//------------------------------// // 7. Everest // Story: The Globe Trotter // by Carrier of Heartbreak //------------------------------// ~ A flash of white. A chorus of screams. A freezing chill. An eruption of activity. And a deafening roar. The ponies that had been surrounding the globe were forced back, the biting cold rush of wind shooting past them. They were all forced to shut their eyes tightly as moving air and frozen moisture whipped against them, pushing the lightest princess and Rarity back farther than the larger two alicorns. Shelves full of books were pushed over easily, the paper within tearing away and soaring along with the wave of white motion. Even the tables were sent flying away, smashing against the stone castle walls and sending splinters scattering in the same direction as everything else. After what seemed like an hour, the wind calmed. The ponies present started to pick themselves up, Princess Luna having shielded herself, her sister and her friends. The overwhelming sound that had escape the globe when it had shattered had reduced itself to an imposing hum. Princess Celestia, her face stained with now-frozen trails of tears, stared in shock where the globe had been, her mind still not having caught up with her. The only thing she was vaguely aware of was that she was now cold and wet. In fact, so was the entire section of the library around them. Snow was everywhere. It hardly even resembled a library anymore. The toppled shelves were half buried in the frozen liquid, forever ruining the information that had been stored there. Twilight rose on shaking legs, helping Rarity up as she did. Her eyes blinked open painfully. The wind had whipped against her face for a few harsh seconds before Luna managed to shield them. Beside her, Rarity coughed and shook her head, her mane frozen flowing behind her. Princess Luna winced and exhaled, the shield spell disappearing and letting in some of the snow that had piled against it. Without the light from the shield, the four ponies could better see the area around them. If this were any other situation, Twilight would have most likely broken out into sobs from seeing so many books destroyed. Her eyes didn't even wander to the shelves, however; they remained staring straight forward, vigorously scanning the area directly in front of her...where Snowy had been. Where she could no longer see him. All she saw was snow. Snow and a faint blue mist creeping around the room, illuminating it slightly. "S-...Snowy...?" Twilight stuttered weakly, her hoof raising up and pawing the air pitifully. Rarity finally managed to open her eyes, having had to rub her eyelids to get them thawed enough to break apart. Her eyes widened as far as they could go when she managed to take in the scene around her. Celestia was still as frozen as the snow piled at her hooves, but Luna was looking around with a piercing glare. Even she, with her advanced vision, had trouble picking up any kind of smaller details through the blue fog. It rolled along the top of the snow like a cloud, concealing it from view. Carefully, Luna took a few steps forward into the drifts, the cold substance squishing under her weight and surrounding her up to her knee. Her body tensed up at sudden change in temperature, but she shrugged it off and continued forward. Step by step, her hooves crunched the freshly fallen mounds of snow. The mist, curiously enough, swarmed around the hoofprints she made, trying to hide them. Luna left her sister behind and moved forward into the snow, her eyes remaining vigilant. Twilight followed behind her after a few moments, her legs still trembling and weak. The sudden change in temperature caused the air to burn her lungs, making each panicked breath she took painful. Even Rarity managed to move herself to follow, her legs just as weak as Twilight's. The farther they moved into the snow, the more violent the blue mist became. The air around the trio started picking up again, seemingly trying to blow them back the way they came.The larger blue alicorn felt an ominous twisting in her gut. Something didn't want them there. "Be careful!" Luna had to shout over the growing sound of wind. The mist grew thicker with each step they took into the crunching snow. It became harder and harder for them to see each other, much less anything in the snow. The wind became stronger. And with it, the snow started falling. Twilight looked up, her jaw lowered in shock at the sight. Dark blue snow clouds had reformed along the ceiling of the room, twisting and congealing until the stone could no longer be seen. Snow fell steadily from the dark mass and was sucked into the growing blizzard winds. The light from the sun outside the window was quickly blotted out by the growing storm, leaving the group in a darkness that was only illuminated by the glowing blue fog. The library candles had long since stopped burning. "Eugh!" Twilight heard a pained shriek behind her. She turned her head and saw Rarity, her eyes shut tight again, the wind overpowered her ability to see. Thinking quickly, Twilight took a few steps back and whipped her tail out for Rarity to grab onto. Rarity felt the tickling of hair on her nose and seemed to get the idea, opening her mouth and latching on just hard enough to be able to tell where they were going. Ahead of them, Luna had caught on to their problem and backed herself up, her own swirling blue tail flowing back to Twilight. The younger alicorn tried to bite into it, but instantly recoiled as she felt her teeth sinking into what felt like floating blue sand. Luna rolled her eyes and settled for using her magic to pull Twilight along by her horn. As much as Twilight would have preferred some other form of guidance, it would have to do. They could no longer even tell that they were in a library. Around them, they could see nothing but the snow that had already fallen, its depth increasing rapidly from the new layers being added by the blizzard. Luna tried illuminating her way with her horn, but the light was quickly consumed by blue mist. Darker the room became, the three ponies now hardly able to see. Luna's eyes snapped onto a shape sticking out of the snow in front of her. The mist was trying to cover it from her vision, but her eyes saw through enough to know that it was the shape of an antler. But something was wrong. The antler was the same size as it should have been on any normal deer. Not the tiny antler from the buck she had seen inside the globe. The snow crunched down with more force as Luna moved towards the shape. Getting closer, she could see that it was indeed an antler, its form twisting up out of the snow like a calcified flower in a tundra. Behind her, Twilight was finally close enough to see the antler as well, though through squinted eyes. Rarity was oblivious, her eyes having been shut again. Twilight let out a gasp and moved forward, dragging the white unicorn behind her. Luna barely had time to blink before Twilight's magic snapped out and grabbed onto the antler. "Snowy! I got you, it's-!" her words died in her throat, though they could only just be heard over the roaring wind anyway. She expected to pull her friend from the snow. She didn't expect the antler to come loose immediately. Her eyes shot open, ignoring the pain from the bitter cold air shooting into them. In her magic, just a few inches from her face, a full sized antler dangled pitifully in the air. There was no reindeer attached. Luna watched her with a pained expression, witnessing the younger alicorn's mind snapping. Tears that might have fallen from Twilight's cheeks were instantly frozen at their source, painfully blurring her vision. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to be warm. She wanted to be away. She wanted her tiny friend. "Mmm..." a faint, muffled voice could be heard. The three all heard the sound, their heads turning to face the direction it had came from. The problem was, the wind and fog swirling around them made it sound like the voice was coming from every which direction. They were each facing a different direction. Silently, without another word or even glance at each other, the three reformed their lifeline formation and moved towards where Luna thought she had heard the voice. Twilight, her magic flickering from mental anguish, brought the severed antler to her and placed it on her back lovingly. She had given a quick glance and confirmed for herself that, yes, the formation of bone was indeed the same shape as the one that had belonged to her tiny reindeer friend, just much, much bigger. They moved steadily forward once more, Luna remembering this time that she could shield them. The mist outside the dome swirled around, trying to find some way in to once again blind them. Rarity's eyes were open again, but they were locked on the broken piece of bone lying across her friend's back in front of her. She didn't say anything or try to stop their search, but inside, she was hurt. She had hoped for a moment that everything would be okay for the little buck, but now she had a hard time keeping that flame of hope lit. *Cough* This time, the sound was closer and easier to track. Luna picked up her pace towards where she knew she heard it. The mist tried desperately to blind the area outside the dome, but it couldn't get in to blind the short distance in front of them. It didn't take long before the dome moved over a brown spot in the snow. The three looked down at it, their hearts skipping a beat simultaneously. It wiggled a bit, then scrunched. *Cough* The brown spot revealed itself to be a fuzzy little nose, sticking out of the snow and trying to take it deep breathes despite the bitter cold. Three pairs of eyes locked onto the shape in the snow, the owners all rushing forward with barely contained joy in their steps. But just as they were about the reach him, they heard a noise. It grew. The mist surged forward, this time with a shape. "AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" The voice was colder than anything they had experienced throughout the whole ordeal. It shot through their bodies, tearing Luna's shield from her mind and shattering it. They were once again exposed to the bitter elements swirling around violently. This time, they were overpowered almost instantly and sent flying backwards, away from the nose in the snow. They tumbled through the mounds of frozen powder, getting covered completely. The three couldn't focus enough to cast any kind of spell, but were caught in a bright golden glow that had appeared just before they hit the stone wall. "Sister! Twilight!" Celestia's voice broke through the blizzard. The three airborne ponies were carried down to the eldest princess and set down on a clear section of floor right before another dome appeared to shield them. "Are you okay? What is ha-" "CELESTIA!" the voice boomed again, drawing the attention of the four ponies. Outside the dome, from the direction they had been sent flying away from, a figure grew in the darkness. The mist that had filled the library flowed into it, making its presence that much more threatening. The figure was become larger by the second, until a point where they could no longer see any mist. Even the blizzard that had been raging had disappeared, making the destroyed section of library almost visible again. A pair of piercing blue eyes opened in the area outside Celestia's dome, looking in on them with a hateful, chilling glare. Twilight and Rarity shuddered, not knowing what to think. Luna glared back, her mind snapping back into a combative state that she hadn't fallen into since before her banishment. Celestia wilted under the glare, knowing exactly who it belonged to and why they were staring at her with such hatred. "You...MONSTER!" the owner of the eyes shrieked, a ball of blue light slamming into the golden shield. Celestia winced, feeling the cold chill shoot up through her body, even through the dome. The ball of light had illuminated the outside for just long enough for Luna to get a glimpse of their assailant. Her eyes blinked in stunned confusion. Not in ages had she seen such a being, though it made sense with what they had been enduring. The snow, the mist, the cold, the blue eyes. The ghostly, transparent form of a creature only heard of in stories. "A...Windigo?" Luna mumbled to herself. The eyes broke away from Celestia for the first time since they had opened and focused on the darker blue alicorn. A little ball of blue light formed again, but this time hovered behind the creature, illuminating it. Twilight and Rarity watched in awe as the being revealed itself completely. Though even in the light, its body was not too easy to see. It existed mostly as a faint blue outline, with some of the familiar blue mist swirling around inside of it to make it look slightly more solid. The most tangible part of its body was its terrifying blue eyes, which held no irises. They were just shining blue lights that chilled the ponies to their very cores. "I'm...I'm s-" Celestia's weak voice started. "NO!" the windigo shrieked again, its focus returning to the solar princess once again. The ball of blue light whipped around and slammed into the dome, once again snuffing the only source of light besides for the two striking blue eyes. "Do you...HAVE ANY CLUE AS TO WHAT YOU PUT HIM THROUGH?!" the windigo shouted so loudly that Twilight and Rarity were forced to cover their ears to keep from going deaf. Celestia lowered her eyes to the floor, her entire body trembling. "NINE HUNDRED YEARS, CELESTIA! YOU FORCED HIM TO REMAINED IMPRISONED IN A SMALL GLOBE OF GLASS AND WATER FOR NINE HUNDRED YEARS! HE WAS AWAKE THE ENTIRE TIME! YOU BROKE HIM! YOU BROKE. MY. BUCK!" With every word, the windigo would slam another orb of blue light against the shield, making it crack. Celestia was reduced to tears again, her eyes wide open and focused on the floor. As Celestia's shield shattered from the constant force, Luna cast her own, a smaller but stronger blue dome forming to take its place. The windigo had rushed forward the moment the shield broke, but slammed into the new one and cursed in a loud, violent language that had never been heard by any of the ponies present. "ENOUGH!" Luna shouted in a volume that rivaled that of the windigo. "ENOUGH OF THIS!" The wind outside the dome swirled around, causing a sound that sounded very much like a growl. "I have no quarrel with you, Princess of the Night. Or your other two friends. You showed Buck kindness, and listened to him. For that, I thank you. But I will not forgive you getting between the Sun Tyrant and myself. She has hurt him in ways that I cannot ever forgive. I ask you to please lower your shields. This is between Celestia and-" "NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU ATTACK MY SISTER!" Luna roared in response. "I WATCHED HIM TRY TO KILL HIMSELF! I TOOK HIS MEMORIES TO MAKE HIM ABLE TO WITHSTAND BEING TRAPPED FOR SO LONG, WITH NO END IN SIGHT! SHE MADE ME BREAK HIM! HE'S BROKEN NOW AND I...I...I had to be the one to do it to him..." The windigo's voice faded as it started to sob. Twilight watched and listened intently, trying to make any kind of sense of what the windigo was saying. "Who...who are you?" the Princess of Friendship asked meekly. The eyes opened, their expression having gone from hatred to pure misery. Little drops of blue light fell from them, falling into the snow below and freezing on contact. Though unfocused, the windigo's eyes managed to fall onto the one who had started the sequence of events that had led to this. "Everest..." Celestia choked through her tears. Twilight's ear flicked as she heard this, unsure if Celestia was saying this to her or not. The name struck a chord with Twilight, making her mouth go dry. "I...know that name...Snowy, he-...he kept repeating it before...and-...S-Snowy!" Twilight suddenly shot to her hooves and ran up to the side of the dome, ignoring the windigo glancing down at her. "We have to make sure he's okay! He's just buried in the snow over there! I have to-!" Twilight ranted, jumping up and scraping at the shield with her hooves. "He is fine..." Everest's voice came out, the calmest they had heard her be so far. From behind her, a large ball of blue mist came forward, revealing the dark shadow of a body enveloped in it. "B-but...his antler..." Twilight stuttered, pulling the bone from her back with her teeth and showing it to the entity hovering just on the other side of the thin blue barrier. "It will grow back..." Everest assured, moving the ball of mist closer. Another ball of blue light formed above her head and moved down, illuminating the face of the one Twilight had been nearly clawing her way through a shield to find. Snowy was right there in front of her, fully sized. The first thing Twilight noticed was just how small he actually was, even outside of the globe. He truly was not much more than just a fawn, being maybe slightly older than a young adult. The second thing she noticed was that he was unconscious, the first time in apparently nine hundred years. His furry chest moved up and down with his breathing. His eyes were shut, but she could see that they were moving around under his eyelids. Then her eyes wandered up to the top of his head, where only one antler remained, the stump of his previous one still visible where it had snapped. Twilight's eyes kept moving up until they reached Everest herself, who was something out of history book for her. Though, she noticed that the windigo didn't look exactly like how the books had described. Instead of being mostly long, thin and horse-like, Everest had many features of a pony. Her face was rounded, muzzle short, and her mane flowed around her like Luna's. But she was definitely not a pony. Twilight could see through her and noticed that her entire back half trailed off into a ghostly wisp. Twilight, despite all that had happened, all the destruction that had taken place and all the tensions floating around, couldn't stop herself from smiling at the sight of her friend alive and well, and finally getting some much needed sleep. Rarity snuck up behind her to get a look at the unconscious reindeer. Just like Twilight had done, Rarity couldn't keep a large smile off of her face once she looked over the reindeer's fuzzy body. "He's okay...he's...he looks so young..." Rarity said, a ping of sadness evident in her voice. "He is. He was only a fawn when that...TYRANT...locked us away!" Everest grew loud again, her eyes shooting back up to Celestia. The larger princess, who had looked up from the floor to check on the buck, took a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly. Twilight looked up at the windigo fearfully, unsure of what to think about all these things she kept saying about Celestia. "Everest. Whatever happened, whatever my sister did...do not go about this with violence. It will solve nothing," Luna said, trying to remain calm in the face of such a legendary, mysterious creature. Everest's gaze hardened, but remained locked on Celestia. "You do not understand, Night Princess. Celestia hurt both of us in ways unimaginable. I cannot and will not forgive her for making me destroy the mind of the one I love just to keep him alive. I will NOT be leaving until Celestia's very BONES ARE FROZEN SOL-!" Everest's impending attack was halted by the sound of an ear-piercing batty cry. From somewhere high up on one of the shelves, a smaller form flew out at Everest and somehow landed on her. Everest let out another one of her wails, twisting and turning to attempt to get the being off of her back. Her focus broken, the mist surrounding Snowy faded and let his body slide softly into the snow below him. While Everest was distracted, Luna lowered the shield and used her magic to pull the body of the unconscious reindeer over to them. Rarity and Twilight prepared a spot to set him down, clearing away some of the books and debris hiding under the snow. Luna set him down a gently as he could, but the two younger ponies practically ripped him from her magical grasp. They supported his weight together, though he wasn't very heavy at all. There, after all the heartache they had been through in the past hour, they could feel Snowy's coat pressed against them. The soft white fuzz on his chest made contact with another living being for the first time in hundreds of years. Their combined body heat soaked into him, making his soaked body shiver a little less. They both held him tightly, afraid that letting him go would mean losing him for good. Only a short distance away, Everest whipped around violently, trying to rid herself of the feral old librarian that had attacked her. Whenever she twisted one way, the old bat would twist the other, throwing her off balance no matter where she tried going. Her anger blinded her from the reindeer currently safely tucked away in the caring embrace of the purple and white ponies- -until the librarian twisted in just a way that forced Everest to face the direction of both her fallen lover and most hated rival. She froze solid, momentarily trapping the attacking pony in ice. The air in the library grew frigid again, Everest's eyes gleaming with the light of her very soul. "NO! YOOUU WIIILLL NOOOOOT TAAAAAAAAKE HIIIIIIIIIIIM!" Everest wailed, her features lengthening slightly as she took on a look closer to what Twilight had always believed windigos to look like. Her body went from being ice to nothing more than mist in an instant, the librarian falling from her and landing in a mound of snow below. Then she charged. Everest galloped on the air towards the group, her eyes gleaming like blue fire and her mane flowing around her wildly. But the time the librarian had bought them gave Luna the chance to prepare for this. She had been preparing a spell for this very moment, and right before the attacking ice spirit could reach them, she cast it. Everest was blown back right before her translucent hooves could reach the reindeer she loved, her expression turning to despair as she was taken by the dispelling magic she had been hit with. The group of ponies watched as Everest, along with her misty essence, was carried through the nearest open window. She wailed the entire time, but not in anger. Her wail was one of desperation and loss. Rarity and Twilight held their ears shut until the wail was nothing but a faint echo. The room around them regained the calm atmosphere it usually held, despite the amount of damage that had been done to the surrounding area. The four ponies waited for almost a full minute, expecting something else to pop up or happen. When nothing did, they all took a collective breath and let their bodies relax for the first time in awhile. The only sound they could hear around them was the creaking of cold wood and the steady breathing of the unconscious buck in their grasp. "Will...will she be able to come back?" Twilight asked, her eyes still gazing down at the face of her sleeping friend. It was just so surreal to her to be seeing him up close, almost the same size as her. Luna leaned against the wall behind her, breathing deeply. The spell she cast had taken a lot out of her, not to mention having to withstand Everest's constant barrage of light orbs earlier. "Eventually...but...not for a good...few weeks..." Luna responded between breathes, her eyes locked on the window she had shot Everest out of. She was worried to spell wouldn't work on a windigo, but the lack of a charging, rabid ice demon was evidence enough for her to prove they were safe. "Right now we...need to get him...in bed...and taken care of..." Twilight and Rarity looked down at Snowy, noticing that his muzzle scrunched slightly whenever a stray snowflake was blown onto it. They looked up and nodded to each other, Twilight wrapping the reindeer's frail body in her magic and lifting it. Carefully, the two navigated their way through the field of broken wood and snow towards the library's exit. The librarian had found a spot next to one of the fallen shelves and curled up next to it, mourning the books she had spent her life protecting. Tattered and soaked pages lay scattered around her, forming a nest of misery for the elderly mare to stew in. Luna looked over to her sister, who remained frozen during the last moments of the confrontation. In fact, she had remained mostly useless for most of the last hour, only helping once with a shield. But even that had quickly crumbled under the weight of her apparent guilt. Luna really wanted to go off on her and demand to know exactly what was going on and why, but she was too exhausted to do much more than sit there and gaze out of the window. Outside, the clouds grew dark and the wind carried with it a stinging chill completely inappropriate for the time of year. A single flurry of snow fell above Canterlot, followed by another one miles away. For as far as the eye could see, the clouds blotted out the sun. Another flurry fell. ~