Ever since the day that Applejack nearly lost her life, she's been having dreams about the dark lands. Not necessarily nightmares, just dreams that kept on reminding her about something she should have done a while ago. It was on the fifth day after the incident that she decided that she couldn't keep it in any longer. Rarity and Rainbow Dash also had something to say to the same pony, but Applejack had something to say to more than just her.

Early that morning, Applejack happened to run into the one pony that she had hoped to find.

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack shouted, drawing the attention of her friend that hadn't noticed her yet.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash turned towards her and saw her running over. "Oh, hey Applejack." Applejack didn't return the greet right away. There was clearly something on her mind. "What's up?"

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you for some time now, Rainbow Dash," Applejack replied as soon as she got closer.

"Well, I figured that much just from seeing you run like that." Rainbow Dash didn't feel any better after seeing the sad look on her friend's face. "This is about what happened 5 days ago, isn't it?" Applejack replied by slowly nodding. "Applejack, please, there's nothing you need to say that I don't already know...just..."

"No, Rainbow Dash...there is," Applejack interrupted. "This is something I won't be able to live with if I keep on keeping it in." Applejack took a few steps closer and stared into Rainbow's eyes, but she quickly turned her head sideways, breaking the line between their eyes.

"I was just doing what I felt was right..." She turned her eyes back at Applejack's eyes. "You would have done the same for me, I'm sure of it."

"I could say I would...but saying that and being there are two different things, unfortunately." Both of them took a short pause and didn't say a word for some time. They heard the hoofsteps of the ponies walking by, but didn't mind them, just as they didn't mind them. "Out there, when you're stressed and have but few seconds to think...your mind works differently, and the decisions you make..."

"Alright, alright, I get it," Rainbow Dash avoided the teary eyed moment. "Is that all you wanted to say?" Rainbow Dash kept on playing her usual tough guy attitude. She didn't want Applejack to know that she's not all that careless about the situation as she says she is.

"No, Rainbow Dash." Applejack placed her hoof on Rainbow's shoulder before continuing. "I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow and asked in a surprised tone. "For what?"

"For the things I said back at when we first entered that place...about how you would fly away if we came across some danger."

"Oh, that? Pfft." Rainbow Dash didn't take the whole thing anywhere nearly as serious as Applejack, so she kept swinging her head around to avoid further eye contact. "Don't take it too hard, you were just..."

Applejack hugged her friend tightly before she could finish her sentence. "I always knew you were someone that never leaves her friends hanging, Rainbow Dash...but..." A single tear rained down Applejack's cheek at that moment. "I had no idea just how loyal you really were..." Applejack paused for a moment and sniffed.

Rainbow Dash answered the hug by wrapping her hooves around Applejack only now. The hug had caught her off guard. "Gee, Applejack...It's really..."

"And to think..." Applejack didn't let her finish her sentence again. "That i didn't even believe you would stick around after the first sight or sound of an earthquake..." Applejack disengaged from the hug, but her hoof remained in Rainbow's shoulder. She looked deeply into her eyes once more before asking, "Can you ever forgive me?"

Rainbow Dash hadn't imagined that this whole thing meant so much to her. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, but she already knew her answer from the very start. "Sure, Applejack." She placed her hoof on the same hoof that Applejack was holding on her shoulder. "What are friends for?"

A huge weight got lifted off of Applejack's heart at that moment, and she could finally smile while looking at her friend again. Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate to return the smile.

"But I'm guessing you're here for more than just me, ain't that right?" Rainbow Dash asked. Both ponies took their hooves off of each other at that moment, and Applejack also hung her head, hiding the already obvious answer.

"Don't ya think it's about time we told her?" Applejack asked as she lifted her head up again.

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash slowly replied. "Think we should find Rarity too?"

"I reckon It wouldn't be fair leaving her out of something like this."

"You're right, it wouldn't," Rainbow Dash agreed.

"Are you fine with doing it right now? Or..."

"I'm good, lets go," Rainbow Dash quickly replied and lead the way. Applejack followed her and caught up right away. "I've been meaning to get this out of my system for some time now too, ya know."

                                                                        ***

Rarity was at the same place most ponies would expect her to be, just dusting the dust bunnies away from the inside of her boutique and humming her usual favorite tone...whatever tone that was. A knock on the door was about the last thing Rarity had expected at that moment. She even got startled and dropped her feather duster.

"Now who could that be?" she asked herself as she walked over to open the door. All questions became answered as soon as she saw just who were the ponies disturbing her. She bit her lip and frowned before speaking up, "I should have known you'd be coming."

The three ponies shared a few sad looks with each other. These few gestures said more than a hundred words for each of them. "Can't say i didn't expect you to come...just not so soon, perhaps."

"The sooner, the better, Rarity," Applejack replied.

"I suppose you're right...as always."

"If I was always right then we wouldn't be in this mess." Applejack's tone had a touch of sarcasm in it, but none really felt like laughing at that moment. All stood in silence for some time, looking around and at each other. Eventually, Rainbow Dash peeked inside the boutique and noticed something.

"Do you need a minute?" Rainbow Dash said and hinted at the feather duster on the ground.

"Oh!" Rarity looked behind her and then back at Rainbow Dash. "It can wait...Some things are just more important." A smile found it's way to each of their faces as soon as Rarity finished her sentence. "Shall we get going then?" Rarity said and walked out of her boutique and closed the door behind her. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner i can get back to work."

Rarity started walking towards their destination, and her friends followed her right away.

"Right behind ya, partner."

                                                                      ***

Twilight was in the personal quarters of her castle by the time her friends got there. She had been reading a book up until the very moment her friends arrived and called out her name. She greeted them back and put the crimson bordered book back in it's bookshelf. As the two parties approached each other, Applejack couldn't help but notice the book Twilight had put away. She didn't get to read the whole title, but she saw enough to know it had something to do with the dark lands.

"So what brings you three here? I'm guessing you're here for more than just tea and biscuits." Twilight giggled as she tried to brighten the atmosphere, but the semi-frowns on her friends faces didn't move. "Why the long faces?"

"I'm just gonna go ahead and say it for all of us," Applejack said without much thinking and stepped forward. "Twilight...we owe you our lives." Applejack stared deep into Twilight's eyes without blinking for some time. Not out of lack of trust, but rather just out of plain instinct, Twilight also stared into the faces of the other two ponies that came in with Applejack, and their expressions were exactly the same.

"W-what?" Twilight asked quietly, she sounded rather unsure of herself. "Were you really in that much trouble?"

"You better believe it, sugarcube," Applejack replied. "I know we didn't tell you right away, and we're all very sorry for keeping this from you." Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash and Rarity, who were standing to her left and right. "Right, girls?"

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash said while rubbing her hoof against her foreleg in shame. "Sorry, Twi."

"Forgive us, Twilight...that really wasn't too kind of us," Rarity added.

"See, Twilight?" Applejack continued, drawing the attention of her still confused friend. "None of us would be here now if it weren't for you."

Twilight kept staring at Applejack with wide eyes for some time before speaking up, "Gee, I...I had a feeling you were in more trouble than you said, but...I had no idea..." Twilight held a pause, but none of her friends dared to interrupt her. "But what about Rainbow Dash?"

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight without an answer.

"Would you also not be here if it weren't for me back then?"

Rainbow Dash got slightly nervous as she realized what Twilight had meant with that. "Oh...umm...No, actually..." She stopped stuttering as she faced Twilight. "I wouldn't...I wasn't strong enough to pull both of them out of that mess," Rainbow Dash explained.

"But...couldn't you have just flown away?"

"I could have..." Rainbow Dash quickly replied and shifted her eyes to the sides.

"What are you saying, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight walked closer as she awaited her friend to explain what her words meant, but Rainbow Dash did not answer. "Why didn't you save yourself?"

"Well what did you expect from me?" Rainbow Dash retorted. "For me to just fly away and watch my friends burn to a crisp?"

"No one would blame you, Rainbow Dash," Twilight calmed her friend.

Rainbow Dash hung her head and quietly answered after a short pause, "One pony would..."

"Who's that?"

Rainbow Dash lifted up her head and faced Twilight before answering. "Me." Silence filled the room, and no pony said anything for some time. Not that none of them had anything to say, it's just that the moment didn't seem right for it.

Rainbow Dash noticed that each of her friends seemed to want to say something. She didn't look too happy about it. "Can we please not talk about this? What's done is done, talking about it won't make anything better." Rainbow Dash looked away to not face anyone.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight quietly spoke up after a short moment.

"What?"

"I'm glad you're my friend," Twilight said with a warm smile on her face.

"Thanks..." Rainbow Dash carelessly replied, even though deep inside she knew she cared. Despite her face being pointed at her own hooves, she knew that all eyes were on her at the moment, and all faces but her own were smiling.

All of a sudden, she just turned around and started walking towards the door. "Right, well, I'd love to stay and chat, but we really gotta be going. Right, guys?" she asked as she stared back at the two ponies that she came in here with.

"Hold on now, sugarcube." Rainbow's face froze up with a panicking glance when she heard Applejack's words. "There's something I wanna ask before we go," Applejack continued. "What were you doing there on that day, Twilight?" Applejack pointed her hoof at Twilight.

"Oh!" Twilight looked as though she had just remembered something. "I almost forgot." Twilight walked over to her bookshelf and picked up the same book she had put away when her friends arrived. She put the book on a table in front of her friends and continued, "That day, I was investigating."

"Investigating?" Applejack asked in an unconvinced tone. She looked at the book one the table and read it's name - The mystery of the dark lands.

"Yes," Twilight replied right away and opened the book and drew the attention of her friends towards a certain page. "You see, I have heard more than just one legend about that place. I wouldn't have paid much attention to it, let alone visit the place myself...but there was something about all these records that struck me as odd," Twilight explained so fast that none of her friends could even notice what she was pointing at in her book.

"Odd?" Rarity asked.

"Yes. You see, I had my theories from the very beginning, but I had to visit that place myself to know for sure." Twilight closed the book and went over to her bookshelf to switch it for a different one. "Sadly, everything i feared proved to be true."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Applejack asked, but Twilight only stopped near her bookshelf and didn't answer, or even move. "Twilight?" Applejack asked again.

"The dark lands...they're growing!"

"What?!"