Part of the Family [Snowdrop, Nari, Open]

[Loki]

The sun had set.

Time for the night's work to begin.

Two unicorns strode calmly through the fringes of the Everfree Forest, looking for all the world as though the were simply taking a peaceful stroll. But their intentions were far less than peaceful. Their master was tired: tired of waiting, tired of watching from the forest as Equestria lived on in general peace and sunshine. It was time for his plans, laid carefully over decades, to finally be put into action.

But for that, they would need greater numbers.

So, Loki led his twin sister toward the forest's Ponyville border. There was sure to be somepony around, whether they were headed for the forest or just staying out in one of the many fields on the village's outskirts. Just as the trees began to thin out, the stallion heard a noise from nearby. Holding out a hoof to stop Nari, he twitched an ear and listened. There was a single pony nearby--good, they didn't need witnesses. Nodding to his twin, he strode calmly out from the cover of the forest, affecting a look of dull surprise.

"Well, who might we have here?" he drawled, not bothering to hide a slightly sinister tone behind his words. It didn't matter who this pony was; before long, she'd be just like the rest.

[Snowdrop]

Snowdrop the rabbit had raced across the world twice today, dodging foxes and dogs and owls and eagles! But now she was looking for a place to spend the night. Natually, rabbits lived in burrows, but burrows didn't make themselves! However, this rabbit had been fortunate in that there was an empty hollow at the base of an old oak tree.

With a little digging to widen the entrance, Snowdrop had made quite a comfortable burrow there, and was just finishing lining it with old oak leaves and fresh grass and moss. Actually, she was reluctantly noting the time and was seriously wondering if she dared ask Granny Weathermane to let her stay out all night, or whether it would be better to sneak out after she'd been put to bed. After all, this wasn't Canterlot or Manehattan or even Appleoosa (where she'd never been, but still!) There was nothing dangerous about Ponyville! Why shouldn't she stay out all night?

"Well, who might we have here?"

Snowdrop didn't know it, but her unspoken question had just been answered. She glanced up from her work and saw another pony... and she smiled. "I'm Snowdrop! What's your name?" she announced, then asked without any hesitation at all.

To be honest, there wasn't much to admire here. She was small, young, a blank-flank even, and she certainly didn't look like the best choice for a tool of darkness. She had a bright, cheerful look, and she was pure white. or.. she would have been if she hadnt gotten a bit dirty from her digging. Still, if there were looking to recruit, they could start no sooner than now, and here was somepony to start with.

[Nari]

Nari almost didn't like how her whole life had been switched around. Sure, she'd always preferred the night to the day, and sure, it wasn't really that much of an inconvenience to work under the light of the moon...

But if there was one thing Nari didn't like, it was being restrained. And she felt restrained.

It wasn't the night that bothered her; it was the fact that she wasn't allowed to work during the day. Some primal part of her personality revolted, struggled against the unspoken bond. She began to meander about, bored out of her mind, but childishly pleased that she was making her own decisions, doing what she wanted, she, and no one else, in the daylight.

But, honestly, it was wearing on her, and she was tired all the time.

Including now.

With a heavy silence, which was, of course, normal between the twins (being able to communicate in their minds usually eliminated any need for speech, and since Loki was really the only pony Nari was interested in talking to...), Nari tredged after her brother, perhaps, if it were possible, moodier then normal.

Until he outstretched one grey hoof, stopped her, to which the mare rose a questioning brow.

What? She thought instantly toward him, but the tenor of his thoughts (a mix of cocky assurance and vague knowledge of what lie beyond the treeline) told her all she needed to know, and they, in synch, stepped out into the clearing.

With some ponies, those especially fearful ones, their worst fear hit her like a ton of bricks straight across the face; demanding her attention before even she could assess the appearance of the pony in question. With others, those more normal ponies, it took a bit more snooping, perhaps a careful, silent evaluation of the colt or filly, or a few pointed questions, whose answers she analyzed with an attentive mind.

This filly, however, seemed to have no fears at all.

Nari smirked.

A challenge.

"Well, who might we have here?"

"I'm Snowdrop! What's your name?"

Her response to Loki (who was by no means a kindly stallion; she almost went so far as to say he was sort of frightening, except, well, that he couldn't have frightened her if his life depended on it) only solidified this pony's apparent fearlessness, and Nari's brow rose once more. Difficult she might be, but every pony had a fear, and if she only had one, it would be a rather nasty one. She knew from experience.

The dark mare slid forward, violet tail rippling behind her.

"He's Loki, and I'm Nari." She circled the filly, examining her closely, the tread of her hooves almost predatory. "You're quite the brave little filly, aren't you?" She smirked.

She'd fix that.



comments; Word count: 493. Not quite where I'd like, but whatever, close enough. SO EXCITED FOR THIS THREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!

[Snowdrop]

"Hi Loki! Hi Nari! Nice to meet you!" Snowdrop replied, looking over her shoulder as Nari walked behind her. She wasn't in the least bit distressed by their behavior and demeanor. They seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be exceedingly pleased to see her. She didn't trouble her mind with why that should be. If a pony was glad to see her, she was even gladder (if that was a word!) to see them!

And that's why she wasn't in the least bit frightened of these two, for all their smirking, swaggering, and circling. No more frightened of them then they were of her! In fact, when Nari commented on how brave she was, Snowdrop actually brightened. She was brave, wasn't she? She wasn't a bit afraid of the dark! She gave Nari the benefit of her smile now, too. Snow wanted to show these two how brave and friendly she could be. Then they would want to talk to her and would stay a while! She tried to think of a topic she hoped would interest them, and she chose the first thing that came to mind!

"So you two are twins, huh? That must be really nice! I used to use a mirror to pretend I had a twin, but a mirror can't talk back. And it can't go anywhere out of the room where the mirror is. Still, 'Snowbelle' was good company when I played games like 'Follow the leader' and 'Simon Says!' But having a real brother or sister must be much nicer. And I heard that twins are super-close, closer than any other kind of sibling!"

Snowdrop was feeling happy and warm inside, and she was pleased to be the center of attention to two such nice ponies. Twins, too! She'd never met twins before, well, except the baby Cakes. But they couldn't talk. Well, they could say words, but you couldn't hold a conversation with them.

"Speaking of games, do you know any? Would you like to play with me?" Snowdrop hadn't completely forgotten that she ought to be going home, but she didn't really have a curfew or anything, and Granny Weathermane was probably asleep in her rocker anyway. She probably wouldn't even notice unless Snowdrop wasn't there in the morning. Thinking about Granny Weathermane in a tender, affectionate sort of way, Snowdrop wished that the old mare might pay just a little more attention to her. But for the moment, she had these two! She gazed from one to the other with bright, hopeful eyes.


_{[[Note: I know it's Loki's turn (sorry Kale) But as Snow had been asked a question of sorts, I thought I'd go first anyway. To sorta move things along XD]]}

[Loki]

A cheerful one.

Loki despised the cheerful ones.

Especially the talkatively cheerful ones, like Snowdrop. Even from her simple introduction, the unicorn could tell she was a talker. The edge of his mouth curling in distaste, he was in no way placated by the pleasure he felt emanating from his twin sister. While he was wearied by having to listen to the vapid blabbering of ponies such as this, Nari delighted in how much more difficult it was to dredge up their fears; all Loki wished was that she delight in it a little faster.

Giving a small nod to the pegasus filly as Nari introduced him, Loki watched with increasing impatience as Snowdrop launched into a seemingly endless speech about how exciting it was that they were twins and how she'd heard this and that but she'd never felt it for herself and so many other things the stallion simply did not care about. *Please, find her fear so I can shut her up*, he thought to his sister. He received no answer, and frankly didn't expect to. Nari was either busy enjoying herself or actually working on it, and either way would have no interest in breaking her attention to converse with her brother.

So he would have to deal with this himself.

"Speaking of games, do you know any? Would you like to play with me?"

"A game?" Loki replied, a smirk breaking out slowly over his face. Glancing at his sister, he spoke in a smooth, amused manner, as though relating an inside joke. "Oh, I think we have time for just one game. Don't we, Nari?" It was a game that he and Nari played all the time--and that nopony else ever played more than once.

But it was the twins' very favorite game.

[Nari]

"Hi Loki! Hi Nari! Nice to meet you!"

The filly's eyes followed the shadowy mare as she circled; her mane, for all intensive purposes, a real shadow of the young pony's silky-white coat. She really was a snow-drop, wasn't she?

Though it was mostly her Special Talent talking, she vaguely wondered if that word, 'drop', held any significance.

She held onto that thought.

When Nari mentioned Snowdrop's bravery, the filly grinned like it was Christmas day. How cute.

It sort of made Nari feel like being extremely brutal with this one. She liked watching all that cheerfulness die; from their eyes, first, then their slumped body.

She just needed a fear.

She kept digging.

"So you two are twins, huh? That must be really nice! I used to use a mirror to pretend I had a twin, but a mirror can't talk back. And it can't go anywhere out of the room where the mirror is. Still, 'Snowbelle' was good company when I played games like 'Follow the leader' and 'Simon Says!' But having a real brother or sister must be much nicer. And I heard that twins are super-close, closer than any other kind of sibling!"

Nari, much as she may have liked to, as her brother had done, tune all of that out, had to listen very carefully to everything the filly said. Any word of it might have alerted Nari to her fears.

There was another little twinge, though, and, ignoring her brother's annoyed words echoing inside her mind, she dipped her head a bit to be closer to Snowdrop's height.

"You don't have family, Snowdrop?" The words were a bit cool, and there was no semblance of smile on her face, but she doubted the snow-white filly would notice. "That must be lonely."

"Speaking of games, do you know any? Would you like to play with me?"

Nari, of course, had no real interest in the young pony (she didn't much like them, as it were), so made no move to answer that, only straightened to her full height and watched the filly with slitted eyes.

Yeah, so the challenge thing was real cute for about 30 seconds. Now she was ready to move on with her life.

So it was with a bit of gratitude (although, of course, not much, since she knew he was going to do it, anyway, connected minds and all) that she heard Loki step in.

"A game?" She couldn't help it; just as his did, Nari's eyes slid up to meet her brother's, sly smirk playing on her lips. It was so natural, for them, to move in synch so. "Oh, I think we have time for just one game. Don't we, Nari?"

Cool. Self-assured. Almost kind, but not quite, though not cruel.

Lazy.

"I don't know." She directed those eyes, which looked so calm but were in reality so focused, to Snowdrop. "What kind of games do you like to play, Snowdrop? We can't fly, you know. We might be boring."

Though she was sure Snowdrop wouldn't catch it, there was a distinct sarcastic lilt to that last sentence, and her consciousness, humming with humor, flicked towards Loki's, but only for a moment. Them. Boring. The motion, that touching of thoughts, was almost akin to a locking of eyes, but, since they didn't need that to show each other, with physical action, that they were thinking of each other, a flicker of the mind did just fine.

Unfortunately, her amusement didn't last for long, and the novelty of the challenge of young Snowdrop had long worn off.

When would Nari pick up her fear, already?

[Snowdrop]

Oh, Snowdrop had fears, just like any other pony. She had a fear not of falling, exactly, but of hitting the ground after a long fall. 'Splatting' as she referred to it. She had a fear of monsters like all foals do, and the dark could make her uneasy (for all her pride in being called brave moments before) and she didn't care for thunderstorms, a fear that perhaps Nari herself would have identified with. She had a fear that she might never discover a special talent all her own and would face her life with the shame of an empty rump for all of Equestria to laugh at.

No, she wasn't fearless. The problem that the twins would have faced, if they had tried to frighten her with any of these things is that these fears could not drive her into helpless, cheerless despair. If you threw her off of a great height, she would have tried until the very last moment to fly. Had you presented her with two monsters (and that was very near the current circumstances) she would have tried to make friends with them however scary, or attempted to run away even as she was being torn apart. Put her in the dark, or under a thunderstorm or even among people laughing at her... and she would have imagined herself somewhere else. These things could frighten and even injure her- but they would never break her. Only one fear could do that.

Nari had brushed against it very lightly when she mentioned being lonely. But the attitude of the twins was getting a great deal closer. Snowdrop had one fear that was very difficult to define. It was a fear of disappointment, not her own, but another pony's, a beloved pony's...in her. A fear of being lonely, and unworthy of friendship, and being unable to win it... She was afraid of losing the affection of her loved ones by doing something wrong.

And Snow could tell that somehow, she was displeasing the twins. They had been pleased to see her, now, they were growing annoyed with her. She, clearly, had done or said something wrong, and a feeling of distress flickered in her mind. But the twins had done something wrong, too. Impatience was an attitude that, if not carefully controlled, showed as clear as daylight to someone who saw it as frequently as Snowdrop. And a slitted-eyed stare, even if paired with a smile, was a sign of irritation that even a less astute foal could read. The twins were being far too obvious. Snow could not read minds, but she could read body language. She was not only cheerful, she was sensitive.

And once their eagerness to see her (perhaps as a new plaything to break) had vanished like steam rising, the feeling underneath- dark, nasty, and decidedly unpleasant- was all that remained. Snowdrop became aware of a strong certainty in her own mind that despite smirks that might resemble smiles, these two meant her some kind of harm. Real harm. She looked between them and fell silent, her cheerful smile gone, the happy expression replaced by wariness, some uncertainty, and another emotion, one much older than her small self, and strangely out of place with the other two emotions. Sympathy.

And that was why she stood, silently gazing at them a long time, even an uncomfortably long time, her expression solemn, her eyes huge and sad and luminous in the rising moon. Time for just one game? She would make it a good one. "The game I like to play best is 'Tag'" She said at last. "And you're it."

Then she was gone, dashing through the woods towards town at her best speed.


_{Author's Notes: (lol)
1)I said Snow would be first, I never said it would be easy.
2) Shall we cut to the chase? (Sorry, couldn't resist that bad pun)}

[Loki]

"I don't know. What kind of games do you like to play, Snowdrop? We can't fly, you know. We might be boring."

Loki's smirk widened a bit, coupled with a slight narrowing of his eyes. He caught his sister's thought, and had they not been in the presence of a potential victim, he might have responded with a small, cold laugh. Instead, he buried any reaction, focusing his attention on Snowdrop, who seemed to be coming to a realization.

Well, she was sharper than she looked.

Slowly, the filly's eager, cheerful demeanor vanished, replaced by an uncertain sort of fear. It was a look Loki had seen many times, one that most ponies made much sooner upon meeting him. But it had taken Snowdrop this long to realize that maybe, just maybe, the dark twins might not be ideal 'friend' material.

Most ponies could probably have told her that within seconds.

"The game I like to play best is 'Tag.' And you're it."

Initially, Loki didn't respond beyond raising his eyebrows a bit. A good deal of ponies tried to run, as though galloping away at any speed they could muster would really work. Of course, they didn't know his talent; didn't know what he could to with the magic he possessed. Lowering his head and shutting his eyes, the unicorn stallion began to cast a spell, his horn wreathed in a dark blue shimmer. Were there any bystanders, they would likely have glanced around, shrugged, and wondered if his spell might be backfiring.

But it wasn't for their benefit. The only pony Loki intended to deceive was Snowdrop; thus, he only projected into her mind. The filly would seen see walls rising from the forest floor all around her, halting her escape and leaving her at the mercy of the twins. And once she did--once she finally saw that there was no way for her to run from her fate--Nari would provide her fear, and Loki would be able to really have fun.

Perhaps 'tag' wasn't so bad a game, after all.

"You know, it's not polite to run off like that," Loki snarled, any semblance of civility lost. Glancing expectantly at his sister, the stallion waited for her to communicate the information he needed to get things really going. He was tired of 'tag.'

[Snowdrop]

Snowdrop had been sure that she could get away, particularly when she felt sure they weren't even chasing her. Perhaps all they had intended to do was chase her away! Some of her unease had drained away at that thought, and some confidence had returned, too. There was so much distance between them now, she was sure she was going to get away!

At least until the walls burst forth out of the ground.

Snowdrop skidded, trying to stop in time to avoid smushing her face into a stony kiss with the rough rock face of the wall. But as a sudden determination filled her heart, she threw herself on her haunches and then, inches from collision leapt. Four feet, straight up from the ground she reached, higher than she had ever hit before. and then her wings shot out and with perfect harmony of bells, the filly began a vertical ascent.

This wall had to be fourteen feet high! She could never get over it!
Yes I can, Snowdrop told herself, I have wings, I can fly!
She had cleared another three feet, she was halfway up. Then, almost as if on cue, her wings went out of sync and with a mental I told you so... she tumbled back down, landing hard on her back and stunning her momentarily.

Kale, help! she pleaded silently, almost instinctually. She thought of her friend, and the warm, awed feeling he always inspired in her. He could do anything, and he wasn't afraid of anypony! She wanted to be just like him! And he was her hero!

But he was too far to hear her, even if she had screamed, and besides, his wing was broken, he wouldn't have been able to get to her in time, she was sure. That wing I broke. she thought, guiltily. She shut her eyes and went limp. All her fault. And then, just as suddenly, she rolled onto her feet again. If Snowdrop was going to be saved tonight, then she would have to be saved by Snowdrop, alone and unaided! Tonight she would have to be her own hero, and heroes never gave up! Without looking back at the twins, the filly crouched down and put all her heart into a second vertical jump!

She didn't have the momentum she'd had on her previous leap, the filly barely cleared three feet this time. But on command and once more in harmony, the little ringing wings of the pegasus foal beat hard. Carrying her upwards, though Snow could feel herself tiring, neither of these were feelings she was used to. You're not going to make it. the doubting voice- was it her own? chimed in her mind. It sounded almost smug. I will! I will make it! I have to! she told herself back, angrily. The halfway point. Her upward momentum was definitely slowing. You should give up now, before you get any higher up. the doubting voice told her. The higher you get, the more it'll hurt coming down. Snowdrop shut her eyes and shook her head, to drive out that voice. When I come down, it will be on the other side of this wall!

Twelve feet. Snowdrop heard, and felt, one of her wings miss it's beat. She shot a despairing glance at the top of the wall. So close! She hesitated in air, wings paused, perfectly suspended and weightless for only one second.

Just one second...

And then, if driven by a stronger force than herself, both wings kicked into gear again at the same time. She gained those last few feet, she cleared the wall without deigning to set one hoof upon it! It didn't matter to Snowdrop that she half fell, half fluttered back down to the ground on the other side. It didn't matter that she was spent and exhausted. Had she known that all she had conquered was an illusion, that might not have mattered to her either.

The flight had been real even if the wall had not! With all four hooves safely on the ground again, Snowdrop broke into a stumbling run for the safety of town!