After their rest they break out the snowshoes and stride atop drifts higher than their heads. The hours pass in shade and shadow, the miles around the base of the mountain quickly and quietly eaten up.

After their second rest the slopes are so steep they put the snowshoes away. The snow is no longer on the ground but in a constant swirl around their heads, as though the very mountain itself is angry at their existence, but all it can do is blow. So blow it does, harder and harder the closer they get to the top.

After their third rest, they break out the ropes, pitons, and hammers.

“H-how high are we?” Applebaum struggles to get out. She can’t get enough air in her lungs, her belly threatens to expel the small amount of hardtack she didn’t feel like eating in the first place, and the muscles in her legs have gone from complaining with sharp pangs to reminding her of their dreary existence with dull, persistent aches. She wants to shut down, slumber for hours if not days, and she hasn’t seen one avalanche yet!

“Twelve thousand feet,” Radiant Hope answers. Applebaum can’t suppress her jealousy at the unicorn’s energized appearance, her scarf covering the scowl. “Twice as high as Canterlot. Past the top of the Canterhorn.”

Totem shivers next to her, and for once she’s thankful for his body pressing against hers, if only to block a fraction of the frigid wind. It whips at their sides, threatening to blow away unattended gear or inattentive ponies. Tempest Shadow doesn’t fare much better, but she hasn’t heard a word of complaint from the stalwart unicorn pressed against them. He remarks, voice shaking, “I-I didn’t know ponies could go that high.”

“With little reason to, they rarely tarry long,” Radiant Hope replies, restlessly shifting. She has drunk little and eaten less, yet seems more invigorated than when they set out. “Are you ready?”

“Ah…” As much as Applebaum wants to be a credit to her breed, she can’t force her legs to straighten out. She was fine walking up… no, that’s a lie, every step was torture, another step she knew would be twice as tough going back down. Her chin bows into her chest, tears freezing behind the goggles she dares not take off. “Ah don’t know if Ah can.”

“I’m good here, too,” Totem adds, snuggling into Applebaum’s side. She’d roll her eyes, but even that takes too much effort. She sinks into the snow that grows higher with every passing minute, drifts forming against their immobile bodies.

“Shhh,” Radiant Hope whispers, drawing close. She pulls her brown hood back, and Applebaum doesn’t know how she can withstand the snatching cold that devours heat as readily as her dam devours apples. When she pulls Applebaum’s hat and scarf away, the earth pony doesn’t have the strength to fight her. “Here. Drink this.”

Applebaum fumbles for the canteen of chilled water, barely able to get her lips to function. But when warmth spreads from the horn laid across her forehead, and from the liquid trickling down her throat and dribbling from her mouth? Her muscles come alive! They fill with strength from reserves she didn’t know she had, as great gulps of air innervate her lungs and mind. She stands and laughs at the fangless frost, her packs weightless, feeling like she could trek all day and night. “What did ya...?”

Radiant Hope smiles, as radiant as the sun, and it’s all Applebaum can focus on. “Hope shines brightest against the dark.” She turns to Totem, lays her horn across his forehead and presses the water against his muzzle. He jumps up, follows Applebaum’s last order by shoving his chest against her rump, eager as ever. “Let’s go!”

It’s still light out, going by the clouds that draw closer with every hoof they place above another. Radiant Hope leads, and it is as if Harmony guides her every step. They come to their first serious obstacle (as if the entire mountain wasn’t enough), a sheer sheet of slippery ice and rock that disappears into soupy clouds. Yet she tackles it as casually as if they are walking along flat ground; her hooves find every solid spot, rarely having to reconsider a route or, worse, backtrack. Even in the middle of the cloud bank it seems as if she knows the way, Applebaum gamely keeping up with Totem pressing on her heels and Tempest Shadow behind gathering their pitons.

Then they crest the clouds, and the whole world opens up around them. They stop on a circular plateau with a wide central pillar that continues upward. They can see for miles and miles, an evening sun fading among snow-capped mountains to their west, the tallest a seeming stone’s throw away. To the north endless rows of peaks stretch, and the east looks just as inhospitable. But to the south lies Equestria, deep blue oceans sandwiching rolling hills of green and brown with a single upraised hoof in the center. Canterlot seems just a white splotch on the side, Ponyville a splash of rainbow sprinkles next to the dark green Everfree engulfing the mountain.

“Good thing we picked this route,” Totem remarks, huddling next to Applebaum. The snow has ceased but not the wind, his leg fighting to stay steady. He points at a few of the isolated peaks close to them, but none go as high as the one they are climbing. “I’d hate to climb the… Change Tse, right?”

“Ah think that one’s farther out.” Applebaum points at a cluster of peaks, taller than the rest but nowhere close to the height of Mount Everhoof. She shares the sentiment, though; the wind is the worst it has ever been, and the thought of having your end in sight but inaccessible gnaws at her.

“It’s close,” Radiant Hope announces, having completed a circuit of their peak while the two were absorbed with the view. “Can you feel it?”

Totem stares blankly; Applebaum doesn’t feel anything different, just the chill of dry snow again creeping through her coat. They follow the unicorn around, Tempest Shadow again taking the rear. The plateau doesn't look all that different than any of the others they climbed, rock and snow and ice all mixed together. Some places are steep, some less so, but the easy paths to climb always seem to lead nowhere.

“Wait.” Applebaum stops at a snow drift, halfway around, seemingly identical to all the others. Yet something feels wrong; her cutie mark confirms the fleeting feeling, identifying a vulnerability in the wall. She walks up to the drift, scraping away the packed snow. The others watch, holding their breath, Radiant Hope especially eager.

But rather than meet solid stone behind the snow, her hoof pings off a translucent yellow barrier.

“This is it!” Radiant Hope rushes forward along with Totem and Tempest Shadow. Their shouts of joy mingle with the wind, carried away much like their fears and concerns. They dance, whipping back and forth, spinning in circles as they laugh and cry and sing.

“We made it!” Applebaum flings away great hooffuls of snow, the powder too dry to pack into anything approximating a snowball. Totem, right next to her, follows along with gusto. Soon the entire barrier is exposed, but they can’t make out anything further in except a pitch black cave. She takes a swing at the shimmering yellow, laughing, but all she does is glance off, leaving her hoof feeling numb. She tries a rock, then a pickaxe, but nothing seems to work. Hornlight doesn’t penetrate, the insides just as black as before, and neither does a hastily assembled torch.

“Here, let me try.” Radiant Hope places her hoof against the barrier, her horn lighting blue while her eyes turn white. She concentrates, leaning her head forward. “The Laughter is really strong; whoever put this here knew what she was doing.” Her whole body sinks toward the barrier. “Ah, but they left a back door. A trapped one? Ooh, good thing I saw that, or that would have been painful. Wait, you trapped that part too?”

Applebaum’s eyes shoot open as she recognizes the true trap. She charges forward, hollering as loud as she can, and bodily shoves the unicorn away from the glowing barrier, sending them both tumbling to the snow.

“What was that for?” Radiant Hope demands as she brushes herself off.

“Ah’ve seen that spell before,” Applebaum explains, her legs shaking with worry. “Ya didn’t try ta open it, did ya?”

Radiant Hope shakes her head, her anger leaving her as she sees Applebaum’s worry. She shudders at what might have happened to her. “No, but I was about to knock.”

“Good.” Applebaum sighs in relief. “Where’d ya learn ta do that?”

“I was Princess Celestia’s pupil.” Radiant Hope scowls at the translucent sheen of gold. “She taught me that, and more. I should have recognized her hornwork, but I did not figure her for the trapping kind.”

“Did we come all this way for nothin’?” Applebaum studies the barrier, her voice catching. “W-what do we do?”

Totem idly bounces a rock off the barrier. He has found a spot to hit where the rock returns to him after sailing through the air. “Can we go around it?”

Applebaum shakes her head. “It’s curved like a sphere. Ah mean, ya could make your shield like that over just a door, but only if your walls are just as strong. Otherwise, all it’d do is deflect the attacks to a weak spot.” She taps her hoof against the rock next to the barrier, pieces flecking away. “An’ this rock ain’t the strongest.”

“If finesse doesn’t work?” Tempest Shadow states coldly. She pulls an obsidian sphere from deep in her pack, Applebaum and Totem hastily retreating from the barrier. “We brute force our way in.”

A single tap and throw sends the crackling green sphere hurtling into the barrier. It impacts, releasing a torrent of green and gold sparks, slowly digging itself deeper. After a full two seconds it passes through, leaving a gaping hole in the barrier and the sharp tang of ozone in the air. Then, after three seconds, the hole collapses in on itself, again a solid barrier shimmering in front of them.

“Woah,” Totem utters, sticking next to Applebaum. He grins. “Can ya do that again?”

Tempest Shadow grimaces at the ineffectiveness of her petrification orbs. She pulls out the three she has remaining.

“That was barely large enough for me to squeeze through,” Applebaum states, glancing at her companions. She sensed other things shifting, too; the changelings had warned them about entering caves, and they didn’t trust any of the ones they found on the way up. “Ah don’t think y’all’d fit.”

“Agreed,” Radiant Hope says, though unhappy to admit it. “I would rather I take the chance than ask any of you to.”

“I could try two orbs,” Tempest Shadow suggests, but clearly against it. “But if it reseals…”

“Here, let me try this.” Radiant Hope focuses for a moment, her horn lighting blue. She teleports forward a few inches, then crumples forward with an abject cry of pain.

“Hope!” Applebaum rushes to the unicorn’s side, glad to find she is only breathing heavily. She offers her a grin, hoping to perk up her spirits, knowing she can do little for her horn or exhaustion. “Ah didn’t know ya could teleport!”

“I-it takes a lot out of me,” Radiant Hope admits, shuddering. “Much like the hope spell.”

“Ah suppose it’d be too much to ask for ya to teleport us off this mountain?” Applebaum’s smile spreads wider, especially as Radiant Hope laughs along with her. “Hey. If we get this bell, and you get your horn back?” She turns her grin to Tempest Shadow, who seems surprised at her concern. “Then it’d be worth it.” She rubs at Totem’s head, who hasn’t stepped a hoof away from her this whole time. “It’d even be worth puttin’ up with you!”

“Hey,” Totem returns jovially, snuggling next to her, “you love it and you know it.”

Applebaum rolls her eyes as she shrugs off the bulkiest of her saddlebags and equipment. She cracks first one side of her neck, then the other, limbering up as best she can while wearing her heavy boots and coat. She kicks out two good hoofholds in the snow. “Ready,” she states, tail wagging back and forth as she bends down like she’s going for a personal best in the barrel lead.

“Don’t go too quickly,” Tempest Shadow cautions. “Only after the sparks fade.”

“Got it.” Applebaum paws at the snow, shaking her head with a loud nicker. She watches carefully as Tempest Shadow tosses the second orb, starting her charge even as green and gold sparks fly.

With a mighty thrust of her legs she leaps through the opening, Totem hot on her heels.

Next Chapter: Ch. 114 - First Snow, Part Four Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours