//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Cold Trail // Story: The Legend of Midnight Hour // by Stratocaster //------------------------------// Chapter 11: Cold Trail There was too much to take in. Midnight had just met face to face with the mythical antagonist straight from his books and did nothing but listen to her talk. He pondered returning to Canterlot at once to tell Princess Celestia, but as far as he was concerned, Nightmare Moon did nothing wrong, at least not yet. It didn’t help his composure that she said she was flattered by him. He tried to shake off discomfort and focused on the new information she had just given him. All of a sudden, his brother was now a crucial asset to defeating Locust. Midnight always thought Noon was a goof and never expected him to be as powerful as he was with magic. He wondered how he would break the news to Noon and how he would take it. It didn’t even seem believable to Midnight. The thought of a unicorn army like Nightmare Moon said was a bit farfetched. But these thoughts were put aside once he reached the cabin. There was somepony outside; it was Marigold. She was scurrying to and fro worriedly and was even breathing heavily. Midnight walked up to her. “Marigold, what’s wrong?” he asked her. “Oh Midnight, you’re not going to believe this. It’s Noon; he’s gone!” “What? Where would he go?” “I don’t know. We were in separate beds when I woke up suddenly and saw that he disappeared. I looked all over the cabin but he’s not anywhere. I’m so worried!” “Guys?” spoke Fry who had just come out from the door. “Fry, Noon’s disappeared.” Midnight said. “You didn’t see him did you?” “No, but that’s not the only bad news. I was getting up to get some water when I noticed that Cassiopeia wasn’t in her room. I looked around and couldn’t find her. She’s missing!” “Oh no, not Cassie too!” gasped Marigold. “I got to tell Andromeda.” Midnight replied hurrying into the cabin. He galloped upstairs to his room and prepared to break it to Andromeda. But to his shock, his bed was empty. “She’s not here!” “She’s not in her room either.” Fry added. “What about Takeoff?” asked Midnight. “He’s still unconscious on the couch.” Marigold said. “Oh my goodness, this is bad. How could we have three missing ponies? You don’t think they were taken by Workhorses do you?!” “If that’s the case,” answered Midnight. “I think they would have taken me too.” “Well somepony had to take them.” Fry urged. “They wouldn’t just leave on their own. What do we do?” “I don’t know!” replied Midnight. “What the hay are y'all doin’ in mah home?!” Midnight, Marigold, and Fry looked behind them to see a stranger standing at the top of the stairs. It was a brown stallion earth pony with a matted black mane and piercing gray eyes. He wore a red flannel jacket, a dark gray hunting cap, and sported a wooly beard. He glared at the three ponies who only responded with silence. “Well? Ah’m waitin’!” the roughneck pony scolded. Marigold and Fry cowardly pushed Midnight in front of them gesturing for him to speak first. He stuttered nervously. “Uh, heh heh, hi there. Uh, we’re really sorry. We didn’t know somepony lived here.” “Oh, so ya couldn’t tell bah the furniture and stocked food that somepony lives here. Are you out of yer mahnds?! What gives ya raht to break into mah house and mooch off mah food?!” “I was hungry!” cried Fry melodramatically. “Look, we’re so sorry,” said Marigold. “We’ve been riding the rails all the way from Canterlot and we had to stop for rest. We were on the run from the Workhorses.” “The what now?” “You know,” added Midnight. “The robotic ponies that have been terrorizing Equestria?” “Ya mean those fancy contraptions that have been runnin’ amok over in Baltimare? Ah’d like to see them hah-tech gizmos come after me! They won’t get no quarter, they won’t! Wait a minute; did you say you folks came from Canterlot?” “Yeah,” answered Fry. “The machines were taking it over. Midnight here is the only one who can destroy them, but there were too many of them so we had to escape.” “And just how can you destroy them machines?” “Well, I just can, using magic.” Midnight told him. “Magic?” the pony scoffed. “There’s only one thing Ah gotta say to you spell flingin’ Canterlot unicorns.” Midnight gulped as he grimaced at him. But then the mountain pony suddenly smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet ya! I don’t mind city ponies as long as der not in mah face about it. The name’s Kodiak! And anypony that’s against those dang contraptions is a friend o’ mahn!” The pony who called himself Kodiak shook Midnight’s hoof vigorously. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you too.” Midnight replied sheepishly. “So uh, Mr. Kodiak,” said Marigold. “Why do you live out here by Neighagra Falls?” “Well Ah’ve been a mountain pony all mah lahf, just lahk mah pa, his pa before him, his pa before him, and so on. Ah keep the extra bedrooms for when mah distant relatives come out to visit. It gets lonely out here sometahms so yer welcome to stay here fer as long as ya need.” “Well actually,” said Midnight. “Something just came up. There were three more of us and we just found that they went missing. Did you see any other ponies?” “Ah’m afraid not,” answered Kodiak. “But Ah did follow a trail o’ hoof prints leadin’ up from here to the north. Ah figured they were made bah you comin’ here, which is whah ah was surprahsed to hear ya came from Canterlot instead.” “You saw tracks?” perked up Fry. “Can you show us them?” “Sure, follow me,” said Kodiak. “And make sure ya scoop up your vegetable friend downstairs while yer at it.” The three followed Kodiak outside with Takeoff slumped over Fry’s back. They were led around back where the mountain pony was inspecting the ground beneath him. “Raht here, they just lead off into the woods.” He told them. “I don’t see any tracks.” Midnight shrugged. “Look closely.” Kodiak urged. Midnight strained to make out something in the grass. Sure enough, there was faint imprint of a hoof which was barely visible. Marigold looked too. “How in Equestria did you see that?” she asked. “When ya live out here for as long as Ah have, ya learn how to track things. It seems there was a bit of a tumble here before the prints lead off north. Ah reckon there were at least six ponies in all.” “In that case they had to have been captured.” Fry said. “The railroad leads up north;” added Midnight. “We can follow the tracks on the railcar.” Immediately, the three ponies hurried over to the blocky railcar and tossed Takeoff onboard. Midnight and Marigold prepared themselves for a long journey as Fry pulled a couple levers. The engine slowly clanked but then died out. Fry tried furiously to restart the darned thing, but eventually a loud crash was heard inside and smoke began to rise from the engine. “Oops,” uttered Fry. “I can’t help at feeling this is my fault.” “Now what are we going to do?!” complained Midnight. “Well shoot,” interrupted Kodiak. “You folks will never get bah on that hunk o’ junk. C’mon ‘round back, Ah got just the thing for ya.” Kodiak took them to a large shed behind the cabin. He opened the sliding doors to reveal a wide contraption covered in a tarp. He pulled off the tarp and there before the group was a small white and red airplane. Air travel at the time had not only excelled with dirigibles, but winged aircraft also made often appearances. Airplanes had become crucial for earth ponies to visit normally inaccessible places such as Cloudsdale or Los Pegasus. Midnight recognized this particular aircraft as a bush plane which were flown frequently in the wild north. The plane sported a single propeller engine on the nose and a high wing sitting atop the cabin which contained two rows of seats. Behind the seats was a cargo space stuffed with various hiking, camping and mechanical supplies. The landing gear was equipped with heavy tires made for rough terrain. Kodiak gave the wooden propeller a casual twirl. “Ain’t she a beaut?” he boasted. “Ah take her up to the Crystal Mountains to go clahmbin’ or ahce fishin’.” “You’ve been to the Crystal Mountains?!” lit up Midnight. “Sure have, it’s mahty dangerous territory up there, with the ahce and blizzards and all.” “Can you fly it along the trail?” asked Marigold. “Ah sure can. But there’s just one problem. Ah need to keep an ahye on the tracks and Ah can’t do that while flahyin’. Ah don’t suppose you folks got any pahlot experience do ya?” Just then, they heard mumbling coming from the railcar. They looked to see that Takeoff was finally waking up. He yawned and lifted his head up while sitting awkwardly. “Hey guys, what’s going on? Where are we? Hey, a cabin, did we just get here?” Before long, the group got Takeoff up to speed about the current situation; he nearly fainted again from the amount of information he was receiving. It didn’t help him that he now had to fly a bush plane with a strange backwoods pony navigating for him. Ultimately, he gave in and helped Kodiak prep the airplane. As Takeoff sat at the pilot’s seat and held the ignition, Kodiak spun the propeller making the engine sputter to life. When the plane began to roll along the ground, he climbed into the copilot’s seat; Fry sat behind him with Marigold to his left and Midnight to her left. It didn’t take much to get the little aircraft off the ground. It bounced along a stretch of cleared land before finally ascending above the trees. As Kodiak pointed out the trail using a searchlight, Takeoff maneuvered the plane quite well despite the fact that the only thing he had ever flown was basically a gigantic blimp. Time passed as Kodiak peered out the window through binoculars spotting the trail and Takeoff followed his directions. Gradually, the forest began to dwindle and become replaced with snowy tundra. Although the view was tremendous, Midnight was too distracted. He realized he could have prevented this from happening. He thought if he hadn’t left his room, he could have saved Andromeda from being captured. The guilt hit him like a kick to the stomach. After all the trust she had put into him, after saying that she felt safe with him, and after him saying he wasn’t going to lose her, now she was gone and he had nopony to blame but himself. “It’s my fault.” He said gazing out the window at the snow covered pines. “If I hadn’t left Andromeda in my bed, I could have prevented her from being taken. She’ll never forgive me. I could have saved Cassie and Noon too.” “Don’t beat yourself up, Midnight.” Marigold sympathized. “You couldn’t have seen this coming. But, what were you doing out in the woods anyway?” Midnight’s eyes widened; he hadn’t thought of a good enough excuse. He wasn’t just going to tell her that he was meeting with the dark and evil Nightmare Moon. On one hoof, she wouldn’t believe him and think he was crazy. On the other hoof, if she did believe him a whole new matter would stir up involving Princess Celestia. He didn’t want to lie to Marigold; he already felt guilty enough. After pausing for an uncomfortable amount of time, he decided to wing it. “It was a messenger from Princess Celestia. He wanted to speak to me in private so the rest of you could get your rest. He told me that the Princess had figured out a way for us to defeat Locust once and for all. But we need Noon to do it. I was an idiot for letting my guard off though.” “It’s not your fault, Midnight. Chances are, you wouldn’t have been able to stop the captors anyway; you might have been taken as well. And hey, you got useful information that will really help us. It wasn’t all for nothing.” “Yeah, I guess.” Eventually, the sun began to rise and the snow became much more plentiful. The white blanket was now blinding but it was much easier for Kodiak to spot out the tracks. Takeoff had been drinking from a large kettle of coffee ever since they left several hours before. The temperature dropped frighteningly leaving the ponies shivering in the plane’s cabin; Kodiak of course was unaffected by the cold. He told them to strap on some winter coats from the cargo hold in the back. After warming up, they felt relaxed until the plane had to come to a landing. Apparently Kodiak had forgotten how much fuel was in the plane and told Takeoff to land in an ice field. Fortunately, there was a spare fuel tank stored underneath, but it would take a while for refueling. Once they landed, Kodiak got out handling the fuel situation while the rest of the ponies stepped out of the cramped cockpit to stretch their hooves. They didn’t move much however due to the brutal cold winds. Courteously, Kodiak set up a stove fire with a pot of boiling soup to warm their shivering bodies. They huddled around it chattering their teeth. “This is ridiculous,” whined Takeoff. “How is it that I miss out on sleeping in a nice warm cozy cabin and wake up to flying into a frozen wasteland?!” “Would you stop complaining?” scoffed Marigold. “We’re trying to save our friends in case you’ve forgotten.” “I can’t feel my hooves.” Fry chattered. “Kodiak, how much longer is it going to take?” “It’ll be just a bit,” he answered. “But we’ll be back up in the air in no tahme. Though Ah’m afraid the trail won’t be around much longer. The winds will most lahkely cover up the tracks. We can only assume where they were headed.” “Midnight, you should eat some soup.” Marigold said. “You’re freezing worse than the rest of us.” “I’m not that hungry.” He replied. “Come on, Midnight,” pleaded Fry. “If you don’t eat some, I’ll eat it all.” Midnight slowly took one of the portable bowls and scooped up some of the vegetable soup from the boiling pot. He held it up and let the steam drift over his face and up his nostrils before slurping half the bowl. Ever since arriving at Canterlot, he had not eaten anything other than the meal Fry prepared the previous night. He thought we would be extremely hungry, but somehow his appetite was starting to wane. “Oh pony feathers!” exclaimed Kodiak from behind the plane. Everypony looked over at him. “Bad news folks, we’ve only got enough fuel to bring us back home. Ah have no ahdea how much longer the trail goes on fer so this is as far as we can get. Ah’m sorry, folks, yer friends are gonna hafta wait.” Midnight sighed quietly at this. Enough was enough for him. He knew he couldn’t just sit there in the snow sulking. He had to take action into his own hooves. Without another moment’s contemplation, he stood up, chugged the last of his soup, even swallowing pieces of green beans whole, dropped the bowl and face his companions. “Guys, I’m sorry I ever dragged you into this mess. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been worried enough to follow me to Canterlot in the first place. I should’ve done this a long time ago. I’m setting out on my own.” “Don’t be crazy, Midnight,” said Takeoff. “You’ll freeze out there!” “Midnight, I told you it’s not your fault.” Marigold added. “There was nothing you could have done.” “We can’t let you face this by yourself, Midnight.” Fry replied. “We’re here for you.” “You’ve all helped me enough.” Midnight continued. “But this is something that I must bear alone. I already lost three of my friends and I’m not going to lose you three. I’ll be fine.” “Ah doubt that.” Kodiak said. “This ahce field could go on fer hundreds of mahls. If yer gonna go alone, yer gonna at least need a hikin’ bag.” Midnight walked over to the open compartment in the back of the plane where the outdoor supplies were crammed. He took one of the heavy saddlebags complete with survival gear and strapped it onto his back. Marigold stopped him from walking back out. “Midnight please,” she begged. “It’s too dangerous. If you don’t freeze, there might be Workhorses out there!” “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He told her. “Are you sure about this, dude?” asked Fry. “You’ve all been very faithful to me and I thank you.” Midnight answered. “Now it’s time for me to fix what I’ve done.” The three other ponies looked at each other nervously, but soon resigned looked back at their friend. “Be careful out there, Midnight.” Takeoff said. “We can’t afford losing you.” “We’ll miss you, Midnight,” sobbed Marigold. “Please be careful.” “Good luck, stallion.” Fry encouraged softly. Midnight looked back at his friends with a sincere grin and turned away from them. He wandered off into the cold white nothingness without another word.