The Melody Of Moonlight Castle

Chapter 5: At Wits End Lies Insanity

  We were all frozen, more than our body temperature was anyways. I slowly moved my vision upward, I was for once in my life, terrified through and through...the large chunks of snow and rock slowly started breaking off the mountain as it started falling down, towards us.

"Come on!! WE GOTTA MOVE!!" I shouted to Kenji, who was also frozen in fear, I reached in and grabbed his hoof with mine as I pull him out and he falls out of the crack and starts tumbling down the slope. "Jack!! LETS GET MOVING!!!"

"I...I...I can't!! My body won't do what I want it to!! It's frozen." He shakily told me. I knew what was happening, his mind is frozen by fear...a common occurrence in a situation where one is threatened by death, the mind refuses to do anything, and I couldn't do anything for him either because I couldn't reach him, it was up to himself to get his mind to move, the snow was already almost on top of us as it kept hitting the two mountain sides.

"JACK! DO YOU WANT TO DIE HERE?!" I shouted at him, usually when one is frozen by fear, all you can do is either push them or help them jumpstart their mind and snap out of the daze. "YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE DO YOU!?" It wasn't working, he was still looking around and obviously couldn't hear me in this state, I had to do something, and fast because we had about a few seconds before the snow would crush us, I quickly picked up a small stone beside me as I threw it at him as it hit him hard in the knee.

"ARRG!! What was that for!?" He shouted at me.

"LET'S MOVE FROZENLEGS!!" I quickly shouted back, as I reach my hoof in, shaking it about for him to grab it. Which he did, I used all my strength and grip as I forced him out of the crack and threw him behind me as he crashed into Hope, forcing both of them to go down the slope as well, the snow and rocks already crashed into the mountain valley already, I quickly turned heel and jumped down the slope, using my hoofs to drag along the bags and rucksacks.

As I slid down the snow mountain, I could hear the snow and rocks right behind me, spewing tons of snow into the air and in front of me, blocking my view of what was ahead, I was terrified for my life and didn't want to die right now...I quickly started spinning into rounds as I approached the forest, the snow and rocks slowed down a bit as it hit the trees, but that also meant I could crash into one at my speeds and it would probably kill me instantly depending on how I hit it...I somehow managed to dodge and avoid most of the trees as I began gaining speed from the slide and soon straightened myself out as I maneuvered my body to turn to the right or left to avoid trees and rocks, I soon approached the end and saw that it was a slight upturn in the rocks, and it would drop me off at flat land, where I assumed the rest of the ponies would be.

Boy was I wrong.

I quickly flung off the upturn as I took one glance in any direction and all I saw was, a giant bloody gorge...as I began to lose forward momentum and of course, gain vertical momentum, I started just...screaming...for once, my...to put it plainly, my "cool" was finally broken and just started shrieking and flailing around as hard as I could. To say the least and end it there before I embarrass myself any further, I, did not have my innards and gooey bits splattered all over the sharp rocks of rock bottom. I suddenly felt a sharp stop of wind on my whole body as I opened my eyes and looked around, Kenji managed to grab one of the bags still tied willy-nilly around one of my arms, I also took notice that he had his ethereal wings...he had managed to use his magic and cast the spell...thank goodness for me of course.

Kenji flew me up and dropped me off where the others were, as I took a rest and a few breathers at that...Kenji touched down and gracefully and his wings retracted and dissipated into the air, leaving visible magic particles...

"We...we...we should, sit down for a bit and rest." I told everyone as they were all sitting down in the snow, panting and exhausted.

"I..I can side with that." Jack said, obviously shaken and probably in shock.

Hope and Kenji just silently nodded as we all just plop down in the snow and I pass around my large pack of trail mix I dug out of my saddlebags...believe me, I packed a large bag of that stuff and it kinda filled in any hunger we had for a while, at this point I'm hoping we're probably just gonna have a look around in the castle and turn back, because I'm beginning to doubt that our food supplies will last our trip back, the valley we came through is blocked by snow and ice, we'll be forced to go around the dammed mountain.

After about a 10 minutes rest, and a frozen tooshie, we got chugging again...it was about another half an hour to the mountain.

Once we reached the forest surrounding the base of the mountain, the temperature severely dipped again as the wind picked up, we needed to get in the castle, and quick or one of us is gonna drop from exhaustion and basically low core temperature. We quickly reached the uphill slope as the angle just kept tilting until all you could do was fall, I checked back the notes and the sketch was of a door, it had to be hidden somewhere around here...in the mountain itself, probably behind some brush.

"Fan out, look for anything that might be hiding something." I instructed the rest of them as I wipe my glasses, it was covered it snow and frost.

We all just started sloshing around the thick snow, soon I found the entrance once I almost circled the entire mountain, it was on the edge of the ground we were on, it just dropped down another large gorge, and the entrance was on the side of the drop...there was a tiny little walkway that no one could even make, I quickly managed to round up the team as we Pegasi help down Kenji and Jack as we both land inside the small cave.

I approached the door as I tried to yank the large metal bar handle.

"The locks shut tight...Jack did you bring your-"

BANG! KRRRACK!!

As soon as I said it those words, a hoof came flying past my left cheek as it landed in the wooden door, not landed...went through! I slowly turned back as I saw Kenji there, his breath showing in the cold air, sweating beads of cold sweat and his hair covering his eyes, the door slowly creaked open from the lock being busted.

Everyone was silent, I was still in relative shock as my breathing took a rush, soon he took out his hoof from the door, it was bleeding and covered in splinters...we all just kinda stared for a few seconds. After a few heavy breaths, Kenji suddenly toppled to the floor with a loud "THUMP" on the surprising smooth rock surface.

There was a scream, a exasperated gasp...and me...in cold silence...about to just drop to my knees and start screaming my lungs out.