“How much farther is it, Twilight?” Spike complained. “My feet are killing me”
“Hurry up, Spike. It’s not much further,” Twilight looked back at Spike, “Princess Celestia gave us a task to find rare flowers for Luna for her birthday. We must not waste any time!” the young princess barks, commanding her assistant to speed up.
Spike rolls his eyes, “And I thought you weren’t this bossy before” he whispers to himself, walking behind Twilight as they approach the halfway mark of Alicorn Mountain.
Twilight shifted her eyes in different areas of the mountain, seeing bushes, gopher holes, the mountain's side to their left, and the dirt path they were walking on. She looked down then straight ahead and sighed, thinking that it’s that kind of trip where that certain item is at the top of a mountain. Maybe Spike was right. She looked back to see the young dragon panting his lungs out and hoping to take a break from all this walking; his wish came true when Twilight turned around to stop him.
Spike looked up at Twilight, “Let’s take a break, Spike,” she smiled warmly before finding a spot to rest.
Spike smiled, relieved to hear Twilight say that. “Thank you, Twilight”, he walks to the wall side of Alicorn Mountain with Twilight and sat down, rubbing his aching feet.
“You’re welcome”, Twilight sits next to him and gave him a motherly nuzzle on his cheek. “Sorry for pushing you to walk up the hill. I keep forgetting you’re a baby dragon” she looked at Spike with an apologetic smile.
“It’s ok, Twilight,” he blushed from her nuzzle, “Do you have any water with you?”
“Yes I do, Spike” She looked at her bag she brought for the trip and used her magic to open the bag as she levitated a bottle of water out and gave it to Spike. He smiled with glee and grabbed it before opening it and drinking it. Twilight smiled at Spike and giggled before scanning the surrounding area; as she did, she was thinking about that task Celestia gave her: find and retrieve the lunar flower from Alicorn Mountain.
"What is a lunar flower? Why wasn’t it cataloged in any of the books?" Twilight asked herself before snapping back into reality. She’ll ask Celestia these questions once the task is done. In the meantime, she'll just enjoy the scenery once Spike has his energy back.
Spike drinks all his water and takes a few deep breaths, “That was refreshing” he said, putting a smile on Twilights face.
“You ready to go?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he got up and stretched his legs and arms, “Once this task is over with, I’m going to take a long nap” he says as he walk ahead of Twilight.
“Or go to the spa with Rarity” Twilight giggled teasing him.
Spike stopped and looks at her with a bright red blush, “Rarity… spa… us!” those words were the only three that escaped his jaw. He got excited before Twilight calmed him down with a gentle rub on his head.
“Easy there, loverboy. It won’t be just you and Rarity. Fluttershy, Applejack and I are coming along, too,” She smiled, “Besides, it would be great to take a break from all the studying and magic practice”
“Twilight on a break? Wow, never thought I’d see the day” Spike chuckled at his own joke.
“Ha ha, Spike. Let’s get going” Twilight chuckled, use to Spike's teasing by now.
“Right!” He gave a salute and dashed to Twilight's side.
They walked further up the mountain, feeling the air rush through them. Twilight turned her head and walked over to look over the edge of the mountain. The view was beautiful. She saw Ponyville, Canterlot and Cloudsdale clear as day. Spike approached and looked at the view, too. He shifted his eyes from side to side, baffled by how high they were.
“Wow. Everypony looks like ants from up here” Spike said as he chuckled "I'm king of the world!" he shouted as an echo of his voice can be heard.
“Yes they do,” Twilight chuckles with him. She turned around and walked on up the mountain's path, “Come on, King of the Mountain. We’re not-- wha!” the ground suddenly collapsed under Twilight.
“You say something, Twilight,” Spike looks back to see Twilight gone, and a pony sized hole replacing her position, “Twilight?”
Twilight rolled and tumbled down a tunnel. She let out grunts and oofs with each hit she made. The saddle on her back, with all their equipment inside, snapped off and fell off her back as she tumbled further down the tunnel. Rolling was the last thing Twilight did before finally reaching the end of the tunnel and crashing to the ground with a thud. “Oof” the saddle followed shortly after, hitting the ground and scattering the equipment around Twilight.
Spike quickly rushed to the hole and looked down, seeing nothing but blankness. “You ok, Twilight?” he shouted as loud as possible.
Twilight got up and sat on her flank, shaking her head before looking around to see nothing but pure darkness. Thankfully, she heard Spike, “I’m fine. Just can’t see high-hoof of anything down here” She got back up on her hooves, fixed her wings and folded them back into place. She looked back to have a beam of light shine down behind her. She walked under the light to see a small shadow in the form of Spike barely covering Twilight's head.
She turned her body and looked straight ahead. “Where am I?” she said, "It's so dark in here, I can't see a thing." she quickly got idea and closed her eyes, concentrating her magic to glow a bright purple. Using her magic, she lit her horn like a lantern, revealing what was in front of her and where she was at. “What the hay!” she widened her eyes, surprised to see she stumbled upon a cave large enough to fit a adult dragon.
“See anything?” Spike shouted.
“So far I see nothing but rocks and the cave wa… wait, what’s this?” Twilight walked straight through the cave, escaping Spikes view.
“What is it?” Spike asked but got no response.
Twilight walked up to the cave wall on the right and beamed her magic on it, then widens her eyes and dropped her jaw a bit. “No way...” she gazed at the wall for a little bit before scrolling her eyes-- as if she was reading something.
“What do you see in there, Twilight?” Spike asked again, finally getting a response.
“Drawings, engravings and paintings” Twilight exclaimed, describing her view while reading the wall.
“What? I don't understand what you're-- ” A purple aura surrounded Spike's body and transported inside the cave, next to Twilight, landing on his butt next to her. “Warn me next time when you do that,” he rubbed her thigh before getting up, “Now, what are you talking about?”
Twilight pointed her hoof at the cave's wall. Spike looked at Twilight's direction before widening his eyes in shock and amazement “Whoa”.
The wall in front of them displayed drawings of what seemed to be like doodles of pegasi, unicorn and earth ponies joining together in peace and happiness. Twilight moved her horn and scanned the rest of the wall before see more drawings; this time, it displayed the trees, the sun and more ponies playing together.
“What does this all mean?” Spike asked Twilight as he followed her while she walked beside the engraved wall, flaring her magic on it.
“I don’t know, but it seems like these drawings look ancient, and from looking at it, I think this might be Equestria from a thousand years ago." she theorized "It looks so peaceful” she advanced further to see more until something caught her eyes, something she and Spike had never seen before.
The painted drawings led to the ponies turning their faces at the trees, with frightened, horrified faces.
“What’s got them spooked?” Spike asked as he and Twilight scrolled further down the wall, seeing more trees.
“I’m curious to know myse…” Twilight lets out a gasp as the next scene she saw was beyond terrifying. It revealed a massive creature barreling out of the trees and charging straight for the ponies.
Spike saw this and had an even more questioned, yet surprised, look. “What is that thing?” He asked with a surprised tone.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a creature like this before in any of the books I've read” she glanced at the creature to get a clearer description.
The creature appeared quadruped in appearance. It had a long thick tail. Its head was large and had a bulky feature to it, meaning it would have had a habit to ramming into things. And the teeth were shaped like bananas.
“Scary...” Spike said, slight frightened
“I know, Spike,” Twilight reached the end of the wall to see the rest of it was destroyed by the rocks, “Bummer. I was hoping there’d be more to this”
“What do you think this means?” Spike asked.
“It means that an unknown monster attacked Equestria long ago” Twilight replied before looking ahead of the cave. “Maybe we’ll see more if we go further down” she suggested.
“Alright, but I got a bad feeling about this” Spike said, staying behind Twilight.
Spike and Twilight walked further down the unknown cave in search for more answers on what they witnessed. Twilight flashed her magic on the walls, but found nothing. Spike walked behind Twilight, looking around as well. Twilight thought that maybe that was it and there weren't any more clues to find. She figured the mystery as to what happened to the ponies or what that mysterious monster will remain unsolved.
“Twilight, about that monster, do you think it could be some kind of dragon?” He asked as they walked.
“I don’t think so, Spike. I’ve never seen a dragon with teeth quite like that. And, its body was four legged and narrow much like… my own and other ponies” she thought about that for a sec.
Spike raised a brow, “Do you think it’s some kind of pony reptile, or something?”
“No, don’t be silly Spike. A reptile pony in Equestria?” She laughed and thought that wasn't possible at the least. “That would be the silliest thing I’ve ever heard”
“Yeah, you’re probably right” Spike laughed in agreement.
Twilight stopped and sighed, reaching nowhere near the end of the cave. “Well, I think we've reached the point to nowhere” she grew tired of walking any further; she didn't know how deep the cave was, and frankly, she didn't want to find out anymore.
Spike agrees before hearing an ominous noise around them, “What the...?”
“Come on, Spike. Let’s head back” She turned around but was stopped by the baby dragon. “Spike, What ware are you…” he grabbed and closed her muzzle.
“Shh, you hear that Twilight?” he listens closely, much to Twilight's confusion.
“Mmm... Mmm?” Twilight muffled in Spike's hand.
“Wind, Straight ahead.” He pointed straight ahead of them.
Twilight looked back before looking at Spike and telling him, with the very end of her jaw, “Can you let go of my muzzle, please?”
“Oh...” He released her muzzle “...Sorry”
“It’s fine. Now, where are you hearing wind?” She asked, confused.
“Over there. Follow me” He dashed to the source of the wind.
Twilight followed in hot pursuit.
Spike dashed until he stopped and felt a cool breeze around his ankles. Twilight stopped behind him.
“Why did you stop?” Twilight asked.
“It’s here.”
“The wind?” she raised a brow.
“Yes, don’t you feel it?”
Twilight looked around before she could feel the same breeze that Spike felt.
“I do. I do feel it. But where is it coming from?”
“There” Spike pointed to a tiny crack on the left side of the cave a few feet away from them; at the very end of the cave. The breeze, somehow, grew stronger when they walked deeper in the cave.
Both Spike and Twilight walked to the crack in the wall to examine it. Once they approached the crack, Twilight listened closely; it didn’t sound like wind from outside, but more like a room was on the other side.
“Well?” Spike glanced at Twilight.
Twilight lifted her head, saying, “There’s something behind this wall” She steps back as Spike watched her.
“What could it be?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out” her horn started to glow brighter. Spike quickly got out of the way and stood a few feet away from Twilight.
“What are you doing, Twilight?!” Spike shouted
“I’m going to blast the wall apart” she prepared to fire. "I have to see what is behind them in order to get the answers we're looking for"
“Twilight, stop! That'll bring the--”
It was too late. Twilight fired a powerful magic blast at the cave's wall, causing it to explode and collapse. Twilight quickly congered a force field around her and Spike and huddled together as the walls shook violently and caused the crack grow with more gravel falling from the ceiling. Spike looked at the collapsing wall in time to something white fall to the ground. The wall cracks began to spread and connect to other cracks in the walls that were connected to the ceiling, while the shaking intensified. This caused the cave to collapse above and around them. Spike retreated his head back to Twilight as gravel and dirt hit the force field surrounding them. The ceiling collapses, dropping rocks to the floor along with more of whatever Spike saw when he peeked out. Twilight remained focus throughout the collapsing cave.
The roaring walls started to calm. Twilight slowly opened her eyes while Spike separated himself from her as they found themselves surrounded by a cloud gravel and dirt. Everything went silent, a few pebbles rolled down much larger rocks, but that was it. Twilight looked at the damage but only saw more dirt cloud. Spike did the same thing; he looked back, then in front of him to see that the cloud engulfed them all around.
He looked up at Twilight with a stern look, “Nice job” He said in a sarcastic tone.
“Sorry” She sheepishly smiled.
“And I thought Rainbow Dash was destructive”
“Hey, I said I was sorry. I didn’t know the whole cave would… would…” she looked ahead with a shocked look in her eye. Spike noticed and looked at the same direction as Twilight did, and then got the same look she did.
As the dirt cloud vaporized around them, a giant shadow appeared before them in the form of a massive skeletal figure lying on the rubble.
“Spike”
“Yeah?”
“Get the equipment”