Frozen Through the Ages

The Night House stood unmarred in the hours since I retired the day before. A big block of stone, and the thestral lunatics it housed. As if to affirm my thoughts, no sooner had I opened the door than I was met with one Private Levvy who was burning a pile of papers three hooves high in the middle of the reception room. She barely turned to give me a cursory look before returning her full attention to the bonfire. The look of serenity on her face as she watched the embers was less than comforting.

"Levvy?" I asked. I dared not approach lest I tempt fate. Levvy, in question, mumbled something but made no outward sign of hearing me.

"Don't bother, she can't hear you."

Foresight stood leaning against the threshold of the office door. A mug, one I am beginning to consider a physical feature of the sergeant, was held high, motioning to his subordinate. I slowly scooted my way around Levvy and her flames and came to a stop beside Foresight.

"What?"

Foresight snickered. "We all have our vices, young Glacial. Some gamble, some flirt, others drink…" Foresight took a long draft of his steaming beverage. "...Levvy burns that which she hates most in this world."

I offer a scowl in return. "Paper?"

"Not just any paper, Colt, paperwork. Mostly unessential or otherwise trite forms or documents we have no use for. We only have so much storage space. So, once a month, Levvy gathers the worthless parchment and cooks it hard and long."

"And she does that inside?"

"She's not allowed to burn outside anymore." He leans down and whispers as loud as he can. "Some concerned townsfolk, you see, thought it might be dangerous and unsightly. So, they crawled their way up the hierarchy and got an injunction to ban Levvy from any sanctioned burnings." Foresight stood back up and nodded.

"And how is doing it in the reception area not accounted for in that injunction?" I was beginning to get a headache. I'd had enough talking for one day and even more questions.

Foresight hummed, waving his mug jauntily. "Bureaucratic loopholes mostly. Not sure if you know what any of that is, but if you look hard enough, you can read between the lines for that sort of thing. Levvy poured over the injunction papers for three days, on her own time, mind you. This was the solution."

"You're all crazy," I said before walking past my commanding officer and into the office. Point, Glider, and Dossy were each at their respective desks doing their nightly duties. It was at that moment a thought crept, raking and writhing into my already strained psyche. I turned around, jaw slack, and pointed past Foresight, who hadn't moved a muscle, to the fire still burning. "Where is the smoke? We should be choking on smoke right now."

A snicker, a snort, a guffaw, and then the breakdown. As everypony present, barring Levvy, burst into laughter. They really were all mad as a hatter. So, I waited. Seconds become minutes as the skeleton crew of Bogwood night's finest calmed their amusement to a more interrogatable level.

"I told you he'd notice," Dossy said. She flipped an ink-stained hoof through her fray mane. It was almost like she was trying to copy the Sergeant’s style. If she ever stained her mane, only she and Faust would know.

"Curse you, Colt, I'm out ten bits on that bet," Glider waved a hoof in idle rage. Though the toothy grin she was wearing told another story.

I shrugged. "That does not answer my question."

"That, my dear Glacie, may very well be the point," Freya said. She'd taken an incorporeal perch on my pseudo-desk's stool. "They're all out to get you, I'm afraid."

"It's not that complicated, Glacial. You've seen Bogweed, yeah? The tall, wiry blue plant that grows all over." Foresight pointed back towards the door.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"It's good kindling and suffocates smoke when used as kindling. Some kind of plant oil or something. A local farmer mentioned it once when Levvy and I were out on patrol. S'why there's no smoke or smell," Point said.

"Oh well, that's neat, I guess." I surrendered the query and made my way to my stool, where I sat promptly and leered out at my audience.

"Any other surprises for me on this fine evening?" I asked the room.

Foresight shook his moppy-maned head. "The night is still young, cadet. Who knows what else our humble troop might think up?" Then, given no chance for follow-up, he trotted off to his office. All of them are crazy. Which tracks. I might be crazy, too.

"You seem a bit…agitated."

Dossier had looked up from her desk, eyes dancing in the shadows of the fading light and the embers that burned bright in the next room over. Even then, the sudden concern was unmistakable—a look that mirrored one much like Father's.

"Long day, lots of personal demons." I let forth a body-wracking groan.

"Your magic is your own," Dossy said. Her tone was flatter than the hoof she slapped onto her desk. "It's as simple as that."

I was stunned by her response. The agreeable murmurs of the other two mares in the room were even more perturbing.

"As weird as your magic is, it is still yours," Glider said with finality.

"Gee, ladies, you sure know how to make a colt feel special." My tone matched my eyes in a confused mix of appreciation and dejected discontent. They meant well, but their execution was lacking. "Besides, druids aren't unheard of, right?"

"Druids?" Dossy asked. I nodded slowly. "Those are just folktales. Druids aren't real."

I balked. "Am I a joke to you?"

Dossier's blank look killed what little amusement I'd taken from recanting a joke I recalled from Hal's memories. At the same time, druids were the only answer I had that fit whatever thought giving a pegasus elemental magicks was a good idea. I couldn't bring myself to just dismiss the whole thing. The thought alone left a sour taste in the back of my throat.

Barely a week, that's all I'd gathered in a week. It wasn't a long time, I knew that. It wasn't something I could rush. There were pieces of this puzzle that were missing from the start. My headache throbbing behind my eyes. I winced, rubbing a hoof between my eyes. If not druids, then what? A genetic or magical accident, simply a toss-up, in the gable of life? I could not and would not believe that. I'd started gnashing my teeth.

"Glacial!"

I snapped back to the here and now. I blinked away, the pain still pounding in my head. I turned slowly to see Dossier leaning past her desk and over mine. Her look was enough to cause me to shudder. The fire was no longer the product of Levvy's ritual or the candles atop the ceiling chandelier. No, this was something all its own.

"Then how?!" I snapped. My entire body shook as I jabbed an accusatory hoof at Dossier. The room went silent. Dossier was in a surprised daze.

I hissed. The regret hit faster than I could react to my own accusation. It wasn't a fair question, and Dossier hadn't done anything deserving of my fury. My mind had been tumultuous for days. My hoof dropped, and I fell back onto my stool.

"Colt."

I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. Dossier hadn't moved, but the look in her eye had changed. Her self-assured nature was replaced by a dull sorrow.

"I'm sorry." The room remained drearily quiet. I had no follow-up; I was simply too drained for any level of finesse. The druid thing was merely the final straw. "If the druids weren't real, then what am I?"

I didn't expect an answer for the first time that week. I felt as much a foal as I looked. The sudden wrapping of purple hooves around me did not rebut my opinion in the slightest.

"A foal looking for answers. Something I can understand, truly," Dossy said. The hug was short, but the point was made. She offered a small smile before turning back to her work. That was that, nothing for it. The room returned to its average level of chaos, and I was left mentally exhausted. I really needed a solid lead on my stupid mark and my equally baffling talent. An ideal thought that, somehow, some way, this was Discord's fault earned a bemused snort. If he could pull something like this while in stone, then nothing on Equiss could so much as have touched him. A thought that did not aid in my mind's pleas for mercy.

"What do druids even have to do with your ice?" Distant asked. The mare waved a flippant white hoof at nothing in particular.

"Druids were said to have unrivaled magicks in controlling nature. They were also said to come from all tribes, including crystal and thestral ponies. A pre-unification sect of unified ponies. A pipe dream without any substantial proof," Dossy answered without even looking up from whatever papers she was filing. A twitch of her pale purple ink-spattered ear was the only way one could tell what she was paying attention to.

"Oh, well, that'd make sense."

I nodded along. "If it were true. But that is exactly why I was hoping they were Distant. A hope I'm going to hang onto for now. It's the best answer to my cryomancy, either way."

"Perhaps you are thinking too deeply about your talent, little cadet. Would it change anything if you were a druid or if it were simply a deviation from the norm?" Dossy asked.

It was almost comical. I was sitting in a room of what most of the country thought were deviations from the norm. Thestrals were deviants, half-breeds were deviants, and colts with unexplainable magic were deviants. It wasn't being different that hooked me to the tales of druids. It was not knowing what cosmic lottery I'd been signed up for the day I was born. The day Hal was reborn.

"Ah, give Glacial a break. There is no harm in considering all possibilities. If he's wrong, then nothing changes. Simple as that."

Night Glider smiled at me, ears twitching as Dossier's amber eyes leered up from her work. Distant Point made an apparent effort not to get roped into the stare-off. I think she was still recalling the night prior. To be fair, she cleaned the back really well.

"It is not the fact he seeks the truth that begs me to oppose his views. It is the fact he puts his hope into the least likely answer. Besides, his talent is a marvel, something to be proud of, not suspect of."

A shiver went up my spine at the self-assured glint in my mentor's eye. The type someone gets when they already know they've won the battle. An almost sadistic, toothy grin complimented the look nicely.

"I assume neither of you have anything better to do then?"

The whole room jolted; everypony's eyes flicked to a smiling Foresight, a smile one could see even as he hid it behind a stack of envelopes. I had to resist the urge to wince. Like a group of foals caught trying to sneak sweets after their parents retired to bed. The unfettered sense of despair when your parent is waiting stung hard.

"Swamped, to be frank, sir," Dossy answered. Her amber eyes fell back to her own papers. If the grin still on her lips was proof, I'd say she saw the boss before he made himself known. Thestral hearing was ever the mystery.

Night Glider shrugged. "First sweep is in two minutes, sir. Plus the deliveries you wanted." Glider looked at the envelopes, which the sergeant fanned coolly.

"Very true, Corporal. Though, I do have a request."

He turned to me. "Another sweep lesson?" I asked. I knew the answer. He knew I knew the answer. The only answer he knew I didn't know, I knew, was if I could keep pace with Glider.

Levvy was an endurance flier, which meant a speed one could maintain. Glider on the other hoof was far more lithe, and her wings might have seemed overtrained if she were a pegasus. Combine that with her smaller size, compared to Levvy, and you have a speedster if the Night Guard ever did have one. The picture of a particular prismatic mare from the distant future came to mind. They both oozed confidence and competence in the extreme.

"Exactly. Besides, more things are done out there than looking for conniving criminals. Like." Foresight fanned his envelopes harder. "These."

"Actually, that reminds me." I turned to Glider, who'd already stood preparing for her flight. By this, I meant she was stretching, with bones and muscles popping and flexing in her eagerness to move. "The corporal is always eager for mail calls, right? Mail from the mountains and all that."

"Yeah, we've all got somepony up there to write too," Glider agreed in somber reflection. "Actually, if you wanted to. You could send one up to your dam. Only if you want to, of course. I know that is a bit touchy for some."

Glider couldn't meet my eyes. It was bewildering. She'd gone from a bright idea to regret in less than a sentence. To be fair, I hadn't actually considered writing Dam. I hadn't ever even thought I could. The "Mountains" were always portrayed as a hellish snowscape of death and misery. What courier would ever make such a trek? The answer, in hindsight, had been staring me in my face. A thestral one is who.

"That's actually not a bad idea," I mused. My lack of immediate rebuke seemed to return a bit of pep in Night Glider's step. This made me feel less stupid for not doing something like a letter sooner. "If you don't mind, Sarge."

Foresight scoffed. "Adding a single letter to the stack perish the thought. I'm sure your poor dam would be over the moon. Blessed Luna, be willing."

"Right then, mind waiting a couple more minutes, Corporal?"

Glider rolled her eyes. "It was my idea, you know?"

"Touche."

So to paper I put quill. If one can call it that. My nearly illegible hoofwriting would have been mortifying if I wasn't sure half of Bogwood couldn't write at all. I bit my tongue. That wasn't fair, and I knew it. Even if there were some who couldn't, it was not due to a lack of intellect or capability. Some squires and messengers made such work their living. When one's cutie mark was for writing or delivery, why would the less inclined need to pick up a quill at all? That was the price one paid for knowing what every other pony's destiny was with a glance.

They may not have bothered, but Hal did, and Father made sure Glacial Zero was never helpless, not thoughtless enough to seek aid in something any pony could do for themselves. Dam was where my poor technique came from. In fact, her written skill made mine look like any master's pen stroke. Which meant she'd know mine anywhere. As I would know hers.

I kept my letter brief. I'd wait to see if she got the first before sending a novel's worth to the mountain sanctuary. Foresight and Night Glider seemed confident and encouraging enough to try, at least. I hadn't even noticed the tear before it landed on the paper. A tear that baffled me. Why was I crying?

"A bit too much, dear Glacie?" Freya asked. She had taken a floating position beside me, her head lying over my shoulder. She smiled gently, the wavering breeze in her hug a gentle reminder of her presence. It was soothing in some way.

"A bit," I whispered. A second tear had fallen. It felt almost nice. The older guards said nothing. They pretended not to notice. They weren't very good at it. I caught a pensive look from Dossier. She'd even scooted a hoof or so closer. It made me happy. In a way, I couldn't immediately explain. It simply did, and that was enough.

"Dear Dam,

I should have written sooner, a lot sooner. I didn't know some couriers went up the Faust forgotten mountains the thestrals claimed as their own. Maybe I didn't want to know that it was easier to pretend. I think Father knew; perhaps he even sent letters. If he does, he never told me. I'm not some stupid foal anymore. If Father hasn't talked with you. I got my cutie mark last week. It's a weird one. It might fit up in those mountains you now call home. Cryomancy, not pegasus magic. No pony knows how or why I can use it. That, or somepony, is keeping secrets. I bet the Princess knows. There's a lot I should tell you. If you get this letter, I'll write more. Sergeant Foresight has taken me under their wing and even has me helping at the Night House. They really miss you here. I miss you too, a lot. I hope you get this, I hope you respond. I don't want to forget you, to go so long, I can't recall your face. Father deserves better, too. You did nothing wrong, nothing to be sent away. You deserve better. So, I'll write to you later, so please get my letter.

Love,
Glacial Zero."

"Done," I said. I reread my letter again and, with a somber nod, pushed the letter across my cabinet desk. Night Glider did not give it a second thought. She scooped the paper up, gave it a hearty blow, and folded it crisply. Foresight winked in my direction before turning around and returning to his office.

"Great, now up and at 'em, Colt. We have errands to run and criminals to hunt."

Glider motioned me to follow as she jauntily skipped toward the front door. I had to scramble to not get left behind. She was out the door before I'd even made it to the primary office's own door. Curse my short legs and Glider's perambulations.

Glider was waiting at the door, one hoof on the door handle. She offered a chaste wink and pushed the door wide. She motioned for me to proceed, which I did, and trotted into the quiet night. A night like most in Bogwood. No border toads, or will o-wisps, not a Fire hornet or bogwatcher in sight. A shiver ran through my body, just imagining a bogwatcher. The lanky, black, shadowy creature. Hunched forward like its own weight was too big a chore to hoist. The scythe-like arms and those eyes were whiter than anything Hal or I had ever seen; there were no pupils, just endless emotionless white voids.

I was roused from my overactive imagination with a tap on the shoulder that had me jump several hooves off the ground. The pounding of my heart and the blood rushing to my face were almost enough to drown out the giggling behind me. Both Glider and Freya were failing to suppress their amusement. Which was no surprise.

"Not funny."

That only had Glider snort harder. "A little funny."

"Poor Glacie scared of the big bad Corporal," Freya said between giggle fits.

"Whatever."

My dearest commanding officer took that as a cue and rocketed off the ground with enough force to send up a dust cloud. A mucky, boggy dust cloud that would take forever to get out of my coat. My ascent was far less dramatic. To the point, Night Glider was looping around me as I listlessly climbed into the night.

"Oh, come on, Colt. That can't be your best. Maybe we should hit the training yard first, get a few hundred wing-ups to get you warmed up…" Glider stopped mid-flight and hummed to herself. "...might need to do that regardless. Some endurance laps, too. You're way behind in your flightcraft. Curse that father of yours. He works way too hard."

"That's not really fair. Your wingspan is like double mine. You're also the fastest pony in the group if Levvy was being honest." I crossed my hooves and huffed.

"She was, and I am. We'll wait on those wingups. Errands come first. So, let's flap those wings of yours. Let's see how fast you can really go."

I offered a groan but complied, trying my best to keep up with the whirlwind some in town called Night Glider. Her name was on point. She became a blur in the dark, an unfettered force of nature on wings. She slowed it down a bit so as not to lose me completely, but even going all out, I simply couldn't keep up.

"She's going to fly you ragged if you aren't careful," Freya said. She had matched my pace with ethereally little effort.

"True, but it is good practice. She wasn't wrong about me being behind. I really should be flying more than I do."

Freya waved the comment away. "It isn't like you have much reason to. The town isn't that big, and the swamp is no place for foals, ice colt or not."

"Still—" Freya shushed me.

"She stopped."

Night Glider had stopped, and she wasn't alone.

"This should be fun." I spat the words out like poison on the tongue. My flying technique suddenly seemed very unimportant. Night Glider stared at the mare who'd hailed her. Her own contempt matched my own.

Captain Freezy Breeze, lead Weathermare, and one of the few ponies in town I had no interest in seeing, so help me, Faust. Yet, she was here, face to face with Night Glider. The look the two were sharing was not doing my anxiety any favors. If she saw me sidle up beside Night Glider, the captain did not show it.

"I have places to be tonight."

I'd missed any greetings and made it just in time for the barbs. The older mare's scowl deepened further. An ear twitched as she leaned closer. She was maybe a hooves length from being muzzle to muzzle with my senior.

"And I have orders. So, take them, bat."

Freezy Breeze hoofed a stack of papers against Night Glider's chest. The corporal made no aim to grab them. This earned a growl from Freezy. Her face was becoming red, in contrast to her lighter colors. It would have been amusing if it were anypony anywhere else.

"Excuse me?" Night Glider asked, slowly emphasizing each syllable as she went.

"Take the papers." Freezy jabbed them harder into Night Glider's chest.

I found myself apt to say something. Everything the weathermare said had me grinding my teeth. The fur down my neck and withers were standing on end. While Freezy Breeze made every effort to ignore my presence, Night Glider had noticed, and the look she gave me out of the corner of her eye was puzzling. The intense leer made it hard to meet her gaze for more than a second. I was an unwanted guest in a private conversation, cadet or not.

"The tension in the air is to die for. Such raw emotions. There's a story here, I'd bet everything you own on it," Freya said. She nodded sagely from Glider's other side.

The story was correct. Freezy Breeze made little effort to hide her dislike of thestrals. To the contrary, she'd shout it from the rooftops if she thought it might get them out of Bogwood faster. That was simply Freezy Breeze's M.O. This, though, the look they shared, spoke volumes of a history neither enjoyed. The way their words were barely a whisper even when nopony was around to hear. Well, besides me and Freya.

"Orders would suggest you go through the proper channels for all crown-based missives and determinations. I am not your courier, so back off." Glider swatted Freezy's hoof full of papers away. The venom in her cold, militant response could choke out a viper from ten paces out.

"You're here, and your boss isn't. So, just take the weather reports and get the tarturus out of my skies. You deplorable whorse."

The dam had broken. The thin veneer of civility had crumbled to dust. I was beginning to understand Night Glider's earlier look. This was no place for third wheels. I glanced about to find that if anypony else had been around, they'd been smart enough to find any other place to be. Everypony except for me.

"Like a foal fit twister, but in slow motion. Right, Glacie?" Freya asked. That phrase was almost enough to earn a rebuke. It was a familiar foal's tale. An uppity pegasus foal throws a fit and starts a storm or cyclone in their home, burying everything and everypony inside. It was horse pucky, and everypony knew it. Yet, here, it might be as applicable as it ever had been. Two unstoppable storm fronts had collided, and somepony was about to have a terrible night.

"Corporal, ma'am, we have errands—"

"Cadet!"

If I didn't have ice running through my veins literally, I'd definitely have it metaphysically right now. This time, Night Glider didn't bother looking back at me. She and Freezy were too busy signaling their desperate desire to beat the other to death with their eyes to bother castling even the swiftest look my way.

"So, you went and took in the stray, I see. I almost regret losing my temper the other day. No foal should have to work with the likes of your joke of a guard."

I don't know how to take that. I'd go with rude for now. I was not sure how personal that was meant for me. Though, I'd opened my mouth. So, the debris I caught was squarely on my shoulders.

"Leave the colt out of this, or else."

Freezy cracked a humorless smile. "Is that a threat, Corporal?"

I coughed hard into a hoof. Both mares turned to me. The captain looked on the brink of spitting in my direction. The corporal looked ready to slap me upside my foal head. I wouldn't blame her if she did. I wasn't sure what provoked me to speak. A sudden throbbing need in the back of my head. Something primordial, a force beyond my conscious wit. "The corporal was simply inferring that I wouldn't sit here and silently allow a mare who ran me into the swamp last week to play judicator."

The look I received was grim. Without another word, Freezy Breeze pressed the papers in hoof into Night Glider's and left. It was no victory. The silence applauded my efforts. I shouldn't have said anything. The look Night Glider gave me sat in solemn agreement.

"That was unwise, Colt." Night Glider said.

I nodded. "I agree."

My senior's brow sank. "Do you?"

I nodded again. "Stepped in toad dung, real bad."

Glider scoffed. "More like wyvern dung, cadet."

I tossed what little wry bravado I could off the nearest cumulus cloud and into the swampiest mudhole in a ten-mile radius. "I'm not sure why I said anything at all."

"Because you're a foal that less than a week ago was run out of town by a plothole of a mare. A local legend or not, one who should have known better."

"A tribalist plothole," Freya corrected.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Night Glider dismissed me. "At least you did it while on duty. It might not have ended as well if you were with your friends or, Faust forbid, alone. It was stupid, but it could have been worse." Night Glider shook the papers Freezy had left with her to the heavens.

"Right, you're right. It could have been much worse."

Night Glider mumbled something to herself before looking at the same papers she'd been flailing about. Several seconds passed as her eyes darted down the lines of text. When she concluded, she hummed before mumbling something else. This time, the words Foresight and pain were quite easily overheard.

"Corporal?"

"It's a warning. For a tropical storm. Rolling in through Baltimare in the next few weeks. A right nasty one, too. Captain Breeze wasn't talking out her plot about orders, after all."

"That bad?"

Night Glider stared harder at the storm warning. "Worse."

"So, what's next?" I asked.

"More midnight tussles over Bogwood, perhaps?" Freya suggested.

"Back to the grind, Colt. Back to the grind." The next few minutes were silent as we continued our patrol.

"Corporal?"

Night Glider shook her head. The irritation she'd had since Freezy had flown off still sat on her brow. It did nothing to help the unsettling ache in the back of my head.

"Yes, Glacial?" She'd used my name. She didn't do that often. My heart sank a little. Yet, Freezy Breeze's eyes, that day she'd run off, didn't retreat from my mind's eyes. A contrast of loathing and shame wrestled for control of my face.

"I wanted to ask about Freezy Breeze, or I mean, the why of it all. If you don't mind?"

"The why of it?"

"Why did my 'Special Talent' make her so angry? I'm tired of asking why it doesn't fit in. It is enough to make a colt scream." It was, but screaming into the void didn't solve anything. I wondered if my 'dreams' and 'nightmares' were related. In hindsight, they were stranger than my cutie mark still. Hal was stranger still.

Night Glider's face softened. She smiled gently through tired eyes and a racing mind. She smiled all the same. "Those are good questions. One of the reasons I don't think anypony in Bogwood can answer is that. But that isn't a bad thing if you ask me. Some of us simply have to discover our paths all on our own."

"Not when ponies want you gone even before you got a weird talent. I just want to be left alone, for Father's sake."

That earned a bark of laughter. "For Weathered's sake, huh?

My cheeks puffed out as I leered back. "Yes."

She laughed again. "Colt, Bogwood is a small town. We only have a few local leaders and heroes. A few names that come up. Mrs. Whimsey, Bramble Breach, Mayor Hard Tact, and a couple more. Your sire is near the top of that list, you know? One of the few stallions on it at all."

It was like a slap in the face. She wasn't wrong. The list of local 'legends' was short. Everyone knew the mayor, or Whimsey, or Bramble. I knew Father was somepony all the dock hooves sang the praises of. But I'd never considered what that meant. I'd never needed to, in hindsight. The docks were Bogwood's lifeblood. If one ran the port, one ran the very heart of Bogwood. I wanted to kick my own flank. Everypony that came to Bogwood would know one name.

"I never really thought about it like that."

"Ever wonder why nopony has come pitchforks and torches in hoof to run you and your father out of town like some of the others?" Night Glider's words erred on the line between bitter and pedantic.

"Because they need him," I finished her thought.

"They need him," Night Glider agreed. "But to answer your question. I think you're luckier than you give yourself credit for."

I cock a brow. "How so?"

"Well, have you ever had thestral magic explained to you, past the obvious, the stuff any and everypony knows?"

If I had, I did not recall it. "No, I don't think so."

Night Glider's hoof shot out and jabbed me in the shoulder. "Then, somepony did you a disservice. Half thestral or whole, its knowledge worth knowing."

I rub my almost assuredly bruised shoulder. "Go on."

"Well, let's jump past the ones you likely do know. We are a bit bat-like in appearance, lowlight, not darklight sight, better hearing, and membrane wings rather than feathers. All of that sounds familiar, Colt." It was not a question.

"Yes."

"Well, that's all the easy stuff. The rest is a little less interesting."

She had my attention, and if the smirk on her lip was any indication, she knew it. She also knew that it was something I should have already known, if not by asking, then by looking into it myself. I may only be half-thestral, but I'd still neglected half my history.

"For instance, thestrals can, of course, use clouds and manipulate weather, but not nearly as effectively as pegasi. That's why there are no night weather teams. Thestrals are also the smallest of the pony tribes mostly. Which we are reminded of more often than I care to admit. Oh, and we can also take in protein through meats, as it is semi-omnivorous by nature. That is one of the reasons some ponies insist we're secretly vamponies. A tale that was as old as intertribal relations themselves. That isn't even the strangest assumption some ponies have come up with."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Some believe thestrals can see and commune with the dead. Which, unlike the vamponies thing, came out of nowhere. I don't get it at all. I've never seen any ghosts."

Like a lightning strike it hit before I could put thought to it. The dead, seeing the dead. That was not what I was expecting. Hal's world had thestrals only being seen by those who have seen death. Death, ghosts, connections between two worlds. If thestrals could see the dead, I doubted it'd be seen as a rumor. There were a lot of people and ponies who would have paid top bit for even a moment of closure. The thought was awe-inspiring enough, as was the fact I'd never even considered what thestrals might share between worlds.

"You okay, Colt?"

I blinked back to reality. Night Glider was waving a hoof in front of my face. I snorted and pushed her limb away. "Yeah, just a bit to consider."

Night Glider grinned. "If I didn't know any better. I'd say you looked like you'd seen a ghost yourself. Or maybe you had a sudden need to suck somepony's blood?"

She laughed along with her own jokes. I offered only a pout in return. She meant it as a jest, but I wasn't so sure. "And if I had?"

Glider rolled her eyes. "You'd be the first."

"Anything else, on thestrals, I mean?" I asked.

Glider shrugged. "Our tactile kinetic field is stronger than pegasi and unicorns. Though earth ponies crush us on that front."

"You mean our grabbing field?"

She nodded. "Yep. Oh, and we can't get vertigo. Which is nice."

"Wonder if I inherited that?" I mused.

"That's about it if I'm honest. Thestrals aren't as special or mysterious as some of those cackling nags would have you believe."

It was refreshing to have somepony who was willing to delve into the half of my heritage that was simply taboo amongst the denizens of Bogwood. When one could be hounded, harassed, and shunned for mentioning anything similar to the wrong, nosey old mare. The herding mentality in small towns like ours was something that most were unwilling to rebuff. "Thanks for telling me. Even after I made a foal out of myself with Freezy."

Before I could react, Night Glider had planted a hoof on my head and ruffled my mane with a vengeance. "You are a foal. You'll make mistakes. That's part of growing up."

If only she knew. Which made my idle threat all the worse. I was only making enemies with a mare that had more pull in town than most. If she really wanted to make my life Tartarus, Freezy Breeze absolutely could.

"You think Captain Breeze will see it that way?"

All Night Glider's mirth withered up and died. "Can't say, Colt. But, turning a town on a foal is a tall order. I can't see her caring enough to fight that battle. But she could."

"That's reassuring," I said, offering a whine.

"Even if she does, the Night Guard doesn't abandon one of our own."

I offer her a blank look. "The same guard that some want to run out of town?"

That earned me a swipe to the back of the head. "Too far, Colt."

I supplicate and surrender. "Sorry."

"Right then, back to work, cadet."

I nodded along, but as we made our way into town on whatever errands the sergeant had prepared, a stray thought and idle eye connected a set of dots that left me far colder than any spell—a deep-seated blood-slowing chill down the spine.

"Freya? Freya!"

There was no reply.