Chapter 12

After the train crashed into the bottom of the cliff, Tommy had just sat up out of the snow and rubbed his sore head, he groaned in pain even though the landing was as soft as a pillow. He then turned to the others, who like him had made impact craters in the snow shaped like them. The kids each poke their heads out of the snow.

"Well… that was fun." Paco remarked, bitterly and sarcastically.

"Are you kidding?" Edwin questioned in disbelief.

"No, I'm being serious…" Paco said mockingly. "Oh course of joking! It's called sarcasm dude! Yeesh!"

"Everyone ok?" Tommy asked, concerned.

"I think so…" Felix nodded.

"I'm ok, Tommy." Mary assured him.

"Speak for yourself! I'm freezing!" Paco said, shivering. "And now I'll never complain about my alarm clock again…"

"You should have dressed more warmly." Edwin told him.

"I can't help it! I was born in Mexico! It's really hot there so excuse me for not being used to snow!" Paco exclaimed. The pony gang was the next to pop out of the snow.

"Everypony alright?" Twilight asked, each of them nodded and stated that they were fine.

"I wish I could say the same for the areas behind us…" Felix said with a slight moan as he looked in the direction they came from. Everypony turned and to their horror they saw large portions of land behind them becoming molten volcanoes with storms of lightning striking above and dozens of hurricanes whirling around on the molten ground. And of course they could hear the sounds of ponies screaming and running for their lives. All twelve of them were stunned and horrified.

"Whoa…" Tommy breathed.

"Oh my gosh…" Twilight gasped, putting her hoof on her mouth in horror.

"Equestria… it's been torn apart!" Applejack exclaimed.

"Man… 2012 the movie anyone?" Paco remarked to the other kids.

"There's nothing funny about this, Paco!" Edwin scolded him.

"Would you relax!? I feel just as bad about this as you! For once…" Paco admitted.

"Well I can honestly with certainty that Fluttershy's theory of the quakes following us was right after all." Edwin said as he stood up and shook the snow off of him. The others stood up also.

"So… wherever we go… the disasters follow…" Mary said slowly. "Just like…"

"The train station!" Felix realized. The other ponies eyes widened.

"Oh no! Spike!" Twilight said, distressed.

"You don't think he and the others…" Fluttershy began, only to be stopped by Rarity.

"Ah, ah, ah, don't say it! Don't even think it!" Rarity told her a bit harshly, although she looked just as distressed as the others.

"Can we go now?" Paco asked, impatiently. "Standing here is making me nervous… and cold!"

"Yes, moving along would be good." Edwin agreed.

"But… how are we supposed to get to the Crystal Empire now?" Twilight questioned, distressed.

"Easy; we walk." Tommy stated.

"Walk!?" Rarity exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's the only thing we can do right now." Felix told her.

"But… but… do you understand how long it would take for us to walk all the way there!?" Rarity proclaimed.

"I'm guessing a long time." Tommy shrugged.

"A very long time! A very, very long time!" Rarity stated loudly. "And I don't believe my hoofs can carry me that far…"

"Oh hush up, Rarity!" Applejack told her, a bit annoyed. "It'll only take us forever if we keep standing here complaining about it!"

"She's right, we gotta keep moving!" Twilight agreed. "It's the only way to get the Crystal Empire and get these kids home."

"I'm good with moving… staying here is making very nervous…" Fluttershy said with a whimper.

Pinkie bounced. "I'm already moving!"

"Besides, a little walk through the snow never hurt anybody." Mary added.

"Well actually…" Edwin began before everyone gave him a death glare. "Never mind…"

"If that's the case we'd better hurry before the quakes reach this spot next!" Rainbow declared. Darla looked at the spot she was standing on and looked greatly distressed as she begins to move around nervously till Mary held her closely and comforted her.

"So everyone ok with walking?" The ten-year old asked, the group.

His adopted siblings and the pony gang, aside from Rarity nodded in confirmation.

"Well, we took a vote; motion carried!" Tommy declared. "Move out!"

All eleven of them then began to walk through the snow in the direction of the Crystal Empire while Rarity just stood there dumbstruck.

"But… but…" she tried to say.

"Don't forget to write!" Pinkie Pie called out to her.

Realizing that she would just freeze to death if she just stood there in the middle of the frozen wasteland Rarity began to trot after them.

"I know I'm going to regret this…" The unicorn muttered. "Oh, wait for me!"

And so, the twelve of them began their long, perilous journey across the large blanket of snow towards the Crystal Empire, where their only hope of saving Equestria lied. But not long after they started walking Rarity had started whining.

"Oh my stars… I don't know if I can go on!" she proclaimed. "Can we please take a break for a little while?"

"We've only been walking for fifteen minutes!" Felix pointed out.

"Seems like forever," Rarity stated. "This air is just too cold for me!"

"And my wings are practically frozen!" Rainbow griped as she stared at her frozen wings, not liking the idea of not flying.

"Mine too…" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Yeah… too cold…" Darla said, shivering.

"Maybe we should take a break somewhere…" Twilight mused.

"Where? I don't see a cave anywhere, do you?" Paco exclaimed.

"I saw one! We just passed it!" Pinkie chirped. Everyone stopped in their tracks and turned to her wide eyed.

"HUH?" They all remarked at once.

"Yeah, it's right there!" Pinkie said, pointing to large cavern near them.

"Huh, well I'll be darned…" Toby remarked, tilting his head.

"Darn, shmarn! Let's get inside already!" Paco exclaimed.

"I'm way ahead of ya, kid!" Rainbow declared as she zoomed off ahead. Everyone else soon followed and made their way toward the giant cavern. When they were inside they quickly scavenged up as much wood and burnable material inside the cave as they could find and thanks to Twilight's magic they were able to create a fire for them all to huddle around for warmth.

"Well… this isn't the best way to spend an afternoon, but I've had worse." Mary shrugged.

"Really?" Fluttershy inquired.

"Not really, just trying to keep everyone's spirits up." Mary confessed to the Pegasus.

"So how much further Twi?" Applejack asked.

"From my calculations… three miles." Twilight replied.

Tommy shrugged. "Whatever, we'll get there in the morning," he said, in a tired tone before yawning.

"Aye… if there's anywhere to go to in the morning that is." Edwin pointed out. "What with this world literally crumbling around us and the destruction following us wherever we go."

"Not exactly an uplifting speech Ed." Felix told his adopted older brother.

"I'm just being realistic…" Ed said.

"And I miss Mom and Dad…" Darla whimpered. A atmosphere then appeared over all of the kids, as if a dark thunder cloud had appeared over each of their heads and was raining down on them hard.

"Yeah… me too." Mary agreed, sadly.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again; they aren't are parents they're your parents Darla." Paco reminded her, although the sadness on his own face was evident. He sighed. "But I kind of miss them too…"

"Why are you against calling them your parents anyway?" Twilight inquired.

"Well… I guess… most of us are still getting over losing our parents…" Tommy admitted. "So am I…"

"And they're all… gone?" Fluttershy asked, sadly.

"Well my Dad's in prison… and I don't know what happened to my Mom…" Felix said.

"Oh my! Prison! How dreadful…" Rarity shivered.

"So what was in for?" Rainbow questioned.

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed, in a scolding tone, obviously mad at her friend for being so insensitive, as always.

"What? I just asked!" Rainbow Dash stated, not knowing what she did wrong.

"That topic is obviously very sensitive to someone like poor Felix." Fluttershy explained.

"Yeah, so you'd better watch your mouth and think before you speak, got it?" Applejack scolded her.

"Ok, ok! I'm sorry! Alright?" Rainbow Dash said.

"Ah, it's cool…" Felix told her. "Although I do miss my Dad though…"

"You should be thankful… at least your Dad is still alive, most of ours aren't." Tommy stated.

"Except for the pipsqueaks though." Paco added. "The rest of ours either abandoned us or…"

"Went away… in a sense." Edwin interjected. Not wanting him to mention the world 'died' to anyone, seeing how sad and depressed they all were already.

"Yeah, that's it…" Paco said, trying to play along.

"Come on you guys, we gotta keep our heads together, we'll get back to them." Tommy assured them.

"And save this world." Mary added.

"That's right… we just gotta keep our eyes on the prize." Twilight stated as she looked toward the horizon and the star filled sky where Luna's moon shined on all of them as they all lied down on the stone floor of the cave and fell asleep.