windigo beginning to calm down again. “I am Clover the cobbler, these are-” She looked at Pansy and the Earth pony, and blushed. “Um, I just realized, I don’t know your names.”

“Pansy,” Pansy replied.

“Tough Cookie,” the Earth mare said.

The windigo looked a little nervous, but finally answered. “I’m Snöflinga.”

Pansy snorted before he slapped a wing over his mouth, with Cookie biting her lip to hold her own laughter back while Clover closed her eyes and winced with mirth in her eyes before she slowly and carefully said, “Your name means snowflake?”

“It’s… tradition,” he said, carefully sounding out the word, his stutter barely noticeable. “My people, and especially my family, almost all have snow in their names, or something related to it.”

Clover smiled. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Snöflinga.”

“Maybe for you,” Pansy said, stepping towards Snöflinga who flinched slightly less this time. “But you still haven’t told me why you’re on my ship in the first place.”

Snöflinga looked down. “I’m a stowaway, all right? I wanted to get away from my fff-family, and your ship was convenient.” He kicked the deck with his white coat brightening up with a blush. “Besides, I love watching these things fly, and I’ve always wanted to ride on one…”

“Your kind can fly,” Cookie said with a raised eyebrow. “You’ve got that spöklik fform, right?”

“Yeah, so?” Snöflinga jerked a hoof in Pansy’s direction. “So can he, but he pilots this thing. I’ve always been… well, I’ve watched your people a long time. I’ve always been awed by these ships you’ve built, the progress you’ve made. The rest of my people don’t care, but I think they’re amazing.” He then blinked and frowned at her. “How, how did you know what we call our flight form?”

For once, the Earth pony looked nervous and began to shuffle in the cold breeze. “It’s kinda personal but it’s because-”

“Wait, is it me or is it getting colder?” Clover asked, tilting her heading as she turned her to face the wind as Pansy flew back to the helm.

“Is it?” Snöflinga tilted his head before letting out a yelp as Pansy moved the ship out of an air squall as the sudden storm began to strike.

“What is going on?” Clover asked nervously as she hunkered lower to the deck. “This weather- is it natural?”

Snöflinga shook his head to the side. “I don’t know,” he said before he started to float in the air, his light blue hind legs vanishing in a swirl of mist. “But it is getting worse.”

“Can you see through it?” Pansy asked he spun the wheel to fight a downward gust of wind, wishing he had a crew to help him here to control this ship. He frowned and looked at Cookie who was near the lines for the mast. “Get those lines, Cookie,” Pansy said pointing to the rigging with the mare running over to grab them, and beginning to pull the correct lines with his ship becoming easier to steer and control. “Clover, use your magic to hold Snöflinga.”

“Wait, what?” Snöflinga looked back at him in disbelief. “What did I do?”

“We need you to guide us through this mess, and Clover can tether you both to the deck so we don’t get separated,” Pansy called back. “Can you do it?”

“I-yeah, I think so.” Snöflinga’s eyes gleamed. “Grab hold, then.”

Clover nodded, her horn glowing. In an instant, her magic had linked the two, and her hooves glowed as they affixed themselves to the deck.

Over the next several minutes, there was little time for small talk as they focused on their work. Still floating above them, Snöflinga shouted to head left, while Pansy called for Cookie to fix the linings as he turned to port before Snöflinga had them go the other way.

Pansy grimaced as the storm increased in its intensity with him and both of the mares struggling to stay on their hooves. “Snöflinga,” Pansy shouted to be heard over the storm, with the windigo only visible due to Clover’s magic tether that was jutting around. “Do you see any sh-”

“Over there!” Snöflinga yelled, pointing off in one direction. “I can sense people over there!”

Pansy narrowed his eyes but couldn’t see exactly where he was pointing due to the windigo blending in with the storm perfectly, which made sense as it would be natural camouflage for him.

“Pull him in!” Pansy yelled at Clover who had already backed up to the staircase of the deck, the unicorn reeling Snöflingain. Settling on the deck, Snöflinga looked in the direction they were heading.

“Something’s wrong…” the windigo muttered. “I’d almost swear…”

“What?” Pansy asked.

“Let’s just say something’s not right here,” Snöflinga said grimly. “This storm is not natural at all. It’s almost like it’s getting worse the closer we get to the people.”

“Is that even possible?” Pansy asked he steered the ship further into the storm, following Snöflinga’s direction as the unicorn and the windigo shared looks between each other.

“It might be possible,” Clover said as she leaned into Snöflinga, who was starting to look uncomfortable now. “But I don’t knooo COOKIE LOOK OUT!”

Her magic shot forwards at the same time Snöflinga sprang towards the mare, both spotting what Pansy heard.

The next moment, there was a loud crash, and the mast struck the deck where Cookie had been standing.

“Cookie!” both Pansy and Clover shrieked.

There was a groan, and then Cookie got to her hooves, Snöflinga getting up moments after. “Urgh… thanks for the save,” she said. Then she looked at the spot where the mast now lay, and narrowed her eyes. “Either this storm’s worse than I thought, or somepony wasn’t keeping this thing in good shape before they gave it to you,” she said as she pointed to the break. “That crack was not natural.”

Pansy was about to answer her before his pegasi eyes spotted something that made him leap from the deck towards them while shouting “Brace!” as loud as he could.

Moments later, the ship hit the ground with a tremendous CRASH.

For a minute, there was silence, before Snöflinga finally rose up, shaking his head as he did so. “Um, land ho?”

“So it would seem,” Cookie grunted as she got to her hooves for the second time in as many minutes. “I can’t believe it but it seems that this ship is still intact.”

“Yeah,” Pansy said shaking his head before he went to examine his ship. “Everyone okay?”

“Ye-yeah,” Snöflinga stuttered as he helped Clover off of him. “Yuuu-you?” He was shaking as he forced himself to speak.

“Yes, thank you Snöflinga,” the unicorn said with a smile before frowning. “Is it me or is it not as cold anymore?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Cookie said blinking in surprise. While the storm was still blowing, it had dropped in its intensity and had ceased being blinding cold. “This storm really isn’t natural at all.”

“Can your kind do such a thing, Snöflinga?” Clover asked as they stepped closer towards the windigo with him starting to look nervous again.

Snöflinga opened his mouth but nothing came out again with frustration clear on his face as he was reduced to just shaking his head in the negative.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Cookie said as she bumped into his side with a soft smile on her face. “Don’t try to force yourself to speak right now; you will just get yourself more annoyed and create a loop of having a hard time speaking. Believe me-” and here she scowled. “I’ve seen it before. Just give yourself some time.”

Snöflinga looked at her and nodded his head, clearly upset at his difficulties, but at the same time looking relieved.

“Well, the hull is intact at least,” Pansy said as he landed on the deck, trotting up to them. “But I doubt we can fly again in this storm, and while there is a river nearby, I have no idea how watertight the ship is.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Clover said with a shrug before looking at Snöflinga who was shuffling on his hooves but breathing a lot steadier. “So you said there are people up there?” she asked, pointing up the hill with Snöflinga nodding his head. It was a large hill, but not too steep so it wouldn’t be that hard of a walk.

“Ye-yes,” he said, holding his head higher. “A lot of them; all but three nervous. Those three are very confident and arrogant. Shhh-should we go and chhhh-check it out?”

“I think we should, but we need to be careful,” Pansy said, sharing a concerned look with Cookie before looking at Clover. “Do you think you can use your magic to hide us?”

“I might be able to, but I never really tried anything like it,” she said with her horn starting to glow with the three ponies starting to match Snöflinga’s coat. “Are we ready to go?”

“That… that’s impressive,” Pansy said looking at his new white coat with awe, mirroring Cookie’s own face as she stared at her legs.

“Youreally never tried something like this before?” Cookie asked with the unicorn blushing.

“No, never. I mean, I have read about it in a book but I never tried to actually do it,” Cookie said.

“Th-th-they should call you Clover the Clever, not Clover the Cobbler,” Snöflinga said with a smile on his face. At this, Clover blushed.

“Ex cobbler, actually,” she muttered. “Got fired for reading and not finishing my job. As like all my other jobs.” She seemed to be saddened by this before she perked up and gave Snöflinga a look. “Did you just eat my sadness?”

The windigo, with three sets of eyes on him now, just blushed and nodded his head. “No need for you to be sad, Clover,” Snöflinga said without a tremor in his voice. “I hope you are not mad, are you?”

“No no,” the unicorn said, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “I’ve been depressed over it for a longtime so it’s nice not to be sad over it for once.”

Snöflinga smiled and gave his tail a short wag, causing Pansy and Cookie to snicker, before Cookie started speaking. “Okay, let’s start walking,” she said, tilting her head. “Snöflinga, as you can sense the people, you’ll go first. Clover, you follow him with Pansy behind you. I will cover you guys; sound good?”

The three of them nodded and started up the hill, staying close together as Snöflinga began to lead them upwards, staying low to the ground as they got closer to the summit with two airships on the far end of the plateau. They had blank sails which hid where they came from but Pansy let out a gasp as a third one was coming in to land.

“That’s myship,” Pansy hissed, pointing to the new ship which appeared to be very well made.

“Why is it here?” Cookie whispered back.

“I don’t know; last time I saw it, Hurricane had it,” the stallion whispered back. “What is he doing here?”

“Let’s find out,” Clover added, “there’s a hut over there.” She pointed over to a small one-story hut that was an equal distance from all the airships. “Is that where the people you were talking about before are Snöflinga?”

Snöflinga nodded his head as they slowly made their way over to the hut, taking care that they were not seen. Within a few moments they were peering through the window at one of the most impossible sights.

“Is that?” Clover asked in a soft voice with Cookie glaring at the occupants of the room.

“It is,” the other mare spat with venmo but thankfully soft enough not to alert anyone of their presence.

“What are the leaders of our nations doing here?” Pansy asked while glaring angrily into the well furnished room, seeing tables of food upon food against the walls while Platinum and Puddinghead both turned to warmly great Hurricane as he stepped inside.

“Ah, there you are, my boy,” Puddinghead said, holding out a glass of wine to the pegasus as he brushed off the snow from his coat. “Is Glaucus coming? I did go to the trouble of getting those fish he likes and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.”

“Sadly, no, he couldn't come this time,” Hurricane said with a sad sigh before shaking his head as he took the glass of wine and drank it down a single gulp. “Too far away for him to make it on such short notice plus he has to deal with the griffon council calling in an emergency meeting and his wife is due to give birth to their first child soon.” The pegasus gave a snort as he stacked a plate of fish and poured another glass of wine for himself

“Ahfoalhood,” Platinum gave an overdramatic shudder before letting out a snort and rolling her eyes. “Such a waste… if you ask me, they should all be born as mature adults so they don’t have to take up their parents’ valuable time and energy.”

“Until that day,” Hurricane said as he turned away from her, though not before Pansy caught him rolling his eyes, “It is our responsibility to see them brought up the proper way, right Puddinghead?”

“Ah yes, it is truly a grand effort that does not always work out,” the stallion placed a hoof on his chest with Cookie practically growling now. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”

That got to them to laugh maliciously before looking out the window as the storm started to pick up once more. “Ah, it seems that our fourth is finally here,” Platinum said with a relieved sigh, using her magic to pour a drink while opening the door to a large white stallion stepping through. “How are you, Snjóstormur?”

Chapter Four

The tall windigo gave a disappointed sigh as he stepped in, closing the door behind him, then shook his head as he walked over to the table and began to fill a plate. “Iam well but I still have had no luck in finding my son.”

“Ah yes, Snöflinga is still out there, unaccounted for, isn’t he?” Puddinghead asked as he hoofed over a wine glass to Snjóstormur who took it with a soft smile. “No luck in his normal spots?”

“None,” the chieftain sighed, taking a sip of his wine before turning his head towards Hurricane. “No sign of him from any of your captains?”

“If any captain has spotted him then they have not reported it,” the pegasus replied with a frown. “Though with how your kind isn’t well known to most commoners, they could be afraid that others might think they were intoxicated on duty or some such nonsense.” He waved it off with a wing.

“Hasn’t your son done this before, hiding out for a while when he’s in one of those moods of his?” Platinum shook her head. “He’ll be back sooner or later once he comes to his senses.”

“I know that, but he has been gone for far longer than normal,” Snjóstormur replied sharply. “Despite what some may think, we windigos are not heartless, we do care for our families.” He glared hard at the mare with her giving him a light smirk back. “He might actually be one of my only worthwhile sons. Snöstorm might be my oldest and most talented but he, Pyry and Lumimyrsky lack the inquisitive nature Snöflinga has. For Búri’s sake, Snöflinga isalways trying to figure out everything. My other sons just accept what is before them; did you know he was the only one to actually to question some changelings I had impersonate several windigos?”

“I suppose that is why you decided to make him your chief Ymir’s Advocate, my boy?” Puddinghead asked with a raised eyebrow with the windigo looking a bit sheepish.

“No, it was Glaciärblått that convinced me at long last that despite his stutter and his lack of a spine, he would be perfect for the role and give Snöstorm some decent guidance,” Snjóstormur admitted. “I was going to tell him before he ran off but…”

“There is nothing you can do now,” Hurricane placed a wing on his shoulder. “He will turn up sooner or later.”

“Quite right,” Puddinghead said as he took another sip from his glass before looking at Platinum who rolled her eyes before several platters of food was lifted away and table was brought forth. “Thank you, my dear.”

“Please stop with that grandfather act, Puddinghead,” the mare grumbled as the other stallions nodded their heads. “I did not care for it when my own grandfather was still alive and… well you know what happened to him.”

“Is that a threat, Platinum, because you know that I am not scared of you and your magic,” the Earth pony said with his eyes narrowed, tensing up as if to use his own magic with Hurricane snorting loudly, causing the other two ponies to glare at him.

“Please, we’ve kept this… agreement going for this long, let us not end it before we finish our goal,” Snjóstormur said with an exasperated tone. “Once we find these legendary fires that will let us cement our control, we can…” He suddenly frowned and walked towards the window, threw it open and glared downwards before jumping out and looking around.

“Is there a reason why you opened the window to the cold, Snjóstormur,” Platinum whined. “It is freezing out there…”

“Speak for yourself,” Hurricane muttered. “That breeze feels good to me.”

“I thought I felt something,” Snjóstormur said as he looked back in. “Like someone was right there…”

“We do have our people wandering about the camp and keeping guard,” Puddinghead spoke up. “Perhaps one of them was lingering a bit and had moved on by the time you looked.”

“Perhaps.” Snjóstormur did not look convinced as he climbed back inside. “At any rate, I don’t detect anyone out there now.”

“Good; now let us get to business,” Platinum said faintly as Snöflinga ushered his companions away from the site, doing his best not to drain their emotions too quickly and was thankful his father was unable to sense his own emotions at all - emotivores were unable to feed off each other, after all.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Snöflinga whispered urgently as he pushed them along, the trio numbly following his orders in their blank state. “We’re nearly there,” he hissed as they neared the hill before he let go of his drain of their emotions. With startled noises, the four of them lost their balance and began to roll down the hill, much to their surprise.

When they had reached the bottom, Pansy sat up with a groan. “Ouch.”

Cookie, who was shaking it off easier, gave Snöflinga a look as soon as she’d recovered. “Seriously? I know Clover didn’t mind being fed on earlier, but was that really necessary?”

“Yes,” Clover put in before Snöflinga could speak. “You were trying to cover up our emotions to keep us safe, so your father wouldn’t find us, weren’t you?”

“Y-yes, exactly,” Snöflinga said. “Sorry I had to do it so quick, but if I’d taken time to warn you, he probably would have caught us. Well, you more than me, since we can’t sense our own kind’s emotions, but either way, I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

“Well in any case, we still need to get out of here,” Pansy said as he flew onto the deck of his ship with Snöflinga flying up onto it and Clover using her own magic to tug Cookie and herself onto the deck. “We will have just enough power to get us into the river; after that we will be at the mercy of the open waters.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Cookie said as the ship began to slide towards the river.

“Let’s move, people, and hold on tight.” Pansy warned as the ship hit the water, with the deck becoming temporarily submerged before it attained buoyancy.

Shaking her head to clear the water off of her, Clover turned her head to spot a very panicked-looking Snöflinga who was detangling himself from the staircase. “Are you okay?”

The windigo shook his head, tilting his head towards the river. “Cccc-can’t swim,” he forced out of his lips.

“Really?” Pansy asked from the helm with a concerned look on his face that only deepened when Snöflinga nodded his head. “Damnit, we were going to need you to see through the storm but if you can’t swim then-”

“No,” Snöflinga spat out loudly as he floated in the air. “Let me do this; I needto be helpful somehow.”

“If you’re sure Snöflinga,” Cookie said, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “I can understand the need to prove yourself but don’t be a fool about it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Snöflinga grunted. “As long as I stay out of the water.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll hold onto you tightly,” Clover replied with her horn lighting up to once again create her tethering spell.

There was no conversation for the next while, aside from occasional calls for control as they steered the ship down the river and towards the ocean with the storm returning and worsening the further they got away from the secret meeting.

Eventually, the four reached the ocean and steered away from the shores, Snöflinga sighing as he landed for a moment with Cookie waving him over to the helm. “Better,” he muttered. “Now we just need to keep an eye out for those stupid fish.”

“What fish,” Pansy asked curiously as he continued to steer this grounded airship through the waters.

“Sirens,” Snöflinga said. “They’re like… seaponies? But the normal seaponies are peaceful kelp farmers most of the time. Sirens are emotivores like me, but also a lot meaner and carnivorous. And they like luring ponies into the water with their music and drowning them before consuming them.”

“I’d never even heard of seaponies,” Cookie said with a frown. “Are they a fourth tribe or something?”

“Yeah, but they keep to themselves like the rest of you ponies do, only a lot better at it,” Snöflinga said as he prepared himself to take off again. “My people have seen them a few times, but they’re a lot better at staying hidden, so it’s not worth the effort to go after them.” He grimaced. “My people and the sirens both feed on negative emotions, so we’re natural rivals. But we just look for existing negative emotions, they actively come looking for trouble and like stirring it up to make it worse.”

“Can you do the same trick as you did before, to hide us?” Clover asked, bundled up against Cookie with the winds starting to pick up again.

“Wouldn’t work; they can’t sense emotions like windigos and changelings can, and even if they could, it wouldn’t be safe to drain you three like that in this storm,” Snöflinga said loudly over the blowing winds. “Beyond making you all dull, I would need to focus on-” He let out a yelp as a particularly harsh wind dashed him across thee deck and into the remains of the broken mast still attached to the deck before going over the edge of the ship.

“Snöflinga!” Clover shouted, dashing to the railing and bracing herself as she did her best to pull the windigo back aboard, her face tight with concentration. A second later, Cookie thundered over and leaned over the edge with her hoof out to the terrified windigo whose snow magic was causing a miniature blizzard at the edge of the ship.

“Grab my hoof!” Cookie yelled at him with Snöflinga looking up with wild eyes before he slapped his hoof into hers, the mare barely wincing at the freezing touch as she pulled him back aboard with a layer of ice spreading out from the windigo’s hooves. “Back to Pansy; it’s too dangerous for any of us out here!” she shouted, pushing Snöflinga and Clover forwards with the pegasus struggling to control the airship but the difference between the airships and the waterships was starting to show with the abnormal groaning that was coming from the hull.

“I think we need to beach this thing,” Cookie said nervously as she looked to Pansy. “It’s getting even rougher out here than we expected.”

“You’re right,” Pansy told her as he shook over a layer of frost while wondering how best to calm the windigo down. “As soon as possible.”

“What is it Snöflinga?” Clover asked, causing the two to turn towards her. She was staring at Snöflinga with concern as he had an even more horrified look on his face before they all turned around to see what he was looking at.

It was a massive wave heading straight at them.

“What’s the spell, what’s the spell,” Clover muttered to herself as she tried to recall what she had read once a few years ago about shield spells while doing her best to ignore Cookie moving in front of her as if it would actually be effective in protecting her.

Just before the wave hit, Clover was able to cast a single spell before everything went dark.

With a groan, Snöflinga shuffled around only to feel the coat of another person next to him. Moving to the other side, he felt another person with both bodies beginning to groan and stir. He was wondering what was going before he recalled what had happened. He then began to open his eyes, whining at how sore he felt with the others also moaning at their own pain.

“What hit me?” Pansy grumbled from the right side of Snöflinga, while Cookie winced as she pushed herself upright. Looking around, Snöflinga was able to see that Clover had either been laid across them or had made her way there herself.

“A lot of water, if I were to guess,” a female voice said, causing all four of them to look towards the source. “You four washed up on our shores after that terrible storm in your little mare’s bubble shield.” It was a middle-aged Earth pony mare with a glittering coat. “It was a very impressive spell, if you ask me.”

“Thank you,” Clover said as she sat upright on Cookie’s lap with the blanket falling around her flanks. “But it was really something I read about a few years ago, so I don’t deserve all the credit.”

The mare raised an eyebrow at her. “Humbleness is one thing, child, but there’s nothing wrong in being proud of your accomplishments, as long as you don’t take it too far and be obnoxious about it.”

“But it was just one spell,” Clover started.

“That you read about years ago,” Cookie said. “But you pulled it off successfully the first time you tried, long after you first heard about it. I’d say you deserve to be proud of your accomplishment.”

Clover just blushed, looking off to the side with the other ponies just beaming at her with Pansy turning away from her to look at the other Earth pony in the room. “Where exactly are we, miss…”

“Clear Heart, and you are in the Crystalline Shore’s inn, though we do get called the Crystal Empire from time to time. We are a small depot town, so we are used to all sorts of travelers,” she said while looking at Snöflinga who flinched under her gaze. “But as long as you don’t harm anyone in my town, you are welcomed here for as long you four require to recover before traveling again. Though,” she said, turning to look at Pansy. “You might wish to use a proper ship this time.

“It was something of an emergency,” Pansy said stiffly with his ears going red. “We did what we could with what we had.”

“Of course you did,” Clear Heart said with a soft smile. “What we recovered of your belongings are over there in the corner and we are serving food right now.” With that, the mare closed the door.

Once he was certain she was gone, Pansy turned to the others. “We seriously need to talk.”

Chapter Five

It took them some time to get themselves detangled from the bedsheets, before Clover finally managed to get off the bed first. As she rolled over, both Pansy and Cookie gasped in surprise at the sight of her bare flanks.

Clover instantly winced, and lifted her cloak onto herself to cover up. “Please don’t stare,” she asked softly, feeling embarrassed by revealing her unmarked flanks to these people. “I… I have triedeverything to get my cutie mark, read countless books and tried all what they said but nothing has worked.” She then blinked and gave an annoyed look at Snöflinga. “I do appreciate what you are trying to do for me but…”

The windigo’s face flushed, caught eating her sadness before he walked over towards her. “While I am sorry for making you upset, I am not sorry for trying to make you happy. You are an incredibly intelligent mare. What can a cutie mark tell you that you don’t know already?”

The mare blushed, looking off to the side before shaking her head and looking back at him. “You are very kind Snöflinga but… a cutie mark for a pony is…” she looked at the other two ponies with Pansy stepping forwards and placing a hoof on Snöflinga’s shoulder.

“A cutie mark defines not only who you are to others but who you are to yourself,” he said as he looked at his own cutie mark, a ship’s wheel. “Mine is for my skill with airships.”

“And mine’s for the work I did helping to feed some of the… well, a group of ponies I ended up staying with for a while, when I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Cookie added, looking at the three cookies topped with apple slices on her flank. “Not that I’ve been able to really do that kind of thing in a while,” she muttered to herself before looking at Clover. “You will find your mark if you don’t try to force it to happen.”

“She is right,” Pansy continued. “Our marks are made up of who we truly are; unless your talent is reading about other achievements, you won’t find that part of yourself.”

“I know and I have tried, but…” Clover shrugged lamely, looking depressed again before nodding her head at Snöflinga, and in a moment she had started to smile again. “Thank you, Snöflinga.”

Cookie, eying him, shook her head with a faint smile on her face. “You know, you could work wonders for therapists,” she said. “Ponies would pay a lot of bits to have their sadness or other bad feelings siphoned off.”

Snöflinga looked contemplative. “You know, I never thought of that,” he said. “Might be something to try in the future… but I’d have to keep it limited, somewhat. Being around too many good feelings isn’t good for us. You guys’ feelings don’t bother me, but big crowds… I couldn’t tolerate it. At least, not at once.”

“We still need to discuss what our plans are from… what we heard,” Pansy said nervously before grimacing when his right wing extended. He held it out before him before shaking his head. “No feathers out of place, just sore,” he said towards the others in the room, looking at him with worried expressions. “Come, let us get our stuff and head down.”

“I think I am the only one with anything recovered,” Clover said with a chuckle, lifting her saddlebag onto her side.

“I think you were the only one to have anything with you,” Cookie said with Snöflinga nodding his head and Pansy giving a shrug before wincing in pain.

“I did have a few things but it seems they were lost,” the stallion said before he walked towards the door with the other three behind him. “But no real loss, to be fair. It is all up here,” he tapped his head with his left wing before he tapped his chest. “And here.” he said as he led them down the stairs and into a near empty dining room, only attracting a few looks at they piled into a booth with Snöflinga and Clover going in first and Cookie and Pansy, respectively, following them.

After placing their order with Clear Heart who was acting as server, the four of them stared at each other, each waiting for one of them to speak.

Surprising everyone, himself included, Snöflinga was the first to address the griffon in the room. “We all saw our leaders in that hut and I could sense them so they weren’t imposters; does any of that seem impossible to you?”

The three of them shared a look before shaking their heads, Pansy tapping the table with his hoof. “I had heard rumours about Hurricane, we all had. That his rise to power was too unnatural and his sudden successes were very surprising for a then somewhat competent captain. If what they said that about Glaucus being a part of their alliance is true, then it could mean that the two were working together to boost themselves higher in the ranks the entire time during the war.”

“I can easily see that bastard Puddinghead being apart of it,” Cookie snapped angrily, causing everyone to turn to her. The mare’s frown held for a moment before she let out a tired sigh and nodded her head towards Snöflinga with a smile on her face. “Years ago, Puddinghead was the king’s chancellor, but then he managed to usurp control of the kingdom by his endless propaganda and rallying the people against the royal family. He sent them into exile, threatening to kill them if they ever came back, except for one of them - he’s basically kept her hostage this whole time, and they know he’ll kill her too if they ever try to come back.” She let out a tired sigh. “He tricked them into believing if they abdicated, he would give her back, but really he kept me by his side as his trophy.” Then she looked startled as she realized what she’d just said.

“Wait, are you saying you’re Princess Tough A. Cookie‽” Clover squeaked with surprise with the other mare nodding her head.

“You’re the only one to call me that without making it an insult, Clover,” the mare sighed as their food was brought to them, keeping quiet until Clear Heart left the table again. “Puddinghead and his flunkies call me that all the time, but they do it as a reminder of what I’ve lost. You’re using it as a term of respect, like ponies used to.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Clover said as she lifted her salad to her mouth with her magic before noticing everyone was staring at her. “Oh you’re waiting for me to wonder about Platinum? No, everyone knows that she killed her entire family.”

Pansy coughed, shaking his head and said, “Excuseme?”

“She was the youngest child born of her family and when she was our age, she demanded some land of her own. Her father rejected it, saying she was unfit and unready to rule so she killed her way to the top,” Clover said with a shrug. “When I was cobbler, I had messed up her shoes and I knew had to leave before she came after me - she’d have killed me too, just because she could.”

The four of them stared at each other as they digested what they had just admitted before looking at Snöflinga who blinked and put the fish he had been eating down. “I… I never expected my father to work with any others, let alone ponies. This was the sort of thing he had always mocked me about and encouraged others to do the same. It doesn’t make any sense…” Suddenly, he shook his head. “No wait, it does. If he and the other leaders keep up this distrust your lands have of each other, my people can eat off the negativity and your leaders can keep in charge by playing up the others as bad guys with them being the only ones keeping their people safe.”

“You’re right,” Pansy said with wide eyes. “If they didn’t put up the threat of the other kingdoms, then we wouldn’tneed them to protect us.”

“Wait, there is also the thing they spoke of during that meeting, something about legendary fires?” Cookie asked. “They said they could cement their rule if they find it.”

“But what can we do about it?” Clover asked. “As much as I don’t want them to get away with their evil plans, what can we do about it? Who would believe us?”

“No one,” Cookie responded calmly. “Tartarus, if I ever made my way back to my kingdom, they’d accuse me of lying because everyone ‘knows’ the entire royal family is gone and never coming back because of how badly Puddinghead has them all snowed. Er, no offense,” she said to Snöflinga.

“None taken.” Snöflinga gave her a smile. “I know what you meant.”

“And I was just a civilian,” Clover said with a sigh. “And I know privateers have a bad reputation among their people, so except for maybe his old crew, Pansy couldn’t get anyone to follow him…”

“And like my father said, everyone but me follows what he says without a second thought, except possibly Mom, and she hasn’t said a word about anything to anyone in years,” Snöflinga muttered. “So getting her to speak up isn’t likely to happen.”

“So… do we even try to help or not?” Pansy asked with them sharing uneasy looks. “Okay, on that matter, what we do next then?”

“We head south,” Cookie said. “The kingdom’s reaches don’t extend that far though I don’t know how your tribe works Snöflinga.”

“We migrate from place to place but not near the south; not enough people for us to harvest negative emotions from,” Snöflinga said. “If we do go south, we won’t run into any windigos though we might run into changelings if we do this.”

“Before we even think about leaving everyone to their fate under those four, we need to plan this out,” Pansy said with a sigh. “I wish I still had my maps from my secret hold.” He shook his head before flashing the three with a grin. “Hardly anyone looks up, not even those that can fly.”

“Yes, I knew it! It,” Clover said as she pulled out a rolled up parchment before frowning at it. “Wait, this isn’t my map of the world.” she said as she examined the wax seal on it before her eyes widen. “Platinum’s seal?” Breaking it open, she unrolled the scroll to show a blanket map with a small legend of text at the bottom center.

Ye of different ways of walk
Come forth with unity in your heart
Reveal the way to the Eternal Fires
Claim the powers the Fire gives and bring all under one

“Wait... how the Fimbulwinter did you get this‽” Snöflinga asked in amazement.

“I… I don’t know,” Clover said before she gasped. “Wait, I do know. When I got fired, I ran into this other mare on my way out of the shop, and we dropped our things… I must have picked up one of her maps by mistake.”

“This changes things,” Cookie said, placing a hoof onto the table. “We presumably have the sole key they need to take over completely. What do we do with it?”

There was a moment of silence before they shared a look. And an understanding passed between them. “We have to find this Fire; we can’t just leave it out in the open for them to find,” Clover said. “We find it and either hide it away or…”

“We find it and hide it,” Pansy said with the others nodding in agreement, placing his hoof onto the center of the map with the others doing the same.

It was at that moment that a glow encompassed the table, with the map now alive with directions to the Eternal Fires.

Chapter Six

“What just happened?” Pansy asked as he stared at the map.

“...we did what it said,” Clover said, looking at the map with awe. “We all came from different places and ways of life, but we had a common purpose. So now it’s showing us where to find these Fires!”

“Because we felt the same way?” Cookie asked, looking at Snöflinga who seemed tight lipped again but was actually able to speak this time.

“Yes,” he said clearly. “I've… I have felt strong connections, connections that would normally take years to develop. And it’s only been less than a day!”

That caused the three ponies to take in what Snöflinga had just said.

“He’s not wrong,” Clover said, looking at the others with a smile on her face. “I’ve known a lot of ponies in my life, but I never really… clicked, I guess, with any of them. Like Snöflinga said, I’ve only known you less than a day, but you guys have already come to mean more to me than anypony I’ve ever met up until now.”

“Same here,” Cookie said with a smirk on her face. “Because of who I am, I never really had any ponies that tried to befriend me, and I was mostly alone. But with you guys, things feel right.”

Pansy drew in a breath, and let it out slowly. “I’ve… had friends,” he said. “But the fact is, I’ve never felt as close to them as I do to the three of you. And certainly not like this.”

They then turned to face Snöflinga with the windigo blinking before his face started to heat up. “I never felt this confident or comfortable with anyone before,” he said with his face towards the table before he lifted it slowly. “Since we’ve met, I’ve been able to speak longer periods without stuttering and I don’t want it to change at all.”

“Who says it needs to change?” Cookie asked him before looking at the rest of them. “I don’t see any reason why we need to split up.”

“But where would we even go?” Clover asked with a hoof still on the map.

“There’s plenty of unsettled lands to the south,” Snöflinga said. “As long as we avoid Changeling territory, we could easily find a place for ourselves…”

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Changelings,” Pansy said. “What are they?”

Snöflinga sighed. “Another race of emotivores. Unlike my people, they feed on positive emotions - I think there are some who can also feed on negative ones, or maybe they just have a better tolerance for them, to help the rest of their kind who can’t handle them. They prefer warmer climates, and live underground most of the time, so my people don’t run into them too often. We have an unspoken rule for when we do though - we don’t bother them and they don’t bother us.”

Cookie looked surprised. “Just how many kinds of emotivores are there?”

“Just the three that I know of, counting my people,” Snöflinga said. “But getting back to what we were saying before…”

Cookie nodded. “Heading south is our best option if we do wish to stay all together,” she said. “Although…” She trailed off, looking down at the map.

“Look Cookie,” Clover said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “It probably is a bad idea to leave this power alone but we’re the only ones with a map to it.”

“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find our way there,” Pansy said as he looked contemplative. “Maybe we can do both at once - scout out the other lands below while we’re going and see if we can find some place we might want to settle afterwards.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Snöflinga said. “But it should come after we are all a bit better.” He gave a tentative look at Pansy’s wing. “And we will need to get a new ship too, of course.”

“It should take us at least a week for both,” Pansy mused, rubbing his chin with a hoof. “So maybe we should just finish our food and go back to our roo-”

“Wait,” Clover said loudly, causing the three of them to turn to her. “There’s a magic spell that I want to try first,” she told them with her horn glowing. “Just extend a bit of your own magic first.” With curious looks on their faces, the pegasus, earth pony and windigo did as they were asked. After they had done so, Clover’s magic entangled theirs with bright light before it crystalized. When the glowing had faded, the four looked down to see they were now each wearing a necklace of some kind, each a chain of hard granite surrounding a crystal.

“What is this?” Pansy asked, holding his up and looking at it in fascination.

“Something to show how much we mean to each other by having part of ourselves in each other,” Clover said with a blsh.. “It was something that I thought of…. why are you three staring at me?”

“Clover,” Cookie said with a hoof gently guiding her head downwards to her flanks and Clover let out a gasp.

“My Cutie Mark! I finally got my Cutie Mark!” she exclaimed with joy and surprise. It was a starburst, the sign of a truly powerful unicorn whose talent lay in magic itself.

“Congratulations,” Pansy said with a smile. The others all nodded in agreement, smiling happily at their friend. “We told you you just needed to let it happen naturally.”

“That we did,” Cookie said, placing an arm around the smaller mare while Snöflinga just bobbed his head in agreement.

“Thanks,” Clover said with a blush, squirming on the spot before a cough snapped them back to the present.

“While we are all happy you have found your Cutie Mark miss, I will need to ask that you and your party either try to be a bit quieter or continue it somewhere else,” Clear Heart said as the others looked up in surprise, not having heard her approach. “We do have other guests here.”

“Sorry about that ma’am,” Clover said, looking red with embarrassment.

“I think we should go back to our room, in any case,” Pansy said with his own cheeks growing a bit redder, while Snöflinga’s ears twitched before the windigo started to cough to cover his own blush. Cookie saw their exchanges and whispered something into Clover’s ear that caused the unicorn to blush further while Pansy continued. “We have a lot of planning to do.”

Clear Heart nodded and turned to walk away, before looking back. “Oh, miss?”

“Yes?” Clover asked.

“Congratulations on your Mark.” With that, Clear Heart went off.

Quickly finishing their food, the four stood up and headed off to their room.

One week later…

The four of them walked down the stairs, keeping close as they usually did, as they made their way to their table. The inn had gotten progressively more crowded over the last few days with ponies from the three kingdoms heading south.

Pansy peered out of the window before looking at his friends. “It is getting worse, isn’t it?”

Snöflinga nodded. “I can feel the negativity coming from miles away. They all think they’re getting away from it, but really, everyone out there’s just as unhappy as they had been back in their old homes.”

“And what from I’ve been hearing, most of the kingdoms are being abandoned due to the weather,” Cookie added.

Snöflinga sighed. “I’m not surprised. My people do tend to congregate around sources of negativity, and where they go, the stronger winter storms go. And when that happens, people tend to get unhappier… it’s a vicious cycle.” He shook his head as he began to eat his meal. “Though never to this extent; something is definitely up. It’s almost like they’re going out of their way to make things worse, like those stupid fish do.”

“I think their alliance is really falling apart,” Clover said, tapping the table with her hoof. “I am not sure if things will get better or worse now but I can't see any of them allowing a real peace to form as long as they’re in charge.”

“All the more reason for us to get moving,” Cookie muttered. “The sooner we find you-know-what, the sooner things will get better. I hope.” She stared at her plate, pushing the food around with her hoof.

“The ship I rented should be ready soon, and then we can go,” Pansy replied. “We’ve got everything else ready, all we can do now is wait.”

Cookie sighed. “Waiting is not one of my strong points,” she grumbled.

“Sounds like there’s a reason you’re a fighter and not a medic,” Snöflinga said.

“Oh?” Cookie asked him with a smirk.

“Yeah. You’ve got no patients!”

Cookie stared at him for a moment before she started chuckling at the pun. “Thanks, Snöflinga. I needed that.”

Snöflinga grinned back. “No problem.”

They continued this light banter as they ate, each occasionally touching their necklace tenderly before they continued to focus on finishing their meal so they could begin to leave. After pushing their empty plates towards the centre of the table and leaving some coin that they had managed to scrounge up, they moved to go gather their meager belongings; the three ponies throwing on thick jackets as they pushed their way through the door to the outside.

As soon as all four of them were outside, Snöflinga made his way into the middle of them and used his snow magic to reduce as much of the cold as he could.

Clover let out a low purr at the change of temperature, leaning into Snöflinga’s side. “I can almost feel my horn, thanks to you.”

Snöflinga snorted and rolled his eyes but then gave her a careful look. “If you got that cold that fast, then maybe we shouldn’t go after this flame.”

Pansy shook his head. “Like you said, it’s getting worse,” he told them as he led the way towards the ship, doing his best to fight the strong wind blowing against him. “If we don’t go now, we might never get another chance.”

“Besides, the faster we can get this you-know-what, the faster we can get started with our new lives,” Cookie said which had them all smiling before gritting their teeth as they walked through the wind and snow towards the dock where a small schooner was waiting for them. “Ready captain Pansy?” Cookie asked as they walked onto the deck of the ship.

“Ready,” Pansy replied. “Man the braces! Hoist the sails! Weigh the anchor!”

“We did!” Snöflinga called. “Two and a half tonnes!”

Pansy grinned at his comment. “Then let’s go!”

They lifted off into the air with the wind pushing them off towards the open waters. Behind them, Clear Heart watched with a content smile on her face before her horn flared green and she teleported away.

It was much later in the day, with the four of them struggling to control their ship. While the storm had initially died down, it had since come back up to full strength, if not even greater than before, and it was taking everything they had to keep from being blown off-course.

Pansy kept calling out instructions towards Cookie while Clover and Snöflinga continued their previous tethering act to guide them. Still, even the windigo was having a hard time staying in the air from the force of the winds, squinting through the snow and starting to shiver despite his own inherent resistance to the cold.

“Come land Snöflinga,” Clover called out. “It’s getting too rough.”

“Yeah… okay.” Flying down, he landed on the deck in front of her, and shook himself while his hooves scraped along the wooden floor. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Ymir was back,” he grumbled. “This storm’s about as bad as the legends say his last big storm was…”

“Who?” Cookie asked.

“The first windigo, supposedly,” Snöflinga said. “At least, that’s what the legends claim. He was also a complete monster to his people, worse than any of your leaders from what I’ve heard, so they overthrew him. We may feed on negativity, but there’s such a thing as going too far, and he crossed the line.”

“Is that where the name of that job your father said he had for you came from?” Clover asked curiously. “I’ve been meaning to ask about that…”

“That’s it exactly,” Snöflinga said, then looked up into the winds again and shuddered. “Storm’s still getting worse…”

“I’m almost afraid to ask how much worse it can get,” Pansy muttered. “And this is the pony who once flew his ship through a category five hurricane.”

Cookie stopped and stared at him for a moment. “Why in the world would you have done that?”

“It came out of nowhere and we couldn’t get out of the way!” Pansy replied. “It’s not like I planned on it!”

“Hurricanes aside, I think we’d better keep moving,” Snöflinga said. “We need to keep moving or else we’ll get blown out of the sky!”

“Right.” Pansy turned back to Cookie and started barking orders, while Snöflinga made sure his tether was good before lifting off again.

Unfortunately, at the same time he took off, a strong gust of wind struck the ship which made them all lose their focus for a moment. Before Snöflinga could react, he saw the upper spar of the mast snapping off, and fall towards him.

He was able to raise his right leg in time before it fell on him completely, knocking him unconscious and towards the roaring ocean.

The last thing he heard before he hit the water was a harmonized and anguished cry of “Snöflinga!”

Author's Note

Author’s note: Snöflinga’s story continues in The Mare From the Moon and The World Left Behind.