“Sentinel, Moonbow, wake up, something is outside,” Boadicea said, shaking the pair. Scootaloo couldn’t hear anything over the wind, but Boadicea knew that something was outside. She could hear faint sounds over the wind and over the muffled breathing of the ponies inside of the igloo.

Moonbow was awake in an instant and Sentinel shook his head, trying to clear away his sleepiness. Moonbow’s ears pivoted, moving around, listening, and the large filly let out a growl. She hissed; not the supernatural hiss of her kind, but an angry, protective hiss. Something was threatening what she had sworn to protect.

“Sentinel, you stay inside and keep the others safe. Dinky and Sweetie Belle, ready your magic. All of you, I need you awake and alert, NOW!” Moonbow’s voice was commanding, confident, and brought everypony to attention, cutting like a knife through the confused drowsiness of the sleepy foals all around her. “Boadicea, you are with me.”

“What about putting down the zombies?” Sentinel asked.

“We can burn them after I dismember them,” Moonbow replied.

Sentinel nodded, now awake, there was worry etched upon his face, but not fear. His ears perked as there was a thump against the wall of the igloo. An unnatural feeling of cold began to fill the air.

“There is an ice wight outside,” Moonbow whispered, her lip curling back from her teeth. “Princess Luna warned me of these… Boadicea, we must move swiftly… I shall deal with the wight, keep the zombies off of me while I work to dismember it.”

“Aye aye,” Boadicea replied, slipping into her Raptor training.

“Attagirl.” Moonbow’s predatory snarl became a grin.

As it turned out, kicking an ice wight didn’t do very much. Moonbow had believed that kicking it with as much of her strength as she could muster would dismember it, but that hadn’t happened. The creature had amazing resilience, and Moonbow respected it was a worthy foe. The ice wight’s supernatural cold was eating into her skin, making her shiver, she worried about frostbite as she fought it. The cold was sapping her strength, making her muscles weaker with each second. The howling wind seemed to be filled with knives now, knives that pierced her protective clothing and sank into her flesh.

Somewhere, behind her, a zombie moaned.

“GET DOWN!”

Boadicea’s voice was commanding, full of an authority and strength that Moonbow recognised. She trusted in Boadicea’s spoken command and responded right away, her legs folding as she dropped down, getting low, and diving into the snow.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The dark before dawn filled with bright orange flashes of light, causing a strobe effect. Moonbow’s eyes were dazzled, she blinked, seeing big spots in her vision. The head of the ice wight in front of her exploded and the body ignited with bright red and orange flames. Fire crackled all around and the air filled with smoke.

Moonbow was shocked that Boadicea could see well enough in the dark to have done what she did. Five shots, five bodies, no misses. Moonbow rose up, getting to her hooves, and backed away from the burning ice wight. It writhed, kicking around, the neck hole making strange gurgling noises. It had once been a pony, but was now something else, made vile with necromancy. The zombies were all burning and the flames whipped in the wintry wind.

“I can’t believe I…” Boadicea’s words trailed off in her throat.

“This is why you train.” Moonbow looked at the body of the ice wight, which blazed with magical flames. She watched as the tail ignited and the fire spread down the hind legs. “This is why you spend every day getting better, until such actions become second nature, forever part of your muscle memory. Killing is a skill like any other. Thank you, Boadicea.”

Moonbow moved closer to Boadicea’s side and watched as the griffoness began to reload the gun, putting more bullets into the cylinder. Boadicea’s talons were calm, steady, they did not tremble; the griffoness had just dealt death and was no poorer for it. Moonbow looked at the griffoness’ face and could see flames reflected in Boadicea’s black eyes. There could be no mistaking it, the griffoness was a killer.

“A Winterworx revolver… for those moments when everything must die.” Boadicea slipped the gun back into her purse and then slipped her purse back under her protective outerwear. “You okay, Moonbow? I didn’t want you getting burnt… as you can see, I used incendiary rounds. I loaded them into the gun earlier… I expected for this to happen, I was up all night waiting, nervous, and to be honest, a bit scared. I don’t want any of my friends getting hurt.”

“Let’s get back inside. There’ll be no going to sleep after this, we might as well get something to eat, get hydrated, and then get moving.” Moonbow looked at the burning bodies. “You did good. You were wise to use fire. Thank you, Boadicea, future herdmate.”

“It was nothing,” Boadicea replied, feeling a sensation of warmth that flooded through her body, driving the cold away. “I was just protecting Sentinel and what he loves.”

Moonbow shook her head. “Sentinel and I have an agreement. I doubt that it is love, at least not yet. You spend far more time with him than I do. I have seen the way he looks at you, the way he is so gentle and tender with you… it makes my heart ache. I will be with him soon though, it is only a few short years that I must be patient.”

“I dunno if I could do what you are doing… I don’t think I’m strong enough.” Boadicea turned and headed back for the opening of the igloo. “I struggle to be an honourable griffoness… you and Sentinel just live it as though it was the most natural thing to the both of you.”

“Your delusion does not suit you.”

“What do you mean?” Boadicea froze, standing at the entrance.

“Sentinel stole his father’s airship and took off, bent on revenge. He caused much hurt and sorrow. He caused his father to have a full blown nervous breakdown. Buckminster took Mistress hostage. His mothers are all broken hearted, suffering a pain I doubt that you or I could comprehend, a pain made all the worse by the fact that when Sentinel does come home, if he comes home, they will be so happy to see him, so relieved to have him back, but also so furious with what he has done and burdened by the need to punish him. Five mares and one griffoness are going to flay the flesh off of his hindquarters when he returns home for what he has done to his father… these are not the actions nor the indicators of an honourable pony.”

Boadicea slumped as Moonbow approached, not sure how she felt about what Moonbow had said. She watched as Moonbow dropped down and began to crawl through the tunnel, and then, her heart heavy, she followed after, eager to be out of the cold.

Breakfast was more kibble, which did nothing friendly for Scootaloo’s digestive processes, or anypony else’s for that matter. The dry, hard kibble was the perfect ration; you didn’t want to eat any more of it then you had to. You ate just enough to make it almost feel as though your belly had something in it, which in turn gave you plenty of calories. The kibble was not intended to leave you feeling full and sluggish, it was intended to keep you going.

By the time they had demolished the walls of the igloo to free the sleigh, the sun had risen, offering feeble pink light but no warmth. The wind had picked up, blowing southward, meaning that the group would be walking into a headwind, always an exhausting task.

Within hours of setting out, visibility was nonexistent. The whiteout conditions made it impossible to see the end of one’s own nose. Piña kept them going, she knew the way. Sentinel and Moonbow walked on either side of her, touching her, not wanting to be separated where they might wander off into the blinding snow and be lost forever. Moonbow and Sentinel both were using their echolocation to try and ‘see’ around them, and Moonbow kept making a silent wish that she had finished her year of blindness and all of the training that came along with it. Fighting in these conditions would be nigh impossible.

They were vulnerable; Moonbow knew it and feared it. In a storm like this, if the undead attacked them, they would be easy pickings. There would be no way that she and Sentinel could keep the others safe if something happened. It would be fighting blind, and that would be ferocious, desperate fighting indeed.

The storm bore down upon them with all of the cold fury that it could muster. This was Sombra’s cold, this was Sombra’s storm, and he was not going to make reaching him easy. Leaning forward into the cold, the companions continued northwards together.

Piña pulled with all of her might, fighting against the wind. She was exhausted, tired, and dragging Diamond Tiara, who had collapsed into her harness. Diamond Tiara didn’t have the endurance to keep going. The cold was biting through Piña’s clothing and she had stopped feeling her legs hours ago, or at least it felt that way. She was in pain and needed to pee. She really needed to pee, but she didn’t want to pee, because that would mean exposing her bare backside to the hostile cold and Piña suspected that her pee would freeze before it would hit the ground.

“WE’RE STOPPING!” Moonbow shouted, her voice almost inaudible over the wind.

Piña came to a halt and then just stood there, not knowing what to do. She tried not to breathe too much, the air was so cold that it made her lungs sting and it made her tongue go dry. Even her boogers felt frozen, she was no longer able to breathe through her nose.

She turned around and then moved to help Diamond Tiara, who lay in the snow. The poor filly had been dragged along, Piña had done the pulling, and Apple Bloom had been the one pulling most of the weight of the sled. Somehow, Apple Bloom was still standing. She too was trying to help Diamond Tiara now.

“DINKY, SWEETIE BELLE, I KNOW IT IS A LOT TO ASK, BUT WE NEED YOU TO MAKE A SHELTER… I KNOW THAT DOING IT BLIND WILL BE DIFFICULT, BUT YOU MUST. WE ARE ALL DEPENDING ON YOU,” Moonbow bellowed.

“I can feel things with my telekinesis!” Dinky replied, shouting over the wind, her voice nowhere near as loud as Moonbow’s. “This will be a piece of cake! I’ve been painting pictures while blindfolded, just so I could feel my own brushstrokes!”

Piña, who nosed Diamond Tiara, had witnessed Dinky painting in such a fashion. Dinky pushed herself harder than any other foal she knew. Diamond Tiara had pushed herself too, and was now dealing with the consequences of it. The filly was limp and unresponsive.

“Sentinel, when we have a shelter, you’re going to need to get Diamond Tiara warmed up,” Piña said, struggling to make herself heard over the wind. “She’s out… I’m worried.”

“She’s an earth pony.” Moonbow moved closer and nudged Diamond Tiara. “She’ll be fine… she’s just not in shape… she’s in lousy condition for physical effort.”

“Moonbow, she spent a lot of time sick, with ulcers, stomach problems, and a bunch of other stuff,” Piña said, her muzzle close to Moonbow’s. “She only started to get better just a while ago… I saw her take her pills this morning… I’m worried.”

“Pills?” Moonbow lowered her head and nosed Diamond Tiara again. “I really hope her medication isn’t making her more susceptible to the cold. Sentinel, when we’re inside, you and I are going to make a pink filly sandwich!”

“Aye aye!” Sentinel replied.

“If we have to, we’ll shag her until she’s warm!”

“What?” There was a long pause from Sentinel. “What?”

“One of the first things we Myrmidons are taught for cold weather survival. Vigorous shagging increases blood flow to the extremities, raises body temperature, generates heat, and can revive a pony laid low by the cold. Survival sex—”

“WHAT?” Sentinel shouted, his voice a howl to rival the wind.

“I’m going to have such great stories to tell when I get home.” Piña began rubbing Diamond Tiara, trying to rouse her. “My brother Sentinel had to give Diamond Tiara a good hard dicking while she was passed out to warm her up and save her life!”

“Piña, no!” Sentinel shook his head. “No… no… you mustn’t tell our parents!”

“Ah, I spent one summer on the Shetlands and I came home with such a great vocabulary.” Piña felt Diamond Tiara squirm and felt relieved. She wasn’t about to tell Sentinel though, it would be great fun watching him squirm, especially if Moonbow kept teasing him.

Moonbow was teasing, Piña hoped. She really didn’t want to watch her brother boning her best friend in the tight confines of an igloo. Ponies really didn’t have sex to revive one another from the cold, right?

Author's Notes:

Seriously, for cold weather survival, it is highly suggested to get naked and climb into a sleeping bag with somebody and then bone bone bone until the chill goes away. Really!