The ride aboard the Scouticus Maximus was smooth, but there was just something about a moving bed that kept Sunny restless and unable to get to sleep. So carefully sidestepping her sleeping friends, she made her way to the passenger seat, and sat down, buckling in as Hitch continued their steady drive north. She looked out to the endless expanse of snow-covered landscape. Six hours ago it was bare arctic tundra, so they were getting closer.
"Can't sleep?" Hitch asked.
"Nope, how's the drive?" the mare replied.
"Uneventful, but I've got to hand it to Sprout and CanterLogic; this thing handles like a dream," Hitch said.
Sunny decided to respect Sprout's wishes and not utter a word about the red stallion's career change considerations for now. She glanced back at the rest of the group either sleeping or merely laying down with eye masks on, and noticed an absence.
"Zipp flying overhead?" She asked.
"Yep. She wanted to keep us on the right track, seeing as how so much of the landscape looks the same now. I'm trusting this thing for now," Hitch said, tapping the tip of his hoof on the compass built into the vehicle's console, which was showing a digital bearing of 10 degrees, which was almost directly northbound, if just a tad to the right. But as they got closer, that wasn't going to be much use without knowing precisely where they were headed. An aerial view would help where precise directional headings wouldn't.
"I'd ask if you really think there's something all the way up here, but you do kind of have the pictures to prove it," Hitch added.
"This place was sort of unexpected even back in their day. It vanished without warning for a thousand years, and then reappeared with just as little warning, and the Guardians had to figure out how to protect it."
"So... Any theories on what happened to it?" Hitch asked.
"Nope. I can only assume... Whatever happened to the rest of Equestria too," Sunny answered.
"You don't think... I mean, maybe there's a way that they've been up here this whole time? Isolated from whatever happened?"
"According to what was in that journal, the magic of the Crystal Empire protected the city from the harsh weather of the region. So I can only assume this is going to get worse. Zipp did say there was some kind of storm in front of the mountain range, and I'm making a semi-educated guess that the city is in there. So, conventional knowledge says that there would be nothing alive left up there. But, we've been surprised before, so who knows?"
"Well, if not, the cold might have kept artifacts intact. I'm just hoping that it's not completely buried. Like, we have the tools to do some digging and ice-chipping, but not unearth an entire city," Hitch told her.
"Yeah, I really hope this trip isn't a total bust," Sunny replied.
They heard a dull thump on the back of the truck, and moments later, Zipp opened the hatch as quietly as she could, and floated down to the floor, coming up in between Hitch and Sunny.
"We may want to stop until daylight, Sheriff," Zipp cautioned.
"What's up?" The stallion asked, as he slowly brought the vehicle to a stop.
"We're coming up on the Crystal Mountains, and the storm in front of them."
Hitch checked the external thermostat, as well as the fuel gauge.
"Well, it's cold enough where we'll probably want to keep this thing running. I'll fill her up, then we can all get a few hours of sleep on stationary beds," Hitch quipped as he threw on his coat and hat, and opened the door to head to the rear to grab one of the fuel canisters.
Seeing how it was a quarter past two in the morning, Sunny figured this was the best time to get some sleep before the first half of their trip came to an end. As Zipp settled into her sleeping bag next to her sister, Sunny likewise unbuckled her seatbelt, and walked to the back of the cab, where her sleeping arrangements had been laid out on the right set of seats. Carefully stepping over Izzy and Sprout, she climbed up onto the seats and slid into her sleeping bag as she heard the muffled sounds of Hitch opening the gas cap.
Now that her bed wasn't swaying with the terrain, she found it easy to be lulled to sleep by the idling engine and blowing wind...