twilightpony | Into the Frozen Wasteland

Sure enough, the Ponyville Express is printing a story about our expedition. I see they're drawing it out over three parts and they've interviewed several of my friends as well. Moondancer is probably hard at work finishing her research paper on the Winter legend...

The second cut hay harvest is long over and I haven't bought any for my pantry yet! I was so busy preparing for the expedition north that I didn't have time. I better buy my hay tomorrow, the longer I wait, the higher the prices may go. Right now the farmers are inclined to sell for a little less to make more room for the third cut. I think I'll get 15 bales.

On to my field notes!

Day 3. Getting colder. Yakyakistan is snowy, but this is insane. Everything is white. Celestia's sun stays very close to the horizon here, it's very strange. We're all wearing snow goggles, the ones with a slit to see out of, otherwise we'd all go blind. We're wearing our winter gear, boots, ear muffs, scarves and blankets. Rarity just glows with satisfaction when she looks at us, like we're a high north fashion show on a very long runway.

At least the sun is at our backs. We are following our shadows into deeper snow. We followed our guide's instructions and compacted the snow at our camp site before pitching our tents. The wind has picked up and is blowing snow over us.

Day 4. It's amazing how well an oil lamp can heat a snow-covered tent. Last night something big left huge clawed prints in the snow in our campsite. It's a bit unsettling. OK, we were scared. But we're up and heading north. To adventure!

By morning the wind had died down, thankfully. It's cold and snowy enough without a white-out to slow us down. Lunch was beet pulp soup again. For a short while we feel full, but it's mostly water. The alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes give us boosts of energy, but the small meals make my stomach rumble and churn.

We set up camp this evening in a field tiled with pentagon shaped blocks of ice formed by alternating cold and colder temperature cycles. There has been little precipitation here and what ice there is expands and shrinks over and over again. After an evening meal of hay crackers and rehydrated beet pulp soup, I told the Thing from the Mountains of Madness story! Adapted to Equestria, to make it a bit more believable, but not too believable.

I remade the Thing as a hair-eating changeling that leaves its victims cold, bald and hairless. And when it ate enough hair, it would divide and there would be two of them! They would take up snatching ponies away to be farmed for their hair, and replacing them with changelings. Starting with the spa and quietly foalnapping ponies in their sleep. No pony is the wiser. In fact, every pony here, except you, is a changeling. At this point I've snuffed out the oil-lamp flame and while our yak guide was trying to relight it I sneaked up behind Rarity and tugged gently on her mane. She shrieked. Scary camp fire story, check.