Shine and Gothic were getting ready to head on their 'trip'. Celestia and Luna, as well as Miracle and Constell were seeing them off.
"So, tell me where you're going again?" Luna asked.
"Like I told you, I have some friends up in Rainbow Falls that I haven't seen in years." Gothic fibbed. "I'm just going to visit them."
"And how does Shine figure into this?" Celestia inquired.
"Well, Cherryblossom, I've never been to Rainbow Falls before, so I thought I could tag along with Goth." Shine explained. "I promise you, we'll be back in a couple of weeks."
"Sorry, it just that all of this feels sudden..." Luna told Gothic. "I will miss you."
"I know, love... but by the time we get back, I promise we'll have loads of time to catch up." Gothic nuzzled Luna.
"Hope you enjoy your trip, dad." Constell smiled.
"I will, hon." Gothic kissed Constell on the head.
"Just be careful on your trip, dear." Celestia declared.
"Will do, Cel." Shine kissed Celestia on the cheek, then turned to Miracle. "You be good for your mother and the others while I'm gone, okay?"
"Okay. Love you, daddy." Miracle kissed Shine on the nose.
"Love you, too." Shine smiled.
Blueblood and Dusty came by.
"Say, have any of you ponies seen Caboose?" Blueblood asked. "He never reported for duty this morning."
"Yeah, it's not like him to just disappear like that." Dusty noted.
Shine and Gothic glanced at each other nervously.
"Oh, Caboose..." Gothic mumbled. "He had to catch a flight back to Bitaly for some emergency. The poor guy must had left so fast that he forgot to leave a note."
"I didn't get any letter from my father..." Dusty said skeptically.
"I'm sure he didn't want to worry you." Shine told her. "You have enough on your plate as it is."
"I just hope everything is okay." Blueblood frowned.
"Oh, I'm sure it is..." Gothic smiled. "Well, anyway, goodbye, everypony."
Gothic and Shine walked down the path to the gates, waving to their family as they did. Once they were outside the walls, they quickly turned a corner, to where Discord was waiting.
"Right on time, gents." Discord smiled.
"Okay, first things first." Gothic declared. "Bring back Caboose, please."
"Consider it done." Discord pulled out the wind-up toy and turned it back to Caboose.
"Okay... what was that?!" Caboose yelled.
"Sorry, Caboose." Shine cringed. "We had to keep you quiet."
"He turned me into a wind-up toy!" Caboose screeched. "I'm not saying I didn't enjoy being wind-up or anything, but..."
"We couldn't risk you telling anypony." Gothic sighed, handing the irate guardspony a backpack. "But now you get to join us on an epic journey. Doesn't that sound good?"
"Well..." Caboose pouted. "Only if I get to be the navigator..."
"Consider it done." Shine smiled.
"Speaking of which... Discord, the map, please?" Gothic requested.
Discord clapped his hands together, the rolled-up map appearing when he parted them.
"Here you go." He handed the map to Caboose. "Good luck, fellas. You're going to need it..."
Caboose unfurled the map and perused.
"This way!" He pointed, leading Shine and Gothic.
The trio departed from Canterlot, Discord waving them off.
"So, where are we going?" Shine asked.
"Well, it looks like we're headed to the forest under Foal Mountain." Caboose declared.
"Then we'd better get moving." Gothic stated.
On hoof, it was a two-day journey to the forest. As they camped out for the night, they decided to entertain themselves with ghost stories.
"...And then, the biggest marshmallow ever came out of nowhere and flattened the poor ponies!" Caboose finished her tale in a spooky voice.
"Seriously?" Shine snorted. "A giant marshmallow?"
"What?" Caboose said defensively. "Marshmallows are so scary! If only my cousins Peter, Ray, Winston, and Egon were there, then those ponies would still be alive."
"How many cousins does your family have?" Shine asked.
"Well... there's those four, Link, Mario, Luigi, Simmons, Grif, Sarge, Lopez..." Caboose counted off. "And there's Tucker, Church (the one I shot with a cannon), and Doc... you might want to sit down, this could take awhile..."
"How about we call it a night. We have more ground to cover tomorrow. Good night you two." Gothic shrugged as he climbed into his sleeping bag.
"You too, Gothic." Shine smiled.
Shine and Caboose slipped into their sleeping bags...
"Then there's Dante, Vergil, Kirby... and the awesome cousin Barney St-" Caboose continued.
"Good night, Caboose." Shine and Gothic sighed.
The next day was quite windy. The travelers were glad to reach the forest, as the trees provided cover from the wind. Shine, Gothic, and Caboose strolled through the trees. Caboose was leading the way as he read the map.
"Are you sure you know we're going?" Gothic asked.
"Of course I do." Caboose nodded. "I have an excellent sense of direction!"
"If that's so..." Shine took the map from Caboose. "Then why is the map upside down?"
"Huh, the wind must had blown it sideways." Caboose shrugged.
"Oh great, we're lost!" Gothic growled.
"Hey, take it easy, Goth." Shine told him. "Caboose didn't mean to mislead us."
"Yeah." Caboose agreed. "If it's anypony's fault, it's Discord for not color-coding this map. I can't understand this chicken scratch!"
"Then why did you insist on being our navigator?!" Gothic asked.
"I wanted to sound important!" Caboose pouted.
"Well, now, not only are we no closer to finding the Phoenix, we are lost in the middle of the woods with who knows what in here!" Gothic groaned.
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least things couldn't get worse." Caboose offered.
"Uh, is it just me or did Caboose just got taller than you?" Shine asked.
Caboose had somehow become a head taller than Gothic. The three looked down, and saw that they were caught in quicksand.
"Quicksand?!" Gothic yelped. "Are you serious?!"
"Wow, and here I thought they were only in jungles." Caboose chuckled. "The more you know..."
"I swear, Caboose, if I were able to move my hooves, I would kill you right now!" Gothic roared.
"Come on, guys, I'm sure we can figure this out." Shine declared.
"We better do it fast." Caboose noted. "This sand is swallowing us...'quickly'."
Gothic let out a roar as he tried to move towards Caboose, throwing his hooves at Caboose trying to get him. Shine tried to stop him.
"Let me at him! Let me at him!" Gothic screamed.
"Come on, trying to kill Caboose will change nothing!" Shine tries to sooth.
"Bring it on, grandpa!" Caboose sneered, in the voice of O'Malley, only to shift back to normal, "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!" But then he went back to O'Malley. "No, I'm not."
"HEY!"
The three looked up, as a vine was dropped down to them. They looked up, and saw a light-tan pegasus mare hanging from a tree branch.
"GRAB ON!" The pegasus called.
Seeing their way out, the three grabbed onto the vine. The pegasi then dropped from the branch, using the vine like a pulley, as Shine, Gothic, and Caboose popped right out of the sand. Shine and Gothic landed on the ground hard, while Caboose landed in the pegasi's hooves. Caboose looked up... and was immediately mesmerized by the pegasi mare's face, her beautiful brown eyes and her black, fading-gray mane. The light from the sun was shining behind her.
"Hey... are you alright?" The mare asked.
" I... I am now." Caboose sighed, drooling slightly.
"Good." The mare dropped Caboose unceremoniously on the ground.
"Not that we don't appreciate the help, but... who are you?" Shine asked.
"The name's Do." The mare declared. "Daring Do."