The story of Cloudbluff Mountain

by WhatamIsupposedtoputhere

The story of Cloudbluff Mountain

Snowpeak Frost was a young unicorn who was exceptionally gifted at ice sculpting. There was a problem in this, however. Everypony else pretty much exclusively had cutie marks that had something to do with magic, but Snowpeak had a cutie mark that related to ice. They stood out in the crowd of magically enthused ponies.

She was still decent at magic, enough to help with raising the sun and the moon when needed, they were rarely called upon, however. This was a blessing for Snowpeak as they could focus on perfecting their craft. There was a problem with this too. The only time they could get ice was on the terms of the pegasi meaning that they only got ice in winter.

This would not do, Snowpeak needed to perfect their craft before they could sculpt for both fun and as a job. The only way that Snowpeak would be able to get the ice would be to convince the pegasi to make it snow in a specific area, but relations between the pegasi had been deteriorating even before Snowpeak had been born, so there was no way of convincing them.

The only other way to get the ice that Snowpeak desperatly needed would be to go up into Cloudbluff Mountain, something that they had been warned against their entire life, as short as it was at this point. There were no maps of the area and it was said that the ghosts of those that had climbed the mountain and didn't make it to the other side still haunted the area, causing the terrible wailing that had been keeping everyone awake at night.

One day, Snowpeak was given the perfect excuse to travel this dangerous route, and it wasn't a nice reason. Their mother had been bitten by an unusually large snake when she was out picking berries in the nearby forest and the next day they were sick. There was supposedly a cure for the venom of the snake, but only if it was treated as soon as possible, but the city didn't have any and the only other cure was inside of the pegasi city on the other side.

Without thinking, Snowpeak set off to go across the mountain. They knew that the trek through would be a long one and so got food and water that would last them the trip, along with snowshoes and icepicks, just incase, as well as paper, ink and a quill to map the area. Snowpeak set out the day she heard that their mother was sick.

The mountain loomed above her, filling her with excitement and dread. They would either pass over the mountain, or be stuck there for eternity.

The trek had been going smoothly so far, but they didn't know how cold it was going to be, meaning that the water they brought with them had frozen. This was a cold that Snowpeak had thought impossible, yet here it was. The wailing within the mountain became ever more deafening the higher snowpeak climbed, yet they continued. Eventually, the wailing became too much and so Snowpeak wrapped her scarf around their ears.

Thinking that the wailing couldn't get any worse, Snowpeak had reached the peak of the mountain, or rather a valley between its peaks. Snowpeak Frost had discovered the source of the wailing sounds, recent winds had been blowing through the mountains peaks, creating the wailing sound. Snowpeak thought to themselves that the only ones capable of this would be the pegasi, luckily the peak was above the clouds meaning that no one would notice any suspicious activity.

Snowpeak was not impressed with this realization. They could now, however, strike two birds with one stone, so to speak. When they got to the other side of the valley, Snowpeak saw some armoured pegasi. Snowpeak rushed over to them, but they held up their spears in retaliation. Snowpeak stopped just before they had their face meet with the spears.

Snowpeak told the pegasi what was happening, but they didn't care at all, giving remarks about getting rid of the enemy without doing anything. Snowpeak was done with these guards and was about to leave, when commander Hurricane flew up. Hurricane was only there to congratulate the guards on their work with the howling when they spotted Snowpeak Frost and immediatly turned around and tried to get them away from the guards, but Snowpeak finally had their chance to talk to the pegasi leader.

They told commander Hurricane what happened, but they didn't seem to care, until Snowpeak mentioned the giant snake. Immediatly their face turned white. They turned around to the pegasi and told them to get the cure that they had along with a copy of the recipe. Snowpeak, however, wasn't done. They said that if they didn't want the unicorns to know that the pegasi had been amplifying the wailing noise on cloudbluff mountain then they had to stop doing it, or risk Snowpeak spilling the beans. Hurricane was backed into a corner, so they allowed this.

Snowpeak, filled with delight, took both the recipe and the cure back down the mountain. It was nearly night when Snowpeak got back, but they got back in time. Their mother was cured of the venom and they gave the recipe to clover the clever, so that they could use it to make more cures in case the snake became a larger problem.

Snowpeak then realized that they had forgotten to get the ice that she wanted, no, needed for her sculptures. She knew that the mountain wasn't actually as dangerous as everypony had thought, and it had been mapped by the unicorns meaning that it was definetly much safer than before. However, they decided to go to bed.

The wailing sound in the mountains, however, wouldn't let them sleep. Snowpeak realized that they hadn't actually tried to cross the mountain meaning that the other side of the mountain was probably more dangerous. This thought terrified them as maybe there were ghosts up there, but they hadn't actually met them yet.

The next morning, they set out to climb the mountain, this time carrying heated bottles so as the water to not freeze. Snowpeak had climbed into the valley, and noticed a distinct lack of pegasi, which was a good thing. However, the wailing sound was just as bad as ever. Then, the wind picked up and snow rained down upon Snowpeak. They were certain that the pegasi couldn't be behind this.

Snowpeak then saw the cause. It looked like a horse made up of clouds with only its two front legs. The back legs seemed to just trail off behind it. Snowpeak was frozen with fear as the creature towered over them. Then, two others joined it in a circle around Snowpeak. They started flying around Snowpeak, who was currently cowering in fear. These creatures let out their cries for all to hear.

Snowpeak then gained the sense to run. They didn't care whether they hurt themselves, they just had to get away from the creatures, these ghosts of Cloudbluff mountain. Snowpeak slowed down the closer they got to the bottom of the mountain, thinking that the ghosts wouldn't follow them, but they did. The ghosts were always one step ahead of Snowpeak, cutting them off every chance they got.

Suddenly, the ghosts stopped chasing and Snowpeak was confused. Snowpeak then looked down and realized why. These ghosts couldn't leave the snowy areas of the mountain, meaning that they couldn't come down the mountain any further. This delighted Snowpeak, but then they noticed that the snow was in a different place than the day before. The snow was further down the mountain, meaning that the map had to be updated.

Snowpeak then waved the creatures goodbye without even thinking hy they did that, and then they ran down the rest of the mountain. Snowpeak told their mother what had happened, and she laughed. She could not believe Snowpeaks story. She told Snowpeak that Cloudbluff mountain was dangerous because it was unkown, not because there was actual danger there. Maybe Snowpeak was delirious from climbing the mountain two days in a row.

Snowpeak would not forget what they saw, however. They continued to climb the mountain to study the ghosts, knowing full well the dangers of doing so. Evnetually, they had collected enough data on the ghosts to give them a proper name, but Snowpeak still called them the Ghosts of Cloudbluff mountain.

Snowpeak would later be one of the ponies that tried to explain the cause of the snowstorms, but no one listened to them. This is when Snowpeak decided to leave, to travel to a different country, along with their extensive knowledge of what we now call Wendigos.

The End.

Author's Note:

Going to say this now, it was so hard to not write she when writing this gender neutral character known as Snowpeak Frost.