There was awkward silence between us as we sat in the snow. My bleeding had stopped within only a couple of minutes, but we rested a little longer. I tried a little small talk while my head was racing because of what had happened before, a kiss... It was crazy how much a single moment could change everything. But still, she wasn't even the same species as me...
"Alex..."
But these feelings I had some minutes ago did not care about how different she was...
"Alex!"
"Wait, what?"
She looked at me a bit worried.
"Is everything all right?", she asked.
"Sorry, I spaced out for a bit. What did you say?"
"I asked if it would be ok for us to move on, I worry for Celestia."
I stood up.
"Of course, it will do no good for anyone if we sit in this snow much longer. Let's go. What do you think how far we still need to go?"
She looked along or path.
"I guess maybe two hours, we should try to be as quiet as we can, the element of surprise is pretty much all we have on our side."
I nodded and started to move again while I tried to ignore the pain in my chest. I pushed away all the questions in my head and focused just on the task before us. A small mistake could cost our lives.
We made our way through the snow without speaking another word. I just put on foot before the other.
Snow crunched under our feet.
*crunch*
*crunch*
I lost all sense for the time passing, and since we had no moon to observe, it felt like we walked forever through this snow.
...
*crunch*
*crunch*
I almost walked into her because I had not realized she stopped.
She was hunched behind a snowdrift so I sneaked next to her, as good as I could in this snow.
I saw a large plateau near the peak of the mountain, at least 500 feet in diameter with several trees. It was illuminated by what seems to be glowstones as well, for that reason it could only be spotted from a close distance. Pretty much in the middle of it, Celestia was chained to the ground, she was sleeping while only a blanket seemed to protect her from freezing to death in the snow. She looked ok, but as Luna she was an unusual sight without her flowing hair.
I saw two unicorns standing on both sides of the plateau searching the sky, behind them something black in the snow. I could only assume it to be 'midnight shadow'. I could not see the other unicorns. Maybe they were behind some trees, or in the small white tent I saw a couple feet behind Celestia.
"Looks like they are well prepared for an air attack.", I whispered to Luna. "You were right, an air attack against this place would have been very risky and many could have lost their life."
"I know, but that is our chance.", Luna whispered back.
"You mean that they don't expect someone to do this crazy stunt we did to get here?"
She turned to face me and smiled.
"Yeah, nobody else would do this stupid thing."
"But we need more of a plan than just 'Element of Surprise', let's check our options, Luna."
I carefully peered over the snowdrift.
The hardest part would be getting to the plateau without being spotted. There was a very open space between us and the plateau itself only a few other smaller snowdrifts could provide a little cover. Once on the plateau, the few trees could help us a little, but we still had to take on at least four unicorns, only two of them visible to us right now. My gaze wandered to the balls of midnight shadow.
"Maybe we can even the odds a bit, the midnight shadow could take away their magic too.", I whispered with a grin.
"I like this idea.", she replied.
I thought about it a little longer, and then I was ready to tell her my plan.
"Ok, the critical thing is to get to the midnight shadow so we can use it against them. Since I have the best chance of not being seen, I move in first and try to..."
"Why do you have the best chance?", she interrupted me.
"You are pretty good camouflaged, but there are bits of blue fur showing sometimes when you move, I'm less likely to be seen. I know you want to help your sister, but let's try out best chance, we only have this one."
"Fine... go on."
"Ok, I try to get to the midnight shadow without being seen, but once I reached it, you need to come too. You are stronger then me, and I am pretty sure if they can't use their magic, they will have little chance against the furious princess of the revenge, even without your magic."
She nodded determined.
"You get the midnight shadow and I kick their lights out once they lost their magic, let's do it."