Tread Lightly awoke to discover the other two ponies were still sound asleep. She smiled as Messer snored a bit and Marigold unconsciously batted at his chin to make him quiet. Apparently they probably had been doing this routine in their sleep all night.
At least the sound of the outside was that of a calm fall day rather than heavy storm the three had been made to sleep under. While the other ponies slept Tread Lighty quietly got up and slipped to the edge of the tent. Even through the purple mare was an Earth Pony if one thing she had learned in avoiding other someponies, it was how to be quiet. She removed one of pitons from the ground and slipped out from under the tent with a bit of wiggling and a few moments of difficulty to get outside. Tread Light managed the feat without letting a draft in to wake Marigold or Messer. The mare took a few steps and sank into nearly an inch of clingy mud onto her hooves. She didn't mind getting dirty if her lab coat was any indication as she took in the altered surroundings.
The storm had left the surrounding trees a mess, the ground itself was soaked through and through. The limbs of trees are discharged haphazardly while the colors of fall served to make the scene all the most devastating rather than of serene beauty. Several of the giant oaks and pines had been split in half by lightning and burned through the core by the energy bolts. This left them dead and covered in Black Soot. The tree limbs now looking like some black dragon rather than a welcoming fall forest.
Tread Lightly had expected that if there was a storm this would happen. Stalliongrad was on the north-western border near the edge of Equestria. Therefore, pegasi did not keep to the weather in the most attentive way. The trio was only a day's flight by pegasus from Yakyakistan. She was thinking carefully of where to go from here. They could visit the yaks on the way to the north or they could skirt the Luna Bay to get to the northern lights. She thought long about this trying to determine which path would be best.
If they went to the Yakyakistani region, they would at least be able to buy supplies in case something happened and let the Yaks know of their trip. This also gave the possibility of meeting up with a Yakyakistani scientist. Yes those exist; was a thought that crossed Tread Lightly's mind as she had met two of them in her lifetime already. It would be interesting for Messer to meet a Yakyakistani snowcitist named Doctor Al Wehr. If they went to Luna Bay, the sights would be gorgeous for Messer and it had been a long time since she herself had seen the bay. They would also get the first views of the northern lights within only a days worth of walking. Luna Bay also left the possibility of meeting up with a few of the hermits around there to see what the current conditions north of the bay were.
Tread Lightly pondered and debated with herself as she examined the torn tree limbs and ruptured ground around her. The decision was before her and she knew that Marigold would be excited regardless of it. She picked up a piece of a shattered branch and started to examine it as potential firewood. Then she picked up another and a few more as her thoughts paraded around where to head from here.
Tread Lightly made her decision as she placed all the twigs and various pieces of soaking wet wood. How to light it now? It was wet which would make it significantly more difficult then just bashing some rocks together or lighting a match but if she... Her thoughts were interrupted by a rustle of some leaves and then a sudden eruption of debris. Tread Lightly yelped and jumped back as the debris landed around her. Marigold and Messer woke with a start and in unison yelped out, “Tread!?”
The purple mare looked around and smelled something awful, foul even. It took a few moments and then she realize exactly what it is was, methane. “I'm fine. There is apparently a methane deposit on the road to Yakyakistan that the storm has upset.” She replied as Marigold's head poked out of the bottom of the tent. The green furred mare almost looked comical with just her head poked from the bottom where Tread Lightly had exited. Tread could only imagine the indignant position she was in to achieve eye contact at that moment. It brought a blush and a giggle to her lips.
“Really? Well that sucks, how are we suppose to get to Yakyakistan if the ground might explode under us?” She asked as Tread Lightly walked away towards a slow stream of green gas coming out of the ground. She pulled out a glass bottle from her lab coat and held it upside down to the escaping methane. After a moment it started to let it pool inside the beaker and Tread sealed it once it was full.
“I guess we'll have to head by the Luna Bay instead. Maybe we will get to see Tincent Von Trapp.” Tread Lightly mused as the methane deposit had made up her mind for her. She walked back cautiously and took a deep inhale of the air near them. No smell of methane; which to her meant there was no chance that what she was about to do would result in fiery death. She lit a match and placed it against the tinder. The purple mare was working the match for several seconds to get the damp wood to spark and burn. she had gathered as she lit it and started to burn the kindling. Then she hurled the beaker at the gathered logs. With the sound of breaking glass and a roar of flame they burst into a small fire that was a disturbing green color to start and had the smell of a field of dung. Slowly the smell went away but the flash of the gas had solved her morning cooking fire issue; the wood was burning.
While Tread Lightly had been busy setting to cook something for breakfast, Messer Schmitt and Morning Marigold were busy taking down the tent and cleaning up themselves with a splash of water to the face. Marigold giggled as Messer looked confused at Tread Lightly while she managed to light the fire and explain where they were going. The burst of flame startled him and he staggered back, his wings flared out. He was never going to get used to a mare who kept making things blow up.
“Hey! Isn't that a waste of a perfectly good beaker?” He shouted as at that very moment, down the road there was another eruption of sound when another methane deposit erupted just over the horizon. He chattered his teeth a bit and looked around paranoid at what was going to happen next. The pegasus getting ready to take flight as he expected the ground underneath to go boom.
Tread smirked, “Would you rather have cold breakfast? Because I can sort that out too!” she asked as she skewered a set of corn on the cob with a medium sized stick and placed it over the fire with a set of pitons from the tent. Messer blinked for a few moments and thought about it. He began to space out into his thoughts and not pay attention to his surroundings. He would like a hot breakfast but how much did Tread Lightly spend in beakers? At this rate it must be an awful lot and how many did she bring in that lab coat? It didn't make the noise of glass hitting glass when she walked around. While he was considering this, he slowly relaxed and didn't realize how long he was lost in these thoughts as when his eyes and thoughts came back to ground level Tread Lightly and Marigold were eating roasted corn and laughing.
Morning Marigold looked over at him and blinked a few times, “Were you lost in thought the whole time we were cooking these? Come on get breakfast!...Have you ever seen Luna Bay?” she asked as she giggled having been lost in conversation with Tread for a while as they caught up about how life was between their last journey together at the beginning of spring and now this one at the onset of winter. Messer took his ear of corn into a hoof and started to nibble upon it. He was still deep inside his thoughts, wondering where they would go and what he was bound to see. His imagination danced wildly of moving through the northern lights and feeling their warmth as he flew. He had started to relax but the random rushes of adrenaline and sudden loud sounds hitting his senses were not at all keeping his nerves calm.
Tread Lightly looked at him and saw the weary expression on his face as well as the concern in his eyes as he was picking at his corn but not really fully eating. She and Marigold exchanged glances and walked over towards him. Almost in unison they placed a hoof onto his shoulders; one somewhat clean from watching it's steps and the other covered in mud, leaving a matting of his short fur in the wet dirt. He looked up and was broken away from his thoughts again; this time by a pair of hooves caressing his shoulders and reassuringly trying to calm his nerves.
“I know I can be unnerving to be around. That is why I scared off ten assistants this year alone. I don't know how to describe exactly why am I the way I am. I just know that things that often unnerve others give me clarity and clam. Adversity and problems don't frustrate me but rather encourage me to find the solution. If something is bothering you, you should talk to me about it or get Marigold here to make me knock it off.” Tread Lightly explained as she smiled at him and tried to be as friendly as possible.
Morning Marigold giggled and levitated a rock from their campsite before sending it at Tread Lightly's head which didn't do any real damage but smacked her head hard enough to be jarring. Tread yelped and moved her hoof to the back of her head. She held the spot where she had been hit and winced. As she rubbed, it was her turn to get mud on her and in the strands of her red hair, the pink tips now coated in brown sludge. She looked up at Marigold with a cautious smile. “See, I can completely get away with smacking the mad scientist if she is being too crazy.” Marigold said with a big broad smile like a gremlin who had just stolen all the gold.
Messer blinked a few times then started to chuckle before bursting out into laughter while Tread Lightly rubbed the back of her head a bit more and started to join in the laughter with the other two ponies.
They cleaned up the campsite and started to the North-West heading for Luna Bay. The trot was accompanied by mostly silence and the occasional question by Messer. Already the snow was starting to appear on the sides of the worn road. There were no animals nor any tracks as they moved and Tread was taking that into account. It seemed odd that this road had been in such disuse by both ponies and wild animals. There was something troubling to it to say the least.
“Messer have you ever seen Luna Bay?” Marigold asked since her earlier attempted at this question had been ignored. It was nearly noon when she finally asked again. He replied with a shake of his head. The orange stallion stopped a moment and moved a blue hoof up to his chin. He pondered what kind of place would be named after the princess of night.
Marigold smiled at him, “You are in for a real treat. Princess Luna is quite beautiful and to be honest the bay does her justice to be named after her. The water twinkles with brightness during the day and is always crystal clear. It seems that no bacteria can really grow in due to the cold. But at night is where it really shines. When the northern lights are out; it's beyond beautiful liking seeing a rainbow mirrored upon itself and then a veil of light as everything is covered in the colors of the northern lights.” Morning Marigold described as she was starry eyed and quite taken with the memory of the last time they had been there. “It's like your vision itself is through the light above rather than through the nighttime around.”
Messer started to speak when a crash of lightning slammed into the ground nearby. He was abruptly caught off guard as the flash hit their eyes and made even Tread Lightly's hair stand on end. He yelped out and instinctively took to the air to try to avoid any danger. As Marigold yelled out and immediately dove into the road with her face into the thin layer of mud as her hooves covered her head. Only after a few seconds did they all see that a tree had been torn in twain. Completely broken and burned down from core to the roots even. The mighty pine smelled of burned wood and fell apart, half of it hitting the ground on one side away from the trio. While the other half fell across the road with mighty crash that shook the ground Marigold and Tread stood upon.
Tread Lightly looked up and there were several clicks as she adjusted which lens were inside of each of her glasses. The monocles turned a deep hard to see through purple on her left eye and on her right it was a sickly green color. She examined the sky and made a motion for Messer to come up to her. He flew down and tried to relax his defenses a bit. To him this trip had been one sudden piece of insanity followed by adrenaline rush and then back to the insane. “Anything you've ever seen? There isn't a dark cloud in the sky? What does your pegasus senses tell you?” She asked.
Messer Schimtt looked around and realized that bolt of electrical energy should not have happened. He flew up into the clouds. The air got thinner and colder as he moved into the white puffy structures overhead. He took a long hard look around with his brown eyes. They were full of concern and all his senses were turned to bear to feel for anything that would show a sign of where the electrical shot had originated or if another one was coming. Something wasn't right here. There were no dark clouds, there was a sense of energy in the air through. It made no sense; lightning that strong shouldn't have happened. Actually no electrical bolts should have rained down at all. He sat up in the clouds, confused and bewildered slowly flapping his wings to descend gently back to the earth. There wasn't even the possibility with his pegasus magic that he could form another lightning strike. Not without gathering the required materials from at least several hundred meters away.
This perplexed the young pegasus. The rainstorm last night was far too much for him to handle in stopping. At the same time, it had completely left the area by morning without clouds in the sky or influence of pegisi. What was going on with the weather here?
Messer landed softly and looked at Tread Lightly then to Marigold. “That bolt shouldn't have happened. There was no reason for it. Weather wise that is a pure freak anomaly.” He explained after a few more moments of consideration and thinking upon it. Even his feathers were a standing on edge from the energy discharge. It felt more like a unicorn's magic had hit the tree than anything that would be natural.
“While it would be fascinating to stay and examine this, I feel we should continue on before another happens.” Tread Lightly said and then started to say something else when there was in the distance, the cry of what sounded like an eagle; only much much larger than such a hunting bird.
The purple mare was clearly jarred by the experience stopping dead in her tracks. Marigold placed a hoof upon her flank to reassure Tread. Tread Lightly just kept herself tense and looked in the direction of the sound expecting some grew beast to be flying overhead. Marigold steadied herself and let out a huff, “Stupid BIRD! Stop trying to make us jumpy!” She screamed out and threw a rock into the trees at nothing in particular. After a satisfying thump there was a scattering of birds, birds who had been perfectly silent moments before the electricity in the air had arrived as though they knew something was up and about to happen.
There was another shriek of a great raptor this time much closer.....