Shadows in the dark

Chapter 38

Rarity and her friends stood on the platform of the rundown station as they watched their train drive off until it was nothing but a pink speck in the horizon. To their right were the Macintosh Hills; a fair sized mountain range with an unfinished railroad track running through it. The four approached the entrance away and was greeted by a cool breeze.

"Brrr." Fluttershy shivered. "That's really cold."

"So...what now?" Trixie asked.

"I guess we have to go in and see what's on the other side." Rarity replied. Trixie narrowed her eyes slightly at the white unicorn.

"You aren't seriously going to make us walk down this path, are you?" she asked. "These rocks look like they would fall at any minute."

"Do you know of another route we can take, Trixie?" Rarity asked evenly.

"Err...no." Trixie replied. Lowering her gaze to the ground.

"I will agree that this path doesn't look safe." Rarity said. "But we have no other choice. I'd rather go through here than having to climb up these mountains. We don't even have the gear to do so!"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly said, jumping up and down frantically for their attention.

Rarity sighed. "Yes, Pinkie?" she asked.

Pinkie Pie stopped her jumping and grinned. "What if we just turn around and follow the tracks home?" The others face-palmed and shook their heads.

"That's pure genius, Pinkie." Trixie said. "But we can't go back because we were brought here on a QUEST!"

Pinkie Pie lowered her head and shuffled her hooves. "Oh yeah." she muttered.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Look." she sighed, "We'll just take this slow, alright? And the first thing something goes wrong we bolt outta there. Got it?" The two other mares nodded. Rarity nodded back. "Good." she said. Gesturing with her hoof, the two other ponies wandered into the great mountain range that was the Macintosh mountains. As they trekked, walking with caution in fear of a possible rock slide, Rarity thought back to her torture secession with Twilight. She debated on when she should tell her friends of what had become of their adorkable egg head. It was starting to weigh down on her too much, and she knew eventually that she needs to fess up one of these days.

She looks over her shoulder to her friends. Trixie and Fluttershy were walking with worried looks on their faces as she stared at the large rocks all around them while Pinkie was humming to herself without a care in the world. She secretly envied her happy personality; not having to worry about raising a little sister by herself or make clothing by a due date. She wondered how her other friends are doing now? She hoped they were all right.

It was nearly evening by the time they reached a part of the mountains that wasn't located on the map provided to them by Cadence. The landscape changed vastly into a wintery kind of wonderland with nothing but snowy mountain after snow mountain.

"Brrr." Pinkie stuttered, her teeth chattering slightly as she hugged herself to keep warm, Fluttershy huddling up beside her. "It's cold out here."

Trixie exhaled, whispy smoke coming out and disappearing in front of her. "And I thought my heart was cold." she remarked while hugging herself as well.

"If your heart was cold, you wouldn't have rescued you me back in Sombra's dungeon." Rarity said. "Now come on. Let's find some shelter before it gets dark."

"Yes!" Trixie gasped in agreement. "Hopefully we can get something cooked up, too. I'm starving here." Rarity chuckled.

"I agree. What do you say, Pinkie Pie?" But when both unicorns looked over in the direction of the pink earth pony, they were shocked and angry to find her happily munching away on a bag of chips Rarity brought along for all of them to SPECIFICALLY share. "PINKIE!" she practically shrieks, causing the other pony to stop midway in brining a chip up to her open mouth. "What on Earth are you doing?! You're not supposed to be eating that yet!"