//------------------------------// // The Path Less Traveled // Story: A Himaneighan Tale // by MasterFrasca //------------------------------// The rhythmic crunch of snow was almost music to my ears compared to what we had to endure back in the open fields outside of Yakyakistan. I was enjoying the relative quiet as Galearis and Twilight trotted side by side among the trees, the two mares talking about Twilight’s past. “It was quite the amulet she got her hooves on,” Twilight finished. “I was amazed the power of the thing didn’t drive her completely mad. I suppose it’s good that we got her to take it off when she did.” “And how is she faring nowadays?” Galearis asked, “You know,” Twilight gave a pause, looking down at the ground in front of her for a few seconds, “I don’t think I’ve seen Trixie since that incident. I just hope she really did learn how much her jealousy was affecting her.” “You would have thought she would’ve learned after that ursa minor incident to have a little humility.” “That’s what I had hoped, but then one day she just came back and challenged my skills. It’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter,” Twilight said in a solemn tone. “I’m sure she’s learned her lesson more than once,” I chirped in from behind the two. “In fact I remember you telling me she was deeply sorry after you guys got rid of that amulet.” “She was,” Twilight said, readjusting the scarf around her neck as snow started to drift from the sky and lightly coating us in its powder. “And that does give me hope. So Gale, are we coming close to that path you were telling us went around the mountain?” “It’s about as good a guess as any,” Galearis said as she studied the area around us. “I don’t come around this way often, but judging by how long we’ve been walking, we should be coming up on the path soon.” “It might be sooner than we were expecting,” I commented as I spotted a clear path between the trees before us which looked as if it had been traveled on recently. Pointing it out to the others, I trotted over to inspect the marks that remained there. “I thought you said this was a largely unused path?” “Normally it is,” Galearis replied, examining the tracks as fresh snow began to slowly fill them in. “Yakyakistan natives don’t like this path because it’s rather narrow and unsafe for creatures as large as them.” Twilight spoke up behind us, noting “These don’t look to be made by any yaks anyways.” She pointed a hoof at one of the tracks in front of us as she raised her hood to cover her head once more, the snow beginning to come down more and more. “They’re way too small to be produced by any Yak big enough to be traveling this way. Unless someone’s kid is lost in the woods here, these had to have been made by a pony.” “Or a wolf,” Galearis added, placing a hoof next to the track to judge size. They looked very similar in composition, but with the snow degrading the tracks’ shape, it was impossible to judge. “You are up in the mountains. We have a decent amount of wildlife out here that would easily take these pony-made paths.” “Now hold up a second,” I chimed in, placing my hoof next to Galearis’s imprint, noting that it already seemed much smaller due to the fill in from the snow. “See that? These tracks are small now, but they must have been massive when they were first formed, unless we really did miss somepony by mere moments.” “That just leaves me more curious,” Twilight commented looking up at the sky and seeing that the clouds had caught up with us. “If the tracks are bigger than a pony or yak then what could they be?” “Perhaps we’re looking at our Yeti,” I suggested, glancing over at Twilight, who looked down to examine the tracks much closer once I had spoken up. There was a shared moment of silence between all of us. I wasn’t sure whether to believe my own speculation and it seemed Twilight was skeptical as well. “Regardless of what we’re looking at,” Galearis said, a hoof raised up to her face and her eyes skyward, “we need to get a move on if we don’t want to get caught up in a snowstorm on the edge of a mountain.” “Fair enough,” Twilight said while joining Galearis in watching the skies. I saw that the clouds we had seen off in the distance earlier were now looming menacingly close. The billowing grey lumps caused a pit to form in my stomach. My mind flashed back to the nightmare I had had back at Galearis’s house and a cold sweat started to form over my body. It had just been a stupid dream, but the possibility of it all started to get to me. I wasn’t ready to deal with something like that. I didn’t think I ever would be. “Let’s get a move on,” Galearis said, bringing me back to reality as I saw her point down the path. “We don’t want to be stuck on the mountain when this storm hits, but we don’t want to be out here either. Without shelter, we wouldn’t survive the night.” Twilight nodded solemnly, glancing back at the cloud cover and the light particles of snow already starting to fall from them. I nodded my head to indicate to Galearis to lead us onward. She turned and took a few steps down the path. Twilight and I followed behind as the wind began to bellow down the path itself, waves of powdered snow drifting past our hooves. As we continued down the snowy path, I saw more prints of whatever we had found earlier. The creature had gone the same way we had; the way the tracks were pointed made that clear, but the pacing made no sense on any of them. They were spaced out quite like a pony’s normal gait would be, if that pony was twice as big as your average one. But randomly the tracks would all clump together as if the creature making them suddenly stopped and shuffled forward before continuing on its normal way. The path between the trees opened up into a field of snow and continued obviously up the side of the mountain. The tracks that we had been inadvertently following led up the steep incline. This yeti, if that was what we were following, was certainly not afraid of heights. “We’re going to be headed up this path,” Galearis said, pulling down her scarf so we could hear her over the building wind. “Watch where you step very carefully here. When we get to the peak of this path, we’ll be almost twenty stories above the forest below. If you fall …” She trailed off as her expression became unfocused, her eyes lost in the distance. I could tell her mind was on her old friends. “We’ll be careful, Gale,” I comforted her as I placed a hoof on her back. “You’re not losing anyone on this trip.” She stood for a few seconds in silence, her eyes darting back and forth before looking directly at me. I pulled down my scarf and gave her a sincere warm smile. I gave her a pat on the back, not sure what was going through her mind at the time. Whatever she happened to be thinking about caused her to look close to breaking out into tears. After a few seconds of our silent conversation, her frown transitioned into a slight smile. I gave a nod and replaced my scarf over my mouth. The chill of the air around us had already started to chap my lips. “Let’s get going,” Galearis awkwardly said before turning and walking up the path in front of us. Twilight trotted up next to me as we both followed the now visibly-shaking pegasus. “I swear, it looked like you two were about to make out on this mountain,” Twilight smirked, giving me a friendly nudge. “Ugh, please,” I scoffed at Twilight’s comment as I rolled my eyes. “I was just helping reassure her. She’s got a bit of a bad past with these mountains.” “Moonie, you may not get out much, but even you should know when another pony is ogling you,” Twilight’s sly smile clearly visible despite the piercing cold air. We continued to escalate as we followed the narrow snowy path. I had no idea why, but I could feel myself blushing. “We’re just friends is all,” I complained to Twilight, pursing my lips and giver her a disapproving glare. “She just needed some umph getting up the mountain. I was just helping her get that umph.” “You certainly were,” Twilight calmly said with a wink. “I know a set of good friends when I see them. I am the Princess of Friendship after all.” “Would you stop implying that Galearis and I are …” I started, trailing off as I looked back at the light purple hooves trotting in front of us. I couldn’t finish the sentence I started. Sure we were friends. That much was obvious from how she treated me last night but to say we were … . “I’ll imply it all I want, but if you want a professional opinion, you’ll have to talk with my sis-in-law, Cadance,” Twilight shot back, the sly smile seeming impossibly to widen on her face. “She’s the Princess of Love.” At this point I was surprised that there wasn’t steam pouring out from under my hood, I felt like I was blushing so hard. “We didn’t kiss alright!” I said a lot louder than I had meant to. It was at this point that Galearis slowed her pace to fall back in line with us. “If you wanted a kiss, then all you needed to do was ask,” Galearis said, her glum mood all but vanished. She was also looking at me with a rather coy smile. “I just didn’t know you were into little old me. I mean, you know what they say about assuming.” I was completely split emotionally between angry and embarrassed at this point. Letting myself fall behind the two, I let myself cool off as they went back and forth. “I can’t say I knew what Moonie liked either,” Twilight giggled. “She keeps to herself most of the time, but I do have to say you two would make a cute couple.” “Wouldn’t we, though?” Galearis responded as I looked over the side of the path idly, trying to take my mind off the thought of it all. “Our kids would look so cool with my light purple fur and her red hair. Plus, who knows? We might even make an alicorn.” “That’s not how genetics works, even if we could procreate!” I complained, not really angry with the statement, but not wanting to hear any more about me and Galearis being a couple. While I did think it would have been enjoyable having a small unicorn around to teach all what I’ve learned to, an apprentice really, the idea was simply preposterous. She did have a rather nice body structure, I had to admit. All her time living in this wasteland probably kept her resilient, strong and healthy. She had a very nice mane and was truly a nice pony to be around. “I think someone’s in denial,” Twilight whispered just loud enough for me to hear. “No, genetics don’t work like that at all!” I argued as the two ponies laughed in front of me. “To procreate you need a male and a female, because you need to have the proper chromosomes from each pony to make a fully-fledged child. I have a hard time believing a botanist like yourself doesn’t know about the most basic principle of …” I trailed off as it suddenly occurred to me that they hadn’t been talking about my genetics comment. I scrunched my nose in disbelief before glaring back down at the snow in front of me, kicking the white stuff around. “I’m not in denial,” I grumpily muttered out. You had to be sure what side you played on before you could be in denial. “She’s pretty cute when she’s flustered,” Galearis said, trotting back to let me catch up with her. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, Moondancer,” she apologized, the tables seemingly flipped around from the few moments ago when I was comforting her. “I do enjoy your company very much. Take that as far as you want to,” she finished with a wink before embracing me in a tight hug. I recoiled a second, not expecting the embrace, but as I felt her warm neck against mine, I couldn’t help but crack a smile and return the favor. “I suppose I was just a little sensitive to that ‘denial’ comment,” I said, looking at Twilight with a serious tone as Galearis and I let go of each other. She gave me a big smile before turning towards the path once more. We were getting rather close the the twenty stories Galearis had warned us about. The drop was enough to make me shudder and give a gulp. “I have been pretty cut off from the world until recently,” I admitted, cocking my head slightly to the left. “Love was just never on my mind, I suppose. I had my studies to worry about. I hadn’t even gotten into some of the more involved stuff I’d always hear about from my classmates in college. Stallions never interested me, but neither did mares.” “Well, I can say from experience that having your head in a book is nice, but one can always use a nice companion,” Galearis said, turning around and swishing her tail in my face, headed back towards the bottom of the mountain. I stood speechless for a few seconds as I slowly came to terms with what had just come out of that. Galearis had just implied that she’d love to date me, and I had this gut feeling that I was about to say ‘yes.’ “Galearis,” I said, stopping her in her tracks. I felt odd standing there about to ask this stupid question. I had never been in love with anyone. I barely had any friends. Why was this pony different? Was she different in that sense. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach duking it out over the soup I had earlier. “I … wanted to tell you …” Twilight had even stopped to wait for us. The air suddenly felt really tense, and I felt like I was back in preschool, playing the tree in the school production of the Hearth’s Warming Eve Story. It was my line, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I was supposed to say. I could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on me, even though I knew Gale, Twi, and I were alone. I opened my mouth and made a bit of a guttural noise, my voice completely failing me. I couldn’t ask it. I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t think. “Girls …” Twilight said, her ears flicking back and forth, hearing something. “Not to interrupt this touching moment, but do you hear that?” A low rumble was resonating from the mountain beside us. “Is that …” I started, feeling the ground begin to shake as the noise grew louder and louder. “Avalanche!” Galearis screamed, her face contorted with fear. She glanced at us before turning and booking it as quickly as she could manage down the narrow path.”Run!” In a flash, Twilight and I bolted after her, only a few steps behind her lead. The rumble above us grew into a roaring noise as I felt the earth vibrate beneath my hooves.  The path flew past underneath me as I galloped forward, just on the heels of Twilight’s pounding hooves. My heart was pumping as snow whipped into my face. At a full on sprint the light snowfall felt like I was getting pounded by beads of metal. Even with the aversion spell cast on my glasses I could barely see where I was going, relying on Twilight’s purple hooves to guide me. My legs began to hurt as my rather sedentary physique showed the problems that neglecting aerobic activity could cause for somepony like me in a moment of crisis. I couldn’t keep up with Twilight in the slightest, not anywhere near as fit as the pony who had been going on adventures and doing far more hoof travel after getting her Ponyville friends since we had first parted. I slowed my gallop just to be able to feel my legs and keep my eyes from tearing up too much. The cold air burned in my lungs as I gasped over and over again, trying to keep oxygen in my system. Starting to limp, I saw Twilight pull ahead of me as the very bottom of the mountain came into view. Galearis had sprinted way ahead of us and had already reached to bottom. I saw her turn and watch as her two new friends barreled down this deathtrap of a mountain. Turning to my right, I saw the billowing cloud of snow that was causing the rumble suddenly burst into view. An insurmountable wave of snow crested over a hill just within my range of vision and I realized how quickly the snow was cascading down the mountain. Looking back towards the ground to where Gale and Twilight had stopped to wait, I realized they were far from a safe distance away from the avalanche. Trying to gather the breath to shout for them, I felt my voice fail me. I was already gasping for air from the run, and I just didn’t have the lung capacity to shout. Looking back at the cascade of snow, I realized that I wasn’t going to make it out of its warpath either. My mind shot back instantly to the nightmare I had and I realized that it wasn’t Twilight who was in trouble, but me. Just then a loud pop sounded off beside me and Twilight materialized out of thin air. “C’mon!” she shouted, nearly tackling me over before I felt a surge of energy pass over us, the snow crashing beside us. For a brief moment I watched as the white wall surged over us, engulfing the sky and blocking out all the light for a brief moment. I saw Twilight’s purple energy field sputter around us. I saw the snow envelope us before I felt the cold powder as it smashed into my back, and then it was dark. But I could feel myself falling through a void. I couldn’t feel a huge pile of snow crushing up against me, and I barely could tell which way was down. Either I had been knocked unconscious and my mind was trying desperately to grasp onto something real, or Twilight had miraculously teleported me out of there at the last moment. Fearing the former and hoping for the latter, I focused on conjuring energy within my horn, tumbling aimlessly into the void. I couldn’t feel Twilight still gripping me. During the impressive snow-blast we must have gotten knocked apart. Letting off a burst of magic, I tore a hole in the vast emptiness and stumbled out, noticing once again that I was way above the intended landing zone. I wanted to scream, but my body was so tired from the run and the ensuing teleportation that I couldn’t even think about the new terror I had found myself in. I felt the wind whip past me as I fell through the air like a brick. I felt my glasses slip from my face as the wind pummeled my body. My coat flapped around me as I watched the sky spin above me. And with a slam, I hit the ground, the snow breaking my fall a bit. My legs felt numb, and I could feel the cold slowly seeping into me. I realized that this was going to be it for me. There was no way I was getting back home from this. I had no idea that this would be the place I’d see the end. I blinked a few times as the light snowfall covered me in the huge divot I had made in the snow. I was still breathing heavily, but every time I did, I could feel a sharp pain in my chest. I concentrated on the pain to try and keep myself awake, but I could feel my earlier dose of adrenaline subsiding. My breathing slowed and I closed my eyes, whimpering from the pain that each breath brought. Opening them again, a dark figure was looming over me. I smiled, thinking that Galearis or Twilight had made it out alive. Without my glasses I couldn’t make out which one had come to rescue me. Before I could speak, the figure blew some sort of dust into my face. I blinked a few times and tasted a touch of mint before suddenly the world faded into darkness, taking my conscious mind with it.