The group wandered through the cave they had entered in the last chapter. The six unicorns among them lit up their horns for light when it got too dark for them to see in the cave.
“And then the guy said, the aristocrats!” said Hoops, finishing a joke he had just told.
None of the group laughed.
Hoops looked around at all of them in confusion. “Hey, how come none of you are laughing?” he asked.
“Hoops, remember back in season one when you were still funny?” said Dumbbell.
“Season one was the only season we were in,” replied Hoops.
“Oh, right,” said Dumbbell sadly. “Stupid writing staff!”
Suddenly they came to point where the tunnel divided into two tunnels. The group stopped before the two paths.
“Darn it! Which way do we go?” asked Flim.
“Blueblood, what does the map say?” asked Trixie.
Blueblood pulled out the map and looked at it. “If the cave should split from left to right, pick up a stone and speak ‘Give me light’,” he read out loud.
Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow. “Pick up a stone and speak ‘Give me light’?”
“That’s what the map says,” said Blueblood.
“Give Trixie that!” said Trixie, snatching the map out of Blueblood’s magical aura with her own and looking at it herself. She saw that he was in fact right though. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Right,” said Gilda as she rolled her eyes. “So we’re just supposed to pick up a stone,” she picked up a stone off the ground and held it in her claws, “and say ‘Give me light’?”
Suddenly Gilda saw a dark hooded face appear right in front of her. “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” it shouted.
Gilda shrieked and dropped the stone. The face vanished instantly.
Gilda looked up to see the rest of the team was all staring at her like she was nuts. “Didn’t you guys see that!?!” she exclaimed.
“See what?” said Dumbbell. “You freaking out?”
“But it was right there!” she pointed right in front of her where she had seen the apparition.
“What was right there?” asked Upper Crust.
“A big floating creepy head! It shouted ‘dooooooom!’”
They all stared at Gilda for a long moment. Then Blueblood picked up the stone Gilda had dropped with his magic and set it in his hoof. “Give me light,” he said.
Suddenly a dark hooded face appeared in front of him as well, screaming “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”
Blueblood shouted in surprise and dropped the rock. The face disappeared.
“You see!?” said Gilda.
Blueblood nodded and turned to the rest of the group. “She’s right.”
Trixie picked up the stone in her magic and then placed it in her hoof. Blueblood moved his hoof near the stone, but Trixie looked at him and pulled it away.
“Hey, Trixie can do it!” she said.
“I know, but there’s no reason I can’t do it with you,” said Blueblood, placing his hoof on the stone as well.
“Hey I want to see too!” said Hoops, reaching forward.
“And me!”
Soon, all of them had their hoof, or claw, or finger on the stone.
“GIVE ME LIGHT!” they all said at once.
The dark hooded face appeared in front of all of them. “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM” it shouted, but this time none of them let go of the stone. The face continued. “So, puny mortals, you seek the correct path to the goblet of life?”
“Yes,” they all said.
“Very well. Before you lies two paths. One path leads to an endless labyrinth, from which there is no escape or turning back. The other path will lead you out of this cave to where you need to be.”
“We already deduced that,” said Flam. “Which path is the right one?”
“I was getting to that! Now, you must…” The hooded pony was interrupted when they heard the sound of a door open and a sweet, female voice began speaking behind him. “Sweetheart, did you remember to order more flour?”
The hooded pony looked back at whoever was behind him and took off his hood, revealing none other than Mr. Cake from the bakery in Ponyville.
“Hey, I know you!” shouted Trixie. “You’re that baker from Ponyville!”
“Seriously, are all of these guardians just losers from Ponyville?” asked Gilda.
Mr. Cake ignored them and spoke to who ever was behind him, which they guessed was his wife. “I told you to check the pantry,” the yellow baker stallion shouted. “I told you I’m not buying more flour when we already have an open bag!”
“Pinkie Pie keeps dumping the flour on herself to entertain the kids!”
Mr. Cake clenched his face angrily. “Darn it, Pinkie Pie! Why haven’t we fired her yet?!”
“Because she’s a nice girl, and nowhere else will hire her.”
Mr. Cake sighed and hung his head. “Right.”
“Yo!” Dumbbell spoke up, not happy with being ignored.
Mr. Cake looked up. “Oh, right.” He looked back at his wife again. “Dear, I’m kind of with a client right now, so…”
“Oh, okay. I’ll leave you alone,” said Mrs. Cake.
They then heard a door close and Mr. Cake turned back to them. “Sorry. Where were we?”
“You were telling us which tunnel to take,” said Blueblood.
“Oh, right.” He put his hood back up over his head and cleared his throat. “You must…”
Suddenly Blueblood cried out and pulled his hoof away, causing everyone to accidentally drop the stone in surprise and the vision of Mr. Cake to vanish.
“BLUEBLOOD!” everyone shouted.
“Sorry,” said Blueblood. “Some cold water dripped on the back of my neck and surprised me.”
They picked the stone back up and all held it again. “Give me light!” they all said at once.
The dark hooded face appeared in front of them again. “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM” shouted Mr. Cake.
“Do you have to shout like that every time?” asked Upper Crust in annoyance.
“Unfortunately, I'm contractually obligated to," said Mr. Cake. "NOW STOP DROPPING THE BUCKING ROCK!!!”
“Hang on, I've got an idea!” said Gilda with a mischievous grin.
With everyone still touching it, Gilda maneuvered the rock so it was lying in her palm. She then tossed the rock into the air, and Mr. Cake’s image immediately vanished. Before the others could ask what she was doing, she caught the rock in her palm, and Mr. Cake appeared again to all of them.
“DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”
Gilda tossed the rock again and caught it. The same thing happened.
“DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”
“Gilda, stop that!” ordered Blueblood.
“Wait! This is fun!” said Gilda as she kept tossing the stone and catching it over and over again, forcing poor Mr. Cake to cry out each time.
After the umpteenth time, Mr. Cake had had it. So immediately after shouting doom, he yelled, “STOP IT, YOU BITCH!”
That got Gilda’s attention, and she immediately stopped bouncing the rock and glared at the baker.
“YOU INSOLENT MAGGOT!!!” continued Mr. Cake. “MY TWO FOALS ARE MORE COOPERATIVE THAN YOU! SO YOU KNOW WHAT!? YOU FIGURE YOUR PROBLEM OUT YOURSELF! I’M DONE!” And with that, Mr. Cake disappeared.
“HEY!” Gilda shouted. She grabbed the rock for herself. “Give me light!” she said.
Nothing happened.
“GIVE ME LIGHT!” she yelled at the rock.
Again, nothing.
Gilda threw the rock in rage. “Darn it! He’s not answering!”
“Way to go, Griffon,” said Flam. “You ticked him off, and now we have no idea which way to go!”
“Yeah, well…” Gilda grumbled. She didn’t want to admit it was her fault.
“So what do we do now?” asked Score.
“Hey, Trixie,” said Hoops. “Can you use like some sort of gem finding spell to find the right way?”
Trixie looked at him like he was crazy. “How would finding gems lead us the right way?”
“Um… oh. Nevermind.”
Iron Will walked up to the two tunnels. He looked into each one and sniffed the air a few times. Then he turned around and looked at the group. “It’s the tunnel on the right.”
They all stared at Iron Will.
“How could you possibly know that?” asked Jet Set.
“The air down the right path smells fresher,” said the minotaur. “When in doubt, always fallow your nose!”
Everyone looked at each other, and then shrugged and followed Iron Will down the right tunnel. After a few minutes, they saw daylight up ahead of them.
They emerged from the cave and found themselves back in the Everfree forest.
They all let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay, we’re back on track everyone,” said Blueblood.
“Um…” Jet Set’s voice sounded terrified. “W… we have company,” he said, pointed off to their left.
Everyone looked to where he was pointing and gasped at what they saw. The six cloaked guardians from before were standing right there, apparently having been waiting for them by the cave.
“Horse feathers,” cursed Lightning Dust.
“RUN LIKE LITTLE FILLIES!” shouted Blueblood.
They all turned and fled from the cloaked guardians as fast as they could. The guardians gave chase, hurling dark magical blasts at them as they galloped after them.
As black magic blasts shot past her all around, an idea came to Lightning Dust. She looked at her team members and shouted, “EVERYONE, GRAB HOLD OF A TREE NOW!” She then landed on the ground and turned to face their pursuers.
“Lightning Dust, what are you talking about?” asked Blueblood.
“Just do it!” she ordered them.
Confused, but trusting her, the group stopped running and all ran for the nearest tree. They grabbed onto the trunk or a branch and waited for whatever Lightning Dust had planned.
Lightning Dust flared her wings and took off into the air like a bullet, heading right over their cloaked pursuers. She then began flying around and around in a circle in the air, stirring up the wind. It quickly became obvious to everyone that she was creating a small tornado.
“STOP HER!” shouted one of the guardians, and they all hurling magical blasts up at her. Lightning Dust was too quick though, and easily avoided their shots as she continued to create a tornado.
Before long, the funnel cloud formed. As the rest of her team held onto their trees as best they could to keep from getting pulled away by the whirlwind, the cloaked guardians screamed as they all got sucked up in the tornado. The sound of their screams were cut out over the sound of the raging winds as the mini-tornado got stronger. Lightning eventually saw all six guardians get flung by the winds far over the treetops, and out of sight.
Her plan a success, Lightning Dust let the tornado dissipate. After a few minutes, the wind finally died down enough and she flew back down to where her team members were clinging to trees.
“Pretty impressive, right?” she asked as she landed next to them.
“That was awesome!” said Hoops.
“Yeah!” agreed Gilda. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were even faster than Rainbow Dash.”
As the rest of the group congratulated and complimented Lightning Dust, Trixie noticed that they were missing someone. “Hold on. Where’s Blueblood?” she asked.
They all looked around. Prince Blueblood was indeed nowhere to be seen.
“Where did he go?” asked Upper Crust.
“You don’t think that jerk ditched us, do you?” said Gilda.
“I doubt it,” said Trixie. She then used her magic to pull a piece of parchment out of her saddlebags. She held it up for them to see. “I have the map.”
…………………………
Blueblood groaned as he sat up. He hurt all over, especially in his right hind leg. He looked around him. He was lying on the ground in a different part of the forest, and none of his team was in sight.
He remembered how he had lost his grip on the tree during Lightning Dust’s tornado and then got hurled through the air over the forest. He had screamed, but he doubted anyone had heard him over the howling wind. He had then hit a tree, fell down through the tree’s branches and landed on the ground below, where he was now.
He checked his hind leg. He winced as he tried to move it. It really hurt, but he didn’t think it was broken. He got to his hooves, wincing in pain and trying not to put too much pressure on his hurt leg.
“HELLO?!” he called out as loudly as he could. “GUYS?! ARE YOU THERE?!”
Suddenly something black dropped down right in front of him. He yelped in surprise and terror as he saw it was one of the cloaked guardians.
Blueblood made to run away, but the guardian grabbed Blueblood’s head in their hooves, keeping him there.
“Look into my eyes!” the guardian said with a menacing voice.
“I can’t see you’re eyes!” said Blueblood. “They’re covered up!”
“Oh, right,” said the guardian, remembering he was wearing a mask. “Well, then just pretend you can see them.”
“Why in Tartarus would I want to do that?!” replied Blueblood.
“Um…” The guardian was quiet for a moment. “Oh, what ever!” The guardian then punched Blueblood in the head. Blueblood fell to the ground, knocked out cold.
The other cloaked guardians then showed up out of the forest. They watched as the guardian that had knocked the Prince out searched through Blueblood’s saddlebags and all over his person. Finally, the guardian stopped and looked up at his comrades. “He doesn’t have the map,” he said.
“Curses!” said another guardian. “One of the others must have it. Lets go.”
“What about him?” said another guardian, pointing at the unconscious Blueblood.
“Leave him! He’s not worth the trouble.”
The six guardians trotted away through the forest, leaving Blueblood for dead.