Dragonshy

Derpy glanced down over the edge of the cliff they were on and gulped nervously, swaying slightly on her hooves as her face turned a faint green. Ponyville was just a dot in the distance and she resisted the urge to vomit over the edge.

“You okay?” Roseluck asked as she paused next to Derpy.

“Yeah. Just a long way down,” Derpy mumbled and Roseluck risked a glance down before she gulped too and her eyes widened.

“Y-yeah,” Roseluck muttered and danced anxiously on her hooves. “Too far down for my liking.”

Roseluck shared a hatred of heights with Derpy. Derpy was fine with flying and such. She just hated climbing mountains where the air was so thin and cold. Or well, colder to normal ponies. She, Fluttershy and Silverspeed were lucky enough to have extra fur because of being pegasi. It was useful for flying in colder atmospheres that the weather ponies were used to.

The others, however weren’t that lucky. Sunset, Lily, Shoeshine, Roseluck and Trixie were each shivering as they continued trotting up the gravel path. Even with Sunset’s spell that warmed up the non pegasi, they were all still clearly freezing.

“Stupid cold,” Shoeshine growled and kicked some rocks over the edge. “Remind me why I agreed to this again?”

“M-m-maybe because a dragon snoring black toxic fumes threatens you too?” Sunset suggested through chattering teeth as Trixie tightened her scarf she pulled from her saddlebags.

Shoeshine paused briefly to ponder her words before conceding with a nod. She did have a fair point there, but doesn’t mean she had to like it per se.

“Do you happen to know any more heat spells? My hooves are freezing,” Lily complained and rubbed her hooves together. She’d be having more fun if she had enough time to properly pack. But she definitely intended on coming back up here after. With proper equipment, naturally.

“Sorry, but no. This is the only one I know. There’s not really any trees up to use for fire wood anyway. I suppose I could level the mountain,” Sunset mused and crunched some leaves under her hooves. “Joking. I’m powerful, but not that poweful.”

“Praise Celestia,” Roseluck grumbled and cracked her neck. “I don’t even want to imagine what would happen down below if the entire mountain collapsed.”

“Well, extreme loss of life and the destruction of Ponyville would be a pretty decent assumption.”

“That was a rhetorical comment lily,” Roseluck rolled her eyes and stepped over a small crack in the rock.

“Oh.”

Silverspeed snorted and shifted her lance was carrying into a more comfortable position on her side. She had opted to leave her armor behind. Dragons were obsessed with gold and she didn’t intend on her or her armor being added to his inevitable pile of stolen items.

“I hate this,” Derpy commented and flapped her wings idly. “Heights, I mean.”

“Aren’t you a pegasus?” Trixie asked and Derpy nodded. “Isn’t heights what you do?”

“Correction, I hate heights up here. I have no control up here. Flying, I have control. Anything can happen up here,” Derpy explained and Silverspeed voiced her agreement shortly after.

“She’s right. Even I’m a bit wary and I’m a guardspony. I didn’t take a mountain assault course in the Academy. Maybe I should have,” Silverspeed muttered to herself.

“What courses did you take? It’s never come up,” Sunset glanced at her and Silverspeed looked back thoughtfully.

“Oh, huh. You’re right. Anyway, I was trained in air assault along with ground assault. But being a pegasus, aerial assault is my main thing. Secretly, I enjoy ground assault more fun. It’s the pegasus in me, but there’s something fun about fighting on the ground.”

“Isn’t the Royal Guard divided into like groups?” Trixie asked and Silverspeed nodded.

“Mhm. It varies by where you are assigned by the brass. For example, I’m a member of the ninety fifth battalion, third squadron. But her Majesty Princess Celestia herself assigned me to Sunset’s post as her Royal Guard and escort. Therefore, I take orders from Sunset,” Silverspeed finished explaining to the group.

“Interesting,” Roseluck mused and Silverspeed gave a smug nod. “Is it normal to just be assigned to a pony?”

“Well, yeah. Nobles are assigned a group of guards depending on their importance. You can transfer to the VIP service. Which I guess is what I’m doing. But it’s not normal to be assigned right out of the Academy like it was with me. Usually they go for somepony with more experience in the Guard. I’m still a bit new to the Guard. I had just graduated the Academy before Nightmare Moon returned, about a week or two before?”

“And dignitaries from outside of Equestria get assigned some Guards too,” Sunset chimed in from the front. “Like from Yakyakistan, Prince Rutherford gets some guards if he forgets to bring some. Which, he always does. Blueblood has some,” Sunset gagged at his name and the group excluding Lily and Fluttershy laughed strictly because they didn’t know who he was. “Ya know, basically anypony important enough to Equestria gets guards.”

“I was praying hard I didn’t get assigned to Bluebloods detail. I’d have deserted in a heart beat. And if I remember correctly, you didn’t even want me on your detail,” Silverspeed smirked at Sunset and the unicorn gave a rare blush.

Silverspeed had her there. Sunset hadn’t really seen a point of having a royal guard with her at all times. But she did suspect Princess Celestia was going to have assigned her one at some point. She was Princess Celestia’s personal student, after all. Not that many ponies, if any went after Sunset. None of the Nobles wanted to end up on Celestia’s bad side. And after hearing how Sunset handled Blueblood, most stayed far away unless absolutely necessary. But that was Canterlot. Ponies were a bit more friendly in Ponyville, Sunset noted. Some didn’t even lock their front doors.

Well, except Sunset. She insisted on locking her doors when it wasn’t business hours. She did have a few confidential documents from Princess Celestia and the rarer one from Princess Luna locked in her office. Not to mention Silverspeeds armor or weapons the pegasus kept in her room.

“You got me there,” Sunset admitted with a sigh and Silverspeed smirked triumphantly.

“Damn right,” Silverspeed bumped her flank against Sunset’s and flicked her neck gently with her tail as Roseluck and Trixie both shared a smirk. “What are you two grinning about?”

“Oh nothing,” Roseluck said casually and Derpy snickered into her hoof.

“Nothing at all,” Derpy chimed in with a knowing smirk. Sunset scowled slightly and glanced at each of the smirking ponies before sharing a confused look with Silverspeed.

Sunset shrugged before she jumped over a ledge to the next side with the others quickly following suit, even Lily and Roseluck surprisingly. Sunset internally thought that there might have been more coaxing needed considering how those two got scared sometimes.

“Come on Fluttershy,” Sunset rolled a hoof impatiently. “Let’s go.”

“It’s so far,” Fluttershy gulped and received an annoyed look from Trixie.

“It’s not even ten feet apart,” Trixie deadpanned with a glare. “Giddyup. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” Shoeshine whispered Roseluck’s ear. “I mean, we all did it. Why can’t she?”c

“Be nice. Fluttershy goes at her own pace,” Derpy muttered with a disappointed look their way and they both scratched their manes guiltily. “Come on Shy. I did it and I’m afraid of heights up here too. You can do this.”

“Can’t you just levitate her across?” Lily asked Sunset and the unicorn shook her head, much to Lily’s frustration.

“When doing magic, it’s not just what you see. It creates a ripple effect so to speak. So whenever I use my magic or Trixie uses hers or any unicorn really, it affects our environment in subtle ways. Given how high up we are and the likelihood of my magic triggering an avalanche, I’m not sure to risk it. Picture throwing a rock onto the water. Naturally, the rock will disrupt the calm waters surface and make ripples. Magic is the exact same way,” Sunset explained and Lily found herself inching away nervously from the mare.

“You can do that?” Trixie whispered and Sunset nodded. “Hmph, lucky.”

“So why use your magic to warm us up? That seems to be tempting fate,” Roseluck commented as Silverspeed fluttered her wings in frustration as Fluttershy eyed the ledge.

“I was cold. And I barely used much mana. It was risky but still, hopefully not enough to disturb much here,” Sunset glanced up anxiously at the rocks above them.

“I’m five seconds away from picking you up,” Silverspeed grumbled and narrowed her eyes as she stretched her wings.

Lily had never truly known how tall Silverspeed was until now. Silverspeed was a bulky pegasus and a few heads taller than Lily. She towered easily over Fluttershy, Derpy, Roseluck and Trixie. The only two who were somewhat close to Silverspeeds height was Sunset and Shoeshine. Even then, Shoeshine occasionally had to stand on her tippy hooves to look her in the eye.

In terms of heights in the group, it went Silverspeed, Sunset and Shoeshine at the same height of nine feet tall, Derpy, Roseluck and then Trixie at being the shortest of the Elements at six feet, four inches.

Lily herself was only about six feet or so. Which was roughly the same height as Daisy, give or take. She idly wondered how tall Celestia was. I mean, that mare is huge. Lily was there for the Summer Sun Celebration, after all.

Fluttershy inhaled and jumped across the almost comically small gap and Lily resisted the urge to face hoof. Even she wasn’t afraid of jumping over. But she was almost certain she and Roseluck would find something else to be scared of later.

“Good job Fluttershy,” Derpy smiled and gave a quiet golf clap before shooting a look at the others. “Right, girls?”

“Absolutely,” Sunset nodded and her eye twitched briefly. Lily didn’t know if the others noticed it, but she certainly did. “We should probably get a move on. The longer we sit around, the more smoke could potentially spread around Equestria.”

“She’s right,” Silverspeed agreed and slammed her collapsible lance onto the stone before shoving it into her saddlebags. “We can’t waste any more time.”

“Sorry to waste so much time,” Fluttershy brushed her pink mane aside as Shoeshine hooked a foreleg around her with a grin.

“We got time. Don’t apologize, Shy. Right guys?”

The others all chimed in their agreement, including Lily as she curiously noted Sunset stayed silent.