Everyone has read a million ship fics by now, and if you haven't you should because the ones that are done right are amazing. This is my take on one of my favorite ships, and really that's all you need to know.

We often forget the small journeys in favor of the grand. The stories of the mane six traveling to fight huge monsters and solve problems nopony else could ever beat. But little steps must be taken by ordinary ponies every day, and while not all of them are epic in nature or even worthy of note, they shape the Equestria we know today. In ways we never thought of.

Time passes quickly when you no longer have the need to watch it. So quickly in fact, that years turn to decades and then centuries before you ever realize any time has passed at all. The Elements of Harmony grant extraordinary powers to those that weild them, but the gifts they give are only temporary. When the time comes for the elements to pass Avatars, it is up to those older then all but the Elder Dragons to guide the passing.

Credit for the fic goes to Angry Muffins, who took a rough idea i had and made it a reality.

When the clan leaders returned from Equestria to relocate there followers, not everypony was so willing to listen to the message of friendship. Generations of bitter hate between them made many uneasy of the idea that they would share a land with ponies that had so long been rivals with, and some of them refused to accept it. When one stallion decides to stay behind, even as everypony in his village leaves, his familly must survive the cold inside the one room house they live in, even as the wind is fueled by the stallion's hate.

Twilight Sparkle wakes to a normal day in Ponyville, a bright sunny sky greeting her. The only pony who doesn’t seem able to enjoy it is Rainbow Dash, who is dodging weather duty and begs Twilight to hide her. After being invited to stay at the library for the day, Rainbow discovers Twilight is working on a new spell, a spell that could take any group of ponies anywhere.

Twilight soon finds herself pressured into taking her friends on vacation, somewhere far away from Ponyville. When the group of six arrives in a wooded clearing for a picnic, and feel themselves grow incredibly tired, Twilight opts to cut the vacation short only to realize she can’t open the portal back. Stuck in this unknown place the friends discover a strange line in the ground cutting the forest in half, and then an even stranger creature piloting a huge machine that towers over them.

When the creature nearly makes off with Applejack, managing to dislocate her leg, Twilight tries to figure out how the group could possibly get home, and what was preventing them from using their gifts to open the portal. She is driven to drastic measures when another of the creatures finds the clearing they arrived in, and finds out getting it to help her may be her only hope to lead her friends to safety, and discover the truth behind this other world.