//------------------------------// // The East Mountain Blues // Story: The Epic Journey // by JerryTheHouseGhost //------------------------------// The six ponies got to the base of East Mountain as the sun was starting to set, just as Twilight had said. They set up their camp for the night, in a cave that wasn't being occupied by anything scary, which was Fluttershy's preference. That night was a rather good one; everypony slept really well the whole night. Fluttershy was the first to wake up the next morning. After she initially opened her eyes, she could have sworn she heard what sounded like crying. She got up and, without trying to wake up anypony, left the cave to search for the source of the noise. She stopped and listened for the noise again. Sure enough, she heard it coming from her right side, and it was actually pretty close as well. "Hello? Is anypony there?" Nopony answered. After a while of waiting, Fluttershy heard the noise once more, and was able to pinpoint the location from which the sound was coming from: behind a bush that was almost hidden in vines. She slowly crept towards the bush, and once she was right in front of it, the sound of crying happened once more. "Are you hurt? Don't be afraid, I'm only here to help." Fluttershy started to make her way behind the bush. She was definitely not expecting what she would soon see. "Oh my." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Twilight awoke when she thought she heard a faint scream. "Did anypony else hear that?" The four other ponies began to awaken. Rainbow Dash yawned before speaking. "What did you say, Twilight?" "I asked if anypony else heard that," Twilight replied. "I didn't hear nothin'," said Applejack. One by one, Twilight's friends said that they, too, hadn't heard anything. "Strange," said Twilight, "I could have sworn I heard a distant scream. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me. What about you, Fluttershy? Did you hear anything?" Everypony looked at where Fluttershy was; or at least where she should have been. She wasn't there now. "Uh, where's Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I haven't the slightest idea," replied Twilight, "What if she was the one who screamed? She might be in danger! Come on, everypony!" With that, the five ponies set out to find Fluttershy. Not too long after everypony left the cave, Rarity alerted the group of something she found. "Come here, everypony! I found something!" The other four ponies gathered behind Rarity. "Look, I think it's one of Fluttershy's hairs!" "Oh! There's also some tracks leading that way!" said Twilight, pointing towards a bush that was almost hidden in vines. The five friends went over to the bush, and saw tracks that led around it. They followed the tracks around, and stumbled upon what looked like some sort of altar. There were stone tablets with ancient symbols on them. One of them was broken. "What in Equestria is all of this?" asked Rainbow Dash. "It appears to be some sort of ancient altar," replied Twilight, "but we can't get side-tracked by it. We've got to follow Fluttershy's tracks! They lead towards those stairs over there." They were stairs, but not of any modern model any of the ponies had seen before. They were crudely fashioned, and very crooked. "Do you expect us to willingly walk up those stairs? They look like a death trap!" said Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash, ya know you can fly over them, right?" said Applejack. "What's your point?" asked Rainbow Dash, folding her arms across her chest. "Yes, Rainbow Dash. I expect you to climb those stairs, just as I expect everypony to." said Twilight. "I'll do it! For Fluttershy!" said Rarity. Everypony agreed with her. The stairs were surprisingly stable, given that there were already some chunks that had previously broken off. The stairs led pretty far up the mountain, and stopped right outside of a cave. Twilight looked inside of the cave. The light from outside only illuminated a straight line of light that went really far into the mountain before revealing another set of stairs. "Oh look, more stairs. What a surprise." said Rainbow Dash sarcastically. "Let me light this place up," said Twilight as the five friends began to enter the cave. Twilight cast an illumination spell that made her horn into a bright source of light. Right in front of her appeared Fluttershy, who was in the darkness. "Whoah, Fluttershy, you startled me!" said Twilight. "Are you okay? You wandered off this morning, and I though I heard you scream. You don't look like you normally do. Fluttershy's eyes were wide open, and she had a great big smile on her face. She spoke kind of loudly and in a slightly monotone voice. "I know not of what you speak, friend. I am quite normal, and feel as such!" "Are you sure? You sound kind of weird, and you're staring at us like we are all ghosts or something." Twilight was suspicious. "Nonsense! Ghosts around these parts? HA! I've heard nothing of the sort! I am not a ghost, either! Not at all. I am your friend. Fluttershy. Yes." "Twi, we might as well just head on up those stairs and get to the peak. Fluttershy's probably just in shock or somethin' like that." said Applejack. The six ponies went up the stairs. Along the way, Fluttershy tried to talk to everypony about weird things. Like how she hadn't seen anypony's mane be the color of Rarity's, or trying to talk to Twilight about a war that happened about 10000000 years ago. "Oh look, we reached the peak!" Twilight was very happy that they had done that in a reasonable amount of time. Fluttershy walked ahead of everypony and sat down in an uncomfortable-looking stone chair that was in front of another altar. The other five ponies got slammed to the ground by an unseen force, and got shackled by some kind of magic. "You silly ponies fell right into my trap! I will harvest your souls and devour your bones! You will be my gateway into eternal life! Hahahahahaha! You there!" Fluttershy pointed at Applejack. "You will be my first meal! Come over here!" Applejack was unshackled, and walked over to Fluttershy. "Any last words?" asked Fluttershy. "Yeah: Take this!" and with that, Applejack bucked Fluttershy right in her face. "Nnnooooo!" screamed Fluttershy as some blue misty stuff flew out of her. The mist faded away, and the altar began to fall apart. Fluttershy was back to her normal self. "What happened? I feel like I was bucked right in the face!" "You were bucked right in the face." said Twilight. "Or, at least your body was. You were being possessed by an ancient spirit. You should stop letting that happen, Fluttershy." "Sorry." This was not the first time Fluttershy had been possesed by a spirit. The last time, it was the spirit of a cook pony. She ran around Ponyville rambling on about some sort of secret recipe that was stolen. As the altar completely broke away, a piece of paper was revealed behind it. Twilight walked over and picked it up. It was a note that read: "If you are reading this, that means the link to the map on my letter did not work. This means that you must follow the instructions given by each of these notes. First instruction: Use the zipline at the end of this walkway and look for a pony that goes by the name of MC Pony D. He is in possession of the next note. Good luck. You'll need it when you find him." "What does it say, Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash. "It says that we need to use that zipline over there." Rarity seemed horrified. "Oh my! Not a zipline! The last time I was on one of those my mane got stuck in a pulley and was torn in half! Oh, please no! Don't make me go on it!" "Well it's your lucky day, Rarity! You're going first!" said Twilight.