“I know you are worried darling but honestly after the princess’ spell confirmed he wasn't being held against his will and he wasn't being hurt i don't think there is any real reason to worry so much.” Rarity’s calm tone did wonders for the still shivering pegasus beside her.

“I-I-I… suppose your right Rarity. But what if Twilight is right and it is another big, scary dragon?” Whispered Fluttershy, who couldn't tear her eyes from the now much closer and much more ominous pillar of smoke.

“Well if it was a big mean ol dragon then wouldn't the princesses’ spell say he was being held against his will or being hurt hmm?” Rarity leaned in, knowing her argument worked when the shy pegasus stopped shivering and hiding behind her mane.

“Yeah i guess you are right Rarity, maybe it is a big misunderstanding…” Fluttershy found her eyes drawn forward where a haggard looking alicorn glared back at her.

Where the pegasus was cowed by the fierce look the unicorn beside her merely rolled her eyes. “Darling i'm happy for you, honest. But if all you are going to use your alicorn hearing for is intimidating poor Fluttershy then I would be quite disappointed.”

The alicorn’s gaze faltered and the princess had to admit Rarity was right and she turned back towards Rainbow Dash who was showing off a headlock on an unfortunate Applejack who could do little but breathlessly struggle as the overexcited rainbow pegasus squeezed harder.

Rarity rolled her eyes once more and looked over to Pinkie Pie who bounced beside them, unusually quiet compared to the rest of her friends. Her lips were scrunched up as her eyes squinted, clearly deep in thought. Which contrasted against her exuberant bouncing steps. She had been muttering nothing but acronyms and the finer nuances of party etiquette for the last hour and though Rarity was curious about the etiquette part it quickly became apparent that it was Pinkie pie party etiquette and not real etiquette.

“R-rarity?”

“What is it darling?”

“I wasn't interrupting your train of thought was i?” Fluttershy asked guiltily.

Rarity snorted quite unladylike. “Absolutely not, I was just wondering what is going on in Pinkie Pie’s head.” She shuddered suddenly. “However i realize now that i probably don't want to know.”

Fluttershy giggled daintily into her hoof but stopped suddenly and looked Rarity in the eye. “Um, can i ask you something?”

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes and attempted to sound as open and kind as possible, hoping her confident demeanour would aid the mare’s fear, despite the situation they were in. “Of course darling.”

“Would you umm… protect me? Ifitsabigmeandragon-eep.” Fluttershy began trembling once more, a barely visible blush on her cheeks which she quickly hid by looking away.

Rarity’s nostrils flared as she drank in the adorable sight of the shy pegasus blushing and hiding behind her hair. Every fibre of Rarity’s being screamed at her to say yes and that urge was impossible to stop. “Yes! I mean.” she coughed into her hoof and in a more ladylike tone continued. “Of course I would, why i was going to save this as a surprise but Twilight finally managed to teach me teleportation magic. So if we do see a big mean dragon me and you are out of there in a poof!”

Fluttershy calmed down and pushed the hair from her eyes looking at Rarity, her heart beating hard in her chest. “Thanks Rarity.”

“No problem darl-”

“Hey you two done making googly eyes at each other?”

Both ‘googly’ eyed mares stared angrily at Pinkie pie who merely threw up her hooves in defence.

“Not like that's a bad thing silly, some of my favorite eyeballs are googly. Hehe.” the other mare’s couldn't resist Pinkie’s silliness and laughed along with her. “I think we are almost there, look how big the smoke has gotten!”

Rarity and Fluttershy both gawked as they looked up, the once distant pillar of smoke had grown to an oppressive tower of obsidian that nearly blacked out the sky. In the distance the other three members of their party stood staring down at something. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie crept forward curiously.

As they got closer they quickly realized what the other three were staring at as a great yawning hole opened up before them. It obviously housed the source of the smoke as the side they stood on housed only 50 or so feet of clean air before the smoke overtook it and quickly obscured everything from sight. Looking down, Rarity noted the sides of the cliff seemed to quickly vanish and a sudden sense of vertigo overcame her and she latched on to the closest thing in reach.

Thankfully Fluttershy was already running away from the edge as Rarity suddenly grabbed onto her, carrying both of them further away from the nightmare hole. The other four ignored the scaredy mares and looked down, trying to figure a route for the flightless members of their party.

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. The hole became a gorge as it grew in all directions and became much wider just beneath their hooves meaning it would be impossible to escape as it was worse than just a sheer cliff.

“What do you think Twi? Me and you could fly everypony down one by one.” Rainbow offered.

Twilight shook her head. “Spike might be in no position to fly, I am going to draw a teleportation circle and im going to need you to go down there and draw an X on the ground so i can use it as a focus. Then i'll copy it again so we can get back up here without trouble in case we have injured.”

Applejack nodded in agreement. “I don't much like relying on magic but if Spike’s hurt we might make things worse if we have to fly him out.”

The three shared a nod of agreement, purposefully ignoring the eye roll of from Pinkie. “Would you please go get those two scaredy cats and bring them over here? Tell them i will be teleporting them down so they don't have to worry about the big scary hole in the ground.” Twilight commanded without looking.

Pinkie saluted. “Will do boss lady.” With that Pinkie bounced off to a seemingly random bush and pulled two entangled, frightened ponies out of it.

Twilight lit her horn and tossed Rainbow Dash a peice of chalk before going about her own much larger job of drawing the necessary circle with glowing lines of magic. Applejack took a step back and watched, a twinge of curiosity keeping her close enough to watch the alicorn work.

Just when Twilight was finishing the last of the now large and intricate circle Rainbow Dash flew up out of the gaping hole in the ground with a worried look. “There is definitely something weird going on down there, i found some scales and plenty of claw marks all over the place like someone was digging for something.”

Suddenly the pegasus was wrapped tightly in Twilight’s magical aura and dragged muzzle to muzzle with the alicorn, a frantic look in her eye. “What color were the scales? Was it my poor Spike?”

Rainbow was unperturbed by the alicorn’s outburst and just shrugged. “I dunno it's kinda dark down there but they didn't look green.”

Twilight’s aura held the pegasus there for another second before her shoulders fell and she released the other mare. “Either way we should hurry, did you draw the X?”

Rainbow Dash nodded and landed on the circle next to Twilight, tossing her chalk back at her as she did. “Good, that means we should be ready to go.”

Applejack bumped her shoulder against the alicorn’s drawing her attention to the farm pony. “You shoulda let me grab my rope, cus it seems like we might have to wrangle somepony.” A.J’s extended hoof drew the alicorn’s attention to the three other members of their party standing off to the side, two of which were afraid of heights.

Pinkie bounced forward and saluted. “Yo boss lady, these two don't want to come down, Rarity doesn't want her fur to get ruined by the smoke and Fluttershy is scared.”

Rarity harrumphed but didn't disagree, while Fluttershy just looked away, trembling slightly. Twilight had seen this coming and knew just what it would take to drag her friends along. With a confidant smile she walked over to them.

“Girls please. I need you, Spike needs you. I can't do this without you.”

That seemed to at least draw their attention. “Now darling we know that but you know as well as I that neither of us are fighters, i don't see how we could offer anything those three couldn't. Well other then a sense of fashion but that wouldn't help you down there in that dirty hole.”

Fluttershy nodded her agreement.

“Rarity, as soon as we are down there we will put out the fire and-”

“Wait, how do you know it's a fire and not a dragon?”

Twilight sighed and resisted the urge to go full lecture mode. “Now that we are close I can hear the crackling of the flames from here, if it was a dragon it would just be the sounds of deep breathing.” Twilight arched an eyebrow. “I did raise a dragon from birth you know.”

That seemed to assuage some of their fears, enough that Fluttershy stopped hiding behind her hair anyway. Taking that as her chance Twilight jumped at the opportunity. “Once the fire is out I know for a fact that there are some rare and unique gems down there and once we are done you can pick as many as you want.”

“How did you? Nevermind, i don't care, I still won't leave poor Fluttershy alone up here.” Said pegasus smiled and took a stealthy step closer to the other mare who smiled wider.

“But if it really is a dragon we might need her stare to deal with it. Or it might be something far different like a….” Twilight leaned in, looking back and forth as if somepony might be listening in. “Cave belcher.”

Rarity blanched at the mention of the unknown creature, which was in stark contrast to Fluttershy who nearly jumped out of her skin.

“REALLY?” Fluttershy shook the alicorn, her excitement infectious.

“Or maybe even a pack of fire lizards.”

“OH MY GOSH.” Fluttershy hovered closer to the hole, casting a curious glance at its depths. “Come on Rarity.” Fluttershy flew off towards the rest of the girls only to turn around halfway and look back guiltily. “I mean if you want to.”

Rarity tossed her hair back nonchalantly. “Very well darling.” She turned her attention back to the alicorn once Fluttershy had joined Pinkie and the others. “You best not forget our deal missy.”

Twilight grinned from ear to ear. “Of course not, now let's get moving.”

Nodding once Rarity joined the others, Twilight hot on her heels. Once all crowded into the circle Twilight lit her horn and with a flash the six were gone. When the bright flash of light now gone the six opened their eyes and looked around at their strange new surroundings.

Twilight quickly took charge of the situation and cast a light spell bright enough to light up nearly the entire gorge that wasn't choked in smoke. “Rainbow, search around for any discarded scales.” Before Twilight could even finish Rainbow nodded and was off with a flash. “Err- Applejack, go after her and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. If you see anything come back here so we can take care of it together, nopony is going to get hurt on my watch.”

“Right.” The farm pony nodded once and trotted after the blue streak racing around the gorge.

“Pinkie would you-.” Twilight looked over to the pink mare who was merely looking up. “Wow.”

With a light spell illuminating the darkness Twilight looked around, curious as to how the strange gorge might have been formed. A faint trickle of water could barely be heard over the sound of the fire. Looking closer at the walls and roof Twilight devised this was probably what was left of some ancient cave system that had grown until the roof collapsed in. As the walls spread out in all directions they curved all the way up to the hole in the roof, making any attempts at escaping without wings or horn impossible. Small alcoves dotted the walls seemingly at random, most at ground level, some higher up. All of which only further proved Twilight’s ancient tunnel system theory.

“Interesting.” Twilight lit her horn and did a cursory scan of the room while she waited for RD and AJ to return. Poindetly ignoring the still quite scared mares basically clinging to her sides. Well except for Pinkie Pie but then again Twilight was pretty sure Pinkie lacked the ability to feel fear anymore. Maybe it was because she was laughing all the time…

“Equestria to Twilight, i found a scale.” Rainbow Dash yelled, waving an aged redish gray scale in front of the alicorn’s face.

“What?! oh yes, thanks.” Twilight took the scale in her magic, not noticing the looks her friends exchanged.

Applejack stepped a little closer, eying the alicorn carefully. “Yallright sugarcube? Ya look plumb tuckered out.”

Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “I just haven't slept since i found out where Spike was is all, nothing a little refresher spell won't fix.”

Rarity gasped in horror. “Not that spell! You told me you would stop using it, you know how dangerous it can be.”

“As soon as Spike is safe i will sleep for a week okay? Now can we get back to the literal life and death situation?” Twilight’s penetrating glare and intimidating stature made the fashionista wilt, shuffling back beside Fluttershy.

“Well alright, just make sure you don't collapse or nothing. With all the growing you've been doing ah don't know if ah can carry you anymore.” However Applejack’s words fell on deaf ears as Twilight’s concentration focused entirely on the strange scale.

“Uh, sugarcube? Ya find something?” The look on Twilight’s face made the farm pony nervous, though she couldn't explain why.

“Garble.” The words were such hate and venom that even Applejack shied away from the alicorn, taken aback by the sudden change.

“Who?”

“GARBLE!” Twilight lit her horn, reactivating the tracking spell and racing off deeper into the cave, plunging into the smoke and vanishing.

“Come on girls, Twilight needs us!” before Applejack checked to see if anypony was following her she charged into the smoke, a prismatic blur following her a second later.

Leaving three other ponies standing there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. “Well i was going to say it's a really old scale but it seems as though those three are a little too excited, hmph.”

Fluttershy nodded her agreement. “And it looks like it's molted as well, this scale didn't come off in a fight.”

Rarity and Fluttershy shared a look and a sigh.

“What? My last acronym wasn't that bad, i think Y.Y.G.A.S.N.I.G.H had some pizzaz!”

The two other mares both rolled their eyes in unison.

“Oooh nice one, are you girls practicing for synchronized snark competitions?”

A sigh escaped their lips.

“You guys are good.”

Author's Note

Commander Sparkle really needs to work on her intimidating chest fluff if shes ever going to expect to get any respect.