The next thing Octavia knew after jumping into the portal, she had a face full of sand. She stood and coughed up shells and seaweed. She heard Vinyl and Whooves next to her, also hacking out sand.

"Well, that was fun," Vinyl said sarcastically, "Alright Whooves, you know everything, where to next?"

Whooves stood up, shaking the sand out of his mane, "We head to the one place I couldn't get to before Sombra got to me: Mount Magic."

"Twilight Sparkle's realm, right?" Vinyl questioned.

Whooves nodded, "Yes. We need to hurry though. I'm sure that Sombra will force Minuette to send him back to the past as well."

"So wait," Octavia interrupted, "What about the other Gears? You said we needed all six Gears to heal the Tower of Midnight. We don't have time to get to all of them!"

"That's where you're wrong," Whooves replied, smiling a little, "If I can convince Twilight that we need the Gears to save Equestria, then she can convince the other Guardians to give us their Gears as well. She is the most powerful Guardian, after all."

"Sounds like a plan." Octavia agreed. She glanced at the setting sun, just over the ocean horizon, "We should head back to the Guild and rest up before we go."

"We can't," Whooves said sadly, "The Guild still thinks I'm a deranged criminal. They'll never believe that Black Thunder is King Sombra either; especially that Lyra Heartstrings."

Vinyl giggled, "To think, Lyra had the hots for King Eye Shadow all this time!"

"But where will we stay?" Octavia questioned, "If we can't stay at the Guild, then we'll have to camp out at the beach. It looks like it might rain later tonight." She shielded her eyes and gazed out over the ocean. Large, black clouds were gathering a couple miles off. Lightning striked the ocean surface as thunder rumbled.

"I've got that covered," Vinyl replied confidently, "I have a little place I used to hangout in before I became a rescue team member. Follow me."

Quickly as possible, Vinyl took off down the beach. She turned, heading into the town and slowing down so as to not wake any of the sleeping Ponyvillains. She kept going to the very edge of the town until they came out at a jagged cliff of sandstone rock overlooking the sky-blue sea. She trotted over to a pile of leaves and pulled them to the side, revealing a small hole and a staircase leading down inside the cliff.

"'Voilà'!" Vinyl said dramatically, gesturing to the hole, "Welcome to my epic abode!"

As quietly as they could, the three shuffled into the hole and down the staircase. They came out into a small bluff that still overlooked the sea. A small fountain was in one corner, adding a gentle trickling to the crashing of the sea waves below. A fire pit was in the middle of the bluff. Vinyl quickly pulled out a few hay beds for each of them. She gathered some wood from a stack of timber sitting in another corner and quickly lit a fire in the fire pit.

"What is this place?" Asked Octavia, glancing around the small bluff.

"Dragon's Bluff," Vinyl quickly replied, "Named because it looks like a dragon's head sticking out over the ocean. Pretty cool, huh?"

Whooves flopped down on one of the hay beds, "Thanks again for helping me."

"Hey, don't mention it," Vinyl replied, waving a dismissive hoof, "We have to have somewhere to hide from King Psycho Sombrero after all."

This got a chuckle out of Whooves, "I'm not sure what I would have done without you two. I probably would have been timberwolf meal by now."

"We want to save Equestria as much as you do," Octavia replied with a small smile, "We'll do whatever we can."

Whooves sighed and looked down, "I... Think I'm going to hit the hay. No pun intended."

Octavia giggled, which made Vinyl quite angry.

"I used that exact same pun and you didn't laugh when I used it!" Vinyl yelled. She crossed her arms, her eyes lighting up with an idealistic look, "Ohhhh I see how it is... Octavia and Whooves sitting in a tree..."

"Vinyl, shut up!" Octavia quickly commanded.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." Vinyl continued to sing, causing Octavia to playfully punch her in the arm. To the white unicorn however, the punch was actually quite painful, causing her to shut up completely.

Whooves took this chance of silence to settle down and get some sleep. The rain had started, dripping down from the stalactites at the edge of the bluff. Lightning flashed, creating creepy shadows on the walls. Thunder rocked the bluff with each strike of lightning.

Octavia had finally laid down. Vinyl was still poking the fire with an iron prod, keeping it going. Slowly, the cello-playing mare found her eyes drooping shut until she eventually fell into a deep sleep.

---

That night, Octavia's vision refused to let her have a peaceful sleep. She dreamed she was back in future Equestria, standing before a very satisfied King Sombra. The two were all alone, not even Vinyl or Whooves were standing next to her, making her feel completely helpless.

Adding to Octavia's sense of terror was the fact that she couldn't move. When she attempted to turn and run, her limbs felt like they were welded into the concrete. Sombra however, moved calmly to her, eyes glowing that unnatural bright green. His horn began glowing with the fear-inducing dark magic.

"Goodbye, my dear." He spoke, rattling Octavia's already churning stomach. The unicorn was just about the fire a powerful beam at the mare standing before him.

At the last second, another pony jumped in front of Octavia, taking the blast for her. Her savior was thrown back, hitting the wall at unnatural speeds. A gut-wrenching crack was heard, signaling that the pony's skull had cracked against the wall. Octavia still couldn't move, but she managed to crane her neck around to get a look at her savior. Her stomach did a loop-de-loop upon seeing who it was.

It was Whooves, broken and bloody, laying against the stone wall.

Octavia gasped, feeling herself snap back into reality. She sat bolt upright, getting a look at her surroundings. She was still in the bluff with Whooves laying a few feet away from her. The mare breathed in a sigh of relief, seeing that his head wasn't dented in like he was in her dreams.

Octavia slowly got up, trotting over to the edge of the bluff. The storm had pass, leaving her to assume that it had been a couple hours since she had fallen asleep. The black sky was starting to turn a dark purple, signaling that the sun would soon rise. Waves crashed against the rocks below, as seagulls flew over and gave their cries.

Despite the beautiful morning, Octavia was scared. What had that dream meant? Was Whooves going to sacrifice himself to save her? Would it be exactly like her dream, or was it just getting a point across that Whooves was going to save her and give his life in the process?

Glancing over her shoulder, Octavia stared at the brown stallion who slept peacefully. Had they really been best friends before she was sent to the past? The vision she had of him helping her up after she had fallen seemed to prove that. Not only that, but Whooves had kept her cello for so long, only to give it back to her.

So many questions... None of which could be answered.

Octavia's chest was tight. She had to get out of this dusty bluff and into the open air. She slowly crept out of the bluff and to the staircase, coming out into the cave. She was met with a surprise, as Vinyl was sitting at the edge of the cliff, her hind legs dangling over the side. Octavia slowly trotted to her and sat down next to her, sighing as she did.

Vinyl looked over at her sympathetically, "Can't sleep?"

Octavia shook her head, "My visions don't believe in sleep."

"Did'ya see anything?" Vinyl asked expectantly.

Octavia hesitated. She was afraid to tell Vinyl about her vision of Whooves taking a shot for her. She instead decided to tell a little white lie.

"It was a jumbled mess." Octavia replied. She wasn't completely lying, for most of her night visions made little to no sense, "I didn't really get much out of it."

"Oh." Vinyl replied, her voice filled with heavy disappointment.

The sun started to come up. It turned the skies beautiful shades of orange, red, and purple. Truly, it was beautiful, worthy to be painted on a canvas for all to see.

"Wow," Vinyl breathed, "Look at that sunrise. That's something worth getting up early for!"

Octavia nodded, "To think, if we never found out the truth, we'd never see another sunrise or sunset again."

"Which means we better get going." A voice behind them interrupted. Whooves suddenly leaned down between the two mares, smiling as he did, "You two ready to save the world?"

Vinyl frowned in reply, "You say it like it's a joke."

Whooves suddenly became serious, "I was only trying to lighten the mood a little. Sorry."

"He's right though," Octavia agreed, standing up for a second, "We probably need to get going. When exactly will the tower collapse?"

"Three days from now," Whooves replied, "Which means we have to head to Mount Magic if we're ever going to get to the tower in time."

Octavia nodded, "Let's go."

---

Mount Magic was a fair distance north of Ponyville. It took about five hours of walking just to get to the foot of the mountain. Along the way, they passed Butterfly Grove, Dead Mare's Desert, and Mount Spectrum, all of which had been turned back to their original appearance, signaling that the Gears had been returned. Vinyl and Octavia were glad to see this, but also upset, for they would have to take the Gears again.

They came to the foot of a beautiful mountain that almost seemed to have a purple hue surrounding it. Craning their necks back, neither Octavia nor Vinyl could see the top. Thick clouds hid the peak, signaling that it was quite a way up.

"I hate mountains." Vinyl groaned.

"Don't worry," Whooves assured, "There's actually a very secret shortcut that can be found only by the cleverest." He started to look smug, "Not to brag, but... I know where it is."

"Oh good!" Vinyl cheered, "Show us the way, Whooves!"

The brown stallion began to trot around to the back of the mountain. He began crawling through the bushes to reach the very back of the mountain. He started knocking on the walls, putting his ear to them, as expecting to hear something through the solid wall.

"Uh, Whooves?" Vinyl began to question, raising an eyebrow at the stallion, "You okay? Are you going loopy from dehydration? You need some water or something?"

"I know what I'm doing." Whooves replied. His tone suggested that he did know what he was doing.

"I'm... Not so sure." Octavia adding, agreeing with Vinyl's statement that he might indeed be a little loopy.

Whooves' face suddenly lit up with an idealistic look. He punched the wall, and a six pointed star suddenly lit up with a dark pink light where he had touched it. The wall slid back and into the side, revealing a closet-sized room with a small, alien-like pad on the floor.

"What shortcut?" Vinyl asked, a little disappointed by their discovery.

"This is a teleportation pad," Whooves explained, "With enough unicorn magic, it will take us to the peak of the mountain in a blink of an eye." He pointed to Vinyl, "Since you're the only unicorn here, it's up to you to activate it."

Vinyl blew a raspberry, "You're funny Whooves. Hilarious."

"I'm serious," Whooves insisted, "Would you rather climb the mountain, which need a remind you, is a couple miles up?"

Vinyl frowned, "No. But... I can't teleport! I can barely levitate a simple cup without getting exhausted!"

Whooves tapped his chin, "I'm pretty sure it doesn't take that much. Just... Try it."

Vinyl was reluctant, but she stepped on the pad with Octavia and Whooves right beside her. The unicorn's horn began glowing, as she put it down to the pad. She winced, attempting to transfer her magic to the pad. It was only a couple seconds before the pad lit up with a dark pink light.

Vinyl gasped, seeing that she had activated it. The dark pink light grew up around them, blinding them and shifting their surroundings into something new. After what seemed like a few minutes, the light faded away, revealing their new location.

The peak of the mountain was tall enough to see almost all of Equestria. Dark pink crystals grew around a lake that sparkled healthily. There was the same colored glow under the lake, which Octavia and Vinyl assumed to be the Gear of Magic.

"Where's Twilight?" Vinyl asked, glancing around the area.

"She's around." Whooves replied, not really answering Vinyl's question. He started to walk towards the Gear, only to be thrown back by a force field that shot up over the lake.

"Stop!" A powerful female voice commanded. In a flash of dark pink, the familiar purple Alicorn in question appeared, looking very unamused. She started to go for Whooves, but she saw Vinyl and Octavia and stopped.

"Uh..." Vinyl began, "... Hi?"

"How?" Twilight began to ask, thoroughly stunned, "But Black Thunder-!"

Whooves sighed, but clearly showed signs of submission, "Look, I know you see me as a crazed maniac, but you've got to trust me when I say this...-"

"Black Thunder is King Sombra!" Vinyl cut in abruptly.

For a moment, Twilight stared awkwardly at them, seeming quite frightened of the mention of the evil unicorn, "That's impossible! We defeated Sombra years ago! I saw him destroyed right before my eyes! You're lying!"

"Twilight," Octavia interrupted, pushing her two companions aside, "There's a reason that Whooves has been stealing the Gears. Tell me, has Princess Luna been talking to you recently?"

Twilight paused, "No... But what does that have to do with anything?"

Octavia took a deep breath before explaining everything that had happened to them before they came. She explained how the Tower of Midnight was due to collapse in a few days and how they needed to Gears to stop it. Twilight listened intently, not once interrupting the earth pony. Upon finishing, Twilight still had a look of disbelief on her face.

"I wouldn't lie about this kind of stuff," Octavia said seriously, "Do you really think I would make up such a wild story if it wasn't true?"

Twilight was silent for a second, "I... I suppose not... But... Luna has turned back into Nightmare Moon? Even after we blasted her with the Elements of Harmony?"

It was Whooves' turn to interrupt, "Yes, but we don't have much time. Please, you have to help us!"

Twilight didn't reply for a long time, signaling that she was still pondering over her decision. Finally, she replied with a nod, "Fine. If you're lying to me..."

"We swear!" Vinyl cut in, "We're telling the truth!"

Twilight ignored Vinyl, turning back to the lake. Using her magic, she levitated the Gear out of the water and over to her. As the gray dreariness began to set in, the Alicorn was barely even fazed by it. She turned back to the others, an angry scowl on her face.

"You better not be lying to me." She growled.

---

Yay! Another chapter has been published! This one may seem a little boring, but it's basically just building up to the climax of the story. Hopefully I can get the next chapter done by this Saturday. No guarantees, but hopefully!