The Gaean Crusade

by Seven Fates

Chapter 1: The Missive

The day following Twilight Sparkle's early resignation from a night of celestial gazing was mostly like any other Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville. It began with a town-wide gathering in the square outside of town hall. From there, everypony watched the eastern sky as the sun rose. On any other year, the town would have gathered in the town hall, but an unplanned heatwave had crept in overnight.

After the sunrise, the regular festivities commenced. Twilight made her rounds to every stand, game, and event. All of them were going swimmingly in spite of the heat, but the most popular events this year were the water-based ones, and the refreshment stands were quickly running low. Still, Twilight felt it would be going even better had she known of the heatwave ahead of time. At least then, she could have suggested more water-based events at the organization meetings.

The only ponies seemingly unfazed by the heat were all the fillies and colts. Ponyville’s new Cutie Mark Crusaders—the Cake twins, Pound and Pumpkin, and Fluttershy's adopted daughter, Puppy Eyes—were thriving in the heat. Apparently hoping for dragon hunter cutie marks, they were stalking Spike like a pack of timber wolves as he helped Twilight make sure everything was going as planned.

“Why did Scootaloo ever give those three the idea to crusade for their cutie marks?” Spike complained as a makeshift net landed on top of his head. He turned towards the bushes the three foals had thrown the net at him from. “Cut it out, you guys!”

Twilight turned to watch as a goldish-gray head topped with a brown mane popped out. “Never!” shouted Pound Cake. “The three of us will fight the fight!”

From beside him, a light yellow unicorn filly popped up, her frizzy orange mane bobbing in the wind. “Yeah!” cried Pumpkin Cake. “There is nothing that we fear!”

“We'll never stop!” exclaimed an earth pony filly as she burst forth from the bush, showing off her mottled green and pink coat. Her blonde and blue-streaked mane flowed freely in the hot afternoon breeze as she gave an expectant look to the other two Crusaders. As they caught her hint, they burst forth from the bushes at either side of her.

“... until our cutie marks are here!” the three screamed in unison, before vanishing into the bushes.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike exchanged amused glances. The young drake let out an amused snort, remembering a certain schoolhouse talent competition. He could clearly remember the previous batch of Cutie Mark Crusaders singing similar lyrics at the beginning of their display.

“Jeez, Twilight!” Spike whispered as he pulled the net off of his head. “Who taught them that song?”

Despite herself, the studious unicorn allowed herself a bit of laughter. “Who do you think taught them?” she offered wryly. “It's the same pony who gave them the idea to be Crusaders in the first place.”

Exasperated, the drake let out a small growl before forcing a puff of smoke from his nostrils. “Scootaloo, of course!” He slammed an open palm into his face as a lasso flew from a nearby bush, narrowly missing his tail.

“Never mind them, Spike,” Twilight said, attempting to take his mind off the futile attempts to contain him. “We've still got a lot to do today. Besides, I'm sure you're dying to check out Allie Way's water bowling setup too.”

“Yeah, sliding down a wet ramp into a bunch of pins and the pool beyond sounds like just the thing for a hot day like this. What were the pegasi even thinking? I—uh oh!” Spike grunted, his eyes bulging wide. As uncouth as it was, the belch he released wasn't unexpected, and neither was the accompanying gout of green flame. The arrival of a letter by dragon fire was still a commonplace fixture in her life.

Without missing a beat, the drake caught and unfurled the scroll that materialized from the flames. He quickly read it over, his eyes remaining wide all the while. Finally, he looked away from the letter, and gave Twilight a serious look. “My faithful student Twilight, I have news of the gravest importance. A letter will follow soon after this one. The letter must be read in the utmost secrecy, and it is for your eyes only.”

Giving her number one assistant a worried look, she turned towards the library. “Come on Spike. If she's sending a letter that not even you are allowed to see, something really important must be happening.” She began running towards the library, but stopped short upon seeing Spike still rooted to the spot. “Sorry Spike, we'll get to try water bowling some other time. I promise.”

My dearest Twilight Sparkle,

I wish it was under better circumstances that I could contact you today. You may already be aware of this, but last night a celestial event was observed by many astronomers across Equestria. Four stars reportedly rose up from the Moon, and fell down to Equestria simultaneously. Luna is rather insistent that the four stars that freed Nightmare Moon are the same involved in the previous night's celestial event, and while I would be inclined to think it is nothing so serious, I cannot deny the coincidence with what has come to pass.

Early this morning, Canterlot castle received a most unexpected guest. You may recall the conversation we shared regarding Mother Gaea after the Morrigan Affair. As happy as we all were to see Mother, the circumstances are not at all what we would desire. When she appeared in the middle of the court, she was incredibly weakened and barely conscious.

I will not attempt to disillusion you, Twilight, for you are mature enough to recognize the gravity of the situation. Gaea is dying, and with her all Alicorns will die soon after. Since her appearance, she has only once become lucid enough to shed any light on the source of her state. The sources of her power have long rested in four temples hidden about Equestria. Each temple houses an altar, upon which a Prime Element sits, binding the associated element in nature to her. That is how it has always been. Without these elements in her control, Equestria would become unstable, and far more wild, like the Everfree Forest, the San Palomino Desert, the Frozen North, and the Badlands.
[
Since the celestial event last night, however, these relics have been disturbed—removed from the altars! Thankfully, the relics cannot be removed from the temples. Mother was very adamant that the fail-safes she placed in each temple would keep the Prime Elements from being removed. Unfortunately, her fail-safe was a double-edged enchantment, intended to protect her power from any children hoping to snatch her power away from her as it much as it was to protect it from thieves. That means none of the Alicorns are able to enter any of the temples. To further complicate things, we don't have any knowledge as to the location of the temples aside from one. The Earth Temple is somewhere in the San Palomino Desert.

It is for this reason, that I delegate this mission to you, my most trusted and treasured student. You have only a day to gather a small party for this mission. For the sake of time constraints, I must ask you to take on only two companions from Ponyville. Luna has suggested Goldenrod hold a place as one of your companions due to his ties to Gaea and unique perspective. The other member of your party should be a pegasus with experience in scouting.

Once you have assembled your party, there will be three tickets to Appleloosa waiting for you at the train-station for a departure first thing in the morning. The fourth party member—a familiar face to be sure—and provisions will be waiting for you upon arrival at the Appleloosa Station. Know that regardless of the outcome of the mission, I will always be proud of you.

Your loving mentor,
Princess Celestia

For Goldenrod, the mundane life of a flower delivery pegasus was a welcome return to normalcy. Sure, it was a far cry from being a butler for a rich family back on Earth, but this was home now. Mundane had taken a different meaning now that he lived in a land of colorful talking ponies as a pegasus, but he was okay with that. As long as he had the wind in his mane, and his adoptive sister to watch over, he didn't care if his job was boring.

That's why in spite of the festivities of the Summer Sun Celebration, he was hard at work delivering flowers for Rose. Flower orders didn't suddenly stop for the holiday. It was quite the opposite; orders doubled on days such as this. Many ponies running an event or stall had put in orders for flowers to graze on throughout the day. That was to say nothing of the large order of roses and daisies that Mayor Mare had placed for the great picnic banquet being held in the Ponyville Common.

At least Rose, Daisy and Lily weren't slave-drivers. They understood that delivering large orders on a hot day like this could wear out even the toughest of ponies. After returning from the banquet delivery, Rose was more than gracious enough to give him the rest of the day off. After stopping by the Common, he'd spent most of the afternoon keeping cool in a cloud over the home he shared with Scootaloo.

I wonder where she's gotten to, anyway? Probably off helping the Ponyville Cartography Union. The adolescent pegasus was always off somewhere. Even with Sweetie Belle at the Canterlot Academy for Talented Musicians, and Apple Bloom inventing in a barn out in Appleloosa, Scootaloo was never without something to do. Ever since Rainbow Dash had taught them both to fly, the orange pegasus had found it very fun to spot things from the air. Her talent might have been courage, but her present joy was finding things. Whatever she did for fun, she always found ways to make him proud. It was a far cry from the filly who always came home covered in tree sap and pine needles after a long day of crusading with the others.

“Goldenrod, are you home?” a voice called out from below, as well as a pounding on the door. He knew the voice well. Twilight was always there when he decided to see what the library had to offer. Of everypony who came to Earth with him, Twilight was one of the few he saw on any regular basis. Peeking through the cloud, he watched as Twilight anxiously looked around before groaning. “Where could he be?”

“Sorry, did I have an overdue book, Twilight?” he called down, grinning.

Twilight looked up at him and let out a startled cry. “Sometimes, I wonder if you don't take Landais Caroler's Chalice in Wonderland seriously,” she muttered, glaring up at him. “I swear you enjoy appearing like the Cheshire Cat.”

“What, can you seriously only see my mouth and eyes?” he asked before dropping through the cloud and fluttering down to her side. “So, what's up?”

“I received a letter from Princess Celestia today.” She didn't seem all that thrilled, which seemed contrary to her usual reverence for the Princesses. “I have to depart on a mission first thing in the morning.”

“Well, have fun then,” he offered in a reassuring tone. “You want me to keep Spike out of trouble, is that it? You know he's fine on his own, right?

“It's not that simple, Warren,” she sighed. Whatever was happening, she had his attention. Nopony ever used his Earth name. If she was willing to use it to catch his attention, something was clearly happening.

“What?” he asked hesitantly.

“I need two ponies from Ponyville to come with me.” Twilight glanced at the door to the house. “I really think we should discuss this inside though. This isn't something just anypony can hear about.”

“Alright,” Goldenrod said, opening the lock with a key that dangled from around his neck. Pushing the door open, he ushered her in. “Mi casa es su casa.”

As Twilight trotted into the house, she turned slightly to face him, “I'd ask you when you learned the language of the Caballo tribe, but I keep forgetting that there's a lack of language disparity between the two worlds.”

Goldenrod shrugged before sprawling on a comfortable corduroy love-seat. “Just do like I do and file it away under Morrigan's Rule of Creepy—anything she could make similar between the two worlds, she did.” He laughed in spite of actively fighting off a shudder. After everything that had happened three years ago, it was hard not to shudder. “Anyways, you were saying something about needing two ponies from Ponyville. Why come to me? Surely the others are much better choices.”

Twilight found a nice soft cushion in front of the coffee-table and sat down upon it. “That's just it though. The Princesses—or Princess Luna at least—believe that you're a good choice for this mission.” She paused, glancing about hesitantly. “Because of your link to Gaea, you became a likely candidate, even before the mission was handed off to me.”

Goldenrod's eyes narrowed. “Gaea?” he whispered. “What's she have to do with things?”

“I can't tell you more without you signing on for the mission,” she said sadly. “I'd like to tell you, but I have to be absolutely sure you're not just going to go and do something stupid.”

He blinked at her. It wasn't like the implication of 'something stupid' went over his head. The last time he'd done something incredibly stupid, it was when he'd knowingly run into a trap out of anger, and gave a Draconequus the power she needed to bridge Earth and Equestria. If that was being implied, then this mission was something pretty serious, and dangerous.

“Sorry to waste your time then, Twilight.” He shook his head. “You've got the wrong pony. I've got a job that I can't just leave at the drop of a hat, and even if I could, I still have to make sure our little daredevil doesn't pull a Rainbow Dash and crash. Damned if she ain't a great flier, but the doctors are still amazed she can fly after that wing severance in the hang-gliding incident.”

“It's okay, I understand.” She smiled sweetly, rising off of the cushion. “After that affair three years ago, I can understand your wanting a peaceful life.”

Goldenrod launched off the couch, landing at Twilight's side. Without warning or consideration for personal space, he put one foreleg around her neck and hugged her close. “You'll find ponies much better suited to the job than me for sure. I don't care how dangerous the job is, just make sure you take care of yourself.”

Twilight blushed, but he knew she wasn't particularly put off by his sudden hug. Everypony knew his utter lack of interest in friendships beyond the platonic level with mares well enough to know his hugs weren't any different than shaking a hoof. “Okay—oof! You're crushing me!”

Letting the purple unicorn go, he gave an embarrassed laugh. “Sorry,” he replied, escorting her to the door. He opened the door before adding, “I'm sure you've got a lot of ponies to talk to if you need to leave in the morning.”

“Yeah, and now I need to fill two slots... the one that would have been yours, and then I need to find a scout,” she groaned. “Well, I suppose I should see if the Cartographer's guild or the Town Watch have any scouts willing to help out.”

Watching the mare as she trotted back towards Ponyville Proper, he was about to call out one final 'Good luck' when he saw something that he knew would only mean trouble. Shortly after Twilight departed, an orange and purple blur shot out from the bushes near the door. It went straight after Twilight. Looks like I better prepare for the possibility that she finds a way to wrap Twilight around her little finger—hoof, whatever. Sometimes, pony analogies just don't make sense.

If Scootaloo had heard even the slightest bit about needing a scout for a possibly dangerous mission, he knew she'd be dead-set on selling herself to Twilight, even if it meant damning him in the process. Adventure was the one thing that Scootaloo couldn't resist, and if it meant being able to leave Ponyville to go to interesting or dangerous places, she might not even take no for an answer. She was as hot-blooded as Rainbow Dash, but still had that charming childish nature that made saying no hard.

“Well, I better pack my saddlebags, just in case saying no won't work,” he mumbled to himself. “I might lead a boring life now, but I still know when I'm being dealt a bad hand—hoof, argh! I just hope my bluff is still up to par.”

While Twilight trotted down the road towards the library, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed. She had hoped her follower would turn out to be just the Crusaders up to more mischief. After all, they’d been obsessing over catching Spike all day. Them following her home to pester Spike would have made sense.

When she turned around, however, it was not two fillies and a colt that she saw, but a young orange pegasus with a vibrant fuchsia mane. Scootaloo was hovering a few yards behind her, a beaming grin on her face. “Hi Twilight!” she called out in an almost teasing tone.

“Good afternoon, Scootaloo. I’m sorry I can’t really talk right now,” Twilight offered politely. Any other time, she’d be happy to engage Scootaloo in conversation, but today she simply didn’t have time now. “I’m really busy and I need to get ready for a trip.”

“Of course,” the young pegasus replied with a knowing smile. She flew towards Twilight, pulling off a quick corkscrew before landing next to the unicorn mare. “I just wanted to let you know that none of the other scouts the Ponyville Cartography Union has are very comfortable going outside Ponyville. They’re all boring—more interested in scouting places they already know are safe. I swear, they want the most detailed maps of the areas around Ponyville, right down the the tiniest blade of grass!”

Twilight knew immediately that Scootaloo had overheard at least some of her conversation with her big brother. “Oh? I suppose you’re volunteering, is that it?” She shook her head. “Sorry, I can’t let you do that. This mission is likely to be more than just a little dangerous, and we both know that Goldenrod will never allow you to go even if I could allow it.”

“Come on Twilight, you’ve got to take me with you!” Scootaloo groused. “The Union never lets me go anywhere outside Ponyville’s outer boundaries! I can take care of myself now! Besides, I’m easily the best advance scout they would have to offer. If you need somepony in the skies, I’m your eyes! You couldn’t get anypony faster, except Rainbow Dash!

“Besides,” she added in a playful tone. “I know you want Goldenrod to come along. If I go along, he’ll have to come along. If he thinks I’ll just run off to join you anyways, he’s not going to put up much of a resistance.”

“I don’t know what bothers me more, the fact that you’re willing to manipulate your brother so that you can go on an adventure,” Twilight replied, distaste clear in her voice. “...or the fact that you’re asking me to use you to blackmail him in order to make my own job simpler.”

Giving a nervous chuckle, Scootaloo smiled. “It’s not blackmail, exactly,” she said in a knowing tone. “Think of it more as gentle persuasion.”

Twilight sighed. She knew this was wrong, but Scootaloo was right. The filly was the best in ponyville at the moment, and she couldn’t wait for Rainbow Dash to finish her tour with the Wonderbolts. “Fine!” she groaned. “If—and only if—he says you can go, you can come.”

The orange pegasus beamed at her, and immediately began flying back towards her home. “Come on then!”

Goldenrod lay on the corduroy love-seat, staring up at the clock. Given how persuasive Scootaloo can be, I’d say the two of them will be back any time now. To say he was surprised that they weren’t back yet was an understatement. She’d probably already cajoled Twilight with one of her ‘not blackmail’ schemes. Any second now...

Sure enough, the front door burst open, and Scootaloo was right in the doorway. The grin on her face told him that it was better if he didn’t resist. He waited until Twilight appeared behind her in the doorway before rolling his eyes. “There’s no way I’m getting out of this, is there?”

“The way I see it, I can run off with Twilight and you come chase me down to bring me home,” her voice was even, without the slightest implication of threat. “...or you can come voluntarily, just to make sure I stay out of trouble.”

Casting a glance from Scootaloo to Twilight, he put his head down and sighed. “Fine, go pack your saddlebags,” he said with a shake of his head. Once the adolescent pegasus was safely out of the room, he gave Twilight a wistful look. “She’s growing up fast. I feel sorry for whatever colt she chooses to be her special somepony.”

“So you knew she’d attempt to blackmail the both of us?” Twilight looked unimpressed. “Why do you let her get away with that?”

He shrugged, climbing off of the couch. With just a duck of his head, he pulled his saddlebags up from beside the comfortable piece of furniture. “She’s going to do it whether I say something or not,” he said, not particularly proud of himself. “I find that Scootaloo learns her lessons best through experience. Eventually, she’s going to learn that her ‘gentle persuasion’ can get her into trouble. When it does, I’ll be right there to make sure she understands. Her roguish charm is bound to run out eventually.”

Twilight watched him as he put his saddlebags onto his back, just behind his wings. “You know, you can still say no. Nopony would think less of you for it,” she said softly. Her ears had pricked up at the sound of a commotion upstairs. “As a member of the Order of the Eclipse, I could give her over to the first guard I see and have them bring her home.”

“You know as well as I do that she wouldn’t forgive us.” He smiled softly at her as he trotted towards the door. “It would be a betrayal in her eyes. With her friends all elsewhere, I’m all she has left. Besides, she trusts you. You don’t ever want to ruin somepony’s trust. It’s the quickest way to lose a friend.”

Both of them flinched as they heard someone in the chimney shout, “Forever!”

Goldenrod bolted towards the fireplace and stuck his head in to peer up the chimney. “Was that...?”

“Probably,” Twilight said flatly. “I still wonder if Pinkie isn’t part Draconequus. Her ability to appear in the most unusual places is completely unnatural.”

There was a ruckus as Scootaloo stormed down the stairs. “Okay guys, I’m ready to go, now we just—Goldenrod, are you trying to think like Chancellor Puddinghead?” She burst out laughing at the sight of him with his head stuck up into the chimney. “No, seriously! What did I miss?”

“Pinkie Pie, I think,” he replied, pulling his head from the fireplace. Covered in soot, he couldn’t help sneezing uncontrollably. “Let’s spend the night at Twilight’s. If we’re leaving first thing in the morning, it’s probably best if we’re all together.”

By the time Twilight had finished explaining the mission to Goldenrod and Scootaloo, it was well into the night. While the younger pegasus was raring to go, the elder of the pair was no less convinced that coming along was the right thing to do. She didn’t blame him for changing his mind about wanting to come along now, either. Celestia told her three years ago that his body was created by Gaea, so if Gaea died, there was the possibility of him ceasing to exist. He was clever enough to realize this.

Now, Twilight could only bide time until the dawn. She was simply too contemplative to sleep here in her bed. Who is our ally in Appleloosa? Exactly what kind of dangers will we face out there? Is there anything I can do to better prepare for this adventure?

Stricken with an idea of what she could do, Twilight crawled out of bed and crept down to the library. Scootaloo was still out cold on a pile of pillows she’d scavenged from around the library, but Goldenrod was nowhere to be seen. She wondered where he’d gotten to, but she knew he was probably off in one of the privacy alcoves that dotted the main floor of the library.

Poking her head into one such alcove, she saw stacks upon stacks of books upon a table. “You couldn’t sleep either, could you?” a tired voice called out from behind the wall of books.

“Yeah,” she said. Levitating the stacks of books aside, she saw by the bags under his eyes that indicated he was as tired as she felt. He was simply sitting there—chin in hoof—poring over what looked to be a bestiary of some sort. “Doing a bit of light reading?”

“It’s more research. I want to be prepared for anything we might encounter,” he said, pushing the tome aside. A line of dried blonde fur on his arm indicated he’d fallen asleep at least once during his research. “There are some pretty nasty critters out there in the San Palomino. I don’t want to go out there unprepared. How about you?”

Twilight gave him a soft smile. “I was laying in bed thinking about this quest, and everything surrounding it. It was driving me quite mad, as the one night that I’d like to fall asleep early, I simply couldn’t. So I thought to myself, ‘What can I do to help our journey before we’ve even started?’” She turned her head back to the library proper before letting out a giggle. “That’s when I remembered a particular enchantment I came across years ago during my studies of spatial dynamics.

“I hadn’t thought much of it at the time. I couldn’t imagine having use for such a mundane enchantment as spatially compressed saddlebags. The only use I could even come up with was to make grocery shopping simpler.” Giggling, she trotted out of the alcove. As Goldenrod followed her out, she began rooting through the shelves for the tome she had in mind. “I realized that on a journey like this, the amount of supplies and rations we can carry is directly proportional to how much we can carry! The spell matrix involved is surprisingly simple, so it would be no issue at all to enchant all of our saddlebags in one night.”

Goldenrod let out a chuckle before dropping a tome in front of her. “Is Transcending the Boundaries: A Guide to Spatial Dynamics and their Applications in Magic the tome you were looking for?” As Twilight looked down at the book preparing to mouth the question how, he added, “It was under T. You live in a library. Why does this shock you?”

That comment caused the unicorn mare to flush with embarrassment. “Spike kind of does all of the organization and alphabetization of the books. There’s nothing wrong with my system, but other ponies don’t seem to get it all that well even though it simplifies everything!” she groaned, levitating the book over to a nearby table. “If you categorize everything before alphabetizing it—could you bring your saddlebags over here please?—finding what you’re looking for would be so much easier!”

Flipping open the tome, she quickly found the section she was looking for. Eyeing Goldenrod’s saddlebags as he placed it on the table in front of her, she lit her horn. Preparing the spell matrix was always the most complicated part of enchanting an object, but once that was in place, it was as simple as stitching the instructions for the spell into the matrix and placing it upon the item. In the case of this spell, the only instructions necessary involved converting the inside of the bag into its own localized space, and then expanding it. In addition to allowing an impossibly large quantity of items to be placed inside the bag, the weight of its contents was a mere fraction of what it could be. The only associated difficulty was the amount of energy it required.

With a pleased sigh, Twilight smiled at him. “Well, that was even easier than I thought.”

“I’m just surprised you decided to use your magic for something so mundane.” He laughed, poking his blonde maned head into the saddlebag. “Hey, pretty roomy in here, too. Who knew how fun a bag of holding could be! Just imagine how much extra loot we’ll be able to carry!”

 The muffled echo of his voice, coupled with the image of a grown pegasus stallion with his head engulfed to the withers in a saddlebag, was nothing if not humorous, but she couldn’t ignore his turn of phrase. “Loot?” she asked, defensively. “We aren’t thieves! We’re just going to the temples to do what we must!”

“Twilight, you’re smarter than that,” he said sadly. “If we’re going to be travelling from place to place, we’re going to need to be able to pay for food and supplies. Do you really think the sigil of the Order of the Eclipse is going to get you freebies everywhere?” He withdrew his head from the saddlebag with a sterling silver pendant clutched in his teeth for emphasis. “We’ll be needing regular resupplies at the least. In some of the worse off scenarios, we’ll probably need medical care. Trinkets found in the temples will be worth something.”

“But-”

“I’m not saying to take everything that isn’t nailed down. We’re better than that.” He shook his head, glancing towards Scootaloo’s sleeping form. “I’m only saying we take what we can barter with. You know that’s what Daring Do would do. Celestia won’t look down on you for doing what needs to be done for the greater good.”
 
They both went quiet. She knew he was partially right. Celestia would condone the barter of acquired artifacts. She wouldn’t, however, approve of darker things that might need doing. Twilight wasn’t sure she’d be able to let somepony die to continue on her mission. She didn’t believe Goldenrod had it in him either. Eventually, she turned her attention back to enchanting, and Goldenrod finally nodded off to sleep in the middle of a guide to desert survival. There were still two sets of saddlebags to prepare for the journey, and probably more in the future.

After finishing up the last of the saddlebags, Twilight began to feel like she might be ready to sleep. Still, there were things that needed packing. With the new-found storage space, she could easily bring a fifth of the library with her. While she wouldn’t need nearly that many books, there were a large number she could take with her. At the top of her list were Supernaturals, Transcending the Boundaries, and the bestiary Goldenrod had been poring through. A Guide to Ancient Equestrian Runes quickly joined the books.

That was when Twilight spotted a blank tome that she’d purchased for note-taking on friendship. At the behest of Rarity, she decided that her letters to Celestia would suffice and simply let the tome gather dust. Now though, she had a real use for it. She didn’t doubt that it would be important to document their travels. All of her friends would love to hear about this if—when—they succeeded. This quest log would be just what she needed to keep track of these details.

With a smile, she levitated an inkwell and quill over to her. After much consideration, she scrawled The Gaean Crusade upon the cover. Opening to the first blank page, she began to jot down notes.

Quest Received: The Prime Elements - Seek out the Prime Elements of nature, and restore their link to Mother Gaea

Quest Received: The Earthen Four - Proceed to Appleloosa to meet the next member of the party

Scootaloo joined the party

Goldenrod joined the party

Artifacts created: Saddlebags of Holding x3