Twilight stood, dumbfounded, on a small plateaued section of a mountain, gaping down at the valley beneath it.

"It can't be... well, it can, obviously, because it's there, but it shouldn't be."

"Yeesh Twilight... why'd you drag us along with you?" Dash grumbled as she finally managed to clamber onto the small plateau. "The air is so thin here I can't fly."

"Now.. now, sugarcube." Applejack grunted as she pulled herself up next to the pegasus, turning around and pulling the others up one by one. "Princess Celestia done asked for all of us to be here, ah'm not about to say no to her."

"Yeah silly!" Pinkie rolled over to the pegasus from where she was still laying after Applejack pulled her up. "Twilight didn't drag us anywhere."

"Oh my..." Fluttershy breathed as she looked back the way they came. "It looks like the raptors have no problem flying in this air, I never thought I'd see any this high up." She smiled.

"Focus darling." Rarity panted, her mane plastered to her neck with sweat, her mascara running  from the same thing, making her look as though she'd been crying, something which her bandaged foreleg proved right.

The unicorn winced as she put her hoof down gently. "We're not here to bird watch. We're here to... to uh... Twilight, dear, what are we doing here?"

Silence.

"Twilght?" Rarity asked, as she and the others turned to look at the lavender alicorn.

"Why is it here? It shouldn't be here. Not just it, but all of it! Why is the whole thing here?" Twilight suddenly yelled before spreading her wings and jumping down to glide down the side of the mountain towards a small plume of smoke marking the camp that the royal guard had set up.

Rainbow Dash stared after her before throwing her hooves up and turning around. "That's it, I'm going home, Twilight finally broke."

She spread her wings and crouched low, ready to launch herself off the opposite side of the mountain....

And found herself promptly lassoed by Applejack.

"Uh uh, sugar, you ain't goin' anywhere except after that mare. Somethin's obviously spooked her, and Ah'd be lyin' if Ah said Ah wasn't even a little curious about what's botherin' her."

"O-oh.. actually Applejack... th-there are more guards coming, it looks like th-they're climbing the same path we are... R-Rainbow and I could w-work a little pegasus magic and m-make the air thick enough to fly...." Fluttershy offered.

"Oh.. Hey yeah, that's a good point. I don't mind staying up here helping Equestria's finest get through a little easier." Dash nodded.

Rarity frowned. "Now darling, I know you were the bearer of Loyalty, and someponies might say that loyalty should be to Equestria first, and your friends second, but Twilight needs us, all of us right now."

"Yeah!" Pinkie interjected. "Otherwise we might be looking at another lesson zero!"

The other four mares shared a glance before looking at Pinkie.

"Uh.. Lesson Zero?" Dash asked.

"You know, the time Twilight almost brainwashed all of Ponyville with her doll." Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Really girls?"

"Oh... we just call that 'the incident'." Rainbow shrugged.

"But that's so booooring!" Pinkie sighed before bouncing down the hill.

The four mares shared another glance and shrugged, before following after her. Next Chapter: Chapter 1- The domed city. Estimated time remaining: 4 Minutes