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Beyond the Edge of Night
Sep. 21st, 2015 11:27 pmThat hay was more expensive than I bargained for. Yak buyers have driven the price up. Still, it's cheaper now than it will be come midwinter. Applejack will be delivering my 15 bales in a few days. Right now she's very busy catching up on bucking and processing the late summer apple crop. Apparently there's only so long the apples can wait before going bad. Big MacIntosh has been working hard, but we hadn't expected to be away quite this long.
Back to my field notes.
Day 5. Celestia's sun rides the southern horizon, barely peeking above the field of snow behind us. Ahead the land is rising. Now I know what was meant by "... beyond the Twilight Plain, high in the Mountains of Eternal Night, Winter slumbers in his cradle of ice". This darkness is really neat! No all my friends share my fascination, especially since it is getting still colder. Now we are buckled head to toe in thick wool blankets and our every breath is a geyser of steam. My eyes water at every gust of wind and Rarity's nose is running. She is _not_ amused.
My hearing is muffled by the scarf I'm wearing over my ears to avoid frostbite. The squeaking of the snow under our hooves seems distant and the landscape just too quiet and dead. It feels like all I can hear is the rustling of the wool as it slips back and forth over my ears. I think we're all feeling a bit jumpy. Everypony keeps looking back to make sure that something isn't sneaking up on us. We trudge north, stop for lunch and breaks and trudge north. Our yak guide is less bothered by the cold but even he is wearing warmer garments.
I caught Fluttershy muttering there is no such Thing over and over again. I finally figured out what she was chewing over. That camp fire story. Really now, no Fluttershy, the Thing is not real. We are not heading to the "Mountains of Madness". Telling that story was a bad idea. Rainbow Dash thought that was hilarious, earning her five sets of glaring eyes. But Pinkie produced paper lanterns for each of us, "packed for paper lantern emergencies!" and Fluttershy forgot all about campfire horror stories.
Day 6. Mid-morning and Princess Celestia's sun has vanished for good below the horizon. We are in the land of eternal night. We walk the frozen sea of snow, above us in the cloudless sky is the playground of the stars. Strange constellations gallop and play in the heavens here. There are creatures up there that appear terrifying, all tentacles, eyes and fangs. I hope they stay up there. Our guide is steadfast, but when he thinks nopony is watching, he looks back wistfully, to the south and home. We are close, I can feel it! We have started to ration our alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. This is taking longer than I expected. Summer ends in just over two weeks. We've set up camp out of the wind in the shelter of a jumble of giant blocks of ice. Our guide says we are walking now on an ice field at the southern end of a very large and slow moving ice sheet. A big glacier, scouring the bedrock. The terrain continues to climb.
Back to my field notes.
Day 5. Celestia's sun rides the southern horizon, barely peeking above the field of snow behind us. Ahead the land is rising. Now I know what was meant by "... beyond the Twilight Plain, high in the Mountains of Eternal Night, Winter slumbers in his cradle of ice". This darkness is really neat! No all my friends share my fascination, especially since it is getting still colder. Now we are buckled head to toe in thick wool blankets and our every breath is a geyser of steam. My eyes water at every gust of wind and Rarity's nose is running. She is _not_ amused.
My hearing is muffled by the scarf I'm wearing over my ears to avoid frostbite. The squeaking of the snow under our hooves seems distant and the landscape just too quiet and dead. It feels like all I can hear is the rustling of the wool as it slips back and forth over my ears. I think we're all feeling a bit jumpy. Everypony keeps looking back to make sure that something isn't sneaking up on us. We trudge north, stop for lunch and breaks and trudge north. Our yak guide is less bothered by the cold but even he is wearing warmer garments.
I caught Fluttershy muttering there is no such Thing over and over again. I finally figured out what she was chewing over. That camp fire story. Really now, no Fluttershy, the Thing is not real. We are not heading to the "Mountains of Madness". Telling that story was a bad idea. Rainbow Dash thought that was hilarious, earning her five sets of glaring eyes. But Pinkie produced paper lanterns for each of us, "packed for paper lantern emergencies!" and Fluttershy forgot all about campfire horror stories.
Day 6. Mid-morning and Princess Celestia's sun has vanished for good below the horizon. We are in the land of eternal night. We walk the frozen sea of snow, above us in the cloudless sky is the playground of the stars. Strange constellations gallop and play in the heavens here. There are creatures up there that appear terrifying, all tentacles, eyes and fangs. I hope they stay up there. Our guide is steadfast, but when he thinks nopony is watching, he looks back wistfully, to the south and home. We are close, I can feel it! We have started to ration our alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. This is taking longer than I expected. Summer ends in just over two weeks. We've set up camp out of the wind in the shelter of a jumble of giant blocks of ice. Our guide says we are walking now on an ice field at the southern end of a very large and slow moving ice sheet. A big glacier, scouring the bedrock. The terrain continues to climb.
