Cave of the Past

It all happened on a cold winter day. The day before Hearths warming eve. Twilight was sent a letter from Celestia, that looks way too rushed to be formal. It said that there was something that her and her royal guards had found after a small visit to a mysterious village which was close to a ghost down, despite the fair amount of villagers there. Twilight was asked to go there with her friends and investigate a strange cave.

Soon after coming to the village, she realized how quiet and dark it was. There was no sign of life anywhere, except for the lanterns that lit the way. Her and her friends were easily caught off guard by the normal passerby that would come every now and again, with a solemn look on their face as they slowly trotted to whatever destination they decided to move towards.

Twilight and company were just as eerily quiet as the rest of the town, each looking ahead at the strange blue glow of the cave that they approached. Twilight stopped and looked back, as the rest of the group continued on...

There, she saw a somewhat large group standing on the outer edge of the town, staring at them with slight fear in their eyes.

"Hey, Twi! You comin'?" Rainbow Dash called out from the front of the group.

Twilight, as if coming out of a trance, blinked, then turned to her friend. "Yeah, just wait up!". She hurried back into the group, and they carried on.

They all almost hurriedly trotted over the long, stone bridge, the glow of the cave disappearing as they did.

They made their way inside the cave, the air seemingly pressing down on their backs, combined with the almost freezing cold of the insides of the cave. "Hey, Anypony hear that?" Applejack said quietly, as the sound of hoofsteps began to emanate from behind them. Everypony looked back, and saw Fluttershy,who was a bit late coming inside.

"A-are you all sure it's safe?" She stammered, her voice as soft as a feather.

Rarity giggled. "Oh of course it is darling! It's not like there are poisonous spiders here or some- EEP!" She gasped as a spider scurried across the floor in front of her.

Applejack rolled her eyes, as they all continued on.

"You know Twi, maybe Fluttershy has a point here, are you sure it's safe?" Rainbow dash inquired, as she looked around.

"Didn't take ya'll for the cautious type, Rainbow!" Applejack mocked with a smile.

"Yeah! You were always the more dangerous type! Gasp! Wait! What if she's a SPY!?" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Ha, yeah, a spy! No question about it!" Said a peculiarly male voice.

Everypony began to laugh, before they all stopped and looked back. There, they saw a shadowy figure, standing on it's hind legs. It was no doubt a pony, nothing strange about his body type other than the way his legs were bent backwards. There was nothing but silence, before the stallion grinned, and lunged at Rarity.

She shrieked in fright, as her saddle bags were quickly taken from her. She sprang back into action, and began hunting the figure down. "Come back here you RUFFIAN!" She cried out, as she was in hot pursuit of the thief. Everyone except for Twilight and Fluttershy gave quick chase. Twilight stayed, amazed at how quick the stallion was able to pounce at the group, specifically knowing Rarity wouldn't be able to fight back as readily as the rest would. And it made sense that Fluttershy wasn't attacked because she didn't bring anything.

"See?! I told you it was dangerous! We should find them later and start heading back...I-if that's okay with you..." Fluttershy mumbled, circling her hoof on the ground.

Twilight sighed before patting Fluttershy on the back. "Celestia sent us here for a reason, so until I'm sure there's nothing here, we're not gonna leave, alright? Now let's keep going and hope we catch up with everypony else soon..." She said, as she continued on...

Meanwhile, everypony else were still chasing down that thief as if there was no tomorrow. Each pony cried out at him, telling him to give back that saddlebag, but he only laughed, as they came to a seven way fork in the cave. The thief took the one all the way to the right, as it suddenly began to give off a dim, blue glow. Suddenly, the cave was too dangerous to pass, as the cave expanded downwards with spikes gutting out of each edge.

The thief had no concern for them, as he slid down the steep downward slope. Everypony stopped before the steep slide, except Rarity, who was too concerned about the contents of her saddlebag then anything else at the moment.

Applejack attempted to grab on to Rarity, only to miss her by an inch, as she slid down, weaving her way through the spikes jutting out from the floor.

"Shoot!" She cried out, as she stomped her hoof on the ground. She huffed out, before turning back. "Alright ya'll, we need t' find ourselves another way down..." She said, as she put a hoof to her chin. Everypony else began to think as well.

Twilight suddenly came up from behind them, Fluttershy following close behind as she did. "Oh, there you all are! Did you catch the thief?" She said, as she looked around. "Hey, where's Rarity?" She asked. Everypony averted Twilight's gaze at the mention of Rarity.

"Well she uh..." Applejack began to speak up, but Pinkie finished her sentence.

"Shewentdownthatcreepyslopewithallthosesharppointyrocksandnowwe'rescaredshemightgethurtgoingdownorworseandthatmeaniewentdowntheretooand-"

"PINKIE!" Twilight exclaimed. "Slow down! You're losing me!" She sighed. "Alright, so the thief went down the slope with Rarity following behind him...then what?"

"Well...I don't really know..." Pinkie said, with a comical shrug.

Everypony else rolled their eyes.

"Great...now what?" Twilight said, as she looked around...

They all stood there, thinking, before Pinkie came up with an idea. "Hey! Let's split up through the other caves! We'll find another way to Rarity quicker that way!" She said. Everpony nodded at the thought of the idea, mostly because they had no other choice.

They all went back, and went a separate way, each of them taking a different cave which lightly glowed a different color...

This, is where the story of the cave begins...

and this is where it will all come together...