I awoke to Vince shouting.
My first instinct was to look for the eggs. With a sigh of relief, I saw them all accounted for. Only then did I look for my pack. From Vince hopping and screaming like his paws were on fire, to Villhiem's potted form, every one of us was there. Ears dropping as I sighed out my stress, I finally let Vince's words sink in.
"We're still here!" He crowed. "We're still alive! I'm still me!"
"Yer always you." I growled out, curling closer to my eggs. "Shut up an' let me sleep!"
"Seriously, Leo..." Yomega groaned. "Vince settle down." The hyper Eevee bounced into the corner. I felt him rolling over, possibly to look at the canine closest to the door. "Mister Galhad," which was apparently Conner, "could you please look out the door and tell us where we are?"
I listened to what I assumed was Conner shuffling out the door. When the hell did he get by the door?
"We're home..." Conner murmured.
"You need to be more specific than that..."
Hmm?
"Oop-"
"We're still in Equestria." Conner breathed.
"It's still snowing?" I heard Lulu ask.
"It's slowed down." Conner replied. "It's beautiful, come take a look." I listened to everyone as they took turns appreciating the natural beauty. Eventually, I felt someone poking my side.
"C'mon, Leo." Zann insisted. "You should come see this."
Grumbling, I shuffled my way to the door. Pausing for the briefest of glances to the view, I made my way from the Daycare. I picked my bleary eyed way into the snow tunnels.
"Uh," Zann called after me, "where ya going?"
"T'pee." I shot back. "Watch m'eggs."
"But the view...?"
"I'll multitask!"
Just as I rounded a corner, I heard someone say behind me. "Why didn't we think of that? Now I gotta pee..."
We had taken turns so we could take care of our morning ablutions, while making sure to keep the eggs warm. Now, I was trying to follow Villhiem's example and get some more rest, but the others kept me awake with their gossiping. I had just managed to tune them out when Zann poked my shoulder again.
"Hey. You asleep?"
"No~o." I cracked an eye open to glare at him. "I'm watching the back of my eyelids."
Zann frowned. "That looks an awful lot like sleeping."
"What do ya wan'?" I groaned.
"I," Yomega interjected, "wanted you to give us the next few episodes."
"Can't it wait until spring?" I whined. "When Villhiem wakes up?"
The grey Eevee glared at me. "I'll tell him when he does." His look softened. "I know the cabin fever's getting to you, but we need to go over this."
"Fine." I drew the word out, rolling my eyes. "Once the snow clears, the next episode should be-" I I gave a flat stare at Yomega. "We've broken the timeline, is this really necessary?"
"Yes." He growled. "The only thing we've changed is Moon Dancer coming in early. If Zann's theory is correct, then we'll still need to know the supposed timeline."
Ears flat, chin on forelegs, I reluctantly continued. "Family Appreciation Day. Vince, Cy, and Villhiem should be on hand for this one. It'll start with timberwolves howling and Granny Smith will tell the farm that the Zap Apples are coming in."
"Coming in where?" Vince asked. "And what are Zap Apples?"
"The scraggily shit trees by the Everfree, and they look like rainbow painted apples. Now shut up and let me finish." I scowled at him. "Watch out for Diamond Tiara messing with Apple Bloom 'cause of all the weird stuff Granny needs to do to get the Zap Apple jam made right. Queen bitch gets fed humble pie when it's all said and done.
"Then it's "Baby Cakes", where the miracle of life happens." I gave a slight smile. "Mrs. Cake will give birth to twins, Pound and Pumpkin Cake. Sometime after, Pinkie will volunteer to babysit and end up a bit over her head. The twins will show off their abilities to fly and use magic." I glared at anyone about to speak up. "Zann's on deck for that one. Think you can handle a pair of babies?"
"Eeyup!" Zann smiled. "Before we holed up in here, Mrs. Cake started showing! Oh, I can't wait!"
"Great!" I smiled at him. "Over the summer, Applejack will go off to a rodeo competition. After promising to get first place and donate here winnings to fix up townhall-"
"But, it's not broken." Cy interrupted.
"Derpy happens." Everyone but Abes winced. "Short story: Applejack doesn't and runs off to get the winnings by finding work in Dodge Junction. The others track her down and bring her back in short order. Since the next episode happens in Cider Season, I'll end this there." I rolled over, going back to my plan of ignoring the others.
"How does townhall get fixed?" Cy asked.
As night fell on the sixth day, the skies began to clear. I sat by the entrance with Abes to watch the stars come out through the hole in the snow. Soon, Abes started communing with Luna.
I could tell whenever Abes did so. He always gains a far-off look in his eyes, and a dopey grin on his face.
Imagine my surprise when he dissolved into mist and flew out the hole. I stared at where he was, trying to figure out what had just happened. I tentatively poked the spot he had been occupying, jolting forward in shock as he reformed behind me.
"Ah!" I squeeked. "What the hell hap-" I continued to freak out around Abes' paw. He waited until my muffles died down and the others stopped shifting in their sleep.
Removing his paw, his rings began to glow gold as a chest board and set floated from his bags. He set up the board between us with black facing him. "Luna and I needed to know whose playing what side. Easier to do in person." He moved a white pawn and began contemplating the board. "I know you knew we played at night." He moved his pawn.
I stared slack-jawed, watching as the pieces moved across the board. Eventually, I was able to form words. "When did you learn to teleport?"
"I didn't?" He turned his focus from his game, gazing at nothing. "Watch my board." That was my only warning. He seemed to glitch, his right ear dissolving and reforming. Without warning, it dissolved completely and drifted outside. Once it had just left the Daycare, it reformed.
Both the ear and where it attached to Abes' head began to badly bleed. Both of us started screaming, waking the others.
Conner bolted past Abes and I, grabbing the ear from where it fell. Working quickly, he jammed it right way up on Abes' head. He quickly encased Abes' head in a pink glow. The blood quickly stopped flowing. As it did, everyone calmed down and Abes and I stopped screaming.
Eventually, Conner stepped back. "There. That should keep it on for now. See me in the morning for another dose." He mumbled, stumbling back to where he had been sleeping.
Did he just do that in his sleep?!
Yomega took in the overturned chess set and the spilled blood. "Leo..." He growled. "What did you do?"
"His ear glitched-"
"What. Did. You. Do?" I wilted under his glare.
Abes came to my rescue. "Nothing! I wasn't playing with him. I was playing against Luna, she teleported me to see which side we were playing, and Leo asked if I could use Teleport." He patted my back. "I ended up telefraging myself when I tried. Leo did nothing."
With a deep breath, Yomega tried to calm himself. "Alright. I'm sorry for snapping at you."
"With how everything looks," I looked to the scattered pieces, "I don't blame you."
We got to work at cleaning the blood. Snow was brought in to scrub the floor, then dumped down a new tunnel as far as we could dig. Once done, Abes set the board back up, then continued his game. The rest of us tried to get back to sleep, waiting for the blizzard to completely pass.
Personally, I still couldn't wait until spring.