There was a harsh chill to the air as it whistled through the forest. Shaking up leaves and breaches as it mercilessly swept across an already harsh landscape. On the breeze came snowflakes, fluttering around with the wind, slowly falling to the ground to pile up, covering the ground in cold snow slowly.
With the dark grey clouds covering the dull sun, it was a rather pretty sight. A sight that was only improved when at any time one could turn away from the window and look back to a roaring fire and cups of steaming hot cocoa.
So, the Zebra turned away from the window, letting her hoof drop to the floor. In front of her, was the scene exactly described, steam floating up from the cups of cocoa. She let out a soft sigh, and then slowly trotted over to near the fire, looking around the rather spacious room for what felt like the millionth time.
Her hooves were silent on the carpeted floors as she moved to one of the two couches, this one the single. It was a faded red color, and had a stain on the left side near the bottom.
Unfortunately for her, someone was already in the seat. Nocturn, a rather quiet yet brightly colored bat pony, who owned the cabin that they were all in. She let out another sigh, and looked around again at the hoofful of creatures taking refuge from the storm.
Hail Storm and her colt, Cloudburst, who were both pegasi from Canterlot, Green, a young changeling queen that was found half frozen to death in the snow, and herself and Nocturn.
Nocturn was snoozing in the seat, on her back and stretched out in every direction, her limbs splayed haphazardly as she soaked up the heat from the fire.
This prompted a small giggle from the Zebra, a relatively rare occurrence nowadays. The sound carried around the room, joined only by the fire crackling and the window rattling in it’s frame from the wind.
The changeling looked up from the other couch and to her, before asking one of her ‘out of nowhere’ questions that she had gained a reputation for. “Does she snore?”
Zesauri snorted, and laughed softly, before shaking her head. “No,” she all but whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up. “Never in my time with her have I known her to snore.”
“...I snore,” the small bug spoke after a minute or so of relative silence. “Did you know that?”
The zebra raised an eyebrow. “I’m fully aware that you do, Green,” she said dryly, before trotting over to the couch and gently sitting down next to Green.
“Really?” She asked, tilting her head and shifting to give the stripy mare some more room. “I thought I was quiet when I snored.”
Another small giggle. “You are quiet, yes, but when it’s *this* -” she waved her hoof in a small circle, gesturing to the entire room. “- silent, it’s hard *not* to hear.”
Her companion went silent for a good six and a half seconds.
“True,” She admitted after those six and a half seconds.
Silence once again reasserted itself, filling the room.
The door flew open, and then closed shut a few seconds later. During that time, hot air seemed to rush out and be replaced with the frigid air that lingered around the surface level.
The pony responsible for opening the door in the first place shivered, and then began to strip away the multitude of layers that covered her, protecting her from the cold. In theory.
“Momma?” A soft, coltish voice spoke. It was Cloudburst, Hail Storm’s adoptive son. He had a medium-grey coat, a green mane and tail, and a hopeful look in his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m back, Cloudy,” The mare spoke through a face mask, before pulling that away and putting it in the pile with the rest of the warm clothes, before leaning down and gently rubbing his cheek with her own.
He nuzzled back softly, and then fell to his haunches, looking up at her with a smile as she continued stripping away the layers.
It took exactly two minutes and thirty-seven seconds for her to finish, just a little behind the norm.
The entire time he waited for her patiently, his tail flicking occasionally from side to side.
The older pegasus smiled down at him, nuzzled his cheek softly again, before wrapping her forelegs around him in a gentle hug.
Cloudburst took this opportunity to worm his way closer to his mother, wriggling closer to hug around her neck then nuzzle into it. “Missed you,” he said quietly, his voice muffled by her neck fur.
Hail Storm smiled warmly, and then gently picked him up, trotting past the fire to the kitchen, moving past the three sleeping others.
He was gently placed down on top of the table, where he sat down, his tail curling around his side gently.
She gave him another nuzzle, though this one was more quick, before trotting over to one of the cupboards, opening it.
Cloudburst watched her rummage through the cupboard for all of thirteen seconds, before something caught his attention. His left ear flicked a few times as he heard a sound, before turning right to look at the entrance.
Standing there was Green, the only other one here closest to his age. Even then, she was quite a few years older than him, “Find anything useful?” She asked Hail softly, before waving gently to Cloudburst, smiling a little wider.
“Just snow,” She responded with a sigh. “And snow. And snow. Nothing. But. Snow.” Her voice got more agitated as she spoke, but in all honesty, it was completely understandable.
It was supposed to be the middle of Spring, and yet it hadn’t stopped snowing. Of course, the end of the world would do that to you.
“Dang,” The changeling murmured, letting out a quiet huff. “Once again, nothing. How far did you search?”
“Past the canyon to the south,” Hail answered. “Around three sectors past.”
Cloudburst hopped off the table and onto the ground with a grunt, causing Hail to give him a glance, before returning to her conversation.
He cantered out of the kitchen and back into the lounge room, looking around to see if anypony was awake.
Nocturn waved to him, a small smile on her muzzle as she greeted the foal softly. “Evening.”
He trotted a little more speedily over to the bat, carefully leaping up onto the armrest next to her.
The mare smiled at him a little wider, and shifted to lay more to the right side of the couch, giving the small colt some room to lay next to her if we wanted.
He took that opportunity, sliding down next to her with ease, his wings ruffling up as he wriggled to get as comfy as possible.
Nocturn smiled again, and gently leaned down to nuzzle the back of his neck softly, prompting a bird-like ‘caw’ from him, then a giggle.
With a smile and a squark, he wriggled closer to her and rested his head against her shoulder, closing his eyes.
The mare smiled softly, and gently extended a wing to cover him, simultaneously keeping him just a little warmer.
The cold wind bit deeply into her, through all the seven layers she had on. Hail Storm shivered violently, growling quietly and wriggling her wings a little, attempting to ruffle them.
This didn’t work, due to the seven layers that she was wearing. Apart from slowing her down a lot, it also bound her wings.
Looking around again, she scanned her surroundings, again.
Same as last time. Snow. Snow. Trees. Snow covered trees. Nothing new.
Except that. Right there. There was a structure in the distance, and.... Smoke coming up from it.
She gasped, her breath practically solidifying the instant it left her mouth.
With a stumble and a grunt, she set off at a faster pace towards the cabin.
Hail glanced back at the bundle on her back, worried.
Thankfully for the both of them, Cloudburst was nice and snug, bundled up between where her wings would be.
More importantly, he was safe from the breeze.
The snow crunched quietly with each hooffall, the sound barely audible over the howling wind.
Hail’s ears remained pressed against her skull firmly, as she didn’t want them to get more colder, as that could end up leading to her losing them. She really didn’t want that.
After what seemed like an hour, she finally arrived at the door, panting gently.
She reached up to it, and with a frozen hoof she opened it and all but darted inside, shutting it behind her quickly.
According to the clock, it was four thirty-one. AM.
Green let out a gentle sigh, and looked over the four sleeping ponies, feeling their moods as the slept. Nocturn was having another nightmare.
With a soft frown, she slowly trotted over to the thestral, looking down at her. Both back legs were twitching, as well as her left front leg as in her dream she ran from something.
The nymph leaned down, and nudged Nocturn’s cheek with her nose hard, quickly moving her own face out of the way, just in case.
Nocturn inhaled sharply and flinched away as she woke up with a start, panting softly and looking up at her with wide eyes. “G-green?”
The changeling in question nodded softly. “You were having a nightmare,” she said quietly. “So I decided to wake you up.”
Nocturn nodded slowly, before frowning as she glanced at the clock. “You should be asleep,” she remarked quietly.
“I tried,” Green responded, turn away from her and slowly trotting back to the rattling window, sitting next to it and placing her hoof against a small cardboard box, which was placed against the window itself.
The box flattened easily, and the force behind it pushed the window into one spot, silencing it’s rattling.
Nocturn sat down next to her a few seconds later, gazing out the window with her.
The two sat in relative silence, just staring out the window at the snow as, even during the night, it continued to fall.
After several minutes, Green spoke up, her voice quiet as to not wake the others. “How badly do you miss your parents?”
“...I miss them more than anything,” was the response she got after a few seconds.
Green promptly hugged the mare softly, her carapace neither warm nor cold.
Nocturn hugged back tightly, burying her muzzle in the bug-pony’s neck, sniffling and trying not to cry.
“There there,” Green murmured gently, hugging her a little tighter and rubbing along her back soothingly.
The two remained like this for a while, until Nocturn fell into a dreamless sleep.
Green lifted the larger mare up with the utmost care, using her magic to do so, carefully floating her into ‘her’ couch and putting her on it. A small smile lit up her muzzle as she watched Nocturn curl up comfortably, remaining asleep.
Her smile slowly faded as she trotted back to the window, looking out it once again.
She glanced at the clock. Five twelve.
‘Time flies,’ she thought to herself before letting go of the small piece of cardboard, watching it flutter to the ground.
Glancing around again, she got out of her spot, groaning quietly as she did, and slowly trotted to where Zesauri was, spread out on the couch.
A small smile adorned her face as she moved to the front of the couch, stepping carefully over Hail and Cloudburst, the former curled protectively around the latter.
Green carefully laid down on the couch, then with slow, deliberate movements, shifted herself into the Zebra’s arms.
It came as something of a surprise to her when the striped mare’s legs suddenly coiled around her chest and pulled her to her furred chest.
Another surprise followed it, this one causing Green to squeak softly. Zesauri gently nuzzled the back of Green’s neck, and tightened the embrace a little.
In the end, a much warmer and content Green fell asleep with a smile on her muzzle.
The snow had started to fall in early summer. It wasn’t right. It was supposed to be thirty-two degrees Celsius. Instead, it was a chilly negative two.
All around her, her neighbourhood was a hive of activity, ponies bustling about trying to figure out why it was so cold all of a sudden, and foals running amok, trying to catch snowflakes.
Nocturn had known something was very off. She recalled looking closely at a snowflake she had caught on her hoof, watching as it melted incredibly slowly.
That was over four months ago.
By now, the average temperature on a daily basis was around negative ten, and the sky was slowly starting to run out of snowflakes to sprinkle over the landscape.
She shivered gently, tore her gaze away from the window and looked around her parent’s cabin.
After two days of constant snowfall, she had packed up her stuff and headed away from the cities and to Whitetail woods, where her father’s holiday cabin was. Before she left, she had mailed her parents that she was heading there, and that they should meet her there.
The only life she’d seen along the way was that of a changeling half buried in the snow and nearly dead from the cold, and a Zebra who was a native of the woods.
It took two days for the changeling nymph to be able to speak. In a few words, she said that she was a Queen, and her name was ‘Green’, before returning to silence.
The Zebra, Zesauri, had been the one to save her. Despite Nocturn’s knowledge from medical school, the two had to reply on ancient zebrican magics to cure the lethal level of frostbite.
A day short of a month later, roughly an hour before sunset, two other ponies showed up.
Nocturn was filled with hope. Had her parents finally arrived?
That hope was shattered quickly. It was a pegasus mare and her foal, who had came from the same city - the same street, even - as her. They had gotten lost in a snowstorm and ended up near the woods, and went searching through them.
It was a lucky break, as almost immediately after the wind picked up, and a long storm set in.
And so, the five hid in the cabin. Hail Storm, the pegasus mare, Cloudburst, her son, Nocturn herself, Green, and Zesauri. A rag-tag group, and from what Hail had told them; Quite possibly one of the only few groups of survivors that were left.
Author's Note
So, uh, that's something.