Sunny Starscout dug her strapped on spurs into the snow and forced herself forwards.
"Another adventure? Your house isn't even rebuilt yet."
Hitch's parting words rung in her ears, almost as loud as the wind on the clifftop.
"Hey, no need to get all defensive, Sun. I'm past trying to stop you from chasing tall tales. But for real, my responsibility is here in town. I'm not coming after you this time, so promise you'll be careful out there."
Sunny sighed from behind her painfully ineffective scarf. The one Izzy had given her as a good luck charm.
"Sunny! Always great to have you pop in! You caught me making another batch of horn suppressor rings for some friends down the road. Like the sequins on the one I'm wearing? Not very comfortable, but as anyone still getting used to magic can tell you, it’s a lot better than accidentally shooting bolts whenever you get excited. Or sneeze. Or zone out. Or blink wrong. Am I rambling? Sorry, have a seat. Somewhere that isn't scorched, if you can find a spot like that. We can talk while I'm workin... whaddya look so blue for? Oh jeez, Mount Everhoof? Look, I'm pretty tied up right now, but if you just give me a couple of days to... nah, you've got that look in your eye. No waiting, I get it. But lemme at least send you off with something to keep you warm."
Sunny reared onto her hinds. Not for very long, only to glance around for something that wasn't desolate mountainside. Another pony, perhaps? The one the sightings all talked about?
A freshly freezing gust knocked Sunny onto her rump. She yelped and scrambled up, partially from her bare butt being cold and wet, but moreso out fear she landed on her new cell phone. It took some frantic rooting around in her saddlebag to remind her she'd left her phone back home in a huff. Wincing with discouragement, she recalled why.
Beep! "Hiya, you've reached the one and only Princess Pipp. Or my personal voicemail anyway. If this is about a merch deal, press one. If this is about a tour date, pres-" Click.
Beep! "THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED 'huh..? Oh, uh Zipp Storm' HAS NOT SET UP THEIR INBOX YET. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER. GOODBYE."
Shaking as much snow as possible from the seams, Sunny shut her saddlebag. The only things inside were her ever present notes on Equestrian history. Among them was a printout: half a dozen reports about Mount Everhoof from the past couple weeks. She didn't need the notes right now, because what she was looking for didn't adhere to any map. And she'd already memorized each report because they all said the same thing.
Movement and sound on Mount Everhoof's summit at night. Or former summit, to be more accurate. Most ponies agreed the mountain used to be much taller, but something happened to it long ago that- oh never mind. Bottom line: there were many sightings of a pony-shaped silhouette that vanished when stared at. And with it a strong sense of magical unease that the biting winds carried down to the surrounding towns.
Sunny recognized those signs, which was why this excursion couldn't wait one more day. It was already getting dark when she was trudging out of Maretime Bay with her supplies. Sprout had been the last pony she passed, idly throwing rocks at seagulls to entertain himself.
"A windigo hunt?! Buck no! I'm not getting anywhere near one of those things!"
Sunny had expected as much. She just really really didn't want to brave this excursion alone.
But alone she was. Sunny Starscout had spent a whole night (and half a follow-up morning) scanning on the slopes of Mount Everhoof for the monster she'd been sure was out here. The trip was leaving her tired, lonely, and worst of all without a wisp of windigo to reward her efforts. She knew she should just go home. Spread out her saddlebag, sled down to the foothills, find a safe thicket in those trees down there where she could rest up for the trot home. Sprout was probably spreading rumors she'd been frozen and eaten by now. Sunny managed a weary smile at that thought.
Realistically, the only thing she'd lost up here was a night of sleep and a bit of self esteem. So what if she wasn't as good at interpreting her father's old notes as she'd thought? Of all the things to be wrong about, the return of Equestria's oldest monsters was most preferrable. Her legs were still tingling, but with relief instead of worry now. The change was nice. Made her feel stronger, as if by magic.
Then something moved in Sunny's periphery.
"Hello?" Sunny voice was thin and reedy from a night of trekking. She peered at the movement she thought she'd seen, but her eyes weren't focusing properly. Was someone there, or was she just tired?"
"Hello?!"
Sunny was a coastal pony, not accustomed to thin mountain air. She was huffing, her breath getting in the way of her line of sight. If one of her friends were here they could tell her for sure whether there really was a shape drifting down to her from what once had been Mount Everhoof's summit. But her friends weren't here. The was only Sunny, the winds that were picking up again, and a sourceless sense of anger.
"Who's there! Tell me who you are!"
Sunny was yelling now. Furious without knowing why. The wind was at a fever pitch now, buffeting her with more than cold. There was ancient, vengeful magic seeping into through her skin now, and the shape was getting proportionately clearer as it approached. Hoofprints were beginning to trail behind it on the ground.
"Who do you think you are?" Sunny roared. "I'm the only one who even bothered to come looking for you! The only one who cared! Answer me! Answer me now!"
The gale force was absolutely deafening and some swirling airborne ice crystals cut the skin on Sunny's exposed legs. She growled through her haze and took a few stumbling steps towards the insolent shape. Then her scarf blew upwards into her face, covering her eyes and nose. She grunted and sucked in a breath.
As she did, Sunny smelled glue, ink, and pencil shavings. She blinked a few times, no longer able to see anything past the knotted crochet weaves protecting her vision. All she saw was how a few of the scarf's weaves were off-center, knit by someone whose hooves were clumsy but diligent. Sunny breathed deep again to let scents of her best friend's cottage steady her balance. Quiet her mind. Wind was still howling all around as Sunny Starscout calmly brushed the scarf from her face.
She kept her eyes shut. If the shape was able to hurt her, it would have done so by now. So Sunny didn't worry about that. She instead focused, gripping her scarf with a forehoof as she hung onto the memory of Izzy. She also thought hard of Hitch, back in Maretime Bay because he trusted she was strong enough to take care of herself.
Patches of warmth protruded from Sunny's shoulder blades and forehead.
She thought of Zipp and Pipp, seeing her missed calls and joking between themselves what hijinx she was getting up to without them. She even thought of Sprout, who'd looked back at her after she'd left. He didn't think she saw him do it, didn't think she'd seen his genuine regret that he didn't have the guts to go with her. To make sure she stayed safe. But she had seen it. And that made all the difference.
The winds were dying down at last. Sunny could feel her phantom horn and pseudo-wings radiating out from her. She also heard breathing. Her own deep slow huffing was almost loud enough to cover somepony else's right by her ear. She lifted her head to see a floating, billowing white unicorn.
Then the snow erupted all around her.
...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.
Author's Note
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.
ENot Scary
The Wonderbolt Barracks are haunted, but not very well. Which is weaker: Fluttershy’s nerve, or one sorry specter’s skills at spooking?
Casketbase77 ·
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