Egress

by Grey Vicar

Chapter 13: Snow On A Mountain

It was night.

Had she dozed off? An accursedly frigid wind was blowing over her, and frost was already covering her limbs.

She closed her eyes.

No she hadn’t dozed off. She couldn’t. This was… something else.

She opened her eyes. It was day. Yes, perhaps… perhaps…

She closed her eyes. It was night.

The mountain loomed over the lands of Equestria. She could see them clearly, vast green pastures and endless plains, a landscape of rolling hills dotted with brightly illuminated towns and dirt roads crisscrossing like the paths of so many ants around carrion. Thanks to the technomagical advancements of the last centuries, zeppelins had proliferated, and she could see them lazily going about like gigantic flying whales. Would they see her if she waved to them? She thought not. On this mountain, eclipsed by stone and the ever-present frost of the North, she was as insignificant as a fly on a particularly dull-coloured wall.

The road was long. The snow melted under her hooves. Higher. She must reach the top. That was all she knew. That was all she could think of. Reach the top. Reach the Place. Find the Question. Escape the pain. The sun blazed over the mountain, burning her eyes, making her coat feel like it was on fire. Higher. Higher. There was a snowstorm coming, blowing from the North. It would be upon her. It couldn’t. But it would. It hated her. Faster. Higher. Already the wind carried the cruel laughter of snow on its wings, already she felt her limbs numb. How could a snowstorm hate? How could a snowstorm hate her? Why did a snowstorm hate her?

She hates me. She hates me and has come to take everything from me. The end has come.

Stone scraped underhoof as she struggled to her limbs. Why? Why had it gone down that road? She just wanted to be alone. She just wanted to be alone. Stone scraped. Her hooves slipped on the ice. She couldn’t get up. Snow loomed overhead.

Mist wreathed the mountain and she batted it away with a spell. So many ponies claimed to get lost in mists. Foolishness. A little magic, and nothing as insignificant as water vapour could stand in the way. Perhaps that was a good representation of how useless and meaningless they all were, to be stopped by a patch of mist. Least she could do for them is light their path, make sure they don’t get lost. Lost in the snowstorm. Faster. Higher.

What if I am lost myself? Shall I be a blind guiding light?

Night. Why was the night so long? The moon seemed to judge her silently, a pale reflection of the sun. A reminder. She hated the moon. She loved the moon. So calm, quiet, distant, yet always there. She hated it. She loved it. Relaxing nights, reading books. Crushing despair. The night fell on Equestria. Good night, I failed you yet another day. It is time to hide. Fireflies surrounding her, a loving brother pointing them out to her — no no no no forget it forget it no hide it hide it not realnotrealnotrealnotreal

The peak? A memory faded. Pain faded.

Mist surrounded her. She couldn’t see. She closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes.

The mountain loomed over the lands of Equestria. She could see them clearly, vast green pastures and endless plains, a landscape of rolling hills dotted with brightly illuminated towns and dirt roads crisscrossing like the paths of so many ants around carrion. Thanks to the technomagical advancements of the last centuries, zeppelins had proliferated, and she could see them lazily going about like gigantic flying whales. Would they see her if she waved to them? She thought not. On this mountain, eclipsed by stone and the ever-present frost of the North, she was as insignificant as a fly on a particularly dull-coloured wall.

She stood on a ledge on the side of the mountain, blessedly protected from the worst of the winds. The land — her land — was beauty surrounded by dullness. Badlands, dragonlands, the grey of the fog-shrouded sea, the mountains surrounding everything, and in the middle, Equestria, a splatter of colour, a dash of life amidst the ruins of the world. For millennia, elements had scoured the surrounding lands with heat or frost. Only Equestria had escaped and remained to this day the jewel of the world. She looked upon it, a pleasant warmth blossoming inside her chest. They had taken such good care of their land, her little ponies. She could be proud of them. If they could keep a land saturated in magic free of problems, and as lush and fertile as it was, did they even need her to lead them?

Remember the sun, a voice in her head seemed to be whispering to her. But night had fallen. The sun was gone. Good night, Equestria. Standing on that mountain, with the land spreading below her, it seemed as if the sun had long been nothing more than a lie she’d told herself. But she knew what she had seen. She could still picture it in her mind’s eye. The sun, ruling over Equestria. The sun, blazing freely across the land. The sun, guiding, protecting.

No, not the sun. Something else. White and gold. Wings and soft feathers and white and gold. Blazing heat. Disappointment. White and gold and the sun always together. White and gold and the sun blazing and scorching.

A frost wind blew. The images disappeared. Snow fell around her, twinkling in the moonlight, like little crystal chips floating down from the heavens. They blazed with deathly cold whenever they touched her. She tried pushing through the storm, tried ascending toward the top, but her limbs started burning, the snow sapping her strength and replacing the warmth that had propelled her earlier by a bitter emptiness that made her want to curl up on the side of the road, like so many other frozen bodies. But something in her refused to cave in. For long minutes she pressed on, one hoof at a time, as the snow fell and covered more and more of the ground. It reached her ankles, her knees, almost her withers. Her head. It pushed inside her soul, whispering at her as she screamed silently. Faster… Higher… The snow clawed at her with fingers of ice, cruelly scraping away at her soul. The sun screamed and died. The wind whipped her bones raw. Something seized her, cracked her body and left her to flop uselessly on the mountain. She wasn’t strong enough. The snow was so soft, so harmless, but every step took more energy, more strength that she could muster. She struggled in its powdery grasp.

She huddled inside a cave in the wall of the mountain. Snow fell outside, a shimmering curtain of frost and death just beyond reach. She’d been so close, so close. Why had that snowstorm suddenly arrived to ruin everything? She closed her eyes. Snowflakes twinkled in her mind as she fell asleep to the sound of the wind.

Comments

[Golden Tassel]

So glad to see this continuing!

[Grey Vicar]

11319464
Apologies for having been on hiatus for so long, I'm happy to see people happy to see this story continued

[Octoskan]

Yessss, so glad to see this continue.