Chapter 15: Memories in the Mist

Focus. Concentration. Determination. If I focused on the task ahead of me then I wouldn't have to think about Enyi. I mean fuck that guy, seriously(I wasn't taking it well). Who does he think he is just leaving like that? He could have at least talked to me or something but no, he had to go and just leave in the middle of the night with the one thing I needed the most to beat Goldie! Without that helmet there's no way I can power Sparky and without Sparky...that won't be fun.

“Snap out of it Ives, we're here.” Jackpot's said, snapping me out of my daydreaming as the train pulled into the Appleloosa station.

Think later Ivory, work now.

“So you wanna just go right up to the Buffalo chief and ask him about this stuff?” Scarlet asked.

“That's the plan.” I answered back.

“Well, what if he doesn't know anything?”

“Well then Scarlet, we'll just have to go and fuck ourselves.” I said in a very clearly annoyed tone(probably because I was finding myself very irritable today).

“Ya don't have to get snippy there Ives, she just asked a question.” Jackpot said, trotting up to me and putting a hoof gently on my shoulder.

I stood there for several seconds before taking a deep breath, “You're right. Sorry Scarlet.” just because I could make myself sound calm doesn't mean I was.

“You sure yer alright there kid?” Jackpot leaned in closer to me, a look of worry on his face.

“Yeah yeah, I'm fine.” I pressed my forehooves into my forehead and gave it a quick stress rub.

“Well you don't look all that well.” Scarlet said, coming in close herself.

I took a look up at Jackpot's face to see that in his eyes was a look of self-guilt over this situation but I didn't want, nor could I afford to get myself and the entire group distracted in case of an emergency. I gave a quick smile to assuage their fears then continued onward and out into town to head towards the Buffalo grounds. I admit it probably wasn't the best or most convincing of smiles but as neither Jackpot nor Scarlet Aloe were smile connoisseurs it seemed to convince them that I was indeed perfectly fine(why didn't he even talk to me!).

Appleloosa wasn't the most scenic place in Equestria and if the records I dug into the last time I was here with Grit were any indication, the town used to be much smaller and much less scenic than it was now. It was hot though. I couldn’t nor would I ever understand why anypony would ever want to build a town in the middle of the desert. I mean think about it, it wastes resources with having to bring in food and water from outside as deserts aren't known for their abundant natural resources capable of supporting large populations and it's really HOT. Appleloosa has a river running near it but that only goes so far and from the town records the early settlers here nearly got trampled over by the Buffalo because they were forced to plant their orchards in that exact spot which, coincidentally, ended up being sacred land to the Buffalo. All I could think about while trotting through the town was how impractical it was to have a town even exist here.

Luckily tensions today were not quite as heated(tell that to the weather) as they were back then and the Buffalo and townsponies were pretty good friends these days. This made it easy to get directions to where the Buffalo village was and then even easier to get to said village. As we walked, Jackpot constantly attempted to lighten the mood with bad Buffalo jokes.

“What does a mother Buffalo say to her son when he goes off to school?”

“What?” Scarlet just had to answer(sigh).

“Bi-son!” Jackpot said, laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world.

I was not that impressed with the joke and only gave an eye-roll with a very(very) light smile.

“Oh, I see I'll have to try harder to get Ivory to laugh!” Jackpot yelled excitedly.

“Please don't.” I sighed.

“Sounds like a challenge to me!” he beamed. “Ok, what happens when two Buffalo meet, fall in love and go off to get married?...They Buffalope!”

Must...resist...bad...puns.

“What's wrong Ivory? You look like you're still....calf-asleep.” Jackpot looked really proud of that one.

At this point I gave in and let out a small chuckle as Jackpot's face beamed with pride as Scarlet looked on with a smile and a few chuckles of her own. Despite Jackpot's...'humor', the walk was still a long one and the desert is well, hot. The heat reminded me of Khaweth, where I first met Enyi, and how sticky and humid the jungle was but this wasn't nearly as bad as that got(plus no giant snake monsters, I hope).

At this realization I quickly slapped myself in the face with my hoof, “Can't go just one minute without thinking about him can you.” I said to myself as quietly as I could so the others wouldn't feel the need to butt in.

I had been to Appleloosa a couple times before with Grit but I never really got the chance to explore the surrounding areas as he had kept me on the 'this is for specific learning purposes and not a field trip' logic. As such I had never had a chance to interact with any Buffalo aside from the passing greeting of any who happened to be in Appleloosa that day. Despite the stress I was beginning to feel that there was a small, bitty pony in the back of my head that was making me very excited to go and see a Buffalo village and talk to them about any ancient legends or ruins that could lead me to the final artifact.

We were nearly at the village when it dawned on me that Silver wasn't here and that he hadn't set anything up for us; well, at least nothing I knew of anyway. Obviously I had read all about the Buffalo in various books that Grit had on them in his study and I knew a fair bit of their history. They were certainly not like the Zebras as they were always happy to share their history and stories with any pony who would ask. This of course was the subject of the Dash Venture book, Dash Venture and the Path of Fallen Timbers, where Dash(Grit) discovered an ancient grove that held a magical tree that told of the location to an ancient Buffalo city; the only permanent city the Buffalo ever seemed to build. He then fought off a series of evil tomb raiders who wanted to plunder the artifacts of the city and sell them for personal profit. While on this adventure Grit made many friends within the Buffalo tribe and got to speak with them a lot and learn all about them which he then put into little appendices at the end of the book.

Before long my little party arrived at the Buffalo village(a good thing to, it looked like Scarlet even wanted to start telling jokes). I was banking on any good-will the Buffalo had left for Grit for them to help me without too much trouble. Luckily for me this would pay off as there were still many older Buffalo who remembered the help Grit gave them many years ago, including the chief.

“Welcome little ponies.” he drolled in a slow and deep voice, “So, you are the pony known as Ivory Star. We have heard of you on the radio.” the Buffalo chief pointed his hoof towards a small radio that sat on a small rock in their village. “Many sad things we have heard on it lately but I still remember the great kindness and aid that Grit provided to my people all those years ago.”

“Well, that's great!” I said, doing my best to sound enthusiastic(I still wasn't over the whole Enyi thing...obviously, and this was still another reminder of my ever more confused opinion on Grit).

“This ancient Buffalo you spoke of that was friend to everyone, from Zebra to Yak, is indeed told of in a few of our oldest......hmmm stories.” Sweet Celestia this Buffalo spoke slowly!

I could tell from some of the rather exasperated expressions even from several surrounding Buffalo that this guy was probably like this all the time. I wonder if this was a personal thing....or maybe hereditary(Grit's Buffalo chief also talked like this, although she was a bit older than this chief seemed to be, not that this chief didn't still seem kind of old).

“The first tale is spoken of in the great counting of years in the seventieth verse of the great poem that makes up the eighth part of the first chapter of the histories of our people.” the chief's voice raised a little here, showing some amount of pride in this, which was understandable considering this was the ancient and sacred story of his people.

As the chief spoke I Found myself having a relatively enjoyable time. I loved learning new things and while I had read up on some Buffalo history there was nothing like learning it from a firsthoof source like this. There was a lot of stuff that I didn't know that the chief did and his story made that very evident. He spoke of the ancient Buffalo as they stampeded their way around southern Equestria and how they eventually came to settle where they lived today. He mentioned a Buffalo named Bighorn and how he was said to have been the first chief(score!) in the tribes known history.

I took a quick glance over at my companions as the story went on to see how they were holding up. I discovered that both of them(mainly Jackpot) were beginning to doze off slightly. A quick buck to their legs fixed this quick as Jackpot and Scarlet shot back up to attention. I gave them a quick dirty glance, telling them to be more attentive, but I could really hardly blame them. If the subject matter wasn't as interesting as it was(to me at least) this guy could probably put anypony to sleep. The chief's story went on for quite a while and he gave very little in the way of relevant information but when he came to the final verse his words caught my attention as he broke into a little poem:

Upon the ground we stomped our hooves, rumbling rock our coming proves
o'er the plains with roll of drum, the thunderous herd, we come, we come.
Bighorn led our mighty host, with great friendship he did boast
kinship with pony, bird and Yak, with great joy he led the pack.
Hooves of iron he held so dear, more so than his shining spear,
When one alone did ride away, upon the mountains he would stay,
on one peak with twenty more his treasures shall rest forevermore.

The Buffalo chief finished his long reciting of the histories with this poem that contained the one and only reference to a Buffalo that fit the description and time period of the one we were looking for. I had been completely fascinated with the entire rendition and committed myself to to putting the little poem at the end in my memory(I liked it). Jackpot and Scarlet on the other hoof seemed to not have been as interested in the admittedly long and slow rendition of several hundred years of Buffalo history(how?) and had begun to doze off(again), only to wake up when the story ended. I took note to myself that Enyi would have probably stayed attentive and listened to the story with me. It's always better to have somepony who you can talk to about things you like but...fuck! I had to stop thinking about him right now.

“One peak with twenty more?” I mused to myself, rubbing my hoof under my chin as I tried to think of any landmark that would fit that description. “I've never heard of a place like that.”

“Can't say I have either.” Jackpot said, shrugging his shoulders.

The Buffalo chief stared down at us with his deep eyes, “Some stories tell of such a sacred place but not of it's location. Many have tried to find it and all have failed.” he said in his deep and slow voice.

Scarlet sat a little ways from us thinking on her own. Her face was squished up in a very serious fit of deep thinking as she rubbed her temples trying to find any place that even remotely matched the description of the poem. I myself racked my brain as Jackpot hovered over to speak(flirt) a little with an admittedly nice looking Buffalo girl who had been standing within the crowd that had gathered to listen to the chief speak. I tried to gather every detail of the poem in my head; a spear, hooves of iron, mountains, one and twenty peaks...aaaaaand......nothing. I was just about to start getting aggravated when suddenly Scarlet bounced up with a super happy grin on her face.

“I think I have an idea!” she beamed.

“Huh? What is it?” I said, suddenly looking over expectantly at Scarlet, followed not long after by all of the watching Buffalo.

Scarlet Aloe bounced happily over to me as Jackpot floated back over to us(his new girl looked kind of sad). Scarlet's face was positively beaming with happiness when she popped in front of me.

“I remembered from a long time ago when I was still in training to become a doctor about reading about this flower that was used to cure some ancient plague or something. The flower was called the Petal of the Peaks and according to the books was found by a Pegasus who managed to fly across the Badlands where he found the flower in a pool of water on the top of a mountain surrounded by a ring of other mountains that hid it from view.” Scarlet spoke very quickly as she said this and her excitement made itself very evident.

“What kind of medical textbook was this?” I asked, somewhat confused about a university medical textbook talking about what appeared to be a legend about a magical flower.

“Well it probably wasn't a medical 'textbook' per se.” Scarlet suddenly sounded a bit less convincing, “Well I mean that it was about more um...mystical based cures that most mainstream medical professionals might call a little....far-fetched. But it came very highly recommended from the mistress of curatives herself, Zecora!”

“Wait a minute, you knew the Zecora?” I asked, rather unconvinced.

“Well no but she is mentioned as a source in the book and the opening pages have a quote from her praising the book.” Scarlet said rather defensively.

“What exactly was this book of yers called?” Jackpot asked as he plopped down on the ground next to Scarlet.

“Well, I don't really remember the name of the book but I remember reading about that flower and about the peaks being somewhere in the badlands.” Scarlet blushed a little here as she turned her face away from Jackpot's, her tone now showing the uncertainty and nervousness she was probably now feeling.

I let out a slight groan as I realized that this was the only thing we had to go on and that meant tromping back to Appleloosa and then going out towards the badlands and then tromping around that desert in order to look for something that nopony has ever been able to find before outside of a Pegasus, probably from a book about old legends or myths or something.

“Hey chief?” I asked, “Do any of your stories say anything at all about this mountain's location? Obviously I'm not expecting an exact location here but any landmarks or hints would be useful.”

The chief's throat rumbled as he pondered my question at his usual slow rate. “Hmmm....no location is given....but one tale does tell of a lake on the peak of the mountain.” the chief drolled in his deep and slow voice before clearing his throat with the obvious intention of reciting this new verse.

“Um, chief?” Jackpot interrupted, “I think we have enough to go on now.” Jackpot was obviously very impatient.

I threw him a dirty look as I kind of wanted to hear the story but I put that feeling on hold when I saw how bored my companions had grown.

“Well glad to see you two are taking this seriously.” I hammered at them.

“I'm sorry Ivory, it's just that it's hot out here and I'm not that partial to Jackpot's um...refreshments. I would appreciate it if we hurried this up, especially if we have to travel all the way to the badlands.” Scarlet panted as she sweated in the Appleoosian heat.

I could see how uncomfortable Scarlet was at least but Jackpot just looked kind of bored so with a heavy heart I was forced to say farewell to the Buffalo chief with only a mental note to come back here some time and listen to these stories from the best possible source.

Thankfully the Buffalo were very courteous and gave us some more water for the hours long trek back to Appleloosa. This made Scarlet happy as Jackpot just continued to sip away at his refilled flasks every so often. When we finally got back to Appleloosa the sun had begun to go down(it thankfully cooled down) and after some talking to the pony at the train station we discovered the next train wouldn't be until tomorrow. With this information in hoof we found our way to a small inn that sat not far off from the train station and spent the night there. Scarlet and Jackpot slept relatively peacefully(at least they seemed to) but I, on the other hoof, couldn't get to sleep. Now that some time had passed I began to really feel the lack of Enyi's presence in the group. I felt that inevitable gut-punch of guilt over the fact that his sudden departure was most likely my fault as my mind raced through the many ways I could have done it differently before I forced it back to my previous thought that it was Enyi being unreasonable.

“He didn't have to fucking leave.” I whispered angrily to myself over and over again throughout the night. I stretched out in the bed I was in which only made me feel more lonely in the moment as the realization he could have been here next to me kept poking me in the back of the head. “Why did he have to leave?” I asked myself repeatedly.

I turned over in my bed to see Scarlet and Jackpot sleeping peacefully in the other beds in the room and that just seemed to make me more irritable. I kept tossing and turning as I kept opening and shutting my eyes just trying to get to sleep and forget about Enyi for a few hours but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get to sleep.

I ended up spending the rest of the night completely miserable as I lay there in my bed unable to sleep. It was only when I saw the sun rising through a window that was in the room that I realized I had stayed up the entire night and not gotten any sleep. I got up from the bed and clopped my way over to the door where I made my way out to the front of the inn to sit and watch the sun come up. I hoped that doing this would help calm me down, sun-rises being beautiful and all, and I suppose in a way it worked but once it had come up I went right back to being grumpy, confused and now exhausted. The more I sat there thinking the angrier I ended up getting. I was angry at Enyi for leaving and I was now angry at myself for causing him to leave. As I sat there feeling both angry and sad a light tap came onto my shoulder from behind me and when I turned my head I saw Scarlet Aloe and Jackpot both standing there smiling.

“Honey, you're crying.” Scarlet said in her concerned voice.

“Huh?” I said, having not realized that Scarlet was right, I was indeed crying a little.

Jackpot stood there behind Scarlet looking very nervous and uncomfortable as he mumbled to himself. “I'm sorry Ivory. This is all my fault.”

“Well when we are finished looking for this mountain I think we could spare the time to go and find Enyi, how about that Ivory?” Scarlet asked in her sweetest voice.

“I don't know.” I answered faintly. I really wanted to go and talk to him but he probably hated me now and besides, he was probably in Khaweth and the prospect that they would treat me well over there once Enyi arrived with the helmet and told them everything was fairly low.

Jackpot's face perked straight up, “There ain't no 'I don't knows' here kid! When we're done here we're all gonna go and do what we can to make things right by you and him.” Jackpot's face lit up even further in a large smile, “I can plainly see that you two liked each other and we can't let a little thing like this get in the way of that.”

“Yeah, Jackpot's right!” Scarlet beamed, “It's not everyday you meet that special somepony that can make you this depressed by leaving.”

“But..”I started to say.

“No buts.” Jackpot said abruptly, “We are gonna get this...what was it a spear or something? And after that we're gonna fix what I messed up.”

*****

I sat there in my seat on the train leaving Canterlot station for the Badlands. After leaving Appleloosa we made a quick stop back home to get more supplies for our trek into the badlands and to see if we could find a copy of that book Scarlet had mentioned. I admit, it was a long shot that we would find it but the Adventure Incorporated library had pretty much every book ever and a near perfect filing system. It took only a few hours of searching the cavernous library to find the book and only a minute for me to find the part that mentioned the magical flower and its mountains of origin. There was some distress when we arrived back at the house to find no letters or anything really from Silver which made me(and Scarlet especially) a little worried.

“I hope nothing bad has happened. With everything going on I don't think no news is good news.” Scarlet said nervously as the train set out from the station.

“Why did he say he was leaving again?” I asked.

“I think he said something about an emergency popping up at his business.” Jackpot said, thinking back to the night Silver Chaser had left.

I let out a slight groan, “I keep forgetting that he's a rich businesspony.” in the back of my mind I was now kind of worried about Silver, especially after what happened to Grit, but right now there wasn't much that could be done about it besides getting the final artifact and making sure it couldn't be scooped up by Goldie Grail and her boss Sable Granite. Then heading out towards Khaweth and trying to find Enyi(now I was both mad at him and myself and I wasn't entirely sure how that would come across when I found him), this was starting to get a bit much for me again. I sat there and gave my forehead a good stress relieving rub as I continued to just stare out the window of the moving train to get a good view of the beautiful countryside. I wanted a nice, relaxing train ride before trekking my way through dozens of miles of the arid Badlands, then climbing through mountains in an attempt to find a mythical mountain peak that nopony has even seen in who knows how many hundreds of years.

After a while I discovered that there was only so much countryside I could take and turned my face back over to my companions. Scarlet was still reading the Dash Venture book I had given her along with a few of her spell-books that laid off to the side and Jackpot...well Jackpot was digging around his saddlebags organizing his flasks to try and make more room in the bags(probably for more flasks later).

“Hey Jackpot!” I shouted over to him, “Throw one of those over here!”

Jackpot's face shot up from his concentrated flask organizing before quickly recovering and nonchalantly tossed one of the full flasks over to me. I took a few quick gulps before stuffing it into my saddlebag along with the water I had now smartly packed. Walking through the Appleloosa desert was bad enough but now with the Badlands(much worse) coming up I wanted to be prepared for a long and extended stay. The cider was now going down pretty easy as I soon felt that calming, soothing feeling that one gets from a few swigs of strong cider. I slid back into my seat and dozed off to sleep to wait out the long train ride.

*****

The Badlands were a sparsely populated area of Equestria. Even Appleloosa was more densely populated and built up than this part of the country. Appleloosa at least had good soil for growing but the Badlands were just arid wastes that had little real value, plus it was near the changeling kingdom which was historically hostile to Equestria until about sixty years ago or so.

The Badlands encompassed a large area nestled between the eastern Macintosh Hills and the Forbidden Mountains that formed the western border of the jungles of Eastern Equestria. The very same jungles that Emerald Flake was now tromping around probably unaware of most of what was going on out here. My brain wheeled as a deep-seated feeling of satisfaction of being the first of the two of us to go on a large and important adventure and how jealous she would be of me. This feeling, however, quickly vanished as the thoughts of so many of the details of this adventure pushed past the petty friendship rivalry and the reality of some of the fucked up stuff I had seen came back causing a little shiver in me. The Badlands themselves were more like a massive valley, being completely surrounded by mountains, and was a flat and barren stretch of land that few could live in. The only remotely cool thing about them were the large rock formations that could rise hundreds of feet high, giving the area an admittedly cool look.

The train let us out in the town of Dodge which was the only largish town between Canterlot and the Badlands. From here we would have to hoof it to the entrance to the mountainous edges of the Badlands and from there spend Celestia knows how many days wandering around it just looking for any tangible leads. Scarlet had spent a good amount of time going over the book we collected in the A.I library and read that the mountains that might be the one we're looking for is probably somewhere in the southwest part of the Badlands. This made some sense as that area was a bit more mountainous than the other edges of the Badlands. There wasn't much in Dodge itself to interest us so we quickly made our way south to get to the entrance of the Badlands as quickly as possible. There was one pony in the town who told us about a small group of Buffalo that had set up a small settlement near the entrance to the desert in order to research and look into ancient Buffalo pictographs that had been found there. This came as a great relief as I was confident that we could get one of them to help in our search(since Silver wasn't here to hire anypony beforehoof).

*****

“It's really more of a couple of tents than a settlement.” Scarlet mumbled as we neared the small camp of Buffalo that rested between the mountainous entrance to the flat badlands.

The Badlands were completely surrounded by mountains and there was really only one way in from the Equestria side which we ended up going through. It was a relatively short cave that never even went deep enough to be darkened by lack of sunlight. At the other end the Buffalo had set up a small camp of about a dozen or so Buffalo who had been sent there to research ancient Buffalo habitation sites. I had read about these in a few journals that Grit had subscribed to and let me read when he was done with them over the years. Ancient pictographs of Buffalo had been found on several of the large rock formations that protruded from the otherwise flat landscape. Many of them were relatively well known by ponies(mostly ponies like me) and had been studied and translated as ancient stories, some of which were still common in Buffalo culture today.

The more I thought about what I had read about these pictures, the more I began to connect some dots that scholars among both ponies and Buffalo had been unable to. The oldest of the pictographs were estimated to be at least two thousand years old which matched up with the time-line of Abila returning across the sea with many creatures behind her. As I thought about it an old seeming desire crept back into my brain, thoughts of papers or perhaps even a book on the stuff I found out could catapult me into the forefront of pony historians. I could use that to find out even more and even perhaps truly and fully find out the truth about all the things I now knew Grit had been hiding from me over the years. Part of me still believed, or wanted to believe, in him and wanted to help clear his name. This part had been constantly getting smaller as the days and weeks had gone by but had never really gone.

“Thoughts for later I guess.” I said quietly to myself as we entered the small camp.

“Scarlet’s right.” Jackpot pointed out, “Just a few dirty tents and a couple o' Buffalo.”

“They're called tipis Jackpot.” I said, somewhat annoyed at my companions lack of knowledge on a subject I considered to be pretty common knowledge.

“And how exactly was I supposed to know that?” Jackpot said with a light nicker.

“Didn't you learn that in school?” I asked, partly rhetorically and partly seriously.

“Uhh, no.” Jackpot sounded like this should have been obvious.

“Where'd you even go to school?”Scarlet asked with a curious look on her face.

“Oh you know, around.” Jackpot answered with an elusiveness that very obviously irritated Scarlet.

“And where exactly is around?” Scarlet seemed undeterred.

“Here and there.” Jackpot seemed even more determined to remain elusive.

“That doesn't answer anything.” Scarlet said, now somewhat annoyed herself.

“Wasn't supposed to.” Jackpot said in his usual cocky voice.

“I have the feeling you didn't go at all did you.” Scarlet now answered, trying to sound a little sarcastic herself.

“Oh I did.” Jackpot answered as he leaned in towards Scarlet Aloe's face, “Whenever I wasn't chasing off beautiful mares or penetrating ancient tombs for long lost treasures.”

Scarlet's face turned scarlet as she didn't seem to expect Jackpot suddenly shoving his face in front of hers. This combined with the suggestive comment caused Scarlet to stop on a bit as Jackpot trotted on trying to hold in a laugh at Scarlet's reddening face and embarrassment.

“By Celestia's sultry sex life they've started flirting.” I mumbled to myself as my two friends trotted ahead of me.

Luckily before anything really interesting could occur we arrived in the camp proper. Upon closer inspection there were several ponies mixed in with the Buffalo who were busy stuffing their faces into old looking maps and books(I approved). As we stood there looking around like a group of lost tourists a smaller Buffalo came plotting along straight up to us with a huge smile on his face.

“Howdy there partners!” the little Buffalo said with a cheeriness and energy that I didn't expect from a Buffalo. “I'm Doublehead and welcome to this here research center for Buffalo history and habitation here in the badlands!”

“What, you mean this pile o' tents here?” Jackpot answered in his usual manner.

“Tipis Jackpot. Tipis.” I reiterated to him with a bit more emphasis this time.

“Well anyways, what can I...” Doublehead suddenly stopped talking as his eyes glanced down towards my cutie mark and then over to Jackpot's and Scarlet's. His eyes suddenly grew very wide as a huge smile swept itself across his face.

“You...you're Ivory Star!” the tiny Buffalo beamed excitedly as he shot off of the ground like a rocket in a moment of what seemed like pure ecstasy and happiness.

“Uhhh, yes.” I said, somewhat surprised by the sudden outburst.

“Oooh oooh, I've been hearing about you on the radio for weeks now! You worked for Grit Stratum right!?” Doublehead seemed ever more excited with each passing second.

Several of the other older Buffalo and even some of the other ponies around the camp turned their heads towards my and my friends. They had undoubtedly heard the little Buffalo's outburst and now looked on to the newcomers with some curiosity. Some had intrigued looks on their faces while others, understandably, turned their faces away with disgusted looks on them after only a few seconds.

“Don't worry about them.” Doublehead said, “A bunch of old book-snorters, the lot of them.”

“And what exactly are you then?” Jackpot asked.

“I'm new! Only been here about a week or so but Buffalo history is my specialty. So I thought that the new stuff that was being found out here would help me on the fast track to being accepted into Adventure Incorporated!” Doublehead looked straight at me with a big smile, “But you're already part of A.I so that means you could help me get in right!?”

“Well, we're kind of here on business.” I said back to the eager little Buffalo. I was also somewhat keen to change the subject from this Buffalo who obviously had no idea about all the stuff really going on with Adventure Incorporated and I didn't want him getting mixed up with any of it.

“Ohh! Adventure Inc. business!? I can help with that you know. I know the Badlands super well and I can help you find any ancient treasure you think is out there.” Doublehead was super excited.

“Didn't you say you've only been here a week or so? How can you say you know the area?” Scarlet inquired.

“I'm smart, that's why!” Doublehead said proudly. “That's why they call me Doublehead. Twice as smart as any other Buffalo.”

“Well, I suppose I won't say no to a nice Buffalo offering to help.” I said with a smile.

“Great!” Doublehead smiled even wider, “So uh, what is it you're looking for exactly?”

“Bighorn.” I answered, “The story of Bighorn, his spear and the mountain he supposedly went off to.”

“If it exists.” Jackpot added.

“Oh yeah! I've heard of that. It's mentioned in several old stories. So you think it's here in the Badlands?” Doublehead asked.

“Yeah. I read about something similar in a book years ago and we think it's worth checking out.” said Scarlet.

“We think it's somewhere in the southeast mountains that form the edge of the Badlands.” I added.

Doublehead stood there thinking for several seconds before perking back up and taking a very excited look over to the Badlands.

“Yeah, that makes sense. That area is a bit more mountainous than the others and it's relatively unexplored.” Doublehead pointed out towards the silhouettes of some mountains in the far distance, “I've been told that several groups have tried to climb those hills but they always ended back at the beginning of the trail. It's been concluded that there is nothing of note or worth there.”

“Well, maybe they just missed something. After all we know what we're looking for and we're determined.” Scarlet said confidently.

“Alrighty then!” Doublehead said, “Luckily the camp has just enough supplies stored away for one more expedition into the Badlands and since you brought some of your own supplies we won't have to worry about running low on anything. Although I will warn you that it's going to be a long hike, several days at least and then there's the actual mountain-climbing.”

“Don't worry, we're used to mountain climbing and long treks by now.” I said.

“And I can fly.” Jackpot said, very happy with himself.

*****

We were prepared for a long hike this time. With the water we had packed and the water from the camp's stores(procured by Doublehead) we were lead through the Badlands. Doublehead proved to be a skilled guide, strange considering how young he was, but no unwelcome. Along our trek were many of the famous stone towers that dotted the Badlands and Doublehead made sure to stop at each one we encountered to show off the ancient pictographs that lined their sides. They also made useful sources of shade from the sun whenever we stopped to rest and have Scarlet use her magic to reinvigorate us.

Two and a half days is what it took to reach the edge of the mountains we were looking for. I had to admit that at first glance they didn't seem all that impressive and the previous reports of their being nothing here seemed pretty accurate. When Doublehead found the path leading up to the mountains however, I quickly began to change my tune on the subject.

The paths we walked bent and twisted around the sides of the mountains and multiple times we did indeed find ourselves back at the beginning of the trail. However, unlike the other excursions here I was aware that something magical could very well be here and this whole turning you around thing was definitely something magic would do. Most of the day was spent like this, just when we thought we had passed further than before we would take a wrong turn and wind back where we started. We unfortunately continued this exercise in futility until the sun went down and we made a camp at the base of the mountain.

“There's definitely something magical here.” I said with the utmost certainty.

“I gotta agree with you Ms. Star. There's no way I could get turned around that many times on my own.” Doublehead said with a sigh and a nod.

“So, any ideas on how we're gonna get past this magic then?” Jackpot asked.

Scarlet had her face pressed into the book we had acquired from the A.I library. She had been carefully reading and rereading the book the entire trip to find anything that could help. I couldn't help but be somewhat impressed, I thought that only Enyi and myself could get that caught up in research like that.

None of us could come up with an immediate answer to Jackpot's question and as it was getting late it was decided that we should all get some sleep and continue in the morning. The Badlands turned pretty cool at night, giving us a break from the oppressive sun that had been beating down on us the past few days.

It was exceptionally clear out here at night. All of Princess Luna's stars could be seen as I lay on my back racking my brain trying to find the secret to this mountain. Doublehead had set up a fire(very quickly and efficiently I might add) and since I stayed up later than the others I kept it going, if ever so slightly. The book held no real answers, as Scarlet depressingly discovered after digging through all relevant sections over and over again.

“Maybe we should just have Jackpot fly straight up?” I mumbled to myself. “The Pegasus who found this magical flower in the book supposedly flew up the mountain.”

This seemed like a decent idea if not for the fact that just by looking around I could see that there weren't twenty mountain peeks surrounding anything. In fact I doubt there were even half that number of peaks we needed scattered around this corner of the Badlands.

“Well if it were easy, somepony would have found it already.” I said, sighing.

I stared up at the night-sky just trying to find any kind of real answer to my current conundrum. As I stared into the slender web of stars that shone overhead I let my eyes follow the rows upon rows of twinkling jewels that lay intertwined into the dark and peaceful sky. My gaze took me to the direction of one of the mountains that surrounded me and my group when something quite strange happened.

Off in the distance, at the very edge of the glow of the fire, I thought I saw a shape moving through the darkness. I sat up quickly as I continued to stare off into the craggy rocks and paths that shot out from where we had made camp. I squinted my eyes as I now very definitely saw something moving just out of range of any substantial light. I silently got up and crept off to where I saw the movement, so as not to wake my companions. The dark shape seemed to effortlessly glide down one of the paths leading up the mountain as my own curiosity compelled me to follow it. I didn't go too far however, not wanting to get lost up here and get separated from Jackpot, Scarlet and Doublehead. When I stopped following the shape it seemed to stop dead before staying in it's spot for several seconds before disappearing completely.

Just as I was about to turn away and head back to camp I heard a softand almost ethereal sounding voice call out.

“Ivory. Here.”

I had to have been imagining this! But something about this voice seemed very familiar, almost as if I had heard it somewhere before but I just couldn't place it. There was something inherently soothing and peaceful about it though, something enough to make me creep back down a little bit towards where I had heard it. Almost as if from nowhere I saw something that we must have missed before as we wandered around the day before. A new path had almost magically appeared behind several boulders that I'm sure we passed by several times the previous day.

I stood there completely astounded and confused as to how we could have missed something that now seemed incredibly obvious. I took a quick look down this path and saw that it stretched narrowly along the side of a large cliff-face and snaked it's way well off into the distance that was still shrouded in darkness. After staring for a good couple of minutes I wearily went back to camp and fell into a restful and rejuvenating sleep until morning.

The next day I told the others what had happened during the night and upon investigating the path that had appeared was indeed still there. This one kept us on a relatively straight path with little chance of getting lost in the labyrinth of rocks and mountains that had us stymied the day before. Unfortunately our ease of travel only lasted several hours before we found ourselves standing within what seemed from close up to be another maze of pathways to choose from. To make the matter worse, as the day continued on a haze of grey mist had come and settled upon the mountainside we happened to be standing on.

“I can't see a damn thing.” Jackpot groaned as he haplessly swung his wings back and forth trying to clear out pockets of mist as he led the group. “Still kinda hard to believe how ya found this thing to begin with.”

“I can't explain it, I just saw what I saw.” I answered, following Jackpot through the misty mountainside.

Scarlet, who was using a light from her horn to help Jackpot see into the mist he was trying to push away, almost slipped a hoof of the edge of the narrow mountain-pass. She let out a small yelp before quickly catching herself as Jackpot quickly spun around, holding one of his wings out to block her from falling off.

“Sorry!” Scarlet squeaked as she stood there, breathing heavily after almost falling what must have been hundreds of feet to the ground below.

“Careful there.” Jackpot scolded.

“Everypony ok?” Doublehead, who was bringing up the rear now, asked.

“Yeah, miss slippy hooves here just nearly got herself killed is all.” Jackpot said with a slight chuckle.

Scarlet let out a slight nicker before turning her head up trying to look as composed as possible, “I'll have you know I caught myself.” she let out a light pout.

“Well let's not have to have you do that again ok.” I said, concerned that next time might not be so fortunate.

“This is all really strange.” Doublehead remarked as his head swung from side to side taking in what could be seen of our surroundings.

“How so?” I asked back.

“These mountains really shouldn't look like this. Pegasi have flown over these mountains before and reported small pockets of mists here and there but nothing like this at all. And these mountains shouldn't be this big.” Doublehead's face had sunk into a mode of thought as he peered over the edge of the path into the misty chasm below.

“Who can really understand how magic works, especially magic as old as this probably is.” Being an Earth Pony really didn't make me any sort of expert on magic aside from the bits that all ponies were known to have. Despite my large array of knowledge on many subjects, magic was not one I had ever studies in depth before. I had read a few essays on it by the princess, Twilight Sparkle among others, but I never delved deep into studying it's many intricacies and contradictions. With a quick mental note to change that after all of this we continued onward along the winding and narrow path until it split into several others.

“Well I'm not sating we should split up or anything but...” Jackpot teased as we stood there at the divergence of the path as it led inward and away from the edges.

“I say we take the one that leads furthest away from this dreadful cliff.” Scarlet said.

“We'll be able to move faster through the mist without having to worry about constantly falling.” Doublehead added.

I gently pushed my way to the front where I took a look of what I could see of the paths that snaked in multiple directions ahead of us. I still really couldn't see anything but I was of the same mind as Scarlet and Doublehead, I wanted us away from the cliff so we wouldn't have to worry about anypony falling and disappearing into the mist.

“We'll take the rightmost path, there.” I said, pointing to the path that led away from the cliffs and had a slightly high leaning look about it, “Hopefully that will start taking us up the mountain and out of this damn fog.”

Once again Jackpot and Scarlet took the lead. Jackpot used his strong wings to blow as much of the mist out of our way as he could while Scarlet's horn lit as much of the path as it could. They were admittedly of limited success but every little bit helped. Luckily I seemed to choose correctly as the path did indeed begin to heavily slope upward the further on we went. Every so often Doublehead would stick his head onto the rocky ground and sniff at it.

“What are you doing?” I asked the odd little Buffalo.

“Just taking in everything. If I can get the smell of the surroundings I should be able to more accurately guide us down again in case we get lost.” he seemed very confident saying this.

“Um, if you say so.”

“Hey! Don't underestimate the power of smell!” Jackpot yelled from up front, “If in doubt, always follow your nose!”

At this point I wasn't in the mood to argue and just accepted their weird logic as we continued up the path. Without the fear one of us might take a bad step and fall off the edge of a mountain we moved at a far quicker pace. We were still cautious just in case something happened but we started to make good time as several more hours passed.

Finally after hours and hours of hiking we crested the top of the upward-climbing path as a large portion of the mist suddenly cleared away as we climbed over its top. We had indeed reached a small mountain peak but when we saw what lay before us it seemed like nothing at all. For indeed we had reached it; ahead of us was a seemingly massive mountain, rising straight up and high into the sky into more layers of mist. Below and around this mighty peak were many others, twenty or so, with us standing on one of them. The mists swirled below us and we could no longer even see the ground, instead there was simply a great sea of grey as the mists encompassed everything around the bases of the mountains. With the now setting sun once again visible, the light washed over this great sea and it seemed as if it began to shimmer like a great sea of silver as it swirled around the bases of the many mountains that surrounded the central great mountain.

“No way these are the badlands.” Doublehead gasped in utter amazement.

“Yeah, I think we would have seen something like this from the ground.” Jackpot said, his own face stuck in an expression of utter amazement.

“This is...this is beautiful.” Scarlet said, almost stumbling over her words as she stared into the great expanse before us.

“I almost can't believe it.” I said, myself nearly if not even more amazed than my companions.

My gaze soon began to shift upwards and a path leading far outward and towards the great central mountain ran below us and then further upwards as it neared what I decided had to be the biggest mountain in the world.

Luckily Jackpot was able to fly us, one by one, to this path and land us there safely before continuing forward. It was starting to darken as the sun began to sink beneath the slowly silhouetting mountains that loomed, ever-present, in the distance. The sun had nearly disappeared behind the mountains when we finally found a nice spot in which we could set up a small campsite. Doublehead had it set up in mere minutes(fire and all. I was quite impressed) and was soon relaxing be the side of the slowly growing fire.

“So, expectin any more ghostly visitors ta give us clues or pointers?” Jackpot asked as he settled down on a spot near the fire before stretching out his wings and hooves.

“I swear Jackpot, much more of that and you could be accused of public indecency.” Scarlet pouted as she found a spot, leaning against a small rock next to Jackpot.

“Good thing we ain't in public then.” he retorted with a slight chuckle as he set his saddlebags down and dug out a flask of cider.

“Throw some over here Jackpot.” I said, holding out my hoof to catch whatever he threw over.

“You made that last one this long did ya?” Jackpot threw the first flask he retrieved from his bag over to me before digging out another one.

“Yeah, but now I need some more.” I unscrewed the top before taking a few swigs and settling down.

“This is fun.” Doublehead said, “I love having fun in beautiful places.”

“Yeah, it is pretty cool here.” I said back. “Wonder what's up with all the fog though?”

“It's magic obviously.” Scarlet answered as her face turned towards the sea of mist below us and the haze that covered much of the top of the large central mountain.

“I hate unexplained magic.” Jackpot nickered, “Too many variables to deal with.”

“I think it's just all those obviously unresolved issues you have with Goldie.” Scarlet squeaked out.

Jackpot and I just stared at her, each of us with disapproving gazes. Jackpot turned his head away and nickered slightly at Scarlet's comment.

“Leave the bad jokes to me honey.” he said grimly before turning and curling up against the rock he had sat next to.

The mood was quickly turning tense and while I certainly did not enjoy Scarlet's comment I still decided to say something to help lighten the now growing tension.

“I've always found that that kind of magic is the best kind, unexplained that is. It makes sure to keep you guessing and leaves so many possibilities open for exploration. I mean what fun is it if everything is explained to you. Grit certainly understood this in his books.” I leaned back into a more relaxed position hoping my mood would rub off on the others.

“I agree with Ms. Ivory.” Doublehead nodded, “The Buffalo have a lot of stories like that. Stories that leave just enough unexplained to let our imaginations go wild.” as Doublehead spoke I could hear a reverence in his voice as he began to think and imagine the stories he had probably heard growing up. “My mentor always loved to tell me stories. He had some really strange ones about all kinds of creatures and places.”

“I'd love to hear one.” I said, somewhat intrigued at the possibility of hearing a Buffalo tale from a Buffalo that wouldn't put half of Equestria to sleep.

Doublehead cleared his throat as the rest of us settled into more comfortable positions around the crackling fire.

“Our oldest tales, tales so old that even chiefs and elders don't know where they originated from, say that the world and every creature in it was brought into being by the singing of the ancestors.” Doublehead gestured towards the darkened sky as the first stars were beginning to appear.

“The two siblings, whose ancient names are given as Kaya and Wematin, sister and brother, saw that Maka, the earth, was in love with Mahpee, the sky. Mahpee, however, did not love Maka yet still needed her. This way of things ended up causing great strife and so Kaya and Wematin sought to understand how and why things came to be and to learn the truth of the matter.”

“Hmm.” I said to myself, unintentionally interrupting the story.

“What?” Doublehead asked.

“That reminds me of something Enyi told me a while back.” I said, cocking my head in a thinking posture.

“Who is this Enyi?” Doublehead asked, confused.

“Ivory's boyfriend.” Jackpot said, still curled into his corner.

“Why is he not here then?”

“They're having some...communication issues.” Scarlet said as delicately as she could.

Doublehead nodded, “Hmm, I see.”

With this Doublehead continued his story and it went on for quite the while. It was enough to distract me from Enyi once again popping into my head but when the story inevitably ended Enyi had entered back into my mind, full force.

It was strange though, Enyi had mentioned to me once about a story of two spirit siblings who went on a quest for truth and now here again was a story that seemed almost identical to the one Enyi had only briefly described. It got me thinking of perhaps a shared and intertwined cultural experience, or maybe it was something important that could help piece together the missing links in the ancient histories of the two peoples. Or maybe it was just a coincidence and I was taking the issue too seriously and over-thinking it, after all it ultimately was a story about learning appreciate those in your life, something meant for Buffalo children I suspected.

With the story now complete we all curled up in our respective corners and one by one, slowly drifted off to sleep. It was surprisingly easy considering all the things that were currently on my mind but something about this place just seemed to calm me down now that I had some moments of peace, quiet and rest. I was still thinking about what I could do with Enyi when I finally did fall asleep leading to some very interesting dreams until I popped awake when the sun rising over the mountains hit my face.

I slowly opened my eyes as the rays of the rising sun crept over the many mountains that now surrounded us. I looked up the slope of the great central peak to see that the mists that we had seen the day before still covered the top of the mountain. I was both excited to see what was at the top and dreading having to wander through more dangerous mists that sat at the top of a very tall mountain.

Doublehead was already awake and was stoking a small fire with a stick he held in his mouth. He seemed preoccupied with this and didn't notice me immediately so I sat up and let out a nice loud yawn to attract his attention.

“Oh! Morning Ivory.” he said cheerfully.

“I gotta say, the mountains look even more beautiful with the sun rising over them.” I said, still somewhat tired.

“Yeah. It's weird though that something so big ant beautiful has gone undiscovered for so long. That nobody has ever been here in centuries is just so strange.” Doublehead turned his head towards the peaks of the many encircling mountains and stared almost longingly at them.

“Magic is as magic does, as they say.” I said back to him.

“How do you ponies ever cope?” Doublehead said, almost jokingly but still a bit serious.

“Scarlet's probably the one to ask about that.” I said back, giving Doublehead a little chuckle which he reciprocated.

After a few minutes Jackpot and Scarlet woke up and after a nice breakfast we eagerly yet cautiously began to move further up the central mountain. The hike did not take long as the mists were pretty high up and we were now well-rested and moved upward at a brisk pace. As we walked I saw Doublehead take out a little notebook and watched as he would sketch out the views of the mountains whenever we stopped to rest up a bit. He was surprisingly good at writing with his mouth(much better than I was) and indeed had some talent in drawing. He would sketch the areas around us with a fair bit of accuracy and almost seemed to be mapping out the way we took, now that we could see it.

“You're pretty good.” I said, looking over at Doublehead's drawings.

“Thanks. That means a lot coming from you.” Doublehead smiled.

The hike up this part of the mountain was as pleasant an experience as I can think of. The scenery was beautiful, there were no monsters or homicidally insane Unicorns to muck up the experience. There was still the mists that lay at the top of the mountain but I decided to worry about that when we got to it. Until then though, I decided to do all I could to enjoy this part of the adventure.

The mountainside was breathtaking, especially as we continued to climb upwards. Beautiful blue flowers that seemed to almost glow with a luminescent light began to pop up in small cracks in the rocks the further up we got. To accompany their glowing was a small humming noise they seemed to make, not an annoying buzzing but instead a harmonious sounding melody that both soothed and enticed us as we listened to them.

“The Petals of the Peaks.” Scarlet said, inspecting one of the flowers close up. “The book says that they can cure all sorts of things and that they make delicious tea.”

“Well, pick a few and we'll take em home.” Jackpot said as Scarlet proceeded to pick several of the glowing flowers and stick them into one of Jackpot's empty saddlebags.

“Finally, a use for those things.” Scarlet said.

Within a few hours we arrived at the bottom edge of the mists that we had seen from the base of the mountain. Now that we were close up we could see that these mists seemed different from the ones at the base of the mountain. These ones seemed to swirl around each other, constantly overlapping and moving about in thick clouds that Scarlet's horn could barely illuminate when she shined a bit of light near the edge. Even Jackpot, beating his wings as hard as he could, barely made a bit of difference in clearing out just a small bit of the cloud.

“So, how are we going to do this?” I asked partly to myself and partly to the group.

“Hop in and hope for the best?” Jackpot suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

Scarlet proceeded to shake her head disappointingly, “That's a horrible idea.”

“Well, as long as we're really careful it shouldn't be too bad, right?” Doublehead said.

We eventually decided to just take the path at a slow pace in order to prevent ourselves from accidentally walking off a cliff or into some other unknown danger that could be hiding in the mist. Once again, Scarlet and Jackpot led the way with Scarlet's horn lighting up any tiny area Jackpot managed to clear mist from with his wings. This, again, proved only limited in it's success as the mist seemed to almost move back into place mere seconds after being blown away.

I'm not sure how long we wandered through the mist as the sun had been blocked out some time ago and we were left in a blank, grey haze. Even with this the ground still seemed to be leading in an upward direction which we assumed was correct.

“This mist is absolutely horrid.” Scarlet groaned from ahead of the group.

“Just be glad there doesn't seem to be anything too magical about it.” Jackpot said back to her.

“And what exactly would 'too magical' be?” Scarlet asked back.

“Ya know. The mist could be alive or something, or maybe it's poisonous or gives some other weird effect.”

“I think it's just a bit drab. Maybe it could be a different color like purple or pink or something.” Scarlet said half jokingly and half seriously.

“Any stories about mist like this?” I said, turning towards Doublehead.

“Not really.” he said back. “There is one line in an old tale that says something about mists of memory and misery, but that could be anything.” Doublehead tapped his hoof beneath his chin as he thought, “Like a metaphor or something.”

“Well, either way we should think of something. Jackpot, Scarlet, you two have any ideas?” I asked, turning my head towards where Scarlet and Jackpot were. “Jackpot? Scarlet?” I said again, when there was no answer.

I suddenly realized why there was no answer; there was no Jackpot or Scarlet! They both had seemingly just vanished into thin air in the few seconds I had looked away.

“Wait, what!?” I said, doing a double-take just to make sure my eyes hadn't just played a trick on me.

“They're gone!” Doublehead said, his voice in a near state of shock.

“Jackpot! Scarlet! Where are you!” I shouted as loud as I could as the swirling mists began to quickly crowd in around us.

“Doublehead stay close!” I said frantically as my field of vision quickly shortened with each second.

Doublehead zipped over to me and hugged my side as the mists enveloped us completely obscuring even the slightest bit of vision. All I could see was grey as even when I looked down at my own body I couldn't see it in the least bit. Everything was gone, even when I tried to talk to Doublehead he didn't answer back, leading me to the conclusion that he was now gone as well. Within the cloud it seemed as if all of my senses had left me alone. I couldn't see anything but grey, there was no noise, no mountain smells, everything was just a grey nothingness. I was frozen in place, not due to any lack of ability to move but more out of an abject fear that if I did move I might just disappear into the nothingness that surrounded me as well.

I stood there, frozen in fear as the great nothing surrounded me. It took several long, agonizing moments before I could even dare to try and take a step forward into the haze that now undoubtedly covered the entirety of the mountainside. I took one hoofstep forward and trembled as it hit the ground; I had half expected it to hit nothing and to then fall to my death off the side of the mountain. Each step came slowly as I inched my way forward, my mind racing with thoughts of falling or being lost in here forever and never seeing my friends again.

“Come on Ivory. You gotta get through this.” I said to myself as confidently as I could.

Inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, I crept forward, constantly trying to be aware of the ground beneath my hooves. Putting one hoof in front of the other and leaning forward had never been so terrifying as it was in that moment. In vain I tried calling for my friends several more times but now even my voice seemed to be lost in the mists as I could only hear my own words as a whisper that had been lost on the wind.

Not only was my body lost in a complete haze but now even my head had begun to get muddled and confused. I was not only physically lost but I began to feel completely lost on almost every other level a pony can feel something on. I began to doubt as to why I was there and then even the knowledge of where I was began to slip from my mind. I stopped moving and again stood there in fear and doubt as I once again was afraid to move.

As I stood there, giving into the despair and confusion that was slowly overtaking my mind I heard a loud and cocky sounding voice call out in the distance. I recognized it at once as Jackpot's as I forced my mind out of the haze that it had sunk into and back into the real world. I frantically looked around, hoping beyond hope that I could hear the voice just one more time to see where it came from. My luck payed off as another call came out, but this time it was Scarlet Aloe's voice that called through the mist and landed into my ears.

“I'm coming!” I called out as I steeled myself and my nerves from the swirling mists that enveloped them.

I had a bit of hope and my heart seemed to leap forward with my body as I jumped to the direction I thought the voices were coming from. The voices seemed now to be louder as I began to feel happier and happier as I kept moving my hooves faster and faster forward. I moved quickly through the haze, though the calling had stopped, hopeful that I could find any of my friends if I just went on a little further.

The mists seemed to condense as I ran forward, heedless of anything in my way. I needed to keep moving, I just had to. I felt that if I stopped then I would lose the ability to keep going forever and ever after remain trapped in this accursed mist. My legs were at last beginning to physically give out as the mists seemed to just get heavier and heavier the further on I went. I was almost out of strength when an image popped into my mind; Enyi. The thought that I would never see him again and that I could never explain myself and try and make things right rang throughout my mind, it kept me going. Then as I concentrated I began to see him clearer and clearer in my mind. My heart fluttered as I focused in on specific parts of him, his smooth face, his tall mane, his lean legs, his amber eyes, his...other places. The happiness these thought filled me with sent my heart and body leaping forward and finally out of the mists and onto a path that was kissed by the incandescent glow of Celestia's warm and inviting embrace.

“Praise Celestia! Praise the sun!” I screamed as I threw my hooves out and landed on the now very visible and very real ground.

I felt a very real urge to start kissing the ground I was just so elated to be able to feel anything again. Before I could get into any of that though I raised my head up to take a quick view of my surroundings as my mouth dropped in a mixture of amazement and disbelief. I was laying on the top of the mountain and all about me I could see the tremendous view of the great valley below and the twenty mountain peaks that surrounded the one I was currently on. The sun was high in the sky and a cool breeze flew through the leaves of a few old and gnarled trees that grew here on the mountain summit.

“Whoa.” I said in astonishment as beyond the small patch of ground I was on was a little glade that sat at the very top of the mountain.

A few small trees, similar to the ones that sat nearer to me, littered this glade. They were not that big and had trunks that were thin and slightly twisted, forming the trees into various shapes. In the center of this glade was a pool of crystal clear water that sat there cool and calm. I stood up and carefully made my way over to it, careful to glance back and ensure the mist did not follow me up to the top of the mountain.

“Jackpot! Scarlet! Doublehead! Any of you up here!?” I called out as I neared the glade at the top of the mountain.

No answer came but as I neared the glade and the pool I saw something very peculiar and very important. I ran up to the edge of the pool and saw that on a small stone, just beneath the surface of the water, lay a slender, silver spear.

“There it is!” I said, happy to finally see it.

It was of pure silver with inlaid filigree of vines and flowers that ran along the shaft and up onto the slightly curved blade. Even under the water I could see it sparkling in the sun as the water spread the shimmering light around the pool giving the clear water a glowing effect. I stepped one hoof onto the water and to my complete surprise my hoof didn't sink but in fact stood there on top of the surface of the water. This followed with my three other hooves until I stood completely on top of the surface of the water. I slowly and cautiously trotted over to the spear, unable to grab at it as the water felt solid and my hooves did not pass through it.

“Luna's teats!” I shouted in frustration as I clopped my hooves fruitlessly at the surface of the water, trying to punch through.

My efforts were rewarded with nothing to show for it as I plopped down onto the surface of the water to take in a few deep breaths. As I laid there something quite unexpected happened as suddenly the sun seemed to darken and a dark shape appeared over my. The glare from the sun blocked out its features and all I saw was a silhouette standing above me. My first instinct was to immediately stand up and ready myself but that feeling dissipated quickly as I felt no evil intent coming from this shape.

“Why, hello there little one.” a deep voice that came from the silhouette and reminded me a bit of Roose's voice combined with the Buffalo chief said.

“Um, hello?” I said back, somewhat confused.

“Won't get at the spear that way.” the voice said, “the waters enchanted.”

I sat up and the shape backed up enough for me to now see it clearly. It was a Buffalo, large and old looking. He sat there next to me on the water with a large and kindly smile on his face.

“Ha! I see you're confused little pony. My name is...”

“Bighorn.” I interrupted.

“Oh? You know of me?” he said somewhat shocked.

“Just your name really.” I said back to him, my eyes wandering around his large form, almost not believing who I was actually looking at.

“Interesting. I wouldn't think anypony would remember after so long a time.” Bighorn said, stroking his long bearded face with his front hoof.

“How are you? Why are you?” I said, my mind finally comprehending exactly who I was talking to and my mouth unable to express my amazement.

“Yes, I suppose I am quite old.” the elderly Buffalo said, chuckling a little at my astonishment. “If it helps, this is not really Bighorn you're talking to. Unfortunately I'm just a memory, an imprint of a time long past.”

I didn't answer, instead I just stared at his every feature and every wrinkle on his kind old face as he sat there, still chuckling away to himself.

“I'm guessing you want my spear?” Bighorn said in a jolly voice.

“Well, it is kinda why I came here with...my friends!” I said, suddenly realizing that they were still trapped in the mist.

“Oh, they will be fine. The mist isn't that dangerous.” Bighorn said as if he knew why I was so worried, “It's just there to make sure no one bad comes to take my spear.”

“What exactly is that stuff?” I asked.

“Something a friend of mine whipped up. Little Aurora was always looking to experiment with new kinds of magic once she found the mind to do so.”

“Wait!” I gasped, “I met Aurora, I think. Her ghost maybe, or memory I guess.”

“Hmm, I thought this mist was a custom order, but maybe she wove some more magic in the world after I left it, or maybe it was something else. Aurora was not one to copy her own past work when she could do something greater.” Bighorn then let out a loud and mighty laugh as a smile formed on his face, “Wouldn't that be just like her! So much talent in such a little body, it boggles the mind.”

“I have to say, you don't sound like I thought you'd sound Mr. Bighorn.”

He looked at me quizzically, “Oh! And how exactly did you think I'd sound?”

“Well, Abila wrote all fancy in her journal while you just talk like anypony I would meet in modern times.”

“Ah yes, Abila was always so formal and...” Bighorn's eyes turned glossy as he let out several more laughs, “In fact, I recall once her trying to tell a joke to me once. She said: 'Bighorn, what, pray tell, is the difference betwixt a pony and a Giraffe? The Giraffe has a long neck.' Bighorn said this in a bad female voice impression of what I assumed was Abila(if only Enyi had been here, would he have loved or hated this?).

“Now I thought it was terribly funny but I remember it took Ironhoof a week to come to the conclusion that it wasn't funny! Ha!” Bighorn let out several more loud chuckles.

I giggled a bit as he spoke as his very voice just seemed to make me want to laugh and enjoy myself. I lifted up my hoof and took a look at Sparky and the image of the Earth Pony that was engraved on it.

“Ah yes, that's them all right. All of my friends.” Bighorn looked down solemnly at the band on my leg.

“Was that you a couple of nights ago?” I asked.

“Huh?” Bighorn sounded confused.

“I saw a shape leading me on the correct path up the mountain. Was it you?”

“Hmm, I can't say that it was. I'm pretty limited in fact, can't go lower than the mist you see behind you. Remember all I am is an an imprint, an admittedly extremely handsome and hilarious imprint, but an imprint none the less.”

“Hey Bighorn? Can you tell me more about all of the people on this band here?” I asked, lifting my hoof up to give him a better look.

“I'm afraid I can't my dear. It pains me to say this but my memory is not what it once was. The magic is beginning to fade and all of the knowledge that this old image has is fading as well. I fear I know precious little in what I was once an expert in.” As he said this Bighorn's face turned down and for only a single instant I saw what could have been sadness on his face but it quickly disappeared and his friendly smile returned.

“How about we get that spear eh?” he said cheerfully.

He lightly stomped his way over to where the spear lay beneath the water and with gentle grace he slid his hoof effortlessly beneath the water and lifted the large silver spear from it's resting place if though it was nothing.

“Aeglir, the Spear of Joy, as I called it.” Bighorn chuckled to himself, “I had the name engraved on the blade, see it there?” he said, pointing to the letters, beautifully formed upon the tip of the lovely blade-tip.

“Why would the element of laughter need a spear?” I asked.

“Laughter? Joy itself is what I bring. Laughter is but one of my domains, but as to why I needed a spear...I do not remember.”

Bighorn knelt down and lowered the spear to me, I opened my mouth and gently bit down on the spear, taking it from the old Buffalo. The spear was amazingly light and as I held it, all I seemed to be able to feel was the hope of everything turning out ok. I carefully took the spear into my hooves and slid it into the straps of my saddlebags, fitting it onto my back. I let out a laugh as I felt a happiness that I had never felt before in my life, a feeling of great relief and ease that put a spring into my step as I bounced back to the shore of the pool.

I turned my head back to Bighorn but I only found that he was gone. It was now just me alone on the mountaintop. It didn't last like this for long though as within seconds Scarlet and Jackpot came sauntering up from the mist.

“Guys! Up here!” I excitedly yelled.

“Oh Ivory! We were so worried!” Scarlet yelled out as she grabbed Jackpot in a telekinetic grip and eagerly dragged him up to where I was. “You found the spear!”

“Yup! And I even got to meet Bighorn, sort of.”

“Wait! You met him!?” Jackpot said, in astonishment.

“Yup, we had a nice chat.” I said, a huge smile on my face.

“Well, somepony looks happy.” Jackpot said, a smile of relief on his face.

“Yeah, it's kinda how you get through the mist I think. How'd you two get past it?”

Jackpot and Scarlet looked at each other for a second before letting out little chuckles. I stood there, somewhat bewildered and very curious(I would have been a bit upset at them not telling me but the spear wouldn't allow it).

“Oh, we found a way.” Scarlet said, sweetly as she blushed a little.

“Gotta say it was tough though.” Jackpot added, “Didn't think we'd ever make it out for a while there.”

“Where's Doublehead? Wasn't he last with you?” Scarlet asked.

“I haven't seen him.” I answered.

“We need to go back and find him!” Scarlet said, suddenly sick with worry.

“Come on, I'll lead!” I said as I immediately set out and ran towards the mist.

To my surprise however, the moment the spear hit the mist it began to clear and within moments the entire path down the mountain was completely open and visible. Doublehead was just a little ways down, nearly at the exit himself but still frozen in place, a look of fear on his face.

“Never thought I'd see a look like that on his face.” Jackpot said.

“Here, this should calm him.” I said as I grabbed the spear from my back and gently placed onto Doublehead's.

Doublehead's eyes immediately calmed down as a smile appeared on his face as his body unstiffened. His legs wobbled for a few seconds before he righted himself and blinked several times before facing me and the others.

“That was so strange.” Doublehead said as he let out several chuckles. “Felt kinda.....whooo.” he said, exaggerating the whooo.

“You ok?” I asked.

“Yeah, thanks!” Doublehead said happily. “I see the mist is gone.”

“Thank Luna and Celestia for that.” I said, letting out a relieved sigh.

*****

The trot back down the mountain went much easier. We made one more camp just before we hit the first layer of mist and in the morning Doublehead went in and once again the spear seemed to clear out the mist as we trotted down the mountain. As we went on and without the spear on my back I began to feel sad as when we finally left the mountains I looked back and the path itself seemed to disappear. The spot where the mysterious voice had shown me the way up was gone, as was any view of the great and beautiful mountains that it led to.

By the time we had arrived back at the Buffalo research camp I had gone through two more of Jackpot's flasks, leaving us with only two in total left. All the ponies and Buffalo at the camp were in complete awe of the spear and crowded Doublehead to get a look at it. They all asked him incessant questions as he struggled to keep up with them.

“If you have any questions, ask me.” I blurted out, much to their chagrin.

It was easy to see they still didn't care for me much, Grit's reputation was obviously not top quality here. Eventually they dispersed but not so much that they couldn't keep their own eyes on the spear, no doubt to return to questioning Doublehead after we had left.

“So, what exactly are we gonna do with the spear?” Jackpot asked.

“Well, Doublehead can take it back to Appleloosa and from their the Buffalo can keep it, or put it in a museum or whatever they want, it is theirs you know.” I answered.

“Are you sure that's safe?” Jackpot asked back.

“We're not having this discussion again Jackpot.” I said sternly, causing jackpot to back off and surrender the conversation.

“Don't worry, I'll keep it safe!” Doublehead beamed, “I'll take it right back to the chief and I'm sure he'll write me a letter of recommendation to Adventure Incorporated right away!”

I leaned in to Doublehead and whispered into his ear, “Take it from me and stay away from Adventure Inc. for now, ok.”

“Huh?” Doublehead said, slightly confused.

“Just wait a bit, ok. Promise me.” I said, staring right into his eyes.

“Um, ok?” he said, somewhat more confused.

“I'm sure there are plenty more opportunities for adventure before you get startled with some boring dig somewhere!” Jackpot suddenly interjected.

“I suppose you might be right, but I intend to get in as soon as possible.” Doublehead said with a smile on his face.

*****

When we finally arrived back in Canterlot I went straight home, laid down in my bed and clonked right out. I had some lovely dreams about Enyi and myself(hehe) before quietly waking up with the gentle morning sun warming up mt face as it shone through the windows. I trotted down the hall, down the stairs and into the kitchen where jackpot and Scarlet were sitting on the couch in the front-room, listening to the radio.

“Morning you two, hows it go...” before I finished my sentence I saw the look of absolute dread on their faces as I looked towards the radio and finally heard what was on it.