As they galloped through the forest, Angel on Dash's back and clutching the book, Dash rapidly explained what she'd read.
"Most of it is in this weird writing, but I think it said something about nightmare moon and... And this crazy evil pony who was banished with her... It's her, I know it, it's that shadow pony with the crystal eyes - who took my wings!"
Where are we going? asked Angel. He wasn't sure about this.
"I bet Twilight will know what to do. If not, Spike'll send a letter to Celestia ASAP. I don't know what Zecora's doing, but I can't just sit back and watch Ponyville burn down!" Rainbow gasped, galloping as quickly as she could dart through the forest. She roughly knew the way from here back to the outside, from her few trips with her friends. Angel held on tight; he hadn't forgiven Rainbow yet and she probably didn't much care for him either - but there was much more important things on their mind.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"C'mon Twilight, hurry up!" Spike cried, confidently leading his pony friend through the Whitetail woods. "I know I saw it, right through here..."
Twilight Sparkle cantered after him, followed by Fluttershy, concerned but curious. "What was it, exactly? It must be really important to interrupt us, I was right in the middle of a spell to help Fluttershy's fear of-"
"It was this crazy blue squirrel with freaky red eyes, you won't believe it Twi!" the baby dragon explained with excitement, hopping over a large tree root.
As sceptical as she was, the unicorn and her friend continued to trail after Spike until they stopped by the edge of a river. "Here!"
A huge, furry creature with bulging muscles and demonic eyes was devouring some big rotten acorns, and paused for a minute to examine the two.
"Look Twilight, what is it? Do you know?" Spike asked.
"Shh, Spike, you might disturb it." The unicorn hushed him.
The odd creature turned its head on its side and scrutinised them with its beady eyeballs. "I've never seen anything like this before..." Futtershy said quietly.
As the Pegasus mare leaned in to get a closer look, the creepy creature stepped back.
"It's okay little critter, I'm a nice pony. I won't hurt you..." Fluttershy whispered, reaching out a hoof very slowly.
The squirrel-thing dived from the bank and into the river with a splash. It paddled across the water and and clawed its way up the other side. Standing there, droplets of water dancing from its wild fur, it gestured for the ponies to follow his path across the river with a hand curl and a screech.
Twilight looked at her animal-loving friend, rather wary of this weird creature. "I've never seen anything like this before..." Fluttershy replied, curiosity grabbing hold of her and forcing her to plod her way through the river bed.
"Fluttershy! Be careful!" Twilight warned. The unicorn sighed and helped Spike climb onto her back before following Fluttershy toward the opposite bank.
Every time they got close to the ugly forest-dweller, it scampered back a few feet. They continued to chase it for ages, all the way to...
"What? Where are we?" Spike suddenly realised that he had been so focused on the freaky critter that he hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to where he was walking.
"Oh dear..." Fluttershy whimpered, "I don't like the dark..."
"We appear to be in a huge, dark... Never-ending cave." Twilight concluded, rubbing a thoughtful hoof against her chin.
The crimson eyes of the squirrel-beast appeared to almost... Smile... And then the critter just evaporated. Twilight looked around, determined to be the brave one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pinkie Pie didn't know how she got into this mess, but the point is, she managed to get her balloon back. Sat under a damp, cold and uncomfortable arc of fallen boulders, she began to hear noises, like hoofbeats and squeaks. She sang quietly to herself to keep calm.
"Giggle at the ghostiee..." she twiddled her hooves around the blue balloon she'd so valiantly rescued.
"Pinkie?" came a voice with a strong Southern accent.
"Eek! The cowgirl of doom! Please don't take me please don't take me please don't take my ballooooon!" Pinkie yelped.
"Well I'll be darned Pinkie - it's you!" Applejack said, pushing the boulders away with her head. "How in tarnation did ya get in there?"
"Ohh well actually-" Pinkie began, before being interrupted by another voice.
"Applejack? Pinkie Pie? What are you doing in here?" Twilight asked, trotting over to her friends.
"I might ask you the same thing!" Applejack replied, bucking away a huge rock so that Pinkie could squeeze out.
"Oh woe is me! Just an innocent young mare led on a fake gem hunt into a lonely, lonely-" Rarity stopped mid-swoon and flicked her mane aside to see a little better. "Were you all having a tea party without me?" she gasped.
"Well of course, we always have em without ya in dirty old caves miles away from Ponyville." Applejack said sarcastically.
"Really!?" Rarity looked ready to faint again.
"No, Rarity. No." Twilight sighed.
Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, a huge avalanche of rocks came hammering down like a thunderstorm from the mouth of the cave. It was like the sun had disappeared and the cold slunk in. The ponies screamed and frantically ran back, but the rockslide didn't touch them; it just blocked their escape.
It was all going to plan.