A Cherished Storm

Chapter Seven: First Contact

"Excuse me, ma'am, would you happen to know anything about strange creatures who walk on their hind legs?" Spitfire asked the old mare sitting at a table with a book in front of her. She looked around as she waited for the elderly mare to answer, before finally asking again, this time louder, "Um, excuse me... Miss?"

The old, gray mare looked up from her book, "What's that? Oh, hello there, young'un! What can I do for ya this fine day?”

Spitfire sighed and put on a polite smile, “I was wondering if you knew anything about strange creatures who walk on their hind legs?”

The old mare blinked and straightened her reading glasses, “Preachers talking about their kegs? You must mean them there orange grove ponies, always talkin' about their citrus ciders... Nasty stuff if you ask me. Now, when I was a young'un, I knew some good ciders... Let me tell ya, I knew this one stallion that made-”

“Uh, ma'am?” Spitfire interrupted.

The elder stopped talking and looked at Spitfire with narrowed eyes, her thick reading glasses sliding down her face, “Oh my, young'uns are so rude nowadays! Can't even wait their turns for talkin'...”

Spitfire sighed and rubbed the back of her head, “I'm sorry.”

The old mare nodded her head, “That's fine, dear... Was there something ya needed?”

Spitfire blinked twice before shaking her head. She spoke loudly, “Yes, do you know anything about strange, two-legged creatures? By the shore?”

The mare looked around on the ground frantically before sighing, “You tryin' to scare me? I don't see any leeches on the floor... I don't even see a floor! Just dirt...”

Spitfire rolled her eyes, “Okay, this isn't going anywhere... Thank you for your time, ma'am!”

The mare waved her hoof, “Goodbye, young'un. Pleasure talkin' with ya!”

Spitfire walked down the hard-packed dirt road of the tiny village of Buckingham. The village was small, tiny in comparison to Ponyville, but had buildings of much the same design lining the road on both sides, leaving large enough gaps between them and the paths to allow for yard space.

Spitfire sighed, “I've been at this for an hour... Is there no pony that knows anything?” she looked around and spotted another resident; a unicorn with light-brown mane and tan coat, trimming a bush in front of her house. She made her way to the unicorn and put on another smile, “Excuse me, ma'am?

The brown-maned unicorn lowered the floating clippers to the ground and turned to Spitfire, “Oh, hello there, stranger! What can I do for you?”

“I was just wondering if you know anything about any strange creatures who only walk on their hind legs?” Spitfire asked.

The mare brought a hoof up to her chin, “Strange creatures? I haven't seen any creatures like that around here. And I haven't heard anything about them, either. Who are they? Are they dangerous?” she asked, fear beginning to seep through her voice.

Spitfire sighed and shrugged, “Well, we don't know if they're dangerous to us ponies or not... But they've been having at it with the forests and hurting the wildlife.”

The mare picked the clippers up with her magic and placed them by the door. She turned to Spitfire, “Well, we have enough problems, with the food shortage and all,” she brought her hoof up, “My name's Lily Blossom; you can call me Lily.”

Spitfire brought her hoof up to meet Lily's, “And I'm Spitfire.”

“Pleased to meet you, Spitfire. If you'd like, you can make yourself at home. I can try and help you in any way I can to find these strangers you speak of,” Lily said, turning toward the door to her house.

Spitfire nodded and followed her inside, “Alright, that sounds like a plan.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked down the rows of stalls in the open market, looking through the goods for what they desired: Food.

Rainbow glanced to her left at the following Fluttershy, “I still can't believe you had to go and give all of your food to those animals...”

Fluttershy dropped her gaze slightly, “I'm sorry, Rainbow... but those animals were hungry. They needed food in their bellies or they would've starved.”

“Yeah, I know...” Rainbow sighed, “I know you did the right thing, but at the same time, I think they would've found food on their own.”

Fluttershy shook her head and looked at Rainbow, “It's not good to just assume, Rainbow Dash. What if they couldn't find food? I don't like that thought...”

Rainbow peeked into another stall and found nothing, “I guess... Well, right now we're the ones that can't find food,” she stopped and looked at all the stalls around them, “I mean, there's at least a dozen stalls here, and none of them have any food,” she stopped at another stall and picked up a small object, “Just junk, like this thing.”

The pony manning the stall looked at her angrily, “Hey! That there is not junk!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and placed the object back on the stall.

Fluttershy looked at the object and then turned toward the stall owner, “What is it?”

The owner picked up the object and looked to address Fluttershy, “This, my friend, is a good luck charm.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “A rock?”

“Well, yes... It is a rock. But not just any rock! Oh, no! This is a rock from the caves behind the Great Rainbow Falls!” The salespony said proudly, “They say that in just the right conditions, the stone will glow the many colors of the never-fading rainbows of the falls,” he glanced over at Rainbow Dash, “Even brighter than that dyed mane of yours.”

Rainbow's eyes went wide in surprise before narrowing directly on the pony across the stall, “Dyed? You think I dyed this? This is natural, thanks.”

The salespony laughed, “Alright, whatever you say, kid. But I'll tell ya, this stone... It's quite amazing. A stone that can glow like a rainbow. Good luck, I tell ya!”

Fluttershy's eyes glowed with wonder, “How much for one?”

“Nope,” Rainbow said, looking at Fluttershy, “We need to find food, Fluttershy... Not some supposed glowing rainbow rock that's supposed to bring good luck,” she looked at the salespony, “Thanks, buddy. But no thanks.”

The salespony shrugged, “Eh, your choice. Good luck finding food around here, though, with the food shortage and everything...”

Rainbow blinked, “Food shortage? What do you mean?”

“Well,” the pony began, “all the crops have been dying, and no pony knows why. Some sort of plant virus or something.”

Rainbow groaned, “Oh, great! We're down supplies and there's none in sight... Is there anypony around here that would have any to spare?”

The salespony looked off into the distance and pointed at a large house on a hill, just outside of town, “The mayor lives up at that house on the hill. He may have some, if he hasn't already given it out to the villagers.”

Rainbow nodded, “Alright, thanks,” she motioned for Fluttershy to follow, “Come on, Fluttershy, we have a mayor to talk to.”

Fluttershy nodded slowly and followed, “Do you think that the mayor will have anything to spare?”

Rainbow continued at her pace, “I hope so, otherwise we're not going to have much food. I mean, you had the most food out of all of us. Most of mine was bad... And Spitfire didn't bring any, but had plenty of bits to buy more. But we can't find food to spend the bits on... So if the mayor doesn't have food, then we only have what little I have... Guess we could eat grass if we had to...”

Fluttershy sighed sadly, “I'm sorry...”

Rainbow shook her head, “Don't worry about it... yet.”

The duo made their way up the winding dirt path along the hill, stopping at a wooden gate. Rainbow tried to open the gate with little success, before finally opting to jump over it. Fluttershy flew over.

Rainbow Dash looked around the yard as she made her way to the large house in front of her, “Nice place this guy has.”

Fluttershy nodded, “Yes, but it's kinda... barren? There's not even a single tree on his property...”

Rainbow shrugged and stepped up on the porch, “You can complain to him if it upsets you... But let's ask about the food first.”

Rainbow walked up to the door and knocked. After a moment of no answer, she knocked again, this time slightly harder.

Fluttershy looked around, “Do you think he's home?”

Rainbow knocked again, “I don't know... I-” the door opened, revealing a tall stallion with lime-green coat and blond mane. Rainbow looked up at him, “Uh, hey! You wouldn't happen to be the mayor, would ya?”

The stallion nodded, “I am. Can I help you?”

Rainbow jumped away from the door slightly and straightened herself. She smiled, “Yeah, we'd like to talk to ya about possibly obtaining some food?”

The mayor shook his head, “I have none to give. The town has seen a shortage of food in the past week, and we're trying to survive with what we've got right now.”

“Oh,” Rainbow said with a sigh, “Well, hope the village finds some food, then. We won't be going back to where we come from for another week at least... But we'll be sure to see if they can send any food your way when we go back.”

The mayor nodded and smiled, “Thank you. We would be very grateful for any assistance. At least until we are able to pick ourselves back up. We're not in too desperate a state right now, but I'd say a week longer, and we may be hurting.”

Rainbow nodded, “No problem, I'll see what I can do.”

The mayor nodded again with a smile and closed the door.

As the door latched shut, Rainbow turned to Fluttershy, “We should go find Spitfire. If there's no food here, we need to find some somewhere else.”

Fluttershy nodded and followed Rainbow back to the village market. They looked around for a sign of Spitfire.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy!”

They turned around; Spitfire walked up to them with a neutral face.

Rainbow grinned, “Hey, we were coming to find ya. Find out anything?”

Spitfire shook her head, “Not a thing. I did talk to one pony who had told me about food shortages in the village. Says they started about a week ago.”

Rainbow sighed, “Yeah, we've heard about them, too... There's no food for purchase here. With Fluttershy's bags empty, we're not gonna have food for the rest of the trip.”

Spitfire nodded, “Don't worry, we'll have to meet up with Soarin's group soon. We'll see if they have any food for us, at least enough for us to head up to Newpony to get supplies there... Hope you like kelp, because that's basically all they have.”

Fluttershy looked at her, “Kelp is okay. I've only had it once.”

Rainbow sighed, “I'm not huge on kelp... Do they have anything else?”

Spitfire laughed, “Maybe, it's a fairly large town. Just saying that they mostly have kelp, being right beside the ocean and all. Anyway, back on track; no pony has seen or heard of the two-legged strangers, which suggests that they either have not expanded as far as we originally thought, or they didn't land in this area,” she nodded up to the sky, “In any case, we'll find out more when we meet up with Soarin', so we should probably go.”

Rainbow nodded, “We're ready.”

Spitfire turned to launch herself into the air, “Okay, let's go.”

Fluttershy flew several feet behind Rainbow Dash and Spitfire, keeping up with their slowed pace. She glanced down at the ground far below and gulped. She had gotten better about her fear of heights, but it still didn't help to be at cloud level for so long. She turned her attention to what was in front of her, trying to keep her eyes off the ground.

Fluttershy sighed, So long... How long has it been since we left Buckingham? It has to have been a few hours, at least... She looked ahead at the two pegasi in front of her, I wonder if we can stop for a break soon... I'm hungry, she felt the fatigue in her wings, and tired... She slowed her pace and panted slightly.

Rainbow turned her head to check on Fluttershy and sighed, “Hold on, Spitfire... We need to wait for Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy caught up and stopped, “Um, could we stop to take a break, please?”

Rainbow nodded and turned to Spitfire, “What do ya think? Do we have time?”

Spitfire nodded, “I think we do, we still have several hours before we have to meet with Soarin's group at the nearby Snow Peaks camp. I think we can afford a half-hour break.”

Rainbow nodded and looked around for a place to rest, “There's a cloud. We can rest on that,” she motioned for Fluttershy to follow and they made their way to the nimbus.

Fluttershy landed on the puffy, white cloud and settled herself down into a relaxed sit, “Thank you. My wings were getting tired,” her stomach growled, “And maybe I was getting a little hungry, too.”

Rainbow sat down and looked through her bags, “Well, we haven't eaten anything today. Now's as good a time as any, I guess. What do you guys want? I have... Apples, hay, oats, and some random vegetables.”

Spitfire made herself comfortable and shrugged, “Eh, whatever is fine.”

Rainbow tossed her an apple and turned Fluttershy, “What do you want?”

Fluttershy thought about it, “What vegetables do you have?”

Rainbow searched through the bag, “Uh, I have some carrots, some celery... And that's it.”

“I'll take a carrot,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

Rainbow tossed her a carrot, which she almost dropped. Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked into the bags with a sigh, “I sure hope Soarin' has some food; we're running out fast,” she grabbed herself an apple and closed the flaps on the bag and fastened them, “And I wonder what happened to all the food in Buckingham... It doesn't make sense that they'd just run out all of a sudden.”

Fluttershy finished chewing her bite of carrot, “Do you think it has anything to do with the strangers?”

Spitfire swallowed her bit of apple, “I'm willing to bet they have something to do with it. I mean, think about it. They say the crops started dying around a week ago, right?” the others nodded, “Well, we've been traveling for about two days at the speed that we've been going. I'd say that the Snow Peaks messenger, Swift Passage, got to Canterlot from the main Snow Peaks outpost in about the same time. He said he left for Canterlot after they realized the strangers were a problem, which means they were probably here for a couple days before...” she stopped to think about it.

Rainbow picked up where she left off, “Which means that they would have arrived at around the same time as the food shortages in Buckingham!”

Spitfire nodded, “Exactly. They may have brought plant viruses with them from wherever they came from... But it still doesn't make sense. Buckingham is several hours away from the shore, how would the crops get infected so quickly?”

Fluttershy finished her carrot, “Maybe it's just coincidence then.”

Spitfire sighed, “Yeah, it would have to be... As far as I can tell, there's no plant life between here and Buckingham that's infected, so-”

A noise echoed from the ground below them.

Spitfire blinked, “Was that... a whinny?”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy nodded. Rainbow slowly made her way to the edge of the cloud, “And voices-” she poked her head over the edge and gasped, “Oh my gosh...”

Spitfire made her way to the edge of the cloud and peeked over before pulling Rainbow back a little bit, “Shh! Don't draw attention to us.”

Rainbow nodded and peeked over the edge again. She whispered, “Well, the messenger was right about one thing... They do have horses.”

Fluttershy's eyes widened and she made her way to the edge to investigate, “Are they what-” she gulped, “what I think they are?”

Rainbow nodded at her and glanced back down at the ground, “The creatures that Swift Passage was talking about.”

Far below the cloud, three of the two-legged strangers rode on large horses along a break in the woods around them that passed as a road. The one in the front rode on a brown steed, and wore heavy armor that covered a majority of his body; his head was left bare, allowing his shoulder-length hair to flow in the wind. On his side was a long, double-edged sword, neatly sheathed in a scabbard. The creatures in the back wore different attire. The one on the left rode on a black horse and wore lighter armor of dyed, green leather. He had a bow slung around his back, and a knife sheathed at his waist. The final creature seemed much older than the rest; he had long, gray hair and a rough beard. He rode on a white steed and wore better-stitched clothing of purple and white, topped off with chain mail across his chest. He had a knife sheathed at his side as well.

The ponies looked at each other before glancing back down at the unsuspecting creatures below.

The heavily-armored creature in the front spoke up in a gruff voice, “Bah! All we've found so far are strange creatures; nothing even close to intelligent!”

The old man spoke up, “And that's a bad thing? It's good that there are no other humans here. They would just interfere with our colonization efforts if there were. We would have to be diplomatic if there were humans here.”

Rainbow Dash looked at her two companions, “Humans? I guess that's what they are?” she glanced back down at the humans.

The armored human continued his ranting, “But, that's no fun! We're not getting much action right now. Just scouting around for nothing.”

The old man shook his head, “This is not for nothing, Des. We need to scout for resources: food, fresh water, valuable metals.”

Des groaned, “Fine, fine... But still, does it have to be so-” Des cried out as his brown steed flipped him over it's head and collapsed to the ground. Des landed several feet in front of it in a jumbled pile of metal.

The rest of the humans dismounted and walked to the fallen horse. The old man knelt down beside the leather-clad human and looked at the horse, “Status, Adler?”

Adler moved the horse's foreleg, causing it to flinch in pain, “Broken leg I think, Gale.”

Gale nodded and placed a hand gently on the horse. A faint white glow surrounded his hand and the horse's body. He put on a look of concentration as the glow pulsed from his hand. After a moment, the glow faded and he rose to face Des, “My specialty is not in healing magics. There's nothing I can do for the horse.”

Des roared in anger and kicked the horse with a metal-tipped foot, “Stupid horse!”

Fluttershy gasped and Rainbow launched herself from the cloud. Spitfire grabbed her tail with her teeth and pulled her back.

Rainbow looked at her angrily, “What? We have to help him!”

Spitfire sighed heavily and shook her head, “Did you hear them? They don't know about us... That puts us at an advantage. These humans are clearly violent creatures; let's not blow our cover and lose that advantage.”

Fluttershy gulped and looked down at the scene, “I hope he's okay...”

Des spat on the ground and walked over to the side of the path, “Well, I've got just the remedy to take the pain out of that leg...” he picked up a large stone the size of his head and walked back to the group.

Adler shook his head, “What are you doing, Des?”

Des grunted and lifted the rock over his head, “I'll show you what I'm doing. Putting a damned, worthless horse out of its misery!” he threw the rock down.

Thud.

Fluttershy gasped audibly, “No!”

Rainbow and Spitfire's jaws dropped. Rainbow shook her head, “He... I can't...” she tried launching herself from the cloud again. Spitfire pulled her back once more. Rainbow growled and tried kicking her off, “What are you doing? Let me go!”

Spitfire pulled her back harder, causing Rainbow to crash back down to the cloud, “We-we can't yet. We'll see what we can do for the horse when the humans are gone...”

Rainbow sighed, “If we can do anything... I hope you know what you're doing, Spitfire... Because I sure as hay don't...”

They looked back over the edge and gasped.

Gale had his hand raised in a fist; a white glow surrounding it and Des, who was floating in the air. “What do you think you're doing?! We do not behave as savages, Des!” he looked down at the motionless horse and shook his head, “We could have done something for the steed, Des. Do you not have enough brains to realize that?”

Des strained against the magic surrounding him, “Alright, I'm sorry! Just... let me down!”

Gale grunted and released his grip, allowing the armored human to fall back to the ground with a thud. He walked over to Des and brought his head up to face him with his hand, “If you commit such mindless violence again, I will use that armor of yours and crush you with it.”

Des nodded and rose to his feet, “Alright, point taken,” he looked at the horse and shook his head, “Well, we can take it back to camp for a weeks worth of food, I guess.”

Adler mounted back on his horse, “We could, but we should continue to search for other resources. I, myself, wouldn't mind deer for tonight's supper.”

Gale nodded and mounted on his steed as well, “Yes. If we are unlucky with the catch, we can come back for the horse. That is if the wildlife hasn't gotten to it first,” he looked at the horseless Des, “You get to work your legs a bit. Follow beside us.”

The humans continued on at a trot, with Des jogging alongside them, leaving the fallen horse where it lay.

When the humans were a safe distance away, the ponies flew down to where the horse lay.

Fluttershy knelt down by the horse; a small pool of red began to paint the grass beneath it. She swallowed hard and gently placed a hoof on the horse's side, tears building up in her eyes, “I-I..How can...” she swallowed again.

Rainbow Dash and Spitfire walked up to join her by the horse. They looked down at him sadly.

Fluttershy gently pet the horse's side and gasped; the horse slowly opened it's eyes. It made no noise. It didn't try to resist. It just stared with pained eyes. Fluttershy blinked, releasing her built-up tears, "Oh, you poor thing..."

Rainbow looked down at Fluttershy, “Hey... You okay?” she asked gently.

Fluttershy bowed her head and shook it, “No... No, I'm not...” she continued to pet the horses side and spoke to it softly, “I-it'll be okay, big guy. I-I know that there... that there's a lot of pain. But-” she sniffled, her tears landing on the horse, “But it'll be over soon...” she broke down and sobbed, “I promise it will be...”

Spitfire looked at Rainbow, “Is... there anything we can do?”

Rainbow slowly shook her head, “I don't think there is anything we can do... Just let Fluttershy do this... She's had to do this before with animals...”

Fluttershy shot her a look, “I have?!” she spat out through pained sobs, “I've never had to see a creature hurt or-or killed from violence...”

Fluttershy turned back to the horse and tried to put on a comforting smile, “Close your eyes and go to sleep... There won't-” she sobbed again, “won't be anymore pain... I promise...”

The horse blinked at her slowly with pained eyes. Fluttershy lowered her forehead down to lay on the horse's torso, feeling it raise and lower with his shallow breathing. She swallowed and sang to him softly:

“Go to sleep and brave the darkest night,

And soon you'll wake to the morning's light.

Don't be scared, embrace your dreams,

And all will be as it seems.

A morning warm and full of shine

You'll wake up and all is fine.

So go to sleep and brave the night,

And wake to day's morning light...”

Fluttershy finished her song and gasped at the stillness she felt. She lifted her head slightly to look into the horse's eyes; all life had left those innocent eyes. She had sent him on his way to find peace. She laid her head against his body and cried openly.

Rainbow looked at Spitfire before kneeling down beside Fluttershy. She looked down at the horse and opened her mouth to speak, before shaking her head and looking at Fluttershy. She gently placed a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.

Fluttershy shot up and launched herself into Rainbow, taking her into a pained embrace.

A tear ran down Rainbow's face as she returned the embrace of her mourning friend, “It'll be okay... I promise.”

Spitfire looked at them sadly before turning to face the direction the humans had gone. She sighed, “I know this is a bad time... But we need to follow those humans before they do more harm-”

Rainbow held up a hoof up to her, telling her to give them a few minutes first.

Spitfire opened her mouth to speak before closing it and nodding.

Rainbow nodded and let Fluttershy continue her grieving, “It will be okay...”

Spitfire led the others along the path the humans had taken an hour before. She sighed, “Where did they go? I know they came this way!” she looked around and motioned for the others to fly with her above the trees.

Rainbow Dash flew behind with Fluttershy. She looked at her friend, whose eyes were still swollen from the incident earlier, “Hey, how ya holding up?”

Fluttershy looked at her, “I think I'm okay now... But that image, it's...” she sighed, “It's still stuck in my head, Rainbow Dash. I want it to go away, but it won't. I just see...” she shook her head, “I just want to make sure the humans don't hurt any more creatures...”

Rainbow nodded, “Don't worry, we'll stop them... Though, I don't know how with Spitfire keeping us from doing anything...”

Spitfire looked behind her, “We can scare them off without alerting them to our existence.”

“How, though?” Rainbow asked.

Spitfire looked ahead, “Well, think about it. We're pegasi; we can manipulate weather. We can bring in storm clouds and use them as cover.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, I've thought about that. Only one problem: where do we get the storm clouds?”

Spitfire sighed, “True... We'd need storm specialists from Cloudsdale, wouldn't we?”

Rainbow laughed, “Well, little do you know, I'm a storm specialist. Not officially, but I know my way around storm clouds... The problem is that the storm clouds are manufactured and packed with electricity on site... So we can't just make them out of thin air.”

“Oh,” Spitfire nodded, “And that's why I'm a Wonderbolt, and not a weather pony...”

A shriek echoed through the woods, causing the ponies to stop. Fluttershy gasped.

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, “What was that?”

Fluttershy flew off in the direction of the sound, the others followed. Fluttershy looked behind her, “That sounded like a forest creature... Maybe a deer.”

Rainbow gasped, “That means the humans are nearby!”

Spitfire flew ahead of them and stopped, causing them to do the same, “Which means we're taking to the skies, come on!”

Fluttershy bit her lip and followed them, “But... the deer!”

Spitfire nodded, “Don't worry, we'll find a way to help the deer... I won't let what happened to the horse happen again!”

They followed the sounds into a clearing, right up against a lone cliff. Spitfire looked around, “I thought it came over here...”

Rainbow looked down, “Maybe it went into that cave- Wait, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy dove down through the clearing, into the cave.

Rainbow groaned, “Come on, Spitfire!” she flew down after Fluttershy, with Spitfire in tow.

The interior of the cave was cold and damp, as well as dark. But as they walked deeper in, the cave lit up; crystals glowed in red and blue, green and yellow, providing enough light to maneuver.

Rainbow looked around in awe, “What is this place?”

Spitfire shrugged, “I have no idea... But where's Fluttershy?”

Rainbow shook her head, “I don't know... Fluttershy!” she called out, her voice echoing against the cold, stone walls of the cave. After a moment, she called again, “Fluttershy! Where are you?”

“I'm in here,” Fluttershy's voice echoed through the caves.

Rainbow and Spitfire followed the sound and found Fluttershy, alone, in a large chamber with many glowing, colored crystals hanging from the ceiling.

Rainbow ran up to Fluttershy, “That was a bit reckless, don't ya think?”

Fluttershy sighed and nodded, “Maybe... but I was worried about the deer... But, look at this place!”

Rainbow grinned, “That salespony in Buckingham was talking about stone that glowed the colors of a rainbow... He'd probably love this.”

“Did you see that?” a voice echoed through the caves.

Spitfire shushed Rainbow and Fluttershy.

“Yeah, were those little flying horses?” a gruff voice asked.

“Not quite, Des. But I'd say that they were equines...” and older voice said.

“Well, they sure were strange...”

“Des, we're in a land with a ton of strange creatures,” a third voice echoed.

“Shut it, Adler.”

“Well, either way, they went into the cave with that large, winged beast with scorpion tail...”

“The manticore, you mean?”

The ponies' eyes widened.

“Whatever you call it, Gale... It's still dangerous.”

“That it is, we'll destroy the entrance. It won't be able to get out then.”

“But what about the deer?”

“We'll go back for the horse, it's getting late... Now stand back while I charge my magic.”

Rainbow gasped, “We have to get out of here!”

Fluttershy looked around the room, “But, what about the deer? We can't just leave it in here!”

Spitfire pulled her toward the entrance, “We don't have time, Fluttershy, we have to-”

A loud explosion shook the cave, causing the ponies to fall to the ground. Stones and glowing shards of crystal crashed to the ground around them. After a few moments, the shaking ceased and all became quiet.

Spitfire looked around at the mess and helped Fluttershy up, “Is everypony alright?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, but I have a bad feeling about what just happened."

Spitfire nodded, “Let's head to the exit... Though, I'm afraid to see what we may find...”

The ponies ran to the exit and stopped at a rock wall.

Rainbow walked to the wall and placed a hoof on it, “Please tell me we took a wrong turn...”

Spitfire sighed and shook her head, “We didn't...”

Rainbow turned around and bucked the wall as hard as she could manage. A stone fell to the ground.

She exhaled deeply and lowered herself to the ground, “So... we're trapped in a cave with a manticore and barely any food to survive on...”

Spitfire nodded slowly, “Well, once we don't show up to the meet with Soarin', he'll search for us... If he doesn't find us, he'll send one of his team back to Canterlot to brief the princesses...”

Rainbow sighed and laid her head back against the wall, “We're doomed...”