//------------------------------//
// 7 - In and Out 
// Story: Courage the Cowardly Dog In: Dog Days 
// by lunabrony 
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	Courage and his new donkey friend wandered through tunnel after tunnel, throughout a seemingly never ending network of increasingly convoluted paths. Courage couldn't help wondering who had made such a labyrinth, and how it had gone undetected underground for such a long time. Whoever it was, they'd been at it for a very long time.

"Do you know where we're going?" Courage asked.

The donkey shook his head. "Nawwwwww," he brayed. "I think we're just trying to find the paths that slope upward. Sooner or later one of them has to lead aboveground, right?" He asked. That was fairly reasonable logic, unless the tunnels were enchanted or something, and Courage really didn't want to think about that. In a case like that, they might very well be stuck down here forever.

The pair turned the corner, and immediately were confronted by a small pony coming in the opposite direction. The pony screamed in surprise and fright, prompting Courage to do the same.

"Why are we all screaming?!" The donkey hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"Don't hurt me!" he small pony exclaimed. "Ah know karate!"

Courage blinked. He recognized the kid, it was that small apple horse! Apple... something. Honestly, he wasn't sure how anyone could keep all their names straight.

"Apple Blossom?" he asked, scratching his head.

"What? Naw, s'Apple Bloom," she said.

"How'd you get out?" The donkey asked.

"I got my ways," she grinned. "Plus I've got a hoof file in my bow, nobody ever checks there. Can ah join ya? There's a whole bunch of kids down here, we gotta get 'em out of here!"

"Mmhm!" Courage agreed, nodding his head.

The pair turned trio, now together, turned and made their way around a corner that seemed to slope upward. They proceeded forward for ony a few feet, however, before turning another corner, this time being stopped entirely. This time, standing in the middle of the corridor, was a small, purple and green dragon. He appeared at first glance to be a harmless baby dragon, but the purple glow coming off of him and the deep growl coming from the back of his throat indicated he was anything but harmless.

"Oh, don't leave on MY account," the small dragon said, cracking a grin. "The party's just getting started." He braced both wrists together, palms outstretched like a move like one might see on Dragonball, not that any of them knew what Dragonball was, and thrust his small arms forward. A powerful flash of green fire appeared in his hands and shot towards them like a bullet.

All three leaped aside in different directions, and the young dragon scowled. "Blast this incompetently underaged body..." 

It took a moment for the trio to get up again, and the dragon took that opportunity to raise his hands again, with the intention of firing another green bolt at the small apple horse. Apple Bloom gave a cry of pain as the bolt smacked her rump and knocked her over just as she'd gotten up again, while Courage and the donkey got to their feet and charged him. The reptile just smirked at them and snapped his claws, enveloping both himself and Apple Bloom in tongues of green fire, the latter giving off a cry of fright as the pair disappeared entirely.

"We're never going to be able to take him down here," the donkey said, and gestured with his hoof towards the corridor they had last been running towards. The one which Spike had blocked them from progressing through. "Look!"

Courage looked, and saw faint sunlight streaming down in small, broken beams.

"Come on! We gotta get help before we try to take him on ourselves and make things worse!"

The pup didn't need to be convinced, and though the pair gave a reluctant look back towards the tunnels, they charged forward towards the broken patch of sunlight. Courage was rather hesitantly pleased with how things were going. He knew the who and the where, at least, which was the important thing. All he- they, had to do, was get help and bring it back here.

As the dog and the donkey pushed aside the heavy brush that concealed the entrance to the tunnels, they stepped out and found themselves outside Ponyville entirely, near the Everfree Forest. The plants overhead were close enough to the forest that nopony would have ever bothered attempting to tame them.

The two raced towards town, now deadset on getting help.

The final showdown would commence shortly, and they needed to be prepared for it.