Don't Stop The Rainbows

by GPVS

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Sad, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash
Length: 11960

Adventure's aren't always how you imagiend they'd be

Rainbow Dash and friends go to see the Eastern Lights but it's not at all like how they imagined.

Published 2012-12-09 06:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-17 01:28:00 UTC

Chapter 1: 8:00AM

8:00 AM

There have been better times to wake up. I don't think I have much of a choice this time around though, not with this dream still lingering around the corners of my mind. It's one of those dreams you can't forget because it is simply too hard to remove from your mind. Like those dreams where you do something incredibly stupid and everyone laughs at you. Well except for one thing; in my dream, no one is laughing. The only other person in this dream dies at the end. She is one of my best friends, Twilight. I woke up in tears. It wasn't even reality and I still could not bear the thought of losing my friend.

That was around an hour ago so, it's about 8:05. I have four more hours until my friends and I head out on our mountain expedition. It's going to be a great adventure, tons of fun.

We made plans about a month ago to climb to the peak of Mt.Sol to see the Eastern Lights. The Eastern Lights are this awesome display caused by lunar lights bouncing off the meteor shower, that just happens to be occurring at the same time. It makes a magnificent aurora across the night sky, or so I've heard. I haven't actually seen it yet, one of those once in a millenia, stars align, kind of thing.Regardless, it should still be a great way to spend time with my friends.
Now, all I need is a muffin and some orange juice and I'll be all set for the morning. Sadly, I think a certain somepony ate all the muffins. Well, guess I'll just make do with a scone. Scones are cool.

12:30
“Crap, I’m late! I gotta get down there as soon as I can” I think to myself as I run around town trying to reach Twi’s house, “We gotta reach our camping spot before dark or we won’t be able to see what we’re doing.” I can see her house from here, luckily it stands out from just about every other house in town.

“I’m here!” I exclaim as I burst in the door, “Wait, where’s everyone else?” The room was completely empty except for AppleJack.
“They all went out for a minute to get some last-minute supplies for outing,” She says, “Where have you been? You’re half an hour late.”
“Sorry about that, lost track of time,” I was actually busy doing flying practice and ended up getting lost in the canyon, but no one need to know that.
“We’re here!,” screams a certain pink pony as she practically breaks down the door opening it, “Didja miss me?”
“Sure, we all missed you,” AppleJack says, “Whad y’all get?”
“Not much really, just some basic supplies and food” Twilight says, “And Rarity needed some more scarves”
“What can I say” Rarity remarks, “One must always stay fashionable regardless of the situation”

I’ve never really understood Rarity’s obsession with being “fashionable” but that’s just me. I almost asked where FlutterShy was until I heard a soft voice coming from behind Pinkie, “Uhmm... Hi RainbowDash”
“RainbowDash! Where!” Pinkie exclaims looking around the room to find me. After locking onto me with her eyes she jumps at me screaming, “Dashie!”
“Uhm, Hi Pinkie,” I say after barely dodging her tackle-hug.
“When’d you get here?” Pinkie exclaims bouncing up and down, “Was it a long time ago, did we keep you waiting?”
“No, I got here right before you guys did,” I say, “I actually thought I kept you guys waiting.”
“Well we were all out getting supplies so there’s really nothing to be worried about,” Twilight says, “What took you so long to get here?”
“I got lost” I say, “I mean I lost track of time.”
“I see. Well at least we’re all here,” Twilight gives me a strange look, "Did you all bring what you were supposed to?"
"Fluttershy helped me make the dessert for tonight," Pinkie says pulling Fluttershy closer with her strange extendable arms, "Right Flutters?"
"Uhm, ye- yes. I guess so," I don't think Fluttershy is very comfortable in that position, "But Pinkie did all the work."
"Nonsense, I sent you on all those errands."
"But you did all the baking."
"You both helped," Twilight says, "AppleJack, did you bring the climbing equipment?"
"Sure thing sugar cube, got it all in my pack," Apple Jack says pointing to the green bag slouched over by a bookcase, "I brought extra just in case."
"Good good, and as we all know I just got back from picking up supplies and food," Twilight points to the bag on her back, "So all that leaves is Rainbow Dash, do you have what we asked you to get?"
"If you mean the awesome, hand-drawn sky-map of our route, the yes," I say, "I got it right here." I fumble around in my bag for the map last night I made some edits. Turns out that if you go the wrong way around the Crystal Tunnel you can get yourself horribly lost. Luckily though, I found that out after re-visiting the area and redrew the correct way to go through Crystal Tunnel.
“Rainbow Dash, you okay? You sure are taking a long time to find one piece of paper,” Apple Jack says.

That’s just it though, I can’t find it. Oh bit, I must of lost it when I was doing flying practice in that canyon. Luckily I left the rough draft in my pack, I guess I’ll have to make a mental note about the Caves then.
“Yeah, the map is right here,” I show them the “map”, “Just had to make sure it was the right one.”
“Well that’s good,” Twight says, “Wouldn’t want that now would we?”
“No we wouldn’t,” Rarity responds, “And Rainbow Dash, I must say, you have quite the eye for detail. A lot of work must of been put into this.”
“Yeah, actually I stayed up all night working on this,” I say, “Needed to make sure everything was perfectly accurate.”
“Well, it looks okie dokie lokie to me,” Pinkie says bouncing up and down on the ceiling grinning, don't ask me how, “Good job!”
“Pinkie, get down from there. You might... Uh...” Apple Jack stammers, “Anyways, good job.”
“Yes, I’ve been to this area briefly before,” Twilight says, pointing to a drawing on the map, “I’m surprised you noticed the way that hill arcs, I thought you wouldn’t for sure.”
"Well I did spend some time on it," I say, "Anyways, Twilight, what food did you get?"
“Not much, just a few apples, which Apple Jack generously donated, some sandwiches, soup and trail-mix,”
“And don’t forget about my cake!” Pinkie Pie says jumping down from the ceiling.
“Well, I didn’t actually have anything to do with that, you and Fluttershy did all the work,”
"Oh yeah..."
"What kinda soup?" I ask.
"A variety," Twilight answers, "But a lot of tomato soup"
"Well good thing I love tomato soup."
I really do love tomato soup, I don't know why though.
"That's just dandy Dash," Apple Jack says, "But I brought something extra special. Two things actually."
"Really! Really!" Pinkie says bouncing again in Apple's face, "Whadja get!"
"Well...," Apple Jack says, raising the suspense. If I didn't know better, I would've thought it was because Pinkie was less than 5 inches away from her face.
"Just some of Sweet-Apple-Acres fresh cider and apple sauce!"
I think Pinkie might need a new face, here eyes are too big.
"Some what!" Pinkie says.
"You heard me, fresh applesauce and cider. My family was trying out some new recipes and after hearing how Dash here rarely ever gets some decided to let me use the leftovers for our expedition. I hope you like this surprise, even though I can't assure you of the taste,"
"Are you kidding me, this is awesome!" I say, pumping a hoof into the air.
"Glad you think so," Twilight says, "Now that everything seems to be in order, let's get moving."
"Why yes, let us embark," Rarity says, "I can show my new scarf to the world all the quicker."
"Rarity, if you didn't notice," I say, "We're going to be climbing, on a mountain. No one will see us,"
"Well, we will be strolling through town won't we?"
“Yeah, and? We’ll only be there for a few minutes”
“Time enough to make a fashion statement.”
I still don’t understand Rarity’s obsession with fashion.

Author's Note

Hi, hope you all like this:D Try to drop a Thumbs er' somethin and check back for updates

Chapter 2: 1:30PM

1:30
“Sheesh Rarity,” I say, “How long could you talk to that many ponies in such a little area and take up so much time?”
“Darling, fashion can do anything,” Rarity says.
“Also, weren’t you the one who was thirty minutes late Rainbow Dash?” Apple-Jack points out.
“Well, yeah,” I stutter out, “But that was on accident, Rarity didn’t have to talk to those ponies.”
“Any one of those ponies could have been possible customers,” Rarity points out, “I can’t afford to let a single one of them slip through my fingers. It’s just that simple, darling.”
“But would it kill you to do it when we get back?”
“It just might, what if they leave town?”
“Well, believe it or not, we’re leaving too. It all works out, see?”
“Girls, calm yourselves,” Twilight says, “You have a point Rainbow Dash, but so does Rarity, and as Apple-Jack said, you were half an hour late. So you’re really not one to talk for being punctual.”
“But I-,” I start to say but decide not to finish the sentence, “Ugh, okay, I guess you’re right. I guess I’ll just call it even.”
“Good, now let’s get moving, we have a lot of ground to cover before sundown,” Twilight says, pointing in the direction of the mountains way off in the distance. Wow, we do have a long way to go.

I look left and right at the surrounding sea of rocks and stones, confused on where to go, then look back at my map, “Twilight, have we passed the Pumice Head yet?”
“No, that’s ahead of us, why?”
“Because when we get there we have to make a right into the forest trail behind it.”
“Wait, but that’s in the opposite direction,” Apple-Jack points out.
“I know that, but if we continue on this mountain trail we’ll eventually hit a cliff face that will take all day to climb over. The forest trail just has a bit of a hill, it’s much easier.”
“And the easier it gets, the more fun we have,” Pinkie says.
I don’t think I could handle anymore of her “fun”. Just a couple minutes ago her “fun” resulted in us having to go rescue her, when she fell down a hill. Luckily two of us can fly or that would have been a really big pain in the flank.
“Hey Dash, is that what you were looking for?” Twilight says, pointing at an oddly shaped piece of rock in the distance.
“Yeah, that’s it exactly.”
I discovered Pumice Head and the shortcut a few days ago while I was surveying the area. Turns out its some sort of leftover molten ash from a volcanic eruption, and this volcano is dormant and we're walking on it right now. It's pretty shocking actually.
"Did you know that it was supposed to be used to make some sort of statue," Twilight asks, "But was abandoned after completing only the head for economical reasons."
"I think you told me that when you explained that it's origin from a volcano," I say.
"Granny-Smith told me the story about it when I was a little filly," Apple-Jack says, "But she always told me it was because the leader of the project left town and never came back."
"Really," Twilight says eyeing Apple-Jack, "Interesting, that's the first I've ever heard of that."
"I've never heard if any of this before in my life," Pinkie-Pie says, popping up out of a tree, “But I have heard that these pears are delicious.”
Where did Pinkie find pears, on a mountain, in a tree?
“Pinkie, I don’t think you should eat those,” Twilight points to the pear in Pinkie’s hoof, “We can’t know for sure if they’re edible or not.”
“A-a-also,” Fluttershy stammers, “That could be valuable food for the critters living on this forest, so y-you shouldn’t eat that.”
“Okie dokie lokie, if you say so,” Pinkie say throwing the apple over the ridge.
I never noticed how high we were. Fluttershy looks over the edge and after figuring out she can’t see the bottom jumps away and hides behind Pinkie-Pie. I should've know Fluttershy wouldn’t like this,
“Hey Flutters,” I say, poking my head around Pinkie and looking at her, “If it makes ya feel any better there’s a lot of downhill on the forest path, you won’t even be able to see how high we are anyways with all the trees surrounding you.”
“Th-thank you Rainbow-Dash, bu-but, I’m fine.”
“It’s no problem, hey guys we’re almost there.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of trees.”
“It rivals the ones at Sweet Apple Acres,” Apple-Jack says.
“Except these ones are all squeezed together,” I say, “It’s been kinda dark ever since we got in this”
So much for helping Fluttershy calm down. She’s totally freaking out.
“Meep,” I hear her squeak from behind me. I don’t exactly blame her though, this forest path isn’t exactly homely. All of the trees are dense and packed tightly together, their leaves blocking out any dwindling traces of sunlight. It’s almost as if all light has been sucked out of existence, devoured by the trees. The downhill path I was talking about does nothing more than bring my friends and I further and further down into the darkness. I’m obviously not the only person noticing this because Twilight says,
“Hey Dash, you sure about this path? There’s not much we can use for navigation. Also the overall lack of sunlight is going to be an issue.”
“Yeah, I’m sure about this,” I say, “Judging by how far we’ve walked we should be hitting the uphill again and be edging towards the sunlight. Besides, if it get’s too dark couldn’t you or Rarity light the way up with your magic?”
“Well, we could. But, we only have so much magic, I’d like to save the majority in case something happens.”
“Well then you have nothing to worry about, nothing is going to happen,” I’m going to make sure of that.

“I dun know ‘bout you,” Apple-Jack says as we walk out of the forest and back onto the mountain trail, “But I am sure glad we got out of that god-darned forest.”

“Me-Me too,” Fluttershy squeaks. I turn my head to look behind us a gauge the distance we covered in the forest. Wow, Pumus-Head is wayyyy behind us. We made good progress.

“So, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight says.

“Yeah Twi’?” I respond

“When do you think we’ll get to the campground? It’s getting close to lights out.”

“Should be soon, we’re at least two thirds of the way there. Should be no problem.”

“Okay, that’s good to hear. Anything we should look out for?”

“Another forest? That’s about it.”

“Really, that’s it? That’s not much to go off of.”

“Well, it’s more of a clearing off to the side of the path with a wall of trees around it. When we get there we’ll know.”

“I’ll take your word on it. I guess you have seen this all before so you would know wouldn’t you?”

“Thanks fo-,” I get cut off by a certain ecstatic pony.

“Heyyyyyyyy, every pony!," Pinkie says, "We should stop for lunch!"
"But we-," I get cut off again.
"Great idea sugarcube," Apple-Jack says, "I was getting kinda hungry. Besides, we cleared a lot of ground in that shortcut, so time isn't an issue."
"I- I agree with her," Fluttershy says.
"I forward this motion," Rarity agrees as well.
"Okay, I guess we'll stop for a while," Twilight says, she doesn't seem to want to stop though either. I reach around to grab my food out of my pack. When I pull it out and turn back around Pinkie is already done setting up for lunch.
“Wow, she’s fast,” I accidentally say out loud. Everyone looks at me like I’m crazy for not
realizing this before.
“Who was carrying the food?” I ask, trying to distract their attention.
“Ah was,” Apple-Jack answers shrugging the basket off her back.
“Cool, what’s on the menu?” I swoop around her to pick through the basket.
“Cheese sandwiches,” she slides my hoof off the basket and sits down on the grass. “Right Twilight?”
“Yeah that sounds correct,” she responds, she seems to in conversation with Fluttershy. I think their trying to decide if she’ll be okay for the rest of the trip
“Wait a second, I have an important question, Since we’re eating cheese sandwiches, does that mean we’re also eating tomato soup?”
“Yes, that’s exactly right,” Twilight says, judging by the look on Fluttershy’s face I think the conversation’s going well.
“Awesome!” I hoofbump into the air.
“I don’t know about you, but I won’t be eating of that soup darling,” Rarity says, “Red and white don’t mix very well. I think I will just stick to the sandwiches.”
“You’re giving up ponykinds best soup for good looks?” I say grabbing a can out of the air as Apple-Jack tosses it to me.
“Why yes, of course. It’s only natural isn’t it?” Rarity sets down a blanket and sits down on it. She can’t get her royal hindquarters dirty of course.
“In case you didn’t notice, we’re the only pony’s here and as far as I can remember none of us are very judgemental.”
I open the can and enjoy the aroma of tomato flavored heaven. I do not know how it stayed warm this long, nor do I care.
“But what if we run into someone who is?” Rarity questions, whipping a bit of bread from a sandwich off her face

“And where will that happen?” I say showing off the great expanse of nothingness with my hooves, “There’s no pony around for miles.”

“Well I do not care, I will at least amuse my own self.”

“Suit yourself,” I take a sip of the soup, “You’re missing out.
” Man, I love tomato soup, the stuff is so good. Normally I despise vegetables but this is an exception. Something about liquefying it and adding a few herbs and spices makes it irresistible.

“Dash, wana sandwich?” Apple-Jack asks, waving one in the air.

“Sure,” I say extending a hoof, “Toss it over.”

“Catch,” she throws it to me. It flies way up in the air so I fly up and catch it in mid-air with my mouth and float back down to the ground. Having wings helps when your friends screw up with a pass.

“Sorry about that,” she says, “I guess carrying the basket has screwed up my aim.”

“No problem,” I say, “If you’d like I’ll carry it for you the rest of the way.”

“Ah’ think Ah’’ll be fine, thank you though.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to carry the basket, it’ll be no sweat.”

“Well, thank you I guess. Why ya being so nice and considerate?” She doesn’t know about my mistake on the map on the map does she? I don’t know why she would, it’s not a very obvious mistake.

“Uh, no reason,” I say, trying to sound as cool as usual.

“Well okay then,” Apple-Jack eyes me suspiciously, “Your not getting any of mah soup if that’s what ya’ want.”
Oh, so that’s all she thinks it is. That’s good, I thought she knew about my mistake.

“No, that’s not it. I dunno know really, just kinda felt like helping y’know?”

“Sure Dash, I get it. You’re not getting any of my soup though.” She takes a sip of soup from her can.

“Is that ‘cause your cans empty?” I ask pointing to her now empty can of soup. She looks down at her can,

“Well, would you look at that, so it is. The stuff was so good I downed it all at once.”

“That’s the miracle of soup,” I say.

“I wonder if they have Apple Soup, I think everypony would love it,” Apple-Jack says.

“That’s called applesauce,” I point out

“Oh yeah,” she says, “And we already got that don’t we?”

“Yep,” I say, “We still love it though.”

“That we do, that we do.”

“So, how was everpony’s food? Cause mine was de-lish-ish,” Pinkie says over excitedly as always.
We’re all on a forest hill a little ways away from our mountain hiking path, we finally reached our camping spot. We’re all just chilling and talking about life.

“Mine was amazing, can’t get better than soup and sandwiches,” I say.

“Minus the soup it was rather spectacular, for an on-the-go lunch,” Rarity says.
“M-Mine was, good,” Fluttershy says almost inaudibly.
“Credits to the chef,” Twilight, “Because mine was spectacular,” Apple-Jack says.
“Thanks for the compliment Apple,” Twilight says, “Mine was quite good. I was surprised at my own cooking.”

“Well, that’s all good,” Pinkie says shooting us with snow white smiles, “Glad to see you liked it.”
She has something planned, I just know it.

“Yeah, that is great. Is that why ya’ gathered us all up on this hill?” Apple-Jack says, glad to see someone else is thinking that.

“Well, of course Apple-Jack,” Pinkie shoots us another grin, “This hill is perrrrrect for a game of Pinkie tag.”

“Pinkie tag?” Twilight questions.

“Pinkie tag,” another grin, “It’s like tag, except I’m playing.”

“And, what rule change does this make?”

“This,” she tags Twilight and runs away, “You’re it, come and get me.”

“Okay then,” she looks down the hill and sees Pinkie running away. She focuses her horn and a purple aura appears and envelops her and with a flash of light and she disappears.

“Hey!” Pinkie yells from down the hill, “No magic teleporting.”

“Well, shouldn’t your Pinkie Sense account for any magic I could use to give myself and advantage?”
I guess everyone’s is enjoying this one on one tag match, Apple-Jack is at least. Rarity and Fluttershy are just talking, probably about their next spa trip or something.

“My Pinkie sense doesn’t work on magic,” Pinkie says, “I’d be too busy jittering around to do anything anyhow. So no magic.”

“What about flying?” I yell down at her. She looks up at me and smiles.

“None of that either,” she appears behind me and tags me, “You’re it!”
And with that she runs away again.

“Wait, what happened to no teleporting?”

“That wasn’t teleporting. That was Pinkie Style.”

“Pinkie what?”
I run after her and pass Twilight who looks at me chuckles to herself. Apple-Jack is guffawing at me being tagged, can’t blame her though. I’d probably do the same thing if she was the one who got tagged.

“Good luck Dash,” she says, between bursts of laughter, “You’re gonna need it, she’s long gone.”
Holy, she is. For an earth pony she’s extremely fast. Pinkie Pie is becoming Pinkie Bye. I run off after her, I may not be allowed to fly but I’m pretty fast on the ground. The grass below nothing but shades of green speed lines. The air in my mane feels great, a refreshing breeze blowing in just the right direction. After hours of just walking this feels great, just running. I feel like I could go wherever I want to.

“Hey, what did I say about flying?” Pinkie says below me.
Wait, below me? I look down to see that not only have I caught up with Pinkie but that I had also become airborne in the process.

“Sorry about that,” I float back down, “I guess I just caught up in the moment. I haven’t done any real running or flying all day.”

“That’s okay. I was getting tired of running away from you anyways. Tag me, it’s equally fun to watch some pony get chased around than getting chased.”

“Whatever you say Pinkie,” I tap her forehead and she disappears off in the direction of the rest of us pony’s.
I turn around to follow her but spot an ominous light off in the distance. It’s coming from a circle of trees in the middle of a prairie. I wonder what it could be, we shouldn’t be close enough to the top to have reached any Crystal Monuments. But what else could make that shine? Well, no time like the present I suppose. I walk in the direction of the mysterious light, curious of what it could be. As the circle of trees get closer and closer I notice something mysterious.

“Well, can’t say I expected that,” I say standing over the edge of a crater.
Yes, a crater. You couldn’t notice it from ground level until you got as close as I am, but there’s a crater. The circle of trees is right in the middle of it and is poking up so it’s at ground level again. It’s like the trees are a castle and the crater is the moat around it, without the water. This hole looks pretty deep I’d say twenty through thirty at the center where the trees are. I don’t think my friends can scale a thirty foot wall of dirt, I don’t even think I could either. Luckily I have wings. I fly over there to check it out. Looking down into the crater I don’t see any signs off grass or anything else. That’s very strange. I bobble down in front of the circle of trees, which happen to be nothing more than a circle. They’re surrounding what appears to be a rock of some sort. This rock looks pretty strange; I reach out to touch it.

“Woah, they’re going to love this.” I say to myself, this is pretty awesome.

“So you’re saying that you found some sort of mysterious rock in a giant crater?” Twilight asks as we walk towards the crater with the rest of the ponies.

“Well, not exactly,” I say, “I found a mysterious rock in a circle of trees that was in a giant crater, but close enough.”

“I see. We shouldn’t be high enough to find any Crystal Monuments I don’t think.”

“This rock definitely had some Crystal sparkle though,” I say, “And it did some really weird things when I touched it.”

“Really?” Twilight asks, eyeing me suspiciously, “Like what?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see Twi’.” I say, “Trust me you’re going to love it. Though I have a feeling Rarity will like it more.”

“I’ll like what more?” Rarity asks, pausing her conversation with Fluttershy.

“Nothing, nothing.”
I’ve always wondered how people can talk about spas. I can honestly say I’ve been to one and kind of enjoyed it. But how do people talk about them? Do they like argue over the shampoo? The brand of towels? Maybe they talk about the temperature of the bath, I could see that becoming a hot debate. I’ve never really done the whole “spa experience” but I’ve done a few things at different times, so maybe I’m missing something.

“Yes, Pinkie. I’m sure we don’t have enough sandwiches for you to have another.” Apple-Jack says, “Besides, Rainbow Dash has the basket. I have no control over it.”

“Well phooey,” Pinkie huffs out, “They were so good too.”

“Well then wait until tomorrow. We’ll probably have sandwiches then.”
I guess Pinkie wanted another sandwich or something. I swear, that mare can eat anything. Good thing Twi’ put herself in charge of food and not Pinkie. Wait a second.

“Didn’t we bring soup from Pinkies house?” I ask out loud.

“Yeah, buh we already had some from Twi’s,” Apple-Jack says, “Pinkies was last minute.”

“Oh, okay. Just wondering.”
So we have a great multitude of soup. I guess if anything happens food shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, Twilight probably brought extra anyways. “Hey, Dash,” Twilight says, “That the big crater and circle of trees you were talking about?” she points to the big hole in the ground.

“Yeah,” I say, “That’s it.”

“Looks pretty deep from what I can see,” Apple-Jack says, peering down the hole, “Ya’ll sure we can make it ‘cross?”

“Well,” I say, “That’s what Fluttershy and I are here for.”

“M-m-me?” Fluttershy stammers, “What am I supposed to do?”

“Help carry our friend across the big hole in the ground of course?”

“Oh, I-I-I’m not sure I can do that.”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ve done it before haven’t you?”

“We-well I guess so.”

“Then you can do it again,” I say, “Don’t worry I’ll be right behind you.”

“If you say so…”

“You’re right Dash, that isn’t a normal rock.”
We have made it across the gorge, safely. Fluttershy had almost dropped Pinkie though after she freaked out over some sorta “Pinkie Sense Blizzard.”
But all in all we got across okay.

“So, uh. What’s so special about it?” Twilight asks tilting her head at the rock.

“This,” I fly over and touch it with my hoof. It is instantaneously covered in lime green crystals. They shift around and form a sort of armor around my left foreleg.

“Oh, that is pretty special.” Twilight says, her eyes bulging in awe, “But what could this be?”

“Who cares,” Rarity says, running up to the crystal “It’s marvelous. The perfect shade and glimmer of green. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen”

“Told you she’d like it,” I say pointing a hoof behind me, “What do you think AJ?”

“I think it’s all fine and dandy,” she says, “Though I would like to know what it is.”

“Same here,” I says. Twilights popping in, out and all around the rock, if anyone could figure out what it is it’s her.

“Ahhhhhhhh,” Rarity screams from behind the rock.

“What, what is it?” Twilight exclaims running up to her.

“My Lime-Green crystal hoof, is gone. The hoof is still there but the crystals, gone.”

“You got an explanation for this?” Twilight asks looking up at me.

“Actually yes, I do,” I say, “When I first discovered it I thought it was pretty flipping awesome so naturally the first thing I did was poke it. I was instantly, as you all could guess, covered in a crystal armor of sorts. It was like I was a Crystal Knight or something. But what’s a knight without a sword? So I went over a picked up a stick and poked the rock with it, hoping that it would also be crystallized. It surprisingly did, but after a while my crystal armor disappeared just like Rarity’s. But, the sticks crystal stayed there, and is still there actually.” Ugh, that was a mouthful.

“So, basically,” Apple-Jack says, “You’re telling us it’s temporary on living things buy permanent on the living?”

“Exactly,” I say, “Or at least from what I’ve discovered.”

“That’s amazing,” Twilight says, “I think I may have figure out what this is though.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Well, a couple of weeks ago while we we’re still planning this I talked to Princess Celestia about our trip to see the Eastern Lights. She’s the one who told me about all the Crystal Monuments that I had Dash go and try to fit onto our route map. After telling me about all this I wondering how they all go there, so I asked. She told me that many years ago a strange glittering rock fell from the sky and struck the mid-section of Mount Sol. A bunch of ponies from the surrounding area we’re very curious about what this could be and all came to see what it is. Princess Celestia herself came and was very surprised at what it could do. The big crater it had caused was a slight issue, but everyone was okay with it. Sadly, before anyone could do any real investigations on it a heavy storm came along and all the ponies had to evacuate into their homes. The storm was wild, a fierce thunderstorm. Many a ponies saw a great beam of lightning strike down at Mount Sol. Everyone was fearful, wondering where it had struck. To their dismay it had struck their beloved sky-rock, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes. They were all very sad about this until a little filly said she had found a tree covered in crystals farther up the mountain. They were all delighted to discover that their statute was not destroyed, but had been scattered along the mountain to create the Crystal Monuments.”

“So this thing is the rock the created all the other crystal thingies?” Pinkie asks

“Exactly, it’s actually just called the Crystal Source. I didn’t know they could grow back though.”

“Cool, we have a few of them on our route,” I say, “The Crystal Caves, Forest and now the Crystal Source. The caves and forest won’t be until later though.”

“Yeah, quite a nice surprise I must say,” Apple-Jack says, “Good job finding this Dash.”

“Yeah, good job,” Twilight says

“Th-thanks,” Fluttershy says

“Darling, I must thank you for finding this delightful surprise.” Rarity says.

“Terrrrrific, thanks Dashie,” Pinkie shoots me a big grin.

“Thanks, it was all just luck though,” I say, “We should get back to the campsite, we should get set up. It’s almost night time.”

“We have all our stuff,” Twilight says, “Why don’t we just camp out here?”

“Oh, good idea,” I say, “So who knows how to set up a tent?” Apple-Jack and Rarity’s hand go up, “Well that’s half of them.”

“Fluttershy, Pinkie and I could get dinner ready?” Twilight asks, “Would that work out?”

“Definitely! That would work out great.”

“Great.”

“Whoever designed this tent really should be fired,” Rarity says, “Such a lovely orange bag but what an ugly red tent.”

“It’s stable isn’t it?” Apple-Jack says, “Besides, we told you that the bag and the tents color don’t match.”

“Well, that is true. But first thing when we get back I am fixing this ugly tent,” Rarity says, eyeing it in disgust.

“Easy assembly should make up for any bad colors,” I say, “We’ve already set up two of the three.”

“But easy assembly could also mean easy unintentional disassembly Dash,” Rarity points out, “Maybe the red signifies its lack of stability.”

“I doubt that sugarcube,” Apple-Jack says evening out the rolled out tent, “But it is a possibility.”

“Maybe,” she responds. I take out the poles and put them together to form one big long pole. Whoever designed these compact tents is one smart pony.

“How’s dinner coming along?” I yell out loud to the dinner ponies.

“Quite well actually,” Twilight says, “Turns out that if you crystallize consumables the crystals become edible. They have a sort of sweet and salty taste.”

“That’s cool, whatcha gonna make with them?” I snap together the last pole and hand it to Apple-Jack.

“I was thinking of adding them to the soup.”

“Which soup? Because that seems to be a main dish for all our meals.” I walk over to the cooking area to see what they’re doing.

“Well, tonight we’re having the vegetable stew so I guess it’s not really soup. Also I don’t know how to classify the crystals I’m adding to it so I don’t even know if we can call it vegetable stew anymore.”

“Well,” I look down into her pot of broth and vegetables, “It looks fine to me. What’s Pinkie and Fluttershy doing?”

“Fluttershy is chopping vegetables and is preparing the appetizers of salted cucumber,” She responds, “Pinkie is trying to figure out other foods that taste good crystallized. So far the only ones that work well are carrots, apples and celery. Cucumber, broccoli, and squash are all quite revolting.”

“I see, so it’s not all the same.”

“Obviously not,” Twilight looks at Pinkie, “How’d the avocado work?”

“Great!” Pinkie says bouncing up and down, “It’s delicious.”

“Good, now the only vegetables left to test are cauliflower and asparagus.”

“Hey Dash, could you give me a hand, this pole doesn’t want to through properly.” Apple-Jack yells from the tent site.

“Sure thing AJ,” I yell back, “I’ll be right there. Tell me if anything else works out Twi’.”

“Can do,” I run back to the tents.

“What’s the problem?” I ask

“The poles snagged on something,” Rarity answers, “I told you the tent was faulty.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s normal for all tents,” Apple-Jack says. I see a little bulge in the lower mid-section of the tent. I’m guessing that’s where the issue is. Hmmm…

“It’s not snagged on anything,” I say out loud, “The pole came apart while you were pushing it through, that’s all.
” I reach over to the bulge and fiddle around with the poles. After a few tugs from the other ends and a click, the pole is fixed.

“Well, there goes the last tent,” Rarity says, “Our job is finished.”

“Anypony want to go check on the food?” I ask

“Sure,” Apple-Jack says, “You wana come Rarity?”

“I don’t see why not,” she says. We walk over to where Twilight is still working on the food.

“How did the cauliflower and asparagus work out?” I ask.

“They didn’t,” she responds, “Tasted like salty mud”

“Dang,” Apple-Jack and Rarity are looking at all the weird crystal vegetables that Pinkie has made.

“What is this?” they ask. Twilight explains it to them as I go walk over to Fluttershy to see how the cucumbers are coming along.

“Hey, Fluttershy,” she jumps in surprise, throwing the knife in the air. I fly up to catch it before it decapitates her.

“Uh, h-hi,” she says.

“Hi, try not to get stabbed,” I say handing her the knife, “How are the cucumbers coming along?”
“Th-they’re done,” she says, “I was just cleaning the knife” The image of Fluttershy and a knife form a disturbing image in my head.
“Oh, okay,” I say, “Good job.”
“Th-thanks”

10:30
“I’ve gotta say,” I say out loud, “This is some good soup” we’ve completely finished settting up camp and have sat down to eat dinner around a campfire. It’s gotten dark; Luna’s shift must be up.

“I agree with that,” Rarity says, “The crystal ingredients turned this whole thing into some sort of translucent watery substance. But I can clearly taste all the ingredients.”

“Also the cucumbers are great,” Apple-Jack says, “Thanks for that Flutter’s.”

“Y-You’re welcome.”

“The food sparkles!” Pinkie screams.

“That it does,” Twilight says, “I’m guessing from the crystals. Wait, I just realized. We don’t even know if this is safe to eat.”

“Oh, that could be bad,” Apple-Jack says, “So far so good though. I’m not internally combusting am I?”

“From what I see, no.”

“Then we should be fine,” Apple-Jack says, “Besides, even if it were something toxic it shouldn’t be to bad. I’m sure Celestia would have said something otherwise.”

“That makes sense,” Twilight says, “I trust Celestia would tell me that.”

“Good,” Apple-Jack says, “Now it looks like everypony is done eating so I think we should skip the formalities and go straight to ghost stories. Rainbow Dash, if you would have the honors.”

“My pleasure,” I say, “So how many of you have heard of the headless horsemen?”

“I gotta say,” Twilight says snuggling into her purple sleeping bag, “You sure know how to tell stories”

“I’ve been told that,” I say, I pull my sleeping bag out of my pack and lay it out on the tent floor. We had all decided to sleep in groups of two, since we had three tents. Fluttershy and Rarity slept together so they could discuss Spa’s or something. Apple-Jack and Pinkie to talk about apple-crystal foods. Twilight and I partnered up so we could discuss the Crystals; we had both become pretty interested with them.

“Is that a Rainbow Dash original?” she asks, puffing up her pillow.

“No, I heard from some pony a while back,” I say getting inside my green sleeping bag, “Can’t remember who though.”

“Oh, you still had quite the impression on us.”

“Yeah, is Fluttershy going to be okay? I had quite the effect in Scoot’s so I don’t know how she’ll react.”

“I think she’ll be fine. Rarity can probably calm her down.”

“That’s good, by the way. Do you have any idea what they talk about?’

“No, I always think it’s related to their spa trips though.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” I say, “But what?”

“I have no idea… The temperature of the water?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, oh yeah. Rainbow Dash I have a question,” she says

“Yeah?” I ask.

“What Crystal Monuments are on the list for tomorrow?”

“Just the Crystal Forest, the caves will be the day after.”

“The same day we see the Eastern Lights.”

“Yep, that should be awesome,” I say.

“They only come once every two hundred years,” she says, “I imagine it would be.”

“Yeah, do you know exactly what they’re supposed to look like? I mean like what they’re supposed to actually be?”

“No, I don’t actually. I asked though but Celestia wanted to keep it a secret.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“Yeah,” she says turning around in her bag, “Now we should get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow.”

“Good idea,” I roll over in my bad, “Don’t snore ‘kay?”

“I won’t don’t worry.”

“Okay, G’night Twi.’”

“Night Dash.”

Tomorrow’s going to be awesome.

Chapter 3: 1:00AM

“Good luck Rainbow Dash,” a warm voice says in front of me.
“But Dad, what if I fail?” I ask.
“You won’t fail,” he says, “I just know it.” I open my eyes to see that I am back on Clouddale. My dad’s here to, giving me some sort of pep talk. Am I in a race? I fan open my wings to see that yes, in fact I am in a race. I’m racer number twelve in the Young Flyers advanced division. Wait, young flyers? Holy Celestia I’m a filly, what’s going on here? I swing my head from side to side trying to figure out what’s going on, and where I am. Where’s everyone else? If this is a race why is it so empty?
“Dash,” my Dad says, resting his hoof on my head, “Calm down, everything is going to be all right,”

“Because you’re here?” I ask my dad, “I haven’t seen you in a long time, why are you here?”

“I’d never miss my daughter’s race,” he says with a grin, “Not for the whole world, but I’ll have to leave after the race. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to congratulate you on you win.” He ruffles my mane, “Now get out there and show ‘em what your made of, alright?”

“Got it,” I say, “I’ll make you proud daddy,”

“You already have,” He waves goodbye then walks off to sit in the stands. I can’t believe my dad’s here, but I don’t care. I’m going to win this race; I’m going to win it for my dad.
I trot down the entry hall and into a stadium full of ponies yelling my name, “Rainbow Dash!” they all exclaim. I wave to all of them and get in my starting position. It’s a three-pony race from what I can tell; two pegasi on either side of me. One’s green with a yellow mane and tail while the other one is brown with a red mane. They don’t look like much; I’ll take them out in ten seconds flat.
“Are all you fillies ready?” the announcer blares, “If so then by all mean, ready. Set. GO!” I pull back and spring forwards blasting off into the sky. Let’s win this thing.
This doesn’t look too hard, just a bunch of criss-crossing between some cloud walls. My dad’s set up harder obstacles in the backyard back at home. I fly forward and speed towards the first wall. A big white piece of fluff, how bad could it hurt? I learned a long time ago that clouds are really nothing but water and dust, I know that much. But being a Pegasus magically transforms the porous cloud into a solid white collision. I don’t think anyone knows why.
I take a left around one wall and barrel around the next. This is way too easy. I turn my head around to see how my fellow racers are doing. Wow! They’re a lot closer than I thought, I’m still winning though. Might have to go a little faster, don’t want anyone catching up. I blast forward through the next obstacles, beating them all with no issues. I look ahead at the second lap and I guess I have to go through a few cloud hoops, should be easy.
“Go Rainbow Dash!” I hear my dad yell from the stands. I turn to look at him and salute,
“I’m going to win Dad,” I yell back, “Just you watch,”
“I know,” I hear him say smiling as I fly pass him and into the second course of obstacles. It looks to be about 20 or so hoops. None of them even have any varying size or position; they just go up and down over and over again. I fly up one and down the other, spin left and spin right. It’s getting a little repetitive, booooring. Halfway done and it hasn’t even been seven seconds. Ten more rings, all right.
I fly forward, going full speed on this last half. I get closer and closer to the next set of rings when all of the sudden, they start moving! I go straight up to avoid one and flip back down into it as it moves back, successfully making an aerial U-turn. That was a close one. Number two, three, four and five are all moving up and down, this I can handle. Up through the first one and straight through the second. Arc down into the third and back up to the fourth and back down through the fifth. There, done. Wait, the last five are changing in size, that’s insane! I blow through the sixth one just before it closes off completely, same with the seventh. The eight grows considerably to offset the lopsided ninth, I blow through both of them with ease. The tenth one is a bit of a tunnel though, a tunnel that’s closing fast. I jet as fast I can to make it through, to win. I make it into the cloud and everything goes white. I look left, right and behind me, the tunnel is closing! If I don’t make it through fast enough, it’s going to close on me! I go full speed, trying to make it, but it’s closing to fast, I’m not going to make it! I’ve lost. Everything is turning white. I’m done, finished. I won’t give up; I’ll keep flying until the end.
Then the white ends, I’m back in the arena! I’ve won and the crowd knows it, they want me to know.
“Rainbow-Dash, Rainbow-Dash,” they all holler. I wave at them, unsure how to react. I was sure I had lost.
“But you didn’t,” my dad says behind me. He’s up here to congratulate me, my win, “You won,”
“I know dad,” I say turning around, “I did it for you,”
“Don’t be so humble,” he grins, “It’s your win, not mine. You were the one kicking flank, not me,”
“Thanks dad,” I say grinning back, “Did I really do that good?”
“Are you kidding me?” he exclaims, “You did amazing. Everyone was in awe at that flip. It was really something. You didn’t give up Dash,” he looks me in the eyes, “You didn’t stop the Rainbows,”
“No,” I say, “I didn’t stop, I won,”
“Yep,” he says rubbing my head, “Promise me never to stop the rainbows,”
“I promise,” I reach out to hug my dad. The dad I haven’t seen in the years. The dad who taught me how to fly. The dad who came to all my races. The dad who makes the greatest soup ever. The dad who always knew how to fix the sink.
The dad who isn’t here. I wake up in the tent next to a slumbering Twilight, it was all a dream. My dad isn’t here, he’ll never be here. My dad is gone, I haven’t seen him in a long time. I miss him so much. All the memories of him come flooding back all at once, I don’t even know why. They won’t stop, and neither will my tears. I feel like a wreck, sitting here in pitch black at the middle of the night crying like a baby. I’m going to wake everyone up.
“Dash,” I hear Twilight say, “You okay?” She gets up and turns on her horn. Seeing my wrecked face it should be obvious I’m not “okay”.
“No, I’m not,” I say behind tears, “I’m not okay,”
“I can see that,” she says, “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I-,” I choke out, “I saw my dad. It’s not the first time I’ve dreamt of him but this time I’m unable to stop crying,”
“Your dad? What was the dream about,” I don’t hear any malice in her voice. Just a caring friend wanting to help. I tell her everything, the whole dream. The clouds, the race, the tunnel, everything. Her eyes show me that she truly cares, she truly wants to help.
“I haven’t seen him in years,” I sob out.
“I know how it feels to be unable to see your parents,” She says, “I haven’t seen mine very much either,”
“Well your dad isn’t dead!” I shout out and burst into tears. My dad’s dead, he died five years ago when I screwed up a couple hundred feet up to cushion my fall. I never even got to tell him how much he meant to me.
“Well, no. My father is not dead,” she says, “I wouldn’t know how that feels. But I do know that crying won’t help anything. Remember what your dad said, don’t stop the rainbows. Your dad wouldn’t want you to see you like this,”
I wipe the tears from my eyes, “No, he wouldn’t want to see my like this,”
“Then start acting like the Rainbow Dash we all know and love. The Rainbow Dash who never backs down. The one who’s tough, who always smiles,”
“Thanks Twi’,” I say, “But I’ve done something terrible, something I know I’ll regret,”
“You did?” she says tilting her head, “And what would that be?”
“The map,” I start, “There’s a section in the Crystal Tunnels that I grazed over and forgot to tell everypony about. We can’t skip so we’ll probably end up getting lost. I-I should have told you all but I didn’t want to take any more time or have any of you be disappointed.” I burst into tears again, “I’m sorry.” Twilight raises her hoof to her head in humiliation of what I have done. She pushes the hair out of her eyes and looks up at me.
She smiles, “Its okay Dash, we all make mistakes. We just got to get over our faults and use them to our benefit. The only people who screw up are the ones who try. You tried, that’s all any of us could do and the only thing we expect,” she reaches over and hugs me, holds me, “Thank you, you’re a great friend.” For the third time that night I cry.

“Awesome, Pancakes!” I exclaim after seeing the flapjacks, “Those look great,”
“Well of course they do,” AppleJack says flipping a pancake in her griddle, “Made ‘em mahself, used Sweet Apple Acre’s Apples too. Should be purty darn good after they’re all done cookin’,”
“Nice job Apple Jack,” Twilight says walking out of the tent, “Where is everypony else?”
“They all went on an early morning hike,” AppleJack says pointing behind her to a clearing of trees, “It has been a while though. I wonder where they wandered off too, they’re gonna miss breakfast,”
“I see,” Twilight says walking towards the clearing, “Rainbow, come with me. Let’s go find the others,”
“All right,” I say, “Lead the way.”

Dang, nice little forest path they got here. This doesn’t look natural, it’s way to smooth on the edges, it’s also paved. I wonder who’s been up here, maybe one of the princess’s? It could have just been a local, though I don’t think anyone lives around here. Even if it was just another hiker somepony had to lug all the stone up here. It looks fairly new too, this is all very mysterious.
“Rainbow,” Twilight says shifting her head left and right, “See anything?”
“Yeah, a lot of things,” I say, “But no Pink, Yellow or White ponies,”
“Huh, well that doesn’t help much,” she says, “Have you noticed the path yet?”
“You mean how it’s paved in a way no one should be able to do up here?”
“Exactly,” she says, surprised that I actually noticed this, “Somepony had to have made this,”
“Yeah, no duh Twilight. Roads don’t appear out of nowhere,”
“Well then someone had to make it,”
“Yeah, how does that matter?”
“That someone, could be a something,” Twilight says giving me a face of fear. I do remember seeing wolves and other blood thirsty creatures out here. We shouldn’t be anywhere close to them though. Besides,
“Shouldn’t Fluttershy be able to calm them down?”
“Maybe, but not if they kill her. All of her forest friends and the dragon weren’t out for blood. These are starved, mountain animals. When was the last time you saw something that could be food for a carnivore up here?” She does have a point,
“Well then, we better find them, and quick,”
“Just what I was thinking Dash,” she says putting on her serious face, “Let’s pick up the pace,”
“All right,” we run off , slowly gaining speed until we are in full gallop. I try not to fly so I can stay in pace with Twi’, don’t want to lose her in the forest. We’re not very high up in the mountains so the trees around us are white on the top and green on bottom. They mix into a blur as we run past.

“I, don’t think, I,” Twilight gasps, “Can run anymore,”
“All right,” I float down, we had gained enough speed that I had to go airborne to keep up, “Let’s take a break, but not a very long one,”
“Wouldn’t, dream of it,” she says looking up at me smiling, “Never knew I could go that fast,”
“Neither did I,” we hear a familiar voice say in front of us. We both turn to see Rarity standing a few paces ahead of us, “Darling, that was amazing. You were really quite fast,”
“Th-thank you,” Twilight says, looking very relieved, “Where have you guys been? We’ve been looking for you for around an hour,"
“We were over in Crystal Town,” a pink pony says popping out of the ground, “They’re all real nice ponies,”
“Really?” Twilight says questioningly, “Where is this Crystal Town?”
“A ways back,” Rarity says, “But we should be heading back,”
“Y-yes,” Fluttershy says, hiding as normal, “W-Wouldn’t want to worry Applejack,”
“No, we wouldn’t,” I say, “So let’s go; we’re losing daylight and the foods getting cold,”

Breakfast was in fact, cold. It still tasted great though, just because pancakes aren’t warm doesn’t mean they won’t taste good. AppleJack was definitely relieved when we all came back with the three lost ponies in tow. She did however question this “Crystal Tow,” and wanted to go see it herself. Twilight and Rarity said this would not be ideal, “if we wanted to stay on schedule.” I wanted to see it myself, but decided against it. We’ll just make a detour and check it out on our way back I guess. We’re currently back on the path just walking around, pretty remedial.
“So, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity says next to me, “I have a question,”
“All right,” I say, “Shoot, what is it?”
“Well, I was just thinking. In all of your races and other events you either attend blank flanked or in some gaudy gym wear,”
“Yeah?” I question, “What about it?”
“Well,” she says, her eyes practically sparkling, “What if I made you a racing outfit? It would make you look “twenty percent cooler,” as you would say,”
“I-,” I stammer out, taken back by her offer, “I would love it, that sounds awesome.” A smile warms over my face, “Thanks for offering,”
“You’re welcome darling,” she says slyly, “But I can’t say I don’t have an ulterior motive. You winning all your races wearing my designs would definitely bring some attention to my company,”
“That’s fine,” I say, “I’m cool with being an advertisement,”
“Wonderful,” she bursts into smiles, “Remind to work on those designs first thing when we get back,”
“If I don’t forget myself, sure,” I say grinning. I have the most awesome friends, they’re all so amazing. The other four ponies in our group are discussing lunch. They can’t seem to decide between repeating yesterday’s meal or re-heating last night’s stew. I for one would prefer to eat the soup and sandwiches, but that’s just me.
“I guess we can worry about that more later,” Twilight says, “Hey Rainbow Dash, where do you think we should eat?” Well, uh…
“I don’t know, it’s supposed to get a lot colder and snowier today. I think our safest bet is to eat lunch in the Crystal Caves,”
“But isn’t that were we stop at sugarcube?” AppleJack asks.
“Well, yeah, it is. But it’s not very far and extremely big. We’ll hit it at lunch time and spend the rest of the day exploring it, right Twi’?”
“Right, if that’s okay with you all that is,” they all nod in agreement, “Great, it’s settled. Lunch is to be determined at the Crystal Caves!” We all thrust our hooves in the air in agreement.

“Wow,” is the only thing I can say as I look at the sight before me. Up until now the ground and trees have all been rather green and moderate in snow. But overtime we’ve climbed much higher, everything is white. We’ve come to an open, snow covered field. Everything is white, “That’s pretty cool,” I say.
“It surrrrrre is,” Pinkie says and runs off towards the snow.
“Wow, she is getting pretty far,” Apple Jack chuckles, “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t get lost.” She trots after Pinkie her hat flapping around behind her. Pinkie is getting to be a bit of a blur, there’s a lot of fog.
“Hey Twi’,” I say, “It’s getting pretty hard to see, you know any defogging spells?”
“Well, actually I do,” she says boastfully, “But I wouldn’t worry about any of us getting lost. Besides, it adds to the fun doesn’t it?”
“It definitely does,” Rarity says, “The snow and fog matches my coat perfectly,”
“Well of course it does,” I bust out into laughter, “We can barely see you through it all, it’s a perfect cover.” Rarity and Twilight laugh at this too.
“Wait, where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asks scanning the snow around us.
“H-here,” Fluttershy says, she’s found herself a forest friend. It looks to some sort of snow bunny. She looks quite amused by it.
“Well okay then,” Twilight says, “You seem to be enjoying yourself, have fu-,” She is cut off by a flash of white coming towards her. A snowball explodes all over face, throwing fluff all over her front.
“Bwahahahahaha,” Pinkie burst out it laughter, “I got you Twilight.” Twilight wipes the snow off of her face,
“Yes, you did,” her horn starts glowing, “Now it’s my turn,” she levitates a clump of snow and puffs it down into a sphere. “Be prepared,” she hurls it at Pinkie and it splatters all over her pink coat.
“Everypony for herself,” I yell, the fight begins. Everypony runs off in opposite directions as I pick a bulb of snow off the ground and mold it into a ball. Now who to exact vengeance on, not the unicorns they’ll just throw up shields. Who…
“Hey, get in the game Dash,” a blond-maned pony yells turning on her hooves and running at me. She has a snowball armed, this settles my target argument. I spit my snowball into two, holding one in both hands. I take the one in my left and arc it in the air at her. She looks up distracted by my white sphere but doesn’t notice the one in my head. She realizes that one isn’t aimed for her and looks down to face me, too late! I bend back and launch my arm forward, launching the snowball with all of my body. The white death ball flies directly at Apple Jacks head, homing in at her at great speeds. She notices this and three-sixties, spinning around my ball with it only grazing her chest. When she comes back around she hurls the ball, her spinning adding speed.
“Take this she yells,” she yells. I do indeed “take it,” as she notices when I catch the snow ball with my hooves.
“Tough luck,” I say and throw it right in her face. White snow drips down from her mane and she gives me an un-amused look. I walk over to boast but am stopped by the snowball my face gets nailed with.
“Hey,” Pinkie Pie says, “I got Rainbow Dash,”
“You sure did,” Apple Jack says and we all fall on the snow in a fit of laughter. Twilight and Rarity are having a bit of superior snowball fight. Considering they’re using magic to levitate and hurl them at each other I don’t think the others would stand much good against them.

“Wow,” we all say in unison, “That was awesome.” We’ve had a few snowball wars here a d there but never one as intense as that. Fluttershy even joined after coming out of hiding from behind a bush. The whole big fight ended though after Twilight and Rarity teamed up and made a giant snowball of death with their telekinesis. We we’re all covered in snow and extremely cold, luckily though we discovered we were right next to the caves after Twilight defogged the area. Actually, we’re approaching them right now,
“Wow,” Rarity says with giant eyes, “Those caves are simply marvelous. Look at that shine.” It was quite the sight to behold, the melted snow making the whole thing shine. It reflected light all over the entire cave; it was covered in shining sparkles.
“And we all reached it safely,” Twilight says releasing a great sigh of relief, “Good good, now we can finally eat lunch.” We enter in the mouth of the cave and set down all our equipment releasing a ton of weight from all of us.
“Yeah,” AppleJack says, “I think soup and sandwiches sound might fine right about now, what do y’all think?”
“I think it sounds awesome,” I say with a grin.
“We all knew you would darling,” Rarity says, “I am all for it as well, those sandwiches yesterday we’re simply smashing. I would be quite all right with eating another two days in a row,”
“Same here,” Pinkie Pie says bouncing as usual.
“I-I’m quite all right with it as well,” Fluttershy whispers, “If, if that’s all right of course,”
“Well, I guess the feeling is mutual then,” Twilight says, “Soup and sandwiches it is, prepared by our very own Apple Jack of course,”

“That it is,” AJ replies with a grin, “Now why don’t y’all scurry off while I make lunch. Well, all y’all but Rainbow Dash, I need to speak with her,”

“Uh… All right,” everyone but me and AJ say as they walk off, “See you two later,”

“Bye,” I say waving a hoof at them. I turn around to face Apple Jack, “So what’s up?”

“Just a few questions,” she fumbles with the matches, “Starting with what happened last night.” Oh crap, she knows about that.

“U-uh, w-well I-I…,” I stammer out trying to make sense of my thoughts and words, “Y-you know about that?”

“Eeyup,” she says finally striking and making flames, “I went out to take a late night stroll and heard it coming from your tent. Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone else, they were all asleep,”

“Thanks,” I say, “So uh, what’s the question?”

“Well you said the map was incorrect,” she sets her pile of sticks on flame, “Will that be an issue?”

“No,” I say, “Probably not, I just got to remember to go left and not right at some point. Don’t worry, we’ll know when,”

“Oh, all right,” Apple Jack gets down and blows on the flames making them expand, “That’s good to hear. I thought it would be critical and hard to notice,”

“Well, it is if you haven’t seen it before,”

“Uh-huh,” her fancy wooden contraption she pulls out of her bag has a can of soup hanging over it.

“Yeah, it should be no problem,” I say, “So, how do you cook the sandwiches? I would think you’d need another fire,”

“Well ya’ do need another fire, I just cook the soup first because it takes more time,”

“Oh, that makes sense,” I say.

“Yeah,” Apple Jack turns around and goes back to monitoring the soup. Gradually a silence came between the two of us. She seems quite fixed on her soup and I’ve found interest on a crystal with an interesting glimmer. It glows a different color when you turn it around in your hand, it’s very intriguing. It’s a perfect shape too, I think I’ll keep it for Rarity and use it to pay her for the racewear.

“Hey, Dash,” Apple Jack sets down her spoon from the now bowl of soup and turns around to face me.

“Yeah?” I ask, “What is it?”

“Well,” she seems to stumble on her words, “I just want you to know you have support,”

“Support?”

“Yeah, from all of us. Me, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie. We’re all here for you. So, don’t try to hold everything in, everyone needs someone to talk too every once in a while,”

“Thanks,” I say, “I, uh, I’m here for you too…,”

“I already knew that,” she chuckles, “Now, the food seems about done. Can you go fetch everyone?”

“Uh, sure,” I eye the still un-sandwiched pieces of bread and cheese, “Those don’t look like cheese sandwiches,”

“Trust me,” she grins at me, “Now go get ‘em, food’s gonna get cold otherwise,”

“All right,” I say and turn around and run in the direction of the other four ponies.

“Lunch is already done?” Twilight asks, “That was fast,”

“Yeah,” I say, “Surprised me too, maybe we had leftovers?”

“Doubt it,” Twilight says looking at the pink pony behind us, “Pinkie at all that she could,”

“Well then I don’t know,” I say, we’re almost back at the cook station.

“Rainbow Dash,” I hear Apple Jack say, “That you?”

“Yeah it’s me,” I respond, “Who else?”

“I don’t know, we’re all on a mountain on the mountains, who knows what it could be?” I would have made an objection if I hadn’t smelt that heavenly smell. The smell of tomato soup! I dash over to the cook stations and eye the now finished meals of soup and sandwiches.

“Wow,” AppleJack, “Someone’s a little excited,”

“For good reason too,” Rarity says as the others round the corner to the food, “The food smells great darling,”

“Thanks, now let’s not waste any more time,” Apple Jack gestures to the food, “Sit down, let’s eat!” We all sit down hurriedly and scarf down the delicious meal. Except for Rarity of course, she always has to keep her “appearance,” at all times. The food is great though, just as good as yesterdays. I don’t how AJ made the sandwiches so fast though. Must be some sort of “Apple Family,” secret or something I guess.
“No objections though, foods great,”
“What was that Dash?” Twilight asks rising her head from her soup and wiping a smear of red off her face.
“Oh, I was just saying the soup is great,” I say realizing my thoughts came out my mouth.
“Thanks for that Rainbow,” AppleJack says.
“I agree with her too,” Pinkie Pie says, “Dashie has good tastes,”
“I-it’s good,” Fluttershy says, “A-as always of course,”
“I can’t voice an opinion on the soup,” Rarity says, “But these cheese sandwiches are quite fine.” Well, everyone seems to share my opinion, that’s good.

“Okay crew,” I say, “You guys had better some climbing gear on, we don’t know when or where an accident can happen.” They all salute in agreement and start wrapping the rope and other gear around their waists. It seems Fluttershy is having some trouble with this so I walk over to help her,
“You all right there Flutter’s?” I ask.
“Y-Yes,” she stammers out, “I-I’m quite all right.” She struggles around with the rope a little more.
“Here,” I say offering my hoof towards her, “Let me help with that,”
“U-uh, I-I,” she stammers out as I fiddle with the straps. She’s got them all upside down.
Click, “There you go,” I say smiling, “Those things are a bit of a jerk,”
“Th-thanks,” she says, “H-How do you tighten them, they’re a l-little tight.”
I laugh at this statement, “That’s ‘cause you’re so thin, just pull the yellow line. Make sure it’s all snug. Don’t want anyone falling do we?”
“N-no, we don’t,” she says and pulls the yellow line, “W-wait, wh-where’s your gear?”
“Mine?” I say, “I don‘t need any, I can fly. Well… So can you, but you uh, have some… Uh…,”
“Issues?” she snickers at my lack of words, “I-it’s fine, I was just curious,”
“Oh, o-okay,” I guess that’s cool, “We should probably get moving.” I adjust my voice so everyone can hear me, “Hey, everypony! Let’s go! We’ve got to get moving!”

“Wow, I think I speak for everyone when I say,” Twilight starts, “This looks amazing,”
“The feeling mutual darling,” Rarity says, and it must have been. After walking a bit and climbing up some small ridges we made it to quite the sight. Up until now we had been stuck in caves with walls everywhere, it was quite confining. Now we are out in the open, in a sort of chamber. The opening around us is rounded up and forms a sort a dome, it’s quite awesome. But what’s really great is the ceiling, or the lack of one. The ceiling is no existent, so snow is let in and sets on the ground. All the water reflects rainbow lights everywhere.
“That’s flipping awesome!” I say, “Wow,”
“Sure is,” AppleJack says, “Mighty pretty it is,”
“Pretty,” Fluttershy says staring awe. We all just stand for a while, looking at it.
“Nature really is something special isn’t it?” Twilight says.
“Eeyup,” AJ replies.
“All right guys,” I say, “We have to get moving, come on.” We all look around as we walk through the awesome light show.
“That’s pretty flipping awesome.”

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long, got really busy and all. This is not how I wanted it to turn out, but it was two weeks late so, yeah. Real sorry guys:<