What do Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Twist, Granny Smith, Trixie, and Twilight all have in common?

“They’re all ponies?” Octavia said.

Yes, smartarse, they’re all ponies.

“They’re all female?” said Fluttershy.

Okay, look, what’s happening is they’re all going to go on an epic adventure chapter, and one of them will die. The one who will die is not predetermined and will be determined by their performance in the adventure. For example, if someone gets eaten during the adventure, then it’s them.

“Where are we adventuring to and for what reason?” Twilight said.

Someone was polishing the Holy MacGuffin and inspecting it to make sure it was the real one and not a fake one switched with it, and he accidentally broke it into 32 pieces. Thirty-one of the pieces were recovered, but his secretly evil assistant swiped one and hid it beyond a land featuring unreasonably long jumps, dragons, and other dangerous stuff. You six have to return it to the Shrine.

“That story sounds like it would’ve made a good chapter,” Twilight said.

Well, you’re wrong. Now that all of you have heard this via Twitter, congregate at Far From Sugarcube Corner and you’ll be given your first clue.

And so they all arrived without drama. A black-furred stallion wearing sunglasses and a black hoodie hooved Twilight a black envelope. She opened it, just as the bookies thought she would, and read the white-on-black text:

“Go to the tourist entrance of Mount Pyramid and talk to the white stallion. Not the white mare, the white stallion. The mare will attempt to murder you with a circular saw should you talk to her.”

And so they took the arduous half-marathon, during which nothing happened, to the base of Mount Pyramid, which featured a gate (currently open), a corresponding fence, some tourists, a staff for the tourists to give the entrance fee to, and two white ponies standing around doing nothing. The group huddled.

“Who should talk to him?” Twilight said.

“You’ve been the one doing things,” Trixie said.

And so Twilight went up to the white stallion. He seemed to ignore or not notice her, despite looking directly at her face.

“Um, hi,” Twilight said, “Do you have the second clue?”

The pony who will only ever be referred to as the white stallion reached into a parallel universe, took out an envelope, and hooved it to Twilight.

“Thanks,” Twilight said, since you thank more often when you’re nervous. It’s true. She headed back to the group.

“What does it say?” said the other five simultaneously.

“I haven’t opened it yet,” Twilight said, before opening it. “Climb to the specially marked camp—well, that’s what they call it, but it’s a gift shop—250 metres up Mount Cone.”

“We’ve already walked enough today,” Diamond Tiara said.

“Well, the nearest hotel must be in Heimville City,” Twilight said, “And we’ll probably get stabbed if we go anywhere near there. Besides, we don’t have any method of payment, and—”

“Look,” camerapony #3 said, “You can’t go back. You have do this or you all die.”

“I guess doing this would be better,” Twilight said.

“Can you teleport us there?” Twist said so she had a line.

“No.”

They walked and talked, without the talking.

“Is that a road?” Trixie said after they came to the crest of a minor hill. “I think there’s a road on Mount Cone there.”

Twilight examined Mount Cone for a minute. “Yeah, I think I see it.”

“It doesn’t look steep or anything, at least from here,” Trixie said, “So this’ll be easy.”

“Yeah.”

And so they made it to the tourist entrance of Mount Cone.

“What has it been?” Twilight said. “I don’t know how long it’s been, but I’m starting to agree with Diamond Tiara’s bitching.”

“Bitching? I mentioned it once.”

“Yeah, but it was about physical work. Maybe it’s only whinging, I don’t know.”

“Should we take a rest?” Trixie said. “As far as I know, there’s no time limit on this.”

“But where will we be by dark? We can’t go backwards.”

“Maybe we can sleep at the specially marked camp.”

“I guess. It’s only 4½ PM, but who knows where we’ll be at nightfall.”

“Exactly.”

“Twilight, our de facto leader,” Diamond Tiara said.

“What?”

“Can anypony besides you and Trixie talk?”

“No. Let the adults... well, not adults, but adolescents handle this. How old are you, Trixie?”

“Same as everypony.”

“See?”

“But what about Granny Smith?”

“Well, she’s... um... okay, she can be a part of the decision-making if she wants to.”

And so they walked up a mountain road.

“Well, this must be it,” Twilight said. But before we go on, let me describe the location. lol jk.

“Are you sure the only building on this entire mountain, which is called ‘Mount Cone Gift Shop’ and has a piece of paper taped on the window reading ‘specially marked camp’, is really the one we’re looking for?” Trixie said.

“I don’t need your sarcasm.”

They entered the building.

“Whom should we talk to?” Twilight said.

“I don’t know,” Trixie said, “You’re supposed to have the ideas.”

“I guess we could try the cashier-type pony there.”

“‘Type pony’? What makes them different from a normal cashier?”

“I don’t know.”

Twilight went to the cashier, entering the rope-delineated queue area from the wrong direction.

“Whaaaaalecawm to the Mount Cone Gift Shop!” said the nameless cashier.

“Hey, um... do you have a clue for us?”

The nameless cashier hooved Twilight an envelope the size of an envelope and she returned to the group.

“What does it say?” everyone said.

“I haven’t opened it yet.”

“We don’t have to be here for you to open it,” Trixie said.

“Suuuuure you don’t.” Twilight opened it. “Travel to Far From Sugarcube Corner to receive your final clue.”

“Seriously?” everyone said.

“Eeyup,” Twilight said in a terrible impression of Big Mac.

And so they travelled back then all simultaneously fell asleep, or possibly fainted, from exhaustion. The next morning, they all woke up at exactly the same time.

“So...” Twilight said to the black pony from before, who had been standing there throughout the night, “What’s next?”

“You must ascend to the summit of Mount Pyramid,” he said. “There you will find the Holy MacGuffin.”

“Can we do it tomorrow?”

“There’s no rule against it.”

“Cool.”

THE NEXT DAY!

“Are we ready?” Twilight said.

“I’m ready,” Trixie said.

“The Cocleares Argentorum are ready,” Diamond Tiara said.

“Eeyup,” Granny Smith said in a decent but still obvious Big Mac impression.

“Then let’s go,” Twilight said.

FOUR HOURS LATER!

“Mount Pyramid looks a lot tougher than Mount Cone,” Trixie said. “Also, I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“Not for you, Apple Bloom, for Twilight.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you ever going to admit you like me pointing out when you say stupid things?”

“It’s annoying.”

“Mm-hmm. Hey, I’m going to teleport to the summit and get the piece and come back.”

“If you screw up either of those by a metre, you’ll die.”

“You don’t care.”

“Do you have nothing to live for?”

“Most ponies in the world would love it if I died, including you.”

“I want you to live.”

She fixated herself on the summit for a few seconds, teleported away, missed by a bit, and fell several metres to the ground. She tumbled down into a tree, her hat coming loose and tumbling down much further. She had tons of those, it didn’t matter, but she didn’t have tons of legs.

“Crap... yeah, that’s definitely broken.”

She didn’t mention the excruciating broken bone-level pain, the multiple bleeding wounds, and the missing distal half of her tail. The sadness of having a broken leg and a few possibly infected wounds was partially but by no means totally cancelled out by the sight of the shiny silver wedge stuck into the ground just a few steps above where she landed. She teleported to it and took it out with her telekinesis, and didn’t tumble at all. She was still lying down.

“Well, there’s no way I’m getting back....”

“Trixie?”

“Huh?” She rolled over. “Twilight?”

“You didn’t have to do this.”

“Somepony had to, we never could’ve climbed this. Which makes me think, why didn’t you do it? You’re better.”

“Because I’m of the opinion that we could’ve climbed it. Is your leg okay?”

“Can you take us back?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

She took them a few metres above back. She was fine, but Trixie got another broken leg.

“Fuck...” Trixie said.

“Sorry....”

“Just take us to the Shrine so they can decide I screwed up the most and kill me.”

“My magic is stronger than theirs and I won’t let them.”

And so they all went to the Shrine of the Holy MacGuffin.

“Oh, cool!” said newly appointed Guardian of the Most Divine and Coruscating MacGuffin earthhoof. “You got the piece!”

“Yep,” Twilight said.

earthhoof took the piece from Trixie. “Now to perform the reassembly spell.” He did something that was like welding but more magical to the two parts of the MacGuffin and made them one once again.

“Which one of us dies?” Twilight said.

“Well, none of you got eaten or shot with a crossbow bolt, and those are the only criteria in the rules. So with no way to decide, you all get to live!”

“Yaaaaay!” they all said.

“You know what this calls for?” Twilight said.

“A continuation of our normal lives?” Diamond Tiara said.

“That’s right!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 120: Muffins Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 51 Minutes