Friendship is Survival

by rlogic1994

Chapters

Prologue: A Soldier's Call
Chapter 1: Arrival
Ch 2: The Team and The Test
Ch 3: The Search
Ch 4: The Visitor
Ch 5: The Mission
Ch 6: Survival
Ch 7: The Search
Ch 9: The Sacrifice
Ch 10: The Relinquishment
Ch 11: The Promise
Ch 8: Allies and Enemies

Prologue: A Soldier's Call

Friendship is Survival
By Mmadhu94
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Prologue: A Soldier's call
Cloudsdale had always been quite well known; it was one of the main weather centers and biggest cloud cities in all of Equestria, but it was also well known because of the events that occurred in the town and the people who visited and lived there. The large Pegasus statue in raindrop plaza was an appropriate tribute to Cloudy Skies, the brave captain of the Pegasus guard who lost his life trying to subdue a windigo that had broken out of the Canterlot Magic Research facility. Many more statues and plaques riddled the walls and squares as reminders of the people who had put their lives on the line to save equestria or those who had risen to fame but were originally from the small cloud city, such as the Wonderbolt known as Soarin. There was also a large statue of the 6 bearers of the Elements of Harmony, put up in the months after the Discord incident.

These reminders also told of events such as the famed battle between Stormy Skies and the famed Pegasus vigilante Night Wing. Because the city was so famous it attracted a lot of people, many of which were now putting finishing touches on the late fall weather changes. Although they were proud and happy of their work, for both the Princesses came to Cloudsdale to thank them for such a good job, they were also fearful. For the past few weeks, a chilling wind had been blowing from the north, a wind that had not been created by any pony.

It was the result of the recently started 2nd Griffin war and the removal of several weather spells in the snow capped mountains far north. Tensions between ponies and Griffins had been high since the last war 12 years ago, and although they were both hateful of each other, neither really wanted another war. The speed at which this new conflict cropped up surprised both pony and griffin alike, but with these fresh wounds reopened, the hatred and murderous intent did as well. The ponies had always been a mostly peaceful race, but when the tensions between ponies and griffins, which came from land and trade conflicts, escalated to a boiling point, chaos ensued. It started with a griffin caravan arguing with a pony town to the north over trade rights, which quickly turned into a brawl. And with their superior talons, they killed almost everyone in the small town, their rage over the apparent unfairness of the trade rights manifesting itself in violence.

Then the governments stepped in, both the Equestrian and Gryphonian army marching towards the northern boundary between the two countries. The following 2 years became known as the 1st Griffin war. But even though that is what they would say in the history books, it meant so much more to those who had lived through it and saw what it left in its wake. The 1st Griffin war was the event that set a deep hatred between ponies and the griffins, their originally shaky diplomatic relationship shattered by the bloody events of the war. The first war was one that shook all of equestrian, compared to the Discord incident in the years prior. But unlike with Discord, the war brutally ravaged the innocence and peace of Equestria. With the 1st war, ponies became bitterer than before, with even the Royal Sisters not retaining their usual unconditionally gentle and generous attitude. But even after the war had ended, many were still shouting for blood, which is the main reason the 2nd war was received so well by the majority of Equestria's population. At this point both countries were massing and mobilizing their forces.

Yet none of this truly effected Cloudsdale much except for the dampening of the usually lively attitude of the cloud city with a sense of fear. Most of the Pegasi were home with their families and friends cherishing what might be their last days with them since Canterlot had passed the armed forces draft bill. But even with all the Pegasi home, one young mare roamed the empty streets. Her brilliant white coat and cold blue mane shining in the moonlit corridors of the outer parts of the city, she slowly progressed over the grey nebulous pavement. It was cold out, but Frigid Drift had always had a tolerance for the elements that not everypony possessed. She strolled to the edge of the city, looking over the edge of the white puffs that lined it. She stretched her wings a little, her ocean blue eyes slowly surveying the lands below. She'd seen it all before, but something about the town below and the sea of apple trees in the distance calmed her.

She could see a few lights still on even though it was near midnight. A small shimmer coming from a room in the Carousel Boutique, run by a perfectionist fashion pony named Rarity who had just returned from the Manehattan Army Base a month ago and was being pulled back into the base tomorrow. There was also an obnoxious glare from the library, no doubt the book smart Twilight Sparkle trying to learn a new spell or her face buried in a good book. She was most likely taking her last chance in relaxing since she was also being shipped off, but to the northern foothill base in the uncharted no-man’s land between the Griffin and Pony lands. Of course the only reason she knew that was because of the frighteningly large amount of time she had spent stalking a certain rainbow-maned cyan Pegasus. But this certain mare had also been shipped off some time ago, her rank in the army being that of a Brigadier General. But even thoughts of Rainbow Dash didn't distract her from what was going to happen tomorrow. As she looked upon the dark landscape with a sense of serenity, she shut her eyes and finally came to terms with what she had been crying about for almost a week; "Tomorrow, I'm going to be drafted into the Equestrian Air Corp..."

Chapter 1: Arrival

Friendship is Survival
By Mmadhu94
Friendship is Survival CH 1: Arrival
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Frigid Drift was lying in her room fast asleep as the sun rose above the horizon, painting her room with yellows and reds, bathing her in warm rays of light. The change in environment awoke her, her eyes slowly opening. She rolled over and looked out the window. It was dawn. She looked at the Wonderbolts clock to her right and took a few moments to register what time it was.

“Well I guess it’s time. *yawn* Hey mom! I’m gonna head out to the ships!” said Frigid.

“Not before you get a good breakfast and a goodbye from me!” replied her mother, with slight tones of distress hidden in her drowsy voice.

Frigid came down the stairs and met her mother with a smile. She could tell by her mother’s red eyes and tear stained silver coat that she had been crying. Although Frigid had taken the draft notice a little badly, her mother had taken it equally as bad, her body language suggesting she was depressed about her daughter leaving. They stood there for a second looking at each other.

“Today’s the day, mom. I gotta get going.”

“Well at least take some fresh baked chocolate chip muffins! I know it’s your favorite!”

Her mother thought that the aromas of the freshly baked muffins would lure her daughter to linger for some time. But as she placed the plate laden with muffins on the kitchen table, Frigid simply looked at it and shook her head. For frigid, she needed to get to the Northern Base as fast as possible, as directed by the letter she received from Colonel Macintosh. She walked over to her mother, who was surprised at her daughter’s refusal to eat. She stopped for a moment in front of her before putting her hoofs around her mother in a tearful embrace. Her mother’s lip quivered, her sniffling giving away how close she was to bursting into a sobbing fit out of concern for her daughter’s safety.

“Mom, I can’t stay anymore. I have to leave…I…have orders...”

She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and turned away towards the door, a few tears still rolling down her cheek and onto the ground. And with that she left, her mother looking through the window at her daughter with sorrowful watering eyes, having held back the urge to run out and try to stop Frigid from leaving. The 2nd night after receiving the notice, Frigid and her Mother argued bitterly about answering the call of duty. There were many excuses that she could use to shirk off the orders, but she wanted to try and be brave for once. Her mother finally agreed that she did need to come out of her shell more and let her answer the call.

Down the street the snowy Pegasus walked fast and with long strides, trying to give off an air of confidence. But she slowed a little as she reached the end of her street, which gave her a view of the rest of Cloudsdale because her house was near the top of the cities levels. Frigid couldn’t turn back now. She needed to get to the Northern Base not only because of orders, but because there was a Pegasus she was hoping to meet. She took to the air, staying low to the ground. She had trained hard for weeks so that her wings could get stronger; she really didn’t want another embarrassment to happen like at the last Winter Wrap Up. She held back tears as she remembered how much shouting she had taken from the one pony she had striven to impress: Rainbow Dash. Now wasn’t the time for tears though; she was going to war, where there wouldn’t be time to cry. She slowed down as she saw the docks come into sight, the sun rays reflecting off the metal crafts that lay beyond the dull wooden platforms at the edge of the clouds. She came to a stop and trotted over to the growing crowd of pegasi waiting to board the ships. The group was a mix of pegasi from Cloudsdale and from surrounding cloud towns that were farther east. They were mostly quiet, partially out of drowsiness and partially out of nervousness.

Frigid shifted her vision to the ships, which were much larger up close and resembled enormous arrowheads. They towered over her and every other Pegasus in the docks and cast a shadow over the crowd. The dull metal that they were made of looked like it had dents of every size scattered across the bottom and sides. She didn’t want to think of what could have done that. As she was examining each ship, she wondered how they floated in the air as if it were water. And as if to answer her question, an assembly of unicorns exited each craft in an orderly and uniform fashion, their horns all glowing as a sign that they were what kept up the skyships. Each of them didn’t look as stern as on the posters for the draft bill, but what was a little intimidating was their lack of any sort of expression at all. As if they had no soul. It creeped Frigid out just a bit.

She saw a slightly smaller and sleeker black craft approach the clouds to their left, its hull bathed in a red glow of magic. On the side were a Sun and a Moon messily painted on the side, signifying that it was a carrier for higher up officers. There was only one unicorn inside who came out and stood by the entrance, his horn glowing brighter than the others, with his eyes also glowing slightly. He had a dark red coat and a fiery red mane. To Frigid he looked a little evil. But he, unlike the other unicorn guards, showed emotion; he showed a look of optimism as he looked over the crowd of pegasi, a small smile creeping onto his face. His eyes snapped from the crowd to something farther away and his face lost its emotion.

From the back of the crowd 2 unicorns walked through the crowd towards the craft. One was Rarity, a colonel, and the other was none other than Twilight Sparkle, a lieutenant general. Both walked with their horn glowing, as they added to the red glow around the hull with their own purple and blue magic. They were quickly followed by an orange earth pony named Apple Jack, a brigadier general, and a shy looking yellow Pegasus named Fluttershy, a lieutenant colonel. Of all 4 ponies, Fluttershy was the only one that showed much emotion, no doubt because the others were deep in thought about what was to come and Fluttershy was always known to be nervous. Again the only reason she knew this was because of her stalking Rainbow Dash. Sometimes she thought she was a bit obsessed, but then discarded the thought, thinking that it wasn’t that wrong that she watched the bright blue Pegasus without her knowing. Frigid also noticed that the ponies looked older than from her stalking days. They still looked quite young, but somehow more tired and saddened. It had been quite a few years since the Discord incident, so it was understandable. But Even Frigid was surprised at how young they looked, as if the discord incident was only a few years before when it was quite a few more. Frigid then recalled reading about how the Elements of Harmony imbued each of the bearers with some of the magic contained in the elements. Apparently this magic slowed their aging in a similar way alicorn magic slowed Princess Celestia's aging.

Frigid followed the 4 figures with her eyes until they were no longer visible, hidden by the walls of the craft, which sped up and shot out of the docks into the distance. A horn blew out from each of the bigger bulkier transports as the entrances opened up and the unicorns herded the pegasi into each carrier. Frigid walked to the nearest one, looked back on Cloudsdale, and stepped across the threshold into an adventure she would not forget for the rest of her life.

She was surprised at how comfortable the carriers were. Although there were no chairs or seats, the carpeted floor was soft enough to lie down and there were a few small windows letting in light. While some of the other pegasi played cards or talked eagerly about the battles they were looking forward to, Frigid kept to herself near a window. She looked out at the landscape flitting by below the vessel, thinking about what she would do if she met the Pegasus who she wanted to meet, the Pegasus who was her father. She saw several land vehicles with wheels being driven by more unicorns on the ground, carrying weapons and ammunition. Although it wasn’t her first time seeing guns and cannons, she couldn’t help but feel nervous. Killing another creature was not a foreign concept to Frigid, but it was one she did not think about often. As she contemplating the situation, she didn’t notice an orange coated magenta maned Pegasus sneaking up on her.

“Hey Frigid!” the Pegasus said eagerly.

“WHA-! Oh…hey Scootaloo. So I guess you got the draft notice too?”

“Yeah, I didn’t really want to go, but my dad said it was a big honor or something.”

They turned to the window and were both quiet for a while, both lost in thought. To Frigid, Scootaloo had always been kind of a rival. Although neither of them disliked each other, they were indifferent when it came to their relationship as fellow Flight School graduates. The only reason for their competition was because of both their desires to impress Rainbow Dash, albeit this endeavor was a bit less pronounced now that the cyan Pegasus spent so much time in the army. Apparently before the 1st Griffin war, it had been decided that one of the elements of harmony had to be a representative in the armed forces. It was pretty obvious that the daredevil Rainbow Dash would take the challenge. Apparently she was supposed to be in charge of some of the more covert operations.

She looked over at Scootaloo who was now looking out into the distance through the window just as she had been a few minutes ago. The orange mare was about as strong as Frigid, but her body was a little bit more muscular because of her work with the cloud kickers. Her cutie mark, what looked like some sort of a javelin with a dusty trail behind it, was evidence of her love for speed. Frigid looked down at her own cutie mark, the blue ice crystals that reflected her love of the cold and resilience to the elements. Lost in her own world, Frigid didn’t notice the rest of the ride getting quieter and quieter, as pegasi were dropped off at different bases and the ship set its course for its final destination at the Northern Base. Frigid let her eyes slowly close as she took a quick nap to gather her strength for what was to come.

Frigid’s eyes jolted open at the sound of the ship’s exit ramp sliding down and hitting the ground with a dull clank. She stood up and looked around. Other than her and Scootaloo, there were only a handful of other Pegasi left. She stretched her body a little as she shuffled out of the ship. The cold air of the North hit her face quickly and caused her to cringe a little. She let her eyes adjust to the bright light of the outside world after being inside the dark airship for several hours. She took in her surroundings with awe; there were pine trees and evergreens everywhere covered in snow, and looming mountains in the distance. The ground she walked on crunched as her hoofs parted the newly fallen layers of the white powder. While she was taking in the scenery, she failed to pay attention to a waiting pagasus guard, who she almost knocked over when she ran into him.

The guard glared at her for a moment and then proceeded to lead them into a misty cavern that was some distance away. The ground around them had less snow on it and looked like it had been worn down by many other hoofs. She noticed that many of them were much bigger than hers and for a moment was a little frightened that she was too weak to be doing this. But she quickly disregarded the thought and retained her original air of confidence. She had practiced in front of a mirror at home to get the look just right so she didn’t look arrogant. She looked over at Scootaloo again, who seemed to have the same confidence by nature. She redirected her attention ahead, so that she didn’t have another collision with the guard and started taking in the surroundings as they entered the mist. As she went through, she swore she saw a glow around it that looked like magic.

“Is this mist…glowing?”

“Yes, the unicorns put a spell to block unauthorized entry encompassing the entire base.” Said the guard Pegasus with the same indifferent attitude the unicorns in the ship had displayed.

Once again she started wondering about the vast magical ability of the unicorns and what they could do. She snapped back into reality when she heard Scootaloo gasp. She turned to look at what was so surprising. The base was more mysterious than she imagined. The walls of the cave extended out in an enormous oval shape, so large that the curve of the wall at the entrance looked almost straight left and right of the opening. What was inside was even cooler; at the bottom of the cave was a vast field of stone with some creeks weaving in between the spikes and boulders that littered the field. Above the floor, were tons of small white puffs, with tents on each one of the clouds.

As Frigid’s eyes moved up, she saw the ceiling high above her and saw that some of the clouds were only a few feet below the top. She knew enough about the air corps to know the highest tents, which were visibly bigger, were reserved for the highest ranking officers. No doubt the 4 ponies who had embarked on their black ship were now present there. She started looking at the other tents, a few on a grey cloud to the right with a red cross in a white circle stitched on the side, a sign of the medical tents. A few bigger tents farther left had 2 crossing swords on the side and several gun barrels visible through the opening in the tent, armory tents full of weapons of war. Then farther down the main path that they were on were a whole flurry of clouds with hundreds of tents visible on each vast stark white cloud, no doubt the barracks housing all the air corp pegasi recruits. There were some other tents farther away, but Frigid couldn’t tell what they were for; they were unmarked, but were only distinguished by their stormy blue color that characterized the tents for higher up officers. Each cloud had bridges between all the other puffs, creating a network that was used to send messages to other parts of the camp. But what made the base look so cool was the fact the magic mist lightly covered everything, giving the whole place a slightly mystic vibe.

“Welcome to the Northern Base” announced the guard, with a slightly more ominously epic tone than he had shown before.

Another guard was waiting for them when they reached what seemed to be the center of the base. He talked to the other guard for a moment and then pointed at Frigid, Scootaloo, and a Pegasus who Frigid had come to know as Aurora Skies. The three mares were led off onto one of the cloud bridges to the right, while the rest of the group filed off to the left.

Frigid and the other two new recruits looked a little uneasy. The guard that had met their guide was a grey stallion wearing golden armor, a symbol of his status in the well-known Higher Royal Guard. The fact that they had been singled out by someone who commanded High Royal guards was a bit unnerving. All three ponies shakily followed the guard, their anxious emotions growing as they approached the stormy blue tents in the back of the cave that were visible when they had entered. And to make it worse, the mist had piled up near the tents, veiling the entire area in a grey haze and making their legs invisible to them in a sea of vapor. Suddenly all the confidence she had practiced left Frigid, a feeling also shared by Aurora Skies and even the naturally confident Scootaloo. The guard nudged them and pointed to the tent that seemed as if it were miles away, even though in reality it was only a few yards away.

“Can’t you…um…escort us in? I mean you are a guard…”

“Sorry, but I am not allowed into the special recruit training information tent. It is reserved only for ponies important enough, so you should be honored.” he said with an expressionless tone.

And with that he disappeared in the wall of mist behind them, leaving the 3 shaken pegasi alone on the misty cloud. Finally they slowly started walking towards the tent, a few lines of light leaving the crack at the opening of the tent. As they reached the tent entrance and poked their heads in, a deep blue Pegasus with silvery hair turned to them and addressed them with a happy tone.

“Aah! The Pegasi recruits are finally here. Well then all three groups that were requested and recommended are here. I will inform the others.”

He left and trotted through a second opening at the back of the tent into a second room. As the pegasi waited, they took notice of 2 other groups of 3 ponies, one group of earth ponies, and the other group consisting of unicorns. They were all about the same age. As they eyed each other one of the earth ponies with a cream coat and dull orange hair broke the awkward silence.

“So do you guys know why we’re here?”

“Well apparently this is the tent for some special recruits thing,” replied Aurora.

“Special recruits? What’s so special about us? I mean no offence, but we don’t exactly look like the cream of the crop,” said a unicorn with a pink coat and purple mane, a light purple explosion for a cutie mark.

“Cool cutie mark!” said Scootaloo, when she had noticed the explosion on the mare’s flank.

“Oh thanks! But it’s not as cool as it looks, I can just do reaction magic pretty well, but that’s it.”

“REACTION MAGIC?! Whoa that’s awesome!” said another unicorn.

As they all started speaking they established that none of them really knew what was going on and that they all had some talent that was not exactly amazing but not very common. As they all started to get to know each other, a voice in the back room shouted something about getting to the fresh meat and 4 ponies filed out of the drape door in the back. All of the young stallions and mares gasped. Before them stood the blue pony from before, but now with 3 very well known ponies, who were all looking down at the 3 groups. Beside blue pegasus stood the legendary Brigadier Generals Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and the great and powerful Lieutenant General Twilight Sparkle.

Ch 2: The Team and The Test

Friendship is Survival
By Mmadhu94
Chapter 2: The Team and The Test
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

As the 3 groups of ponies stared at the 3 mares in front of them, the 3 ponies separated to each of the groups that were of their own race. Then Twilight Sparkle spoke, although the younger ponies were still dumbstruck.

“So you are all probably wondering why you’re here. And the answer to that question is that each of you has a special talent that is not common and can be very useful in many situations. After the 1st war, it was decided that a team would be put together, a team that would be trained to be adept in both fighting and intelligence, a team that could fight the battles that normal ponies couldn’t. I was handed the task of picking out recruits, and because of my limited understanding of the potential of races other than my own, I asked Applejack and Rainbow Dash to help me by choosing earth pony and Pegasus recruits. You are the result of our search for the right ponies. Each of you has a talent that can be utilized in a very powerful way, although it will take time to hone your skill. Now you may also be wondering why we chose ponies who were so young and the reason is that we needed new recruits so that we could shape them without previous training conflicting with our own strategies and methods. For this reason you have been chosen to be agents of this operation. But you do have a choice, and if you comply, you will be enlisted in the Alpha Team of Operation Blackwing.”

This explanation that had calmly and quickly left the violet unicorn’s mouth fell heavily upon the recruits in front of them. Some looked confused, some looked like they were deep in thought, and some looked as though they had blanked out, with no visible differences on their faces from before Twilight had started talking. Then slowly they started looking at each other, the 3 officers in front of them talking in hushed tones next to the drape door near the back of the tent. Frigid was one of the ponies deep in thought. “Is this my chance to come out of my shell? Was this my chance to earn the respect of her family and earn the right to be a part of the legacy of her family? This is my chance and I can’t turn back now. I’m tired of running away. And plus if Rainbow Dash is part of this then I will be too!” she thought. She looked around to the other ponies who were still lost in thought and stood up as tall as she could. She got slightly surprised looks from the 3 war ponies in the back and marched up to them as confidently as possible. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, and looked up at all three of them.

“I’m in.” She said, with as much determination as she could muster, saying no more or less than what she wanted to.

“Well looks like it’s the pegasi who’re gonna be the ones to line up first! Just like I said.” Replied Rainbow Dash with her usual somewhat arrogant tone, a comment to which the other ponies reacted by standing up and mirroring Frigid’s words of agreement.

Soon all the recruits had agreed and the 3 war ponies had slight smiles on their faces, obviously
pleased by the speed and manner at which the recruits had accepted their fate. The 3 looked at each other and Applejack told each group to follow the pony of their race. As the Earth Ponies and Unicorns were led out of the tent, Rainbow Dash lingered for a bit longer, lazily plopping herself onto a chair nearby. She looked at the remaining pegasi and pointed down, symbolizing a command for them to sit. They obliged and found a spot on the ground to sit down. Then Rainbow closed her eyes and spoke.

“I have one more command for all of you…and that is: impress me.” She said, with her eyes still closed.

“W-what?” replied Aurora, clearly puzzled by the cyan pegasus’s demand.

“You will have 1 hour to prepare a show of skill to me and prove you deserve to belong on it. I mean did you honestly believe you were just going to be let into one of the most elite teams in the entire Equestrian Armed Forces with nothing more than a special talent? No. You will have to earn the right to learn from me and become an Alpha Team member.”

At the words ‘learn from me’ both Scootaloo and Frigid opened their eyes wider. A chance to learn from the best flier in all of Equestria? That was a chance that Frigid would work her flank off for. The Pegasus waved her hand, shooing us out of the tent, where the deep blue Pegasus from before was waiting. He led the 3 recruits to a small cloud with a few scattered tents and a couple benches, a quiet spot to gather their thoughts in order to come up with a plan to impress Rainbow Dash.

Almost immediately all 3 pegasi split up and sat down as far away from each other as possible so that they could concentrate in complete peace. Or at least without the other two’s presence to disturb each pony’s train of thought. Frigid sat down and retreated into her own mind, trying her best to shut out the outside world. She had to think hard and come up with a plan so that she could learn from one of the best flyers in all of Equestria.

”Impress her? What could I possibly do to impress her. I’m not the best at either agility or speed. I would have to play to my strengths! Which are…stamina? Yeah! I could always endure longer than all the other flyers in Flight School when there was Winter practice. And it was practically winter year round this far into the Windigo Mountains. But how can I use stamina to wow Rainbow Dash…”pondered Frigid silently, her train of thought steady and unbroken.

As Frigid racked her brains for ideas, time was ticking by. And before any of the 3 recruits new it, the deep blue Pegasus snuck up on them, landing gently on the center of the cloud and announced that the 1 hour to prepare was over. The 3 young mares stood up and followed the blue Pegasus off the cloud. They turned right when they got to the cloud with the stormy blue tents on it, parting the dense fog that had rolled off of the misty cloud. Although all the pegasi tried to maintain a sense of confidence, Frigid was feeling the exact opposite. “What am I going to do!? All I can think of is a few tricks and flying in the cold. That can’t impress Rainbow Dash! I need a better plan,” she thought. Passing many of the clouds to the right of the blue tents, Frigid could tell that they were heading for a small hole in the wall of a cave with a balcony. As they neared the platform, Frigid recognized that it was nothing more than a couple planks of wood held together by a few rusty brackets. She nervously landed as lightly as possible, making sure that she didn’t rock the platform at all. But she noticed that the blue Pegasus had landed without caring about the platform’s seemingly doubtful structural integrity and caused no change in the platform’s position. “It must be more unicorn magic,” she thought. As they entered the hole in the wall, Frigid could hear a shrieking whistle coming from farther up the cave. She soon realized that it must open up to the outside of the mountain where they were going. They went on for some time through the winding cave, the grey stone becoming lighter and lighter as they reached a lighted area of the cave.

They entered into the area with some apprehension, for it was bathed in an eerie turquoise light that gave the entire place a creepy feeling to it. When all 3 of the pegasi had reached the cave, the blue Pegasus left them with a guard and went forward through the opening at the other end of the large cave. The cave itself had little more than a few shattered stones and weapons that looked centuries old. But these strange artifacts weren’t drawing any attention from Frigid, who was mystified by the light source at the side of the cave, a mounted crystal that shimmered brightly out with turquoise light. Noticing her trance-like state in seeing the crystal, the guard trotted over to her and offered an explanation.

“That’s a Lumos Crystallos. From what I know they are naturally light emitting and with some magic can emit brighter light of all colors. Apparently they are a pain to get because they can only be found in very high altitudes, like in the caves above this one that are scattered across the mountain,” said the guard.

“Oh…yeah,” replied Frigid, not paying much attention to the guard, already lost in thought rethinking her strategy to impress Rainbow Dash.

The blue Pegasus kept them waiting for about half an hour, enough time for all 3 of the young mares to work up enough courage and confidence to make the best attempt possible in their performance. The older Pegasus led them through the opening on the other side and through a series of side tunnels that were now a light gray from the light flooding each passage from the exit visible at the end. When they finally approached their exit, a wall of white light almost blinded them.

They entered into an even larger cave with an opening to the outside about a hundred feet away. Closer to the edge of the cave were a few wooden posts and loops, set up for the pegasi’s display of skill. On the far wall, the Earth Ponies and Unicorns were congregated in a small gathering, talking amongst themselves and not acknowledging the newcomers. But what really grabbed the newcomers’ attention was a table set up in the center of a cave, with 3 stools and 3 mares on each of those stools. Each of the pegasus’s faces went pale, as the fact dawned on them that all 3 of the warmares and not just Rainbow Dash were going to be judges of their skill. The 3 turned towards the newcomers and Twilight Sparkle gestured for them to come over to the table. Their approach was a slow one, each of the ponies neither wanting to see nor be judged by the 2 other experienced war ponies. When they finally reached the table Rainbow Dash looked at each of them and started speaking in her usual tone.

“So I hope you’ve got something cool planned, ‘Cuz I want to be impressed. Twilight and Applejack are also here to judge your skill, just like me and Applejack helped judge the unicorns. Now there are no scores or grades for this, only a yes or a no. We set up a few obstacles for you to demonstrate your skill with, so one of you go out there and show us if you have what it takes!” She said, putting an especially vigorous emphasis on her last statement.

“Aurora Skies?” called Twilight Sparkle from the list she had in front of her.
The sunset yellow Pegasus stepped forward, preparing herself for her demonstration by stretching her wings and legs.

“GO!” Shouted Rainbow Dash, watching as the Pegasus took off.

Aurora was obviously trying to play to her strength of agility, which was not reflected by her cutie mark. But nonetheless she was skilled at flying between each agility obstacle, easily passing through the loops, some being barely bigger than her body, and gracefully passed through the posts without even moving one. She tucked her wings in and shot past the swinging sand bags, but she wasn’t the fastest Pegasus; one of the sand bags almost hit her. She landed on the wall with her legs and pushed off, proceeding to drop her altitude so that she was only a few inches off the ground. She then proceeded to flying underneath the stages holding up the loops and posts, avoiding all the supports and netting under the wooden platforms with ease. She then arched her back and did some tricks, loops and corkscrews, while avoiding the rocky spikes at the top of the cave. Then when she reached the wall she pushed off again, but lighter this time, and gracefully landed in front of the judges, receiving cheers and applause from the crowd of new recruits near the far wall. Her graceful movement in such close quarters was breathtaking to Frigid, who could only watch in awe of the yellow Pegasus. The 3 war mares looked at each other and nodded, as if they already knew each other’s opinion.

“Well done. It’s pretty obvious that you aren’t the fastest Pegasus. But what you lack in speed, you definitely make up for in agility. I must admit you get major wow factor points with that smooth stuff you pulled underneath the obstacle platforms. I guess you have what it takes. You’re in,” announced Rainbow Dash.

A squeal of glee left the yellow mare’s mouth, which she quickly covered, surprised by the high pitched tone that she had accidently let out. She was a little red in the face as she flew over to the group of new recruits, met by congratulatory pats on the back and high hoofs. Next up was Scootaloo, who emitted her natural aura of confidence now more than ever.
“Go!” yelled the cyan Pegasus.

Scootaloo transformed into an orange flash as she took off like a bullet. She had veered to the left and came around, tackling the posts first. She weaved in and out of them, maintaining her lighting fast speed, and nudging a few. Her speed was not unexpected, but still a sight to behold. She sped up to the far wall and then took a u-turn, trying to gain as much speed as possible. A small cone of white was forming around her as she reached the other wall and changed her direction to the opening of the cave. She skimmed the outside of the cave, maintaining her speed and not accelerating while also avoiding the harsh and tearing wind on the outside. She then landed on the edge of the cave opening and launched toward the hoops with another burst of high speed. She corkscrewed and twisted through each one, only leaving a couple shaking with her speed when she touched the sides of them. She then proceeded to go straight up and then started flying in between the bigger spikes that were farther apart, avoiding them without touching one. She gained more speed and then started her spiraling descent to the ground. Just as she was about to land on the ground a small vortex of dust formed in the center of her spiral and she landed in the middle of it, blowing away the papers on the table. She looked up at her judges, panting.

“Well, I gotta say you did pretty well kid! You weren’t as agile as Aurora over there, but you were pretty damn fast. I mean to be able to make a funnel like mine takes some pretty high speeds, even if yours wasn’t as large. But remember that you can’t be tired after a mission like you are now; you might have to fend for your life at any moment. But you still did pretty sweet. You’re in,” The cyan Pegasus said with a slight smile on her face, recognizing that to learn from her had been a dream of Scootaloo’s since the orange Pegasus was a just a filly.

Scootaloo jumped up in the air yelling ‘YES!’ loudly, drawing a wild cheer from the crowd. She looked at Rainbow Dash with the most grateful face she could muster, which was a struggle considering her exhaustion and her Rainbow-Dash-like arrogant attitude. She walked past Frigid who was stricken with anxiety. Her name was called next and she walked forward, taking a deep breath. “Here we go Frigid. This is your only chance. No turning back now. You gotta do this right!”she thought to herself with closed eyes.

“Go!” shouted Rainbow Dash

Everything started to go in slow motion as Frigid took off with as much strength as she could muster. She tried gaining speed before heading to the obstacles. She swerved to the right sharply and went through the posts, only nudging a few, but without the speed that Scootaloo had maintained. She then proceeded to the hoops, gaining speed all the while. She corkscrewed through all of them without touching one and knew she needed to go faster. “If this is going to work I’m going to need a lot of speed,” she thought to herself as she changed her direction to the ceiling like the 2 pegasus who preceded her. When she reached the top, she made a silent prayer for her safety, and let gravity turn her around, setting herself into a dive. She fell fast, reaching a blinding speed that even she couldn’t believe. At the last minute, before she hit the ground, she opened her wings and steered herself, maintaining the high speed from the fall, towards the opening of the cave. “This is it…”she thought, as she tucked in her wings and shot straight out of the cave into the whirling storm of snow outside the cave.

“Did she just…fly outta tha…?” asked Applejack with concern.

“Yeah she did. I really hope she knows what she’s doing, ‘cuz I’ve seen blizzards like this kill pegasi before. We can only hope she’ll survive,” replied Rainbow Dash, with a hint of distress in her voice over the stunt the white pegasus had just pulled.

She had expected the wind to be bad outside, but with her speed, it clawed at her sides like some icy monster. She could barely see because of the flurry of snow being thrown around in the air, a torrent of ice and wind. But although the winds were unbelievably harsh, it seemed like she could feel their movements and predict what they would do. With this 6th sense, she used the winds to give her speed, which gave her the momentum to pull off some loops and spirals, leaving trails in the falling snow. She spiraled down towards the empty white sheet below her and then when she was only feet above the snowy landscape, let her wings catch the force of an updraft and send her sailing towards the clouds. As she shifted from one updraft to the other, the grey wall of clouds above her grew to an unnerving size, their magnitude being more massive than any cloud she had ever seen. But she couldn’t be afraid now that she had come so far. She closed her eyes in another silent prayer and took a particularly swift updraft and sailed further up and into the mass of clouds, no longer visible by the judges and the crowd, who had migrated to the edge of the cave to watch her performance.

“This isn’t good. I don’t think she can survive the conditions up there,” said Twilight Sparkle, with a nervous look on her face.

“Don’t worry, I think she’s stronger than she looks,” replied Rainbow Dash, looking off into the clouds at where Frigid had been only moments ago.

The first thing Frigid noticed as she passed through the clouds was the intensifying chill of the freezing temperatures. As she progressed through the grey puff, she couldn’t see anything a foot in front of her. The sheer amount of time she was taking to fly through this layer of stony vapor, even with the help of the wind, scared Frigid. She had been going through it for over 5 minutes now and still it seemed as if there was no end in sight. She was considering turning around when she started to feel the updraft weaken, a sign that she was near the top of the cloud layer. She started beating her wings harder and harder as the wind began to fail to keep her at a high speed. Then she felt the wind turn into nothing but a puffing zephyr and took control of her speed, bursting through the top of the cloud layer into the clear skies above it.

The piercing chill above the clouds was almost unbearable, even for Frigid who had always loved the cold. She swooped around in the breeze, searching for something and caught sight of what she was looking for in the form of a small dark cleft in the rocky snowy wall of the mountain in front of her. She dived toward the cave, tucking her wings in again to gain speed, and getting nearer and neared to the small opening. As she flew into the cave, her wings opened, slowing her down drastically and allowing her to land on the cave floor. She looked up and a tired smile came to her face. She had found what she was going to impress Rainbow Dash with; above her was a single transparent and slightly glimmering crystal jutting out of the ceiling.

Frigid flew up and took the thing in her mouth and pulled as hard as possible, hearing a crack as the crystal came free of the stone, leaving a few aged cracks across the cave ceiling where the crystal had been. She then walked to the back of the cave and positioned herself for a quick take off, stretching her wings a little before pushing off from the wall with all the force left in her legs. She sped out of the cave and back into the blistering cold and turned downward, trying to read the snow clouds for a place where there could be a possible downdraft. When she saw an indention in the clouds suggesting such a possibility, she sped towards it, feeling the suction of the wind current picking up. When she reached the indention she fell into a dive and barreled through the cloud layer, the biting wind ripping past her. She closed her eyes and kept falling, feeling the wind and the environment for the right time to come out of the dive. She kept falling, with the crystal in her mouth, and happiness in her mind from the fact that she had come farther out of her shell than ever before by doing this. And she liked it.

Below her, in the training cave, the crowd of ponies was starting to get nervous, including Rainbow Dash, who silently thought to herself. Her face echoed her worried thoughts: “Had she been wrong? I mean I really thought that the white Pegasus had something more in her than speed and agility. But maybe she didn’t have what it takes…” It had been over 20 minutes since Frigid’s disappearance, and some of the other ponies were suggesting that they should get someone to check on her, in case she was hurt or worse…taken by the snow and cold. Just as Rainbow Dash was getting ready to take off into the blizzard, one of the unicorns pointed at something in the sky and started shouting. Rainbow Dash looked up, and saw a small white and blue speck falling from the clouds, going so fast that it brought some of the cloud down with it. Rainbow thought for a moment that Frigid was hurt, but then saw that she was slowly changing her trajectory towards the cave. Frigid shot towards the opening until about twenty feet before reaching it, when she opened her wings, showering the spectators with the ice that had accumulated on her wings, and landed softly in front of the crowd. Panting, she looked up to her judges, who more than anything looked surprised, the feeling even more emphasized on their faces when she dropped the crystal before them.

“Whoa,” said Scootaloo, mirroring everyone’s thoughts at her arrival.

“You’re in,” said Rainbow Dash, saying nothing more about her performance.

The blue Pegasus herded the crowd of new recruits out of the cave, as the 3 judges talked.

“Rainbow…” said Twilight, her voice full of uncertainty.

“I know Twilight,” the rainbow mare replied with her eyes on the ground.

“You realize that only 4 other pegasi other than yourself have ever done what that white mare just did and she is the youngest. To be able to take those conditions and be able to find a Lumos Crystallos? She is something else, even if she wasn’t as fast or agile as Scootaloo or Aurora.”

“I know…” said Rainbow Dash, thinking deeply about the white Pegasus. “Who the hell are you Frigid Drift? Who the hell are you?” she thought to herself.

Ch 3: The Search

Survival is Magic
By Mmadhu94
(NOTE: The OC in this story is from ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com, and because i am partially advertising his OC, the owner of the tumblr will be doing pics from this fic. Check it out and follow his tumblr!)

Chapter 3: Training

After their show of skill, all 3 groups of the team were led by the same blue pegasus out of the cave and back into the main encampment. Until now she had not seen how the Earth Ponies were moving around; the pegasus could fly with wings and the unicors with magic, but what about the earth ponies. She watched as they trotted right off the cloud, very confused that gravity wasn’t dropping them down. Then she saw that under each of their hoofs was a small cloud that held their weight. She noticed a glow coming from small amulets they were all wearing. She had seen so many things today she didn’t question it and looked ahead. Flying past a few of the clouds, Frigid noticed the blue pegasus’s cutie mark was just a shield with a bright four pointed star centered on it. She wondered quietly to herself what talent it could possibly represent. As she let her eyes drift around, she noticed some of the other ponies looking at her with confused looks on their faces. She looked away quickly, realizing that they were probably surprised that she had flown into the torrent outside.

The blue pegasus led them to a small set of tents that were next to the stormy blue one. He left and told them that they can pick a tent for each of them. There was also a bigger tent that served as a place for them to be when not in the tents, because there could only be one pony in a tent at a time. The group dispersed and each pony picked a tent, exploring the interior to see what they had been provided. The inside of the tent was a simple setting; it consisted of a lumpy mattress, a lantern, and a small makeshift table that looked more like a piece of cardboard taped to a few twigs. She went over to the bed and let herself totter and fall onto it. She didn’t want to face the convicting stares of the other team members who were probably gossiping about her now. She could hear talking from the bigger tent and tried to shut it out by covering her ears, trying her best not to be aware of where she was and trying to imagine she was in her old bed in her room in Cloudsdale. She awoke suddenly to the sound of breaking glass followed by hushed voices coming from the bigger tent.

Frigid got to her feet. She wasn’t planning on getting into trouble for what the others did, so she had better help them cover it up. She walked up to the tent, still hearing the hissing whispers floating out from the larger tent. She took a deep breath, ready to endure a barrage of judging stares. But when she pushed aside the flap and entered, she was met not with accusatory stares, but excited ones. She was even more surprised when smiles crept onto some of their faces as she took a step back. Then as fast as lightning, the small crowd of ponies rushed over to her, overwhelming her with a vast amount of questions and praise on her performance.

“Finally out of the tent huh, high flyer?”

“Oh my Celestia that was awesome when you went into the blizzard!”

“How did you survive the cold?! I couldn’t take more than a few jabs of wind when I flew next to the edge!”

“Are you single?”

At that last question, everyone got quiet and looked at the soft blue unicorn blushing at the back of the group who had asked the question. For a second they didn’t say anything, and then they all burst out laughing at the stallion’s unbelievable question. Frigid smiled and looked around at her fellow teammates and saw that they didn't suspect her of anything after her stunt at the try outs. She looked back to the exit, contemplating whether to leave and get some rest, but decided to stay and talk; she still had to come out of her shell! But she didn’t stay quiet. Answering the continued interrogation by the others of how she had survived the stunt she had pulled. Even Scootaloo joined the crowd that was amazed by Frigid’s survival, in a way accepting the fact that they had both equally impressed Rainbow Dash. This q&a session lasted for a few more minutes before the ponies went back to talking in small groups.

Frigid met up with Aurora Skies and the soft blue unicorn from before, whose name was Azurus. They talked about their lives before joining the army, thinking nostalgically back to the times when they hadn’t a worry in the world. Frigid found out that Aurora was from a family that mostly worked during the summer, clearing the sky of any clouds and also making the weather as pleasant as possible. Although it sounds easy, Aurora assured us that it was almost as hard as the winter team’s job, because they had to make sure the temperature wasn’t too hot or too cold and make sure that the sun wasn’t too bright or too dim. Their job was to make each day as perfect as it could be, which was not as much of the case with the winter team. The job of the winter team was to keep the cold out and that was pretty much it. Azurus’s parents worked as spell researchers and worked with regenerative spells, which was probably why his cutie mark was a circle with a 7 pointed star inside it which signified synthesis and creation magic. He told us that it was confusing to explain, but basically it was the rearranging of the parts of some object, whether it is a stone or a sword, and changing it into a different object that is made of the same material.

He started telling us about a theory called alchemy, but from that point on the words that were coming out of the young stallion’s mouth flew completely over Frigid’s head. She left him saying something about transmutations and meandered over to a trio consisting of a unicorn and 2 earth ponies who were waving at her to come over. As she was walking over, the unicorn stallion, who had a silvery grey coat and a blonde mane, closed his eyes and let his horn glow a little. Frigid was a little confused at what he was doing, but quickly realized as he suddenly appeared next to her, having teleported from the group. He grinned at her and then with a glow of the horn teleported back, again gesturing for her to come over.
Frigid resumed her course and joined the new group. All of the ponies soon became acquainted with one another and knew a little about each other. It was around eleven o’clock when the blue pegasus came in and informed them that they had to return to their tents at 11 sharp every night, as curfew would be put into effect after 11pm. And any pony venturing outside in the camp would face consequences. He said it with a hint of contempt in his voice, pushing aside the flap and exiting the tent. The ponies scattered and filed out of the tent, hurrying to each of their small tents.

When Frigid reached her tent, her level of exhaust hit her like a train, her body letting itself tip over onto the lumpy mattress. “Well I guess for a 1st day, things weren’t so bad…”she thought to herself. She shifted into a more comfortable position, grabbing the blanket that was nothing more than a pale thin sheet. As she let her eyelids drop, she could see the mist forming around the ground near her tent, creating a wall of light grey vapor outside visible through the gap in her tent’s entrance. Outside of her tent a cyan pegasus lay low in the billowing mist, watching the mare fall into a deep sleep. She thought to herself for a moment before flying off to her own quarters. She met up with 2 other ponies who emerged from the mist on her own cloud. Both Twilight and Applejack had answered to her message.

“She seems like any other mare…” remarked Rainbow Dash to the other 2 ponies.

“Yes, but there is something about her that seems familiar. I can’t place it, but there is something. I just don’t know,” replied Twilight.

“Well we can’t just judge her cuz she has some unusual talents. Ya know that, don’t you?” said Applejack, with tones of drowsiness edging into her words.

“Yeah yeah, I know Applejack. *yawn* Well we should all try and get some sleep, tomorrow we’re gonna be out all day with the new recruits. We’ll discuss this some other time,” offered Rainbow Dash, with tiredness slipping into her own expression as well.

The trio parted to each of their tents, leaving uncertain of Frigid’s fate.

Frigid’s room was slowly filling with light, as the sun had pierced through parts of the mist and painted some of the clouds shady yellow. The light edged through her tent and soon onto her face. Her eyes opened slowly and focused themselves, getting used to the brightness. Frigid sat up and winced at the stiffness present in her limbs, her energy sapping performance from the previous day taking its toll on her. She stretched her wings and legs, also trying to get all the knots in her back out.

Frigid trotted out of her tent and into the larger tent, which was already occupied by a few ponies. They greeted her with mixed tones, some sleepy and some wide awake and energetic. Before her was the breakfast that the guards had set up for them; there was some overcooked toast and water on a table in the corner. Although blackened pieces of bread didn’t sound appetizing, Frigid didn’t care about taste because she realized how hungry she really was.

She grabbed a few slices and wolfed them down, grimacing at their unpleasant taste. But nonetheless she ate, knowing that they would probably have more demanding exercises today. More ponies arrived and everyone followed Frigid’s example and also started to chomp on the charred squares, looks of disgust and displeasure coming across their faces with the horrible taste. Soon the bowl of toast was empty and all the water had been drunk. Now they waited for someone to come through the flap of the tent and tell them what to do. They waited a few seconds, then the seconds turned to minutes, and soon an hour passed. Everyone was confused; why hadn’t anyone come yet. Their questions were answered in the form of an inter-cloud memo in messy mouth writing.

Come to the east barrack cloud immediately. We are having a special visit later and we had to prepare, so we were not able to tend to you. – Brig Gen Dash

At that, every pony in the tent hurried on hoof, wing, or magic to reach the east barrack cloud, wherever it was. They went towards the left wall, which was to the east. But as they passed clouds, some of the ponies started noticing that none of them were barracks and that they were storage tents. But nonetheless they kept their course until they hit a dead end; they were now next to the wall and there was no barrack cloud remotely near them. They all looked at each other confusingly, trying to find someone who knew what was going on. Frigid started thinking of why the hell there was no cloud when they were ordered to immediately be present there. Then she had an idea, which she voiced to the confused crowd.

“What if this is a test? What if they want to see what we do when we’re in unfamiliar environments and confused?” said the white mare.

“That’s true, they tested our skills yesterday, so maybe they want to see if we can apply them to any situation on the spot…” suggested Scootaloo.

The other ponies nodded in agreement; this was a test. So what was the goal? They debated on what they were supposed to do and reached the conclusion that they had to find the rainbow mare. So then they started thinking where she could be and came up with a few ideas like the weapon’s tents, the magic tents with Twilight Sparkle, or maybe in the high altitude clouds for the higher ups. They split up into 3 teams by race, team 1 being Earth ponies, team 2 being Pegasi, and Team 3 being Unicorns. Azurus with his creation magic made little trinkets for one pony in each group that had a little button that, when pressed, would tell the others where the group was in case they found Rainbow Dash. They all looked at each other for a moment and then started off. The Earth ponies would check the weapons tents, the unicorns the magic tents, and the pegasi the high clouds.

All 3 of the Pegasi flew beneath the clouds to hide themselves from unwanted spectators, looking around every now and then to make sure they were alone and not being followed. They quickly reached the center of the camp and started shifting their angle upwards, sailing through the clouds and towards the higher ones. They noticed that their stealth was not needed all that much; many ponies were taking lifts or flying up and down from the clouds. The trio just looked like any other group, except that they were not garbed in their military uniforms, which they were to receive later. They kept flying upwards, periodically flapping their wings to mask the fact that when they had started their ascent, they tried to maintain a high speed, expecting some sort of obstacle to slow them down.

As they started slowing to prepare for a landing on a cloud near the edge, Scootaloo pointed out some royal guards who were patrolling and only interrogating ponies without the proper rank emblazoned on their uniforms. Frigid bit her lip, pondering what they could do to avoid them when Aurora suggested something. The plan could work but it was risky; getting caught without authorization could mean getting court martialed. They stopped short of the cloud and started to execute their plan carefully.

The guards on the cloud were having a tough day keeping people out, for with the arrival of 3 important war mares, who not only were legends, but also elements of harmony who saved the world twice, came a rush of people wanting to get even a glimpse of the violet unicorn or a peak at the cyan pegasus or a glance of the yellow pink-maned pegasus. They were extra watchful, stopping every pony who didn’t have the proper authorization. A guard pony stationed at the edge of the tents was kicking at the cloud a little waiting for something to happen, when 3 little puffs floated slowly into his field of vision. He cocked his head sideways and squinted in confusion, because the clouds weren’t supposed to move because of the anti-wind spell. He could have seen what the clouds were doing floating around but having not done anything much that entire day had made him somewhat lazy, so he started kicking the cloud again.

Behind each puff, a soft sigh could be heard from the pegasi hiding behind the clouds. Aurora said that in the summer sometimes they had excess cloud and she used to play with it as a kid, using it for hide and seek and other games. With Scootaloo’s cloud kicker legs, they were able to get 3 chunks of white fluff big enough for each of them to hide inconspicuously behind. But Scootaloo kept chuckling under her breath at something or another, until finally Frigid looked over at her stonily.

“What is so damn funny?” she mouthed.

“Well…I can’t help myself. Beep Beep, I’m a cloud!” replied the orange mare with a whisper, breaking up into another fit of quiet chortling, her comment also bringing silent laughter from the other 2 pegasi; it was a joke from flight school about how Rainbow Dash had avoided the gym teacher by hiding in a cloud all day when she was their age.They went rigid when the guard pony looked at the clouds with a scrutinizing stare, but were relieved when he went about his work again. They floated for some more until the perimeter guards were beginning to go down in number and touched down on a small cloud with only a few guards in sight. Now it was Frigid’s turn to put her skills into action.

All those years of stalking Rainbow Dash finally paid off; Frigid was able to recognize every creek or bump as a guard approaching or a pony leaving a tent. The other 2 pegasi were amazed at Frigid’s ability to differentiate between 2 sounds that sounded almost exactly the same. Soon they reached a sort of plaza with some benches. It was deserted, but they still stayed to the shadow, trying to edge closer to the next path without ruffling the tents too much. When they reached the next path, Frigid put her arm up for them to stop, her acute senses having detected something. She looked back and drew a big RD in the air. They had found the pegasus they were looking for. Scootaloo reached for her trinket and pressed the little button, startled as it started shining bright blue and making a clicking noise. Frigid tried to help Scootaloo muffle the noise, but it was to no avail; the thumps of footsteps on cloud could be heard approaching fast. They didn’t have any time left, so Frigid did what she could and dragged the other 2 pegasi with her under the nearest tent and right into the sleeping quarters of a snoring Twilight Sparkle.

Even Frigid couldn’t slink around the tent with her superior stealth; when they took one step forward, they accidently triggered a spell which rang out in a short burst of sirens. Twilight bolted upright, flew off her bed, horn glowing, and tried to face her enemies blinded by the sheet on her head. She was quick with her reaction, but in the time it took her to take the sheet off, the perpetrators were gone, leaving nothing but a glowing red mark from the security spell where they had stood. The violet Unicorn went outside her tent to greet Rainbow Dash who was waiting for her.

“What was that?” she asked, puzzled by the burst of trumpeting coming from Twilight’s tent.

“Someone trespassed into my tent while I was sleeping! I mean I know the guards are a little thin, but what if the perpetrators had try to kill me?” said the flustered unicorn.

“Well I doubt they would have gotten through that wall of spells you put up. I mean it takes you longer to undo all the protective spells than Fluttershy to unlock all the latches on her door. I mean, come on!” replied the cyan pegasus, rolling her eyes at Twilight’s frustration.

“Well we still have to find them. Come on, they’ll be around here somewhere,” uttered Twilight grudgingly.

The 2 trotted off, rainbow hovering a few feet off the ground, and started looking around for the pony perpetrator. The said group of now hidden ponies was huddled up behind a desk in an empty test that was next to Twilight’s. Frigid had been surprised that the 2 warponies hadn’t checked in the tent that was empty, but then looked around and realized that it belonged to a very important pony; there was a coat sittin on the bed with 3 golden suns on it, symbolizing a Liutentant General. She froze at the sight of the coat, the amount of trouble she would be in if discovered finally hitting her like a train.

“We have to get out of here! Maybe if we get to Rainbow Dash and explain, maybe we can get out of this situation. If we get found out by a guard or someone, we’ll be in hell,” whispered Scootaloo, also realizing the amount of trouble they were in.

Three heads popped out of the front of the tent, looking around to make sure the coast was clear. After a few moments, the heads dissappeared and out came 3 pegasi, running as fast as their hoofs could carry them. They weren’t even looking where they were going, just hopeful they would run into Rainbow Dash. They were so caught up in moving fast, they collided into a group of unicorns, who were blown back by the crash. Frigid looked up and recognized the unicorns by their lack of armor and their alikeness to the other unicorns in the team. Azurus informed them that the Earth ponies were on the other side and that he and the others were on their way to meet up with them. Just then, a few guards could be heard galloping down the aisle of tents the group was in. They all ducked behind any shelter they could find, as 2 guard ponies flew past them in a blur. Nothing much was heard of their conversation except “young earth ponies” and “caught”. Aurora and Frigid froze and looked at eachother and then at Scootaloo.

“Oh horseapples,” cursed Scootaloo.

The small squad, following Frigid’s stealthy example, lurked through the tents successfully undetected. At one point the unicorns split up with the pegasi to cover more area, allowing them a more efficient way to find the Earth ponies. They kept stalking until they started hearing a commotion up ahead, in front of a clearing in the tents that had an ominous looking bronze cast gallows erected in the center of the small square of open cloud. As the pegasi sneaked in between 2 tents to get a view of what was happening, they saw the unicorns on the other side in a similar setup between 2 tents. What was happening in the square made both pegasi and unicorns go rigid.

In the center of the square, 3 younger Earth ponies with recognizable cloud-walker trinkets dangling from their necks were backed up against the bronze monolith, with worried looks painted across each of their faces. Before Frigid could stop her, Scootaloo charged out from hiding towards the guards. But midway she collided with another pony who had just arrived on the scene. Looking up towards the pony she had collided with, Scootaloo could only make out one distinct feature through her dizzy daze: a rainbow mane.

Ch 4: The Visitor

Survival is Magic Ch 4: The Visitor
By Mmadhu94
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Chapter 4: Training and the Visitor
“Wha…you have got to be bucking me! You guys were what all this commotion is about? Oh my Celestia! Do you know how much trouble you could have been in if another pony found you!? What were you thinking, Scootaloo? I know that you are better than that! Call out your friends so we can talk to all of you!” scolded Rainbow Dash.

Twilight, who had appeared out of nowhere herded the Unicorns over with the earth ponies and then Rainbow Dash brought the pegasi into the group as well. Twilight did what she does best and started lecturing them, but as usual most of the ponies, including Frigid, weren’t really paying attention. Rainbow told them that it was a test, but they weren’t supposed to cause such a racket. After a long sigh, Rainbow Dash proceeded to explain to them that they were supposed to get their armor fitted today and get some training in before they were to go to sleep.

Rainbow led the pegasi off to a tent with a pair of wings with a shield in the middle painted on it in the same messy fashion as everything else. As they entered, a black armor garbed pony with a black mane emerged from a corner of the cramped tent full of different types of armor. There were set made of leather, wood, metal, and some materials that Frigid couldn’t recognize. The gray pony started speaking to the three of them without even looking at them once, starting to place sets of armor on a table in the center of the tent.

“Alrighty then. You with the yellow coat, come here and try this set on. I’ll do fine tuning once I get the right type for each of you. And you, orange, you can try this one in the middle. And finally you with the white coat can try the last one,” he muttered unpleasanty.

Aurora’s set consisted of a whitish silver metal breastplate, with a matching flank plate with some decorative leaves carved into it. The breastplate had a sun identical to Celestia’s cutie mark etched into its surface with small letters spelling out confiamos en Celestia underneath it. Her greaves were the same shiny metal with a few leaves carved into the sides. Her helm was open on the top, but covered mostly the sides and back of her head, making it look more like a crown than a helm. It was quite a sight to behold, making Aurora look like some kind of legend with the way light reflected off her metal plates. But although it was pretty, the sides were cut short, which left some of her flank and ribs vulnerable to attack.
Scootaloo’s set was different, but still made of a similar silverfish metal, but it was more gray than white. On the front of the breastplate was a dragon, with its body extending to the flank plate, which was attached to the breastplate by a hinge and protected the magenta maned mare more effectively on her flank and sides. Along with the dragon, was small lettering that ran beneath it, but the letters were indiscernible to the naked eye and would most likely take some closer inspection to decipher. Her greaves were darker than her breastplate and flank plate and had 2 long lines carved down the sides that met at the end in a sharp point. Her helm was similar to that of the royal guard except that the back and top of the helm were spiky, as if her uncombed hair had turned to metal. Her armor also made her look quite regal, the pose she was striking with her chin up supporting the image.

Frigid’s set also looked similar, but there was one problem she had that the others had not; it did not fit her. The flank plate did not meet up with the breastplate at the hinge and the breastplate pulled on her neck and legs, as if it were too tight. The black pegasus looked at her with annoyance, muttering to himself again as he receded into the depths of the armor sea. He returned after several minutes with a set of dull bluish armor with no ornate carvings or decoration, but a simple sword with 2 wings coming from it hastily carved in the breastplate. Her greaves were the same color with no other decoration. The white pegasus felt a little jealous of the other two when she looked at herself in armor compared to the others, but soon changed her opinion when the black pony as well as Rainbow Dash stared at her with surprise, exchanging glances. Both the 2 older ponies simply issued a “huh” and went on as if nothing was amiss. As she was about to leave with Aurora and Scootaloo, she heard Rainbow Dash and the armored pony talking about her armor.

“It’s weird that the armor would fit her. I mean I could tell she had a bit of a different body structure, but I mean that armor…” started Rainbow Dash

“…was his…yes,” finished the armored pony.

At first something about the armored pony’s comment bothered her, as if it reminded her of some memory, but she soon disregarded the thought as she started taking notice of her armor. The first thing she noticed was that although it looked heavy, it was as light as the weather vests back in Cloudsdale. Her friends were taking notice too, jumping up and hovering to check how their wings would hold the extra weight. They all realized that they weren’t wearing any normal armor; it was very durable, by the feel and look of it, and also light. As if to answer their questions, Rainbow Dash started explaining the armor’s consistency.

“What you’re wearing is Draco Ferrus also known as the Dragon’s Iron. It is extremely difficult to make, but the result is pretty sweet. You get a metal that can take a punch but that weighs less than a cloud,” she informed them. “According to Twilight, they discovered it when working with some of Discord’s magic that they were able to extract. Something about the chaotic nature allowing stuff that normal magic can’t do easily.”

So they must be getting a little special treatment because they were on some Special Forces team. Rainbow Dash told them to wait for a moment as she entered her own tent for a few moments. When she emerged from the flap of the tent, she was clad in her own armor, a beautiful dark blue flank and breast plate with the same color greaves, each engraved with lightning bolts, one on the center of the breastplate, another on both sides of the flankplate and one to each of the greaves. Frigid blushed a little as she saw Rainbow, her fangirl stalker personality kicking in at seeing her favorite pegasus all suited up. She snapped back to reality and followed Rainbow Dash to the edge of the clouds where there were several security checkpoints. At the edge, the Earth ponies and Unicorns were also congregated, now also suited in armor, each group having somewhat similar armor to play to their strengths.

They all passed through the mandatory screenings and such for security protocols and then descended to the lower clouds. They turned left and went across a cloud that ran right up next to the wall. They walked along the wall for a while until a metal walkway was visible emerging from the cloud, its grating an ashen gray color. They moved quickly across it, towards a crevice in the wall that was at least 40 ft tall. They strode through the dimly lit cool interior of the crevice, the same crystal lanterns shimmering high above them, showering them in the same eerie green color light that caught the mist at their feet and created a smooth green expanse that stretched into the dark corners of the crevice. Soon the slate gray surroundings started reverting to the brighter stone as a light was visible ahead, the blinding light combined with the mist obscuring what was past the exit.

Just as the group left the crevice and entered the chamber, they were bewildered by the suddenly brighter light of the surroundings, although the mist had built up at the exit and what was ahead was still hidden to them. Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack, who had joined the other 2 warmares on the walkway to the crevice, signaled for them to start climbing up a steep and precariously placed set of rickety wooden stares jutting out of the side of the wall. As they ascended up the wobbly platforms of moldy wood, the mist started clearing at a higher altitude, revealing their surroundings gradually. When they reached the top, they arrived at a flat ledge carved into the cave wall and were able to see fully what was inside this new chamber. For the 2nd time in only a few hours Frigid gasped with wonder.

Before her lay another enormous cave. But its size wasn’t as surprising as its contents; the floor was coated in a vast domain of rolling green plains, several areas splattered with multicolored specks that were ponies training far below. But even the sight of the green grass couldn’t deter the group’s vision from what lay perched in ruin and decay on a hill closer to the far wall: a city. It was obviously ancient, evidenced by its stone cathedrals and cracked spires, minarets lining the now mostly broken wall. From the stone carved platform they could make out what was left of a colossal gate, with 2 monumental stone ponies standing guard, their majestic heads gone and turned to dust and fragments at their own feet. The gate was barely discernable by the fact that only the 2 side pillars were still intact, cracked jade vines wrapping around the sandy colored columns. The wooden doors that had once stood a testament to the greatness of the world it represented was shattered and the ornate carvings and sculptures either missing or turned to shards of wood and marble. Beyond the walls lay a wasteland of structures, a vast field of crumbling infrastructure. Not much could be seen past the front gates and the silhouettes of the decaying buildings; the magical mist had descended upon the city, shrouding it in shadows and throwing a mystic tone to the image of the ruins.

“This is an old mountain pony city that was abandoned hundreds of years ago. It was home to a tough race of ponies called the Caesari, who warred constantly with the surrounding tribes when they were alive. It is a mystery how the city fell into disrepair, but history tells us that one day the inhabitants just vanished, never to be seen again. It would be nice to study the structures and learn something from them, but the Princess said that it would be more useful to stage training missions. But I really wish I could learn something from it,” said the violet mare, her voice tinged with regret at what she probably thought was somewhat of a waste of interesting history. But she would never oppose the princess, her mentor and friend.
“Yeah we just call it the Pit, ‘cuz it sounds cooler than “the city of the Caesari”. I mean that sounds like some lame…thing. Anyway, we’ll get you training your flanks off soon enough. Trust me, soon we’re gonna see who’re the mares and stallions and who are the little fillies and colts,” remarked Rainbow Dash, emphasizing the last couple of sentences with a certain vigor, showing that she was definitely looking forward to it.

Rainbow Dash was right about training their flanks off. Frigid, Scootaloo, and Aurora were put through flying missions of all kinds: rescue, reconnaissance, and assault. At one point they had to fly through the cramped hallways of a building designated as a “hospital”, which could barely fit their wings in without scraping them on the grimy moldy walls and rusty metal grating in the ceiling. Dodging poles and gurneys took speed and agility, each of the 3 pegasi coming out with several cuts and bruises. They mainly went at blinding speeds and followed Rainbow Dash, who was throwing in as many twists and turns and loops into their course as possible. Soon they were flying through a “residential area” where they trained on flying quietly, without alarming the sentries, who were training dummies in the shape of a griffin. After this vigorous course of nonstop flying, they left the city and went to one of the training areas where they would practice using the armor mounted guns.

Although Frigid had seen guns before, as had Scootaloo and Aurora, none of them had ever shot one or mounted on their body before. When the training guard strapped Frigid in and told her to fire at the targets down the field, Frigid turned and gulped. The target was not only far away but the mist was veiling the targets in a haze, making it even more difficult to see them. She glanced at Aurora who was also dismayed at the difficulty of the shot. Frigid took a deep breath and then bit down on the trigger, a bright flash and a bang bellowing from her barrels, sending 2 small projectiles down the range towards the targets. Frigid didn’t even know if they had hit or not; she was cowering from the noise, never having heard anything that loud except fireworks, and even those at a distance. She stood up and strained her eyes to see the target.

Her bullets had landed it, although on the edges. She felt better, having hit the target on her very first time shooting a gun. They took some more rounds, and Frigid, as well as the other new shooters, started warming up to the sound of the bang and the smell of the gunpowder. Soon all 3 pegasi were hitting the target every time, and Frigid even got one near the center once, filling her with glee as Rainbow Dash gave her an approving nod. They stayed on the range for another hour before doing some more flying exercises. About half way through one of the flying exercises, where the group would fly through cramped spaces at awkward angles and try to keep control, Rainbow’s ear started glowing purple with magic. Frigid was alarmed because she didn’t know what was going on, but was even more alarmed when Rainbow went pale. She turned to the, slowing down to let them catch up.

“Follow me. Looks like we have an unannounced visitor,” she said with an unusually stony tone.

The 3 ponies veered off course as Rainbow Dash led them away from the city and to a large ledge that had a small tent on top of it. The mist had built up a little on the ledge as well and a thin layer of white moved at their feet.

“Is he really coming?” asked Rainbow Dash, the anxiety in her voice evident even through her efforts to mask it.

“Yes, he is coming. He is coming right here in a few minutes,” replied Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting with Applejack on the ground outside the tent.

Applejack was biting her lip nervously, Twilight was twiddling her hoofs with anxiety, and Rainbow was pacing with concern. The group of unicorns and earth ponies stood next to the trio of worried ponies, as confused as the pegasi as to what could make these 3 legendary ponies nervous. The pegasi started talking to the other 2 groups, trying to establish an answer to this question, but they had as much an idea as the 3 pegasi. So they waited in silence, until Twilight cleared her throat and caught everyone’s attention. She was looking up to the skies, towards something in the mass of mist that had floated up towards the ceiling. Frigid looked where she was and at first couldn’t see anything, but then she slowly started seeing a silhouette moving towards them quickly, parting the mist somewhat and sending ripples out in it.

Just as the silhouette was about to fly directly above the ledge, it disappeared. But not for long, as the silhouette transformed into the concrete figure of a pegasus diving from the mist towards the ledge at a high speed. Because of his blurring speed, no one could make out much of a feature in him. He landed hard with an uncharacteristic clunk, Dispersing the mist on the ground into the air, once again silhouetting the pegasus’s form. As the pegasus, who could be discerned as a stallion, came forward, the 3 warmares bowed to him. Frigid was a little confused at first, but then as the figure emerged from the fog, he revealed his identity. He was the almost mythical General Icy Wind.

As he walked, Frigid started processing his different features, all of which were intimidating. His face had a gruff look to it, a jagged scar running by his left eye. His eyes looked frightening and his irises a cold blue color. Moving her eyes toward his body, Frigid realized why people called him the Giant; he stood several feet above the average height of 4 ft for a pegasus. Scars riddled his torso and sides, signifying the amount of battles he has fought in. His coat was a chilling white and his mane an arctic blue. But his most intimidating feature wasn;t his scars or height or his massive wingspan, but what lay at the end of his legs. Instead of hoofs, there were heavy metal prosthetics that made an ominous clanking noise with every step he took. The story of how he received them is well Known to most pony-folk of every race.

Icy Wind enrolled a few years before the 1st Griffin war and soon climbed up the promotion ladder with his connections in the army. When the war came around, he was stationed on the front with his own team of elite troops. He was an amazing fighter as well as a great leader. He saved the front several times with his innovative tactics, like melting the snow to make a slippery ice field that the Griffin chariots would slip on. Then came the day he was assigned a special mission; a mission that would change his life.

The mission was simple; all Icy and the team had to do was sneak behind enemy lines and attack the Griffin front from behind with some special explosives that could only be triggered by Icy’s hoof. But when they went out into enemy lands, with their stealth gear and weapons, they sneaked right into a trap. They were ambushed by an entire legion of forces, taken captive and sent to Captain Raven’s POW camps. For hours every day, him and his team were tortured for information. One of the pegasi on the team dropped the explosives into an icy river so that the griffins couldn’t get it, but the griffins still tortured them. Then after about a few weeks, the griffin captain realized that they would have to be more drastic.

They killed a team member for every hour that the others didn’t speak their secrets. Soon only Icy was left and the captain, being the egotistic fool he was, threw the deceivingly weakened pegasus into a lower security cell as a trophy of war. But over those few weeks, an anger unlike any wrath ever seen by a griffin had bubbled and fermented into a hateful brew within him. He waited and waited and got his chance when the guard got drunk and fell asleep with his head resting on the bars of his cell. With his enormous strength he bucked the bar behing the griffins head, sending him flying and almost instantly killing him. Now with his anger unleashed he bucked himself out of his prison and went on a blood thirsty rampage of escape, tearing down every griffin in his path. Even his horrible wounds could not stop this train of hate and frustration. Some of the griffins just ran away, but some stayed to face him. He escaped the camp, covered with wounds and full of pain and sadness at the loss of his team.

The griffins didn’t pursue him, thinking he would die in the harsh cold. But they were wrong, a week later, a second stealth mission found him alive in the street of one of the abandoned ghost towns that were abundant in the no man’s land. When they found him he lacked the energy to keep going on, but he still possessed the will. His body was covered in frost and covered in scabs and red smudges of blood. But what scared the team most was the horrific wound inflicted upon his legs; his hooves had been torn off, the frozen bloody stumps a testament to the cruelty of the griffins.

When he returned and was nursed back to health, he got the best doctor he could find and instructed him in finding a special metal that Icy had found on one of his missions that now lay in his tent. Then Icy told the doctor to make prosthetics out of them, his will to keep fighting as alive as ever. The doctor advised against it, but the pegasus was adamant on his decision. The Doctor reluctantly manufactured a set of prosthetics for Icy’s hoofs. After the operation, Icy, at that time a major, was told that rehab would take 2 months. He refused to believe it and finished his rehab in 2 weeks of grueling training. But the result was a repaired pony.

He returned to the front with a new bloodthirsty need for revenge. And driven by this revenge, the pony forces stabbed into the griffin front, sinking their teeth in deep. They kept pushing the griffins back until the ponies had taken many miles of the griffin lands. But Icy was not happy with just that and he took a force of about 200 and sneaked successfully into the capital. He and his team ravaged the city, wreaking massive amounts of damage to every building in sight. At this point the griffins withdrew their forces in a grudgingly bitter surrender and Icy was initiated into the highest echelons of the pony forces as a general. He even received the Medal of Honor for his efforts in the war.

Now he was a general, and a damn good one at that. He was never afraid of doing what he had to when the time came. He made his way over the awed group of unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi, who were now lined up in 2 rows out of instinct in being visited by such a prominent member of the army. He stopped a few feet short of them, his monumental figure towering over them, casting a shadow over the group. When he spoke, a rough tenor boomed from his mouth. He didn’t speak loudly, but his voice had a quality that carried it to your ears like an explosion going off close by.

“So this is the spec op recruits, huh? Well I can’t say I’m impressed, but then again I rarely am,” he boomed, walking from the left side of the row to the right, stopping at Frigid and turning towards her, “Well well well, what do we have here? I didn’t think that they would even let you in with your timid attitude about everything that was described in your file. So you finally mustered the guts to come out of your damn shell? HA! Well we’ll see how good you really are. Right?”

“Yes, sir…” said Frigid, shaking a little from nervousness.

“Yes, what?” inquired the general, with a hint of contempt in his voice.

Frigid straightened up and tilted her head up, looking the general right in the eyes. Time stopped, as every pony held their breath waiting for something to happen, as Frigid’s soft blue eyes met the general’s cold ones. Then, mustering as much of a confident and brave tone as possible, she spoke, breaking the silence with a shocking announcement.

“Yes…father,” she uttered, her voice coming out confidently and sounding somewhat angry and frustrated.

Ch 5: The Mission

Friendship is Survival
By Mmadhu94
Ch 5: The Mission
check out Frigid's tumblr: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com

“Well it’s about damn time you came to terms with it! Took you a few years but you came around to it. But remember this: I may technically be your father and you might technically be my daughter, but you won’t be truly my child until you have proven yourself to me. And mark my words, I will not fully acknowledge you as anything until you prove yourself,” said the general coldly.

“Why do I need to prove myself to you? You left mom all those years ago without ever talking to her again. Don’t look surprised! What do you expect of someone who lost someone that she loved so much!” yelled Frigid, her voice brimming with anger that drove the timid quality from her speech.

His eyes narrowed, the completely unsurprised general replied quietly, “You think I wanted to leave?”

“Well I mean why else-” started Frigid.

“You dare suggest I wanted to bucking leave!?” the general shouted, his voice visibly shaking the young mare’s confident pose.

The shout from him brought silence as time stopped a second time; nopony breathed, not even Frigid. The enormous pegasus sighed and then faced the 3 warmares, signaling with his eyes for them to talk to him in private. After he had left with the 3 mares trailing with unmistakably nervous faces, the other team members stared at Frigid, their mouths gaping.

“What?” Frigid snapped.

“You’re related to him…?”

“Well yeah. But I’m not proud of it…he left my family when I was just a filly,” she said, her voice edged with both anger and sorrow.

“Wow…um…well I’m sorry about that…” offered Scootaloo awkwardly.

With that the conversation died, leaving 11 surprised ponies and one sad one to simmer in their own thoughts. “What right does he have just to plop into my life now? I mean come on! He hasn’t spoken to us in years and he thinks it’s ok to talk to me like we’d talked just yesterday!? Even if he’s a famous general, it doesn’t give him the right to barge in and act like I think he’s anything to me just because I said father. But then again he did say that ‘prove yourself’ crap to me. Screw him!” thought the white mare irately. The other ponies starting whispering about her at the sight of the fuming anger on her face. But she paid the hissing crowd no attention, she had bigger things to worry about than some gossiping ponies. Like why her father would drop in on her when he did not care to stay in contact for years. Or why the seemingly fearless mares that had led them were so frightened by his arrival, which Frigid suspected wasn’t the only reason for their anxiety. “There was something else,” she thought.

After the general had finished speaking with Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, he proceeded to his tent on the tallest cloud in the cave, signifying his rank. The 3 mares were visibly shaken by what their “conversation” had been about. The team was dismissed to their quarters for the rest of the day, and Frigid retired to her own tent, not daring to leave it for the whispers and gossip that grew about her. She could’ve sworn that even some of the guards were talking about her. She laid down on her bed and fell into a restless sleep, her head still spinning with all that had happened that day.
From then on, she had to endure a couple stares and questionably looks, but soon everything returned mostly back to normal. Part of this was that they didn’t have any time to gossip anymore, but partly because ponies just didn’t care after a while. Frigid’s life had turned into training almost non-stop, with the exercises becoming more difficult and physically draining.

But Frigid, who knew how to read Rainbow Dash’s emotions from her stalking days, recognized something different about the Rainbow mare. She seemed distressed and saddened by something. They all did, Twilight looking a little crazy with her uncombed mane and sometimes twitchy eyes and Applejack looking extremely nervous with her eyes shifting about all the time. Everyone on the team looked different too, but that was because they were all stressed and over worked by the rigorous training. Even Frigid looked different to herself in the mirror; her mane was messy and hadn’t been combed in weeks, her coat looking dull with lack of proper cleaning, and her eyes, tired and longing for better conditions. They were all on edge, but the 3 warmares were becoming more and more irritable because of something. And tagging along with this irritability was sadness.

After a few weeks of training, they were allowed to explore the base if they didn’t get themselves into to much trouble. So when Frigid noticed how distressed Rainbow Dash was, she thought maybe she could talk to the mare and help her. She flew lazily up to the higher clouds holding Rainbow’s tent and landed softly without a sound outside it. She trotted up to the entrance, but did not enter as she had heard the voices of Twilight Sparkle and a very distraught Rainbow Dash from the inside. Frigid hid herself behind a flap and listened to what was going on.
“It’s alright to be sad about it. Even though she was a griffin, she was still a friend to you,” said Twilight Softly, trying to calm the rainbow mare down.

What caught Frigid off guard was not the sound of the mare’s distressed voice, but the sniffles that usually accompany tears that interrupted it every few minutes. The bravest pegasus ever was crying.

“It’s not that! I know *sniff* that she was my friend even in the end. But its that…IT WAS MY FAULT! *sniff* If-if I hadn’t intervened Gilda would be alive! E-even if she was in c-custody. I’m sure with my influence *sniff* I could have helped her. But now…Oh Celestia why did this happen? W-why me? I-I can’t even think about that day *sniff* without seeing her face. I still *sniff* remember it as if it was yesterday,” cried Rainbow Dash, the sniffs constantly breaking up her speech.

“Go on. Tell me what happened Rainbow. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing at all. Just let it out,” cooed Twilight lightly, clearly frightened by her friend’s condition.

“W-well it was a normal mission. We *sniff* just had to rescue a couple POW’s from captivity just inside the Griffin lands. But w-when we *sniff* got there. I-I saw…her. I couldn’t believe it. Gilda. I *sniff* tried to reason with the others to find another way *sniff* b-but it looked like she was the executioner. W-we snuck up in the ceremony and *sniff* I couldn’t bare it. I c-called out to her. And-and she looked back and-and *sniff* she pointed the gun at us and-and-” the shaken pegasus sobbed.
“It’s ok. You can tell me. What happened?” said Twilight, once again with a soft tone.

“And then when she hesitated *sniff* another griffin shot a heavy cage that was above me.It started to fall and *sniff* I couldn’t move! And then-then Gilda ran right into me and-and pushed *sniff* me out of the way. And then-and then-oh god there was so much blood. Her blood. On my hands. I *sniff* killed her. I killed her! I’m supposed to be the Element of Loyalty and I let my friend die for me! Y-you know before the war *sniff* she came back to Cloudsdale and apologized *sniff* for how she had acted. We-we kept in touch and she’d changed. She was a new griffin. OH CELESTIA I KILLED HER! And-and you know the worst part? They rewarded me *sniff* for it. They gave me a medal for killing my *sniff* friend. What have I done Twi? *sniff* What did I do to deserve this?” she sobbed on, clearly broken by this memory.

“Shhhhh. Its gonna be okay Rainbow. It’ll be fine. It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident. You didn’t know that Gilda would get hurt. If she hadn’t done what she did you wouldn’t be here,” murmured Twilight softly to her friend, hugging the crying pegasus closely, tears streaking down her own face as well.

The violet mare held her friend for some time until she thought she heard something from outside. She let go of Rainbow Dash and went outside to check and make sure there weren’t any unwanted listeners. Although there was no pony in sight, there was a small puddle of tears staining the ground right outside the tent. Twilight looked off into the distance before returning to her friend in need.

Frigid flew fast, her eyes still clouded with tears from Rainbow’s story. She wept for the mare and also for fear that something like that would happen to her. That her friends would die for her. IT was too much to bear. Her heart ached from the tears she had shed listening to the story, but her heart ached even worse when she thought of one of her friends dying like that. At least she knew even the bravest ponies have problems. And that even the braves ponies cry sometimes. Rainbow Dash used to be invincible to her, an indestructible symbol of all that is good. But with the mare’s story, another side of her had been brought to light. Frigid had seen in those sad eyes the real Rainbow Dash.

The Rainbow Dash who fears for her friends safety and can’t imagine a worse fate than her friends dying for her. In those sad eyes lay the core of the Rainbow mare’s principles; her friends were more important than anything, and are even worth giving her life for. As Frigid landed near her own tent, she collapsed onto her bed and lay there, letting what she had seen sink in. Soon she fell asleep, as exhausted as ever from the day’s training.

When she awoke, her eyes stung a little from the light, which seemed unnaturally bright for even a sun ray. She turned her head towards the source and saw it was a lamp with a note tied to it floating in her room. As she got up and stretched her body, the note started speaking. The voice of the violet unicorn had startled Frigid, but was not entirely unexpected; Frigid had been witness to the amazing magic that the unicorn could cast. The message spoke clearly and briefly.

“Frigid Drift, you and the rest of the team are needed on the loading bay immediately. Each team member has been sent a separate message so you need not fuss about telling them. Take your saddlebags and pack only what you absolutely need. That is all. Twilight Sparkle out,” uttered the lantern.

“Loading bay? Saddlebags? Private messages? Was this their first real mission?” Frigid thought, as she prepared her saddlebags with only the bare necessities. She got ready quickly and looked at herself in the shard of glass that was supposed to be a mirror. “Gotta look confident today, Frigid. You still have to prove yourself to…Dash! Not your fath-the general. He doesn’t deserve it.” She thought to herself, trying to strike the most fortuitous look she could. It didn’t really work and she ended up looking like she was having a wicked bad tummy ache. She sighed and left the tent, wondering why she couldn’t be brave like everyone else. Over the last few weeks, the other members of the team started to look more and more brave and determined naturally and were not very afraid of the difficult tasks presented to them in training.

She arrived after a few minutes of flying at the Northern loading bay near the entrance of the cave. She noticed that there were several airships like the black one she had seen in Cloudsdale, but they were whitish silver and emanating a pale purple aura of magic. The caster of the magic, Twilight Sparkle, was barely exerting herself to hold the 2 small crafts in the air, once again showing her prowess in magic. Frigid also noticed that she was a little late; almost everyone was already there. She flew up and landed next to Aurora and Scootaloo who greeted her with apprehension in their voice. Apparently they were going on a mission, a mission behind enemy lines. Even the thought of sneaking into hostile territory frightened Frigid. But she tried her hardest to keep a straight face to hide her fear. It worked partially, but she was still shaking with anxiety. Everyone was a little on edge and nervous. Soon Rainbow Dash and Applejack came up to the bay and the 3 groups were separated.

“Alright. So this is gonna be your first mission. Don’t expect it to be a walk in the park just cuz it’s the first one. In fact it most definitely won’t be. We are going to be dropped off outside a small town North East of here that was left unfortified. We intercepted a distress signal from one of our outfits that went missing a week ago. Our mission is to simply bring them back before the griffins find them. Now here’s the plan. The earth ponies and unicorns will be waiting for a signal behind a hill near the town. You 3 have to fly through the town and light a flare as the signal for us to advance. When you do I will fly in and drop a electronic disarming bomb in the center of the town just in case. We fitted your guns so that they can shield from the magic. Once that is done, the unicorns and earth ponies will come in and with us a s the eyes in the sky hope fully find and rescue the lost outfit. Everybody got it?” she asked, looking each of them in the eye to make sure that they did understand, “Alright then, let’s go.”

They made their way to one of the crafts, but was stopped by a particular pink-maned yellow pegasus from the medical department. Fluttershy moved forward and gave to each of the pegasi what she had given to the other 2 groups as well; a special medical kit meant for emergencies and survival. Although she was known for being shy, she had been changed by the war. She was in the medical tents, which were home to some of the most gruesome sights. And yet because of her love for all things living, she helped everyone she could, even lifting 3 pegasi by herself off of a battlefield once. She was definitely much tougher than people thought. The 3 pegasi thanked her and started to move on, but she stopped them again and moved closer, out of Rainbow Dash’s earshot.

“Be careful out there. Dash can be reckless sometimes, so take care of her for me. I know she can take care for herself, but if anything ever happened…”she trailed off, her eyes suddenly full of sorrow.

“Don’t worry, we’ll watch her back. And everyone else’s too. This team means a lot to her, so we’ll put in 200% effort for it,” whispered Aurora.

“Thank you,” said the yellow pegasus softly, as she took to the air and flew back to the medical tents.

The 3 young mares turned to Dash who was already on the craft and waiting for them. When they had all got in, the hatch shut and the craft was lifted into the air, speeding towards another tunnel in the side of the wall. They exited on the East face of the mountain and turned north. It was a 1 hour journey to the ghost town, so Frigid took the time to make a silent prayer that no one would get hurt. Little did she know that she was flying right into an adventure that would forever change her life and the lives of many others. As they sailed through the harsh cold, Frigid looked at the other members. Aurora was looking at her hoofs with an intense stare, miles away in thought. Scootaloo had her eyes closed and was also in an ocean of thought. The only one of them who didn’t look lost in thought was Dash. She simply looked out the window with sadness about her, as if she had seen it all before.

The hour passed quickly and soon they were parked in the shadow of an icy cliff. They put on their armor, saddlebags and gun saddles. Although it was a lot of stuff, all their things had been modified to be lighter than they seemed, only barely weighing down each pegasus. They met up with the other 2 groups behind a hill about a mile further. Frigid crawled up to the top to get a better view of what lied past it and her eyes widened at the scene.

Before her was a small town, almost the size of Ponyville before the war. But it did not posess the same charming atmosphere as the amiable town; it was war torn, fragments of stone and mortar scattered across the cracked cobbles of the empty streets, shards of glass and tiling strewn across the sidewalks. But the worst was not the derelict look of the town, but the blood that was splattered across buildings and walls. Frigid didn’t know if it was pony blood or griffin blood, but either way the training they had received to react to these situations didn’t kick in, and she suddenly felt nauseous. She wasn’t alone; her friends’ faces all looking green with repugnance. She scanned the rest of the town, trying to ignore any bodies she caught sight of. To the left of a town lay an enormous lake with a layer of cracked and crumbled ice. On the edge of the lake, Frigid spotted a white water river, flowing fast against the glacial river shore. She shifted her attention back to the town, feeling something odd. “Something is wrong. Something is very wrong here…” she pondered to herself.

Dash whispered to them that they needed to start on her signal, which was three taps on her armor. They waited for minutes that felt like hours and prepared themselves for the signal. Frigid soon heard three light taps on metal and flew into action. “Ok, here we go…” she thought, still trying to figure what seemed wrong. As they flew towards the town, she saw the it in more detail. What was wrong hit her like a sack of bricks. Dash had said it was unfortified, but there were sandbags stacked up for cover and fortified windows everywhere. She turned to the others to say something, but she was too late as an explosion detonated to their right, sending a wave of rubble and heat flying at them. “Oh Celestia it was a trap!” thought Frigid frantically. She swerved to avoid bullets whizzing by her sent by hidden assailants.

She tackled Scootaloo down and crashed behind a wall for cover. Aurora did the same on the other side of the street. They were pinned down by gunfire and mortar volleys. Frigid looked back to the hill hoping to see help on its way but was dismayed at the sight; the others had been ambushed as well. They had to get out of there now. She signaled to the other 2 to move on the 3rd tap of her hoof on the wall. 1…2…3-and she and Scootaloo moved out as fast as possible, avoiding bullets that hissed into the snow. Aurora wasn’t so lucky. A bullet grazed her wing and unbalanced her, making her an open target for just a moment. But a moment was all the time that the enemy needed, as a crossbow bold sunk deep into her wing. She cried out in pain as Frigid flew as faster than she thought she could to catch her sunset yellow friend. She caught Aurora just before hitting the ground and swooped upwards, following Scootaloo towards the lake and the wilderness beyond. Bullets and explosions were still shaking Frigid’s body, but she couldn’t give up.

They were flying through buildings and attacking anyone in their way. Frigid had never killed anyone before, but she was readily slashing and firing at any griffin that got in her way with a revengeful ferocity that she was unaware she possessed. As they emerged from the main area of building and over the vast sheet of open ice on the lake, both Frigid and Scootaloo heard a loud trumpeting noise and turned to find the source. Frigid almost dropped Aurora at the sight of a massive airship with a nefarious sized cannon mounted to the bottom of the control room. “Dear Sweet Celestia why?” she thought bitterly. She tried to accelerate, but the sunset pegasus was too heavy, so she had to stay at her speed. Frigid heard something from the pegasus below and looked down. In the yellow mare’s eyes Frigid could see her trying to say something.

“You can’t hold onto me. If you do we all die,” her eyes said.

“No, I can do this! Don’t you dare let go,” replied Frigid’s eyes.

“I’m *cough* sorry it had to be this way, Frigid. You *grunt* really were a truly g-good friend. My wing is bro-broken and I suspect my l-left leg is too *cough*. I’m a broken mare, Frigid. *grunt* Just let me go,” said the injured mare, struggling to speak.

“Don’t do it! Don’t! I can save you! We still have time!” shouted Frigid hysterically.

“No. I want this. I want you guys to live. *cough* You shouldn’t die for me. Just *cough* do two things for me. Tell my parents what happened in person. And *COUGH* remember me…” she trailed off, her eyes closing as she let her hoofs slip from Frigid’s grip.

“NO! AURORA!!! CELESTIA DAMN IT!” yelled Frigid, desperately trying to save her friend. But she was knocked away by another explosion. Her yelling caught Scootaloo’s attention as well, both mares now watching their dear friend plummet from the sky. Frigid couldn’t look away as the broken mare hit the ice hard and sunk into the biting waters beneath it, a plume of red blossoming in the murky depths. Scootaloo raced back for her, but Frigid stopped her and forced her to keep flying forward.
“What are you bucking doing?! I have to save her! I have to-” she started, but stopped at the sight of Frigid’s tearful eyes that said “She wanted this.”

The 2 mares, now with nothing to carry, flew faster to avoid the explosions. Soon they were out of the range, but still being targeted by the airship. Then frigid heard it. The cannon firing. That meant they had very little time before the detonation. She grabbed onto Scootaloo and with their combined wing strength they flew even faster. But it was no use, the projectile hit the ice and detonated, sending ice and water miles into the air. A wave of cold water followed by searing heat smashed the 2 pegasi out of the air as if they were made of paper. The explosion, although it had missed them by a hundred feet, sent them sailing towards the wide rapids of the river at the edge of the lake. Frigid tried to spread her wings, but they wouldn’t open; she had frozen up in shock from the explosion. She looked forward, to the river she was hurtling towards. She saw Scootaloo hit first, gasping for air. A few moments later Frigid herself hit the water, hearing Scootaloo calling out to her between gasps.

“Frigid!!” the voice cried out in pain.

And then everything went black.

Ch 6: Survival

Friendship is Survival Ch 6: Survival
By Rlogic1994
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Frigid awoke to the sound of rushing water and the feeling of something hard and rough against her leg. She tried to push whatever was grating against her leg, but when she moved her body went through a spasm of pain. She clenched her teeth, recoiling and trying to open her eyes. She immediately regretted it; the light almost blinded her. As she started to adjust to the surroundings, a single thought popped into her mind. “Where the hell am I?” she wondered to herself. After a few minutes of gritting her teeth through the pain of trying to sit up, she stretched her stiff body. It was at this point she realized how cold it was. Almost instantly she curled up into a fetal position and tried to warm her body up. As she wallowed around on her side, she rolled over and caught sight of something a few yards away from her down the shore. It was a mass of orange and magenta that was shivering and slowly unfolding what looked like wings.

“S-Scootaloo?” the white mare ventured, struggling to get the words out of her dry throat.

All she got in return was a weak grunt. At least they were both alive. She looked around, not recognizing any of the landscape. She looked at her companion more closely. The orange mare’s body was stained by dried blood and cuts all over her back. Her wings were sticking out at awkward angles, feathers un aligned and unorganized. Frigid shifted her attention to her own body, which because of the cold did not hurt too much. She could see several lacerations on her legs, cuts and bruises scattered along her back and torso. Now fully taking in their situation, Frigid lay down on the ground again and cried. She sobbed hard and let the tears pool up below her face.

She really didn’t care if any one heard her, even if all of Equestria heard her. She just didn’t care anymore. Her bawling rattled her body with convulsive shivers accompanied by sniffs. “Oh dear Celestia, why did it have to be her?” she though bitterly. She wailed for her own situation, for Scootaloo, for her friends on Team Alpha who were probably worried sick about her, and most heavy of all, the death of her friend Aurora. She didn’t remember when she felt the warm hoof on her front leg, but the feeling that someone else was there to share her pain helped lift some of the depression. She lifted her head from the tear-watered soil to meet the flooding purple eyes of an orange mare. Their meeting of eye contact said more than words could describe. It was a silent acknowledgement that they were both grateful for the other’s company in this horrible predicament. After what seemed like hours of regaining some of their heat and energy, Scootaloo asked the question Frigid had been trying to answer for half an hour.

“So where do you think we are?” asked the orange mare, wincing as she spoke.

“I don’t know…I can’t recognize any of this landscape at all.”

They decided that because Frigid’s wings were not as damaged as Scootaloo’s that the white mare would fly up and try to see the surroundings. Frigid took a couple deep breaths to calm herself down and started to ascend into the air. And it hurt badly. With each beat it seemed like her body would break, but she kept going with unbreakable concentration. When she had reached an adequate altitude she surveyed the expanse before her and went pale as she recognized where they were. When she landed Scootaloo’s worried face appeared in front of her, wondering why Frigid looked so scared.

“What? Where are we?” she asked.

“I could see the river going far into the mountains, and towards the north end of Blizzard pass,” she replied, not making eye contact but staring at the ground.

“North end? But that would mean…” the orange mare trailed off, afraid to answer her own question.

“Yeah. We’re way into enemy territory. Miles and miles in.”

They sat for a moment and thought about what to do. They obviously had to keep moving, but they had no supplies. They decided they would look for their saddle bags on the shore in case they had washed up. They hobbled and limped up and down the shore, looking under every piece of wood and rock. They were struck by luck when Frigid tripped over a tree branch that cleared some of the snow beneath it, revealing a bluish tattered saddle bag. It was Frigid’s. Scootaloo’s was just down shore in a pile of wooden debris. They tended to each other’s wounds for a moment, using the aid kits Fluttershy had kindly packed for them last minute. Frigid would have to thank her when she returned. “If she returned.” Frigid immediately discarded the thought; if she started thinking like that, then it would become the truth.

After cleaning and bandaging themselves, the 2 ponies started up river, carefully listening for any sounds of hoofsteps or worse, griffin wing beating. After about an hour of silence they started talking. Although it was hard for them to talk through their stiff throats, it helped pass time and distracted them from their situation. Scootaloo had been the first to say something.

“So…how about your dad? You seemed pretty pissed to see him…” Scootaloo offered, trying desperately to end the awkward silence.

“Yeah, well. When someone leaves your life without even as much as a goodbye, you tend to hate them,” Frigid snapped back.

“Wow. Sorry. It’s just I kinda know what it feels like. My parents, back when they were still running the grocery store in ponyville, used always spend time with me. Then when they got the big break with that inheritance money, well, I just wasn’t that important to them anymore. I remember the night I tried to spite them by sleeping in the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse when I was a filly. They didn’t even damn notice,” she replied, the bitterness in her voice unmistakable.

“It was pretty good for me too, until my dad left for the army. Then things got bad. I used to walk the streets at night to avoid listening to the yelling. There was always yelling. Something about protecting honor or some crap. It’s part of the reason I like the cold so much. It was usually cold on those streets, but I had time to think about my life and the world. It was me time. After the bastard left, well mom was just never the same.”

“Sometimes I wonder if my parents even think I’m a pony of my own. Not just some trophy they can wave around at special occasion. I mean I’m not a damn coat. They can’t just put me on and take me off whenever they like. I seriously doubt that that’s how actual families live.”

“Amen to that! I just don’t get it sometimes…” she faded, looking off into the distance.

She smiled at the orange mare, appreciating company that had experienced the magic of bad parents. But her small happiness was soon lost, as their conversation turned into an argument over something petty that Frigid didn’t remember anymore; the disagreement had been more out of spite than anything else. They walked for some time glaring forward. The anger melted fast when they started hearing noises, noises that sounded suspiciously like a market place. Their suspicions were validated by the scene visible from their hiding place in the bushes. It wasn’t a market place, but more of a labor force, lifting boxes and setting up artillery guns. It was only when both of the pegasi moved in closer did they see who the laborers were. It wasn’t just griffins. There were a few ponies in the mix as well, looking ragged and exhausted. They watched in silence as when the ponies had apparently finished their task, they were ordered to stand in a line in the center of the plaza. “What were they doing here? By the looks of those torn army suits…oh my Celestia, they’re prisoners!” she thought, realizing their true purose of being there by the white camouflage shreds that lay on their backs.

From above them, a griffin came into view, diving from the clouds and landing right in front of the line of ponies. He walked in front of them, stopping only to slash his claw at a particular pony who was wheezing more than the others. The blood trickled down onto the ground under the shaking pony, who didn’t have the resolve to get backup. Frigid watched in horror, unable to shift her attention. She was saved by a tug on her hoof by the orange pegasus next to her. She expected to see an expression of some worry on Scootaloo’s face, but looked into the eyes of a face that screamed fear. It was as if she knew what was coming and didn’t want to be there. “If she knows what’s next, why doesn’t she tell me?” she thought, puzzled by the pegasus’s retreat from action that she usually so enthusiastically described. Her pondering was answered by a set of sounds that came from the labor camp. There was a single gunshot, accompanied by a sickening thud, followed by a rapid succession of similar noises. She froze, stricken with sudden nausea of what she had heard and what she smelled, a fetid odor of blood. She closed her eyes and willed herself to keep moving, trying her hardest to erase the sound of the gunshots from her mind.

Soon they were travelling down the river again, listening carefully to any sounds that might hint an ambush or enemy troops. They tried to talk to each other to ease the shock of the execution, but no matter what, neither Scootaloo nor Frigid could get that dull thud out of her head. Plus, each time they tried to bring up conversation, it only ended in argument. The 2 pegasi were very different in a vast amount of ways. Scootaloo’s favorite time of the year was the summer, Frigid’s the winter; Scootaloo’s favorite Wonderbolt was Spitfire, Frigid’s Soarin’; Scootaloo was a mare who lived for the day, and Frigid lived for the night. As they progressed, which was painfully slow both because of the difficult terrain and their wounds, they learned that neither of them had much in common. But that wasn’t the only thing the 2 of them noticed as they travelled, Frigid had noticed some of the wounds on both their bodies were reddening as a sign of infection. The medical ointment had fallen out of their saddle bags when they had fallen into the river, so they had no way to treat the infections. The only way to treat them was a more direct approach.

“Scootaloo?”

“Yeah?”

“We can’t go on if we don’t do something about these cuts now. They’ll just fester and make things much worse.”

“Yeah I know, but how are we gonna treat ‘em without that cream stuff in the med packs?”

“*sigh* Well I think the only way we can is…well…what did she call it…cauterizing the wound.”

“Whoa whoa whoa! Are you kidding me? I’m not gonna burn myself just to make things a little easier! I mean-”

“If we don’t deal with it now, we’re not just gonna get slowed down, we are going to die.”

“…Well even if we do it. How is it gonna work? I mean I can’t do it to myself!”

“I’ll do it to you, then to myself.”

“Really? I mean…okay…let’s do it.”

They found some wood and started a fire with the flint in their bags. They used a shard of metal they found wedged between the bags and the strap. Frigid carefully put the piece in the flame with a long stick she attached the shard to, waiting for it to become hot enough. When a ting of red creeped into the surface of the metal she took it out and turned to Scootaloo. Who had torn off a piece of the bag as a gag to bite down on. She looked up with apprehension to the glowing metal and hesitantly nodded, closing her eyes and awaiting the pain. And oh Celestia did the pain come. The second it touched her, she went rigid, fighting the urge to scream and flail around in pain. The stench of burnt flesh burned Frigid’s nostrils, the orange mare baring her teeth and fighting the urge to move even harder when Frigid moved to the bigger wounds. The entire time Frigid was apologizing, trying to console the hurting pegasus. The white mare took one look at Scootaloo’s face and looked away, catching a glimpse of tears trailing down her cheek from wide eyes into the icy dirt. After a few minutes that seemed like hours, the ordeal was over and Scootaloo had passed out from the pain.

Frigid looked down at herself. “Here we go…” she thought, even more frightened than before after seeing Scootaloo’s reaction. She heated the metal up again and made a similar gag for herself. She took a deep breath and started. She did not even remember much when she was finished. Only crying, shaking, and pain that which Frigid had never experienced. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, she looked up to the dull monochromatic grey skies. As she fell out of consciousness for the last time, she thought “We’re gonna die out here.”

Frigid gasped and shuddered violently at the feeling of freezing water on her face. The orange hooves that had dispelled the chilling fluid from a small cup, replaced the piece of plastic in its owner’s saddlebag. When Frigid got to her feet, her vision was blurry, although not disoriented enough to miss the sight of the soaking wet shivering pegasus in front of her. When she tried to move, the burns stretched and sent pain shooting through her body.

“Here, jump in the river for a few seconds, it’ll numb the pain.”

“O-okay…” Frigid struggled to get out of her gritted teeth as she made her way to the edge of the shore. She took a deep breath and jumped into the slow waters. She was greeted by an icy sensation that clawed her like a timberwolf. She gasped at the feeling of the cold water on her wounds, but soon could not even feel her hoofs let alone her wounds. When Scootaloo helped fish her out, Frigid lay on the shore wheezing and coughing. It had helped, but now instead of dying from the wounds, she was going to die from pneumonia. “Just great…” she thought bitterly. When they had recuperated for a while, they set off again. Once again they moved in silence, their bleak situation causing both of them to feel resentment towards everything in general, including each other. Every single thing that they talked about quickly descended into a shouting match that ended in either of them storming off. “I can’t believe her! She’s so difficult! Why can’t she just agree she’s wrong, I mean it’s pretty obvious. She’s probably just trying to get on my nerves. God why do I have to be stuck with her?” At that thought, she remembered the comfort of having a friend in isolation. She knew all too well the pain of having no one to turn to.

Several Hours passed, nothing there to console Frigid’s growing frustration but the loud rush of water on rock, which was gradually getting louder as the river narrowed. At least it blocked out the orange mare’s voice, which was constantly yammering away about some natural feature or another. After some time, Frigid was just able to tune it out. When Scootaloo nudged her a little hard, Frigid snapped at her.

“What was that for?!” she hissed.

“Shhh! Look! Down there by the clearing,” her companion whispered.

To their right, down the slope and in a clearing visible through the trees, were several details of griffins. But something was wrong; none of them were armed, but they walked about with an aire of ominous ferocity. Frigid was about to say something when the griffin who seemed like the leader did something to prove her fears. A bird was pestering the griffin by flying around its head. The griffin stopped, growled, and proceeded to savagely swat the bird out of the air with such speed her claw whistled through the air in a blur. The claw hit the ground, landing on a rock. But although her claw was fine even after smashing into the stone, the bird was not so lucky; it lay on the ground almost hidden in the brush except for an awkwardly jutting wing. The griffin said something indiscernible by the 2 pegasi eavesdroppers, but gave away that she was a woman with her voice. They both immediately recognized her. She was the warrior queen Kuolema. It is said that her name in the Griffin’s ancient language means “death”. Frigid cursed silently and met Scootaloo’s eyes, conveying a silent message that both of them understood: DON’T MAKE A SOUND.

They lay there against the frozen trees for around an hour before moving on. They had waited too long to start moving again; it was dark and they had not gone very far. But they couldn’t cry over spilled milk, so they split up to find shelter. Frigid barely heard Scootaloo’s cry over the increasing wind. As she neared the orange pony, she felt the temperature drop drastically. She reached a cave, the entrance of which was occupied by Scootaloo. They both went as deep into the cave as possible and tried to find something to cover themselves for the night. The blankets that were attached to their saddled packs were almost frozen from being soaked in the river. Frigid sighed, and knew what was going to have to happen.

“Well…we don’t have blankets, so we’re just gonna have to…well…”

“Well what?” Scootaloo inquired, knowing full well what Frigid was getting at.

“We’re just gonna have to huddle up next to one another and sleep…together…” Frigid replied, not very enthusiastically.

“…Alright I guess I’d rather sleep with you than die…”said Scootaloo, not realizing her wording.

“Hey! Don’t get any ideas…that’s not what I meant”

“What… oh god no! That’s not what I meant at all,” Scootaloo uttered as quickly as possible, reddening deeply in embarrassment.

They both laughed at it for little, both happy again to have each other in this hellish environment. Although she was vastly different from herself, Frigid could appreciate Scootaloo. At least she didn’t make fun of Frigid for how she used to be so shy and awkward, like every other filly and colt on Frigid’s street. Although she was a pain, Frigid was happy she wasn’t alone on this frozen tundra. They huddled up together to keep warm and tried to make things as little awkward as possible. But that was quite hard to avoid when both of them were so close to one another and yet their eyes were looking to anywhere but each other. Finally they both just gave up and tried to fall asleep. Although it felt weird to feel that way, Frigid fell into a calm sleep in the welcoming warmth of Scootaloo’s body heat. “I honestly don’t care anymore. I just wanna go home.”

While the 2 pegasi were sleeping soundly, 3 warmares and 6 young recruits were restlessly without sleep in their tents, wondering where their friends were. In one tent, a purple Unicorn tossed and turned trying to get past what happened on the plateau. She finally gave up and though “We need to deal with this now.” She ducked out of her tent and started to make her way to the large General’s tent that sat on a particularly stormy looking cloud in the center of the higher clouds.

Ch 7: The Search

Friendship is Magic Ch 7: The Search
By Rlogic1994
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Twilight walked softly towards a slate grey tent, light spilling from its edges. She took a breath to calm herself and went inside, followed by a cyan pegasus and an orange earth pony who had fallen in step with her unnoticeably. It was blindingly bright inside, a blazing smokeless fire placed in the center of a group of a few ponies who were arguing with the general. The second the trio entered the tent, the seemingly heated discussion went cold fast and the group dispersed. In a few moments the only ponies in the tent were Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, the general, and a few guards.

“Yes?” he asked, visibly annoyed by the intrusion.

“Well I-we were wondering…sir, when you were going to send out a search party for the Alpha pegasus squad.”

“Search? After that haystorm? It would be a waste of time! By now their bodies have washed up on the shore of some river. We just have to move past it and try to take back the land we lost,” he replied, not even phased by the possible death of 3 special recruits.

“Waste of time? Permission to speak freely, sir!” the flustered Rainbow pegasus almost yelled.

“…Permission granted…” replied the enormous pegasus, unperturbed by the outright anger from the cyan pony.

“Waste of time?! How is searching for 3 pegasi who I spent months training specially a waste of time?! And not only that but they are almost kids! If they’re alive, you basically just decided to leave them for dead! And what’s more I don’t doubt that their alive because one, Aurora was wearing the strongest armor they make, two, Scootaloo is a real tough cookie, and three, Frigid has better stamina than most experienced soldiers here,” she burst out, walking a dangerous path with her argument, “I would expect that as her father you would want her to be alive! I mean do you even lo-”

“Too far Rainbow,” thought Twilight, bracing herself for what was to come.

“ENOUGH,” he bellowed, shaking the tent with his bombarding voice, “Enough. You dare question my feelings for my only child? A child who I have wished to take after me and join the armed forces for years? A child who finally did it? Love her? I ALWAYS LOVED HER YOU BUCKING IDIOT! I always loved her and just hoped that one day she would respect me for what I did. I know I left them, but I had to support my family! Celestia be damned, I was so proud of her that she finally got the guts to follow through. You feel bad about her being out there? How the buck do you think I feel?! I know I should go after her myself, but we just don’t have the damn time or numbers to spare on it.”

Applejack nudged Twilight, who turned to what the orange mare was pointing at. Visible at the entrance to the tent, there were a huddling group of young mares and stallions all fearing for their lives. Applejack trotted up to them and ushered them in. It pertained to them too.

“Look, ah know that you maght not like it, but losin two members a’ the squad who know a lot about this camp will be worth savin. If we don’t, somepony, or moreover, somegriffin maght get to ‘em first,” said Applejack calmly, trying to calm everyone down as she always had in tense situations.

“I know but what evidence do we have of them being alive?” he inquired, still annoyed.

“I think I can help in that matter, my dear gargantuan friend,” said a low voice behind them.

At the entrance stood a stallion who at first was almost invisible against the light background of the tent and the mist outside. What unnerved everyone wasn’t just that he did not even blink, staring distantly towards the general, but that he looked the part of death itself. He had a snowy coat, a colorless mane, and even ghastly light gray irises, barely distinguishable from the whites of his eyes. He carried himself as if he was tired and had lived for far too long, but at the same time had a liveliness about him that contradicted his weariness. He looked frail, as if his body weight would be enough to break his legs, but he trotted forward freely with ease. His unicorn horn was longer than most and the end was a broken stub. His gaunt face made him look as though his head was a skull, stressing his “deathly” look.

“What the buck do you think you are doing here you son of a-” he started, only to be cut off by his own rage.

“Well by ‘what’ do you mean in what condition do I exist or for what purpose am I present in this little outpost?” the white unicorn answered relaxingly.

“Small outpost?! Why this is one of the-” he yelled, cut off again not by his anger but by the unicorn.

“Yes it is small. But only when compared to what I’ve seen, which is much more than you could possibly imagine with that limited intellect you so highly value,” he replied again nonchalantly insulting the general.

“THAT’S IT,” declared the enraged pegasus.

He dove with suck frightening speed toward the unicorn that he not only upturned two desks but sent a blast of wind outwards from his vigorously beating wings. His hand was outstretched in his famous “touch of death”, which was basically an unstoppable punch with his iron appendages. Everyone looked away, expecting a sickening crunch or a scream, but neither was heard. When the cloud of dust created by the collision subsided, an extremely surprising outcome presented itself. The general had his fist forward in a punching formation, but his entire arm was locked in a field of white glowing energy. At the end of his hoof was the unicorn’s own hoof up against the general’s, as if to block it. The look on the general’s face was still one of anger, but a look mingled with the signs of fear. The worst part was that the unicorn’s horn was not even glowing brightly, the feat he had just accomplished taking a fraction of the energy it should have.

“DO NOT FORGET YOUR PLACE, WIND,” the unicorn uttered, his voice seeming to boom from every direction, dimming the flame in the center to a flicker of blue, “You seem to have forgotten what and who I am. Moreover you have forgotten what I can do.”

“My place? You left us there! You didn’t even give any damn help!”

“Did I not warn you I cannot intervene in events of which I already have previous knowledge? They absolutely must play out the way that fate deals the cards!”

“…So you’re a…Praetorian, a keeper of the balance with the ability of foresight? Dear Celestia I thought you were just myths…” blurted Twilight.

“Well we might as well be. I am one of the last of my kind. Our race was stricken with an inescapable illness some time ago. We were weakened. The ignorance and hate of that which is different which the ponies of that age wielded so aptly did the rest. I am lucky for who I was at the time. It was only my identity that saved me…”

“Yes yes, we all know you’re special. Now what were you saying about finding those two kids?” asked the now only annoyed Icy Wind.

“Well because of my…ahem…abilities, I think I can find the general area they will be in, the key word being ‘will’. I can only use my foresight to see what will happen. What is happening now to them is unknown to me. But I do know they are alive. Because when I heard of what happened, I looked into the timestream and saw that two pegasi survived, one orange and one white. The third did not make it.”

“Aurora…died?” asked a teary eyed blue earth pony stallion.

“Yes I am afraid so. Although by the look of it, it was voluntary. She sacrificed herself for something or, more likely, someone.”

“So…what? We just follow you where you lead us and hope you’re not wrong? How can we trust you?” asked the rainbow maned mare.

“Truthfully you can’t. You want a character reference? Well anyone who really knew me is dead, so that may pose a problem. But if you want to save your friends you will follow me, because I’m your only chance. And plus, even if I wanted to do something to you or for you, I cannot intervene with the timestream, the flow of events in this world. It is the first rule of the praetorians,” he explained, “If you are meant to get hurt, I cannot do anything to stop or accelerate its occurrence. Well, I can, but in doing so, I will have created a new universe to replace this one in which possibilities and events will deviate from original course by an almost exponential rate as time goes on. In result, if I help where I’m not supposed to, instead of another 1000 years of peaceful rule under Celestia and Luna, we’ll have the fall of the entire Equestrian government and a 1000 years of war.”

“Okay say that again and start at ‘and plus’…” asked a very confused cyan pegasus.

“So ya can see inta tha future? That’s pretty nifty,” remarked an accepting orange earth pony.

“WOW! The timestream is only something I’ve read in research studies. It’s one of the most sought for concepts in all the magical world,” said a very excited purple unicorn.

“Alright then, it seems that we have an arrangement. Anyone who wants to come on this venture, meet me at the edge of this camp at 0500 hours. You have a few more hours to rest and I advise you to do so, because we will be travelling at one pace: mine. I must retire to my resting place as well, so I bid you a good night,” the white unicorn said quickly, turning to leave.

“Wait! You didn’t tell us your name,” inquired Twilight.

“I have been known by more names than I care to remember. But you may call me Nero,” he answered.

“Where do you think you’re going anyway? I will not allow any soldier to give you a tent,” said the general grumpily.

“Oh I just need to find a spot to knock on the sky and listen to the noises…” he trailed off, a mysterious smile on his face as he left the tent.

“That guy was really weird,” observed one of the unicorn, voicing everybody’s impression of the strange visitor.

After a few moments of trying to digest what had just happened and failing, the group scattered and returned to their tents, trying desperately to go to sleep. Rainbow Dash stumbled into her tent tiredly and collapsed onto her rickety bed. She rolled into a comfortable position before entering into a very vivid dream.

She was standing…no…she was flying with her wings. “Hmm I like flying” she said loudly. She swooped around before landing on the ground which was made from some shiny looking crystal. When her hoofs touched it, she felt the chill of ice. Something was inside the ice. She bent down to see what it was…a pony. It was 3 ponies, 3 pegasi. “She’s so pretty. Why can’t I see her face…?” Dash asked childishly. Then the 3 face-down pegasi slowly turned face up, revealing to Rainbow the mangled bodies of Aurora, Frigid, and Scootaloo. “NO! Get away from me! It wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t my fault!” she yelled at the approaching ghastly figures. She tried to run, she tried to run as fast as possible, but her legs were dragged down by invisible hands and her wings would not move at all. She could feel a cold breath down her neck. “Aaaah! What are you doing! I tried to help! I was stuck! They-they ambushed us! Please don’t hurt me…” she whimpered.

When the 3 figures’ faces were inches away from her, they started whispering in cruel voices. “Because of you, we are now hurt and dead. Because of your reluctance to see the flaws in things that you have made, we lay here awaiting death, one of us already taken by it. You let us die. You had a chance to save us…you know you did. But for some reason you did not take it. Why did you not take it? Why did you not save us!?” they hissed in unison. Then other soldiers who had died under her command and in her missions started crawling out of the ice. They clawed at her with their pale hoofs. “Please!” sobbed Rainbow Dash, in a rare show of emotion, “Stop! I never wanted to hurt you! Please! PLEAS-”

She awoke suddenly, sitting up in bed with a jolt and smashing into a very concerned looking Applejack.

“Are ya alright, sugarcube? Ya had me mighty worried with all that yellin,” asked the farm pony, her drained eyes trying to find the problem.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just a bad dream is all…”she replied, her eyes devoid of any of her usual determination.

“Who was it this time?”

“…everyone…”

“Ya can’t keep blamin yerself Rainbow. These things happ’n an’ we can’t stop ‘em. You just gotta accept it an’ move on. Like my old grand pap used to say ‘No point in cryin over spilled cider.’”

Applejack shuffled out of the tent, eying her friend one last time before disappearing into her own sleeping quarters. “This is gonna be one hell of a trip…” thought Dash. It was near dawn and she needed to prepare, so she went about her usual protocols for a mission like this; she polished her armor, cleaned her guns, and sharpened her knifes. She did everything to prepare except one thing, something that every pony else was doing at this point before the ordeal before them.

They each had their own thing; some paced back and forth in their tents, some simply sat on their beds with a frightened look on their face, and some, like Twilight Sparkle, were checking and rechecking that they had everything packed in their saddle bags. At around ten minutes before five, they all gathered at the edge of the camp near the entrance. There was only the soft rumble of a breeze running through the cave and the dead silence of the camp to console their anxiety. Then distinct hoofsteps were heard and the white unicorn emerged from the mist. He did not have armor on or even a saddle bag, but simple had a mystic wooden cane slung over his shoulder.

“Well, as it seems all who wish to embark are present, I think we should begin our journey right now. I only have three rules: follow me, don’t ask stupid questions, if you must ask any at all, and don’t die. That last one is quite important as if you do, it may have a chance of altering the course of things and I wish to see what happens at the end of this, so please refrain from ruining a good ending by dying on me.”

“Start right now? No instructions or mission or anything?” asked a puzzled pegasus.

“Well I gave you my rules and you already have your mission. I am your guide and no more than that. As I have explained before I cannot intervene if someone attacks unless I am meant too, so don’t expect me to jump in if you are attacked which I know we will be.”

“Ah’m guessin that’s part a the whole foresight mumbo jumbo? Well that’s fine with me, I think Kicks McGee has been wantin some action recently.”

“Alright then let me lead you out of this dismal outpost and towards the future.”

And with that they were off. They crossed over the magical protection threshold of the base and made their way to the wilderness beyond. They were all tense, but soon, with the calm surroundings, some of the young recruits chattered among themselves. The unicorn and the 3 war mares trotted along silently, brooding on what was to come. Twilight looked up and noticed something strange.

“Um…Mr.Nero? You don’t have a Cutie Mark.”

“Your observatory skills amaze me. I did not notice that before…” he replied grumpily, mumbling about stupid questions, “But if you must know, Praetorians never get their Cutie Marks because we have something else. It is something that I hope you do not see.”

“Why?”

“…Because it is only visibly when we take a certain form that is quite…formidable.”

“Oh…”

The awkward silence lasted for a few minutes and soon the other ponies stopped chattering and were looking around at their surroundings. They were all wondering why they were not using an airship, but decided not to inquire an answer by one look at the unicorn’s grumpy face. They were flanked left and right by tall pines sprinkled with fresh snow. They were following the Windigo River, visible through the impending tree line as a plane of white rapids. They were going upstream though, as one of the earth ponies had noticed things floating the opposite way of their direction.

“Look! There’s something in the water over there caught on that branch!” the blue earth pony shouted.

Almost instantaneously a white aura surrounded it and dragged a sopping shapeless cloth bag. The strap was broken, the other bag lost, but the blue crystal shaped clasp and grayish color were enough to identify it as one of Frigid’s saddlebags. They all huddled up against each other to see what was left of the contents of the bag. There was nothing except a soggy blanket and some unused medical supplies, disappointing the grim expectation of something much worse, say, bones. Suddenly the white unicorn was nowhere to be found. He was not behind them down the slope they had been climbing and he wasn’t behind any of the trees either; the vegetation was too dense to just walk through. After a panicky rush to find where he was, they spotted him several hundred meters ahead already at the top of the next ridge.

“WAIT UP! WE’RE STILL COMING!” Rainbow yelled at the persistent unicorn.

“If you think I am going to stop, then you are poorly informed. As I said in the beginning, there will be one pace: mine,” he said normally, his voice magically coming out of the air in front of them.

When they had finally caught up to him, a few of the ponies gave him a bit of attitude about his one pace idea. He calmly disregarded that they were in existence next to him let alone speaking and did not even hint to budging on his rule. The situation once again returned to the awkward silence that had dominated the trip so far. Rainbow Dash, being the least interested in silence, took off into the air lazily. She was about to do a couple tricks and just fly around. But suddenly, her movements were restricted as if the air around her had turned to thick syrup. Her wings became harder to beat and then she was not able to beat them at all. She was strictly held in the air by some oppressive force, which presented itself in a thin white outline around her body.

“Get me down from here!”

“But I was under the impression that was where you wanted to be. Oh silly me! Well if you want to stay up there, I can make it so you don’t have to do a thing. Just lay there and don’t get us into trouble by giving away our position with your extravagant mane in the light sky!”

“Damnit just let me down. I won’t fly above the trees again…”

At those words the force vanished and Rainbow fell into a pile of ruffled feathers. She got up, shaking and glaring at the unicorn, who once again paid no attention to the emotions displayed at him. She was about to pounce on him with her usual anger invoked brashness, but Applejack caught her rainbow tail in her mouth before she was even close to the white unicorn, who watched the scene unfold with an amused look.

“Hold yer horses there, RD, he could stop ya mid air an’ throw ya back like an apple core inta a trash can.”

“Fine, I won’t do anything, but don’t expect me to be nice,” replied the frustrated pegasus, arms crossed.

“I do not care if you are nice to me or not. I have experienced so much in my life I am rarely affected by anything, let alone impetuous shows of rage. And your friend was almost right about what I would have done. You see, I would have stopped you before you had even left the ground completely.”

“Maybe letting this guy lead us wasn’t such a good idea. We’re not a team…we’re a time bomb. And I think I know who that spark is going to be…” Twilight thought, looking at Rainbow Dash from the corner of her eye.

After a few moments of everyone exchanging both impressed and fearful glances, Azurus, the pony who dealt with reaction magic, trotted ahead of everyone towards the white pony.

“So um…where are you from?”

“Hmm...interesting. If you wish to ascertain the tale of my exploits, then I may be of some more use on this voyage. As I can see and feel that every pony here is quite bored, I may be able to offer somewhat of an entertaining yarn of my life. Which in retrospect was not all that boring,” he said tonelessly, “Well to your first question of my location of origin I must say that the answer in of itself is quite a story. It started some time ago in a land that is no longer in existence and goes un-noted in history books. It was a land on the border of Draconis, Gryffhalla and Equestria. A land saturated by a myriad of ponies, griffins, dragons, and all manner of intelligent creatures. At the time I was young and thought it was a very prospective idea to try and…well…take, without permission, a couple gems from a cart in the market place. Little did I know the storm that I had set into motion…”

Ch 9: The Sacrifice

Friendship is Magic Ch 9: The Sacrifice
By Rlogic1994
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

Another Griffin crashed to the ground, bloody clumps of feathers raining onto the ground around him. Shrieks of pain and anger filled the air. More were coming.

“We gotta get the hell outta here!”

“Ya don’t need ta tell me, RD! Twi! What do we do! Twi?”

She was frozen in fear. Her legs were locked up and she was shivering, her face drained of color.

“What is it?!”

“I was trying to reach the pony front by extending out my magical conscience, but when I rubbed against one of the griffin’s minds, I felt power that I’ve only felt once before in my life; when I visited the court of the Griffin King Acheron.”

“Oh my mother of dear sweet Celestia…the King?! You mean the guy who completely wrecked that town we were trying to hold singlehandedly?”

“Yeah. We better hurry the buck up!”

But no matter how much they tried to hurry, wave after wave of griffins kept them from their task. And miles ahead 2 ponies waited for their number to be called.

“Fourty Seven Fifty!”

“That’s us! Come on!”
But before they could take another step an exhausted pony came running up to them.

“You girls are spec ops right? We need you now! Come on and follow me!”

They looked to the communications tent and back at him. Scootaloo shrugged and followed his lead to a secluded tent. The Staff Sergeant was standing over a map with several small miniature ponies on it. The other troops around her turned to face the newcomers.

“Finally! Took ya long enough. Remember how I said if we needed some troops to fill in I’d call ya? Well we got a few MIA’s so we need some substitutes for recon and retake. You up for it?”

“That didn’t exactly sound like you’re giving us a choice so yeah we’re up to it.”

She nodded and gestured to the map, speaking fast about the situation.

“About 2 hours ago I sent out a recon party to this sector here by that clearing in the trees. They were told to report all findings upon reaching the site an hour into the mission. We never got any transmissions. When we tried to hail their radio the line was dead. We need some troops to go in and check out what happened. That and if needed take the area back. We’ll get you weapons so you don’t have to worry about that. The outfit rendezvous is at the edge of camp on the north eastern side.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad. Just some recon…and payback!” said Frigid, relishing an opportunity to get back at the creatures that had taken her friend from her.

“Oh and there’s one last thing. There was a transmission but it was only a few seconds long. It was garbled but from what we got from it, a soldier was yelling ‘He has a-a staff and it glows with magic! He-he’s got stars on the side of his coat! I think he’s Acher-’ and it cuts off there. We don’t know what he meant but from the sound of it, there was a griffin sage there. So be careful, because from what I’ve seen of the war torn towns laid waste by them, those sages are powerful.”

“Will do.”

They geared up with automatic rifle saddles, one barrel on each side, the sleek black metal shining in the sun. They also grabbed a couple of motion grenades and a combat knife for each of them. They then trotted outside and towards the north east corner, both stuck in their own thoughts.

“Griffin magic? What the hell did I get myself into!”

“Hmm Griffin magic, huh? Well the bigger they are the harder they fall!”

Not paying attention, Frigid almost ran into a brown pegasus, who dodged at the last moment.

“Woah! Watch where you’re-wait are you the spec ops?”

“Yeah…”

“Then It looks like we’re all here. Well we’re not gonna get anywhere with this from here, so let’s go.”

He trotted and then broke into a sprint towards the forest. By the time they had caught up with the group, Frigid and Scootaloo ran into the midst of a lot of annoyed glares.

“I thought you said you were spec ops? What the hell is this if you can’t keep up?”

“Well we were kind of knocked out of the sky by an explosion and then had to cauterize out own wounds so I guess we’re a bit damn tired.”

“…alright then, I guess you are spec ops. Just…try to keep up.”

They took to their wings and, having trained agile maneuvering through closed spaces, were able to navigate through the trees with ease, much to the surprise of the rest of the group. In a few minutes they reached the trees outside the clearing, where a gruesome scene was laid out.

“Oh my Celestia. Have they no mercy.”

“What the hell is wrong with them.”

Before the group of ponies six troops in torn uniforms, beaten black and blue, were hung from magical gallows created by a eerie glowing staff in the hands of the largest griffin any pony had seen. His uniform consisted of a single cape, which was made of what looked like dragon scales with a few stars in a line on one side. It glinted in the sunlight, its thousands of scales letting off a light show of multicolored rays. His chest was at least twice that of the average griffin and his wings even more so. At the end of his huge legs were talons covered in metal armor that looked like they could tear steal like paper. Finally the stars on the cape made sense; It was the King.

“I got an idea,” whispered Scootaloo, to which Frigid looked over with shock.

But it was too late, the orange mare was already slinking through the trees to the other side of the clearing. Although the rest of the group couldn’t spot her, Frigid had learned to spot the mare even in the darkest of environments in their travels after crashing. Scootaloo had slowly flanked the group of griffins and pulled a grenade out.

“Is she crazy?! I’m sure they have some sort of shield! I mean look at that sage!”

But the grenade was not thrown at the griffins; it was thrown straight up into the air. When it hit the ground, the explosion set fire to most of the forest behind and on the flank of the group, blinding them with the flash for a few moments. Frigid watched with shock as the sage lashed out with impossible speed towards the flames, slicing through them with deep purple energy. It was meant to kill Scootaloo, but the sage narrowed his eyes, indicating he felt the presence of something in the trees. He watched for an attack from the flames. But the next explosion erupted from the center of the group, sending flames licking out towards the griffins.

But there was a protection spell on them, so it did nothing but disorient them. But that was enough, as an orange flash streaked from the sky out of nowhere, slamming into the purple force field that the sage had put up just in time. But it did not keep the pegasus at bay, as the shield shattered under the force, sending out a blast of air and light. Frigid and the rest of the ponies hid behind the trees and covered their eyes, the light almost searing. When Frigid turned to look at what had happened, she stared with both awe and fear.

“What just happened?” another pony asked.

“I have no damn idea,” replied the pegasus next to her.

Before them lay 8 bloody griffins and 1 sage with a knife sticking out of his head, its entire blade buried inside the enormous griffin’s head. But off to the side was a small lump of orange and magenta. Frigid yelped and ran out, not thinking of the protocols of the battlefield to make sure the coast was clear.

“Damnit Scoot! Why did you do it!” the white mare yelled, fear edging every word.

Scootaloo’s breathing was weak and her body looked like it had been beaten up by a hurricane. Where there weren’t scratches and bruises, there were clumps of her coat and mane missing. She looked broken. She struggled to speak.

“Remember when you said you had to prove your dignity and honor? Looks like I beat you too it. Hey when did you get the third wing?”

And with that her head hit the ground with a thud. Frigid was faster to react than she thought she could. In one swooping motion she lifted Scootaloo into her arms and launched into the air towards the camp, leaving the soldiers to take care of retaking the land lost. Tears formed in her eyes from both fear of losing another friend and the sheer speed she was travelling.

“I’m not gonna let you die. Not this time. Not again! Faster!”

She rocketed towards the camp, which was in sight now. She caught sight of the medical tents, characterized by the universal red color used in all camps and dived towards them. She landed with a magnificent and loud thud on the ground, startling many of the ponies around. She ran into the tents and laid the broken mare on the first bed she could find and went to find a doctor.

“Hey! I need your help! My friend was hurt and she’s close to dying!”

“Sure thing right after I finish with everyone else who is dying. This is war! People die! You can’t expect me to just put down-” he stopped when he saw Scootaloo, “Dear lord what happened here. Multiple magic burns, more bruises than I can count, and several broken bones. Redheart! Get on this one right away!”

A pink haired earth pony trotted up with an extensive medical kit.

“Umm…not to be rude but wouldn’t a unicorn be better for-” Frigid was cut off by the sound of the nurse moving a surgical thread and needle closing wounds at a lightning fast speed and dabbing anesthetic and antibiotic ointments on the rest of Scootaloo’s wounds at the same time.
“Never mind I guess I’ll just-”

“Wait outside and I’ll tell you when I’m done. Now if you’re not gonna help, get out!”

Frigid trotted sadly outside and wondered the camp. She passed ponies bleeding out and ponies who were without a scratch and ponies who looked tired of the front and new reinforcements that looked fresh and enthusiastic. She found herself outside of the strategist tent she had come to before where she could hear the Staff Sergeant’s voice. When the voice started to talk about the Griffin Sages, it suddenly hit Frigid that there were only five stars on the cape for the Sage that Scootaloo had killed. The king’s insignia was widely known as six stars. That wasn’t the king; that was only one of his many generals. And although the generals were also huge, The King was known for his uniquely large and intimidating form. He was still out there, waiting. Before she knew what she was doing she barged into the tent.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing back?”

“The rest of them are taking care of it.”

“Very well then what do you want?”

“I want to help!”

“Well we don’t need any help.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Look I know that you wanna help but we’re in trouble and I don’t think you can. That Sage you fought, and yes I heard already, was only one of many that are being deployed now. We can’t fight them efficiently enough to be able to keep the front. And we don’t have enough ponies to do it anyway. It all goes downhill from here.”

“Isn’t there anything that we can do?” Frigid looked at everypony’s face, “Isn’t there a damn thing?!”

“There is one thing…” said a younger unicorn in the corner, “We could use that.”

“No. That isn’t an option. We would have to evacuate every pose on the front for that to work.”

“What is she talking about?”

“We made a plan B in case we were overrun. It’s a bomb that the weapons researchers cooked up. It has the power to level the entire battlefield from east to west. If we ever were overrun, dropping it would end the battle. But we don’t have a launcher or a way to evacuate everyone and keep the griffins at bay.”

Frigid thought to herself, her eyes glued to the floor.

“What if I told you there was a way,” she said after a few long moments.

“Enlighten me.”

“I noticed that the griffins’ eyes are very light sensitive. If you could create a flash powerful enough it could blind them for long enough for an evacuation. We could use all the flash grenades stocked up in the armory. I saw hundreds maybe even thousands.”

“Well even if that worked we have no launcher and the only way to drop it would be if a pegasus flew it in. And even if someone was crazy enough, they would have to fly above the clouds in the freezing conditions.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Well even-wait what? You? Are you serious?”

“I can take more cold than anyone and I will not stand by while ponies are getting killed if I can stop it.”

“Well damn, kid. You got guts. But the thing is pretty heavy and-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll drop it. You just get those ponies the hell out of there.”

“A-alright. Go to the armory and ask for Heat, he’ll show you where we’re hiding it.”

Frigid trotted out and turned towards the armory, but then stopped and started towards the medical tents. She pushed open the flap and slowly approached Scootaloo, whose eyes were shut. She was hooked up to a machine that was helping her breath and her wings were bandaged completely and were held down by long splints. Her mane was a mess and her tail was no better. She really looked like hell. After a few moments of thinking, Frigid spoke.

“Hey. I don’t know if you can hear me. But I don’t know if I’m going to see you again. And before I go I just wanna say something. Thank you. Thank you for the friendship you’ve given me in these last few months when I really needed it. Thank you for making me realize that life is more about just respect and dignity. It’s also about love and friendship and family. So I thank you and say goodbye for maybe the last time.”

She trotted out of the tent determined. Frigid didn’t know, but Scootaloo said something weakly after the blue maned mare had thanked her and fell back into unconsciousness.

“F-frigid…y-y-your…w-welcome.”

The white mare found herself before the grey armory tents before she knew it. She sighed and entered.

“Umm I’m looking for a Heat?”

“So you’re the poor soul they found to drop it? I’ll show you where it is. Just follow me.”

The burnt orange pony led Frigid to a large crate twice the size of a pony and tapped it three times with an assassin’s precision at certain points. The side of the crate hissed and gave way to a dimly lit stairway into the earth.

“Leave any metal objects here, the magnetic field’s gonna lift you up like a rag doll if you bring anything.”

She dropped her things at the entrance and descended with Heat. The first thing that hit her was the walls were made of some kind of dull metal that looked as though it glowed. Then she noticed the unnatural feel to the air, like there was a thin haze in the air.

“What you’re feeling are the nano-magic bots. The unicorns up in research came up with ‘em. Each one is a little pocket of magic and not very powerful. But the entirety of the air here is saturated with it. And because it is pony magic, it isn’t harmful unless the nano’s deem you a threat. Then you’re bucked.”

“So this really must be pretty high secrecy right?”

“You have no idea.”

He left the conversation to end with that, a decisive expression to convey that she didn’t need to know how much she didn’t know. She kept descending, the air getting cooler and cooler, until they arrived at an enormous cavern fitted with complicated machines and several sinister looking contraptions. The first that caught her sight was a small metal ball no bigger than a hoof-ball and emanating frighteningly bright bolts of energy. As if he knew what she had seen, Heat explained.

“That’s a prototype for a generator for the troops. If it works we could connect all our weapons to an almost unlimited energy resource. It’s still in the works though. Something as powerful as this could easily kill an average pony with an energy overload.”

Then there were a few others, like a blade that could cut through even the strongest of materials, the translucent edge glowing softly. Then there were a few biological tests to make “super soldiers” as Frigid’s guide had put it. And then, the ceiling curved up and the floor fell away towards a spherical cavern, and in the center stood one simple silver capsule.

“There she is. Five years for the plan to come to fruition and much longer for it to be applied. But we are sure it works.”

The walls of the spheres were covered in a black shiny material, reflecting the bomb’s sleek silver surface. It was a little too sleek, without a distinguishable feature on it other than its ellipsoid shape.

“So how does this thing work? I mean I don’t see and button or timer.”

“It works by the genius of acceleration detection technology. When the bomb reaches a certain velocity, a timer will start and the bomb will explode at just the right time. It is quite ingenious if I do say so myself.”

“Well I don’t know about you, but the power of something like this, at least how it was described to me, could kill millions. That doesn’t seem very ingenious to me.”

“Oh it could vaporize millions, and then many more than that from the actual radiation blast. This is why we must evacuate the area. That and also set up a quarantine of the area for the health of every pony.”

“Alright I’m ready.”

Heat pressed the side of the black wall and a light appeared where his hoof had brushed the smooth material. A thick catwalk with a conveyor belt shot out silently towards the capsule, the glass tube it was contained in lifting away. The bomb moved steadily towards them, its size growing by the second. When the belt stopped with a light click, Frigid saw the bomb in its full form and realized how truly large it was. It was at least a pony wide and two ponies thick. It was big.

“Is there some kinda harness or…?”

“Right here. This was originally designed for a robotic pony to use. WE even had a launcher set up, but it was made for the robot. I don’t know that it will work for a rea pony, so you’ll just have to get high up and use the wind currents above the clouds.”

She was silent as he strapped the cold metal harness to her and then used a crane like claw, which had sneaked silently out of the black wall, to pick her up and place the bomb on her back.

“When the time comes tug on the little handle in front of your mouth and the harness will spin and the bomb will be under you. Then just pull again and…”

“Yeah.”

He pointed to a tunnel to her left, indicating her exit route. He said nothing more and left her to her thoughts. But she had only one at this point.

“I am ready to die. I am ready to let go. I am ready to prove myself for those I love!”

Ch 10: The Relinquishment

Friendship is Magic Ch 10: The Relinquishment
By Rlogic1994

“I am ready to die. I am ready to let go. I am ready to prove myself for those I love!” thought Frigid, as her fellow team mates made their way closer and closer to the center of the front, each wave of griffins growing in number.

“We can’t keep going! They’re gonna rip us apart! I know I’m not one to turn down a fight, but I don’t think this is one we’re going to win.”

“RD’s right we’re gunna die ‘fore we git close enough to git some help.”

“Alright we’ll just hold this position and keep listening to the radio. If we catch a hold of any outfits near us…we break for it!”

They dropped the radio onto the ground and clicked on the transmitter/receiver button as it crackled to life, garbled tinny voices slowly becoming discernible. They formed a circle, all 8 of the surviving ponies looking out towards the forests around them, ready to spill blood. The first griffin came from the right and a unicorn recruit was quick to send shards of magic sailing towards it, slicing into its chest. Before it even hit the ground more burst from the green tree wall before them.

“Here we go, guys. Make every shot count!”

As griffin after griffin fell to the group, the radio still shouting loudly, Frigid made her way to the commanding tactics tent. The staff sergeant was a little surprised to see her.

“So you’re really gonna go through with this, huh kid? Like I said, you got guts. Now we have grenade launchers being set up for the flash bombs and we found about a hundred crates. It’s gonna light up the sky like the Summer Sun Celebration fireworks show. But can you see through it?”

“Just get me some darkened flight goggles and I’ll be fine. Oh and one more thing. Can you-can you clip on a radio to this? I don’t know I-I feel like I wanna say something before I die.”

“Sure,” she said, dragging a portable radio with her mouth and tying it to the harness, clicking the transmitter/receiver switch.

“We good?”

“Yeah I’ll tell you on the radio when we’re ready. If you can get up to the top of the cliff in the north part of the compound so that It’ll be easier to get in the air.”

“Ok then.”

She started to leave, but before she could, a pony near the entrance stopped her.

“Thank you.”

Their eyes met and Frigid nodded, pushing past her and starting her final journey to the top of the hill. It was a long trek and it would take some time. “Thank you. That’s what I should be saying. Thank you to all the ponies who trusted me and believed in me. Thanks mom. Thanks d-Thanks dad.”

As Frigid lost herself in her recollections of her life, her teammates were fending for their lives.

“5 o’clock! 4 heavies!”

4 bolts of blinding purple energy shot the 4 approaching griffins. The group were still alive, but slowly being exhausted.

“We can’t handle much more of this! We’re gonna have to retreat soon!”

“Wait! The radio is saying something.”

The radio crackled out a static riddled message and the second time it was announced it came out loud and clear.

“The Alpha Bomb will be dropped. All units within earshot of this message retreat behind the fallback line of mortars set up on our side of the front. I repeat-”

The radio’s clarity ceased once more, throwing the transmissions into crackly nonsense. Everypony stood still for a moment in the rare break between the waves of griffins.

“Twi? Isn’t the Alpha Bomb-”

“One of the most powerful incendiary devices ever created by pony kind? Yes. They must be real desperate if they have to drop the A-Bomb. And the Princess did give the front’s head officers authorization to use it as a last resort.”

“Well what the hell are we waiting for!? Let’s get the buck outta here!”

Applejack and Twilight nodded and led the group into a retreat, taking the radio with them, its gurgling messages still sounding out. They moved as quick as possible, but in the back of her mind Twilight knew they weren’t going to make it.

“I just wonder whose sorry flank they got to do the job!”

Back at the base, Frigid had made her way steadily up the hill and was near the cliff top. She finally reached it and with a sigh sat down on the soft grass waiting for her orders.

“This is it. At least I get to go out with a bang,” she whispered, chuckling lightly at her own joke. She didn’t notice before how pretty the area was, the lush green contrasting with the cold black and white of the mountain. It really was quite a beauty except for the war torn bald burnt areas of forest strewn with bodies of both ponies and griffins alike.

“Is this what I’m fighting for? More killing? I’m sure they have families waiting at home for them too. Is what I’m doing just?”
She looked down to the soldiers and wounded in the camp.

“Well this is war. Both sides are just. We just have to hope that we’re doing the right thing for the right reasons. Everypony has to do what they must in the end when the time comes. And what we have to do isn’t always nice.”

She thought more about war absentmindedly and didn’t notice her radio go off.

“Frigid! Damnit listen up!”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, ma’am I’m here.”

“Finally! We got our little party poppers set up so when the first flare goes up you have to take off as fast as possible. Good Luck.”

Frigid got to her hooves and looked out over the landscape one more time and took a deep breath, waiting. The whistle of the flare made her eyes shoot open, the red smoke tail of the projectile arching across the sky. She trotted back a little and ran forward with force, lifting herself and the bomb with one forceful flap of her wings. The strength potion that they had given her last minute was helping a little, but not much. Flying to your own death can drain you of energy. Now she slowed and waited for the barrage of flash bombs to start, sliding her darkened goggles over her cold blue eyes.

No matter how fast they ran Twilight knew they weren’t going to make it. The A-Bomb was devastating. Maybe the base would survive because of protective enchantments. But this valley was about to be flattened.
“Guys wait! We have to stop!”

“What?! Are ya crazy, Sugarcube?!”

“We’re not gonna make it even if we try! I have another idea.”

They stopped and everypony looked to Twilight.

“I learned a spell a while ago for multiple object teleportation. I can normally do two or three ponies, but this spell allows me to do up to ten. But there is a risk. If the spell breaks or is interrupted or distracted at all, we could end up miles off target. And that may not only be horizontally. We could end up high in the air or deep in the earth.”

“Well buck that! It’s worth a try!”

“Okay then hold on while I pre-”

The radio kicked to life again.

“This is Frigid Drift…”

They all froze.

High up in the sky, Frigid was soaring towards the center of the front. She slowed for a moment and clicked her radio, broadcasting to every radio of the army within range.

“This is Frigid Drift…Special Operatives recruit and soldier for Equestria. In moments I will drop this bomb on the enemy, likely ending the lives of thousands. But before I go I wish to say a few things. First of all to my friends. I thank you for being there for me and helping me through hard times. Thank you for your trust and guidance. Thank you. And to my special friend Scootaloo I say this in hopes that you can hear me. I had never had a friend who stuck with me and comforted me like you did through our rough times together. I can’t thank you enough. I realize now how lucky I am to have friends like you. I’m even lucky to have a father and mother who care for me, although sometimes they aren’t very good at showing it. Again thank you.”

She held her breath choosing her next words to the rest of the soldiers.

“And now to the rest of the soldiers who don’t know me well I speak to you. You mares and stallions are role models for everypony in Equestria. You put your lives on the line for those you love and you do it willingly, even though you may think that you came only because you must. Every one of you deserves more than what you’ll get. I only hope that everypony here is loved after this is over, that they can be loved and love others. Because only after all the hell I’ve been through I realize that –that—that it is only by the bonds we make and the friends we keep that our true selves become known to us and we become more than just ponies fighting for our country. We become something more than just soldiers. We become protectors of all that we love and all that we keep close to our heart and all that should never be taken away. We become more. Thank you to everypony listening. Remember that only you can figure out what you are protecting, what love you are shielding. Goodbye, everypony. Frigid out. “

Tears streamed down one of the unicorn recruit’s face, as she heard the last words. Soon Twilight began to tear up and others followed suit. Soon everyone was tearing up over the truly beautiful last words of the pegasus. All except one. Rainbow Dash stood stock still and closed her eyes.

“Twilight?”

“Y-yeah?”

“I have to save her. I just—I just have to.”

“That’s impossible. Nothing is fast enough to get her out of there before the bomb hits.”

“That’s not completely true,” replied Dash, a grin covering her face as she whispered her plan into Twilight’s ear.

“What?! But that’s never even been tried before!”

“That’s why I know it’ll work. Trust me.”

“Alright but you better get your cyan flank back to base as fast as possible. Understood!?”

“Yeah yeah don’t worry!”

Rainbow Dash shot away from them into the air, searching for the white pegasus.

Frigid squinted as the bombs went off in the air, even the darkened goggles not shielding her from the intense light.

“It is time.”

She pushed her wings into overtime and flew faster and faster towards the white flashing mass of explosions.

“Here we go.”

She flew straight into the midst of the bombs going off and flew faster and faster to the center of the front. She was almost there, almost at her final destination. In a few moments, she was suddenly above the front. It was now or never. She hit the switch with her hoof and the bomb swiveled underneath her. She closed her eyes and pressed he switch again and the bomb unlatched itself. She let go and let her body fall to the field below, embracing her end.

Rainbow spotted her target from high above through the flashes from the bombs. She flew even higher, past the cloud layer and then started to drop into a sharp dive. The first Rainboom set the clouds afire with a thousand hues. But she kept going, her blinding speed bringing tears to her eyes.

“Almost there. Come on! Come on!”
BOOM. The second rainboom rocked the air and the ground sending flames of every imaginable color in a beautiful halo for the entire front to see. She shot faster than she ever had through the air, leaving a trail of flames.

Frigid kept falling. Trying to remember fond memories before death took her.
Her mother picked her up and spun her around playfully as her father did the same running around with Frigid and making airplane noises.
She could see the bomb was nearing at the ground.
Her first night with her first marefriend. It wasn’t anything serious. Just having tons of fun with someone who Frigid liked.
The bomb was about to hit and Frigid closed her eyes for what she thought was the last time.
She stood in a row with her friends and fellow recruits as Rainbow Dash looked over and smiled.
Suddenly a rainbow colored blob is blocking her vision and she is ripping through the air being propelled by some unseen force. She uses her hooves to push the blob out of her face and realizes it is a rainbow mane attached to the head of a cyan pegasus.

“Rainbow…Dash?” Frigid asked weakly, unable to move because of the air tearing against her with the speed they were going.

Then the bomb went off. It was a sound so deafeningly loud, Frigid thought the world would end. Bright red energy blossomed out of the detonation zone and even with their insane speed, it was gaining on the.

Rainbow Dash had made it just in time to scoop Frigid up and now she was flying as fast as she could.

“Almost to the base! Come on Rainbow! Show me what you got!”

She beat her wings even harder and could feel the heat of the bomb suddenly on her back and she pushed her wings even more. Another white cone of speed formed around her as she broke through the protective force field around the base, leaving the explosion to rock the very foundations of the base but not destroy it. Rainbow touched down next to the medical tents and got Frigid a bed to rest on. The rest of the group, who Twilight had teleported with her spell, were soon next to the white pegasus. Another pony, who in Frigid’s blurry vision, could only be distinguished as a pegasus with a magenta mane and an orange coat leaned in to say something. The pony winced a little as she spoke.

“It’s alright now, Frigid. We’re all her. All of your friends are here for you.”

Ch 11: The Promise

Friendship is Magic Ch 11: The Promise
By Rlogic1994
(NOTE: In this chapter the OC Palette Swap is not my original idea and is from another blog.)

A few days after the bomb was dropped the Royal Sisters met with the Griffin King. It was rumored and soon established a fact that Equestria possessed several bombs of the same, if not greater, caliber.

“Well Celestia, I must admit you surprised me. You’re not as soft as you once were. I guess I was right after all.”

“About what?” snapped the Sun Princess.

“That the longer you rule the more hard decisions you’ll make, decisions that don’t exactly help your image as the kind and benevolent Princess of the Sun.” he replied calmly, his tone dripping with both bitterness and sarcasm.

They signed a treaty to reestablish the border and start reconstruction of the area. The king grudgingly helped to rebuild the scarred land although it was no longer in his possession. All the while Frigid Drift and her friends took rest in the medical tents and waited for news. It was unsure if they could return to their homes or not.

“I don’t get it! Why can’t we just go!”

“Because they might need our help in the reconstruction. We might’ve just helped win the war but we still have to follow orders. Come on, Scoot, it’s not that bad.”

They waited patiently for days. And their patience was rewarded; a week after the treaty was made, a message was received that allowed some of the troops to return home. Their positions in the ranks being higher than most, Frigid and her friends were bound to end up on the list to be sent home. The night before they were to leave, Frigid sat awake. But she was not alone; her orange friend came along and sat beside her.
“What’s up?”

“Not much. Just…thinking.”

“Well ‘not much’ doesn’t keep you up at night. Come one, you know you can trust me.”

“It’s just…I was ready. I was ready to give it all up, to lose my life for something that seemed so much greater than myself. And now I don’t know. I feel different.”

“Different how? Like suddenly your life has purpose?” she asked sarcastically, a smile across her face.

“No. Like I don’t have any fear anymore. Before even when I was just a filly I was always scared. And I mean I was scared and nervous about everything. I always feared if people would be mean to me or if I was going to do something with my life or just scared in general. It was like my head was full with a constant ringing of paranoia. And now-well now I don’t hear anything and my mind is clear. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Sounds…um…cool?”

“Yeah. We should probably get to sleep. I don’t wanna be sleepy tomorrow.”

“That’s right! Tomorrow’s your special day, huh? I mean it’s not every day you receive the Medal of Honorary Services in the Equestrian Army!” she said, her last words in saying the award’s name saturated with a fake pompous tone.

“I don’t know why they’re givin it to me though.”

“You’re kidding right? You saved our bucking flanks back there! And you risked your life doing it! That’s the best kind of flank-saving.”
After that they were quiet. For the first time in what seemed like years, Frigid slept soundly and cheerful dreams filled her mind.

The base’s trumpeting alarm woke Frigid with a start as she shot up in her bed and almost hit her head on the metal post.

“Woah there, don’t wanna be incoherent for your speech!” Scootaloo teased.

“Speech? Speech?!”

“I’m just kidding. You just have to stand up there and look pretty.”

“Oh. Thank Celestia for that. I bet they would just take the Medal away from me if I gave a speech.”

Both of them chuckled silently, and that chuckle changed to a full laugh, unrestrained and free. They laughed for the first time in a long time and kept laughing. They laughed hard and couldn’t stop. Maybe it was the fact that they were going home or that the war was over or any of the hundred other positive events since the dropping of the bomb, but they were happy and they weren’t afraid anymore. An escort dressed in a formal uniform came by the tents and picked up all the ponies who were to be shipped back to their homes. Frigid, Scootaloo, and the rest of the recruits were led to a separate path. Rainbow, Twilight, and Applejack were waiting for them next to a smaller private transport.

“Well it looks like we got everyone here. Better git this big hunk a metal in the sky.”

“Yes I agree. We should leave soon to avoid the congestion in the skies from the other ships. Come on everypony, get in.”

They all piled into the ship and it lurched forward slowly, floating higher and higher into the air, letting off some smoke and exhaust from a valve in the back. They sped up and soon were barreling towards Central Base.

“Well I think this calls for a bit of celebration,” said Rainbow Dash, pulling out a bottle of unidentified liquid and some metal cups, “Drink up everypony, it’ll be a smooth ride all the way to Central. I don’t know about you guys but the first thing I’m gonna do when I get back is have some real food. Not that nutria-fix crap they feed us in the North.”

Frigid sipped her drink and felt warmth emanate from inside her. She was never a very big drinker, but she did enjoy a glass of clouds-Ale every now and then. This stuff was unlike anything she’d had before. It warmed her up and tickled her insides in the best way. It was definitely quite strong but Frigid didn’t care and sipped herself into a deep reverie of her own thoughts.

“I wonder what he’s gonna say. Especially because he’s gonna see mom again.”

“Wow! Look!”

“I wonder how much wood is in those trailers. Or how much stone!”

To their right below them, there were dozens of trailers heaping with supplies to rebuild. The battles had stopped but the war was not really over yet, not until everything was back to normal. Although things would never be like they were before ever again.

“I wonder how much longer we have to wait in this metal thing till we get to Central.”

It turned out that Central was closer than they thought. In a few short hours they touched down on the massive landing field. As they exited they were met by thunderous applause.

“Woo! Good job guys!”

“Yeah! You guys are great!”

The cheers and shouts startled the young ponies, to which Rainbow Dash said they simply had to wave and smile. And they waved and smiled until their hoofs ached and their lips hurt. They were huddled into yet another airship, this one bigger and more decorated, ready for its arrival at Cloudsdale.

“Woah! Look! All our names and faces are on the side!”

And sure enough on a metal panel, portraits of all of the recruits and the 3 warmares were skillfully painted on the side of the craft. A white pony with a red mane and paint on her tail came up to them.

“Like it? I thought the people below might need a better view of your pretty faces! By the way I’m Palette Swap! I’m gonna get to paint your big war portrait after the ceremony of Honors in Cloudsdale.”

“Cool! Make sure to make me look extra awesome because-”

“Rainbow Dash this ain’t just about you ya know!”

“Oh…yeah sorry. Make everyone else awesome too. I mean I don’t need to look extra awesome cuz I already am!”

“Consarnit RD! There ain’t no hope for that huge ego ya got there.”

They piled into the new air ship and took off into the blue skies. Frigid dozed off on the plush cushiony seats and fell into another pleasant dream, this one having to do with Rainbow and a trip to the beach.

“Hey look we’re here!!!”
The sudden exclamation made Frigid shoot up again. Except this time she wasn’t so lucky and shot right into the wooden shelf above her.

“Ouch! Damnit! Who puts a shelf in front of some one’s head!”

“Ha ha! Looks like you got a pretty sick bruise forming there.”

“What?! I’m supposed to stand in front of a bunch of ponies I don’t know with a big bruise on my head!? No way!”

“Calm down. I know a spell to fix it. Just stay still and we’ll get it out before we land.”

And the violet unicorn was right. Her purple magic massaged the area softly and just as they touched down on the cloudy dock, the bruise was gone. Frigid looked up and rubbed a hoof where it was.

“Wow! Thanks!”

“No problem, just make sure you get to the ceremony on time.”

When she and her friends exited the craft they were met by even more thunderous applause and cheering. It was almost ear-splitting and it followed them all the way to the Cloudsdale Gardens, where the ceremony was being held.

“Looks like the whole saving everyone’s flank thing got around, huh?”

But Frigid wasn’t listening. She was looking at somepony in the crowd of high ranked officials and officers in the gardens. One pegasus who stuck out like a sore thumb, with his gargantuan stature, his cold blue eyes piercing Frigid’s. He was standing on the stage that she would ascend in a few minutes, a nonchalant look on his face, neither angry nor happy.
“Just like always. No emotion.”

By the time the ceremony was about to start hundreds of ponies piled into the Gardens and several hundred more lined the gates to get a glimpse of the “Hero of Equestria” as Frigid had been called. From her place on stage, she could see all her friends.

“There’s Scoot and the others. And Rainbow up in the front! But where’s…”

And then she saw her. Her mother was near the front, tears in her eyes, smiling like she used to. Frigid mouthed a “love you” to her mother before the trumpets sounded and a chariot approached. From the chariot stepped none other than Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both smiling over the reverent crowds who bowed slightly to their presence. The sisters ascended the stage.

“My dear ponies! For years we have been at war with the Griffins repeatedly,” she said loudly, the word Griffin receiving a low boo from the crowd, “But now their King has made amends. He has told me that he realizes now that we’ve grown stronger. And its not because of my magic or leadership. It’s because of ponies who risk their lives. Ponies who fight for us. Ponies like Frigid Drift, who stands before me. Ms. Drift shows us that anyone can be a true hero and a true equestrian. She put her life on the line willingly and did what she had to do, knowing she would not survive. But she did, thanks to the help of her friends. Today we are gathered to thank her and honor her service. Today we bestow upon her the Medal of Honors, the highest honor a pony can receive for military achievement. And I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say Ms. Frigid Drift deserves it one hundred percent.”

She stepped aside and held a hoof towards Frigid, inciting another thunderous round of applause, this time directed towards Frigid. Then the Princess took the medal out of a wooden case held forth by General Wind and gracefully walked up to Frigid.

“You have no idea how grateful I am to you,” she whispered as she put the medal’s strap around Frigid’s neck.

There was another round of applause and then a barrage of flashes from the press photographers. Hooves guided her to a less crowded area and before her vision recovered from the bombardment of light, someone’s hooves were around her in a tight hug.
“Mom?”

“Oh Frigid! I’m so proud! You really are a special mare.”

Their eyes met and Frigid could tell her mother had cried a lot over the last few weeks, her eyes red and tear stains still on her cheeks. Then her mother’s eyes moved to something behind her daughter. They changed from happiness and relief to a mix of anger and sadness.

“Thank you for putting your daughter’s life on the line, Ice. I hope for once you’ll actually see that she’s not just some kind of accessory that you can put on and take off whenever you want. You should have been there all those years and now suddenly-”

She was cut off by a shocking sight. General Icy Wind, known for his coldness and indifference went forward with long strides and took his wife into his arms, placing his wings over her.

“I’m…I am s-sorry. I’m not really good with all this-this feely stuff, but I really am sorry. I wanted to be with you, but the higher I got in the ranks the farther I got from you. I didn’t realize how much it was going to hurt us. And then I got-I got scared! I hate to admit I’m not truly fearless but I was afraid to face you two. I was scared you would be angry and never want to see me again. So I put it off.”

He spoke so quickly that Frigid could barely make his words out, but she was still thunderstruck by them.

“He cared? Why the hell didn’t he show that before?”

Suddenly a shadow fell over Frigid his imposing form.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me. Not yet, at least, but I just want you to know that I never stopped loving you two. I just buried it deep inside. So deep that I almost forgot what I was missing.”
He leaned forward and hesitated for an awkward moment as he kissed his daughter on the cheek.
Before all of this Frigid would have been angry that her father, who had essentially ignored her for most of her life, thought that he could just implant himself in it. But now, after all she had seen and all she had experienced, she felt different, like she had the power now.

“I-it’s alright…d-dad.”

He smiled, and to Frigid it seemed like the first time since she was a little filly.

“Hey Frigid!” yelled Scootaloo who was running up to her.

“Huh? Just a second I’ll be right back.”

She trotted forward and saw Scootaloo and her friends calling her over.

“Yeah?”

“We were thinking of going to that really fancy schmancy restaurant on Main Street down in Ponyville for dinner tonight. You know to celebrate your Medal or whatever.”

“Sure! I hear they make a mean Dandelion Soufflé.”

“Hey! Looks like your mom and dad are getting along again!”

Frigid turned around to see her father kiss her mother.

“Aaugh! I don’t need to see that! I’ll take you up on that dinner offer. I hope I still have my appetite after seeing that. Ugh.”

After the ceremony was coming to a close, most of the recruits and officers made their way home to their families. Scootaloo walked with Frigid on the way to her house on the same street.

“Man this has been a great day.”

“Yeah…wait! I just remembered I have to do something. You go on ahead I need to do something.”

“What now?”

“Don’t worry! I’ll catch up later at dinner. It’s at eight o’clock right?”

“Yeah. Make sure you’re there!”

Frigid flew off towards the center of town.

“I hope they’re not closed yet!”

She landed on the steps of the Information building of all the names and addresses in Cloudsdale. She pushed open the door and rushed in before the center closed.

“Excuse me, ma’am? Are you still open?” she frantically asked one of the clerks.

“Well we’re about to-oh! Ms. Drift! Well I’m sure I can squeeze in one more inquiry. Who are you looking for?”

She said the name.

“Umm…ah! Here we are. 1453 Sunset Street. Need Directions?”

“Yes, please!”

She zipped out as soon as she got the directions from the clerk. Flying faster than usual a few pegasi looked her way as she zoomed past them.

“Sunset Street. Sunset Street. Where are you?”

The green sign post flashed into sight and she turned onto the small street, slowing down and landing on the puffy pavement.

“What a beautiful house.”

Her destination was in front of her, at the end of the street and the edge of the cloud. It overlooked the lands below and was a beautiful orange color. She walked up to the door and rang the bell. In a few moments the door clacked open and a yellow pegasus mare with a seriously unkempt fiery mane and tired red eyes stood at the door.

“Yeah?”

“Umm can I come in?”

“Who are you to come in here?”

“I..I was there with her when it happened. I just though-”
“You were there? C-come in.”

As she followed the pegasus, she noticed something familiar about her mane and her cutie mark.

“Oh My Celestia! It’s Spitfire from the Wonderbolts! Why’s she…that’s what I thought was familiar about her! Spitfire must have been her sister or something! Why didn’t she say anything…?”

“Just wait here in the living room. Hey mom! Dad! Can! Someone’s here!”

3 ponies came down the stairs in the corner of the room. One a white pegasus stallion with a stormy blue mane, one a mare with the same yellow color and fiery hair except long and flowing, and one young colt with a sky blue coat and stormy mane.

“Yes? Who are you?” asked the mare, her eyes, like everypony else’s, were red with tears.

“I was there when Aurora…passed.”

“Oh my. Sit down, dear.”

“I just wanted to tell you what happened. I felt like you would rather it from an actual pony than from one of those letters.”

“Go ahead, dear.”

Frigid started her story from when she first met Aurora and told her about her audition and how good a flier she had been. She went on to tell the family about how Aurora had been one of the best in the training sessions and was a good friend. Then, with a shaky voice, some tears coming to her eyes as well, she told the story of the mission that went wrong and how Aurora had given her life for her friends. By now all members of the family were crying.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save her. I tried and-”

“No. She would’ve wanted her friends to live. She was always such a hero. Thank you so much for telling us. If there’s anything you ever need don’t hesitate to call us up.”

“Thank you for letting me tell you. I’ve got to go. I really am sorry. She was a good friend. One of my best.”

She left the house feeling like a burden had been unloaded off her back. She took a deep breath of the cool evening air and looked down towards Ponyville below, where her friends were probably now arriving for dinner. Then she looked to the horizon. Over the clouds, she never really realized how pretty the sunset was. But in a way the sunset wasn’t just ending the light for Equestria. It was closing an era of Frigid’s life. She was no longer the scared little filly she once was. She was strong now. Thinking about all that had happened to her, she remembered something her mother had told her long ago. Something she had not fully understood until now.

Frigid was only a little filly playing in the yard and she accidentally hurt a bird. She ran crying to her mother.

“Momma? Am I a bad person? I’m scared of what I am inside…what if I’m actually a bad person!”

“No darling! One thing like this doesn’t make you a bad person. You see we shouldn’t fear what we are inside, because everyone has both dark and light within their souls. What truly matters is the part we choose to act upon. And it is by the bonds we make and the people we love that we are freed from this fear. Only then can we turn to our true emotions and let them guide us through our lives, in both good times and bad.You see, darling, even though you may think your mind is your most valuable asset, your true worth is measured by the heart.”

Frigid didn’t really get that until now. She didn’t have the fear anymore. She looked over the edge of the clouds. Before, when she had walked in the nights, she was always afraid of falling over the edge, even though she could fly. Now she felt empowered. She took a deep breath and launched off the edge of the cloud into the high altitude winds, maneuvering skillfully so that she would land lightly in ponyville and not create a crater. As she flew she thought more about her friends and realized how much they had helped.

“Thank you. All of you,” she said to herself, the wind swallowing her words.

She touched down on Main Street and trotted to the door of the restaurant. She wasn’t just opening the door to her friends but to her new life. And she went in without hesitation, the pretty lights and cheers from her friends inside engulfing her, ushering her into her new world.

Ch 8: Allies and Enemies

Friendship is Survival Ch 8: Allies
By Rlogic1994
(Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!)

[NOTE: sorry for the long wait. I’ve been real busy lately with work and I also do digital art, so that took time. Anyway I think I’m gonna try and finish this up soon because I only got a couple chapters left. ONWARDS!!]

Frigid woke with a start the chill of the air nudging her from her deep sleep. Scootaloo wasn’t next to her and wasn’t in visible distance. The white pegasus got up groggily and squinted her eyes to the bright sunlight flooding the cave. The clouds had cleared up but in mountainous landscapes like this, it rarely got warmer. She walked to the back of the cave, searching for her friend, but Scootaloo was nowhere to be found. Frigid started to panic and shuffled out of the cave into the cold forest outside of it.

“Scootaloo! Scoot-Scootaloo! Where are you?!”

“Right here. Jeez, why are you yelling so loud?”

“Where were you just now?”

“I was down by the river, trying to figure out which way to go next.”

“We already decided to just follow the river!”

“Well I kept seeing griffin convoys fly over us and more than before. So I thought maybe we’re going the wrong way.”

“Wait what did they look like?”

“Well you know…big feathery things.”

“You don’t say?! I mean were they holding anything?”

“Well for one thing they looked like fresh recruits and there were a lot of them to each group. What do you think it means?”

“I don’t know but we better get the hell into Pony territory before we find out.”

They started again, talking less and listening more for sounds of the enemy. But no matter how hard they listened, it was dead quiet, as if every living thing, every bird, every small rodent, had evacuated the area. Every now and then they would here an ominous rumble from ahead, each one getting louder as they approached Crystal Tooth pass.

“What do you think that is?”

“I don’t know but I think it’s getting louder. It kinda sounds like thunder but more—well more precise, like at intervals. Actually it sort of sounds like-”

“Mortar shells.”

“What?”

“Mortar shells! I remember visiting my dad back when he cared for me and let me come with him to work. They were testing out mortar shells on the range and it sounded exactly like this!”

“Wait a damn second, so we’re marching straight into active combat?”

“Look either way, we have to find some ponies before the griffins find us. Our best bet is a battlefield because I doubt those mortar shells are being fired at the local wild life.”

“Yeah, but I’m not gonna die just because there might be ponies on the other side of the pass!”

“Well we have to try! We have to get back!”

“Why?! I mean what’s the worst that could happen? We could just go around to the Everest’s Pass and get through to Equestrian territory.”

“That’s equivalent to deserting. And I’m no deserter.”

“So what if you desert? What’s so bad? Huh? I mean who’s gonna miss us sooo much that we’ll matter? I mean do you really think that any of those other ponies will even miss-”

Scootaloo didn’t expect the blow to her face, especially not from someone like Frigid. She looked up to the shaking white mare with eyes full of surprise, fear, and betrayal.

“How dare you talk about them like that? How dare you talk about me like that? You don’t know me. You can’t possibly begin to comprehend with your simple mind what I have been through in my life,” she almost yelled, tears flowing from her eyes now, “how I loved my father and then he just left me and my mom and never came back. How when he finally did visit he was like a statue; he wasn’t moved at seeing me for the first time in years! How when I started going to Cloudsdale High, I had to take all name calling and jeering and beatings from both students and teachers. I had to endure through such shit in my life that I don’t have that much left. And you think you can try and take away one of the last things I still have left? My dignity and my honor? You have another bucking thing coming!”

Scootaloo didn’t act angry or retort or yell. She simply looked into the teary blue eyes with a look of both sympathy and surprisingly, understanding. She slowly walked up to the white mare and hugged her, as if she was like Scootaloo’s sister.

“Trust me. I understand. I really do. When I was in school I got beat up all the time because I wasn’t that much of a strong flier. My wings hadn’t grown in yet, so people would always call me horrible names. I don’t remember a day in those years of my life when I hadn’t cried to myself when I was alone,” said the orange pegasus softly, “my dad left me when I was barely a foal and he was found 5 years later face down in a pool of blood outside of Hoofington. And then when my brother left home for extended storm chasing my mom turned into a nervous wreck. She already tried to end her life twice, but stopped short when she thought of me. She loves me so much and I really don’t know why. I mean why would she love someone who’s useless and can’t do anything right? I don’t know.”

For a moment they just stood there, trying to avoid each other’s gaze and suddenly very interested in the ground. Finally Frigid broke the awkward silence.

“You’re not useless. No one’s useless. That much I can be sure of. I mean just because you’re not good at what you should be doesn’t mean you’re not good at anything. I mean I hated my job with the winter wrap up team. I hated weather control, and all that stuff. I mean with my physical stamina to the cold and wind, you’d think I love it. But somehow it didn’t click with me.”

“I know that feel. My mom tried to sign me up for cloud kicking duty, but honestly that was the most boring job ever. I’m not surprised Rainbow Dash slacked off so much. But I guess you’re right, I shouldn’t give up. But it’s so damn hard seeing myself not even close to measuring up to the stallion that my brother was. I mean it was like he had a rocket strapped to his back. And it wasn’t even his fault, that’s just how he was. He would always try to help me and tell me how to do things. He would even do chores and say I did them just so my parents would notice.”

“My parents never really paid much attention to me either until I was out of school. Then they just compared me to all the other great mares out there who did great things. I could never compete…”

“Yeah. And it got worse when—when my brother died on storm duty. He got shot right out of the sky by a nasty bolt. But he saved the other pegasi from being destroyed by it. He took a hit for the team and my mom glorified him for it. And he deserves it, but after a while she stopped criticizing and comparing me and did something so much worse. She pitied me. I could tell that she looked at me like an injured animal, the limping runt of the family.”

“Oh I got that too. My mom would always look at me like I couldn’t help myself, like I was still a little filly who didn’t know how to get herself dressed. But even then, I never blamed my parents or got angry. If I ever got nervous or angry I would just walk around Cloudsdale for as long as I needed, sometimes hours. My mom worried at first, but she figured that it was a better system then a shouting match.”

“Sometimes I just fly around when I get that way and I try to just get away from all of it. I just fly far away to some field or clearing.”

They were both quiet now. For a moment blue eyes met purple, and there was an unspoken apology there, along with gratefulness and hope. “Maybe she’s not so bad after all,” thought Frigid.

“Listen. I think you’re right. I mean as much as I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be the pony who got scared and ran away. Let’s just try and keep low.”

“Finally! No talking from here on out.”

They got low to the ground and crawled through the bushes, trying as hard as possible to stay unseen. There were a couple close calls with patrols that came uncomfortably close, but nothing other than that. Soon ahead of them a small town became visible, and they trotted as fast as they could inside a building for cover. They sat there for a few minutes planning in whispers.

“Did you see that?”

“What?”

“All those shells! In that greenish building next to this one. I tried to see if there were any griffins, but there was no one. I think we should move NOW.”

“Well you should have thought about leaving before you trespassed!” a voice shouted from behind them.

They looked up at a grey angry face looking down at them from under a green helmet. A few pairs of hoofs appeared in the window and dragged the two mares onto the ground outside. Frigid started to speak, but was silenced by the feeling of the cold metal barrel on her neck.

“Before you say a goddamn word, riddle me this: who are you with. Tell us now, because we will find out, and if we find out you lied…I’ll break you.”

“W-we’re on the Equestrian s-side.”

“Oh really? That sounds like something a spy would say! Then if you are where are your saddlebags? All I can see on you is some nice looking armor.”

“Why would we help griffins! They’ve killed so many pon-”

“Which is the exact reason I will not have spies in my outfit! If you can prove you are in the Equestrian forces than we’ll see what to do with you.”

“We’ve been to the north base! It has a bunch of tents all grey and blue on clouds and there’s this magical mist to cloak everything!”

“…looks like we got a couple of deserters. You know what we-”

“That’s it! We were with a special op mission and we were ambushed. We’ve been through hell for the last few days, so if you’re gonna give us a rough time I’ll make sure you get one in return!”

The outburst from Scootaloo surprised everyone, but the grey stallion recovered quickly.

“Well well well, looks like we got a couple of tough girls here eh? Well I’ll show you what we do to tough-”

“What in the hell are you doing corporal?”

A blue unicorn trotted onto the scene, glaring at the grey stallion, who froze in place. When he mumbled an answer she swiped him off his feet with one telekinetic slap. He groaned and got up, glaring right back at the blue mare.

“If you got something to say corporal, spit it the buck out!”

“Nothing to say, ma’am.”

“That’s what I thought. Now get outta my sight!”

He stormed away and left the 2 captured mares with the feisty unicorn.

“Sorry about that. I’m Staff Sergeant Flash at your service. Now I know that armor, so I’m guessing you’re spec ops. But I wasn’t told about anything going on down here…that is unless it’s too classified or some shit.”

“No, we got ambushed on an op and both of us got blown into the river. We woke up way into enemy territory and we’ve been trying to find pony territory for days. Thank Celestia we found you!”

“Heh. Yeah, thank Celestia. Listen, you may not be thanking us for long. We’re short out on the front so you may have to get down and dirty in the trenches. Wait you aren’t hurt are you?”

“Well sort of, we-”

“Good enough! Go to the medic and get fixed up if you need to. Then report back here, alright? Alright.”

As she was leaving, Frigid got a good look at her. She had an ocean blue coat with smudges of mud scattered across her entire body. Her unkempt lighter mane was tied up tight. She had a long scar running down her back leg and several more littered around her torso. All in all she looked and acted like a total badass. But whether there was more to her than her “trophies” of war was yet to be seen by Frigid and Scootaloo, who now made their way to a green tent emblazoned with a messy red cross.

They shuddered at the blood curdling moans emanating from the tent. They glanced at each other and pushed open the flap to enter. They immediately regretted doing so. Not only was it a horrific scene visually but it smelled like a slaughterhouse. There was no need for description. Frigid and Scootaloo just stood and stared, tears slowly coming to both their eyes. They were brought out of their reverie by the medic’s voice.

“So you girls are firsties on the front huh? Doesn’t really look like the poster huh? Well buck all that. No matter how you paint it, this place is hell; either you’re being shot at, losing blood, fatigued and exhausted or as most of us are, all of the above. So what can I do for you, my dears? Maybe a massage or—damnit Crystal, why do you keep moving around, your bandage came off again! Sorry about that, now what do you want?”

“Um well we have a couple burns and-”

“Mmhmm, I can see that. They’re pretty much healed up, but moving around in the dirt and mud will make the skin crack and that’ll be real bucking painful. Sooooo take this ointment and take some of those bandages and put the ointment on the burns and bandage. Now get out!”

He shooed them out of the tent and into the town’s courtyard outside.

“Well it probably won’t hurt.”

They were so wrong. The second the ointment touched their skin it was like boiling oil. But they still applied it regardless of the pain; if they were going to be in the trenches they couldn’t spare themselves any injuries or slip ups. As she grunted and groaned while rubbing the ointment on, Frigid stopped and thought to herself at how weird it was that only a few months ago an unpredicted storm shook her up and now she was going through all this pain and turmoil without freaking out like before. Maybe this was meant to happen to her. Maybe this was the only way she would ever come out of her shell. Either way, she continued to rub on the ointment until all her wounds were covered.

“You good, Frigid?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They trotted back to the small clearing where they had talked to Staff Sergeant Flash. She was waiting for them when they arrived.

“You sure love to take your time don’t you? Looks like we got a fresh batch of meat for the front and you don’t have to go out…yet. Just stick around here; we could use a couple of ponies with spec ops training.”

“Yeah sure. Hey is there a radio service or something so we can contact our outfit?”

“Fourth tent to the right straight ahead, wait for your number in line to be called.”

They were led to a small courtyard where they sat and waited to be called out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So then what happened?” a small blue unicorn asked.

“Well I got kept running until I thought I was safe. But little did I know that what I had stolen was not a simple ruby, but a royal dragon blood diamond. There are only 7 in the entire world. The excorts for the gem had thought if they disguised it as an average gem then no one would steal it. But I was stupid enough to try and succeed, so I got caught a little later that night. A couple of the guards cornered me and gave me quite a blow to the head. I woke up in front of a table where 9 old ponies were seated.”

“Now these ponies were not normal ponies. They were the Council of Justice. They decided what punishment fit the crime. Now as I was still a child I didn’t know who they were. And I was quite rude to them, if I recall I said something about them being “dusty old swine”. That didn’t really help me either. I was basically homeless, had quite a record of small misdemeanors already, and had stolen an artifact worth more than the entire city that I lived in. I was in very deep trouble. The Council finally decided
death was a bit too harsh, so they chose public magical torture for the punishment.”

“That’s horrible!”

“Hmm? Oh yes you ponies wouldn’t know would you. Ponies these days are so soft! Anyway, let us get on with my story. They had everything set up and I was tied to a post in one of the main squares in the city. The punisher was getting ready for the magical pain he was about to inflict upon me. Now before I tell you the next part, you must know something. Praetorians have quite a bit of magical ability. Usually we learn how to use it gradually, but for me, my enlightenment to my magical potential was quite…sudden.”

“The punisher’s horn glowed lightly as he started the punishment. At first it didn’t feel all that bad, but when his horn suddenly grew bright, it was like I was being torn apart. But then my eyes started to glow and my entire body started to glow. I glowed brighter and brighter, blinding the crowd that had gathered. I kept getting brighter until suddenly the glow was gone, replaced with a bubble of white energy. Everypony seemed quite mesmerized and amazed by the bubble. That is until it suddenly expanded, knocking every pony and building in the area to the ground.”

“What did you do?”

“What do you think? Being a child I ran as fast as my hoofs could take me. I ran out of that city and out of the whole damned country. I kept running until I collapsed in a small town now known, I believe, as Ponyville.”

“ There, Celestia found me when she had been checking on some local farmers. She took me into her care and nurtured me back to health. But soon news of my little incident reached her ears and she called me to her throne room. She asked if it was true and I could not lie to the mare who saved my life. Surprisingly enough she smiled at me, even after all I had done. She asked me if I would like to be part of a special order of ponies. It was called The Council of Seven. They were supposed to be the seven most powerful, resourceful, and kind ponies in the land. Now it wasn’t called that yet, but when Celestia found the right candidates she started to train us in magic. Soon we were almost as powerful as her. And our race had spread over the many years.”

“But not all that is good lasts; when we came out to society with our powers and differences expecting only some uncertainty, we were condemned. People called us unnatural and thought we were pure evil. Soon a radical sect of this hate planted a virus in our midst that killed or weakened most of us. We were slowly picked off by others and soon I was the last one left. Celestia was kind enough to change my name and looks. But from that point on I cut my ties with this world. If the world’s a stage and everyone is in the play, then I am one of the spectators. The reason I won’t help ponies isn’t only because if I do the future will be altered, it is also because I am incredibly hesitant to trust them ever again.”

“So you don’t trust us?”

“I trust you just as much as you trust me.”

They walked quietly for a moment before Twilight spoke up again.

“S-so you were part of the C-council of S-seven? I w-wonder what it was like.”

He stopped walking.

“My my, you have quite an acute sense of observation indeed. You have already figured out my real name and who I was and wish to see if I really am who you think I am by making me recall my past which is written in so many books, most of which I expect you’ve read. So why don’t you tell me my name?”

“…”

“No? Pity. I am the Maker of Secrets, the Traveler of White, the Angel of Death, I am Umbra Lux.”

They all stood there stunned, some by confusion over who Umbra Lux was, and others over shear amazement that one of the most powerful unicorns in history who had been proclaimed dead stood before them.

“I know you are wondering about my “death”. When Celestia changed me, she created a duplicate dummy from one of the corpses at a hanging. She had the dummy killed in my place and allowed me to live in the palace. That is until I ran away and never came back.”

“Where did you go?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Everywhere. I went East, West, North, and South. I went up and down and left and right. I have seen quite a large amount of amazing things in this world and being dead makes things a lot easier. But the irony is that I was never truly alive…”

Twilight slowed down to let Applejack catch up to her.

“Is it just me or is it every time tha’ we ask that feller somethin’ he jus’ speaks all fancy-like?”

“Yeah I agree. Since he’s been alive since the Council, he must know a lot, but honestly I think he knows too much. He talks about his life like it’s some kind of cruel joke. I really don’t understand why being alive would make him so-”

“Strange? Mysterious? There are a variety of not so positive adjectives that can describe me, but the truth of why I wish to be mortal and live my life out to its death is something I would have thought you would have figured out by now. Or do you truly see me as that heartless. I too wish to have friends and companions to talk to. But a problem arises when I barely age, while my companions are born and die right in front of me. I cannot take the pain of having to befriend some pony or griffin or dragon and then watch him or her waste away to nothing. That is the reason I consider my life a cruel joke.”

After that everyone became quiet. Even the younger recruits stopped chatting and looked around awkwardly. They had been climbing up the side of a hill for at least an hour now and they were nearing the summit. From the top they could see miles around. They could see the billowing mist of the mountains they had come from to the grassier areas where they were apparently headed to the south. Left and right of them were seemingly endless expanses of forest that tapered off into a gray cloudy horizon in the distance. The white unicorn pointed to something in the distance.

“See those small green tufts that look out of place? Those are camouflaged outposts. I’m sure that whatever is has very big guns and is watching us right now, and waiting for us to give it an excuse to pull the trigger. So don’t do anything stupid.”

As they kept marching along they heard a whoosh from the distance. Then one of the earth ponies suddenly fell over, a sharp javelin looking object protruding from his chest. Everypony jumped behind a tree for cover, except the white unicorn who simply leaned against a tree and sighed.

“What the buck was that?”

“I don’t know! I should have sensed something with my magic wards, but it went right through them. Wait a minute. That javelin is enchanted. Which means…oh dear Celestia they have Griffin magic.”

All 3 war mares looked at each other, knowing what they were going to have to do. Rainbow and Applejack stepped aside, pushing the younger recruits back in a retreat as Twilight, eyes and horn glowing blindingly purple, trotted off in the opposite direction.

“May Celestia have mercy on their souls,” whispered Rainbow Dash under her breath.

Twilight was usually inclined to deal with problems without fighting, but when there was no other alternative, she was something else. Her magical power is unheard of in a unicorn as young as she is and rare even in older and more experienced magic users. When she fought, she completely wrecked the enemy side. As she was doing now, a bright purple flash emanating every now and then down the path. And the white unicorn just stood still and sighed again. They waited a few minutes before Twilight returned, wiping her face with a rag that was soaked in blood that didn’t look like it belonged to her. She had something strapped to her back that looked like a black lunch box.

“Do you have the radio code for the main front?”

“Uh huh. It’s umm…here let me type it in.”

After a few beeps and one of higher pitch, Twilight spent a few minutes trying to hail the front, but to no avail. The transmitter was damaged, so it could receive but not output signals. She stuck the earpiece in her ear and signaled for them to keep walking. Slowly they realized that in the time they had started, the front had shifted and they were behind enemy lines now in a rocky corridor that has been responsible for some of the most devastatingly bloody parts of the war so far. They had to find the main front pony base and fast; a flurry of beating wings could be heard in the air near them. And they didn’t sound like pegasi.