The Introduction - II
“Who would ever want to be in a place like this?” Polaris asked himself.
The unicorn grunted as he pulled his legs free from the brambles. He let out a long sigh as he righted the saddle bag on his back and adjusted his glasses. “There,” he said. “That wasn’t so bad, now was it, Polaris? Not in the slightest.” He nodded once to himself and started back up the trail. He’d reach the peak of the tallest mountain in no time. If the terrain didn’t turn on its head and get him lost.
Again.
“...Oh blast I was talking to myself again, wasn’t I? Well, yes. NO! Stop that! You are a unicorn! You are of the fair folk! You have standards! Save it for the journal. Quite right. ...Blast, get a grip man!”
It had all seemed so simple. When the Minister of Defense told him she had a job for him, one that the fate of all Cabalos may depend upon, and one that may guarantee entry into the College Professoriate, he was over the moon. Recognition at last! Once they told him the job involved mapping out an uncharted region of Cabalos, he was in absolute rapture. It was as if all those years of studying and getting sneered at in the College were finally paying off, and by doing the thing he loved best!
If they had told him he was being dropped off in THE unmapped region, the Mercurial Mountains and the Badlands, a forbidden wasteland, he may have reconsidered. Or not. One does not reconsider a “request” from the Minister of Defense. If she wants something done, it gets done. Even if it would take, in theory, months for a single unicorn to complete all on his own. Not that the Minister cared.
Polaris snorted to get some dust out of his nose. It wouldn’t have hurt them to deploy him with another unicorn, even if they couldn’t read a map. He could really use somebody to talk to right now, anybody really. He was beginning to miss the Minister, who most grew to hate shortly after meeting. How was he supposed to stay sane in this upside down world of dirt, rocks and monsters without some other soul to commiserate with?
A squawking noise brought the unicorn to his knees. He hurriedly studied the treetops and watched as shadow after shadow passed over as the mountchasers flew past. His mind briefly wandered to the lost, scared pegasus from earlier.
“I suppose I might have been a little short with her… she was lost after all. Wait! What am I saying? I’m lost too, not that I’d ever admit it… What help would I be in the long run? A pegasus has absolutely no business being here in the first place, and even if she did it’s not my place to worry over her. Quite right. That was close, for a moment I almost felt pity.”
And with that Polaris strutted onwards. He was much too busy to worry about every little problem that came his way. He already lost daylight by taking the detour earlier. He’d done his good deed for the day, the rest was in the Alicorns' hooves.
Polaris heard a low howl and ducked to the ground. He perked up his ears and listened carefully. An instant later he heard a snarling slobber breathing down on his neck. A shaky glance over his shoulder revealed the direwolf looming over him. It’s teeth were barely a hoof’s distance from snapping his head like a walnut.
“Oh no, not again.”
The massive wolf hungrily snapped its jaw shut. It’s wet teeth barely caught the last of the unicorns’ mane as he dashed farther up the mountain. The gleaming eyes of direwolves followed him from behind tree trunks and bushes as he beat the hard dusty dirt with his hooves and willed himself to ascend higher and higher over the crags and roots.
“What on Cabalos is going on here? They’re not even supposed to be up this far north! Augh, my intel must be all wrong!”
The trees cleared out for a stretch of the incline and left the black rocks jutting out of the ground exposed. Polaris reached the first loose stone he found, about the size of his head, and spun on his hooves to face the oncoming predators.
They stalked slowly and confidently towards him. Their dark, shield-like fur lay solid on their backs and was not swayed by the wind. Their wickedly long teeth were licked clean by their red tongues. Their stink wafted up the incline.
Polaris’ horn shimmered as the rock was heaved from the earth by his magic. It hovered by his head, ready to launch at any moment. “That’s close enough! One more step and things get ugly, I’m warning you!”
The wolves snarled daringly and prepared to charge when a strange sound floated through the air. Polaris flicked his ear at the sound. It almost sounded like… music? It was too tactile a sound to be a flute, but to light and airy to be strings or drums. Whatever the sound was, it had a profound effect on the direwolves. They ceased their snarling, their mouths closed over their teeth, and their ears drooped. They scuttled backwards, almost as in fear, and cowed away, back into the woods.
Polaris allowed himself a moment to glance around. He saw no sign of any other soul or beast for that matter. He shrugged and let his rock float back unto the ground. He checked around one more time before he gave a shrug and resumed his climb.
“Ah well, no time to overthink this. At least it wasn't something larger this time. They drove me towards my goal, if anything…”
With heavy, ragged breathing, Polaris pulled himself up and over unto level ground. He cleared a couple of stories at least with those wolves on his tail, now he found himself on a sort of shelf, covered with more withered trees. They dispersed along the silver slopes further north, where the terrain began to dip and weave across the range. Just one more slope or so and he’d be at the lip of a network of valleys, so his intel said. He shook his mane out.
Polaris pulled his saddlebag with his teeth until it sat right next to his legs. He poked his nose inside and levitated out a small pamphlet. He unfolded it and pored over what the Minister and her men had given him before they left him behind and continued their trek to Meteoras.
Inside was a rough approximation of the Badland’s border, and inside that was several arrows and circles drawn over hypothetical areas of interest. There were no landmarks listed, nor differences in terrain. The only thing close was in the center of the diagram; a crudely drawn mountain with an arrow pointing at it.
‘Mountain range here, direwolves further south
Points of interest: valleys, forests, tallest peaks’
And at the bottom of the note was a message in red ink, lovingly written: End of known intel. Watch out for direwolves and other beasts. Good luck! ~MoD
The unicorn scholar growled to himself and shoved the pamphlet back into the bag. “Thanks for the help, Miss Minister of Defense. I feel so safe out here…”
Polaris pulled out his current rough draft. His sense of direction came very much in handy out here; his trail from the north-west border to his present location was intrinsically detailed, sans a few blank spots that could be filled in later. He pulled out his pen and jotted down a few notes in his schedule.
“Third day: Mountain range reached… Escaped direwolves again…Met a lost pegasus…”
He tapped his chin with his quill. What did happen to her? The trees couldn’t block the sky quite like they did before, but the pegasus filly was nowhere to be seen, assuming she took flight at all. No mountchasers either, for that matter. She must be fine then, he decided.
She should count herself lucky, at least she’s not bound by oath to accomplish an impossible task, imposed upon him by one of the most powerful institutions in all of Lustre. That’s what Polaris told himself.
He put away his draft and his schedule, and he produced his own personal book. It was well-loved and very thick. He set it on the ground, opened it up to the first blank page, about halfway through the book, and with a heavy heart began writing.
“Dear Desperation Diary:
“My third day and my progress has still been miniscule. My mission to complete even a basic topography of these accursed lands is becoming more and more difficult. The rumors of this place being utterly un-navigable have turned out true; it seems I cannot trot but one hour at a time before I am disorientated, attacked or completely turned around. My trip to the highest peak is met with setback after setback. Run-in with a wayward pegasus notwithstanding… (Note to self: contact Meteoran Authorities if the opportunity presents itself).
“I did try an alternate route today and had an unfortunate run-in with a bush of brambles, and was pursued by direwolves almost immediately after. Even though I spent the last day and a half scaling these cliffs, the tallest peak grows no closer, and I am faced with the same bleak landscapes of rock, dirt and trees. These mountains make absolutely no sense.”
Polaris paused to examine the ground beneath him. He could spy a dried river, several crags, and the very spot where he had escaped the direwolves. It had certainly grown farther away, and a tumble from this height would do him no good, but what manner of optical illusion kept the mountain he was climbing so invariably tall?
One wise unicorn said that if the world were flat, a horse’s mortal sight would construe a horizon that sloped upwards, and not downwards. Could this mountain be so impossibly cosmically big as to trigger a similar effect?
Legends did say the Mercurial Mountains were remnants of a primal, savage Cabalos that had yet to have its magic tamed. Perhaps the paranormal physical phenomena of this land was more bizarre and monstrous than even the greatest unicorn mind had first conceived.
“Note to self,” he continued. “Next time I am deployed by the College of Asterim into uncharted territory, insist on a longer period of preparation that proper personnel and provisional papers may be procured!” He struck and stabbed the quill particularly hard on that last word.
Polaris allowed himself a moment to be indignant and angry, but his mood sank pretty fast. He sighed again. “Who am I kidding? The College doesn’t deploy their newest scholar into monster-infested territory because they value him! They just wanted to get rid of me…” But for what? What had he done so wrong? His insistence on archaic Alicorn doctrinal? Talking back when a Professor slighted his mother? His rejection of the Dew Leaf decimal system?
“Will I ever get out of here? Even if I can make this final stretch, is this actually possible on my own? Will I ever see another unicorn again? Will I ever see another pony again?”
And then he heard it. A scream, and then a crash.
“Daaaah~! Oof!”
At once Polaris was on his hooves. He levitated his quill into the air and twirled it like a dagger. He turned around and searched for a source of the noise. A withered tree just had some of its leaves shaken free, and one of its shriveled branches haplessly toppled to the ground.
“What manner of incompetence could ground a creature so soundly?”
And so Polaris cautiously drew near. He squinted at the treetop and tried to make out a discernable shape from the shaking leaves and rustling branches. He heard a few muffled whimpers and a squeak.
A shape fell out and hung from a bottom branch. The thing had caught its leg and now dangled upside down from the tree. It had a yellow coat, a dark mane, silver armor, cyan eyes and a pair of wings.
“Um… hi?”
“Sisters save it, it speaks!” The two stared at each other for a good moment before Polaris overcame his shock and frowned. It was Lightning Bug, the lost pegasus private. “Oh that’s just great, it’s you!”
The pegasus opened her mouth just as her hoof finally came loose. She fell and landed right in front of the unicorn’s hooves. “And what, pray tell, inexplicably flings you in my direction this time?”
“Oh, um…” Lightning Bug pulled herself up and shook out her wings. “Mountchasers again. Can you believe it? They had me right when I went airborne.”
So she did find trouble after they parted ways. It was best to show concern and ask how she managed, he decided. “Fascinating. And why did you not stick to the trail I had shown you?”
“I did! I just thought it’d be quicker if I flew over for a little bit--”
Now it was time to gently let her know that mountchasers love airborne prey. “Yes, all the better for those things to catch wind and chase you again.”
“I was in a hurry! You told me to get out, so I flew as fast as I could!”
“Not fast enough, it seems.” Lightning Bug lowered her head and looked away. “You’re not very good at this whole pegasus thing, are you?” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Do you perhaps require my assistance, again?”
“That’s fine. I’ll just go now.”
“...Good, that works for both of us.” As Lightning Bug prepared to take off, Polaris left to retrieve his bag. He started back towards the final stretch of his journey. Just over that last hill and he was gold. He managed a glance at Lightning Bug as he passed by, and what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Her back was turned to him so he couldn’t see that much, but her head was ducked and she brought a hoof up to her face. She breathed in sharply, and he thought he heard her sniffle.
Lightning Bug flicked her ears and looked over at Polaris. “...What?”
“Nothing, that’s what. As you were, pegasus.” And he kept walking. He was already several strides away before he glanced over his shoulder again, and she only just flew away as he watched. “...Smooth, Polaris. Real smooth. She must hate herself only slightly more now.”
Polaris was hot, sweaty, exhausted, and once more he had to yank his saddle bag with his mouth. This time he had to pull it up over a ledge, instead of out of a bush, and he was too tired to simply levitate it alongside himself as he climbed. He growled and wrestled with the next set of crags. His nimble unicorn hooves gripped the tiniest footholds and he easily pulled himself up, but then he had to look back at his saddlebag, lift it closely with his magic, bite it out of the air, and then slowly and painfully set atop another stable ledge where it would sit until he climbed a further ways up.
When his hoof missed a step, he nearly toppled over, and he nearly kicked away his saddlebag to the cliff below. Thankfully he regained his balance in time and offered a quiet prayer to the Sisters.
"Quite the climb, huh?"
"Er, who said that...?" Polaris peeked over his shoulder, and about two pony-lengths away he spied some stallion balancing atop his own foothold. His coat was white and covered with dirt.
"Never thought I'd find myself all the way out here," the pony said. "Then again never thought I'd have company either, so I'll count my blessings."
Polaris blinked. "Where did you come from."
"Hm? Oh, don't mind me, I've been here all along."
Polaris peeked back at his saddlebag and shook his head. "You were following me or you were out here in the mountains ..." but when he looked back, he was alone once more. "....All along?" Polaris gently brought a hoof up to his face and gave himself a smack. "Not a good sign, not a good sign... hallucinating is not a good sign. I may have to turn back if my sanity is called into question further."
With a gasp he pulled himself up and over the steepest of hills he’d ever seen and unto level ground once more. He paused to relish the firm stability for a moment before he rose to survey his surroundings.
What he saw made his heart flutter, and not in the good way.
He was standing at a very specific ledge, overlooking a very familiar landscape beneath him. The trees were dense and had not dissipated in the slightest compared to below. The mountains still towered above him, and now there was yet another final ridge to cross. It was as if the mountain had grown an extra cliff the moment his view was obstructed by the climb.
He had to be hallucinating again, right?
But wait, beneath him there should be where he first set down and wrote in his journal. That was not what he saw. The dried river, the crags... He was right where he began!
“But how?” he cried. “Of all the twists and turns I’ve taken, this trumps all! A new record for bamboozlement! It’s as if the land itself is against me reaching the mountaintop! How broken can reality be in this place?”
He backed himself into a tree and hit it with a thud. He fell back on his flank and shook his head.
“Oh?” A voice caught his attention. He looked up once more and met with a pair of cyan eyes hanging from the tree.
“...Hi,” Lightning Bug said.
“Hi,” Polaris said back through grit teeth.
"You didn't hear a voice earlier, did you?" she asked.
"No," Polaris said.
“...Do you have any food, by any chance? I’m starving.”
Polaris thought back to the single loaf of bread left in his bag.
“No.”
“Aw.”
Polaris rapidly jotted down notes as he peaked over the edge of the hill over and over again. ‘Wrong side of the mountain? Optical illusion? Space-time-wormhole?’ he jotted down any and everything he could think of as to how he could have gone in a complete circle by simply going straight up.
Lightning Bug grunted as she worked with a stick that was caught in her mane. She sat against a tree as she watched Polaris write. “...What’s the matter?”
“These forsaken mountains are what's the matter!” Polaris cried. “This makes absolutely no sense! I walked in the same direction, perfectly straight, and yet I found myself in the completely wrong area!”
“Tell me about it. I flew for hours and didn’t get anywhere, before the mountchasers got me again...”
“Disorientation in this region is common, nay, expected! But I don’t think any unicorn has ever experienced something as this.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
Polaris looked up from his notes and glared at the pegasus. “What is ‘kind of cool?’”
Lightning shrugged. “If you’re the first unicorn to get this far up the mountain, you’ll be the first to tell everyone about it when you get home. You’ll be famous.”
“I’ll be famous if I make it out at all!” The unicorn said. “Besides, I cannot return home, not until…” He paused. Lightning Bug was looking at him intently, waiting for him to finish. “Why am I telling you all this?! Quiet, I have work to do.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Polaris pulled out his draft and began marking his place on the map. He determined if he were to do the same thing one more time, tracking his position all the while, he may be able to avoid whatever mishap caused him such a wild detour… only how would he hold a map and take notes while he was climbing? He could barely keep his own bag up off the ground with his horn magic when he was scaling that hill. Perhaps he should take yet another alternate route, yes that made the most sense.
“Is that a map?”
Polaris shouted and covered his papers with his hoof. Lightning was peering over his shoulder. “That’s none of your concern!” Polaris said as he hurriedly put everything away.
Lightning kept her gaze on Polaris as he worked, and then her eyes lit up. “Wait a second… are you lost?!”
Polaris balked. “Me, lost?”
“Of course!” Lightning Bug said with an excited flap of her wings. “That’s why you’re drawing a map! You’re trying to find your way out of here, just like me!” She smiled and shook her head. “No wonder you’re so pushy and whatever, you just wanna go home. I don’t know why I ever thought you were just a horrible unicorn. Everyone gets grumpy sometimes after all.”
“...Hey.”
A wide smile spread over her face. “I know! How about we hoof it together!”
“What. Travel with a pegasus? Great incongruity! I’m a trained individual, I don’t need help.”
“It would be safer, don’t you think?” she said with a smile. “I’d be away from the mountchasers, and I could make sure nothing attacks you. I am a soldier after all, it’s what I do. And we could work together to get out of here, I could help you navigate. Two heads are better than one, right?”
“I have no need for protection,” Polaris said. “Or a second head.”
“Aw come on, We could be lost-buddies!”
“I’m not lost, I told you that! Besides, It will be a warm day up north before I trust the navigational skills of a pegasus to get me out of here.”
Lightning’s ears drooped. “H-hey! I was just trying to help.”
“You may help by staying out of my way. If this accursed mountain sees fit to collide our paths again and again, so be it, but you may do your part by minding your own business just as I’ll do mine. Now if you’ll excuse me..." And the unicorn trotted away.
Lightning watched him leave. She straightened her wings and frowned. “Well fine! I didn’t want to hoof it with some grumpy old unicorn meanie anyway! It’s not like I’m lonely! I’ve roughed it out here for days, I’ll be fine! ...All on my own… in uncharted territory… far from home…”
She swallowed hard and checked her surroundings before taking off again. Polaris could see her disappear over the western horizon. He needed to wait only a few moments before she sped back in the opposite direction, with two or three mountchasers on her tail. Her wailing came and went as she disappeared over the other side of the mountain. Polaris sighed and started climbing again.
He wasn’t sure how he managed, but when Polaris climbed over the cliff a second time, what greeted him wasn’t an identical landscape, but rather a dip into a sort of basin. There was plenty of space to walk and trot, no more mountain trails or scaling cliffs here. It was as though instead of being high in the mountains, he was instead at the bottom of a canyon, with towering cliffs and rocks on either side. Pretty to look at, but he’d hate to be trapped between the tumbling drop behind him and the tall, unclimbable rocks in front of him. He may have to press on for quite a ways before he ever found a way up the tallest peak.
Polaris had barely been walking an hour before he heard the familiar scream of a pegasus soldier. He groaned, lowered his head, kept walking and waited for the inevitable confrontation.
He saw Lightning Bug galloping up and over a small hill. Her face was as pale as her yellow coat would allow, and her wings sagged uselessly on her shoulders. She was panting and gasping for air.
“Alright, Private, what is it this time?” Polaris called. “Mountchasers again?”
Lightning’s answer was a scream. She squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head as she ran. Finally another shape followed her down the hill. It was at least three times her size. It had long, silver fangs and tough, shell-like fur covering its body. It opened its toothy maw and howled.
“...Seriously? A direwolf? That’s what you’re screaming about?” Polaris looked around and found a nearby rock. “Ah, no matter.” He hefted it free with his magic, checked to make sure he wouldn’t hit Lightning, took aim, and chucked the rock.
Lightning’s eyes widened. “No, wait!”
The rock zipped through the air, deftly flew over Lightning’s head, and smacked the giant dog right in the nose. It skid, tripped, fell, and tumbled over and over on the ground until it finally stood still; not dead, just out for the count with a bruised schnoz.
And yet for some strange reason Lightning was still running.
“Er, problem solved, Private! You may stop running now.”
“That wasn’t it!” she wailed.
“Oh? Then what was…” The ground shook. “...It?”
A hulking, black creature bounded up from behind the hill. In mere strides it barreled down the hill, ducked its mighty horns, hefted the prone wolf into the air and tossed it over the very cliff that Polaris had just scaled. It clawed at the earth with cloven hooves and shook its three horns about; two were pointed straight, the third curved into itself like a ring upon its forehead. Its snout blasted air like jets of steam as it held back its head and let out an earth-shaking roar.
“It’s a torus!” Lightning cried.
The beast kicked the earth with its plated, heavy legs. It ducked its head and charged straight for the pegasus.
“Ah, not good, not good!” Without a second thought, Polaris shed his bag and ran for Lightning. “Private, you have to fly! Get out of there!”
“I can’t, my wings won’t move!”
“Then just keep running, I have a plan!”
The torus flung its head up as it ran and grazed Lightning’s tail with the tips of its horns. The pegasus yelped and kicked hard to move faster. The torus bellowed and swiped with its powerful forearm. It hit Lightning’s armor and sent her tumbling.
A rock smacked the giant bull in the eye. It snorted and growled at Polaris, who had another stone at the ready.
“I may not look like much, but I can make it hail stone if I wanted to! Do you want that, bull?”
The torus raised its mighty hooves and pounded the earth. Dirt, dust, and rocks were flung into the air, right in Polaris’ direction. The unicorn blinked, shrugged, and yawned. The dust and dirt flew by him, and it was very annoying, but the rocks remained in place in the air. He smiled as his horn glowed.
“I tried to warn you.” And then he stomped the earth with his own hoof, and the rocks one by one took off. Each rock smacked the torus from its flank to its head to its horns. It growled and ducked under the constant buffet of stones. Polaris smiled and closed his eyes as the rocks flew. “I’m sure you’ve trounced several hapless ponies out here in the middle of nowhere, but you’ve never dealt with someone like--” And then he opened his eyes just in time to see the torus’ horns. “...me?”
He didn’t have time to scream before the horns drove themselves deep into the dry earth beneath him, and with but a shove, the bull had unearthed everything above the horns, unicorn scholar included, and tossed him into the air. Polaris flailed and screamed as he dropped, but the bull caught him with its horns and tossed him again.
And again.
And again.
It was probably the fifth time when it got bored and tossed Polaris away.
The unicorn tumbled and skid until he finally struck Lightning and bowled her over. Lightning got back to her hooves and checked to make sure Polaris wasn’t too hurt. He was bruised and scuffed, his mane was a mess, but his glasses were okay, at least.
“I…” he wheezed. “I probably deserved most of that.”
The torus bellowed and got ready to charge. Lightning forced Polaris to his hooves and pulled him along into a gallop. The two ponies raced away as the mighty black bull took off, its horns poised to kebab the two ponies. Lightning flapped her wings to gain some air, but it was in vain, they still were too worn out.
“I don’t suppose…” Polaris gasped as he ran. “You have any ideas?!”
“I did!” Lightning said with a smile. “I thought I could distract it with something about its size, another monster, so it’d forget about us!”
“Splendid! Where would we find such a thing though?”
Lightning’s smile grew wider and stiffened. She didn’t answer.
It occurred to Polaris that the very thing Lightning had mentioned may lie at the bottom of the cliff, tossed away by the torus and nursing a wounded snout. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Well then…”
A jet of steam roasted their flanks. The torus was getting closer. They tried turning this way and that but the giant bull only came closer.
“Um, I’m really sorry!” Lightning said.
“For what, the bull?!”
And then Lightning bashed Polaris in the shoulder. He was sent flying out of the way of the torus’ stampede, and Lightning dove after him. The torus flew past, realized what had happened, and made a slow, wide turn to face its prey.
“It was the only thing I could think of, I’m sorry!” Lightning tried to help Polaris to his feet again, but the unicorn batted her hoof away as he steadied himself.
“A warning would be nice next time,” he said.
“I did!”
“No, you apologized in advance, that doesn’t count.” Polaris looked over Lightning and watched as the bull completed its turn and began its charge.
“What’s the plan this time, Private?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“You’re the soldier!”
“I never fought a beast in my life! ...I mean, I’ve never won anyway.”
“How splendid! What’s someone like you doing out here in the Badlands?!”
“I don’t know! I ask myself that every day now! ...Gah!”
The two ponies dove in opposite directions and hit the dirt as the torus dozed by them and tore up the earth. Dust and pebbles flew in its wake, and a rock tapped Lightning’s helmet as she peeked up. It would begin to turn again shortly. “Any chance we could just slip away when it's moving like that?” she asked.
“Torus are simple-minded creatures,” Polaris said as he backed away. “But they are also extremely stubborn. It most likely has our scent and shapes committed to memory -- it won’t stop chasing us until we’re trampled or eaten.”
Lightning looked around and spotted the cliff Polaris had climbed up from. “I’ll bet my helmet that thing can’t turn on a bit,” she said.
“What are you thinking, Private?”
“You can throw rocks and stuff at it to distract it, and I’ll hop on top of it and steer it over the cliff edge!”
“How pragmatically savage of you. I’m impressed, pegasus! But what hope do you have to drive it over? Have you ever ridden a bull before, let alone a torus?”
The torus bellowed as it charged. “Um… nope! But I’ll figure it out.”
The two took off in opposite directions. The torus chose to follow Polaris, which was precisely what he wanted. He wasn’t planning on the bull to leap into the air to pound and shatter the earth with its legs, however. The unicorn snagged the rocky shrapnel out of the air as it flew and buffeted the torus. He smacked its eye, which greatly irritated it.
The unicorn backed away sideways towards the direction of the cliff and coaxed the bull with more rocks. The torus stopped charging and slowly and deliberately marched for the unicorn, daring him to continue the assault. Polaris moved sparingly and allowed the giant bull to draw dangerously close.
“Now, Private!”
The bull let out a confused snort just as Lightning landed on its back. “Hah, gotcha!” She reached with her hooves and pulled hard against its two horns. She struggled to stay on, but she managed to make it swerve and turn its head wherever she pulled its horns. As long as it did the same as it ran, she was gold. “You listen to me now!”
And then the bull bucked. “Wuh-woah!” It bucked again, and if not for her hooves lodged in its horns, Lightning would have been tossed a story into the air. It kicked its rear legs over and over, and Lightning screamed as she clung for dear life.
“Hang in there Private, you almost have it!”
“I’m hanging, I’m hanging!”
The torus finally gave up removing its unwanted passenger and made a dash for the cliff. Lightning’s voice jittered and shook as she bumpily sped along. “It’s working!” She cried. “It’s working! Woo!”
The torus was within spitting distance of the cliff. One step too many and it would tumble down and meet its direwolf companion, and Lightning would let go and merely fly or glide to safety. If everything went according to plan, that is.
Which it didn’t, because the bull dug its hooves into the ground, mere inches away from the drop-off, and made a hard turn away from the cliff.
Lightning gulped. So it can turn on a bit after all. “Oops.”
“Sisters save it! Private, jump off!”
Lightning was too scared to jump even if she wanted to. Her hooves clung to the horns and had forgotten how to dislodge themselves. The torus screeched to a stop and stood up high on its hind legs, and Lightning was flung off.
She hit the ground in a daze. She shook her head and checked for where the torus had gone. The answer was right in front of her. It charged right for her and pounced into the air.
Lightning leapt back with a flap of her wings and deftly evaded its flying hooves. But then it caught her between its horns and threw her to the ground. It lifted its head for the briefest moment and then stabbed. Lightning yelped and rolled away as it stabbed with one horn, and then once more as she rolled away from the other. The creature pinned the pegasus down and dug both horns into the earth. She pushed against it with her hooves but was helpless to stop it. Its forehead threatened to flatten her as its horns sank deeper and deeper into the earth.
Polaris desperately ran for the pegasus as he racked his brain for some kind of way to save her. He prayed quickly and quietly for some sort of deliverance from the Alicorns.
Lightning squeezed her eyes shut. Her legs buckled against the creature’s horns. She could smell its breath. Its red eyes got closer and closer. She could feel its entire weight press against her. She could feel herself getting pushed into the earth. It was going to bury her. She turned her face away and screamed.
The air became alive and prickled with energy. The clouds rumbled above them. Thunder blasted through the air and brought Polaris’ charge to a screeching halt.
And then it happened.
Blue lightning descended and struck the torus. It was like a mighty javelin of light. It was there one instant and gone the next. Mere milliseconds later the booming thunder blasted the immediate vicinity with a wave of power. Dust and pebbles were sent flying, and Polaris was nearly pulled away.
“Sun and Moon above…” Polaris breathed.
The torus shuddered and collapsed. Steam and smoke wafted from its body. Lightning was still somewhere beneath it. Polaris cautiously drew closer. Could even a pegasus survive something like that?
“Private?” He asked. No answer. “Private? ...Miss Lightning?” he asked in a quieter voice. Still no reply.
Polaris was not deterred by the smell of burnt hair and skin. He poked with his horn against the creature’s still body. He hefted as hard as he could but could not budge the torus enough to tip it over.
And then he heard something scratch the earth beneath it. A burnt shape shuffled itself free from the torus’ limp head. “Owwww….”
Lightning shook her mane out and looked up at Polaris. Splotches of soot and dust covered her yellow coat, her helmet was scorched, but she was otherwise unharmed. Even her mane looked fine, if a little frazzled.
“Oh thank the sisters, I thought you’d be fried,” Polaris said. He pointed at the still-smoking torus. “Talk about divine intervention! I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Lightning tilted her head. “Like what?” she looked over at the unconscious torus. “...Oh, that.” She seemed more annoyed than surprised. She poked her wings with her snout and recoiled. “Ah great, now I smell like smoked meat.”
“Well it certainly beats being eaten like some, I’ll tell you that,” Polaris said as he helped her to her feet. “I don’t think words would do what just happened justice, but then again I am quite tired.”
“Me too,” Lightning said with a whine. “I’m so done with this place.”
“Indeed.” Polaris checked around the landscape. The torus had pounded several long, smooth circles and loops into the dusty earth with its hooves. He checked for any spots of interest inside the basin and settled on a large cluster of trees. Polaris looked between Lightning and the wood before he ducked away, without saying a word. He walked past the torus and back towards the cliff. For a moment it seemed like he just left without a word of goodbye.
But then he came back and trotted past with his previously shed saddlebag. “I don’t know about you, but I’m heading for the shade. We certainly don’t want to be here when it wakes up. ...If it wakes up.” And he was off again.
Lighting hesitated. She gave one last look at the defeated torus before she followed after Polaris. “Why can’t my Stormtouch ever work when I want it to?”
A tiny stream of silver water gently babbled away beneath the tallest tree, this is where Polaris had seated himself. Lightning joined him soon after. Her wings hung from her shoulders and left little trails in the dirt as she dragged herself to the small oasis, if it could be called that.
Polaris peeked up just as he had opened his bag. “There you are,” he said. “I think we’ve both earned a moment of reprieve from our respective endeavors.”
“Mn,” this time it was Lightning’s turn to be short and vague. She barely had the energy to talk. She plopped herself on the opposite side of the stream and knelt down to drink from it.
“We should count ourselves lucky,” Polaris said. “At least it was just a torus, I mean.”
Lightning paused in her drinking. “...Just a torus?”
“Of course! They rank pretty low on the ‘bad news’ tier we have back home, though the idea of course is that you never want to meet anything on that list, Ursa Major for example. Those still rank highest last I checked.”
“Oh,” Lightning studied her reflection. “...Does that list include dragons?”
“Yes it does! ...They’re somewhere at the bottom.”
“The bottom?”
“Yeah, the ‘not-quite bad news’ list is where they’re found. They’re tied with rabbits.”
“Rabbits?"
“Nasty little things. I certainly don’t envy any pony who has to deal with either of those.” Polaris looked at the stream. “It occurred to me that this may be a highly contested area amongst the wildlife,” he said. “Perhaps the bull fought to protect a source of water it had claimed, however tiny.”
“M-hm,” Lightning said as she drank.
“...In which case we shouldn’t tarry for too long. Some other beast may catch wind of us, and then we’d have another struggle on our hooves, and we certainly don’t want that.”
Lightning looked up at the unicorn and tilted her head. “...You’re being awful talkative,” she said.
Polaris cleared his throat. “I thought some light conversation may defuse the atmosphere a little. We both were almost crushed just now.” Lightning didn't say anything. She studied her reflection in the tiny brook. Polaris cleared his throat again. "Is something the matter?"
"Nobody is ever nice to me unless I almost get hurt, or I do something stupid."
"Why, if you're implying that mere conscience is what drives me to be friendly, you're mistaken," Polaris said. "...Mostly mistaken, I mean. Say, did you manage to find a signal before the bull?" Lightning tugged at her armor and produced the radio and turned it on. "Wait a second, it still functions??"
Lightning clicked it off. "It's survived worse. And no, no matter where I go I can't get a signal."
"Either you've never gone high enough or... Have you considered that your radio may be broken?"
"Yeah, but it's not like I can fix it. I don't have a screwdriver or anything."
"Indeed, may I see it for a moment?"
Lightning hesitated. Her eyes never left Polaris as she slowly held out the tiny metal box out to him. His horn lit up and the radio floated out of her hoof and over to the unicorn. He turned it over on all sides and spied the three screws holding it's halves together. He set it on the ground and squinted. The three tiny screws turned and slid out and he set them in a neat pile beside him. He gently slid the two halves apart. "Come take a look, tell me if anything looks odd."
Lightning hurried over and took care not to touch shoulders with Polaris. She peered over and checked the inner workings of her gadget. "I... I don't really know," she said.
"You don't?!"
"I mean, I've read the manuals but I've never had to maintain my gear before. ...And I'm kind of scared of touching anything."
"...Well I know very little about Meteoran contraptions but consider this..." Polaris pointed with his quill. "Are these wires meant to be touching?"
"They're insulated, that shouldn't be the problem."
"What about these bent... uh..."
"Transistors. They're supposed to be bent, they won't fit otherwise."
"Well... wait..." A particular piece caught Polaris' attention. It was tiny, much too small to maneuver with any hoof. It was held to the circuit board by several tiny pins, several of which had come loose. "Ah, it must have sustained a sizeable impact recently. You don't need to be a technician to know when a piece is knocked loose." Polaris squinted and worked with his magic. The tiny piece slide back into place with a click. Polaris closed the radio and magically screwed it together again. "Let's try that."
Lightning took the radio and turned it on. It still whined, but it was a much cleaner sound, and there was no buzzing whatsoever. When she turned the knob and moved the radio around, the pitch changed in ways that made anyone who has used a radio extremely happy. "Ohmygosh, you did it! That must have been connected to the antenna, no wonder I wasn't getting anything. Thank you so much!"
"Er, of course!" Polaris closed his eyes and smiled. "I'm not the best jeweler, but most Lustrian scholars have at least some experience with small, delicate pieces." Lightning didn't respond. For a minute she just listened to the quiet whine of the radio with a satisfied and almost nostalgic sigh. Polaris cleared his throat again.
“Miss pegasus?” Polaris asked. Lightning turned her radio off and looked up at him. "It has occurred to me that I’ve, well… circumstances notwithstanding, and certainly not accounting for cultural differences, I wasn't very fair to you when we met. In fact I was, well, a bit of a jerk.”
"I mean..." Lightning smiled, warm and wide. “Yeah. You were.”
Polaris coughed again. “I’d like to start over. Seeing as we almost got trampled by that thing, we may never get the chance again.”
“Sure, I’d like that. Starting over I mean, not getting trampled.”
The unicorn gave a soft laugh and rose to his hooves. Lightning did the same. Polaris gave a sort of curtsy. “My name is Polaris, of the Cynosura family. I come in the service of the Lustrian University Professoriate. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Likewise!” Lightning stomped one hoof and saluted with her wing. “Private Lightning of Clan Mistral. Border Patrol, second division, unit six. At your service.”
The two bowed to each other and shook hooves. A spark flew as Polaris’ hoof brushed against Lightning's and he pulled his leg back. Lightning’s face flushed as she covered her mouth with her wings.
“Apologies,” Polaris said. “I guess I’ve never shaken hooves with someone who was just struck by lightning. ...Which is not something I’ve ever said before. No wonder you didn't want to touch your radio's internals.”
Lightning laughed nervously. “Um… am I allowed to ask what you’re doing out here? If that's okay I mean?”
Polaris opened his mouth, hesitated, and then gave a sigh. “I suppose that’s fine. I’m on a special mission to reach the tallest peak of the Mercurial Mountains.”
Lightning gawked at the mountain that still dominated the background. “That thing? I don’t think I could even fly that high!”
“Well, I don’t need to reach the utmost top,” Polaris said. “I merely need a good vantage point. To what ends I’m not entirely sure, to tell you the truth. I was told the fate of Cabalos may rest on my success, and it was of the utmost importance that I not tell anyone I happen to meet.”
“And that’s why you were being so grumpy,” Lightning said. “You were afraid of telling me something by accident?”
“Well, mostly. I’m ashamed to say it now, but were you another unicorn I suspect I would’ve been much more courteous. ...My experiences with pegasi have been mixed, but that was no reason to treat you the way I did.”
“Oh, stop apologizing. I know how it is to be on a mission. And if it makes you feel any better, I’ve never met any other unicorn before, but I didn’t think it was so bad.”
Polaris became very solemn. “No, I’ve been an awful example for my tribe.” Polaris grabbed his saddlebag and set it on his back. “Well, I intend to rectify that posthaste.”
“Where are you going?”
“We are finding you a safe passage down the mountain and back to Meteoras. I’ll take you back to the border if I have to.”
“What?!” Lightning jumped to her feet. “But-but,” she pointed at the mountain. “You’re so close! You can’t head back down now.”
“Oh, that will be no problem. If anything, it gives me a good excuse to resupply. I'd have to turn around in about a day anyway. Of course there is the matter of crossing the stormwall, but we'll worry about that when we come to it.”
“Yeah, but…”
“It’s the least I can do. You’re clearly in greater need here, and it would be terribly dishonorable if I, a unicorn of the University of Lustre, would so callously carry out his duties yet be remiss to lend a helping hoof to a helpless filly in need.”
“I’m not helpless!” Lightning said with a stamp of her hooves. “I only needed your help with the mountchasers once. We both worked together to stop the torus, remember?”
“In which case, if it weren’t for that freak bolt of lightning, you’d be done for.”
“That’s not-- actually… um.”
“By all means, I do understand if you’d rather I leave you alone.”
“No, that’s not it! Just give me a moment to think.” Lightning bit her lip and tapped her hoof against the ground. “Why don’t we just go up the mountain together? Maybe I can get a signal if I go higher up, and you can finish whatever it is you’re doing at the same time. We just keep an eye on each other in the meantime.”
Polaris patiently listened and brought a hoof to his chin after she finished. “It would be a shame to kill my momentum,” he said. “And what you’re saying makes sense, but do you really think you can be of any help?” Lightning blinked. “Er, sorry if that was blunt of me.”
“Well, I didn’t say I’d help, I just thought it’d be smart. Even if you weren’t the one getting tossed out of the sky by mountchasers, your navigation skills don't seem to be doing you much good.”
“Wah-- the nerve!”
“And besides,” Lightning kicked the dusty ground. “I thought you might want company.”
Polaris set his brow, and for a moment it almost looked like he was going to put on a nasty glare and tell her off again. Instead, he closed his eyes and scoffed. “Oh fine, if you insist! I offered services at my own expense, but you wouldn’t have it, so very well, you may follow me.”
Lightning burst into a smile and hopped happily. “Oh, yay! Travelling-buddies! Travelling-buddies!”
“But!” Polaris put forth a hoof and shushed her with it. “I only permit this out of pity, not because I need help, and certainly not because I’m lonely. We are not ‘buddies,’ Private. We are companions, inasmuch we are trapped by the same unusual circumstances; united by a common cause. Once we’ve reached our respective goals, I expect us to politely and professionally part paths. Deal?”
Lightning smiled and rolled her eyes. “Alright fine, deal.” And they shook hooves again, and this time there wasn’t a nasty shock. Polaris smiled at her for the first time since they met. “So… where exactly do we go from here?” she asked.
Polaris opened his mouth and then paused. “Er… actually that’s a good question.” He stepped away from the stream and the trees, and Lightning followed after him.
Polaris looked around the basin. “We’re in a sort of bowl, at the moment,” he said. “The land in between these specific mountains is fairly level, but it dips and weaves the closer we are to the center, see?”
Lightning mustered enough strength to flap her wings and ascend a story or two. “Yeah, I see it,” she called down. The network of valleys Polaris talked about probably wrapped around the tallest peak, and some of them went so far down they were close to ground-level. The peak was so tall that if there were any other valleys on the other side, it was blocked from view.
“But the tallest peak is somewhere on the other side, therefore I’ll have to cross down into the valley. So that’s where we’re headed next. To ascend, we must first go down.”
“Like the opposite of a pegasus dive-bomb?”
“Er, I suppose.”
“Great!” And Lightning flitted down and landed right next to Polaris. He gave a weak smile and removed himself a few paces, and then he set off, with Lightning following after. Things were starting to look up, Lightning thought to herself. Even if it only lasted a little bit, she wasn’t alone anymore. Finally it felt like the worst of it was well behind her.
It would be a long time before they finally escaped the torus’ stench, though.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Perhaps this is my way of experiencing MLP:FIM while It's coming out, not when It's all wrapped up and done.
I hate to be that guy, but you misspelled “introduction” in the chapter title.
10972228
Fixed!
Thank you, and don’t feel bad about pointing this stuff out. We want the story to be the best it can be.
So she has lighting power