Griffinstone United

She wasn't kidding. This was hell.

The fierce winds tested their might as Big Macintosh pulled the cart, the fierce gusts and enormous snowflakes that slapped him in the face making it hard to move at a normal pace. Everyone else stayed behind, Benedict at the head of the back with Blaze in the rear. The narrow path that ran along the steep, gray rock walls had continued on for an hour, and it showed no signs of ending soon. They were in it for the long haul.

He was freezing, but his coat and cloak wouldn't go any tighter. His canteen of water swung in the harsh winds, as did everyone else's. Rather than putting them in the cart, everyone had also agreed to carrying their rucksacks from Craggle Creag and their contents on their own persons, figuring that it'd be a huge load off of Big Mac's back.

Blaze looked about frantically every time a pebble fell, jumping down and holding his hands over his head before peeking through his fingers. They were all careful to keep their wings shut tight, those with wings, anyway. If they even opened them slightly, the winds would tear them open and fly you away, just as Banana Toss had said. Though, the paths were more worrisome to Benedict.

Narrow but thankfully flat, there was a sharp end to the canyon's endless downfall, a trail that was only a couple feet wide, the cart barely fitting on it. Above were topless mountains in multiple sheets of snow, threatening an avalanche. If any of them tripped or fell, they'd be done for, falling into the endless chasm of nothingness that was below them, completely black. He'd tried tossing a bit down to hear when it landed, but it never did.

Or the howling wind obscured the noise, you never know.

Amethyst and Ellie were silent to one another as they walked together, though they were most likely listening to Carolyn and Alexander like Benedict was.

"Why'd you buy so much garbage, anyways?" Carolyn asked, looking at the bulging sack that he carried, waving in the wind despite its weight.

Alexander snickered. "I was practically scamming the suckers, the low prices they sold these for. This 'garbage' will make at least double what I spent."

Carolyn just snorted. "Oh yeah, because everyone wants to buy useless junk."

Despite himself, Benedict stifled a chuckle. The two's bickering was nonstop.

"How'd you even get recruited into this squad, anyways? Everyone else has a somewhat special position, but you're just an asshole-"

"Ah!"

Everyone jerked to a stop, turning to see the white dragon crouching against the grey ground once again. Benedict frowned.

"Not this again," Carolyn muttered.

"D-d-did you g-guys f-f-feel that?" he questioned, eyes wide, teeth chattering.

Alexander just laughed. "Blaze, ya' gotta calm down. There isn't anything here-"

Roaaaaaar...

Everyone froze, looking up. "Th-then what was th-th-that?!" he asked, frantically looking everywhere. The earth began to shake, and pebbles started to roll down the steep wall, clinking against the ground and bouncing into the chasms beneath. Benedict tensed up. What was that, he repeated in his mind.

Eventually everything calmed, but Benedict certainly didn't. "Guys, I think that-"

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

That was much closer, and it sounded like the bellowing of a dragon. A very, very big dragon. More pebbles began falling, and Blaze ran over to the cart, hiding behind it and peeking over it. The pebbles turned to rocks, smashing against the ground, cracking as they rolled. Benedict narrowly avoided one that was planning a collision course with his skull, leaping away and cursing.

"We need to get out of here!" he shouted over the wind, though they were all looking at the sky, transfixed. Benedict followed their gaze to a flaming, blue ball that zoomed towards one of the mountains, soon disappearing from their view.

That was about the time everything went to shit.

>>BOOM!!!<<

Now the earth shook furiously, and everyone began to stumble. Rocks turned to boulders that crashed downwards, clashing with the stone path. In a blur, one of them smashed against the wooden cart, sending supplies and chips of wood flying into the gaping abyss below, but Amethyst had started galloping towards Big Mac when he screamed out in pain. Blaze scrambled away towards Alexander, who was teeter-tottering over the lip of the path, beak wide.

Benedict narrowly dodged another rough rock and looked over it, seeing that one of Big Mac's hind legs had been crushed beneath the boulder, trapped. He didn't even see the large, black rock that smashed into Amethyst's side until it was too late.

She screamed, wrapping a hoof around Big Mac's as he was forced over the black pit, dangling. The big, usually-silent buck's screeches of agony could be heard from Griffinstone and beyond as flesh started to rip, and eventually his leg was torn free from the cart, falling with Amethyst and leaving a blood trail from his leg. Both plunged into the void below.

Just as that happened, Alexander began to plummet, but he had reflexively opened his wings. The wind immediately tore him backwards, but his hand clasped against Carolyn's arm. She was immediately pulled back with him, digging her claws into the rock with horrible scratches. Blaze looked up with one eye, jaw dropping. Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed one of Carolyn's arms and started to pull hard, trying to ring them back in, claws digging into the already-scratched ground, toothpick-thin muscles straining.

"No!" Ellie screamed out, rushing over and diving down after Amethyst. Right as she did, however, Benedict witnessed a smaller rock, but still heavy, fall on the back of her head, her cries cutting short as she went silent, eyes absent. She plummeted downwards, and Benedict screamed in horror.

"Ellie!" In a flash, with no second thoughts, he dived down after her, squinting his eyes against the rush of wind. He slightly opened his wings, thinking not much of it, but he had made a huge mistake. Just like that, his wings were ripped open to a spread-eagle form, and he smashed against the wall below the pathway, the world going fuzzy as he dropped, wings bent at an unnatural angle.

The last thing he saw was a chain of three people flying away in the insane winds, going farther and farther away, before blacking out.