Nearly Time
Cold winds have blown for far too long. At long last a new wind takes flight. Zephyrus has come at last to play. His breath heralds something new, something that comes. Far beneath the Ice, in her hidden Court, the Queen of Winter feels the barest most distant breath of the West Wind. It has traveled long to reach her. Now that it has, she knows that it is nearly time.
She departs in a sleigh, drawn by the purest of beings, the great Unicorns. The bodies of slender yet strong white horses, the cloven hooves and beards of goats, the tail of a lion, fur of silvery white, and a spiraling horn of purest Alicorn. They lead the way from the kingdom far below, out into the world, out into the woods. Snow falls as the Queen travels out towards the most distant reaches of her dominion. Behind her comes the long cavalcade of her people, silent as they tread across the sleeping world, like a parade of spirits in the night. It is nearly time.