Twilight, Rainbow, and their new ally Applejack began making their way up the slope of the mountain. The mountain air was fiercely blowing and the biting cold forced the group of ponies to pull their cloaks further around themselves. Twilight could see that there was frost beginning to form on the edges of her robes and the runes on her scarf were going dark as the biting slowly froze the life out of them.
She called out to the others and tried huddling together for warmth. When they were close to each other, the runes on their scarves and their cloaks began to shine and the frost melted. It seemed just being near each other was creating a source of heat to combat the fierce cold of the mountain path. Clearly staying together was the only way they were going to get up the mountain without freezing to death.
They slowly made their way through the thick snow, though it almost seemed like the snow was working against them, holding their feet in place and preventing them from going farther. They were getting exhausted from the trek up the mountain through the bitter cold winds, yet their spirits were renewed when they saw a small flickering light slightly farther ahead. They made their way towards it as fast as they could and discovered a small hut carved into the rock face with a fire burning inside. The group made their way inside the hut and lay down around the fire and rested their hooves. This was the first time any of them had a chance to lay down and relax; except for sleep; since the start of their journey, it felt good to take some time to relax and regain their strength. Twilight took this time to inspect their new companion. Applejack’s body looked very worn and strained, her cloak slightly tattered and in less than favorable condition. Twilight assumed this was because to her knowledge, Applejack had made the entire trek to the city alone, without any of the help she had gotten from Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, or Fluttershy. Applejack must have used a once of the separate paths she had gotten a glimpse of all the way back at the ruined bridge, as without wings she couldn’t have followed the same path they had taken. She could not believe how hard this must have been for her, though it made her respect and admire the orange robed mare. Without any help from anyone, nor the abilities granted by having wings or a horn, she had achieved what had taken Twilight and Rainbow together.
They could not tell what time it was as the snowstorm blocked out any view of the sky, though it seemed like they had been in the hut for an entire night. They spent the ‘night’ resting to recover their strength for the rest of the trek, as well as discuss where and how they got here. Twilight had already told her story, and Rainbow was beginning her own.
She was seeking out the light at the top of the mountain because it seemed to be the one thing she couldn’t fly to. She had tried time and time again before meeting Twilight, yet every time she tried flying to it she never got any closer. At times she would fly for hours and never seem to move, yet when she was walking she could see her goal getting visibly closer. She had been just getting started on her journey when she had gotten stuck at the bridge and met Twilight.
Applejack on the other hoof was searching for answers. As far back as she could remember she had been traveling towards the mountain, though that wasn’t very far. One day she woke up from what she thought was a simple nap and was in the middle of a desert. She had no idea how she got there, and the only thing she could remember was a large stallion with red robes telling her to “find the light.” He said that her family was on the other side waiting for her and she needed to come home. She had no clue what he meant, though she felt that was the only way to find out anything about who she was. This was when she saw the mountain in the distance and the shining light at the top of it, and immediately set out to find out who she was, or used to be.
After a night of stories told around the fire the three girls decided to rest for the night, to regain their strength for the journey tomorrow. They had to make sure that the fire would not go out though or they would freeze to death in their sleep. Applejack took the first shift as she was the least tired, while Rainbow followed, and the final shift was taken by Twilight. With their strength restored, the group made their way out into the snowy wastes of the mountain trail once more.
The wind was just and cold and biting as it has been the night before, though the sunlight allowed for slightly more visibility making it a bit easier to see where they were going. As they were making their way up the mountain, they came across a field of monument stones, and they realized that these stones were grave markers for those that hadn’t finished their journey and died climbing the mountain. Thy slowly walked through the graveyard uttering silent prayers for those that had fallen. They decided that their journey was no longer just for them, but for all those that came before them, and all those who never got the chance. The group nodded and continued making their way up the mountain trail with renewed vigor.
Shortly after departing the ancient graveyard, they found themselves at the entrance to a large ruin. A series of buildings had been built into the walls of the mountain, and though they were ruined now, they had probably serve as a sort of way-station in the past. The building was very decrepit and pieces of it had been littered around the snow in front of it. Twilight wondered what could have caused this, as time alone would not have strewn these pieces around such a large area. It was almost as if...her train of thought was cut off as a deafening roar sounded through the mountains. Looking up towards the source of the roar, the girls saw two of the shark-like beasts spring up from behind the mountain, awoken by new travelers in their domain. As Twilight thought back to her first encounter with these beasts it was then that she realized that they were responsible for the destruction of the ruins. Their constant attacks on the pilgrims traveling up the mountain had damaged the ruins and blown pieces of it about the fields.
They all knew that they could not face two of these beasts at the same time, as they had had enough trouble with one of them. They were about to flee when Applejack noticed that destroyed ruins could be used to their advantage. She called to the others and pointed a hoof towards the closest piece, which happened to be part of a gate, and then she sprinted towards it hiding underneath the arches. Twilight and Rainbow soon did the same and hoped their plan would work. The beast soared over the fields looking for it’s prey, and as it passed over the arch it did not notice the three ponies hiding inside, nor did it notice them quickly running to the next piece of ruin after it had passed. The three girls silently ran from piece to piece, never been seen, until they had almost reached the other side. Eager to escape they ran a little bit to early and were spotted by one of the beasts. They ran as fast as they could, though the beast was catching up to them. It’s mouth was gaping wide as it prepared to swallow them whole, as just as it was about to grab them…they managed to escape through a small crevice in the mountainside. The girls slowly made their way though the crevice into a small pathway through the rocks. As they walked up the the pathway they quickly hid against the wall, as the beast flew overhead, searching for it’s prey.
The pathway let out into the rest of the ruined way-station, which was a series of stone bridges going along the side of the mountain. They were about to travel across when a fierce wind blew, pushing them up against the wall. Once the wind finished blowing, they quickly ran towards the wall in front of them, crouching down to hide from the winds. Their plan worked as the winds blew over the edge but did not push them back.
Once they had reach the other side of the stone bridges, they arrived at the exit of the way-station. A large gate opened onto another expansive field of snow, though this one was devoid of any ruined pieces of building. Twilight assumed that since the area her was not as ruined, the beasts never traveled this far up. Again she and her friends heard a massive roar and prepared to hide, though nothing showed up, no beasts, no monsters, simply roar then silence. Twilight took this as a sign that her hypothesis was correct.
The trio made their way onto the plains, and saw they had almost arrived at their destination, the light was only a few dozen feet ahead of them on top of a hill. They began to hurry towards it, unaware that their cloaks and scarves had already frozen over. Their scarves had gone dim and were beginning to shrink as well, inch by inch, they disappeared until they were no longer even there.
The girls immediately felt a wave of exhaustion wash over them as their scarves vanished, and slowed down to a trot. Their scarves’ magic had been protecting them from the biting cold of the mountain, and now that they were gone, frost was beginning to form on their cloaks as the began to freeze. At this height, it suddenly became difficult to breath, another problem caused by the loss of their scarves, and their pace slowed even more as they rasped for breath.
Their pace had slowed to a stumble, each one struggling to take another step while fighting for another breath of frozen air. One at a time they began to falter and stumble, each time they picked themselves up and continued, fighting through the pain to achieve their goal. The mountain’s peak was so close, the light almost reached...but everyone has a limit, and they had reached theirs.
Rainbow was the first to fall. She stumbled into the snow and fell, lying on her side as the snow and winds covered her unmoving body.
Then Applejack fell as well, slowly gasping for air as she fell into the snow.
Twilight was the last one standing. She was crying at the loss of her friends, tears freezing against her cheeks, though she had to continue for their sake. At any cost she thought to herself.
She took step after painful step through the snow, Applejack and Rainbow no longer visible behind her.
The light was almost within her grasp, hovering right before her nearly frozen shut eyes.
She reached out to grab it, almost managing to touch it…then she fell. Like all the others, like Rainbow and Applejack before her, she fell into the snow silently weeping and she lost consciousness.
Then, everything went white.