It was a snowy day at the Crystal Empire, there is talk of something up in the mountains and that somepony should go there to see what is up there. A group of ponies that were sent by Princess Cadence, left the empire to investigate the disturbance. They were a small group of unicorns, Mountain Climber, Investo Maker, and Jenny Pudo.

"I can't wait to see what kind of thing is up in the mountains. It could be gold! Or Jewels! Or-" Jenny Pudo interrupted Investo before he could finish his sentence.

"Don't go out of control or you'll get the ruby madness." she said with a smirk on her face.

The three ponies gave out a good laugh as they continued walking up the mountain.

After an hour of walking up the mountain, they finally made it to the mouth of the cave. Mountain Climber reached into his satchel to grab their flashlight helmets. He used his magic to levitate the helmets, giving the other two ponies and himself a helmet to wear. They turned on their lights and started their walk into the cave.

As they continued to walk through the cave, they were starting to get an eerie feeling that something was watching them.

"This cave is giving me the creeps." said Investo as he continued walking shakily.

Mountain Climber stopped as he looked with surprise. The other two ponies stopped as they caught up with Mountain Climber. It was a dead end.

"What is it? Have you found something?" said Jenny as she walked up to him.

"No." Said Mountain Climber. "Nothing, but a dead end."

"What the hell?!" said Investo in a fit of frustration. "So we came up here for nothing!?!? What a rip-off! I am now gonna-" Investo paused.

"LOOK DOWN UNDER YOUR HOOVES, MOUNTAIN!!" shouted Investo.

Mountain Climber looked down. He saw three pointed claws sticking out of the ice. Mountain Climber jumped back with surprise.
Jenny suddenly gasped from something completely different from the cave. The two unicorns looked towards her direction as Jenny walked backwards with a frightful look upon her face.

"It's…It's alive." she said with fear in her voice.

Something was definitely moving in the ice. The unknown being twitched through its ice barrier as if it were a newborn dragon coming out its egg. The ice began to crack. The next crack had a giant shard that flung past them. Then suddenly, the ground started to crack from whatever force that was coming from the unknown entity's icy prison. The mountain started to rumble.

The three unicorns looked around with fear and confusion as part of the cave blew up. More explosions came from the cave. The three stood close together back to back. Jenny looked up to notice that pieces of debris and snow falling from the top of the cave.

"Run for it!!" screamed Jenny as she and her partners ran to a safer area of the cave.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!" shouted Investo as tons of debris and snow fell over him.

Jenny dodged the falling debris in time and made it to a safe part of the cave. The debris and snow made the cave too foggy to see anything in front of her. Jenny got back up on her hooves and went on a search for her partners, only to find Mountain Climber who was found half way buried under snow and debris. She rushed over to him to see if her partner was still breathing.

"Are you OK?" she said with curiosity. Mountain Climber woke up and looked at her with half opened eyes.

"Yeah. I'll live." He replied with a bit of pain in his voice.

She began to pull him out of the debris. As he was finally pulled out, she noticed that his leg was bleeding. The blood had poured down his grey fur which was starting to make jenny feel a bit nauseous.

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok?" she asked in case he had a different reply from before.

"nnnggghhh! It hurts a lot." he said with a more painful tone.

"Here, I have some bandages."

Jenny went through her satchel to look for bandages. She finally found a roll of bandages which she kept in case of emergencies. She began to use her magic to tie up his wound. She applied pressure to his wound hoping to stop the bleeding. She felt a pulse from his leg. She thought that the pressure may have been working. She then looked up at Mountain Climber, who cocked an eyebrow as he looked around the foggy cave.

"Where's Investo?"

Jenny looked around the cave to see if there were any figures visible through the fog.

"There's no sign of Investo." said Jenny as she continued to look around the cave.

Mountain Climber cocked an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Mountain Climber could see a dark figure in the fog, but couldn't see the details of it. Jenny looked towards the same the direction that Mountain Climber was staring. Her flashlight helmet caught a glimpse of features of the figure. It had red eyes as if it were rabid. The face had scales and turtle-like features. The being looked at them with an evil grin upon its face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" screamed the two unicorns.

Over at the Crystal empire, ponies looked in awe as the mountain somehow shook violently. A crystal soldier hurried to the castle to inform the highnesses. He had trouble getting there because of all of the other ponies that had gathered around the empire to figure out the cause of the rumbling.

At the castle, Cadence and Shining Armor were looking at the Mountain as it rumbled violently. Cadence started to cringe.

"Sweet Celestia. What have I done." she thought.

A crystal soldier barged through the door running quickly towards Cadence and Shinning Armor. He stopped to catch his breath before he could say anything.

"Your Highnesses! Something is going on at the Mountain."

"We've noticed."said Shining Armor.

"Should we-" Cadence interrupted by raising a hoof.

"Send a search party IMMEDIATELY!!" shouted Cadence.

"Yes your Highness."

The crystal soldier saluted and quickly ran off to call a search party. Cadence started to shake and feel faint. Before she could walk, she started to fall.

"Woah there." said Shining Armor as he got her in time before she collapsed to the floor.

"Is there something wrong, Cadence?"

Cadence looked up to at still a bit shaky.

"Sweet Celestia. I may have sent those ponies to their deaths.", She said with a small and quivering voice.

"Come again?" said Shining Armor with a cocked eyebrow.

Cadence didn't reply. All she could do was to look upon the mountain where she had sent the three ponies.

The search party arrived at the scene an hour after the mountain had stopped shaking. They were now in front of the mouth of the cave that was sealed off by tons of debris and covering the entrance from the aftermath. A blue crystal soldier stood in front of them as they lined up in order.

"ATTENTION!!" shouted the blue crystal soldier as the other soldiers stood still in place.

"Our orders were to search for survivors. Leave no stone unturned. Do I make myself clear?".

"SIR YES SIR!" Said the soldiers before they scattered.

They searched through the mountain for what seemed like hours, digging under the snow in search for the explorers.

"Hey! I found somthin'! " shouted a soldier.

The others gathered to see what the soldier has found. What he found was one of the flashlight helmets the explorers would've used while in the cave.

"This is one of their helmets they used while they were in the cave."

The soldier held onto the helmet as he and the others continued their search through the snowy mountain. An un-crystalized soldier walked further from the search party only to find a pair of abnormal footprints.

"Hey! Come over here! I found mysterious tracks. They don't look like hoof prints!"

The soldiers ran towards his direction to see what he was talking about. They looked in awe as they stared at the unworldly footprints. The footprints had a five clawed-like foot structure and were buried deep within the snow. This thing must have been big. A purple crystalized soldier pointed a hoof.

"Say…Is that…..Blood?" he said as his eyes grew wide as dinner plates.

The soldiers looked at what is believed to be blood. They continued following the trail to find the source. The further they go, the footprints seemed to disappear from the falling snow. They stopped at the last pair of footprints.

"Sweet Celestia. What could this thing be?" said a soldier.

The wind began to pick up. It was blowing so hard that it could send a filly flying. One of the soldier's helmets went flying towards where the wind was blowing.

"We gotta go back!" said the blue crystalized soldier.

The soldiers began to head back towards the castle through the blizzard of the mountain. Little did they know that something was watching them the moment they stepped hoof around the mountain. It's red eyes looked down upon them as they headed down the mountain. It grinned menacingly as it turned around to go to find a spot where it could call home. Wherever it went, remained a mystery.

The soldiers walked towards Cadence with frowns upon their faces. A soldier stepped forward. He reached around his satchel and pulled out a helmet of one of the explorers. She levitated the helmet to get a closer look. She started to quiver.

"There was nopony to be found, your highness." said a soldier.

She stared down at floor for about twenty seconds, then looked back up to the soldier with a tear shedding out of her right eye.

"Did you find anything else?"

"Well…That's the thing…Further from the scene, we found abnormal footprints."

Cadence wiped her face then cocked an eyebrow.

"Abnormal footprints? What did they look like?"

The soldier put a hoof around his head.

"They…Didn't look pony-like."

"A dragon?" said Shining Armor.

"Possibly, but what kind of dragon would do with three innocent ponies."

"Anything else?" said Cadence.

The soldier started to get nervous. A bead of sweat came from his head to his muzzle.

"Well…We did…Find something else." The soldier went silent for about ten seconds.

Cadence cocked an eyebrow, "Well?"

The soldier couldn't speak. He was too scared to to tell.

"Come on!!! Spit it out!!" shouted Cadence out of frustration.

The soldier couldn't hold it in anymore. He finally answered.

"There was blood near one of the pairs of footprints."

Cadence's eyes went wide as dinner plates. She fell silent.

"Did you follow the tracks?" said Shining Armor.

"We followed them, but the further we went, they started to vanish from the falling snow as if they weren't there at all. Whatever it is, was walking away from the empire."

The room went silent. The other soldiers were pondering to one another about what this thing could be.

"Whatever that thing is, I hope it stays away from anypony else or my empire." pondered Cadence.

"Your orders, your highnesses?"

Cadence got back to reality.

"You are excused for the day." said Cadence.

"Yes your highness."

The soldiers saluted and left the castle leaving Shining Armor and Cadence alone in the throne room.

For the past three hours, Shining Armor was pondering of what he and Cadence were told of the search.

"What could this thing be? It can't be Sombra. He doesn't have claws, plus, we defeated him with the crystal heart. Do you have any idea what we're dealing with Cadence?"

Cadence sat on her throne looking down sadly at the helmet of one of the explorers. Shining Armor cocked an eyebrow.

"Cadence? Are you OK?"

She didn't reply, nor looked at him.

"Cadence?"

Cadence finally looked upon Shining Armor.

"What am I gonna tell him." she said quietly with sadness in her voice.

"What was that?" said Shining Armor out of curiosity.

"One of the explorers, Jenny Pudo, has a son waiting for her in Ponyville…Now that she may be dead…How can I tell her son that?"

Cadence started shedding tears and sobbed. Shining Armor walked towards her and sat down next to her and gave her a hug.

"There, there. I know its hard to tell, but you have to tell him."

Cadence looked upon Shining Armor and sniffled.

"But he's just a colt. It'll be hard for him to grow up thinking for the rest of his life that his mother passed away when he was just a colt."

Shining Armor began to ponder. He thought of what to do with Jenny Pudo's son. He then had an idea.

"Does Mrs. Pudo have any relatives?"

"She has nopony else in her family, but her son. Her father and mother passed away a few years ago and she has no brother or sister to look after him."

"How about any close friends that are willing to adopt him? Or maybe there can be somepony we know that can look after him?"

Cadence's eyes grew. She began to make a little of a smile.

"Sweet Celestia, I never thought of that. Shiny, you are a genius."

She gave him a hug and a kiss. She got out of her throne and ran towards the gate.

"Could you stay here and look after the empire while I'm out, Shiny?" she said as she made it to the gate.

"Where are you going?"

She turned her head.

"I have an idea. I'll be back soon."

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

so how do you like it so far?

I'm not that much of a writer, but I'm willing to try my best to entertain you fanfic readers out there.