The Adventures of Two Best Friends.

A loud crack jolted the sleeping fillies awake. A bright light split the dark sky in half, forking downwards, leaving the aroma of singed grass hanging in the air.

“Waah! Myst! What the heck was that?!” Stormy squeaked in surprise, wings fluttering frantically as she sprinted to her friend’s side. Myst stood, shivering slightly, face locked in grim, tense, concentration. She whispered to herself quietly,

“Calm Myst...Calm...It’s only a big ol’ light show....Calm....” She turned to Stormy, a small, nervous, smile growing on her lips,

“Heh, Stormy, remember yesterday, when I said everyone’s scared of something?”

“Yep.” Another flash lit up the world, sending Myst diving to the ground, covering her ears with her hooves.  A fine grey, wet, clinging sheet of light rain fell, slowly drenching their coats through. Myst tilted her head, throwing her sodden hay-yellow mane out of her face, her shivers slowly began to subside and she spoke, quite calmly,

“Well, now you know- Lightning scares me tailless!”

The dark, rumbling, storm clouds began to dissipate, leaving only the lighter, calmer rain clouds to pour down on the two fillies.

-

“Right then Myst, you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be...”

The two fillies stood next to a winding mountain stream, meandering down to the bottom of the valley, ending in a large, calm, lake. The recent rain had swollen the stream to many times it’s original size, so it could quite easily sweep a pony along in the icy water.

Myst dipped a tentative hoof into the rushing torrent, recoiling instantly with a look of shock on her face,

“That water is absolutely freezing! There’s no way way we’re riding that down.”

“It’s the only way down though, Myst. The storm turned the path into a mudslide.”

“It’s still too cold...What if we catch colds or something, huh? What abou-!

Myst tripped, falling headfirst into the stream, she emerged seconds later, spitting up a small amount of water. She hung onto a rock embedded in the side, looking straight into Stormy’s eyes,

“You....Tripped me! Didn't you?!” the Pegasus in question blinked, her innocent, violet eyes shining in as cute a manner as she could muster,

“Who? Me? But I’d never dream of doing such a dastardly thing Mysty.” She stepped closer to the water, grinning at the soaking pony, spreading her wings wide and fluttering them a few times,

“Oh, it seems I won’t be needing to get wet in a murk stream actually, I forgot- I have wings.”

Myst’s eyes lit up as she spied her chance. She let go of her anchor, being swept a short way, building up speed, then, just as she passed her friend, she grabbed for the nearest limb she could find, pulling Stormy with her, back leg first. The pegasus let out a squeal as her rump touched the freezing water.

“Payback, ‘Tis sweet.” Muttered Myst as the two ponies were briskly swept away.

-

A small, pretty, dark pink mare trotted slowly along the edge of a large, smooth, lake. A large, muscular, red, stallion trotted alongside her, his one step to her few. They walked in a loving silence, no words needing to be said, just enjoying each other’s company.

Eventually, the mare broke the silence,

“Mac, dear, it’s getting late, and I have to be up early tomorrow for work.” She looked over at her companion, following his gaze to the horizon, where the dimming sun slowly slipped behind the edges of the valley, filling the sky with vivid swirls of pinks and reds, reflecting off of the lingering clouds.

The stallion turned to the dainty mare, looking straight into her deep, green eyes, holding her gaze for several long moments, a light red blush appeared on both of their cheeks as they leaned towards each other,

“Eeyup....”

A small wail rang out, off in the distance, setting both of the ponies’ ears on end,

“What was that? Sounded like....”

“Fillies. Ah’d recognise a sound like that anywhere...”

“Crusaders?”

“Maybe...” The stallion trailed off as he started walking towards the far side of the lake, and the source of the noise, his partner following a short way behind.