A single snowflake fell on my nose.

“What the-?” I asked, looking up into the sky.

“So the village names are based on both the founding Clan and what the village produces?” Clover asked, her scroll now long and full of notes.

“Exactly!”

“Uh… Ponies?” I asked, as more snowflakes fell into the light of the smoldering campfire.

“What is it Luna?” Pansy asked.

“I take it the Pegasi aren’t responsible for those?” I asked, pointing my hoof up towards the increasing number of snowflakes. Confusion crossed Pansy’s face, but panic and horror pushed it away as she looked up.

“Oh no. Not again…” she whimpered.

“Again?” Smart Cookie asked, her face also turned to watch the snow fall into the firelight. “What do you mean ‘again’?”

“The workshops in Pegasopolis have been losing control of the weather for years now. They produce the weather for the whole continent, but every time they lose control, snow falls despite their best efforts.”

“Wait… Pegasi seriously aren’t behind the snowfall?” Clover asked.

“It’s actually a huge deal in Pegasopolis right now, the workshops are running day and night with drafted ponies, trying to overpower the snow.” Pansy murmured. “It doesn’t matter how much Pegasopolis raids if Earth Ponies can never grow their crops. We’ll be the first to starve if nothing gets planted.”

“We always thought the Pegasi were trying to blackmail the Clans into growing more.” Smart Cookie added. “But something about that never sat right with me. I could never put my hoof on why though.”

“Unicorns always thought we were just caught in the crossfire between the Clans and Pegasopolis.” I replied, watching the snow land, already beginning to collect on the ground. Clover pulled her saddlebags over and was rummaging inside for something.

“Where is it?!” she muttered to herself.

“Hey, is that the direction the other camps are in?” Smart Cookie asked. I glanced over to the cookie dough brown mare, she was pointing into the distance. I followed her hoof and gasped.

The sky to the North was aglow with orange firelight.

I knew it was North because I had watched the Sun set in the West just hours earlier.

A commotion ran through the camp as the various sentries and watchponies overheard our conversation and also looked North. Already I could hear ponies calling for their friends and fellows to get up.

“I- I gotta go.” I said as the realization of what was happening truly dawned on me. I felt my heartbeat increase as I found myself running. Running through the tents to warn Tia.

Again.

“Luna wait!” a voice exclaimed behind me.

I couldn’t wait! Whoever won between the tribes would march this way! Towards this camp! Even if the Clans won, the Queensford Unicorns wouldn’t be safe! The villagers of Ùllahdmaiden needed to leave! Now!

Ponies still waking up began to dribble out of their tents, crowding the path.

No time for manners!

I ducked and weaved through the thickening crowd without heed for who I was disrupting.

“Hey!”

“Watch it!”

“Damn Bonehead!”

“Luna wait!”

I mustn’t stop!

Left!

Duck!

Right!

Tiny filly! Jump!

Left!

Finally the crowd thinned, but the snow was falling so thickly I barely could see the campfires of the watchponies. None of this looked familiar…

Buck, where in the camp was I?

“Luna!”

I glanced around to see Smart Cookie emerge from the crowd, Pansy and Clover not far behind. The Unicorn was flipping furiously through a leather bound book, her eyes going back and forth frantically as they slid across the pages.

“Keep calm girl! You don’t know anything yet!” Cookie exclaimed.

“Calm?!” I shouted “How can you be calm at a time like this?!”

I needed to get Tia! I needed to get back to my friends!

“You need to slow down Luna!” Cookie soothed. “We don’t know what’s happened yet!”

“No matter what happened, whatever is left isn’t going to attack this camp!” Pansy agreed.

“Look around you!” I responded, gesturing around. “Ponies have been at each other’s throats since before I got here! Even if whoever wins doesn’t march on this camp, the other two thirds of ponies are going to riot!”

“Oh… Uh… Didn’t think about that…” Cookie admitted.

“What do you think will happen to the ponies of Ùllahdmaiden? All of us are blood traitors! The Earth Ponies for harboring Unicorns and the Unicorns for living amongst Earth Ponies!” I explained. “By the Alicorns, the best path is if the Pegasi win! And even then they’ll take all of our food!”

“Y-yeah…” Pansy admitted.

“Aha!” Clover exclaimed suddenly, her nose still in her tome. “Pansy, when the Pegasi lose control of the weather, is it always snow?'' She looked to the Pegasus.

“Why does that matter?” Pansy responded. “It’s a problem, yes, but we do have more pressing concerns right now...”

“Do you happen to remember if the snow always came down during periods of unrest, like say during or after a fight?”

“Well… I can’t say for certain… I’m not privy to every operation the Legions undergo… But now that you mention it, it does sometimes snow around the same time there’s new bragging stories in the barracks…”

“So it is always snow?” Clover pressed.

“I… Yes. Always snow, or blizzards. Or ice storms. Or-”

“Luna, you said you were forced from your original village by the snow, was there a moment where a fight broke out?” Clover asked, ignoring Pansy’s extended answer.

“I don’t rem-” I stammered.

Wait…

That day, almost seven years ago…

It wasn’t a fight, but it certainly felt like one was going to happen…

“Not a fight…” I muttered. “But almost a riot. The Crown’s soldiers brought news of the Queen’s death… And we were expecting them to give us food for the Winter… They left nothing but resentment.”

“What’s on your mind Clover?” Cookie asked, the beginnings of a realization running across her face.

“Can any of you name one conflict that you’ve personally seen that didn’t end with falling snow?” Clover asked our group.

“Well, when I… Came to Ùllahdmaiden, when I had to slay one of our stallions, I don’t think the snow fell…” I murmured.

“Does that count?” Cookie asked. “From your story it sounds like you stopped a fight before it even started by killing him.”

“No.” Clover agreed. “You stopped a battle rather than starting one.” She sat on her haunches , turning her book around and showing us a page.

It was the first time I had seen the inside of a book.

I had seen a few books, particularly amongst the Crown’s soldiers as a filly. Mom had taught Tia and I to read Unicornian, written in wet mud and on birch bark. I had learned the Earth Pony’s script from Brickwork and Tia, whom had in turn learnt it from working with the Mayor.

But never from a real book.

Unicornia had prided itself on the art of binding books. But Peasants could never hope to lay a hoof on the cover of an artisan made book. Peasant books, made by novice, non guild member bookbinders, were made with wooden slates and thick bark, stained with charcoal etchings that were liable to smear every time you turned a page. They were crude, clumsy things, and rarely kept its information beyond one or two readings.

Actual ink stained velum?

The ink would dry into the supple leather, making it last as long as the velum, which could be kept for centuries if stored properly. The leather covers were lighter and kept as well as the pages compared to the small boards of wood.

Peasants never saw velum.

The best chance to see actual velum would be if one of the Noble Ponies happened to carry one of their books with them during one of their processions, if they happened to move their cloak while inside their stagecoach.

And this mare… Clover the Clever… Was opening it for me to see inside.

Like she was a filly of eight winters old showing her little sister a weird bug.

I felt an unfamiliar emotion welling in my chest.

What was this?

Why was I feeling this?

Why was I enjoying it?!

Why was I thinking about pressing myself to Clover like Summer Glow had done to me?!

Why did my Moon Mark have to act up now?!

Why was this so weird?!

I can never let Clover know that I thought of her this way!

There’s no way normal Ponies feel this way!

Is this what Moon Madness feels like?!

Is this why Moon Marked Ponies are considered mad?

Why am I ashamed?!

Why do I like it so much?!

Why-?!

“Luna?” Clover’s voice interrupted, pulling me from my thoughts. “Can you read Luna?”

“I uh..” I stammered, trying to gather my thoughts.

“Can you read?” she asked again.

“I uh… Yes! Yes.” This was something I could focus on as I gathered myself.

“Then what’s the problem?” she insisted, the corners of her lips falling into a slight frown.

“Oh! Uh-?” I stated dumbly.

What was the problem?

What was I-?

Oh.

Oh right.

Putting that into a box and never thinking about it again.

“Sorry, lost myself for a second.” I finally said. “Let me just uh-” I glanced at the page again, properly examining it.

Its pale velum had been stained top to bottom in small lettering, accompanied by drawings so realistic I could've mistaken it for the real thing.

Windego.

Spirit of anger and bitter winter. Known to cause mischief, and mayhem amongst mortal kind. Consuming conflict and warmth like wine…

My eyes slid over the letters, searching for any particularly interesting word, but my eyes fell to the first, and largest drawing. Of some sort of apparition of a long limbed, gaunt, pony, running sideways across the page.

“It’s been getting colder for years.” Clover stated. “Winter eating spring and summer as less and less food is grown, driving conflict between mortal kind.” she started to trail off. “If they exist, and the spirit’s hunger is increasing as it eats the heat of summer, then is it eating an equal amount of our war?” she let the thought fall, letting us reach our own conclusion.

What would happen if there’s so much conflict that it eats Ponykind?

That was a disquieting thought.

That thought could be set into a box and set aside. Tentatively.

“So what do we do?” Cookie asked out loud, pulling me again from my thoughts.

You’re being weird, you don’t know what to do and you don’t know how a normal pony would react. Just let somepony else lead.

I refocused on the conversation between Clover, Cookie, and Pansy.

“We may already be too late. There hasn’t been a growing season this year. We were planning on strict rationing and harvesting anything wild we could find while it was still summer.” Clover informed.

“But what can we do?” Pansy asked pointedly. “If these creatures are actually behind the snow, there must be something we can do?”

“Hold on…” Clover turned her book again to look at the page, her eyes flitting over the velum.

“Lu!” cried a familiar voice from behind me.

I turned to see Tia’s white coat and pink mane loping through the crowd of Ponies.

“Tia!” I called back, gesturing with a hoof that she should come over here.

She slid to a halt on the increasingly snow covered ground.

“What are you doing standing around Lu?! Haven't you seen the sky?!” Tia asked loudly.

“Actually we might have a larger problem. Tia, meet Clover, Pansy, and Cookie. Clover, Pansy, Cookie, meet Tia, my sister.” I introduced.

Tia looked at me like I had grown a second head but otherwise said nothing.

“Smart Cookie.” Cookie greeted, extending a hoof as Clover searched for something in her book.

“Celestia.” Tia said evenly, tentatively returning the hoofshake.

“Your sister is a good Pony Celestia.” Cookie smiled. “Any friend of hers is a friend of mine.”

I felt my eyes widen at the praise.

What had I done to earn such a compliment?

I met Tia’s questioning glance with a look of surprise.

“Well… I’m glad she made such a good impression.” Tia responded, looking back at the Earth Pony. “But we need to go, I don’t know how much Luna told you, but we need to leave before one of the Military camps decides it needs new slaves.”

“Hear Clover out Tia.” I recommended. “If what she says is true, we’ve all been played for fools.”

Tia’s ears cocked themselves in confusion as she regarded me and what I had said, before finally turning back to the other three Ponies.

“Have you ever seen a moment of conflict or strife that didn’t eventually end with falling snow?” Clover asked, reiterating her point for Tia.

“What kind of question is that?!” Tia asked harshly. “Of course I have!”

“My fights with Sapphire and Emerald, and my fight with Hoarfrost don’t count.” I added. “Too small and I ultimately stopped a fight between the survivors of Queen’s Ford and Ùllahdmaiden by killing Hoarfrost.”

“Oh. Um…” Tia began to think. “Let me think…”

“You can’t think of any can you?” Clover asked, turning her book back around to show Tia. “Here, read this.”

Tia wordlessly looked over the page as she read it.

“Awfully convenient for you to have this.” she said after a moment, looking up to glare at Clover. “What are the odds that a Unicornian peasant would have a guild-made book this far South?”

“Oh right… You weren’t here for when we talked about who we were…” Clover tried to say.

But Tia wasn’t having it.

“You are an apprentice wizard in the employ of Princess Platinum.” Tia snorted. “Your robe and your badge of office are a dead give away.” she pointed at Clover’s chest, where a medallion I hadn’t noticed was pinned to her robe, depicting the Crown of Unicornia.

“Um… Yes. I do work under Master Starswirl in Princess Platinum’s employ.” Clover admitted.

“I don’t suppose then, that the names ‘Queen’s Ford’ and ‘Ùllahdmaiden’, mean anything to you?” Tia asked coldly.

“Luna told me about those places, yes.” Clover bit her lip nervously.

“Then you know why I won’t trust anypony or anything to do with the Crown.”

“Tia wait-” I tried to interject.

“Lu, I love you, but you’re too young to remember the stories Mom would tell.” my sister responded. “

“Now hold on Celestia.” Cookie stated, coming to Clover’s aid. “Yew don’t know our full story.” she said, her accent thickening.

“If she was with Platinum at Ùllahdmaiden, then I have no doubt she helped take down my shield, and helped kill quite a few of my friends.” Tia practically snarled.

Clover paled.

“That was your-” she stammered.

“Come Lu. I’ve heard enough. We’re leaving.” Tia snorted, turning and walking away without another word, disappearing into the increasingly dense falling snow.
I found myself caught between my sister who I loved dearly, and a trio of Ponies that I had never met before today.

I didn’t know what to think.

I didn’t know what to do.

Why was this such a hard decision?

I loved Tia, I should be following her lead. But something about these Ponies…

Disregarding my conflicting thoughts about Clover, weirdness included, something told me these Ponies were telling the truth. That they could be trusted.

They needed to be listened to.

I had to bring Tia around to listen to them.

But how?

There must be a way…

“I’ll go talk to her.” I heard myself saying. “Don’t know if I’ll see you Ponies again, but I’m glad we met.”

“Likewise.” Cookie smiled.

“Hope to see you again!” Pansy chirped.

Clover looked too despondent to reply, so I turned and followed in the direction Tia had set off.

Super gay autistic horse noises