A/N Oh hey look! I'm actually alive! Yeah after a while I finally finished this chapter, I've just been so caught up with doing so many things that I haven't been in the mood to really write. Well I'm hoping to actually get back into it because I like it for one...and two: I keep having friends yelling at me to continue it ( Sam >.> ) Anyways...enjoy!
As the two mares woke up in the morning, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky, and it wasn't too hot. It seemed to be the perfect day to begin their little adventure...whatever it may really be. They packed only the necessities in a saddle bag, which Rainbow Dash refused to carry leaving Applejack to do it, said their goodbyes to Scootaloo, Big Mac, and Granny Smith, and headed over to Twilight's library. When they arrived and knocked on the door, they were greeted with an excited grin from the lavender unicorn, which faltered a little bit as she said, “I talked to Rarity and she said wasn't going anywhere with...the two of you. Different choice of words but same idea.”
She tried to put on a smile but it looked forced to the other two, and Applejack responded with a caring tone, “Ah already told ya sugarcube, it's not that big of a deal, ya don't need to be gettin' all worked up about it. Remember we lost a friend too when that happened, it sucks for us as well.”
“It doesn't suck for me, I don't care” Rainbow Dash retorted as she crossed her hooves while floating in the air.
Applejack shot her a glare before continuing with Twilight, “Ignore her Twilight, she's just bein' annoying on purpose. She does care-”
“Nope.” Rainbow shook her head to add emphasis.
“Shut up Rainbow yer not helpin'. And Ah'm the stubborn one.” Applejack mumbled to herself, looking at Rainbow Dash she found a tongue being stuck out at her. “Ah swear yer no older than Scoot.” With a sigh she turned back to Twilight, “Look, it's not a big deal anymore. Lets just get this show on the road, where are we supposed to be headin'?”
Forgetting about the fight between Rarity and her two current companions, Twilight's grin she was faking became a real one, excited at giving as close to a lecture as she could give, “I can just teleport us to the cave entrance that we're going in, Celestia showed me where it was on a map and I have it down in my head. It's directly on the side of the mountain on the other side of the Everfree forest, it looks like any normal old cave that doesn't go farther than 30 yards in, but at the end there's apparently a secret passageway that I'm going to have to open. It's a simple spell that she taught me that would be able to get through it, but the place is enchanted to be impossible to locate. It was upon sheer luck she found the place she said, I still have no idea how she managed it but she is Princess Celestia after all.
“She took a quick look around inside and found some really interesting things, but she wouldn't tell me about them and what they might mean because assumptions about what we'd find there would be made. She wants me...us to search around and just give a report of what we find. It sounds simple enough, but she still warned me that it would be dangerous...and for her to say that it would be good enough for a 'graduation,' then we definitely need to be wary. Other than that, I don't really know too much. RAINBOW DASH ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!”
Applejack jumped back in surprise when Twilight yelled, looking over at her partner she found that Rainbow Dash had been playing with her hair...just tossing it back in forth in front of her face with her with her tongue stuck out in concentration. When she was yelled at Rainbow Dash dropped her hair, “Huh? Of course I was listening! We have to report to Celestia, it's dangerous, yada yada, you've already explained this like three times Twi. I'm ready to go already! Lets just hurry up and go.”
Twilight sighed and looked at Applejack, who was looking back at her with an amused expression. “Ya know Twilight, she is right. You've explained it probably three times now, it's obvious we're not goin' ta get too much information so explaining the same thing over and over again isn't going to do any good. Especially with how impatient this one is.” She looked over at Rainbow Dash with a slightly annoyed smirk, whose only response was to stick her tongue out and smirk back. Twilight let out an annoyed groan and agreed half-heartedly.
While Twilight started to lift up her saddlebag to prepare to go, Rainbow Dash spoke up, “One thing I'm wondering though, I thought teleporting took a lot of energy, how are we supposed to do anything if you're all tired and what-not.” Twilight looked up at Rainbow in surprise, a little bit shocked that Rainbow Dash actually was listening.
“Yes it is tiring, but what it'll only tire me out while leaving you a little bit woozy. I'll take a rest at the entrance of the cave while you guys can scout around and see if you can figure anything out.” She put on her saddlebag and looked at the two other ponies she was about to leave with. “Well I have everything in check, made sure Spike knows what to do while I'm gone, already checked my bag for everything I need...” as Twilight went on with her obsessive compulsive checking, Rainbow Dash looked over to Applejack and gave her a mischievous grin. Knowing her partner as well as she did, she caught on to what the grin meant immediately.
Rainbow flapped her wings once and darted into Applejack, tackling her to the ground and mashing her lips into her lover's. With a moan Applejack wrapped her arms around Rainbow's waist and pulled her in closer. As they enthusiastically made out Twilight continued on with her list, “All the windows are locked and I told Spike not to open them, and Owlowicious is with Celestia!” Completing her mental checklist, she turned to the other two ponies and her face flushed immediately. She turned away with an awkward cough and yelled out in frustration, “Come on you guys! I'm right here!” Keeping her eyes off of them Twilight heard Rainbow Dash chuckle as she got off of Applejack.
“Come on Twilight, we were just having a little fun while you rambled on. We knew you were going to get a little bit long-winded there so we...ya know...” Rainbow laughed and looked over at Applejack with a look in her eyes that Twilight didn't even want to try to decipher. With a cough Applejack looked up at Twilight with a slight blush on her cheeks.
“Well...ignoring that little...event. Are we ready to go? Ah can tell some of us” She glanced over at Rainbow, “are getting a little bit impatient.” Twilight shook her head.
With her cheeks still colored Twilight responded, “Well I guess we might as well go ahead and go. Everyone get ready I'll teleport us there now.” Rainbow Dash and Applejack nodded and closed their eyes instinctively as they felt an odd aura envelop them. It was a feeling that was hard for either of them too describe, it felt as if they were surrounded by...warm. Not a warm solid or a liquid, it felt as if they were just inside the very idea of warm. It was over quick however and before either of them were able to really think much into the feeling it was over. When they opened their eyes they found a mouth to the cave that was obviously their destination. Applejack glanced to her right and saw Twilight collapsed on the ground.
With a bit of concern in her voice, she spoke, “Twilight, are you alright sugarcube?”
Twilight nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, like I said, the spell was going to wear me out. You two can go ahead in and look around. There shouldn't be anything interesting in there yet, as we haven't gone through the entrance into where we're actually supposed to be going yet. But it wouldn't hurt to look around while I rest up.”
Applejack nodded and looked to her other side where Rainbow Dash just was, and found her missing. Looking around she noticed that she was already inside the cave looking around, Applejack rolled her eyes and walked in, muttering to herself, “That filly, Ah swear. Doesn't even check on her friend lyin' on the ground. Sometimes Ah wonder how I even fell in love with that girl.”
“It's because I'm awesome” Applejack glanced up to see that she was closer than she thought she was and Rainbow had apparently heard her. She had a big grin on her face and was staring at Applejack, Applejack put on a thoughtful face and looked her up and down.
“Hmm, nah definitely not that.” Applejack looked up to Rainbow's face to see it had fallen as soon as Applejack had spoke. With a laugh she gave her partner a kiss, “Ya know Ah'm only pullin' your leg Rainbow.” She smiled as Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. So what exactly should we look for?” Rainbow again began walking around, looking at everything that was in there.
“Twilight said she doesn't think there should really be anything to find yet, we need to go through some secret entrance or somethin'.”
Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up, “Ooh lets find that entrance! I bet we can do it! I mean, I'm here aren't I? Of course we can find it!” She dashed up to one of the walls and put her ear against it, stuck out her tongue, screwed up her eyes, concentrated, and started knocking her hooves against the wall. She knocked on the wall a few times, and decided, “Nope, not here.” Moving about a few inches to her left she began again. Applejack had tears in her eyes as she tried to keep her laughter inside, but she was able to contain it as she followed her partner around the room as she investigated all of the walls.
After a while Twilight joined her, a smirk on her face as she raised a questioning eyebrow at Applejack, to which she responded, “She's attempting to find that secret entrance of yours, you think you should help her out and just tell us where it is yet?”
Twilight took a look at Rainbow, who still had her eyes shut as she concentrated on the sound her hooves made with the walls. Twilight smirked again, “Nah, let her keep going, this is kind of funny.” As Rainbow Dash moved again with another nope, Twilight's smile grew, “Besides, she's already passed it.” For another twenty minutes, the two mare's watched their friend's ridiculous determination. When Rainbow finally reached the end of of the cave and she tried to move to a new spot again, she ended up falling to the ground. She sighed as she realized she failed, and Applejack couldn't keep her laughter in anymore, she doubled over on the ground as Twilight just let her laughter out in giggles.
Rainbow looked between the two mares and realized she was probably being a bit ridiculous, she blushed a bit and glared at the two of them. “Were you guys seriously watching me the whole time? You knew where it was Twilight and you could have stopped me and told me where it was.”
Through her laughter Applejack tried to talk, but couldn't get her words out straight. With another blush Rainbow walked behind both of them and pushed them back in towards the middle of the cave. She stood there tapping her hoof on the ground as she waited for her friends to quit laughing at her expense. When they finally did Twilight was the one to speak first, “I'm sorry Rainbow but you always pull pranks on everyone else, you gave us a perfect chance to not even do anything and pull one on you! It was too perfect to pass up!” Rainbow rolled her eyes as Applejack pulled her into a hug, with the biggest smile on her face, Twilight chuckled again, “Alright serious time, like Princess Celestia said, it could be anything beyond...that wall right there,” as she caught the glare from Rainbow she couldn't help but giggle again, “so just be ready for anything, what I need you two to do is simply push the wall straight forward, and it should fall down into a little track that will roll it to the side. When we get through there should be button that will roll it back.”
With a pout on Rainbow's face and a grin on Applejack's, they obeyed, pushed the wall straight forward and just like Twilight said it fell straight down and began rolling off to their right. What they saw through the hole that was made wasn't anything that was too astounding. It just appeared to be a tunnel in the caves, they all walked through and Twilight pressed the button and watched the rock slide itself into place. She made a mental note to herself to figure out exactly how that worked without magic if she had a chance. Twilight lit her horn so they could see and they began walking down the tunnel, beginning their little trek into the unknown.
The farther down they went, the more curious they got as to what the use of this tunnel was. They were supposed to be investigating this area and reporting back to Princess Celestia, but it would make a really lame report if they managed to find absolutely nothing to this little tunnel. After a while they began to notice a smell however, but couldn't place what it really was. They all glanced at each other to see if the others could smell it too and the exchanged glances confirmed the smell was actually there. By the time one of them finally figure out what the smell was, they saw something that confirmed what the smell was.
Bones.
As they approached a white-ish looking object, they realized that it was a bone they were coming near. Applejack was the first to speak up as they stopped to look at the sight, “It's death...that's what we're smelling...death.” Everyone shivered and instinctively stepped closer to each other.
Rainbow Dash responded barely above a whisper, “Okay now that's just creepy.”
Twilight began to walk again and ushered the others to follow, “Come on guys, lets keep going.”
As they kept going the sight began to get creepier by the minute, Rainbow Dash ended up putting a protective wing around Applejack as more bones began to appear. At one point they saw a complete skeleton, and walked up to it. They all eyed it curiously because it seemed to misshapen, there didn't seem to be anything right with the skeleton at all. After a little bit of eying it, Twilight gasped, the other ponies looked at her with curiosity.
She spoke with a look on her face that seemed to be stuck between elation, and horror, “These are...these aren't ponies you two. These...are humans.”