//------------------------------//
// 10) Nulpar Tour: Day 7, Snowtown 
// Story: Climbing the Mountain 2 
// by Talon and Thorn 
//------------------------------//

Consciousness slowly clawed its way back to Fragrant’s body. Her head was pounding and she felt stiff and feverish. She tried to roll over and instantly regretted it as her head and back protested at the movement. She froze in place again, trying to minimise the pain. What had happened to her? She hadn’t felt like this since... she was hung over, she recognised that much. It had been a long time since she’d overdone it enough to feel like this; in fact, she didn’t think she’s ever felt this bad before. Either she’d really drunk too much, or it was just a sign of her age. Once she’d been able to drink for most of the day and still put in a full night at court, but that had been a long, long time ago now.
 
How had she ended up this way? She tried to concentrate through the fog that covered much of her memories. She and Max had decided to spend the day having fun, they’d run through the meadow like foals, then the goats... that milky drink, far too much of it, then dancing with Max... then... oh! She’d tried to seduce Max! She carefully felt around the tent with a wing. She felt her and Max’s belongings, but no other ponies; he’d apparently been a perfect gentlestallion. She couldn’t decide if she was happy about that or not. His restraint was admirable, but she couldn’t help but think that if she was seducing somepony, she expected them to be seduced.
 
She carefully cracked open her eyes, then slammed them shut again. Even the diffuse light in the tent hurt them. She waited a few minutes, then tried again. There was still a pounding behind her eyes, but it was just about manageable. She righted herself and started to scramble around in the tent. She realised that she was still wearing her bags; no wonder her back hurt so much given her awkward position. She then realised with a shiver that she was naked and had been for much of the night. She didn’t think she could face the world like that right now; she felt bad enough as it was. Reaching into her bags, she realised they were mostly empty. She remembered giving much of her wardrobe away to the young goats. She sighed. Those clothes were probably worth more than they would see in a year or more. Still, she thought with a smile, they had looked cute in them. Looking through her remaining collection, she decided on a sensible mid length green dress. It took her longer than she’d hoped to put on. She sniffed. There was the scent of something cooking on the air. Her stomach complained for a moment and she struggled to bring it under control; she certainly didn’t want to vomit in Max’s tent.
 
“Fragrant? Are you alright?” came Max’s careful voice from outside. He sounded a little upset. Not surprising, given her behaviour last night.
 
“Muffergal,” she moaned, trying to get her tongue unstuck from the roof of her mouth. She tried again. “I... I am awake,” she admitted. “I do not feel well.”
 
“It’s no wonder after what you drank last night. A bottle of kumis would put most ponies under the table.” Fragrant took a moment to thank her pegasus metabolism. Although her tribe could not match the hardiness of the earth ponies, at least their quicker metabolism would normally deal with the consequences of a night's drinking quicker. She might feel like death warmed up now, but she should be fine in an hour or two. If she lived that long. “I’m putting some breakfast on, porridge, do you feel up to it?” Fragrant didn’t think she’d ever felt less like eating, but she knew at least getting something into her stomach would speed up her recovery.
 
“I think I will be able to manage something, in a little while.” She slumped down again and tried to gather her senses. “I apologize for my behaviour last night. It was unbecoming. I hope I did not offend our hosts.”
 
“I’m sure they’ve seen worse. It was interesting to talk to the Tor. I don’t see them much over in Sadlzburg. I’m glad I can do something to help them.” Suddenly the door to the tent was thrown open by a horrible, vicious, demonic pony. Fragrant squealed as the bright sun shone into her eyes. “Oh! Sorry!” said Max as he pulled the door shut again. She panted for a moment internally cursing both Max and Corona, before recovering her composure. Max slowly opened the door again and ran a hoof through the supplies, grabbing a few items and taking them outside. Cautiously and with eyes slitted, Fragrant followed him. She grimaced at the pain but managed to lift herself to her hooves, the fresh air clearing her head a little. She looked around. To her surprise, the meadow was empty; the entire goat tribe had disappeared with hardly a sign they had ever been here.
 
“Where did they all go?” she asked
 
“They were gone by the time I woke up. They left behind some supplies, though.” Max gestured to a small fire he had built, above which a few pots hung. “You should get a drink,” he gestured to the lake, “it’ll make you feel better.” Nodding, Fragrant made her way over to the clear water and started to somewhat self-consciously lap at it. She quickly realised how thirsty she was and began to gulp down the pure liquid. Finally, she submerged her whole head, feeling the cold soothe her headache. For a moment she considered leaping into the lake, but decided against it. After a long moment, she surfaced. Tossing her wet mane aside, she took a deep breath.
 
“Here,” said Max as she returned to the small camp. He passed her a steaming mug.
 
She cautiously sniffed it. “Is this coffee?” she asked the wonderful, handsome, heroic pony in front of her in wonderment.
 
“I think so. The goats left it behind. I don’t know where they got it from; it’s hard enough to find in Sadlzburg.”
 
She took a sip and enjoyed the feel of it spreading through her, returning life to her tired body. She sighed. “I am sorry for the position I put you in last night. You were every inch the gentlestallion, and I was hardly a lady.” She blushed avoiding eye contact with Max.
 
“Fragrant, you are never anything but a lady to me, and we never need to talk about that again. You did some silly things when you were drunk. Who hasn’t?”
 
“Thank you for being so understanding.” She took another sip of her drink. 

“Now if you were to make the same offer sober, well I don’t think I’d say no.”

Fragrant concentrated very hard on not spitting out her drink for a moment before letting the comment go. “I guess our holiday is over?”
 
“I’m afraid so. We’ll need to make good time if we’re going to get to Snowtown today. We wouldn’t want to worry your people.”
 
“It’s a shame. I enjoyed our time together.”
 
Max nodded. “So did I, but we’ll see each other again in a month or so.”
 
“I suppose so. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.”
 
“That’s the spirit,” said Max, unhooking the pot and dishing out a dollop of greyish gelatinous gloop. Fragrant felt her stomach turn again.
 



 
The pair set out once breakfast had been finished and Max’s equipment was stowed away. They followed the path the goats had arrived by; it was less steep than the sheer cliff Max had climbed yesterday, but there was no sign of the Tor. Once they descended, Max headed towards a distant mountain and they began to clamber over a broken plain. They talked little; Fragrant still felt drained by her hangover and also felt a blanket of depression weigh down on her. By this time tomorrow, she would be well on her way back to Cloudsdale and her mountain of paperwork. Max seemed likewise subdued. Shortly after lunch, Max started to slow in his progress, spending long moments peering down a cliff which marked one side of the path they were following.
 
“Come on, Max! We need to keep up the pace if we want to get to the town by nightfall,” said Fragrant. Her hangover was making her snappy.
 
“Sorry, but can we... can we stop here for a bit?”
 
Fragrant frowned. The view was nice, but there did seem to be better around. “Why?” she asked. “Are you alright?” Could he be sick? The thought brought a bit of panic to her breast.
 
“Yes, I’m fine, but it’s private. I just need a few minutes.”
 
“Of course,” said Fragrant, sitting next to Max and looking down the steep cliff. Her companion slumped down, staring into the middle distance. She didn’t like to see him like this. She didn’t think she had ever seen him less like himself. Whatever could be wrong?
 
“My father died near here,” said Max without inflection. “He tried to get to Snowtown in winter, got lost in a storm and fell off this cliff. He died almost instantly.”
 
Fragrant blinked. She was not expected that. “I... I am sorry.”
 
“We didn’t know what happened to him for months. He just didn’t come back. Eventually he was found by some miners from Snowtown. I... well, I always thought I’d end up as mayor, but I thought I had years, that I could travel first, but everyone expected me to follow in his hoofsteps.”
 
Fragrant rested a wing on Max’s back. “My fate seemed planned out as well. I was the oldest child, I would be duchess someday. It was a bit of a surprise when my talent turned out to be botany. Still, I... I like my job, I want to help ponies do what is best for them.”
 
“Me too,” agreed Max, turning to her. “But you see, they lied to me.”
 
“What do you mean?”
 
“There was a report on my father’s death. Somepony, Mum, I think, tried to hide it away so I wouldn’t see, but I uncovered it one day. He didn’t die from the fall, you see. He broke two legs but he was alive, but there was no way he could get back up the cliff again. They found him in a cave, he’d managed to make a fire, several. It was days, maybe longer, before his wounds, or hunger, or thirst, took him. He died all alone far away from anyone who cared for him.” Max sniffed. “And the ponies in Sadlzburg don’t seem to want me anymore, and Canterlot can be so strange, and Piste and Zephyr...” He trailed off.
 
“Max!” cried Fragrant, pulling him into a deep hug, wrapping her wings around him to try and protect him from the world. “I care, I will always care, I’ll always be here for you, you’re not going to die alone! And your people, Piste, they all care. It might not seem like it but they do, you are so loved.”
 
They remained there for a while, wrapped together. Eventually Max pulled back. “Thank you,” he whispered. “We should be off. Can you... can you give me a few moments, alone with... with Dad.”
 
“Of course,” said Fragrant. “Take all the time you need.” She trotted off a short distance
 
“Hi Dad,” he started. “I know I don’t visit often. Mum’s fine, but she’s... she’s moved on. I know you’d want her to do that, but it feels wrong you know?” He paused as if waiting for a reply. “That was Fragrant who was here with me. I think you’d like her. She’s kind and she puts up with me. I’m glad you got to meet her. I miss you, you know, I think you would have made a good baron, probably better than me, you’d know how to deal with Honeybun.” He stood there in silence for a moment, seeming to listen to the sound of the wind. “Bye, Dad,” he whispered, before turning back to where Fragrant was waiting.
 



 
Whatever Max had felt he needed to say back at the cliff seemed to have improved his mood, thought Fragrant. She herself was feeling better as well, the last wisps of her hangover evaporating like morning fog. She still felt a little melancholy about having to leave Max this evening, but she managed to put that out of her mind for the moment.
 
On the way to their destination, she and Max came across a pair of ponies trying to repair a damaged wagon. They were apparently a pair of brothers who worked a mine up in the nearby mountains, bringing their product down to Snowtown. As he lent them a hoof, Max explained that there were small deposits of coal and iron in the area, and most of the miners worked in small family groups. They all traded with Snowtown, which had a large smithy that converted their ore into useful tools, and even exported some into the nearby province of Rushia via a larger town called Sharpside on the border of Nulpar.
 
Once the wagon’s wheel was patched up, the four of them happily carried on down the road. As with the other ponies they had met along their route, Max had introduced himself and explained about the formation of Nulpar and his role in it. Fragrant had found herself rather amused by Max’s annoyance when the two miners told him they hadn’t heard of him or even Nulpar; they did after a little prompting remember Max’s home town of Sadlzburg, but seemed surprised it was the capital of the province rather than Sharpside. Max seemed downright angry at that suggestion, and sulked for much of the rest of their journey.
 
Eventually, as the sun was starting to lower towards the horizon, Max pointed out the town of Snowtown, a short distance away up a steep hill. Fragrance felt her heart sink at the announcement. Her time with Max was almost over. For a brief moment she seriously considered the insanity of asking Max to run away into the wilds with her, to never return to Cloudsdale, to never have to deal with the court again, to not have to make up her mind about Notebook or Wallflower. But that was all just a pleasant fantasy. She had her responsibility to her people, her family and her country, and she had to follow it regardless of what her heart told her.
 



 
“That should do it,” gasped Max as the wagon came to a stop amongst others like it, set up near the smithy. He’d only been in town a few times before, and he was always surprised by the size of the place; it was practically a factory compared to the small back room facility that serviced Sadlzburg.
 
“Thanks, Mr. Baron,” said Crumbly Cliff, as he unhooked himself from the other prong of the wagon. Max wasn’t entirely sure the earth pony believed he actually was a baron.
 
“Yeah, if you want to join us in the pub later, we’ll buy you a pint,” offered Heath, Crumbly’s half-brother, as he used his aura to make sure the wagon’s brake was fully engaged.
 
“I might take you up on that in a bit,” said Max, wiping the sweat from his brow. Whoever had decided to set up the town at the top of a hill certainly hadn’t had to drag loads of rock up to it. “But I’ll need to see to the duchess first.”
 
“Right you are,” said Crumbly, heading into the foundry to announce their arrival.
 
“Maybe we can talk a bit about your road and railway plan,” said Heath. “Anything that means we don’t have to drag this thing up here every week.” Max nodded distractedly as he glanced around for Fragrant. The pegasus had been flying a little way in front of them, trying to catch sight of her carriage; they were several hours behind schedule, and it should have arrived by now. He glanced up to see her slightly bedraggled figure silhouetted against the setting sun. Beautiful. He secretly hoped there had been some problem and the carriage wasn’t here; then they could spend another night together. He’d really enjoyed their time together, their talks, showing her around Nulpar; he really didn’t want to have to wait almost two months before seeing her again. She gracefully dropped to the ground again, next to him.
 
“I can see it parked next to a large stone building that way.” She pointed further into the town.
 
“Oh, that sounds like the town hall. I guess we should head to there, then.” He sounded dejected. Fragrant glanced around for a moment, and then leaned over and kissed him on the lips. “What?” he asked, pleasantly surprised.
 
“I might not get a chance to do that again for a while,” she explained, blushing a little, “once we’re in public.”
 
“Not that long, I hope. I still don’t understand why we have to keep this secret. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong!”
 
“I know, Max.” She took his hoof. “And out here in Nulpar there isn’t a problem, but in Canterlot and Cloudsdale there are journalists who would give their right hoof to get details of a noble romance. If they found out, we would have no peace. Believe me, I know.” She shuddered a bit.
 
“Very well,” sighed Max. He glanced up at the moon. “Isn’t it a bit late for you to head back now?” he asked. “How about we both spend the night here. I can even show you the glacier that gave this place its name tomorrow. It won’t take long.”
 
“We’ll see, Max. I agree, it is getting late, but I did tell Saltpeter I would be back at Sadlzburg tonight.”
 
The two of them trotted through the streets of the town, watching the inhabitants heading home for the night. To their surprise as they turned the corner to the town hall, they were greeted by a rather out of tune fanfare from a small band, and a rather amateurish-looking banner proclaiming, “Snowtown welcomes Dutchess Posey.” Both of them stood a little shocked for a moment, before a tall pegasus mare rushed over to them.
 
“Duchess Posey?” she asked. “I’m mayor Glacial Stream, it is such a great honour for you to be visiting us, I’m sorry but we only found out at the last minute when your chauffeurs arrived, we must have missed your missive but we’ve done what we can to make you welcome, I’m sure I can give you a tour of the town despite the lateness of the hour and we can probably host a feast and...” She continued, apparently without taking a breath.
 
“Thank you,” said Fragrant, gently interrupting, “but this isn’t an official visit. I just happened to be in the area on a trip with my colleague, Baron Max.”
 
“Max?” the mare asked surprised, blinking at the baron.
 
“The leader of your province,” prompted Fragrant with a frown. Max, still looking a little stunned, waved a hoof.
 
“Oh, right. I heard something about that. Nulpar, um, Max, right.”
 
“Uh, yeah, what happened to Mayor Burning Coke?” he asked.
 
“Oh, retired two, almost three years ago now. I’m his successor.”
 
Had it been that long since he’d last visited? thought Max. He guessed it must have been at least five years, actually; it had been that long since he’d had enough time away from Sadlzburg. “Good to see you, then. I’d like to get a chance to talk to you about the recent changes and what I can do for you up in Canterlot.”
 
Glacial nodded and looked back and forth between the two nobles. “Oh, right, that sounds good, baron, but um, the duchess, would you like to discuss anything, you head the weather ministry, don’t you, and run Cloudsdale?”
 
Fragrant smiled at the somewhat starstruck pony. “If I am able to stay, I will of course listen to any weather issues you have, but I think you would find some of my subordinates more helpful. They should be arriving soon to carry out a full audit of the province. I think you may find the baron more worthy of your time right now. My apologies, but I should talk to my chauffeurs.” She trotted over to the two stallions stationed near the carriage.
 
Glacial stood a little open-mouthed for a few moment as the Duchess walked away, before snapping her head back towards Max. “Right... sorry, baron, I didn’t know you were coming. The chauffeurs only mentioned the duchess.”
 
“That’s all right, I didn’t really publicise this, I just thought it would be a good idea to talk to all the people of Nulpar. I met a few miners on the way here, they certainly thought better roads or a railway would be useful. I’ve been trying to organise something over in Sadlzburg.”
 
“Oh yes,” agreed Glacial. “Railroads would be perfect, we even produce much of the materials you’d need here, coal and iron, not enough at the moment but if the mines were modernised!” Her eyes gleamed; he’d obviously struck a personal interest. “I don’t know about Sadlzburg, that’s a fair way off, but if you could get a link all the way down to Neighvosibirsk via Sharpside, it wouldn’t be easy, you’d probably need to tunnel but just think of the possibilities!”
 
Max did. He hadn’t really put that much thought into this side of Nulpar; he’d always thought of Sadlzburg. The route would be harder from here, but it could connect to a more central hub of the Equestrian railway. But was it worth it? The population of Sharpside and all its neighbouring towns probably wasn’t much more than Sadlzburg alone, but they did produce iron and coal rather than food. Which was more important?
 
He was shaken out of his thoughts by the return of Fragrant, and she did not look pleased. “I am afraid I will have to leave right away. There has apparently been some problem back in Sadlzburg that requires my personal attention.”
 
Max’s heart sank. “Is it anything serious?” What had happened to his town?
 
“No, it is merely an internal weather ministry issue, but I am needed.” She smiled sadly. “It is my duty.” She turned to the mayor. “I am sorry, Mayor Stream, that I am unable to enjoy your town’s hospitality.”
 
“I, I understand,” said Glacial.
 
“If there is anything that you urgently require me to look into, you should pass a copy of it to my staff now while I say goodbye to the baron.”
 
“Oh, right... ok,” said Glacial, rushing off.
 
“I’m sorry,” said Fragrant, resting a hoof on Max’s shoulder. “I did hope we would have more time. I have really enjoyed our time together. Nulpar is such a wonderful place, as unspoiled and handsome as its ruler. Maybe you could visit Cloudsdale one day?”
 
“I’m sure it’s just as beautiful as its ruler,” he said, resting his head against hers. “I’ll miss you.”
 
“As will I, but it is only a few months before we will see each other, and we will have the memories.”
 
Max so wanted to close the space between them to kiss too, to hold her to himself, but there were other ponies around, so he pulled away from her instead. “I’ll be counting the days.”
 
“I hope you manage to deal with your difficulties. Your plan to meet your people seems to be working so far, and I hope you can get over your more personal problems.”
 
“You too. I do think you should give Notebook a second chance.”
 
“We will see, Max.” She moved forwards again and gave him a hug. “Goodbye.” She broke away again.

“Goodbye!” replied Max, waving as she walked over to her carriage and boarded it. Glacial rushed out of the town hall, trailing papers as she went, and half passed, half threw the folders she held at Fragrant. Now loaded, the carriage’s chauffeurs began to flap their wings, raising the craft into the night sky and away. Max stood there, continuing to wave until after the carriage was out of sight. He sighed and looked around. Glacial was standing politely nearby. “Right. Now, what was it you were saying about railways?” he asked her.