My Little Dynamite: Book Two

by Fuzzyfurvert

Muay Caw

The cold and the wind was making it harder and harder to breathe. Even with the heavy cloaks and yakfur wraps that caribou had traded them for a hoof-ful of the young drake’s snack gems, it was getting to Zecora. The walk through the knee deep snow was bad enough, but now they were starting to climb low hills. Her legs ached and she was getting winded quicker. The group of them and their caribou guide had to keep stopping because of her and it was turning the already tough travel into something hellish.

Give her the wide, warm plains of her homeland and she could trot for hours. Even the dangerous, root-choked interior of the Everfree was preferable to this.

“Want me to carry you?” Spike’s sudden question shocked her out of her thoughts, her legs coming to a stop in the snow.

“No. T‘ank you, Spike. I can keep up...for now.”

The dragon nodded, but he didn’t look convinced under the thick parka hood that protected him from the worst of the wind. She didn’t sound convincing to her own ears. If they did not stop for rest soon, the choice to keep walking was likely be out of her hooves. They both started moving again and she looked up to the two ponies and their guide, off a short way from them. The guide was saying something to the Princess again. The mare spoke back in the same language and then turned and translated for her guardian.

Zecora shook her head. The alicorn was an amazing creature. She spoke the caribou’s tongue as fluently as she spoke Equish and Swayhili. It would not surprise her to learn that the mare knew the languages of every ally that Equestria had. Princess Cadance not only knew how to communicate, but fight like a demon too, if the experience in the ancient Sun temple was any indication.

Cadance and the unicorn, Twilight, shared some words and the Princess laughed at whatever passed between them. The Princess leaned in and they smiled at each other, their horns touching gently. Even in this horrible cold and weather, that small show of affection warmed her old bones. Oh to be young, so talented and so very much in love. It’s a shame that they are being forced into an uncertain future by the events around them.

“How much farther do you think it is, Zecora?”

She looked at Spike and shrugged, but his eyes were focused on the couple in front of them. “I canna tell t‘at, Spike. T‘e Nort’ is unfamiliar me. I’ve walked t‘e Everfree for a long time, studying all it learn me. T‘is place is alien to me.”

“I know. I’m just worried that the storm is making us walk in circles. I feel like we should have seen something by now.” Spike grunted and shrugged. “But all there is, is snow and ice and lichen and rocks. The caribou tribe said there was a forest and then we’d come to the place they say this storm is coming from.”

“‘T’ey also say t‘ere be ‘ills before t‘e forest and t‘ese already kill me knees.”

“The offer still stands to carry you.” Spike gave her a thumbs up. “I’m pretty strong.”

“I know. You ‘ave me t’anks, but I can go for a bit more. I t’ink.” She bit down a pained grunt, lifting her legs to dig her hooves out of the fresh snow. “W’at you t’ink ‘bout da legend t’e Princess translate for us from t’em? T’at t’ey slaves long ago until some goddess come an’ save t’em from a crystal devil?”

The dragon shrugged again, stomping his way through the drifts next to her. “I dunno. But I’ve seen and heard a lot of weirder things. We did see those ponies that looked like they were made from crystals dragging the changeling off. Why do you suppose that was anyway? We were all laying there around it, but they only bothered with her.”

Zecora shook her head. It puzzled her, but now that they knew about the caribou tribe’s origin legends, it did oddly mesh with the legends of the peoples of the Everfree. From what she understood, the changeling started out as a foreign-born pony, possibly named Crystal. And the Moon Priestess had gone to the far north when she stepped down from her position of rulership. Could she be the same ‘Goddess’ that freed the ancient caribou?

“I wonder t’at, same. Maybe t’ere is connections we don’t see. Makes me want to know more ‘bout t’is place.” Zecora sighed, watching her breath mist for a moment before the wind ripped it away. Up ahead she could make out a dark line that separated the snow covered tundra from the snow-filled mass of clouds in the sky. “Wendigos take me...is t’at...the forest?”

Spike held up a claw to block the wan light and squinted. “I think so.”

“T’en I’ll take you up on t’at offer.”

---

Twilight pulled back the heavy hood of her parka, craning her head back to look up at the huge wooden structure before her. Logs, each as thick as pony and twenty paces long if they were a yard, were set pointing toward the heavens, their branches long since carved away, but the rough texture of their bark still clinging in places. The logs formed a gigantic gate, bound with twisted vines that looked as thick as her leg. On each side, boulders that must have weighed hundreds of tons each, hung as counterweights to the massive doors.

She took a deep breath and coughed in the pine scented air. Under it there was a hint of mold and rot. The mud under her hooves was probably to blame for that. Here, near the huge wooden structure, the breeze wasn’t very strong, but the heat was making her start to sweat under her furs. Her saddle bags with her spell book and supplies and her battle staff’s holster felt like they were plastered to her already. The snow was gone at this point, deep in the foothills. The unnatural storm raging from over the mountains carried equally unnatural heat with it, and this close to the caribou’s forbidden lands, it felt almost like a early spring day rather than the deep of winter. The snow had turned to slush an hour’s walk ago, the permafrost losing the ‘perma’ part of its name shortly after.

The trek up the last set of hills was literally miles in muddy gunk, uphill the whole way. Their caribou guide turned back after the ground really started to get soft. The look of pure confusion and fear was clearer than any translation Cadance could provide of his parting comments. Thankfully, by the time he’d turned away, it was fairly obvious where they were headed.

She turned and looked over at the Princess, who was equally in stunned silence, staring up at the huge gate edifice. “So...what did you say the guide called this place?”

Cadance shook off her own hood, frowning in thought. “Roughly translated...’Vise Gate’. Looking up at the sheer cliffs on either side of this...gate...I’d say it fits. Beyond this lies the caribous’ forbidden lands. The place the caribou say the their crystal devil lives and where they said the Royal Sister’s airship was headed.”

“This has got to be the worst idea in the history of ideas.” Twilight chuckled morosely. “Walking into the unknown in the face of a massive magical weather phenomenon, all to chase the possibility of finding the Princesses on the other side. We don’t even know for certain what’s out there. All we have to go on is vague details.”

“And hope.” Cadance sighed softly, looking at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. “How else are we going to get back to Equestria? We’re more than two thousand miles from Canterlot.”

“I’m supposed to keep you safe.”

“Can you make food for us? Protect us from the weather?” Cadance’s ears flicked back, turning to focus on the second half of their group. Her voice grew quieter so it wouldn’t carry. “What about Spike and Zecora?”

“Spike’s a tank. And he can literally eat rocks.”

“But we can’t. Zecora isn’t going to make it through the pass without good rest.”

“I know.” Twilight sighed, glancing over her shoulder at their companions. Spike had switched to his quadruped form, carrying the elder zebra on his saddle since they had reached the edge of the arboreal forest. That was nearly seven hours ago as far as she could tell. Her internal clock was having a hissy fit with the sun appearing to not even move this far north.

Spike sat on a wooden platform that passed as a sort of porch or common area for one of the abandoned huts the Arboreal caribou tribe had left behind in their mass exodus. He was breathing slowly now, but the strain was showing even on his draconic face. Zecora looked hardly any better.

Twilight turned back to Cadance. “We’ll rest for the night...the day...I can’t tell anymore.” She sighed tiredly. “At least it’s warm and the caribou must have left some supplies behind. But tomorrow, we open the gate and tackle the pass.”

The Princess nodded slowly. “I’ll find us something to eat. Think you can fix up a place for us to rest?”

“Yeah.” Twilight put a hoof on Cadance’s shoulder. “Don’t go too far, ok?”

“I can take care of myself, at least for a little bit.” Cadance smiled, patting Twilight’s hoof with her wing. “Thank you for trusting me enough to let me.”

“I figure you deserve it at this point.” Twilight smirked and leaned in to Cadance, her voice growing quiet. “I mean it though about not going far. Best friend privilege allows me to slap you for being dumb, Princesshood or not.”

“I’ll be good, I promise!” The alicorn giggled, ducking in to kiss Twilight’s cheek. “Besides, you have a lot more than just ‘best friend privilege’ with me, my little dynamite. Under the right circumstances, I might even allow you to spank me.”

“Cady!” Twilight squeaked out her name, leaning away from Cadance. “Th-there is a time and p-place for that, and this is not—”

“Either one, I know.” Cadance’s smirk softened, her wing holding Twilight’s hoof in place against her side. “I’m still going to hold you to that promise about holding me for a week once all this is over. I really am.”

“I honestly wouldn’t expect otherwise.” Twilight huffed, shaking her frazzled mane back into some semblance of order and slowly let go of her Princess. She reached up to her own chest and pulled the tie that kept her parka on. “After we get everything set up, I want to hear more about your time abroad, ok?”

The Princess nodded curtly and shot her guardian a wink before she trotted off to search the nearby abandoned caribou homes.

---

About an hour later…

Twilight sighed contently. She was comfortable for what seemed like the first time in ages, the parkas she and Cadance had worn earlier now acting as bundles of cushions on the hut floor. The temperature was still climbing, and it felt like a chilly Canterlot spring morning more than night in the arctic. Even so, it still seemed prudent to light a fire in the hut’s cooking pit, which Zecora was tending at the far end of the large single room caribou building.

After some rest, the older zebra had perked back up to her usual self, but she was being oddly quiet beyond the occasion murmur in her native tongue. Spike, on the other hoof, was already out. The cold and effort of aiding Zecora though the hills had taken a larger toll on him than they’d realized. He was still in his winged, quardepedial form, curled into a loose ball between them and the fire, breathing gently. His bellows-like snoring put Twilight more at ease. If she let her mind wander, it felt like they could almost be back home.

The cold meal of scavenged sweet grass, lichen and some sort of small nuts they’d shared earlier sat heavily in her gut, but at least she was fed. That was nice. Nicer still was the warm weight of Cadance against her side. The Princess yawned again and Twilight flicked her tail to rest protectively over Cadance’s curly tri-colored tail. “No going to sleep yet. You promised to tell me more about these past five years.”

“I don’t remembering promising, per se…” Cadance chuckled softly, leaning harder against her guardian. “But I suppose I can keep going.” She bopped Twilight on the snout with her wing.

“I want to know more about where you learned to fight.” Twilight nodded at the golden vambraces she now knew hid at least a talon-long weapon apiece. If she were a betting mare, she’d put good bits on the vambraces being enchanted in some way. “Where did you learn how to use blades so fast like that? I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“Pfft!” The alicorn waved dismissively. “It’s not that impressive. I basically failed at all the lessons I was given. I’ll need decades of practice if I want to truly master it...but to be honest, I don’t think I have it in me to be a warrior.”

“That’s my job, Cady. I’m your ‘Knight’ and you’re my Princess.”

“I always fancied myself more the Lady, really. The ‘Princess’ role in all those old foals’ stories is the innocent damsel, while the Lady knows when to let loose and party.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I always knew you had a hint of the more rebellious ‘Commoner’ in you.”

“More than you know!” Cadance laughed. “But if you’re really interested in my technique, I’ll tell you. After the first year in Camule, learning how to schmooze and raid tombs, I was moved to Mustangia.”

“Why?”

“There...was an attempt on my life. A bombing. Thankfully, no one was seriously harmed, but it scared me. Aunt Celestia had told me many times that it was a potentially dangerous mission...but it didn’t hit home until my room at the embassy went up in flames.” Cadance sighed, looking down at her hooves. “Later I was told that it was some radical that was responsible, and the Princess had me secreted away to the wilds of Mustangia. I know it’s technically a part of Equestria now, but you’d never know it by looking. The Mustangs run in massive herds across the Endless Plain, just as they have for thousands of years. It’s like stepping back in time, Twilight.”

The unicorn nodded. “Okay...I get that taking you there would be a great place to hide you, but wouldn’t that impede your spying mission?”

“That was put on hiatus while the Princess introduced me to some of the Mustangs’ grandmasters of Hoof Boxing. I spent the next three months getting a basic primer for the style, but let me tell you, I can’t hold a candle to those ponies. The sheer force they put into a strike is unbelieveable, Twily”

Twilight raised a suspicious eyebrow, leaning back and fixing Cadance with her gaze. “Do I need to be concerned about you being under the care of all these stallions?”

“Ew. Of course not. Could you see me really wanting to hang out with some hulking, shaggy coat guy? I firmly prefer the sleeker styling of mares, thank you very much!” Cadance giggled and then tapped her chin contemplatively. “Though, come to think of it, there were some cute fillies I sparred with while in Mustangia.”

“Cady!”

“Oh hush, you know that my heart only flies for you, Twily” Candace chuckled softly again, nuzzling Twilight’s neck. “You have nothing to fear in that respect. Besides, all the Mustang fillies made fun of me for being so bad at boxing. Until I finally managed a win in one sparring match by increasing my speed with my wings. After that, I started to incorporate it more into the style, which earned me some begrudging respect and few unkind nicknames.”

She held up one of her vambraces, turning it slowly so that the light caught on all the intricate filigree and tiny etched runes that hinted at its hidden inner workings. “One of the my instructors said it reminded him of the griffons’ martial art, Muay Caw. That was all it took for Aunt Celestia to uproot me again and drop me in Griffonstone. Three more months of training went by while these were commissioned from a Minotaur smith and then enchanted by a Diamond Dog mage that both owed Equestria a favor.”

“Wow…” Twilight squinted at Cadance’s weapons, leaning close.

“It’s not that impressive, really. I’m just trained enough to get out of a bad situation. I’m no fighter...diplomacy and stealth are far more my speed. Which I suppose is my pegasus heritage shining through.” Cadance snorted dismissively. “When we were ambushed back in the Everfree, I was getting owned, Twilight. If Chrysalis hadn’t been distracted with her banter, she could have snapped me like a twig! Any real warrior would. That’s why when I officially went back on mission, I had this commissioned for myself.”

Cadance patted her side where her under-the-wing holster kept her hull-breacher gun. “The Goddess may have created ponykind, but Sam the Colt made them equal.”

Comments

[JKinsley]

Under the right circumstances, I might even allow you to spank me.

10/10, best line, would read that fic too

[Twilight Adept]

Cadance patted her side where her under-the-wing holster kept her hull-breacher gun. “The Goddess may have created ponykind, but Sam the Colt made them equal.”

As a gun owner I LOVE this quote. Thank you for that.

[Mister Morden]

7797741 Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side kid.

Good chapter!