A Near Miss

Once they had finished eating their lovely buttered haycakes, Near, Long and Spleens took stock of their situation. They were atop a mountain of mud in the middle of a mountain range of mud, and though it would probably dry up in few days, until then they had to decide what to do with themselves.

"Well," Near said, "The way I see it, we have several options. The easiest would be to just wait here until the ground dries out enough for us to travel on it normally again. We could just drag the caravan through the mud anyway, but that sounds hard. Finally we could try to fly or telepoof the caravan from hilltop to hilltop while we wait for everything to dry out. What do you two think?"

"If we wait till everything dries out, what would we do while we wait?" Spleens asked.

"Dunno," Near answered, "Lose to you at board games and give Long wing massage's 'til she can see through time?"

"While I am totally fine with that second part," Long commented, "We might go nuts before the ground dries. Maybe we should try moving the caravan a hill or two and see how hard it actually is."

"Works for me," said Near, "Just so you know, telepoofing something that big is pretty hard. I can do it, but I'm not sure how many times it would take to exhaust myself. Can you two carry the caravan while flying?"

Long and Spleens both shrugged before flying over to the caravan, one on each end, and trying to lift it. Although they managed to lift it a trot or two into the air, they immediately put it back down. "No joy," said Long as she folded her wings, "It's just too heavy."

Looking at the surrounding hilltops, Near spotted another rocky platform on a hill roughly in the direction they wanted to go. "Could one of you fly me over to that hill?" Near asked, "It's a lot easier to telepoof something to you than away from you."

With a shrug Long Shot proceeded to airlift Near to her requested hill, with Spleens buzzing along close behind. After she was set down, Near began charging her horn to try to move the caravan over a kilotrot to this new hill. "Stand back girls, here it comes."

With a bright flash of light, the caravan appeared in front of them, initially around a quarter trot in the air before falling to settle back on its wheels. As the caravan settled, Near swayed side to side, gasping for air before Spleens jumped in front of her saying, "Woah, you ok there? Maybe you should sit down for a bit."

Near nodded before dropping her rump to the ground, still huffing and puffing. "I don't get it. How did Starlight Glimmer make it look so easy? She moved the caravan all the way from Ponyville to Canterlot without breaking a sweat."

"So," said Long, also sitting down, "I guess telepoofing our way out of here is a no go, and I believe our other options were pulling the caravan through the mud, or poking my wing roots 'til I could see through time, right?"

Spleens rolled her eyes before levitating a large cushion over from the caravan and getting to work on Long's wings, "You're lucky you're delicious."