My Little Dynamite: Book Two

by Fuzzyfurvert

Borealis

It was dark and cold again when Twilight woke up. Cadance was still asleep in her hooves, the Princess’ legs and wings wrapped warmly around Twilight’s middle. Twilight smiled, squeezing her charge gently, and kissed the base of Cadance’s horn. Vaguely, she remembered falling asleep after Zecora’s potions started wearing off and the fatigue caught up to them both. Not before the longest make-out session of my life though. Twilight smirked, recalling the feel of Cadance’s lips, the taste of the alicorn’s tongue. They both wanted more, it just wasn’t the right place or time for it.

The urge to nibble the pink pony from ear to shoulder was nearly overwhelming when she’d helped Cadance slip out of her peytral chestplate and hoof-caps. She very nearly gave in. Unfortunately—depending on how she thought about it—their energy ran out before their restraint. At least that was one super awkward conversation with Spike and Zecora she’d stumbled out of having.

That made her look up and out to where their companions had been resting. She wasn’t sure just how much time had passed since closing her eyes, but the fire was out and she could feel the chill even though Cadance’s downy feathers. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, but Twilight could just make out the blob of Spike against the greater darkness behind him. Zecora was completely lost in the shadows.

Twilight slowly and regretfully extracted herself from the Princess’ embrace, stiffly rising to her hooves and stepping over to where they had stacked the extra kindling. She rolled her shoulders, working kinks out of the joints before she grabbed a small stack of branches in her aura. Thankfully, before they had succumbed to the weariness in their bodies, Cadance had taken a moment to show her how to cast the spell that dried the wood out.

She washed the magic over the wood and dropped it into the pit. She charged her horn, squinting in the wane light of her horn to aim her magic, when she heard a loud rustling and snapping noise from outside their small enclosure. She canceled the spell, her ears pricking up. Twilight tracked the sound, using just her ears and leaned to her right to tap on the end of Spike’s tail.

“Spike!” Twilight hissed, pressing into his scales with the edge of her hoof. “Spike, wake up!”

Spike groaned quietly, one eye cracking open and focusing on Twilight. “W-what is it?”

“Shhhh…” Twilight’s ears twitched, flicking band and forth, rotating as the crunching and rustling noises grew louder and multiple sources popped up around them. “I don’t know if it’s those crystal pony...things...we saw earlier or not, but several somethings are moving around out there.” She swallowed hard when another, closer, branch cracked loudly. “And they are getting closer.”

Spike picked himself up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Next to him, Zecora stirred and she lifted her head, forcing a repeat of the whispered conversation. They even managed to wake Cadance a second later, her eyes snapping open in time to avoid a third go-round.

“Twily.” Cadance rolled onto her stomach and grabbed Twilight’s staff from where it lay and tossed it to the Battle Mage. “One of us needs to take a look out there. Whatever it is will find us in here soon enough. I’ve been to this rodeo enough times to know we don’t want to get caught flat-hoofed.”

“Better to meet them than get overwhelmed right off the bat.” Twilight worked her jaw until it popped, her horn lighting up again as she moved some of the branches and needles that made their enclosure’s roof. Snow, several inches of it now, rained in through the small opening and sizzled on the still warm ashes of their original fire.

“Spike, give me a boost.” Twilight looked at Cadance and Zecora while Spike kneeled and held out his claws. “If I see something I don’t like, the first—and I mean very first—thing you do is get out of this shelter. Use the pines and rocks for cover but don’t go far. We can’t protect you if you gallop wildly into the snow.”

Cadance nodded, fishing her peytral out from under Twilight’s cloak. She lit her horn, pointing it at each of them in quick succession, the glow from her spell surrounding their throats and ears. “There, that will handle communication. Even if we do get separated, that spell will carry our voices to each other. It will pick up anything as loud as a whisper, so no need to shout and reveal ourselves. So long as we don’t get more than a few hundred yards apart, or whatever is out there isn’t packing anti-magic, that is.”

“Good call, Princess.” Spike grinned and gripped Twilight’s hoof. “Ready to do this?”

The unicorn nodded curtly, pushing off Spike’s shoulders with her forehooves when he lifted her to the low ceiling. Twilight craned her neck upward, cautiously sticking her head out into the open. The sky above her was still covered in heavy clouds, though the snow was no longer falling and the winds were still. What time is it? It feels like we’ve been here for hours but the sun is still up? It looks like it’s barely moved.

Twilight squinted at the sky for a second, then looked down, her ears moving around to zero in on the sounds. There were at least five distinct sources she could detect, all of them moving slowly through what seemed to be the outer edges of the copse of trees they were sheltered in. One in particular, off to her left, seemed closest.

She grit her teeth, running the calculations in her head for a destructive blast of fire magic. Remember your training, Twilight. Wait until you have a target...never attack blindly. Hopefully the resulting smoke will give the others cover to make some distance. Keeping Cady safe is the most important thing. She repeated the mantra of waiting for a target over and over, neck muscles tensing. Whatever was moving through the trees was taking its time about it, moving slightly, then stopping for a moment.

What are they doing? Twilight forced her breathing to remain steady. It wouldn’t do to snap like a twig when the time came. She had to stay calm to react quickly and correctly. What if it’s not those crystal ponies? I don’t want to hurt anyone innocent.

Time seemed to stretch, the seconds ticking by at a snail’s pace.

Twilight’s ears were just starting to go numb in the cold when one of the nearer trees rustled, shaking some of the snow from it’s needles. She held her breath and a second later, broad felted antlers pushed the lower branches aside to reveal a very tall and wooly caribou, its mouth full of lichen. It froze when it noticed the hastily made shelter of felled fir trees and the unicorn head sticking out from the top of it.

“Twily!” Cadance’s whisper hissed in Twilight’s ear, thanks to the communication spell. “What’s going on? The noises outside stopped.”

“Uh...it’s a...caribou.” Twilight swallowed, her voice quiet as the caribou moved a bit closer, its eyes flicking back and forth from examining her to looking over the shelter. “I don’t know if it’s friendly.”

“Well, it’s probably not an enemy. If you see one, there must be dozens or more nearby, they move in migratory herds.” Cadance whispered from below. “If there are caribou here, we are very far north! They almost never leave the tundra unless it’s for trading. What tribe does it belong to?”

“How am I supposed to tell that?” Twilight flattened her ears as the caribou got closer and came fully out of the trees. From her vantage point, it looked to stand taller than Spike, and though it was hard to tell with the shaggy coat, she assumed it was a male.

“Look on the antlers. They crave symbols there to denote their tribal allegiances.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, squinting in the poor lighting. Sure enough, when the caribou turned its head, there was a faint pattern traced into the broad side of its antler. “Um...it looks kind of like a tree...or a plant of some sort.”

Cadance was silent for a long second before saying anything else. “That’s the Borealis tribe...I think. But what are they doing here? They never came to the trade meetings. They stayed the farthest away from Equestria and didn’t leave their ancestral forests.”

“Could we hurry this up?” Spike groaned quietly. “This is murder on my back and shoulders!”

“Oh! Sorry, Spike!” Cadance tapped Twilight on the leg. “If they aren’t attacking us, they could help us get back home. Or at least not freeze to death.”

Twilight grunted, lifting herself up a bit higher and put more of her weight on the roof of the shelter. The motion made the caribou freeze again, eyes like liquid chocolate staring up at her. Twilight worked one hoof through the hole in the roof and waved cautiously. “Uh...do you speak Equuish?” The caribou blinked at her, raising an eyebrow. She tried again. “Er...sprechen Germane? Draconic?”

“Try this: ‘Halló, getur þú skilur mig?’” Cadance’s voice whispered in Twilight’s ear. Twilight opened her mouth and stuttered through the first few syllables until she gave up. “Sorry, but my mouth can’t do that. You’re gonna have to get out here, Cady.”

The caribou snickered and leaned against one of the standing trees while the pony in the pile of wood wiggled and wobbled about for a moment. Louder and louder pained groaning came from inside the rough hut until eventually, snow and sticks fell from the top and the single pony head was joined by a second, significantly more pink colored pony head. This one smiled down at him and when it opened its mouth, words that he could actually understand spilled out.

<<Hello! I am Princess Cadance of Equestria, and I offer greeting to a member of the Borealis Tribe of the Wandering Nations!>>

The caribou snorted. <<And I’m the Spirit Elder for the whole Water Buffalo peoples.>>

<<Actually,>> Cadance grunted, struggling to work herself up higher and out of the hole. <<It’s the Bison that have Spirit Elders, but see?>> She heaved and pulled her torso loose of the hole, shoving Twilight to the side, the unicorn muttering complaints under her breath. <<I have wings and a horn! Real, legit Princess here.>>

<<Well...that is a horse of a different color.>> The caribou took a knee and bowed his head low. <<I am Forage Fortune. I am a gatherer for my people. It is an honor to meet a true Alicorn. What, if I may ask, are you doing out here, of all places?>>

<<It’s a long story.>> Cadance struggled to free herself completely and flared her wings for balance to descend to the ground next to Forage Fortune. <<Do you know where we are? I always thought your tribe stayed in the arctic forests?>>

<<That is how we do, yes. But the return of the Cursed Ones has forced us to join with our fellow tribes in migrating. Forgive me, but I would have assumed you knew that. We saw your airship sailing toward them just an hour ago.>>