April 21st, 1001 Domina Solaria

If Applebaum thought they were overprepared venturing into the jungle, with saddlebags stuffed with provisions, a few tools that might prove useful, and a vague understanding of where they were heading, it’s nothing to what they are carrying into the Frozen North.

“Y’all realize Ah got school tomorrow, right?” Applebaum jokes to the other three ponies. They ride on the sharp-nosed train carrying them to the base of the nearest mountain next to five bright green adult changelings and thirteen mottled younglings, all rigged out for mining with pickaxes, headlamps, and sturdy saddlebags.

“It’s not too late,” Totem returns, grinning from behind blue-tinted goggles. She’s not surprised he doesn’t care, and doubts their teacher will, either.

“We can throw you out the window,” Tempest Shadow adds, as bitter as always. She goes back to running a whetstone along the edge of a long, thin blade as sharp as the glare in her eyes.

Applebaum doesn’t think she’s joking. Grumbling, she rubs at her forehead and her own set of tinted goggles, currently propped up and irritating her mane. But, she tells herself, it’s worth the annoyance for when she needs them. With little else to do, she double checks the supplies they’ve procured.

Radiant Hope spared no expense. Applebaum could see the fierce look in her eye as she borrowed from old friends, bartered away prized possessions, and begged when those ran out, especially when they balked at the rush. The four of them weren’t preparing for a leisurely stroll up to the top of the massive mountain, whose snow-capped top peeked out from behind a series of peaks each higher and more desolate than the last, but for a potentially weeks-long expedition through some of the most inhospitable terrain Equus has to offer.

Three hundred feet of thin, coiled rope, two dozen pitons, and a specialized climbing hammer. A tent large enough for two (if they got really comfy) and a sleeping bag. Two weeks worth of food: dried fruits, honey hardtack, and the same trail mix Doug takes on longer spelunking trips with Rarity. Toilet paper and a light first aid kit. Three days worth of water, with purifiers for the streams they’ll come across and accelerant (they didn’t let her carry that, which was probably wise) for melting snow. And that was for each of them. She and Totem split a stovetop, frying pan, and utensils, while Tempest Shadow and Radiant Hope each packed a pair of binoculars, a compass, and a map, and Radiant Hope a more extensive medical kit.

Truth be told? She wouldn’t mind if it does take them two weeks to find Grogar’s Bell. Or even longer. With how her dam was acting? Serves her right, trying to keep her from all this. Plus, she’s heard that avalanches are common on the mountains, and her cutie mark itches at seeing the destructive power of falling snow.

“Let’s suit up,” Radiant Hope calls once they get about ten minutes from the base camp. The unicorn looks practically naked, wearing only a hooded brown cloak, while the rest take the remaining time to get dressed. First a pair of dark brown furred leggings, spiked ice climbers with lined covers, though the snowshoes would wait until they got to the deeper snow. Then a layered light brown jacket, thick yet sleek and sure to keep the snow off her back and tail. A green scarf wraps around her neck, a red hat covers her red and green mane, and the goggles will complete the picture with nearly every square inch of her protected from the biting cold.

“You look like a roving Hearth’s Warming tree,” Totem remarks, looking her up and down. “Minus the lights.”

Applebaum scowls, but it’s hidden. “An’ ya look like’a block’a ice,” she shoots back, Totem all in blues and whites. Inside her jacket she feels toasty warm, hoping that lasts until the top of the mountain. She turns to Radiant Hope as they step outside into the blistering chill of the Frozen North. “You sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’ve trekked longer and farther with less,” Radiant Hope answers. Her hood covers her face and leaves only her tail and hooves exposed. “Plus, I’ve got this.” She taps at her horn, smiling. She yells to one of the bright green changelings, “Thank you for the ride; it’s greatly appreciated!”

“Anytime!” the foreling returns just as cheerfully, giving a short salute. “Just, watch out for any caves you come across.” She shudders, eyeing their reduced numbers with a heavy sigh. “They’re a lot more treacherous than they look.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.” Radiant Hope gives a short bow. “Any other words of advice?”

The changeling shrugs. “We’ll keep a lookout when the sun goes down, whenever you’re ready to ride back. Stay safe!”

“You too.” The four ponies wave, though Tempest Shadow’s could be mistaken for a very long first step. They head up the mountain while the eighteen changelings make their way down a well-worn ramp, the only place barren of snow.

“There are a lot more trees than Ah thought there’d be,” Applebaum remarks. Pines dot the landscape, sparse enough to not impede their progress but thick enough to quickly block sight of their trail and the Crystal Empire, but not the pink bubble. The tall tops continuously sway back and forth, trunks bent from years and years of wind blowing down the mountain.

“Some summers it warms enough that the cones will shed,” Radiant Hope explains, tapping one of the snow-covered branches and exposing the spiky brown pods. “It’ll only get really bad once we’re high enough that there aren’t any trees.” She shivers as snow blows in her face, more than just from the branch, their tracks likewise quickly being covered. “We’ll need to keep moving, now and then.”

“Come along, Totem,” Applebaum orders, the colt staring at the bare branch. Her voice is muffled by the scarf, and she has to repeat herself louder. He trots up to her, struggling to move quickly through the snow. She takes a deep breath. “Look. Ah know this didn’t work out so well the last time.”

“Yeah,” Totem admits, cocking his head slightly. “But now your rump is covered.”

“...So it is.” Applebaum flicks her mane. She sighs as heavy as the snow coming down around them. “Follow me, Totem.”

“You got it!” Totem trots close enough one might mistake them for being a very long and short six legged pony with worse fashion sense than her sire, if Rarity allowed him to dress himself. Applebaum resigns herself to the task, one hoof in front of the other, and ignores how he bumps his chest against her rump with every step. Part of her imagines he’s going to mount her any moment, she’s heard that’s what stallions do when they’re in that position, but she never gets more than a light push prodding her ever onward.

Radiant Hope leads, occasionally pulling out the contoured map and compass to check their progress, mostly as practice. It’s pretty easy to tell they’re going the correct direction, aiming for the valley between two peaks. There is no trail to speak of, not even a series of stumps like the changelings had made along their path, just steeper slopes to each side and an obstructed view ahead. It’s especially steep on the left, the peaks in front of Mount Everhoof, but the back face of the mountain is supposedly a much easier ascent.

Every once in a while Applebaum spots a slim red and black object getting pulled out instead of the map. One time, when Radiant Hope’s hood slips back more than normal, she stares at the long point with a certain lust, an intense longing, that she just as quickly hides.

It makes Applebaum curious, insanely so, but not enough to ask with heads bowed against the snow blowing in their face. She’s glad for the goggles, and the scarf, and the coat, the constant exertion keeping her warm.

After two hours, and passing the first of the lesser peaks, they stop at a stream. It gurgles along, louder than their hoofsteps and the wind whispering through the pines.

“Sweet Celestia,” Applebaum grunts out, gladly dropping off her pack into a pile of snow while Tempest Shadow warily watches the trees. She looks around for a place to lay down, but it’s all snow, snow, snow. “Ah thought it was bad walkin’ up the inside of Canterhorn.”

“Don’t worry,” Totem remarks from so close behind her that if she sat down she’d use his muzzle as a pillow. “We get to walk up the outside too.”

Applebaum plops down, enjoying his muffled cry as she buries his head in the soft white. Then it turns to a low, happy rumble, and she hops off with an exasperated grunt. Why can’t he even be punished properly?

She trots over to Radiant Hope, pulling out her own canteen to gulp down and then refill from the stream. “Where’s all this come from, anyway?”

“Runoff from the mountain.” Radiant Hope motions up, and up, and up, the dark slopes of Mount Everhoof disappearing into thick gray clouds. The sun hides its shining face from them behind sheer cliffs despite noon nearing. She draws in the dank, cold air of the mountain, and it seems to strengthen her. “Snow continues to accumulate, and during the day some small fraction will be melted.”

“Even with the clouds?” Applebaum frowns. “Ah thought they needed pegasi to bring in water for clouds.”

“Feel the wind?” Radiant Hope pulls her hood down, letting her frosty mane blow free. She grins, and Applebaum has no idea how she tolerates the cold; she can barely pull her scarf down to drink without her lips feeling like they are turning to ice. “That is no ordinary wind, to blow like it does. But that wind must come from somewhere before traveling down these mountains until it reaches the ocean, where it heats, gathers water as vapor, and rises. It follows the pull from above, and the warm, wet clouds return with their bounty of snow and sleet and hail.”

“Hail?” Applebaum’s face scrunches up. “Nopegasi would ever let it hail on Ponyville. But Ah’ve heard, back in the day, that the Everfree let loose on occasion.”

“The Crystal Heart protects us all.” Radiant Hope's smile falters, her eyes going to her oft-opened pack. She notices how Applebaum’s eyes follow her own. “...I suppose you’re wondering what I have in there.”

“Ah was,” Applebaum admits, her dam’s penchant for Honesty rubbing off on her. “But if ya don’t want me pryin’...”

Radiant Hope withdraws the long, black unicorn horn with a dark red tip. She chokes up, body shuddering even through her coat. “This belonged to somepony I loved, dearly and completely.”

“...King Sombra…” Applebaum says, low and scared.

Radiant Hope frowns, but nods. “He was always just ‘Sombra’ to me. The Sombra I knew would never have done what he did. Not without good reason.”

“What kinda reason would justify enslavin’ your people?” Applebaum asks pointedly, halfway between curious and accusing.

“...I don’t know.” Radiant Hope bows her head. “But he only succumbed to the darkness because I left him. Because I wasn’t there to help him when he needed me. And when he is restored?” Her jaw sets, a firm nod in sheer defiance of the cold sending shivers down Applebaum’s spine. “I will never leave his side again.”

“...Ah believe you.” As much as it hurts Applebaum to admit, with the very real chance of things going wrong, what outcome could possibly be better? “Ah believe that with you by his side, Sombra won’t be a mon…”

“You can say it,” Radiant Hope quietly says when Applebaum cuts off. “I know what he did. I know what other ponies think he is. But that isn’t what he has to be.”

When Applebaum doesn’t say anything else she takes the horn and puts it back in her saddlebag. “We’ve rested long enough.” She stands, brushing the snow off her cloak, and faces the steep slopes of Mount Everhoof. “Let’s go.”

Next Chapter: Ch. 113 - First Snow, Part Three Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 10 Minutes