Lloyd led all of his friends down a path that was going in the direction of the castle. The path came from the other side of the statue garden and looked kind of like it originally connected to the one he followed to get through the forest in the first place. The path was much more visible, and there was a light at the end of the path.
"Hey look!" Lloyd said excitedly to his friends while pointing down the path. "It looks like we're almost out! And look at the castle, we're almost there!"
Lloyd broke into a run with his friends cheering and running behind him. They were so close, so close to getting through the Everfree Forest. But when he made it through the light at the end of the path, all he could see was more forest beyond some large holes with the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters peeking out over the top of the trees.
"Aw come on!" Jay yelled, causing an echo through the holes in the ground. "It's RIGHT THERE! How are we not there yet?!"
"Jay stop yelling!" Kai yelled. "You might attract more creatures!"
"I do not believe you are making this better Kai." Zane said.
"I have to agree with Zane on this one." Cole agreed. "You just yelled back."
"Whatever." Kai said. "When a creature comes over here because of the noise, I'm blaming this on Jay."
"Hey!"
"Will both of you stop fighting?" Lloyd asked. "I think something is in one of these holes."
Lloyd peered down into one of the holes in front of him and saw something glittery. The glittery thing appeared to be some sort of gem, but it was hard to tell. He began a levitation spell a the gem-like thing floated out of the hole and right in front of his face. It glowed faintly in the light and reflected it everywhere like a disco ball due to the uncut sides. When he dropped it onto his hoof it was about the same size, if not then just a little bit smaller.
"It's really pretty." Nya said while admiring the gem.
"It appears as though it is some form of quartz that has been growing very close to lava and had been filled with magic." Zane told them. "I have never seen anything like it. Usually quartz grows near the surface of a planet. This one must have been moved."
"It might actually be worth something to sell." Kai said to everypony. "I wonder how much bits are worth back home."
"Probably not too much." Jay told Kai.
"Guys, we're not selling it." Cole sternly said.
"Why not?" Lloyd asked.
"First off, it doesn't belong to us." Cole began explaining. "Although it can probably be hidden with magic, carrying it around doesn't sound too fun. It might be owned by a creature that lives here. Why else are there holes when none of the ponies could have made it this far without fighting?"
Lloyd levitated the gem next to his head while he thought that over. He had a bit of guilt within him for thinking about selling the strange rock, but there wasn't anypony or anything in the area that could own it. However his thoughts were proven wrong when a low rumbling sound came from a few of the holes.
Lloyd looked around and suddenly a few creatures jumped out of the holes and made a circle around him and his friends. The creatures looked a lot like wild dogs that wore collars and vests. Large yellow and green eyes stared into each of them with anger.
"What are these things?" Jay asked everypony while they slowly backed up.
"We are the Diamond Dogs." One of them answered as they walked forward, making the circle smaller. "And you trespassed onto our territory."
"We're just passing through, we'll be gone within seconds!" Lloyd told them.
"I don't think so." Another Diamond Dog said. "You have one of our gems!"
Lloyd dropped the gem as the Diamond Dogs began growling and scratching at the ground.
"I told you guys not to take it!" Cole hissed at them.
"Well sorry but it's not like we would have known that this was Diamond Dog territory." Kai retaliated.
"So are we going to fight or get beaten here?" Lloyd asked.
"I kind of wish there was a 'flee' option." Nya told them.
"Give us our gem!" One of the Diamond Dogs yelled, causing the others to yell with it.
"Lloyd, han- er, hoof me over the gem." Cole commanded. When the gem was firmly in his mouth he walked away from the group and stepped toward the leader of the Diamond Dogs. He placed the gem at the leader's feet and stuck his hoof in his hair. Once he managed to get what he found in there loose, he pulled it out and put it next to the gem. The item was a rock, but there was a clean line down the middle.
"I'm sorry for trespassing on your territory, and I'm sure that my friends are too." Cole told the leader. "To make up for all of this, you can have your gem back and my own personal rock. It's cut clean in half and has some amethyst inside of it. You can have both, but we would like permission to leave your territory with little resistance."
"Permission granted." The Diamond Dog leader told Cole. "The way to the castle is that way, but you have to be careful. There are large ravines that seem to have no end."
"Thank you." Cole said before walking back to his friends.
"So why was that rock special anyway?" Jay asked.
"It was a gift from my mom before she died." Cole said sadly.
"Oh."
Lloyd comforted Cole a bit with his friends before they began walking down the path. 'This journey is getting harder and harder for us.' He thought. 'I hope we can make it through here without too much trouble.'
-------------
Lloyd continued leading his friends down the path until they reached a large opening. In the opening, there were deep holes in the ground that blocked them from getting across to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. There was only one way across.
"We have to fly." Lloyd told his friends. "Jay, Zane, and I can fly the rest of you across. Well, so long as we don't fall. Or get blown away by the wind."
Right as Lloyd finished saying that a powerful gust of wind blew in from the side and caused Jay to fall over.
"Like that?" Kai asked while pointing at Jay.
"Yeah. Like that." Lloyd said.
Lloyd helped Jay up before assigning who would carry who. In the end he decided that Jay would carry Nya, Zane would carry Cole, and he would carry Kai. All three of them were very careful and made sure that their passengers were not going to go flying down the hole.
"Everyone ready?" Lloyd asked his friends before receiving nods. "Then let's fly!"
Lloyd took off with his friends on both sides. He flew quickly and steadily so if the wind decided to blow then he wouldn't fly off-course. When he was halfway over the ravine though, a gust of wind blew in and caused Jay to slam into him. He then slammed into Zane, who was actually a bit farther ahead. Cole fell off of Zane and landed on the other side, but Zane wasn't as lucky. He could only watch as his friend fell down the ravine and into the darkness.
"Jay!" Kai shouted. "Why did you do that?"
"I don't know how to fight the wind okay?" Jay answered with shame. "I'm sorry."
"Before you two start fighting, why don't you get to the other side?" Nya asked. "I don't think arguing will prevent you guys from falling."
"Nya is right." Lloyd agreed. "Once we get to the other side we'll see what we can do."
-------------
Zane spread out his wings to slow his descent, but he couldn't flap them. The walls of the ravine were very close together. When he reached the bottom, the sky was only a small dot above him. He couldn't even see his friends. In order to see through the darkness, he opened up his control panel and flipped a switch, causing light to come from a small bulb in his chest.
The light wasn't much, but it was all Zane had. He looked around and saw the light reflecting off of two circular objects. He walked up to them and realized that they were eyes. Pony eyes that seemed incredibly frightened.
"It is okay, I will not hurt you." Zane said to the pony.
Zane repeated that for a little while and soon enough the pony crept out of the shadows. It was a small filly that had a dusty brown coat with gray hair. Her eyes were a bright shade of blue though.
"Who are you?" The filly asked.
"My name is Zane." Zane told the filly. "Please do not be alarmed by my control panel. I promise that I will not hurt you. Why don't you tell me your name?"
"My name is Dust." She told him. "Do you come from the surface?"
"Yes I do." Zane told Dust. "Do you know a way back up?"
"I don't, but the Elder might." Dust said. "Follow me, I'll take you to where I live."
-------------
When Zane got to the place Dust led him to, he turned off his light. It wasn't needed seeing as how there were lamps and torches placed all over the large cave. There were small houses made out of rocks with ponies in front of them. He noticed that all of the ponies had more earthly colors for their coats and mane compared to Ponyville.
Dust led Zane to the back of the cave where there was the largest rock house he has seen so far. There were carving on the walls surrounding it that depicted ponies falling from the sky into a ravine and making homes there. He followed Dust inside of the house and saw an old mare that was staring back at him with an unreadable expression.
"Dust? Who is this pony?" The mare asked.
"This is Zane." Dust answered. "He fell from the sky! But he wants to go back up, so I took him to you Elder."
"Ah. Greetings Zane, and welcome to the Cave Village. My name is Elder Rock, and I hope that Dust here was much helpful to you."
"She was indeed." Zane said. "But I do wish to get back to my friends, do you know a safe way up?"
"I do." Elder answered. "There is an old mineshaft that is very dangerous. But flying up isn't an option, so I'm afraid that is your only choice."
Zane considered his options a bit before answering. "Please lead me to the mineshaft."
"Very well. It is behind my house, but Dust, you will stay here."
"Alright Elder." Dust sadly obliged. "Good luck!"
-------------
Zane was left at the entrance to the mineshaft with only luck at his side. There were lamps and torches along the walls, but the light didn't seem to do much. He gulped before stepping through the entrance and walking down the dimly-lit path. When he felt confident he sped up to a trot and turned his radar on to make sure that he wouldn't run into anything.
Zane felt himself rising as the slope increased. He had to put more and more energy into every step, but the width of the tunnel was getting bigger. He looked through his radar and saw that the entrance was close, but blocked by a very large hole in the ground. He spread his wings, began galloping, and when he got close to the hole, he jumped and started flapping his wings.
Zane sailed clear over the hole and saw the exit right in front of him. He turned off his radar and slowed down to a walk. He made it out of the tunnel and saw that he was pretty close to where he fell. He looked over to the ravine and saw Kai and Jay fighting with each other (like usual) and Lloyd, Nya, and Cole looking over the edge and talking with each other.
Zane walked over to his friends and they stopped doing whatever they were doing. He waved to them and soon got sent to the bottom of a hug-pile. He explained what happened to him and they were all once again walking down the path to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.