The Mane Seven had boarded The Friendship Express to take them to the edge of Equestria, they would stop at a place called “The Southern Ice Plain,” which was odd, considering it was considered a desert.
They sat in the front carriage, there only was one, and it rarely had more than one or two passengers, due to the remoteness of their destination, the obscure rail branch was only still running because the rail owners hadn’t yet reviewed the amount of passengers vs the operating cost.

The trip took the better part of a week, and when they finally arrived they just found a small campsite and a path that led up a small mountain, which looked very out of place, considering it was the only mountain around, in all other directions there was naught but a desolate expanse of frost, at the top of the mountain, there was supposedly an isolated village, there they would stop and look at their current options.

There was a small group of ponies that were already starting up the mountain, so they decided to follow them.

~1 hour later.

They all emerged at the top, they saw a loose cluster of an odd dozen houses, in the middle sat a stout building, and there was sign that described the building as a tavern, it had a few beds, but there were rarely travellers that went this far out.
“So, do we just go in?” Fluttershy asked.
“I assume so.” Starlight responded.

They pushed open the door and went in, there they saw an assortment of villagers drinking alcoholic beverages.
“Oh, my, we haven’t had travellers here for a long time.” Said a mare sitting behind the counter, presumably an employee.
“Hello, we were looking for beds for the night, a stock-up of supplies, and a guide across The Ice Plain, if you have one.” Twilight said.
“We have beds and supplies, but none of us have gone very far into The Ice Plain, I’m afraid you’re on your own there.” She said.

After a slightly restless night sleeping in old, low quality beds, the Mane Seven set out again for the Ice Plain, they exited the building, but before they had made it halfway across the village, they were intercepted by a young mare.

“Please, take me with you!” She said.
“Woah, who are you?” Rainbow asked.
“I’m Moonlight Rose, this village is a boring place, there’s so little to do, I’ve been longing for a bit of adventure.” She said.
“And how can we trust you?” Rainbow asked.
“What do you mean?” She asked, moderately perplexedly.
“I think it’ll be fine, what’s the worst that could happen? Besides, we probably need some sort of guide.” Starlight said.

They agreed to take her with them, but they would all keep an eye on her, after all, she could be a servant to whatever cruel god had thrust them into this place.
After that short encounter, they went back down the mountain, taking considerably less time to get down than they took to make it up.

They stood at the base of the mountain, Twilight was reading her magical projection of a map for directions, when she finally spoke.
“That way,” she gestured over the plain of ice.
“Well, let’s make a start now.” Applejack said.l

The trek began, their full packs weighing on their backs, as they began across the desolate expanse of frost. They went on for hours, non-stop, nopony said anything, as there was no need for unnecessary speech, everypony was already dedicating their concentration to keeping their balance on the treacherous ice.

After what seemed like forever, Starlight spoke.
“How much longer should we have to go?”
“We’re going to have to go for several days, I’m afraid.” Twilight responded.
A collective groan could be heard amongst the ponies.

In an unknown location.

A child sat on a great throne, gazing through a purple flame at a projection of the ponies, it had a faint smile on its lips.
“I’m bored, they should face some monsters or something.” it said in a screeching tone.

Back at The Ice Plain.

The ponies trekked on for the remainder of the day, when the sun finally went down, they all ached all over, and were cold, Twilight told them to start a camp, preferably she would’ve picked a sheltered spot to protect them from the harsh wind that they were starting to feel more heavily as they were no longer moving.
The ponies pitched their tents quickly, and Starlight cast a heat bubble spell, everypony was instantly grateful for the warmth that now swept over them.
When all the ponies were about to go to sleep Twilight spoke up.

“We need a sentry to keep guard for any threats.”
Moonlight Rose hastily spoke up “I’ll do it!”
“I’ll relieve you at 9PM, Starlight can fill in at 12AM, and Rainbow at 3AM.” Twilight said, drafting Starlight and Rainbow.

The night was much uneventful until Starlight filled in, she was just settling into her post as Moonlight went to sleep, she saw something low on the horizon, it was low to the ground and slowly creeping, Starlight cast a spell of night vision, why didn’t she do this at the start of the watch? Because she simply didn’t think of it.
She immediately saw a large wolf-like creature, suddenly it started running towards the camp at a shockingly fast speed, and behind it formed up a rank of others like it.

“WOLVES!” She shouted, waking the camp, Rainbow was the first out, she looked around for a bit, and then she saw them.
“We’ve got to fight them!” She said.
Starlight kicked her hooves into the ground and launched bolts of magic in the vague region of the enemies as her friends got themselves out of the tent, the bolts that did hit dissipated off the fur.
“Damn it!” She said in frustration as the bolts didn’t seem to have an effect.

Then Twilight aided her bolts with her own magic, immediately the bolts started penetrating, one went down, then another, and by the time they arrived their numbered 4 out of their original 32.
Rainbow shot forward to intercept one, she kicked it on the top of its head, the beast tossed its head and Rainbow was flung upwards, but with a noticeable dent in its head.
Then it spoke.
“Hah, kill us if that is what you wish, but there will be more, they will be stronger and more numerous than us, your chances of survival are next to none.” It hissed, then the remaining pack ran off.

“Do we shoot them in the back?” Starlight asked.
“I doubt it’ll make a difference, besides don’t waste your energy, our first goal is to complete this quest of ours, there’s still time in the night, I think it’ll be restless, but we may as well try to continue to sleep.” Twilight said.

Author's Note

Due to not having the motivation to work on that novel I'm meant to be co-writing, I did this instead.