Assassination of the Ponies

The land here was rocky and barren, no towns were in sight and there was a good defendable cave near where the group had landed. Nopony was really sure where in Equestria they were, there was some fresh snow down and lots of overgrown trees, mainly apple trees, some could be bucked down for wood supplies. Twilight scanned the landscape, hoping to catch a glance of something, the clouds were all massive, never changed by Pegasi. The clouds were light grey, snow, Rainbow Dash said. 'Good thing we have a weather pony with us, or this fresh snow would never have given the weather patterns away.' Twilight thought. Rarity was walking around, her hair still a mess, it was losing colour, becoming a browny-dark purple colour. Rarity screamed in delight as she saw something.

"Water! Fresh water!" Rarity was shouting, dispute the snow it wasn't actually very cold. Twilight inspected the snow more with her eyes, her magic almost drained for a long while, the teleport had taken all strength out of Twilight but she wouldn't admit weakness to her friends. Applejack rushed to the water and dived in, considering, Twilight was surprised Rarity was in the water.

"Come on girls, the waters fine!" AJ shouted, Twilight knew why it was so warm, yet snowy, she panicked instantly.

"Girls, this is the void between the dragon lands and the Changling nation, we are trapped in no ponies land, I don't know which side of Equestria we are on and don't know where the country of Equestria is, the dragons have been migrating a lot all over Equestria more recently, well, they were three months ago. The sun set and the moon came out, at about the right time now, the moon had come out and in Canterlot it was about midnight when the group had escaped. Twilight found herself worrying for Shining Armor and Candace.

"Dragon lands?" Rarity replied, shocked.

"In the east, to the west is Changling central, as far as I can tell, to the south is the endless sea and north is the only way we can go, but the road leads through Changling and dragon lands, the pathway in the mountains leads straight out to Equestria, where we can watch the war and see when it's safe again. This is all from books of explorers, so don't know if it is in deed this side of Equestria, if we are east then we are fine, if not, we will have to pass straight through dragon lands." Twilight said, the group stopped and looked to the skies. Rarity had stopped shouting and was holding a hoof over her mouth. Rainbow Dash tried to flap her wings, but the metal stopped her. As happy as she was to have them back, she wasn't happy to have to wait more time before she could use them. Applejack was now out of the water and was watching the sky now and Twilight was trying to look for mountains, with no prevail.

Two days passed and there were no signs of any Changlings or dragons. Applejack was still watching the skies but had somehow gathered a lot of apples, there was some grass here to so they were fairly fine on food and water, probably better of here than Ponyville. Twilight manipulated the rock and carved into the stone graves: Angel, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy. She cried as she wrote more graves, Rarity stood watching, as did Rainbow Dash, Applejack came over to watch as well, tears in each of their pony eyes. Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. The rocks on their graves conveniently had some natural iron ore in, so their grave stones looked more, well, more than the others.

"We will remember them Twilight, and this war shall end one day." Applejack muttered, knowing it a lie.

"Yes, but at what cost to Equestria's population, thousands are already dead from unarmed looters, these are trained military figures, fighting because nopony will admit to killing our princesses." Twilight replied, still crying.

"We will find out who killed the princesses Twilight, one day a new alicorn shall rise from the war." Rarity replied.

"What about Candace? She's an alicorn." Applejack pointed out, in truth, Shining Armor had told Twilight Candace was long dead, died in child birth, sad way to go, but it had happened, Shining Armor wasn't the same, but now fighting under a new banner, he would use that anger on the battlefield, knowing Armor, becoming a great threat to anypony brave enough to attack him.

"She's gone, died years ago." Twilight replied. She had gotten the latter only eight months after their wedding, the baby had died too, Shining Armor hadn't spoken to Twilight since, except at the gathering, and he seemed fine. Which Twilight knew was wrong.

"Is there any way to turn, heck, you into an alicorn?" Applejack asked.

"You have to be born an alicorn, or earn the place." Twilight replied, flattered at her friends suggestion.

"Come on, I'm getting tired, lets get back to the cave." Rainbow Dash said.

A week later, the four made their first attempts at seeing where they were and how to get home again. Only one dragon had flown over so far, heading into or out of the Changling kingdom. Apparently even the dragons were in the war.

"Come on girls, we should find out where we are sooner rather than later." Twilight said, tired, her casting such a hard spell then not being around any sort of natural magic was beginning to take its toll.

"Okay, now which way didaya say that mountain of yours was?" Applejack asked. Rarity was sitting on a rock she'd manipulated into a chair somehow and was munching on one of many apples, her eye patch was soggy and wet from Rarity's eighth shower that day, she wouldn't take it off, even whilst in the volcanic water. Some days the water would be boiling, and the ponies would come out lighter, pinker, more raw colours, other days the water would be cold, the days the four ponies would fill the water skins, again, Rarity had made, since Twilight was still worn out from the teleport. Other days the water would be boiling and steaming, too dangerous to go in. Rainbow Dash was excited that in a few days she could fly again, being so long grounded she had taken a custom to being so low down, the rainbow and cyan Pegasus knew she couldn't go too far or too high being in dragon-Changling lands, so was itching to attempt at heading to her war-torn home.

"The mountain pass should be about a days gallop north, so fill your skins up and grab the bags, AJ, apples, Rarity, water, Rainbow, watch those wings but bring some blankets. I'll get the spare supplies." Considering they had been away from pony civilization for nearly two weeks, the group, with Rarity's manipulation skills, and AJ's apple bucking, the group were pretty well off.

So the four of them geared up and began the march, again not seeing anything on the way. Twilight lead the way north through the rocks and over the barren hills that stood in their way, the day was nearly over, the unicorns getting the right time now, (so they were presumably winning the war. Or showing off to the other factions). But there were no sign of any mountains, Twilight was giving up as they passed over a hill, then, I'm front about half a day away, were some brown-grey mountains.

"The Equestrian mountains, named after being used by the chancellor of the Earth pony tribe when Equestria was founded. Apparently the chancellor herself inscribed in the rock a message to anypony that followed and was in need to aid." Twilight said, gleaming with pride they were on the right track.

"That could definitely come in handy." Rainbow replied, even after all that time, Twilight was still looking at Rainbow and expecting her to be flying. Not grounded, with metal bars over her wings.

"Look darling, whatever the Earth pony wrote would have nothing to do with an assassination or a great pony war." Rarity exclaimed.

"Well we should still go and see, for the next generation." Applejack replied, not really thinking.

"Next generation? If this war isn't ended than there may not be a next pony generation, if the dragons are provoked enogh it'll be the end of ponies, the end of Equestria and the beginning of another dragon reign." Twilight replied, louder than intended.