And go they went, trudging out into the snowfall that seemed to only increase in intensity as they went. Lost had to shout over the howl of the wind. "I wasn't expecting it to get this bad! I wish we had more pegasi to keep the weather under control, but we don't, so it does whatever it wants out here."

Tom was keeping his head down and leaning forward into the wind, not a fan of the weather. “Is it always this bad out here?” he called out to Lost, shouting as well as he did his best to shield Wave from the piercing cold the wind brought with it.

Eric trudged quietly, hugging himself and shivering and trying to think of a subtle way to magic the storm away, though he wasn’t sure anything that big could possibly pull off subtle. Especially with the dark and ominous tell the magic seemed to have. Can you even do weather magic? I’ve got to get a clear idea on what you can and can’t do…

The dark whisper replied silently 'The darkness of a storm is our playground. Dispense with these fools and we can carry you wherever you wish within the chill embrace. Remember that the coldness is part of you as well.'

Wave nuzzled at Tom gently. "You don't have to keep doing that, even if it's very gallant of you." She turned herself subtly so she blocked the cutting wind, but she was a creature of the deep, and her timeless flesh withstood the cold easily enough. "I'll protect you for this one time."

Footnote called out, "Not usually, but sometimes! The storms don't follow any schedule, that's the worst part about them! Stick together!"

"Thanks, Wave,” Tom quietly whispered to her, finding her aid already having an effect as he looked around to the rest of the group, trying to do his best to keep them all in sight. The crystalline look of the ponies made it easy to follow them, and Eric’s tall form was just as easy to track.

Eric thought on the shadow’s words, wondering if he could somehow render himself unharmed by the cold, as Wave seemed to be. He wasn’t eager to be alone out here, but at least considered whether he should part ways when they reached the city. He considered, but the idea of giving up the last human contact he had in this world didn’t sit right with him, regardless of where Footnote and Lost might wander off to.

Lost pointed, though her hoof was hard to pick out in the driving white, with her own fur being almost the same color. "There's a cave here. We should get out of this snow." She stopped instead of rushing inside, directing each pony and person behind her towards the cave.

Squinting heavily, Tom followed her towards the cave, letting out a massive sigh the moment the cave entrance cut off that biting wind, as even with Wave’s help, some of the wind had still been getting through. “So, wait here for the storm to break then?” he asked, teeth chattering together slightly.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Eric said, as he slipped into the cave with a shiver, looking around curiously.

Lost and Footnote came in last. With a powerful buck, she caused a minor cave in, blocking much of the entrance from the blowing wind outside. "We can't keep pushing on through that. We'll freeze to death before we get anywhere at all."

Footnote nodded. "Is everypony alright? You're not even wearing snow shoes."

Now that they were out of the harsh weather, Tom started to take stock of himself, from his head to his toes. Wriggling them a bit, he frowned. “My toes are pretty numb, which usually isn’t a good sign if they stay that way for too long… besides that, I think I’m as okay as one can be in a blizzard?” he replied, perhaps a bit more sarcastically than needed as his dissent with their situation showed.

“I’ll be okay,” Eric said dismissively, taking a seat and squirming free of the awkwardly worn jacket. “How about you, Wave?”

Wave waggled her huge tail/back end about. "Perfectly fine." She slid down from Tom and reached for his shoes. "Let's have a look at you, my brave knight, and see what we can do."

While she worked on that, Footnote started gathering rocks and making a circle, preparing to start a fire, and Lost settled quietly by the cave entrance.

Chuckling lightly at Wave’s words, he took a seat and took off the boots. They were good for hiking in, but not for cold weather. Wriggling them off, he took off his socks next, a rather ripe smell coming from them. “Yeesh… gonna need to find some way to get fresh clothes once we’re at that city we’re going to,” he said aloud, glancing over to Eric before looking at his toes, wriggling them.

Eric settled back against the wall, closing his eyes and resting a moment. He’s her ‘knight’, and I’m what? Nothing? I tease about their affection for one another, but there’s no need to dismiss me like that. Haven’t I been helpful since I got here? His dark thoughts revealed little on his face but an impassive restfulness as he outwardly simply relaxed.

Unaware of any emotional complexity in her new friends, Wave poked carefully at the feet in her grasp, carefully pawing at them with her hooves. "They're cold, and I should know." She frowned a little then leaned in, nuzzling them despite their stench. "I can help."

Lost raised a brow, thinking it through with the slow methodical way she had. "Will that come with any price, or are you offering something that would be best saved for when you're not in so much… company?"

“Yeah, toes and fingers are the most susceptible to frostbite,” Tom remarked aloud with a faint blush at how Wave was nuzzling his cold, stinky feet. “Not really something I’ve ever had to worry about before, truthfully.” Turning to Lost, he shrugged. “Last time she helped I was able to see in the dark, and it wasn’t anything bad, so I don’t see why others being around would be a problem?” he slowly spoke before turning to Wave and nodding. “If it’ll keep me from freezing my toes off, I’ll accept your help again, Wave.”

Eric chuckled at Lost’s comment. “Do you need someone to distract you from them, Lost?” he asked.

Lost turned a bright red through her snowy crystal-fur. "Is this a human thing?" She didn't say no though, instead looking downwards away from all the sources of her increasing shame.

Footnote, forgotten by the room, finally got the fire circle ready to go and pitched some firewood he apparently carried in his saddlebag, somehow. Despite the mild breach of physics, he casually got the fire going and the temperature began to rise in the cave.

Wave nodded with permission secured and pulled herself in over those feet, working on them with the sounds of rather energetic licking. Ancient rite, or just kind of creepy sudden makeout session, she was doing either fairly well.

Even as he giggled a bit from the faintest sensations of ticklishness reaching his mind, he blushed a bit heavier, as this was something extremely… unorthodox, to say the least. “T-thanks, Wave,” he mumbled a bit shamefully, looking over to Eric and Lost before focusing on Wave, the warmth slowly seeming to return to his frozen toes.

Eric moved himself to put Lost between himself and the makeout session, sitting a few feet away and looking at her to give her an excuse to look away. “Probably, given the contents of our own legendary ‘Internet’. But I’d say this in particular is at least as much a siren thing, or maybe just a Wave Swimmer thing. I haven’t met many sirens, so I can’t really say. What about you? We haven’t taken the time to get to know you very well yet, and honestly ponies are pretty new to me too.”

Lost looked up as the conversation seemed to come back into harmless territory. The white crystal pony gave Eric a gentle smile as she pointed at herself. "I'm Lost, but you know that already. I'm Footnote's assistant. If it wasn't for me, I keep getting afraid he'd forget his wings somewhere." She tilted her head a little. "When I'm not helping go on trips with him, I like playing in snow, normal snow, on the ground, not a snowstorm."

Footnote settled by the fire and looked around, just getting his awareness of the situation back. "We just have to wait out the storm. At least this cave's pretty comfortable." If you didn't mind rock, anyway.

Wave's attentions began to have an effect on the feet she was lavishing. Ever the agent of gods, her continued affections gently erased what should not be in Equestria, which included human anatomy. The numbness began to fade away, turned to a curious new sensation as Wave found herself grooming a dark-walled hoof instead of a fleshy foot. She nuzzled at the new frog at the bottom of each, sniffing lightly. The funk that had been on them had faded away.

Listening in on Lost’s conversation with Eric, Tom let out a few laughs, especially at her exclamation of Footnote’s tendency to forget things, wings included it seemed. Only at those new, odd sensations did he turn back to Wave and his feet, pausing as he blinked a few times. “Umm…” he wasn’t entirely certain what to say, really, as he stared at the hooves at the end of his legs. “I guess, frostbite won’t be a problem now?” he weakly finished, feeling Wave’s nuzzles rather acutely.

Eric glanced past Lost for a moment to see what was going on, before looking back to the earth pony. “Okay, that back there is definitely more of a siren thing.” He shook his head. “So, fond of the snow you say? Where I used to live we almost never got snow, though my more recent home got about a week per year. Little enough it should have been trivial, but still enough for people to get themselves in trouble. Our vehicles don’t always do so well in the snow, especially if you don’t know how to compensate.”

Lost looked between Eric, Tom, and Wave in turn, unsure if she should continue with the conversation, or… um… "Yes, snow can be very slippery, even for sure-footed ponies. You really do need to be careful, but it's also fun to make things with." She made a packing motion with her hooves, though her eyes kept wandering to the new hooves in the room. "Is your friend OK?"

Wave sat up, clopping her hooves against the new ones. "More than OK! All fixed." She moved to settle in beside Tom, to resume muzzling against his cheek with a flash of sharp fangs. "Now you're looking more and more like somepony fit to be next to."

Footnote suddenly thrust up a hoof. "Actually, according the the…" He started quoting the exact number and specifications of an old law, at least by their frame of reference. "Intelligent species are not to be converted to ponies in any permanent basis."

“Cept I’m a human, Wave,” Tom muttered, wriggling his new hooves, the sensation just weird all around. He drew his feet up, knees to his chest, and glanced at Wave. “I should really ask how you’re going to help, shouldn’t I?” he rhetorically asked before sighing, idly running his fingers through his mane. “Can you change it back once we’re someplace warmer?”

“He seems relatively not freaked out, so I’ll say he’s fine. Though I’m not sure he knew just what he was getting into,” Eric said before silently contemplating for a moment how well he knew what he was getting into with his own new found magic. “How often do you and Footnote make these little trips?” he asked, trying to keep their little conversation going.

Lost tapped at her chin, though her eyes kept darting to the changed human. "Whenever Footnote reads something that gives him an idea which way to look. We usually don't find much, but I guess we got lucky this time?"

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