The Equestrian Inferno

Galaxy trotted faster than usual, clearly angry, as I attempted to catch up. I only hoped she would not direct her anger at me. Luckily, as Apple Bloom had said, the terrain really was rather flat so there was little chance of losing her. When I finally caught up with her, she stood at the bridge.

"Well, here's the real broken bridge then" she said in a huff.

I saw that the majority of the original iron bridge was gone, leaving a large mountain of massive grey stones in the center. Where the mound touched the water, I saw some hideous form of moss growing in some places. Though the nearest stones were too high for me to climb, they seemed to get smaller near the top.

"So, do we just trek over that thing?" I asked, feeling I needed to say something.

"Pretty much" said Galaxy with a shrug. She seemed to be returning to her normal self again.

Galaxy position herself by one of the stones near the edge and squatted down. "Get on me again" she ordered. When I was seated atop her, she stood up. "Now stand up" she said, "you should be able to reach the first ledge." I stood up hesitantly. Luckily, Galaxy was strong and still, and I was able to lean against the stone while doing so. I was indeed able to reach its top easily with both hands and hoist myself onto it. When I was seated on top of it, I turned and saw Galaxy walking away from the bridge. For a moment, I wondered where she was going before she turned, galloped full speed at the mountain of stones, and leapt gracefully next to me. "Well, let's go" she said.

We began making our way up to the top of the mountain. Now that we were actually on the mountain, I saw that although the rocks were large, the slope of the mountain was fairly shallow such that I could maneuver about on my own. Still, at some points near the base I was forced to climb over some stones with some difficulty or leap across gaps onto other ones. For once, I was ahead of Galaxy who often had to go by more circular detours due to her inability to climb. When impeding rocks weren't too big, she occasionally resorted to moving them with her horn, though for some reason she always moved it back into its original position when she had passed by.

I was about three fourths of the way up when I lost my breath and sat down to take a break. I did not notice that in the meantime, Galaxy had caught up to me. "Come on, she said, we don't have forever. How are you tired when I'm doing more work than you?"

I hoisted myself up with the help of a nearby boulder before shaking out the feeling of pins and needles in my legs which had built up during the past few minutes. For the rest of the climb, I stayed by Galaxy and walked at her pace.

Since the rocks were smaller now, we reached the top in a shorter time than I had anticipated. From the top, I could vaguely make out the scattered souls of the next section. In addition, I noticed that the descent from the mountain was far steeper than the climb. I climbed down, lowering myself onto each boulder below as Galaxy hoped from one stone to the next in a zig-zag pattern.

Finally, we landed upon the second part of the iron bridge. From here, it was a smooth walk to the end.

I could hear the frantic screaming before we were halfway across the last leg of the bridge. Looking ahead, I saw the inhabitants of the circle running around frantically though the cause for this was still unapparent to me. It was only when we had actually entered the section that I saw the snakes chasing them. Previously, they had been concealed by the clouds of dust kicked up by those they pursued. There were different colors between the snakes but each individual was solidly colored for most of it's body, with the stomach being a lighter shade of its main color.

A pink pony similar in many ways to Galaxy suddenly ran before us. Just as it had passed by, the snake pursuing her caught up to her and sunk it's fangs right over her left back hoof. Immediately, the unfortunate pony burst in an eruption of black fire which left behind a rather large pile of ashes which to my surprise began to move in a way inconsistent with the wind. As I watched, the same pony, or at least on that looked identical to her, crawled out of the ashes.

"Wow" I said, "she's like Philomena."

"Perhaps in some ways" replied Galaxy, who trotted over to her.

I ran after her just as the pony introduced herself to her as Cotton Candy, the nurse of the G1 ponies.

"Psssst Galaxy" I whispered, "Ask her why she's here."

Cotton candy however heard me and in anger, she explained that she had stolen expensive hay from the castles of the princess ponies to eat.

"But to be honest" she continued, "it really isn't any of your business. And by the way, your race is going to enter into a massive nuclear war within the next decade in which half the population will be wiped out so why do I even bother associating myself with you anyway?"