What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 33: dem flowers

“So what your saying is that somethings happened where the predators have been put in a form of stasis” Cloud said after Sombra retold Opals information.

“That’s what Opal said”

“Right, so I would just need a really thick coat, a tent and some food”

“Yeah”

“I should be able to get that by the weekend, and going early means we’ll still catch those reindeers you mentioned right?”

“Yeah”

“Neat”

“Can I come too?” Hope chimed in.

“Hope, it would be too dangerous for you, Sombra knows how to climb and Cloud can fly, you could slip” Miss chestnut told her.

“But I want to go camping”

“Hope if you hurt your leg-“

“Relax, she’ll be fine, if she starts struggling I’m sure Sombra’s big enough to carry her for a short time” Cloud butted in. Miss Chestnut glared at him.

“Fine. But if she gets hurt, you’re the adult”

“We’ll be fine just relax for once, besides you’ll get the bed to yourself for a few nights”

The weekend came and Cloud and Hope had went and got the thickest coats they could find. As far as they were aware having multiple linings stuffed with wool sounded rather warm. With bags packed with food and the polaroid they headed off to the forest. On Opals advice they followed the river. As they got further from the empire snow slowly built up on the ground and the branches of the trees. All three of them had an air of excitement, all for different reasons. Hope was happy to be going on a little adventure, Cloud was eager to finally get something accurate to base his book of, and for Sombra this would be the closest he would get to a resemblance of home in a long time. After a good couple hours they came to the mountains. A steep waterfall was nestled between them, cold mist floated in the air as the large river crashed down.

(“Was this always here?”) Sombra asked, not remembering the waterfall from any angle he may have seen it from.

(“It’s a waterfall. It doesn’t just appear”) Opal replied sarcastically.

“You two gonna be good climbing this?” Cloud asked them.

“That bit looks like a stair case” Hope trotted over to the rocks of the waterfall, where she carefully started to climb up. Sombra followed behind her, often pushing her hoof further onto a rock. Cloud waited for them at the top after flying up. Fortunately the waterfall wasn’t extremely tall and it only took Hope a few minutes to climb. She pulled herself up to the top, shortly followed by Sombra.

“You can move alright in that jacket right?” Cloud asked Hope.

“Yeah I’m good” they continued walking along the river and snow became thicker as they went on. The mountains walled them in, and slowly the river became thinner and so did the land by its side.

(“We’ll probably have to start climbing in a moment”) Opal said as they came to a point where the stable ground was only thick enough for a single hoof. They stopped in place and looked up the walls of the mountains for any suitable ledges. Cloud took off, although hindered by his coat, and scouted for anywhere higher up.

“There’s a line of ledges, there not smooth or in line but we should be able to walk on them” he called down.

“You look very high up” Hope said, looking up the edges with widening eyes.

“Do you not like heights?” Sombra asked her, already turning back to find an easy way up.

“I don’t know, I’ve never had to be high up” as she stood still Sombra found a slope of collapsed rocks that went most of the way up to the hight Cloud was hovering. Based on the hight of the last bit he assumed she would be able to pull herself up.

“You can get up here”

“ok” her voice was quiet and unconfident as she placed her hooves on the rocks, some shifting under hoof although many had ice gluing them together. Even if it was half melted. Sombra stood behind her just in case and followed her slowly up the edge, even though he could tell he could jump it despite the tent on his back. Hope got to the end of the rocks to meet the short wall, which Sombra’s legs awakened a long forgotten memory and effortlessly leapt up. He turned at the top and knelt down and offered his head and neck for Hope to hand onto, as he realised she was shorter than the ledge.

“Are you able to lift me?”

“Yeah, should be able to” she reared up and took a gentle hold of his neck, in which her legs anchored around the back of his head. He pushed his front legs up and slowly raised her up onto the ledge, with the help of Cloud lifting her rear end up too. She held onto Sombra even when completely stable, refusing to let go of his neck.

“Can you get off please”

“…sure” Hope slowly let herself drop down onto all fours.

“You can walk next to the wall if it’s easier” Cloud told her, in which she edged her way to the wall with tiny steps.

“I don’t wanna slip” Sombra nudged her over faster, then stood next to her and continued to walk. She slowly followed as they continued on their new path. They hopped over a small fall of water which came down from the mountain to join up with the river, which was shrinking degree at a time. They managed to stay on this path for two hours, it kept going, they just got tired. At least two of them, like earlier with his leap, an unending ability to walk had returned to Sombra.

“Can we stop for a bit, I’m hungry” Hope asked, slowing down to a halt.

“Sure why not” Cloud replied, turning around and sitting down on the cold stone. He grabbed the pack from his back and pulled out the sandwiches they had made. They had bought some other things as well, such as a small camping pot and gas fire. The tent was bundled up on Sombras back, fortunately quite light so he wasn’t to bothered by it.

“Did we bring any drinks?” Hope asked, mouth half full.

“Err, no, now that I think about it”

“You can melt the snow, but there is the river which is already liquid” Sombra suggested. The pair looked at him like he was crazy.

“I’ll take the snow” Hope said bluntly, Cloud already getting the pot and gas out of his bag.

(“It’s just water”) Sombra muttered silently.

(“If it doesn’t come out the tap its most likely got something suspicious in it, at least in their minds”)

(“Wouldn’t you be able to tell by the colour?”)

(“Yes, but I’ve lived around ponies for long enough to tell you most are not the brightest”)

(“Most?”)

(“I mean, they have wizards, but they make up about one percent of the population”)

(“okay, you want a drink?”)

(“sure why not”) Sombra leaned down and put his nose to the running water. He began to lap up the cold water, half going in his mouth each time and the rest splashing back down. To his side he saw Opal, struggling to reach the water. Stopping his drink, Sombra put his hoof into the water, bringing it up upside down, using the walls and underside of his hoof as a bowl.

(“Thanks mate”) Opal jumped up onto his ankle and began to drink from his hoof. After their break they continued walking along the path, as they went the river got thinner and shallower as they got closer to its many sources. The mountains closed in and the path began to flood with water and ice, once again getting thinner.

(“I believe there’s an archway nearby that leads to a snowfield”) Opal said, and indeed Sombra could see a hole in the stone and light coming through it. He told the others and they approached the archway.

Him and the twins bounded through the field, the tribe behind them as they ran off. Beneath there hooves was little snow, most had melted away. Grass had emerged from its long hibernation, a path cut short by the reindeers. They ran between patches of white, pink, yellow and blue.

The field before them was not so much a snow field as it was a flower field. Small bushes of flowers were sprinkled amongst the grass, but their vibrancy made up for their size. The field was surrounded by mountains and plateaus, the melted snow trapped and forming an icy cold marsh. Slashed across the field was a fissure, glowing green with a purple smoke. They were caught in a trance, only bought out by Clouds astonished curse.

“I thought no plants grow here?” Hope asked herself, also gripped by the flowers.

(“The dark magic fissure heats the land enough that in the day it is warm enough to grow”) Opal told Sombra for him to reply. There was a click as a picture was taken. They all silently agreed on heading down the side of the mountain, some more confident than others. They made it down and stood amongst the flowers. In which it wasn’t long before Cloud went and took pictures of each different flower.

There was small white ones like cotton balls, then others that appeared like larger and flatter buttercups. There was one that grew only a couple flowers if you could call it that. Large orbs on stems caged in dark purple, there was a bud on top that was more of a flower, but it was yet to open. There was also spires of bright pink reaching above every other flower.

“Look! Over there” Hope pointed in front of them where a heard of reindeers grazed peacefully. She bounced excitedly on her hooves and she spotted a rock nearby which she darted for to try and get closer to them. Cloud followed her after also noticing the reindeer, with his camera placed on the rock.

Sombra stood there licking his lips.

(“I don’t think I could finish one on my own”)

(“No, normally one can feed about two umbrum, three if you get a big one, although that’s rare since we try to only hunt the weak ones”)

(“ I remember something about only hunting old, sick or injured”)

(“It helps keep them strong, since if the herbivores start dying then so do the ones above them”)

(“When do you think I could eat one?”)

(“If you find a way to store meat without terrifying the neighbours, now if you want”)

(“Hmm”) he’d have to think on it. He knew salting preserved and there was an infinite supply of salt in the shops. He wondered if he could make his own special chest of food. In his midst of drooling over food, one of the reindeer noticed a clearly hungry umbrum, and bolted.

“You scared them!” Hope yelled at him from the rock, sprinting over to him in adorable rage.

“mm” he kept his eyes on the herd and licked his lips again. He was hungry, he could walk for ages but not on an empty stomach. But even then…

“No I’m good” he said to himself.

“Good on what?” he didn’t want to practically traumatise her, he would just eat a sandwich, full of salad.

“What sandwiches have we got?” he asked her, causing a few confused blinks.

“Oh um…there’s daisies, buttercups-“

“Preferably not the flowers”

(“I’m pretty sure buttercups killed ponies a few evolutions ago”) Opal thought in his variation of aloud.

“Then um…cucumber?”

“Sure” he wasn’t thrilled but it would do. Hope pulled out a sandwich from Clouds pack and floated it over to Sombra. He ate it straight out the air, the crunch turning to mush into a nice watery bread flavour.

(“If you spot any carcases, tell me”)

(“On it”) Opal flew off in search of something more tolerable, albeit half eaten, but more tolerable. At least he could try and hide that meal, it wouldn’t involve him running after something, so most likely less noticeable.

They began walking again, approaching the fissure in the field. As they got closer they felt the warmth it gave of, but despite the heat there wasn’t exactly light. It was in a sense, reverse light. “glowing” black with a green to purple flare.

“Is it…dark magic?” Cloud wondered aloud, looking down into the swirling dark.

“I think so” Sombra felt as if he recognised it, although very vaguely. Two names came to him, Folwin and Folre, his uncles he remembered used magic, and in the back of his mind he did remember that their horns fogged up black instead of a bright sparkle.

(“I remember flying over here, if they want to set up camp I believe there is a hot spring around here heated by this fissure”) Opal returned back and flew overhead.

(“Yes over here”) Opal started to circle around an area, and Sombra got the other two to follow him over. There was a relatively steep descent, although it was made of collapsed rocks. They clambered down to find some ponds of bubbling water, steaming ever so slightly. Hope trotted over to the water, laid down and warmed the underside of her hooves on the steam. Meanwhile Cloud set up their tent, which wasn’t massive, and Sombra certainly wasn’t fitting in it now.

“Are you gonna be able to fit in this?” Cloud asked after setting up the tent and seeing its room.

“I slept in a cave for over five hundred years, I should be fine outside the tent”

“I’m…I’m not sure I’ve ever quite understood just how old you are”

“I’m not even a thousand”

“That’s enough to cover more than ten generations of my family”

“Oh” perhaps Sombra hadn’t quite realised either. When the tent was set up, the settled down for the “night”. Sombra did end up sleeping outside the tent, although him sitting at the tent door did stop any off the foxes getting into the food as they slept.

The next “day” came around, in which the unchanging light had confused the brains of Hope and Cloud. However they did have a plan for the day. Opal could lead them to a wyvern and tormentor stuck in place, and considering that, it was the most desirable way to get a picture of them. They set of once they had some form of breakfast, and since the other two were in the cave Sombra took the chance to go quickly hunt a hare. They set of again through the flower field and past the fissure. The field was rather large and stretched into the far reaches of their view. They had to walk and hour before an odd shape could be seen in the distance.

(“That’s it”)

(“Is it like…twisted?”) Sombra asked. The wyvern was standing to say the least.

(“It has most definitely crash landed, that’s a wing sticking up, its half rolled over”) as they got closer the silhouette became clearer. The wings were in a V position upwards, the feathers spread out to catch the air. Its tail was half raised and its legs were flat against its body. Sombra wondered if it would wake up, if it nosed dived he wouldn’t doubt the idea of its neck snapping.

“I’m not sure if this is what I was expecting or not, but either way I wasn’t expecting a fluffy dragon nor something quite so large” Cloud said in awe, an expression that changed when he saw the face.

“Damn you’re ugly” they stood at the wyverns face, its crown consisted of two large horns, which extended to double as a face armouring around the eyes and nose. Its black beady eyes were widened with surprise, most likely from experiencing sudden paralysation. A line of feathers travelled down its nose and all the way across its back and tail. Some teeth stuck out its lips and fur, both lower and upper teeth, yellowed and chipped.

“I imagine those teeth aren’t any nicer inside its mouth”

“No, especially once it spits straight magic at you” Sombra told him.

“They do what now”

“Like really zappy dark magic, I think the exposed muscle on the chest is because it gets really hot or something, the air cools down the lungs I think sire said” He watched Cloud walk around to the chest, exposed muscles behind a second set of ribs.

“I’ll just, take some pictures”

“The hatchlings are much cuter”

“You hung around them enough to see the babies?”

“My tribe hunted the breeding grounds”

“Oh right, so you know these things well then?”

“They taste great” Cloud gave a surprise snort at the answer he wasn’t quite expecting.

“It’s quite cute”

“Excuse me” Sombra stared at Hope in surprise.

(“She’s actually deluded”)

“It’s fluffy nose sticks out of its…face scale thing”

“h…how…it’s not” Sombra stuttered over Hopes logic.

“When has there been something fluffy and not cute?”

(“Well by that logic at least she won’t find the tormentor cute”)

(“I’ll just let her believe what she believes”) they ignored Hopes ridiculous thought of such a thing being cute. They let Cloud take some more pictures and then continued onwards. They found themselves climbing back up the side of a mountain and then left the flower field behind. They travelled along a side and slightly up and down. Making their way towards a plateau they could see in the distance. It took most of the “morning”, if they were to guess, to get there. There was nothing spectacular on the plateau like the flower field, but it was high enough for some nice views.

“Have you got enough for your book yet?” Sombra asked.

“I’ve got setting out me rump” he took another photo of the view in front of them, an ever sprawling weave of mountains and tundra’s.

“In this book, the uh…the protagonist dies at the end, so apart from that wyvern how else could he go out?”

“I think in the day you’re more likely to be eaten and at night if you’re not prepared you can freeze within hours…I think I nearly froze at some point”

“Really?”

“I don’t remember, I believe it was my first time out the Eye and it was either early day or late night”

“What do you mean by eye?” this one question made sombra realise how much he had forgotten. He knew the Eye was calm, he knew the Eye was home. But its size, shape, actual location? Non off it came back to him. He thought back to one geography lesson about hurricanes, one phrase stood out that he though summed it up quite well, also realising the actual origin of the name “the Eye”.

“Eye of the storm, it’s always calm there, we lived in it”

“How far away is it?”

“I don’t remember”

“That’s alright, I imagine this place is significantly bigger than what the maps say”

(“Hey the tormentors over here if you want to look at it”) Opal popped up with. Sombra and Cloud made their way over, to something Sombra for once hadn’t seen before.

He knew it was insectoid by the way his grandam boiled it in its shell. The tormentor stood above all of them on six large, armoured legs, another pair extend from its front end like a spiders, raised above in constant preparation to grab. Its face wasn’t so much a face as a just a large mouth. If it had eyes they were small and hidden. Its mouth was cone like and appeared to split into four. About where you might expect ears there was a folded up fan of membrane sticking out backwards.

“Do I want to know what this dude does?” Cloud contemplated, behind its legs Sombra could see Hope, sitting a distance away. She shook her head in an “absolutely not getting closer” manner.

“I’ve only eaten them, I know they’re called tormentors or something”

“I don’t want to know, but I really want to know”

(“Those membrane fans open up and torment you with your greatest fears, like hypnosis in a sense and it sticks you in place, it then grabs you, opens its mouth, two tendrils come out and stab you, you are now paralysed and your eaten whole”)

(“Alive?”)

(“Alive and petrified. Hence the name. They’re also really intelligent for glorified non webbing spiders and will hide in caves and against walls, with their fans out so even if you only see the fans in peripheral, your captured”) Sombra reciprocated back to Cloud, albeit not delightfully.

“ha ha yeah no” Cloud walked away after just one photo, looking fittingly terrified. They went back over to Hope, who was munching on some biscuits.

“You done looking at it?” she floated biscuits over to them all, which two ate out the air and the other expertly stood on one talon.

“I think I’ve got enough photos, we can start heading back if you want”

“That’s probably best, I’ve ate most of the biscuits”

“Well I guess we head back, I imagine we can just head straight south right?” Cloud asked.

“I think so, do you want to camp out again before we head back?” Sombra looked around, a little bit away on another mountain he could see a relatively deep cave that they could stay in.

“Sure, might as well” Cloud followed Sombra as he set of towards the cave, making their way back down the plateau. Sombra realised how calm it was, he did remember the winds being quite aggressive.

(“Isn’t the wind normally stronger than this?”)

(“Well it works like any weather system, and there is still some form of soothing effect trailing off from the empire, usually though the worst winds are within a few miles of the Eye”)

(“Soothing affect?”)

(“It’s why there’s just a patch of green, I think it comes from the heart Crystal which Amore controls, she reduced the radius to hide the colosseum”)

(“Is that how the eye works?”)

(“We’re not sure why the Eye is so calm, some believe it’s due to Umbralis’s existence, but if that was the case every time he wondered of it would lose it effect, so in short we don’t know”) it didn’t take that long to get to the cave, and they set up for rest and left hours later. On Opal’s suggestion they retraced their steps, in desire to avoid the East which only Hope didn’t understand. They spent a similar amount of time going back as the did coming, although a little faster as more was downhill. Before they knew it they were back in the redwoods and walking back to the empire.

The castle still loomed over him, like it did all those years ago. He was used to the sight now, but at this angle it was outlined by the smoke flowing out the chimneys behind it. Dotted around he could make out the vague shape of T shaped pillars, not massive, but sticking out above the buildings.

“Oh by the way you two, we got a letter in the mail from your school that your DT and History teacher want to take you to the metal factory on a trip. I’m still trying to get Velvet to let you go, she’s not to keen on down town, I think if you both want to go that will convince her” Cloud told them.

“When do we go?” Hope asked him, a little more excited, she had been rather quiet and bored on the way back.

“About a week after you go back”

(“ask the name of the factory”) and so Sombra asked.

“Mustang something, I know it’s a metal factory…only because of the letter”

(“You’re going”) Opal practically commanded Sombra

(“You sound pretty sure on that”)

(“It’s the safest place you could be in this empire”)

(“How”)

(“Trust me on it”)

Author's Note:

i wondered why this chapter took so long to write until i copy paste it and i'm told its double the word count than most of my other chapters.
i guess this is the new record holder