Author’s note: This story is based on a game and as such, has music that will fit with each part of the story. The music is, frankly, incredible, so it will be located at this LINK, and I will be placing the video times for each part of the soundtrack throughout the chapters (XX:XX to XX:XX). Enjoy :)
This is it, Twilight.
Just breathe.
Why are you so nervous?
(00:00 to 00:50)
Snow crunched softly under Twilight’s hooves as she walked. The air was chilly, but her puffy blue jacket, thick brown snow pants, saddlebags, and enchanted purple snow boots kept her protected. All around her snow drifted gently down from the wild storm above. There was no way for Twilight to tell when it would end, as even if there were pegesi living nearby, they would be unable to clear the storm. A quick flap of her wings confirmed why.
She couldn’t fly.
Her magic was still there, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t seem to grasp it. At best, she would be able to soften her falls by extending her wings, but even hovering was likely out of the question. She would need magic to do that. And her horn was no better. At best, she could get a few small sparks. Even a basic light spell, the first spell any unicorn ever learned, was impossible at the moment.
And she was still only at the base of the mountain. If the mountain’s magic was this strong already, how much stronger would it get as she began to climb? Would her abilities continue to deteriorate, maybe to the point where she couldn’t feel her own magic at all? Would she eventually reach the point where she felt empty, just like when Tirek had stolen all her magic? Would it ever come back?
It wouldn’t be that bad, surely. Celestia would have warned her if it was.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Twilight continued on, passing a small lamppost with a gentle glowing light. She hopped up onto the small ledge in front of her, taking a brief moment to look at the broken green sign that lay there. It was illegible.
In front of her lay what she thought was the path to the mountain. Unfortunately, said path was broken up by a series of deep pits too wide to walk around, with the only way across being a series of wide, misshapen stone- and ice-covered pillars.
Taking a peek over the edge of where she stood, Twilight realized that she couldn’t even see the bottom of the nearest pit. She thought she saw the glimmer of a bright pink crystal somewhere in the darkness, but it was very hard to tell.
Twilight took a step back and shook her head. She was getting distracted. The pit in front of her was dangerously deep, and that she had no apparent way around. As such, she would need to be careful if she wanted to make it across safely.
Twilight took a few more steps back. A hop, skip, and a jump later, and she cleared the first jump easily.
Smiling to herself, Twilight looked up. Right above her was a ledge almost as tall as she was, completely devoid of hoof-holds, but it looked smooth and flat on top, so she sprung upwards and climbed up easily. And to make things even better, the second pillar was positioned quite closely to the first one, so she leapt again and landed—
Crunch!
Twilight’s head jerked upwards. A massive block of ice was frozen on the underside of the ridge above her, and was currently shaking. She quickly leapt to the next pillar, seconds before the perfectly rectangular block of ice fell and slammed into the rock pillar, right where Twilight had been standing, with a loud ‘THUD.’
Oh Celestia…Great start…she thought as she let out a terrified breath as her adrenaline began to wear off. That block was twice as tall as she was, and nearly five times as long. If it had hit her…
No, you’re fine. Celestia’s gift will keep you safe, she thought, reaching up to touch her coat. Her hoof traced over the bulge in the fabric, perfectly matching where the pendant was pressed firmly to her chest. She could still see its image in her mind. A perfectly flat and round ruby held in a golden wire, a picture of a mountain engraved beautifully in the center. In Canterlot, it had felt completely magicless. Yet now, Twilight could feel it faintly humming with energy, responding to the mountain she was currently walking around.
It would protect her. She knew it would.
Taking a deep breath like Cadence taught her, Twilight hopped to the top of the pillar she was on before leaping over to clear the next gap.
Following the sign shaped like an arrow, Twilight continued on across the next two pillars before she encountered her first real roadblock. While she could stand on the first half of this pillar, the upper ledge was roughly five times as tall as she was, way too tall to jump over, and with no way to edge around it to jump to the next pillar. Her only option was to climb.
I hope this works…Twilight thought, placing her right boot on the wall in front of her. With a small hum, the runes on the boot came to life, glowing a faint blue. Twilight placed her left boot on the wall, with a similar effect. Then, she jumped, and placed both her hind-hooves on the wall as well. All four boots glowed, and despite the impossibility of the situation, Twilight remained stuck to the wall at a perfectly vertical angle.
Very cool. Thank you, Celestia, Twilight cheered in her head. Moving her fore-hooves up the wall followed by her hind-hooves, Twilight climbed up the perfectly vertical surface. She could feel the boots steadily draining her stamina, but the wall was short enough that she was able to make it to the top without issue.
Only to be greeted by a new surprise.
A bird was perched on top of the pillar, looking down at her curiously.
“Hello there,” Twilight said softly to the bird. It was dark blue, with light blue wings and a yellow beak. There was something a little bit odd about the bird, yet Twilight couldn’t say what it was. Actually, she felt a little more relaxed as she looked at it.
“Kaw,” the bird called, before flapping its wings and taking off towards the mountain. Specifically, it flew towards the small, cozy looking cabin Twilight could now see as she pulled herself up to the top of her perch.
She took a moment to rest and marvel at the boots. The moment the runes had deactivated, her stamina had almost instantly returned, meaning she was ready to climb again. Celestia had explained this to her before she left, but Twilight had only just realized what her mentor had meant.
The boots would drain her stamina when active and use it as a conduit to interact with the mountain's magic, creating a sticking spell. The more she climbed, the more stamina it would drain. Once it reached a certain point, a safety spell would activate to insure that she wouldn’t drain her stamina to a dangerously low level. Once this happened, the sticking spell would become ineffective, meaning that she would start to slide back down the way she had come. Once she landed back on four hooves, however, a restoration spell would activate and use the mountains magic to restore her lost stamina, thus allowing her to start climbing again immediately.
The boots also used the mountain’s magic to help protect her legs, which, according to Celestia, would allow her to fall from great heights without having to worry about a hard landing. Yes, both the climbing and the protective fall functions would result in some net stamina loss for Twilight, but because the mountain had so much magic around it, the loss itself would be almost nothing once the restoration spell activated. So long as she took frequent breaks, Twilight could tell that her climbs would be no more draining than the jumps she had performed earlier.
Whoever invented these things was a genius. Too bad they can only be used around this weird mountain, she thought. Though I wonder if the technology could be used for something else. If we made a prothetic leg with gem batteries, could we use this technique to reduce the strain on the pony using it, thus allowing them to run or fly for longer before tiring? Or maybe use the batteries to make it work outside the mountains range? That could have some potential for search and rescue in areas that pegesi can’t get to.
Focus Twilight. You still have a mountain to climb. There will be time for studying the boots later.
Turning back to the task at hoof, she leapt to the next pillar easily, but the one after that had no ledge to stand on, so Twilight built up as much pressure in her legs as she could before she jumped. However, she was far too low, and she had a brief flash of panic that she was going to fall, but the moment she hit the side of the pillar, her boots activated and stuck to the stone with barely any slipping.
Guess I’m still a little nervous, she thought as she let out a small sigh of relief. Still, nice to know the limits of these things before I get too high up.
She climbed up to the top of the ledge and stopped dead.
The next pillar was…floating?!
There was a bottom ledge with a small railing on it, which was completely normal. But there, hovering directly above it, was another a platform. It was just…sitting there, hanging in midair as though it was completely normal for a stone block seven times her height to just be floating in the middle of the air.
I know Celestia said the mountain was weird, but she could have mentioned that parts of the mountain are just floating for no reason! This could either make my climb harder or easier, depending on where else the mountain just decides that physics don’t apply.
Given what happened back at the ridge and her own natural curiosity, Twilight decided to leap for the top one. One quick climb later and she was on top of the platform.
Strangely, it didn’t feel like it was magical. Normally an enchanted item has a certain magical feeling that Twilight could detect, a side effect of her being so strong in her magical abilities. But despite now standing on a floating platform roughly twenty hooves in the air, she couldn’t feel a thing.
Was the mountain messing with her ability to detect enchanted objects? No, she could still feel the magic surrounding her amulet, so it couldn’t have been that. Was the magic being used to keep this large rock floating in mid-air just too subtle for her to detect? But why would that be? This thing was HUGE! She should have at least been able to feel something, at least given her sensitivity to magic—
A huge gust of wind slammed into Twilight, nearly causing her to lose her balance and fall down to the lower platform.
I can think on this later, particularly when I’m no balanced on a giant floating pillar with deep pits on either side of me, Twilight thought as she regained her balance. I can always come back and study this mountain at a later date. Twilight waited to make sure there would be no more sudden gust of wind before making the final jump and landing down on the main trail again with a puff of powdery snow.
That wasn’t so bad.
Hopping up a few more ledges, Twilight passed a lit, old-fashion lamppost and arrived at the small cottage. It was small, big enough to only contain a single large room, MAYBE two. The old wood was painted a dark purple and the corners were reinforced with a newer brown wood. It had a well-worn but study brown roof with a little chimney puffing out little plumes of smoke. It also was connected to the power line running to the lamppost, so it likely had electricity as well.
Overall, it looked rather homey.
As Twilight finished her observation, the door opened and a pony stepped out. She was a light grey unicorn with a red and pink mane. Her eyes were a brilliant gold color that seemed to glow in the early night all on their own. She wore a heavy green jacket and brown pants, hiding her cutie mark from view, and walked with a slight limp. She also wore a smile that Pinkie would have been proud of.
Twilight thought it was a little strange as to why a pony would be living out here at the base of this weird mountain right near magic floating platforms, but she was distracted by the fact that the blue bird from earlier was currently sitting on the end of her horn, seemingly unconcerned that its perch was currently moving around on its own. The mare didn’t seem to mind the bird’s position as she closed the door behind her and turned to face the mountain. Maybe it was her pet?
“Um, excuse me?” Twilight called out. The mare turned around and smiled brightly as Twilight approached. “The sign back there was illegible. Is this the mountain trail?”
“You’re almost there,” the mare replied, her voice a little scratchy but pleasantly upbeat. “It’s just across the bridge. I’m Second Sight, by the way.” She pointed with a hoof, so Twilight walked a little bit forward past the house. Sure enough, there was a rickety-looking bridge just past the house.
She was almost there.
“Thank you, and you can call me Twilight,” she said, before she remembered the ridge. Given how she had nearly gotten crushed, Twilight knew that she should tell Second Sight about it, just incase the old mare needed to go back that way or knew of somepony that might be coming to bring her food. She’d hate to see anypony get hurt should more of it collapse. “By the way, you might want to send a letter to someone who can repair the path to your house. The ridge collapsed and I nearly got crushed.”
There was a moment of silence, and then the old mare began to laugh.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”
It was such a deep belly laugh that Twilight found herself frowning. What in the hay could be so funny about giant falling blocks of pony-crushing ice?
“If the ‘path’ almost did you in, then the mountain might be a bit much for you,” Second Sight chuckled.
Twilight deadpanned at the older mare. “I think I’ll be fine,” she said, her tone tight. She wasn’t about to give up on Celestia’s task, especially not so early on.
“Hey now, no need to frown, dearie. I’m just teasing.” Second Sight said with a warm, apologetic grin and a wink. “You wouldn’t be the youngest pony to climb the mountain, and I’m sure a young, spry pony such as yourself will be done in no time at all. Just don’t climb too fast! It’s all about the journey, you know.” Her face fell into something more serious. “You’ve got a reset amulet right?”
“Yes, given to me by Princess Celestia herself,” Twilight said proudly.
“Ohhh, the princess sent you, did she? Well I’m sure she knew what she was doing. Though don’t be afraid to turn back if you get in over your head. This mountain certainly isn’t for everypony, and plenty of ponies have turned back before reaching the top. No shame in admitting you need more practice. Luna knows how many time I had to turn back before I finally managed to climb the mountain in one go. Those were the days! Ha ha ha ha ha.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but she found herself smiling a bit at the older mare’s joking tone before turning back towards the mountain.
“But you should know,” the mare added. “Celeste Mountain is a strange place. You might see things. Things you aren’t ready to see.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind,” Twilight said, unsure how to respond.
“Good luck youngin’!” Second Sight laughed as Twilight hopped down the small ledge next to the cabin, passed a stump with a woodcutters axe in it, and made her way to the bridge.
The bridge was made of stone and looked incredibly rickety. Regardless, and with the old mare’s joyful laugh still echoing through her ears, Twilight began to cross.
CRUNCH!
(00:50 to 1:07)
Twilight had only made it ten hooves when the entire section she had just crossed instantly collapsed! She let out a panicked scream and began to gallop, the bridge falling away behind her with every step she took.
Don’tstopdon’tstopDON’TSTOP!
There was a gap in the bridge ahead. Without stopping Twilight leapt over the gap as the last of the bridge behind her fell away, only for this new section to start collapsing too! Twilight gasped and kept running.
She could see stable ground ahead. She just had to keep running.
CRUNCH!
A segment of the bridge just front of her collapsed! Without pause, Twilight jumped, aimed directly for the remaining bridge piece still connected to the stable ground.
Only for that bridge segment to collapse the moment her hooves left the ground. She couldn’t make the jump now!
Twilight fell, her wings flailing helplessly as her magic refused to respond…
Time seemed to slow as she fell, the section of stable ground growing more and more distant.
But then…time stopped?
It was the strangest sensation. Twilight was falling, and still felt like she was falling, but she wasn’t moving. She was just…hanging there, just out of reach of safety.
“Kaw!”
With a flap of its wings, the blue bird landed on the platform above Twilight, taking a moment to peck at the ground. Twilight, still somehow frozen in time, just stared in confusion.
“Kaw!” The bird called again.
Now, Twilight was certainly not Fluttershy, and she certainly didn’t have the ability to talk to animals. However, at this moment, she was certain that she knew exactly what that bird had just said.
Dash…
WOOOSH!
Twilight’s magic responded.
Without rhyme or reason, she suddenly found herself flying upwards at a perfect forty-five degree angle, the world blurring blue around her even as her wings were forced to her sides.
“KAW KAW KAW!” The bird shrieked in protest as Twilight landed heavily on the ground right where it had been standing a second before.
How? What? Physics doesn’t work like that, was all Twilight could think as she collapsed to her knees, gasping in shock. Her magic had responded, but for the life of her, Twilight had no idea as to what it did to make her move like that. She wasn’t even sure which portion of her magic responded at all!
Earth pony? Pegasus? Unicorn? She had no idea. All that she knew was that it had let her, somehow, completely change her velocity and direction towards safety.
Sitting down hard, Twilight took a moment to try and calm down and check herself over.
She wasn’t hurt, she hadn’t lost anything from her saddlebags, and she could still feel the reset charm pressing against her chest. She was ok.
Mostly.
When Twilight moved to brush her mane out of her eyes, she stopped in surprise. Then checked her tail to be sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Her pink stripe, the one that had always existed next to the purple stripe in her mane, was gone.
You can do this.