An iron-bar door flies of its hinges and crashes into a library, presenting an hourglass at the center of the room. "Such nuisance these ponies can be" Naugus stated in thought "the least they could do is to point me in the right direction." The powerful wizard walks in to see scrolls and book piled upon the selves. Many of them were covered in dust, some seemed to have been recently viewed, but all of them had something in common.
Naugus opened a book up and skimmed it. His stomach started to sink as he scanned the contents "Just as I feared. The book is in a unique language unknown to me. This will take some time to decipher." Naugus takes a seat on the closes stool and begins his enduring lesson in writing.
"WHOA-A-A-A-A-A-A!"
"SLOW DOWN, SONIC!"
"NO! FASTER! GO FASTER!!!"
"Faster it is then."
"A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AH!"
Trailing up a hill, we find a screaming unicorn holding a terrified dragon sitting next to an over ecstatic pony cheering a blue hedgehog at pulling the wagon they're in. The wagon shakes about like a ride on a roller-coaster for the three passengers, nearly throwing off some of the supplies it carried.
With trees bluring by them, a large lake begins to emerge ahead. "SONIC, STOP! WE'LL CRASH INTO THE WATER!!!" Giving off a smirk, the hedgehog skids on the dirt road to leave a dust cloud behind him. Everyone on the cart latched onto the wagon at the sudden change of inertia. They felt like they would be flying foward any second, but thankfully, they were yanked back when the ride finally stopped.
Sonic takes a step back, gives a stretch and readjust his backpack. He turns around to view his passengers "See, I toldya I'd get you here in one piece."
Twilight's messy hair said otherwise.
"Whooo! You certainly did!" Pinkie jumps to the ground "We were going so fast! Just VOOOoooooommmmmm and then we went vooooooooooooomMMMMM" she exaggerated.
"They don't call be 'The Fastest Thing Alive' for nothing."
"I'm just happy to be alive" a woozy Spike commented.
"Agreed" Twilight replied as she steadied herself off of the cart. "Anyway, where's the gem?"
The cocky hedgehog flips open his compact computer "You heard the lady Nichole. Where's the gem?"
After a few seconds on flashing buttons it answers [The Chaos Emerald is 1.7 miles forward and 20 feet up.]
The gang views the direction and witnesses one of the largest waterfalls in the world. Bright blue water kept on falling to the lower level, making a misty white fog and a continuous splash that deafened all other sounds. It covered a sharp rocky cliff that curled towards our heroes in a crescent like moon shape.
Everyone stood viewing the marvel on the sandy beach. The emerald was only a run, jump, and a spin dash away; but the large pool of water was keeping them at (or rather 'on') bay.
"Out there?" Sonic questioned "Why would it be out there?"
"It would be the best place to hide it" the ponderous unicorn said "some of the best places to hide is in plain site."
"Well whatever, but that still begs the question; how are we going to get there?"
"By boat of course" with a glow of her horn, Twilight lifts up the wagon in a dark pink aura. The wagon's wheels begin to come loose followed by the axles that held them. The wheels soon begin to meld on the underside of the cart horizontally before the entire structure was placed into the water. The wagon, now boat, was actually floating on the water, using the wheels as a type of buoyancy.
"Way cool!" the blue hedgehog jumped onto the boat.
Twilight then picked up four broken tree branches and handed one to each of her friends. They began to paddle their way to the location Nichole indicated.
"So, you said that this place used to be inhabited, right?" Spike started making small talk "What happened to everypony?"
"The books I've read never really gave a solid answer about that" Twilight explained her analysis. "They all seem to involve the falls in some way, like the noise kept them up at night or the rainbows to the fall dried up along with the attraction it brought."
Sonic questioned "The rainbows... dried up?"
"Yes. Many waterfalls are perfect places for rainbows to form, but for some reason or another, something here kept making the rainbows disappear."
"But a rainbow is a light spectrum, you can't just grab it and take it away."
"Actually you can, you see rainbows are made when I wonder how many of you will be reading this?"
"WHAT?" Sonic yelled at Twilight, trying to inform her to speak up over the booming falls. She didn't seem to hear his words.
Suddenly, the boat was collided by something. The vibration was enough to shake everyone off balance. Everyone gathered to see a large rainbow colored fish, no bigger then a dolphin. It's slender body held a dorsal fin along the top and had eyes that seemed to pop out at any moment. It's blunt rounded snout and prominent lips didn't seem to be a threat to the crew.
The dragon of the team viewed this creature "Hey, watch where your going."
"Spike!" the unicorn cautiously stated "Don't aggravate it!"
"Come on, it looks like a real pushover. A little bit of a push back could help it wise up and avoid any future incidents like this to happen again."
The fish's mouth then began to open and frighteningly, it kept on opening. Wider and wider, it's cheeks stretched and it's jaw kept spreading showing off sharp teeth along the jaw bone. Finally, it's full mouth was four times as tall and five times as wide; more then enough to swallow the boat whole.
Twilight gave an annoyed look at Spike "I hope that was sarcastic, fringhead."
"WHAT?"
The fish violently snapped it's jaws shut, nearly smashing the boat it two. It was a miracle that it missed them; though then again, it wasn't much of a miracle as it was fast thinking and fast speed.
Sonic was on the edge of the boat, running as fast as he could on the water. He was literally acting like a motor for the wooden structure as it made it's escape from the pursuing rainbow fish. Everyone was cheering him on with his action, but the over-sized tuna was slowly catching up to the group.
Sonic had to think fast if he was to escape his digestible fate, but with his hand full at pushing the boat, he couldn't really do much of anything. "Quick, get a ring!" he struggled to say.
"WHAT?"
"A power ring! My backpack!"
"You mean this?" Pinkie said, appearing out of the backpack with Sonic's second power ring.
She lends it to the hedgehog and he quickly snatches it out of her hand before losing control of the boat. The ring soon began to glow with a whirling noise. The fish was right on Sonic's tail with a wide opened mouth. He glances back with a smirking grin "Later, fish lips" and blast forwards the boat into a hydroplane.
Everyone on board leaned forward in an attempt from to keep the boat from flipping as it skids across the river. Course this didn't stop the hungry predator's pursuit at the crew. It was swimming with it's mouth agape but the fast food was slowly widening the distance between themselves.
The fish wasn't alone there with an opened jaw. Twilight stared at Sonic's sudden burst of energy with amazement and curiosity. She witnessed the power first hand but she just couldn't figure out what type of power it was. It definitely wasn't magic, and yet, its burst of energy was comparable to magic as well.
Her thoughts were quickly pushed aside when she viewed her destination point; quickly, making her heart sink. Ahead of them was the waterfall's curtain, with no Chaos Emerald in sight. "NICHOLE! WHERE'S THE JEWEL!?!?" Twilight panicked.
[We have 500 more feet] it replied calmly in a monotone sound-chip.
"WE DON'T HAVE 500 MORE FEET!!!!" They had, about, 200 more feet before they would crash into the rocky cliff that laid behind the falls. Everyone was sweating as they looked at each other for an answer for their current course of action; turn around and try to avoid the hungry guppy so they could restrategized, or accept a device's readings and head towards a most certainly painful pummeling of their lives (slamming into a brick wall at super-sonic speed followed by the smothering weight of a liquid force equal to about 316 orca whales).
The team desperately panicked at the choices, but the motor seemed to have already made a decision. "HOLD ON GUYS!" everyone turned to the get-it-done hedgehog in disbelief "WE'RE BLASTING ON FORWARD!!!"
Everyone was afraid of the decision but followed suit by desperately clinging onto something solid. Sonic struggles for a moment before succeeding by blasting through the sound barrier. With the falling water near yards away, everyone screamed and clenched their eyes for whats to come of them.
*SPLASH*
The water coats over them as everyone found that they have entered into a cavern. There wasn't much to see with the only light source coming from the entrance they ran through, but then again, they didn't have much time to view the surroundings when the boat started vibrate. It appeared the boat hit land and was bumping against the rocky floor.
"S-S-S-S-T-T-T-O-O-O-P-P-P-!-!-!" the crew managed to say with vibrating voices, but the speedy hedgehog was already attempting just that. The ride slowly began to stop shaking until finally it stopped with everyone on board feeling the same way they felt when they first got to the falls.
After a round of relieving sighs later, Twilight's horn began to illuminate a purple aura to make the cavern viewable for everyone. "How's everypony doing?" she asked with concern but only obtain a group of weak moaning from them. A glistening ring from Sonic's hand caught lavender unicorn's eye "Just how.... when was....." she recollected herself "what's that ring made of anyway?"
"Don't know really" the blue blur viewed the golden torus in his hand "I know it involves a power rock and that I'm the only one that can use them, but my uncle Chuck is really the only one that knows exactly what they're made of." He began to reminisce about the times with his friends and family, starting to get a little bit home sick. With a shake of his head, Sonic returned to the topic at hand "So where's the gem Nichole?"
[Almost there Sonic. Just keep heading deeper into the cave] the electronic device informed. Everyone grabbed their belongings and abandoned the ride they took on the way here. They aimlessly walked through the darkness with Twilight's magic being the only source of light for them to see with. The shadows that lay ahead eventually began to reveal a structure; four columns spread out evenly to form a square with a pedestal in the center. There, on the pedestal, laid a diamond shape aquamarine gem awaiting for our heroes to take it.
"Look look!" a flash stepping Pinkie ran forward and back to show the group the shiny pebble "It's one of those chaos thingies, right?"
[Correct] confirmed Nichole.
With a nod, Twilight said "Alright, let's get out of here and head towards Foal Mountain."
"So how do we get pass Lockjaw?" Spike reminded her of the guardian to the falls.
That was a good question. No doubt the creature was waiting outside and it wouldn't let them leave without a dinner date. Twilight hummed while she viewed her surroundings before the obvious hit her. "This was constructed here, right?" she began as she pointed to the shrine.
"Yeah, why you ask?"
"Workers would usually create multiple entrances, to prevent cave ins" the unicorn informed. "If we can't go out one way...." she trailed off as she lead the gang deeper into the cavern.
The walk seemed like it wasn't taking them anywhere as they hiked through the cavern. After twenty-five minutes of treading the grotto, they finally say a shimmer at the end of the tunnel.
They emerged from the cavern to find a few tree branches blocking their path. A simple brush aside and they find themselves at the top of the falls. It was a refreshing view to see. The cool breeze on their skin, the more calmer water, and the large landscape they crossed to get here.
With this majestic nature setting, one can't help but think at what other magnificent sights the other group is seeing.