//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: My Little Countries: Magic of the Stars 
// by BlondeSky 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4


The group exited the tunnel into the open air and what appeared to be a mountain range. “That’s not possible.” Astro muttered.

“A lot of impossible things have been happening today.” England replied sighing.

“Well, yes, but the only mountain range in Unisus is on the complete other side of the country. It’s on a different island that’s miles away from where we started! It would take at least a full day by boat, there’s no way we could’ve travelled here by hoof in just hours.” she answered.

“We’re clearly here though.” Diplo responded equally stunned.

“It is possible that the tunnel could be enchanted, another reason for it to be blocked off.” Kara offered just as shocked.

America trotted over to the edge of the outcropping. “Pretty long way down.” he commented.

“And there was never that much of a decline or incline in the tunnel either.” Germany remarked.

“It also looks like there’s ponies down there.” America commented looking over his shoulders at the group behind him.

“We should probably get moving, since we are on the opposite side of the country they’re not going to find us right away, but it would be a good idea to try and stay as far from out in the open as possible.” Astro interjected worriedly.

The three pegasi who actually knew how to fly took the short way down as the others had to get down the long way. As they regrouped at the bottom they did indeed see a group of unicorns there as well. “Hey guys!” America called over. They all then turned to face the oncoming crowd.

“Germany!” a smaller white unicorn cried as they walked up. He had a messy red and green mane and tail and ran up to the pegasus excitedly. He started to talk extremely fast to the point where they couldn’t quite understand what he was saying, but as he stopped he was beaming from ear to ear. All of the countries simply rolled their eyes in response.

“Good to see you too Italy.” Germany muttered in thanks.

“So you all as well then?” England asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. We are all stuck here with you.” a blue unicorn with a long red and white mane and tail answered.

“You know it’s not exactly a picnic for us having to be stuck here with you either France.” he retorted.

“Um… if we’re going to have a conversation, can we do it somewhere less open? I mean you guys weren’t there, but we were sort of attacked.” Astro interjected.

“Attacked!?” Italy exclaimed alarmed.

“Yes,” she replied, “so we really should get out of the open.”

With that the group of ponies started to move deeper into the mountain range as it was explained to the newcomers what had happened before they arrived there. As they moved on the trail started to thin out and they had to move so that they were walking single file through the terrain. It took a fair bit of walking until they could find somewhere where they could spread out enough to actually have a proper conversation. “I’m going to fly up and see if there are any proper trails that we can follow.” Astro declared before flying away out of sight.

“You guys gotta teach me how to do that sometime.” America remarked flapping his wings experimentally.

“It’s not as easy as it looks you know.” Spot replied.

He shrugged, “I think I can learn.”

“I think we’ve got, it was everybody right?” Zone asked looking over at the countries. 

“Or everyone.” England responded.

“Got it. So, I think we’ve got everybody’s name except you two.” he finished looking at the two still unnamed unicorns.

“Russia.” the draught pony unicorn stated. He had a very sturdy build with a thick white coat and a red and blue mane and tail.

“China, aru.” the other yellow unicorn stated. His red mane and tail were both in a ponytail. 

“Um… Canada.” All of the ponies were a little shocked as they saw the red unicorn with the white mane and tail for the first time.

“Sorry, we, uh, didn’t see you there.” Spot apologized awkwardly.

“It’s okay, not many people do.” he replied simply. 

After this there were several moments of awkward silence until it was broken by the five ponies that they still didn’t know going around and introducing themselves.

“And the pony who flew off to find a path was-

“Astro.” she cut off coming in for a landing. “Alright, so there were two decent paths that I saw. One goes back in the general direction of where we found you all, but then it veers off in another direction. The other goes much deeper into the range, but I can’t say that I’d recommend that route since that’s where The Abyss is.”

“The Abyss?” Germany asked raising an eyebrow.

“On the edge of these mountains there’s a huge ravine that goes down for miles. It’s the most monster infested place on the island, on all of the islands for that matter! This place is second only to the Everfree Forest in the terms of mysterious disappearances! You don’t have any idea how many ponies have disappeared in here because of that! Nopony comes back out!” she informed him slightly panicked.

“No, but it sounds like a fairly decent hiding place to me.” England replied.

“Sounds like a fairly decent suicide mission to me.” Diplo retorted.

“Trust me, if you’d been here as long as we have you wouldn’t want to go in there either. Nopony goes in there.” Ink agreed.
“Does that include those star pony guys?” America asked.

“I would assume so.” Astro answered with a frown.

“Bingo! Perfect spot to hang out while we work out a plan!” he responded.

“Minus the monsters.” Ink argued.

“There’s fourteen-”

“Fifteen actually.” Canada said, but was ignored.

“-of us, plus you guys have me.” America replied grinning cockily.

“The point is, it is the best place we’re going to find on such short notice and we’re fairly certain that we can handle whatever you all think is down there.” England told them shooting America a quick glare. “You’ve never been down there so you couldn’t possibly know for sure. Especially if supposedly no one’s come out, someone had to come out to spread these rumors about how terrible it is. All the tales about this ravine are probably just exaggerated. What might have started out as an honest to god accident soon became a story about a cave monster which then continued to escalate.” he reasoned.

“I suppose that does make sense.” Kara admitted.

“No one said that you had to go in, and I doubt that we’ll have to go very deep.” Germany added, “If we have to turn back that’s always an option. If you don’t want to come then don’t.”

There were some mumbles of protest, but in the end they all seemed to agree that the plan was solid enough and not too hard to back out of if necessary. All of the ponies were soon headed in the direction of The Abyss, although some were slightly less sure than others.