Red Melting Snow
1 of 4 pre stories to M.R.O.E
By: Dr. Hoofs
Edited by: Dj Br0n3 & Comet Flash
Two ponies were talking in The old Canterlot Castle in the Everfree Forest. Snowdrop was talking to luna on the fifth anniversary of the first snow flake. Luna spoke first. “Please be careful on your way home tonight,” to which the little filly, now five years older, agreed. As luna walked Snowdrop out to the front door, she shook a little as she watched her leave.
Celestia walked up behind her, seeing Luna’s concern. “What’s wrong?” Luna had no idea, she simply had a feeling in her gut.
“I don’t know, but there is something more to everything this HeartsWarming Eve, and there is something bigger afoot out in the darkness this divine night.” Luna walked back to her room as the sun disappeared behind the mountain, and cast down an ever-darkening shadow over the valley. Luna prepared to do her duty as defender of dreams, as she went to work in the dream world. She felt a heaviness grow in her the moment she felt herself remembering something.
Earlier last week, Luna had contacted several contractors to build something of extreme proportions. The one contractor who agreed to the plans, was now having second thoughts as he talked with the rest of the workers. “Are you sure you want to implement the new system that quickly? Because all of this is new technology is not tested yet, and my boss said that he wanted it tested more.”
The director had planned for this, as he slid over a huge bag of bits across the table. “Well does your boss wants to test it now?” The contractor caved, but played along.
“Well now it’s all yours my good fellow.” The both of them shook hooves, sealing the deal.
“The construction crews will start putting in the new system next Saturday night.”
“Well, we will be done by monday afternoon.”
“Very good, we have come to an agreement then, haven’t we?”
The contractor counted the hundreds of thousands of bits he was paid, satisfied with his, “Generous bonus”. Meanwhile, one of the engineers disagreed.
“But sir, the system is faulty! You know that if they turn it on, somepony will die!” The contractor could not have cared less, but wanted the distraction to vanish.
“Well my good sir, I think this will this change your mind,” he said to the engineer as he slammed a huge bag of bits on the desk. The engineer was also more than surprised.
“Well then, I think we’re all good after all. There is no chance of failure.”
The contractor grinned. “I knew that you would see it my way.”
Meanwhile, in the present, Luna felt a shadow falling over her right shoulder. As it got closer to her, she could feel the impending doom, and could tell that it was directed at her. Luna stood her ground. “No, you are not going to do anything to me or my friends.” The shadow seemed to form a smile, with a massive grin forming on the white wall as it did so. As time moved forward, the clock of the tower struck nine, with each booming ring of the bell echoing through the darkened halls of the castle.
The darkness rushed out of the castle as Luna gave chase, but proved fruitless because of the pure speed of the shadow. It escaped, but she knew that it was probably going off for somepony, but she also knew that after it flew off, that somepony was going to die soon. But she knew that the riddle it left in its wake had the answer of the pony that it was going to kill. Luna went back into the dream world and tried to track it down, but couldn’t find it. She anguished over her inability to find the shadow.
“The demon of death,” Luna whispered to herself as she ran from every dream in Equestria. She looked and looked as dawn came upon Equestria. She abandoned the search for the shadow and she sat there as the sun came up over the mountain. She looked at what she had gone through but she saw that she hadn’t gone into her friend’s dream.
“Snowdrop's dream,” she gasped, before looking for it as she knew that Snowdrop might be in danger. She flew up to Snowdrop’s house and knocked on the front door. Snowdrop’s mother answered.
“Hello Princess,” she said as she bowed to her royal majesty before inviting her in. Luna waved aside the gesture of formality.
“Please, we are such good friends.” Snowdrop’s mom insisted.
Luna also insisted. “Please don’t. I need to see your daughter.” Snowdrop’s mom walked over to her door, and when she opened the door, the curtains are drawn shut with no light in the room. She is on the floor and Luna lit up her horn and the light filled the room. She looked down, seeing Snowdrop on the ground in a pentagram on the ground made of crimson red thread. Snowdrop was sitting up, chanting a summoning spell backwards. As she said it, the light hit her, and she screamed in a low, demonic roar.
Snowdrop’s mom ran to the window and threw open the blinds. She passed out on the ground, twitching on the ground. She woke up stuttering. Snowdrop had no idea what was going on. “W-w-what happened to me?” she asked them as Luna was crying on the ground.
“No….. Oh god no…... please don’t take this delicate angel……... please don’t,” begging whatever that shadow was, looming over them, not to harm Snowdrop. “Please move,” she begged. The shadow, in a demonic voice, gave its reply.
“NO! We need a pure soul to be satisfied! And you know this!” as the shadow disappeared. “What’s wrong sweety?” Snowdrop’s mom asked her child.
“Mommy,” Snowdrop answered. “I think I broke something.” As Snowdrop’s mom looked down at Snowdrop’s hind leg, she saw that there were black, purple, red, and light and dark blue. “It hurts so much,” Snowdrop cried as she tried to stand up on the broken leg, but couldn’t. Her mother saw her pain, and in pure motherly instinct, picked Snowdrop up into her forelegs, and carried her to the doctors office.
Dr. Autumn Surprise greeted Snowdrop and her mother as they came in. Her mother carrying Snowdrop in her hooves. “Please help her,” as the doctor saw Snowdrop’s broken hind leg. Dr. Autumn looked at it, and she asked Snowdrop how tolerable she was to pain.
“Not that much,” she replied. Dr. Autumn poured a very cold liquid onto the area.
“Can you feel me pulling anymore?” she asked her. Snowdrop did not, and she told her so. Dr. Autumn pulled on Snowdrop’s leg as hard as she could, snapping it back in place. As Luna walked in, she was getting casting in plaster. Dr. Autumn was pleased with the results. “There we go,” as she put the last globs of plaster on her leg. “Now, you’re going to have to stay in this cast for about two months.” she explained. Snowdrop was happy now.
“Thank you!” she exclaimed as she gave Dr. Autumn a hug for what she did. The good Doctor put a brace on her leg so she could walk on it. As she brought Snowdrop out to her mom, Luna was waiting outside the office. Both of them were happy to see that she was ok, but the concern on their faces was obvious as they walked away into the twilight of the setting sun.
Later that night, they looked around the house with the eerie silence of winter surrounding Snowdrop’s mom. She looked around and she claimed her nerves. She turned on the radio and she listened. The announcer spoke through the connection. “This is 93.9, The Light As A Feather Channel from Cloudsdale, and this is Daliea. Now, to wash away the winter blues,” she stopped talking as Tannenbaum began to play slowly. Snowdrop’s mom felt the heat start to blow cold air out of the vent. She felt as the air shifted to a darkness that she had never felt before, and even darker than before as she saw that the light coming from the room lamps were getting dimmer and dimmer by the second. When the light was only coming from the inside of the bulb, it left the light, and traveled to the other side of the room, and standing before her was a shadow darker than night.
Snowdrop’s mom begged. “Please, what are you here for?” she asked it, as the dark shadow smiled with a creepy white light that emanated from its smile. “What do you want, spirit?” she asked, crying on her knees in front of the dark shadow as it held out its hoof. In a flash of fire, a contract appeared. Snowdrop’s mom questioned it. “I don't understand,” as she saw the fire start to swirl around her, and she found herself back at the hospital. “Why am I here?” she asked the spirit. The spirit pointed at the bed behind the curtain. Snowdrop’s mother moved the curtain, and she saw herself in the bed with the doctor walking into her room with her dying daughter in her hooves.
“What do you want to do?”
“Save her please, she’s my only daughter. And now the only one I can have because of the accident I had.” She got up from the bed and saw her daughter lying there in the bed and as she stood there. Dr. Autumn explained the situation.
“She is in a coma, and we don’t know if she will come back. She hit her head in the crash badly, and we just don’t know if she would wake up. She started to walk out. Snowdrop’s mom begged for the doctor to do everything she could, to which Dr. Autumn replied, “Off the books, please put in a good word upstairs, because she is going to need it.” Snowdrop’s mom put her hooves together over her.
“Please if there is any way of saving my daughter, please, whatever might be listing, please save my daughter!” she saw the shadow come in and take her vision. The next day, Dr. Autumn greeted them.
“Good news Mrs. Drop! She woke up, but one hiccup. She developed cataracts, and she is blind.”
Snowdrop’s mom stood there in the doorway looking out, and saw what she thought was a dark shadow down the hall. Then, Snowdrop distracted her from her confusion. “Mother? Are you there? Why can’t I open my eyes?” Dr. Autumn looked on and put her wing around Snowdrop’s mom, walking her out of the room and giving her a big hug as Snowdrop called for her mom, but her mother was too distraught over the loss of her daughter’s vision.
Dr. Autumn walked in, and told Snowdrop that she was never going to see again because of the vision impairment, and that what she had was not curable. “I’m sorry.” he ended with. Snowdrop continued to ask where her mom was. As she reached out with her little hooves, reaching out for her mother, she walked into her mother’s outreached hooves. “I'm so sorry that this happened to you,” her mother cried as they held each others hooves.
The dark shadow brought her back to the modern day. As Snowdrop’s mom fell through a tunnel of mirrors, she saw her own reflection. She heard her daughter's voice, “Why did you do this to me? Why mommy? Why would you do this to me?” As she fell, she saw the shadow coming in around her as the dark shadow laughed maniacally. As it closed in around her, she started screaming. The Princess of The Night appeared in a flash of light using her magic. The dark shadow growled like a demon from hell as the light of Luna’s magic banished it back to where it came from. The only downside was that the banishment was temporary. She caught Snowdrop’s mom as she was falling through the space where dreams took place in the mind. Luna put her down and set up a clear dream with blissful imagery of pure happiness.
Monday, The Royal Sisters walked out in front of the weather factory for the opening of the new cloud making machine. They cut the ribbon as cheers came from the crowd that had gathered. As they cut it, Everyone was happy, but Luna could feel the negative energy gathering around her nearest, dearest mortal friend. She knew that would not be long before that thing would strike against her, settling a score between her and the dark forces of the other side for standing in their way of taking souls into the underworld where they lived. But they couldn’t, because the souls had to travel through the dream realm of reality to move onto the next life, and with Luna standing in that path, they were thwarted several thousands of times by her actions, and they finally had the upper edge on her, because of the sins that were committed working up to the five round of the Emailua where the planets would align, and the resulting energy spike would take the sinners from purgatory, and drag them straight to heaven gates on the passover of the seventeenth year, granting them access to the riches of heaven according to their beliefs that they had during life.
Luna looked back and forth, and she could feel that there was something off about the night atmosphere, and that tomorrow was going to be different than anything that they could have done to get back at them she can do to them because of the weakened magic of the draw of the power over the land later that night. Snowdrop walked towards the door to the castle after dropping off the first snowflake of the holiday season. She flew up towards her home. As she passed the weather factory, an alarm was triggered, and she just kept walking do to the echo of the sirens going off. Snowdrop huddled on the ground, taking cover as best as she could.
An enormous BOOM came from the factory as Snowdrop was shaking on the ground. She felt a sharp pain from the side of her head. As she struggled to get up, she felt around, and she felt soft and fluffy. She doesn’t. She rubbed her head. She could feel that it was now daylight outside, due to the warmth of the sun against her coat. She stood up, walking towards home as she felt cold with seemingly no wind, which was odd to her, but she dismissed it.
She was on the ground, walking around, and was walking towards a town. Snowdrop’s mom was in the sky, frantically looking for her daughter in the city in the clouds, and with the thick cloud barrier created from the explosion from the weather factory, she couldn’t see down to the surface of the Earth. She ran around as long as she could before the Royal Sisters switched out the sun and the moon for the day to night transition. Snowdrop’s mom went home, and waited for the daylight to return to the land.
Meanwhile, Snowdrop cried for her mommy for the thousandth time as she realized that she had been knocked far away from home, and she didn’t know where in Equestria she was. She walked around for a while before a low growling sound came from a bush. Snowdrop heard it and ran away from it as much as she could. She felt woozy, and collapsed right there on the ground. The snow quietly fell on the ground, slowly covering her by the next day.
Night Spirit, the local veterinarian walked with his dog, looking for blueberries in the bushes, when in the middle of the field, the dog started to dig at something in a big snow drift. “What are you digging at boy?” Night Spirit asked in confusion before walking over, and seeing the hind leg of a pony that was completely covered in frozen blood. He helped dig out the little filly, and saw that her legs had been completely crushed and shattered with a trail of red divots that led away from the spot where she had been found. “How long have you been walking for?” he asked as he knew that she was unconscious.
Snowdrop’s mom frantically flew around everywhere she could, asking anypony and everypony that she could where her daughter was, or if they had seen her. Meanwhile, Night Spirit looked at her in the house he had carried her into, and saw that she had fallen from the cloud deck to the ground, and that the impact had severely hurt her on impact with the ground. He sent a telegram to Cloudsdale and prepared for when it got delivered. Snowdrop’s mom was out looking desperately for her daughter, but she wasn’t there. Snowdrop herself sat there shivering in front of the fireplace.
Shaking could be heard in Snowdrop’s voice as she asked the pony that was helping her. “Where is my mommy?” Night Spirit answered her quietly.
“I do not know. She hasn’t received my letter yet. I hope she does soon, because you don’t have too long little one,” he said a tear welled up in his eye.
Snowdrop was confused. “What do you mean by that mister?”
“I don’t mean anything at all.” he replied calmly and slowly. As Snowdrop took each breath with each passing second, she settled in for the rapidly approaching night as Night Spirit sat down with her and wrote in his notebook that was sitting on the mantle of the fireplace. “I don’t know when she will die, but I do know that it will be soon. What with how much red snow there was, she lost enough blood that she is doomed, but not enough that she will die immediately. But she will go to heaven tonight,” read the latest entry
As he called for the local priest to come to his house at 6:00 p.m. Father Lost Legacy arrives on schedule. Night Spirit thanked the priest for coming so quickly. “You’re welcome my son. What seems to be the emergency?” the priest said softly.
Night Spirit explained the situation. “The lost filly is here Father, and she needs her last rights. The Stallion upstairs is calling, and she is going to answer soon.”
Father Lost Legacy thanks the good pony. “My son, you did the right thing. My daughter in my flock needs me,” he said as he walked through the house to Snowdrop. As he gave her the last communion and wine, he sprinkled holy water on her, and gave her some prayer beads as he prayed over her. Night Spirit thanked the Father. Father Lost Legacy begged the stallion to stay with Snowdrop, because when she would die tonight, he didn't want her to be alone. He wanted him to make her feel like Night Spirit was her family, and to make her comfortable.
Night Spirit grabbed some pillows and blankets and propped Snowdrop next to the fireplace as his dog walked over and curled up next to her. “There you go Snowdrop. Do you need anything else?” Night Spirit asked the little filly. Snowdrop asked for some water, saying it would be nice. Night Spirit agreed, and he handed her a glass of water. Snowdrop thanked him, as the time rounded 11p.m.
Snowdrop’s mom got her mail, and opened a letter from the vet, and as soon as she saw it, she immediately flew down to the town. Night Spirit heard the chime of midnight, and the howl of the wind outside the door. Snowdrop went limp on the side of the fireplace. He brought his hoof and placed it on her neck. He felt no pulse. He placed a white sheet over her and wrote the time of death in a little black book on the mantel above the fireplace. A knocking could be heard coming from the door. The deceased filly’s mother was there. “I finally got your letter. I'm sorry that I'm late,” she apologized as Night Spirit stood there with the calm and silence of the night all around the both of them.
“I’m sorry. You’re too late. She’s already gone,” he said somberly. Snowdrop’s mom was in a state of shock at the news.
“What?! No! She can’t be!” she yelled in dismay as she stood in horror. “I’m sorry Mrs. Snowdrop, but she died at the top of the hour. You’re ten minutes too late. Snowdrop’s mom barged into the house and removed the sheet over the body and she realized that what he said was true. She cried over her daughter's body.
Later that day, Snowdrop’s mother looked down from the cloud deck, and saw the trail of red snow below. The one reminder of how greed and lust for more money will only lead to death and destruction of all if ponies don’t keep track of it, and put it aside for the good of all ponykind.
Red Melting snow By Dr.Hoofs
