Moon's shadow

by Znegil


9 Cold and warmth

I was very worried, we had climbed this mountain before when we were young, but without my magic and flight, there was very little room for error.

"Have you been climbing before?", I asked Alex.

"Not like this, back in my world I did some climbing indoors, it was like an artificial rock and very safe. But I know the basics."

'He only knows me for about a week, I nearly killed him by accident, but he risks his life helping me. He is such a good stallion... human...'

In the time they had been together, he was losing his oddness to her bit by bit. His body wasn't strange to her anymore.

'I love that he doesn't show fear for me being a princess or ... the thing I was before.'

'...wAS bEFORE?'

I shivered.
'If I had him back then, things could have been different. I trust him with my problems, and he cares about my feelings. And every time he touches me, his hands feel so nice and warm on...'

"So, do your hooves feel anything if you're standing on snow?"

I shook my head.
'Focus Luna, your sister is in danger'

"So that's a 'no' Luna?"

Now I noticed he had asked me a question.

"Sorry, what was your question?"

He looked a bit puzzled.
"Are you all right? I just asked if you feel anything in your hooves when standing on snow."

"Yeah, sorry I was just thinking about something. No, we have no nerves in our hooves, so I don't feel a thing. But on the backside of a hoof, where it connects to the leg, is a pretty sensitive spot, if snow is high enough to reach it, it can be unpleasant."

"Soooo you would be ticklish there?", he asks with a grin.

I stopped surprised.

"I think it wouldn't be wise to be next to my kicking hooves if you would tickle me.", I answered returning his grin.

He thought about that.
"Well I will find some other spots, my fingers can tickle you a hundred times more than any hoof, they been made for this. MUHAHA"
He made his best impression of an evil laugh, holding his hands up and wiggling his fingers.

There was a strange warmth rushing through my body.
I quickly decided to move on and not look at him for a while.

---O_O----

Luna was acting a bit weird lately, but I was pretty sure it was because of the stressful situation.

We had left Canterlot far behind, always going upwards towards the steep part of the mountain. We had been walking for about two hours now and reached the snowline. I opened my backpack again and put on my warm white jacket. I had started to wear my new mountain boots right when we left the streets of Canterlot.

Luna opened her saddlebag too and got herself dressed. It looked like she found quite a lot of things in the closet of her sister, after some minutes she looked like a white ninja.

A white winter dress covered most of her body. Her head was under a white hat with little yellow suns on it, and a white scarf covered her face except for her eyes. I wondered, where under all this, she had tucked away her hair. She adjusted the climbing irons to her hooves, they did fit pretty well.

"I have to say, I am really impressed. You look like some assassin... except the little suns."

"Well, maybe I am if they did anything to Tia."

The way she said it my hair stood on end.

...

After two more hours we reached the hard part, from here the snowy terrain got really steep and dangerous.

"We should now use the rope to tie us together!", Luna shouted.
The wind had gotten stronger since some minutes.

I agreed, I put on the harness both on Luna and me and connected them using the rope. After this I started wearing my spiked gloves.

---O_O----

After Alex had connected us with the rope, we moved on. The sun would set soon, and that worried me.

He stopped and addressed me.
"I have a question, if both you and your sister are without your magic, how does the sun move right now and what happens when nighttime should start?"

"Celestia doesn't need to use her magic all the time of day, she just raises the sun and gives it enough magic to move through the day. So the sun will set in maybe an hour, but there will be no moon and only a few natural stars out there, I normally add a lot for effect... and tomorrow... without a sunrise there will be no day."

'wELL, tHAT dOESN'T sOUND sO bAD..'

'Shut up'

"How will we see in the dark without your moon?", he asked.

"I bought glowstones at the market, they have a permanent enchantment that gives them a faint glow. Normally they are for decoration. Once our eyes have adjusted to the darkness these stones will help us. There is another thing, around sunset we should reach a small hut built for mountaineers, it is right before the hardest parts of the mountain, so ponies can rest before it. We will do the same, we will rest there and try to sleep for maybe three hours, we can't save her if we die trying."

"Ok.", was all he said as he walked on. I hoped we would reach it as planned, my legs started to hurt. Oh, how nice it would be to fly right now.

----O_O----

Finally we reached the hut, we had slipped several times in the past few minutes, but our rope connection and climbing irons always had saved us from sliding to far. We stumbled towards the door while the glowstones showed us the way, they were just bright enough to see. I opened the door for Luna and entered after her. We both sat on the floor breathing heavy.

Finally, after some minutes I was able to speak again.
"Well, we made it so far, not bad for a team that's average age is around 550 years."

"I would kick you if I had the power to do it. But how about you massage my hind legs as punishment, they burn like fire."

I crawled over to her.
"Ok, I can do that, anything if my legs can rest."

She was lying on her side while I lifted the winter dress up to get access to her hind legs. The muscles in her legs twitched randomly because of the strain they had endured, sweat was glistening on them. I used my fingertips of one hand to carefully squeeze them, while the other hand brushed downward along them. I heard some happy humming from Luna as her muscles started to calm.

I took a good look at her legs, while I continued to knead them. They look so perfect and her fur was incredibly soft. Luna moaned as I put more pressure on the now loosened muscles.

"Your fingers are sooo good at this... mhhhh your should make a business out of this", Luna said happily.

The feeling of her fur, the sounds she made, the incredible smell of her sweating body mixed with some other smell I could not identify... I started to sweat, but not from the effort I made massaging her. I felt light-headed.

I had to force myself to stop and crawled a few steps back.

Luna made a disproving sound as the massage ended.
"Over already? But thanks a lot, I feel so much better now."

I laid on my back panting.
"I... you know... I'm just so tired, let's sleep. Next time I massage you as long as you want."

She stretched her legs.
"Mhhhh, that was great I will come back on this offer.", she purred. "But you're right, let's keep each other warm and sleep a little."

She scooted over, laid her head in my lap, feet next to my head and extended her wing over my upper body to keep me warm.

Once again her scent and her body close by had an influence on me. I tried to think calming thoughts but...

Luna opened her eyes with a surprised look.
"Are you...", she started.

"Itismuchbetterforyoutolayyourheadonmychestitsmuchsofter!", I interrupted.

She looked at me for a few seconds that felt like hours for me, then she wordless changed position to lay on my chest. She had a little smile on her face as she closed her eyes again.

I was pretty sure my face was twice as bright as our glowstones. I closed my eyes trying to get some sleep too while avoiding to think about the soft princess next to me.