Beneath Celestia’s sun, six ponies moved through the desert. Applejack had recently reconciled with her friends after they had chased her down and demanded an explanation for her behavior following her decision not to return to Ponyville. A couple of serious conversations later and the six mares had reaffirmed their friendship. The only remaining issue was when they would reach town, as the chase had led them far away. Fortunately, the train tracks made for an easy trail to follow.

“Ugh!” groaned Rarity from the cart, “It’s going to take hours to wash off all this dirt! How much farther before we reach civilization?”

“It shouldn’t be that much further,” replied Twilight, “We weren’t chasing Applejack for very long.”

“Maybe not, but we did cover quite a bit o’ distance,” said the aforementioned earth pony, who was helping Fluttershy pull the cart. “Ah’m awful sorry Ah got y’all into this.”

“Applejack, we already said that we forgive you,” chided Twilight, “And we still do. Right now, we just need to focus on getting back to Dodge Junction.”

“Rarity, you worry too much,” declared Rainbow, “We’ll be back before ya know it. Following these tracks’ll be a piece of cake!”

“Ooh! Should I make a cherry cake?” piped Pinkie, “I never made a cherry cake before! I’ve made strawberry cake, apple cake, banana cake, upside-down pineapple cake…”

“Um, excuse me,” mumbled Fluttershy, who suddenly stopped walking.

“Blueberry cake, carrot cake, marble cake…”

“What is it, Fluttershy?” asked Applejack.

“Chocolate cake, chocolate strawberry cake—”

Twilight shoved her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth, though the latter paid it no mind and continued her babbling. “Why are we stopping?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy pointed into the distance.

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her forehead in an effort to see better. “Looks like a flock of buzzards. Too far away to worry about, though.”

“But that means there’s something dying out there,” Fluttershy observed. “Maybe we should go help.”

“Fluttershy, if vultures are circling, then whatever’s over there is probably already dead,” said Twilight, who was trying very hard to be reasonable without upsetting her friend.

Rarity cringed in disgust. “I don’t want to be anywhere near dead things, thank you very much.”

“But it could still be alive! What if it’s somepony who got lost, or a momma rabbit that has babies to feed? We have to help!”

Seeing that her generally shy friend had her mind made up, Rainbow Dash decided to step in. “Alright, alright,” she conceded, “I’ll just fly over there and tell you what I see. I’ll be back in no time.”

“Well,” Fluttershy said meekly, “Maybe we should go with you?”

“Are you sure? Even I wouldn’t want to see a dead body and, well, there’s a pretty good chance that we’re gonna see one.”

Fluttershy’s reserved demeanor became a little bolder, which Rainbow was quick to notice. “Well, then we’d better hurry.” She then looked at the ground. “Um, no offense, but if it’s an animal, it’ll need my help.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “None taken.”

Fluttershy began turning the wagon and Applejack quickly lent her aid. “Alright, hang on, everypony!” declared Applejack before she and Fluttershy took off running.

The dirt beneath the ponies gradually became sand as they drew closer to the flock of vultures. Being faster in the air than her two friends pulling the wagon, Rainbow Dash reached their target first, though the others were not far behind. Lowering herself, but not quite landing for fear of getting too close to a corpse, Rainbow was able to get a good look at the creature below. “What’s a cat doing out here?” she wondered aloud.

The possibly dead animal lying in the sand very closely resembled a house cat, though Rainbow Dash noticed that it was bigger than the average cat, with golden fur and a tuft of hair on the end of its tail. Fluttershy and the others soon reached the cat. The yellow mare unhitched herself from the wagon and did not hesitate to walk right up to the animal. She brought her hoof to its neck, then lowered her head to its chest.

“Is it dead?” Rainbow asked.

“He’s alive!” Fluttershy cried, taking the cat in her forelegs, “But he needs water very soon or he’ll die!”

“But we don’t have any water!” Rainbow protested.

“Then we gotta get back to town fast! He’s barely breathing!” Fluttershy flew back to the wagon and gently laid the feline down while Rainbow Dash landed.

“You want fast?” Rainbow asked, hitching herself to the wagon alongside Applejack, “I’ll give ya fast!”

“We’ll give ya fast,” corrected Applejack. “You just stay in the wagon and see ta that there cat thang.”

“Okay,” replied Fluttershy, who started to fan the dying creature with her wings. With that, the mares began their gallop back to Dodge Junction.

“Wow!” exclaimed Pinkie, who had finished listing cakes for the time being, “That’s a big kitty!”

“Certainly bigger than Opalescence,” commented Rarity.

“I don’t think I’ve seen this kind of subspecies before,” noted Twilight. “I wonder if it’s native to this desert. I’ll have to research it when we get back to Ponyville.”

“Um, I think it’s a lion cub,” said Fluttershy.

“A lion cub?” asked Twilight. “How can you tell?”

“Well, he’s got a tuft of hair at the end of his tail.”

“But what would a lion, much less a cub, be doing out in the middle of the desert?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he got lost and can’t find his momma.” Fluttershy reached down and lightly petted the cub, looking like she was about to cry. “Poor baby, out here all alone. He must be so scared.”

Thanks to the combined might of Applejack and Rainbow Dash pulling the wagon, it wasn’t long before the ponies and their panthera passenger made it back to Dodge Junction. Fluttershy carried the cub to the water tower, which was on the outskirts of town, and filled a nearby bucket. Dipping her hoof into the bucket, she sprinkled a little water onto the cub’s face while her friends gathered around.

“Could you please step back?” Fluttershy requested, “Seeing too many ponies at once might scare him. Not that you’re scary, but…”

“We understand,” said Twilight. The five backed away so Fluttershy could do her work.

The little lion began to stir and let out a very pony-like groan, sounding almost like a foal. Fluttershy ran a hoof through his fur and the cub slowly opened his eyes and blinked at the sight of the yellow pony. “Hey there, little guy,” greeted Fluttershy. She gestured to the bucket. “Here, drink this. You must be really thirsty.” The cub blinked in curiosity, likely because he has never seen a pony before, but greedily gulped down the water until his thirst was quenched. What happened next came as a great shock to the six ponies, even Fluttershy.

“Thanks,” said the cub in perfect Equish, “I’d better go now.”

Author's Note

Hoo boy, this story has been in the back of my mind for quite a while, now. As far as I know, the number of MLP/TLK crossovers can be counted on one hand, so this should be a challenge.

For those of you wondering about my absence, I’d asked for my account to be deleted because I was being insulted and personally attacked for my religious beliefs, which really put a damper on my writing. I should really change my username, now that I think about it.

Hopefully, I can turn out a good story this time. I have an outline, but the blanks need to be filled in.