Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins

Dear Students,

Owing to the fact that Headmare Twilight Sparkle, and Professors Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are still absent, all lessons in the School of Friendship are suspended until further notice.

Please note, the school will remain open for those students who live there, and the facilities such as the library, computer room and so on, will remain open those who wish to use them.

Updates will be sent out as and when information becomes available.

Guidance Counsellor
Starlight Glimmer

Cloudburst had a look of glee on her pale blue face as she read the note that had been magically sent to all the students of the School of Friendship. Conversely, Sparkler had a look of utter horror on hers. “What?” the bright yellow unicorn asked in disbelief, having lessons suspended was just the worst possible thing ever! “Does that mean we have to keep watching the Professor's pets?”

“I guess so,” Stonecutter shrugged before leaning forwards on the couch and taking up her mug of fresh coffee, “I mean, Counsellor Starlight closed up the school, we don't have anything else planned, do we?”

“Wohoo!” Cloudburst performed a happy dance around Fluttershy’s living room, much to the amusement of Seafoam and Stonecutter and the exasperation of Sparkler, “We got no school! No school! No school for us! Oh yeah, oh yeah, wohoo!”

“But...” Sparkler shook her head, “But, maybe I can go and get the rest of my books?” she asked the room, with just a hint of desperation in her voice and a twitch in her left eye. She hadn’t read a book since Friday. It was now Monday and for her to not read anything in three days was unthinkable.

“Sparks!” Cloudburst was still doing her happy dance. In fact, she was on the third lap around the coffee table, Seafoam playfully swatting her ass as she danced on by him, much to her delight, “Don't be such a nerd! Lighten up and enjoy the time off!”

“Hush you,” Sparkler squeaked, well on the way to being offended, “I need those books!”

Placatingly, Stonecutter held up her hands before anything could get out of control. She knew her best friend could wind up the alicorns themselves were she given the chance. “Headmare Twilight did say we'd get Friendship credit for the pet sitting, so there’s that.” She then leant in and kissed Sparkler’s lips, “We can go get your books, Sparks, I want to stop by home and get a change of clothes too. These I’m wearing have been in a swamp.”

Eventually, Cloudburst stopped dancing around the table and resumed her seat on one of the couches by her Master’s side. “How about this, you get the things you want, Foamy and I'll make a picnic lunch, and we all meet up back here?”

Even Sparkler had to admit that was a pretty decent idea. Begrudgingly so, seeing as how it had come from the annoying pegasus. “That sound good, CB. We can go to my place first Stony and then to your place. Should we bring anything for the picnic, Foamy?”

Seafoam took a moment to drink his coffee, being careful not to spill any on his shirt – unlike Cloudburst, he hated mess. “Nah, tell you what, CB and I will hit the market while you're gone, we’ll most likely have it all ready when you get back.”

Sparkler levelled a very serious stare at them both. “Just make sure none of the pets can escape while you’re gone. I do not fancy another day in that Celestia-damned forest getting them back.” She held the stare for a good few moments before she got up to her hooves, smoothing her plaid skirt in the process, “Come along Stony, I do need my bodyguard with me.”

“Yes Mistress!” by Cadance, Stonecutter loved saying that. She fingered her yellow collar and smiled as she stood up, walking with the smaller mare to the repaired front door. Seafoam and Cloudburst both waved them goodbye. They took a moment, when they were outside, to enjoy the late summer morning sunshine. It wasn’t bad, for a Monday. “Are you going to get a change of clothes too?” she asked with a giggle, “Oh, I get to meet your momma!”

Walking down the path from Fluttershy’s cottage, Sparkler put on her very best Canterlot accent. “And I do expect you to be on your best behaviour when you meet mother.” She laughed at just how absurd that sounded now after two months in Ponyville. Odd, how she didn’t think of it as Mudtown anymore. “Or at least, don't make her pass out when you hug her.”

“I'll do my best,” Stonecutter giggled. Holding Sparkler’s hand, they kept the Everfree Forest on their right and gave the dark shadowy place a very wide berth as they headed on into town. “I do love that voice though. You're so using that next time we play, Mistress.”

“After my time in Ponyville, I know just how pretentious it is, but for you,” Sparkler slipped back into her accent, one that she was now determined was her ‘Mistress’ voice, “I shall endeavour to make an exception, my fine traveling companion.”

“Oh my…” Stonecutter laughed out loud as they walked through the town, drawing more than a few looks because of her size, her clothes – which while they were ‘clean’, had been in a swamp – and her collar, “I'm going to have to try real hard to stay in character with that voice, babes.”

When they reached the little picket fence that surrounded Sparkler’s house, she stopped and hugged Stonecutter tight, though her hands didn’t reach all the way around the larger mare’s waist. “Yes you will, won't you?” there was a giggle in her voice though as she pointed to the house. “And here we are!” she opened the door, letting herself and her marefriend inside. “Mom,” she called out, “crazy stuff at the school again!”

In the anally clean kitchen of the house, Corona looked up from her getting ready routine. The middle aged unicorn mare was wearing her black frilly maid's dress, and she had been in the process of pulling up her black stockings up her slender legs when the door opened. “Oh hey sweetie!” she beamed, her left leg raised up on a chair, “I got a vague text from Counsellor Starlight! What's happened this time?”

Stonecutter would have answered her, but she found that her mouth was hanging open and not working. Mostly because the dress that Sparkler’s mother was wearing was just shy of scandalously short. It didn’t help she had her stocking clad legs raised up on the chair. “The professors didn't return and they are missing. We’ll have to keep watching the pets till they are found or they return. I need my books. Oh, this is Stonecutter, my friend, and I don't think I've formally introduced you. Stonecutter, my mother, Co…”

“Oh how wonderful!” Corona interrupted her daughter and, with a smile on her face, hugged Sparkler, which made Stonecutter blush intently. “I told you that you should make friends! I'm Corona!” she held out her hand and dumbly, Stonecutter shook it, still unable to say anything. “Um, honey, is she okay?”

Sparkler rolled her green eyes in a way that spoke volumes. Just for emphasis, she gestured at the dress that only just covered her mother’s modest breasts and her thighs. “You’ll have to forgive her, mother, she’s overwhelmed by your beauty. Sadly, compared to you, I'm quite plain.”

Stonecutter, who was still shaking Corona's hand like she was a dummy, didn’t hear the giggle from her marefriend. The earth pony was completely stunned by the sight before her. “Aaaah...um...beauty, ah...yeah...Stonecutter, that's me, I'm Sparkler's marefriend...friend, I mean!”

“Oh?” Corona couldn’t help but giggle as her hand was still being shook. This was not the first time that had happened. In truth, she was starting to like the attention. “You've done well, sweetie.”

Sparkler elbowed Stonecutter hard in the ribs to get some sense back into her marefriend. “She was right the first time mother. I feel our friendship will develop further. Don’t worry about the house, I'll lock up when we’ve gathered my things. I'm still staying at Professor Fluttershy's home till they return.”

Corona then noticed the bright yellow collar that was buckled around the earth pony's neck. She knew precisely what it represented, and she approved, greatly. “I like the accessory, Sparkler.” She managed, with some difficulty, to wring her hand from Stonecutter's still shaking hand. “I hope you two have fun!”

“Thank you, mother,” Sparkler hugged Corona tightly, “I hope your day goes smoothly. Bye-bye!”

Sighing, Corona lit her horn and levitated over her long coat. As much as she was starting to like ponies looking at her, she still wasn’t ready to walk through town in just her maid’s dress. “Filthy Rich likes the view, I get paid, it's a smooth day.”

When she was gone, Stonecutter blushed and rubbed her hand through her mane. “I ah...I just made a fool of myself, didn't I?”

Sparkler turned and, as much as she wanted to scream at her marefriend, there was something unbearably cute about her embarrassed blush. Besides, she was pony enough to admit the unexpected sight had been – literally – thrust on the earth pony. “If I catch you hitting on my mother...enough said, it’s part of her job. She’s a maid, and in truth it pays well, and Filthy doesn't do more than look. Now, to my room.” She then leant up on the tips of her hooves and whispered in Stonecutter's ear, “But I won't forget this, pet.”

Stonecutter still wore her intense blush as she followed Sparkler up the stairs. She loved the way the unicorn’s tail swished side to side like that. “I wasn't ready, to see that...I'm gonna shut up now.”

Sparkler paused at the top of the stairs, a fiendish idea coming to her mind. “I have now decided what I'll wear when you're dressed as a cow for Nightmare Night.” She had planned to go as Princess Celestia, but a Prench maid wasn’t that bad an idea, especially if it had that effect on her lover.

When that image danced through Stonecutter’s mind, the slate grey earth pony flushed very hard and bit her lip, content as she was to enjoy that image. When they got to Sparkler's room though, the picture of the unicorn in a maid’s dress was chased away. “Oh my...sweet Cadance your room is pink!” To say it was pink was an understatement. It looked like a pink paint bomb had exploded everywhere, along with several tonnes of sparkly glitter.

“Good to know your observational skills are still sharp,” Sparkler stepped into her pink princess bedroom and she started to gather her text books from one of her three bookcases into her shoulder bag. “You can look around, just put things back, please.” She had a place for everything, and everything had to be in just that place, how she had placed it.

Stonecutter looked around the room, her eyes drinking in all the ‘pink’. Beyond that, there were books in bookcases along every wall. A quick glance told her there were school text books, fictional novels, all manner of books. “I dunno, it's very 'you' though.” She saw the broken telescope on a desk by the window and moved over to it. “This is the one your daddy gave you?”

Sparkler glanced up from shovelling books into her bag and nodded. “Yeah, the one the movers broke.”

“It's…pretty?” Stonecutter facepalmed and giggled when she realised she had nothing else to offer on the subject of telescopes. “I’m sorry, I sound like CB. I've never looked through one and I wouldn't know where to start. Maybe one time you can teach me the stars?”

“My new one is still at the professor's house,” Sparkler replied, referring to the smaller, more portable telescope she had bought from the marketplace two days ago. “I’m so glad the wishing well gave it back to me.” She finished putting what was a small library’s worth of books in her shoulder bag and glanced up to her packed plushie shelf above her bed. “I'd take a plushie, but I really don't want Winona chewing on it…”

Walking over, Stonecutter picked up a bright pink Cadance plush. She suspected what the real reason was that she didn’t want to take it, and it had nothing to do with a certain brown and white dog. “CB won't laugh at you if you take a plushie. You saw how she reacted when the well gave her that Wonderbolt doll.”

Sparkler frowned, though she did have to see the point that her marefriend made. “Very well then, I will take the Cady plush, but she has been added to the list that you will defend to your last breath!” the bright yellow unicorn giggled, “Please put it in my shoulder bag and now to pack some clothes.”

“You got it, Mistress.” Stonecutter duly added the plush to the bag and then she looked at her marefriend’s army of plushies and mountain of pillows. “I guess you pillow fort up and read all night don't you? What books did you pack, by the way?”

“All the class text books, and two romance novels, and my, um, note book, for notes.” Sparkler then sniffed the clothes she had on and she wrinkled her nose, retching at the smell. Turning away to hide her blush at how badly she reeked, she placed her shoulder bag back on the bed and she began to strip down completely.

Once she was naked, she dipped into her closet and pulled on a fresh set of Monday clothes, which were white underwear and a summer green dress with a white sash tied around her waist. She tossed what she had been wearing in her hamper. “I think a weeks’ worth would be good.”

As Sparkler quickly packed a small suitcase with regular clothing, leaving her school skirts and sweaters on the hangers, Stonecutter stared at her marefriend. While she was naked, the earth pony’s brain had shut down and she flushed while Sparkler was getting changed. Eventually though, she shook herself back to reality. “Y-You're ah, you mean those romance novels you told me about in the forest?”

“Yes, those novels. I might read to you at night.”

“I think I'd like that. So, you ready to head on over to my place?”

“Yes, take my travel bag, please.” She picked up her shoulder bag and hefted it onto her back. “I'll work hard to be as embarrassing as you.”

Stonecutter easily took the bag, the earth pony picking it up like it was nothing. “It'll just be you and me. My folks are on their way back from their Appleloosa Adventure weekend.”

“Not going to stop me!” Sparkler said with glee, making sure to lock the front door when they left the house.

Stonecutter giggled, “Come on then babes, my place is this way,” she led the way through the town, around the edge of the marketplace. It wasn’t a long journey and since it was a weekday, it wasn’t as busy as it had been on Saturday, though Roseluck and Lily were as usual selling their flowers and Orange Blossom was selling Sweet Apple Acres produce from her stall. Stonecutter’s house, when they got there, was a standard Ponyville style house, though it had a huge one storey shed in the back yard / garden not far from a large lake. The earth pony let them in the back way. “That's my shed, I mean, workshop.”

Sparkler took in the large white brick walled shed, and the many windows that dotted the walls. “Is that where you perform your arcane earth pony rituals?”

“Eeyup.” Stonecutter paused at her back door, “You wanna take a look?”

“Of course I do, in case you have a milking machine in there.”

The fact that Sparkler said that with such a straight face made Stonecutter blush all the harder. Her blush alone was reward enough for that as she opened the door to 'the shed'. Inside were thirty sculptures, some in stone and some in marble. Twenty were done, fifteen had 'sold' stickers on them, the rest were half finished. One unfinished bust currently on a plinth was of Sparkler, herself. Most curious, the unicorn looked around for any busts of a similar size to the one of her, especially if it had a ‘sold’ sticker on it. “What do you think? I mean, they aren't much...”

Sparkler snorted in derision, for she could tell her marefriend was speaking with unnecessary false modesty. The work on display around her was excellent. She walked over to a bust of Mayor Mare that was a similar size to the one of her. “This looks just like the Mayor. May I ask what you charged for this?”

“Sure, the mayor bought it for five hundred bits.”

Sparkler just nodded as she moved over to the one of her in progress. Though she tried not to show it, she knew that her marefriend had a small fortune here in the shed, a testament to her talent. “When did you start this one?”

“Technically, last week.”

“I see, well, I’m glad my face has inspired you.” Sparkler had only asked, because she wanted an idea of how long the earth pony had been looking at her. Getting up on the tips of her hooves, she gave her a kiss. “But we should get what you need.”

“I mean, I've been starting sculpts of you since I first saw you in school a few months ago, but this one, this one was last week.” Stonecutter led the way from the shed across the garden and into the house proper. “I just need to get some clothes that haven't been in a swamp and I’ll be good.”

“Did you finish any of the early ones?” Sparkler asked curiously as she followed Stonecutter inside.

“No,” Stonecutter answered over her shoulder, “Because they weren't right.” The inside of the house was a typically lived in shabby but clean, well-cared for kind of place, there were family pictures on the walls and a sculpt of Stonecutter’s earth pony parents on a side table in the living room.”

As soon as Sparkler saw the sculpture, she gravitated to it, studying it intently. Stonecutter pointed to a picture of her parents and then to the sculpture. “See, it's all in the eyes. Those early ones of you, no matter how perfect the details were, there was no spark in the eyes.”

Sparkler giggled, “You said spark.”

Stonecutter treated her marefriend to a very deadpan eyeroll. Ha, ha ha. Ha. That's why the latest of you? I've left the eyes till last.” While she was talking, she took the unicorn upstairs to her room. It was very spartan, all bare wooden floor and walls. Her first sculpture was there on her night stand, her school books were in the only bookcase, and she had an old boat anchor TV on the desk next to a stack of video cassettes.

“You have a TV?” Sparkler couldn’t quite keep the jealousy from her voice, because she didn’t have one. She looked at sculpture, but she was careful not to touch. “When did you make this?”

“Yeah, it's an old TV though,” The earth pony waved a hand over at the TV and the hundred or so VHS cassettes on the shelves beside it. “That, I made it when I got my cutie mark when I was seven.”

“You were talented then. But your practice really does show in your work now.”

Stonecutter placed a soft and tender kiss of thanks on her marefriend’s lips. “Thank you!” That done, she went to her closet and threw out a few clothes, tee shirts, denim dungarees onto her bed. It was all rugged work stuff, nothing fancy. Not like Sparkler’s dress.

Sparkler kept glancing back at Stonecutter as she reviewed the movie collection. Of the many titles, a good majority were the cheesiest of romantic mare flicks, Sleepless in Manehatten, On Golden Pond, Four Weddings, to name but a few. The unicorn was impressed. “You have good taste in films.”

“Thank you baby,” Stonecutter blew her lover a kiss as she stripped off completely. Sparkler found that she lost all interest in the videos while Stonecutter undressed and then dressed herself. The chubby mare completely changed everything, swapping her swampy clothes for clean underwear, an old tee and then faded blue dungarees. For Sparkler’s benefit, she took her time being naked.

“In case I forgot to tell you how beautiful you are. You are beautiful.” While the dungarees weren’t her first choice of clothing, on the earth pony they just seemed right somehow.

Once she was dressed, Stonecutter walked over and pulled her marefriend into a tight hug, peppering her muzzle with many kisses. “I love you too Sparks.”

“Love you too, love.” Sparkler giggled as Stonecutter just threw her clothes into a large duffel bag. She’d definitely have to do something about her neatness. “To the picnic!”

“To the picnic!” Stonecutter giggled, “Now I'm not wearing swampy clothes.”

~ ~ ~

“I wonder if there will be anything healthy at this picnic…” Sparkler thought out loud, more to herself than to her partner walking by her side. Although, were she honest, she was hungry enough at that point to even eat something fast and greasy.

“If it was just CB doing it, it'd be nothing but hayburgers and fries as far as the eye could see, but Foam's there.” Stonecutter nudges Sparkler's side with her elbow. “Mount Aris doesn't have fast food outlets. Not yet, anyway.”

“I’ve never been there, but they are outside on a blanket. Let's hope for the best.”

Walking hand in hand, Stonecutter began to slow down. She could see Cloudburst and Seafoam sat on a large red and white check blanket surrounded by a multitude of paper plates and Styrofoam cups. “Sparks, can I ask you a serious question a moment?”

As soon as she heard that, Sparkler stopped, bringing Stonecutter to a stop. She turned to face her, wondering what was on her mind. “Now, or in front of them?”

“Now, please. The thing is, I get the feeling you aren't okay with CB, and I want you to be okay with CB, because she thinks you're cool.”

Sparkler sighed in the early afternoon sunlight beside the Everfree Forest. It was hard for her to put properly into words, because she found it hard to make friends at the best of times. “It's not that I'm not okay with her. She is just, well really silly a lot of the time. She proved herself useful – and trustworthy - on the pet retrieval. It is nice to have some wings in the group. I just need more time to really call her a friend. Stoney, she is your friend, so I will work to make her my friend too.”

“She's my best friend, Sparks. To a point I'd say she's more like my sister. A lot of the time she's silly because if she didn't laugh, she'd cry. She told you about her parents.”

Sparkler hugged Stonecutter, again unable to make her hands meet around her body, “I understand she’s family to you, and you to her. Family isn't something you can choose, but for you I'll be her sister too. I love you Stoney, and I can learn to lover her as a sister.”

Stonecutter gently, lovingly, kissed Sparkler's horn. “That's all I ask. Now, c'mon, that food does look nice.”

When they got closer, Sparkler looked all around them to see if the pets were out for the picnic. Cloudburst, dressed in clean hot pants and a tee that showed off her flat stomach, saw her looking and giggled, “no Miss Priss, the pets are inside. Even Angel's behaving since Zecora threatened to make him into a stew.”

With a flick of her ear, Sparkler affected her best Canterlot accent as she sat down on the blanket. “Very good, Ms. Silly. I see you have prepared the picnic for our arrival. Most excellent.”

“She's done very well,” Seafoam petted his mare’s head like Applejack petted Winona. “Only one plate of hayburgers!”

“Enjoy!” Cloudburst did a ‘ta da!’ with her arms at the spread arrayed on the blanket. There was; buffalo cauliflower wings with blue cheese dip, spring onion bhajis with mint and coriander chutney, spiced root vegetable fritters with harissa and lime yogurt, along with plates of fried aubergine sticks with sumac and honey, halloumi salt and vinegar fries with tartare sauce, kale hush puppies with lemon aioli, avocado fries and, of course, a plate of hayburgers.

“Indeed, I shall partake of this excellent feast. You may sit by my side, my fine Stonecutter and sup with me.” Sparkler reached for the orange slush punch – she didn’t know it was non-alcoholic, she was just ready for a cool drink in the summer sun.

“Thank you, Mistress.” Stonecutter sat on the blanket next to Sparkler and helped herself to a cup of the sparkling pear punch which, like the orange, was of the non-alcoholic variety.

Seafoam busied himself getting some of the buffalo cauliflower wings and the halloumi salt and vinegar fries on a plate for Cloudburst. Pointedly there were no burgers on the pegasus’s plate. A fact she acknowledged with a frowny pout. “Thank you Master,” she said grudgingly, though her mood improved when he poured her a cup of pineapple ginger sparkler.

“Master Foamy, please allow Mistress Stoney to serve me.” Sparkler coughed delicately behind her hand and her Canterlot accent slipped into the Ponyville one she had begun to adopt since moving to the town. “I applaud,” she clapped her hands, “all of you keeping a straight face with me doing that voice.” Cloudburst, who had been trying very hard not to lose her composure with that routine, burst out laughing clutching her sides.

Seafoam spared his pet a frown before heaping some of the spiced root vegetable fritters onto a plate for himself. “Stony, you may feed your Mistress.”

“Did I miss a note?” Sparkler asked, suddenly worried she had misunderstood something important. “Can I tell Cloudy what to do?”

The dominant hippogriff realised he may have misunderstood what Sparkler had meant. “Ah, I believe I misunderstood your comment, Mistress Sparkler, the ‘Master Foamy, please allow Mistress Stoney to serve me’,” he explained, waving it away with a clawed hand in the air, “That was my bad. But, I don't think she'd mind if you gave her an order.” He then tapped the laughing pegasus’s nose. “That's enough, pet.”

Just then, as the two couples were eating and making a huge dent in the magnificent spread that Seafoam and Cloudburst had prepared, the meal was interrupted by a bright purple flash followed seconds later by a loud crack that so alarmed Sparkler that she spilled her cup of orange slush all over her plate of half eaten bhajis. “Wh-What the hay was that?” Stonecutter squealed, her arm protectively around her marefriend.

‘That’, as it happened, was Spike. Staggering on his feet, the dragon looked all beat up, blackened and scarred, like he had been in the fight of his life. As he staggered about, his green eyes spun from the after-effects of the long range teleport he had just endured. “Spike!?” they all exclaimed at once.

“You’ve gotta help!” Spike yelled, his eyes wide with fear. He glanced around at the group he was confronted with. He recognised them as the three mares that Twilight had left the pets with before they had all gone to the Badlands. “Twilight and the others are in big trouble! They’ve been pony-napped! We made it into the Badlands and we were making camp for the night when somepony attacked us! I’m the only one who escaped, Twilight teleported me away…they need your help!” Spike took several breaths before he teetered on his feet and fell face first into the bowl of sparkling pear punch.

Silence.

Nobody spoke. Not one of them sat at the picnic made a sound. For a few moments that felt like an eternity, the only sounds was the chirping of birds. Seafoam, Cloudburst, Sparkler and Stonecutter all looked at each other, each unsure what to do or say. Eventually, the pegasus shifted on the blanket. “Sweet Cadance's tits...that's a thing...” stunned, Cloudburst poked the unconscious dragon laid face down in the empty punch bowl with her wingtip. “Is um…is he okay?”

“I studied about dragons since Professor Twilight has one for an assistant,” Sparkler shook herself free of Stonecutter’s protective arm and shot Cloudburst a glare, “Please stop poking him!” she lit her horn and levitated the dragon onto his back so she could check him out. He was bruised and scarred, but not badly injured. The tattered and ripped clothes he wore made him look worse than he was. “He just needs some rest. Stoney, he is heavier than he looks. Can you put him on Fluttershy's bed, please?”

“I got him, Sparks.” Happy to be given something to do, Stonecutter hefted Spike up in her arms and she carried the unconscious dragon upstairs.

Cloudburst looked around at Seafoam and then at Sparkler. “Hey, you guys think the professor's really are turned into statuettes?”

Sparkler sat back on the blanket and swallowed the last of her orange punch. “Well, technically Spike said they had been pony-napped, not that they had been turned into statuettes…” she blushed and smoothed out the blanket, realising that this may not be the time to debate semantics. “The adventure never ends. Does anypony even know where they went?”

“Headmare Twilight said they were going to the Badlands,” Cloudburst offered, snatching up a hayburger before she could be stopped and taking a bite, “And Spike just said they were setting up camp in the Badlands.”

Sparkler shuddered, “Isn't that where the bugs are?”

“Bugs, spiders and possibly taztleworms too,” Stonecutter answered from inside Fluttershy’s cottage as she came back down the stairs and stepped outside. “I cleaned the little guy up and I left him with a damp towel on his head. Kept murmuring Dodge City, Dodge Canyon, Badlands and statuettes over and over.”

Sparkler spared her lover her very best eye roll followed by a deadpan stare. “I meant bugs as in changelings, but Dodge City is a lot closer.”

Seafoam had a half-eaten halloumi fry in his beak, which the hippogriff almost choked on. “Hang on...you aren't thinking of actually going, are you?”

“Well, we braved the Everfree Forest and we survived...”

Seafoam chose to ignore what Cloudburst had just said. “Yes,” he protested, “But this is the Badlands! There are desert raiders in the Badlands, as well as taztleworms and Novo knows what else!”

Sparkler held up her hands for quiet. She had to think, and she couldn’t think with noise of bickering going on. “Look, only Professor Twilight could have teleported Spike, it’s something like eight hundred miles from here to the Badlands and she sent him here to get us. Not sure why us tough. You’d think she would have sent him to Canterlot to get the Princesses. Or the Guard. Or anypony really.”

Stonecutter shrugged and did what she always did when confronted with an unusual situation. She reached for food. “She must've thought we could manage...whatever it is?”

Cloudburst clapped her hands eagerly. “I'm up for a road trip!”

“So, Foamy, can you watch the house and take care of the pets, please?” Sparkler asked the bewildered hippogriff, attempting as she did so to make the kind of puppy dog eyes that she made when she was asking her mother for a new textbook. Quickly, Cloudburst and Stonecutter followed suit, turning weapon’s grade puppy eyes to Seafoam.

Seafoam endured this horrendous torture for three whole minutes until… “Stop! Please just, stop!” he let out a sigh, “I can't take the puppy eyes! Yes, I'll watch the pets, just please, no more!”

All three of the mares clapped their hands in victory. The puppy dog eyes won again! “Dodge City is the closest stop to the Badlands on the Friendship Express’s route. I’ll need to stop at the house again for money for the train tickets…ooh, I’d better call the trainline first and book them.”

“I have a wagon in my shed,” Stonecutter offered, thinking of her large red wagon that she used for delivering her sculptures to their owners. “We can stock up with all the supplies we’ll need. That'll go on the train no problem.”

Sparkler, already on her phone, gave her marefriend a thumbs up to say she had heard her. “When I get through, I’ll make sure they have something the wagon can go on.”

Stonecutter grinned, a mental plan for the road trip ahead in her mind. “Alright, well, I'll go get my wagon, babes!”

“There’s plenty of supplies we can use in the professor's cupboards,” Cloudburst put in, wanting to be as helpful as she could. She knew, after feeding the pets, where everything that they could use on the trip was.

“Just don't pack the pet food!” Sparkler called after Cloudburst as the pegasus was already on her way back into the tree shaped cottage and Stonecutter was a disappearing speck on her way back into Ponyville.

Seafoam watched all the frenzied activity with a look of utter bewilderment on his feathered face. He really couldn’t believe they were even considering doing what they were planning on doing. One day in the Everfree Forest and suddenly he had three Daring Do clones on his clawed hands. He turned that bewildered, stunned look to Cloudburst, stopping her in her tracks. “Help me toss the trash, pet.”

“Yes, Master.” Immediately, Cloudburst altered her course and she collected up a stack of dirty paper plates, food scraps and empty Styrofoam cups into a trash bag.

Seafoam waited until he and Cloudburst were inside Fluttershy’s cottage putting the trash from the picnic in the bins. Then, he turned on her, a stern look plastered all over his face. “Just because you haven't told them, doesn't make you any less pregnant.”

The fact that her partner had got straight to the point gave Cloudburst cause for concern. She paused at the kitchen door, feeling a lot like she did when she was summoned to the Headmare’s office at school. “What? Well, I'm only a bit pregnant…”

There were times that Seafoam loved his marefriend. There were times that he absolutely and completely adored the ground she walked on and the air she flew in. Then, like now, there were times he wanted to shake her until some sense entered that head of hers. “Fine, I know that, but going on an adventure yesterday almost got you killed, now you risk two.”

Cloudburst rubbed the back of her mane. “Are you saying I shouldn't go?”

“What do you owe them that you need to go?” Seafoam countered quickly.

“Stone's my extra big sis, you know that.” Cloudburst answered him, dumping the full trash bag in the bin. “I gotta look out for her. And they need somepony a bit messy, cos Sparks is like, uber clean. She'll drive her nuts!”

Seafoam understood his pet’s sense of loyalty. In some cases it was vastly overdeveloped. Then again, that was why she was top of Professor Dash’s class at school. “And if you're miles in the air and turn to a stone statuette, what then? Who is going to catch you?”

“Sparks will, Master. I trust her.”

The hippogriff raised an eyebrow. “You mean the 'uber clean' one? But you'll be dirty stone.”

“Have you seen how good she is with her magic, Foam?” Cloudburst realised, as she said that, that her lover had not seen Sparkler’s magical skills like she had. “Besides, I owe her one. She did save my life.”

“That. Is. My point!” Seafoam tried very hard to keep the frustration from his voice. It wasn’t an easy task though, particularly when she was being as obtuse as she was. “It isn't just your life you're risking.” He placed a clawed hand over Cloudburst's flat belly, knowing that it wouldn’t be flat for much longer. “Half of me is inside you, now.”

Cloudburst placed her hands on Seafoam’s claw, holding it in place on her belly. For once, she had no snappy retort, no witty comeback. For once, she didn’t want to make one even if she had one to make. “And I swear I'll keep her super safe, Seafoam. My foal…our foal…she’s the most important thing, I swear.”

Seafoam sighed, realising he was defeated. As much as he really wanted to order her not to go, he knew that was above and beyond the boundaries they had set. Cloudburst was her own mare, and he would be there for her when she came back. “I'm going worry about you every minute you're gone. You know that, right? I'll watch Fluttershy's place while you’re gone.”

“I know you will, Master.” Cloudburst clapped her hands excitedly, making little electric sparks fly from her palms. “I love you, you know that, right?”

Moving in close to her, Seafoam gave his pet a tongue probing kiss. “As I love you, as I love the sky you fly in and the sea you swim in. And will continue to do so. So, do you know a good place to get wing bands in Ponyville?”

“Yeah, oh!” a sudden idea came to Cloudburst, a rather wonderful, kinky, sexy idea. “Hey, can you give me some money, captain sensible? I wanna go get something for Sone and Sparks real quick, as well as the wing bands...um...while you tidy up, um…again.” Now she said it out loud, her plan did seem a little like a dick move.

Grunting with frustration, Seafoam rapped his knuckles on Cloudburst's head. “I'm the one buying the wing bands, clouds for brains.” He sighed, thinking of the pegasi wedding bands. He then pulled out five hundred bits in notes from his wallet. “Get whatever you think you need for the road trip. I hope it’s only a couple of days like the last adventure.”

“Hey!” Cloudburst made a fake pout as she smoothed her mane back down. “You don't love me for my brains, remember?” she fluttered her wings and hovered up, planting a loving kiss on his beak. “There's a wedding shop right next to Quills and Sofas. I know cos Stone gets drawn to it like a magnet every time we walk past it.”

“Okay, you have me.” Seafoam kissed the hovering mare’s lips with the tip of his beak. “Your perky tits, cute tush, and loving heart is why I love you.”

Smirking, Cloudburst gave her lover another kiss. “Wait till you see the bridle and reins I get for Stone to wear. Oh, yeah, and road trip stuff too!”

“Just get enough.” He tried, as ever, to be the voice of reason to his impulsive marefriend. “You can always get more in Dodge City, but the Badlands are literally forever away from here.”

“I know, my love,” she hugged him and, still in the air, placed several kisses all the way up the middle of the hippogriff’s face from his beat to his forehead. She then flapped her pale blue wings and flew out of the tree cottage. “Back in a mo, Master!” she called over her shoulder then, outside, she saw an opportunity. Flying low over Sparkler’s head, “HEY SPARKS!” she yelled, slapping the unicorn’s behind with her hand as she flew past.

Having just completed her buying of the three train tickets from the Friendship Express phone booking line to depart from Ponyville station later that day, Sparkler jumped and almost dropped her phone. “Crap on me and you're dead, featherbrain!” she yelled up at the cackling speck that was Cloudburst.

“You had your back to her, Sparks.” Seafoam explained as he came out to finish tidying up the remains of their picnic. “In her eyes it makes you fair game.” He only hoped, deep down, that whatever they were to face in the Badlands, his beautiful mare would come back to him safe and sound.

Chapter 2 - Getting Out of Dodge

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“Sweet Celestia!” Stonecutter exclaimed as she stepped off the Friendship Express with Sparkler and Cloudburst at her sides. The slate grey earth pony wafted herself with her hand. She, along with her companions, had grown accustomed to the air conditioning on the eight hundred mile trip from Ponyville. Now, stood on the ancient looking wooden platform, the intense dry heat hit her like a sucker punch in the face.

“I have to agree,” Sparkler gasped, for already sweat was starting to bead on the unicorn’s forehead. At least she was wearing a dress, she hated to imagine what her marefriend was feeling in her tee shirt and dungarees.

“Is it too late to go back on the train?” asked Cloudburst, getting a reproachful glare from the other two mares for her trouble. “Okay, it was only a joke, jeez!” In truth, she was glad to be off the train. While it did have an observation deck with a three hundred and sixty degree panoramic view, it was still an enclosed space, and she hated enclosed spaces. Happily, she flexed her wings and took off, hovering out of the way as a stream of passengers disembarked behind them.

Stonecutter then led the way to the back of the steam train where one of the guards had opened the large sliding door that took up almost the whole side of the cargo car and had lowered the ramp so that passengers could get the larger things they had transported. The earth pony showed the guard her ticket and took hold of her battered old wagon. “Right,” she said once the wagon was on the rickety old station, “I’ve got Bessie, what’s the plan?”

‘Bessie’, was the name that Stonecutter had given her four wheeled wagon many years ago when her old grandmother had bought it for her. Used primarily for taking her sculptures to their owners, now Bessie was loaded down with their supplies. As well as their suitcases and duffel bags, shoulder bags and – in Sparkler’s case – a book bag and several cleaning kits, there were shovels, spades, ropes, torches, tents and sleeping bags and, last but not least, enough food and fresh water for a week’s trip.

One last and very important thing also rode in Bessie, and that was Sparkler herself, once the unicorn had looked over their things and made sure that everything was present and correct, according to her itinerary, she hopped up and sat herself down in the wagon. “CB, if you wouldn’t mind dressing my draft pony?”

“Draft…what now?”

“Oh, you got it, Sparks!” Cloudburst giggled and, ignoring her best friend, she reached into her bag. Grinning, she pulled out the thing she had been holding onto since her trip to the MiAC store in Ponyville. That thing being a bright yellow bridle and reins.

“What the…hey!” Cloudburst again ignored Stonecutter’s surprised exclamation as she secured the yellow bridle around the earth pony’s head. She left off the bit, but she did fit the blinders and the reins before tossing them to Sparkler in the wagon, who caught them in her magical aura.

Sparkler had to bite her lip, because Stonecutter looked so very sexy with the bridle on her. “Very good, CB!” she high-fived the pale blue pegasus before turning her attention to her marefriend. “Now, pet, are you going to pull, or shall I use the wagon’s shoulder harness?” Part of Stonecutter wanted to be harnessed to the wagon, but she had no idea what they’d face out here. She turned her back to her lover and gripped the two bars she was stood between in her strong hands. “Very good,” Sparkler turned to Cloudburst, “Here’s some money, CB, please get us three wide brimmed hats from the merchant on the platform.”

While Cloudburst was off buying the sun hats – something Sparkler had omitted from her planning – the bright yellow unicorn noticed there was some activity going on at the rear of the train. Most of the other passengers had left the station. She saw three earth ponies and a unicorn unloading a stack of large wooden crates from the same car that their wagon had been stored in. Upon closer inspection, she could see the crates they were busying themselves around were marked with ‘excavation supplies’, ‘dig site staff only’ and ‘Badlands’, all in large stencilled capital letters. “Hey, Stone,” Sparkler got her mare’s attention, “What do you make of that?”

Stonecutter looked where her marefriend was pointing. “Probably something to do with them archaeologists that were on the train, remember the ones in the dining car last night who were entertained by CB’s harmonica playing?”

“I agree,” ideas were running through the unicorn’s head as she watched the group of three ponies work. They were unloading the crates of equipment onto a large flatbed cart that was three times the size of the one she was currently sat in. “I have an idea, pet. They seem to be headed to the Badlands…”

“You want to tag along, see if they’re going where we’re going?” asked Stonecutter, finishing her Mistress’s idea for her.

“I always said you were smart, pet. Yes, that’s what I’m thinking. They seem well equipped, organised. Maybe they’ll let us go with them, who knows, maybe they’ll know something about the statuettes thing.”

“And maybe we’ll run into Professor Twilight out there too,” Cloudburst added as she flew back to the red wagon with three straw coloured wide brimmed sun hats in her hands. She placed one on her own head before passing the other two to Sparkler and Stonecutter respectively. “Good plan, Sparks!”

“Thank you, CB,” Sparkler took the offered hat and placed it delicately on her head. ‘Oh yes,’ she thought with a smile, ‘this is much better.’ Her smile widened when she saw Stonecutter do the same. She knew that with the blinders on the bridle as well as the brim of the hat, her pet had zero peripheral vision. “Anyway, I think we should go and say hello, see if they’ll let us go with them.”

By the time Stonecutter had pulled her wagon over to the group of three ponies, the unicorn had the flatbed wagon loaded up with the supplies from the train. The train guard had the sliding door secured, the two earth ponies wore reins, neckerchiefs and wide hats. The unicorn mare, who looked to be in her thirties and who was wearing khaki shorts and shirt and a pith helmet, checked everything was secured down before getting in the driver’s seat in front of the cargo.

“Excuse me!” the sand coloured unicorn mare turned to look at Sparkler with a curious look on her face. Before she could ask what she wanted, the younger mare continued, “I’m Sparkler! This is Stonecutter and Cloudburst,” she introduced them to the unicorn. “My friends and I are on a…a field trip to the Badlands. We can’t help noticing that’s where you’re going. Do you mind if we ride with you?”

The two earth pony stallions harnessed to the flatbed wagon looked at each other then they shrugged and as one pointed to the sand coloured mare. She was the one in charge, they were just paid to pull the wagon. “A field trip?” she wasn’t wholly convinced. “From what school?”

“The School of Friendship in Ponyville!” Cloudburst answered, flaring her wings proudly in the air. “We’re the three most awesomest students!”

“Uh huh. ‘Awesomest’, huh?” the sand coloured mare couldn’t help but grin. Mostly at the eye roll she saw the younger unicorn gave the pegasus. While she disputed that claim, she couldn’t deny the three mares before her were well equipped for the Badlands. “Well, miss Sparkler, you can ride with us, but it’ll cost you one hundred and fifty bits each.”

“A hundred and fifty bits each?” Cloudburst exclaimed, coming to a landing beside the wagon that Sparkler was riding in, “Oh come on, we don’t have that kind of money!”

The sand coloured unicorn was unperturbed in the larger wagon. “Yeah well, miss Cloudburst, we’re working for the archaeological expedition over in the Badlands. We only came to Dodge City for the supply run. We aren’t paid to foal-sit some out of town schoolponies playing Daring Do adventure time.”

Cloudburst scoffed, “Do we look like three schoolponies playing Daring Do?”

“You look like three schoolponies who should be safe at home doing your homework,” the older unicorn retorted, “Not here in Dodge City about to have a trek into the Badlands.”

Sparkler thought quickly. Holding their purse, she knew they didn’t have four hundred and fifty bits. They barely had three hundred between them. Sparkler had some gems in her pack, for her sculpting, but she doubted they amounted to four hundred and fifty bits. A sudden flash of inspiration came to her. “That flatbed looks big and heavy. Instead of paying the full fee, what if I lent you my draft pony to help pull it?”

Stonecutter turned an amazed look to Sparkler. Thanks to the blinders on her bridle, she had to turn all the way around. She gave her an ‘I’m right here…’ look, to which Sparkler just winked. The sand coloured unicorn glanced at the space left on the flatbed and seemed to be considering it. “Say, you’re awfully determined to get to the Badlands, what gives, schoolponies?”

Cloudburst, Stonecutter and Sparkler all shared a look between them, communicating by looks alone. As one, they agreed that the older unicorn didn’t seem the type to be fooled, so it was better to just be honest with her. That, and Sparkler was awful at lying. “Well, ma’am,” Sparkler began, at the same time wondering when she had been nominated as the spokespony, “It’s like this. Princess Twilight Sparkle, our Headmare, and the other Elements of Harmony, our teachers, were on a Friendship Mission out here in the Badlands. They were investigating the curse of the statuettes…”

“Were?” the older mare asked, interrupting the young pony’s story as she noticed the two earth pony stallions who were harnessed to the flatbed begin to whisper nervously amongst themselves at the mention of the strange curse.

“Yes ma’am, they were,” Sparkler pressed on. “As far as we know, they reached the Badlands three days ago, and now they are missing. We were asked to rescue them.”

“Wait. You three. You were asked to rescue a Princess and the Element Bearers?” the sand coloured unicorn was incredulous.

“Yes ma’am.” The three answered in unison.

“You three?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Not Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the Royal Guard, or a dedicated search and rescue team?”

“No ma’am.”

“You three. You three are going to search the whole of the Badlands for six missing ponies.”

“Yes ma’am.” The three mares shared another look between them. When it was said out loud like that, all of a sudden, Seafoam’s warning came flooding back to their ears like he was actually there beside them. Still, they were here now, weren’t they?

“Excuse me, young miss?” one of the earth pony draft stallions, a dark green pony, spoke up. He shared the same nervous expression as his partner besides him. “You say you’re here to investigate the curse?” At the mention of the curse, they both made the sign of Celestia to protect themselves.

“Hogwash!” the sand coloured unicorn scoffed, waving her hoof in the air. Holding the stallion’s reins in her magical aura, she was ready to get moving while they still had daylight. The supplies were needed by the archaeologists, and bandits operated at night. “Tracker, you don’t believe in that hokey old mare’s tale, do you?”

“Begging your pardon, Sunny Saddles, ma’am, but the curse ain’t no hokey old tale,” the stallion shot back nervously while his partner made the sign of Celestia once again. “Five of our colleagues at the dig site have been turned into statuettes this past week. Three were for just a few hours, but Longhaul and Rockface were like that for two whole days before they returned to normal!”

“That’s right,” the other stallion at last found his voice, “And Compass Star, Comet Tail and Professor Gully Trotter have even disappeared altogether! Nopony’s seen them for three days now.”

“Hey now, Pathfinder,” Tracker moved across in his harness and gave his partner an affectionate nuzzle and a chaste kiss on his lips, “There’s no need to worry. These mares are from Ponyville. They said they’re here to investigate the curse. It’ll all be okay, baby.” Pathfinder seemed to visibly calm himself as Tracker hugged and nuzzled his cheek. The kisses being expertly applied all over his face and muzzle helped too.

Sunny Saddles rolled her eyes and snorted through her nose. The older mare knew she wouldn’t get anywhere fast at this rate. ‘This is what I get for letting Gully Trotter hire from the locals…’ she thought to herself. ‘Next time, we’ll bring our own team in…’ The local ponies they had hired in Dodge City had been nothing but superstitious wrecks the whole time on the dig. With a grunt, she facepalmed. “Fine. Get your wagon on the flatbed. You can come.” As Tracker and Pathfinder shared a fist bump and a kiss, she asked, “Are you happy now?”

Grinning, Sparkler got out of the wagon and lit her horn. Casting her telekinesis spell, she lifted up the wagon and all their supplies onto the back of the six wheeled flatbed. Still rolling her eyes, Sunny Saddles quickly had it secured with ratchet straps and she got back in the driver’s seat. “By the way,” the sand coloured mare added, pointing to Stonecutter, “You’re helping to pull.”

“Fine, I’m good with that.” Stonecutter walked around to the front of the flatbed, where Tracker had pulled a spare harness from the supplies in an open crate.

“Don’t worry,” Pathfinder noted Stonecutter’s ‘girth’ and rested a hand on her shoulder as his long-time partner carefully adjusted the harness to the mare’s size and fixed it in place. “We’ll go at your pace. We’ve got plenty of time to get to Site B, especially with three of us pulling.”

As Tracker resumed his position on the left, with Pathfinder in the middle and Stonecutter on the right, Sparkler chose to sit on the driver’s seat with Sunny Saddle, who now had three sets of reins held in her magic. “Pardon me, miss Sunny Saddle,” Sparkler began as she smoothed her dress, having picked up her name from the two earth pony stallions, “But um…Site B? Whatever happened to Site A? That is, if you don’t mind me asking.”

For a long few minutes, the sand coloured mare didn’t answer Sparkler’s question. She gave the reins she was holding a gentle flick with her magic and the flatbed wagon set off out of Dodge City headed for Dodge Canyon in the distance. “Site A,” she said presently, “Site A is the reason we were running supplies just now.”

“How do you mean?” Sparkler asked as she saw Cloudburst out of the corner of her eye fly alongside them and then land in Stonecutter’s red wagon.

“What I mean,” Sunny Saddle continued like she hadn’t been interrupted. She didn’t look at Sparkler sat beside her, instead she kept her attention on the rocky desert ground ahead, using the reins to steer the wagon. “Is that Professor Gully Trotter’s expedition lost a large amount of equipment when a huge monster attacked the first dig site a few days ago. What’s more, the whatever-it-is has taken up residence there, so we can’t even retrieve the stuff that’s still there.”

“A monster?” Sparkler fought hard to suppress a full body shudder. Again, it was like Seafoam was there beside her. She could almost hear the ‘I told you so’ as the wagon sped along the desert. “What kind of monster?”

In the back, sat in her best friend’s red wagon amongst their supplies, Cloudburst got herself comfortable on several bags and blankets. She would’ve flown, but the hot sun was beating down on them, and as good as her flying skill was, she didn’t want to exert herself. Not with the precious cargo she was carrying anyway. She had promised Seafoam she’d be careful out here. So, she relaxed in the back and, after getting her harmonica from her bag, reclined with her hooves up and her hat down.

As Cloudburst began to play a tune, one that Sparkler recognised as ‘the time warp’, the memory of Tank the tortoise hanging onto a mohawk’s tail while the pegasus danced to make him laugh flashed through her mind. Levitating one of the text books from her bag, she began to look through it. “What did the monster look like, please?” she asked when Sunny Saddle didn’t answer her.

“Well, I don’t rightly know…” Sunny Saddle shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat, a blush on her face. “There was rumbling, then it came up out of the ground. There was dust, rocks and equipment crates flying everywhere. I didn’t get a good look at the creature because I was too busy running away, like the rest of the dig crew.” She shuddered slightly, “Trowel, the dig supervisor, Celestia bless his soul, wasn’t fast enough. All I know is it’s huge. Massive. It had a long purple, red and pink snake-like body and a mouthful of teeth.”

In a flurry of paper, Sparkler flicked through the pages of her book, ‘A Beginner’s Guide to the Badlands – know the difference between dessert and desert, said the tagline under the main title – until she came to the part she was looking for. “Did it look something like that, at all?”

Sunny Saddle glanced at the book that had just been thrust under her nose and she let out a yelp of fear when she saw the picture on the page. “Y-Ye-Yes…just like that, now please put that book away, please.”

Sparkler levitated the book back in front of her and quietly she read the text beside the image of the tatzlwurm. She didn’t read every word, just the important bits. Namely it was a hundred feet long, had six eyes, three mouths with lots of teeth. The creature’s two main traits seemed to be what the book called its ‘tremor sense’, an ability to detect subtle vibrations in the ground when it was actively hunting its prey. The other ability was it could spray a target with its snot, which could then infect that target with an illness called ‘tatzl-flu’. That alone made the unicorn reach in her bag for her allergy tablets.

In the back of the wagon, the harmonica music had stopped. Thanks to the rocking motion of the flatbed, and the comfy blankets she was laid on, Cloudburst had fallen asleep under her hat. While she wasn’t normally a pony to enjoy a nap, now, she was laid with her hands hugging her belly, gentle snoring coming from the sleeping pale blue pegasus.

~ ~ ~

“Momma! C’mon momma it’s the first day of school!” Sea Poppy buzzed her little turquoise wings happily, completely unable to hide her excitement as she bounced on her parents’ wide double bed.

“Ugh...” without opening her eyes, Cloudburst blindly reached her hand out and felt around for her alarm clock, which was a difficult task under the orbital hippogriff bombardment that her filly was currently unleashing upon her and her husband, who amazingly was still asleep. Blearily she cracked open an eye. ‘It’s still dark out…that’s not good…’ finally managing to focus, the pegasus looked at the clock like it was its fault she was up. “Poppy…it’s five a.m.!” She groaned.

“I know! I know!” Sea Poppy squealed with delight, landing a huge bounce on the concealed snoring lump next to her mum that was her daddy, Seafoam – who was either really asleep or a really good actor – who grunted out a loud snore and rolled over. “The whole day is almost over! C’mon, it’s school, I wanna go!”

Cloudburst slumped exhaustedly back in her bed. “Sweetie…school doesn’t start for another four hours! Go back to bed…” ‘pleeeeease!’

“But…mooooomma!” Sea Poppy landed on her mother’s chest and gave her a little nip with her beak on the base of her neck that she knew she liked and nuzzled her tiny muzzle in deep into her pale blue fur, getting her yellow beak right against her skin. “I’m too excited!”

Cloudburst sighed in defeat. “Alright then, I’m up little one. Have you brushed your beak and washed your claws?” She asked, propping herself up on her forearm.

“Um…no momma.”

“Alright then…well, have you at least had a bath?” Cloudburst yawned and stretched her wings as she sat up properly in the bed, her hands wandering to the rounded mass of her belly that would soon be Sea Poppy’s brother, in a month or two, anyway.

Her excited filly didn’t answer; Sea Poppy’s scarlet blush that covered her turquoise face told her everything she needed to know.

“Yeah, I thought not,” she grinned, wrinkling her nose playfully like she smelled something bad. “Go and run yourself a bath you smelly filly.” Cloudburst giggled as she lightly bopped her daughter’s beak with her fingertip. “You can’t start school smelling like your daddy after a day guarding the royal palace.”

“Okay momma!” Sea Poppy chirped as she flapped her little wings and took off like a rocket to the upstairs bathroom.

Cloudburst rolled over on the bed, now fully properly awake and accepting that sleep had been robbed from her. “You…” She grinned into her husband’s exposed right ear tuft, “Are an evil hippogriff for not waking up with me.” She whispered, nipping the tip of his turquoise ear tuft hard. Very hard indeed.

“Ooow! CB!” Seafoam grunted, his blue eyes still closed as he flicked his ear. “Too early. Guard needs sleep. Make it up to you later.”

“You’d better, Master, or else. I’ll even wear that negligee I know you like, the pink see through one…” Cloudburst left that hanging in the air as she kissed his cheek as she heard the bathwater running. “I’d better go before she floods us again. You just go back to sleep like you don’t have a care in Mount Aris.”

Chainsaw-like snores were her only reply from the hippogriff-shaped lump that was her husband.

~ ~ ~

“Alright…for the ninth time of asking, are you ready?” Cloudburst asked her bubbling filly who was almost trembling with excitement as the wall clock announced the time of eight twenty five.

“Yes momma, I’ve got everything, let’s go, c’mon we’ll be late let’s go!” Sea Poppy squealed as she pushed her glasses up her face.

“Poppy…we have twenty five minutes to make a fifteen minute walk.” Cloudburst smiled as she placed a reassuring hand on her little daughter’s shoulder, trying in vain to calm her down. “We’ll be fine, you’ll see. Now, have you got your schoolbag?”

“Yes momma, it’s here look!” Sea Poppy turned to show off her clearly visible bag slung over her shoulder.

“Textbooks?” The pale blue mare asked again.

“Yes momma! I have everything; textbooks, notebooks, pencil case, spare pencil case, spare glasses, everything!” The little filly pouted indignantly up at her mother. “You’ll want me to have spares of my spares next!”

“Hey little madam, no need to be sassy.” Cloudburst extended a wing over her little filly and pulled her, bags and all, into a feathery hug. “You aren’t too big for a spanking y’know.” She added with a wink as she ushered her out of their front door into the bright Monday morning sun. She loved Mount Aris. She loved how the hippogriffs didn’t wear clothes. She loved the sun’s heat on her large swollen belly. She loved how the hippogriffs they passed looked appreciatively at her belly. “Your aunty Sparkler would be proud you’re well prepared though.

“Do you mean like the spanks that daddy gives to you?” Sea Poppy asked innocently as she cocked her head up at her mother.

“Yes…” Cloudburst blushed a faint red on her pale blue cheeks and smiled down at her little filly. She looked so adorable in those big round glasses. “Though you won’t get the handcuffs.”

“Aww!” The little filly stomped her hoof in a show of adorable indignation as she walked beside her mother. “But, momma! I wanna try them, you and daddy make them look fun!”

Cloudburst paused on the path to the schoolhouse, a smile reaching her eyes. “They don't make them in your size, sweetie.” She laughed at the pout her little filly was making. “Grow a bit, then maybe we’ll get Santa Hooves to bring you a set for Hearths Warming, okay?”

“Okay momma! I'll grow super fast you'll see!” Sea Poppy buzzed her little wings so hard and with such enthusiasm she left the cobbled path and landed perfectly upon her mother's shoulders.

“I'm sure you will, Poppy,” Cloudburst couldn't help but laugh, not to be in any way cruel, more that her filly’s joy was just too infectious to not at least giggle with her. She waved to one of her friends on the way to the school and, with the thought of her filly growing in mind, she rested her hand on her belly. She couldn’t wait for Cloudhunter to be here. “Why I bet you’ll be the bestest growerer in Mount Aris and Seaquestria.”

Now it was Sea Poppy’s turn to laugh, giggling delightfully into her mother's mane. “Momma those aren't proper words, you made them up!”

“Of course I made them up sweetie.” Cloudburst giggled to the little hippogriff currently riding on her shoulders. She had a vision of Sparkler being outraged at her mangling of language. Totally worth it though. “All words are made up at some point, Poppy, that’s how language evolves, honey.” Ugh…now she sounded like Sparkler.

They walked along in silence for a good few yards, both pegasus and hippogriff just enjoying each other's company in the beautiful morning sunlight. “Momma…” Cloudburst whispered, almost inaudibly into her mother's ear, “Momma, I'm…I'm scared, a bit…well a lot, sort of…”

“Sweetie…you have nothing to be scared of.” Cloudburst slipped easily into her ‘mother’ mode. She still surprised herself how easily she did that. “I’m here with you. We’ve met your new teacher and you know your classmates from nursery school. It’s gonna be just fine, I promise. And, after school, we’ll take you to the new Hayburger place.”

~ ~ ~

Unfortunately, any further dreams on Cloudburst’s part were thrown out the window when the flatbed wagon jolted her awake as it was pulled over the rough uneven desert ground. “Hey…” the pegasus grumbled, shifting herself to a half sitting position in the back, “Watch it, will you? I’m not using this taxi service again…” she giggled, enjoying the look that Sparkler gave her from the driver’s seat.

“Ignore her,” Sparkler said to Sunny Saddle as the wagon started to head downhill. It wasn’t a steep gradient, but it was enough that the wagon picked up speed. Fortunately Tracker and Pathfinder knew what they were doing and they adjusted their speed to match the incline. “So, you say that Professor Gully Trotter’s gone missing?” when Sunny Saddle nodded, she asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, who’s in charge?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Sunny Saddle answered the younger mare as she steered the wagon around a particularly large rock that jutted out from the desert floor. “That would be Doctor Caballeron, the pony who organised and funded the whole expedition in the first place.”

“If he funded the dig, shouldn’t he be in charge in the first place?” asked Sparkler while Cloudburst tried to get comfortable again in the back of the red wagon.

“He should,” the older mare agreed, frowning in concentration because the going was becoming harder and harder the closer they got to Dodge Canyon, “But he hired Professor Trotter for his experience. He studied archaeology at Barnett College, the most prestigious academy in Canterlot. Caballeron was impressed with Gully’s knowledge of Equestrian history and the fact he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty with some field work, so he put him in charge.”

Eventually, after a short time travelling through the hot dry sandy desert, the flatbed wagon arrived at the very foot of a large towering mountain range. Ahead of them, there was a tall canyon with vertical rock walls rising up on either side of the bumpy road that they had been travelling along. Sparkler guessed it was at least fifty feet bigger than the gorge they had encountered in the Everfree Forest. Tracker and Pathfinder approached the entrance to the canyon and Stonecutter followed their lead, continuing to pull the wagon along the road which was made narrow by the steep cliffs.

Sparkler instinctively huddled into herself on the driver’s seat, she had seen all the smashed rocks that were littering the sides of the canyon. She couldn’t explain it, or put her finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. Something was…off, about this place. If anything, she felt like they were being watched, and followed by something, or somepony. “Hey, CB,” she turned to face her friend, who again had her hat pulled down over her face, “Everything feel okay to you?”

“No,” she replied shortly, “It’s not okay. I’m trying to nap and I’m not napping. Chill out, Sparks, we’re fine. What could possibly go wrong out here?”

What could go wrong, apparently, was just about everything.

Sparkler was about to shoot her friend a well-considered retort when several things seemed to happen all at once. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a spark of magical energy explode like a firework in front of the flatbed wagon to the left. She, along with the rest of them, then heard the fwooshing sound of magic being used. Tracker, who was pulling on the left, seemed to disappear before their very eyes! The earth pony stallion had been reduced to a pony-shaped statuette, bouncing on the ground as the wagon rolled over him.

Caught completely off guard and now unbalanced, Pathfinder and Stonecutter careened off to the right side of the canyon and they crashed into the rock wall. “What the hay!” Cloudburst, caught – almost – napping in the back of the wagon, was jolted around and, as a result, she hit her head hard against the wooden side and was knocked senseless.

“Whoooooaaaaaaaa!” Stonecutter, who had taken the brunt of the impact into the canyon wall, cursed to herself. She tried to correct herself, with the help of Sunny Saddle pulling her reins, and, inexperienced as she was at team pulling, she overcorrected, losing control as the wagon sped up on its downhill course.

“Tracker!” Pathfinder screamed in frightened alarm as he watched his husband disappear, only to see him reduced to a statuette right by his side, twisted in his harness in an attempt to catch him, which only served to send the speeding wagon even more out of control than it already was.

“I got him, Path!” Sunny Saddle lit her horn and levitated the statuette that had, until a moment ago, been Tracker up from the canyon floor into her bag.

All this happened at once, in the space of a split second. Cloudburst was knocked out cold in the back of Stonecutter’s red wagon, a wicked looking gash above her left eye. Stonecutter was bleeding from her right arm and leg where she had collided with the canyon wall. It was only a virtue of her thick hide that she wasn’t any worse off than she was. Just as Sparkler was starting to catch her breath though, as the dust settled, there came a deep rumbling from all around them.

“Boulders!” Sunny Saddle cried out in answer to the unspoken question. The sand coloured unicorn was pouring all her concentration into trying to steer the careening flatbed through the canyon when, with a thunderous crash, a large rock landed just where they had been and shattered into pieces. “This is why it’s called Dodge Canyon! We gotta dodge!”

Sparkler bit back a rather unsavoury expletive as the wagon swayed madly on the very edge of control. Three more boulders fell from above, each narrowly missing them by mere inches. Not a religious mare by any means, Sparkler still found herself making the sign of Celestia, sharp shards of stone tearing at her dress. Not wanting to become a pony pancake, part of her wished she’d stayed in Ponyville now.

“AAAaaaaAAAAGH!” Stonecutter screamed in pain. Another boulder had landed from the cliffs above, missing her by a hair’s breadth, but close enough that it grazed her side.

Sunny Saddle had just enough control on the reins as well as her magic to pull Stonecutter out of the way of the latest fallen boulder, unfortunately the flatbed wagon wasn’t so lucky. Big and cumbersome, it was slow to change course. The first two wheels on the right side smashed into the boulder, shattering one to pieces and damaging the other. It was now a five wheeled wagon, soon to be four. “Somepony do something!”

Sparkler looked around in complete and utter panic. This was like the timberwolf all over again. Cloudburst was still out cold, Stonecutter and Pathfinder were barely in control of the wagon, Sunny Saddle was wholly occupied with steering around the falling rocks. That left her. “What can I do?” she screamed, thinking on her hooves was not her strong point.

“Th-There…there’s rope!” Stonecutter gasped out, almost out of breath, “In my wagon! Use it!”

Sparkler quickly dived into the back of the red wagon and found one of the lengths of rope they had bought back in Ponyville. As she searched, the damaged wheel continued to disintegrate. She grabbed two wooden shovels and staggered back to the driver’s seat. “Now what?”

“What do you mean, now what?” Sunny Saddle screamed, her eyes fixed ahead, “Are you a unicorn or not?”

“Oh buck…” Sparkler kicked herself, hard. She was a unicorn. What was more, she was a unicorn who was very good at levitating things. She had gotten A+ grades with her telekinesis. Now it was time to put it to use. Lighting her horn, she concentrated hard and moved the wooden shovels to replace the damaged spokes and she magically used the rope to secure them in place. “I did it! The wheel’s fixed!”

“Good girl!” Sunny Saddle steered around yet another fallen boulder, “Now hold it together!” as she spoke, several rocks bounced up from the canyon floor and smashed into the rear axle. Immediately the flatbed began to shake and shudder. “Hold! It! Together!” Sparkler closed her eyes and, amid the bouncing, rocking and shaking of the wagon, she extended her consciousness and her magical aura to the axle, her telekinetic field holding the wagon together.

Sunny Saddle could see the end of the canyon. They were almost there! Just then, three large boulders all fell in quick succession, one after the other. She steered the wagon around one, and she blasted the other with a bolt of magic from her horn, obliterating it in a shower of stone shards. Before the dust had settled, they were practically through the canyon and at last, they were in the Badlands. Stretching out on either side of them, long mountain ridges formed a border of sorts.

Ahead, there was nothing but wide plains of rock and dust dotted with the occasional outcrop of reddish brown rock. However, just when the sand coloured mare was taking a well earned deep breath and collecting her thoughts, several loud harsh barks reached her ears from behind them. Turning, her eyes widened in fear. Six diamond dog bandits were chasing them! Having come from caves that lined the canyon wall, they saw an easy target in the damaged wagon. “Faster! Pathfinder! Earth pony! Faster!”

They weren’t fast enough.

The pack of dogs caught up with them just as they emerged from the canyon proper. They mistimed their assault though and, as they tried to leap onto the back of the flatbed, three of their number were crushed to death under the heavy wheels. If the other three noticed, or cared, as to their fellows’ misfortune, they gave no sign. As soon as they were on board, they drew wickedly curved deadly looking blades and advanced on Sparkler.

“Earth pony!” Sunny Saddle called out, “We have company!” she levitated Stonecutter from the harness and into the back, while Pathfinder slowed his pace now, as he was the only one pulling.

“Ponies have valuables.” The lead diamond dog bandit spoke harshly, an evil glint in his eye. “Pony will give to us!”

“This pony will not!” Stonecutter threw back, though she clutched her side with her hand, exhausted from her run and loss of blood. “Get outta here!” The attempt she made to look as big an intimidating as she could wasn’t working.

“Pony will give us the valuables,” the bandit sneered nastily, suddenly pointing the tip of his blade at the unconscious Cloudburst’s throat, “Or we take this one instead.”

“You won’t touch her!” Stonecutter yelled, her scream bringing Sparkler out of her magical fugue state which had been necessary to hold both the axle and the wheel together at the same time.

Sparkler came to just enough to see her marefriend and her pet charge at the leader of the bandits. ‘Diamond dogs…’ the unicorn thought, her mental processes slow and sluggish thanks to the amount of magic she was using, ‘Where did they come from?’ Then, her eyes went wide. The bandit whom Stonecutter had charged side stepped the fat mare and swung his blade, the pommel catching her a glancing blow to the side of the head.

Stonecutter dropped to one knee.

“Bandits not take one. We take you too.” The one behind the leader had his stinking paws on Cloudburst’s body. Dragging her up, the pale blue pegasus started to come to. “Slaves worth more than pony valuables!”

“No!” Stonecutter surged up to her hooves only to be knocked back down by a sharp punch to her gut.

The bandit leader grabbed Stonecutter’s mane and yanked her head up. “You have spirit, pony. I will chain you to my bed and break that spirit.”

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Sparkler stood up, her mane flowing in a crackling nimbus of magical energy. “Get your paws off my friend.”

The third bandit scoffed, “Pony too frail to take. We kill you. Make excellent food.” The three bandits advanced upon Sparkler, sharp pointed teeth exposed in nasty, evil feral grins. They kicked Stonecutter aside, curved blades raised and glinting in the sun.

“No!” Sparkler screamed as they came at her. Her mind raced, adrenalin surged through her system. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The leader got a foot from her and she could smell him, and her fear skyrocketed. Instinct took over. Her magic surged, lifting her arms, her green eyes shone brilliant, pure white. “NO!” her muzzle pulled back in a snarl of her own. She threw her arms up to protect herself as those blades came down.

They never made contact.

Sparkler cast her telekinesis. Her magic, fuelled by adrenalin, anger and fear, made it the most powerful spell she had ever cast. The three bandits, unprepared and unprotected, were flung from the wagon at impossible speed. Propelled by the magical blast, their bodies became nothing but a large crimson red smear on the canyon walls.

As Cloudburst came around, Stonecutter turned a scared glance at her marefriend. “Sp-Spark-Sparkler…” she watched the unicorn’s eyes return to normal, watched as she crumbled to the floor of the wagon. “What…what did you just do?” Sparkler didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer. On her knees, she cried, the tears pouring down her cheeks.

She knew exactly what she had just done.

Chapter 3 - Moonbeam in the Moonlight

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Silence.

The silence was everywhere all at once. It felt like an oppressive force.

For almost an hour, nopony had said a word. Sunny Saddle had given up her position in the driver’s seat to help Pathfinder pull the flatbed wagon now that Tracker was a statuette. Stonecutter's right leg was hurt and was in no shape to pull the heavy load, so she sat with Cloudburst. Cloudburst, having received the blow to the head, was deemed unable to fly for now by Sunny and Stonecutter.

That left Sparkler.

Sparkler sat alone in the back of Stonecutter’s red wagon. She wanted to be alone. Nopony spoke at all, least of all to her. Sparkler was sat amid the supplies they had bought, sealed containers of fresh water, food and rope, gazing forlornly out at the passing desert. Though it had only been an hour since ‘it’ had happened, it felt like days it seemed. She looked at the backs of Cloudburst and Stonecutter, each holding the other comfortingly while she sat alone.

Sparkler didn't care.

After what she had done, she didn’t deserve anypony’s arm around her. She didn’t deserve anypony telling her it would be alright. She was a mess. Her bright yellow fur was matted from the tears she had cried, her cheeks streaked with the results of her crying. Her mane, usually tied up in a neat ponytail was a mess, her hair unkempt. The studious pony had been crying so much that she didn't have any tears left, she just sat there heaving her shoulders, crying tears that wouldn't come.

Sparkler didn't care.

Since 'it' had happened, Sparkler had relished the solace her self imposed confinement brought her. Not that it helped much. Forcing her marefriend and her friend away from her had just made her feel worse, if that was at all possible. Now, when they shot furtive looks at her when they thought she wasn’t looking made her feel more and more wretched than ever. Still, she couldn't bear them near her. What if she lost control again? What if she hurt them?

Sparkler couldn’t bear the thought of that.

Better to sit alone than hurt those she loved. Especially Stonecutter. Sitting this far back, she couldn’t hear the scared whispers that Sunny Saddle and Pathfinder were no doubt directing her way. Not that she could blame them. Not after what she had done.

Killers didn’t deserve hugs.

Every time she closed her eyes she could see them, the three diamond dog bandits. Every time she inhaled she could smell them. Sparkler blinked and she was right back in that moment once more. The bandits were right there, stood not that far from where she was now sat, weapons drawn, they were right there!

Stonecutter dropped to one knee.

“No!” Stonecutter surged up to her hooves only to be knocked back down by a sharp punch to her gut.

The bandit leader grabbed Stonecutter’s mane and yanked her head up. “You have spirit, pony. I will chain you to my bed and break that spirit.”

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Sparkler stood up, her mane flowing in a crackling nimbus of magical energy. “Get your paws off my friend.”

They never made contact.

“Hey!” Stonecutter called out, suddenly drawing Sparkler out of her reverie, “What’s that, over there?” That, as it happened, was a camp site sheltered under a large rocky outcrop by the side of the road they were travelling on, at the base of the mountains. As they drew nearer to it, the unicorn could see the six small tents were clearly abandoned.

“Sunny!” Cloudburst yelled, getting the older mare’s attention, “Sunny Saddle! We should stop, have a look see around!”

Sunny Saddle shared a look with Pathfinder and shook her head. “Sorry kid,” she huffed, unused as she was to actually pulling the flatbed wagon, “I don’t wanna stop here, not after what happened in the canyon. It’s not safe!”

As they got closer and closer to the camp site though, Cloudburst’s sharp eyes made out the six tents in more detail. Purple, blue, orange, yellow, white and pink, each decorated with a very familiar cutie mark. “Those are our teachers’ tents!” Cloudburst shot back, her wings fluttering with excitement. “If we rest up here, we might find an answer to why or where they were taken!”

That gave Sunny and Pathfinder pause for thought. While neither of them wanted to stop, they did want a solution to the curse of the statuettes. Not in the least because Pathfinder’s husband was currently a statuette in Sunny’s bag. The older mare shared an unspoken look with Pathfinder and she nodded over her shoulder, not looking at Sparkler. “Alright kid, we’ll stop.”

Sparkler didn’t say anything, not that her opinion had been sought after in any case. Sunny Saddle and Pathfinder pulled off the dusty rocky desert road and stopped the flatbed wagon near the camp site. The six tents had been set up in a semi circle against the large outcrop and, in the centre, a small battered looking cooking pot that screamed Sweet Apple Acres stood on a tripod over a pile of firewood in a circle of stones.

Hopping gently down from the flatbed, Cloudburst and Stonecutter saw there were bedrolls, backpacks and the odd item of clothing scattered across the hard ground and inside the tents. “Look at these, CB,” Stonecutter limped around, the fat earth pony mare pointing a finger to the faded black scorch marks that dotted the ground around the camp site.

“They aren’t fire damage,” Cloudburst muttered to herself as Sunny Saddle helped Pathfinder from the wagon’s harness and over to the pink tent decorated with three balloons. “Do you suppose magic made them?” she asked, the pegasus remembering what Spike had said back at Fluttershy’s cottage, that the Professors had been caught by surprise in a magical battle.

“I don’t rightly know, CB.” Stonecutter placed her hand on the ground a few inches away from one of the scorch marks and the earth pony could feel the magic in the ground. However, it didn’t feel that much different to how the ground usually felt to her, given that earth ponies usually felt magic through their hooves and hands anyway. “Sparks!” she called out without thinking, “Can you come take a look at these marks?”

“Sure,” came the very noncommittal reply from the back of the red wagon. Smoothing her dress and pulling her wide brimmed hat down so that she wouldn’t have to look at either of them, Sparkler walked over and gently placed her hand on one of the scorch marks. Almost immediately she pulled her hand away like it had been burnt. Whatever – or whoever - had made these marks was strong and powerful, for she felt the traces of magic lingering in the ground. “Strong magic made these.”

Cloudburst blinked disbelievingly from Sparkler to Stonecutter. “I could have told you that,” she muttered not quite under her breath.

Stonecutter quietly shushed her best friend with her hands, mouthing ‘not now’ to her just to make sure she got the message. She’d just gotten Sparkler talking after an hour of complete silence. The last thing she wanted was for her marefriend to retreat into her shell again. “Well…let’s have a look around, see what we can see, how about that?”

Still muttering under her breath, Cloudburst agreed. Quietly, still withdrawn, Sparkler nodded and stood up. “Score!” Cloudburst exclaimed after a few moments when, her investigation of the sealed pots by the fire revealed that one of them still had some tasty looking vegetable stew inside and another had some apple crumble and custard. “Double score!”

“We have plenty of food, CB.” Sparkler’s voice was dull and monotone.

“Yeah, I know we do, but this is Sweet Apple Acres apple crumble!” Cloudburst was doing a happy victory dance. “That’s a total win!”

Stonecutter was about to roll her eyes at her best friend when she noticed, caught on a thorny coarse looking bush, a familiar brown Stetson hat fluttering in the breeze. Walking over, she picked it carefully from the bush, making sure not to prick herself. She was hurt enough. Sure enough, it was Professor Applejack’s hat. As she took it, she was reminded of something her teacher had said to her once. “Southern gals dress from the top down and undress from the bottom up.”

If her hat was here and she was not, it surely meant Applejack was in trouble.

The slate grey earth pony was about to turn back to the camp site when something else caught her eye. Close to the ground, a tattered piece of cinnamon brown fabric was stuck to the thorny bush. Reaching down, she pulled it from the bush with a tug of her hand. “Look at this!” she exclaimed, showing the piece to Sparkler and Cloudburst.

“Looks plain,” Cloudburst commented as she took the tattered piece of cloth from her friend and turned it over in her pale blue hands. “Plain, mass produced travelling cloak.”

“How do you know that?” asked Sparkler who, despite her maudlin mood, was not accustomed to Cloudburst knowing more than her, even about fashion, something she admittedly knew very little about.

Cloudburst turned a deadpan stare to Sparkler. “I pay attention in Professor Rarity’s classes, you know.

“Do you suppose it belongs to one of our teachers?” asked Stonecutter, her question earning her a withering stare too.

“There’s no way in all of Equestria, under the sea or in the sky that Professor Rarity would allow one of her friends to wear something as cheap, nasty and mass produced as this,” Cloudburst turned it over in her hands to try and show them what she meant, “I mean look. Here, the stitching is all machined, and poorly I might add. The hem is all over the place, the quality of the fabric is just crap. I bet Professor Rarity has better dishcloths in her boutique than this!”

“Alright, alright, I believe you,” Sparkler muttered, turning and walking around the camp site. “Check this out!” she exclaimed a few moments later. Stonecutter and Cloudburst rushed over, alerted by how alive the unicorn’s voice sounded. In truth, Sparkler had surprised herself.

“What is it, Sparks?”

Crouched between two large logs that had been used as benches around the camp fire, Sparkler had picked up the thing she had seen glinting in the dry grass in hot afternoon desert sun. “It’s a bangle, look!” the antique looking bangle she held in her glowing green aura was circular, made from beaten gold, and it was inscribed with words on the outside and the inside. “I think it’s old ponish, but I’m not sure…”

“Can you read it?”

“Yes, CB,” Sparkler answered in a sarcastic deadpan tone. “A thousand year old dead language. I read it every day, didn’t you know?”

“Okay, so you can’t read it, I get it,” Cloudburst grumbled, “It’s pretty though, isn’t it?”

“Have it then,” Sparkler handed the pegasus the bangle, who immediately slid it on past her wrist and onto her forearm. “Oh hey…” Something on the large log caught the unicorn’s eye. It was a few strands of navy blue hair. She held it up for them all to have a look at and the three mares shared a look between them that didn’t need words. None of their teachers had navy blue hair. The articles they had found, the tattered piece of cloak, the bangle and the hair, must have come from whoever had taken them!

“Thanks Sparks!” Cloudburst admired the shiny golden bangle on her wrist. She didn’t need to be able to read it what the words said to know it was pretty. “C’mon, I’m hungry. What say we break open that pot off stew and have us a camp meal?”

“Tenting?” Sparkler looked amazed as they all walked back to the main camp area, “Out here, in the Badlands, you want to camp?”

“Well, yeah,” Cloudburst shook her head. “We bought tents with us, what did you think we were gonna do, miss Priss, book ourselves into a five star hotel?”

“Oh, shut up, featherbrain…”

“Besides, if anything happens, you can sort them out, right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sparkler angrily turned on the pegasus, who took a step backwards.

“What…um…I didn’t mean anything, I um…I meant those bandits won’t be raiding anypony again, will they, thanks to you…hey!” the pegasus knew she had said the wrong thing though when Sparkler roughly shoved past her, barging her shoulder hard on the way by her. Stonecutter, about to say something, noticed something moving off to the side, at the extreme edge of the camp.

Stonecutter stopped dead in her tracks and stared off into the near distance. She had been sure, when they got to the abandoned camp site, that something or somepony was watching them, now, seeing a shadow dart from rock to boulder, she was sure. “Hey, Stone,” Cloudburst nudged her friend, “You coming?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Stonecutter waved her off, “In a minute, I just wanna check something out, okay?”

“Well, don’t be long, and don’t get turned into a statue, alright?” Cloudburst then walked back to the camp, where Sunny Saddle was getting the fire lit.

Stonecutter turned her back to the tents and took a few hesitant steps towards the boulders that lined the edge of the camp site along the rocky outcrop. The slate grey earth pony hadn’t taken more than five or six steps when she saw the shadowy shape she had thought she had seen before suddenly move and duck down behind a large rock. “Hey!” she called out, seeing the shape freeze, “Do you need help?”

Unsure if the mysterious figure was the one who had taken the Professors, or another bandit scouting them out, or some poor pony lost in the wilderness, Stonecutter ran over to the large rock. However, when she was a few feet away, there was a flash of violet and a crack of magical energy, followed by an intense smell of ozone. “Damn…” Stonecutter breathed, breathless, “They teleported!”

When Stonecutter reached the rock though, she was not to leave empty handed. Where she was sure the figure had been, she discovered another scrap of the plain brown fabric. Clearly, the teleport spell he – or she – had cast had been rushed. That though left her with more questions than answers. If that figure had been at the camp before, who were they? Were they responsible? If so, why run from her? Were they scared?

Shaking her head, Stonecutter turned and went back to the camp where she saw that Sunny Saddle had the fire lit, and the stew bubbling away nicely in the battered old cooking pot. The welcome smell of hot food immediately warmed her tired hungry body, having much the same effect as a cool wet towel on a fevered brow. While that lifted her spirits, what disheartened her was seeing Sparkler sitting on a wooden log all on her own.

“Did you find anything?” asked Cloudburst, who was sat on the other side of the fire to Sparkler on a wooden log next to Sunny Saddle.

“Um…no, no I didn’t…” Stonecutter lied. Usually she hated lying in any form, especially now she was wearing Sparkler’s yellow collar, but she didn’t want them to worry. She was more concerned about why her marefriend and Mistress was sat so far away from her friend and the expedition pony. Her silent question, communicated with a point of her chin towards Sparkler and a raised eyebrow was answered by a shake of the head and shrugged shoulders from the pegasus. “Hey, miss Saddle, isn’t Pathfinder joining us?”

“No, kid, he isn’t.” she answered as she checked on the stew. Thankfully it just needed reheating not cooking from fresh, because she was hungry like the others. “He wanted some time on his own, after what happened to Tracker. I’m sure you understand.” When she saw the earth pony mare limp to a log and sit down, she said, “Here, let me check your leg and your arm.”

“Oh um, ma’am, there’s no need…”

Sunny Saddle shushed her with a frown and the most disapproving look she could muster. “There’s every need. Those wounds don’t look too deep, but trust me, you don’t want them infected, not out here. In case you hadn’t noticed, there aren’t any hospitals, and the doc in Dodge City isn’t very skilled at amputations.”

“Am-Am…Amputations?” Stonecutter squeaked.

“Uh huh,” Sunny Saddle rather enjoyed the young mare’s squirming, “He uses a meat saw, a bone saw and the anaesthetic is a figment of his imagination…” She left that hanging in the air for the briefest of moments. Then, with a whimper, Stonecutter nodded and extended her leg as the sand coloured mare levitated over her medical kit. “Wise choice, kid.” She rolled up the hemline of Stonecutter’s shorts and got a good look at the long cuts that adorned her upper right leg from her thigh to her knee.

After some ums and ahs, Sunny Saddle seemed satisfied. “Tell me doc,” Cloudburst chuckled, “When do you start sawing?”

“Shut it featherbrain!”

Sunny Saddle couldn’t help but laugh at Stonecutter’s nervousness. “I’m sorry to say, not today, kiddo.” When Cloudburst aww’d, she laughed even harder. In truth, the young earth pony didn’t need much in the way of first aid, this was to give her something to do while the stew cooked so she didn’t have to think about the Sparkler sized elephant in the room. “Now,” she said when she had some high strength disinfectant in her magical aura, “I’m afraid this is going to sting. A lot.”

Stonecutter nodded. She thought she was ready for it. She was wrong. So very wrong. Her mother had used iodine on her when she had gotten into scrapes as a filly. She remembered that hurt like Tartarus. This though was a whole other level. The very second that the sickly blue whatever it was touched the wounds on her leg and arm, she screamed like her arm skin had been set on fire. “GAAaaaAAAAH DAAaaaAAAAMN OOOOOOW!”

Then, just as suddenly, the intense pain was gone like it was never there at all.

Through it all, Sparkler just sat on her log staring into the camp fire like she was the only pony in her universe. She didn’t react or do anything when Stonecutter screamed in pain.

“Wh-What w-was th-that?” Stonecutter gasped, staring at her wounds in wonderment as the glowing blue liquid took all her pain away.

“Lily the Pink’s patented Medicinal Compound,” Sunny Saddle showed Stonecutter the bottle, which boasted its contents were most efficacious in every way. “Three hundred bits per bottle, only available in Canterlot from Lily’s store. It’s excellent for cleaning out wounds, killing bacteria and stopping infections. Sorry about the pain, that means it’s working.”

“N-No sweat, it’s fine…” Stonecutter replied, though she was still looking fixated at the potion applied to her leg and arm. Gradually, over the space of roughly ten minutes or so, the blue glow faded, leaving her wounds clean and sterilised.

Sunny Saddle then levitated over a couple of large bandages, a smile on her face. “I think you’re gonna be fine. No sawing needed today, kid. Still, I think you’ll have some sexy scars to take away with you as a memento of your trip to the Badlands.” She proceeded to wrap the two bandages, one around her leg and the other around her arm.

“Hey guys,” Cloudburst spoke up, just as the sun started to get lower in the sky, “The stew’s done!”

It was indeed done, and done to perfection, too, in Stonecutter’s opinion. She took the bowl that was offered to her and sat down next to Sparkler in an attempt to get any kind of reaction from her. The only movement she made at all was when Sunny Saddle levitated over to her a bowl of the stew and a spoon. “Sparks…” she started, but saw that her marefriend was still staring blankly into the fire.

Sparkler heard, but she didn’t really hear. In her head she was reliving what had happened in the canyon for the hundredth time.

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Sparkler stood up, her mane flowing in a crackling nimbus of magical energy. “Get your paws off my friend.”

They never made contact.

It went round and round in the bright yellow unicorn’s head like a video on a television set on a constant loop. It hurt. It hurt like she couldn’t believe it was possible to hurt. Her very soul hurt. It just wouldn’t go away. Not that she wanted it to go away. She wanted it to hurt. She deserved to hurt. She needed it to hurt.

“Sparkler!”

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Sparkler stood up, her mane flowing in a crackling nimbus of magical energy. “Get your paws off my friend.”

“Sparkler!” Stonecutter tried again to get through to her marefriend, to no success. All the time that she, Cloudburst and Sunny Saddle had been eating and chatting around the fire, the unicorn had eaten like an automaton.

“Kid!” Sunny Saddle yelled, the older unicorn also getting no reaction at all. It was getting properly dark by now, and they had all agreed it was time to at least try and get some shut eye. Site B would still be there in the morning.

“Hey! Sparks!” Cloudburst grew tired of trying to get through to Sparkler and, hovering in the air with a few flaps of her wings, she clapped her hands together and aimed a low level lightning bolt at the log the unicorn was sat on. That did it.

“Uh!” Sparkler, literally shocked from her morbid reverie, jumped to her hooves, her eyes wide looking for her ‘attacker’. “What the hay!?”

“Sparks,” Stonecutter laid a reassuring hand on her smaller marefriend’s shoulder, “We’re going to go get some sleep. I’ve unpacked your suitcase and my bag into Professor Applejack’s tent. I pushed our sleeping pads together, like last time. It’s real cosy in there. You coming?” she held her hand out and, thankfully, Sparkler took it.

~ ~ ~

Moonbeam stood unmoving on a rocky incline overlooking the camp site below. She had not moved in almost an hour, the unicorn lost in her thoughts. The breeze, which had been present all day, picked up a little, blowing stronger now it was almost dark, it whipped the tattered edges of her plain travelling cloak around her legs.

Still, she did not move. She was watching the camp below like a hawk. The charcoal grey mare smiled when she saw the five newcomers retire into the tents. She had already made six very special new friends from the ponies who had been there before! Now, she had the chance to make some more! This was perfect.

Of course, Moonbeam knew who they were.

As a filly in Canterlot, she had idolised Twilight Sparkle. Who didn’t? Not only did she come from a wealthy family, born into priviledge, she had been the personal protégé of the Princess herself! Moonbeam had tried, more than once, to speak to Twilight Sparkle at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but each time she had been ignored.

‘And why not?’ Moonbeam thought bitterly as she watched the ponies in the camp settle down for the night, ‘Why wouldn’t she ignore me? What did I have to offer the great Twilight Sparkle? Why would she ever even notice a nopony like me?’ Moonbeam’s smile widened, a slightly crazed look entered her violet eyes.

‘I showed her. I showed them all. I made her notice me!’ Moonbeam’s smile grew to manic proportions, looking unhinged on her muzzle. She knew magical power and ability would get the youngest Princess’s attention. She had been right, hadn’t she? She had shown her what she could do. Just like she had promised she would all those years ago back at Celestia’s school.

They had laughed at her.

Her peers had laughed at her.

Her teachers had laughed at her.

Twilight Sparkle hadn’t laughed at her. ‘No…’ Moonbeam simmered in her isolated bitterness, ‘She didn’t laugh. Adequate. That was how she described my magic. Adequate…she may have well slapped me across my face!’ Then, she had just taken her books and walked away, doing nothing at all while the whole of Celestia’s school mocked her.

They didn’t mock her anymore.

She wasn’t alone anymore.

Now, she was strong. She was powerful. Moonbeam had the magic she needed. Now, she had a lair full of friends to play with in the Badlands. Just like when she was a filly playing with her figurines and dollies in their dollhouses, she had a whole collection of statuettes to play with. And, in pride of place in her collection of friends, was the Princess of Friendship herself, all hers to play with whenever she wanted!

Moonbeam saw her chance. The earth pony stallion, the partner of the one she had turned into a statuette back in the canyon, had emerged from a tent alone, from the looks of it to relieve himself behind a bush. ‘Shame to separate them…’ she thought, making up her mind, she pulled up her hood over her navy blue mane and lit her horn.

With a flash of bright violet magic and a loud crack, she appeared in the middle of the camp site, right where she wanted to be. Her horn ignited again and, one fwoosh later, the earth pony stallion was reduced down to a figurine version of himself. ‘Excellent, all to plan…’ she congratulated herself as she looked around for the other one.

Sadly, she congratulated herself too soon.

“What the hay was that!?” came a startled, angry cry from the orange tent. Caught off guard, Moonbeam froze. She recognised the voice as belonging to the large earth pony mare from earlier, the one who had caught her sneaking around at the edge of the camp.

“Hey, you!” Moonbeam whirled around at the sound of a new voice, this one was the pale blue pegasus who had just flown from the blue tent. Her moment of inaction had allowed them to corner her! In a blind panic, Moonbeam turned and ran, carrying the statuette that was Pathfinder in her magical aura.

“We just want to talk to you!” Moonbeam heard the earth pony shout after her as she ran away with her prize. She cast a hurried glance over her shoulder and she saw that the unicorn was with them now, all three mares were giving chase in their nightclothes. Of course they didn’t want to talk to her! Nopony wanted to talk to her! They just wanted to take her newest friend away from her.

“I’ll stop her!” she heard the pegasus shout, and the very next moment she felt the lightning bolt streak just a few inches above her head, hitting the rocky outcrop and sending rocks bouncing at her. On reflex alone, Moonbeam cast her shield spell, just in time too, and she shower of rocks bounced harmlessly away.

Why couldn’t they see? The stallion was her friend now! Hers! Whirling around angrily, the hood fell from Moonbeam’s head as she lit her horn. She fired a stun ray at the pegasus, which just missed her body and instead singed a few feathers.

“CB, back off!” Stonecutter yelled at her best friend, the pegasus reeling as Sparkler hid behind a rock, she turned to address the cloaked assailant. “I don’t know who you are, but we just want to talk to you, straighten this whole thing out, okay?”

‘Of course you don’t know who I am…’ Moonbeam didn’t hear the rest of what the earth pony said. ‘You will do. All of Equestria will know me soon!’ Out of the corner of her eye though she saw the pegasus hover and clap her hands. This time she was ready. Her shield flared, deflecting the lightning bolt back at its source, though again the flyer dodged.

“Damnit CB I said back off!” Stonecutter stood and yelled at the pegasus. It was then though, when she was exposed, that the mysterious stranger fired off a powerful stun ray that hit the chubby mare in her chest with such force that it knocked her off her hooves and onto the hard desert floor.

“Stone!” the pegasus screamed, wheeling in the air, “Sparkler! Do something! Do your telekinesis! Anything!” Sparkler, Moonbeam assumed, was the younger unicorn currently cowering behind the large rock. The charcoal coloured mare was about to attack again when she heard another mare shout from the camp. Possible four on one was not odds she liked, so, with the newest statuette in her possession, Moonbeam teleported away to her lair in a flash of violet magic.

~ ~ ~

It was two hours after the surprise attack by the mysterious unicorn. Sunny Saddle had again treated Stonecutter’s thankfully superficial wounds she had received from the stranger’s stun ray. The camp had been understandably subdued following what had happened. Nopony spoke, though there were plenty of dark looks cast Sparkler’s way from Cloudburst for her inaction during the brief fight.

That just served to add to her guilt.

After Stonecutter had been checked over, they had all gone back in their tents, though this time Sunny Saddle and Cloudburst doubled up in Rainbow Dash’s tent. Nopony wanted to sleep alone after the attack. No matter how hard she tried though, Sparkler just could not rest. When she thought Stonecutter was asleep, the bright yellow unicorn carefully got up and she slipped out of the tent.

Stonecutter though was not asleep. Quietly the chubby mare got up and she watched Sparkler from just inside the tent door. The unicorn had magically stoked the dying camp fire so that she could feel the heat even from where she was in the tent. Then, Stonecutter watched her levitate over one of the sealed tubs of fresh water they had bought along with them.

Unaware that she was being watched, Sparkler stripped off her pink pyjamas and folded them on the log she had been sat on earlier. When she was naked, she got a cloth, wet it in the tub of water and scrubbed at her hands and forearms with a real vigour. After a couple of minutes watching that, Stonecutter left the tent and walked over to Sparkler. Wordlessly, the earth pony stripped off her nightclothes as well. “I could use a bath too, Sparks.”

With her back to her marefriend, Sparkler muttered, “I can't get the blood off! I can’t!” she scrubbed the cloth hard over her arms until she trembled with effort, “See, it won’t come off!”

Looking her over, Stonecutter of course saw that there was no blood there and, from behind, she wrapped the shaking unicorn up in a tight hug. It was shakes that had nothing to do with the chill desert night, thanks to the roaring fire beside them. “Let me do that for you then, my love.”

“Don't!” Sparkler squealed and, though she tried to pull herself away, she was no match for Stonecutter’s earth pony strength. “I'll get it all over you too!”

Taking the wet cloth from Sparkler, Stonecutter continued to hold her tightly in her arms. “If I do, I can wash it off too. But I don't think I will.” She spoke as softly as she wiped the wet cloth over the back of the unicorn's trembling hand.

No matter how hard she tried, Sparkler couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. She wished she could blame it on the chill desert night, but that would be an utter lie. “I'm sorry…” she muttered, her mind bringing up the fact that she had frozen up during the brief tussle with the mystery mare. Hiding behind a rock indeed… “Um, does it hurt, where she hit you?”

Smiling gently, Stonecutter continues to softly wash Sparkler’s body. She was pleased that her marefriend didn’t try to resist when she washed up her arms to her chest. “It did when it happened, but Sunny Saddle's healing cream took care of that.” She placed a tender kiss on the smaller mare’s cheek. “Protecting you is worth any small amount of pain.”

“I froze.” Sparkler’s voice was full of guilt. “Whoever she was turned Pathfinder into a statuette and took him to Celestia knows where because I froze. You got hurt because I froze…”

“Is that what this is about?” Stonecutter asked, her soft voice taking on a hard edge, “I do think that unicorn got the jump on all of us, as I recall. I’ll admit I don't know much about magic, but she seemed mighty powerful.”

Sparkler though was beyond simple platitudes and reassurances. “CB yelled at me to do something, anything, and I just...I just couldn't! Stone...I couldn't do it.”

Having gently washed her marefriend’s chest, an area she would have liked to dwell on a while longer, where they both in the mood, Stonecutter moved upwards so she could softly wash her Mistress’s beautiful face. “I think we are closer to the truth now. If you did do something, what would it have been?”

Like she was a statue herself, Sparkler just stood there, her naked body illuminated by the camp fire as her marefriend washed her. “I...I don't know...I heard CB yell "Do your telekinesis!" and I tried. I tried, and I thought...I thought to the bandits in the wagon and my magic just fizzled out…”

When she was happy the unicorn’s face was clean, Stonecutter gently tugged on her hand, gesturing for her to sit down on the nearest of the logs that ringed the fire. “You saved my life, Sparkler.”

Like a poseable doll being positioned, Sparkler sat, though her eyes remained glued to the campsite floor. “I did do that.”

“You did, I was in real danger, so was CB.” Stonecutter pulled Sparkler into a tight hug. She dreaded to think where she and Cloudburst would both be right then had her marefriend not done what she had done. “CB wasn't in danger earlier, and I wasn't in a life threating situation either.”

“I was scared, Stone.”

“Scared of what?”

“I was scared that I'd lose control again, like I did on the wagon.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “Seems like you need some lessons or practice to keep control of your magic. You are a lot stronger than I remember at the start of the school year.”

“I...I don't need practise!” Sparkler exclaimed, suddenly the bright yellow mare started to sob, the last thing she wanted to do was practise. She didn’t want to use her magic at all!

“I've trapped rats and stepped on spiders, but it isn't the same thing, is it?”

“I killed them, Stone.” Sparkler’s voice was barely audible over the crackle of the fire.

Stonecutter’s hug never lessened for a moment. If anything, she pulled her closer to her. “That you did,” she agreed gently, for there was no getting around it. If she was honest, a morbid part of the earth pony wondered if the three bandits had felt anything when they died. “So, what scares you more? Killing again, or losing a loved one due to inaction?”

“I didn't want to do it!” Sparkler cried, her hot salty tears leaving tracks on her yellow fur, “I warned them, but they wouldn't listen! They were pawing CB...he hit you...they were going to take you both...I couldn't let them!”

Had it been possible to tighten her hug without crushing her partner, Stonecutter would have. “I'm very happy you didn't, but you're not happy with what you did. You could have just shoved them off the wagon, but you didn't. Why?”

“I was scared, I was angry. It was like...the most adrenalin ever! I cast my telekinesis and it was stronger than I intended. I just wanted to throw them off.”

Stonecutter nodded at that. It certainly was a display of raw power. It was power she hadn’t thought her lover capable of, but here they were and the bandits were a memory smeared over the canyon walls. She wondered if anyone would miss them. “Yet you don't want to practice to gain control over your telekinesis.” She kissed her lips, “You panicked, I know I panicked. You did what you could and I'm alive for it.” Another kiss found its way onto Sparkler’s lips, “Now you fear your own power and that made you panic again.”

The bright yellow unicorn smiled tentatively, “I always said you were as smart as you were beautiful. Yes, I panicked. I knew what they were going to do to you. You...you can say they deserved it...but I still killed them.”

“You did. It's the truth of it.” Stonecutter took Sparkler’s delicate hand in her shovel like one. “Yet I don't see any blood. Then I can't see the emotional blood that you see. I'm holding your hand and I don't fear what you could do, or what you've already done.”

“You aren't scared of me?” Sparkler’s green eyes were wide, reflecting the fire, “You still want to be with me? But...should I give myself up to Headmare Twilight, when we find them?” sat on the log, she started to fret, “What if I get arrested?” her green eyes, already wide, seemed to double in size, “I'll get sent to the dungeons! Or Tartarus!”

Stonecutter chuckled. She didn’t mean to laugh, she just couldn’t help it. “Now you sound like Headmare Twilight.” Yet another kiss found its way onto Sparkler’s lips. “I'm not scared of you, not even a tiny bit. I am worried about you though. You should do what you do best. Write a full report on what happened at the wagon, and what happened here. From what I know about law, deadly force has to be justified. Then I think that the fact that Cloudburst isn’t a diamond dog’s slave and I'm still breathing is justification enough.”

“I could do a report, with bullet points, and chapters, with appendices...and reference laws too!”

“I know you can. Um, I can pretend to edit it, but...” Stonecutter shook her head, for the sheer enormity of what they had undertaken had just hit her. “I'm better with my hands than with my words. You have talent and power. You need to put that in your report, and how you're going to harness that talent and power.”

Tentatively, Sparkler made a little giggle, though she was giving serious thought to that report. “Thank you, Stone, for believing in me. I want you to know...I'd do it again, to keep you and CB safe.”

“What I need is for you to not be afraid of your own power.” Stonecutter said gently but firmly, “What I'd like is for you to know how to control that power.” She hugged her lover before she gave voice to what had been bothering her. “That was one powerful unicorn that popped into camp. I don't know if you could have done anything against her, and worse you could have been seriously hurt if you did attract her attention. Now you can be prepared should she return.”

Sparkler nodded her head in agreement. Now she had been given something to focus her mind on, she felt a lot more assured. “She was way powerful. Like Headmare Twilight or Counsellor Starlight, powerful. She had to be, to be the one behind the whole curse of the statuettes thing.”

“That is scary, Sparks.” In truth, that scared her a lot more than anything Sparkler had done or might ever do. “Everypony has returned to normal that I know of, but...what if she can keep them as statuettes? I...I don't want to be gathering dust on her trophy shelf.”

“Isn't it though?” Sparkler agreed on the fact that the mystery mare was certainly scary. “If she cast the base spell, there’s no reason why she just can’t keep renewing it indefinitely…” she trailed off when she saw the look on Stonecutter’s face, “I mean...there's been reports of ponies all across the country turning into statues. That's some range. Like, really impressive. And skilful. That’s the really scary part.”

“Maybe, maybe she has some artefact, like the ones at school, or like the one Counsellor Starlight used in that village of hers.”

“Hmmm...it could be something like the Staff of Sameness, or the Staff of Sacanas, or maybe even similar to the Pearl of Transformation…” Sparkler paused for breath and blushed at Stonecutter’s amused look, “Um…either way we need to be wary of her. She's strong, and smart. At least she's planning...something? I don't know what, but she has the professors.”

Stonecutter couldn’t help but be amused and impressed in equal measure by her marefriend’s longing to learn. “I'm afraid that she might, and that is hard to believe, that she could hold the Headmare as a statuette. What can we possibly do against her?” She was beginning to think Seafoam might just have been right.

“Our best,” Sparkler replied simply, now kissing Stonecutter’s lips to reassure her. “I suppose we'll know more when we get to Site B tomorrow and talk to this Caballeron guy that Sunny Saddle works for.”

Content to look up at the moon and stars hanging bright in the night sky, Stonecutter laid her head on Sparkler's shoulder. “It is nice out here, isn’t it? Not so much in the day, but it’s real pretty at night. Thanks, Sparky. I feel a lot safer with your here.”

“And I thought you were my bodyguard,” Sparkler held Stonecutter as tightly as she could, while at the same time she levitated her portable telescope from the back of the red wagon over to them. The stars were there to be looked at, and they were awake. “I won't let anything hurt you, I promise.”

Chapter 4 - The Dig Site

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The sun came up slowly in the morning, bathing the Badlands in its warm light. It shone on the abandoned campsite that Stonecutter, Sparkler, Cloudburst and Sunny Saddle had called home the night before. Now they had light, Sparkler was hunting through their red wagon. “Where's a waffle iron when you need it?” she asked, while Cloudburst, still in her cloud themed pyjamas, sat on a log, staring off into space.

“I bought plenty of supplies, Sparks,” Stonecutter, dressed in her old red pyjamas, came to her girlfriend’s rescue. Delving into her wagon, she knew exactly where to look and soon she had produced not only a waffle iron and metal trays to eat from, she also had the pancake ingredients and coffee. “Travel prepared, I say.”

Just then, Sunny Saddle emerged from a tent that had been Rarity’s in her long nightshirt and she stretched in the morning sun. She was grateful they were camped in the shade under the rocky escarpment, for already the heat was hot and overbearing. “Hey,” the older unicorn noticed Cloudburst, “Is your friend alright?”

Sparkler looked over at the very miserable looking pale blue pegasus and felt a pang of sympathy for her. “She’s just grounded after that concussion she took yesterday.”

It took Sunny Saddle’s tired brain a moment to process that. Then she remembered the pegasus had been knocked out on the eventful trip through Dodge Canyon. “A wise precaution,” she eventually agreed as she sat on one of the logs around the extinguished campfire.

Now that Stonecutter had all the things she judged she needed for a rudimentary breakfast, she didn’t have eggs to scramble or haybacon or crumpets, to say nothing of the sausages, but she had to work with what she had now they were roughing it, she turned her attention to the cold fire. “Sparks, I don't suppose you can use your fireworks to start a fire?”

“You two don't call me Sparky for nothing.” Of course she could make a fire. It was foal’s play. “Stand back a bit, just in case it gets out of control…” Lighting her horn, the yellow unicorn used her magic to instantly get a solid flame going.

“Thanks Sparks,” Stonecutter set the waffle iron on a tripod above the flame and a smaller one to boil the water for the coffee and she mixed the batter up ready. “I assume waffles are good for everypony?”

“They are, thank you aaah...” Sunny Saddle tried to remember the earth pony’s name, then it came to her in a flash of inspiration, “Stonecutter.”

On her log, Cloudburst huffed and crossed her arms over her non-existent chest. “I’ll have you know, I'm perfectly fine!” so indignant was she that she fluttered her wings, she was itching to get into the air, but it wasn’t worth the inevitable lecture from Stonecutter or from Sparkler.

“That’s true,” Sparkler said after a moment’s consideration, “I think you're in better shape than that rock that hit you.”

“Oh ha, bucking ha,” Cloudburst muttered darkly under her breath, “Dodge Canyon my ass…” devoid of anything else to do, and in a vain attempt to distract herself from the fact that she was not currently allowed to fly, she decided to help her best friend do the breakfast by getting the coffee boiling in four containers on the fire.

“So what's the plan for today?” Stonecutter asked as she checked the pancakes didn’t burn on the fire.

“We figure out just where we are and where the expedition was going. Get there.” Sparkler said confidently as she took out her grooming kit and thoroughly brushed out her bright yellow mane to clear the tangles.

Sunny Saddle spoke up from where she was sat wrestling with her own mane and tail, “I can help there. I have a map of the Badlands. I don't know where the Princess and her friends were going, but I can take you as far as Site B.” In truth, the older mare wasn’t looking forward to getting to the second excavation site. That meant having to deal with Caballeron and explaining where the two earth ponies they had hired had gone.

Having successfully straightened her own mane, Sparkler said, “I hope whoever’s there has a clue about being turned to stone and how to turn them back.”

“It's happened at the dig sites,” Sunny Saddle commented as she watched Stonecutter cook. She had to admit the chubby young mare was very good. “Sometimes a pony will return to normal after a few minutes, sometimes the effect can last an hour or more. I do know that everypony is spooked.”

“Yeah,” Sparkler drew her knees up to her chest and she hugged her legs, “I'm spooked.”

Cloudburst glanced across at the unicorn with a flash of irritation, “So go get this map, I want to get out of here!”

Shaking her head, Stonecutter transferred the cooked pancakes from the waffle iron to the metal trays and she served the fresh breakfast up to them all in turn while Cloudburst handed out the cups of freshly boiled coffee. With the breakfast served up, Stonecutter then walked over and she hugged Sparkler tight. “I won't let anything happen to you,” she kissed the smaller mare’s forehead, “Mistress.”

Smiling, Sparkler took a hold of Stonecutter's hand, squeezed it tight and she rested her head on her marefriend’s generous bosom. It was a pillow she had gotten used to over the past couple of weeks. “I'm afraid I can't stop it from happening to you, though.”

Eating her pancakes, Cloudburst snorted out a loud brash laugh that drew all the attention to her, “You'll just go find that crazy mare from last night and...” she made dual finger guns and shot at an imaginary target that in her head was the unknown unicorn from the night before, “Zzzap!”

Sparkler looked across at her new friend, she didn’t share the pegasus’s enthusiasm, not in the slightest. That unicorn had been powerful indeed. “I hope so, Cloudy.”

“I just hope we get those two ponies back, somehow,” Sunny Saddle sounded just how Sparkler felt as, once she had eaten her pancakes, she got up from the log around the campfire and she retrieved the map from her pack. “Here's the map,” she pointed to a point that was just a half a finger away. “Site B is just a few miles away.”

“You up for getting the wagon there Stoney?” Sparkler asked her marefriend as she hungrily ate her breakfast. It may not have been Canterlot gourmet standards, but out there in the Badlands, it was just what she needed to lift her spirits. “This are good pancakes, by the way, and the coffee is good to, Cloudy.”

“Not bad for camp cooking, huh?” Stonecutter beamed with justifiable pride at her own cooking skills.

“Thanks Sparks,” Cloudburst grinned and lifted up her metal mug in a salute to the bookish unicorn, “Stone taught me camp cooking last year when we camped out at Rainbow Falls with school.”

“No offense, Stonecutter,” Sunny Saddle spoke up, having looked from the large stocky earth pony to the younger unicorn and back again, “But can you really pull that flatbed wagon on your own? We had to hire two stallions for that.” She doubted the mare’s ability to actually pull everything they had.

Stonecutter glanced thoughtfully at the large flatbed as she ate the last of her breakfast. “Well, I might be a bit slow, but as long as you aren't in a great hurry, I should be fine.”

Sparkler leant over and gave Stonecutter a light kiss on her nose which she followed up with one to her lips, “Stoney can do anything she sets her mind to.”

“It'd be lighter if I flew...” Cloudburst grumbled after swilling a mouthful of her coffee around her mouth to get rid of the taste of sleep.

“It would be better for you to rest up so you can fly when we need you to fly,” Sparkler pointed out.

“Fine, mom...” Cloudburst pouted and she drank the rest of her coffee. As she tossed the dregs onto the desert floor though, it struck her that if Sparkler was her mother, at least she would have a mother who gave two bucks about her, as opposed to the example she had right now from the pony she laughably called ‘mom’.

“At least now we’re out of the canyon there shouldn't be any surprises,” Sunny Saddle offered helpfully, “We don't go near the mountains on the way to Site B.”

Suddenly, Sparkler threw her hands up in the air, scattering what was left of her coffee everywhere, “You just had to go and say that, didn’t you?”

“Oh, um...I didn't mean any offense,” Sunny Saddle placed her breakfast things down and quietly she got up and went back into the tent she had slept in to get dressed.

Stonecutter placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on the unicorn’s more delicate one. “Don't worry about her, Mistress, yesterday was stressful for all of us.”

Though Sparkler was grateful of her marefriend’s hand, and her presence in general, she still shot the slate grey earth pony a devastating eye roll. “Really, pet, I may have been to stressed to notice, between the falling boulders and the diamond dogs!”

A blast of lightning from Cloudburst’s clapped hands silenced Sparkler’s tirade before it could properly begin. “Hey! Didn't you two sort all that crap out last night?” she saw their questioning looks and she didn’t back down. Instead, her wings fluttered in frustrated annoyance. “Yeah, I saw the fire burning, but FYI, no I didn't listen.”

Sparkler opened her mouth to say something, but then she paused and closed it, the retort dying on her lips as she thought better of it. Mostly because she knew the pegasus was right bang on the money. “I got clean up,” she said eventually, “Get yourself and the wagon ready, Stoney.”

“Yes Mistress,” leaving her metal food tray behind, Stonecutter got up and, after swapping her pyjamas for another set of hard wearing denim dungarees in the tent she had shared with her marefriend, she came out and started to prep the flatbed while Cloudburst got herself dressed in an outfit that reminded Sparkler very much of Daring Do.

“Hey, Horny,” Cloudburst said as she walked over to the clearly troubled young unicorn, “Are you okay?”

“No,” Sparkler admitted quietly so that Stonecutter couldn’t hear her from the flatbed, “No I’m not okay. I’m scared my magic isn't good enough. I’m scared we aren’t good enough. We're in over our heads, and it’s too late to back out.”

“Hey,” Cloudburst placed her hand on the unicorn’s shoulder, pulling her into a hug, “You’ve got the magic, Stone’s got the muscles, and I've got the lightning, I can light the buckers up!” she nudged Sparkler and gave her a reassuring wink, “Don't worry. It'll be cool. I know it will.”

Sparkler nodded her head as she finished her clean-up of the breakfast things. “I hope you're right, CB. I have too much to lose now.”

“Aww!” Cloudburst followed Sparkler’s gaze all the way to Stonecutter’s jiggling fat ass and she smiled. Her hands wandered down to her flat belly, where they remained for a good long time. Her smile widened as she imagined the tiny life growing inside of her. “Yeah, I know what you mean, Sparks.”

Before Sparkler could question Cloudburst’s statement, Sunny Saddle came out of the tent, her hat pulled down like she meant it. “Alright, ponies, are we ready?”

Sparkler loaded up the last of their supplies and Stonecutter got the wagon’s padded harness on her shoulders, “Ready.”

~ ~ ~

“Quarry Eels!” Sunny Saddle screamed out in panicked alarm, “Look out!”

The warning came just in the nick of time. They were almost upon the two vast holes in the rocky ground when the call went up. Sunny Saddle used her quick reflexes and skill at driving a wagon to pull the reins to the left just as the huge creatures erupted upwards with an ear-splitting screech. While Stonecutter dodged to the left, the flatbed was not so lucky.

The second eel caught the wagon a glancing blow that sent it careening onto its side, spilling Sunny Saddle, Sparkler and Stonecutter as well as most of their supplies onto the hard unforgiving rocky floor. Cloudburst instinctively flapped her wings and took to the air, though she changed her mind after a few seconds when it made her feel dizzy. The first Quarry Eel then snapped its powerful jaws at Sparkler which, thanks to Sunny Saddle pulling her aside at the last moment, just grazed her right arm.

“SPARKLER!” Stonecutter screamed out as her marefriend yelped in pain as Sunny Saddle roughly pulled her behind the overturned wagon for some kind of cover against the snapping eels. However, she wasn’t given much time to think about her, when the second eel plunged down with its jaws ready to snap Cloudburst in half. It was only Stonecutter barrelling into her that saved her best friend from certain death.

“I’ve. Had. Enough. Of this!” Stonecutter screamed and, just as the two Quarry Eels came back up for another strike, the slate grey earth pony let loose all her prodigious strength and charged the nearest of the two creatures. Her immense punch, fuelled purely by adrenalin, caught the first eel squarely on the jaw. The blow was so powerful that it sent the eel into the second, knocking both of them out.

As both of the eels went down, stunned, with a titanic crash that sent up a small dust cloud, Sunny Saddle and Sparkler both cast their telekinesis and while one unicorn righted the flatbed, the other quickly replaced the spilled supplies from where they had come. Thankfully, none of the containers had broken. Once the wagon was back on its wheels, Stonecutter got herself back in the harness and this time she was moving faster than she thought she could.

Stonecutter was on the run at a fast gallop with the wagon bouncing erratically behind her, making the three other mares cling on for dear life. “Why in the name of Tartarus didn't you do that when the dogs attacked?” Cloudburst yelled at Stonecutter from her jolted position in the back of the wagon.

“D-Didn't…have…time…”

Sat beside the pale blue pegasus, Sparkler tried to simultaneously nurse her sore arm and her head where she had taken a bump when she had been flung from the wagon, “Argue later, run now!”

“But then...”

Sparkler quickly placed her index finger over Cloudburst's mouth to silence her before she could further vocalise that thought. “No,” she stated as dominantly as she possibly could, “We made it out of that and we're going to make it out of this.”

“I have to say I'm impressed,” Sunny Saddle said as she held onto her hat to stop it flying away, “I didn't think three school ponies could handle eels like that.” Although, she supposed, she shouldn’t be all that surprised, given how they had handled the diamond dogs.

“I'm sure my hard head did some damage,” Sparkler laughed, which made Cloudburst and Sunny Saddle both laugh along with her as the fear in the wagon, which had been palpable, faded now that the immediate danger had passed.

“Makes me wish you three had been around back at Site A...” Sunny Saddle shuddered and the older unicorn relaxed her grip on the reins as a faraway look washed over her face.

“I wish this was easy,” Sparkler said in an attempt to comfort the troubled mare.

“I’m with you on that,” Cloudburst agreed as she tried to get comfortable in the back of the bouncing wagon. One thing was for sure, Sparkler’s makeshift repair on the wheel was being sternly tested. “Good thing Stoney's head is made of stone.”

Pulling the wagon, Stonecutter slowed down from her gallop to a canter and then to a walk as the pace – and the heat of the unforgiving sun- was getting to her. She was not built to run. “Do you see any more of those holes?” she asked, very much out of breath, she didn’t want to get surprised like that again.

From her elevated position in the driver’s seat of the flatbed, Sunny Saddle looked around, scanning the area ahead of them. “I think we're in the clear.”

“How much further?”

“Just about half a mile by my reckoning,” Sunny Saddle answered the younger unicorn’s question, “Then you can restock. I'll make sure you get plenty of pony balm for the pegasus.”

“Hey...” Cloudburst protested, though there wasn’t much vehemence behind her outburst, “I don't need that much healing cream!”

Smiling serenely, Sparkler placed a hand on Cloudburst’s shoulder, “You could just fly enough to avoid those eels when the wagon tipped. For me to stay safe I need both of you in tip top shape,” up ahead, Stonecutter simply smiled, impressed at how well her marefriend and Mistress was able to play her best friend.

“Yeah well...I uh...I guess I am awesome in tip top shape,” Cloudburst blushed as she rubbed the back of her head. She wasn’t going to argue though, not when praise was being heaped her way.

“I see something up ahead,” Stonecutter called, “Looks like organized chaos.”

“That's Site B,” Sunny Saddle said, shielding her eyes and looking ahead.

~ ~ ~

“Here we are,” Sunny Saddle announced when Stonecutter had stopped in the organised chaos that was Site B. it wasn’t on the main road, instead it had been built at the base of a huge column of rock. The terrain was more uneven than it had been at the abandoned camp site they had stayed at the night before, and there were many gullies, cliffs and other rock formations all around the site, which was currently home to twenty five ponies who were all part of the excavation team. “Right, I need to go find the Doc,” Sunny Saddle pointed out the largest tent, “And report what's happened.”

“Take Cloudy,” Sparkler said as she looked around the dig site. She saw it was made up of a camp area filled with temporary wooden shelters and canvas tents, as well as a quarry where the majority of the team’s digging was taking place. The quarry had been dug deep into the ground, forming a crater like pit with several interconnecting layers of wooden walkways. “She could use a doctor and some of that balm.”

“He's not that kind of doctor,” Sunny Saddle grinned, beckoning Cloudburst to follow her, “But don't worry, the medical tent's right next door. C'mon kid.”

Hopping down from the flatbed, Cloudburst called over her shoulder, “As long as you two don't do anything crazy!”

Sparkler couldn’t resist, “Depends on if we get a room!”

“I get it,” Cloudburst called, making sure she could be heard – there was no way she was being out-embarrassed, “If the tent's rocking, I won't come knocking!” Sure enough, Stonecutter blushed so hard it was like her slate grey cheeks were on fire, which just made Cloudburst laugh all the harder as she followed the dig pony to the large medical tent.

“What, it was funny!” Sparkler cried in her own defence, “There sure are a lot of workers here, but don't they seem a bit…off, to you?”

Stonecutter treated her marefriend to a most adorable pout, before she looked around properly at the workers in the crater. “Yeah,” she had to agree, “Yeah now you mention it, everypony does seem on edge, don't they?”

“I'm sure it's this whole statuette thing. Want to split up and see if we can find out what's really going on?”

“Sounds like a plan, Sparks. Sooner we figure what's up, I figure the sooner we'll find the professors.”

Gazing around the edge of the large crater, Sparkler soon spotted an open tent where there was more muttering than working going on and she decided to head on over while Stonecutter went to investigate the food tent. As she drew closer, she could see the excavation ponies were supposed to be cleaning up the finds from in the crater. “Hi,” she said breezily, “I’m new here. Need some help?”

One of the dig ponies, a chocolate coloured earth pony mare, was the first to answer. “New blood, huh? I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for…”

Before she could continue though, a blue pegasus stallion was quick to come to Sparkler’s defence. “Now, Hardhead, don't go terrifying the young mare before she’s even started.”

“No, not really,” Sparkler shrugged her shoulders and affected her best innocent young mare look, something she secretly thanked Cloudburst for teaching her. “The pay is good, but some of the workers seem a bit on edge. I'm here to do the fine dig to get something out of the ground. Anything needing removing?”

Hardhead didn’t seem convinced of this newcomer’s skill. “Uh...sure, you can get the sand and dirt off of these relics, if you want to help.”

“Cool, thanks, I'm happy to help, ma’am.” Sparkler took the offered tray of golden relics that had been previously dug up in her telekinetic field and, giving them a cursory look, she was mystified as to their origin. She carefully altered her magic and used her telekinesis to gently shake the sand and dirt free. “Like this?”

“Well look at that,” the stallion enthused, “The kid's a natural!”

“Yes, yes just like that!” Hardhead was, for once, all smiles, “Very well done!”

“Thank you!” Sparkler gushed, for while her ‘working’ at the site may have been a ruse, she was nonetheless pleased to be given praise for a job well done. Now she judged that she had a way in, she delicately continued, “I was surprised they were still hiring for this dig.”

“They're hiring all the damn time…” Hardhead muttered not quite under her breath, before she got a hard nudge in the ribs from the pegasus stallion. “Ow…Sky Tracker! Fine, I'm sorry I was so short with you.” She offered her hoof out for a bump, which Sparkler was quick to return, “Things haven't been exactly...normal around here lately. Ponies keep disappearing.”

“Really?” Sparkler continued to feign her ignorance, “This is like in the middle of nowhere land. Where would you go?”

“Wherever whoever is transforming them into statuettes takes them, I suppose,” Hardhead commented as she passed over a second tray to be fine cleaned by the new pony.

“Not everypony who transforms gets taken,” put in Sky Tracker, “There've been ten ponies in this dig site that have transformed, and three of them that changed back and are still here.”

Now that did pique Sparkler’s interest, though she tried really hard not to show how eagerly interested she was. “Wow,” she breathed like she was more concerned with the relics she was cleaning. In another time, she would have been. “They didn't leave? But...The others, are they still missing, or are they still statuettes?”

“Seven got taken, young miss,” Sky Tracker clarified, “Three transformed back into ponies.”

Keeping up the ruse, Sparkler continued to clean the excavated items like that was what she was there for, “So, um, like, does it happen a lot, or did it stop?”

“No,” Hardhead commented as she checked over Sparkler’s work and found it more than adequate, “It happens like three to five times every day. Sometimes they change back to normal after an hour, sometimes a little more. Dusty Stone over there, he just changed back after a whole day as a statuette.”

“Dusty Stone?” Sparkler giggled, then she cursed herself that she had spent too much time with Cloudburst, “Sorry, maybe I should go and dust him off.” It was too easy a joke to resist.

“If you want to know about the curse,” Sky Tracker’s good natured smile became firm, “You should ask him, but be gentle about it.”

“Um, okay, but I think I should get some more of this done so the boss doesn't get mad.” That was just a cover. As she carefully cleaned a third tray of relics, she doubted she had the interpersonal skills to deal with a trauma like that. But, she had an idea just who might have those skills.

Having struck out with the catering ponies who staffed the food tent, Stonecutter meandered her way over to where she saw Sparkler was laying it on thick for the two dig ponies she was working with. Idly she wondered if Cloudburst was a bad influence on her marefriend. “Hey Sparks, how's the uh, work, going?”

Dramatically, the yellow unicorn placed her hand up to her forehead, “It's dusting!”

Stonecutter laughed, “I can see that,” she said as she gently led her aside out of earshot of the dig ponies, “You okay, Mistress? You're all dusty and you aren't freaking out. Not even a teeny bit.”

“One does not freak out in front of the locals,” Sparkler pointed out in a very good impersonation of Professor Rarity, “I shall save that for later. The stallion over there is called Dusty Stone. He was turned into a statuette and back. Other statuettes have been stolen though. You should chat him up but do take it easy. The ones here say he's having a bad time about it.”

“Alright, I reckon I can do that. What do we need to know?”

“It would be nice if he knew who did it, but I'd like to know if he is aware of what was happening when he was a statuette.”

“Leave it to me, Mistress,” Stonecutter blew her marefriend a quick kiss and she casually strolled over to the stallion who was sat on his own wrapped in an old blanket. “Pardon me,” she asked, getting the sand coloured earth pony’s attention, “Do you mind if I sit with you a little while?”

“N-No, n-not at all,” he stammered, though he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a speeding car.

Stonecutter decided that honesty would be the best policy. That, and she wasn’t all that gifted, where guile was concerned. “So, Mr. Stone, I understand you were turned to a statuette. Do you mind if I ask you about it?” When he shook his head no, and indicated that she could continue, she asked, “When did it happen?”

“It w-was ye-yesterday morning, miss.” Dusty Stone answered, “I had just left my tent to start work in the crater when I saw some scorch marks on the ground and I heard some strange whooshing sounds and I went to investigate. I saw this cloaked hooded pony, a unicorn, because they were levitating the statuettes, on the edge of the crater. I called out to them and whoosh! I was a statuette too!”

“And ah, were you aware of what was happening, when you were transformed?”

Dusty Stone shook his head and wrapped the blanket closer around his trembling body. “No, it was like…like being in the deepest of deep sleeps. I couldn’t see or hear anything that was going on around me, then, just like that, whoosh! I was, me, again.” Stonecutter listened carefully and nodded her head. It certainly sounded like it was the same pony who had ambushed their campsite the night before, from the whooshing sounds to the scorch marks on the ground. It added up, though she was no closer to finding out who was responsible for the abductions.

Still, it was something.

“Hey! Sunny!” Hardhead called out to Sunny Saddle who had emerged from the largest tent just as Stonecutter excused herself and made her way back over to Sparkler, “Where's Pathfinder and Tracker!?”

“Yeah, where are the lovebirds?” called out Sky Tracker, unaware that the two earth pony stallions had been transformed and abducted, “Smooching behind a tent again, I’ll bet?”

“Um...” Sunny Saddle was caught rather unprepared, so much so that she didn’t see Cloudburst leave the medical tent to her side, “Well you see, they uh...”

Unfortunately, Cloudburst was completely blind to the unicorn’s stammers. She tucked the extra supplies of Pony Balm she had been given by the medical ponies under her arm and waved to her two friends. “Pathfinder and Tracker?” she asked very loudly, “You mean those earth ponies who got turned to statues and taken in the night?”

As the dig site erupted in uproar, Sparkler and Stonecutter turned to each other and, as one, they facepalmed. “Whaaat?” Cloudburst, genuinely perplexed, looked around nonplussed at the chaos she had created, “What'd I say?”

Sunny Saddle just shook her head as Stonecutter and Sparkler came walking over with a look of thunder on their faces. “Come along, you three, the doctor wants to talk with you.” She then raised her voice and addressed the rest of the dig site, which was on the point of rioting. “The rest of you, back to work! Now!”

As soon as she was in range, Stonecutter fetched her best friend a clip upside her head, “Your mouth, I swear to Celestia, CB...”

“Ow!” Cloudburst nursed the ear that had just been smacked, “What was that for?”

More diplomatic, Sparkler just glared at the pegasus, “Sometimes you don't need to share everything.”

“Sorry, I didn't mean to!” Cloudburst protested, though she flapped her wings and hovered along just out of smacking range, just in case her best friend wanted to ring her bell a second time. “They were telling dragon jokes in the medical tent. Wanna hear some?”

“Dragon jokes?” Sparkler raised an eyebrow, for she was notoriously bad with this kind of thing and it was just what she wanted to improve upon. “Sure,” she said, ignoring her marefriend’s shake of her head to the contrary.

Likewise, Cloudburst ignored Stonecutter’s groan, and she forged ahead. “I spotted a lizard on a portable toilet. I suspected it might be a commode-o-dragon!”

At the sheer awfulness of the joke, Sparkler snorted a breath through her nose, “That's terrible!” Still, a small fit of giggles escaped her.

Cloudburst, who swelled with gusto and was well in her stride, continued, much to Stonecutter’s dismay, “Why are dragons such good storytellers? They all have impressive tails!”

Sparkler’s snickering giggles became a full on belly laugh when she heard that punchline. “Oh,” she declared bravely, “I got one!”

“Go for it!” Cloudburst encouraged her.

“Why are dragons so easy to weigh?” when the hovering pegasus shrugged her shoulders, Sparkler continued, “They all come with scales!”

As Cloudburst erupted into a gale of laughter, Sunny Saddle leant in close to Stonecutter and asked in a whisper, “Does this happen often?”

The clearly embarrassed earth pony nodded her head, “More often than it used to, ma'am.”

“Well you’re here,” Sunny Saddle said as she paused outside the tent, “Now please be respectful of Doctor Caballeron.”

At that, Stonecutter pointedly nudged Cloudburst hard in her ribs, “What?” the pegasus asked indignantly, “I can behave!”

As Sunny Saddle held open the flap of the tent, Stonecutter walked in first, closely followed and flanked by Cloudburst and Sparkler. The first thing that struck the trio was how comfortable and finely decorated the inside of the tent was. Stonecutter doubted the other dig ponies had a Princess sized bed to sleep in, or a side cabinet with a mini fridge inside. She bowed her head respectfully to the only stallion inside, “Doctor Caballeron, sir?”

If the dark grey earth pony stallion was offended that Stonecutter had so brutally butchered the pronunciation of his name, he gave no sign of it. “It is Caballeron, as in, Cabal.” He even went so far as to offer them each a glass of ice cold water, which they gratefully accepted, given how hot it was.

While Cloudburst snickered and sipped her water, Sparkler spoke up, “Hello, Doctor, do you happen to know where the Friendship School professors are?”

That caught Caballeron completely by surprise. “The Professors? Do you mean Princess Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Element Bearers?”

“Pardon me, sir,” Stonecutter put in, “But yes, that's why we're here.”

“I'm afraid I have no idea the Princess and the others were even out here in the Badlands.” For once, Caballeron was telling the whole truth. That wasn’t a thing that happened very often, if at all.

Curiously, Sparkler looked around the tent. It struck her as like a hotel room than a tent. “Nice for a tent,” she found her gaze drawn to more of the golden relics similar in design to the ones she had cleaned, “You found most of these things out here?”

“Oh yes. My team is very skilled. We are searching for evidence of the lost city of Umberfoal.”

“Umberfoal?” Sparkler questioned, while Stonecutter and Cloudburst shrugged, completely at a loss, “That is an old legend. Does that have something to do with the curse of the statuettes?”

“Perhaps, young mare,” Caballeron studied the unicorn and the two ponies with her. They certainly seemed capable to him, particularly after what Sunny Saddle had told him. “The old legends of Umberfoal do tell that the sealed gates are guarded by a powerful magic, what the less educated might call a 'curse'.”

“You are running a very impressive dig, Doctor Caballeron,” Sparkler decided to pour on the sugar like she had done with the two dig ponies, “I was able to look at a few items when I was helping with cleaning.”

“Oh?” Caballeron barely supressed his smirk. He could tell a mile away when somepony was giving him the old bump and tickle. He was a master, and this mare was a base amateur by comparison. Still, she intrigued him. “You are a budding archaeologist?”

“More a historian,” Sparkler clarified, though she supposed he wasn’t really wrong, “But archaeology is important in verifying history. Such as your search for Umberfoal. Most historian consider that place a myth.”

“So did Professor Gully Trotter,” commented Caballeron, gently luring the young unicorn in with hints of knowledge, lures he could tell by the hungry look on her face, were working. Everypony had their price, after all, and he was skilled in finding it. “Until I showed him what we uncovered. It is to him we owe most of our discoveries.”

“Professor Trotter?” Sparkler’s eyes went wide as saucers, for she had heard of Gully Trotter. The acclaimed archaeologist had once been invited to give a lecture at Celestia’s school, when she had still attended the place. To speak with him in person, that would be a true honour. “I'd love to have a chance to talk with him!”

Caballeron smiled a most devious, wicked smile. He knew he had this mare dangling on his hook like a fisher pony on the banks of a lake. “You would have to find him first. He took a skeleton crew up to Dustmane Ridge in the south east over a week ago, we haven't heard from him since.”

“Really,” Sparkler couldn’t hide her disappointment, “That seems odd. Maybe they are in some sort of trouble, like statuette trouble?”

“Perhaps,” Caballeron didn’t care one iota what trouble the Professor was in, he just wanted whatever he had discovered for his own. And it would be his. He always got what he wanted, in the end. “Alas I cannot spare anypony to form a search party, not without leaving this site understaffed and vulnerable to bandits and the aah, indigenous, wildlife.”

“Was there some item in particular that took him there?”

“Stone tablets, markers, that are said to show the way to Umberfoal,” Caballeron saw no reason to lie. He already had the mare in the palm of his hand.

“But we can't just leave him out there!” exclaimed Cloudburst, her wings fluttering out in outrage.

“Well,” it was all Caballeron could do to not do a happy dance right there in his tent. The careless pegasus had just blundered her way right into his hands and bought her friends along with her, “There's nothing stopping three adventurous young ponies from going to search for him...”

“We'll need supplies, and gear.”

Caballeron eyed up the overweight earth pony and he surmised she wouldn’t be as easy as the other two. “But of course. You can resupply as much as you need from the dig site, but you'll need grappling harnesses to safely scale Dustmane Ridge. The high winds make flying...inadvisable. There is, however, a problem.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Cloudburst threw up her hands.

“Cloudy!” Sparkler gave her friend her most disapproving glare.

Stonecutter, for the moment, ignored the other two. “What sort of problem, Doctor?”

“I only have one harness here,” he reached into a box and pulled out the harness before he passed it to the annoying pale blue pegasus. It’s small / medium size was perfect for her. “The problem is, that the rest are in the equipment crates we left behind, in Site A.”

Sparkler shot the greasy earth pony a withering stare. “Now you can say it, Cloudy.”

“Are you crazy!?”

Coldly, Caballeron just shrugged his shoulders. “That's where the harnesses are. If you want them, and I know that you do, then that's where you're going.”

For a fraction of a second, Sparkler got a hint of the Doctor’s true, uncaring nature, and she didn’t like it, not one bit. “Well, Sunny Saddle did tell us about the tatzlwurms out there. You got anything for that?”

“Only some advice,” Caballeron nonchalantly sipped his water, “Watch your step and tread lightly.”

Sparkler sighed in defeat. “Are we doing this, Stoney?”

“We've come this far.” And the thought of leaving behind an ageing earth pony to whatever creatures happened to be stalking these lands just didn’t sit well with Stonecutter.

Sparkler nodded. “Cloudy?” They all agreed, or they didn’t go.

Cloudburst already had the grappling harness on, and she was fluttering her wings eagerly, ready to pursue that flighty temptress, adventure! “I'm ready to go, just give the word, I say let's do this!”

~ ~ ~

As the three ponies approached the abandoned Site A, they began to see what looked like buildings clustered together in a kind of makeshift town. Getting closer, it was apparent to them that this dig site was more built up than the one they had just come from. Standing on the edge of the small town, there were tents flapping in the breeze but there were also wooden buildings, both temporary and more permanent structures, seemingly thrown together when the expedition had arrived.

It was obvious even to Cloudburst that this site was bigger and had been intended to be more longer lasting than Site B. it was clear that the dig team must have lost most of their equipment and supplies when they had to abandon the place. To the left of the town was a high rocky hill which rose up into a steep cliff which circled around to the opposite side of the town, creating a natural wind break.

Sparkler bought Stonecutter to a halt on the very edge of the abandoned site. She couldn’t see any huge snake creatures; in fact the town was extremely quiet – too quiet. It seemed to her that even the animals had left the place. “Okay, we need to be careful,” she stated as a ball of tumbleweed rolled between the nearest buildings. “My book says that tatzlwurms are sensitive to vibrations - not noise - but walking around or knocking something over…”

“Does that mean you can't use your vibrator?” asked Cloudburst, to which Sparkler responded with an eye roll that spoke volumes and a facepalm for good measure.

“It means we gotta be careful, featherbrain!” Stonecutter admonished her best friend as she too looked apprehensively into the town. It had been a good idea back in Caballeron’s tent, but now they were here, she wasn’t too sure.

“Well, I'm okay,” Cloudburst flapped her strong pale blue wings and took off ten feet above the ground. “No bad vibes from me!”

Sparkler barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes a second time. “Was there any part of 'not knocking anything over' that you didn't understand?”

“What's to knock over?” Cloudburst asked as she gestured to the abandoned ghost town, “There's nothing and nopony here!” An idea came to her though as she hovered there in the air, “You want me to scout around, see if I can find those crates?”

“Yeah, actually that would be great. Um, if they are open, could you lift stuff out of them?” Sparkler didn’t dare dream that their trip to the deserted dig site would be so easy as to have the pegasus swoop in and just take what they needed for the next part of their journey, but one could hope.

“Yes ma'am!” with that, Cloudburst turned and flew off on her way into the abandoned town, narrowly missing the front of a weather-beaten shack with a barrel roll and a swift climb into the sky. She came so close to hitting the building that she rattled the open door with the wake from her wings.

“And then there were two,” Stonecutter said somewhat ominously as she walked into the site proper with Sparkler by her side, holding her marefriend’s hand as she pulled her red wagon behind her. Almost straightaway, not even five steps into the town, there came a low rumble underground that echoed around the empty buildings.

“Okay, stop,” Sparkler held out her hand across Stonecutters’ chest, “We are too close for the wagon.”

Obediently, Stonecutter froze in mid step. “Was that...a tatzy…a tatl…um...one of them worm things?”

“Either that or Cloudy's tummy.”

“Dunno which I'm more scared of,” Stonecutter remarked as she stepped out of her wagon's harness, happy to leave it and their supplies where it was. “Heh, I don't suppose it'll get stolen, right?”

“As long as it isn't moving, it shouldn't get eaten either,” Sparkler said, delicately picking up one hoof and gingerly setting it down. Taking such slow steps, she repeated and she was rewarded by no scary rumbling noises. “We got this.”

In an attempt to emulate what her marefriend had done, Stonecutter set off at her regular heavy-set walk, though she didn’t take five steps before the underground rumbling was clearly heard again, this time considerably louder, like boulders being cracked and ground together. “Buck!” the stocky pony exclaimed as she felt the ground shake.

“Stoney,” Sparkler said in an exasperated tone, “Please tread lightly.”

“I am treading lightly!” Stonecutter shot back angrily, “I weigh like, three hundred and fifty pounds, for Luna’s sake!” at her outburst, she blushed hard and tried, with success, to take a more delicate, lighter step.

Sparkler was stunned at the vehemence in her marefriend’s voice. She hadn’t heard that before, though she supposed it was due to the perceived slight about her weight, which she had not intended to be taken that way. “Go slow, especially when you put your hoof down, but also when you pick it up too.”

When Sparkler demonstrated an example of a very exaggerated slow walk, Stonecutter copied her and this time, there was no rumbling sound from underground. It occurred to her they looked like cartoon caricatures of burglars sneaking away from a crime. “I'm sorry, Mistress, I didn't mean to raise my voice…”

“I still think you're cute, all three hundred and fifty of you.”

“Yeah, if you say so...” Stonecutter replied sullenly, and the two mares walked very carefully along one of the abandoned streets until they came to a corner that brought them onto what was clearly a main street or thoroughfare, or at least it used to be. What stood out though, was the few dried red stains on the floor. “By the goddesses…”

Sparkler stepped aside as quickly as her delicate steps allowed her, “Don't step in that, it may be slippery.”

Stonecutter shuddered, wondering how that of all things was the thing that her marefriend was concerned with. “I guess they were the ones that weren't quick enough, huh?”

“Trying to not think about that,” Sparkler said grimly, looking pointedly at anywhere other than the spots on the floor. “Where's CB got to?”

Almost like she was on cue, there came a hollering cry from somewhere nearby they couldn’t quite see yet from where they were, “GUYS!” Cloudburst yelled at the top of her lungs, “I FOUND THEM! OVER HERE!”

For what felt like the hundredth time that day alone, Sparkler facepalmed. “I'm glad that sound doesn't count.”

Stonecutter looked at her marefriend and saw that shew had frozen just like she had, and they had managed to do so without them both having a heart attack. “C'mon,” the slate grey earth pony sighed, “If we're lucky we can get the gear and get out of...”

Just then, there came the sound of a huge crashing sound, unmistakably that of many wooden crates hitting the ground followed almost instantly by the loudest rumble yet, and the ground shook violently as tremors shook the buildings almost apart. “SORRY!”

“Run!” Sparkler ran at a gallop all the way back to Stonecutter’s red wagon and past it. Behind her, she heard an almighty crash and an explosion of dust and rock that sent boulders smashing into the wooden buildings nearby. She knew the tatzlwurm had surfaced at last. It was time to run!

“BUCK!” Cloudburst screamed in mid-air as she watched the gigantic snake like creature rise up from the ground. She was too busy dodging flying debris to fly away from the monster. “HEEEEEELP!”

Stonecutter reacted without thinking. “CB, I'm coming!” she ran at a gallop forwards and then she screamed in panic at the sight of her best friend flying frantically around the one hundred foot long worm. Its skin was dark purple, with a red crest that surrounded a bright pink head. What was worse was the row upon row of deadly razor sharp teeth that lined its three jaws.

As the pale blue pegasus flew low to avoid a snap of the creature’s jaws, the tatzlwurms sprayed the air with a prodigious amount of green snot. While the torrent of phlegm missed its intended target, it landed all over the much slower earth pony instead. “Don't let it get any snot on you!” called Sparkler who, against her better judgement, had ran back to help.

“Too late!” Cloudburst called out as she flapped her wings and rose again up into the air, narrowly missing a second jet of green snot that spattered harmlessly over the side of a building. “Damn!” the pegasus clapped her hands and shot her lightning bolt at it, which bounced uselessly off the monster's hide. “I'm not even slowing it! AAAAAH!”

As Cloudburst flew and jinked side to side to avoid a retaliatory strike from the beast, Sparkler called out, “Stone! Kick it!”

When she heard that, Stonecutter, covered almost head to hoof in the tatzlwurm’s green emission, charged headfirst into the creature’s side and she delivered a brutal kick followed by an almighty punch that made it open it’s jaws and let out a loud roar of pain that echoed around the abandoned town. “HEY!” Cloudburst yelled, “There's a white gem in its mouth!”

While the tatzlwurm was distracted by Stonecutter and Cloudburst, Sparkler was frantically looking for the grappling harnesses. “Don't risk grabbing it!”

Stonecutter punched it again, this time harder than before, making it roar so loud that glass windows in the nearby buildings shattered into shards that fell to the ground. With its three jaws open wide in agony, the pegasus took her chance to fly in. “I can get it!” Just as Cloudburst grabbed at the large gemstone in the middle of a barrel roll, Sparkler saw the crate of harnesses and grabbed it in her strong telekinetic magic.

The manoeuvre was not without sacrifice though. As Cloudburst flew up and away, the tatzlwurm lunged at her and, snapping its jaws, she counted herself lucky that all she lost was some of her dark grey tail. “RUN!” she screamed in terror, “RUN NOW!” The pegasus flew as hard as she could, and Sparkler and Stonecutter galloped at their top speeds back through the town to the red wagon.

At the edge of the town, they at last slowed down, each of them breathing hard and gulping down much needed lungfuls of air. “It's not chasing us!” Cloudburst gasped as she landed on her hooves.

“Th-They are v-very te-territorial,” Sparkler gasped, the unicorn collapsing to her butt on the rocky floor, “Rest up, we’ve got the harnesses, what we came for. The tatzlwurm won’t follow us out of it’s area.”

Stonecutter, utterly exhausted, collapsed down onto her hands and knees in the dirt, still covered in the creature’s green gunk, desperately gasping for breath. “I-I'm g-gonna be sick...” When she heard that, Sparkler looked her marefriend over to see if she was glowing green or if she was just covered. Thankfully she was just covered and not infected with tatzlflu.

Victoriously, Cloudburst tossed the white gem from hand to hand, “I got the prize!” now she was able to look at it, it was roughly the size of a buckball. “Look at the size of this thing!”

“Cloudy,” Sparkler said when she had her breath – and her wits – back, “Can you please make a rain cloud now? Stoney needs to get washed off before that stuff does make her sick.”

“Sure thing, Sparks, catch!” she tossed her the white gem that the unicorn easily caught in her magic, “Hold onto that,” then, she flew up twenty feet and she did her pegasi thing with the air, compressing the water vapour to create a small cloud.

Sparkler smiled as she looked at the gem with her mage sight. “I knew telling her not to get it would make her get it.”

Looking at the gem with her more mundane sight, Stonecutter gave her assessment of their find, “Professor Rarity would crap a pink twinkie to get a gem that size.”

“That was an image I didn't need, Stoney,” Sparkler gave her lover a deadpan look, “I'm going to blame the snot you're covered in.”

Just then, Cloudburst hovered down, the dark grey cloud she had created hanging in the air. “One cloud shower service, ready to go!” when Stonecutter stepped underneath her creation, Cloudburst jumped on the top and agitated it to make it rain good and hard. “So, what's with the gem, Horny?”

“White, Feathers,” Sparkler called back, before stowing it safely in her backpack, “It’s all white.”

“Duh! I could've told you that!” Cloudburst moved to the side of the cloud and continued to kick at it until it was all but spent, “Well worth a few tail hairs, though! Just don't tell that Cab guy. I don't trust him as far as I can throw Stonebutt.”

“Yeah,” Sparkler agreed as Stonecutter, dripping wet through but clean of any green snot, stepped out from under the cloud. She greatly approved of the wet look, especially as the white tee shirt she was wearing under her dungarees was plastered tight against her large round breasts, “The Professors need to see this, not him. I don't trust what he said about Professor Trotter, either.”

Still, she was sure they would find answers at Dustmane Ridge. That was their next stop.

Chapter 5 - The Runaway Professor

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“So, Cloudy,” Sparkler spoke up after a good fifteen minutes of silence, “Did you get this gem because I told you not to?”

“Why?” Cloudburst asked. Sat next to the unicorn in the back of Stonecutter’s red wagon, the pale blue pegasus looked up to see the yellow unicorn playing with the large white gemstone. She was sure that Sparkler would never admit to ‘playing with it’, she’d say she was ‘studying it’, but she was turning it over in her green magical field, and to Cloudburst that meant playing. “Do you think I'm irresponsible and careless or something?”

Sparkler’s look of curiosity at the gem and its possible purpose became a broad smile, one she directed at her friend under the wide brim of her sun hat. “You're something, Cloudy. Very much something,” she settled on diplomatically, rather than admit that yes, she found her at times to be not just irresponsible but downright reckless.

“You didn't answer the question, Sparks,” Cloudburst pointed out as she sat upright in the back of the wagon and rested her hands on her flat belly. Even at this very, very early stage, she was sure she could sense the tiny life growing in there. Either that or the Tartarus damned heat was at last getting to her.

“If you want me to use a one word description of you,” Sparkler started and then she paused when the pegasus passed her one of the bottles of fresh water they had bought with them when they resupplied back at Site B. Without thinking, she levitated a bottle up front, where Stonecutter took it, “It would be impetuous. You live in the now and worry about consequences later.” Sparkler then nodded towards Stonecutter who was in her groove pulling the wagon, “The word for her is driven. She worries to much about how she is. Not how I see her. What about me, Cloudy. Do you have a word for me?”

As it happened, Cloudburst had many words to describe Sparkler. Not all of them as kind as she’d like. But, after getting to know her, she thrust those to the back of her mind. “I was gonna go with booky or nerdy, but I think 'dependable' would be better,” she said after a moment’s consideration, “You're smart. You know stuff I never will, you always have a plan, you always know what to do.”

Very quickly, Sparkler covered her mouth to stop a laugh, but she wasn’t quite quick enough. “I wish I had a plan, but I don't even know where we're going to plan! I do put up a good front, and I do know a lot of stuff so I can make a snap decision and it looks like I planned it.”

Cloudburst snickered, “Mom said once, when I was younger, if you slip, turn it into an aileron roll and act like you meant it.”

The fact that Cloudburst’s eyes got rather wet when she mentioned her mother did not go unnoticed by Sparkler. Although basic interaction skills were still somewhat beyond her, she knew enough to instinctively wrap her arm around the pegasus’s shoulders and pull her into a hug. “Hold the good memories and let the bad ones fade,” she advised, having read the passage in a book, “I noticed you didn't disagree with my word for you.”

“How can I disagree?” Cloudburst asked sullenly, “You're right, you got me pegged.” She then thought for a moment, and the scenery went past them on their way to Dustmane Ridge in the distance. Not that the scenery was anything to look at. It was nothing but sand, dirt, and rocks. “Is that what you do, about your dad, remember good stuff and forget the rest?”

Now it was Sparkler’s turn to go quiet. It had been a good while since Solar Flare, her father, had left her and her mother high and dry in Canterlot. It still hurt though. “Yeah, but you really can't,” she admitted softly, “You can’t just focus on one and not the other. It has gotten to the point I no longer cry. Mom asked me about that. She still does, but I told her I don't make time for it.”

Cloudburst considered that. She was mindful of not whining too much in this regard. As much as her parents were absentees, she still had them both. Her friend did not. “Yeah. I haven't seen my parents in three years, outside of the odd Wonderbolts performance. I always invite them to my harmonica recitals at school, they never show. Tartarus, they've never even met Seafoam!”

Nudging her friend’s ribs gently, Sparkler said, “You may have tried this, but have you scheduled an appointment?”

Of course she had tried that, what did the unicorn think she was, stupid? “Something always comes up at the last minute. Training schedule change, or whatever excuse comes next.” Then, Cloudburst went very quiet. She went quiet for a rather long time. So long in fact that she was sure the unicorn had thought she was asleep. “Sparkler, can I ask your opinion on something?”

The seriousness of the pegasus’s tone made Sparkler lift up the brim of her hat and give her a look to make sure she had heard right. “Before you ask, do you want a sweet, that's nice answer, or what I really think answer?”

“I wouldn't ask if I didn't want what you really think.” One thing that Cloudburst could be absolutely sure of was that Sparkler would not simply stroke her ego. “I know you won't just tell me what I want to hear, Sparks.”

“Ask away.”

As she looked directly down at her flat belly like it would spontaneously grow several sizes in an instant, Cloudburst said, “Do you think, when we have foals, I...I mean, 'we', are we like, good parents on instinct, or am I gonna be rubbish like my parents?” the pegasus pulled on her top, because suddenly it had gotten a lot of degrees hotter. Even out there in the Badlands.

“Your choice,” Sparkler answered simply before she elaborated, “Being a parent is not easy. You have examples that you learn from. Yours are the first. Then your friends, like Stoney. I know it’s easy to fall back on what you know best. You really need to make a choice,” the unicorn sighed and marshalled her thoughts, “Do you want to sacrifice your life for the life you brought into the world?”

Still looking at her belly, Cloudburst said, “I'd do anything for her, Sparks, and I mean that.” She sighed and her ears lay flat against her head, “Stone's parents have all but adopted me, and your mom's pretty cool too.”

“Um, ah...” Sparkler started and then, when realisation dawned on her like a very large bit sliding slowly down a coin machine, she leant in close so she could really whisper quietly, “Are you pregnant?”

Slowly, ever so slowly, Cloudburst nodded her head. “Fairly sure I am, yeah. It was that night when you two stayed at Zecora's place. We did it, like, a lot, and the last time we did it underwater and the rubber came off. He splodged in me, loads. Like, tons of it.” It felt good to tell somepony, so she wasn’t bearing the news alone.

When she spoke next, Sparkler made sure to keep her voice low, so that Stonecutter couldn’t hear her. “You shouldn't be out here. But we need you. If Stoney finds out, you know she will make you go home.”

“I know.” That much was blatantly obvious. “I'll tell her after it's all done. If I tell her now, I'll break her like I break the computers at school.” Suddenly, a pained sob left her, “I-I promised my Master I'd be super careful, and I've almost been killed like a million times!”

“We're going to get back,” Sparkler said with a rare determination in her voice, for now she had even more of a reason for them all to get back. “I'll keep pulling plans out my ass like I had them there all along. You'll keep being impetuous and doing what needs to be done when it needs doing. Stoney will be the sane one to say, ‘I don't think that will work’.”

“Sounds like a plan, Sparks,” Cloudburst’s signature cocky grin reappeared on her face and she offered her fist to her friend, which Sparkler bumped with a roll of her eyes. “Seafoam tried so damn hard to get me to stay behind, you know. But...I like hanging out with you guys. Crazy shit always happens, and it's fun!”

Lightly, Sparkler poked Cloudburst with her index finger, “When we get back you can remind me of the 'fun' bits. So,” she swiftly changed the subject, “Do you think Seafoam will stick with you when he finds out?”

“He already knows. Kinda hard not to know when he was still in me when we surfaced,” Cloudburst giggled at the memory of the night that had either gone disastrously badly or brilliantly right, depending on one’s point of view, “He wants to move to Mount Aris.”

“Is that where his parents are?”

“Yup. They're part of Queen Novo's palace guard.”

“That gives us a reason to visit then!” Sparkler smiled warmly before she lowered her index finger down to Cloudburst's enviously flat belly. It so was not fair that she had what was affectionately called ‘foal fat’ on her hips and belly. “There is no such thing as a 'good' parent. There are those that are dedicated to being a parent and those that are careless about it. Love. That is the key.”

At that, Cloudburst cried a little as the wagon rumbled ever onwards towards the ridge in the distance. She was very, very pleased that her best friend was looking ahead to their destination and couldn’t see her crying. She hated ponies seeing her cry. “See, I said you were smart and dependable,” through her tears, she giggled, “You know, when you come to visit, it's the cultural thing not to wear clothes.”

Of course, Sparkler knew of the Hippogriff social customs. To them, nudism was a practical consideration. When one could transform from Hippogriff to Seapony at will, clothing just got in the way, so they didn’t bother with it. “Just so you know, I'm so going to run around in very sexy lingerie.”

Her spirits somewhat lifted, Cloudburst laughed, “I'm counting on it, sis.”

Looking ahead, Sparkler gazed lovingly at Stonecutter’s fat behind that jiggled sexily as her marefriend pulled the wagon. The way it wobbled, the way her tail swished side to side with every step, it was mesmerising. “As the one pulling the wagon, I could watch her run around naked all day long.”

Cloudburst followed Sparkler’s gaze to her best friend’s generously proportioned rear, “I think she's a lucky sub to get you as her dom.”

Hearing that, Sparkler frowned deeply and she sat back against the back of the wagon. Their exchange at Site A came back to the fore of her mind, where it threatened to eat at her. “We had a ‘moment’, earlier when you were trying to recreate an earthquake.”

Sparkler’s deep sigh made Cloudburst take notice. “What kind of a moment? Was it a 'weight' moment?” It was a good bet, where Stonecutter was concerned, to assume any issues involving her also involved her weight.

“I told her to step lightly,” Sparkler said with a nod of her head, “She took that as I thought she was too fat to step lightly. I don't see her as fat, I don't even think of her as fat. Like crying. I'm not taking time to even consider her weight.” The unicorn’s voice went quieter and quieter until she was silent. She would never forget the angry expression on her marefriend’s face. She sincerely hoped she would never look at her like that again.

“She's had to deal with a lot of crap because of her weight,” Cloudburst stated from experience, “I've had to punch more than a few ponies at school when they forget what friendship's all about. I don't even think she was mad at you, more like it was an automatic response thing. It's not that she doesn't exercise, it's well, she's that size and that's that.”

“I like that size!” Sparkler admitted, her yellow cheeks flushing bright red as again she found herself staring at Stonecutter’s vast behind, and she had to force herself to not get lost in a fantasy where she was underneath and between those glorious mountains of flesh, “This wasn't the first time, and I doubt it will be the last. I just don't know if I should apologize for what I said, or I should confront her how she reacted.”

“How about both?” offered Cloudburst with a raised eyebrow and a wry grin, “You could always give her an attitude adjustment, Mistress style, when this is all put to bed,” she then hugged Sparkler just like she herself had been hugged, “I do know she loves the bones of you. I've never seen her so happy as when she got with you and she wore your collar. She never expected to get with anypony, because of her size.”

The thought of adjusting her marefriend’s attitude, with the aid of a crop, was very appealing right at that moment. She could always use her new creation skill to magically create a crop to use. “Maybe if we can camp somewhere safe, and you can keep the cat calls down, or do you want to watch?”

“Oh,” Cloudburst’s grin widened, “I definitely want to watch, and I promise I won't be an ass, because I like to sit on my ass.”

Again, the two mares shared a fist bump, though this time it was Sparkler who initiated the gesture, “Deal.”

“Thanks sis...” Whatever she was about to say next died on her lips as her sharp ears pricked up. She was sure she heard a shrill cry on the wind. Looking up and around her, she was surprised to see they were at the base of Dustmane Ridge already. “Hey, do you hear that? Sounds like...crying.”

Sparkler couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, not over the familiar rumbling of the wagon’s wheels, anyway. Now she was alerted though, she started to look around and use her ears. Like her friend, she was surprised to see they were at the ridge already. Where had the time gone? “Stoney, hold up for a bit, please.”

“Huh?” came the response from Stonecutter, who had been so much in her own little world that she was still holding the empty water bottle in her hand. Now shocked out of her reverie, she blushed, because she had been dreaming about Sparkler and her sculptures, she slowed down from the walk to a stop.

“There it is again!” Cloudburst cried as she heard the shrill sound again.

“Doesn't sound like a pony,” Sparkler commented, because now she could hear it too.

“Sounds like a bird,” Cloudburst mused, standing up in the wagon and straining her keen ears.

“I hear it now too,” Stonecutter called back, pointing to a point partway up the side of the cliff that rose up in front of them from the floor of the Badlands, “It’s coming from that rise over there!”

Sparkler surveyed the terrain and frowned, “No way the wagon can go up there. Can you scout it out please, Cloudy, just stay low in case whatever it might be thinks you might be a snack.”

“Yes ma'am!” order received, Cloudburst flapped her strong powerful wings and she took off, flying up the cliff to the rise that Stonecutter had pointed out.

“What were you two talking about?” Stonecutter asked Sparkler when the unicorn had alighted from the wagon and come to stand by her side, where she helped to get her unhitched so they could follow on hoof at a slower and safer pace.

“I asked Cloudy what her favourite sexual position was,” Sparkler said with such a straight face that even she was amazed at her growing interpersonal skills, “But she had a hard time narrowing it down to just the one.” She held Stonecutter’s hand, linking their fingers together, “I told her that you were my favourite position.”

As Cloudburst came swooping back down, Stonecutter coloured up in such a deep red blush that she resembled a walking tomato, “It's a bird alright,” the pegasus reported, “It’s trapped under some rubble on the other side of the rise, but it's not like any bird I've ever seen.”

Pleased that her pet had reacted like that, Sparkler whispered, “She didn't believe me and she wants proof,” she purred into the earth pony’s ear with a most salacious wink. “We'll be up as soon as we can Cloudy,” she said, raising her voice, “Keep an eye out for more of them.”

“You got it!” Cloudburst saw that they had ditched the red wagon and she flew over to where they had left it, behind some large boulders, and she grabbed her rucksack before flying up again.

“Sh-She does?” Stonecutter hefted her large pack, which was the largest pack they possessed, easily onto her broad shoulders, “Ah...I ah...th-think that's a good idea,” she stuttered, wishing that the heat she felt now was just on her face and not elsewhere. It was very much elsewhere.

Electing to travel as light as she could, which meant that Stonecutter clipped her backpack onto her pack and carried it for her, Sparkler lightly slapped her marefriend’s chubby ass. “I think you're right.”

Stonecutter’s blush remained intact as they carefully ascended the top of the rise, because she knew what was in the bottom of her pack, something that would ease the ‘elsewhere’ heat. “I reckon that's Dustmane Ridge up above the rise. We'll have to come back later for the wagon…” her words were then quieted when she saw what her best friend was standing next to. “Well look at that! What in Equestria is that?”

‘That’, as it turned out, thanks to Sparkler’s creature book, was a baby roc. And it wasn’t happy. The closer they got to it, the louder and clearer its shrill cries became. It was obvious to the three ponies that the poor creature was in a great amount of pain due to the fallen rocks that were strewn across its left wing.

Unanimously, with a silent look to each other, they agreed to help out the poor bird. It was only when Stonecutter had freed the roc from the rubble, easily tossing aside the heavy stones like they were softballs, that they could see the bird didn’t have feathers, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, its body was covered in rows of stony shards covering its body and wings as well as being possessed of a large rocky beak and sharp talons.

Once Stonecutter had healed the roc by squirting some of their balm into the wound and then fixing a splint to its wing, something that took the master stone mason a matter of moments thanks to her creative flair, the three mares started on the long climb up the cliff face to Dustmane Ridge. Just as Doctor Caballeron had said, there was an unnaturally strong wind that blew the moment they started to climb, which made flying all but impossible.

They were about a third of the way up, using the grappling harnesses to effectively ‘walk’ up the side of the steep, almost sheer, surface, when Sparkler suddenly said, “I’m sorry about setting you off at the old dig site, Stone.”

“What?” Stonecutter, who was climbing on the unicorn’s right, with Sparkler in the middle, was caught off guard by the sudden statement, mostly because she was concentrating wholly on the cliff face in front of her and trying very, very hard to not look down.

Hanging from her grappling harness on Sparkler’s left, with the healed baby roc happily sat on her shoulder, Cloudburst called out, “She said, sorry for setting you off in Site A. what she means is, ‘what's your bucking deal?’, but she's too polite to say it.”

“Are we really doing this now?” Stonecutter asked, unable to keep the exasperated tone from her voice. Not that she felt that way towards her marefriend, it was where she was that was doing it. “We're hanging off a cliff!” Not the place she wanted to be.

“Yeah!” Cloudburst hollered, “You can't run away halfway up a cliff. Talk!”

“Stoney,” Sparkler started again, somewhat calmer than the pegasus to her left. She wanted to get to the bottom of her marefriend’s issues. Even if they were hanging off the side of a cliff. “I have no issues with your weight now, past, or future, but you do. I don't want something I say to hurt you, when I never mean to hurt you.”

“I...” Stonecutter looked away, unable to meet Sparkler’s piercing green eyes. This proved to be a mistake because she glanced downwards and then ended up hugging the cliff in fear, “I don't have an issue...”

“Horseapples!” yelled Cloudburst angrily, making the baby roc on her shoulder chirp and gesture with its wings in a manner that echoed the pegasus, “You tell her, right now! Or Celestia help me, I will, Stone!”

Realising she was defeated and metaphorically, if not literally, backed into a corner, Stonecutter sighed deeply and hung her head. “Alright, alright. I...I get bullied,” even though they were just three words, they felt like the biggest three words the earth pony had ever spoken, “Over my size. I always have been, ever since kindergarten, all through school, and I still do now.”

“If you went to the school I was at in Canterlot,” Sparkler said softly, reaching out to squeeze her marefriend’s hand, “I could have been one of those. If only to be with the 'in' crowd and not get picked on myself.”

“It's not just her size she gets bullied for…”

“CB!”

“Okay,” Sparkler raised her hands placatingly, grateful that the grappling hooks in the harness were holding her in place, “Let’s leave that, whatever that is, for now. Your weight, Stoney. I don't have a 'crowd' to be in at Ponyville. I have you. I don't want to lose you over a careless word.”

“You won't,” Stonecutter said as she took several deep breaths to calm herself down, “I...I need to get over it.”

“I help!” Cloudburst smiled smugly, “Anypony bullies my big sis when I’m around, I deal with them!”

Sighing, Stonecutter rolled her eyes, “I wish you wouldn’t, CB.”

“But it's fun! I snap my fingers,” the pegasus demonstrated what she meant by snapping he fingers and sending a small bolt of lightning bouncing harmlessly off the cliff face, “And they get a low level zap to their asses. Not enough to hurt, but enough to make them lose bladder control.”

Now, Sparkler was not a mare to advocate revenge, but her green eyes were alive with a mischievous glint when she heard that. “You need any help with that, Cloudy?”

“Totally!” Cloudburst pointed to Stonecutter, who was pretending she wasn’t there. “She can’t hit them, if she did she'd break them in half with one punch, but it's hard for a bully to bully somepony when they've just crapped their pants!”

Picturing that in her head, Sparkler couldn’t help but giggle. “Stinky business, that.”

Stonecutter groaned as she climbed up the cliff, “I tell her not to all the time! She's been called to Counsellor Starlight's office twenty times this semester alone!” Over the course of the school year, Cloudburst’s visits to Counsellor Starlight were almost in triple figures.

“I'm trying for thirty.”

Sparkler was at once amazed at the pegasus’s smug happy tone and alarmed, at her smug happy tone. She had never ever been summoned to a teacher’s office in her life, “What does the counsellor do to you?” she asked curiously.

“Nothing,” Cloudburst shrugged her shoulders, “She slaps my wrist and tells me to keep on watching out for my best friend.”

Sparkler let out a bright laugh, “And don't get caught!”

“Naturally. Starlight's cool, by the way.”

Seeing that Stonecutter was making an ascent, Sparkler continued to climb up alongside her so that she could not get away from her that easily. “When I said, 'step lightly', what was the first thing you thought?”

“The gym teacher, Track Meet,” Stonecutter admitted with a slow exhalation of breath as she stared resolutely at the rock wall in front of her. The wind was picking up strength, and she was acutely aware she was hanging from a cliff. “She's always on my case for being slow and heavy. Then the others join in, one time the whole class was in stitches because I broke two balance beams.”

“You were set up,” Sparkler stated grimly, “I've seen buffalo, bison and yaks on the balance beams at school.”

“Maybe. I dunno. That's not the only instance,” Stonecutter shrugged despondently, “But when the teacher and the entire class chant Light Hoof at you...it...it hurts, okay?”

Confused, Sparkler glanced over at Cloudburst for clarification, as ‘Light Hoof' made no sense to her. She was thinking more along the lines of Heavy Hoof. Thankfully, Cloudburst read the look on the unicorn’s face correctly. “She gets told to 'go lightly', so Light Hoof is the insult,” she shrugged, “I guess bullies don't have to make sense as long as it works, and trust me, it works.”

Sparkler facepalmed at the stupidity of it all, “Ponyvillieans are weird. And I'm including the three of us in that. After my demo back at Site A, you know what I really meant, right Stoney?”

Again, and not for the first time, Stonecutter’s slate grey cheeks turned a bright tomato red. “I know, and I know you'd never insult me like that, I just...I got angry. I'm sorry, for shouting at you.”

“Apology accepted. And when we camp again, don't think you're getting out of what you don't want Cloudy to talk about.”

Realising there was no way out of it, Stonecutter sighed deeply and she prepared to make her second admission that day. “I'm...I've got money. I get bullied because I've got money.”

“Pfft, 'got money' my flank,” Cloudburst snorted and added the air quotations as she spoke, “She doesn’t just ‘have money’, she's rich!”

In utter wonderment, Sparkler shook her head, “What kind of idiots would bully somepony that can afford a hitpony? I mean, that’s a special kind of stupid!”

“She could buy her way into Canterlot and still be loaded!” Cloudburst added.

“Thanks for that, CB.” Stonecutter groaned and rested her forehead against the cold hard rock of the cliff face, “I don't brag about it, but yeah, I have money, thanks to my art.”

“Counsellor Starlight and the Headmare have her busts in their offices!”

“I'd like your bust…” Sparkler giggled naughtily, “On my face. You know why we moved from Canterlot to Ponyville, right?”

Stonecutter nodded her head, after carefully removing it from the rock. “Because you couldn't afford to live in Canterlot anymore after your mom had to pay for the divorce. I know, my love. And CB's right. I could buy my way in Canterlot. So could my parents. They're both master masons. But...”

Cloudburst threw up her hands, almost dislodging the roc from her shoulder, who made its displeasure known by biting the pegasus’s ear, “Ow…just tell her!”

“I have a charity instead, that I fund with every sculpture I sell, to help disadvantaged ponies into school or to secure housing. I’m also patron of the orphanage in Ponyville.”

Sparkler just smiled, something now clicking into place in the back of her head. “I wonder if my mom made use of that charity?” it would certainly make sense, because she had no idea how her mother secured the house they had in Ponyville otherwise. They had moved with no money at all and next to no possessions, let alone furniture. “I don't want your money Stoney, I want you. You can still buy me ice cream though, of course.

Still blushing like she might at any moment burst into flames, Stonecutter nodded ever so faintly. “My papa always says, "the wealth of the few depends on the poverty of the many", and that it’s the privilege of the wealthy to take care of those in need, so that they won’t be in need. Besides, I don't need a gold plated yacht.”

“Not after the first one!” Cloudburst offered helpfully, making Stonecutter facepalm so hard it was only her thick hide that saved her from a concussion. Sparkler just laughed and they all continued to climb up together. Eventually, after almost an hour of climbing, the three mares came upon a flat ledge roughly just over two thirds of the way up the steep cliff. At the insistent chirping of the roc, they followed the ledge into a sheltered nook against the mountainside, where they found a large cave opening and the flickering light of a campfire.

Warming himself by the fire was a ragged-looking pegasus stallion with olive drab fur, a chestnut brown mane and beard that was greying at the edges. He jumped up in alarm at the sound of the hooves clopping on the stone floor. For a brief moment he thought he had been discovered! “W-Who are you three?”

“Professor Trotter?” Sparkler asked slowly, not daring to believe that she was this close to one of the premier archaeologists from Canterlot and one her idols. His knowledge of Equestrian history was second to but a very few, in fact he had lectured at Sparkler’s school a few times.

Cloudburst glanced at the unicorn and recognised the signs of an imminent fan mare moment mere seconds away. It was cute, if anything. “Uh oh...Stone, you best grab your mare, I think she's about to faint.”

Smiling, Stonecutter placed her hand on the vibrating unicorn's shoulder. “You need a moment?”

“What, no, um no!” Sparkler’s yellow cheeks flushed a violent crimson colour and she stuck out her tongue at both of the other two mares. “Hello Professor,” she said, in an attempt to compose herself, “I'm Sparkler, and this is Stonecutter and Cloudburst.”

Gully Trotter eyed the three ponies with a wary eye. They didn’t look to be in league with him, but one could never be too sure. He had learnt in the past few weeks to not blindly trust anypony. “What are you three fillies doing out here?”

“Hey dude,” Cloudburst greeted the older pegasus with a salute of her primary feathers, “Would you believe we’re on a school field trip?”

“CB, be serious for once,” Stonecutter admonished her best friend with a roll of her eyes and she smiled apologetically at the learned Professor. She couldn’t believe she had called him ‘dude’. “I’m sorry about her. We're from the School of Friendship in Ponyville, Professor Trotter. We're just looking for Headmare Twilight and the rest of our teachers, who've gone missing out here.”

“So, Caballeron didn't send you?” Gully Trotter asked, still more than a little cagey. Still, there was something about the three, and the earth pony in particular, that was very convincing. Idly he wondered if she had been born under the Sign of Honesty, because he was greatly inclined to believe what she said.

“Sent us, no,” Sparkler piped up, smoothing out her sundress just so she had something to do with her hands, otherwise she would have clapped them together and squealed in delight at just talking to Gully Trotter! “But he told us about you when we were there in Site B looking for the teachers.”

“And you know nothing about the stone tablet?”

“He said to look for you out here on this ridge...”

Cloudburst interrupted her best friend before she could finish whatever it was she had been about to say, “What tablet?”

“He did say you found something,” Sparkler said, “But not what you had found. He didn't seem to care you'd been gone for days. I think he was lying, but I don't know about what.”

“Most likely about this,” Gully Trotter, having decided he could in fact trust these three ponies, pulled the ancient stone tablet from one of his bags next to his tent by the campfire. “I ran away from the excavation after I found this. I overheard Caballeron talking to his henchponies and I couldn’t believe what I heard! He’s going to sell the treasure for money, when a find like this belongs in a museum! I didn’t want it to fall into his hands, so I took it and fled out here to Dustmane Ridge.”

“Oh my...” Stonecutter looked at the stone tablet that was carved with decorative patterns and what she assumed was writing, she had no real idea, “That looks old. Very old.”

Sparkler laid her hand reverently on the six inch by twelve inch tablet and she could feel the age, sense the magic bound within it. “This is old, but I can read some of it and I have a book with me for translations, if we need it.”

“That is interesting,” Gully Trotter grinned when Sparkler pulled out one of her books from her bag that Stonecutter was carrying for her, “It seems I have the same book.”

Sparkler’s cheeks flushed red once more, “You wrote it, Professor.” In an attempt to distract herself, Sparkler turned her attention to the stone tablet. She lit her horn so that the fire wasn’t the only thing illuminating it. “In the time after the great wizard was lost, when disharmony’s reign was cast across all lands and not even the two sisters could save us, to silence and safety we retreated, and there we will sleep until awoken.” It was obvious to them all that ‘the great wizard’ was Starswirl the Bearded, and ‘disharmony’s reign’ was a reference to Discord. “Here it says Umberfoal, Caballeron said something about that. If he knew you had this, I'm sure he would hunt you down.”

Cloudburst looked confused, “I thought you couldn't read Old Ponish, Sparks?”

“She's been studying it,” Stonecutter explained, “Ever since the incident with the wishing well in the Everfree Forest.”

“Typical book nerd,” Cloudburst giggled, ignoring the well-aimed raspberry that was sent her way as she wandered over and took a look at the tablet. The fancy carvings didn’t mean squat to her, but that didn’t stop her from being curious. Then, she noticed something funny. “Hey, guys...those weird markings look kinda like the ones on this bangle I found back at the abandoned camp site we stayed at.”

“Bangle?” that got Gully Trotter’s attention, “Let me see that, please.”

“Oh, sure thing, Prof,” Cloudburst slipped the gold bangle off of her wrist and handed it over, “Pretty right?”

“This is definitely from the same time frame as the stone tablet,” Gully Trotter announced after a few moments spent looking it over with his trained eye, “Where did you say you found this?”

“I found it at our teacher's abandoned campsite after we were attacked by this mental unicorn,” Cloudburst explained as she gratefully took the bangle back and slid it on her wrist.

Sparkler though was not paying attention to Gully Trotter or to Cloudburst. She was staring intently at the stone tablet while at the same time she looked at her translation book held in her telekinetic field. “Equestria…is troubled…built a new home…deep below…sanctuary…safety…city…Umberfoal.” The opportunity to learn was just too much, she felt the raw need to keep reading and translating. “Powerful spells…an enchantment of protection…created the Umber Orb…will transform us…form that cannot be harmed…long sleep.” Sparkler looked up from the tablet, her eyes alive with knowledge, “This part here, transformed, and long sleep. That sounds like the curse turning ponies into statuettes!”

“Whoever that unicorn was,” commented Stonecutter thoughtfully, “She was obviously the one who’s been turning ponies into statuettes and taking them. I just wanna know where, so we can get them back.”

“That unicorn must have this Umber Orb mentioned here on the tablet!” Sparkler’s eyes were still gleaming in the glow of the light from her horn.

“Well, that's what I'm looking for,” Gully Trotter put in, reading the tablet by Sparkler’s side, “But are you sure she has the orb?”

“Isn’t this all nonsense though?” Cloudburst asked before Sparkler could answer the older pegasus, “Sounds like an old mare's tale to me, something you’d tell a foal at bedtime.”

Although Sparkler kept on reading and translating what she could, she did spare Cloudburst one doozy of an eye roll, before turning her full attention to the tablet. “Find the door…magical seal…only those who complete the trials of the Badlands will be shown the path to Umberfoal. Seek out the Great Guardians of Fire, Wind and Earth. Receive their blessings and bring them together with this tablet. The…revealed…beware…harmony…awake.”

“Old mare's tales do originate from something, young pegasus,” Gully Trotter gave Cloudburst his most disapproving glare, though it was mostly lost on her.

“Have you found this door yet, Professor?” asked Sparkler, and she wasn’t at all downhearted when the pegasus shook his head.

“Look at that, there,” Stonecutter leant over and pointed to a picture of what was clearly a snake-like creature. “That carved picture there looks a lot like that tatzlwurm, and there's a stone next to it. Does that mean anything?”

Cloudburst’s eyes shot open, “Hey! We got a gemstone from that big worm thing!”

Gully Trotter’s grey eyes were as alive as Sparkler’s were, “You three mares have given me more information in the past few moments than the past two weeks here have. May I please see the stone?”

The pale blue pegasus pointed to Sparkler, “Sparks has it.”

“What, oh this?” Again, Sparkler reached into her pack and pulled out the large white gem that Cloudburst had so valiantly grabbed from the jaws of the monstrous tatzlwurm. “Wait, this part here. Trial of Earth…” the unicorn read from the tablet, “Seek out the Earth Guardian, the Great and Fearsome Tunneller of the west, and face him with courage.” She looked at the gem and handed it to Gully Trotter, “I think we got that one.”

“What's that all about?” Cloudburst asked disbelievingly, “Trial of Earth? Stone just battered it and I took that from its jaws!” at that, the baby roc on her shoulder twittered happily and she petted it, stroking the stone feathers affectionately.

“There’s a Trial of Fire and a Trial of Wind too,” Sparkler said as she pointed back to the tablet. “See here, it says, seek out the Fire Guardian, atop his southern spire, and share in his joy. Then it says, seek out the Wind Guardian, proud shining protector of the snow-capped mountains, and gain her respect.”

“Does that mean Stone gets to punch something else?” asked Cloudburst, loving the eye roll she got from her best friend.

After she had finished rolling her eyes at Cloudburst, Stonecutter asked, “So...do these trials all drop big gems like that one? Do we need them? Are they important?”

“The stone tablet says 'blessings', so maybe Stoney needs to punch stuff, but I think the Earth Trial was for her. It did say face him with courage. I bet the wind trial is for you, Cloudy.”

“She is full of hot air,” Stonecutter grinned, eager for the opportunity to shoot an insult back at her friend.

“Oh ha de ha…h-hey, what, what is it little guy?” Cloudburst at last asked of the baby roc, who had been chirping loudly ever since Sparkler had mentioned the Trial of Wind, and now resorted to lightly nipping Cloudburst's ear to get her attention and it pointed out the cave with its stony wing.

Chapter 6 - Trials of the Badlands

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Having left the tablet and Gully Trotter behind in the cave, as the Professor was in no fit state to go adventuring, climbing up cliffs and facing off against whatever the Guardians might be, Sparkler looked up at the peaks of Dustmane Ridge that rose high above them. “Is there an escalator?”

“Sparks,” Cloudburst tugged on the grappling harness that she wore over her clothes, “I think we're wearing the escalators. We got another climb on our hands guys!” she looked on envious as the roc took off, chirping loudly for them to follow it as it flew, seemingly unaffected by the strong wind that grounded her.

“Yay,” Stonecutter said without the slightest trace of enthusiasm whatsoever, “I can hardly wait.”

The climb up the remainder of the cliff to the top of Dustmane Ridge was a long and arduous one. More than once, the strong wind sent them crashing into the rockface, and by the time they reached the very top they were all three covered in small scratches and bruises from the ascent. “Okay,” Sparkler panted for breath as they stepped onto a great plateau, “First of all, trees shouldn’t be growing at this altitude, and second, there is nothing natural about those trees.”

Stonecutter, who was similarly gasping down great lungfuls of air, saw what had piqued Sparkler’s interest. Ahead of them was a large wooden structure. It was easily taller than most of the buildings in Ponyville and it seemed almost woven together. “What do you mean?”

“It kinda looks like a nest,” Cloudburst said as they got closer and she realised the vast structure was built out of hundreds of intertwining bits of trees. “You see how the interlocking tree trunks are arranged like that?” it showed a definite care and intelligence to its construction.

Just then, the baby roc returned and landed back on Cloudburst’s shoulder, twittering and pointing to the structure with its wings. Sparkler looked at the baby bird with a smile, “I think we found this one's home.”

“How do you know it's a nest?” asked Stonecutter. As they approached it, the tree trunk structure towered over them, blocking out the sun as they followed a rough path along a winding passageway that led them inside.

“What?” Cloudburst asked defensively as they made their way deeper inside, stepping carefully over, under, and between the big tree trunks until they eventually made it out on the other side of the wall, “I'm mates with Blackbeak. I've seen him make a nest when he plays with his cute little stallion.”

Once they were through the wall, Stonecutter looked around at the very large, very wide bowl-shaped space they were now stood in, the wall making a complete circle around the outer edge. “Um...do you think there's a momma one of those in here?”

“Of course there is,” Sparkler looked around at the empty space, “Or…there will be. So, you up for some more punching?”

The very instant the unicorn had said that, the roc had started to go crazy. It shook its head and flapped its wings, twittering and chirping like it might have a heart attack. Cloudburst got the message. “Uuuh...I don' think we should do that, Sparks. Junior here thinks it’s a bad idea.”

Suddenly, like it had been summoned by the ponies’ mere presence, there came an almighty thunderous sound overhead, like a huge rush of air passing over them. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the sound came in steady beats. Above the three mares, a dark ominous shape loomed out of the sky, casting a great shadow across the mountainside. Bursting through the clouds was an unbelievably big bird. When it landed in the bowl, it caused the very earth to shake beneath their hooves.

What was obviously the mother roc was seventy feet tall with a wingspan that was easily a hundred feet across from wingtip to wingtip, and she had a shining frill of gemstones atop her rocky feathered head. When she let out a deafening screech, Sparkler decided to try and hide under Stonecutter, who was happy to be a shield. “Ah, Sp-Sparks?” the earth pony stuttered, “Wh-What does your book say about her?”

Supressing her panic, Sparkler grabbed her creature book and flicked through the pages until she found what she was looking for. “Roc, indigenous to the Badlands. Large, extremely dangerous, carnivore. A proud creature, one can avoid being lunch if they show due respect. Cloudy, play nice and see if you can get what we need for the tablet!”

“Play nice?” Cloudburst asked, feeling exceptionally small under the mother roc’s imperious gaze, “So we gotta be like, respectful and stuff?” as soon as she said that, the pegasus shuddered as the huge roc cawed loudly and nodded her head.

“Try it Cloudy, you might just like it.”

“Buck you, Sparks, I can do respectful,” Cloudburst looked up at the massive rocky bird and she knew just what to do. It was just a matter of getting into the proper head space. Slowly, carefully, she approached the mother roc with her head down in a low bow, her arms out wide with her palms open and upturned and her wings spread wide open. She had only adopted the pegasi submission pose for Seafoam before. Now, she dropped to one knee before the roc. “My lady of the skies, it is a pleasure to kneel before you.”

Just like her baby, the mother could understand what the pony had said to her and she let out a gentle caw of appreciation, and the enormous bird looked at the pegasus quite favourably, like a mother would to a chick. Somewhat emboldened, Stonecutter stepped forward and bowed too, but unfortunately she chose her words poorly. “So nice house…” immediately, the roc screeched out a caw of displeasure that rang in the earth pony's ears.

“Nest, she meant nest!” Sparkler said as she too bent her knee and bowed respectfully before the mother roc. “Cloudy I think she understands us. Tell her about rescuing her baby.”

Cloudburst, who had not moved from her pose of total submission, looked up at the mother apologetically. “Please forgive my friend, ma’am.” She pointed to Stonecutter, “It was her and her skill who helped to heal your chick's wing.”

Stonecutter nodded quickly when the mother turned her scrutinous gaze upon her, “It was a sincere honour to help, ma'am.”

Sparkler said, “We were honoured to escort your chick home, ma’am.” After she had heard what the three ponies had to say, and the respectful way in which they had said it, the mother turned to her baby. The two birds engaged in some serious chirping and twittering between each other, with some gesturing of their wings and eventually, satisfied, the mother leant down to nuzzle each pony in turn, a sign of her gratitude. Then, with a grateful caw, she presented them with her blessing.

Sparkler saw the mother drop the large gleaming blue buckball sized gemstone in front of Cloudburst. “Cloudy,” she whispered, “You take it.”

“Yes ma'am, Mistress Sparkler,” Cloudburst, well and truly in her sub-space, or her comfort zone, took up the blue gemstone and, the moment it touched her hands, it began to glow with a magical aura. Once she had it, she stood and gave the mother roc another a low bow and she led the way out the nest.

“Thank you for the gift, ma’am,” Sparkler bowed along with Stonecutter and then the two mares followed Cloudburst out of the nest.

As soon as they were outside the large nest, Stonecutter turned on her best friend, “Mistress Sparkler? What was that, CB?”

“I’m sorry, sub space,” Cloudburst explained without so much as a blush, because she had nothing whatsoever to be embarrassed about. “It’s kinda hard to get out of once you're in the proper head space, y’know? You'll get it, the more you play.”

Sparkler got it, alright, and she giggled in understanding. “I'm not so sure about sharing. Still, I'll take it for what it is. Good work back there, Cloudy.”

Cloudburst shrugged, at the same time she shrugged off her sub space. “It was no bother, Sparks. Soon as you had it figured out, it was easy. I've been Seafoam's pet for ages now, and I can just slide into the submissive aspect as easy as slipping into a swimming pool.” Cloudburst then looked over to the extreme southern tip of the mountain, “Guys, is that smoke, over there to the south?”

Sparkler looked where her friend was pointing and, sure enough, there was a large plume of darkened smoke pouring from the southern tip in the far distance. “The tablet said the last trial is Trial by Fire.”

“Why the buck can't it be Trial by Marshmallow?”

On the way across the plateau of Dustmane Ridge, they managed to find a path down the mountainside that they could walk, which meant they didn’t have to use the grappling harnesses for once. That didn’t stop Sparkler giving Cloudburst a minor eye roll for her quip. “From my book, it’s either going to be a dragon or a salamander.”

“I wouldn't mind a Trial by Spa right about now,” Stonecutter grumbled, “I ache like a bucker in places I never knew I had.”

“It's gonna be a dragon,” Cloudburst moaned, the pegasus quickly reaching the end of her rope.

“How are we going to get a dragon to give us anything?” Sparkler wondered aloud before she consulted her book just in case it had any advice to give them, “They are so greedy…”

“It might not be a dragon...”

“Oh come on, Stone!” Cloudburst spun around with an angry expression plastered all over her muzzle. She was so angry that her wings fluffed up in a classically aggressive posture, “When has anything on this stupid trip been easy, huh? C’mon, tell me! When has it been easy?”

“Tent, first night,” Sparkler said softly, quailing under the pegasi’s ire, “Yeah that was easy…”

Cloudburst though was not done. “I mean what in the name of Tartarus was Spike thinking?” she ranted, her head of steam building and building, “We're so out of our depth it's stupid! We are hilariously not suited for this! I’m surprised we haven’t been killed to death ten times over by now!”

Sparkler recognised her friend was well on the way to a full on melt down, and she tried to head her off. “I don't know about that. You got the gem from the Tatzlwurm, and you got the roc to give the other. I think you're better at this than we are.”

“Are you serious right now?” Cloudburst yelled at Sparkler like a damn bursting it’s banks, “You’re serious? Our teachers couldn’t handle this shit and they’ve saved Equestria a million times! We are three eighteen year old mares! You've got allergies coming out your ass, Stone can barely climb the mountains and I'm pr…I-I have issues...”

“CB,” Stonecutter walked over and hugged her best friend as tightly as she could without breaking her spine. “You know, doing yourself down is my schtick. Sparkler's right. We wouldn't be this far without you.”

As soon as she had the chance, Sparkler followed up with a hug of her own, mostly so she could whisper in Cloudburst’s ear so that Stonecutter couldn’t hear, “I'm saying nothing, okay?” Louder, she said, “You're part of our team. We need you to make up for our issues.”

Hearing that, Cloudburst would be ashamed to admit later that she had a little cry in Sparkler’s arms. Eventually though, she looked up through tear stained eyes and she was grateful to see not an ounce of judgement from either of the other two mares. “O-Okay...okay,” she said through sniffs and sobs, “I uh, I'm good, now.”

Carefully, Sparkler used her thumbs to wipe away the tears that were staining Cloudburst’s pale blue fur. “Let's get back to Professor Trotter and rest for the night. The last gem can wait till tomorrow.”

“But...”

“We'll go and rest, CB.” Stonecutter said in a tone that meant there was no arguing with her. Her best friend was running on empty, if she was honest, they all were. The demanding, dangerous trip had taken a lot out of them and, she was sure, would affect them long after it was done. “I'll make us all some hot food and we'll do it tomorrow, after a night’s rest.”

Even Sparkler, whose interpersonal skills were admittedly lacking, could see that Cloudburst was on her last nerve. She was coming apart at the seams, though she alone knew exactly why her pregnant friend was coming apart. “You can share our tent, Cloudy. Better than sleeping alone,” she giggled, “Or you can sleep with the Professor.”

“I know I like stallions,” Cloudburst rolled her eyes and gave an exaggerated shudder, “But he's like, a million years too old for me. I'll crash with you guys.”

~ ~ ~

The next day found not just Cloudburst but the whole group in much better spirits than they had been in for a long time. Stonecutter had been right in her assessment that a hot supper – and breakfast – combined with a night’s rest, had been just what they needed. That had taken care of their weary souls, while Pony Balm from Gully Trotter had restored their scratches, cuts and bruises. The Professor had been so thrilled to see two of the gemstones that he had given them half of his supply.

After a night like that, they were all ready to attack the mountain with the similar vigour that Stonecutter attacked a buffet and Sparkler devoured a library. After a couple of hours – thankfully – easy trek along the mountainside to the far south, Cloudburst was flying to stretch her powerful wings leaving her two friends chatting down below. The pale blue mare was just happy that the winds that had hindered their climb the day before had dissipated. Sparkler had theorised it was the mother roc causing the winds. She didn’t care. She just wanted to fly.

With the sun at her back, Cloudburst flew in a dizzying array of aerial manoeuvres worthy of any Wonderbolt applicant, that is until her sharp eyes spied movement on the ground, ahead of them, among the rocks. “What the hay...” she muttered as she slowed to a hover just a few feet above Sparkler and Stonecutter.

“What is it, Cloudy?” Sparkler asked as she pulled her nose out of the book she had been reading to see what was up.

Keeping the sun behind her so that it masked her presence, Cloudburst shot back up to get a better look. Her fears confirmed, she swooped back down, concern etched on her face. “Bandits. Dogs. Three of them. Armed. Coming down from the left about forty feet ahead.”

“oh no…not again!” Sparkler lit her horn with a charged telekinesis spell ready to cast the moment she saw the bandits. Flashes of the speeding flatbed came back to her, but, unlike that time, they were not caught unprepared. They were ready for them. When the bandits saw that their potential prey was prepared, a unicorn with a charged horn, a pegasus with electricity crackling around her hands and an earth pony who looked ready for a fight, the diamond dogs ran off screaming in fear.

When they were safe, and only when she judged they were safe, Sparkler wilted to her knees as the light from her horn went out. “I'm a killer…”

“Hey now!” Stonecutter, relaxed from her fighting posture, wrapped her strong arms around Sparkler and hauled the distraught mare to her hooves, hugging her tight in the process and kissing her horn, her nose and her lips. “None of that, you hear? You're a hero!”

On reflex, Sparkler channelled her telekinesis from her horn to her hands and with a gesture she shoved the three hundred and fifty pound mare back like she weighed nothing. “Don't touch me!” she screamed, “I'm dirty!”

Though she was pushed back a few feet, Stonecutter nonetheless was back in Sparkler’s space and hugging her in a heartbeat. Behind the unicorn, Cloudburst came in and wrapped them all in a tight feathery hug. “Sparkler,” Stonecutter said softly, “I love you.”

“Y-Yo-You...” Sparkler stammered, “T-They...” she didn’t finish whatever it was she was going to say. Instead she started to cry with her face pressed against Stonecutter's impressive breasts.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Stonecutter pulled Sparkler’s head in between her breasts, each one easily bigger than the unicorn’s head for a long hug that showed no immediate sign of being let up any time soon. “Hey, Stone,” Cloudburst chuckled when she saw that Sparkler wasn’t moving, “You might wanna let her breathe. She'll pass out in there.”

“Then she'll die happy,” Stonecutter shot back, and Sparkler started to giggle and then laugh.

“It's like losing a stone down a canyon! Seriously,” Cloudburst looked longingly at her best friend’s massive chest and then down at her flat chest, “How are they that big?” she was absolutely jealous, because hers weren’t even A cups.

“Seafoam doesn't play with mine,” Stonecutter said, the earth pony mare loving where Sparkler’s head was, “Only yours.”

“Hmph...whatever,” Cloudburst pouted, but it was all fake. Internally she was soaring, because Stonecutter had made her think of her beloved Master, “Alright ponies, are we kicking this dragon's ass or what?”

Suddenly, after what felt like a lifetime, Sparkler pulled back from Stonecutter’s hefty bosom – leaving an imprint of her face behind – and took a much needed breath. “I hope not,” she said as she straightened her dress and attempted to regain her composure, “I hope it gives up the gem if we ask nicely.”

“Remember the ursa minor back in the Everfree Forest?” Stonecutter asked as they resumed their trek across the mountainside towards the extremely tall and wide rocky spire to the south, “He gave us Angel back after we gave him the doll. Maybe if we give the dragon something, we'll get the gem?”

Sparkler found herself considering it, “If it's a baby dragon that might just work. I’m not sure what an adult would want in trade though.”

“We could give him or her CB,” Stonecutter said with a completely straight face, “Like a sacrificial offering?”

In a very loud stage whisper, Sparkler replied, “I think you have to be a virgin for that.”

Stonecutter snapped her fingers, “Darn it, that's that plan bucked...” she burst out laughing though when Cloudburst spun on her hoof to face them both and, walking backwards, the pegasus raspberried them both, while at the same time flipping them both off with her middle fingers and the largest primary feathers of her wings.

“Thank you both,” Sparkler said after she had finished laughing, “I'm good. Let's go charm a dragon.”

“I'll fly ahead, scout out the area. You two...behave.”

“Fine,” Sparkler said as Cloudburst flew off ahead, “I'll try not to get lost in the valley.”

Stonecutter pointed to her huge bust and winked, “You can get lost in this valley.”

“The only valley I'd get lost in. Come along, we can't let CB go three for three on the gems.”

“She'd be even more unbearable than she is now,” Stonecutter replied as she held Sparkler’s hand and they both hurried off towards the immense spire and the even bigger plume of dark smoke rising ominously up from its tip.

“Guys! It's all clear, c'mon!” Cloudburst yelled from her position at the head of the group. If she was honest, she wasn’t that surprised to find the area this close to the spire free of bandits and any other creature, for that matter. She guessed – correctly - that a resident dragon would keep everything else at bay.

Sparkler looked at the wide spire, easily twice as wide as the town hall in Ponyville, and she saw a very narrow spiral staircase that lead around the outside, climbing higher and higher up until it was lost to her sight. That seemed to be the only way up. She put that and deep rumbling bellows to the back of her mind. “The flyer says it's clear. You okay with heights, Stoney?”

“N-Not really...b-but I'll have to be. Let's just get this over with…”

“Hold my hand,” Sparkler gripped the quivering earth pony’s hand firmly, “Face the spire and only look down at your hooves. One step at a time.” It didn’t help matters that this close to the spire, the billowing smoke above them was blotting out the sun, greatly reducing their visibility.

As soon as they started the climb up the winding staircase, Stonecutter found that they couldn’t use the grappling harnesses here. One, the steps jutted out too far, and two, there was no point in the smooth surface of the spire to latch the hooks onto. So, they had to take the stairs. Immediately, she gripped Sparkler's hand and walked up very slowly. “I can do this...I can do this...”

While Stonecutter repeated her mantra over and over and over again, upwards they climbed, with Cloudburst flying alongside them ready to catch any slippages. The higher they got, the more the booming rumbling unnerved and unsettled them. The height alone was dizzying. Heights were no concern to Sparkler normally, but over five hundred feet up on just a narrow staircase, she was affected.

At the top of the stairs, Stonecutter was a shaking wreck of a pony who could barely stand up on her hooves. “I-I-I g-got th-this...”

Sparkler then saw something else that gave her cause for concern. The stairs led to a tunnel. Twice the height of a pony and just wide enough that two of them could walk side by side, it was pitch black. “That goes into the spire. You're going to have to walk Cloudy. It's narrow, you going to be okay?”

“Oh what the bucking hay...you gotta be kidding me!” Cloudburst shivered and trembled, but she stepped forwards to the mouth of the tunnel. The very prospect of going inside made her legs turn to jelly, but she walked. “Stone climbed up here. I can go in there.”

“Take Stoney's hand,” Sparkler said with authority, “I'll lead.” When she stepped up to the front of the party, the unicorn lit her horn so they could at least have some light.

“I hate this!” Cloudburst scrunched up her eyes tight and she held Stonecutter’s hand so hard that had she not been an earth pony there was a good chance she might have broken it, “I hate this! I hate this so much!” The deep rumbling bellows coming from up ahead of them didn’t help.

“Good news,” Sparkler said after fifteen minutes walking through the tunnel, “The dragon is home,” she said in an awed voice. “Bad news. Dragon is home.”

“Have I mentioned how much I hate this!?”

“Me too, CB.” Stonecutter held her best friend tight, she could see the end of the tunnel up ahead of them, but she couldn’t see the dragon yet. “The spa is definitely on my to do list when we get home.”

Sparkler suddenly stopped in her tracks. Having exited the tunnel, she found herself in a huge and surprisingly lushly-decorated chamber. Sunlight streamed in from the open ceiling and around the walls hung many lovely, expensive and rare tapestries, ornaments and paintings that wouldn’t look out of place in the royal palace of Canterlot or the Crystal Empire.

At the centre of the large chamber, laid on top of a small mountain of gold, coins, chalices, treasure chests, gems of all sizes, as well as weapons and armour, was quite frankly the biggest living ‘thing’ she had ever seen! “That…is one big dragon,” she whispered to herself. That was an understatement. He, was two hundred feet from nose to tail, had a wingspan easily as big as the mother roc and claws half as big as her whole body.

And he was looking right at her.

“I…I ah…I don’t think we need to bother him…”

“You're joking!” Cloudburst yelped from the entrance to the tunnel, making the dragon look at her and making a little pee leak between her legs. “We're here! And I walked through that hole! Go and see what it wants!”

“I hope it isn't a virgin sacrifice…” Sparkler muttered as she stepped further into the chamber, dragging her marefriend with her, while Cloudburst bravely elected to stay where she was. As far away as possible.

“Well hello there!” the dragon said in a deep, booming voice that had a joviality to it that was completely at odds with the creature’s very intimidating appearance. “I didn’t see you come in! My name is Caldera,” he greeted them with what was supposed to be a warm smile, but the rows of steak knife like teeth made the two mares wary. “It’s been ages since I last had a visitor. Come, stay a while and listen!” he gestured with a mighty clawed hand to a spot on the floor, where they sat. “Now, what do you call a pony with a sore throat? A little hoarse!”

Sparkler wasn’t sure if it was her rampant nerves playing a trick on her mind, but as she laughed, the dragon let out a series of deep rumbling sounds that instinctively she knew were laughter. That was what the rumbles they had heard had been! The dragon, Caldera, was laughing! “Ha, hahahahaha, a little horse!” she genuinely laughed along with him, “That is really good!”

Even Stonecutter could see that when Sparkler laughed along with the dragon, his immense yellow eyes lit up. Then, she was reminded of the inscription carved on the stone tablet. ‘Seek out the Fire Guardian, atop his southern spire, and share in his joy.’ An idea came to her. It would either work or get them eaten. “Tell him a joke. He seems to like to laugh.”

Honestly, it was no stranger plan than anything Sparkler had come up with in the last few seconds. And, she had to agree with her marefriend. When she had laughed, Caldera had laughed all the harder. Perhaps this was what the tablet meant by sharing in his joy? It was worth a shot. “Ahem,” she cleared her throat, “I bet you are easy to weigh, Caldera.”

When he heard that, Caldera smirked, the edges of the dragon’s mouth twitched upwards as he lowered his head down next to the unicorn, the better to hear her, “And why is that, young mare?”

“You've got a lot of scales!”

“Bwaaahahahaha!” as soon as the punchline left the unicorn pony’s mouth, Caldera was laughing so hard that his gigantic barrel chest heaved and shook. It had been nigh on a thousand summers since he had been told a joke, let alone one as good as that. “That's a good one!” he slapped his thigh and the hoard he rested on shook, “Do you by chance know another?”

It was odd, Sparkler mused, that for all the dragon’s immense size and scary intimidating look, when he laughed like that – Sparkler at last understood the meaning of ‘belly laugh’ – he suddenly wasn’t that scary at all. If anything, Sparkler judged that the great blue dragon was rather lonely. “I know why dragons are such good story tellers!”

“Really,” Caldera boomed, though he did try to adjust his voice a little, “And why are we such good storytellers?”

“You always have impressive tails!”

At that, Caldera laughed for a good long minute. He laughed so hard that a great gout of smoke billowed out of his mouth and drifted out of the top of the chamber. “Oh...oooh my...it's been so long since I've laughed like that!” he gasped and wiped away a few tears from his eyes where he had been crying. “One does get terribly lonely up here.”

“I have one,” Stonecutter offered. Like Sparkler, she was less and less afraid of Caldera the more time she spent watching him laugh. “What do you get when a dragon sneezes? Out of his way!”

While the dragon was reeling from that, Sparkler quickly followed up. “That reminds me of another. Why don't dragons like candles on their birthday cake?”

Caldera was laughing so hard he was in floods of tears that he didn’t try to wipe away this time, “Wh-Why?”

“Because when they try to blow them out, they just light them again!”

That did it. Caldera couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. The immense two hundred foot long dragon rolled from his gold hoard and pounded the floor in gales of laughter, which made the whole top of the spire shake. He was kicking his legs he was laughing so hard. That he was picturing a cake that he was trying to blow on made him laugh all the harder. “My...my young ponies...” he said when he could speak again, “That was so funny! However can I repay your kindness?”

Sparkler bit her lip. This was why they were here, after all. “You wouldn't happen to have a large gemstone, from a place called Umberfoal, would you?”

“Why yes, I do,” Caldera blinked once then twice, trying to remember where he had stashed the rare gem, “Would you like it?”

“Yes please,” Sparkler nodded, “We are on a quest and it would be very helpful to us.”

“Then you may have it with my blessing, young unicorn,” Caldera thrust his arm deep into his vast treasure hoard and, after a few moments, he pulled it out. In his clawed hand, he held a dazzling orange gemstone. He then gestured to the rest of his hoard. “A gift for you all, you may take one thing each with you. It's the least I can do to say thank you!”

Sparkler looked on enviously at the immense hoard. She pictured just one object in all of that could have bought her way back into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. But…that would mean giving up everything she had now. And that meant Stonecutter. At a mighty effort, she closed her eyes and lets out a breath. “The orange gem is all we need. An invite to come back and swap jokes would be nice also.”

“Consider it done!” Caldera passed over the gem, and when it touched Sparkler’s hands, it glowed with a magical aura just like the other two had done. “Please, do come back whenever you can. You've been delightful company!”

As soon as she had the glowing orange gemstone in her hands, Sparkler bowed gratefully before stowing it safely in her pack. “Maybe you'd like to share a joke with us before we leave? Then you'll still have our laughter.”

“Well, on my travels, back in the days when I did travel,” Caldera smiled, showing off every single one of his wickedly sharp teeth, “I did hear one joke that a pony told me a long time ago. Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes please!”

Caldera’s yellow eyes glinted with what was clearly a mischievous light. He was going to enjoy this for a long time to come, that was for sure. “What's the difference between a Celestial nun praying and a Celestial nun taking a bath?”

“Um,” Sparkler was genuinely puzzled. It was a sign of the age of the joke that there hadn’t been Celestial nuns for almost six hundred years. “I’m afraid I don't know.”

“One has hope in her soul, and the other has soap in her hole!” the last couple of words were somewhat drowned out by raucous laughter not only from the dragon, who was on his back kicking his legs in the air, but from Cloudburst at the entrance to the chamber who was doubled over and clutching her sides. Sparkler and Stonecutter shared a look with each other before they too fell on the floor laughing until their sides ached.

Chapter 7 - Moonbeam and Harmony

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“Professor!” Sparkler called out excitedly as she, Stonecutter and Cloudburst re-entered the cave in the side of the cliff that was Dustmane Ridge, “Professor Trotter! We’ve got it! We’ve got the last gemstone!”

“Professor?” asked Stonecutter when no answer came to them from the campsite that was further into the cave, the three mares advanced cautiously. The flickering light of the campfire illuminated the rocky walls of the cavern the deeper they got into the cave, emboldening them. When they rounded the corner and entered the camp proper, they saw Gully Trotter sat facing them on the other side of the fire. “Professor Trotter,” the hairs on the back of the earth pony’s neck raised, “Is everything alright?”

The olive drab pegasus looked up at them, slowly turning his gaze from the dancing flames of the fire towards the three young mares. His face looked drawn, gaunt, almost haunted; his usually alert eyes hollow. “I’m sorry…”

“Sorry,” Sparkler and Cloudburst, who had been flanking Stonecutter, asked at exactly the same time, “What do you…h-heeeey!”

At that moment, a couple of things happened simultaneously. From the concealing shadows of the cavern, two very large, very muscular earth pony stallions stepped forwards behind Sparkler and Cloudburst and in very quick, practised movements, immobilised the pair of them. One stallion seized Sparkler’s horn in his left hand, gripping it tightly while at the same time he wrenched her arms behind her back. To the right, the second stallion wrapped his muscular arm that appeared to be made of nothing but sinew around the pegasus’s neck and his other arm held her arms behind her back, trapping her wings against the slab of muscle that was his body.

Before Stonecutter, who was at that moment unhanded, could react, none other than Doctor Caballeron stepped out of the shadows behind Gully Trotter, a wide greasy smile playing all over his muzzle when his third henchpony stepped out behind Stonecutter to block the exit from the cave. “Thank you so much for doing all the hard work for me, my friends…”

“Wh-What the hay!” Cloudburst struggled uselessly in the huge earth pony’s vice like grip, “Let me g-go-goouuUUUUURK!” the earth pony holding her viciously tightened his grip on her arms and her neck, squeezing out the remaining air in her lungs.

“Please, young mare, do not struggle,” Caballeron’s smile never faltered for a second, “My colleague, Rogue, can get very ‘enthusiastic’ when he restrains somepony.” He then looked over at Sparkler, his eyes narrowing dangerously, “And the same goes for you. Withers likes to yank the horns of non-compliant unicorns. I’m told it is quite…” he paused for effect while Withers tightened his grip on Sparkler’s horn, “Painful.”

“Alright,” Stonecutter’s hands turned into fists, her knuckles cracking loudly in the cave. She was prepared to fight, and to go down swinging if the need be, to make sure her marefriend and best friend at least got out so they could go and get help, she knew Site B wasn’t that far away. If they could get word to Sunny Saddle… “What do you want?” she asked through gritted teeth, lowering herself ready to charge the doctor.

“Now, now,” Caballeron smiled oily as he stepped out from around the burning campfire, revealing that he had the ancient stone tablet in his hands. Placed upon it, glowing like magical mini suns, were the white and blue gemstones that Sparkler, Stonecutter and Cloudburst had retrieved from the Earth Guardian and the Wind Guardian, respectively. “There is no need for further violence. You are a smart pony and this can be resolved without anypony getting hurt.” He pointed to the last space on the tablet. “The last gemstone, if you please.”

“We don’t…aaAAAAAAH!” Sparkler started to speak, then she screamed in utter agony as Rogue savagely twisted his hand around the unicorn’s horn. Searing pain lanced straight into her head to her brain, making her legs to weak.

“Do not insult my intelligence,” Caballeron said, an extremely nasty tone in his voice as he set the stone tablet with the gemstones down at his hooves. He shot an equally nasty look to both Sparkler and to Cloudburst. “Broken wings take a long time to heal. Broken horns never heal.”

Realising she couldn’t punch her way out of this situation, at least not yet, Stonecutter’s shoulders sagged and her hands relaxed. “Alright, you win, just please, don’t hurt them!”

“That depends on you,” Caballeron replied, “And how smart you are.” He then pointed to the tablet on the floor of the cave. “The last gemstone, if you please.” When Stonecutter reached into her large pack, the doctor addressed the last of his henchponies behind her. “Biff, if she pulls anything other than the gemstone from her bag, make sure she won’t ever walk again.”

As Stonecutter lowered her pack to the floor, she heard the ominous sounds of Biff behind her, as well as the choking gasps of Cloudburst struggling to breathe and the pained sobs of Sparkler. She dearly hoped to never hear that sound ever again. Slowly, with no sudden movements, she withdrew the dazzling orange gemstone from her bag. She then carried it towards the nefarious doctor.

“Ah, ah,” Caballeron stopped the stocky earth pony when she was two feet away from him. “That is close enough.” He pointed to the floor, “Leave it on the floor and back away. Nice and slow.” He smiled a toothy predatory smile when he watched her obediently set the gemstone down and back off, until she walked into Biff, who was stood behind her blocking the cavern entrance. “You are a good pony. I like it when good ponies do as they are told. It makes my job that much easier.”

Ignoring the extremely sour look that he got from Stonecutter, Caballeron stooped forwards and he picked up the glowing orange gemstone. A moment later, and he had placed it on the stone tablet in a triangle with the other two stones. As soon as the third gemstone was in place, there came a bright burst of sparkling magic shot out in all directions, momentarily blinding everypony in the cavern.

After a second though, the light was gone.

Beside the campfire, the stone tablet glowed bright white for a whole minute, then, from the surface of the tablet, a large beautiful golden staff was formed. It rose up into the air as if pulled from the very ground itself, rising up on an invisible magical string. When it was fully formed at six feet in length, it hovered a foot above the tablet, the three Guardian’s gemstones imbedded in the head of the staff.

Underneath the staff, the writing on the tablet magically changed. This time though, it was not in Old Ponish. Somehow, the new writing was in modern Equestrian, as if the stone tablet knew what millennium it was currently in.

“The staff of Umberfoal is presented to you who have faced the Trials of the Badlands,” Caballeron read aloud, before snickering meanly, “My, you have been busy ponies, haven’t you?” Cloudburst opened her mouth, no doubt loaded with a witty retort. Unfortunately they’d never know, because Withers gripped her neck so hard her pale blue face began turning blue. Caballeron returned to the tablet, “It will guide you, if you allow it, to the great stone door of Umberfoal itself. The door is a magical seal, keeping the enchantment from spreading. The staff will act as a key, but only through the power of true harmony can the door be opened and the enchantment be lifted.”

Caballeron’s greedy eyes lit up with the possibilities. He had pursued the idiot Gully Trotter for whatever it was he had taken with him when he had fled Site B, but this…this was more than he had ever dared dream! Not only was Umberfoal real, but he was within touching distance of plundering the ancient subterranean city and all the treasures it possessed! He was going to be rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice, and he had some pretty wild dreams.

It was as Caballeron reached for the magical golden staff that all Tartarus broke loose in the cavern.

Before the earth pony stallion could get his dirty grubby hands on the staff, there was another flash of blinding magical light. Unlike the first one though, this did not come from the staff or the stone tablet. The electric blue light whooshed throughout the large cavern as several spells were fired off in quick succession from the charcoal grey unicorn that had burst among them.

Moonbeam was back, and she had abandoned her torn tattered brown cloak when her acutely innate powerful magic had sensed the immense power of the newly created golden staff and the three Guardian gemstones. She had cast her spell and teleported from where she had been laid up in her hidden lair, homing in on the source of the new magic. Bursting into the cavern, she had seen the three mares that had foiled her at the abandoned campsite, as well as five other stallions whom she didn’t know.

Without wasting a second, she fired off several spells rapid fire one after the other. She had eight potential new friends right there! She just couldn’t let them get away, not when she could play with them in her lair. When the bright electric blue light of her magic died out, the three mares and one of the stallions remained untransformed! ‘Damn it…’ she thought as she burst into the cavern in the confusion and she grabbed the statuettes that were Caballeron’s henchponies and Gully Trotter in her telekinetic field and, before any of the others could react, she teleported away in a flash of blue light and a crack of ozone that hung in the air.

Silence.

Awkward, heavy, pointed silence hung in the air.

Caballeron looked around him and he realised he no longer held the advantage of numbers or muscle.

Stonecutter, Sparkler and Cloudburst looked from each other to the lone stallion and at the same time, they came to the same realisation.

Letting lose a string of choice expletives, Caballeron ran, galloping past the three mares before they could properly corner him. Thankfully, for him at least, two of the three ponies were still recovering from their treatment at the hands of Withers and Rogue, so he was able to charge past the pegasus with ease as she was rubbing her throat and flexing her wings. He was out of the cavern before they could blink, not even stopping to consider his three associates.

“Wh-What the hay…” Cloudburst had dropped to her knees as she checked herself over. Her tee shirt was ripped and torn, as where her denim shorts, but upon flexing and fluttering her wings, she judged nothing was broken, beyond a few feathers having been pulled out of place by whatever-his-name-was who had held her. She rubbed her throat, coaxing air into her body.

“Buck…” Sparkler was similarly on her knees, one strap of her sundress dangerously close to snapping.

At once, Stonecutter was by her marefriend’s side, slowly and carefully helping her up to her hooves. “Are you okay, baby?” she asked tenderly, supporting the unicorn in her strong arms.

“Y-Yes,” Sparkler shook her head in a vain attempt to clear the utter bitch of a headache that now plagued her thanks to Rogue’s well-placed but not-so-delicate hands. She wasn’t so much bothered about the bruises that formed on her upper arms and shoulders, more her horn ached and throbbed like she had the worst toothache ever. Still, she was in one piece, and a testing flash of light told her that the inside of her horn was undamaged. “Go help Cloudy.”

Cloudburst tried her best to wave off her best friend as she hefted her easily up to her hooves. Besides a wicked bruise on her neck and an aching arm, she was alright. That didn’t stop Stonecutter fussing over her. “Stone, please, don’t mother hen me, huh? It’s so not cool.” In spite of that though, she allowed herself to be led over to one of the larger rocks by the campfire. “So…what do we do now?”

“I have an idea,” Sparkler walked up to the hovering golden staff and reached out her hand.

Before she could touch it though, Stonecutter said, “Sparks…Mistress, a-are you sure about this?”

“No,” Sparkler admitted with a reluctant sigh, “But it’s the best guess I’ve got.”

“Sparks says its her best guess, I say go for it.”

Stonecutter rolled her eyes at Cloudburst who was quickly performing an emergency preening so that her wings wouldn’t hurt her when she tried to fly. “Really, CB? ‘Go for it?’ That’s your input?”

“Hey,” Cloudburst thrust an index finger at Sparkler, who was hesitating by the golden staff, “I trust her guesses more than most pony’s facts, alright? So yeah, that’s my ‘input’, take it or leave it.”

“I’ll take it.” Sparkler turned a grateful smile to the pale blue pegasus. To have her back her so forthrightly, so loyally, it made her heart soar. There was just Stonecutter left. “Stone? You know the rules. We all agree, or we don’t go.”

“If you want my honest opinion,” Stonecutter started as she sat heavily on a rock by the fire, “We should get back to Site B, get some back up. Hay, we should fire off letters to Counsellor Glimmer or even the palace in Canterlot, get some real back up.” She glanced around the cavern at her best friend and her marefriend. “But I know what you two are thinking, because I’m thinking it too. That’ll take too long, and every moment we don’t go after that unicorn, is another moment she can transform more ponies. So yeah, I saw we go for it.”

Sparkler nodded her head solemnly. Just like she could trust Cloudburst to be loyal, she could trust Stonecutter to be honest. “Then, we go.” With that, she gripped the golden staff in her hand. As soon as her palm closed around the shaft of the staff, Sparkler felt magic vibrate through its whole length until a bright glowing light shone out of one of the gemstones, pointing out of the cave like a lighthouse beacon, pointing the way. “We go that way.”

~ ~ ~

“Well, here we are.” Sparkler stood at the base of Dustmane Ridge with Stonecutter on her left and Cloudburst on her right. Without the grappling harnesses, the climb down had been difficult, but manageable, since they didn’t have to contend with the dangerous winds they had encountered on the way up. That alone made the descent considerably easier and less life threatening. Now, they stood at the entrance of a hidden cave system. “This is where the staff wants us to go.”

Cloudburst looked at the large, dark cave entrance. Unlike the tunnel that had led them to Caldera’s chamber, this was not a small claustrophobic space. This was a huge gigantic tear in the rock face as wide and as high as a buckball pitch. “Alright, let’s get this thing done!” as one, the three mares stepped inside the vast tunnel and Sparkler lit her horn to give them light. Added to the glowing light from the staff that guided them, visibility was over fifty feet.

They soon realised that the cave system was expansive, and after a hundred feet, it split into two paths, left and right. After that, it split again, this time into three different paths. Each looked identical to each other and to the one they had walked down. Sparkler was so glad that they had the staff to guide them and show them the way. Without it, she had no difficulty imagining they’d be lost down here for the rest of their lives.

Even with the light from Sparkler’s horn, they still walked into no less than seven great big spider webs, and they stumbled over more than one mound of loose rubble and debris that littered the maze like passageways. "You won't take my friends from me!” Moonbeam hollered as they wiped the latest spider web from their clothes, her voice magically amplified and designed to reach them no matter where they were. It sounded like it came from the walls themselves rather than a specific direction.

“I wish she'd shut the hay up so I can put her down,” Cloudburst snarled angrily, having just stubbed her left hoof on yet another pile of rocks strewn on the floor, “I got a lightning bolt I need to shove up her ass!” so busy was she with grumbling and planning her revenge, she didn’t notice the extremely sour look on Stonecutter’s face as her best friend pushed past her and walked a few feet ahead of her and Sparkler.

After a couple more twists and turns in the maze like tunnels, that the staff unerringly guided them along, Moonbeam’s voice again sounded magically from all sides of the rocky walls, echoing off each other, "Why won’t you leave me and my friends alone! You don't understand being alone! You’ll never understand! Nopony understands me!"

As soon as the unicorn had stopped shouting, and her desperate cries had stopped echoing off the rocky tunnel walls, Sparkler slammed the base of the staff into the floor with a low angry growl. “I'll shut her yap,” she snarled, and even her muzzle pulled back in a snarl that bared her teeth as images of what she would do to the strange mare when she got hold of her flashed across her eyes, “I’ve got a telekinetic blast with her name on it to take her out!”

Several steps later though, after Stonecutter had heard Cloudburst yet again pound her fist into her open palm and agree with Sparkler about what she was going to do to the unicorn, the slate grey earth pony decided she had heard enough. It was when she heard the two of them planning a double team move to use that she spun around to face them and, placing her hands on their shoulders, stopped them dead in their tracks. Although, the look off utter outrage on her face would have stopped them just as effectively. “That's it. I've heard enough!”

“Stone!” Cloudburst exclaimed, because she had been so consumed with plotting with Sparkler that she hadn’t noticed her best friend spin around and holding them in place with one had as easily as if they had been rooted to the floor. “What the hay are you doing?”

“What the hay am I doing?” Stonecutter repeated, a snarl of her own spreading over her muzzle, “What. The. Hay. Am. I. Doing? What the hay are you two doing? Can you two even hear yourselves right now? Put her down, take her out...really?”

Hearing their own words thrown back at them though did not seem to deter Sparkler, who tried to walk around her marefriend only to be stubbornly held in place by her strong hand. “Stone, come on, you know what she's capable of...”

“I know that she sounds lonely and alone!” Stonecutter interrupted her marefriend and Mistress before the unicorn could finish whatever it was she was going to say. The panicked, scared and desperate tone in the other unicorn’s voice had shaken her to her very core. It shocked her deeply to see how her companions had reacted in such a polar opposite manner. “I know she sounds like she needs a friend!”

“So what,” Cloudburst stood up straight, thrust out her hip and crossed her arms defiantly, a pose she regularly used on her teachers after she had been caught ‘teaching’ one of the bullies a lesson, no longer needing her friend’s hand to hold her in place. “You want us to go and hold hands, sing merry songs, get our kumbayas out?”

“What I'm saying, featherbrain,” Stonecutter replied tersely through gritted teeth, the earth pony barely able to keep her temper in check. Even her long fuse had its limit, and the pegasus was pushing her to it, “That we all know what it's like to be alone, don’t we?” she looked pointedly from the stunned unicorn to the baffled pegasus, “So we can have some empathy with her!”

“R-Really,” Sparkler stammered, somewhat thrown of her revenge quest by the sudden, quiet fury in her marefriend’s voice, “I don't see what this has to do...”

Again, Stonecutter cut across her before she could finish, “Oh no? You don’t, huh? Remember the sleepovers you told me about when you were a filly? The ones where you never had any real guests to invite because you never had any friends, so you arranged your books and pretended? Was it fun when Mr. Arcane Magic played spin the bottle with you, or when you pretended Mrs. Old Ponish threw a pillow at you?”

“Really!” Sparkler stamped her hoof on the floor of the stone tunnel and her face was almost glowing she was blushing so hard, “That was private! I told you that in confidence!” Cloudburst’s instant laughter didn’t do her blush any good, and memories of sharing toasted marshmallows with Miss History of Equestria only made her face a brighter red.

Unfortunately, Stonecutter was not finished. She quickly turned on Cloudburst. “And what are you laughing at, Miss ‘my-parents-are-never-there-so-I-get-in-all-the-trouble-at-all-my-schools’ in the hope that the student counsellor writes them so they'll finally talk to me in the same room!" She could tell by the outraged look on the pegasus’s face that she had crossed a line. A line she swore never to cross. She had no regrets though, she just wished that Wave Chill and Misty Fly could have been better parents.

“Stone,” Cloudburst stepped forwards and she roughly jabbed an index finger into her best friend’s chest – it was only the fact that she was her best friend that she hadn’t punched her in the face for what she had just said – though of course Stonecutter remained unmoved, “That's really, really bucking low, okay?” her wings bristled angrily, her feathers flaring.

“No,” Stonecutter shook her head and barked out a laugh, a laugh that held no mirth or humour whatsoever, “No, no what's low is being so friendless, so alone and so bullied, and hating yourself and your body and your existence so much that when Miss Cheerilee took us on a field trip to Cloudsdale when I was eight, I threw myself off the edge!” the wide-eyed look of shock on Sparkler’s face revealed that she hadn’t been told that nugget until then, “CB is the only reason I'm still here. She caught me and became my best…only…friend.”

As soon as she had heard that admission come out of Stonecutter’s mouth, all the ire and her stupid ideas of revenge drained out of her body like her magic if somepony had rammed an inhibitor ring around her horn. The sun yellow unicorn dropped to her knees, deflating like a balloon with the air let out of it. “I-I had no idea…” she tentatively reached out her hand to her marefriend who had slumped on her ass beside her, “That you had it so badly.”

“Yeah, well…” Stonecutter didn’t pull away, not from the delicate yellow hand squeezing her callused slate grey ones or from the pale blue hand that suddenly was at her side drying tears that she didn’t even know she was crying with a handkerchief, “I did, and now you know. CB never told anypony else, not another soul. I was amazed how loyal she was, and is. She was my only friend, until you.”

“I’m sorry,” Cloudburst dropped to her knees on Stonecutter’s right and hugged her tightly. The pegasus realised, suddenly, that she sounded more like herself than she had before, and she hated herself for it. This place, the Badlands, the curse, Caballeron, I…I guess…it all just got to me, y’know?” she hated how lame her excuse sounded, even to herself.

“I think it’s gotten to all of us,” Sparkler smiled softly as she kissed away her marefriend’s tears, hating that she had been the one to cause them, even if Cloudburst had helped. They stayed like that, kneeling and sitting, holding and hugging, nuzzling and kissing, for what felt like an eternity. Nopony said anything, nopony needed to say anything. It wasn’t necessary to say anything. Their renewed love and friendship said everything that had to be said. “Come on,” Sparkler said eventually, breaking the silence, “Let’s go get this over with.”

“Promise me…”

Now it was Cloudburst’s turn to interrupt. “Stone, we’ll try to talk to her, alright? I promise, we’ll try. You’re right. We all know what being lonely feels like. So yeah, we’ll try. If she throws the first punch, then…I dunno, but we’ll work it out, okay?” As Sparkler extended a hand to her marefriend and used her telekinesis to lift the earth pony up to her hooves, the pegasus was struck with a thought. “Hey, if we do the whole magic of friendship thing, do you think we’ll pull off the whole magic rainbow laser beams like Headmare Twilight and the Professors?”

Sparkler couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the pale blue mare. “Well, I was born under the Sign of Magic, Stone was under the Sign of Honesty, I’m guessing you are…”

“Loyalty,” responded Cloudburst proudly, “and Laughter, I was born between the two, so either, I guess.”

“So it’s entirely possible that we could do,” Sparkler smiled, “As Cloudy so eloquently suggests, the whole ‘magic rainbow laser beams’.”

“Come on then,” Stonecutter laughed softly as she wiped away the remainder of her tears. “Let’s get this thing done. Friendship and harmony aren’t going to do it themselves, are they?” With that, and a renewed determination, the three mares strode on down the wide twisting tunnels towards their destination. As they descended, they began to see more and stranger items, artifacts and trinkets lying around on the floor. Many of the items they found had writings and markings on them in the same Old Ponish as the ancient tablet, the bangle and the staff.

That, along with the staff itself, told them they were on the right track. The things they found were obviously from Umberfoal.

At last, after almost an hour of solid walking, the tunnel began to widen out into a very wide, very tall chamber that was easily three times the size of the Ponyville town hall building. They cautiously entered the chamber, all their senses on full alert, but the mysterious unicorn was nowhere to be seen, despite it having no obvious natural exits.

At once, they saw the main feature of the chamber, namely, an immense twenty foot high, ten foot wide, stone door. Around the edge of the door were carved hundreds of arcane runes that glowed a bright electric blue through to white and back to blue again, cycling every few seconds like a pulse. Even across the other side of the vast chamber, the three mares could feel the air humming with low vibrations that came from the door. As they stepped into the chamber, they saw that it sloped gradually downwards to a series of wide carved stone steps that led up to the huge stone door. In the centre of the door was a circular slot surrounded by glowing magical runes.

Walking further into the chamber, Cloudburst was the first to notice that on either side of the stone door stood large statues of ponies. These ponies, earth by tribe, were roughly one and a half times the size of a real pony, which made them think of Princess Luna. They were carved wearing some form of ancient armour and holding wicked looking maces.

The closer they got to the door, they saw the wide steps were beautifully decorated with carvings and patterns, no doubt left behind by the ponies of Umberfoal. “Hey, look at these…” Cloudburst pointed to a collection of things that looked out of place off to the left of the door, in a wide deep alcove. When they walked over to investigate, they found old dolls, with crudely designed hand made clothes that had replaced the ones they had come with, as well as a small stack of yellowing photographs of the unicorn, but as a filly, holding the dolls.

“Oh my goodness…” Stonecutter looked at the photos, scribbled on the white border on the top of them in a foal’s hand was the titles; “Friends”, “Best Friends”, “Fifth Birthday”, “Sixth Birthday”. The stocky earth pony didn’t look at the rest of the pictures. She set them down reverently next to the dolls and stepped away sadly.

“I found her diary!” Cloudburst called out but, before she could open it, Stonecutter placed her hand on it and laid it back on the floor.

“That’s private, CB.”

“You guys…over here,” Sparkler’s soft, awe-filled voice was enough to draw them over, further into the alcove, where she showed them a large makeshift playset. It was an exact replica of Ponyville, down to the last detail. It had houses in the right place, the crystal castle, the market place and even the schools. As they inspected the large reconstruction, they saw, amid the houses and on the streets and at the market, were neatly arranged statuettes. All the ponies that had gone missing were there; Tracker and Pathfinder, the wagon ponies, Gully Trotter, Caballeron’s thugs, and particularly Headmare Twilight and their Professors! “This must be what she meant by making them her friends, and not taking her friends away…” Sparkler felt her heart breaking for this lonely mare.

“Damn…” unusually, even Cloudburst’s voice was solemn, “I feel so sorry for her. We…we gotta help her, guys.”

Having investigated the alcove, Sparkler made sure she left everything exactly as they had found it and she wandered curiously over to the great stone door. Straightaway, she noted that there was something off about it. She saw the large rents and fractures in the stone that ran across the surface that were pulsing with the same magical light as the runes around the edge. It looked like a glass window that was about to shatter. Slowly, the unicorn pieced everything together. “This door is the seal the tablet spoke of. Behind it is the enchantment that turns ponies to statuettes, that was cast by the ponies of Umberfoal to escape the reign of Discord.” Sparkler placed her hand upon the door. “The seal has been tampered with, the magic has been tapped into. That’s why the enchantment has been spreading! Guys…it’s not a curse, it was a choice! A protective spell that was never meant to be set loose!”

“So, if that door is the seal, maybe that round hole is the keyhole?” Stonecutter offered as she stood beside her marefriend at the door, “Maybe the staff is the key?” Sharing a look between the three of them, Sparkler slid the base of the staff into the hole. It carried on going in until just the end with the three gems was suspended outside like a handle. Try as they might though, they could not turn it, despite the runes glowing twice as brightly. “Only through the power of true harmony can the door be opened and the enchantment be lifted,” Stonecutter recited.

“So, magic rainbow laser beams?” asked Cloudburst, earning herself a good natured roll of the eyes from Sparkler and Stonecutter.

Suddenly though, before either of them could respond, there came a bright electric blue flash of magic and a loud cracking noise, accompanied by a smell of ozone in the air. “Not another step!” Moonbeam stated as the charcoal grey unicorn’s horn glowed with barely controlled power, “You three ponies have been meddling with me since you arrived in the Badlands. Well,” her chest rose and fell, her eyes dilated madly, “You won’t take my friends from me!”

The three mares shared a look of understanding between them. You didn’t have to be Starswirl the Bearded to see that the unicorn was visibly shaken. Even Stonecutter could tell that the magic spilling forth from the cracked door was having an effect on her. The unicorn was glowing from her horn to her hooves, and her blue eyes were shining with the same power.

“Wh-Whoa…what was that?” Sparkler gasped as the vast chamber began to shake from the intense magical forces being unleashed, the ground quaked and the ceiling shook, rocks started to fall, shattering on impact with the floor.

Moonbeam though seemed unperturbed by the rocks and boulders falling from the high ceiling. The manic look was etched on her face and her eyes shone bright white. “How about you three join in too?” she asked, her voice high and unhinged, her long robes whipping up in a magical wind as she lit her horn and she sent two beams of power straight to the two pony statues either side of the door. “Here are some toys for you to play with!” no sooner had she finished her sentence than the two statues moved, slowly at first then faster, swinging the maces with menacing intent.

“Oh buck!” Cloudburst dodged a vicious swing from the statue on the right and she took to the air to avoid a second swing of its mace. “How in the hay are we supposed to deal with her now?” she hollered.

“We deal with these first!” Sparkler yelled back, running down the carved steps while at the same time dodging a stun ray sent her way from the deep alcove where Moonbeam had retreated to protect her friends.

“Are they alive?” Stonecutter asked as she clumsily dodged a vicious swipe from the statue on the left that, had it connected, would surely have cleaved her in two, “Like the statuettes?” As it was, the mace embedded itself in the floor of the cavern, momentarily immobilising its owner.

“No!” Sparkler cried, very narrowly moving out of the way of a falling rock. She lit her horn and cast her telekinetic blast from both of her outstretched hands, sending two falling rocks aimed for Cloudburst and Stonecutter harmlessly into the walls, “They’re golems, animated statues!”

That was all Stonecutter needed to hear. Summoning her earth pony magic and channelling it into her mighty hands, they glowed with power like two magical boxing gloves as she sidestepped around the stuck golem and punched at it’s midsection. Unlike the tatzlwurm, this construct did not scream in pain. As the earth pony unleashed a flurry of blows upon it, sending shards of stone falling to the ground, it swung its hand in a back handed swing that Stonecutter just dodged.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough to also dodge the stun beam from the unicorn that hit her squarely in her broad back. Stunned for a split second, it allowed the golem to swing its mace, the shaft of which caught Stonecutter in the chest, sending her falling backwards ten feet to her knees. It was only thanks to her naturally thick hide that she wasn’t knocked out. “Stone!” Cloudburst screamed from above, easily jinking left and right to avoid the golem that seemed fixated on her. She clapped her hands and sent a lightning bolt straight to the damaged part of the golem that had struck her friend, which did little but bounce off the stone skin.

“Cloudy!” Sparkler yelled, “They’re made of earth! Non-conductive! Lightning won’t work!” the yellow unicorn, left mostly alone by the golems, spied her chance and sent a strong telekinetic blast straight to the charcoal grey pony, which just bounced uselessly off her shimmering magical shield.

“Got it!” Cloudburst knew what to do. If the golems were non-conductive, she knew a way to make them conductive. The pale blue pegasus flew up to the roof of the cavern out of the statue’s reach and she began flying in circles, harnessing her pegasi magic through her arms and her wings. Ever so slowly, she found the water particles in the air and drew them together.

“What the hay is she doing?” Stonecutter asked as she got up to her hooves and shook her head to clear it.

Sparkler was about to ask the same thing, until she saw the white wisps of cloud start to form in the middle of the pegasus’s apparently erratic laps around the cavern. It hit her what she was trying to do. “She’s going to make it rain!”

Sadly, Moonbeam heard that as well. “Oh no you don’t!” surrounded by her glowing shield that easily deflected Sparkler’s attacks, the charcoal grey unicorn turned her attention to Cloudburst, who had succeeded in forming a small dark cloud, and it was growing bigger by the second, “You won’t take them from me! This magic is mine to command!” She fired a powerful stun beam straight at the flying mare.

Cloudburst, who had, split seconds before, rolled to the left to avoid a falling boulder, had nowhere to go. She was hit squarely in the chest by the beam of magical energy. “GAaaaAAAAAAH!” stunned, she suddenly found that her wings wouldn’t work. That meant she was only going one way. Down. As she started to fall, the unicorn hit her again with a stun blast that hit her wing, sending her backwards into another falling boulder, the impact to the back of her head knocking her out cold.

“CB!” screamed Stonecutter in panicked alarm.

“I’ve got her!” Sparkler cast her telekinesis to shatter the rock the pegasus had hit, and then she surrounded the falling mare in her glowing magical field, bringing her safely to the ground. “Deal with that!” as she checked Cloudburst’s pulse at her neck, thankfully, mercifully, she was still alive in spite of her injuries, Stonecutter let out a feral scream and she literally launched herself at the left golem she had damaged before. With her hands glowing with magic, she rained deadly hammer blows and haymakers upon the construct until it shattered into pieces.

While Stonecutter had been distracted, the second golem was lumbering up behind her, mace raised. Sparkler, who had, up until that point been holding back, crouched defensively by her unconscious friend and summoned all the magical might she possessed. Casting her telekinesis once more, her eyes glowed bright white like they had on the speeding wagon. Unlike then, she didn’t lose control. She sent the second construct flying backwards into the far wall of the cavern, where she pinned it to the wall and buried it under several tonnes of falling rocks and boulders, crushing it utterly.

“You will not take my friends AWAY FROM ME!” Moonbeam screamed out the last three words as she held Stonecutter in her magical grip and sent the earth pony back towards the other two. “THEY ARE MINE!” she advanced upon the three ponies, her eyes glowing dangerously and her horn charged.

Sparkler was desperate. She knew she’d never beat this mare in a straight duel, she was way too powerful. Reaching back, her fingers found Cloudburst’s neck and she felt her pulse was getting weaker. ‘No!’ she screamed silently, all manner of plans and scenarios running through her head all at once, each one as dark and bleak as the next. She was out of options. All bar one. “Wait! Wait please!” she held up her hand placatingly, “Please…stop, our friend, my friend…she…she’s pregnant!”

“WHAT!?” both Stonecutter and Moonbeam asked almost at the exact same time, the charcoal grey unicorn stopped in her tracks and the earth pony staring at Sparkler with her mouth hanging open, both shocked to the point of immobility.

Blushing furiously, her face a crimson mask, Sparkler mouthed a ‘not now’ to her marefriend before turning to the other mare, who was quickly recovering. “It’s true, I swear, she’s pregnant!”

“You’re bluffing!” Moonbeam spat, taking a step forward. “You just want my friends!”

“I’m not!” Sparkler squeaked, “I’m really not! I know…I know, look at her, really look, with your mage-sight. See for yourself.”

“If you’re lying…” Moonbeam’s voice trailed off though as she lit her horn and channelled her extra sight on the unconscious pegasus. She saw past the layers of clothing, of fur, skin and muscle. The powerful unicorn cast her sight deep into the younger mare’s body, at her womb. There, she saw it. The egg, so recently fertilised, adhered to the mare’s womb, growing, developing. She saw the unmistakeable signs of life. “Dear Celestia…” Moonbeam’s vision returned to her and, in an instant, she sagged to her knees, her eyes losing their enchanted glow, “What have I done?”

“She’s pregnant?” Stonecutter asked softly, ever so gently laying her hand on her best friend’s belly while Sparkler nodded and stroked Cloudburst’s mane.

“I-I’m…I’m so sorry…” Moonbeam sniffed, tears brimming in her electric blue eyes, “I just…I just wanted to keep my friends, I never meant to hurt anypony.”

“They aren’t…” Stonecutter stopped herself and she took a deep breath. In spite of everything, she forced her temper down deep inside her and she portioned off Cloudburst’s pregnancy and the fact that Sparkler knew about it away into a filing cabinet in her brain to be spoken about later. Yelling at this mare would not work. She was scared, and desperate. And scared, desperate ponies did stupid things, like jumping from Cloudsdale. “What’s your name?”

“M-Mo-Moonbeam,” she sniffed, unable to stop the tears in her eyes from falling down her cheeks, then, suddenly, she looked up and her eyes flashed, “Don’t trick me! You’re going to take them!”

“I’m not, and I won’t, I promise,” Stonecutter inched closer to the distraught unicorn, holding out her hand. “Moonbeam, that’s a very nice name,” when the older mare – now she was close to her, Stonecutter judged her to be in her mid to late twenties, not too dissimilar from her Professors – snorted, she kicked herself for sounding so lame. “Moonbeam, we’ve all been where you are now, we understand you…”

“You can’t understand!” Moonbeam threw back, snatching her hand away just before their fingers touched, almost like she was afraid the earth pony would burn her, “Nopony understands! Nopony wants to understand! They just laugh at me and ignore me!”

“Moonbeam,” Stonecutter reached forward and took the unicorn’s hand in hers, just holding it lightly, “My name’s Stonecutter, this is Sparkler and the featherbrain taking a nap is Cloudburst.” She took a deep, calming, centering breath, “Sparks knows what it’s like to be gifted and talented, and to be scorned for her gifts. I know what it’s like to be different from everypony else, to be alone and to be bullied. CB, she knows what it’s like to be abandoned by those who are supposed to love her.”

The charcoal grey unicorn searched Stonecutter’s eyes as she spoke and her extra sight saw no lie, no angle or subterfuge in those honest eyes. “You…St-Stonecutter…I believe you. I just…” she broke down into floods of hot, wet, salty tears that ran down her face and dripped onto the cavern floor, “I just wanted friends to come to my birthday parties!” As she cried, Stonecutter moved forwards and pulled her without resistance into a tight hug, “Nopony would ever come, so I made my own…”

Stonecutter’s heart broke for the older pony. “Shh, I know, I know,” she held onto her as she vented the pain that was in her soul, cried out all the loneliness and despair that had taken up residence over the years, “It’s okay, shh, you have real friends now.”

“F-Friends?” Moonbeam’s voice was haggard and broken, mirroring how she felt inside, “Af-After e-everything I’ve done,” she spoke through her tears into Stonecutter’s shoulder, “You want to be friends?” She didn’t dare to believe it. Ponies had tricked her before, when she had been young and gullible.

“We do,” Sparkler, who was knelt by Cloudburst’s side, had been applying generous amounts of Pony Balm to the back of the pegasus’s head and to her chest and wing. “She’s not seriously hurt, Stone. She’ll be fine. They’ll both be fine.”

“But…but I don’t know…” Moonbeam gestured to her dolls, still held in the hug that Stonecutter refused to give up, “They’re all I have, they’re all I’ve ever had, I um…I don’t know, about friendship…I don’t know another way…”

At last, Stonecutter released the hug, but she held both the unicorn’s hands in hers, crying herself now, “If you trust us, if you take a chance, we can show you a better way, Moonbeam. Let us help you, like they helped me and I helped them, like we helped each other, to see you aren’t alone, that you’ll never be alone again.”

“Y-Yo-You’ll really be my friends?”

“We will,” her administrations completed, Sparkler came over and joined the two mares in a big, tight hug, “Moony,” she smiled warmly as she gently nuzzled the older mare’s wet cheek, smearing her tears over her own yellow fur.

“Moony…” Moonbeam’s face lit up with a wide genuine smile. Somehow the nickname made her cry all the more, though now they were tears of happiness and joy rather than anguish and despair. She had a nickname! Nopony had ever given her a nickname before! An unfamiliar heat radiated from her core, a light that shone from within her that joined with the other three mares. When the light connected together, it became a rainbow coloured glow that surrounded them all.

All of a sudden, the rainbow glow shot out in all directions, covering the entire cavern in its multi-coloured light. As soon as the magic hit the captured statuettes, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all rose up a foot into the air, vibrating with magical energy as they were restored to their normal forms in a flash of bright light. Now restored, the magic held within the Elements of Harmony empowered the rainbow light generated by Stonecutter, Sparkler and Moonbeam, and all the other statuettes were restored as well.

As the pure friendship magic began to die away and the intense white light began to fade, and twenty very surprised ponies looked around, stunned to find they were in a cavern and not where they remembered being before they transformed, the glowing magical runes that surrounded the stone door faded to dark. Just like the tablet had promised, the show of true harmony had repaired the great seal and dispelled the enchantment.

“Uuuh…Twilight?” Rainbow Dash found her voice and, looking around the cavern, she rubbed the back of her head, “Where the hay are we?

“Darlings…” Rarity blinked and rubbed her eyes, “Whatever happened to our campsite?”

Just then, Cloudburst started to come around. After a low groan, she saw Stonecutter and Sparkler still hugging the charcoal grey unicorn. “H-Hey…did we win?” then, she saw all the other ponies stood around the cavern looking as confused as she felt, specifically, her groggy eyes took in their Professors, “Am I late for class?”

Before anypony could answer her though, there came a loud rumbling sound of stone moving across stone. It came from the large door, where the assembled throng of ponies saw the head of the staff turn in the ‘keyhole’ it had been inserted into. Then, after a complete revolution, the door split down the middle and, with a grating sound, it swung inwards.

The curse of the statuettes had been lifted.

Harmony had been restored.

The path to Umberfoal lay open.

Epilogue - The Journey Home

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Sparkler was a very happy unicorn. Everything was just right in her world. They had found Umberfoal, they had stopped the curse of the statuettes, they had helped Moonbeam. Most importantly though, for her, they were on their way home. To Ponyville. After four days in the Badlands, she no longer considered Ponyville to be a miserable little dirt town. It was home, and she was going there with her beautiful marefriend and her good friend. Sparkler snuggled up to said marefriend, pressing their naked bodies together. After taking a shower in their compartment on the train, they had seen no reason to get dressed. “Guys,” she broke the comfortable silence, “Do you think Moonbeam will be okay?”

“Hmm?” Stonecutter grunted, suddenly forced to think after enjoying a good ten minutes just snuggling her marefriend’s head into her generous breasts. She wore nothing but her yellow collar, and she was content to stay that way, the sunlight streaming through the window shades as the Friendship Express took them home, “Yeah, you saw her, she lit up like a Hearths Warming tree when the Headmare made her librarian of her castle's library. I’m sure she had been expecting a prison sentence, not a job.”

“I so wanted that job!” Sparkler pouted playfully into Stonecutter’s ample bosom, “I could have Mrs. Old Ponish do check in, and Mr. Arcane Magic levy fines.” She had it all worked out in her head. Then, she reached up and gave her earth pony a long kiss, “It was sweet of you to offer your charity to get Moony a house.”

Stonecutter just shrugged modestly, “It’s what it’s there for, Sparks, to help disadvantaged ponies turn their lives around, give them a fresh start.”

From her futon, Cloudburst, who was just as naked after her shower as the other two mares in the train’s compartment, burst out laughing. “Y’know, she's actually a pretty cool pony,” the pegasus lifted up her left arm and admired the golden bangle that adorned her wrist, “She let me keep this bangle to say sorry for knocking me out.” She wasn’t one for jewellery, but she liked the bangle. It turned out it was enchanted, which was a bonus. When she said ‘shimmer’, it shone like a bright torch.

“If I got a reward for knocking you out,” Stonecutter said from the fold-down bed, “I'd do it more.”

Sparkler lifted her head and ran a finger delicately over her pet’s collar, “Even if your reward would be me not disciplining you?”

Opening her mouth to reply, Stonecutter closed it and opened it again in a good imitation of a goldfish. She paused, utterly stumped, “Um, no, Mistress.”

“Ha! she got you there!” Cloudburst giggled, rocking back and forth on the futon. It was at least easier to sit on than the bean bag. She had tried it, sat down, and ended up in a most undignified position with her hooves up over her head. A position that she only usually adopted when Seafoam ‘helped’ her into it. “Hey, Sparks, next time you have a slumber party with your books, can I come?”

Sparkler shot her friend a sly smile, a very non-Sparkler smile, a smile she never would have employed where she the shy shrew-like book nerd she used to be back in Canterlot, “Only if Seafoam lets you.”

There was silence in the compartment. The only thing they could hear for a few moments was the rumbling of the train as it thundered along the tracks. Cloudburst cocked her head, for she had to think about that one. Then, a grin spread out across her face and she laughed when she got the joke. “I like it, good one!” she reached over the space between them and she fist bumped the giggling unicorn, “And Stone, thanks for being cool, y'know, about me being knocked up.”

“I feel better about you getting knocked up than I do about you getting knocked out,” Stonecutter replied, she didn’t get up, because Sparkler was using her to lay on. “Besides, it still hasn't properly sunk in yet.”

“I have a book for that,” Sparkler snickered into Stonecutter’s ear, “You see when the mare and stallion love each other...”

Stonecutter levelled a world class deadpan look at her marefriend and Mistress, “Really?”

“Ooh...I like that book,” Cloudburst giggled, “And trust me, my Master sunk all the way in...”

On the bed, under her lover, Stonecutter blushed a very deep red. While she admittedly was a virgin, technically speaking, she was no stranger to sex. She had, after all, known Cloudburst for ten years, and the last two of those she had been ‘active’, with Seafoam. That didn’t stop her getting embarrassed though when the talk got dirty. “Really, CB?”

“Stone, we had sex, we did it, we screwed, did the horizontal dance, whatever you call it. Chill a bit. You just need to get laid,” when Cloudburst said that, the slate grey earth pony just blushed even harder.

“I have a book for that too!” Sparkler said, enjoying her marefriend’s slight discomfort as she fell apart laughing on top of her.

“See, she's cool, be like her, Stone.” Cloudburst then flopped back down on her futon after having retrieved her cell phone from her bag – she hoped that now they were over halfway back to Ponyville, she would at last get a signal on the damned device. “Tonight's Nightmare Night. Dress up, do something kinky and go nuts with each other.”

Sparkler smiled at the mention of Nightmare Night. She herself had a Princess Celestia costume that she wore every year, and she knew for a fact that Stonecutter had a latex cow outfit, a very tight, sexy latex cow outfit, complete with udders. “I've seen Stoney's costume,” Sparkler licked her lips salaciously, “I'll be going kinky all right long.”

“Gonna milk your moo cow, your highness?”

“For all she's worth!”

“Heh, cool,” Cloudburst turned on her phone and, about to call her Master, she decided against it and instead accessed Skystable. After four days, she wanted to see him, not just hear his voice, “It's about time she gets her V-card stamped.”

“CB,” Cloudburst groaned, “I am right here you know…” she then muttered darkly and quietly, but not quite under her breath, about her still being a virgin, then she went quiet, her mind wandering back to the tunnels and the cavern deep underneath Dustmane Ridge.

Cloudburst’s sharp ears picked up the mutterings of her friend and she turned her head, ready to throw a snide comment her way. But, when she saw the look on her best friend’s face, the snide comment changed its mind. “Uh oh, Sparks, she's getting broody again.”

Sparkler laid down so that her head was nestled in the crook of Stonecutter’s shoulder. “I guess there’s no point in trying to keep any secrets from Cloudy.”

“Nope,” Stonecutter had learned that years ago. If Cloudburst thought you knew something she didn’t, some juicy gossip, she was like a chimera with three sore heads until she got it out of you. When Sparkler adjusted her position so that her head rested on her huge chest, the earth pony’s blush returned. “I'm sorry I said what I said to you down in the tunnels. That was private stuff, for you and me.”

Sparkler considered that for a moment. Yes it had been private but, upon reflection, she had given her marefriend little choice. “There will be times, my pet, when I'm an idiot. I’ll need you need to snap me out of those times.”

“Then, Mistress, I'll always be there to stop you being an idiot,” Stonecutter affectionately stroked Sparkler’s orange and white striped mane.

Stonecutter’s stroking of her mane, added to the sudden solemn nature of the conversation, made the unicorn think about what the earth pony had inadvertently revealed about herself down in those dark tunnels. “Was your big dive before or after the golden yacht?”

“It was before,” Stonecutter rolled her eyes and she let out a deep, heartfelt sigh, “And I don't have a golden yacht. I never have had one and I never will have one. It…the dive…was while I was on a field trip to Cloudsdale that Old Cheerilee organised for the school.”

“So,” Sparkler pressed gently, “You went cloud walking, but what made you try cloud diving?”

“I'd had enough, Sparks.” Stonecutter’s sigh came straight from the very depths of her soul, “I was eight, I was fat, I had no friends and I'd been bullied every single day since I went to school. I just wanted it to end. All the jibes, the taunts, the pranks...”

“Stoney, do you think you’re fat, or do you know it?”

“I know it. I know I'm a fat pony, and that's the way I am. Some earth ponies are slight, some are small, some are just…fat.”

Lightly, Sparkler kissed Stonecutter’s lips. She was pleased that Cloudburst had the good sense to stay quiet while she and her marefriend cleared the air. “Even I know you're a big pony, but I didn't ask about big. I used the 'F' word.”

Again, Stonecutter sighed. This time though, she kissed Sparkler’s lips like she had been kissed. “Not fat, no, I suppose I'm just...big, like Mr. Mac is just 'big'.”

“Good, because you are big. Bigger than me,” Sparkler giggled as she allowed her hand to wander over her marefriend’s big belly, reaching over it to caress her thick chunky thighs, “And you're just how I like you to be. Best pillows ever!” she then squished her head into Stonecutter’s breasts, demonstrating their use as pillows.

Giggling like a little schoolfilly, Stonecutter blushed anew as Sparkler settled her head between her breasts. “You really do like my size?”

“You were supposed to ask, 'why do you like my size?'.” Sparkler asked without moving from her extremely comfortable position nestled between her pet’s chest. “Your question implies that I may be lying about liking your size.”

“No, I can tell you aren't lying. Born under the Sign of Honesty, remember? So, Why do you like my size, Mistress?”

That was a very easy question to answer. Sparkler didn’t even have to think about it. “You make me feel safe. You make me feel wanted. You make me realize just how much I have and I can only want more. You are my rock,” the unicorn then poked her index finger into Stonecutter’s fleshy breast, just below her hard nipple, “My soft squishy rock.”

“That's funny,” Stonecutter smiled and she returned to stroking Sparkler’s mane, “Because that's how you make me feel when you put this around my neck,” she rubbed her fingers along her yellow collar, “Just like that. Safe. Wanted, Loved. Worshipped, even.”

“Can you two please keep it down, why don’t you bury your head in your moo cow’s great and worshipful pillows, Sparks?” Cloudburst snorted, still diddling with her phone, “I'm trying to get a Skystable signal!”

Still without moving Sparkler lit her horn and she tossed a spare pillow that caught Cloudburst in the side of the head, “Here, you can supplement your futon.”

“Oooof...thanks horny!” Cloudburst grunted, then she looked at her phone and grunted again in frustration, “C'mon you piece of junk! There's been no signal out here at all!” as she vented her ire at her poor old phone – Seafoam refused to buy her a ‘good’ one because her screens tended to last as long as a breezie – she saw a single bar of signal return. Then, another. “Yes! It lives!”

Sparkler found she wasn’t interested in the conversation that Cloudburst was about to have. “Hold me Stoney, so I don't drift away.”

“Yes ma'am,” obediently, Stonecutter wrapped her large strong arms around Sparkler, pulling her in tight to her big body, so that the unicorn’s head parted and rested between her hefty chest as Cloudburst started to ring Seafoam on her phone.

“So good of you to finally check in, pet.” Seafoam’s turquoise face appeared on the phone’s screen, his beak twisting to a wry smile, “How’s your teacher hunt going?”

About to answer her Master, Cloudburst, from out of nowhere, was reminded of one of her favourite movies. “We came, we saw, we kicked the Badlands' ass! We found them, and we're on the train back!”

“You make it sound easy,” Seafoam’s smile broadened at the sight of his beloved finally talking to him. It had been a long four days in his dorm at the School of Friendship, especially when Blackbeak and Cloudy Skies were so loved up all the time. Still, he would have his pegasus with him soon now. “Is everyone safe?”

“Well...I wouldn't say it was easy,” Cloudburst nervously rubbed the back of her head, angling the camera to show her collar and her bare flat chest in an attempt to distract her coltfriend, “But we're all alright now!”

“Now?” Seafoam immediately picked up on her choice of words, “Now you're on a train? You mean you weren't alright before?”

“Oh shit,” Cloudburst caught the frown on her Master’s face, it screamed concern, and she hated being the cause of it. “Um...well...the thing is...I might have accidentally got knocked out. Twice.”

“What?” Seafoam wasn’t stupid. He knew the Badlands were going to be a challenging excursion, by Novo’s crown, the clue was in the name! It wasn’t called the Goodlands. “Are the other two there?”

“They are,” Cloudburst glanced over her shoulder, “But Stone's playing hide the unicorn in her chest on the bed. Master,” she tried her best placating tone, “It's okay, I'm alright. While I was knocked out the first time I missed the three bandits who tried to take us as slaves!”

Slowly, Seafoam slapped his face with his clawed hand. One thing he could always rely on was his pet to tell him absolutely everything she had done. Brag about it even, like it was a grand adventure! “Do you need a shovel to dig any deeper, pet?”

Cloudburst didn’t need a shovel. Because she had a pneumatic drill. “Whaaaat?” she asked with a totally innocent smile, her tone neither facecious nor funny. Why was he upset? They won! “Oh but wait, you missed the really cool bit! We went to this dig site, and there was this tatzlwurm thing, and it was all raaaar!” she mimed the huge snake creature’s vast jaws with her hands, “And bitey,” she snapped her arms closed, “And I was all swoosh, and flying,” she mimed her wings with her arms, “And I snatched this gem from it's mouth!”

“Let me guess,” Seafoam’s expression and tone was deadpan and flat, “Someone told you to not do that.”

“Oh yeah, Sparks said not to grab it, and I was like, I got this! It was so awesome! I jinked like this,” Cloudburst again mimed her flight skills with her arms, even adding the swooshing sound effects of the air that passed over her feathers and fur, “I rolled that way, and boom! we were up one gem!”

“One gem...” Seafoam said as he watched his beloved, beautiful impetuous idiot punch the air in victory.

“There were three we needed to get, Master,” Cloudburst explained with pride, “The second one we got from this humongous roc on top of this mountain!”

“Roc?” Seafoam wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. It sounded dangerous. “What in the name of Seaquestria is a roc?”

“It's a huge bird, with rocks instead of feathers! You should have seen the mother, Master, her wings were like hundred foot from tip to tip!” Cloudburst set her phone down so she could demonstrate with both arms fully outstretched just how wide the roc’s wings had been.

“Were you hurt doing that?” Seafoam asked, remembering that she had been knocked out twice and she had only told him of one time so far.

“Oh, no, not that time, Master!” Cloudburst squealed happily, “Sparks told me I had to be super polite and respectful, because the roc was like way dominant and proud, and then I was all in my sub space, I bowed low, in the submission pose, and the roc gave us the second gem!”

Not quite under his breath, Seafoam muttered, “I'll put you in your sub space…” then, he raised his voice back to its usual volume, “And the third?” he almost didn’t want to know.

“That was easy, well, after we climbed up this huge spire tower that gave Stone the heebies,” the pegasus skilfully ducked another well-aimed pillow that ended up narrowly missing her head, “Sparks just told the dragon, Caldera, his name was, a few jokes, and we had the third gem!”

Seafoam almost fainted. “A dragon. You are so in trouble, missy.”

“Oh pfft,” Cloudburst snorted and waved away her Master’s concern with an airy wave of her hand, “He was a sweetheart, once you got past the two hundred foot long body and the huge teeth.”

“When do I pick you up at the station?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

“We arrive in like, five hours, I think,” she glanced over her shoulder again and Sparkler nodded her head, “Three p.m. this afternoon. I only just got a signal to call you. Oh, and the girls know I'm pregnant, too. I kinda told Sparks on the trip, cos I had a moment and I needed a hug, and then Sparks blurted it out in the cavern when I was knocked out again by this pony golem created by Moonbeam...oops!”

Seafoam couldn’t help but snicker as his pet, way too late, slapped her hands over her mouth. “And that is number two. What are you wearing besides your collar?”

“Nothing, Master, see?” Cloudburst angled the camera down so she could show him that she was completely naked, but for the turquoise collar she always wore.

“You may add your longest t-shirt, or borrow one from Stone, and some sandal horseshoes when you get off the train.”

“Thank you, Master.” Cloudburst bowed and spread her wings, adopting the pegasi submission pose so that he could see. She took note of the fact that he had not allowed her to wear any underwear underneath the long shirt – not that she owned any anymore, after being with her Master two years. Although, she did think ahead for a rare moment. “Um...am I in fun trouble, or not fun trouble?”

For a moment, just a moment, Seafoam was very tempted to tease his pregnant pet. Then he realised that wouldn’t be very fair. “You have been a good naughty.”

“Oh thank Celestia's massive ass for that!” relief washed over her face and she blew him a long sexy kiss, “See you soon, Master.”

When Seafoam had hung up, and Cloudburst was again slumped on the futon she had claimed as her perch, Stonecutter spoke up from the bed. “If I had known you were pregnant, you wouldn't have come, CB.”

“Hush, pet,” Sparkler shushed her marefriend with a quick kiss to the earth pony’s nose and followed it up with one to her lips, “We needed her. Still, I have to admit, now that it’s out of the bag, I doubt you'll be on any more adventures, Cloudy.”

“Yay,” Cloudburst’s tone sounded like she had just been sentenced to the gallows, and she sunk into the futon with her head in her hands. “I'm not made of glass...” she kicked out at the pillow that Sparkler had tossed her way earlier, sending it bouncing off the wall. “Besides, Foam's all about moving to Mount Aris, getting married, hippogriff style, getting a house, and a job…”

Sparkler remembered what Cloudburst had said about the hippogriffs of Mount Aris being a nudist society and, whereas one time the very thought of being exposed in public would have bought her out in hives, now she was excited at the prospect. “We'll visit, if only for me to wear sexy lingerie, and for Stoney to wear very sexy lingerie.”

“Hmph...but this was fun!”

“Fun?” Stonecutter’s raised eyebrow could be heard in her voice.

“Okay, well...not the ‘me getting knocked out’ bits or the bandits or Caballeron threatening to break my wings...but the rest was fun. I hung out with you guys!”

“She has a point,” Sparkler giggled, “Hanging out with me is fun.”

“You're gonna be a momma,” Stonecutter stated sensibly, “That's more than enough 'fun', CB.”

“I guess,” Cloudburst muttered moodily, “I gotta be a better momma than Misty Fly, right?”

“We talked about this,” Sparkler put in when Cloudburst mentioned her Wonderbolt mother, “You don't have to be better than her, as you don't have to be her. Be you, and you'll be the best mother. Of course,” she giggled, “Your foal may be just as impetuous as you are.”

“Impetuous is a weird way of spelling immature featherbrain...eeeek!”

Cloudburst showed her best friend no mercy, even as she squeaked when she sent the second pillow hurtling back her way. “It. Is. On!” she hollered, looking around ready to repel any possible counterattack that might come her way. Sparkler, laid on top of Stonecutter, was happy being her pet’s shield as her face was lodged in a very safe place.

The pillow fight lasted almost all the way back, give or take the odd break or two. But none of them cared. They were going home, together. Their adventure was over. They had faced the Trials of the Badlands, and even the Badlands themselves, and survived. Not only had they survived, but they were going home stronger, wiser, better ponies. Fillies had left Ponyville, but mares were returning.

Together.

The Curse of the Statuettes

by Dusk Melody

Prologue - Moonbeam

Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins

Chapter 2 - Getting Out of Dodge

Chapter 3 - Moonbeam in the Moonlight

Chapter 4 - The Dig Site

Chapter 5 - The Runaway Professor

Chapter 6 - Trials of the Badlands

Chapter 7 - Moonbeam and Harmony

Epilogue - The Journey Home