“Are we there yet?” Golden huffed, increasing her pace and trying not to snap at Agape’s cranky tone.
“No, we’re not!” well, she failed, and speaking did nothing to help with how her body was feeling at the moment, like she was trudging through sludge.
“A-are you okay Golden Lotus?” Fluttershy was peeking through the opening, the cart’s top blocking the two passengers from the rain.
The driver not so much.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” just as she said this a sneeze escaped her and with a groan she hoped that her friend had not heard that.
A hoof touched her head and she flinched, backpedaling into the cart and it was only Agape’s magic that stopped their transportation from going over the side.
“Golden?!” the two hopped out and face flushed for a different reason, Golden avoided their gazes.
“Sorry, you startled me,” her legs felt heavy, and she could feel the surrounding wind, pushing her to direct it, but she resisted. Shaking her head to clear the haze caused her to gag and as soon as the harness was taken off her barrel she ran to the nearest bush to throw up. Agape lowered the harness and Fluttershy watched Golden, a worried frown on her face.
“We need to get to some shelter,” the ‘Earth’ filly couldn’t even protest as Fluttershy took her into the cart and there was silence for a moment before the cart started going forward again, at a very slow pace.
Golden could see Fluttershy struggling to pull the cart and tried to stand up.
“I-i can,” Agape pushed her back down, frowning.
“No, you can’t. If you didn’t feel well, you should have told us, and do not say its just the rain either,” she added, when North opened her mouth, “Even before the storm began you were lagging, and this fever couldn’t have come from being wet for twenty minutes,” Golden knew she was right, even she did not know why her body felt so hot, or why it felt like something was fighting inside of her body.
She needed to meditate, to figure out what was going on.
Sh- her body thumped to the ground and she hard Agape calling out her name in panic.
“North!” her eyes closed, yellow and blue light swarming behind her eyelids as sleep overcame her.
-----------------------
“She’s never been sick like this,” Agape fretted, as Fluttershy prepared some soup with the vegetables and fish that they got from Tall Tale.
As soon as they got to the cave, they set up a small bed and placed an eerily still Golden, her breathing so quiet Agape feared the worst till Fluttershy checked her pulse and told her the filly was still alive.
Even with the disguise, her coat still glowed in the darkness of the cave not touched by the light of the fire the yellow pegasus set up.
“You said her magic’s been acting weird?” Agape blinked, glancing up at Fluttershy. Right, they had mentioned that right?
“Yes, you saw the crater her magic left, and that was her just letting go after it being restrained for almost two months, I tried to get her to release her magic as much as possible, but she doesn’t consider it her magic. She sees it as more of a curse that cannot be controlled and hates using it in anyway. I even tried suggesting she have it ‘lift’ something, but she gave me a weird look and I had to drop that suggestion,” Fluttershy put a wet cloth on her ‘patient’, biting her lip in worry at the lack of reaction.
“Is she still looking for a way to get rid of the Blessing?” they didn’t refer to it as a blessing around North, because they knew that the filly did not see it as such.
“Yeah, she’s been exchanging letters with that Ruby Dog tribe and that Griffin contact of hers, and I’ve seen her circle Dragon Town in Fillydelphia, which, you guys won’t be getting there for another two, three months?” Agape hated the fact that she was still in school, and wished that Celestia’s School for Unicorns wasn’t the kind of school where you are required to have complete mastery over your magic before graduation.
Then again, with her ‘perfect pitch’ magic, Agape had the feeling it was about to get interesting for her at school.
Or very bad.
Fluttershy took out her saddlebag from the cart, pulling out the program’s brochure, as well as something else.
“Oh! My letters from my parents are in here,” Agape nudged her.
“Go ahead and read it,” she glanced outside as lightning lit up the cave, “Man they went all out for this exercise, we haven’t even seen any of the other groups, where is everyone?” had they gone that far ahead already?
-----------------
Amethyst looked over the trainees, frowning and looking down at her check list before turning to her group,
“Have any of you seen Trainee Fluttershy or her companions?” the three shook their heads, and she gave them another look over before joining the other trainers to report her concerns, feeling anxious.
It had been several days since everyone apart from those three arrived in Vanhoover via train and she felt like something was off.
They were supposed to have taken the Unicorn Range, get some practice in traveling through the mountains (Smokey Mountains did not count in her opinion), but an unexpected storm was planned by the pegasus team in the area due to a previous one being forgotten.
Amethyst just wondered why they could not have scheduled it for another time.
Hopefully they did get the memo about taking the train instead, because if they did not show up by the end of the week, she would have no choice but to expel Fluttershy from the program.
As soon as she turned her back, the pegasus of her group let out a breath, while the Earth colt gave her a glare.
“If they find out what you're up to, I won’t be defending you,” she glared at him.
“Just be thankful that Southern Cross didn’t want you out of the way, we’re supposed to be dwindling down trainees so that only the best of the best could come out of the program; that filly practically humiliated us with her freaky talent of being able to talk to animals to help her out. Didn’t you know that those with the worst points every month get dropped from the program? They don’t want to admit it, but this program for Rangers is just as cutthroat as any other training program, whoever gets the best results will end up recruited by the best of the best. But if they publicize that kind of thing, they wouldn’t get as many applicants. If Cluttershy ends up a ‘star’ graduate of the program, do you know how humiliating that will be?” just the thought of how she had to play nice with the younger pegasus made her sick. The shy filly wasn’t even a good flier, what was she doing applying to be a Ranger where she was expected to save ponies with her own strength, not just animals?
“And if they get here before the deadline and Fluttershy tells them you were the one who told her where to go?” she stiffened, feeling her blood run cold, before she shook it off.
“I didn’t tell her, I just did not inform her about the change in plans, It’s her fault for not checking in with us,” she trotted off, and the two remaining in the group sighed.
“Let’s just wait it out, if we do anything, Southern Cross will get mad at us, and he is not someone to piss off, especially with his connections,” the pegasus left as well, leaving the Earth Pony by himself.
“This is going to backfire,” he sighed to himself, wishing that they were in the snowy mountains already.
He was in the mood for some snowboarding.
------------------------
Agape fiddled with the pan, trying to get all the food to stay inside as she poured the soup into different bowls.
“Oh!” nearly dropping the pot at her friend’s exclamation, the unicorn quickly set it down and went over to where the pegasus was staring at her letter in shock.
“What, what is it?” it took some nudging before Fluttershy handed the letter to her, blue eyes still wide,
“I-it’s Zephyr, h-he, he,” the pegasus looked very shaken, ears flat, and Agape bit back a groan, glancing down at the letter,
“What did he do-” she paused, brow furrowing as she reread the words again, before blinking and rubbing her eyes, giving the letter another once over.
“Do you think your parents know Zephyr knows how to replicate their mouthwriting?” Fluttershy snorted, the sound echoing through the cave and making the unicorn glance at her friend in shock, the pegasus herself looking surprised.
“N-no, Zephyr never learned that kind of skill, and it is rather mean that you think he would lie like this,” Agape gave her a look.
“Who was the one in near shock from the letter,” the pinkette retreated into her hair, the unicorn rolling her eyes and looking back at the letter, “I wonder how he’s doing then, that program North told me about goes from the summer and lasts till winter, unless you fail of course,” Agape decided not to tell Fluttershy there was a chance Zephyr didn’t make the cut and was hiding it out somehow till he could get home.
Or that the program North researched never had an actual graduate showing themselves or anything, which meant it might be fake.
What kind of program has their ‘campers’ do a normal camp for two weeks, then throws them into the mountains for a month to find their headquarters?
Thunder clashing caused them both to yelp and Fluttershy clung to her side, shaking, while Agape stared outside with wide eyes.
This was going to be a long night, wasn’t it?
----------------------------
“Ugh, this is never going to end, we should’ve accepted those stupid counselor’s offer to stay out the rest of summer at the camp, my parents should have never put out bits for this scam,” the voice grated on everyone’s ears, and Zephyr wished that he could drown the pegasus out.
Here he thought he wouldn’t have to deal with Prince Blueblood again, but then there came this pegasus version of him.
The other pegasus next to him looked like they were torn between agreeing with the colt or strangling him.
The first two weeks had been great, the camp itself had been in a very large treehouse, with each camper getting their own room and everything. They were given free reign of the place, from the library to the cooking lab, and from the obstacle course to the crafting gazebo. The walls themselves were decorated with images of the mountains, a different scene on each wall and there was never the same scene twice.
Zephyr checked, several times, because looking at the painting was really relaxing and he liked to start from the bottom of the treehouse where the beginning of the ‘trek’ was and go all the way to the top of the treehouse in the watchtower. The watchtower panels showed a cool looking compounds with architecture he vaguely recognized from a comic about a talking panda practicing martial arts.
He didn’t talk to any of the other campers, and they didn’t talk to him, preferring to hang around those they already know, or around that Blueblood Pegasus, what was his name? Iron Wing? It didn’t matter, Zephyr knew avoiding the colt was the best idea, and spent time in areas the colt didn’t head to.
Which is how he ended up exploring the treehouse and to his surprise, the library.
In fact, there were practically no other campers in the library at all, everyone preferred the obstacle course (Zephyr privately thought that going up and down the treehouse stairs was enough of an exercise, but didn’t say it out loud.)
There weren’t a lot of books, in fact, the library wasn’t any bigger than the one in Cloudsdale, so Zephyr figured he could make a dent before the two weeks were up.
The counselors did not tell them what to expect, but Zephyr started with the history of the Peaks that they were going to. Peaks that were cut off from the rest of the world and where no cities had been built and were near the ends of Equestria.
That had been a long train ride.
By the time the two weeks had gone by, Zephyr read at least twenty books and some scrolls, which he thought was rather good, considering he didn’t read all that much anyways.
‘If North Wind was here, she would’ve devoured the entire library in three days’ was the thought that ran through his mind as the counselor had shooed him out of the library to join the others. Then it was a full day’s walk through the forest to a mountain path, with a hut right next to it.
“You will be allowed to choose what you want to take with you, and afterwards, you will be given two weeks to reach the Peaks, good luck. If you wish to come back with us to the camp till summer ends, feel free to do so,” and they flew off, leaving behind the fifty campers, twenty of whom shared looks and flew back as well.
“Ha, cowards, alright everyone, if you want to survive, follow me,” Zephyr deadpanned, watching the colt go into the hut before marching out with a ton of equipment on him.
Watching the rest of them disappear with the guy, Zephyr shook his head, heading into the hut to see if there was anything left and grabbing a small knife and canteen, checking to make sure that the jacket his mom had packed for him was there.
Then, walking out, he saw a few stragglers looking uncertain where to go, but paid them no mind as he glanced up the path, feeling a sense of deja vu.
Because looking at it from the side, it kind of looked like- he paused and turned to the hut, now that he thought about it, wasn’t there a hut at the beginning of the painting? If he remembered correctly, the path up to the peaks wasn’t the one that the counseler left them out, instead. He went to the back of the hut and spotted a small opening in the trees.
Right. there.
The path led up a narrow climb, and the boots covering his hooves did nothing to stop the feeling of the cold air that made him shiver.
Briefly the thought of going to the camp entered his mind, but he shook it off, remembering the tears and look of pride in Mom’s eyes when she sent him off on the train.
He took in a deep breath and continued forward.
He could do this.
That was twelve days ago, and Zephyr was proud to admit that he managed to reach just below the peak of the mountain, with a few hiccups.
One of the stragglers spotted him disappearing just as the large group with the Blueblood pegasus returned, their path having led to a dead end.
Which meant the path soon became kind of crowded as more and more campers went behind him or around him. Some glared at him while others ignored him, including that arrogant pegasus.
Though Zephyr had a feeling it was because the other felt humiliated by him for some reason.
They camped several times, and campers would fight over food and the like while Zephyr and others found small ice lakes to fish or gathered berries that had not been frozen in the snow.
Several times they tried asking how he knew where he was going, but he just repeated the same answer every time.
“The treehouse was the map, they painted it on the walls,” some believed him, others called him stingy when he refused to lead them or give hints.
It got to the point some pegasus turned and went right back, or just gave up and muttered something about camping in the mountains instead of going further up.
Two days before the deadline, and they were just a few miles from the peak.
A peak covered in fog and strange smoke.
Zephyr swallowed.
Right, here goes.
Just two more days.
--------------------
“The deadline is two hours, we’re really far behind!” Golden ran through the forest, the cart jostling behind her as Agape and Fluttershy clung to each other and the cart.
“She’s definitely feeling better,” Agape muttered to Fluttershy, who nodded quickly.
The moment the strange fever woke up, Golden’s eyes snapped open and she urged them to leave the cave immediately.
At least the storm had ended.
But Agape was a bit concerned about Golden pushing herself.
So was Fluttershy.
“Golden, you just woke up from a three day fever,” “I feel fine,” “You were barely breathing,” “I’m breathing now aren’t I?” “NORTH WIND,” Fluttershy’s voice struck like a whip and Golden froze, coming to a stop.
Fluttershy got out of the cart and stood in front of the younger filly, face still stern,
“Find a different way to get down the mountain that does not involve you straining your body,” was the order, and Agape had a sinking feeling at the thoughtful look on the disguised filly’s face.
-----------------------------------
Seeing no sign of the missing fillies and not having received word at all from her contacts or anyone else, Amethyst sighed, feeling her heart sink at the loss of such a promising candidate.
Hopefully, the other trainers find them soon enough, because they were nowhere in Tall Tale.
“Alright, come on, we need to get going,” she and the other trainers led the trainees onto the train and as she was the last one to board, her ears picked up something, that of screaming.
“Does anypony else hear that?” her question was soon irrelevant as a bright set of lights appeared, the sound of music making her want to cover her ears as something huge flew over the train and landed on the platform. Amethyst lifted her head and gaped at the sleigh on the platform, and the three missing fillies on it, the one in front with a smile on her face, while her friends looked pale.
“See, told you we’d make it!” Golden said cheerfully, the two passengers did not agree at all, Fluttershy looked like she was going to pass out. Relief and anger flooded her system in the next instant.
“You made it! Where have you three been?! They said you headed for Unicorn Range but we weren’t doing that mountain range,” she demanded of them and Golden rubbed the back of her head as she hopped to the ground and pressed something, making Amethyst’s eyebrows shoot up when the sleigh turned into the cart she had seen the filly pulling around before.
“Never mind,” she turned to go, but the Earth filly tugged on her vest.
“Just so you know, no one told us about the storm on the mountain, or that we were meeting here,” then she ran to scold the train ponies who were near her cart, telling them she didn’t want a scratch on it (Agape Flare looked ready to strangle her and Fluttershy had to hold the younger filly from blasting the other one into smithereens.
“Well your lucky, we were just about to leave,” as she led them onto the train, there were looks of disbelief, especially from the rest of Fluttershy’s group, the other pegasus looking on in complete disbelief.
“You three can sit over here, Golden if you want your cart, you’d better tell them how to make it even smaller if you don’t want it in luggage,” the filly frowned thoughtfully before she shrugged and followed the train ponies to the baggage carriage, her two friends following behind her.
“Actually, if you could wait a moment,” the voice had her turning and she frowned at the Royal Guards entering the platform.
“The Guard training isn’t for another few months,” she informed them, confused, but in the corner of her eye she saw Agape Flare and Fluttershy pale a bit, Golden’s face was blank.
“We know that, but there was a strange theft in Canterlot a few months ago, and we received an anonymous report about fillies carrying around suspicious cargo, so if you could open up that cart please,” Golden took a step forward.
“What was stolen?” but the guard ignored her, approaching the cart while the other trainees stepped to the side. Amethyst noticed a smug expression on one trainee and tried to remember who he was.
Wasn’t that Southern Cross? Why did she have a feeling he had something to do with it?
But first.
“You can’t just go through her belongings like that,” several guards stepped in front of her.
“We can if it is Royal Guard business, so step aside,” Amethyst gaped at him.
That wasn’t right, not right at all. She glanced at the other trainers, but they also had Royal guards stopping them from moving forward.
The golden Earth filly tried to stop them from opening a compartment of the trunk, and Amethyst felt her heart squeeze when she saw the desperate look on the little one’s face.
What was going on?