fourthscetera

The little purple dragon's green eyes opened slowly, pupils darting around to monitor their surroundings. Spike basked in the warm spring sunlight shining down upon his vulnerable stomach. He gazed, between the faded red slats in front of him, at what appeared to be a blurry brown line, trees at its edges. As his vision came into focus, he realised that it was a dirt road. His attention, however, was shaken as he bounced upwards with the cart that he lay upon; it had gone over some sort of bump.

It was then that he realised, when he moved slightly upwards in an effort to sit up, that his muscles ached. He lay his body back down.

Spike shifted his head slightly so that he could stare up at the pastel blue sky, sun perched at the bottom of his gaze and wispy white clouds littered throughout. Strangely, however, there were no birds chirping from the treetops; it was icily silent but for the sound of hooves hitting against dirt and the cart creaking as it went along. Before Spike could think more on this, though, his vision started to blur again and he closed his eyes.

When he came to again, he was greeted with a familiar pair of deep blue eyes.

“Has Spikey-Wikey finally awoken?” The voice of the beautiful snow-white pony facing him sent a chill down his spine.

Oh, Rarity, he thought dreamily to himself. He stared into her eyes for a cruelly short amount of time before she snapped him out of it, concerned.

“Hello? Spike, is there something wrong?”

“Oh, no. I'm awake!” He sat up. The cart he sat upon had stopped and the sun was dangerously close to the horizon, splattering its orangey pink hues across the sky.

“Let's go, then,” Rarity said, beckoning towards the trees off the road, behind her. “We've got to find—er, a cave to stay in tonight.” She frowned slightly but visibly. “Now that you're awake, the cart shouldn't be as awfully heavy at least. Not to offend, of course,” she teased.

Spike had a puzzled look on his face. “But where are we? Why are we travelling, and why would we be staying in a cave? I thought you hated caves...”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures, Spike. As for why, well... erm... we'll talk about it later.” She gulped nervously. “Tomorrow, perhaps; however, we've got to find somewhere to stay tonight because today won't be lasting much longer. Go on ahead, won't you, and look for a delightful little cave. I've got to pull the cart...”

“Of course, fair Rarity!” proclaimed Spike excitedly. He ran off between the trees, without looking where he was going, and tripped over a large root, sending him face-first into the dirt. Blushing, he picked himself up quickly and continued onwards more carefully. Rarity rolled her eyes.

“Oh Spike, what are we going to do with you?” She adjusted her bulging saddlebags and started again with the cart, veering off the road and between the trees to follow Spike in his search.

“How about this one?”

“Let's have a look,” Rarity said, pausing to unharness herself from the cart for the third time. Giving it a look, she frowned. “Oh, well... it's at least much better than the last two. But it just looks so... so... cold.”

Spike looked down at the ground. “But Rarity, there can't be many more caves around here, and they're all gonna be cold anyway. Plus this one is small and isn't a tunnel, so there's no chance something could sneak up on us from behind. Pleeeeeease?” he begged.

Rarity looked him square in the face and noticed that despite his long slumber, he looked absolutely exhausted from their short trek along the cliffside. However, she reminded herself, they had been up late the night before. She sighed. He was right about the cave, and it was getting quite dark. At least this one was well-protected by the surrounding shrubbery; she wouldn't need to be afraid of dangerous animals finding them.

“Oh, alright. Let's get inside—“ Rarity looked up at the fading light of the sun overhead “—before it gets too dark, shan't we?” Once reattaching the cart's harness to her garish saddle, she followed Spike in through the gaping maw of their home for the night.

Once inside (and after once again removing the harness), Rarity telekinetically  produced two sleeping bags, one white and one purple, from underneath the tarp covering the cart. She set them neatly against one of the cave's walls, blowing away the dust from the ground.

“Here, you can have the purple one. You're lucky that I happened to have a colour that matches you; otherwise I might have had to make you sleep without one!” She giggled. “My, I must be tired. I'm not usually like... this.”

Spike was gazing off into space in the direction of the outdoors. “What? Oh, uh, yeah. Me too. Uh huh.”

“Something wrong, Spike?”

“No, nothing.” He paused. “Well, I am a bit hungry. Got any gemstones?”

Rarity scoffed. “Why, but of course! Though all I have right now are a few emeralds, I'm sure we can have a look tomorrow and see if we can dig up some others.” Her horn aglow, four emeralds of various shapes and sizes flew from her saddlebags and into Spike's outstretched claws. He grinned.

“Now then... once you're done with those, let's retire ourselves for the night. We don't want to wear ourselves out too much, do we?”

Rarity awoke to the soft glow of the early morning light on her face, filtering through the bushes and in through the mouth of the cave. Unlike the harsh midday sun that usually yanked her awake, this light pulled her gently from the caress of sleep. She stretched her forelegs out with a yawn, before dragging her body out of the sleeping bag and standing up. Looking over at the other sleeping bag, she noticed that Spike was still asleep, breathing heavily. She supposed that she could leave him a little longer and tip-toed out of the cave to have a look around outside.

The air was fresh and crisp; drops of dew perched daintily on blades of grass and on the leaves of the trees. There was something charmingly quaint about the wilderness, she thought. Perhaps that's part of why Fluttershy and I are such good friends. There was a certain sanctity to the wilderness, one that Rarity hadn't felt in a while, and she began to think of her friends from back home. Tears welled up underneath her eyes, but she wiped them away with a hoof before she started to cry.

Reminded of her task, she turned her head to the skies, her eyes darting around as she searched for something, despite knowing that it was much too early. It was like this that Spike found her.

“Rarity?”

She flinched, turning her head around immediately to face him. “Oh, heh... it's just you. Good morning, Spike. Did you sleep well?”

“Oh yeah, I slept great. What were you looking at up there just now?”

She paused a moment before replying. “Uh... I just thought I saw... a cloud that looked like of one of my designs for Sapphire Shores. Indeed, that was a spectacular one!”

Spike raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the issue.

“Well then, shall we be off?” suggested Rarity uneasily. However, she had nothing to fear; a smile quickly returned to the face of her companion.

“Yep, I'm ready! Though I still don't know where we're going...”

“Our current destination is a small town east of here that Twilight's mentioned to me a few times before. I can't remember what it was called, but hopefully we'll come across a sign or somepony who can tell us. Or we could just ask when we get there, of course.”

“Hmm... okay.”

Spike waited outside as Rarity once again entered the cave and, after carefully folding them, returned the sleeping bags to the cart. She reattached her saddlebags and the cart's harness to her saddle and began walking slowly towards the exit. Once she reached it, though, she heard a soft clink, like metal bouncing off stone. Turning her head, she looked around to find what made the noise; however, she saw nothing. Sighing, she continued out into the inviting sunshine.

It was mid-morning and Spike was walking slowly next to Rarity, accompanying her as she dragged the cart along the road. They hadn't spoken much since they'd packed up, besides idle chit-chat about the weather and their surroundings. However, Spike finally had mustered up the courage to remind Rarity of something she'd forgotten. He wouldn't have been so frightened of telling her if he didn't think she'd be so embarrassed.

“Rarity?”

“Yes, Spike? What is it?” She stopped walking momentarily.

“Uh... I'm not sure how to put this, but... well... I think you forgot to put on your makeup this morning.”

She offered him a weak smile. “While I'm glad that you had the restraint to not mention my ugline—“

“No, I didn't mean it like that!” Spike interrupted. “You're even more beautiful without it! I was just wondering because I've almost never seen you go without makeup...”

“Spike! It's impolite to interrupt a lady, you know! In any case, thank you for your kind words... and no, I didn't forget to put it on. I didn't bring it with us; I barely had time to pack the most essential of things, and as Twilight was able to convince me, makeup simply does not fall under that category.” Under her breath, she muttered, “If only I had known that before now...”

“Oh. Okay then.” He shrugged, seemingly unsatisfied with this answer, but didn't say anything else for quite some time. The pair continued eastward on the path.

Spike's belly rumbled.

The unforgiving midday sun shone down upon the unicorn and dragon walking down the worn dirt path as the forest receded behind them; it was replaced by small shrubbery on grassy hills that offered no shade whatsoever. When he had asked her about it, Rarity told him that it appeared to be a “chaparral”, something that Applejack had once described to her.

“Some of her relatives apparently live in one to the north of Ponyville. This one, to the east, is fairly unoccupied until it turns to desert,” she had said. They then had continued along the path in silence.

However, they had now come to a grinding halt.

“It would probably be a good idea to try and find something to eat and drink, don't you think?” asked Rarity, knowingly.

“Yeah, I'm starting to get sorta hungry. Where are we going to find anything to eat, though? It doesn't look like there's anypony around for miles and miles...”

“Well, you're in luck! I hear chaparrals are quite good for gemstones.” She winked.

Spike licked his lips anxiously. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Cast your spell, and I'll dig 'em up!”

A burst of blue light emanated from Rarity's horn and washed over the ground around them, searching for any hint of subterranean precious stones. It settled to the left, on a patch of uncovered grass not twenty feet from the edge of the road. Spike ran over there, gleefully, and dug his claws into the dirt. In no time at all, his arms were filled with a small pile of uncut sapphires, rubies, and topaz. He popped a few into his mouth and waddled slowly back over to Rarity on the path.

“Thankth,” Spike said to her mid-chew. Instead of reprimanding him, she merely rolled her eyes and started walking again.

It wouldn't hurt to lighten up a bit, she thought.

“Rarity?”

“Spike, if you say my name one more time... oh, what does Pinkie Pie always say? You'll wear it out.”

Spike rolled his eyes and then continued: “Isn't that an apple tree, way out there?” He pointed off to the left and, sure enough, a lone apple tree rested atop a small hill. It was difficult to determine how far away it was, but Rarity estimated that it would take about fifteen to twenty minutes to get there, plus they'd have to come back. She looked up at the sky; it looked to be about four o'clock.

“Let's go.”

Half an hour later, the pair had reached the tree. Its branches overflowed with the plump, crimson fruit; Rarity eyed it hungrily. With Spike watching her from the cart, she trotted briskly up to the tree, turned around, and bucked it.

Despite the fact that Rarity was not a particularly strong pony, she was still able to free one branch's apples from the tree's clutches. She quickly ran up to the base of the tree and seven or eight apples fell directly into her left saddlebag. Satisfied, she turned back to the cart where Spike sat, agape.

“What? Can't a lady be both strong and deft?” She pulled a canteen from her right saddlebag with her magic, took a swig, and offered it to Spike. As he took a long, long drink, she bit into the side of an apple. It didn't fail to please.

Once Spike had finished drinking and Rarity had finished her apple, she replaced the canteen in her saddlebag and pulled out an aged scroll.

“What's that?” asked Spike.

“It's a map, darling,” explained Rarity, unrolling it. “And even though it's old, it's still fairly accurate because Equestria hasn't really changed that much since it was made.”

Although there was no legible writing anywhere on the map, Spike recognised several cities and towns from the small drawings used to represent them: the castle for Canterlot in the centre, an apple orchard for Ponyville to the south, a harbour for Vanhoover in the north, and a few others. There were also drawings of the Everfree Forest, Ghastly Gorge, and, surprisingly, the apple tree they were currently situated against.

“Why, that's strange,” Rarity remarked. “I wonder what makes this tree is a landmark. In fact, it doesn't even look like it could have been planted when this map was made...” She looked up at the sky again. “Oh my, it's getting late. Perhaps we should stay here; since there don't seem to be any caves around, we can use the tent I brought.”

“Why couldn't we have used that last night instead of going through all the trouble of find a cave?”

“There are many more terrifying animals in the forest than the chaparral, where it's all open. Plus, a cave is much larger than the tent is, hooves down.” She shifted her hooves. “And I forgot about it.”

Rarity's horn lit up and she went to work pulling the tent out from the cart and trying to set it up, eventually having to get Spike to hammer down the posts into the rough soil. Once she had finished, she stood back to admire her work.

“Now then... let's get a fire going, Spike, and I'll tell you why we're here.”

"Nnngh... oh, why won't the fire light? Am I rubbing the sticks the wrong way?" Rarity cried out in frustration.

She stood over the makeshift fire pit they'd constructed, a two-foot deep hole, surrounded by small stones, filled with dry brush and branches, and had been trying to start a fire how they did in Filly Scouts for the better part of an hour. It was now dark; only a sliver of moon could be seen in the night sky.

"Yeah, they must be pretty upset with you about now." Rarity glared icily at Spike as he said this; he could only grin sheepishly.

A few minutes later, Rarity threw her hooves up in the air, and subsequently the sticks she'd been using, with dismay. "I quit!" she shouted. Spike jumped back; Rarity then composed herself. "Er... what I meant to say was... Spike, would you be a dear and assist me?"

"My pleasure. Step aside, m'lady."

Smiling, he took a deep, deep breath before exhaling verdant flames onto the pile of tree branches and dead leaves. Campfire ablaze, he took a long, drawn-out bow. "Anything for you, m'lady," he said, facing her.

"Hrmph... I can't believe I didn't think of that..."

They sat down on logs on opposite sides of the pit and warmed themselves by the crackling fire. Rarity stared into the embers, her face lit up by the flickering reflections of the flames dancing about in front of her. Her realisation that she would have to tell Spike the truth of why they were here in just a few moments terrified her; she didn't like being the harbinger of bad news, especially to ponies (and dragons) she loved very much. Finally pulling together the courage, she put on a brave face and looked up from the fiery tongues lapping at the edges of the pit.

Her eyes were greeted by the small, barely-lit form of a young dragon lying on his side, eyes closed, on the log. His chest rose and fell steadily.

Rarity let out a sigh of relief, no longer tasked with recounting the beginning of their journey to her comrade. A blue glow surrounded Spike, lifting him gently from where he lay and sliding him into his sleeping bag in the tent. She decided that it was about time to sleep, so she swiftly put out the fire and trotted into the tent, zipping the flaps up behind her.

Rarity closed her weary eyes and drifted off to sleep, unaware of a new pinprick of light shining down from above.

BEFORE STORY:

idk some shit takes over ponyville and has canterlot and most of eqWESTria(LOL)

CHAPTER 01 - WIND AND TREES [Akryllic Love]:

rarity & spike flee east

yep

also she loses her element in the cave they stay in

CHAPTER 02/03? - SOUTH SIDE OF THE SKY [Yes]:

rainbow dash (w/ the scoots) meets them

enter town (WTF TO CALL???)

rainbow says what happened to her/scoots

spike is like wtf why isnt anyone telling me anything

rainbow is like wtf rares

rainbow tells spike

fluttershy->tell twilight @ crystal empire

rarity is like btw pinkie pie died i watched it happen

rainbow deflates

INTERLUDE 1 - VOW OF SILENCE [Lemon Demon]:

sweetie belle finds herself alone in ruins of ponyville

deaf

CHAPTER IDK - ??????:

lake

STUFF2DO:

l8r pinkie comes to save the day!!!!

but rares don't got her element

so SOMEONE DIES ????????????????????????????????? wtf

SHIT THAT WOULD MAKE COOL CHAPTER TITLES:

Laughter in the Dark [A Hawk and a Hacksaw]

When We Come Back [Akryllic Love]

Stranded [Akryllic Love]

Icicles [Almonds]