Climbing the mountains

“Twinkle! Ey Twinkle wake up! Look outside!” No… Twinkle Star thought… not again… why did Aline have to be so excited and energetic in the morning? Didn’t she have any respect for the concept of sleeping late? Slowly she opened her eyes and was dazzled by the ray of light that lightened up the cave.
“What the…” She grumbled while she was trying to get on her feet.
“look outside! The rain has stopped! It’s sunshine all over gain! Now we actually can climb those mountains, right?” Aline said excited.
Slowly Twinkle Star walked outside. It was beautiful weather, she had to admit that. The sun was shining even brighter than usual and for this early in the morning it was pretty warm already. “Yes, we can climb the mountains now, Aline. Although I do hope won’t become to hot today like yesterday. Well, let’s have some breakfast first. Will you get some water from Fiume?”

Not much later the two ponies were out of the cave and looking for a place to start climbing. “I think it is best if we stay as close to Fiume as possible. So at least we’ll have an idea of where we are and unlimited access to water, and we’re going to need that today. I’m afraid it’ll get really hot again. Besides, the further we are away from the river, the steeper the mountains seem to get.”
 Twinkle Star stated and Aline agreed. Twinkle star had to grin every time she looked at Aline. The rain had washed the dye out of her hair for the most part, but there were still a few streaks of yellow visible. It turned out that the front half of Aline’s hair was originally yellow, but the second part was dark pink, like her fathers hair was, Twinkle Star recalled, and it turned out to be a bit curly now that the rain had washed the dye out.
“What! It’s not funny!” Aline said when she noticed Twinkle Star looking at her hair and Twinkle Star began to laugh.

The ground was very uneven and in some parts it was very hard for the ponies to walk. By the afternoon they had advanced quite a bit, but in the burning sun it was hard for them to keep moving and they had to stop frequently to drink water from Fiume. Twinkle Star could hardly believe how pure Fiume’s water was over here, so close to it’s source. A little bit of this water would do miracle’s in anyone’s garden, but over here there was nothing growing next to the river. The water was so clear Twinkle Star could see there weren’t any plants or weeds in the water, either. No sign of anything that was alive, just like the rest of this place.

Going up went slow as they had to keep looking for a new place to climb and sometimes they had to walk quite a bit to find a place that was suitable for climbing and the higher they got, the harder it was for them to find such a place. The walls of the mountain were getting increasingly steep and Twinkle Star knew they were on the original mountains now. These has been there before the eruption and marked the borders of the old Friendship Lands. But in the late afternoon their luck suddenly changed; they reached a part of the mountain where there was an equal platform. It was about 10 feet broad and the ground was unnaturally straight, there were almost no bumps or cracks or lost rocks. It went on as far as Twinkle Star could see but next to it was a huge steep wall which was impossible to climb. Twinkle Star drank a little from Fiume, who was flowing really fast over here, almost like a waterfall, while she was pondering over what to do next.
 “Don’t you think it’s weird here, Twinkle Star?” Aline asked while she was waiting until Twinkle Star was ready with drinking. Twinkle Star made some noise to let Aline know she agreed.
“I mean, suddenly there is this equal place, we have no idea how to get up these walls or what is waiting for us over there, and it’s so quiet over here! I don’t hear the river at all. How can there be a waterfall like this with almost no sound?” Twinkle Star got up. “Well, I guess the water is just too pure to make hard noises. It simply can’t make them. I don’t really know how to explain it either, but I guess that’s why. I wouldn’t know any other explanation for it, anyway.” She answered.
 She saw by the look on Aline’s face that she didn’t understand anything of it, but Twinkle Star didn’t feel like explaining it more. Other than the fact that she didn’t really understood it herself, she had other, more urgent things on her mind. This straight part was great to walk on, but there was no way they could get up and she couldn’t see what was above these sheer walls, and the path wasn’t leading them upwards either.
“Well Aline, I guess there is nothing we can do now but walk on this straight part until we find a place where we can climb up, right?” She proposed and Aline nodded to show she agreed, though doubtfully. After she had had a drink as well and they had filled their drinking bottles, they walked on.

Twinkle Star thought this road or whatever it was went on endlessly without changing even a little bit, but after about an hour they noticed the ground was once again changing. The wall wasn’t as sheer anymore as it used to be and showed signs of cracks and holes, and the floor wasn’t as straight and equal as it used to be. Little rocks began to appear here and there and the ground was going upwards, they realised. Meanwhile the sun was beginning to disappear. They had walked in the shadows of the mountain for quite some time now, but when she looked over the plains Twinkle Star noticed it was going to get dark real soon. She just hoped it really was because the sun was setting and not because clouds were gathering above them, because rain would be about the last thing they could use right now. Twinkle Star was just thinking on how they would spend the night when she heard Aline scream behind her.

“What? What is it?” She yelled back at Aline, who was a few feet behind her. “This is disgusting! Twinkle! This is just so gross!” She heard Aline say in horror. Twinkle Star trotted towards Aline and quickly noticed what she was talking about. There was a pony skull lying there, half of it was buried underground and some bones were scattered around it. The skull itself was looking upwards in the sky, it’s mouth was open, as if it was trying to tell them something.
“Oh my…” Twinkle Star whispered while she stared at the skull in disgust. Of course she had to be prepared for things like this, but somehow it never occurred to her she could be running into things like this, that she could see remains of the disaster that were so… real, so obvious, so confronting and almost painful to look at.
“It’s horrible, isn’t it…” She said softly, but she wasn’t sure if she said this to herself or to Aline. Flashes of that night so long ago appeared before her eyes and she couldn’t fight them back. A little girl burning. Cries, yelling, ponies who were panicking, running in all directions because they didn’t know where to go. Houses on fire. Lava everywhere. The destruction of the palace. Her home. Her last look on that sea of fire. And there was nothing she could do about it. She felt that her body began to shudder. “Twinkle Star?” She heard a vague voice say far in the distance. “Hey Twinkle Star! What’s going on with you?” Twinkle Star felt as if she was slammed on the ground and her visions disappeared to make place for the dark rocky place that she actually was in. Aline stood in front of her with a concerned look on her face.
“Are you okay?” Aline asked.
“I… yes, I… I guess I am…” Twinkle Star answered confused.
“Man, you really scared me!” Aline said, a bit relieved. “You went so pale all of a sudden and your eyes got so wide! You really got me worried! You really okay?” “Yes, I… I’m sorry I scared you like that, Aline. Maybe it’s better we go on.” Twinkle Star said while she looked at the skull for the last time and shuddered once more. Aline agreed and followed Twinkle Star on the path that lead them deeper into the mountains.

“How many ponies lived in the Friendship Lands?” Aline asked after a while with a soft voice.
“Hundred thousand. Maybe even more. Was a big country, you know. Largest on the continent.” Twinkle Star answered softly.
“And how many have survived?” Aline asked doubtful.
“I don’t know. Five hundred?”
Aline didn’t reply for a while. “So few…” She said softly at last. Twinkle Star sighed.
“Yeah. It’s the ordinary ponies that have suffered the most I’m afraid. They didn’t have a share of the royal powers, I guess. Those powers are protecting powers. They are there to protect the people of our lands and therefore tell us what is the safest way. So I wasn’t surprised to find out so many royal ponies have survived, and to find out my mother was able to save quite a large group. But most of the ordinary ponies didn’t live close to the castle, didn’t live close to any royal to protect them. They were helpless, didn’t stand a chance…”

Suddenly Twinkle Star felt very lost and she couldn’t talk on anymore. It was almost completely dark now and she had noticed clouds had gathered in the sky. She hadn’t felt this way in a long time. She felt as if she wanted to do something, wanted to help others, wanted to protect ponies… But she couldn’t because she didn’t have the strength needed for that and it was too late anyway, there was nothing she could do now. She was surprised to feel tears running down her cheeks. She was quite rational about the eruption usually, but she had relived her emotions quite intense when she had seen the skull earlier. Once again she saw the little girl in front of her eyes. Her skin was on fire, she was screaming, she couldn’t stand up anymore from the pain. She fell down. On her knees first, and then she just fell on her side, screaming, until her voice faded and the flames consumed all of her body and Twinkle Star had to run to safe her own life.

Twinkle Star shivered when she felt the first drop of rain falling on her body. It kind of pulled her back in reality. She noticed Aline had stopped in front of her and looked at her, puzzled.
 “Are you sure you are ok Twinkle Star?” She asked with a soft voice while she walked towards her.
“I, I… no I guess I’m not. I’m just reliving that day… I can’t…” Twinkle Star tried to speak, but couldn’t talk anymore. Tears were running down her cheeks now. “Hey, it’s ok Twinkle Star,” Aline began, “I understand really. Sit down for a bit, I…”
“You understand?” Twinkle Star interrupted Aline angry. “You UNDERSTAND?” She yelled. “No, you don’t understand! You don’t know anything Aline! All you care about is your hair and your stupid stories about you bathing in a river in summer! How can you even THINK you understand?”
“Well, I didn’t mean it that way Twinkle Star, I…” Aline began but Twinkle Star didn’t let her finish.
“Of course you didn’t! You don’t even understand what is going on here!” Twinkle Star was outraged, furious. How could Aline even begin to think she understood the slightest bit of it? Twinkle Star couldn’t help what she said anymore, she was only angry.
“Well ,what about the things you said yesterday then? About me being able to remember?” Aline said, and Twinkle Star noticed her voice was a bit annoyed which made her even more angry.
 “Being able to remember doesn’t mean being able to understand! Oh, you are just a selfish little girl! The only reason you came here was for yourself! You left your parents without saying anything for your own interest! You decided you could come with me for your own good!” Twinkle Star yelled.
“Well, fine then, why don’t you just leave and go alone?” Aline yelled back, angry now as well.
“FINE!” Twinkle Star screamed and she galloped past Aline, angry. She was better off without her anyway!

Twinkle Star didn’t remember how long it was since she had had the fight with Aline. All she knew was that she was miserable, cold, and lost. It was raining heavily now and she had a hard time watching her steps as the rain limited her vision. She had calmed down a bit now and regretted the fact that she had yelled at Aline so much. It wasn’t Aline’s fault, she had just been concerned about her. Twinkle Star had just been too upset with her memory and the pain it had given her and she had taken it out on Aline. She had wondered several times now if she should turn around and go look for her, but every time she had decided not too. Aline was gone now, probably. She wouldn’t want to talk with her anyway. Oh well, she didn’t need Aline, did she? She could survive on her own perfectly well. It was her  original plan to go alone, anyway. She had always done things on her own, so what would be different now? But once again she found herself looking behind her, wondering if Aline was okay, pondering if she should go looking for her.
“What’s the point,” She said to herself, “Aline is probably mad at you and she won’t forgive you. She said I had to go alone anyway.” She shook her head and continued to walk on, trying to fight back the tears that were already falling down anyway. But while she was trying to stop crying, trying to think of something else than Aline, she felt the ground disappearing beneath her and felt the gravity pulling her down into a dark hole of which she couldn’t see the end. When she hit the bottom the last thing she heard was the endless falling of the rain.