Well, it's 9880 right now, so ... "over nine thousand" ...? -|-|-|-|-
Maize was twenty hooves above Starry, so that would be either six or seven steps. The pterippi had agreed to follow Starry into the woods where he could fashion a lengthy rope from various vegetative matter he ripped off from vines and shrubs and braided together. They were tied to each other, with one end tied off to Maize's harness, now cartless. The other end was tied to Fuscia, who also left her cart stashed behind some fallen boulders at the bottom of the cliff. They'd rummaged through the carts and decided on a fair amout to bring with them, tied it into five bundles with spare jackets and blankets and whatnot, and each pony had a portion of their worldly belongings.
The system so far was this: Maize would climb two steps, bracing literally half a hoof on a back leg, and the opposite front leg, on what used to be, millennia ago, a step that was now barely deep enough to stand on. The other legs were braced outward against the stairwell walls. The Breezes would take a couple steps, pulling Fuscia off her ledge and forcing her to scramble to a new position of security. Starry hadn't had to levitationally grab her, yet. The pterripi were 'flying' a little bit, mostly pressing their weight against the cliff outside the stairwell. As the magic drifted down, sometimes it wore a little thin, and one or both girls would start to slip, pulling the rope taught against Maize. Either by their screaming or his grunting, Starry would levitate about half their weight; not enough to lift them off the ledge but enough that Maize wouldn't slip with them.
It seemed Unicorn magic, or just Starry in particular, allowed for a deeper well of reserves. He had been able to hold them for the half a minute until they could fly again. It helped that he never left himself hanging, dependant on his magic, as these steps might barely be there, but what was there was very solid rock. The question, as the day wore on, was could they keep going long enough to climb into the caldera? Because there was absolutely no taking an extend break, let alone camping for the night. -|-|-|-|-
>>9018 >What do you want with our fics, Bots? In MY thread?
