Riding at the Top of the World
"You ready?"
"Almost," the mare answered, looking back at her bottom hooves below her. On her flank, she bent forward and reached for the Red Ribbon, a snowboard with the shade of a very sugary and fruity cherry, attached to her back hooves. There was a steel bit that stuck out around a radius just beside her snowboarding horseshoes. She could see her breath in the air, a white mist that appeared inches before her lips as she stuck her tongue out in concentration. She carefully adjusted the bit, sliding it until it reached a forty-five degree angle. Her task done, she sat straight properly and turned to the other pony behind her. "Just making sure the magnetism's right."
The other pony was looking down in her very light-pink skis, all fours on the two boards while she stood. She wore a deep blue winter jacket over her natural beige fur, her wings sticking out of holes on the back. A green scarf was wrapped around her neck nicely, right below the friendly smile that was adorned with her curious expression. A set of rabbit ear muffs were set around her sensitive ear tips, and orange ski goggles were hugging lightly beneath her pale pink bangs. Of course, they both knew that the ear muffs weren’t made of real rabbit; that was just the name.
"I've always wondered why you don't adjust your magnets with your magic," Winter Carol mentioned, her brown eyes staring at Alpine.
"You know how long I've been snowboarding for," said Alpine Star, pulling on the end of the board and making sure it wasn't coming off easily any time soon. "It hasn't been always that I had enough magical strength to actually push the darn things."
"I see," Carol responded, looking forward. "How's training been going?"
Alpine pulled down her goggles to see if they were fogged up. She pulled out a red cloth from her coat pocket with telekinesis and blew hot air in the inside of the lens, wiping down the plastic after. "Eh, I haven't been training too much."
"Star, SSX's in a month! I thought you were taking this more seriously." Carol voiced, the tone in her words carrying out to the race track below.
"I know, I know," Alpine Star responded, letting her goggles go after she was satisfied. The cloth went straight back into her pocket. Her long, aquamarine tail swished to and fro against the snow behind her. Despite sitting bare on fresh powder, the cold didn't bite her one bit. "I just don't want to worry myself too much, you know? There's no sense in panicking and throwing all of my energy into training before the actual event has started."
Alpine Star could feel the frown her friend was giving her from behind. "I bet you haven't even seen the competition roster yet. Did you know Gideon Hawk qualified first place in preliminary racing?"
"That Gryphon from Vanhoover? Pppsh, that bird thinks he's all hot," Star dismissed, looking back once again. "I've seen his stuff. He spends way too much time in the air. You'd think he's a Pegasus."
"That's not the point, Star," Carol pointed out. "What if he was right beside you at the starting gate? He’s the kind of rider that wouldn’t hesitate to claw at you the first chance he gets!"
"He would actually have to connect a hit to do any harm," Star said, making sure everything on her pony was secure and no pockets were open. She didn't want to lose her cabin keys. Again. “Because I also know that those types of racers are all bark and no bite. All they do is swipe at open air. They’re incompetent at rider combat, much less at racing.”
"And I think Airborne Frost got through in the Crystal Empire, placed second in Slopestyle," Carol mentioned helpfully.
Alpine Star frowned, rocking back and forth before throwing her weight forward as she got up. Shifting her board sideways beneath her, she peered over her shoulder at Carol, now twice the size of the mare after left standing on her back legs. Alpine Star found her center of gravity easily, and idly rest her balance and strength on her hips as she got a feel for the snow ahead. "Carol, I don't think I'll be signing up for Slopestyle."
"W-Why not?" Carol asked, slight shock in her voice.
"I don't think I'll be good enough. I'm a lot better at racing."
"But what about your super-wicked signature move? It’s what put your name up there on the charts! You don’t think you could win with that?" Winter Carol goaded.
Alpine Star couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah, maybe I could. But everypony’s already seen it a few times. I don’t think the judges would be impressed to see a repeat of something that’s three years old already. And besides that, I really have anything new to show except Walking the Dog and Unethical Experimental. There’s nothing else I could do."
Carol opened her mouth for her rebuttal, but Star cut over her. “And besides, even with my signature trick, I still only got sixth place last time, and that’s pretty bad for amateur Slopestyle.
"I think you should at least try, Star," Carol said, looking up at her with a determined gaze. "Three years ago, you went up there without knowing a single thing about the track where Slopestyle was being held! Of course you might not get a perfect score. But now, after you’ve ridden all over Big Mountain five times over, I’m sure it’ll go a lot better this time. No more surprises!"
"Yeah," was all Star answered back. Her head turned to face forward.
Carol bit the inside of her cheek, not having any of it. “Well you should at least try for the sake of beating Powder Swirl. She’s entering too, you know, and she needs a serious coat check on that ego of hers.”
That got a laugh out of Alpine Star. “She certainly does.”
The ledge they rested at dipped into the main track, the snow pressed firmly to create a smooth experience all the way down. The path kept forward until curving left sharply, the turn lifting up pseudo half-pipe style to keep racers from flying off the hairpin. The road was well-defined, with red and blue paint plastered over key angles in the snow so the riders would know where exactly the snow lifted and where the best place to turn would be. There were arrow signs along the edge of the track to keep riders in one direction, although it wouldn't stop the most experienced of boarders from straying off the main course a tiny bit to take nifty shortcuts. A blue railing was placed over a large tree stump to the left of the track that soared over the dead wood, encouraging racers to try their skill at cutting the angle to get a hoof or two ahead of the competition.
It was a beautiful day out for riding. The sky was a clear blue, with Celestia's sun watching them from above, giving all the light it could give, igniting the ice crystals that were littered all over the ground. Alpine Star had to squint to look at the freshly fallen snow from last night, rainbows becoming spots in her eyes if she stared for too long. There was a light wind chill, but nothing too heavy. Her magic pulled out her RuneComm, a hexagonal enchanted black stone about the size of her hoof, from her pocket, and she checked the temperature. It sat at a fine negative nine degrees Celsius, but she figured as much from the way the air was chilling her nose canals as she breathed in. Birds sang in the distance, and loose snow danced along the ground where the track wasn't sweeping up in swirls and circles that mesmerized the eye. The few pine trees in the area swayed softly to the tune of Mother Nature.
She could feel the breeze rustle her back legs, pushing against her snowy blue fur coat. The light winter vest she wore over her top kept her comfy, with the collar flipped up so it covered her lower cheeks and allowed her to cool off when she got overheated from riding too hard. Her long mane, covered in a pattern of pure white and ivory strands, was parted down the middle in front of her face, and the back was put into a ponytail against the bottom of her skull, let loose freely behind her. Her cutie mark, a crimson snowboard against a snowflake, shone brightly in the sunlight.
Alpine Star smiled. Today was a good day for riding.
"Ready to go?" Carol asked again.
"Ready," she answered, pulling down her goggles and starting down the route. Today would be the day she broke her record.
~---~
"Snow Patrol! You are riding in a restricted area! Slow down and stop now!"
The young earth pony stallion looked behind him, his face covered in shock before quickly forming into a scowl. He spotted through his ski goggles the two ponies behind him as they gained on him, with one's voice apparently enhanced with a volume enchantment. The cold mountain air buffered his brown coat and short black mane.
He couldn't believe this. He thought he got off scotch-free! Nopony saw him cross the orange tape, and he told his friends not to report him to the Snow Patrol! Some pals they were. Heck, they were even too scared to follow him! What kind of wimps were they not to explore the mountain? The mountain had been there since forever, and the only reason everything wasn't open to everypony was because the bigwigs of Big Mountain Ski Resort just wanted to keep the rest of the mountain to themselves! If they hadn't been there, they could ride wherever the heck they wanted! Whose right was it to keep him from riding where he wanted? And why was so much of the mountainside kept from other riders riding it? It caused no trouble riding out of bounds, especially if nopony important knew about it.
He grit his teeth and went back to the path ahead, bending his legs and lowering his stance, letting wind pass over his head and quickly accelerating on his snowboard. Darn Snow Patrol.
"Hey!" Winter Carol called out, having not used the voice enhancement charm of her Snow Patrol badge. "Stop!"
Alpine Star furrowed her eyebrows. "Dang it," she said before applying a little aerodynamics of her own.
The rogue rider led them down, at first the ride smooth before the snow broke up into sparse ledges, all between five and ten feet tall. Alpine Star hopped down step by step, keeping her back legs bent as Winter Carol swiftly followed from behind, unfolding her wings slightly to keep balance as she lowered her body further than normally possible. Tall trees were dotted in the untracked territory, forcing the patrol duo to route their path in their heads, trying to cut the distance between them and their target as efficiently as possible. Alpine Star barely scrapped by the bark, small lower branches whipping her face. She winced, holding up her foreleg to keep them away from her muzzle as she barely whisked by a tree with a thick base. She couldn't see how Carol was faring, but as long as she didn't hear a sickening crunch, she could assume that everything was ok so far.
The last lip led into a large jump before opening into an area surrounded by more trees. At high speeds, Alpine Star prepared for a moment before doing a short hop off the ledge. She spun, cutting the air and sticking her back legs out, sliding the board forward and grabbing the fiberglass behind her, right between the magnets on her board. She quickly leg go and bent her legs as she approached the ground, landing smoothly out of the rotation she was in.
~BS 420 STALEFISH~
She heard a whump of air deftly behind her, signaling Winter Carol's presence. Alpine Star spotted the stallion check over his back once, before attempting to speed up again. She could see the rapidly approaching tree line in the not-too-far distance, as well as noting the target's desperation to reach the arch of trees that led deep into the forest.
"Wild tree fun. Yay," Alpine Star muttered before following the hunted into the thick of branches and barbs.
The air took on a new flavor. Alpine star could taste the tree sap between the bark much more than see it. Winter birds, peaceful as they were, cheered and twittered as the three raced on past, disturbing their rest and causing several families to abandon their nests in a panic. The sun was covered by the tall giants that towered over them, the branches thick, yet stiff from the icy cold that had been prevalent all year round. Slivers of sunlight peeked through vulnerable spaces where the trees did not touch, and all seemed well except for the upcoming onslaught of timber that would soon be brought upon Star and her partner.
The stallion was right in front of her, no more than fifteen meters ahead. The path had narrowed significantly, curiously clear of any foliage that the normal untracked forests would adorn. It was straight out of a track designer's dream, where the race track would be surrounded by countless trees without actually threatening the racer's well-being. Star's focus was cut as the target abruptly swerved right to avoid a rapidly incoming tree. She almost jumped, sticking out the back end of her board to the right so she could turn left, dumping off a lot of speed and showering the offending obstacle in a fall of snow as she tried her best to get back on track.
The carved path dug into an S-pattern deeper into the woods, the stallion showing an unexpected amount of racing expertise as he dangerously kept up a high speed. Star spotted a long, fallen log on top of a turn, and instead of curving her route to the path she rode up the half-pipe and stuck right on top of the pine, grinding it for its length in a furious straight, cutting the distance between her and the target as he desperately tried to swerve left and right from the trees. There was a rustle of branches above and Star took a millisecond to check to the right. There was a blur of movement in the treetops, and she realized that Winter Carol had managed to get a hold of some sort of route among the birds, her Pegasus wings flaring as she used her born-skills of flight to maneuver properly.
The rail ended and she hopped down from a ledge, only a dozen feet away from the stallion. Coming up was a ravine in the course, but not before a ledge with a jump presented itself for availability. Star squinted and smirked, a dumb idea forming in her mind. The stallion hit the lip first, not taking mind to do anything before he hit the other side. Star jumped early before the edge, the angle of her ascent shortened greatly by her launch. She had twisted her body before taking the leap, spinning and flipping in the alpine freshness. She had reached around behind her back, grabbing the board in front of her forward leg. Her back arched, and she kept her bottom legs straight, throwing out her hips as she focused on keeping her graph amidst the world rotating around her. Her knees bent backwards almost unnaturally, allowing the trick to be performed. She was thankful of her flexibility, and kept count of how many degrees the front of her board turned.
~FS DOUBLE BACK FLIP 720 LEIN AIR~
Her board hit the ground and she adjusted her balance to accommodate for the force. The dizziness hadn't even hit her and the stallion kept going down a straightaway that was void of any trees, following further into an open area. She lowered her stance, keeping her forehooves near her base as an act of basics, racing down the untouched snow. She felt the energy she gained from the crazy stunt she just pulled, filling her with strength and confidence. She channeled the adrenaline through her horn, and a trail of orange light trailed the back of her board, as well as the tip of her upper hooves. She accelerated, and felt the chill of the wind rip through her fur coat as she broke 100 kilometers an hour. Without much time wasted, she approached the stallion.
He was facing the right, not even noticing her presence as she glided comfortably beside him, too focused on his own pace to notice hers. She swooped in from behind and clotheslines him without a moment of warning. His eyes went wide before his vision was filled with white, going head first into the snow.
He saw stars, falling forward and losing all of his momentum into a roll, his speed dropping rapidly while he lost control and sense of direction. He was like a pony-snowball, rolling down the hill in the open, coming to a sliding stop on his stomach as Star turned to make a halt of her own in front of the target. She stopped sideways, looking down on the guy while he moaned in stinging pain. His back legs, up in the air, finally hit the ground as he lost the last of his velocity.
“Dumb Snow Patrol,” he said, his voice muffled with his muzzle buried in the powder. He craned his neck just enough so he wasn’t kissing the mountain anymore. “You can’t arrest me. You’re not the damn police! I have my rights!”
Star simply pulled out her RuneComm with her magic and pressed her hoof onto it, sending a lance of energy at the Stallion. He jumped, his forehooves immediately reaching around to behind his back and latching on to each other, becoming bound by an arcane force he couldn’t see. His snowboard popped out of his back hooves, now that it had been deactivated. Star took one questioning look at the poor sap with an eyebrow raised. Winter Carol landed not too far off, cruising into the area before stopping, sending a shower of snow onto the rebel’s face. He spat the white stuff out, coughing and hacking, his face growing cold and wet.
“Oops,” Carol said. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, we’re not the police,” Star mentioned, pressing on her RuneComm and dragging. “But that still doesn’t mean you can go around the mountain willy-nilly doing anything you want. There are rules you have to follow as a registered visitor or occupant of Big Mountain Ski Resorts and Lodges, and when you break those rules they call us in. A little responsibility and respect wouldn’t kill you.”
He growled in response, shooting a look that could maybe kill a cute, tiny animal. Star tutted, putting her hoof down as she raised her magical device to mouth level.
"Radio Command, this is RT01. We've secured the target. Requesting immediate teleport."
~---~
"...It's time now for our weekly track report. This time, we're taking a look at Snow Day, the number-one rider's choice for peak one, with check-in numbers reaching at least a thousand a day. Carved out about six years ago for the second annual SSX event, the calm, beginner-level track has memorable landmarks such as the cross-railings shortcut, the frozen waterfall bridge over Misty River, and a canyon that opens up to a mess of trees, complete with 100-feet-tall giants and carved paths through the bark of the plants. Now, the track designers didn't actually do anything harmful to nature to get the riding path up there, although with the tales ol' Weather Raid from down at the Pole's Vinyl Store tell about how he brained himself once or twice trying to get the darn thing hoisted up, heh, you'd might think it was more trouble than it was worth..."
Alpine Star shook her head in amusement as she tuned out the rest of the show talk from the radio. "Your brother does a really good job doing the whole 'DJ host' thing."
Iron Mic took a look out the door of his tiny radio booth, his headset around his neck, speakers facing up so he could still answer any call on the dot. "Yep, he does. He always has."
Frosted Dust peered away from the window to turn to the Pegasus in the booth. "What made you leave Radio Big, anyways? I thought that would have been your job, down pat."
Mic gave an uncommitted response, shifting left and right in his black, rolling chair. "It kind of was, but I wanted to do something different for a change. The pay was split between both of us as co-hosts of the same show, even though I spent most of my time there as the audio engineer. I felt like I could do better."
"And do you get better here?" Frosted Dust asked, his spiky, salt and pepper mane tilting down with the rest of his head.
"Yeah. Slightly," replied Mic.
The Black Station lodge was comfy, warm, and homely, for all intent purposes. The building was filled with warmth for all of those who wanted a break from riding and the harsh climate of outside. Alpine Star sat in the Snow Patrol station, a small fraction of the total building, complete with the communication room Iron Mic was residing on the west-most side of the wing, the supply room behind it that was filled with all kinds of brick-a-brack, a stone fireplace that was lit at the back, several steel lockers painted a navy blue to the east, the open door that exited to the main hall, and the few wooden benches that were paired up with the boot and coat racks against the south wall.
Everything was made of wood, an intentional design choice that added nostalgia for the days gone by and a sense of genuine experience. The floor was swept and waxed, flattened and smoothed out, the walls were logs stacked together, glued and hammered into place, and the roof was modern, slanted planks with black shilling, but was still mostly made of fine oak. A long window ran from corner to corner at the top of the room, and Alpine Star stared out the glass, the mood of the weather getting to her.
”…Gonna make a quick reminder here that there is currently a level four blizzard occurring on peaks two and three. Now, Big Mountain regulation states that a level three blizzard is defined by winds breaking fifteen kilometers an hour, grey clouds above blocking any chance of vision from the sun or moon, and enough snow to share all across Equestria for one wintertime. However, by the point you reach a level four blizzard, well, let’s just say that’s when the mountain truly gets nasty. If you are, by chance, on either peak two or three, for the sake of your friends and loved ones, don’t go outside tonight.”
Star frowned, witnessing the showering mess of snow that assaulted the window pane from outside, not letting up for a single moment.
A thestral mare peeked from the supply room, her short, neon hair matching the neon blue earrings she pierced to her furry ears. Her yellow slit eyes glowed even under the lights hanging from the ceiling. “I heard from earlier that the storm should be gone by morning.”
“Thank goodness,” Star said, breathing a sigh of relief. “We’re going to be stuck here all night as it is! Don’t want to hang out longer than I have to. I miss my room, and my books, and my computer.”
“And Carol?” Aurora the bat pony asked with a cheeky grin.
“Uhh, I guess,” Star hesitantly answered. She turned to look at the bat pony staring at her. “I mean, I guess haven’t seen her all afternoon. It would be nice to know where she got to. Why?”
“Well, you know,” Aurora began, purposely not looking at Star. “From all the time you’ve been spending with her, and how she’s been mentioning more and more about your ‘special’ trick you keep showing her, I can’t help but wonder if you’re a ‘Carol-licker’, or not.”
The corner of Aurora’s lips reached up her cheeks. Star was not amused. With Dust looking between the two, Aurora failed to contain her laughter, and fell backwards as a one-mare laugh track, disappearing from view. There was a clatter in the storage room as several boxes of things fell from their shelves.
“Very funny, Aurora,” Alpine Star stated dryly, folding her forelegs.
Dust blinked once, choosing to center his attention to the more sensible mare. “I don’t get it.”
“And you probably never will,” Star finalized, before turning to the radio to turn it up.
Suddenly, there was a swarm of hoofsteps coming from the outside hall. Star, Mic, and Dust, all turned to the door to catch Winter Carol sprinting in, full ski gear, boots and all, still adorned. She was covered in fresh snow which was melting quickly onto her coat, her mane blown astray in a stormy mess.
“Star! Star!” she cried, out of breath, falling to the ground before Star. Carol looked up, and Star spotted her friend’s red eyes with tears trailing down her cheeks. Star’s eyes widened.
“What? What’s wrong?” Alpine Star asked, lowering her head and putting a hoof on Carol’s shoulder.
“Oh, everything’s awful! Basement Jazz went riding out in the weather!” Carol said.
“What?” Star shouted in disbelief. “Really? Why?”
“It was those dumb Powder fillies!” Carol accused. She tried to wipe some of the tears out of her eyes. “T-They had some kind of bet, and Jazz went outside to prove a point! H-His friends caught me at the backcountry outpost and told me what happened!”
“Who’s Basement Jazz?” Dust asked from behind.
“Carol’s baby brother,” Star quickly explained, looking over her shoulder for her answer. She returned to Carol, putting on her game face. “Where did he go?”
“He went down the Great White Divide!” Carol cried, unable to control her voice, more wetness falling from the bottom of her eyelids.
“What? What was he doing on peak three?” Star questioned aloud.
“H-He was challenged to ride all the way down to Orange Station!” Carol sobbed. “You got to help me find him!”
“Whoa whoa whoa, hang on there,” Star started, giving a dubious look. “You can’t seriously be considering going out now to find him in the storm.”
“Of course!”
“Carol, are you crazy?” Star had to ask. “It’s one thing for a missing pony report to come in during a level four blizzard, but it’s something completely different to go out on a search mission. Even if we did track down his aging path with all the snow falling over it, there’s no guarantee that we’ll actually find him, much less get him out in one piece.”
“Well, we can’t just wait and let him freeze!” Carol yelled.
“Carol, you need to calm down and think for a moment,” Star said. “The storm’s running at full force right now, and it might get worse. We have no leads, he could be anywhere between here and peak two Orange Station, and you want to go out there and try and find him?”
“Star!” Carol shrieked. “You’re my best friend! Y-You’re the only one I can trust to do this! Please, help me find him!”
Star grimaced. She had to take a moment to recover before continuing. “Carol, what do you say we do if we do find him, huh? If he was on the Great White Divide, then sure, we can lead him to the Orange Station, not to say that the thirty kilometer winds across forty-foot gaps above bottomless crevices will get us first, but otherwise, what do we do? If he was out of bounds, we’d be completely lost in the backcountry with no way to find our way back to the main trail. You’ve been out there! You know you can barely see beyond thirty feet! So how would we find out way back in the wilderness without any landmarks to derive our route from, huh?
“Did you forget that our teleportation glyphs won’t work in the storm?” Star aggressively question, taking out her RuneComm and throwing it to the floor, the hexagonal black stone bouncing once before Winter Carol’s hooves, making her flinch. Star turned around to meet Iron Mic’s eyes. “Right!?”
It took a few seconds before Mic realized he had been addressed. “O-Oh. Yeah. She’s right. Not going to pick up any sort of signal without external magic power in the snow out there.”
Star looked back at Carol, not believing the argument they were having. “Carol, are you nuts?”
Carol was scowling. Her mouth was turned into a disgusted frown, staring right into Alpine Star’s eyes, glaring. Star realized she’s been acting furious unintentionally, and relaxed her expression.
The Pegasus waited a moment before getting up off the floor and turning around in a huff. She looked beyond hurt. Winter Carol stomped out the room, going down the hall, her harsh hoofsteps echoing through the hollow building until she got too far from the Snow Patrol Station. Everything was almost quiet again. Nothing stirred.
“Dayum,” Aurora stated in the back after recovering from her incessant cackling. “That was spicy.”
Star wilted, slouching and folding her ears.
“Star?” Dust asked, getting up from the bench and putting an unsure hoof on her shoulder. “Are you ok?”
“…Damn it,” she swore, lifting her head with her ear twitching, getting up with a sudden fury and making a beeline for the coat rack. She grabbed her vest, sliding it on quickly while picking up her goggles. “I should have known she’d be crazy enough to go out for her own damn brother. Mic, will the Partner Compass still work in this weather?”
“It should,” he stated, scratching the side of his head. “It works off a different spell matrix than Targeted Teleportation, although I would be more worried about your RuneComm still working after treating it like a skipping stone.”
Star picked up the black stone hexagon off the floor with her telekinesis, taking a good look at it, pulling the object a few inches before her face. One of the edges had a new chip in it. She pushed a little bit of her own magic into the device. It glowed back with a pink glow, separate from her light-green signature. She smiled, then blew a wave of hot air onto the surface, wiping it with a free hoof, the small tablet coming off shining. “It’s good. Just making sure.”
Mic stared, his expression blank. Star could sense the silent annoyance beneath his visage, and gave her own apology with a shrug under his gaze. His musings were interrupted from chatter coming from his headset. Quickly putting them on, he turned forward and slid the chair forward into the radio controls, fixing the microphone near his mouth so it was a good distance away. “Peak three Radio Command here. Copy that. Gonna search for that lodestone point…”
Star trotted to the doorway to the hall, her goggles wrapped around her head beneath the horn, picking up Red Ribbon as it leaned on the wall with her magic. She made her way down the corridor, her snowboard right at her side, steeling herself for what was coming next. She passed the empty cafeteria first, the wooden chairs stacked on the tables, the food stall closed. The lights were on, but no one was home. She took a right, ending at the double doors to the outside world to the left and the lobby right in front. The doors weren’t closed properly, leaving a small gap between the doors, letting in a slowly increasing hill of snow on the entrance mat, heat seeping out the hall into the storm. There were a few riders lounging in the room, waiting for the storm to pass, unable to get a room in the lodge, or simply refusing to be anywhere else.
Star approached the open doors, pulling one open and kicking some of the snow out of the doorway so the rectangle plank of wood would close properly behind her. The door hit the rim of her board before she maneuvered it to the other side of her, taking one look outside as she immediately got assaulted with chilling winter winds. She had to squint, snowflakes getting caught on her long eyelashes by the dozen. She wasn’t even out the door yet and she could already feel the cold rattle down her spine.
“Star, wait!” somepony called out from behind. She shut the door, the vacuum between the inside closing satisfyingly. Turing around, she spotted Frosted Dust’s dark coat chasing after her around the corner, his pace quick, carrying something on his back. He caught up to her with a huff, slowing down before her, unable to say anything for the second, staring at Star. Star couldn’t see why, it wasn’t like he was out of breath or anything.
“I, uh,” Dust began after finding his bearings. He turned around and grabbed what he was carrying in his mouth, placing it in his hooves as he sat on his haunches. It was a really nice, brightly coloured pink scarf. He immediately wrapped it around Star, startling her as she took a step back, almost out of his reach. He frowned, leaning forward so he could put in on properly. “It’s really cold out there. I mean, really cold. You need something better than that vest to keep you warm.”
“Uh,” Star said, not sure what to say. “Thanks, Dust.”
Dust almost seemed upset at her words. He finished up his work, tying up a knot to the side of her neck. The scarf completely wrapped around below her chin two times, ending with a fine bow that let a bit of length droop to the ground, out of the way of Star’s face. She couldn’t help but smile and look down. She could already feel a difference.
Dust looked at her, his mouth open, searching for something on her face. Star took the moment to say something. “I like it. It’s very nice.”
Frosted Dust perked up at that. He leaned back, opting to stay seated on the floor as he took one more look to make sure it was tied properly. “Yeah. I made that myself. Took a few afternoons, but I think it ended up alright.”
“This?” Star asked, now taking the end of the scarf in her hoof and examining it more properly. Red Ribbon softly fell to the floor beside Star’s hooves. The piece of clothing seemed to be hoof-made. “You knit?”
“Yeah, well,” he said, bashful, unable to meet her eyes. “You spend one too many days during blizzards up here in the mountains and you pick up a hobby or two.”
“I… Dust, I don’t know what to say,” Star admitted, looking back at Dust, an awkward smile on her face.
He shrugged. They said nothing for a few seconds, standing face-to-face, forgetting that there were others in the room. Star thought his hazel eyes appeared so bright under the lodge lights.
Dust shook himself out of his reverie. He gestured towards the door. “You should get going before Carol gets too far ahead.”
“Um, yeah,” Alpine Star said too quickly, turning away and getting her magic on the door handle. She pushed the latch and pulled the entrance open, one again submitting both herself and the inside of the lodge to the weather. She had to squint again, facing the storm, but suddenly she didn’t feel so cold anymore. Her neck area was certainly taken account for. There was a bit of warmth in her chest that wasn’t there before either. She grabbed Red Ribbon again with her magic, letting it float beside her. “I’ll get going now.”
Star took two steps out the door, the whistle of wind howling in her ears. She was just about to close the door behind her. “Star?”
She turned to look behind her. “Yes, Dust?”
Dust seemed nervous, unable to look her in the eyes for a few seconds. His mouth opened again when he did. “Come back in one piece, ok?”
She gave an almost cocky smile. “You got it, Dust.”
Star found a hint of worry in Dust’s frown before she entered the frost outside and closed the door behind her. Her goggles slid over her eyes and she tapped the side of the glass, pressing down on a button that wouldn’t be noticeable by normal pony eyes. Runes etched into the side of her eyewear glowed ominously green in the darkness, and suddenly Star could see much better into the mist, despite getting repeatedly clobbered by packs of snowflakes. Moving forward, she trudged in the deep snow, the banks reaching up to right below her knees.
The light of the lodge disappeared behind her as she continued, casting her in shadow. She could see a little bit with the help of the ski goggles, but she poured a bit of her will into her horn, and an orange light from above her head shot through the area, creating some kind of path through the unknown. In her mind she knew she was on the peak skiing road, even though at that point there was no sign of any sort of road along the mountainside. Reaching a split, there was a wide blue pole stuck in the ground. She craned her head up, noting the sign's contents.
Star nodded. Plopping down her snowboard on the ground face up, she bend down for a second before leaping onto the piece of wood hind legs first, landing her back hooves perfectly on the circular etchings near the center of the board. Her horseshoes clacked into place nicely, and Star hopped forward, leaning into the natural slope of the road, gaining a tiny bit of speed with the wind against her stomach. She didn’t bother to fiddle with the harness setting of the magnets on her board before trailing down the road that was labeled by the sign “The Great White Divide: 0.3 Kilometers”.