#1 Lynxfall Shipper @mostlygoodkarma - Tumblr Blog

Hi! For the Spotify Wrapped thing I’d like to request Lynxfall and 47 please. The newest chapter of Ours has fed my Moonjou cravings, and while I can’t get enough of them I’d like to see some more of one of my other favorite WoF ships.

#47 The Queen is Back - Vylet Pony

Notes: Thanks for your request and sorry it took so long for me to actually get around to posting it! This song isn't really super romance related buuut I think it does play well with Snowfall's whole royal attitude and the way she is always telling herself that she's going to be the Best Queen Ever (mostly because she's sorta overcompensating for her lack of actual confidence but ya know). That and I really tried to play into the title of this one by making this story one that takes place pretty shortly after Lynx returns from Pantala. So she's back in the literal sense. Basically most of this was based more on... vibes rather actual lyrics as written, lmao. Still I hope you enjoy it!

__________

“Wanna race?”

Snowfall’s gaze slowly drifted to the side. “I thought this was supposed to be a relaxing swim.”

Lynx made a sound between a scoff and a guffaw. “It’s supposed to be fun.”

“Right. And getting your queen to act like a dragonet is… fun, for you?”

“Three moons Snowfall,” Lynx sighed as her eyes practically rolled out of her skull, “yes, getting my queen to lighten up a little is, in fact, fun.”

“I thought that’s what the swim was for. I can have recreation and still act like an adult fitting my station, thank you very much.” She stopped midair for a moment just to pose, claws just barely brushing her chest, snout up, and eyes closed. The very essence of haughty sophistication.

Lynx snorted. Snowfall figured she was rolling her eyes again as she said, “Right, sooooo…”

Wings flapped, air shifted, and Lynx shouted as she raced away, “Last one there hatched from a rotten egg!”

Snowfall let out a squawk of what could only be pure indignation. “I— what?! Lynx! That’s cheating!”

“Not if you never set any ground rules, Snowy~” Lynx yelled the words back, winked, and then folded her wings closed, dropping into an angled dive toward the dark arctic sea.

“You little—“ Snowfall didn’t give herself enough time to finish the thought, flipping her body, flicking her tail, and slamming her own wings closed. She spiraled toward the icy tundra like a leopard seal might spiral through the very seas Lynx was hurtling toward.

There was no sense in following the same trajectory. Not if she wanted to win anyway. Lynx’s head start meant victory was only possible for Snowfall if she plummeted straight toward the ground like a white hot bundle of sky fire. A scaled dart moving faster faster and faster until

SNAP!

She unfurled her wings as close to the ground as she dared, using them to arrest her downward momentum completely before pumping them back as hard as she could, trusting her previous vertical speed would make up for any way she lagged behind a still diving Lynx. She just had to trust her pumping wings to get her there.

Only… Lynx had spotted her now and was angling her wings a little sharper, closing them a little tighter. The head start and advantage of gravity were going to be too much to overcome.

Still, she didn’t stay at the top of the wall for years as a dragonet by giving up. Her wings continued to beat at full power, her claws skimmed along the ground's icy surface. She just had to time it right and— her serrated talons dug into the permafrost and she stretched her wings forward, the muscles in her legs bunched and strained and launched her forward as she dislodged herself from the frozen ground.

Every part of her body was working in concert to propel her but still… still…

She got close enough to see Lynx smirk right before she hit the water. Snowfall followed her in a second later, both of them creating cascades of bubbles just below the dark surface.

They found one another in the muted marine murk, white scales glimmering beacons beneath the waves, and locked talons, play wrestling until Snowfall had to break the surface to breathe, and to laugh.

She could hear Lynx's laughter harmonizing with hers and moons above what a lovely sound it was. A slightly deeper, richer match to her own mirth and one she had dreamed about more than once during the months Lynx spent a continent away.

“Moons, I missed you.”

It took Snowfall a moment to recognize the words came from outside of herself and a moment more for her to decide on the perfectly teasing tone to respond with.

The one that would cover her rising flush best.

“Awww~ were you spending your nights in Pantala thinking about me? Not that I blame you. I am the greatest queen the Icewings have ever had after all.” Of course Snowfall was going to take the chance to throw such high praise back into Lynx's face. Just like she took the chance to preen and strike the most regal pose she could manage while in water.

“Moons above, no that’s— I mean yes, I was, but that isn’t— I was missing you before I left for Pantala.” Lynx smiled at her, but it wasn’t all boisterous and shining like most of her smiles were. No, she wasn't teasing back like Snowfall had expected

Lynx's voice was genuine, and her ears were folded back a little, even as she grinned wide enough to show a couple serrated teeth. If Snowfall didn’t know any better, she’d call the expression downright shy. “I mean we haven’t raced like that since we were— what, four?”

“You were four and a half, I was almost five.” She remembered that day. Her hatching day had been a week away, and she distinctly remembered bragging that as soon as Imperial was full again, she’d officially be Lynx’s elder.

Lynx had dunked her under the water for that one.

Now Snowfall watched as something warm blossomed in the blue-gray storm that swirled in Lynx’s eyes. Then she laughed, her snout curling up as she did, until she let out one of those little giggle-snorts too devastatingly adorable for someone who talked back so much. “I even missed that! You are never going to let that four month difference go, are you?”

“Oh absolutely not. Our scales will be failing off and I’ll still tease you about it.”

Another snort, and three moons, she was sure on anyone else it would sound ridiculous, maybe even irritating, but when Lynx did it, she could only draw up words like cute, charming, and lovely. “You know what? Totally worth it. If I get to keep hanging out with you, keep competing over every little dumb thing, keep seeing you actually smile more than once a day, I’ll gladly bow to my wizened elder.” She ducked her head with mocking little flourish as she finished her sentence.

“I mean. I am the queen. Though I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I smile all the time.” She schooled her face into one now: a grin that was kind and gentle and, in her more self-congratulatory moments, even wise. The look of a benevolent, competent ruler.

Lynx ruined it by cupping her talons together and drenching her queen with a huge splash of frigid water. “I don’t mean the fake one you put on for court, you slush brain! When I say I missed you I mean you." She said it like that explained everything, then continued when the confusion Snowfall was feeling snuck onto her face. "I missed Snowfall. Not the queen. Even if you are a damn good ruler, I— I’m just really glad to have my best friend back.”

Lynx looked away, definitely shy now.

Oh.

Snowfall didn’t really know what to say to that. She felt very suddenly like she didn’t know much at all. All the pomp and preening and airs just melted away, leaving only Lynx’s smile and a fuzzy, staticky feeling like touching polar fur. She had missed this too, this comradery that existed between them before she was queen. She had wanted her best friend back just as badly. She realized that as she'd watched Lynx's form retreat over the horizon, pointed toward the not-so-mythical Lost Continent.

Oh.

But that wasn't what she realized later, around the second week of Lynx's absence. That wasn't what hit her over the head like a physical blow as court wrapped up and she had turned toward where she felt Lynx should be, just to her right, with a single, silent desperate cry for reassurance in her eyes. It wasn't the buzzing flutter filling her chest now either, welling up in her, tingling along the spines that ran the length of her body, rising through her throat. Then sparking inside her muzzle, a flash of pure instinct. Bright words she didn’t even think. Just… felt.

Oh.

“I love you.”

Lynx stared at her, wide-eyed.

Snowfall stared back, slowly registering with horror what she’d just said.

Her talons flew to her muzzle, clamping it shut like she could stuff the words back into herself, like she could undo whatever horrific consequences she’d just inflicted. She could feel the sharp chill of blood rising into her face and the knowledge that her scales had to be bluer than normal just fed back into the embarrassment. Until she was sure her whole neck and face was getting remarkably close to the shade of the water that she was now scrambling to get out of.

Why? Why had she said that? What in the world had she been thinking? She hadn't been! She barely even knew where that came from! She just needed to get away from Lynx as quickly as—

A claw clamped around her wrist.

"Let go!"

She had to get away. She didn't want to confront her own emotions, not in front of Lynx. There was too much churning clanging chaos in her mind to actually hear and register any kind of response. The fact that those three little words still struck so true had her reeling, trying again, just as she had in the court room weeks ago, to grip onto exactly when her affection for a friend had to turned into this aching sensation of longing. When had Lynx's silhouette been burned so irrevocably into her heart?

She tried her best to root through her memories to find an exact event or even a lead up, but all she could focus on was the single point of connection between them. Claws shut tight around her scales.

Snowfall was shocked when, for once in her life, Lynx obeyed without question, dropping the limb slowly, reluctantly, but letting her go all the same.

Snowfall didn't take the time to question it though, she just kept straining toward the boundary where water met ice. Her wings were already unfolding, preparing to launch her up and away, toward the sun that was drooping toward the horizon.

Only to have her momentum entirely arrested again by four simple syllables that cut through all her questions, all her doubts. "I love you too."

She turned away from the sinking sun, back toward stormy eyes and a sad, hopeful smile. A look that made Snowfall feel like tiny versions of Blue and Cricket and Atala and all those other weird insect dragons on Pantala were fluttering in her chest.

"I— what?" Her voice came out as a breath of utter disbelief, as a very clear reflection of what she had settled in her mind during the weeks Lynx had been gone. Because really, knowing when this had started didn't matter, just having this wonderful dragon at her side again was more than enough, was a kind of forgiveness she didn't deserve. After all the lying and belittling and distancing. She had resolved not to say anything, but then Lynx had looked at her like that. Like all the pompous, grandiose things Snowfall said were actually true, and she was actually a great, wise ruler, and not some lost hatchling trying and failing to properly find her mother's giant clawsteps so she could follow in them.

"Are you really that surprised?" Lynx said it like she shouldn't be, like not only was she already worthy of Lynx saying those words back, but that it should be the obvious conclusion to reach.

"Yes?" She said the word like a question coming from the mouth of dragonet who'd been caught causing mischief: small, shaking, with absolutely no certainty.

"Snowfall…" Lynx responded the way a kind adult would, matching the softness, but strong and warm and reassuring even in it's quiescence. Lynx even drew closer and took her claw again, trying to communicate that assurance with her touch and a squeeze of talons. "Of course I love you."

"But I—" she snapped her gaze down to the water. She couldn't speak and look at the golden sunset that glinted in Lynx's eyes. She just couldn't. "I was so— so— I yelled at you! And didn't listen to you, and you were trying to help me and I kept acting like—" the muscles in her throat clamped shut for a second, closing over the ball of guilt that her next words held, "like you didn't matter, like you were beneath me." What a horrible, wretched thing to do to a dragon that clearly cared so much about her. "And then… then I sent you away."

Lynx was still so impossibly gentle with her, even after she'd been so viciously sharp, carefully, patiently tilting her head up until their eyes met.

"What do you mean, sent me away? I chose to go on that mission." Despite the delicate touch, the soft words, there was still the slightest flash of steel in Lynx's eyes. A hint of frustration. That was all it took for Snowfall to see she was doing it again, was talking like Lynx was just her subject, just an extension of her royal reach, and not a dragon with her own thoughts and desires.

She deflated, feeling even more like some stupid, snobby dragonet now. "I know— I didn't mean— I just." How did she explain it? That by the third week of Lynx's absence she was driving herself insane with worry and regret. That she was blaming herself for any terrible fate that could have befallen her. That she felt like she had pushed away her best— maybe only— friend again, and wouldn't get another chance to rectify that mistake. She only managed, "I was scared." Which came out more painfully raw and vulnerable and honest than she thought she was capable of.

"Hey…" And there was Lynx's touch again, as tender as ever, as tender as she'd always been, even when Snowfall had been in an absolute panic over some shimmery, peace-loving bug dragons from across the sea.

Lynx covered her, just like she did back then, her wings a small, impenetrable fortress meant just for the two of them. Their foreheads pressed together soundly, muzzles just barely not touching. All Snowfall could see was her: an endless swath of gray-silver scale-like clouds, broken up by pure blue patches of sky that pierced through the overcast. Snowfall could probably stare at those freckles forever, tracing and connecting and counting them, and still never be completely satisfied enough to pull away.

"I'm here." Lynx promised. And it really was spoken forcefully enough to be a promise, a vow that was followed by another, "And I'm not leaving you ever again. Okay?"

Snowfall squeezed back now, nodding as she echoed Lynx, as she definitely didn't hiccup and sniffle around the single word, "Okay."

Lynx smiled at the assurance, her expression all warmth even beneath the icy barrier of her wings. Though, even with all that cozy comfort in her grin, even with how she seemed to vibrate with excitement, she still flushed, there was still a careful question in her eyes, when she raised her muzzle to meet Snowfall's.

There really didn't need to be.

Even with her heart and stomach fumbling about in her body, it was the easiest thing in the world for Snowfall to match her movement, her smile, to press snout to snout in a soft nuzzle.

Then, a little noise, a chirp, rising from the back of Lynx's throat as she tilted a little more, and linked the two of them in a featherweight kiss.

And at just that slightest connection…

The water stopped churning, the ice stopped groaning, the whole world and time itself must have shifted and paused. Snowfall could think of no other explanation for why the moment would hang so perfectly for what seemed like eternity. For what seemed like no time at all.

She could find no other way she would cease to exist and then get dropped unceremoniously back into reality when Lynx pulled away.

"Um."

Lynx giggled. The world flipped upside down again. Or maybe right side up? Snowfall couldn't be sure anymore.

"You okay there?" She asked.

In lieu of answer, Snowfall kissed her again, and felt the rumble of a happy purr rise from her chest when their tails wove together in another point of comforting connection.

—

"So… " Lynx spoke into the space between their cool, catching breaths as the last dregs of golden sun faded into purple dusk, "when am I allowed to tell other dragons I'm dating the best queen the Icewings have ever had?"

"Are you…" Snowfall snorted, "are you trying to flatter me into letting you brag?"

"Does that mean it's working?" The curve of Lynx's grin got all sly and teasing and dangerous. Snowfall had to try really hard not to press their muzzles together again.

She shoved the feeling aside along with Lynx's face. "I should throw you in the dungeon for even making the attempt."

A long moment with no response.

Snowfall glanced over and there Lynx was, staring expectantly.

"What?"

"Are you saying you're going to restrain me, my queen~?"

"Three Moons!" Snowfall dove forward, dunking her new partner under the waves.