Rainbow Dash glared at the hooded stallion, pulling her hood down. "I'm Luna," She lied, not really convincingly.
"Hay yeah, and I'm Celestia," he rolled his eyes.
"And why did you try to escape when I fought the manticore?" She shoved him roughly, "Coward!"
"Coward? Excuse me, I was trying to stay alive, stupid,"
"And we're stuck here 'cause you didn't help me defeat it!" Rainbow snatched back the knife and held it close to his throat, "Should've killed you when I got the chance, you useless, son of a..."
A gust of icy-cold wind blew towards them. "Brr..." she shivered. Rainbow could see him shiver slightly too. Her eyes grew wide, filled with new hope.
"Hey-" the stallion started.
"I think we are able to escape!"
"You-" he grabbed her hoof.
"Look. I found a possible escape. I think we can escape here! We can follow the cold wind, find the place it comes from, and we can-" Rainbow rambled on enthusiastically.
The stallion raised an eyebrow. "We?" He sneered, "I'm sorry, if where that cold wind comes is from a threat, I'm not following."
Rainbow shrugged, "If you don't want to escape here, fine. I do things my way, coward,"
She trotted a few feet from him, following where the wind came from. Soon, she found out that she could not even see her own hooves in front of her face.
Rainbow Dash backtracked her hoofsteps to the source of the light, back to the stallion.
Somehow sheepishly and embarrassed, Rainbow asked him, "and...and to do things my way...I need you and that torch...yeah."
The stallion folded his hooves. "Ha. A moment ago, you didn't need me. Now, you're doing the exact opposite," a smirk formed on his muzzle, "how about this, you tell me who you are, then I'll help you. Deal?" The stallion extended a hoof.
Rainbow's face flushed; because of embarrassment and in anger that the stallion was making use of her disadvantage. "F-fine. Deal," she shook his hoof with hers, "I'm a Lunian."
"I need more information. I knew you were a Lunian right from the start. You fighting style says so. Tell me something I don't know. Your former job, maybe?" He pressed on the deal.
Rainbow gritted her teeth, "I was..." she paused. What should she tell him? That she was a Wonderbolt? No, that was too risky. Everypony would know who were the Wonderbolts. "a weather control pony," she finished.
"Typical pegasus?" He questioned as they started to walk in the direction of the cold wind.
"No!" She protested, a little offended. After all those three years, her brashness and ego seemed to be the only things that remained in her. "I pulled off a Sonic Ra-" she caught herself. Surely this stallion knew the only pegasus whom ever pulled off the Sonic Rainboom.
"Hmm?" He asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"N-nothing..." Rainbow's eyes moved away from his, "So...I told you about me, it is only fair that you tell me a little about yourself."
"This was not part of the deal," he glanced at her.
"Come on!"
"Nope,"
Rainbow Dash blew her mane. Her companion suddenly held her back from trotting any further.
"What..." she began.
"Shush," he silenced her with a hoof, placing it on her muzzle, "I hear sounds...and by the way, we're standing at the edge of a..." the stallion directed his flashlight at the drop in front of them. "endless drop," he whispered.
"We gotta find out what's in there!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Wait!" The stallion cried, but he was too late. Rainbow Dash zoomed into the depths of the hole already. He could only follow her.
Rainbow Dash opened her wings and flew down into the hole. She was grateful that the cloak had holes at the side to let her wings flap. What a relieve the fly was, the cool air weaving in and out of her feathers, releasing the humidity that collected inside over the past few days. Pegasi needed to fly freely. Rainbow had no idea how Fluttershy could just spend her life on the ground.
Rainbow Dash watched as the flashlight's light grew dimmer and dimmer as she flew down into the hole. Suddenly, a worried thought hit her. What if what the stallion said was right? What if the cold wind came from a threat?
Wait. Where was the stallion? She glanced up, hovering mid-flight. She could see a light brightening up the hole above her, descending slowly, and a male voice was calling, "Lunian, Lunian! Where are you, you crazy mare?" Hmm. So her companion was a pegasus.
"I'm here, coward!" Rainbow Dash hollered.
The light zoomed towards her voice, and the stallion came hovering beside her.
"I thought we were a team?" He asked, his voice a mixture of confusion, anger, and...worry? "How could you just fly down there without telling me?" The stallion glared at her.
"So what? My body is still in one piece, and you found me, so what's the big deal?" Rainbow Dash shrugged it off casually.
The pegasus' eye twitched, and he rubbed his temples in frustration, "Big deal...huh?" Rainbow guessed she ticked him off real bad. "Ugh, anyway, let's explore this hole...or tunnel further. I don't want to get stuck in this cave forever," he huffed, and signaled her to follow him as he continued to descend into the tunnel.
"Yeah, sure..." Rainbow Dash shrugged once more, and followed him.
After like what it seemed like an eternity to Rainbow, they finally reached the end of the tunnel. It was a huge, gigantic cavern, bigger than the one they had just been into. There were large icicles hanging from the sky-high ceiling, water dripping slowly from the end of their sharp tips. That was not the only sounds to be heard. It was dimly lit, bright enough to see almost every part of the cavern; the stallion off the flashlight. There seemed to be a distant chatter somewhere in the area that they could not see. There was plain dirt ground for the two pegasi to land on.
"Finally, we're here!" Rainbow exclaimed, stretching her wings and hooves. As she talked, mist came out as her breath, "Sure is cold in here."
"Uh...we just took, like, half an hour to reach here...and," he glared at her, whispering-shouting, "don't be so loud! There might be some things in here!"
"C'mon, like if there were anything that would live in this freezing, cold environment!" Rainbow argued, whispering.
The cavern fell silent. All of a sudden, a huge army of changelings landed before them. They bared fangs, and growled in annoyance. They did not look welcoming.
"And I just had to open my mouth," Rainbow groaned, "let's attack!"
Rainbow charged into the army, leaving her male companion no choice, but to only follow her lead. He muttered bitterly,
"Hate the way you think."