Going up a mountain, feeling bad.
Author's Note
Some Atmosphere
Going up a mountain, feeling bad.
Twilight dug the hammer into the branch of the tree in front of her. It was harder then she had expected, but the effort felt worth it. She knew she could easily just go around the tree but for some reason that felt like it would be cheating the purpose of this ordeal.
Twilight was climbing up Mt. canterlot using only a hammer that she had bought specifically for this reason. She was wearing a cast iron cauldron, which she had borrowed from Zecora, to protect her lower body should she slip and fall. Which, she had to admit, was very likely as hammers weren't know to be the best mountain climbing tools. But then again she wasn't doing this because it was easy.
It had been a stressful day for Twilight, starting with the paperwork she had to get started on as soon as she woke up, unless she wanted to let it pile up and spend a full day (or two) filling it out like her life depended on it. Once that was done she could finally eat breakfast, seeing as the sun had started to rise by that time. (she tended to rise an hour or two before the sun)
Then came the ponies. Twilight liked to think that her days of avoiding ponies were over, she was the princess of friendship after all, but today was something else. It was the first day that she had held 'court' in her own way. It was mostly just the petty things that would normally go to Celestia, Twilight had wanted to lighten her load and let her focus more on the important things, but she had sorely underestimated the amount of complaints there were. The experience almost made her want to pull a Fluttershy, however once she had finished lunch she had her lessons with Starlight, the crusaders and Trixie respectively. That wasn't so bad, but it was tainted by the earlier stress of the day. After that she finally had some time for herself.
It had started as a ridiculous thought that had just popped into her head as she passed a window, "What if I just climbed mount Canterlot?"
She had dismissed it immediately, but as with most thoughts that are dismissed it didn't leave right away. What if she did just climb up Mt. Canterlot? Well... nothing really. She was a Princess, as long as it didn't hurt anypony she could basically do whatever she wanted. But would it be worth it?
Not if it was just normal climbing, given her newfound alicorn strength, not to mention her magic and/or wings, it would be more of an annoyance than anything she wanted to do. If she was going to do something as crazy as climbing up a mountain without the proper gear then she wanted it to be a challenge.
She had gotten over the tree.
It had taken three tries, one bonked head and more then a little frustration, but she had done it. Now to move onto the slope of the mountain itself. After a small rise and a swift drop Twilight realized that the area she had chosen to begin climbing started off with a moderately rough cliff face. She knew she could just start somewhere else, somewhere easier... but it was fine, this just meant that she needed to take some time to find the right path up.
The Pony who had sold her the hammer had had a confused look when she asked about how well the hammer dealt with weight stress, "But then again" he thought to himself, "this princess does tend to deal with some out-there stuff, might just be a valid concern for her." So instead of questioning the need for said knowledge he simply answered to the best of his ability, allowing her to purchase the hammer and move on with both their days.
Zecora did have some questions about Twilight's need for a cauldron and was slightly concerned to find that it had nothing to do with potion making, but she was satisfied by Twilight's promise and demonstration that she not only knew how to properly clean said cauldron, but could magically reinforce it to suit her needs. With such reassurance, she felt no guilt loaning her friend her cauldron for... whatever she needed it for. Zecora had never asked, knowing how her friend tended to get into strange situations, she had simply assumed this was another of them.
Twilight grunted and gasped as she wedged the head of the hammer between two rocks, an outcropping of granite which Maud would approve of, and swung herself up while quickly trying to maneuver the hammer to lock onto the next outcropping.
She missed.
This was the third time she had tried, for a grand total of four failures at this portion of the cliff. But it was worse than that, as this time instead of just landing on the ledge that she had been beneath both outcroppings, she fell back down all the way to the bottom.
The frustration she had been feeling so far spiked into a flash of rage, but only for a moment as it quickly subsided. Yes, she had fallen, but that only meant that she needed to keep trying. She could make up the lost ground.
Spike had expressed some (perhaps more than others) concern for Twilight's plan, what if she landed on her head? What if she froze? What if she never made it up the mountain and they never saw her again? He just couldn't understand why she would willingly put herself in such a difficult position. His fears had been mostly waylaid by her assurances that she would take the necessary precautions and the promise that if she couldn't reach the top in two days she would come home to rest before trying again.
He still worried that if she got near the top she would slip and fall all the way down.
Twilight had gotten on top of the outcropping. The strain of the act was showing, she was matted in sweat and clocked in the smell of frustration and anger. Her breathing was heavy and her eyes slightly clouded, but she had made it. Now there was a small cliff face opposite her that would allow her to continue, after all an outcropping wasn't Mt. canterlot, now was it?
Rarity had insisted that she be allowed to make a better form of leg protection for her friend, but after the fifty seventh time Twilight had politely, calmly and firmly told her no she had finally relented. The whole point of this was that it was supposed to be difficult and dangerous, using actual protective gear would be cheating the purpose of this. Honestly, Rarity's main problem was how ugly the cauldron was. There was a way to make black look good and that was not it, but if Twilight really didn't care (and Rarity couldn't understand why she didn't) then she wouldn't push it any farther.
Two more devastating falls, one thoroughly bruised elbow and a great deal of anger had seen Twilight up the side of the cliff, through a small vertical tunnel in the mountain and onto a small plateau. It looked like there was some old half built construction project abandoned up here, right where she needed to go. Twilight heaved a sigh and wiped her forehead before vaulting over to the unfinished walls.
Twilight had gone to Granny Smith for any rough maps or advice she could give. That had been an endeavor all on it's own, the old mare seemed to love to tease others into thinking she was deaf. Twilight of course knew this was all a joke on her part since before even talking to her, she had cast a spell that would let anypony hear and understand anypony else. Twilight knew that Granny could hear every word perfectly, she was just making fun. Of Twilight, herself, the curse of old age, the impatience of the young, or of those who only saw her as a crazy old coot, Twilight didn't know. But she smiled and let the old mare play her little game and was rewarded with what little she knew of the area.
Twilight couldn't believe herself. There was no way it could have been true.
Twilight had almost cheated.
The building had been finished just enough before abandonment to leave the walls sturdy and secure even after who knew how long crumbling away at this point on the mountain. It was perhaps a few hundred feet from the base of Canterlot city, a good third of the way up. A third of a whole of a journey made using only a hammer and a pot, as absurd as that was, and Twilight had almost thrown it all away just because it was hard.
She had almost tried to teleport past the building. By the time she realized what she was about to do she had already lit her horn with the magic necessary to do so, and now she was borderline livid at herself. How dare she! How dare she try to throw everything she had worked toward away like that!
Sure it was stupidly hard but that was the point, cheating would rob everything of it's meaning. She would just take a moment, rest a bit seeing as the sun was going down and hopefully continue at an acceptable pace later.
While she was leaving Sweet Apple Acres Twilight ran into Applejack. Literally, she was looking over the map she had made of Granny's instructions and hadn't seen her until she was tumbling to the ground with her. After checking to make sure that her friend wasn't seriously hurt, (she wasn't even bruised) she sheepishly apologized.
Applejack had wanted to know what had distracted Twilight enough to collide with her and if she could help. At the knowledge that her friend wanted to climb a mountain, no matter how she wished to climb it, she just shrugged and wished her luck. While she may have wished that she could give some aid or advice to her friend, she wasn't so prideful as to think that she could do so for any situation. If it didn't have something to do with the farm or her friends main interests, she didn't know much about it and even then she didn't know much about the things her friends liked.
It was early afternoon on the next day and Twilight was exhausted. She hadn't slept for even a moment and after the second time she had stopped taking small breaks, the risk of falling asleep and then down the mountain was too high and she had come so far since the unfinished building on the mountain. Besides, at this point she was neck and neck with Canterlot, why stop now?
The most difficult part of the climb so far had been the junkyard. Apparently, at some point Ponies in Canterlot would simply throw their garbage off the side of the city rather then in a trash can, to such a degree that Princess Celestia had needed to make it a punishable offence to do so just to stop the pollution. Most of the stuff had rotted away, but was left was still strong enough to support Twilight's weight as she swung from junk tower to junk tower, trying to gain altitude.
And so her climb had continued.
Rainbow dash, once she had heard of Twilight's plans, wanted to race her up the mountain. Understandable, as it was rare that she couldn't make a competition out of something, especially if she wanted to join in on something with others. It was also no surprise then, when Twilight declined she was somewhat confused, why do something if your not going to try to be the best at it? She just didn't understand.
It was cold. Very cold. Twilight wasn't sweating anymore, but her muscles still burned.
She was above Canterlot Castle now and the snow was a soft, pristine white. Untouched for centuries, since the last dare devil had tried to climb up Mt. Canterlot. Apparently there had been some kind of church service up here as at one point the had climbed over the hollow shell of a small temple, she would have to ask Celestia about it some time.
Twilight could see the top.
Discord had watched all of this with interest. It was, after all, the most chaotic thing that Twilight had ever done. Had Fluttershy not told him about it he probably would have sensed it anyway, it was that odd.
Seeing Twilight almost at the top made something stir in him, he looked down to see his viewing companion had curled up and gone to sleep beside him, using her own pink hair as a pillow.
"Just as a choice then. No forcing it." he decided, and quietly snapped his fingers.
Twilight was almost there, a few more swings and she would be at the top in time to go home like she promised Spike.
Then a snake popped into being next to her with a sign that said "Do not ride snake!"
Twilight could see that the snake curled all the way down to the bottom of the mountain, right where she started actually.
Twilight looked at the peak. Then at the snake. And again. And again.
Twilight rode the snake all the way down the mountain.She felt tears running down her face, but didn't feel sad. She found Pinkie waiting for her.
"Come on," She told Twilight with a small sad smile, "Let's get to your 'I'm Sorry you fell down' party."
"That would be nice."
