Mare In The High Castle:Wintry Mix
Wintry Mix
Pegasus Stallion Body: D8 / Mind: D6 / Charm: D6 / Stamina: 14
Talents: Cloud Wrangler (CM): D10, Fly: D8, Special Skill (Bad Weather): D6, Shock: D4
Quirks: Messy
Equipment: He travels light – flight suit, goggles, a change of clothes. Food if he won’t be able to buy it. Rope, if he’s likely to especially if he’s traveling with groundpounders non-pegasi.
Appearance: Ice-blue coat, two-toned mane – pale blue and white.
The pony who would become Wintry Mix was born to Cheery Skies, the mayor of Trot Ridge. This sounds like a good life to have, and it may well have been, back when the Trot Ridge mines supplied half the gold in Equestria. By the time he was born, though, the mines had played out and the town was literally the end of the line – when the trains came into town (rarely), they turned around and went back the way it came.
Any energetic foal may chafe at living in a backwater where nothing cool happens, but Sunny Days, as his mother called him, had another burden – said mother, the happiest, most optimistic mare since Princess Celestia herself (if not quite as wise). Again, you’d think this was wonderful, but not to a foal with at best normal levels of positivity trying to measure up to her superequine example. She never showed any signs of disapproval – there’s no evidence she’s capable of disapproval – but he still felt she had to be disappointed in him. Before long, he decided that if he couldn’t be as good as she was, he’d see how far he could go in the other direction.
Long before he got his Cutie Mark, he rejected his foal name, insisting on being called Wintry Mix. He picked it because it was the opposite of his given name, being a very unpopular type of weather, but he soon became interested in that sort of thing, and not just for the sake of being contrary. He was beginning to wonder when he’d get his Cutie Mark – two thirds of the foals his age had theirs already – when he found a strange cloud at the edge of town. The weather crew did the best they could, in an isolated place where control of the seasons was an iffy thing and the mayor always wanted the nicest conditions for her ponies, but un-wrangled clouds were a thing that happened. This cloud was balanced right on the edge of freezing, and Wintry Mix saw that the slightest change in temperature or pressure would have a profound effect on what precipitation it produced. He bent his pegasus magic to that end, and in rapid succession Trot Ridge experienced rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow. He realized that this was what he was good at, and there was a tingle on his flank as three symbols appeared. His mother quickly organized a celebration, and if the weather was to the liking of only the guest of honor, there was hot chocolate for all, and nothing worse than a few slips and frosty ears, which the doctor was happy to treat, so it was judged a success by Cheery Skies’ standards.
Wintry Mix remained Wintry Mix – the name he had chosen for himself matched his talent and Cutie Mark so there was no need to change. He went to weather school, where his teachers agreed that his work showed great potential, but lacked inspiration when it came to making any weather anypony would want to go out in. He left Trot Ridge as soon as he was old enough, and got a job as a weather pony in Whitetail Woods. He might still be there, making exactly the weather that was asked of him while feeling unfulfilled, but then Night fell.
He had nothing against Princess Celestia – he never really thought of her at all – but it wasn’t until she was banished that he came into his own. Nightmare Moon’s government established a new weather department, tasked with showing those who resisted her the errors of their ways. He joined immediately and served with gusto, finally allowed to craft weather that he found interesting. He didn’t concern himself with the ponies who were on the receiving end – if they didn’t want drought and hail and killing frost, they shouldn’t have offended the Nightmare.
He was sent to adjust the weather of a village a sleep-period after Hearth’s Warming. It had received the traditional snowfall, deep and crisp and even, and no doubt the miscreants thought their villainy, whatever it was, had gone unnoticed. He had brought in the coldest air mass he find, with strong winds, and set about clearing all the clouds from the sky. It’s called cloud wrangling, and the average pony on the street thinks of clouds as the origin of all bad weather, but sometimes it’s the absence of clouds you want, especially if the goal is the coldest temperature possible.
When he had finished, he paused to admire his hoofiwork. The moon shone brightly on the drifting snow, and he mused that it looked better with a little color on it. Then he noticed an old earth pony struggling through the rude wind’s wild lament, and the bitter weather. The panniers on his back held a few sticks of wood, and nothing more. He hadn’t thought about the effect his cold snap would have on ponies at all, let alone somepony living outside of town after the everlasting night had caused him to already gather all the firewood he could find. When he looked up again, the mare in the moon seemed to be looking at him with all the disappointment his mother had never felt. Surely it was his imagination, but his heart grew three sizes then.
Wintry Mix flew down to the old pony and helped him out of the drift he was sinking into. Taking the panniers, he filled them with dead wood that hadn’t fallen yet. On learning where the pony lived, he broke trail for him while easing the winter’s rage as much as he could. To the old stallion, it seemed that heat lay in the very sod which his unknown savior’s hooves had printed. Wintry Mix got him to his home, and left him with a rousing fire.
Since then he’s been walking a tightrope, trying to appear to visit suitably punishing weather while secretly softening the blow. The strain is starting to tell, although his superiors believe it’s from working so hard to please Her Nightmareness. He is currently taking leave in Canterlot, where he frequents an ice cream shop known for the tastiness of its frozen treats as well as the kindness of its proprietor.
