Dawn crested over the horizon and the mares woke of to the crisp mountain air. Dew still clung too many of the rocky structures making then slick and even more treacherous than they already were.
“Alright, everypony stay alert,” Luna said approaching the mountain path. “We have no idea what we’re going to find roaming, and the paths are exceptionally dangerous.”
“Right, everypony stay together, and stay as close to the side of the mountain as possible. Rainbow, Fluttershy, you’re on edge patrol. If anypony slips you know what to do,” Twilight proclaimed.
“Right!” Rainbow and Fluttershy both acknowledged.
The group of mares started walking through the tumbling pass. The pathways along the cliff edges were narrow. Twilight and the others quickly found themselves struggles to fit single file along the cliff face, and the path was only getting narrower as they went on. Twilight felt her hoof slip as she stepped and a bit of the pathway gave underneath her. The pathway around the started cracking, and spreading, “Everyone get close!” Twilight yelled as she and Luna used their teleportation magic to get the group to a small landing.
“Whew, that sure was a close one,” Applejack stated sitting down to catch her breath. The group of mares watched as the path that they were on continued to crumple and collapse down the mountainside.
“We should watch our step from here out. There’s no telling how sturdy any of these paths are. Even the wider ones could be faulty,” Luna warned.
“Do… Do we have to go through the mountains like this? Can’t you just teleport us there…” Fluttershy asked, frightened.
“I wish I could, but we have to know exactly where we need to teleport to in order to do so. Otherwise it could be bad for everypony.”
“Li-li-like how bad…”
“Well, it would be possible that if I tried to randomly teleport us to the place we need to go, we could very easily be teleported into solid stone or in an active volcano, since we have no idea where we need to be,” Luna explained.
“Oh… We’ll walk then…” Fluttershy said suddenly feeling a lot comfortable walking than teleporting.
“Come on, we aren’t going to get any closer sitting here,” Twilight stated. “This way looks safer,” she added pointing to the decently wide path. She and Rarity approached the path first.
“Hmm, this looks like it’s big enough for two, but I think you should go first just to be safe. No need in taking any, unnecessary risks when the dangers that are already around us are so prominent.”
“Danger shmanger, as long as Fluttershy, Luna and myself stay along the ledge, nothing can go wrong!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed proudly.
“I wish everything were that easy Rainbow. We just barely got away from that!”
“Well, I doubt even someone that pours over book after book could have predicted that the passage was going to collapse,” Rainbow countered.
“And? We can’t predict when somepony’s going to fall either, or get hurt or if something else is going to fall on us!”
“Twilight, keep it down, we’re entering an avalanche zone,” Luna warned. Everypony nodded and started to follow. Looking up, Luna could see the loose rocks that were ready to tumble down the mountain side at any given moment, just waiting for the right amount of sound to be set free. When the mares made it about halfway across the passage, Twilight’s ears perked up. She heard a few of the smaller rocks start rolling down the side of the mountain, and she could see that the others were unstable and waiting to collapse. Then it happened, one of the smaller rolling rocks hit one of the larger ones in just the right way that it dislodged it and triggered a rockslide. “Everypony run!!!” she yelled galloping to the other side as Luna once again had to teleport most of them to safely.
“Seriously, what’s with these mountains and having everything collapse? I always thought that mountains were, you know sturdy,” Rainbow Dash commented.
“Some mountains are and some aren’t. Apparently we just picked the wrong spot to enter this range at.” Luna answered.
“Well, Ah know one thing’s for sure. Ah ain’t gonna be able to handle another thing fallin’ on us. Twice so might’ more than enough for this pony,” Applejack stated.
Twilight approached her. “As much as I don’t like what’s going on around us, I can’t really say that something like that isn’t going to happen again. As much as I would like to say it won’t, I can’t. Not unless we find a path that is wide enough that we can all comfortable fit on,”
“Girls, we really don’t have the time to complain about things.”
“With all due respect princess, we can’t find your sister if we don’t even make it out of these here mountains. If we all die here, then whoever this kidnapper is wins anyway. I’m not sayin’ we need to stop. I just think that maybe you know should probably be trying to go through the mountain range at the base of the mountains instead of halfway to their summits?”
“That is a good suggestion, but how are we going to get down? Not to mention, if the place we need to go is at the top of the mountain…”
“Then you or Luna can teleport us there. You’re the one that’s done all the book readin’ and the studyin’ here Twi, you should know how most stories like this end! I don’t want to be like most of those stories.”
“Personally Twilight, I agree with Applejack… things would be better if we were um…. Not so high up?”
“I’ll be right back then,” Luna said as she flew down beneath the Cliffside.
“What’s she doing?”
“I haven’t got a clue…” Twilight replied before Luna appeared in front of her.
“The path at the bottom does appear to be a bit safer than this one. I can’t see any Avalanche zones and the only thing we may need to worry about is wolves.”
“Ha! Wolves won’t be a problem at all since with have Fluttershy here! No matter what kind of animal it is she can tame it!”
“I don’t know Rainbow, wolves are a little bit different…”
“Oh come on! This isn’t going to turn into that whole mountain fiasco when that dragon came here is it?”
“Oh no-no, I’m not as afraid of wolves as I am dragons. It’s just well, wolves generally only attack when they’re hungry and wolves well, only eat meat. It’s kind of hard to make it happy without becoming its meal.”
“I wouldn’t go ‘quite’ that far. Wolves are very noble and perhaps if we can befriend a couple of them on the way through they can provide us with some protection against the not so friendly wolves,” Luna stated.
“Oh! That could work!” Fluttershy accepted.
“Okay, but that still leaves the question. How are we all going to get down there in a timely manner? It’s not like we can just jump down.”
“Well, I can always make another Ice Slide!” Ice Storm chimed in. “Though it would be a bit more difficult to keep up going that fast.”
“Not to mention this high up it would break easily without support. That would be more dangerous that walking on the mountains,” Luna pointed out.
Ice pouted a bit. She wanted to be able to help more but so far there was only one point at which she had been useful, and now she felt like she was slowing everypony down.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure your ice will come in handy again relatively soon,” Luna consoled her before looking back to the others. “As I was saying with some help from Rainbow dash, I think we can have everypony down to the bottom in only two trips. I can carry two ponies easily and there are only five of you without wings. That should be easy enough.”
Twilight nodded and Luna carried her and Ice Storm down while Rainbow grabbed Pinkie Pie and left Rarity with AJ. “I certainly hope it isn’t dusty down there…” Rarity groaned before noticed Applejack’s ‘are you serious’ look. “What? Regardless of what we run into we’re still in the presence of a princess.”
“A princess who’s done lost her sister. Ah think the last thin’ you should be worried about is a might bit a dust.” Applejack said as Luna and Rainbow Dash came back up from dropping off the other three. “That sure was fast...”
“Well duh, it’s a lot easier to go down with a pony than it is to try to lift one up,” Rainbow commented. “Now come on. We don’t have time to stand up here and discuss how much time it takes to get to the bottom.”
Applejack nodded and hopped onto Rainbow’s back while Rarity got onto Luna’s and they both brought them down with the others. “Alright, let’s keep moving… this way.”
The ponies continued through the mountain passage. The air down here was still crisp, but a lot damper than it was at the higher altitudes. The winds where none existent and that would make tracking scents impossible. Which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that the wolves couldn’t track them but at the same time they couldn’t tell where the wolves were at.
“This is a bit odd. Normally mountains aren’t this quiet, especially ones with wolves…” Twilight stated worriedly.
“I know, you’d think we’d have heard howling by now,” Ice replied.
“I don’t know. Though at the same time in means were in the right area. Everything is keeping quiet for a reason. Not to mention I’m starting to feel my sister’s presence.”
“Yes!!! That at the very least should mean that she’s okay, and that we’re going the right direction!” Twilight proclaimed.
“Right direction yes, otherwise it just means she’s alive, not necessarily okay,” Luna corrected.
“Alright then! Let’s get to it!!” Rainbow said as she started to speed away.
“Rainbow Wait!!” Twilight responded, “We don’t even know what’s on the other side of that corner, let alone what’s in where ever Celestia is being held!”
“We’re never going to find out if we don’t keep moving!”
“Obviously, but we can’t charge through these mountains like that. You saw what happened when we were moving carefully earlier…”
“You… make a valid point, but we’re on the ground right? What could possible go wrong now?”
“Oh no… Please tell you did not just say that!”
“Say what could possible go wrong!! Statistically in about 83% of the books that I read read about things like that in, whenever somepony asks what could go wrong the find out in a very non-forgiving…” she started saying before one of the mountains a bit behind them erupted exposing itself for the volcano it actually was. “Way…” She shrieked.
“Everypony run!! I can at the very least slow it down!” Ice Storm said as she created a wall of ice about a pony’s length in thickness before turning and running behind the group. As they ran, Magma bombs fell from the sky trying their hardest to take out one of them with one solid hit.
“Let’s go across the gap!”
“Gap!? We’re supposed to be on the ground!!”
“Apparently this wasn’t the ground, but it’s not that far down and it will divert any lava flows, so at the moment I’m kinda glad it’s here,” Luna countered motioning for everyone to jump, which that did. Ice was still lagging behind so she picked her up and flew her over the gap, and Ice made another wall of ice on their side of the gap before collapsing.
“Ice Storm!!!” everypony yelled running to her.
“I’m fine… just… tired…. I’ve never used this much magic before, not in one day anyway…” She admitted.
“I’ll carry her,” Luna offered. “She needs the rest after what she just did, though I have a feeling we’re all going to need a short break soon to recover. It just seems that if it can go wrong today it has.”
Twilight glared at Rainbow at Luna’s last comment. “And we know who caused that!!”
“Like I was going to know any of this was going to happen! I’m sorry I’ll try to use a better choice of words next time!! But I don’t really see what me speaking had to do with a volcano exploding. It was just a coincidence!”
“Girls! Now is not the time! Let’s move a bit away from this ledge just in case there is overflow. That way we don’t get caught up in it,” Luna said pointing to the small mountain valley ahead. She could see grass and a couple trees in it. Hopefully they would be able to find some clues there.