The five ponies and single dragon spent much of the next day preparing for their trip. Gathering needed supplies and saying farewell to the ones they were leaving behind.
Excitement was brewing between the six friends as they boarded the large balloon and set off. Rainbow Dash proved herself for travel once again, allowing one of Applejack's trusty ropes to be tied to her midsection, the pegasus pulled the balloon forward and made their speed all the greater.
Their saddlebags filled to bursting, their resolve unbreakable and a destination in sight, it wasn't long before the excitement began to spill out between the ponies. Each one of them brought on their own ideas as to what the ancient dragon Serilex would have been like, what being a wingless dragon brought to the fray.
Many ideas, some reasonable and others outrageous, brought on good times for the ponies and made the close-quarters of the basket more bearable for the long trip.
One traveler remained silent however. Spike, not saying a word, simply looked out from the high perch of the balloon to gaze out to the vast lands before him. Equestria spanned onward, further than his eyes could see. The little dragon's mind was abuzz with smiler concepts that his pony friends brought on, wondering just what differed between Serilex and others of his kind. It made him think of what his own differences meant, if they had similarities or were simply dragons who were cursed to live their lives as spectators of their kin, only able to look up and wonder what could have been.
Twilight noticed how quiet her assistant was, a stark contrast to how unbearably excited he was before. The knowledgeable mare didn't bother him though, coming to terms with the fact that there were just some things she couldn't help him with. All she could do was hope, hope that Spike's thirst for knowledge would be sated, hope that whatever they found wouldn't do more harm to him than good.
The late start on their journey brought on a quick stop from it. They landed and made camp in a small field. Luna's starry night sky served as their blanket as they slept with nature. Simple sheets of padded cloth making up their beds, Spike set fire to a pile of wood to bring a bright warmth to the chilling winds that blew from the darkness.
Rising early, the traveling group quickly demolished their small camp and, after a short breakfast, returned to their high flying adventure.
Equestria's northern border seemed to sit just out of their visual reach.
It wasn't as though the journey was without its sights however.
The far reaching lands that they called home stretched on and on without end. Fields, forests and lakes blanketed the ground while an ocean of sky and cloud hung above them like a ceiling to an outdoor home.
There was the occasional flock of birds as well. The avian creatures noticed the ponies and flew by, flapping side by side with the balloon to see what the strange hoofed beings were doing. Their curiosity was disturbed quickly however, as a cyan pegasus took off quickly, leaving the birds in her dust and hearing a snicker fade away along with the rest of the wingless fliers.
“It certainly is something, isn't it?” Twilight said with glee as her eyes took in magnificent surroundings. It was rare for the unicorn to leave her sanctuary of literature, only the occasional trip back to Canterlot could break her away from the humbling tree of books and research.
“Eh,” Applejack huffed mildly. “If you've seen one piece of land, you've seen 'em all.” Having spent most of her time outdoors working, the natural beauty of the world lost its charm with the farmpony long ago.
“Oh, Applejack,” replied Rarity, “of course somepony who spends all her time in the muck wouldn't appreciate the finer details that the untouched lands can offer. Though... I will admit everything does look a tad... dirty. At least from up here, there is no chance of us becoming filthy.”
“We could have a dirt party!” Pinkie Pie shouted, seemingly out of nowhere. The others merely stared at their pink friend in silence, unsure as to how they could respond. “Think about it. Streamers from tree to tree, every rock with a party hat, mud pies made out of actual mud! We would celebrate all the wonderful things that dirt gives us!”
Rarity looked out aimlessly for a moment as she thought on what exactly was given. “Stains on our clothing?”
Applejack grunted in indignation. “Course, Miss Prissy-Saddles wouldn't know about crops and harvestin'.”
Rarity huffed snidely at the comment, all ready preparing a retort concerning Applejack's lack of dressmaking knowledge and several observations about her choice of head wear. The fashionista was halted however as the cyan pegasus at the front of the balloon called out to them.
“Will you two stop bickering?” Rainbow shouted, turning her gaze toward them with her eyes set in an annoyed glare. “Look out there!” Pointing a hoof forward, the others all looked out toward the landscape before them. They all gasped with delight as the jagged sides of slopping mountains appeared.
“That's Scale Peak,” Twilight chimed in, her eyes scanning the massive structure of rock that seemed to cut into the sky with its sharp ridges.
A gargantuan pile rocky slopes and never ending height. Different shades of grey marred the otherwise bright colors of land it was apart of. The summit itself couldn't even be seen, consumed by a twisted cluster of clouds that spanned across the sky.
“Wow,” Spike whispered, his eyes vainly attempting to take in the entirety of the mountain in a single glance. All he could think about was the reason they were there. That somewhere within the natural landmark was another step toward finding the answers he sought after.
Twilight's eyes began to scan the area. Facts on geography and architecture ran through her mind while they drew closer and closer to the mountain. “Rainbow,” she said, “look for a safe spot closer to the top to land.” The pegasus nodded in understanding and speed faster toward their mark.
It took nearly an hour to find a suitable clearing, much of the area being covered with jagged rocks and precarious edges. But the ponies soon found themselves enjoying the hard land beneath their hooves, the long flight having nearly wiped the sensation from their minds.
Not long after regaining their land-legs, the five ponies hoisted their saddlebags onto their backs and set off. Even Spike made sure to carry his own chosen supplies, donning a single bag with two straps to fit his arms through, an old gift from Rarity made from a foal's school bags.
“Now what?” Applejack asked, looking around her to see nothing but the same jagged rocks over and over again. “Do we have any idea on what we're lookin' for?”
“Well,” Twilight paused, thinking further into her plan, “the temple is most likely hidden. But there must be some way to track its location. A marker or some other sign to create a trail to where it is. We simply have to find a clue to point us in the right direction.”
Rarity huffed crossly. “So we are to simple trudge through this entire mountain until we just stumble across what may or may not help us find this temple.” The white coated mare rolled her eyes skeptically. “We certainly do have an air tight plan, don't we?”
“Oh come on, Rarity,” said Rainbow Dash, sighing slightly at her attitude. “Where's your sense of adventure?”
“Right next to my common sense. This is no way to conduct such an expedition.”
It was Rainbow's time to huff now, doing so as she crossed her forelegs and hovered in front of the unicorn. “Well, you don't have much of a choice now do you.”
Rarity met the pegasus' stern gaze with her own, matching it perfectly. She then forced a heavy breath through her nostrils before turning away from her and looking around for any path that wasn't nonsensical.
“Look girls,” Twilight said, attempting to be the voice of reason, “we won't get anywhere if we just stay here and argue. I'm certain we will find a better course of action soon, but for now lets just go and cover as much ground as we can before then.”
Rarity looked to the fellow unicorn, an apologetic gaze in here eyes. “Oh, I'm sorry, Twilight dear. I know I should have a better attitude about this. Especially since we are here for Spike.”
“It's alright, Rarity,” Twilight responded, smiling over the quickly improved mood. A determined look crossed her face as she looked between all of her friends. “Now, come on girls, we have a lot of mountain to cover and a temple to find.”
With an unbeatable vigor, the six friends charged forward, taking the first path they came across and searching high and low as they walked it.
As they trekked through the mountain pass, they came across many obstacles. Most came from the terrain, the uneven paths and incomplete trails forced the ponies to step awkwardly through the jagged sides. Luckily for them, the mountain itself was very stable, giving them little reason to worry about an avalanche or the rock collapsing from underneath them.
Rainbow Dash kept her eyes in the sky, flying above them to look for anything out of the ordinary. All she could find however was a sea of grey rock and little else. Even the discerning gazes of Twilight and Rarity failed to find anything that could indicate their charge.
“And that one looks like a giant, misshapen snowball,” Pinkie Pie chirped, her neck bent upward as she gazed into the sky. “Ooo and that one's a puddle of melted marshmallow. That one's definitely a glob white cotton candy. Oh, does the one over there look like a sheep's body to you guys too?”
“Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash growled, having returned to flying by her friends' sides after giving up on finding anything on her own.
“Yeeeeessssss, Dashie?” the energetic mare cooed, leaning in toward the pegasus, their noses nearly touching.
“Stop that,” Rainbow stated, flying back several paces to reestablish her personal space.
Pinkie Pie craned her head in mild confusion. “Stop what? I'm only cloud gazing. Don't you do it all the time too, you are a weathermare after all.”
A shaking sigh forced itself free the winged pony's mouth as she looked up to the puffs of white she worked with on a daily basis. “All clouds look the same Pinkie, you can't really think that you can tell one from the other.”
“Of course I can,” the party planner said, smiling innocently at the pegasus. “Like that one up there,” she pointed a hoof toward a small puff of cloud that floated carelessly by, “you can't say that isn't a giant pile of tiny cloud babies all mushed up into one bigger one!”
“I...” Rainbow Dash paused, looking between the her pink friend and the cloud she was eying. Her brain was nearly fried by the earth pony's imaginative views. Looking toward Twilight for some glimmer of support, she only saw the lavender librarian look back at them with one of her rare 'I don't know how to help' looks. Sighing once more, the pegasus mentally decided to leave the topic alone and resigned herself to flying in silence, keeping several feet away from the chatty pony.
“That one's totally an albino smoke cloud,” Pinkie Pie continued, unknown to the fact her friends were trying desperately to ignore her. “And that big one waaaay over there. That's Cloudmagus, deposed lord of Cloudopolis, who will one day rise up against the evil Cloudoku who dethroned him!” Looking up at her latest cloud target, Pinkie tilted her head to the side as she examined it thoroughly. “Wow, that one looks like two wings outstretched over four hoof prints.”
Rainbow Dash's ears perked up. “Wait, what?” The pegasus darted toward the pink mare, nearly knocking her over as she stopped just a hair away from her. Her eyes stared intently at her friend, unblinking as she became sporadic. “Pinkie Pie, what did you say?”
“Uh...” Pinkie started, becoming slightly unnerved by the sudden shift in her friend's attitude. “That cloud,” she pointed her hoof back up to the last fluffy puff of white she had spotted, “it has wings and hoof prints on it.”
The pegasus' head jerked in direction she was pointing, her eyes immediately locking onto the unassuming cloud that was there. Without a word, she rushed through the air toward it, leaving her friends to stare upward in confusion. Though they didn't know what was going on, they could see the cyan mare's eyes enlarging to their full width as she looked over the cloud.
“Guys,” she gasped, grabbing the cloud and dragging it down toward them, “you've gotta see this!”
With the cloud mere inches away from them, the friends stared at the cloud and were shocked to see a large pattern stamped into it. Two wings stretched out across the center, the shape and size of the feathers indicated it to be the wings of a pegasus. Above and below the feathered limbs were circular marks of a hoof print.
“Well, what is it?” Applejack asked, tilting her head at different angles in hopes it would shed light on the importance of the marking.
“It's a Pegasi Mark,” Rainbow Dash said, grinning from ear to ear.
Rarity looked to her flying friend quizzically, not gaining much information from the answer. “And that would be?”
Rainbow's elated expression shifted momentarily as she heaved a sigh. “It's an old method of tracking that pegasi used centuries ago. They were used to show flying teams important locations when on scouting missions and to specify what clouds to use for weatherponies. I remember them from when our instructors back at flight camp would time us on finding the right cloud out of a whole mess of them.. Of course, I always trounced everypony else.” Showing a proud smirk, Rainbow Dash finished her explanation and gauged the reactions from her friends.
Twilight looked back at the marking as well as the area surrounding them, quickly figuring out what it meant. “So a pegasus must have been through here once and made the mark for future reference... It couldn't have been Typhoon though, could it?”
“Do clouds even last that long?” Spike asked, stretching out his hand to poke the cloud, expecting something strange to happen at his touch.
“Some can,” Rainbow replied, inspecting the cloud herself. “These kinds of clouds are made for the more desolate areas of Equestria. They don't fade away like other clouds, but you can't use them for rain.”
Hearing this, Twilight quickly turned around and reached into her saddlebags. It took only a moment for her to locate a specific scroll and examine it. Several more moments passed as her friends waited in silence to see what the librarian was up to.
“Okay,” Twilight stated, furling the scroll and placing it back into her bag, “Rainbow, come here.” Curiosity taking control, the cyan pegasus floated over toward the unicorn. The action was quickly regretted however as the purple horn on her head began to glow and Rainbow Dash felt a feather yanked from her wing.
“Ouch!” she yelped, her wings locking in place and causing her to fall onto the rocky trail. “Hey, what the hay was that for?!”
“I need it for this spell,” Twilight answered, not bothering to apologize for the previous action. The feather floated in a magical grasp as Twilight's eyes stayed trained on it. Her horn shifted in color several times. Sweat beaded on her brow as the aura of magic grew. Then, in a sudden bright flash, the feather disappeared.
“What was that?” asked Applejack, rubbing her stinging eyes.
The cowpony didn't need to receive an answer. As her eyes readjusted, they immediately became riveted to the pegasus in front of her, just as her friends did the same.
“What?” Rainbow muttered, quickly becoming nervous as the stares persisted on her. “Do I have something in my mane?”
“Not your mane...”
Hesitantly, Rainbow Dash looked down at herself and gasped at what she saw. Her body was glowing. Her entire coat held a bright cyan glow to it, offering little in terms of actual light, but still plainly noticeable and an oddity by any right.
“Whoa,” she breathed, slowly waving her foreleg through the air. The glow followed it, only trailing behind by a second, like a ghostly mist. “Cool.”
As the shock of the sudden change in their friend died down, the eyes of the four ponies and single dragon shifted toward the unicorn in question.
“Wow,” Pinkie Pie cheered, “that would totally be cool for a nighttime party. Just think if every guest was in the dark and could only see a cool glowy shadow of themselves!” She then began to jump around Twilight happily. “So, Twilight, howdja do it, huh huh huh?”
“Well,” the scholar began, “it's a tracking spell. If Typhoon really was near here, then we can use it to follow the path he took.” Looking around for a moment, the unicorn smiled and pointed a hoof toward the sky. Following it, the others were surprised to see a similar glow in the sky above them, a fiery red in color and streaking by in a trail. “Though the spell requires something personal from the one you need to track, I was able to alter it to work on all pegasi by reducing it to just this area.”
“So we can just follow where this pegasus went and find where the temple is...” Applejack muttered, piecing together Twilight's plan.
“Exactly,” she said, nodding excitedly as they now had their plan set. “Now, let's go find that temple!”
Her friends all cheered in agreement and charged forward, setting their eyes to the red trail cutting through the air in hopes it would lead them to their target.
It was clear that they were following the path of a pegasus. Besides hovering above the air, the trail never appeared to follow a straight line for very long, always zig-zaging about with no rhyme or reason to it. It changed altitudes many times as well, forcing the five land-walkers to wait for Rainbow Dash to find where the trail came closer to land.
Spike could hardly contain himself. The beating of his heart drowned out any other noise, forcing an aching pain in his chest and just bringing his excitement over the edge. They were getting close. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he could feel it. With every step they took, with every moment of constant galloping, they were getting closer and closer.
The simple trails quickly ended however. All that was left for them to walk on was the steep sides of the mountain itself. Sadly, the glowing trail they had been following cut straight down toward the bottom.
Tentative steps were taken as they made their way down, making sure not to misstep and tumble down the jagged slide they were atop of. The group of friends found themselves breathing heavily as they came closer and closer to the bottom. But it worsened as they saw where the glowing path continued.
The red trail darted straight downward, going into a crevice that seemed to be wedged between two towering peaks of rocks. It seemed to begin a new path that would surely lead into a clearing they could rest at.
With the sweet idea of a stopping point crossing them, they willed themselves to continue.
But their high spirits came to a crashing halt as the loud shudder of cracking stone pierced the air around them.
Turning toward the noise, they all gasped as a several large chunks of rock broke away from the mountain side and tumbled toward them, Rarity being right in their path.
“Rarity, watch out!” Rainbow Dash yelled, quickly flying toward her and pushing her out of the way.
The action brought more harm than good however as the white unicorn lost her balance and stumbled down the steep slope. Her hooves were unable to find a place to stop herself as Rarity tumbled down the mountainside toward her friends.
“Oh no,” Applejack gasped, jumping forward, “ah've got ya.” The farmer mare threw herself into Rarity's path, firmly pressing her hooves down into the ground to halt her fall. But it was no use, Rarity merely crashed into her and sent them both downward in a mess of flailing legs and tails.
The others could do little to stop it themselves, each being caught in tumble as Rarity and Applejack ran them down. Twilight, Spike and Pinkie Pie joined them in the terrifying spectacle, their bodies sliding down the slope and into the deep crevice with nothing to stop them.
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings with all her might, attempting to stop her friends' descent. But their speed was too great for her to reach them in time, and the pegasus watched as her friends disappeared into the dark hole of the crevice
Their screams echoed into the cave the crevice forced them into. As the ponies were in free fall, their frantic attempts to save themselves were only outweighed by the heart pounding fear that they weren't going to make it.
Twilight herself could barely concentrate, her mind too busy registering the hard ground that was rushing toward them at alarming speed. Her horn began to glow as she tried thinking of a spell, any spell that could save them.
Their immanent impact then came, then the screaming ceased.
A/N: I would like to apologize for the rather long wait since the last chapter. Let's just say... I've had a near lethal dosage of writer's block and Darksiders 2.