//------------------------------//
// The Road Ahead 
// Story: Majesty: Queen of the Castle 
// by Paradise Oasis 
//------------------------------//

"Hmph, sure took you guys long enough to rescue us." Applejack snorted, scowling at her four rescuers. "Any longer tied up in that dungeon, and the two of us would've staved to death."

"Really, A.J.? You sure don't look any leaner." Majesty chuckled. "I'm sure after a few apple tarts and apple pies, you'll be just fine!" 

The six ponies were trotting away from the tower, celebrating the fact that they had successfully dealt with the threat of Rugmatot once and for all.  Returning to the sight of their encampment, the princess and her friends couldn't believe how everything had turned out. 

"Wow, that was sooo lame, being trapped with that gag over my mouth." Wind Whistler declared, as she and Hollywood zipped around over the heads of thew others. "I mean, can you believe how dark and dingy that creepy old basement was? With all those creepy spiders and cobwebs down there- icky! Why in the world did Rugmatot stick us down there, anyway? I'm, like so totally glad to be out of that mess, aren't all of you glad, huh?" 

"Actually, I kind of wish we'd kept the gag on her." Applejack snorted, shaking her head. "It could've saved the rest of a whole lot of headache." 

"Boy, being trapped sure didn't help your mood any, now did it?" Holly rolled her eyes, flying overhead. "What happened to the two you while you were in captivity, anyway?" 

"We don't want to talk about it." The two mares replied in unison, looking away as they remembered the personalities of their two mirror duplicates. 

"Wow, A.J. and Windy agreed on something." Ice Crystal said in disbelief, looking at the skies overhead. "Does anyone see pigs flying overhead? Or, I wonder if hell is freezing over right now."

"Would you all please stop your bickering?" Majesty scolded all of them."We're almost back to the camp site, and I'm getting sick of listening to you cackle like a bunch of old hens."

"We need to let Tornado know where we've been." Thundercloud interjected. "He should be around here somewhere." 

But as the group arrived back at the campsite, they found no trace of their stallion friend anywhere. Ice Crystal and Thundercloud searched high and low for any kind of tracks or signs of a struggle, but all they found was their gear and ration, completely untouched, even by the wild animals.

"There's no trace of him anywhere, your highness." Ice told Majesty. "It's as if he simply wandered off, and left everything behind without a care in the world." 

"I think I picked up his scent heading down to the river, princess!" Thundercloud told her, sniffing at the ground, and following the scent towards the riverbank. "But his trail stops right at the water, as if he trotted right into the moving water." 

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Wind Whistler piped up, hovering over the river, and gazing in. "Why would he jump into the water, and where the heck did he go?"

"I'm afraid that knucklehead might've fallen into the water, when he went to get a drink." Applejack replied, staring down at the swiftly moving water with regret. "The current would've carried him downstream, meaning he's somewhere in the Rainbow Valley, beyond the unicorn run."

"Holy horsemaster, we gotta go and rescue him!"  Windy started to fly down river, when she noticed the others weren't following her. "Wait, what are you guys..."

"Windy... I hate to say this, but Tornado has probably washed down stream and drowned by now." Applejack replied sadly. "That is an awfully powerful current in the river, even for a stallion." 

"Icy. I think our good buddy might've gone to B'zkre's stable in the sky."  Thundercloud told his friend in a sorrowful tone. "We may have lost a big brother pony."

"But we can't just give up hope!" Thundercloud protested. "Tornado wouldn't leave us to get washed away!"

"Yeah, let's go search for him!" Windy agreed. "Icy, do you think you can pick up his scent by the river back, and we could follow him down stream?"

"No." Majesty replied curtly, glaring at the others. "We are not wasting time on a pony who's probably already dead." 

"WHAT?!" The whole group asked in disbelief. Every pony present stared at the unicorn mare in shock, not wanting to believe they had just heard their friend say what they thought she said.

"Majesty... how can you be so cold?" Hollywood asked, landing beside the princess. "Tornado has stood by you though this adventure so far, how can you just abandon him?" 

"Stood by me? How? By getting captured by the flutters, and needing rescue? By disappearing down river, and needing saved again?" The princess snorted. "Even if he did survive, Tornado was more of a liability than an asset. We are much better off without him."

"Majesty, you big meanie!" Wind Whistler flew right up into the unicorn's face, snapping at her angrily. "How can you just toss a friend away like that?! You're just as hard-hearted and cruel as you claim your mom is!"

Those words hit Majesty like a ton of bricks, and she remembered the argument that led to her leaving Dream Valley in the first place.

"All right, we'll go after him." The princess let out a defeated sigh. "Hollywood, where does the path by the river lead?" 

"The river path?!" The flutter pony mare's eyes went wide, and she backed away as if stung. "Uhhhh.... Majesty? Trust me, you REALLY don't want to go that way!" 

"Why not?" Applejack asked, a cold feeling growing in her stomach due to the other mare's reaction. "Holly, where does that pathway lead to?"

"Girls, you remember how our campsite here is among a small cluster of ruins of the ancients, and Rugmatot's tower is a rebuilt fortress of the ancients?" The flutter pony gulped in fear. "Well, this path leads right into a giant cemetery of the ancients, where it's always dark and spooky." She looked down as the princess. "Majesty, the river road leads to the pathways of the dead..."