//------------------------------// // Chapter two // Story: Pinkie, Maud and Icy Iceland // by Elkia Deerling //------------------------------// After a while, the ponies scrambled from underneath the heavy canvas back into the fresh air. Pinkie looked back at the wrecked balloon and the landscape behind it. The balloon had landed at the edge of a large, pale green  field, with here and there some shrubs which waved stiffly in the frosty winds. There were a few small hills in the distance, which explained the bumpy ride when they touched down, and a wide trail of ruined grass and naked earth ran over a few of those hills.                       “But… there’s no ice-cream,” Pinkie said, her lips quavering. “There’s not even ice...”                       Pinkie Pie looked quickly in front of her, but she didn’t find any ice-cream or ice there too. In front of Pinkie lay only an enormous, green, rocky landscape, dotted occasionally with tints of black and grey. When she looked up, Pinkie noticed the sun; a watery bulb in the sky, barely strong enough to cast a faint haze upon the landscape. A chilly wind pushed against her back, and she trotted on ahead. When she reached the mysterious landscape, Pinkie noticed the black lines and dots being black rocks, overgrown with moss. She bent down, and licked the biggest of the rocks, hoping to get a nice chocolate taste in her mouth.                       “It’s basalt, Pinkie,” Maud said, who had trotted behind her.                       Pinkie’s face wrinkled in disgust and she turned around. “It wouldn’t make good ice-cream!”                       “It’s a volcanic rock which originates from lava cooling down when it reaches the surface.” Maud crouched and examined the rocks, scraping away some of the moss with a grey hoof. “It’s a Pleistocene formation.” She blinked her eyes slowly. “Interglacial basalt layers, my favorite facies.”                       Pinkie Pie gasped loudly; she had never seen Maud so excited before. She herself didn’t really know much about minerals and rocks, but Pinkie knew it was her sister’s great interest. And because Maud didn’t express her emotions that often, Pinkie never expected her to be that enthusiastic.                       “Hey girls, come on over here! I got it!”                       Pinkie and Maud turned around at the sound of Air Miles’ cry, and galloped back to the crashed balloon, where they saw his orange tail sticking out of a storage compartment like a flag. “Got what?” Pinkie asked.                       “My Iceland map,” the pilot said. He jumped out of the overturned basket and quickly unfolded the large piece of paper in front of their noses. “Thank Celestia it’s undamaged.”                       “So… where are we?”                       Miles gazed at the map for several seconds, his brows narrowed in concentration and his tongue sticking out. “First we flew over there,” he said, pointing at the south. “And then the motor ran at its maximum speed, which is pegasus-speed—or actually way more than that—for about… five minutes or so?”                       “Ten minutes and thirty-three seconds,” Maud said dryly, “then the motor exploded.”                       The pilot looked at Maud, raised an eyebrow, and then continued: “Alright, with that speed and that time, we should have travelled this course and this distance…” He drew an orange line on the map.                       “Oh! And then the balloon ripped and we crashed, so we  should be somewhere over here!” Pinkie Pie said with a smile, and drew a pink circle on the map.                       “That’s right,” said Miles, and then his face brightened up a bit. “We’re actually not that far from Reinkjavík, the capital city.” He let out a sudden gasp. “But that means—”                       “That means we can still have a super-amazingly-awesome PSSSD, Maud!” Pinkie yelled, and hugged her sister tightly.                       “It means I can go there, get spare parts and a carriage, and fix my balloon! Air Miles let out a whoop, “YES! Balloonist-ponies never despair!”                       Maud Pie rolled her eyes.                       “So where on the map is Reinkjavík actually?” Pinkie asked.                       “It’s right over there, in the west. I’ll just make a small list of the things I need and then we’ll be on our way.” Miles eyed the map closely. “Judging by the distance, I think we’ll reach the city in— Pinkie Pie, could you please stand out of the light?”                       “Oops, sorry Miles,” she said, and took a few steps back. But then she bumped against someone behind her. “Oops, sorry Maud—” she began, but when she turned around she froze. A giant roar cut through the air and the troll, which had been standing behind them for who knows how long, jumped to his feet.                       Air Miles and Pinkie Pie jumped up in the air and gave a horrified yell, then they galloped away as fast as they could. The enormous troll bellowed again, and chased after them, his crass feet thundering on the grass. The troll was giant; towering above the two tiny ponies desperately running in front of him. His skin was covered with brown hairs on his chubby belly and with grey, rock-like stubs and wards on his back, giving him a perfect camouflage. Pinkie and Miles ran towards the basalt field, trying their best to outrun the awful creature behind them. They soon realized their mistake, as the cracks and pits in the porous rock made them stumble over and over again. The troll had no problem with that at all; he simply crushed the stones underneath his giant toes. Each time the ponies stumbled, they could hear the troll coming nearer.                       “WHAT DO WE DO, WHAT DO WE DO, WHAT DO WE DO!” Miles screamed desperately in Pinkie’s right ear.                       Pinkie winched at the volume. “I DON’T KNOW!”                       Air Miles peeked over his shoulder. “HE’S ALMOST CAUGHT UP!”                       “I KNOW!”                       The cracking of rock came closer and closer, and the fleeing ponies lost ground rapidly. They tried to go faster, jumping over the cracks and holes, but suddenly they both tripped over a piece of slick moss and fell to the ground.                       In no time the troll had caught up with Pinkie and Miles.  He placed his feet right on top of their colorful tails and pinned them down—they had nowhere to run. The monster looked down; his hideous head blocking the sunlight once more. A droplet of saliva ran from the corner of his lips as he bowed over the two trembling ponies, grinning maliciously. “I’ve heard horses taste nice,” he began in a heavy, rumbling voice.                       Pinkie and Miles looked at him shakily.                                          “We don’t really get them a lot here, because”—the troll lowered his head—“these are troll-lands. Smart horses don’t go to troll lands. You horses aren’t  smart.”                       He lifted his feet, but before the poor ponies could run away, the troll grabbed them both by their tails and held them in front of his big, yellow eyes so he could see them better. Pinkie and Air Miles could now clearly smell his awful breath, laden with the stench of rot. They could see his jagged teeth and his grey skin, covered in dust and flakes of basalt. The troll grinned once more and opened his mouth wide; Pinkie and Miles screamed in panic, tears raining down their upside-down faces.                       But then the troll halted suddenly upon seeing the two desperate animals. He wanted to just have a little more fun for his hard work, so he closed his mouth again and snickered loudly. “HAHAHA, I haven’t had so much fun in YEARS!” He yelled. “Especially with YOU, ugly orange thing!” He poked Air Miles with a stumpy index finger. “You are such a COWARD!” Air Miles reached for his stomach and cried again, dangling by his tail; his flight jacket slid off and flopped to the ground. Pinkie Pie tried her best to concentrate, as a thought shot through her mind: where’s Maud?                       After the troll was done enjoying the fruits of his labor, a small, monotonous voice broke through the silence, “Hey!”                        “What is THAT!” The troll boomed, squatting down and priming his pointy ears to find the source of the sound.                       “It’s me. Here,” Maud Pie said. She stood straight opposite of the giant monster, but just out of reaching distance.                       “OH! Another tiny little horse for me?” the troll said. “Come closer, you are so hard to see!”                       Maud didn’t move a muscle. “Crouch deeper, than you can see me.”                       The troll crouched down even further, but—clumsy as he was—he wobbled and lost his balance. Quickly, he thrust his knee and his hands to the ground to regain his poise, but took care not to squash his midday meal. “THERE you are!” the troll yelled, and gave a loud roar at the top of his lungs. The hills themselves shook, and a rain of spittle came down on the land below—and Maud.                       But Maud ignored the troll’s hungry look, his ear-wrecking scream and the sticky saliva she was now covered in. She merely blinked once, slowly.                       “Huh?” The troll said, scratching his bald head with his free hand, “why are you not scared?”                       “Why should I be scared?” Maud countered.                       “Well, eh…” the troll began. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.                       But Pinkie Pie wasn’t going to wait for the troll’s answer. She felt his big muscles relax a little as he was lost in thought. Pinkie threw her body forwards, then backwards, then forwards again, until she was swinging rapidly. Once she became level with the troll’s fist, she grabbed it with her front hooves and bit as hard as she could in his grey index finger. Ugh! Tastes like basalt, Pinkie thought.                       The troll gave a winch, and let go of both ponies’ tails. Pinkie still had to slap Air Miles a few times across the cheeks, but then they bolted off.                       Strangely enough, the hungry troll didn’t even look at his fleeing lunch, for he was too concentrated on Maud’s question. He finally figured out the answer, “Because YOU are a little weak horse and I am a big, smart, mighty, strong, sneaky, smart troll!”                       “You said smart twice.”                       “I knew that!”                       “So why do you scare other creatures?”                       “HAH! Because it’s FUN!” the troll said, chuckling as he did.                       “But why is it fun?” Maud asked.                       To that, the troll had to think hard once more. Maud could see her friends running away and Pinkie Pie looking at her. She gave a wink and a small gesture to her sister, hoping she would understand; because she and her sister both liked to read fantasy books from time to time—especially when they were about rocks.                                                                                                         **                                                                                                                    “Pinkie! Where’re you going!” Air Miles yelled at her, when Pinkie galloped the other way.                       Pinkie nodded with her head; first to Maud, then to the place of the balloon wreck. “Follow me, gearhead,” she said, “I’ve got an idea.”                                                                                                     **                                                                                                                    “Because it makes me laugh!”                       “But why does it make you laugh?”                       “Because it’s fun.”                       “But why is it fun?”                       “Because it makes me— hey! I know what you’re doing!” the troll shouted, and stood up slowly and unsteadily.                       Maud Pie still stood her ground. “Then what am I doing?”                                          But the troll didn’t answer, instead he stomped his feet. “NO, NO, NO! Not again!”                                          With every stomp, Maud bounced in the air, but she remained stoic and silent— not a trace of fear or worry in her light-blue eyes. Because of the trolls earth-shattering feet, the ground behind her had risen dramatically into a slope, crowned with a large basalt column; and with every stomp it grew higher.                       “I want my LUNCH! I want my FUN! And I want to scare you NOW!” the troll yelled, and bent down to roar right into Maud’s face.                       The sheer force of the sound-waves made the basalt rock underneath her hooves crack. The troll continued screaming while the crack grew into a small crevice, the two sides of it expanding slowly. Dust and stones tumbled into the crevice, but Maud merely blinked once and then casually stepped on one of the two sides. She looked the troll straight in the eyes and blinked once again slowly.                       There was a pause. Only the loud gasping of the exhausted troll and a faint, indistinguishable scraping sound filled the still Icelandic air. Once the troll had regained his breath, he said, “I don’t understand! Why aren’t you scared?”                       Maud said nothing but blinked.                       “Please stop blinking! Please just say something! You’re freaking me out!” the troll said, his voice slowly filling with desperation. “Please just react normally!”                       Maud said nothing but blinked.                       The troll now fell to his knees with a thump, and started begging her, “Please! At least show some resistance.”                       “Alright,” Maud said and stepped aside, revealing Pinkie, Air Miles, and the giant propeller-engine standing right on top of the massive basalt-Column far behind her.                       “Hit it, Miles,” Pinkie yelled.                       Air Miles hit the throttle and the propeller—or actually half of it—started circling around faster and faster, until it was at its maximum speed again. Pinkie and Miles stood behind it and tried their best to keep the thundering metal engine at an angle—aiming directly for the obscured sun. The powerful  airstream gathered much dust and even some small rocks, which made the powerful air-column spectacularly visible. After just a few seconds, a tiny gap appeared between the slithering clouds and the sun shone through, bright and warm, pointed directly at the troll.                       The troll didn’t know what to do. He was petrified—literally. In a spectacular cloud of dust and smoke, his whole body started to turn to stone. His feet were rooted to the ground by the white rock; then the color spread upwards to his hairy belly, his neck and finally his giant head, freezing his hopeless expression forever.                       Air Miles and Pinkie cheered loudly, bumped their hooves, and then turned off the rickety engine. They jumped off the column and trotted down the slope. Pinkie Pie immediately ran towards her sister and embraced her tightly, feeling utterly relieved—Maud sighed and stroke her sister’s curly mane. However, the moment Air Miles’ hooves touched level ground, his engine exploded once more, making half of the tall column crumble and rain down. He jumped; but the Pie sisters ignored all of it.                       After seeing his hard work really going up in flames this time, Miles turned to the Pies, “How did you mares know that would work?” He asked, rudely interrupting their moment. Then he narrowed his eyes. “And why did that nasty thing chase us and not you, Miss Maud Pie?”                       Pinkie let go of her sister. “Well… everypony knows trolls turn to stone in the sunlight, right? It’s basic fantasy knowledge.”                       “Oh, yes, of course… I knew that,” Miles said, trying his best to sound as casual as he could. “But how did you mares communicate with each other?”                       “Pinkie sense,” Pinkie said.                       “Maud sense,” Maud said.                       “And as for your other question,” Pinkie continued matter-of-factly, “Maud is super-duper camouflaged with her pale dress and grey coat, so the troll couldn’t see her against the basalt rock.”                       Air Miles walked towards the troll statue, but then quickly turned his head to the Pie sisters again, hiding an expression of fear. “I guess you two are a really good team.” He paused, and his features softened. “We are a really good team! Together we can overcome anything. Let’s stay together on this journey and don’t split up.”                       Pinkie jumped in the air. “Great idea!” she said happily, but then she saw Maud turn the other way. “Eh… Maud, where are you going?”                       “Chalkstone. A soft, sedimentary rock,” Maud said. She tapped the troll’s shin with her hoof and a few crumbles of white stone trickled down. “I guess he wasn’t as tough as he thought.”