//------------------------------//
// Hunting High and Low 
// Story: Luna's Student 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Blueblood woke up with a jerk of his body, startling the pony leaning over him who fell backwards. He only had a brief moment to look around at the mostly empty room he was in and realise he was in some sort of bed before the other got back up and started to shakily head for the door.
"Princess Luna!" he called, "Princess Luna! He's awake!"
Blueblood observed the room more closely. It looked as if it had been carved in the side of a mountain, the walls and ceiling made of rock and the floor covered by a carpet. Other than the bed he was in there was a small table at his side, on it a bowl with some food left and a spoon in it. Feeling quite hungry, and having figured out it had been likely intended for him, he grabbed it and finished the food.
"Ah, you're finally awake," Luna said as she entered the room, wearing a heavy fur coat with traces of snow stuck in it.
Blueblood quickly placed the bowl back down and got up from the bed. "Princess Luna. How long was I passed out for?"
"Months," Luna replied with a grave expression.
Blueblood gulped. "Months?"
"No, it was actually only a couple of hours," Luna replied, smiling. "Though it certainly felt like months," she quietly added while looking to the side with a more serious expression.
Blueblood sighed in relief and walked closer to her. "So where are we now?"
"The mountains," Luna answered, "I needed a place where my sister couldn't find us. This is an old abandoned outpost designed for one or two guards, it mostly served as a checkpoint when travelling to the other side. It fell in disuse once the railroad was built."
"Understood." Blueblood curiously walked up to the exit and peeked out, only to be greeted by the biting cold of the raging blizzard outside. "What happened to that other pony?" he asked while walking back inside.
"The cook? I sent him back to Canterlot once he made sure you'd been fed and had woken up, I had him keep an eye on you while I stayed outside and made sure Celestia wasn't following us." Luna went up to the bed and grabbed another, smaller fur coat from under it. "Take this," she said, passing it to Blueblood.
The unicorn instinctively grabbed it and started to put it on. "Why do I have to wear it? Can't we just teleport away?"
Luna looked at him with eyes wide open. "Are you insane? We can't teleport now! Celestia might be tracking our magic, we can't risk her finding our position. It was lucky enough that she didn't follow us here, teleporting right now would be practically asking her to come to us."
Blueblood looked at the closed door. "So we're going out there like this? With that blizzard going on?"
"Greatness doesn't come to those who wait for it, you must chase it, Vlad." Luna began to walk towards the exit.
"Through that blizzard?"
Luna arrived at the door, and looked back at Blueblood. "Yes." She kicked open the door, and snow began to storm inside the room. "We can't leave traces behind," she said, as a blast from her magic incinerated the bed, the table, the carpet and the door, as well as a couple of strands from Blueblood's mane. She then began to walk away.
Blueblood quickly ran after her, into the cold of the ice and snow. "Where are we going now? Back to Canterlot?" He had to almost shout to surpass the howling sound of the wind around them.
"No," Luna replied without turning to look at him.
"Where then?" Blueblood asked, a little confused. "We're getting away from this mountain, right?"
"Quite the opposite, actually." Luna seemed to stop and look around for a moment, then resumed her march. "We will search the mountains for your falip. Oh, don't look at me like that," she added, despite having her face pointed in the direction opposite to the unicorn's.
He stopped for a moment, confused, then began walking again. "Why?" he asked, slightly worried for his condition.
"Many reasons." Luna stopped to examine something on the ground, then lifted her head again. "First, we'd decided to examine all of Equestria, so there's no reason to not start here now that we're here. Second, this is a very inhospitable and poorly explored environment, therefore it's more likely that the falip might be here and not yet properly documented. Third, this blizzard will make it harder for Celestia and her spies to find us. Lastly..." She turned and pointed a hoof. "This extreme weather will temper your spirit, making you into a worthy student!"
"Princess?"
"Yes?"
"I'm over here," Blueblood said, waving a hoof.
Luna looked in his direction. "Oh. Indeed you are, my student. Sorry, it's a bit hard to tell your white away from all the snow." She turned back to the direction her hoof was pointing in. "Then what is this other white shape?" she asked, getting closer to it.
"Princess? Are you sure it's a good idea?" Blueblood worriedly asked.
"But of course!" Luna reached the thing. "Let's see. About as tall as a pony, white fur, four legs, two eyes, large fangs... I believe it is not a falip!" she somewhat disappointedly said while turning to Blueblood.
The unicorn gulped. "What is it then?"
"Well, judging by the tracks I found earlier, and by the way it's growling at me, I believe it is a wolf." Luna got away from it and walked towards Blueblood.
"Oh. Should I be concerned?"
"Nah, I'm too big for a single wolf to attack me."
The two kept walking for a bit.
"Princess?"
"What is it?"
"It's still following us."
"Don't worry, I've already told you it won't attack me. Your princess is safe, my dear. Though now that I think about it, it might try to eat you." Luna stopped and concentrated for a moment. "Yes, I do believe it might."
Blueblood stopped at her side. "Should we not... run, Your Highness?"
Luna looked back. "I do not believe that will be necessary. Or useful for that matter."
"And why is that, Princess?"
"Because it has already pounced on us."
Blueblood turned back, to see the wolf in mid-air, falling towards him. He regretted many of his recent decisions in that moment, not for the first time, not for the last time either.
The wolf hit Blueblood's body, and the two began to fall down the side of the mountain, rolling around in the snow as the wolf tried to attack the unicorn only for its claws to remain caught in Blueblood's fur coat. Blueblood screamed, barely managing to hold the wolf's jaws closed with his magic.
Luna looked down at the two creatures rolling in the snow. "Oh, they're having fun," she commented as she heard the sound of Blueblood's desperate cries. She pondered for a moment. "Well, I will have to reach him anyway, might as well go there the entertaining way." She angled herself, lied down, and let the legs on a side of her body give out, pushing with those on the other, thus beginning to roll down the mountain. "Whee!" she giddily exclaimed as her body started to collect snow around it and move faster.
"Help!" Blueblood screamed, terrified, as the wolf tried to push its head forward and bite into his throat. The two kept falling faster and faster, the world around them a blur, until suddenly they stopped. It took a moment for Blueblood to realise what had happened, but once he did, he quickly got back up and started to walk away.
The wolf, having been the one of the two who had hit the tree directly, remained on the ground for a little longer, but it eventually got up too, if a little dizzily.
Blueblood backed away from the animal, only to find himself with his back against a wall of rock in the side of the mountain. The blizzard appeared to be confined to the upper regions of the mountain, so he had a clearer visibility where he was. This allowed him to clearly see the distinct lack of any escape from his situation. His back against a rock, he wasn't fast enough to circle around it and start running away, much less to reach the forest behind the wolf. Even if he could probably manage to teleport there, the wolf was still faster than him, it would catch up eventually. He was trapped.
The wolf began to approach Blueblood, one step at a time. It closed in, a slight curvature to the path it chose to ensure Blueblood wouldn't try to run around.
It was suddenly hit by a rather large snowball, at least trice the size of an alicorn in diameter, which had come rolling down the mountain at a remarkably high speed. The snowball kept rolling into the forest, carrying the wolf along, knocking down trees along its path, and where the wolf had stood was now a slightly confused Princess Luna.
The alicorn got up, looking at the ball rolling away, and pouted. "Didn't even ask for a lift, just kicked me out of the thing," she muttered.
Blueblood stared in disbelief, panting heavily.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Luna asked as she got closer to him, "We've got to find your falip, do we not?"
Blueblood looked in silence as she walked away from him, then looked at the trail of destruction left by the snowball. He swallowed and began to follow her.
"Believe me, I'm sorry about that," Luna commented as the two walked side by side, "but I couldn't let you keep that wolf as your pet, even if it did seem to like you very much. But such a simple animal isn't befitting of your status, even if you seemed to be rather fond of it."
"No, it's... it's no big deal, really..." Blueblood came to the conclusion that perhaps it would have been better if they never did find that falip, if Luna's standards for what a loving pet was like were those. He was suddenly stopped and startled from his thoughts by Luna's hoof extending in front of him.
"Stop here," she said, pointing forward, "they might be spies sent by my sister."
Blueblood looked forward to see a lone tent at the side of a clearing, with a sign outside and a yellow unicorn walking back in.
"I'm going to ambush them," Luna said, beginning to move.
"Wait!" he said, stopping her by grabbing her hoof.
Luna turned around, quizzically looking at him.
Blueblood realised the stupidity of his own actions, but decided to keep going anyway. "We should use a camouflage spell and try to get information out of them that way. If we attack they might send a distress signal to Celestia." Of course, he would have very much liked that to happen, but it seemed unlikely that those ponies had anything to do with them in the first place.
Luna looked at him for a moment. "You know what? I think you're right. Of course, I would have been able to neutralize them fast enough, but that plan makes sense for you, so we'll go with it." She coated them both in her magic, and they began to walk towards the tent.
"Oh, hello there!" a unicorn said as they approached, noticing them. "Welcome to Flim and Flam's Everything Emporium, anything you might want to buy from magic swords and stone masks to life-sized Chrysalis plushes and crayons to colour animal fur!"
Luna looked at the tent. "In there?"
"Spatial expansion magic, sir."
Luna gave a shrug and began to walk away.
"Wait," Blueblood said, "do you have exotic animals in there?"
"Anything, ma'am. Please come inside."
Luna looked back and gave an understanding nod, then followed them in.
"Here we go," Flim said, moving a curtain to the side to reveal a large room filled with all manners of cages and boxes, all full of animals.
Blueblood began to walk forward but was suddenly distracted by Luna.
"Found it!" the alicorn yelled, pointing at a young anteater. "I've never seen anything like this, so clearly this it!"
"That's a giant anteater pup, sir."
"Oh. Not a falip?"
"No, sir."
"Well I know every other animal in here, so there's nothing for us it seems." Luna began to walk away.
Blueblood's hopes were crushed and buried before he even had the time to realise they'd been there. Then suddenly, a plan formed in his mind. "Get me some of those crayons," he said.
Flim quickly teleported them to him.
In a matter of seconds, the pup was sporting two bright purple stripes on his back and a silver star on his forehead.
"I found it!" Blueblood called.
Luna returned inside. "Oh. Marvellous news!"