Hearth's warming tale: Lost in snow
Ire Heaven watched specks of snow fall gently from the sky from the second floor window in her bed of her house with boredom, she could hear the jolly voices of her neighbors and friends, fillies playing, and ponies singing somewhere within Ponyville, she felt no joy seeing the joyful scenery, all of them means nothing to her other than lies, she even felt heat rise up inside of her when she saw a cyan mare with rainbow mane flying around, singing.
Deciding to go down and make some hot cocoa, Ire went down to the kitchen, made the drink, and sat down, proceeding to satisfy herself with the power of chocolate.
That is until she heard knocking from the front door.
Sighing, she reluctant trotted to the front door “Who is it?” she asked, a hint of annoyance dripping in the tone.
“It's me, Stormlight”
Ire's frown quickly vanished, replaced by a smile, she opened the door, yellow eyes of her friend, Stormlight stared at her, the latter had a saddle bag on her back and giving her a casual smile similar to Fluttershy “Happy Hearth's warming, Iree”
“Happy Hearth's warming to you, Stormlight. Come in, I'll make some hot cocoa” Ire stepped aside for her friend to enter. As her friend walks to the sofa, a white ball of cold snow made an impact on Ire's face, causing her to turn around as if she endured a slap. She glanced at the ponies outside, her eyes narrowed and looked from pony to pony like a predator looking for a better target. Before asking everyone kindly along the lines of 'Which of you featherbrains throw this piece of snow at me!?', she heard a young voice with a southern accent saying one word which immediately made the source and its friends her target.
“Run!”
Ire's not having it, and decides to retaliate, she picked up what remains of the snowball, added a few snows into it, before hurling it at three fleeing fillies, hitting the orange one on the back. Satisfied, Ire closed the door and went to make some hot cocoa for her friend.
Ire went back to the living room a mug on each of her wing wings: one for her and one for Stormlight.
“Here's your hot cocoa”
Stormlight smiled “Thank you”
They sat on the couch, occasionally taking sips of their drinks in front of the chimney, which is one of the two suppliers of warmth, the other being the hot cocoa. Stormlight, as if realizing something the reason she's in Ire's house put down her mug and ruffling in her saddlebag, she pulled out something square wrapped in red wrapping paper “Here, I came here not to spend time with you, but also to give you this”
Ire silently took the gift from Stormlight and tore it open, revealing a blue blank cover of a book, she went to first page and smiled at what she saw.
“You didn't stole any of my old family photos back at Canterlot, didn't you, Stormlight?”
Stormlight lifted an eyebrow “I got permission from your father to get a few copies of them when we were checking on them in our previous visit” she explained.
Ire looked back at the photo album, and behold the oldest picture of her ever taken. She was just a baby when this colorless picture is taken, she rode on her mother's back as they and her father posed for the camera, though her mother seemed to have a hard time smiling as baby Ire is pulling a strand of her mane. Ire snorted and went for the second page. This time, it was her family's deceased old butler, giving the camera a wacky face as baby Ire cried on her crib. She heard Stormlight saying her baby version is so cute.
She flipped to the next page, this time she was a filly, smiling alongside her family, then a picture of her when she first attended school, then another picture of her and... Stormlight. This picture is veg more unique than the previous ones, or even the next other pictures waiting to be revealed. The picture depicts Ire, her parents, and Stormlight, standing on a snow-covered street, Stormlight wears a yellow scarf, the same scarf the latter is currently wearing.
”This photo was taken a day after my family found us” she uttered in a hushed tone, turning to look at Stormlight.
“Remember when we first met, Iree?” Stormligh showed her scarf, “This wasn't even mine when we first met, it was yours”
Ire took the scarf and stared at it. The windows suddenly burst open as a heavy breeze swoop into the living room, blowing Ire and Stormlight's mane and sending cold to their bodies. Stormlight began to see flashes and hears yells of distress from the past, from the day when she met Stormlight.
Harsh wind beat against her body, every step she take gave her freezing cold, and everywhere she looked, she saw white, her mind clouded with the desperation to find her parents, having separated because of the merciless blizzard.
“Mommy...! d-daddy...!” she cried out, but only the breeze answered her as she is forcefully pushed by from all sides, causing her to I casionally stumble “Mommmmmmy! Dadddddddy!” she stumbled once again, this time her jaw almost made contact with the snowy ground, her face down and her rear up. She quickly got up, wondering aimlessly.
After wondering for a couple of minutes and the violent blizzard hasn't give any hints of stopping, Ire's hope began to diminish. She fell on her stomach, little tears began running down to her cheeks, crying out for her parents one last time before resting her head, closed her eyes, and sobbing to herself.
“I-I-I want my mommy, I want my daddy!”
“Your mommy?”
However, first signs of luck came as a soft, young voice. Ire assumed this was just her mind, desperately trying to calm, even as she heard muffled clops. Ire did not even lifted her head from the snow, for her heart stopped.
...
How long she's unconscious? Probably for a long time for her to succumb to extreme cold, but she's still alive, breathing and freezing, yet when she went back to consciousness, she felt warmth. Ire opened her eyes and behold, she's surrounded by rocks of the earth, a bonfire burning and giving her both light and the only defence against the bitter cold.
She must have been found by some traveller!
Ire glance around her, wanting to thank her savior. To her surprise, there was no adult in the cave, just her and a filly.
The filly in question sat by the bonfire, her coat slightly covered by bits of snow, every breath she makes comes out a white fog, her body shook violently, but she did not seem to care, she just stared at Ire like an owl.
“Where am I?”
“You woke up” the filly said in a dull, emotionless voice ”Why aren't you with your parents? They must be very worried about you”
Ire's eyes widened, tears began to stream out from her eyes “M-My parents....disappeared” she sniffled.
The filly stared at her with sympathy “That must be traumatic” she stood up and approached Ire “Are you hungry? Walking for hours out in the winter wasteland with a winter storm going on for days must not only tiring, but can empty your stomach form all of that yelling” Ire nodded, the filly sighed “There's no leaf, but i guess you could stomach this” Ire's eyes followed the the filly, who went to a bird laying nearby, the animal seemed to be sleeping. The filly picked up something from the sleeping animal, then showed it to Ire, whose eyes widened once more, this time in horror.
“Beak could not handle the cold and he was very weak, so he decided to offer himself to me so i could eat something” the filly offered her a piece of the bird's insides “I know this doesn't look or taste like an appetizer but birds are one of the few creatures who could stand against the cold”
Ire quickly denied, reaching out her forelegs in a gesture t “N-No! It's so disgusting, put that thing away from me!
The filly frowned. Ire was just glad the filly decided to put down the piece of meat from the bird when her stomach decided to show its didtress by growling loudly. Ire let out a sigh, as the filly offered the piece of meat once again. Closing her eyes, she reached out her hoof and grabbed the 'food' with great reluctance and didgust, feeling the soft flesh, she opened her mouth and quickly put the meat inside and gulping it down, not even using her teeth to break the food into smaller pieces. The taste was very bad and very undesirable that she unconsciously stuck out her tongue “Bhleg!”
The filly stared at her, looking as if she is thinking about something “Can you eat snow?” Ire's body froze upon hearing the mention of eating snow “There are no any water sources for miles and the only things we can get water are snow”
Ire nodded, at least snow is better than eating meat like a carnivore.
...
Now, she has to face yet another enemy, vicious than the filly and her strange last resort meal. Boredom.
Yes, boredom.
Ire leaned against the cave wall with boredom while the filly mutter some kind of plead for forgiveness from the dead bird. Ire lifted her head from the wall and regard the mare with didgust “Can you do something fun other than 'that'?”
The filly lifted her head “Fun?”
“Yes fun, as in play or enjoying something”
The filly stared at the entrance “I guess we can start a snowball fight with the wallll. I always do that every time I got bored”
Ire frowned “That's boring” she picked up some snow outside “How about this!?” she tossed a small snowball straight into the filly's face, who stumbled by the force ahe recieved from a small and soft thing. She cleared her face of the snowball matter and spoke her reaction and opinion about the assault.
“Offending and such a sadistic game, yet you find it enjoying and fun. Interesting” Ire frowned, not expecting to get this kind of reaction as the filly approached her “Kind of interesting if I did the same to you” before Ire could even react, the filly suddenly picked up a handful of snow and smeared it on her face, she stumbled and spit out a few which got inside her mouth, she glared at the filly.
“So, you're challenging me, huh? Nopony won against any snowball fights with me, not even my da-” however, in the middle of her ranting, a ball of snow made an impact on her face. Again.
“Mmm, this game can reveal the pride within this filly's heart. What a very interesting game indeed”
At that moment, Ire decided to live up to her name.
“I'M GOING TO BURY YOU!!”
The two fillies wasted most of their time throwing snowballs at each other, all the while running around the blizzard which had gotten a little bit violent. They soon collapsed on the soft snow, taking deep breath from the fatigue for running for a long time. Ire stared at the dark white sky, smiling, hints of a filly finding companionship from her lost parents now lost. She turned to the filly “You're a pegasus too...like me” she said, just finally noticing the filly's wings “Ya know? You are very weird, but you are great. I'm Ire Heaven. What is your name?”
The filly, also smiling replied “I'm Stormlight”