It was a uncomfortably warm when I woke up the next morning. The snoring pegasus lying atop me probably had something to do with that, though I would never say something like that out loud. Her ego could be a bit sensitive, I knew. But even my bare limbs, exposed to the air of the small building, registered it a bit warmer than I would like.

It was dark in here. No light coming in from outside, and no light from the stove, whose fires had long since died out. There was only the faintest of illumination from-

"Wow, your eyes are extra freaky in the dark like that," my marefriend pointed out, tactlessly.

"So much for round two," I replied teasingly.

"Round- what? Don't be like that!" she complained. I gasped as she used her feathers to try to convince me otherwise. I wasn't that hard to convince, with nowhere we really needed to be that morning.

But when we had had our fun, the need to leave did start to grow in urgency. We would both need breakfast. And before that, I needed the outhouse. I went to the door, and tried to open it, but it resisted. I gave a sharper tug, but still it resisted. Bracing my foot against the door jamb, I poured some mako into my muscles and ripped the door loose. I was immediately overrun with something cold, burying me. Snow.

"Cloud? Cloud! Where are you, I can't see your eyes anywhere?" Rainbow said, starting to panic in the dark. "Snow?!" Of course the weathermare could easily recognize the stuff by touch. She calmed a little when I pulled myself free, stepping back and starting to shiver.

"Let me... get the fire going again," I said, blindly groping around until I had some fresh firewood in the stove. The surge of magic was blinding for a moment, before the room settled into a dim red illumination. I let the fire warm me from the frozen deluge as I looked back to the door. No light came from above; the snowfall had to have been a dozen feet overnight, or more.

"See, this is why I don't like wild weather," Rainbow complained.

I considered dressing, but realized if my clothes got wet things could get much worse for me, so I instead set my clothes on the couch, where they'd be less at risk of melting snow. Grabbing my sword, I went to the doorway and began poking upward as far as I could.

"What are you doing, you're going to make more snow fall in on us," Rainbow worried.

"Making sure we have a path for fresh air to reach us so we don't suffocate," I pointed out, even as Rainbow's prediction came true. Much of the floor was coated before a little daylight finally peeked through. The stove got a bit of wind going, as the hot air flowing up its chimney demanded fresh, cold air come in through the new hole to take its place, keeping us supplied with ice-cold oxygen. As soon as I was satisfied with our continued ability to breath I rushed back to the stove to warm up again, shivering fiercely.

"Okay... you warm up, I'll take a turn at digging us out," Rainbow offered, rushing the packed doorway. "Oh, come on!" she said a moment later as her hooves reached harder packed snow, perhaps even ice, after only a foot or so of digging.

"Do you really think this is wild weather?" I asked. "I could see you and your crew being able to pull off something like this, but not it happening naturally."

"Are you accusing my team of trapping us in here?" Rainbow asked incredulously. "They would never do something like that!"

I shook my head. "I know they wouldn't, but they could. So that tells me others could as well. I don't think any pegasi would, but what about something else. Any monsters that can manipulate weather?"

"What, like a windigo?" she asked. "N-no way, those things have been gone since the first hearth's warming," she said, fear creeping into her voice at the thought.

"Let's start there, what do you know about windigos?" I asked, settling onto the bed and pulling my clothes over me.

"Well, I'm no egghead," the pegasus excused before settling next to me, pulling close for warmth. I was surprised she wasn't wet, after her attempted escape, but as I ran my hand through her fur and feathers I noticed how oily they were. Perhaps pegasi had a natural defense against getting wet; it would certainly be helpful with weather work. "But everypony knows the story of hearthswarming..."

I wasn't a pony, but it didn't take the pony with me long to get me up to speed. I wasn't sure how much of it to take as legend, and how much fact. "... so that's why the 'fires of friendship' are so important, and why it's important to avoid strife, especially in winter."

"And yet here you are huddled alone with me," I laughed.

"Um, yeah, you're my marefriend. What's so funny?" she asked.

"My name."

"Cloud?"

"Cloud Strife," I pointed out.

"You have a last name?" she asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"We've known each other how long and you're just finding that out?" I asked "That's not exactly a 'third date' kind of surprise."

"We've been dating how long and you just now thought to tell me your full name?" she countered. "So just what kind of surprises did you have waiting for the third date?!"

"This may sound strange but... I think I'm secretly a male trapped in a female's body," I said, teasingly.

I laughed as she smacked me in the face with the feathery part of her wing. "I knew that, dork," she said. "Surely you of all ponies has a deeper, darker secret than that."

"You first," I said, looking at her curiously.

She looked away for a time, leaving my mind to worry about our situation again. We needed to find a way out. I could try burning our way through the ice with fire magic, perhaps, but that would leave me drained if it proved inadequate.

"I don't know what I'm doing here," she said at length.

"Visiting your marefriend?" I said. "I know we didn't expect to be trapped here, but..."

"I mean, having a marefriend. I kinda always assumed some stallion would see how awesome I was. Probably one of the Wonderbolts, you know, somepony who can almost keep up with me. But here I am, wooing a mare. Only I don't know what I'm doing. You always make it seem like you know so much about how to be a good marefriend, when you've only just become a mare. I've tried asking all my friends for advice. Rarity. Applejack." She shifted positions, dropping her back hard against the back of the sofa. A feather popped up from the sudden motion. Butter yellow, it drifted down slowly toward the middle of the room. "Fluttershy? Hey, Cloud... why do you have one of Fluttershy's feathers on your couch?"

"That's not-" I began, but the mare was already up in my face, hoof on my chest.

"Don't lie to me! I came over the moment you finished, but I'm not even the first mare you've gotten on your couch, huh?" she accused.

"She hasn't-" I began again.

"Then what do you call this?!" she asked, holding the feather out toward me in a hoof.

I looked closely. "A quill," I pointed out, pointing at the tip which was carefully carved to take up ink and deploy it smoothly. "The ponies at Sofas and Quills threw in a free quill when I bought my sofa and ordered my bed."

"A likely story," she said, speaking more truth than she meant.

"Fluttershy and I just have tea together at her cottage every week or so," I explained. "Are you jealous? She's your friend too, I'm sure she'd love for you to join us."

"Join you? What, so she can be the stallion of your little herd? Why don't you invite her to join us?" Rainbow asked aggressively.

"Because we don't have teaparties?" I said, confused. What was she talking about, herds and stallions? I blushed as I guessed. "I'm not talking about anything intimate! Just friends drinking tea together and talking."

Rainbow Dash just growled, rubbing her hooves on her head and looking like she was trying to implode to escape the embarrassment. "Yeah, well... maybe Fluttershy and I will have our own tea parties," she said, still sounding a bit bitter.

Not sure what else to do, I wrapped her in a fierce hug and sat down on the couch, holding her pinned against me. She tried to squirm free for a bit, but with my mako she didn't stand a chance. Finally she settled down on my lap.

"Nightmare Moon has been in a few of my dreams," I told her, starting in on my 'deep dark secret' time.

"What, like your wet dreams?" Dash asked.

"No," I said. "Wait, actually there was that one, but she just commented how normal it was and left. That was all kinds of awkward."

"So, what... your wet dreams are just really vanilla and she got bored and wandered off? You really need to spice up your imagination if you want to keep up with me, Cloud," she teased.

"Maybe Twilight can recommend some reading," I teased back.

"Don't you dare come to her for that!" Rainbow said back, a lot more angry than she should be. "Wait, the quill. It was for her wasn't it?"

"What? No! I told you, it was just a freebie," I snapped back. "Anyways, Luna was just contrasting it with all my other dreams."

Rainbow glared at me a moment before finally accepting my answer and moving on. "So what were the dreams even Luna thought were odd?"

"Memories... from before I came here. They're kind of... jumbled. She said I had someone else's memories, somehow," I told her. "I don't know what to make of that. At first I thought she was just messing with me. Vengeance for what we did to her, you know?"

"I don't think she's like that," Dash said. "Maybe you should get her to help you sort it out? Like, head up to Canterlot in person?"

"Maybe... not right now though," I said.

"Well, duh, right now you have to get us out of this deathtrap of a house you built," she pointed out.

"Right," I said, nodding. I let her go and took my sword into hand, approaching the blockade of snow and ice.

"Alright! Wait, what are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm getting us out of here," I said. I drew out my magic, summoning fire to melt the ice. Again. And again. In between I hacked at it with my sword, using the partial melting to make more headway. Digging past snow with my hands. Trying to expand the little air hole into something big enough to climb out of. Dash was at my side, hooves lashing at the troublesome frozen water to tear more of it asunder. It seemed to be going well, until something wooshed in past us, knocking us both on our backs and putting out the fire in the stove.

"What is it? A monster?" Dash asked as she pulled herself out of the pool of water that had filled the floor of my home.

"Cloud... you haven't told her about me? About us?" a whispy, effeminate voice said seductively from the darkness. "I don't mind sharing, but you should at least tell your other marefriends."

"She's mine!" the pegasus declared. As she did, our uninvited guest became visible for a moment, a ghostly pale blue visage of a pony glowing briefly with power.

"Yours? You barely spend a moment with her outside of sex. And even then, I've been up her skirt more times than you have," the ghost alleged. She faded from view again, even as an all too familiar breeze caressed my thighs.

"That's... that's a total lie! Right, Cloud?" Rainbow demanded.

I hesitated a moment. "I've never seen her before in my life," I said truthfully, cheeks burning at the realization that I had felt her quite a few times, taking liberties she'd had no right to take. Or had that really just been the wind? I couldn't know for sure. But I could see her flare back into existence, pulsing with a bit more power.

"Don't... don't lie to me, Cloud!" she demanded once again. In the pale blue ghostly light I could see the faint shimmer of tears in her eyes. I'd hurt her.

"Rainbow Dash! Loyalty! Listen to me," I said, voice loaded with authority as I leveled my sword at the apparition. "This creature isn't my lover, you are. She's trying to manipulate us, get us to fight one another. Don't let her beat you."

Rainbow hesitated before growling fiercely at the monster. "Right! You're mine, bitch!"

Before she could charge, though, the ghost blew out a frigid gust, freezing the water around our ankles. Rainbow struggled to free herself, but she was stuck for the moment. I was stuck, too, but I had other options. Calling on my magic, I pointed at the dim spectre and conjured flames.

She shrieked in pain, fading from view as she hid from us for the moment. We used that moment to break free, and Dash pulled herself up into a hover to prevent that trick from working on her again.

I felt the breeze caress my skin again, this time teasing my chest. "She lies, Rainbow. Look how her teats respond to my touch," she began, fading into view nearby. Dash hesitated, eyeing my nipples instead of focusing on the enemy. But I wasn't that easily stopped. Pushing mako through my body and into my blade, I slashed right through her head, a blow that would be fatal on a more corporeal foe.

It wasn't deadly to her, but it was clearly harmful, and she turned to flee, heading for the doorway. She stopped to turn and give one last taunt. "I'll be back when we can be alone together, Cloud Strife." But even as she was talking I was closing on her. I grabbed her, gripping her about the waist even as I tried to recall that feeling when I had captured the parasprite. Magic flared brightly as she imploded with a fearful shriek, shrinking down into a small red sphere of crystal gripped tightly in my hand.

"What... what just happened?" Rainbow asked, breaking the silence in the dark.

"I captured her, once and for all. Trapped her in a summon materia, like I did with the parasprites.

"Summon materia, huh?" she asked, thinking a few seconds. "I better not find out you've been summoning her alone."

"Well, Cloud. You got that tea-party you wanted," Rainbow said between shivers. "Can we get another pot?" she asked Fluttershy. The three of us sat around Fluttershy's table, Rainbow and I wrapped thoroughly in blankets even after sharing a hot shower, and still feeling cold deep within.

"I'm glad you were able to beat the monster," Fluttershy said as she put on the water. "But still, I can't help but feel a little sorry for her. All she wanted was a special somepony."

Before I could object to her theory, Rainbow Dash offered her own objection. "She wanted my special somepony. That's not cool."

"Right, I'm already taken," I concurred, backing up Dash.

"I guess so," Fluttershy admitted. "But you're not even engaged yet, are you?" As blood filled our cheeks, Dash and I suddenly felt a lot warmer.

Lying in my bed in the guest room at Sweet Apple Acres, I finally managed to get warm enough to fall asleep. I dreamed of Midgar... lying in a field of flowers within the splintered remains of a church in the slums as I looked up at the little ray of sunshine that managed to find its way down from above the upper city.

I remembered waking up here, the cute little flower girl looking curiously into my face. She said... conflicting memories surged through me, talking over one another. One date. I had offered her one date, or she had offered me one date? I remembered it both ways.

My thoughts broke off abruptly as snow landed on my cheek. Looking up, it wasn't Aeris I saw looking down at me, but a pale blue equine. She looked a fair bit more solid here, but still ghostly.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I sat up.

"It's your dream... where else do you think your summons go?" she asked. She pointed a hoof, and I saw one of the parasprites munching on the broken timbers of the church.

A dream. I looked around, expecting to see Nightmare Moon, but the alicorn was nowhere to be found.

"You look different in your dreams. Better.~ The clothes go good on you but..." the mare inquired, not able to put her hoof on what was different.

"I'm male, like I was before I was cursed," I pointed out. This clearly pleased her, as she wrapped around me, giving me a hug and a grin. "And, I still have a marefriend."

She pouted a bit but at least she unraveled herself from me. "She can't see what goes on in here.~ I was... mostly just trying to make her jealous, earlier," she admitted. "But I'm not hungry anymore... and you are even sexier as a male..."

"I'm not looking to cheat on my marefriend, even in my dreams," I countered. "What are you, anyways? A windigo?"

"I am. One of the last great winter spirits, since those ponies drove us to extinction. I've been trapped in a bauble in a dragon's horde long enough to forget most things. Include the joy of a stallion's touch. Are you sure you don't want to correct that? Can your marefriend really fault you for your dreams?" she tempted.

"She can and has," I said, trying to suppress my annoyance. "What's your name then, windigo?"

"I'm afraid I've forgotten that as well," she confessed. "Why don't you name me, stud?"

"Don't call me that. In fact, no first names either; you can call me 'Mister Strife'," I said. She giggled and nodded, apparently liking it better than my first name anyways. "As for you. Let's see."

I considered her thoughtfully. A creature of frost and ice, available for me to summon as I needed. "I'll call you 'Shiva'," I said.

"Mmm, that doesn't sound right. Still, you can call me anytime, master Strife,~" she said with a wink. I was starting to worry she'd be a more troublesome summon than the parasprites.

As I trod through town, passing from Sweet Apple Acres to the Everfree, things had changed. The wind no longer caressed me lecherously as I walked. Instead, Shiva's spectral form wound around me, visible but impossible to feel. "Please stop giving me the silent treatment," she said after nothing else she'd had to say had gotten a reaction from me. The Apples hadn't reacted to the glowing blue ghost pony in the slightest, and I didn't really need more reasons for people to think I was crazy.

"Hi Cloud! Who's your new friend?" Pinkie Pie asked as she stopped me, passing me an envelope. "Rainbow's getting her own invitation, so she can be your '+1'!"

"You can see her?" I asked in surprise.

"Of course not, silly Billy. She's invisible!" Pinkie Pie responded, making me even more confused. "I'm Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you," she said, offering Shiva a hoof clop, and waiting just until the ghost's hoof reached the right spot before lowering her leg. "What's your name?"

"Cloud wants to call me Shiva," the windigo groused.

Pinkie giggled. "That's not much of a pony name. Oh, I know! You should call her 'Diamond Dust'! I'm sorry, Diamond, I can never get ponies to show up for a welcome to Ponyville party for ghosts, but you should come to my Hearths Warming Eve party with Cloud!"

She recoiled away from Pinkie until she started fading from view before drawing closer to me again. "I like the name, but Hearths Warming is deadly to my kind."

"Psshaw," Pinkie dismissed. "Cloud's from VII, not X. You're invincible!" With that the pink pony took her leave as suddenly as she had come.

I scratched my head in confusion. "Sorry, Shiva, I don't know what she was talking about either."

"It's Diamond Dust," she corrected. "And I think I shall join you for this party."

When I returned to the Everfree, the snow had stopped falling, but clouds kept the sun at bay, and the snow that had already fallen was still a thick mound piled over my clearing. Diamond was quite capable of adding more snow and ice to any situation, but removing it was outside of her skill set. And the parasprites were impossible to control, making them more of a threat to what remained of my house than I could afford to risk.

So it came down to me and a large shovel digging our way down while Diamond floated around me, distracting me with endless flirtation and innuendo. As a summon she could interact with me and keep me annoyed rather than lonely, but she was even less physically present than when she had been a ghostly wind thing. Using my magic to summon her physically was little help, since it left me in the ether while she was far less use with a shovel than I.

It took a week to dig out my home enough to resume work on it. The sofa had to be replaced entirely; this time I emphatically refused their offer of a free quill. My bed was finally done when I picked up the new couch, so I was able to bring that out as well. The walls, fortunately, had been well enough waterproofed to survive the ordeal with no noticeable rot.

Rainbow Dash visited a few times that week. Unlike Pinkie, she seemed completely unaware of Diamond's presence, which was probably for the best. But she was more distant than before, and completely unwilling to stay the night even when we got physically intimate. For the first time since I had come here, I was regularly satisfied in that way, but there was a growing dissatisfaction with the rest of our relationship. With the growing tension, something was going to give.