Blueberry POV

“We have been walking in a circle!”, Crystal yelled.

I turned my head to look at my green sister. Her face was full with anger, exhaustion and despair. To be honest, I was tired too. Every step I took trough this snow was draining my energy. But Zitrus was still walking through this frozen mountain, so we had to follow him.

Crystal pointed at the dead tree we were walking past. “This is the same tree we have seen hours ago. We are on the same spot again!”, she told us.

I gave a look at the tree to realize that it did look similar. The tree looked like the one I had seen when Crystal was playing in the snow. But I could not tell for sure, since I did not pay too much attention to said tree. Maybe it was the same tree?

“It is not”, was all that Zitrus said and continued moving. His voice made clear that he was tired too. Tired and irritated.

“It is! Just look at it!”, Crystal said. She didn’t make another step.

Now Zitrus also stopped and turned around to look at Crystal directly.

“Crystal, I don’t know which tree this one”, he pointed at the dead tree we were standing next to, “does look similar with but it is not the same. Now come! We have to move. It is not far until we reach the cabin and have some shelter.”

“You said that hours ago! If it really would not be that far then we would be there a long time ago.”

“We would be there a long time ago if you wouldn’t have stopped to play in the snow all the time!”
Crystal didn’t seem to take that well. She got angrier and with her Zitrus also seemed to lose his patience. I worried about him. If this would escalate Zitrus had no change to stand up against an angry alicorn.

“Face it Zitrus, we got lost. There is no chance we can reach this cabin today. The best chance we have is to find another shelter. Right now!”, Crystal screamed.

“We cannot rest here. Not only is there barely any safe spot close by but also it is way too cold. I don’t think we would be able to pass the night”, Zitrus yelled back.

“Then let us turn back!”

“We already went too far! Just move on and we soon will reach the cottage!”

“We will not! We are lost!”

The two continued to argument in middle of this blizzard. I just stood there in a little distance, watching the two. My mane and tail moving in the wind while my body still froze.

If we just stayed here and screamed at each other’s we would get nowhere. I know I had to do something. But this involved to pick a side… There was no middle side so I had to stick with Zitrus or with Crystal.

The side I would pick could decide between life and death. I trusted Zitrus. He always knew where do go and what to do. But every pony could make mistakes. And this tree looked very familiar… Was it possible that we just have been walking in a circle while being in this foggy snowstorm? And what if he knew where we are and where to go…?

Crystal made some good points. If we were lost, we have to find a shelter or turn around. And better now than never. But that could also come with the risk that we might freeze to death before we find something. We came so far, turning around would most likely lead to nothing. But then again… I was tired too and wanted rest. Having a promise of “soon being there” was not promising enough.

“Just trust me on this one!”, Zitrus said.

“I prefer to be safe than sorry!”, Crystal replied.

“We must move forward. If there might be a cottage, we can spend the night in a real shelter with no risks, which is better than any other shelter we might find.”, I said.

Zitrus and Crystal both looked at me like they just remembered that I also was there.

“But Blueberry…”, Crystal began.

“Finally, now let’s keep moving!”, Zitrus said and started to trot again through the snow.

Crystal gave me a pleading look. I knew she was not able to go back all alone. She had to stick with us. And her look hurt me. I felt like I just backstabbed her. My decision might lead us all to death and she knew it. But I had to do it.

I turned my head away from her and followed Zitrus.

I just hoped I didn’t make the wrong decision.

The mood was more tense than the snowstorm itself. Every step I hoped that we soon arrived. I don’t know how long we walked since the argument. Most likely not even so long. And still…
Suddenly Zitrus got an energy rush and moved away from us up the next nearby hill.

“We are here”, he said in relief.

This got my attention and even Crystal looked up after letting her head hang low for all this time. We catched up to him and true, there was a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. The back on a rockface, build with wood and stones.

We three marched the last steps to it. Zitrus pressed the unlocked door open and felt face first on the inside floor as soon as it swung open. Crystal stepped over him, exited to finally be away from the storm. I offered Zitrus a helping hoof to stand up and made a look through the inside of this cabin.
It was a single small room. It had a small table, a weatherproof window, a cooking plate you had to heat up with firewood, some firewood and four beds with very warm looking blankets.

Crystal immediately lifted one blanket up with her magic, jumped into the bed and just let the blanket fall over her.

“Who build this?”, I asked Zitrus who was busy closing the door.

“I think this is a pre-war building. Made for ponies who went hiking and needed a place to stay. One day to go uphill, spend the night here and next day go down. Some kind of free time activity”, he said.

“Who the fuck goes hiking up here for fun?”, Crystal muttered under her blanket, already half drifting off to sleep.

Zitrus gave a tired chuckle and went to the cooking plate.

“Let’s make a fire to heat this place up and to cook something warm. Would you like to have some too?”, he asked me.

To be fair, even though I do not need food to survive, having something warm in the belly sounded pretty nice.

It was night time. Zitrus and Crystal were asleep in their beds while I was awake, looking out of the window. The snowstorm calmed down, but it had still multiple flakes falling from the sky. The way it snowed right now could give a calm feeling. For me it didn’t…

The night sky also cleared up. It still had some clouds, but you were able to see the stars. They normally helped to clear my thoughts. Even the moon let itself show and was giving the snow a silver glimmer.

I felt a presence behind me shortly followed by the sound of some pony sitting down to my right. I turned my head and saw Zitrus next to me, looking out of the window. I must have been so lost in my thoughts again that I didn’t notice him standing up.

For a while we just sat next to each other’s. Not saying anything. Just us and the outside snowfall.

“What troubles you?”, Zitrus then asked.

I didn’t know how he could tell. I didn’t made an expression to show my thoughts. But then again, I WAS awake in middle of the night, watching out of the window. That view alone could tell that something was in my mind.

Some parts of me didn’t want to tell him. I could not even say why. But he cared about me. Or at least I thought that he cared about me.

“It’s about today”, I said.
I still looked out of the window, watching the cold snow falling, when I continued. “When you and Crystal had your argument, it was up to me to make a decision. And if I would have chosen the wrong one, we would now be out there in this snow. Maybe even freeze to death…”

“But you didn’t. You made the right one”, Zitrus said and looked at me. I couldn’t look back.

“But what if not? It was nowhere written what was right and what was wrong. And it would have been my fault.” Since I remembered, I never had had to make a decision. It was the Goddess who made them.

Zitrus took his time to answer. “In life you have to make decisions. And that every day. Most of them are so unimportant that you not even realize them. But of course, there are the big ones, who trouble us most. And sometimes you don’t even have a right answer. Sometimes you can just choose between wrong and more wrong. Sometimes you can take a decision back but sometimes you can’t. And if you can’t, you cannot change the outcome of it.”

Zitrus made a break before he continued.

“Who knows what happened if we followed Crystal’s plan. I don’t. I just know that we are now here and safe. But of course, there will be moments you will choose wrong, Blueberry.” He poked me on the shoulder. “And then you have to deal with the knowledge of choosing wrong. But even then you can choose between suffer yourself in guilt even though you cannot change the past or to do something else.” He smiled at me promising.

I let his words sink into me. But I didn’t say anything.

We two sat next to each other’s in silence again. Looking out of the window. And I enjoyed the moment very much.

“Since generations ponies used to look up into the stars to find answers to their questions. What do they tell you?”, Zitrus then asked and pointed at a clear area in the night sky.

I looked at the stars. I mean, I always looked at them but this time it was… different. I didn’t search for the answer just somehow written there. Like a “connect the dots” game. But what did I search for exactly then? How do the stars give answers if they do? On the end I always looked up to them and somehow, they helped me to calm down.

“I don’t know”, I had to admit after a while of studying.

Zitrus next to me just nodded with a smile. “How interesting.”

Author's Note

Defiantly one of my favorite chapters. It felt like it wrote itself without my help and I enjoyed to read it myself.
But of course, that is me. If you like or dislike the chapter, feel free to give inputs, so I can improve the story.