The tree lines broke apart, scattering particles of built-up snow across the air as Rainbow Dash slowed to a halt several feet above the trees. Instantly she was pounded by torrents of fresh, cold wind and snow, obscuring her vision and pushing her back.
Rainbow fought against the cold, squinting and searching every trail around the base of the mountain and beyond to catch just a glimpse of him. Her breath was heavy, large clouds of her own breath blocking her eyes. Luckily, it didn’t block out every detail her eyes could capture.
She just so happened to catch a silver blur escaping into a far-off tunnel on the side of Foal Mountain. Dash smirked, ear twitching once a new sound appeared from below her.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight’s voice called from below. “Get down here this instant!”
Rainbow spun around, jamming her neck downwards. From where she broke apart the tree branches to make her escape from the forest, she could see Twilight and the rest of her friends obscured slightly through the broken branches covered in falling snow.
Shaking her head, Rainbow called back by saying, “No way! You come up here!”
Reluctantly, and with a groan that traveled longer than it should have, Twilight flew upwards to meet Rainbow Dash in the blithering snowstorm. From there, Dash flew closer to the Alicorn, pointing her hoof towards the direction of the snow-covered Foal Mountain.
Screaming over the high winds, she said, “I saw him go there in that little cave! See it?”
Twilight squinted, raising a foreleg over her eyes to offer a better view. Soon enough, she spotted the cave that Rainbow had pointed out, but stopped herself and took a few paces back.
“Wait, what?” she asked, turning towards the Pegasus. “‘Him’? You’re telling me that that gust of wind that attacked us was…?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. Twilight’s jaw fell.
“It was a human, Twilight. I saw him fully back in the forest,” Rainbow Dash clarified, turning her muzzle back to the cave. She shivered, wings pumping harder to keep the mare flying. “And I have a pretty good idea on who it was.”
Twilight seemed to share Dash’s thoughts. Another human, this one currently unidentified, seemed to fit a certain category she and her friends had seen recently. Throughout their stay, the Avengers had mentioned other members of their team still missing, somewhere in Equestria. Could it be one of the twins? The so-called Vision?
Whichever the case, Twilight did know one thing for certain, and that was to investigate further.
“Then we have to find him,” Twilight yelled back, the wind pushing both mares back down below the trees. They met up with the rest of their friends, all four of them shivering slightly with red noses and sniffling all around. The cold seemed to have gotten to them. No surprise there.
“Ya’ll ready ta head on back now?” Applejack drawled, holding down her hat from the next wave of wind pelting against her back, causing the group to tense up. “Storm’s about ta kick in pretty soon!”
Everypony, especially Applejack, expected Rainbow Dash to object to the idea, finding some ludicrous way to continue on with a snarky remark that only Rainbow Dash could come up with. But it was to everypony’s surprise to see Twilight of all ponies shaking her head.
“Not yet, Applejack,” Twilight told her, turning to the rest of her friends. With a hardened gaze, trying her best to ignore the cold, she said, “I think we just found our culprit who attacked us.”
“That wind?” Applejack asked, face contorting into confusion, all that wasn’t consumed by the cold.
Twilight nodded, but quickly clarified. “It wasn’t wind. It was a human being. Rainbow Dash saw it with her own eyes.”
In unison, all questioning stares once reserved for Twilight shifted together towards the blue Pegasus. Rainbow Dash didn’t back down from their pressuring stares. She only nodded for confirmation, pointing her hoof to what was visible of Foal Mountain: the tip. Her friends followed her hoof, eyes squinting and jaws tightening. Fluttershy shivered involuntarily.
“Whoever it was,” Rainbow said aloud, catching their attention, “he sped off into the cave on Foal Mountain! We have to track him down, find him, and figure out who he is!”
Twilight stepped in. “He just might be one of the missing members that the Avengers kept talking about,” she said.
More snow continued to pile around the mares, causing them to shiver with teeth chattering amongst the group. Several unsure glances were taken towards Foal Mountain, then back to Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Applejack especially found little reason to trust Rainbow Dash. It was understandable considering the pony was no more than a few minutes ago hell-bent on fighting an unwinnable fight. But then she turned to Twilight and found her stare to be comforting, believable.
And that was all she needed to sigh with relief.
“If it’s one of the Avengers, then Ah say we go for it,” Applejack said with an assuring smile directed at Twilight. “Lead the way, Twi!”
As Applejack abandoned the group to join Rainbow and Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy reluctantly followed, leaving Rarity all alone. Rarity pouted, sticking out her lower lip and shivering within her heavy winter coat. With a whine, she said, “Oh, must we stay out in this dreaded blizzard any longer?”
“It won’t be too long, Rarity!” Twilight called from the rising hill, letting Rainbow Dash take lead with Applejack following her. “We’ll just be in and out, and then we can head back home!”
With a fabulous hmph, Rarity flicked her mane and adjusted her goggles. “Very well,” she muttered, turning to see Fluttershy disappear over the nearest hill, Pinkie’s bouncing mane appearing and vanishing with each hop the mare gave. “Just in and out.”
It wasn’t long for Rarity to catch up to the group, taking the back alongside Fluttershy with Pinkie Pie directly in front of them. Twilight and Applejack stood side by side, watching Dash cautiously as the mare hovered several feet above the snowy forest floor, scanning for an exit, searching for an escape from the frozen forest.
That escape came quicker than the group expected. As they broke through the tree lines, Rainbow Dash was instantly greeted with a face full of blizzard and enough wind to launch any ordinary Pegasus back. But Rainbow Dash was no ordinary Pegasus. She fought hard, leading the group through the snow and wind to the trail leading to the mountains.
It was quite the trail, lasting several minutes and many complaints from the fashionista. The group of friends traversed the mountain side, watching as Dash took off to find the safest route, remove any hindrances from their path, and just find the quickest route to the cave she had mentioned earlier.
With each hoofstep gained traveling higher and higher up the trail, digging in deeper into the rabbit hole, the six mares found the journey to grow worse and worse as time progressed. The blizzard had gone completely uncontrolled, nearly blocking Rainbow’s vision for directing her friends up the safest way. Soon enough, Rarity’s complaints seemed to hold some actual weight behind them.
Soon enough, they could get lost, or worse…
But not now.
With her wings nearly frozen, Rainbow Dash pushed up higher and higher, blazing past the snow and wind and turning right on the rocky slope. She skidded to a halt, gazing up wondrously at the massive mountain cave staring down at her with its gaping, black maw.
And just so, she smiled despite the cold.
“Guys!” she called out, refusing to break her eyes away from the cave. “I found it! Hurry up!”
“We’re coming!”
Leading the way, Twilight appeared by the rocky slope, pushing past the wind to meet up with Rainbow Dash. The rest of their friends were right behind her, each of them turning before Twilight did to the mountain cave Dash was focused on. Twilight was the last to turn, her own jaw falling as she gazed into darkness of the cave, finding no light and no end.
She gulped. “Alright, let’s head in there,” Twilight muttered, beginning at a slow trot into the darkness. Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately followed, trailed by a reluctant Rarity and overenthusiastic Pinkie Pie. The only one who remained as still as a statue was Fluttershy, the poor Pegasus shivering in the snowstorm.
Noticing the lack of six, Rarity spun around and called out, “Fluttershy, dear, you must hurry! The sooner we find our culprit the sooner we can relax in the jacuzzi back at the spa!”
Fluttershy shivered on the spot, digging her hoof into the nearest snow pile.
“Um…I-I think I’ll just stay out here where it’s safe and…not dark and…not scary,” she whimpered, eyes flicking across the gaping hole of the mountain cave. Unfortunately, her eyes then landed on Pinkie Pie, the mare popping her head out from the darkness that consumed her lower half.
The party pony giggled furiously, saying, “Okay dokie lokie, Fluttershy! Just keep an eye out for any terrifying, evil creatures that could’ve been stalking us without us noticing while we’re gone!”
“T-t-terrifying…e-ev-vil…c-c-creatures?” Fluttershy stammered scanning her surroundings.
Pushing Rarity aside, Pinkie blew a raspberry and waved her hoof dismissively. “Oh, sure! Windigos, Bugbears, worst of the worst!”
“W-Windigos…and…B-B-Bugbears?” Fluttershy whimpered. She slowly observed the heavens above, as if expecting one of the said creatures to fly down and snatch her away.
“And of course, let’s not forget the dragons!”
“Okay, I’ve changed my mind!” Fluttershy announced, speeding into the cave and slamming herself into Pinkie and Rarity. With her surprising amount of strength, the Pegasus managed to push the two mares all the way inside until they were all consumed by the darkness of the cave.
Rarity yelped. “Ah! Fluttershy, dear! Oh! Would you kindly slow down? Please?!”
“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed, her chin digging into the solid rock floor as Fluttershy continuously pushed against her rump. “I can’t even see ten feet in front of me when we’re going this fast! In fact, if we ran into somepony right about now, I wouldn’t be able to react in—OH MY GOSH WE’RE GONNA HIT SOME—!”
Sadly, Pinkie’s cry wasn’t acknowledged and the three mares came into contact with the rest of their friends. The group came to rest on the cavern floor, groaning and muttering words of pain. Rubbing all the wounded places, each mare slowly began to stand back up.
Twilight rubbed the back of her neck from where Rarity’s forehead had impacted. “Ugh… Everypony okay?” she asked, turning back to her friends. Applejack and rainbow Dash stood up, nodding to one another and to Twilight. Pinkie bounced up without a sweat, aiding a whining Rarity back to her hooves.
“Fluttershy,” Dash groaned, rubbing her now bruised forehead, “you wanna tell me what the hay happened back there?”
No response.
“Fluttershy?” Applejack asked aloud, spinning her neck around. Her eyes flinched back having stared into the whiteness of the cave’s entrance. She turned back, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
Everypony seemed to face the same fate, having turned their attention back to the mouth of the cave and waiting for their eyes to slowly adjust to the dark. In that slow pace, with the wind crying from the outside and echoing off the cave’s walls, each pony turned their attention to the shivering, yellow Pegasus sitting directly behind them.
She shook like a leaf, eyes lingering and on the edge of tears, focused solely on whatever it was that laid behind her friends.
With a tiny quiver, Fluttershy asked, “Is it too late to change my mind again?”
Each mare shared a look of wonder and confusion, slowly spinning about to understand just what had frightened the poor Pegasus so bad. They all would have been declared liars if they didn’t share their friend’s fate. Not all. Rarity and Pinkie definitely yelped in fear, taking several steps back. As for Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, the three just flinched back, taking in the tiniest gasps for air.
The darkness of the cave offered little light or visibility. Not even Rainbow Dash could see more than ten feet in front of her. That meant the red-eyed creature was closer to them than expected.
It stared at them from a distance, yet it felt so close, so point-breaking. So much in their personal space, and yet the creature wasn’t that close, nor was it that far. But the dread each pony felt, as if all the happiness they once held slowly began to be clouded over by something dark, cold, malicious. Evil and dark. Completely and totally frightening. It was as if they could never have another happy memory again, or experience one for that matter. It terrified them even more. Even Rainbow let a shiver roll through.
All of that just by staring into its twin, red eyes.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to let fear cloud their assumptions. As their eyes adjusted, Twilight especially noticed how the creature stood on two legs, wore some type of red and black clothing, and had long, dark hair. Its pale, tan skin barely showed, but even Twilight could make out the characteristics. Her eyes grew wide.
It was a human. A female, presumably. The one Rainbow Dash had encountered was mentioned to be a male, so what had they come across? Only one way to find out for sure, and Twilight took complete advantage of such a situation.
With a cautious and admirable step forward, Twilight cleared her throat and offered a tiny smile. The female’s head tilted downwards towards the Alicorn, her red eyes following the pony’s actions.
Said pony began in a clear, crisp tone, understandable to nearly all. “Hello there. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle.” The female made no indication of a response, causing Twilight to mentally frown. She continued anyways.
“My friends and I were just recently traveling the area when someone attacked us. We followed that person and his trail lead us to this cave. Do you know—?”
“Get out.”
It was so sudden, so exact and to the point that even Twilight took a step back to compose herself. From the cooling tone to the abruptness of her voice, Twilight could ensure they were indeed in the presence of a human female. Her heavy accent was laid thick, sounding similarly eastern to Equus’ standards.
Twilight held out her hoof, her brow furrowing. “But…you didn’t even let me finish my—”
“Does it look like I care?” the woman interrupted, startling Twilight once more. When the Alicorn didn’t answer within the first few seconds, she continued by saying, “No, now get out. Leave us alone.”
There it was. Twilight planted her hoof down and asked, “‘Us’? So there is someone else.”
“Last warning. Get out and leave us alone.” The woman’s voice grew dangerously venomous, her eyes burning bright in the dark void. From what the mares could see, her fragile fingers seemed to twitch and turn in what appeared to be a dangerous dance. It, of course, didn’t startle a certain Pegasus.
“No way!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying a few feet above the ground. She pointed her hoof straight for the woman’s chest, her frown almost as prominent as the woman’s. She yelled, “I still want to figure out who had the guts to try and fight me and my—!”
She didn’t have to wait long to see him again. That same blue and silver blur shot right past the woman’s right, easily tearing through the six mares and knocking them aside. Each pony impacted the cave’s walls, sliding or simply falling back to the cold, rocky floor.
Twilight groaned in pain as she lay on her side, shivering as another cold wave impacted her backside. It was difficult enough for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, now she had to compose herself and her blurry vision to focus on the woman standing ten feet in front of her. Scratch that. Make it two feet.
Her mind took a double take, contemplating whether or not what she was seeing was real. The woman had just closed the distance between her and the Alicorn in less than a second, with speeds so unreal it could easily match up with Rainbow Dash. But what was so unnerving about it was how the woman did it exactly.
It appeared that she simply…walked towards Twilight, but she moved so quickly, so terrifyingly fast that time didn’t seem to correspond to her movements, that whatever power she held was even stronger than the Alicorn could have imagined.
The woman bent down, giving Twilight a perfect image of her face and eyes.
And they were horrifying.
Just like her twitching hand rising upwards, red mist coiling around her wrist and palm. Just like that red mist acting on her command, shooting downwards and hitting Twilight right between the eyes. Just like the horrifying world that followed Twilight’s mind as she blacked out.