...at the top of the world.
When the thunderous artificial avalanche was over, Sunny took her hooves away from her face. She was in a... oh, what were they called. The surf shop near her home sold snowglobes with mini mock-ups of these in them. Ick... Itch...
"Igloo!" Sunny exclaimed to no one. "This is an igloo. Like the Yakutian Earth Ponies up north live in."
"Earth... P-p-p-pony."
Sunny flinched. The voice had been close, but it wasn't clear where it was coming from. Seemingly the walls themselves.
"Y-y-you... Earth P-p-pony..." Sunny's holographic wings and horn shimmered in the blue gloom.
"Most of the the time I am, yes. My name is Sunny Starscou-"
A wad of frozen, pony-shaped magic tackled her.
"Are y-y-you the one I left b-b-b-ehind?!"
"Ack! Cold! You're very cold. For the love of Faust, please get off me!"
The mass of subzero retreated and Sunny sat up. There, huddled against the far wall of the igloo was what Sunny had come to confront. A windigo. Sure it was smaller than the illustrations, and for some reason it was all alone instead of in a herd. But its powers were unmistakable. Even now some sort of frost lattice was forming in front of its face. Or wait... the lattice looked more like a pair of makeshift sunglasses.
"Rec-c-c-cognize... me?" It wasn't clear whether the windigo was asking or pleading. Either way, Sunny decided honesty was the best policy here.
"I don't. I'm sorry. My name is Sunny Starscout. Can you tell me yours?"
The windigo deflated, looking relieved. "You're not h-her, then."
Sunny braved a few steps towards the entity. "Not who?"
"Oct..." the windigo's face wrinkled. "I can't remember her whole n-n-name anymore." It was rocking back and forth like a damaged foal. "Not her n-name or f-f-face... I shouldn't have l-l-left her."
Sunny risked a few more steps, getting near enough to see a curious pink ribbon tied around the windigo's wrist. She shrugged it off. One mystery at a time. "Do you remember your name at least?"
"Vinyl Scratch." The answer was immediate, and the first thing out of the windigo's mouth that hadn't been a stutter.
"My name is Sunny Starscout," Sunny repeated a third time. She was right next to Vinyl now. She laid a hoof on the windigo's shoulder, keeping it there despite the scalding cold. "Can you tell me what you're doing all alone up here?"
Vinyl Scratch's phantom eyes were fixated on Sunny's saddlebag. More specifically the pink six-pointed star on her notebook's cover.
"F-f-first show me that book."
Sunny's notes were sprawled across the igloo floor. All the relevant ones, anyway. Vinyl Scratch sat surveying everything, fidgeting with that odd pink wrist ribbon as her ephemeral tail wrapped around her like a security blanket.
"M-mount Everhoof," the windigo mumbled.
"That's where we are, yes. Where you've been for who knows how many moons. I think you might've been dormant here while magic was gone from Equestria. But after it came back you were able to... I don't know. Come back too, I guess. Which... um..." Sunny was treading lightly as possible. "You still haven't told me how you got here."
Vinyl Scratch rubbed her glasses, gathering courage and pulling at freezerburnt memories.
"Magic was g-going away from Equestria. Nopony knew what to do. Most looked t-t-to Unicorns for answers."
Sunny tilted her head at the horn that crowned Vinyl Scratch's forehead. How had she not noticed it before? Windigoes weren't supposed to have horns.
"I remember f-f-feelings, not moments. Ponies were s-s-scared. Desperate. All ideas no matter how wild w-w-were given go-aheads. I think I climbed here to... f-f-find something. I don't remember what, b-but I left someone behind to come here and I s-s-shouldn't have done that! I shouldn't have d-d-d-d-dd--don-"
The windigo was jittering. Puffs of biting, frigid air were fluttering the pages on the floor. Sunny decided to steer the topic away from whatever dangerous direction this was going in.
"Were you an explorer? Is that why you came up to Mount Everhoof looking for answers? The fabric that yacht sails are made out of is called Vinyl, so maybe you were a travel-"
The windigo was shaking her head. Frowning and frustrated, but at least she looked stabilized.
"Explorer isn't r-r-r-right. You said 'Hear' though, and that sounds closer t-t-to... hm. Hear and Sound. Sounding right. Sounding g-g-good."
Getting exasperated, Sunny lit her holohorn and levitated up her journal's page on Mount Everhoof. There wasn't much written on it.
"Tallest summit in Equestria. First referenced in a fable about a goat warlock. Eternally inclement and too windy to fly near." She peered helplessly at Vinyl Scratch's vacant expression. "Does any of this ring a bell?"
"Bell!"
Sunny felt the warmth get sucked from her body, from the humid igloo, and even from the air itself. There was an ear-popping rush of pressure as Vinyl Scratch fled outside like a whirlwind. Sunny staggered after, stray papers clutched to her chest as her heart thumped with worry she'd scared the prehistoric ghost away.
Fortunately, Vinyl hadn't gone far. She was facing away from Sunny, standing in the snow and looking more solid and shaped than ever. She glanced at Sunny, then back at what she'd been surveying: the blunted cliff face above them where Mount Everhoof's summit had once been.
"I was a musician. I c-came here looking for a Bell."
Sunny followed Vinyl's gaze. "Was it on the summit? Are you the one who... did that to the mountain?"
Vinyl Scratch was regarding her pink leg ribbon. Or no, now that Sunny saw it up close it looked like a bow. A pink bow.
"I was musician," she repeated. "And so w-w-was.. the one I left behind. She was an Earth P-pony. Not magic. Not able t-t-to help. So I..." Vinyl was having trouble speaking, and her stutter wasn't the only culprit.
"I went alone. I knew music m-magic. I was s-s-sure with the most ench-ch-chanted instrument ever created, I could fix everything. Save Equestria. I rememb-b-bered the legends, where to look..."
Sunny hadn't realized it when she'd first exited the igloo, but the air on Mount Everhoof was still. For the first time in recorded history, the winds were gone and the sun shone down from overhead. Vinyl Scratch wasn’t paying the weather any notice.
"But the Bell wasn't here. I found its cradle, with a magic b-b-barrier so weak and thin you could poke it with your horn, but... no Bell. No hope. I was s-s-so angry. So damned angry..."
Sunny laid a hoof on Vinyl Scratch's bow. "Was this your friend's?"
"It was." Vinyl looked like she wanted to elaborate, but different words came out instead.
"Anger ch-changed me. This place... it gets ins-s-side you when you're weak and... takes you. It took me. And then..." Vinyl was shaking. "I couldn't leave..."
Sunny slid the bow off the windigo's foreleg. "I think you can now, Vinyl Scratch. Now that magic is back."
A nod. "I'm... s-s-scared."
"Were you scared to come up here too?"
Another nod.
"Then don't be afraid to go. This isn't a place where ponies should stay. Not forever." Sunny slid the bowtie over her scarf. "We both have someone waiting for us where we're each heading. And if… if you see my dad out there, can you tell him I’m doing okay?”
The ghost of Vinyl Scratch tilted her face to the sun.
"Octavia," she murmured. And then she was gone.
Sunny Starscout lingered on the cliff face for awhile. Chilled graphite wasn't the easiest thing to draw with, and she didn't exactly have Izzy's artistic talent. But this was important. Her twin sketches of a sunglassed unicorn and bowtied Earth Pony were proof that what she'd seen had mattered. What she'd done was real.
As reverently as she could manage, Sunny pressed the ageless pink ribbon into the hem of her journal, right between Vinyl and Octavia's peaceful faces. Then she set off for home.
Music and lights,
rhythm and melodies.
Take us to the top.
So many nights,
so many memories.
But nothing's ever stopped.
Not the first time I've penned a story where canon characters grapple with a ghost. If this one was too heavy for you, try the sillier Snippet instead.
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The sketch got me ;-;
Aww, poor Vinyl, she deserves a hug.
Heartbreaking and beautiful.
Oh, this was outstanding. I'd love to see more of Sunny literally facing the ghosts of the past, and the glimpses of the magical apocalypse offered a perfect balance of answered questions and lingering mysteries. Thank you for this.
(For future reference, Zipp's last name is "Storm." Frickin' pony names, how do they work?)
Okay, that's kind of a bummer ending. But that certainly was quite a good read !
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Heck. I’ve fixed Zipp’s name.
Adding character tags to this Snippet was a hard decision, because doing that spoiled the identity of the mysterious mountain pony. Eventually I went through with it and crossed my fingers that emotion would make up for the lack of mystery.
Pleased to see it did.
Poor vinyl.
Poor Vinyl got screwed by the Mean 3 even after they got sealed in stone.
"S-s-sunny... I feel... gooooood..."
pm1.narvii.com/6510/6787aebed5d09267db1acb9fffa655de3d0e2715_hq.jpg
Transformations, characters living for hundreds of generations, and predatory magic are tropes we both like, which is good because of how rarely they're used. A character being thrown through the hoops and hurdles of different bodies, different forms, and different times is a good way to test what parts of them are immortal and what parts if them chip away over time. Eloquent speech dies. Cell phone signals survive everywhere, including the tops of mountains. Or something like that.
And you've already made clear how much you like your scrapbook of g4 survivors idea. Good to see you doing something with that where I wont. Borrow any of my ideas if that's what you want to make; I always encourage you in your endeavors.
Nice story. Although it has the horrendous implication that things went pear-shaped not long after the show finale. (No thousand years of peace and prosperity for Equestria for you, Twilight "K-T boundary" Sparkle!)
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Sometimes I loot the table scraps from our brainstorming sessions. Sunny being a naive archaeologist is fertile ground for fanservicey stories, and I might retread this scenario if I find another Gen 4 pony who feels appropriate to revisit. Still letting Trixtown simmer on my creative backburner.
Vinyl held onto the part of herself that mattered. The human spirit is strong enough to move mountains. The pony spirit is even stronger.
Changing gears, do you think dear departed Octavia might have been Very Large For No Discernible Reason in this story? Or is that nugget a little too nostalgic even for a Sunny Starscout adventure?
Ohh she's talkin about Octavia 😢
Oh man that is kind of sad basically Vinyl Scratch try to find the bell and everything just to bring Magic back but they couldn't find it but somehow she probably died in the mountain and her spirit was basically trapped and she became lost and alone but until sunny and the other has brought back the magic and somehow bringing peace to vinyl that she can finally can rest in peace and reunited with her best friend Octavia this was a pretty Bittersweet but good story keep up the good work
This was short, but really cute! Though it tugged a little at my heartstrings; I wasn't expecting a somber ending like that just based off the description (I should really learn to read tags).
Short and sweet, gets the point across, does what it wants to do well and wraps up nicely.
All in all, a very nice shortfic
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Friendo, if you wish to inherit Indiscernibly Large Octavia, you can have her. She can be the G5 equivalent to the city of Pym Falls.
panelsonpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pym-falls.jpg
Which I'm not saying would be a really cool idea with someone who made more sense, thinking about it now, but...
Wow that is something else man and the ending kind of reminds me of Hocus Pocus ending
Kind of makes you wonder about the bell Argyle had in his collection, and if it was the real one...
So, she went up after the bewitching bell? What a clever and unexpected way to link the two generations. Bravo for that. And the story certainly has all the feelz magic it needs to be a really enjoyable read. Thanks for posting.
What a nice short story! Bravo!
I would call her 'Snowwhite' (ignoring the fairytale
(Friend of mine instantly was reminded of Snowdrop) :)
I think I got a small glimpse of what Vinyl Scratch was experiencing when I read those lyrics in your author's notes and had a feeling that I've heard these lyrics some time ago but couldn't pinpoint the song. Of course, it had to be someone I now sporadically and very occasionally listen to.
That aside, I like the parallel made across the two chapters: as Falkenlied pointed out, Sunny holds onto what her friends did for her in their, well, friendship to hold out against the cold at the end of the first chapter; however, Vinyl also ends up doing the same... though I'm not really sure how it directly affects her other than a vague hint that it may or may not have helped her stay herself despite the circumstances.
All in all, this is a nice piece! Thanks for the unexpected duo of Sunny and Vinyl.
Man, this is bone-chilling...in more ways than one.
Not just Vinyl's fate, but the implication that things got so desperate in Equestria, a mare as smooth as Vinyl was driven to such lengths as scaling a dangerous mountain to save her dying civilization.
I can only imagine how horrible she would feel if she saw how depressed Bridlewood was.
Good read
Reminds me a little of Last trumpets call 👍
That's one of the weirdest puns I've encountered. In part because it almost isn't even a pun! Real-world yaks don't live in real-world Yakutia, but MLP yaks sure would find its slightly adjusted version a nice place to live!
Hmmm. Not bad.
ooooh... RIGHT IN THE FEELS
The paragraphs where Sunny encourages Vinyl to move on and leave Equestria remind me of one of the more touching moments in House of Leaves. In that scene-within-a-scene-within-a-scene, there is an enormous chamber filled with people. Some of the men have been there for thousands of years, judging by the lengths of their beards. In the center of the room is a large well. Rarely, someone jumps into the well. If they had lived a good life before entering the chamber, they were magically transported elsewhere as soon as they were fully submerged. If their life was lived unjustly, they enjoyed an eternity of drowning. Those who knew they were bad or are indecisive could choose to remain in the antechamber forever. Pages 398–9 in case you own a copy of the House
I... suppose I shall fav and upvote this. It is well written and emotional, and true to the characters. My objections to its morals are almost certainly just me overthinking it.
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Weird word to spoil... why?
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It’s a gimmick in the book. Every time the word house is used, it is colored blue as well as any mention of the minotaur being struckthrough and red.
Just felt appropriate.
https://m.