The sea moved endlessly. Its rhythm, a low crash and fizzle, was soothing for its repetition and strength. It left Ampere to wonder, as she often did, just what the ocean was that it lived in such a way. At first glance it was obviously water, the largest place to find water at that. What other water behaved like this though? Water moved in all its forms, but it was always running or falling, never marching like this, never heaving, throwing, and pounding over and over and over again. What water tasted like this? It was the only water that you could bathe in, but never drink to quench your thirst. What are you? Ampere asked of it repeatedly, yet for as long as she listened, the waves never told her their secrets.

It wasn't until this morning that Ampere finally recognized something amid the surf. "I know you," she said simply, though it wasn't certain if she was talking to the sea or herself. Either way a smile found its way to her lips, one which though small and almost sad, spoke of her content. "You are a warrior." She should have known sooner the face of her brethren, of herself, but the reminder was enough to soothe the unease that built up in her bones like marrow.

She laughed, the sound an oddity among the cry of the gulls and the slap of salt on the shore. Ampere turned away with a flick of her tail, head bowed against the golden glow of the rising day. She moved to meet it slowly, her hoof prints winding through the water-logged sand where the spume just couldn't reach.

Ampere took strength from the ocean. Strength that she needed now, more than ever.

Winter had blanketed the world in ice, the ocean none such as to escape it, though she certainly didn't appear sluggish for it. Frostfall was not one to let any escape its grasp though, and so it send the sky to join the fray of earth and sea. Winds picked up, cold and sharp like a knife against Ampere's dark coat. She huddled into herself, but it didn't little to keep out the squalls. Salt burned her nose and embedded in her skin. Dawnlight petered out under stormdark. It felt like an omen.

Only a sudden movement above drew Ampere's attention away from the war of weather. Her blue gaze cast through the air like a claw of lightning, direct and bold. She caught the passing pegasus, unperturbed if not for his sterling face that breezed past. In the darkening hour she almost couldn't be sure, but hope lifted her heart foolishly into her throat, squeezing out a cry.
"Mesec?" she asked of the shadow on wings.