Chapter 4

A Doozy Exploration.

Many months later...

"Hurry up will you?" One Pegasus in the group of 4 says as they walk along a path in the woods. She was flying ahead, leaving the rest behind, thus, prompting them to hurry up.

"Be patient. The world is not going to end if we don't rush." An earth pony in the group says, shaking thorns and leaves from her hair, and somewhat bumping into another pony, a Unicorn in the group, who didn't seem to notice, or apologize for that matter.

"Oh, why did we have to take the more... Rigorous way? Couldn't we have just taken the usual route like what everyone around here takes? The unicorn says, using a cloth to wipe her face, which in truth, was not showing any signs of sweating. "This heat out here is making my face all wet, and my hair is losing it's curls, and I just did my hair once we left. That town that we are going too better have some pony who knows how to do hair."

The earth pony rolls her eyes, looking at the unicorn as she fixes her hat so the sun won't bare down on her face. "Quit whining. I told you before we left, we have to go this way, the map told us to. What would happen if we went another way? We may have been lost by now, and you would have been complaining even more."

"Well I should have properly prepared myself if I wasn't rushed like we are now. I could have brought my cosmetics emergency kit if something were to happen, or my jeweled umbrella just in case it rained, or..."

Another earth pony in the group was bouncing behind the arguing bunch. Her tail twist back and forth, and her cutie mark starts to pulsate. Gasping, She interrupts the Unicorn by landing on her head, knocking her bonnet off her head from the impact. The earth pony then shouts, "We're here!! I can sense it, and I can smell it, and it smells delicious!!"

"About time! This travel was boring!" The Pegasus speeds towards their location, completely leaving the group behind as they start to run. The Unicorn gets up and wipes her bonnet off and places it back on her head, shouting at them to wait for her.

"You guys could have at least helped me up! Oh, this might be my last travel, then it's back home to my parents." She then runs to catch up to them.

Landing on the soft grass, the Pegasus stops to let the group catch up. Once they do they began to look around at the small, yet bustling town full of ponies and foals. One pony inside of their home had just finished baking a fresh batch of bread. Excited, the giddy earth pony again rolls down the Unicorn and rushes towards the house, but is stopped by the group. Telling her to control herself, they ask around to find some information about the location that they are at.

They are then approached by a mature looking pony, who just came out of a school. "Hello there young fillies. I am a teacher here at Clydesdale. Is your parents around? Are you four lost?" She happily introduces herself and asks for their parents.

The Pegasus flies over to the teacher. "Sorry, we're not lost, and our parents aren't traveling with us. We're an exploration team, solving mysteries and problems, finding treasure, and getting in trouble. My name is Speed Reader, the fastest Pegasus alive! pleasure to meet you!"

She shakes the teachers hoof, who was slightly confused by her introduction. 'A young group of fillies traveling alone?' The teacher thought to herself.

"I know it may seem like a stretch, but trust me sugar cube, it's what our cutie marks is telling us to do, this is our destiny." The smart earth pony in the group says to the teacher. "My name is Keen, the intelligent one in this here group."

The unicorn walks up, shaking the teachers hoof in a classy fashion. "Good day darling, my name is Bodacious, the more sophisticated and more stylized filly in the bunch. I come from a line of rich ponies who crafts specialized objects from rare jewels, as well as..."

"Being annoying?" Speed Reader interrupts, making Bodacious' horn twitch a bright green. The other earth pony bounces up with a piece of bread in her mouth, spitting some out while talking.

"Hi! I'm Doozy! And I have doozies whenever danger is near, when we're at a location, or when we have to find someone! Oh, and I'm a chef who travels to find exotic foods. Oh, this bread is amazing!"

"Interesting." the teacher says, rubbing the bottom of her chin. "But, what is a group of fillies doing her in this small town? Surely there isn't anything out of the ordinary here. I'm surprised any other pony would come here for any other business besides trade." Right when the teacher says that, Quest, with her head down, walks alongside Silver Shade, who was talking to her and smiling. Doozy's tail and cutie mark pulsates and her eyes dilate.

Doozy zooms over to Quest and Silver, who were both equally shocked at how fast she came towards them. "Hi! I'm Doozy! What's your names?"

Silver, baffled, is the first to speak, while Quest simply gives a rather sad face. "Good day, I'm Silver Shade. This is my friend Quest." Quest simply uses her wing to wave a hello back.

"Wait a minute Doozy. Are you telling me that this whole journey was a search mission?" Keen says, walking towards Silver and Quest.

"Search Mission?" Silver repeats.

"It appears so. My name is Keen." She points to the others in the group, "And this is Speed Reader and Bodacious. We are an exploration team. As we were about to tell Ms. Teacher, the group and I was sent here to this town for a specific reason." She pulls out a map. It was glowing a bluish color, and each of the groups cutie marks were shown on it, hovering over the destination that they are at. Most of the map was fairly blank, signaling that those places were unexplored by the team.

"You see, this map is magical. What more can we say? It points us to locations to either solve, learn, or stop something from happening, or in this case, find some pony, or ponies. Why? Well, the outcomes are always different." Keen adds.

"So what do these two have to do with the map, or any of you in general?" The teacher says. She moves closer to Silver, and glancing at Quest, who's hair is covering half of her face to where you can only see one side.

"That's the point darling. We as a group must find the answer out as to why for ourselves. It is challenging, but in return we learn from it." Bodacious answers.

"And we get tasty treats too!" Doozy jumps in.

"Well, thanks for telling me, but I don't think I will be of much help anyway..." Quest says quietly with her head down as she walks away.

Silver catches up to her. "Quest, they're an exploration team. Maybe they came to recruit you. You will be perfect for them."

Quest shrugs, slowly walking away towards her home.

"Quest..." Silver quietly says. The teacher places her hoof onto her chest where her heart is.

"What's the matter with her? She's acting like she fell in a hole or something." Speed Reader shouts out, flying over to the teacher and Silver.

"She's been through a lot these past months. Me, Silver, and the rest of the town are doing the best we can to get her back into high spirits again."

"What happened?" Keen asked, but before the teacher can respond, Doozy's tail wiggles, and her cutie mark pulsates again, this time much harder than before. "Another one of your doozies? But I thought this was a search mission. Are you telling me there's something else here?" She asks.

From the distance, a loud roar can be heard. Everyone in the town pauses from their activities to find where the roar came from. Out of nowhere, a pony screams at the top of their lungs as they point up. Giant wings cover most of the sky from the ponies as the winds rapidly pick up.

"Oh my..." Bodacious says.

"Is that... A Dragon?!" Keen shouts.

"DRAGON!" Doozy yells out, making the town ponies scream and run, dropping everything they had to go hide inside their homes. Quest shoots her head up to see the ferocious dragon from above, seeing the thick black smoke from it's nose and it's bright yellow bright yellow eyes. No pony in this town, including her, has seen a dragon before in their lives, so the sight of it makes her hair on her head stand up.

"Quest!" Silver runs to towards her, "We should hide before that thing sees us!" Quest nods and prepares to run with Silver. When hearing the teacher shout out, and seeing Keen and the rest of the team speed on towards the direction where the dragon was headed she stops. Silver, who didn't notice that she stopped, keeps on running out of fear.

The teacher quickly turns to Quest to get her to a safe place, only to realized that she too has gone off into the direction of the group, who was already on hot pursuit of the dragon.

Once again, Speed Reader was in front of the group of explorers, excited about the whole ordeal. "Who knew that the map would lead us to something like a dragon! It would have been boring it this whole journey was just to find some random fillies."

"I kind of prefer to find some random fillies than follow a dragon, especially since it doesn't know how to keep it's gas inside of its body or whatnot." Bodacious says, growing tired from all the running.

"But something like a big scary dragon might lead us to something amazing! Like food, or treasure chests with food in them!" Doozy shouts while her cutie mark pulsates at a quicker pace.

"Or worse..." Bodacious says, chills going down her spine.

"Would you two hurry up before we won't be able to catch up to that dragon? He's moving faster than we can run!" Keen says, running past Bodacious and Doozy.

Speed Reader looks down at the group, and notices something weird about the ground below them. It was curving slightly down, and more trees were piling up in front of them, slowing them down, while the dragon continues at it's normal speed. Not wanting to lose it, Speed Reader flaps her wings harder, pulling herself up more into the sky to guide the group, but starts to panic.

Keen looks up at how far up Speed Reader is. "What are you doing up so high Speedy?" She perks her ears up more to try and hear Speed Reader's shouting. "What?!"

She rolls her eyes and flies back down to the group. "There's a cliff up ahead!" She shouts.

Gasping, Keen immediately stops, sliding towards the very end of the deep cliff. She looks down at the falling pebbles that were crackling, going into a deep pit of darkness.

Without warning, Bodacious slides and bumps into Keen, pushing her further at the end of the cliff. Sighing, she slowly backs away with Bodacious. Hearing Doozy shouting 'wee' in the distance and sliding, Bodacious jumps out the way. Doozy slides into Keen, making her fall from the cliff screaming. With her eyes close, she wasn't sure if she had hit the bottom yet, she just continues to scream with her eyes shut.

"Will you be quiet already? You're not even falling." Keen stops her screaming to look up at Speed Reader, who was holding her hoofs, preventing her from falling. "Did you really think I wasn't going to catch you?" She starts laughing. "You should've seen your face!"

"It's true, that was pretty funny how you was just screaming and making faces like you was really falling." Bodacious says while chuckling.

"I didn't know see could even show all those face!" Doozy says while laughing, as well as making faces, and exaggerating Keen's own face.

Keen blushes at the group who was laughing at her, mumbling to herself at such embarrassment.

The ground starts to crumble below Bodacious' feet without her noticing. "Bodacious, move!"

Before she can even react, or stop laughing for that matter, the ground caves in, cracking and breaking.

"AH!" Bodacious yells out. Unlike Keen, she was literally falling. Speed Reader quickly puts Keen down, seeing as how she can't hold two other fillies. She zooms to try and catch her, but suddenly stops after seeing that was already caught.

"Are you all right?" Quest says silently, hovering with Bodacious on her back.

'She's fast!' Speed Reader says to herself with a surprised look on her face.

"Wow! She's fast, almost as fast as you Speedy!" Doozy says.

"Ha! Good one Doozy." Speed Reader says, rolling her eyes.

"Quest! Thank goodness you came on time! Where did you come from?" Bodacious says, hugging her, or, more like squeezing her.

"Yes, were did you come from? I thought you was running off with the rest of the town to shelter." Keen says.

Quest gently places Bodacious down, and after, lands next to them. "Sorry, I followed you guys."

"But why?" Keen asks, "Do you know how dangerous this journey is?"

"We're all fillies here, you can just say we're all in danger." Quest replies.

"But we're an exploration team, we're suppose to do this, no matter how dangerous it can get, even though this is the first time we have seen a dragon in person, we need to follow it, the map lead us here, and we're going to finish what we started."

"Speaking of which, the dragon is nowhere in sight!" Speed Reader says while flying over the group, searching for the dragon. She couldn't even spot any smoke from the dragon either. All of them except for Quest sighs.

"Actually, he's still very near, but not within our eye sight." Silver says, coming out of the bushes where she was hiding apparently.

"Yes, Silver and I had both followed you." Quest says.

Silver runs up to the group. "I know you guys are explorers, but so is Quest. Couple of months ago she had received her cutie mark, and so have I. I believe that if she went with you guys to find this dragon she would have the courage and confidence to branch out and achieve what she loves and wants to do."

"Yes, but darling, I don't think your parents..." Bodacious says.

"We don't have any parents." Silver replies back. Quest stays silent the entire time, dropping her head, making her hair again cover half of her face. The group grows silent as Keen thinks to herself.

Suddenly the sound of a roar can be heard from nearby. "That's the dragon! You said he was near, right Silver?" Keen says.

"Yes." Silver answers.

"Ok, both of you can come with us to help, but don't dwindle, or you'll get left behind And when we spot that dragon make sure you guys hide!" Keen says.

"Thanks!" Silver says with a cheerful look. "This is your chance Quest. Who knows, maybe they'll actually let you join them on adventures and stuff, maybe."

Quest, feeling unsure about this whole ordeal, agrees to follow them, at least to learn the basics of exploration since, after that faithful day, she has completely stopped trying to become an explorer. She hasn't even touch her diary since then either, nor been going to school.

Silver has been a good friend to her, bringing her homework from missing school, or just keeping her company since she now lived alone, and since Silver was practically alone herself most of the time. Besides having Pearl and Arctic as friends, Silver finds Quest to be more like her, relatable, and strong, or at least trying to be. She can feel Quest's emotions running through her hooves, sadness, but a little bit of determination. That's why Silver prompted the group to take Quest with them, she still wants to fulfill her destiny, but just not at home, not in the position that she's in now.

But the big question was Silver. Why was she coming along? She thinks to herself and all the possibilities. She would be keeping Quest comfortable since they just met the group not too long ago, and she would be motivating Quest and all. 'But what good will I be with a power such as mines? I might be the weaker link to this group.' She says to herself.

Seeing as how far the group had already walked off into the distance, Silver hurries along to catch up, walking alongside Quest with excitement, but also with dread, remembering that they are looking for a big carnivorous dragon. Keen takes out the map from her small filly-sized saddle bag, along with some water. Bodacious does the same and takes out her nicely decorated water pouch.

"Wow! That's so shiny and cute! Where did you get that? it must have cost a fortune." Silver says, eye gleaming at the many jewels placed neatly on the pouch.

"Oh this old thing? I am a master sculptor indeed, but I also love to decorate my old useless hand-me-downs into something brand new!" Bodacious says, quite feeling confident in herself for impressing her.

"It looks new, all the jewels are perfectly placed." Silver comments.

Bodacious nods, she then lifts the cap from the bottle and drinks from it, the gleam from the jewels moving around.

After a couple of minutes of quietness in the group, and with Bodacious drinking from her bejeweled bottle again, Speed Reader flies lower next to Quest and Silver, with a wondering and questionable look planted on her face. "So, why don't you guys have any parents?"

Water spits out of Bodacious' mouth and at Doozy, who just laughed, making Keen turn around behind her.

"Speedy, you don't ask a question like that!" Bodacious shouts at her. "I'm sorry for my friends behavior, she can be... Morbid sometimes."

"What?!" Speed Reader shouts, "I was just asking a question!"

Silver chuckles, Quest simply looks away, hiding her face once more. "It's all right Bodacious. I don't really feel insulted or anything by it, I always get asked that question. Unfortunately, I don't know my parents. I have been by myself my entire life, although I do have ponies around me, so really I don't feel alone as much." Turning her head to Quest, who has no intent on answering that question, continues, "What about you guys? I'm surprised your parents actually agreed to let you travel like this."

"You can say that our situations are different from yours sugar cube. Keen says, slowly walking to talk to Silver and Quest. "My family is really big, and we are not the wealthiest bunch of ponies out there like Bodacious' family. I worked on my family's barn while also having a small job that earned me little to no bits. Once I got my cutie mark, decided to leave in search of knowledge to bring back to my family. I'm sure that knowledge can turn into some more jobs for my family since most of them never left their home or anything. I'm actually the only one who's ever gone out to explore like this."

"She is true about my family being rich and all," Bodacious comes in after, "but I felt as though I was holding my family back since I actually got my cutie mark a bit later than some fillies. My family is really critical, and expects their foals to be successful in their careers. When they found out that am an explorer, they were against it. You can say I had to leave in order to do what I love, and that's sculpting. I love making statues, either big or small, from jewels mostly, but sometimes with other metals or things of the same value. Traveling to different places will help me sell my work, and discover new things to use to create my statues with." She shrugs, frowning when remembering her family.

"As for me," Speed Reader says, smirking. "I dream to be the fastest flyer this country has ever seen! What more to do than travel across the land, showing different ponies something new?"

"She only wants attention that's all. Nothing more." Bodacious adds, smiling and walking as if she has the upper hand.

"What are you talking about? It's not my fault that I didn't get as much attention as I should have by my family when I was with them ok?" Speed Reader folds her hooves while still in the air. "I have a lot of brothers and sisters, so it was common to see my parents trying to pay attention to each and every one of their children. I almost didn't really talk with them everyday because of it. They probably don't even remember seeing me get my cutie mark, or even leaving for that matter. I had to go, it was getting to be too much for me. I want ponies to see me as important, someone who can shape their lives and bring something new to them..." She pauses to look at Bodacious. "Happy now?"

"Yes, I believe that's a valid reason as to why you're so full of yourself." She chuckles, making Speed Reader blush from embarrassment.

"Oh oh! I have a very dramatic and rather sad story as well!" Doozy, who somehow was jumping from tree to tree, says, "Me and my family are merchants, so we move from town to town, selling all our delicious sweets! But then, when I made my first ever dessert, and got my cutie mark, I branched away from my family to go travel to other farther places, to search for more newer and more exotic foods to bring back home to share with my family and other towns nearby." Doozy missteps and falls flat on her face, but quickly gets up, with her tongue sticking out.

"Uh, Doozy, how in what way was that sad?" Keen says.

"Because, I actually got separated from my parents while traveling with them. That's how I found you guys! They must think I'm dead.... You know, maybe I should go back home when we finish this journey." She laughs a little, only to realize what she just said. "Gee, now that I think about it, I sure do miss them, I wonder if they are looking for me."

They all go silent again for a second or so. "I guess all of us have some sort of problem, whether it involves the family or not." Silver says, breaking the silence.

"What about you Quest? You haven't said anything since we left." Keen says, not taking her eyes off of the map, which was still glowing.

"I... Would rather not talk about it." Quest says.

"But we told all of our stories? Why can't you?" Speed Reader says, a bit annoyed.

"Come now Speed Reader." Bodacious jumps in, "If she doesn't want to talk about it, then she doesn't want to talk about it. We shouldn't force her to tell us."

"But... Fine." Speed Reader, with an annoyed face, continues to fly.

The group stops suddenly, turning around to see Doozy's tail twitch and her cutie mark pulsate again. "The dragons over there!" She points to a tall mountain. So tall that it cuts through the clouds passing through. At the top next to the ledge was none other than the dragon, who was laying down sleeping, smoke coming out of its nose, making the mountain foggy.

The group is now right next to the mountain. They all look up to see that it was probably going to take a while to get up there.

"No worries, me and Quest can fly you guys up there!" Speed Reader says, showing off her muscles. "Hop on OOOF! Doozy!" Before she can continue, Doozy immediately jumps on Speed Reader's back, making her wince and float down somewhat from being caught off guard.

"I guess." Quest says, looking for Silver, who was hiding in a bush. "Silver?"

"They did tell us to hide and all, so you guys go on, I'll wait here..." Silver says

The dragon starts to roar, letting more smoke come out of it's nose and mouth now. The vibration of the roar made the ground shake, making some small rocks fall towards the group, making them back up a little.

"Hold on a minute..." Silver says, getting out of the bush with her head cocked to the side while looking. "The dragon... He's distressed."

"Distressed? Do you know why?" Keen says.

"Sadly no, I can only tell how he's feeling." Silver replies.

"We do know that he's not feeling too KEEN!" Doozy says, making a joke out of Keen's name. She laughs while still on Speed Reader's back. Everyone groans at how bad that pun was.

Quest prompts Bodacious to climb onto her back, at which she obliges, and grabs Silver by the hoof, and hovering on the same length as Speed Reader, who was struggling to get Doozy to be still. They fly all the way to the stop, breathing harder and longer after feeling that the air above is very thick and hard to breath in because of the smoke. After both Speed Reader and Quest land at the top, a few inches away behind the dragon and behind a large rock, Bodacious quietly takes out her handkerchief from her saddlebag and places it onto her mouth.

"This smoke is just awful...!" Bodacious says quietly.

"What are we to do now? It's distressed like what Silver said, but how can we be so sure that it's not going to snap at us and eat us?" Speed Reader says.

"And we can't possibly fight it that's for sure." Bodacious adds.

"None of us have any sort of plan?" Keen says.

"We can surprise it!" Doozy shouts out, making the dragon move around a growl a little before being still once again.

"How about not?" Bodacious says, hiding behind Keen.

"We can try talking to him maybe. It doesn't seem like he's aggressive or anything." Silver says.

Suddenly the dragon growls more loudly, shaking the mountain and the rock that the group was behind. Smoke covers the sky above them, making the air thick but slowly fading.

The group hides behind Quest and supposedly Doozy, since both of them are not reacting. "Ok, go surprise it Doozy"

"You got it!" Doozy jumps forward towards the dragon. From her saddlebag she takes out a party popper. She pulls the string, making a large pop, and unleashing confetti everywhere, even on the dragons face. The dragon opens it's eyes, staring down at Doozy with a blank expression.

"Today is your lucky day!" Doozy says, dancing around, "How would you like to try my family's newest creation..." The dragon snorts out smoke, covering the air around Doozy with thick black smoke, making her cough. "Y-you're the first pony er, dragon, to try one of our family's finest collection of desserts!"

Also from her saddlebag, she grabs a fairly small suitcase. She opens it up, showing the dragon nothing but perfectly made sweets, from sliced decorated fruit to different kinds of bread with toppings on them.

"All of this can be yours absolutely free! That is, if you are willing to pay a small fee of 200 bits plus tax and cost to fly up here, then it'll be free!"

"Doozy!" Keen shouts.

"Sorry! I need to bits too!" Doozy shouts, "There was this new ingredient that I wanted to buy from this little shop that is..."

"No, that's not what we're here for Doozy, remember?" Keen says.

"Yes, wait..." Doozy thinks, "Why are we up here again?" She laughs.

Keen face palms, whilst Bodacious, Silver and Speed Reader laugh. Quest then starts to chuckle herself at the silliness that is Doozy. The dragon gets up, stretching while at that, grumbling to himself. Doozy offers the small suitcase of sweets to the dragon, but then ducks when a bolt of fire shoots out of his mouth. His target wasn't Doozy, but still in the process of trying to duck from the fire, she drops the suitcase on the ground, and the suitcase gets burned instead, with all the desserts inside.

The group besides Silver and Quest, who was told to hide from danger, runs to Doozy's side.

"Uh, hello there." keen casually says, "Listen, while you was flying, you scared some of the ponies in town. I know this might seem like a stretch, but some of us haven't seen a dragon like you before." Keen turns to Silver, who was making some weird gestures at the group, telling them to get to the point about his problem, if the dragon even has one.

"But the real problem is how you are feeling right now. We have heard that you was feeling distressed about something, so we came all the way to try and see what's wrong so we can help someone as big as you." Bodacious says. She read stories about dragons, and found out that they collect loads of treasure, and have them stored in their caves, so as she was talking she was looking all over the dragon and peeking behind him, seeing if there was anything shiny in sight.

Growing wide eyed at seeing the mouth of the dragon, they all duck and prepare for the apparent fire to be unleashed, but the dragon simply yawns and lays back down on his back, scratching his stomach in the process.

"This dragon is completely disregarding us!" Speed Reader says, growing impatient, "We need to really get his attention!"

"Don't you do anything..." Before Keen could tell Speed Reader not to do anything stupid, Speed Reader quickly flies over the dragon, who opened one of it's eyes.

"We were trying to help you, but you blew fire at my friend. So this is payback!" Speed Reader turns around and with her two back legs, back kicks the dragon on the snout, making it wobble from the impact. The dragon flinches from the impact, and gets up, roaring and letting out fire around the mountain.

"Now you then and done it Speedy! Everyone, let's go!" Keen says, and the group begins to run towards Silver and Quest to get them.

The dragon let's out a blast of fire at the group, which they dodged, but Bodacious trips over, falling down as the dragon lets another blast of fire. Silver gasps, and Quest quickly leaps from behind the rock to grab Bodacious from the projectile. "Oh Quest! How many times are you going to save me?" Bodacious says.

"Well you are pretty klutzy" Quest says, smiling. The both look at the dragon, who was clutching his snout out of pain, and his roars were sounding like cries.

"My, did I hurt him that bad?" Speed Reader says hovering,

"No, that's not it." Silver says, running besides Quest and the group.

"Way to say it like that." Speed Reader replies.

"No, I meant that's not what's bothering him, if that makes it any better. Remember I said he was distressed? He's clutching his snout too, so something else is bothering him..." Silver says. She eyes the dragon as he roars, seeing his mouth's whole inside. She then notices that a particular tooth was not like the others, it was darker and some parts of it were broken off. "I know what the problem is, and it might be a little silly, but he has a tooth ache."

"That's it!? All that for one tooth ache!" Speed Reader says.

"That's why he didn't want my desserts!" Doozy says laughing.

"But how are we supposed to get inside his mouth without the fear of him closing it on either of us?" Keen asks.

Quest, without thinking or without the group knowing, flies up to the dragon at eye level. "We have heard that you have a bit of a bad tooth, so we are here to fix that for you by taking it out. If only you can just trust us and take us a bit seriously, we can help you with your problem." She says.

The dragon roars right in Quests face, making the hair on her to swing backwards from the force of the wind.

"Quest!!" The group shouts out.

The dragon continues to roar, and Quest notices the tooth the was darker than the rest. Focusing on the tooth, she flies almost inside the dragon's mouth, and back kicks the tooth right out. Quest doesn't think the dragon even felt it, because he kept roaring."

After he stopped, the dragon notices that his tooth was gone, and picks at where it once was.

"He's not distressed anymore. Everything should be good for him now." Silver says, taking a breath when seeing Quest fly back down. "That was very brave of you Quest."

"I just did what needed to be done. If we didn't take that tooth out, he might have made his way back to our home or somewhere and destroy it out of pain." Quest says smiling.

"I know. That's the sheer bravest thing we have ever seen in our travels!" Keen says.

"Yes! You are simply wonderful darling, truly you are!" Bodacious says.

"And sweet!" Doozy says.

"And not to mention quick to take action! I like you Quest!" Speed Reader says, patting Quest on the back. Quest smiles and thanks them for all the compliments.

"Thank you all, but if it wasn't for Silver, we would still be in a rut of what to do." Quest says.

"Me?" Silver says, "It was nothing really, you know..." Silver blushes and looks away, not really confident in herself but still takes some of the glory.

"This looks like I have to stay away from sweet gems for a while." The dragon says. The group looks up at him, who was in return staring down at them with a grin on his face. "I thank you for helping me with my little episode. I didn't know what came over me, and I'm sorry too." He apologizes.

"No need, my friend here is the one that has to apologize." Keen replies, nudging Speed Reader, who was hovering low, almost touching the ground.

"But I... But..." Speed Reader stutters, "UGH, fine. I'm sorry for kicking you."

"Now that you feel better than ever, what will you do now? Everyone was quite frightened when they saw you flying, and all the smoke will make it hard for us to breath." Silver asks.

"My dear ponies, I have no intention to stay here up on this mountain, I was just on my way back from my migration. I'm headed home to the Dragon Empire."

"The Dragon Empire?" Keen says, wide eyed.

"Yes," the dragon says in a deep voice, "It is a place where of course, dragons live, but also others as well. We are a growing country. Maybe in one of your travels, you will come across it again, and who knows, maybe we will meet again too."

And with that, the dragon's wings flap up and down, making the wind pick up around the group, as he flies away in the distance.

"The Dragon Empire... What journey that will be..." Quest says. Her eyes lit up from the excitement of it all, and everything that happened today, and she smiles such a smile that Silver hasn't seen since before that fateful day. Seeing this, Silver smiles as well.

"Oh Quest! You're smiling bright again! Everyone back at home will be so happy for you! Add, you can actually tell them about your first ever journey!"

"Home... Journey..." Quest whispers, frowning again. She looks to where the group was, who was nodding at her, Keen looked like she wanted to say something but decided not to. Quest looks towards Silver, who just smiles at her, but again nods at her. At this moment, from then to now, Quest knew what she had to do, she remembers what she wanted to be, and loved to become. She had forgot about that, but now, it's coming back to her at full force, she grins...

"So, when are we going to eat something? I'm starving!" Doozy says.

Back at home. A day later..

"Leaving?" The teacher says, baffled from what she heard, especially from Quest. The crowd of ponies gasps and whisper to themselves. "Are you sure? I mean, at this age and all..."

"I know what you're thinking, but if I stay here for so long, I will stray farther away from my dream, my destiny to be exact. There is nothing here for me but to shield me from the world outside my home. I know I am a filly, but believe me, with my new friends, I will be fine." Quest explains.

"And Silver?" The teacher says.

"I think it's best if I went too." Silver says, "I'm curious to see what the world has in store for me, and what my place in this world is as well... Plus, I'm Quest's friend, so I want to travel with her." Silver says.

The teacher sees that Quest's demeanor had changed back to what it once was, seeing as though the whole dragon incident and her traveling with the group has made her happy again, she thought that maybe it could be a good idea to let her go. What good will it be if she was sheltered from the world forever? the crowd of ponies smile and nod, wishing Quest and Silver a safe journey, and to always come back to visit sometime. The teacher turns at them. So they have decided already. That's right, they all know what's best for them...

"They will be in good hoofs Ms. Teacher! You can count on it! They will make a great addition to the team! A lot more hooves mean better expeditions!" Keen says. The rest of the group nods.

"If this what you two want, then so be it." The teacher says while back up to the rest of the crowd of ponies. "Everything will be neat and tidy when you fillies come back. Heck, you might not all be fillies anymore when you do come back." She says, chuckling at the end.

Suddenly, the map begins to glow inside of Keen's saddlebag. She takes it out and unfolds it. On the map the group sees their cutie marks, including Silver and Quest's marks, floating above what appears to be a desert of some sort.

"Out cutie marks!" Silver yells out!

"Well I'll be..." Keen says, "Not only is Silver and Quest's cutie marks are appearing, but we're going to a place we haven't been to before, making this a brand new journey."

"Woo!' Doozy cheers.

"I wonder what kind of treasures they have there!" Bodacious says

"Or if they want to see the fastest flyer in the country!" Speed Reader says, flying and flipping in the air from excitement.

"But why is me and Silver's cutie marks being shown on the map now? What does that mean?" Quest asks.

"There can only be one reason... The map not only sent us here because of the dragon, and to teach us something... The map sent us here to you Quest." Keen says.

"But... Why? We never met before or anything."

"Because the map sent us to you to show you, to give you what you wanted, to remind you of what, and who you wanted to be, and that is to be the explorer that you are." Bodacious adds.

"Seriously, you are a natural at that you know Quest! You too Silver!" Speed Reader says.

Silver blushes yet again. She believes she wasn't really a help at all, but after telling them about the problem and easily getting a solution, she at least says 'thank' about it.

Doozy spasms as the map continues to glow, with the groups cutie mark hovering above the next destination.

"I guess we should go now. Do you guys have everything you need before we part?" Keen says. Everyone shouts 'yes' while checking her own stuff instead. "Ok, looks like we can go now. Ready Silver?"

"Yes I am!" Silver shouts.

"And Quest... Are you good to go?"

Quest looks back at the teacher and the crowd of ponies, who were cheering for her. The teacher nods at her, and whispers 'everything will be all right Quest. You can go.' Quest can clearly hear it, and smiles.

"Yes, I'm ready." She says.

"Then let's go, this journey will be pretty long, but we as a team can make it." Keen says, before walking away.

The group walks away, waving at the ponies of Clydesdale. The ponies in the crowd all wave, shouting, congratulating them, telling them to come back soon, and stay safe as they walk further and further away. The teacher places her hoof on her chest where her heart is.

"You can do it Quest.... And remember... Remember how you made it..." The teacher says.

Out of the crowd, Pearl and Arctic emerge, running to the entrance of the town, but not going any further. They see Quest and Silver walking even further away They both shout out Quest and Silver's name. Both Quest and Silver hear their names being called, and turn their heads around to see Pearl and Arctic waving at them, Pearl looking the saddest out of the bunch. Silver waves back, and yells out, reassuring them that they will return. Quest on the other hoof, stands up straight with a serious face. She stares at Pearl for some seconds before smiling and waving at her. Pearl is a little pinkish in the checks, and is also surprised that Quest can easily forgive. Smiling herself, Pearl waves back again along with Arctic, who was also shouting out jokes and all until the group was out of sight...

...
...

"Say Keen." Quest asks while on the road.

"Hmm?" Keen hums while peering into the map.

"Who's the one in charge in this group? You know, the one who makes all the decisions?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's me of course, I'm the one who carries the map and tell us where to go." Keen replies.

"You mean you're the one that's being stingy and keeping the map from us?" Speed Reader retorts.

"But I'm the one who usually knows what the map is saying." Keen says back.

"So are you saying that we are illiterate when it comes to reading a map? If you gave me a chance to read it I would have easily told us which way to go," Bodacious comes in, "And I would have brought us to a shortcut too if you asked me."

"And my doozies are on point with the map, so it's pretty easy to follow!" Doozy says.

"Listen guys, I know all that, but maybe if I held on to the map then..."

"How about I hold on to the map? I can fly!" Speed Reader interrupts Keen.

"Shortcuts!" Bodacious adds.

"And let's not forget doozies!" Doozy jumps around.

"Guys?" Silver says, now seeing the group fighting over the map, grabbing it, and snatching it away from each other and they come to terms with who their leader is.

"Their arguing is really bad isn't it?" Quest says, taking out her once forgotten diary.

"I think we're going to have to get used to this..." Silver adds, shaking her head and smiling. This journey was really going to be long...

Quest, while walking, takes out a writing utensil, and for the first time in months, starts to write again, this time writing a title:

This fateful day...

After months of forgetting my destiny and not embracing it, I have finally decided to leave my home along with Silver. On this day, I have met 4 ponies who were an exploration team, traveling the country in search of new things, either for their family, for others, or both. In this one fine day, they show themselves, and take me on an adventure that I will never forget, and after today, I am alongside them, traveling a ways to a place that I probably would never know if I stayed home for so long. If it wasn't for them coming to rescue me from my own dark pit I would not be who I am now, I would still be this shadow that loomed over the town that I once knew, sulking, and never moving forward. I have to thank Silver again for pushing me this far. She wants me to reach greater heights, but I also want for her to reach it too, to have the confidence that she never knew she had to move forward in her life...

"Quest!" Silver yells out to her.

Looking up, Quest smacks into a tree, not dropping her diary, but her utensil instead. The group laughs at her as they walk up to her, asking if she was ok.

"I've never been better." She replies. They all continue walking, and Quest picks up her utensil to write one last thing:

This path that I have chosen, I can't walk alone though. I still need guidance, support, and friendship to keep me from falling further from what I have become now. As for right now, I must continue onward and catch up with my friends. So this begs the question: Am I really all right..?

Quest starts to laugh to herself, grinning as the wind blows towards the direction that she's headed, and not backwards.

Never felt better...

Author's Note

This is the longest chapter that I have written so far. x3

So in this chapter I wanted to introduce the group, and give some more time for Silver before heading back to Quest in the next chapter.

Tell me what you think about the ending, the chapter as a whole, or any mistakes that you see since I tend to oversee them, or anything else that you have in mind. C:

Thanks! C:

P.S. The stories cover will be update sometime next week or tomorrow.