The Silverdale Saga (No Jump-in Please)

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Silver was a bit ashamed of himself for a moment; he had certainly read many tales and seen many lands. However with music, he was quite unfamiliar.

"...Well, I'd certainly love to, if I had much of a voice for it. My problem is, where I came from music wasn't exactly...accepted. Neither was anything lively for that matter...In short, I'm not quite sure what to start out with; do you have a suggestion, Mr. Dusty?"

Before he began to listen to Dusty's reply, he paused, and made a motion to keep quiet for a moment.

"Do you hear that?"

There could be heard a thumping, scraping sound through the barrier of snow and ice, and faint voices overhead.

"They're digging us out! What a relief!" Silver seemed to relax now, and looked much more content and at peace then before. Or as content as one can be, when stranded under a pile of snow, ice, and who-knows-what.

[Chautauquan]

Dusty chuckled as the sounds got louder.  "Well sure they're digging us out!  You don't think they'd let us hog all the fun in here for ourselves, do you?  Hardworking folk will need to blow off steam in a fine way, and here we are just trying to keep our spirit locked up inside a snowbank!  By the by, I, uh... meant to apologize back there.  I think I might've knocked your wings a bit when I was trying to get off of you.  Sorry about that, really, I am."  The fact that the sounds of hope were nigh brought yet more hope to him, and he began trying to do his part to get out.  "Can't reach much, truth be told... but we might be able to help lift the canvas if we just dig a little bit underneath..."  He punctuated his pauses with taps on the snow below, hollowing out what might be useful either as a hoof-grip or at the very least, an airhole and system of communication with the outside.  "Well, to get back to what I mentioned earlier, I figure that folks ought to be comfortable.  If'n I'm making you uncomfortable with my naggin' and whatnot, I really don't mean to.  I just figure that, well, now especially that I know we're both travelers, it wouldn't hurt to get to know folks.  Aye?"

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((Just so you know, Silver is still keeping his wings hidden under that cloak, nopony know's he a pegasus.))
Silver laughed merrily at Dusty's joking, it had been a long time since he had met such a fellow.
"I'm quite glad to have your company down here, Mr. Dusty. I can't imagine what it'd be like sitting down here getting frostbite on my legs all by myself. Not to mention how much I despise being alone; even if I'm not talking, just being around others is so comforting for some reason. And I must admit, these townfolk of Silverdale are so friendly, it almost makes me feel bad for being a bit cautious of them at first..."

[Chautauquan]

((Actually, that's why I mentioned 'bumping' them upon leaving.  I figured he'd likely notice what he hit, likely because he didn't know it was there.  Like hitting a target you don't know is there... Can't avoid what you cannae see.))

Dusty shrugged.  "Folks are generally kind, far as I can tell, wherever they be.  'Specially since as we're stuck under here, they're digging us out.  Generally a good thing, last I checked.  Say, your hoof alright?  You seemed to be down even before the snow came."

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Silver quickly turned his attention to his hooves; the chatting had completely taken his mind off the entire thing.

"Well...I can't exactly feel them; that's probably not good. Hopefully if it's frostbite it's not too severe yet. With any luck we'll be dug out of here and resting at town hall within the hour."

Silver seemed to remain in good spirits, and hummed a tune to himself as he lay under the snow with this friendly stallion, and it reminded him of how happy he was to not be stuck under here alone, all by himself under an icy cage.

[The Wandering Magus]

An opening!  Juniper thought she could hear voices inside!  "HEY EVERYPONY! HELP OUT A BIT HERE WOULD YOU ALL?!"

Openings were good, being stuck in a hollow was bad.  She could already see the snow turning to slush and back into ice, making it almost rock-solid and extremely difficult to break apart.  She worried about the ponies inside...

((because nopony helped. ))

[Morning Glory]

GM:

Silverspark hurried over and nearly dumped Tinker off his back in his rush. Straitening up, he held his back steady as the old unicorn shifted himself back to balance over the younger stallion's withers. There was no way he could dig and support the unicorn at the same time, and he knew Tinker's strength was fading. He danced on his toes and pawed at the ground in frustration. Glancing around behind him, he saw Lacey tottering to meet him, and Goldenglow's blonde rump vanishing into the blizzard- clearly he had made dash for the Hall. He breifly caught view of Copper crouched on the ground and the female pegasus digging through her bag.

He looked apologetically to earth pony mare busily lobbing mounds of snow off the pile. "Uh...Good work Juniper! I-I..." He trailed off, unsure of what to do. His eyes wandered to the makeshift sled that bore her weary husband. There!

Dashing forward, he carefully slid Tinkertoy down to sit on the sled beside Feather. Making sure the blankets were wrapped around him securely, and sort of...propping him up against his fellow unicorn, he looked at Feather. "If there's anything you can do to help him, some unicorn hocus-pocus to keep him conscious and keep this spell-circle magic dooer-majig up, please try. I'll be back for him in a minute."

He then charged back to Juniper and began shoveling snow with her. He watched as she did as the slush re-froze into a layer of hard ice. He stabbed a hoof down into the ice and heard a solid clink as his metal shoes struck the frozen coating. His brain worked quickly. He feared he might injure the ponies inside, but this ice was only going to get thicker.

"Stand back. I'm going to try to break it."

Setting his back feet, he reared up to his considerable full height. Picking a relatively flat spot that looked like it might give, he brought his metal-shod hooves crashing down on the mound of ice with the full force of his weight behind them.

[Morning Glory]

Coppershine craned her neck to see the item Sweet Dreams had selected. "Yes! It-" She stopped to cough, then catch her breath. "It unfolds!". Her ears twitched as she heard Juniper yelling. "Hurry! Sounds like she's needs help!"

She then called over the howl of the wind. "I'm-I'm sorry Juniper, I can't! Not with all this!" Copper hung her head. It was a matter of pride to her to help her town and carry a heavy load, but she felt horrible being unable to help and foolish for taking on more that she could manage. A rosy blush might have tinged her cheeks were she not so cold. Her daddy had always taught her to take a little less than she could truly bare, so she could help others along the way. These poor folks had come to visit her town for a vacation, a celebration, and look what happened to them.  And here she was, crouching on her forelegs with her rump in the air like a foolish filly playing leap-frog, pinned down by her own hubris and up to her fetlocks in snow. With a sigh she folded her back legs to match her front and laid in the snow, her heavy haunches thumping on to the ice-covered ground. At least this way the weight was off her back.

She turned to look for Silverspark. He was busily working on getting the ponies out from under the snow. She watched, befuddled, as he reared up in a familiar pose. She had watch this same motion over and over in the mine as he worked. But surely, he would hurt the ponies under the snow! She cried out, but it was far too late.

[The Wandering Magus]

Feather spread his blanket over the old unicorn and tried weakly to create some sort of consciousness spell, failing three times but managing to get a little energy to the two of them on the fourth try.  There was little more he could do in his state.

Juniper had been going at the snow frantically when the stallion ran over; she was going to say something, but before she could the pony reared, and there was naught to do but to get out of the way.  She winced as she heard the ice give way, and, blinded by the flying snow and wind, tried to figure out the aftermath and what to do next.  She hoped dearly that the motion had not injured the ponies inside.

[Chautauquan]

Dusty had listened to the commotion outside with a relative calmness.  After all, what was there to get worked up over?  It was just getting closer to a time for a good nap.  Just a quick rest, nothing more.   But when Silverspark came crashing down on top of the ice, he jumped quite a bit, knocking from the inside just after the cracks gathered across the outside.  Soreness makes for a boon companion when one is drifting away to sleep improperly, and this was one such case.  The spiderweb cracks were loud underneath the ice, and made for a bit of nervousness, as logic gave way to shock. 
"Hoppin' horn-toads!" Dusty blurted out quickly, but then noticed the canvas was malleable again.  He called out through the hole, trying to communicate with the outside.   "Here!  Let's make the hole bigger!  Just get that log in the hole and wiggle...  We'll crawl out, if needs be.  I think we'll be fine, now that it's shattered."  Feeling the back still rather heavy with snow, he thought simply to get out before all else.  "The canvas might be... stuck... longer than us, sorry to say."  He punctuated his last words with a couple of taps to the sides of the canvas, slowly expanding the hole which he had carved earlier.

[The Wandering Magus]

Juniper was relieved to hear Dusty's voice, and eagerly awaited the other pony's voice as she grabbed onto her makeshift wooden shovel and began digging with even more determination, though careful not to waste energy.  It would be a shame to exhaust oneself so close to success.

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With a scream, Silver covered his head the best he could with his hooves, as the ice splintered and cracked from the mighty stallion's hooves. After recovering from the shock of it, he already saw Dusty well on his way to opening up the hole so that one of them may squeeze out.
Getting up on his hooves, Silver did his best to support the canvas as Dusty widened the hole, trying his best to lift the thing in the confined area.
"I believe we've just about opened it up enough.", he said as he helped Dusty break outside their icy prison. "A little more and we can both fit through there I would think. One at a time, of course."
Silver tried to remain on his side as he helped widen to opening; he still couldn't seem to move his legs.

[The Wandering Magus]

Juniper breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Silver's voice, and continued digging with hope rising in her heart.  Bit by bit, she chipped away at the opening, until it was almost big enough to squeeze through.  At this point she reached her forearms out to help the two ponies get out of the shell of ice.  "Do either of you need help getting out?" she asked, raising her voice a little to be heard over the wind.

[Chautauquan]

At this point, Dusty deferred to the pony beside him, motioning for him to move first.  Hypothermia was still his main concern, and, from his own assumptions, he figured he was in a better spot for the time being.  "Go on, then," he intoned, "I'll keep in touch from the back."  He also shouted out a quick request, though it might have seemed rather terse if not for the circumstances, "Can somepony bring some blankets back here?  Might be good if only for a moment."  Dusty was pushing back his own worry and concern by foisting it all onto somepony else.  So long as he wasn't alone in danger, he felt comfortable enough.

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With a nod and a grateful smile, Silver began to pull himself out of the hole. The sharp ice on the rim of the fissure tried to cut into his legs as he climbed out, and he grunted a little from the effort. As he reached the peak, he started sliding back down the mound of snow towards the ground, and before long cleanly face-planted in the snow in front of the villagers. With a relieved sigh to be out of there, Silver did his best to stand up, but frostbite hadn't been kind to his lgs, and he stood up, wobbling and carrying a slight limp.

[The Wandering Magus]

Seeing as that neither seemed to need her help, Juniper rushed to get what blankets and rags she could from the sled and quickly returned, being careful to dispose of any moisture on Silver's body before wrapping him in the cloth.  The most important thing when treating a cold pony is getting them dry first, she could hear Pa telling her.  That keeps the water from freezing or sapping more heat.

[Chautauquan]

Dusty winced as he watched the ice rough up the pony in front of him.  Had he considered that, he might have gone first.  But, there was little to be done now about that, only making life simpler for himself.  Knocking some ice loose before crawling slowly out, the cracking sounds of the ice grew more frequent and louder, eventually culminating in a crash just as the earth pony was pulling his hind legs free.  The collapse caught the both of them, although with a bit of work, he pulled the left one free.  Struggling to free the other, he winced with pain as his back twisted and turned, gritting his teeth in an effort to hide the pain.  "Just a moment, I'll get out of here fine... Just need to-urk!"  He cut himself off with a grunt.  "Keep going, get him dry and warm, I'll get over soon."  Planting one hind hoof next to the other, he tried one more time to pull it out by practically bucking the mound... and remained rather attached to his leg,  as well as the snowdrift.

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With a grateful smile at Juniper, Silver didn't fully realize how cold he'd become in there. With a quiet shiver, he did his best to help Dusty out of the snow and ice, making sure to not cut him on the sharp ice that still lied around the large mound of snow. Within a few seconds, he had managed to pull Dusty out, but the moment brought him falling back down in the snow again. With a smile to Dusty, he returned to shivering under the blankets, almost wishing he hadn't yet distributed all of those potions just yet. 

[Morning Glory]

GM:

In shattering the ice, Silverspark had slipped and landed on his rump. Hauling himself to his feet and shaking his head to clear it, he glanced around nervously, hoping to see that the ponies were free and uninjured. He sighed with relief as he saw each stallion appear, seemingly without harm. Juniper had the skinny grey one in her care, but Copper's friend was still wedged in the snow. Lurching forward, Silverspark took hold of Dusty's middle with his fore hooves and pulled.

White Lace meanwhile had tottered over to Juniper and Silverflask. She held the lamp up so they could see and reached to help dry off the unlucky pegasus. With surprisingly keen hooves she began to pluck out the frozen droplets of ice that had formed on his coat.

Tinkertoy wobbled and swayed, his eyes crossing as he leaned on Feather. With a rush of magic, he felt himself grow a little stronger. Reaching out his hooves, he wrapped his blankets closer around him and shuddered as the golden sphere wavered then held firm.

[The Wandering Magus]

Juniper smiled at White Lace gratefully as the mare helped get the water and ice off Silver.  Don't rub the skin, no matter how cold it feels, that rubs the skin right off.  She wasn't sure she believed it entirely, but she wasn't taking any chances at this point.  Seeing that the mare had the situation quite under control, and that Silver was mostly dry by now, Juniper gave the stallion a new dry cloth.  "Don't you rub yourself, though.  Just keep it pressed close."

With that, she moved over to Dusty, repeating the same procedure.  Drying off, picking out the ice, applying as much cloth as was available, making sure not to rub the skin too much.  This was something she was familiar with, unlike her husband's strange magic stuff and this Celestia-banished midsummer snow-storm; just helping other ponies, the old-fashioned way.  Now more than ever she was glad that she paid attention to every word Pa ever told her.  Who knew it might've been useful on this day of all days?

Meanwhile, Feather did his best to support the old stallion beside him.  As he huddled closer under his blanket and thought about being warm, he felt the vials Silver had given him earlier chafe against his sides.  It was precious stuff, and he wasn't sure that using it now was wasting it or not.  He bit his lip.  He didn't want to waste any, but the shivering ponies all around him made it seem almost cruel to save it at this point.