CHAPTER 4: AVALANCHE
It was a hard to walk path the one that both zebra and unicorn had chosen alike, it was placed in a very declivitous angle and the gravity was wearing of Trixie’s strength. After having travelled halfway to the top, the only thing that moved Trixie’s body, almost like a lifeless marionette, was the solely desire of studying the Grimoire’s contents. What could be inside the pages of the book? she wondered. Obviously, a certain part of the book would have some of Zecora’s knowledge, but what could be on the remaining pages? Hopefully something that could provide a smooth introduction on advanced magic, since Trixie’s only noticeable ability was illusionism, and she wasn’t too talented at that anyway.
As they reached a more flat edge to walk on and Trixie’s muscles were pain freed, the Grimoire idea lured Trixie’s mind and the more she thought about it the more started to seem like a scam, “why Zecora would want to willingly give an artifact like that? Having the chance to sell it for a obscene high price, or do more prolific things with such a powerful item ”, Trixie’s tainted mind forced her to think it was a kind of trap, but conjecturing thoughts wasn’t a fond enough habit to come up with a credible explanation for Zecora’s doing.
Trixie’s thought process guided her to two possible conclusions. It could be a trap or, a destiny’s gift, either way, the little information on the situation made impossible for Trixie to picture the whole background. She gave up at figuring Zecora’s purpose, and, flattened, asked for the Zebra’s motivation.
Zecora remained thoughtful, trying to give an answer to the boastful blue unicorn, starting to talk as a spark of sadness briefly illuminated her face.
“The reasons of why I left my home are not of your concern…But …” she said and remained silent for a few instants, exhaled in sign of relief and continued, in a more relaxed manner.
“I am no longer in my home country because…I was exiled…and I’m staying in Equestria illegally that is why I live on the forest, hiding, but yet studying the environment, flora and fauna as equal. Sadly the pony folk of that nearby village have made up their minds at thinking that I’m some sort of evil enchantress, and that has made harder for me to request an audience with the ruler of these lands…”
Trixie didn’t understood why Zecora needed ponyville in order to legalize her residence in Equestria. That reminded the disgust she felt for that village.
“Why do you need those neighing hypocrites to go and see the princess?” Trixie inquired with resentment on her words, completely forgetting about the fact that it would be an unpleasant and nearly impossible task for a wingless equine to reach Canterlot’s castle.
“A few weeks ago I saw a flying carriage land in the village’s center, once the passengers stepped out, the carriage returned to that city over the mountains, and I was hoping to ask if they could take me to that city”.
Trixie realized that the carriage Zecora had seen was no other than Twilight’s and also, that she was really lucky to have met the zebra before anyone else.
While both walked relatively slowly than before, the chilly mountain air started to flow strongly and a peaceful atmosphere started to embrace the surroundings, at least for Trixie. The giant smoke trial was still covering the sky and almost all sun light. The landscape looked really gloomy, but that was how Trixie liked it, instead of having a happy one with the burning sun on her skin.
Suddenly, the ears of both, unicorn and zebra, were struck with an unexpected noise. It had been the echo of a voice that screamed something and abruptly stopped before completing the barely distinguishable word. “Did it said…Avalanche!?” Trixie thought loudly as the floor beneath their hooves started to quiver. Both equines looked at each other alarmed, knowing that it was matter of seconds for the mountain walls to bury them alive.
With out hesitate; both sprinted forward following the mountains edge path, as the walls started to disintegrate, releasing a massive debris storm. Trixie, hardly able of walking due her muscular fatigue, pushed her strengths to the limit, trying to avoid the gigantic boulders that were threatening their lives. It was almost a miracle that Trixie could keep up with Zecora while running.
All of a sudden, a colossal stone was detached from a wall ahead and started to roll downhill, judged by its size, it could easily destroy a great part of the edge in which they were galloping, preventing them from reaching the top. Both noticed this, and rushed to surpass the boulder’s trajectory. For Trixie, the speed they were reaching was unbelievable, she hadn’t run like that in her entire life, but apparently it wasn’t fast enough to surpass the boulder, which crashed on the edge and left an enormously wide gap.
Trixie quickly thought in stop, but her speed was too much and she was extremely near of the fall, which left her with only one solution to save her life. Jump hoping to reach the other extreme of the gap. “Ready?” said Zecora instants before jumping, Trixie nodded with determination on her eyes as she impulsed herself with her front legs taking off the ground, and reassuring the jump with her back legs. Zecora landed a few inches away the edge, but Trixie barely reached the border with her front hooves. Apparently the strength that Trixie printed on her jump was not enough to take her body completely to the other side, and holding tightly she screamed for help. Zecora quickly turned around and grabbed the cape of the blue unicorn with her mouth and diligently helped her to step up.
Trixie’s heart was pounding harder than ever and the adrenaline flowing trough her veins was making all her body to shake uncontrollably. This was the second time that Zecora had saved her life and she was grateful for that, but didn’t show much gratitude to the zebra, since she was the main reason why Trixie was on that life risking quest. Having passed the rush of that experience, both set their minds again in the goal that kept them together, the dragon.
At first Trixie was terrified, dealing with the idea of being roasted by dragon flames, but after the avalanche, she had an epiphany of an inherent quality of life. She could die anywhere at anytime, it didn’t mattered if it was fighting against monsters or being crushed by giant rocks. As obvious as this may seem, Trixie hadn’t bothered to think like that since a long time ago. Her lifestyle travelling from town to town ridiculously feeding her ego had fogged up her mind and her perception of reality had been dancing in clouds picturing herself as a great and powerful magician. The recent events had brought back her hooves to the ground, and if she weren’t so frustrated at her magical incompetence, she might think that her nemesis was unconsciously doing her a favor.
They had walked for a few hours, and for Trixie, the top of the mountain seemed to retrocede by every feeble step she advanced, Zecora was exhausted too, but not as much as the blue mare, and both, were holding tightly to the hope that whoever caused the avalanche didn’t do it again, they certainly wouldn’t survive another obstacle like that, at least, not in what was their situation.
Deciding to take a break near a lifeless tree, both realized that one of the bottles that Zecora was carrying had broken in the avalanche. Both released an ambiguous exhalation of relief, while discovering that the broken bottle was no other than the one with most of the water. Their thirst wouldn’t be seized, but at least they still had the potion.