//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 | Frozen Peril // Story: A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria // by Riclo //------------------------------// Unlike the movies, I didn't lose consciousness when I went tumbling down - although I wish I did. My sense of direction was immediately broken as my body got tossed and rolled around like a ragdoll, where I could quickly feel the weight of the snow piling on as I rolled down faster than most vehicles could drive. I felt like I wanted to throw up from all the high-speed movement, and I probably did; I was so out of it that I couldn't even tell what was going on, and each passing second only multiplied my misery. Was this going to end? Was I going to go down the entire mountain? I felt like I was going to die, and there absolutely nothing I could've done about it. Moving my body felt impossible, although I was hesitant to do such a thing anyway. With all of the weight pressing down on me, any sudden movement or change in pressure probably would've broken my bones. I was lucky to be in a curled up position, and at the moment trying to remain in that position was the only thing I could've done for the sake of my own safety. My insides felt like they were being torn apart, and my brain was no-doubt being tossed around inside my skull as the tumbling only seemed to increase in speed and intensity. I couldn't even comprehend how long this was lasting until the movement suddenly stopped - I must've hit something. The inertia jerked me like a broken branch as I lurched forward and screamed, and for several seconds afterwards it felt like I was still moving. I was so dizzy and disoriented that it took me awhile before I realized that I had come to a stop, and I panted as best I could from inside all of the snow. I could feel just how much of the cold white stuff was in my mouth, drying it out and giving me brain freeze. I didn't even know if I was okay - I was conscious, sure, but that was all I knew. The state of my limbs and the rest of my body was unknown to me, and I felt worried to try moving them in fear of what I might discover. It was then that I noticed just how cold I was - I was completely surrounded by snow - and that I would die to the elements if I didn't do something soon. Breathing in, I tried to move my arm, groaning through clenched teeth as I felt the limb move, much to my relief. I proceeded to try to move the rest of my body, tucking in my legs further and reaching my arms upwards. For the first few seconds I felt trapped, as I had absolutely no idea how much snow was on-top of me. I could've been buried with no hope whatsoever of ever clawing my way out, but that thought soon went away when I felt my hand pierce through the top of the snow. I wasn't buried very far, and with renewed hope, I clawed my way upwards until I finally dragged my head out onto the surface. I felt the freezing cold air blow right against my face, causing me to inhale an icy cold breath. My teeth chattered, and I could feel frost forming along my face as I tried to pull myself up even further. Looking around, I could see nothing but snow and rocks, and for the moment things still seemed extremely grim. I doubted I would last even half an hour in this place, especially with all the snow that I had eaten and was completely coating me. I had to do something. "Ahh... f-fuck." I grunted as I once again tried to pull myself up further, getting my chest up above the pile of snow. I leaned forward, breathing in sharply as I managed to yank my legs up out of the snow afterwards. With my entire body now out, I struggled to stand up, only to lose my balance and fall over to the side. I fell for an extra second longer than I expected, making me fear the worst until I landed with a thud into the snow. Once again I struggled to stand, not knowing if there was something wrong with my legs or if they were just really numb. I eventually did manage, using a big nearby rock for support, where I took a short moment to look around once more. I saw a big splatter against a huge grey rock located more to my right - that must've been what the tumbling snowball I was in hit. Clumps of snow were splattered all around it, and upon looking up into the sky, I could see the huge tower way off in the distance above me. There were two thick, horizontal rays of cyan-green light beaming into the orb at the top from two different directions, and they went on for longer than what I could see. From my perspective, it looked as if it was emitting something through the lasers, and I clenched my fists in response. I had to deal with that tower. 'That bastard Discord... he is fucked. He shouldn't have done that.' A quick reach around proved that my backpack of explosives was still attached to me, and with that in mind, I began to slowly walk forward. What I was doing was completely foolish - I never would've been able to reach the tower without freezing to death - but I was too disoriented and unfocused to think that far ahead. All I could think about was putting a stop to Discord's madness, as well as the possibility that Duston was up there somewhere as well. I didn't want to believe he was dead - I couldn't handle that truth in my current state. Those two things lingered in my mind non-stop as I trekked onwards with a strong sense of determination, although in reality, I wasn't even making much progress. This would've likely went on until my demise if not for a voice eventually yelling out to my left. I heard it the first time, but I didn't comprehend it until it called out again. "Klade!!! Over here!" I stopped my ascent, realizing just how much my legs were aching as I stood in place; or at least, as much as they could ache considering how numb they felt. I turned my head to see a pony off in the distance, a pink blur in a sea of whistling snow, and I shivered violently as I opened my mouth to respond. "Wh...who... who are you!?" I yelled out as best as I could. The pony responded by trotting towards me, and with a prancy gait that looked so incredibly familiar. I didn't recognize her as Pinkie Pie until she was close enough for her face to be well-visible, and she reached out to grab my arm when she approached. "Come on! The rest of us are over here - we need to stick together or we're all gonna freeze to death!" I was reluctant at first - the tower and Duston were still on my mind - but further thinking made me finally realize just how much danger I was in. With sluggish legs, I tried to keep up with her, stumbling forward like a drunk person as she continuously pulled my arm. I could see the cold affecting her as well by her trotting, which looked more and more rigid the further we went, but yet we still pressed on until we reached over a small hill. On the other side I spotted more ponies, and I slowly made my way over to them, trying and failing to recollect my thoughts. Celestia appeared to be a part of the group, which was a good sign. "Are we going to die?" Rarity's voice spoke up over the falling snow. I looked across the group, where at first glance it seemed like everypony was here. At least we didn't get separated too far. "I will try to my best to ensure such a thing doesn't happen." Celestia replied. "Is everypony okay for the most part?" Applejack's distinct voice chimed out. "Are you okay Klade? Glad to see you're back with us again." "Probably not, but I guess I'll find out later." I replied. "Do we have everyone here now?" Pinkie Pie asked. Everyone did a quick look around, and so did I. At first I noticed an absence of Twilight Sparkle, and I was almost going to say something until I remembered that she was still back at Canterlot. Everypony seemed like they were here, not like I was looking very well - I was still too disoriented and in too much cold misery to really give a shit. "I don't think so.." Fluttershy's voice spoke up. "Where's Rainbow Dash?" I looked around again after hearing her name, where this time I noticed that she wasn't in-fact with us. I looked around at the area surrounding us as well, but I still didn't see any sign of her. 'Fuck, she's not here. That's not good.' My concern for her quickly grew and gave me a sick feeling. "Ah don't see her." Applejack replied. "Rainbow!? Where are you!?" She proceeded to yell out. "RAINBOOOOOOOOW!!!!" Pinkie Pie screamed in her high-pitched voice. "We're over here! Can you hear us, wherever you are!?" We didn't get any response though, so I started yelling. "Rainbow, where the fuck are you!?" "We need to look for her!" Pinkie exclaimed. Celestia nodded. "Yes, but we cannot spend too much time here, or we will all die. We can only hope that we find her soon." 'Fuck.' I thought to myself as I looked at Celestia. 'We can't all die... what kind of bullshit is that? I'm not letting that happen.' Celestia proceeded to group us all together, where she then spread her large, alicorn wings, wrapping them around us and using them to shield us from the harsh winter elements. It at least seemed to help a little, and from there we all began to walk off in a seemingly random direction, all while bundled up around Celestia. We called out Rainbow's name multiple times across several minutes, and with each silent response, I only grew more worried. It soon reached a point where if she was actually out there somewhere, she'd probably be frozen to death by now - she would be by herself and probably doing something stupid like I had been before Pinkie got to me. I didn't know what else to do other than call out her name, when eventually the princess spoke up with a grim tone of voice. "We cannot keep searching." She announced. "We have tried, but we will all freeze to death in this place if we stay and search even longer. I worry that we have already over-stayed past our welcome." "B-but... we can't.." Fluttershy tried to speak up, only for Applejack to reply when she trailed off. "She's right. We can't stay here." She exclaimed. "Maybe she's already down the mountain - she could've went further than us." I knew Applejack was just trying to keep us positive, but I knew immediately that the chance of that being true was stupidly low - it was just false hope at this point. I didn't know how to feel; I really couldn't feel anything at the moment, as that would just have to wait for later when I wasn't freezing to death, dizzy and on the verge of passing out and most likely dying. "We need to go." I spoke up. "Discord is not going to get away with this, I'll make sure of that more than anything - but we can't do shit if we all die here looking for someone who's probably a-already dead." There was only silence after I spoke, which continued even after Celestia physically urged us to start moving so we weren't all just standing there ticking away closer to our death. Our descent downwards was slow, but still the fastest we could manage. Looking for the beacon Celestia had placed when we arrived was hopeless - not to mention Discord could very likely take out our carriage when we got on - which left going down the mountain manually as our only option. I could only imagine that we had already gone pretty far when we went tumbling down; I hoped that was true, otherwise we'd be screwed for sure. The morale surrounding us had seemingly dropped to a new low at our failure to locate Rainbow Dash. Nobody was talking - nobody seemed to really want to do anything after the catastrophic failure that had happened today. Was going to this mountain a bad decision? Discord was actually here, so maybe we just didn't prepare enough? Each step into the snow only seemed to get harder as time went on, which made me wonder just how far we were going to have to walk. I couldn't even move my fingers - my entire hands felt like stubs. The long silence was eventually interrupted by Rarity's voice, who asked a question that we were all wondering. "How much further do we have to go?" "I don't know." Was Celestia's simple response. More silence resumed, where the sound of the howling wind was the only thing we could hear. I didn't know how much time had passed. Our trek seemed like it was endless - to the point that I was starting to wonder how close we were to dying. Looking at the surrounding ponies, they all had wide, almost dreamy looks - as if the constant snow was putting them all in a daze. I couldn't think clearly either; all I could do was walk, and that mundane task being repeated over and over was making it hard for me to do anything else - not in the current state I was in. Celestia's wings were still surrounding us, and the thought of that had suddenly made me wonder just how she was doing. Surely her wings being subjected to that much cold for so long wasn't good. She was located behind us all, where she must've been taking most of the cold. I moved my body a little, trying to get a good look at her, when I noticed that something had been leaning against my back this entire time. I hadn't realized it until now, and further inspection showed that it was Celestia who was leaning against me - as well as the other ponies. "Celestia?" I spoke up. It took a few seconds for my voice to catch the attention of the other ponies, and even then it was only half of them who perked their heads up. The mentioned princess didn't respond though, so I made more of an effort to turn around and look at her, only to be shocked at what I saw. Her face was pale with bits of frost formed all over, and her eyes had a distant, unfocused look as they gazed blankly ahead of her. Her cheeks were even a little puffy, and from what I saw, it looked like she was dead. "Are we dying yet?" Pinkie Pie's voice spoke up. "What's going on? Helloooo? This silence is killing me - I feel like I'm about to go crazy!" "Celestia, are you alright?" I asked, this time with a louder voice. The princess still didn't even budge though, completely unresponsive to her name being called, a revelation that made me suddenly aware of just how serious this was. "Is everypony okay?" Applejack asked. She turned to look at me, where she at least seemed like she was half aware of what was going on. "No!" I yelled out in an attempt to get the other ponies' attention. "I think we have a serious problem with Celestia." "Oh.. no..." Fluttershy replied. Our walking stopped for the moment as we all turned to look at the princess, where we saw just how devoid of life her body looked. Her mane didn't look like it was moving as it always did, and it didn't look like she was holding herself up at all or even walking - was she actually dead? "Ahhhhhh!!!" Pinkie Pie screamed out. "She looks like a ghost! Am I still alive? Hello hello hello-" "Stop it Pinkie!" Applejack responded, slapping Pinkie's head with her hoof. She blinked and then shook her head in response. "I'm not dead?" "Oh heavens..." Rarity spoke up. "...Surely I must be dreaming right now?" "We need to keep going, and fast." I replied. "I can't move my hooves!" Pinkie Pie responded. "Why'd we stop walking?" "Wait..." Fluttershy's voice remarked. "I... see.. grass?" "Grass means we must be gettin' close." Applejack exclaimed. "Come on - we're not dyin' yet." She started to move, pushing Pinkie with her hooves to get her to start walking again. We all proceeded to begin our trek once more, where the deep dark green grass became more apparent the further we went. I couldn't feel my legs at all by now, but fortunately I was still able to walk of them as we continued on - was it not as cold as it was before? I could only hope so since we had gotten much lower compared to however high up we must've been. The atmosphere was beginning to change to more of a evergreen forest, although still with smaller mountains off in-front of us and around us. One of these mountains is where I spotted a small cave, and knowing we couldn't keep going on like this for much longer, I pointed it out. "There's a cave over there." I spoke up, pointing at it with my entire arm. "Let's go there for now." Everyone silently agreed and changed directions. We made it only a few feet into the cave when Rarity was the first to collapse, and the rest of us followed suit. I panted and groaned as I rolled over on the hard cave floor, pushing Celestia's body off of me. I had wanted to get a good look at her to see if she was alright, but now that I was finally laying down, it only took a few seconds before I already began to pass out, leaving Celestia's condition unknown for the time being.