5. Valley Life

It was a situation that really made Trixie wish she had taken the time to study maps of Vanhoover in depth. She could be in any number of valleys in the southernmost reaches of the Crystal Mountains. And without a direction to head in, the best she could do was wait until she saw the rescue party. A magical flare would help pinpoint her position, if she could preserve enough magic to fire one of course.

She needed to stay warm throughout all of that. That meant finding a cave, and preferably something to keep herself off the cold floor. Magic only lasted so long in constant use before a unicorn needed to rest. She had good talent, but not even the highest-level unicorns wouldn't last more than a few days in the sort of weather she was facing. Freezing was a very real and scary possibility.

"Come on, you can handle this Trixie. Fleethoof would say as much, and things could be a lot worse. At least there's trees." The notion that lightning would strike all of the trees, reducing them to charred splinters came up. It seemed like the exact sort of jinx that would happen in Equestria. "That or they all catch fire and burn down. Under a thick blanket of snow too."

Following the river seemed like the best option. She would have access to the ice, undoubtedly a lot cleaner than the river itself. It wasn't far enough upstream to avoid the mess that built up from the surface freezing over. And caves would be more common where water flowed. A few basic things she remembered from school. Yet, it always seemed to be the little things that became important in a bad situation.

Another important thing she recalled was to make the best of the situation, to never lose hope. Each time her hoof crunched down through the thick snow, her eyes would move to another feature of the valley. Hazy blue mountains, with ice cut ribbons of stone running down into more mounds of snow. The dark aquamarine of the trees that poked from under the white blanket. The closest she could see bore tiny frozen raindrops on each needle. Above, the twisted sky continued to pour down snowflakes onto the rushing of the wind.

A cave opened up in front of her from the crunchy blanket surrounding her. More of a tiny hollow, but Trixie wasn't giving into pessimism just yet. It provided decent shelter from the wind and snow, and she could easily build a makeshift wall to keep the warmth in. First, she made sure to arrange a few large branches into a marker outside, so that anypony searching could easily find her.

The first hour was cold. Closing up the hollow took a lot of tedious work with the snow on such a steep slope. Not even half of the opening was covered in that time, but it did make enough of a difference for her to be satisfied. Snow no longer surrounded her hooves, and there was a place to keep them where the cold air did not draw more heat away.

As each hour passed, another part of the wall was formed. A small entrance to the side she left open as a precaution. It took almost all of the day to do so, but she had sealed up the hollow. A few branches stuffed in the opening provided extra protection without sealing her in. Inside, the little light remaining was a washed out grey. But the cold no longer hurt, merely caused discomfort. "Alright Trixie, that wasn't so bad. Just gotta stay warm, and get some sleep."

Cold stone wasn't her idea of a camping bed. A far cry from the comfort of her bed in Starlight's home, and even a thin layer of foam covered in material sounded wonderful in comparison. She didn't make any verbal complaint. Throughout the night, her horn glowed very softly, enough to keep the warmth. By tomorrow, pegasi could hopefully patrol the skies again. And she could work on finding a better shelter, one that would allow her room for a fire.

Snow fell away when she pushed the twisted branches out. Her marker outside looked somewhat shorter than the morning before, quite a bit of snow had fallen during the afternoon and night. "Well, great. If I don't freeze to death, I may end up buried in a tomb I made to keep warm." Not for the first time, she pictured Vanhoover and concentrated her magic.

Teleportation was a rather difficult spell to begin with, let alone master to the level Twilight had. Her last unsuccessful attempt had been before acquiring the power and knowledge of the alicorn amulet, the latter of which she retained most of. That attempt had failed without as much as a tingling sensation. And now, she felt a severe lack of confidence that she could perform the spell without the amulet's power.

"Come on." The wind picked up again, fighting against the building magic in her horn. In her mind, she focused on Starlight's theory of Equestrian magic. How each unicorn had a certain reserve of magic to call upon, and a certain rate at which that magic would replenish. Powerful unicorns could perform spells beyond their abilities by opening up to Equestria's raw magic pool. What frustrated her most was the fact that she knew exactly how to do that. Only she couldn't, limited by her own lack of training in such a procedure.

Her horn fizzled out again under the biting cold wind. That itself died away very soon after. "Great, so instead of teleporting myself out, I'm just making myself a magnet for cold weather." She still retained a good portion of her magic from the attempt. The risk of losing much more than that prevented her from trying until she had shelter. That, and the fact that her saddlebags were probably somewhere in the river below Cloudsdale at that moment.

"Trixie!" Something came down the slope she had fallen at great speed. Dark blue, with flashes of a stern green. The object stopped short of falling into the river, lying in a muddle on the frosty grass. Fleethoof. Only this time he was burdened with two travelling packs, notably sleeping rolls. He was quick to recover his balance. "We found your saddlebags in the river, and feared the worst."

Trixie ran to the other side of the river. "Fleethoof? Do you realize the risk you took coming down here? Just another half metre and you'd be soaking wet now." There wasn't anything he could cross the river on. And even a pony of his strength couldn't possibly jump it, especially with the supplies he was carrying. "Alright, hold on. I might be able to freeze the ice, but it won't last long. I sure hope that you've got a tent in there."

Her other attempt had a good chance of sapping most of her magic away anyway. Using it instead to help a close friend seemed only appropriate. "Okay, get ready to jump. I don't suppose you've got a bit of pegasus magic buried underneath all that baggage?" Her magic struck a small portion of the river, freezing it into a tedious platform. Fleethoof jumped with little hesitation as it flowed past.

The following seconds caused Trixie's heart to knot up. It tilted forward to a very dangerous angle, causing water to lap his hooves. Then it rocked back, letting the cords on his saddlebags dip into the river. As it leaned forward again, he leapt. By instinct, Trixie moved to catch him. Instead, she ended up softening his fall, rather redundant given the thickness of the snow that broke the fall for both of them.

Fleethoof looked down at her only momentarily before getting up again. "Sorry about that. I'm accustomed to making long trips, not short jumps. Are you hurt?" Trixie shook her head with a smile. She wouldn't admit it of course, but she admired his ever-so-selfless concern for her wellbeing over his own. Such a trait she just didn't see in other ponies as often as him.

"I'm freezing to be honest, but catching you did warm me up a bit. Come, I have a makeshift shelter that should keep us warm in turns." It was small enough already while she was in there. Fleethoof would have less room still, and the discomfort over becoming that close with him remained. The mutual friendship and trust they already had was a balance she didn't want to change. Not yet at least.

The walk there was relatively silent. Neither pony felt a need to speak, and talks of that nature seemed to feel better when in the presence of a warm fire. "Impressive. I would never have guessed that a nomadic magician could handle herself so well in a desperate situation." That caused her pale blue cheeks to take on a tinge of pink. He didn't notice to her relief, occupied with unpacking some of the supplies.

A couple of sleeping bags and foam rolls came first. Those she had wanted the most, sleeping on freezing stone had been difficult at best. Warm clothes she didn't hesitate to put on. Just feeling the warm, cuddly lining cover her was comfort enough. He put his on soon after. "Good idea, there was a lot of sharp stones and flint on that hillside." More camping supplies followed; eventually she couldn't help but notice that only one tent was packed.

By the way he fumbled to open the roll, it was pretty clear he had noticed her questioning mood. "Uh, two proved to be a bit more than I could handle. I'll take the hollow if it makes you more comfortable." She shook her head and stepped closer. Her confidence had returned once four boots were covering her hooves from the biting cold.

"I trust you, Fleethoof. And I certainly couldn't ask you to spend the night in a cave. We're two mature and perfectly responsible ponies. We can share a tent as such. Agreed?" She began clearing snow away to make an area for the tent. Lower down, it became hard for her magic to simply lift the slush away. Most of it had been refrozen into chunks of brittle ice. Below, what remained of the grass drowned in mud. "On second thought, I think that there's a wide overhang in the other direction. It wasn't suitable for shelter, but might be for a tent."

There was no objection from Fleethoof as he picked up the items once more. "You certainly have a firm hoof on the situation. I shall try to restrain my admiration in that case." As they approached the noted overhang, Trixie stopped him again. This time it was with her hoof, and not in the forceful fashion. "Is something wrong? We can tie the ropes to rocks; there are certainly plenty of suitable weight."

The outstretched hoof moved to his lips. He entered silence appropriately; unsure of whether he was quite comfortable with what Trixie was probably going to say. "I didn't say anything that meant we would necessarily have to avoid each other, did I? Try not to be so solemn for once. I know for a fact that this sort of situation, some would find very appealing." She leaned forward so their foreheads touched briefly. "Now that you're here, I certainly do."