When they made camp late that afternoon Tirek amused himself by asking Loki and Glider about the Palace of the Two Sisters and the castle in which it had been built. Believing him to be an actual archaeologist they were eager to share everything they knew. Nor did it take long for Kitsu to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Loki was indeed her foal hood friend. Kitsu waited until after dinner and then on the pretext of going for a walk took off to scout out the approach to the mountain. She’d been warned to watch out for dangerous creatures but in truth, there wasn’t anything in those woods that could match any of the trio. If there was a match for any of them, it was the mountain itself.

As predicted just as soon as she reached the mountain heavy winds began to buffet her. Even folding in her wings and using her magic to body surf proved difficult. She then dropped down to check out the landscape at the base of the mountain. When she had satisfied her curiosity she went back.

“I was about ready to go looking for you,” Loki offered as she ambled back into camp.

“A filly does need her time alone now and then,” Kitsu replied and then went to sit quietly by the fire.

Chrysalis went over to her and sat down. She then whispered into Kitsu’s ear that they were going to have to ditch their guides sooner or later.

“I know,” Kitsu replied softly.

Tirek, Chrysalis, Loki, and Glider awoke with a start sometime in the middle of the night.

“Damn it!” Loki yelled moments after getting up. Not only were Lord Underhill, Mane Goodall, and Miss Tsuki gone, but he and Glider were now trapped under a small dome of magical energy.

“Everyone up!” Kitsu called. “We are going, now.”

“Where’s the camp?” Chrysalis asked as she looked around.

“I teleported us.”

“He’s going to come after us,” Tirek pointed out.

"Us?" Chrysalis said with a laugh. "It's Miss Nova he's looking for."

“Well, he’s going to have to break out of the shield spell I put over the top of the camp first. I want to get going now and get as high up onto the mountain as possible before that happens.”

“I guess I might as well ditch this disguise then,” Chrysalis said with a shrug, turned back into herself, and gathered up her things.

The three were on their way moments later.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Loki exclaimed as he cast balls of fox fire at the shield.

“Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so,” Glider scolded.

“That was Kitsumi!” He dropped to the ground in frustration.

“Kitsumi is in Tartarus.”

“I could see the telltale sign of a horn being camouflaged on the upper portion of her forehead,” He said softly. “And this shield isn’t fox magic, it’s unicorn magic.”

“And next you are going to say that was Lord Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis with her.”

“Well, maybe it was.”

“Well, I’m going back to sleep.”

“How can you sleep at a time like this? She’s in trouble!”

“Something tells me-yaaa!” Glider let out a yell of fright as a beast emerged from the darkness to lunge at Loki.

To Loki’s dismay, an Ophiotaurus was now right in his face outside the dome only it had smashed its head into the shield and was now out cold. “What is that thing doing here?! They aren’t supposed to be in these parts… are they?”

“Well, so much for sleeping,” Glider muttered as he looked out at the half snake half bull creature.

“What’s with the flame from your hoof?” Chrysalis asked Kitsu. “You keep stopping and doing that?”

“It’s a way to predict the future. Right now I’m using it to plot out our path.”

“How about using it to get rid of all the spiderwebs we keep walking into?” Tirek griped.

“Grab a stick and hold it out in front of you… here,” Kitsu picked up a long branch that had fallen down, handed it to Tirek, and then stuck some of her fox fire on it so he could use it like a torch. “Come on, we are going to go through that forest.” This time Kitsu lit up her horn. Up until that moment, the light of the moon had been enough. More than enough for Kitsu and Chrysalis, both of whom could see well in the dark. Not so much Tirek who’d been following the other two as best he could and in among the scattered trees along the path he’d been dealing with more than just the occasional web across their path.

The forest was pitch black inside and yet Kitsu just seemed to know the way. Any time she was unsure she’d whip up a bit of her blue flame and use it to judge if she was on the right path. The forest was full of animal paths and the last thing Kitsu wanted was to end up going around in circles. Two hours later they emerged on a saddleback ridge that provided them a bridge onto the mountain itself.

“The winds not so bad,” Chrysalis stated as they crossed.

“The wind always dies down this time of night,” Kitsu offered. “Even enchanted winds.”

“It does seem your little excursion has paid off,” Tirek remarked as he looked down at the side of the mountain they hoped to scale illuminated by the moonlight.

“Come on,” Kitsu prompted and started walking again.

Back at the camp Loki had managed to wake the Ophiotaurus and was waving his plot at the creature.

“What are you doing?” Glider protested.

“If it hits the shield hard enough the shield will break.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Thump!

“And it’s out cold again.”

“Did it occur to you that you might not get away in time?”

“Ahh…. Um, well…”

“I’m waiting... Look whatever trouble she’s in, if you can’t negate her shield you might just end up getting in the way. Did you never think of that?”

“No, I didn’t. And you know why? Because all I can think about is losing her again.”

“That must be the old stallion's cabin Loki talked about down there,” Chrysalis announced. They’d been trudging through the snow for a while now, the trees getting shorter and shorter. Tirek was out in front.

“Tirek, that snow field in front of us, mind striking it with your stick?” Kitsu asked. He shrugged his shoulders, struck the snow, and then jumped back as the whole mountainside came loose.

“How’d you know?” Tirek asked.

“Just a hunch.”

“I think the cabin is buried,” Chrysalis said as she looked down at the mountainside. “Should we maybe do something? That is if we are supposed to be heroes now?”

“If he was in the cabin he’d be fine.”

“If he wasn’t?”

“There’d be nothing we could do anyway, and we’ve got a bell to find,” Tirek pointed out.

Kitsu produced her flame again and looked around. “They'll be fine down there. Come on, this way. We need to climb up here.” Her horn brightened followed by a rope gushing out and up the mountainside. Kitsu took hold of the rope, gave it an experimental tug, and started climbing.

“I will have to say that you are a good pony to have around,” Chrysalis commented as she followed.

“I learned that spell in the other world. A mad wizard used a similar spell to get the jump on me and my friends. We still won the fight. One wizard against three alicorns. He never had a chance.”

The three climbed until they were above the slide where they were able to cross over into a relatively easy slope covered in scattered evergreen to which the snow clung. Tirek took the lead again and pushed through the snow. Not to be outdone, Chrysalis would turn herself into an Ursa to clear the path of fallen debris. Higher and higher they climbed, the wind now buffeting them and the stunted grouping of trees on the slope.

At the top of another steep climb up jagged rocks, they were momentarily stopped by a deep chasm in the side of the rocks. Kitsu checked her fox fire and let out a sigh.

“We have to cross that.” She tried her rope spell only to have the wind blow it back into her face.

“Give me that,” Chrysalis ordered, turning herself into a large bird of prey.

“What about just teleporting over the gap?” Kitsu asked. Chrysalis looked at Kitsu, transformed back to herself, and with a smile and a flash of light, she was on the other side. Between the two they build a substantial rope bridge that Tirek was able to cross with ease.

“This should be it,” Kitsu offered as she turned a corner into a large crevice in the side of the mountain. Within the crevice, there was a cave entrance marked by large spirals and arcane symbols cut into the rocks.

“Chrysalis don’t!” Kitsu called as the changeling rushed the entrance only to be stopped like she’d run into something solid. Kitsu approached and placed her hoof on an energy barrier that shimmered when touched.

“Well, do something,” Chrysalis ordered Kitsu.

“Any attempt I make to destroy the shield could bring the mountain down on us and bury the entrance.”

“And fail in our mission,” Tirek offered. He chose not to point out that he’d likely be buried or swept down the mountain to be buried while the other two flew away.

“What about absorbing the magic?” Chrysalis asked him.

“I can only absorb the magic of living beings.”

“Like one of us,” Chrysalis said softly.

“Tirek, Lord Tirek, you are going to have to trust me.”

“Trust you?”

“Absorb my magic and punch a hole in the barrier. Chrysalis can turn herself into some small pathetic creature…”

“Like this?” Chrysalis had turned into Cozy Glow causing the others to stifle a laugh.

“If you were any other pony I’d be asking you to trust me,” Tirek replied.

“Just get it over with,” Kitsu chastised. A moment later a beam of light blue energy rippled off her horn and into Tirek’s mouth turning into a golden orange color. Tirek began to grow, and Kitsu dropped.

“So much power!” Tirek boasted as he flexed never realizing Kitsu had cut him off rather than risk him getting all her magic.

“You want to keep it down?” Kitsu asked as she got up.

“Welcome back baby!” Tirek boasted and then hit the magical barrier with the magic from his horns.

“Chrysalis, go!”

“Alright, teamwork,” Chrysalis cheered in Cozy's voice as she flew through the small opening Tirek had made, his magic holding the hole open.

“Can’t hold much longer.”

Cozy lept back out of the cave to land on a snow bank. “Tada!”

“My magic?” Kitsu asked.

Tirek shrugged and returned, most of her magic.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to give it back,” Kitsu stated.

“Neither was I,” Tirek admitted. “It’s just that working together just seemed smarter.”

“Helping each other just feels better.”

“I haven't felt like this since before I lost my hive,” Chrysalis admitted. “Such a strong feeling of accomplishment. Of friendship. Maybe there is something to this friendship thing…”

“Chrissie, don’t transform,” Kitsu cautioned.

“Don't tell me what to do.” And with that, Chrysalis was enveloped in her green magic which turned into a light blue chrysalis.

Kitsu walked over to the pail peach alicorn with a bright pink to magenta mane and tail and placed a wing over the stricken pony.

“What just happened?” Tirek asked in astonishment.

“Queen Chrysalis is Princess Amore of the Chrystal empire.”

“But how?” Amore said breathlessly. The look on her face was one of shock.

“Turned you into crystal, and dumped you along with the changelings into a magical cesspool. At least that’s the running theory. We think it might have been Starswirl the Bearded who triggered the transformation. I’m friends with your counterpart.”

“What have I done?” At this point, Amore started to cry.

Kitsu quietly took the bell from her and passed it over to Tirek. “Oh, please don’t cry. We are going to fix everything. That and you’re eyes might freeze shut.”

“You would trust me with this?” Tirek asked as he took the bell.

“I would. And I need you to trust me. Meanwhile, we are going to have our work cut out for us getting Princess Amore down off this mountain.”

“What about Grogar?” Amore asked sounding panicked. Fear of Grogar was more than enough to arrest her runaway emotions.

“Short of he is watching us and caught that transformation, Chrysalis is dead,” Kitsu offered. “Fell to her death while attempting to climb the mountain.”

“Fell to her death?” Amore asked. “Such an ignoble end.”

“Hit a glacier, slid down it, dropped into a crevasse, and covered by an avalanche.”

“I suppose that’s a little better. But what am I to do? I can’t go back. Not like this. And what about Midnight?”

“Just a guess, but I’d say that you are free of him now. Queen Chrysalis is no more. And let me worry about Midnight. She's safe where she is for the time being anyway.”

“Then where am I to go?”

“For now you can go with Loki. And then I think you might want to go home.”

“He loves you,” Amore stated, possibly not wanting to talk about going home just yet.

“Ya. But you can’t tell him. Tirek and I still have to take on Grogar.”

“By yourselves?”

“We must,” Tirek offered. “We have a way to shut him down now.”

“But we don’t even know how to use the bell.”

“Not entirely true. I know how to use the bell, and I’ve got a plan.”

“Glad to hear it,” Tirek offered. “Now can we get going? It’s getting cold up here.”

“If it makes you feel any better your counterpart got her flank kicked,” Kitsu informed Amore as she helped her up.

“I fear this mountain may kick all our flanks yet. Just one question, how do we explain myself suddenly popping up out of nowhere?”

“Freed by the avalanche sounds likely,” Kitsu suggested. “Frozen in snow and ice until a chance moment in time.”

“Sounds as good as any,” Tirek commented.

“But is lying about what happened a good idea?” Amore asked.

“I think it best we not let the general public know the full truth,” Kitsu cautioned.

"One more thing, how am I to know if you were successful?"

"If we succeed, we'll go to the Chrystal Empire. I can't say when. Look for an airship unlike any in the Equestrian fleet."

"Another fox illusion?"

"We'll see. It's hard to describe, but I've a really good feeling like everything is going to fall into place."

The three slowly made their way back down the mountain and when they spotted Loki and Glider digging out the cabin they sent Amore down to help them dig out.

“Princess Amore?!” Loki said in astonishment. “How are you here?”

“It’s her. It’s really her,” Glider said softly.

“I’m afraid that explanation is going to take a long time. Is it alright if I help?”

“Yes, of course, you can help,” Loki replied. “Were you up on the mountain? By any chance did you see two ponies with a centaur?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. They, that is the centaur and Miss Tsuki are already on their way back. They have a pressing matter to attend to.”

“No sign of the other pony?” Glider asked.

“She… she fell. Sacrificing herself valiantly to free me from my prison. Now, what say we free the pony under all this snow from this.”

Tirek and Kitsu made considerably better time on their return trip minus Chrysalis and their guides and returned to Trailhead the next evening.

“I think we deserve a night in a decent bed,” Tirek offered as they entered town.

“Grogar can wait, is it?”

“If we are to face him, I’d like to be at my best.”

“Alright, I guess it can’t hurt. Grogar may not even be there when we get back anyway.”

“Do you think she’ll be alright?”

“She’ll be fine. And if all goes well we can come back to check up on her.”

When they entered the inn they were greeted by a large group of climbers and the idea that they might have walked into a trap was more than enough to make them look distressed.

“Is there something we can do for you,” asked a mare with an apron on.

Thinking quickly Kitsu informed her, “There was an avalanche. The base camp cabin was buried and we’ve lost a member of our party.”

“What? Oh my!”

“Loki and Glider are there digging the cabin out.”

“And they sent you back on your own?”

“I brought her back so that we could inform every pony,” Tirek offered. “Underhill, my name is Westerly Underhill. But there is good news. Seems the slide freed an alicorn from the snow. She’s at the cabin now helping to dig it out.”

“An alicorn?!” the maid asked in astonishment.

“Alicorns are immortal after all,” Kitsu offered. “It’s Princess Amore from the Crystal Empire. Don’t ask me why she was up there, but it looks like she got lost in a storm and buried in snow and ice.”

“Come on in, sit down, you poor dear, you must have had a harrowing experience,” the maid offered. “Call me Gloria, every pony does, but what happened? Weren't you out with Loki and Glider?”

“We, um, kind of got into a hurry and, well…”

“You ditched them, didn’t you, and a pony paid the price.”

“Wasn’t Mane Allgood with you?” asked one of the stallions in the room. “Some pony said they saw Mane Allgood.”

“She wasn’t,” Tirek offered. The two quickly concluded that their decision was going to put them in deep yogurt if they didn’t think fast. “Turned out to be a changeling who’d been masquerading as Mane.”

“We saw her transform as she was falling,” Kitsu offered. “Black chitin, as black as night she was. It was her idea to skip out on our guides. Isn’t that right, your lordship?”

“Indeed she was. The Queen of the changelings herself. The mountain has her now.”

Author's Note

Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ri-a, bring us more rum, Gloria.