Tarnish’s knees had a wobble that he didn’t much care for as he stood up. It was freezing, the cold was cutting into his skin, and he didn’t have his heavy coat because he had been safe and warm aboard the Endeavour. Vinyl lay in the snow, panting, trying to recover. Tarnish didn’t see any sign of a nosebleed, which was good. Having been taught by Maud and Daring Do both, he began to prioritise for survival.

The wreck of the Endeavour was a short distance away and smoke rose from it’s shattered hull. The whole ship had crumpled and shattered on impact and flames were visible. Some of it was made from wood, other parts of it were metal, but a lot of it was flammable. All of their supplies, their means to survive was in the wreckage, and it was burning.

Running as fast as his wobbly legs could carry him, he went to a massive tear in the side of the ship and halted. It was too hot to go forward and there was a lot of choking, eye-burning smoke. Rainbow Dash, who had followed him, was trying to pull him back, digging her hooves into the snow and tugging with all of her might, which was considerable.

A massive jet of steam whooshed from Tarnish’s horn and the flames shrank a bit, but the great heat in the area worsened. Snow was melting now and Tarnish was making very little headway. Getting inside of the ship to rescue their supplies seemed impossible. Gritting his teeth, Tarnish pushed forwards, not caring about the heat, or being burned. He braced his long legs and pushed forwards, dragging Rainbow along with him, and she began to cry out in pain from the scalding heat.

“Tarnish, don’t!” Rainbow begged. “It’s not worth your life! Stop!”

Where Rainbow failed, a much stronger force yanked Tarnish back and threw him down into the snow, where he lay steaming. Vinyl Scratch, looking more annoyed than ever, stomped through the snow, her hooves making crunching sounds as she broke through the frozen crusts. Her horn ring glinted in the sunlight, her ring of elemental attunement.

In seconds, the visible flames vanished, but smoke continued to curl up from the wreckage. Vinyl stood there, unmoving for a short time, and when she seemed satisfied the fire was out, she moved over to where Tarnish and Rainbow Dash lay heaped together in the snow. Scowling, she grabbed them both and applied a powerful cleaning spell, cleaning the frozen, crusted vomit from the both of them. Then, with a pop of magic, something manifested near her head, something wrapped in bright silver foil.

With an unapologetic grimace, she forced open the mouths of both Tarnish and Rainbow Dash, then popped in a few tablets of Brush’em Brand Instant Mouth Cleanser, an oral care product designed for earth ponies, but used by lazy, careless equines everywhere. Both Tarnish and Rainbow Dash began to foam at the mouth and they held one another, shivering in the snow.

“We need to get organised now,” Daring Do said to the group. “The temperature is hovering somewhere around zero. When the sun goes down, and it will go down soon with all of these tall mountains surrounding us, it is going to be bitterly cold. Rainbow and I are somewhat more suited to the cold because of our wings and insulating feathers, but I am worried about Tarnish and Vinyl. But mostly Tarnish. Those long legs and his long neck are going to cause significant losses of body heat. So we need to bundle up now and start conserving as much of our body heat as possible. Then we need to secure some kind of shelter.”

“It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off—”

“Mister Teapot!”

“—of a Hearth’s Warming tree.” As Tarnish spoke, a foamy mess dribbled from his muzzle, dripping down onto the snow and his front legs.

Snickering, Daring Do tried to swallow her laughter and she tried even harder to give Tarnish a scowl of disapproval, but she failed. Vinyl didn’t laugh, no, she sniffed once, looked disgusted, and then forced both Rainbow Dash and Tarnish to take another tablet.

Turning his head, foaming at the mouth, Tarnish had this to say to Rainbow Dash. “Bark!”

Wide-eyed, also foaming at the mouth, Rainbow turned her head, her lip curled back into a snarl, and she replied, “Arf!”

Disgusted, Daring Do kicked the snow in frustration and rolled her eyes. “We almost get killed and you two are still goofing off!” She let out a sigh, slumped a bit, and another sigh slipped out. “I guess it is better than despair. Carry on, the both of you. Right. Good dogs.”

The wreckage of the Endeavour left Tarnish feeling sad. There were lots of things he could be upset or sad about, like plummeting down to the ground from several miles up, but the Endeavour was like a teammate. A friend. Even if she had cramped, terrible bunks. He slid down the hallway and crashed into a charred, broken door.

His door, which he now climbed though. The ceiling of his bunk was now the floor, sort of. The storage area was beneath his bed and he began pulling everything out. When he found his pea coat, he put it on, then his ushanka, his heavy boots, and then he began strapping on the rest of his gear, such as his saddlebags. Flamingo was fine, as far as Tarnish understood, she was indestructible. His shield, also indestructible as far as he knew, was fine as well.

He heard a thump, followed by swearing. Poor Rainbow Dash, she wasn’t used to walking or climbing over stuff. Bracing his hooves for balance, he unfurled a heavy woollen cloak given to him by Limestone as a gift. Pausing, he looked at the corner, his horn providing pale light. The cutie marks of each of the Pie sisters were embroidered there, a reminder of home and those who loved him. The cloak was ridiculously heavy and weighed several pounds. He didn’t know how much it weighed exactly, he hadn’t done the math to figure it out, but it was made from thirty-six ounce wool, a fact that he had no understanding of.

But wearing it draped over his back and with the voluminous hood pulled over his head, he was warm. He was also quite dramatic looking, no doubt, a good and proper druid. With all of his gear collected, Tarnish scrambled out of his bunk and went to help Rainbow Dash, who he could hear thumping around.

The sun was just over the top of the peaks and Tarnish knew that time was growing shorter. They needed a shelter and the wreckage of the Endeavour was not ideal. Vinyl was under his cloak with him, sharing body heat, and she was wearing a heavy cloak of her own. Daring and Rainbow were bundled up as well, and both appeared to be comfortable in the zero degree weather.

“I don’t think we can be rescued,” Daring Do said to the group.

“What? Why?” Rainbow Dash’s breath came shooting out in steaming snorts, which frosted over the woollen edge of her ushanka.

“My sense of distance tells me that we traveled a long way through that fog and I think we got pulled in,” Daring Do replied, explaining what she knew. “We picked up a lot of speed at the end there. That fog is magical, and even if we somehow managed to climb the mountains surrounding us, I strongly suspect that the fog would just bring us right back to where we started. We’re stuck.”

“You’re right.” Rainbow blinked a few times, then let out a sigh of acceptance. “Any ship that shows up to help us would suffer the same fate as us. And I don’t think we can climb those mountains.” She gestured at the jagged peaks that could be seen all around. Most of the mountains had sheer cliff faces, and Rainbow stared at them, looking defeated. “There is no means to fly away.”

“Right. So we do what we came to do. Find Skyreach. I have the snowflake gem secured in my pocket. Thank you, for finding that, Vinyl, by the way.” Daring Do gave her silent companion a nod, which was returned. “Perhaps we can find a way to deactivate these defenses. I’m almost positive that this phenomenon we are experiencing is some kind of defensive magical effect.”

“That has to be some weird magic to have taken down the electrical systems on the Endeavour,” Tarnish said as he thought about how everything had gone dead, including the electric lights. “How did the ancient pegasus ponies come up with a defensive magic that can affect a modern airship and take out the electrical system?”

“I don’t know, Tarnish,” Daring Do replied, sounding a bit fearful and worried.

A prickle of fear crawled over Tarnish’s stomach when he thought about Daring Do calling him by his first name. She had to be rattled by all of this, even if she wasn’t showing it. Daring was one of the toughest mares he knew, and she had been in fights with some terrible old jungle god.

A great and powerful huff erupted from Tarnish’s nostrils and he was seized with an idea. They needed to find shelter, and soon. It was time to try and talk with a few friends he hadn’t met yet and see if they could help. They needed someplace cosy and secure.

“Stay put,” Tarnish commanded. “I’m gonna go and talk with some of the local trees and maybe some wildlife if I can find any. There’s bound to be cave or something around here, and we don’t need to waste no energy looking for it. I’m gonna go ask around.”

“Tarnish… wait…”

“What, Rainbow?”

“Good luck, Tarnish. Be careful, okay?”

“I’m a druid in the woods… I’m the Heliophant. This is my realm. I’ll be fine.”

Author's Notes:

And now, survival.