Snow began lightly falling while Sundance and Tangelo were walking back to their Mechs. Sundance glanced up at the sky and noticed dark clouds off in the distance, their imposing shapes scraping past the tips of the mountains. "That doesn't look good."

Tangelo followed his gaze to the oncoming blizzard and sucked in a breath. "Yeah, that's really bad. I doubt we'll do any more training today out in that. We don't have enough pegasi to clear a storm that large before it hits." The two of them picked up the pace, not wanting to be stuck outside their 'Mechs when the storm hit.

"Can I ask you something a little strange?" Sundance asked after a while. Their 'Mechs had become visible through the trees by now, but the clouds had almost reached the camp.

"Sure." Tangelo looked nervously up at the clouds.

"Have you... ever thought about running away? About escaping from here?"

Tangelo's eyes went wide and she planted a hoof over his mouth. "Are you crazy? You can't just bring that up!" She hissed. She glanced at the trees around them uneasily and brought her voice to a whisper. "You never know who might be listening. You've noticed how other cadets disappear occasionally, right? This Clan isn't exactly forgiving towards dissenters."

Sundance nodded. He had only noticed because Vermilion had mentioned that at some point, but he had completely forgotten about it. Nopony knew where those cadets went, but if they were still alive, he'd imagine they'd wish they were dead. "I guess I forgot my promise to Mist, too. Sorry about that," he thought nervously.

Tangelo sighed and put her hoof back on the ground. "Be careful about who you trust. Most of the other cadets would turn you in the second you mention something like that." She started walking towards their Mechs again, and Sundance followed. "I'm a bit of an odd case. The soldiers actually saved my life when they took me. I owe them that much."

Sundance tilted his head at her. "Saved your life? How?"

She sighed heavily and glanced at the sky again. "I had a hard life growing up. I hated every second of it. The cold nights without a bed, living off of the scraps my parents threw me, the… well, it doesn't matter, really. There wasn't a single day where I didn't want to die." She shivered. "I woke up to our door crashing open. When I saw the soldiers rush in and put a bullet through both of my parents' heads, it felt like the best day of my life. I was finally free from all of the things they put me through."

They finally reached their 'Mechs just as the first of the snow began to fall. The wind and snow had picked up and the trees were making ominous creaking sounds. Tangelo stopped and put a hoof on a leg of her Locust. "It's paradise here compared to back home. I'm probably the only one who feels that way, but it's my honest feelings." She turned towards Sundance. "I know you want to get away from all this, but there's no way out. We're soldiers now. The sooner you accept that the sooner you can be safe."

Sundance shielded his face from the increasingly violent blizzard that had pushed over the tops of the mountains. It was getting hard to see or hear anything from a distance. He knew blizzards had a bad habit of appearing out of nowhere on Dike, but he had never been unlucky enough to be out in one. He thought for a moment, then sighed. "You're the second pony to tell me that."

Tangelo giggled lightly. "Well, it must be good advice if I'm not the only one who's said it."

Sundance nodded reluctantly. "Fine, you win. I'll go along with it, but I won't be happy about it."

"That's good enough for me." Tangelo climbed up onto one of the legs of her Locust and reached up towards the cockpit. She stopped and turned towards Sundance's Hellbringer. "Oh, and be careful when you climb back into your 'Mech. Don't fall again," she said with a wink. She pulled herself into her Mech and swung the access hatch shut.

Sundance sighed again and walked over towards his Mech. "Can I really just accept being a soldier? After everything they did to us?" He grabbed one of the rungs leading up the side of his 'Mech and began to climb. "I probably wouldn't be able to escape, anyway. It's just wishful thinking on my part. It's not like I actually have the courage to sneak away then live on my own for the rest of my life, or hide on a ship heading to a different planet and live in a different Clan."

Sundance grabbed at the top rung and pulled himself through the access hatch. A light dusting of snow had covered the interior, and he brushed the thin coating of snow off the seat and swung the hatch closed behind him, shutting out the blizzard. Sundance lifted his neurohelmet from the floor and gazed at his reflection in the visor. "This probably is the best option for me. Just go with the flow and accept whatever comes." He snorted and placed the neurohelmet over his head. "At least I'm not alone anymore."

By the time Sundance and Tangelo made it back to the hangar, the blizzard was in full swing. To avoid stepping on anypony, they had switched to infrared view, allowing them to see other cadets struggling through the heavy snow. Most of them knew to get out of the way when they heard a 'Mech walking down the path, but Tangelo had to blare her 'Mech's war horn once or twice when a cadet didn't seem to notice them.

Sundance saw a group of three ponies standing near the hangar doors, and he switched infrared view off when he got close enough to see them without it. He immediately recognized his friends, who were huddled close to each other and staring out into the blizzard.

Mist waved to Sundance as he emerged from the snow. "There you are! We've been worried sick about you."

"Sorry. We got caught up in the infirmary," he said awkwardly over the speaker. He glanced at Tangelo as she stepped into her Mech Bay and powered down.

"Well, hurry up and get out so we can make it to the barracks before they're buried under all this snow! It's too dangerous to be out in the blizzard for long. It's almost negative twenty degrees with wind chill!" Mist said, shivering. Chartreuse shuffled a bit and looked away from Sundance.

"Shit. Why don't they just keep us in the hangar?" Sundance said as he lumbered over to his Mech Bay.

"Because they want us to die," Vermilion grumbled. Chartreuse smacked him with one of her wings, and he glared back at her. Sundance got the feeling they had been arguing about that for a while now.

Mist glanced at Vermilion. "No, because the hangar isn't heated. We'd still freeze to death in here. We could sit in our Mechs, but I don't want to wait in a cockpit until morning."

Sundance scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, that's a good point." Solis whined, hurt, and Sundance patted the controls comfortingly. "Sorry, but this seat isn't very comfortable. You might be able to survive sitting in one spot for that long, but I certainly can't. I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, anyway." Solis hummed resignedly, and Sundance powered down the Hellbringer.

Chartreuse shivered violently and stamped her hooves against the cold. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait for another second." With that, she turned and raced off into the blizzard, her bright tail flapping behind her, before disappearing into the snow.

"Wait! We shouldn't go off by ourselves!" Mist called as he reached one hoof out towards her disappearing figure.

Vermilion nudged him. "Make sure she gets there. I'll wait for Sundance and Tangelo."

Mist nodded to him and charged after Chartreuse, the merciless storm swallowing him, too. Sundance rushed down the stairs from the catwalk and darted over to Vermilion with his neurohelmet tucked under his right foreleg. "What's happening? Why did they run off like that?"

Vermilion shook his head. "Chartreuse left by herself, and Mist is making sure she's safe. This isn't the time for her jealousy," he growled, obviously worried about their safety. Sundance frowned, confused, but Vermilion continued before he could ask what he meant. "Get out of that cooling suit. The sooner we're in the barracks, the better."

"Alright. I'll be back in a minute." Sundance ran into the locker room and quickly stripped from his cooling suit. "I hope Mist and Chartreuse are alright. We really should have left as a group instead of splitting up like that," he thought as he slammed the locker shut and threw on his cadet jacket. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

He ran out of the locker room and over to Vermilion and Tangelo, who had also changed back into her cadet jacket. "Ready to go?" she asked as he approached.

Sundance nodded "Let's just get out of this cold."

The three of them charged out into the blizzard, and Sundance was hit by the piercing wind so hard he immediately lost his balance. The wind bit harshly through the thin fabric of his jacket and tore at his mane. "Fuck, this blizzard isn't joking around!" He quickly righted himself and followed behind Vermilion and Tangelo with the snow violently whipping into his eyes and making it almost impossible to see. The thick clouds blocking out the sun certainly didn't help, but at least Tangelo's bright orange tail was easy to follow through the haze.

They fought their way through the snow for a long time, following the faint trails from the ponies who had left before them. The fresh, soft snow on top of the previous night's ice-covered snow made it extremely difficult to move carefully. More than once, they tripped on a hidden tree root or fell through the thin layer of unseen ice, slowing their progress further.

"This is terrible. I know the winters on Dike are bad, but this is just too much," Sundance thought, spitting out a mouthful of the cold white powder after he had tripped over yet another obscured object. "How much farther? I can't even see if we're going the right direction!" he shouted, struggling to make himself heard over the howling of the wind.

"We're almost there. We just passed the fork in the path. I think." Vermilion stopped and peered through the white haze around them. He frowned. "What the..?" He took off suddenly, and Sundance and Tangelo followed after him. Sundance wasn't sure what Vermilion was chasing at first, but after a moment, he saw a blue pony frantically searching through the snow around himself.

Vermilion grabbed the pony's shoulder and shook them. "Mist! What's going on? Where's Chartreuse?"

Mist shook his head as Sundance and Tangelo came up behind Vermilion. "I don't know! I tripped while I was following her, and when I stood back up, she was gone! She's not in the barracks, and her trail just suddenly stopped!"

Vermillion hissed. "Shit!" He glanced around them for a moment. "You need to get to the barracks. We'll search for her."

Mist shook his head wildly. "No! I have to find her!"

"Mist, you've been out here for far longer than we have. You're going to freeze to death."

Mist shook his head again. "I feel fine! I'm not that cold. I can keep searching!"

Tangelo walked up to Mist and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Mist, listen to me. Once you don't feel cold anymore, that's when the problems start." She sighed. "A friend taught me an old saying a while back. 'First you're cold, then you're not. Then you're hot, then you're dead.'" She grimaced. "It's not the best, but it gets the point across. You will get hypothermia and you will die if you stay out here for much longer. You can't do any good that way, so just get where it's warm and make sure you survive."

She turned to Vermilion and Sundance. "I'll take him back to the barracks. I recognized where we are, so we'll be fine. You two keep searching for your friend. Just don't stay out here too long, okay?" she said, giving Sundance a significant look.

"We won't. Thanks for the help," Vermilion said

Tangelo nodded. "Take her to the infirmary if you find her. It's not much further than the barracks, and she'll need urgent care if she's collapsed somewhere." She turned back down the path and forced Mist ahead of her, who protested the whole way.

"Come on. We need to find her soon," Vermilion said grimly. "Make sure you say within line of sight of me."

Sundance nodded, and the two of them spread out across the path, sifting through the snow. The snow bit coldly against Sundance's hooves even harsher than before, and he winced. "Please be okay, Chartreuse," he thought as he ran his forehooves through any snow bank she might be under.

The two of them searched for what felt like forever without luck. Sundance's hooves had become numb, and his face almost felt like a block of ice. His muscles stiffened, and he started to have doubts. He shook his head. "We can't give up on her. She has to be here somewhere."

He felt a hoof on his shoulder and turned to find Vermilion behind him. "I don't think she's around here." He sighed heavily and looked out into the blizzard. "You head back. I'll keep searching for her."

Sundance stared at him in disbelief. "You can't stay out here alone! You'll freeze to death in this cold! You heard what Tangelo said."

Vermilion shook his head. "Just go. I need to keep searching. I... I know it's what my brother would do. No matter what, he never gave up on his friends."

"But he wouldn't want you searching out here all alone. I'm not leaving until you do." Vermilion opened his mouth to speak, but Sundance shushed him. "I'm sure she's somewhere out here. We just aren't looking in the right area." Sundance pressed a hoof to his temple and grimaced. "Think, Sundance! Where would she be? She can't be closer to the barracks. Mist said her trail ended somewhere around here." He frowned. "She can't be far. So where..."

Sundance's eyes flew open. When he had tripped earlier by the fork in the path... he hadn't tripped on a tree root! Whatever it was, it hadn't been hard enough to be wood or a rock, but he hadn't stopped to think about it at the time. He was too busy focusing on where he was going. Sundance grabbed Vermilion's shoulder. "I think I know where she is! Follow me!" he said before turning around and tearing through the snow. He glanced behind him to make sure Vermilion was following and raced back to the fork in the path.

Sundance stopped where the two paths met and turned to Vermilion. "She's around here somewhere. She has to be. Start searching," he ran around the path, running his hooves around where he thought he had been when he tripped. He could barely feel the ground anymore, but he could at least tell whenever his hooves hit something solid. He felt his panic mounting as his hopes plummeted. "I know she's around here. Please... I can't lose anypony else!"

Sundance was struck by a sudden headache, and he stumbled and pressed a hoof to his head. He caught a quick glimpse of a broken white pegasus with a purple mane and felt a strong terror similar to what he was already feeling. "No! Not now! I can't stop!" he growled as he pushed himself back upright. "I have to find her!" He glanced around him and shoved his hooves into a particularly large snowdrift, and flinched when his hooves hit something firm. "Is that..."

He started clearing the snow off of the mound, his forelegs feeling more like planks of wood strapped to his shoulders than legs. He didn't feel all that cold at this point, and Tangelo's words hung anxiously over his head. "I can't go back without her. I refuse to," he thought.

The soft snow cleared away quickly, and Sundance saw a tuft of bright yellow sticking out of the snow. "Vermilion! She's over here!" he shouted as he frantically shoveled the snow away. He uncovered her head first and saw her frozen face with her mouth hanging open slightly, her lips a pale shade of blue, and her eyelashes crusted over with ice. "Chartreuse..." Sundance felt a pony shove themselves in next to him, and he saw Vermilion's dark red hooves thrust into the snowdrift.

"Out of the way!" he yelled. Sundance backed away quickly, and Vermilion yanked Chartreuse's cold body from the snow. He placed an ear over her still chest and shook his head. "I don't think she's breathing. Help me pick her up." Sundance reached over and helped Vermilion maneuver Chartreuse onto his back, balancing her carefully across his shoulders. He nodded. "Now let's go! I think I know the way."

Vermilion raced across the snow, being careful to not drop Chartreuse. Sundance caught up to him and helped keep her from tumbling into the snow. The blizzard only kept getting worse, and it had become difficult to see more than a couple of meters ahead of them.

They wandered for an uncomfortably long amount of time, and Sundance began to worry. "Are you sure we're going the right way? How can you tell where we're going in this?" he asked Vermilion. His entire body had started to feel warm by this point, and his head felt like it was wading through mud.

"Because we're here," Vermilion said with a nod towards the trees that had come to a stop behind them. "I've got a good sense of direction. It's just ahead." He led the way across the clearing, and Sundance saw a light in the distance. Feeling invigorated, the two of them picked up their pace.

A building loomed above them out of the snow, and Sundance recognized the red cross above the doors. "We made it!" he said. He went ahead of Vermilion and tried to swing the door open, only to find it shut tightly against the storm. He rattled the door handles. "No..."

"What is it?" Vermilion asked, stopping next to him.

"It's locked." Sundance knocked anxiously on the doors, hoping somepony was paying attention. "Cornsilk? Fern? Anypony in there?" Nopony answered, so he began pounding on the doors, becoming desperate. "Please! We need help!"

The door swung open suddenly underneath Sundance's hoof, and he fell forward and nearly smacked Cornsilk in the face. She jumped back, startled. "Sundance? What are you doing here in this mess? Didn't anypony tell you..." she cut off when she saw Chartreuse's pale body across Vermilion's back. "Oh my... Quick. Get her inside," she said urgently, stepping aside and beckoning. Vermillion rushed inside and carefully laid Chartreuse on a bed with Cornsilk following closely behind. Sundance shut the door to the infirmary and ran over to them.

"How long has she been like this?" Cornsilk asked as she removed Chartreuse's jacket.

"Roughly half an hour, I think," Vermilion said.

Cornsilk shook her head. "That's not good. Sundance, remember where the heated blankets are? Grab me one."

Sundance nodded and rushed over to one of the cabinets on the far wall. He flung open the door and grabbed one of the blankets before running over and handing it to Cornsilk. She took it from him and put it on Chartreuse before setting it to its lowest setting. She turned back to Sundance. "Turn the temperature up slightly every minute. I'm going to get her breathing."

Sundance nodded again and glanced anxiously at the clock on the wall while the nurse started CPR. "I hope we weren't too late," he thought. "I wish I could have stopped her from going off on her own." He turned the blanket's temperature up and waited. It was stressful, not being able to do anything other than turn a dial every so often.

Cornsilk kept trying to resuscitate Chartreuse, pumping on her chest and breathing air into her lungs. Sundance glanced nervously at the clock again. "Two minutes. Not good." He turned the dial again and fidgeted with a button on his jacket. He always felt helpless in situations like this. He watched as the nurse vainly blew air into Chartreuse's lungs. "Please wake up."

This went on for three, five, ten minutes with no success. Chartreuse's body remained cold, and her only movements were from Cornsilk trying to revive her. Sundance bowed his head. "This can't be happening," he thought as he stared at the ground. Tears welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision. He was about to give up entirely when he felt a hoof around his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay, Sundance. Chartreuse will be fine," Vermilion said, giving him a firm hug.

Sundance buried his head into Vermilion's shoulder. "I wish I could believe that," he said, beginning to sob. "This wasn't supposed to happen. We should have all gone back together. No, we should all be back in our homes, warm and safe. Why'd they have to take that from us? Why are we here, training to fight in a war we have no part in? Eggshell wouldn't have let this happen. Why..." He began to sob uncontrollably, wrapping his forelegs tightly around Vermilion.

Vermilion said something in response, but Sundance couldn't hear what he said. The telltale throb of another migraine started coming on, and he didn't bother fighting it this time. "Fine. Do what you want. Show me more of what I lost. It's not like there's anything I could do to stop you. I can't even save a single friend," he thought as he collapsed against Vermilion and slipping from consciousness for the third time that day.

Sundance stared at his mother's broken body from underneath the cart, trembling uncontrollably. "Why? Why is this happening?" he thought, his eyes watering. He glanced up at the unicorn standing above Eggshell's corpse and saw him take a few slow steps away, staring out into the distance at some unseen object.

With the unicorn lost in his thoughts and standing a few meters away with his back turned, Sundance darted over to his mother's side and nuzzled her flank. "Mommy? Mom, please wake up!" he cried hopelessly in his head. He knew there was nothing he could do to save her; surviving much longer with her injuries would be impossible. He threw his hooves around her neck and sobbed. "We didn't do anything wrong! Why did he hurt her?" Sundance buried his head into his mother's long mane as his shoulders began shaking violently.

"Go..." Sundance heard in one ear. It was a barely audible whisper, but he knew he had heard something. He leaned back to find one of Eggshell's eyes cracked open, staring at him helplessly. A single tear formed in her open eye, mixing with the blood on her face. "Go..." she mouthed weakly.

Sundance shook his head. "No. I won't leave you," he whispered. He gently grabbed one of her hooves and pressed his forehead against hers. "I want to stay."

Eggshell nuzzled him tenderly. "Go," she breathed, blood leaking from her mouth. She weakly pushed his head away from hers with her own. "Live." She gazed at him sternly with her one open eye. Sundance had always been a stubborn colt. She often saw some of Sundance's father in him at times like this, but every time she looked at him, she knew he wouldn't grow up to be the same terrible pony who had fathered him. That was all she needed to die peacefully.

Sundance sniffled and nuzzled his mother one last time. "Okay." She smiled faintly as he stepped away from her and made eye contact. They stared at each other for a long moment, and the world stopped around them for a split second. Sundance backed away slowly, tears streaming down his cheeks. He glanced at the unicorn, who still hadn't turned around, and back to his mother. "I love you," he whispered, before turning and fleeing silently.

Eggshell stared after him and felt her muscles relax. "Stubborn little fool," she thought, smiling to herself. "At least you won't... end up dead... like me..." Her head rested against the cold cobblestone street, flopping lifelessly to the ground. She hadn't been a perfect mother; she knew that. But knowing that she tried her hardest to make Sundance happy, even until the end, was enough for her to be at peace.

Sundance sprinted across the open street and dove into the bushes in front of their home. He covered his head with his hooves and buried his face in the dirt. "Everything is wrong! What am I supposed to do without Mommy?" he thought. He clenched his hooves and slammed them on the ground. "Why does it hurt so much?"

A pebble crashed through the bush and grabbed Sundance's attention. His head shot up and he stared at it. "What..?" Movement past the pebble caught his eye; a soldier on the other side of the square. He was pushing his hooves through something, and it took Sundance a moment to realize the soldier was searching through another bush. Looking for survivors.

"No..." he said as he backed out of the bush. "They're going to find me. I'm going to die!" he thought, quivering. "I don't want to die!" He shook his head and looked around him frantically. There had to be a better place to hide. The cart he had just left wasn't a good enough hiding spot. Back in the house?

Sundance flinched as a soldier threw an object through the window of another building. It immediately went up in flames, and fire licked hungrily at the walls. "Not there." He glanced around again. The fountain? No, he'd be seen long before he ever made it to the center of the square. He'd play dead, but he didn't think he could make it convincing enough.

Motion from the corner of Sundance's eye drew his attention. A large metal cart not too far away, filled with foals all huddled together. "What about there? Those foals aren't getting hurt," Sundance thought. He quickly scanned the square again, but there was no other place to hide. It was his only choice if he wanted to survive.

He glanced around him quickly, checking for soldiers. Luckily the few soldiers remaining in the square were busy doing other things, and not a single one of them was watching the foals. Sundance dashed across the street and dove into the cart, scaring a few of the other foals. A few of them whimpered before they realized he wasn't a soldier.

"Quick, don't let them see you don't have cuffs!" a high pitched voice said. Sundance saw a grey hoof reach out through the crowd of foals and grab him by one foreleg. He was pulled into the group and shoved to the center, where he could be easily hidden from view.

Sundance stumbled to the center of the cart. He glanced at the filly who had helped him, a grey pegasus with bright hair that glowed golden in the morning sun. "Thanks," he mumbled gloomily. The filly nodded and turned away. Sundance sat down and wrapped his forelegs around himself, shivering. "Maybe I would have been better off staying in the bush and dying. I can't live on my own."

He buried his head in his forelegs and began to cry again. "I wish I could forget any of this ever happened. I wish I could just forget it all," Sundance thought as the gunfire picked back up briefly. The pain he was feeling was as if one of those bullets was meant for his heart, and he kept sobbing, even as the cart began to move and they headed north, deep into the mountains of Dike.

Sundance blinked his eyes open wearily. The harsh incandescent lights of the infirmary clashed horribly with the soft natural light coming in through the windows, and he shielded his eyes with a hoof. "Urgh. My head hurts," he thought, wincing. The old memory was still vivid in his mind, and he felt like it had happened only yesterday. He rubbed his head. "So that's where I remembered Chartreuse from. She saved me when the soldiers invaded." His eyes shot open and he sat up suddenly as he remembered why he was in the infirmary in the first place. "Chartreuse."

He turned his head towards her bed expecting to see her sleeping peacefully, only to find it empty. Her cadet jacket was still in a jumbled heap on the floor, and neither the heated blanket nor Chartreuse were present. Sundance sighed and his shoulders fell. "Oh. She didn't make it."

Sundance slumped back against his bed and laid a foreleg across his eyes. "God damn it. It happened again. I lost somepony close to me, and all I could do was sit there and watch." It was hard to feel attached to Eggshell, considering the only memory he had of her was her death, but the emotions he felt were very real.

"Sundance? Are you alright?"

Sundance's body tensed at the familiar voice. "Was that..?" He lifted his foreleg and turned his head to see the one pony he had been hoping for, alive and well. Chartreuse was walking slowly towards him from the opposite side of the bed. She had the heated blanket wrapped around her and she had a concerned expression on her face. Sundance's muscles relaxed and he smiled at her, relieved. "You're alive," he said.

Chartreuse smiled back and scratched the side of her neck. "Yeah, thanks to you and Vermilion." She turned her head away and looked at the ground awkwardly. "I'm sorry I just ran off like that on you guys. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea."

Sundance pushed himself carefully into a sitting position and brushed his mane from his eyes. He was a little upset with her about that, but it was hard for him to feel anything other than relief at the moment. "At least you're safe now. That's the important part," he said with a smile. "But why did you go off on your own?"

Chartreuse glanced at Sundance then turned to look out one of the windows as she pulled the blanket tight around herself. "Well, it's a little embarrassing to say out loud, but..." She shuffled her hooves, her face reddening. "I think... I think I'm in love with you," she said, looking at him sideways. "Not like as a friend or a brother. More than that. Whenever I'm around you, I feel happier, and my heart feels so much lighter. You're all I can think about every second of every day. It wasn't always like that. Ever since we left Styx I've just been observing you, but I guess it changed into something more over time.

"I felt jealous when you went off with Tangelo during training today. I was worried about you, of course, but still jealous. I couldn't stop thinking about the two of you and how I felt during the rest of training, and when the two of you came back together..." Chartreuse sighed. "I don't know. I guess I just let my emotions control me."

Sundance stared at her, unsure how to respond. He had already known how she felt, obviously, but it was different hearing her say it instead of Mist or Vermilion speculating, and he hadn't thought she cared for him that deeply. "What do I say here? I do love her, but... not that way. She's like family to me." Sundance's face flushed slightly as his mind went to Tangelo. "If that's what love is supposed to feel like, I don't think it would have worked out between me and Chartreuse. I just didn't feel an immediate connection with her like I did with Tangelo. I wouldn't be happy in a relationship with her, and that would make her feel unhappy, too."

Sundance scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I get how you feel, and I love you too, just... not in the same way you love me. Besides, there are other ponies here who would make you much happier than I ever could." Chartreuse's face fell and she nodded slightly. Sundance could practically hear her heart breaking as she stared at the ground. "Think, Sundance. You can't just leave it at that. That's horrible."

"You, Mist, and Vermilion are all like family to me. The three of you have made the past year and a half bearable, enjoyable, even. I've felt so happy being with you, even through all the shit we've had to endure here. I wouldn't have wanted to spend that time with anypony else." Sundance gently placed a hoof underneath Chartreuse's chin and lifted her head so that she was looking at him again. "I'm sorry I can't love you like you want me to, but even though we can't be together in the way you hoped, you still mean the world to me."

Chartreuse smiled forlornly and nodded, her eyes watering slightly. "Okay."

Sundance and Chartreuse both jumped as the door to the infirmary burst open and a blue pony dashed in, trailing snow behind him. Sundance barely recognized Mist at first with his mane a horrid mess and his eyes bloodshot. Mist glanced around frantically for a few moments before his face lit up with relief when he found Chartreuse. He rushed over to her and threw his hooves around her. "Chartreuse! You're okay!" he cried.

Chartreuse wrapped her hooves around him awkwardly and patted him on the back comfortingly. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Vermilion walked through the door and stamped the snow off of his hooves. Sundance could see the dying blizzard through the open door, with only a light flurry remaining in the dull sunset. The previous night's few centimeters of snow had multiplied in the time Sundance was out to almost a full meter. Vermilion shut the door behind him, trying to remove as much of the snow Mist dragged in as possible. There was still a sizeable pile left inside the infirmary, but he didn't really feel like opening the door again so he just left it and walked over to Sundance's bed.

"Hey. You doing alright?" Vermilion asked, eying Mist and Chartreuse.

Sundance nodded. "Yeah, I'm not bad. When did you leave?"

"About twenty minutes ago. I wanted to tell Mist Chartreuse was alive." Vermilion looked Sundance over. "What happened to you earlier? You just collapsed. It's been almost six hours."

Sundance shrugged. "I'm not really sure. It happened a few times today. I just blacked out and relived part of my past I thought I had forgotten. I'm not really sure why."

Vermilion frowned. "That's strange. Do you think it will happen again?"

Sundance shook his head. "I think that was the last time. That was the end of the memory, as far as I can tell."

Vermilion nodded. "That's good." He glanced at Chartreuse again. "What were you two talking about earlier?"

"Oh, uh..." Sundance leaned in close to Vermilion so Mist and Chartreuse wouldn't hear. "She confessed to me, and I turned her down. I told her she felt more like family to me. Her, Mist, and you. We're all like a family."

Vermilion smiled and ruffled Sundance's hair. "You big sap. I guess that makes me the older brother now," he said, grinning. Sundance smiled. He was glad to see Vermilion smile for once, considering his sad history.

"Are you sure Tangelo wasn't another reason, though? I saw the two of you earlier today," Vermilion said as he placed his hoof back on the floor.

Sundance's face flushed and he straightened his hair. "Well, yes, she was another reason. But I obviously didn't tell Chartreuse that. I didn't want to make her feel worse."

Vermilion nodded. "Makes sense." He frowned, suddenly remembering something.

"There's something you missed while you were out, though. Something important." Vermilion sighed and shut his eyes. This was something he was having a hard time accepting himself, even though he should have expected something like this would happen eventually. When he opened his eyes again, his expression was dire. "You're not going to like it."