Sky sat patiently to the side of the group of ponies huddled around Lily, all eager to see her after her close shave with a frosty end. She looked very overwhelmed, but very grateful for all the love and support. She had a couple of young foals playfully hugging her legs, while the rest of the adult ponies stood around, all trying to make sure that she was alright.

He smiled. He knew that he wasn’t a “knight,” so to speak, rescuing fair damsels from untimely villains and all manner of perils, but the whole situation made him feel strong and confident inside. It was almost too cliché…how he had braved the fiercest elements to rescue a mare, who would certainly have been lost had somepony not come to her aid; how she had called him a hero; how they had returned to a warm welcome back at the audience hall. Just like in a fairy tale.

He looked out the window again. The storm didn’t seem nearly as strong as it had just a few minutes ago. He could hardly detect the wind, and the snow seemed to be letting up. But strangely, up the street, the homes toward the edge of town were lost from view behind a wall of swirling snow.

“Mister Sky Streak, sir?”

He turned his eyes from the window to see a light golden unicorn with an auburn mane and tail standing in front of him, gazing up at him inquisitively. “Oh, it’s you, Countdown,” Sky said, recognizing the little foal. He had been the one to inform Sky that Lily had been following right behind them when she had failed to show up at the meeting hall. “What can I do for you?”

“Thanks for rescuing Miss Lily. Everyone’s been making sure that she’s okay, but I don’t think anyone’s told you how thankful they are that you rescued her. She means a lot to all the ponies here.”

Sky couldn’t help but be impressed by the colt’s genuineness and sincerity. “Well, you’re certainly welcome, Countdown. But I only did what any other pony would have done.”

“But you’re the only pony that could,” Countdown replied. “No other pony could walk on the snow to go find her.”

“I guess you’re right there. But if it hadn’t been for you, then I wouldn’t have known to go out and look for her. So I owe that to you,” Sky said with a wink.

Countdown blushed ever-so-slightly. “Aw, well…it was nothing,” he said, looking rather embarrassed. There was a pause for a moment, then he spoke up again. “I think she likes you.”

Sky’s eyebrows rose as his brain registered the statement. “What makes you think that?” he asked.

“Oh, I saw the way that she was looking at you when you two came in. My big brother’s girlfriend looks at him that way, too. And she keeps looking over here at you, but you’re never looking when she is.”

“Oh, so you think we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, is that it?” Sky asked calmly, though he could feel his heart rate picking up.

Countdown shook his head. “I don’t think you are, but I think that maybe you want to be. Mom told me that when ponies like each other, things can get ‘complicated.’”

Sky blinked vacantly in response for a moment. “Do you seriously ask your mom this stuff?”

“Yeah. She says I have amazing timing. She says it’s my special talent.”

“I’d have to agree with that,” Sky muttered.

“She’s looking at you again.”

Sky’s eyes involuntarily drifted to where Lily stood, and, sure enough, their eyes met and locked for a moment. Sky was suddenly aware that his face felt very warm. Even the smallest hint of a blush would be painfully obvious on his blue face, so he gave her a quick flash of a smile and turned back to the foal in front of him.

“You’re blushing,” Countdown observed.

“Thanks for noticing,” Sky replied shortly. “Why don’t you get back with your brother and sister? I think it’s about time I started the meeting.” Trotting off towards the raised platform at the front of the room, he tried to calm his nerves. Countdown had been right on the mark: sure, he liked Lily. She was cute, smart, funny, and always willing to help. But he hadn’t even known her a full day. How could he be so attracted to somepony in such a short period of time?

He shook his head, trying to refocus. He moved his feelings and emotions to another corner of his mind and brought the task at hand to the forefront of his thoughts. The storm was still out there, along with the windigoes, and the distinct possibility of something even worse sent an involuntary shiver down his spine.

He stepped up onto the platform and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, everypony, but if you could all find a seat, we can get underway,” he said clearly. His voice carried well in the chamber, and the crowd organized to form a semicircle around him where they could all both see and hear him.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. My name is Sky Streak, and I’ve been sent here from Princesses Celestia and Luna to discover the source of this freak storm you’re dealing with…and, if I can, bring it to an end.” He paused as this brought a small burst of chatter from the audience. The voices were indistinguishable, but there was a certain excitement in the air as they spoke. They sounded…hopeful.

“First, I will tell you what I know up to this point. It probably isn’t much, and I’m sure that each of you already knows much of it. But I want everypony to be on the same page. After I’m done, I’d like to see if I can piece together an accurate rendition of events leading up to the storm. So,” Sky said as he sat back on his haunches, “let me start at the beginning. I arrived yesterday evening in the midst of the storm. I spent the night with Miss Lily Pond,” he nodded in her direction, and she, along with many of the ponies seated nearby, smiled in response, “who has managed to give me some information regarding the circumstances in the town.”

“Thanks to Lily, I have been able to determine that the storm is connected to some visitors to your town.” The chatter rose again, but this time, it was more curious and uncertain than before. “Lily and I both encountered one of these visitors just a short while ago. Now, don’t be alarmed, but the visitors I’m referring to are windigoes.”

The hall nearly erupted at the mention of the windigoes. Half the crowd was on their hooves, while the other half just sat with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Sky sat patiently and quietly as all sorts of questions were shouted in his direction. His face was expressionless, and after a few minutes of disorder, the ponies finally took the hint and grew quiet.

“Yes, windigoes,” he began again, “but as I told you, there’s no need for alarm. In case you hadn’t noticed, the storm is hardly even affecting this area of the town.” Many ponies looked to the windows, and several of the foals trotted over to have a look outside. “Each and every pony in this room trusts every other one. The love and friendship between each of you is keeping the windigoes away. And as long as that remains true, you’ll be safe here.” He saw several of the ponies relax as he said those words.

“As all of you have no doubt noticed, I am a pegasus. And it has arisen to my attention that I am the only pegasus in Polarmino. The windigo that I met earlier passed on a warning to me that the leader of the windigoes does not want any pegasus being here, and has given me an ultimatum to leave as quickly as possible.” The chatter was soft, but filled with concern. “I do not believe it is in the best interests of the colony to start a conflict with the windigoes, but I also know that I cannot simply leave the town in its current state of affairs. So, I will stay until I believe I know what the source of the storm is, and then I will leave.”

“Leave?” asked one pony. “Without doing anything about it?”

“I didn’t say that,” Sky responded. “When I leave, it will be to go to the source of the problem. And I plan to go alone.”

The room became perfectly silent. No pony spoke. Not a cough, not a sneeze…not even the wind blew hard enough to make a sound. Finally, a lone voice spoke up. “Alone?” asked a mare’s voice.

Sky followed the sound to its source…which turned out to be none other than Lily. Her mouth was turned in a sorrowful frown, and eyes were filled with worry. Sky’s breath became short as he looked at her. Almost as if she had said it, he understood the visage etched on her face.

Please…don’t go.

“If the windigoes are waiting for me to leave, then the last thing I want to do is to put anypony in harm’s way. So, when I go, I will go alone. I may end up having to walk straight into their home, or fortress, or whatever it is. And that’s certainly not going to make them happy.” The silence persisted, and no pony spoke up in argument. “Now, then…I’d like to figure out exactly how this started. When did the storm actually come?” Sky asked, pulling a quill and notepad out of his saddlebags, which had been lying on the floor next to him.

“Well, if I remember correctly,” began one deep indigo stallion, “it was about a week ago. It came up rather suddenly, without any warning. No clouds or wind one minute, and the next, it was so blustery you could hardly walk.”

There were murmurs of agreement, and Sky jotted a few notes onto his paper. “Go on,” he prodded.

“The storm only got worse and worse,” continued a lavender mare to Sky’s right. “At first, it was just the wind, but then the clouds rolled in, bringing the snow, sleet, and ice. No pony even dared to go out in that. We’ve mostly been holed up in our own homes since then.”

Sky continued writing. “I see. Now, just before the storm came, did anything significant happen? Anything major, or out of the ordinary?”

No pony spoke, though Sky followed the eyes of many of the ponies to two particular groups of ponies: a large family seated off to his left, and the other, a trio of young unicorns (including Countdown) sitting around Lily in the center. “I can see that you all know something, but I can’t read minds. What happened?” Sky asked again.

Finally, one of the unicorns, a light grey filly, stood up. Her mane and tail appeared silver at first glance, but as Sky looked more closely, he saw that they seemed to reflect colors back, like a mirror. “It was about that time that our families stopped speaking to each other,” she said in a small voice.

“And who are ‘our families,’ miss…” Sky asked.

“Silent Moment,” she finished in the same gentle tone. “And the three of us,” she gestured to the other two foals beside her, “are from the Clock family. And the Grains are the other family.” She waved her hoof in their direction, casting a sorrowful look towards them as she did.

Sky looked at the two groups for a moment. “I’m assuming that there’s more to your family than just the three of you, Silent Moment?”

“I can answer that,” Lily said suddenly. “Only these three from the Clock family were willing to come here. The rest of them were too blinded by their feud with the Grain family to be in the same building with them.”

“That must be quite a disagreement you’re having,” Sky commented.

“Not really, sir,” spoke up a brown colt from the Grain family. “My name’s Barley. My grandfather, Grandpa Grain, was accused by Grandfather Clock of overcharging ponies for the products we sell from our harvest. Grandpa Grain tried to calm him down, but nothing he said did any good. That’s what started all this.”

“What?” asked the third of the Clock foals. “That’s not right at all. Grandfather Clock told us that Great Grain told Grandfather Clock that he was just a second-rate clockmaker, and his family couldn’t make a decent clock if their lives depended on it. That’s what started all this!”

“That’s a lie, Second Hand!” countered a yellow colt from the Grain family. “But even if it were true, Grandpa Grain would have gotten one thing right: you all are just second-rate!”

Countdown leapt to his hooves and turned to face the accuser of his family. “You take that back, Hayseed!”

“You gonna make me, half-bit?” By this point, most of the ponies in the room were focused in on the unfolding argument.

Suddenly, there was a flash, followed by a loud crack that split the air. In one synchronized motion, every pony’s head whipped towards the sound. Sky Streak was there, wings spread, legs splayed, head lowered and eyes leveled. The faint yet distinct smell of electricity wafted through the air. “That’s enough,” he said shortly. “If you ponies want to argue, then I suggest you take it outside. But if you’re going to be in here, you’re going to be civil. I told you that you could trust every pony here. And if you don’t, that means you don’t trust me, either. And if that’s the case, then you have no reason to be here. So, if you want to argue, then leave.” Once again, silence fell upon the room. Only now, the wind could be heard howling.

“Do you hear that? That’s the wind. Just like before the storm came. The wind came first. It’s the warning of the windigoes’ approach. They’re coming here to feed off your mistrust and anger. And I will NOT let you place other ponies in danger with your petty arguments. So, you can either shut up, or you can get out.” Sky caught a glimpse of Lily as he spoke, and he felt a pang of regret as he saw the shock on her face.

The ponies returned to their seats, thoroughly reprimanded. As Second Hand and Countdown sat back down, they offered up an apology in unison: “Sorry, Sky Streak.”

He nodded to them as he straightened up. “It’s alright, but we need to stay in control of our emotions. We can’t fly off the handle at the slightest word. That’s what the windigoes are hoping for.”

Then what was that little outburst you had just now, brilliant?

He reached down for his quill and notepad again. “But that does bring up an interesting point: two different stories as to what happened. I wonder which one is true?”

“I don’t think either one is true,” Lily said softly. “The Grain and Clock families have been friends for so long; I can’t imagine why they would become enemies for apparently no reason.”

Sky frowned. He turned to the Grain family. “Which one of you is Grandpa Grain?”

“He’s not here,” Barley answered.

“But I thought—”

“All the family that we could find is here,” a light green mare said. “We discovered that Grandpa was missing this morning.”

“Hey…that’s just like Grandfather Clock!” Countdown said, looking at the Grains. “He was missing this morning, too!” He swung back around to face Sky. “Do you think it means something?”

A knot was beginning to form in Sky’s stomach, but he couldn’t figure out what it meant. “Where have they been during the storm?”

“Oh, well, Grandpa got some sort of cold right before the storm came, so he usually stayed in his room. We brought him his meals, but he didn’t eat much. He mostly just stayed in bed all day and slept,” a small amber filly answered.

“And Grandfather Clock was usually in his workshop with the door closed. He only came out to grab a quick apple or something to eat. We hardly saw him at all,” Silent Moment answered.

The knot grew tighter. “So neither Grandpa Grain nor Grandfather Clock was seen much at all once the storm started?” Sky asked.

“Well…I guess not. Which is pretty unusual, because they were some of the most social ponies in the town,” Hayseed answered, looking contemplative.

That has to mean something. There’s something I’m missing here. “So, the two of them have some sort of argument, but there are two different stories of what happened. That causes a rift to open between two previously friendly families, causing the windigoes to come. They start a storm in Polarmino, feeding off the anger between the two families. Neither grandfather has been seen much during the week since the storm started. And now, each one is missing.” He paced across the platform, trying to tie all the pieces together in his head. “It’s staring me in the face; I can feel it. It’s looking right—”

He heard the wind roar outside. In his mind, he heard the little voice of a trembling filly begging for him to take the monsters and the dark cloud away. He saw a black mist change from one nightmarish form to another monstrous terror. And then he saw it change into a pony…with glowing red eyes.

You cannot trust your eyes in this matter.

“—at me.” He fell back onto his haunches as the horrifying reality washed over him. He felt the blood begin to drain from his face. The knot in his stomach felt like it had grown to the size of a watermelon. He stared past the group of ponies who were all gazing at him, wondering what had suddenly come over him. I…I can’t believe it. How could it have come to this?

Lily’s voice snapped him back to reality. “Sky? What is it? Do you know what’s going on?”

He shook his head. Every pony was looking at him expectedly. It was obvious that he had come to some sort of conclusion, good or bad, and they were all anxious to hear it. “I know enough,” he said at last. “I know what I have to do.” He stood up again as he steeled his resolve. His face was set in a look of defiant determination. “I will be leaving tomorrow to go find the windigo colony.”

A collective gasp rose from the crowd, followed by a cacophonous outburst of indistinguishable questions. Sky stood silent, patiently waiting for the group to allow him to speak again. Finally, when the outburst had died down, he spoke: “The source of the storm is there, and I have to confront it. It has to be me, for special reasons.” He caught Lily looking at him, and he suddenly realized that she was aware of the precise reason that it had to be him. And, for the second time that day, he read her expression like words on a page.

No way am I letting you go alone.

“I’ll leave some supplies for you, including some more of the weight-reduction potion, in case you want to go back to your homes for food or whatever you may need. But I strongly advise that you stay here while we’re away. You’ll be safer that way.”

“‘We?’” Lily asked, though there was a sense of relief in her question.

“We.” He smiled as he walked down beside her.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” she said, nudging him gently.

“Let’s face it,” he said, trying to appear cheerful, “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”