Chapter 01: Between a Roc and a High Place

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"Do you guys really think this is a good idea?" Sweetie Belle asked. With a hint of trepidation, she glanced down. A surge of regret lurched in her stomach as her gaze fixated on the jagged cliffs extending so far below her that she convinced herself that there was no ground down there.

A tether attached to Sweetie's vest linked her to a similar vest on Scootaloo, who clung to the cliffside just a few feet above her. The link also led up to Applebloom above Scootaloo. Finally, the tether ended on an Earth Pony colt's vest, who headed the group. "It's not much further!" the grey colt shouted down. He looked back up, shaking the errant black hair from his vision.

"Come on, Sweetie," Scootaloo said, tugging on the cord to get Sweetie to look back up. "We're sure that Hoof Follow's talent has gotta be mountain climbing!"

"Ain't'cha excited?" Apple Bloom asked, inching up behind Hoof Follow. "If he gets his mark, it'll be the tenth cutie mark the Cutie Mark Crusaders've helped somepony get."

The tether reached its limit, forcing Sweetie to follow after the other three. "I think I'd be more excited if, you know, maybe we were a little lower."

"Oh, come on, our sisters climbed this hill months ago. And back then, there was a dragon at the top!" Apple Bloom said.

"Hill? You call this a hill!" Sweetie retorted.

As Scootaloo continued to follow the other two, her rear hoof loosed a rock, sending it tumbling into Sweetie's snout. "Wait, why didn't Rainbow Dash just fly up and take care of that dragon?"

Sweetie flinched, shaking her head. It did little to ease the unpleasant sting in her snout. Then, she sneezed, her hooves slipping from the cliff.

"I dunno. It was probably one of those 'friendship problem' things they're always doin'," Apple Bloom replied. The tether attached to her vest sped through the loop until it reached its limit. Lurching, Apple Bloom managed to hold onto the cliff.

"Everypony okay?" Hoof Follow asked, looking down. While Apple Bloom and Scootaloo held steadfast, Sweetie dangled beneath them, holding her snout as she hung by the tether.

"A okay!" Apple Bloom sounded off.

"I'm fine," Scootatloo said.

"I'll be okay," Sweetie said, a nasally tone to her voice. The rest didn't even wait for her to recover. She slowly lifted up as the trio climbed the cliff above her.

Hoof Follow reached up. Instead of finding a sheer cliff, his leg looped up onto an outcropping. "Hey! I think we made it!"

"It's probably just another ledge," Scootaloo replied, a bit of annoyance lacing her tone.

"I don't care if it is," Sweetie said, her hooves again finding the sheer wall of rock. "Can we take a break?"

"It's the summit!" Hoof Follow shouted down. He hoofed up Apple Bloom, and together the duo helped Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle up to the plateau.

Panting a bit, Scootaloo trotted around the rim. "Wow, I don't think I've ever been this high."

Sweetie put on a weak smile. "Did you get your cutie mark?"

Hoof Follow looked back at his flank, only to find it woefully bare.

Apple Bloom placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Hey, don't give up. I couldn't tell yah how many times it took us to get our marks."

"Yeah, but aren't our marks supposed to be about helping other ponies with their marks?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Come on." She reached into her pack and pulled out a rod. "Let's get the flag set up and we can head back down."

Sweetie pointed to a nearby path, far away from the sheer ledge they just climbed. "Please tell me we can take the path down this time."

"That'd be too easy," Apple Bloom said, pulling another rod from Sweetie's pack and affixing them to each other.

"Ugh, let's just get this over with," Scootaloo said, trotting over with a rod of her own. Without even looking, she tossed it over to Apple Bloom, who merged it with the other two to complete the flagpole.

Hoof Follow chuckled as he pulled out a flag emblazoned with the Cutie Mark Crusaders' emblem. "You know, they say that climbing down is more dangerous than climbing up." Accepting the pole from Apple Bloom, he ran over to the nearby cave, and effortlessly scaled to the top.

There, at the highest point on the mountain, he held the flag up to the sky. "I hereby claim this mountain in the name of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" With a surge of force, he sunk the flagpole into the rocks. As he stood triumphant, the Cutie Mark Crusaders stomped in applause.

A flash of brilliant light shone down from the mountaintop. Coalescing on Hoof Follow's flank, the light faded to reveal a permanent image on his flank. It depicted a snowcapped peak with a nondescript flag protruding from the top.

Gasping, Sweetie pointed up at Hoof Follow's flank. "Hoof, look! You got your cutie mark!"

"Huh?" Hoof looked back, his hind hoof raising off the ground as he looked at his newly-adorned flank.

"Yes! We did it!" Apple Bloom cheered. Together, the Cutie Mark Crusaders high-hoofed.

"Ha ha! This is so awesome!" Hoof said, sliding down and around the cave. "Thanks, Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"All in a day's work," Scootaloo said with a smug grin.

"See?" Apple Bloom said as she turned to Sweetie Belle. "This was all totally worth it."

Sweetie smiled and gave a nod. "Yeah."

Just as Hoof First joined the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a violent gust nearly threw the entire group off of their hooves. The group struggled to regain their balance as an otherworldly screech tore through them, emanating from the blackened depths of the cave.

"Anypony else get the feeling that we might've woken something big and scary up?" Scootaloo asked as she and her friends backed away from the cave.

"Come on!" Apple Bloom pointed to the path leading down the mountain. "Run for it!"

As the group fled, an eagle nearly too big to fit crawled out from the cave. Spreading its wings, it gave another screech. A mighty burst from its wings propelled it into the sky, and sent the fillies and colts tumbling head over hoof.

The heap of ponies quickly got back to their hooves and back to running. "What is that thing!" Sweetie Belle screeched.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "I dunno. All I know is that it's big, and scary, and I don't think it's happy with us!" A massive, black shadow swept over the group. "Get out of the open! We gotta hide!"

An enormous talon reached for the group. It crashed down, sending Apple Bloom and Hoof Follow careening toward the cliffside as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle dove in the opposite direction. Solid rock gave way like dough under the sheer force of the bird's talons. Through the dust, rocks and boulders rained down, falling from the raptor's slackened grasp.

Finding shelter under an outcropping, Apple Bloom huddled against Hoof Follow. "Everypony okay?" she shouted, daring to peek out and up.

Scootaloo helped Sweetie Belle up into a tree's boughs just across the path. The tree grew out over a deep, narrow crevice. "Yeah. Is it gone?"

An ear-piercing screech answered Scootaloo's question, and sent the groups back into hiding. The ground shook as the great beast landed. The shaking nearly threw Sweetie out of the tree, but Scootaloo managed to grab her and hold her steady near the trunk. Holding a hoof up to her muzzle, Scootaloo urged silence as the bird's gaze swept back and forth along the path.

Over at the sheer wall, Apple Bloom cowered next to Hoof Follow. She dared to glance toward the fearsome beast, and her heart skipped a beat. There, just outside the shelter of the ledge, lay her bow, right out in plain sight for the giant bird to see.

If it saw the bow, it just might realize their hiding spot. Taking a deep breath, she leaned over and outstretched her leg towards the bow. Her hoof found the ribbon, and she slowly drew it back in. Only once she had her bow safely out of sight did she dare to close her eyes and exhale.

She opened her eyes, and her heart stopped. An amber eye larger than her whole body stared back at her. It blinked, then disappeared. A deafening screech shook the mountain.

"Run!" Apple Bloom shouted.

Massive talons ripped through the rock, gouging out the hiding place. In the rubble, Apple Bloom and Hoof Follow managed to slip out on either side of the enormous beast. Hoof Follow spilled over the edge, and into the rift.

"Hoof Follow!" Sweetie shrieked from the boughs of the trees. Acting on instinct, she reached out toward the falling colt. Only a firm hoof from Scootaloo kept her secure in the tree.

Hoof Follow managed to land a hoof on the sheer rock wall, sending out a spray of dust and pebbles. Then another hoof, and another. Finally, his descent stopped as he clung to the cliffside. "I-I'm okay!" he shouted up at the trio of fillies. His eyes narrowed. "Look out!"

The tree holding Sweetie and Scootaloo violently shook as the bird crashed into it. Tipping in a flurry of feathers, the tree leaned out over the crevice, its roots reaching up and releasing their hold on the rock. Only once the tree was nearly horizontal did the deepest of roots keep it from falling in.

Flying back to land on the path, the bird eyed the fillies. It's head turned to the side as it hesitated. It flapped its wings, launching toward the crevice, but it could do little more than hover over the narrow fissure.

"I-I don't think it can reach us," Scootaloo said, desperately clinging to a branch.

"G-g-good birdie," Sweetie said. "No need to e-eat us. Please go home?"

The bird lunged forward, snapping it's enormous beak. Despite its best efforts, it couldn't reach the girls, though it did manage to nearly bite halfway through the thick tree trunk. Again retreating to the safety of the path, the bird spat out the splintered wood.

Several jagged shards of wood, each one easily the size of a spear, smashed along the path and toward Apple Bloom. The filly jumped away from the cliff wall and back into the middle of the path, barely avoiding becoming an Apple Bloom shishkebab. Her desperate leap left her shoulder to absorb the brunt of the fall and causing her head to pound into the solid stone.

As Apple Bloom lay motionless on the ground, Scootaloo began to tread across the fallen tree's trunk. "Come on, Sweetie," she whispered back at the cowering white filly. "We gotta get off this thing before it falls in!"

Sweetie watched as a hunk of bark slipped from under Scootaloo's hoof and into the abyss. Shaking her head, she redoubled her grip on the branch supporting her. "I-I can't!"

"Scootaloo! It's coming back!"

Scootaloo looked up after Hoof's shout, seeing the tyrannical bird stomping back toward the fallen tree. Each step sent a shockwave through the rock, tugging at the roots that perilously held the tree in place. Taking a fleeting glance back at Hoof Follow, Scootaloo made a snap decision. Crouching down on her haunches, she jumped free from the tree and beat her wings with all her might.

Her legs sent her in the right direction, but for all of her efforts, gravity still won out over her wings. The rock wall and the relative safety it offered seemed to flit away as it became apparent that she wasn't going to reach. In futile desperation, she extended her hooves toward the rushing wall of rock.

"Got you!"

A grey hoof wrapped around Scootaloo's. Hoof Follow's other three hooves dug into the cliff wall as all of Scootaloo's weight shifted to him. A shower of rocks burst from beneath Hoof's grip as the sudden added weight pulled him down. His hindhooves slipped over the rolling stone, and he swung out, clinging by a single hoof to the rock wall as he still held fast to Scootaloo.

"Don't let go!" Scootaloo begged as she grasped Follow's hoof.

Grunting, Hoof looked up to find his hold stable. "Okay," he said, licking his lips as he looked back down at Scootaloo, "I need you to swing over and get a good hoofhold on the cliff. Can you do that?"

Scootaloo looked down only to see the sheer walls extend so far down that they disappeared into a black nothingness. Gulping, she turned her eyes to the cliff. "I-I think so!" She turned her body a bit and gave her wings a buzz, swinging her back over. With Hoof holding her, she was able to use her wings to guide her to the sheer rock wall. One hoof at a time, she grabbed on to the rock. "I got it," she said, her voice exuding relief. "I got it."

Above them, the gargantuan raptor extended its beak as far down the crevice as its neck would allow, snapping uselessly at the duo. The deadly beak bit at the air several yards above their heads. They were safe.

"Hey! Climb down!" Hoof yelled up at Sweetie and Apple Bloom. "It can't get us down here, and it looks like we can get all the way down to the ground from here!"

"I-I can't! It'll get me!" Sweetie shouted back, clinging tightly to the same branch.

"I think you might be safe. It can't get you either," Scootaloo replied. "Can you see Apple Bloom? Is she okay?"

Sweetie Belle looked back over to see Apple Bloom stumbling up to her hooves. "I-I'm okay, I think," Apple Bloom said. No sooner did the words leave her mouth, did the enormous bird snap its attention straight to her. Her eyes widened as her pupils shrank. "Uh-oh."

The bird stomped back, rattling the already precarious tree. "Get in the crevice! Climb down, hurry!" Sweetie Belle shouted. As she did, a loud crack sounded. The spot where the bird bit out a chunk cracked through, splinters jutting upward as the tree threatened to split in half. The boughs weighed down, slowly lowering as the crack spread. Finally relinquishing the branch, Sweetie scrambled across the trunk, even as her trek turned uphill. Her hooves scraped along the bark as the wood let out a long, whining crack. Then, the entire top of the tree fell into the abyss.

Hanging perilously to the jutting splinters, Sweetie Belle watched the treetop fall deep into the chasm until it finally disappeared from sight. She tried to pull herself up, her hind legs uselessly kicking air, but for all her efforts, all she succeeded in doing was to further loosen the roots holding up what remained of the tree. An otherworldly screech tore her attention back to the path and her imperiled friend.

Scrambling toward the ledge,Apple Bloom barely managed to duck under the bird's beak. The beak crashed into the solid rock, splitting it and sending out a shower of stones. Apple Bloom tumbled away, skidding over the ledge. Her forelegs managed to find a hold on the very edge. A powerful wind nearly knocked her off of the cliff entirely.

Apple Bloom peeked over the edge to find… nothing. The bird was gone. Then, a black shadow fell over her. She looked up to see two sets of gigantic talons falling on her. She flinched, expecting to be ripped apart, but instead the oversized talons fell all around her. They closed in around her, shredding through the solid stone.

The crushing grind of stone-on-stone somehow left Apple Bloom unharmed as she fell free from the raptor's grasp. Her relief left her almost immediately as she watched the path rise up above her. The sensation of wind whipping by her tore through her with the realization that she was falling into the nearly-bottomless abyss.

Then, the wind stopped. Apple Bloom dared to look, only to find everything tinted a green color. Her descent stopped. Looking up, she found Sweetie Belle, still dangling from the trunk, using her horn to hold her from falling to her doom. Slowly, the cliff wall approached, and Apple Bloom was able to get a solid hold on the rock wall.

A tentative smile spread over Apple Bloom's face as she realized that, at last, she was safe. "Thanks, Sweetie," she hollered up, "that was too close!"

"Yeah," Sweetie replied, tentatively clawing her her way up onto the trunk. "Just gotta—"

"Look out!"

The simultaneous shout spurred Sweetie to look up just in time to see talons big enough to dwarf spears clenching down on her. The razor-sharp claws fell just in front of her, wrapping around the trunk of the tree. With the deafening sound of an explosion, the tree trunk shattered into a million splinters, and the wood beneath Sweetie's hooves gave way.

Falling backwards, she watched the enormous bird retreat into the sky. Her friends rushed up by her, disappearing in but a moment's time along with their panicked shouts. Even the light seemed to retreat until nothing remained but her painfully pounding heart, the rushing sound of air, and the spinning splinters that accompanied her. Then, nothing.