Into the Eye of the Storm
All I could think about while the air whipped past my wings, was the the almost unbearable chill of the air, following the line which vanished into the blizzard mere inches from my face. No sane pony would ever have chosen to fly in this weather, however I had little choice in the matter, as I no longer had any choice after the bad decisions I made three months ago.
Ah, well it seems that Hot Iron is finally finished at work. Storm cloud. Check. Target, Check. Dodge City’s best weather pony, Check. Well, it seems like I am all set to show her not to try replacing my racing horseshoes with lead look alikes again. I slowly snuck up behind the brown earth pony with the cloud at ready. When I finally inched into position above her I kicked the cloud with all my might, releasing a bolt of lightning and a loud crack of thunder, followed almost instantly by a scream.
Shaking my head to bring my focus back to the present, I looked ahead to ensure that I was still on the right course. Up through the dark white wall of the blizzard I think I could make out the dim glow from the landing lights up ahead.
“What do ya think ya doing Sandstorm! I know ya’ll in a bit of huff due to mah switching of ya’ll horseshoes, but that hardly calls for frightening a mare half to death.” Hot Iron shouted at me.
“Well, another mare wanted her revenge, and so she took the chance when it came.” I shouted back between bouts of laughter.
“Fine, Ah guess that makes us even! Now can I finally get home to sleep, as I been working on that set of armor all day? What's that smell? Sandstorm, Can ya’ll see if I forgot to put out the forge again?”
Looking over to see the chimney of the smithy clear of smoke, and seeing nothing, “Well, it looks like its out from here, are you sure you smell something burn...” As I turned to look at her over the edge of the cloud, I finally saw it. Just feet away from Hot Iron, there were small tongues of fire on the side of Old Stallion Wheat’s abandoned home. “Lookout Iron its right next to you!”
Quickly jumping to the side away from the fire, “Now look at what ya’ll did! Go get help!”
I nervously looked around to see if anypony else was around at this hour. Seeing nopony I replied “I’m sorry Iron, but I gotta bail, you must remember how the mayor was threatening to make me start working double shifts if I caused more trouble around here! Surely you can deal with it yourself,” before jumping from the cloud and taking off.
“What!? What do Ya’ll think you’re doing running off like that, somepony may need help and your the fastest way to get it!”
Focus, focus Sandstorm, even if this is probably the worst moment of your life, it will still end, so no getting yourself killed by not paying attention. This time around, I can see the pegasus chained into the harness in front of me through the white wall of the blizzard, so we must be getting extremely close to our destination.
“Now Miss Sandstorm, while I don’t doubt that you feel greatly sorry for the events that occurred, I cannot in good conscience let you you off with only a fine. Your record makes it more than clear that you do not take the decisions of my court seriously, and you continue to act without thinking of the consequences. No matter how much you mean it, saying sorry will not give these 6 ponies their fillies back. For your misuse of Weather Department property and fleeing the scene of the crime without aiding the victims, resulting in their deaths, I hereby find you guilty on all three counts of Negligent Equicide, and sentence you to 5 years in The Windigo Gorge Correctional Facility.”
I could not believe what had just happened. Not only had I killed three ponies, ruined the lives of their families, and ran when I could have saved them, but I had also finally pushed Judge Apple to actually punish me for once and ruined my entire life in the process. This final straw is what finally broke my already strained mask of having things under control. I collapsed to the floor weeping for the terrible things I had done, until the bailiffs dragged me from the room.
Coming back to reality once more, the prisoner transfer carriage had finally broken free of the eternal blizzard surrounding the Windigo Gorge. Under the light of Luna’s Full moon, I could make out the gorge, a jagged gash in the ice covered landscape of black stone and blue ice, dotted with small lights all about its interior. This remote settlement of ponykind was the home of Fort Blueblood, The Equestrian Army’s northernmost outpost and the source of no end of debate in the royal court over being a waste of taxes due to a lack of a foe around, The Snow Factory, the single largest supplier of snow to Equestria, and finally the Windigo Gorge Correctional Facility, Equestria’s sole maximum security prison for holding problem inmates and ponies that had killed another.
“And so ends one phase of my life, and another begins. I guess this is Home Sweet Home...” I said to myself as I began to cry.
“Oh cheer up silly, while it may be dark in the dead of the night, a new dawn will always follow.” a voice to my side said out startling me.
Looking over, on the other line, was a white pegasus with a curly yellow mane smiling at me. “What?”
Extending her hoof, the white pegasus said in one burst, “Hi, I’m Surprise. Can I be your first new friend here? I was just looking at you and I was thinking you were looking down and decided that when you started crying that you really needed a friend except I didn’t think you had any friends here as most ponies don’t so I decided to ask you.”
I simply stared at her for a few moments as I tried to decipher what she had just said, before shaking her hoof and answering “Hi? I’m Sandstorm and I guess a friend would be nice to have.”
