My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 23

Heartbreak Cabin

When Starlight and her friends set out into the snow field, they expected to be on the other side in a few days. Apparently, none of them ever took science class, or geography because, at this time of the year, blizzards rum rampant. And wouldn’t you know it, they ran into one.

The blizzard hit them so suddenly, they didn’t have time to prepare. Starlight didn’t care; she suffered setback after setback on this trip and she’s not going to give up now. But determination can only go so far, and effect so many.

“Starlight!” Woona called out. “Let’s stop and find shelter! We’re not gonna get anywhere in this storm!”

“She’s right, Star! Let’s find a place to stop, least until this blizzard passes!” Bass said.

“We can’t stop now!” Starlight yelled. “We’re almost there!”

Goldie had trouble keeping her eyes open. She always had trouble whenever winter rolls around, having low body temperature and all. For the first time, though, she blacked out and fell into the snow.

“Goldie!” Filigree yelled.

Starlight stopped in her tracks and looked back in horror to see her little sister out cold. Glade used his magic to pick her up and put her on her back. “Starlight! We have to find shelter! You don’t want Goldie to die from frostbite, do you?”

She doesn’t. that little gal is important to her. She spent most of her life raising Goldie and grew attracted to her, more then sisterhood. “Okay! We need to find shelter! Pronto!”

A surge in the blizzard hit, causing most of them to stagger and fall into the snow. “I think I remember seeing a house back-a-ways.” Peppy said. “Least, I think so! It was so blurry, I could only make out a outline.”

“Better then nothing!” Screw Loose said.

The group doubled back, hoping the find the house Peppy thinks she saw. Half of them are thinking she had gone crazy and was just seeing things and half were hopeful for some shelter in the storm. Starlight just hopes it’s there. She doesn’t want Goldie to die. Or else, Peppy is going to pay for getting her hopes up.

In the end, she didn’t have to kill her as the cabin was in fact very real.

Season and Sym broke the door in and everyone quickly entered the log cabin. It wasn’t anything special; just 3 or 4 rooms, with the main living room being the biggest. There was also a kitchen, a bathroom, and a storage area for food. And screw a freezer, the owner has got one outside. Or the previous owner, as the place is deserted.

“Better then being out in the blizzard.” Sym said.

Glade walked in and put the shivering Goldie on the couch. While doing so, he saw a good way for them to warm up. “there’s a fireplace. We can start a fire and warm the place up.”

“We’re on it.” Golden Day said as she and Sweet Song went to search the house for firewood. Soarin’ and Erys left to see if they can find some food.

Bass and Marian were the last ones in. Bass shook the snow off of him, some getting on Marian. “man, it’s cold! BRR! Hope it’s not this bad in Baltimare.”

In her mind, Marian evilly sneered. “Then why don’t you go check?” she kicked him out and used her magic to close the door and lock it.

“HEY!”

“Marian!” Starlight exclaimed. She ran over, unlocked the door and opened it, allowing Bass to come in.

“what? It was a joke.” Marian innocently said.

“A very bad one!” Bass exclaimed. Marian playfully shrugged.

“Found firewood!” Sweet Song happily shouted. She and Golden Day ran into the room, each one carrying a bundle of wood. “there’s still a ton back in the food storage. Speaking of which, there’s a ton of food.”

“we can vouch for that!” Soarin’ and Erys added.

Before long, they had a fire going in the fireplace, which sure did give the place much needed warmth. Goldie was still shivering but not as rapidly. Starlight found a blanket and wrapped it around her.

“T-t-t-t-thanks, S-s-s-s-starlight.”

Starlight snuggled up next to her sister to help warm her up. “it’s okay, Goldie. Guess I was too focused on finding my father to focus on your safety. On everyone’s safety.”
“well… we weren’t exactly helping.” Cotton lightly chuckled.

“I know.” Starlight said. She lowered her head onto her legs. “I know.”

Pound and Pumpkin came in, each carrying as many mugs of hot cocoa as they could. “who wants something warm in their tummy?” everyone, even the guards, raised their hooves. They planned for that and had more then enough ready.

“You sure you have enough?” Fire Ruby asked, taking her mug.

“more then enough.” Pound said. “we found more then 20 pounds of this stuff back there.”

“you sure the owner won’t mind us taking this stuff?” a worried Filigree asked.

“unless his corpse rises up from the grave, no.”

“Corpse?” Screw Loose asked before taking a sip out of her cocoa.

“yeah.” Pumpkin said. “I took a look outside to see if there’s anything we missed and I found his frozen over corpse just out the door. Took no more then a few steps out before freezing to death.”

“yikes.” Bass gulped. “s-so, how long do you think he’s been dead?”

Both siblings shrugged. “long before we got here.” they both said.

All that talk about death left them feeling antsy and nervous. What if this blizzard doesn’t let up? They could be stuck there for the rest of their days.

Chaos Gun looked at the tube he was born from, that mint-green mare, that Sweet Song, still on his mind.

“ARGH!” his anger boiled and his horn glowed. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!” he used his magic to blast the tube, destroying it. The glow diminished and he panted. “why? Why!? Why won’t she leave me alone?”

“I was afraid of this.” Sombra walked into the wrecked room and looked at the remains of Chaos Gun’s ‘mother’. “I was hoping you would’ve been made without feelings of any kind. Guess I was wrong.”

“what are you talking about?” Chaos snarled.

Sombra looked back to his creation. “you seem to be suffering from one of the most useless feelings in history. Love.”

Love? He heard it before but he never experienced it. Until now, if what Sombra is telling him is true. “how… how can I be in love?”

Sombra somberly looked away. “it’s a feeling that apparently can’t be destroyed. It overpowers everything…” he thought back to that fiasco with eTu`nes 19 years ago. “even hatred and darkness.” the Staff of Jeria appeared beside him. “now I have no choice but to kill her.”

Without thinking, acting on instinct, Chaos Gun sprang up and blasted his master. “You touch her and I’ll kill you!” the dark Alicorn realized what he was doing and gasped. Did he really just say that?

Sombra snarled as he got up, staff still in hand. Er… hoof. “Guess the decease spread farther then I feared.”

Chaos Gun yelled and hit himself in the head. Fearing his master’s repercussions, he spread his wings and flew out of the room as fast as he could.

Sombra angrily frowned as his creation fled. This was going to be a problem. A very big problem.

A week.

The group has been stranded for a week in that cabin in the snow.

And they HATE IT!

They exhausted all their game ideas in the first 4 days and are now trying to stave off cabin fever, a task easier said then done.

“I’m BORED!” Goldie exclaimed with a loud groan.

“We all are!” everyone snapped.

Peppy boredly tapped her hoof on a globe, causing it to spin. The globe stopped, showing the country of Equestria. “home…” she mumbled. She hated being stuck in here, and everyone else felt the same way. They wanted out but they can’t thanks to the blizzard. She went over the dates in her mind, then whinnied in fear when she got to 12/25. “Oh, Geez! Today’s Hearth’s Warming Eve!”

Fire Ruby and Goldie looked at each other with ‘melted’ faces and yelled, “HEARTH’S WARMING EVE?!” they both fell backwards, crying. “All those presents…”

“how could we have forgotten?” Golden Day said.

Starlight lowered her head onto her pillow. “well, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re trapped in here and we don’t have any presents.”

Fire Ruby and Goldie cried louder.

Screw Loose scratched her head. She never had Hearth’s Warming Eve before. “Un… what’s the big whoop? It’s just a holiday.”

The fillies snapped their heads up and look at her with evil eyes. The stallions and mares, fearing their response, backed away in fear. “What’s the big whoop?” they made her way to her. Screw Loose backed herself into a corner and gulped. “WHAT’S THE BIG WHOOP?!”

One of the soldiers used his magic to summon a bucket of popcorn. “popcorn?” he offered. Bass and Starlight shrugged and reached in to grab some.

They accidentally touched hooves. “Sorry.” they both said. They put their hooves in other parts and took the popped kernels. Woona and Windancer looked at each other and chuckled. They sense something between those two.

“Hearth’s Warming Eve is one of the best times of the year!” Fire Ruby exclaimed. “You get presents, be with the ones important to you. Celebrate love and friendship!”

Be with the ones that matter… Starlight forgot about that. “How about it?”

“How about what?” a curious Pumpkin asked.

“let’s have Hearth’s Warming Eve here.”

“but we don’t have any presents.” Goldie whined.

“So? We still have each other. And wasn’t you two who just said that the holiday is so you can be with the ones who matter?”

The fillies looked at each other. They said that? It was a good idea. “Yeah. Why not? We can play games, have a party.” Fire Ruby said.

“Excellent! Everyone agreed?” Starlight asked. Nobody had any objections. “Great. Un…” she noticed that two of their troop were missing. “where’s Soarin’ and Peppy?”

The others just noticed that those two were, in fact, gone. “They couldn’t have gotten far. Not with that blizzard raging.” Glade said.

Erys began walking to the kitchen to make her some cocoa. “then let’s find them. It’s better then--” another headache hit, cutting her short.

She kneeled over, yelling loudly as she fell to her knees, holding her head. “Erys!” everyone exclaimed. Pound tried to walk over to her. “what’s wrong with--” a burst of magic shot out of her, cutting him off.

“What’s going on?” Screw Loose asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Woona said. “she’s been getting headaches but… but they never did anything like this before.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! GET OUT!!!!!”

“Get out?” Season muttered. “is she talking to us?” he asked out loud. Another burst of magic hit, sending them all back a few feet.

“Erys! Erys, can you hear me?” Starlight called out.

Erys did here her but she didn’t have to say anything or do anything. The headache and the magic blasts went away. She snapped her eyes open and panted heavily. “Erys… are you okay?” Cotton sympathetically asked.

“y-yeah.”

“What happened?” Sym asked.

Erys didn’t want to explain this to her friends. She was okay letting her cousins know, but not her friends. “Sometimes… I get these headaches and they are very… very bad. And sometimes, I here this voice, telling me to let her out. The magic pulse was new.”

“Voice? What voice?” Sym asked.

Erys lightly chuckled. “that’s right. None of you were alive. And Glade, Pound, and Pumpkin were just babies.” Fire Ruby raised a eyebrow in question. “to make a long story short… I was divided into two personalities by Discord; me as my usual self and… a Draconequus named Eris.”

“Eris…?” Eris Shine muttered.

“while I lay dormant, Eris was out and about, eventually becoming Rainbow Dash’s adopted daughter. For a time. Then, Discord came back, one thing led to another, and Dash & Celestia were forced to make a choice between me and Eris, cause 2 of us can’t exist. Dash… chose me and sacrificed Eris.”

“How do you know this?” Golden Day asked.

“I got all her memories when she di-- when she vanished. Seems I also have her personality. And now, she wants out.”

“out?”

Erys slowly nodded. “that’s probably why I have these headaches and keet hearing that voice. Eris wants out so she can have her own life.”

The Alicorns of the group looked at each other. If it was possible, they would do it, but they don’t know how to separate one person into two people. And their aunties didn’t do it, so it’s nigh impossible. And from the stories they heard, the only person who could do this was Jax, as she was able to divide Discord and Chrysalis into two separate personalities, but she hasn’t been on Equestria for over 18 years.

Sweet Song walked over to Erys and helped her up. “you want some cocoa? Might cheer your spirits up.”

“yeah. I’d like that.”

Sweet smiled, patted her friend on the back, and headed for the storage closet. “Are you sure you’re okay, Erys?” Pound asked.

“yeah. Thanks for asking, Pound.” she said with a smile. Everyone headed back into the living room and let Sweet Song get to work.

Seeing her friend suffer like this made Starlight’s heart sank. There must be something she could do for her, anything. If only hr powers over time were more focused, she could travel back in time and tell her mother’s friends what was going to happen.

Sweet Song opened the storage room door and saw something that made her heart shatter into pieces. Soarin’ had Peppy pinned up on a wall, kissing her on the lips. When the door opened, however, they just stood there, doing nothing. “um… he was checking my mouth for deceases with his tongue?” Peppy said with a nervous gulp at the end.

Sweet Song back away out of heartbreak. “how… how could you…?”

Soarin’ put Peppy down. “Sweet, I can ex--” she didn’t want to hear any of it. She quickly turned and ran. “Sweet!”

Without saying a word, and without slowing down, Sweet Song ran though the living room, slammed the door open, and ran out into the blizzard. “What the?” Bass exclaimed.

“Sweet, wait!” Peppy said, running to the door. Soarin’ half-way ran after her but stopped mid-way.

She has a bad feeling about this. “What happened?” Eris Shine asked.

“I think, I THINK, that Sweet Song knows about me and Peppy.”

“What? How?”

Soarin’ stayed quiet for a moment. “un… she saw us making out?”

Everyone groaned, half of them face-palming. The guards, Bass, and Screw were in the dark and scratched their heads in confusion. “You just couldn’t keep your libido in check, could you Soarin‘?” Sym asked. “you know she has a crush for you.”

Soarin’ made a squeaking noise with his mouth. “un… I’d say HAD a crush.”

Peppy ran back in. “I couldn’t find her. I think she ran into the storm.”

“oh, this is just GREAT!” Glade yelled though his teeth. He calmed down enough to take charge. “we have to go after her.”

“you’re getting no argument from us.” Filigree said.

Everyone grabbed their bags; Soarin’ took Sweet Song’s, and they ran out into the blizzard after her.

Her heart broken into pieces and her love life destroyed before it even began, Sweet Song ran head-long into the raging blizzard, not caring about what’s going to happen. Her life now has no meaning. The tears that streamed down her face turned into icicles as they fell from their cheek.

A small pillar of dark fire appeared in front of her, forcing her to halt. Chaos Gun forebodingly walked out, not taking his eyes off of her. “You…” Sweet Song gasped. She can see the hatred and the evil in his eyes.

Without saying a word, both he and Sweet Song disappeared in dark fire.

Author's Notes:

whoa. that can't be good. wait, what am i saying? of course it's not good.