Ponyville, though it had experienced its fair share of catastrophes over the years, was nevertheless regarded as one of the more quiet and peaceful corners of Equestria. But, while this may have indeed been the case, it was also fairly well-accepted that the town was surrounded by a number of other places that had a somewhat less pleasant reputation to them. The Everfree Forest was one such notable example of this, but coming second to that was the towering mountain that lay just outside the fields around Ponyville. This place was treacherous to go to, both for its unstable terrain, but also because of the rather noted incident of the time when it became home to a fierce dragon. Granted, the beast had departed some time ago, but even so, the knowledge that it had been there had kept many away from that mountain ever since.

But, it appeared a though, today at least, yet another dragon would be making their way up to that high place, though admittedly not to the same statue as the previous one to go up there. That dragon was Smolder, who strode confidently up the rocky path at the mountain's side. However, she was not alone here today, as all of her friends, Sandbar, Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus and Yona, were accompanying her. And from the looks on their faces, it was clear that only Smolder was really that happy at being here today. As for the others? It appeared that even Silverstream wasn't all that thrilled about having to take such care with each of her steps, as one such motion even nearly sent her tripping forward. Thankfully, Yona was there to take hold of her and stop her just before her face hit the ground. The young Hippogriff gave a thankful smile to her Yak friend, only for that smile to fade once she finally spoke up to the one leading them.

"Um...Smolder? I'm as excited to see new places as much as the next girl, but are you really sure that this is the best place for us to be going?"

A chuckle escaped the young dragon at that, and she looked back to the rest of her friends, pointing her thumb straight into her chest.

"Don't you worry, Silver. If there's one thing we dragons know, it's mountains. Trust me, we'll be fine."

Sandbar, walking past Silverstream and sharing a concerned look with her, added his voice to the proceedings.

"Not to sound like I doubt your...um...expertise, Smolder...but I've lived in Ponyville my whole life, and nopony has ever said that this place is even remotely safe!"

He paused, glancing upwards at the great distance they had yet to travel.

"There are landslides, falling boulders, the occasional earthquake, and...well..."

He looked back down to her.

"...just...why are we here again?"

Stopping, Smolder turned to face her friends in earnest, placing her hands upon her hips before speaking up.

"From what I heard, there's a whole bunch of treasure up here, and I, as a self-respecting dragon, can't just let a rumour about gold and silver pass me by without at least checking it out!"

Gallus, giving a dry laugh to that, shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey, girl's got her priorities right at least. You hear about treasure, you go for it."

The others gave their feathered colleague a joint frown, leading to him raising an eyebrow at them.

"What? Griffon, remember?"

Yona, though she too displayed some trepidation at being here, strode forward, even to the point of going straight past Smolder.

"Yona no scared! Yona beat mountain! Good practice for great warrior mountain back home!"

Smiling, Smolder nodded firmly to that, giving Yona a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"That's the spirit! Now let's go!"

And so it was that Smolder and Yona led the way, with Gallus not far behind. Silverstream remained further back for a while, as did Sandbar and Ocellus, and the latter, flittering her wings in a nervous manner, looked over to her other two friends.

"Think we'll be okay?"

Sandbar, thinking on that, sighed, then offered the young Changeling a warm smile.

"As long as we stick together and don't do anything crazy...we should be."

Ocellus returned the smile, and Silverstream had to contain herself, lest she overtly giggle at the sweet moment between the two. So, silently, the group continued on their journey, with Silverstream even starting to sing a few songs on the way to pass the time. But, one could only listen to "ten thousand bottles of cider on the wall" so many times before they got sick of it, and Gallus, who was especially irritable at such moments, looked to his Hippogriff friend with barely-restrained annoyance n his voice.

"You know...how about we carry on with some talking, eh, Silver?"

Though the young royal briefly looked disheartened by that comment, she soon returned to her naturally-exuberant state, clapping her claws together.

"Ooh! Smolder! What other stuff can you tell us about dragons and mountains?"

Smirking at the fact that one of her friends was now seeing her as something of an expert on the matter, Smolder tried to carry herself in a more professional manner, in both the way she walked and spoke.

"Well, you have to understand, we're very territorial about things like this. If we decide a mountain is ours, then it's gonna stay ours."

A thoughtful smile came to her.

"I remember my Great-Grandpa Blazer. Now there was a guy who knew how to hoard some gold! I tell ya, once he had something, there's no way he was letting it go!"

A sigh escaped her.

"A true example of a great dragon if ever there was one."

Sandbar, who had since caught up with her after their journey began, looked to her with curiosity.

"But...didn't this dragon, you know, the one who lived up this mountain, give up his hoard? Professor Fluttershy managed to get him to go, remember?"

To that, Smolder frowned.

"Whatever! There's always some exceptions to rules like that. I bet that dragon just didn't have it in him to stand his ground. I mean seriously, giving ground to a pony of all people? Sheesh!"

Sandbar raised his eyebrow to that, and Smolder, realising how her words must have come across, chuckled nervously.

"Oh! Um...not that I'm saying he should have stayed and caused Ponyville more trouble, you know?"

Sandbar was still somewhat sceptical over how earnest she was over that, but accepted her quasi-apology, at least for the time being. So, instead, the group carried on without saying a single word to one another. And in truth, silence really was the best option right now, for the path was starting to look even more dangerous than it had been before. Giant cracks in the path, the remains of what looked like crumbled boulders, this clearly had seen its fair share of damage over the years. They even came across a small gorge, but, thanks to the flying skills of four of the friends, those like Sandbar and Yona were able to get across with little issue. And so, on they went, always making sure that they took particular care, knowing that they were getting closer and closer to their destination. And about an hour later, after turning a few more sharp corners and narrow ledges, Smolder looked on with wide eyes and a smile, speaking up excitedly.

"Alright...here we are!"

She stepped forward, allowing her friends to come up shortly behind her. And sure enough, they saw that she was right. They had indeed reached the top of the mountain, and the great ridge that lay there before the enormous cave opening. The place looked, understandably, foreboding, as befitting of a dragon's lair, and some, like Ocellus and Silverstream, backed away from the sight of it, hiding behind Sandbar, though he himself felt an instinctive need to get away from this place too. Others, like Yona and Smolder, were not so fearful, and so made their way forward without any sense of hesitation. Eventually, the whole group was at the entrance, and after staring into the endless gloom of the cave within, Yona took a single step forward, speaking up loudly.

"Hello?"

A few moments, and them, her words were echoed right back to her. But rather, than be intimidated by this, Yona spoke up a second time.

"Echo!"

Sure enough, the word was bounced back to her yet again, causing a look of amusement for her. The others smiled to this, but Smolder, remembering that they were here for a reason, took a deep breath before starting to walk inside. The others, while clearly hesitant, started to follow, not wanting her to go in there by herself. The cave was truly enormous, and at some points it even seemed like it was bigger on the inside than what it's exterior might have suggested. But, they were here, and after a few moments of wandering further inside, they stopped. Their expressions were ones of pure shock, even Smolder, and after blinking slowly, the young dragon spoke the only thing that could have been on any of their minds right now.

"Okay...I'm impressed."

Just as the rumours had said, there was indeed treasure to be found here. Gold and silver coins piled so high that they looked as large as big hills, if not bigger. Jewels of every type, from sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds and everything in-between could be seen nestled among all the precious metals that glistened in the admittedly low levels of light in here. Goblets and swords and trinkets of gold and silver were also here, and the whole place just screamed of wealth and opulence of a scale none of those youngsters would have ever even dreamed of, much less seen. But, they were seeing it, and now, as they slowly looked to one another, they could contain themselves no longer, and broke out into wide smiles.

"Oh yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Gallus bellowed.

"Race ya!" Smolder called back.

And race they did, darting straight for the nearest treasure pile, leaping up and landing themselves right on top of it. The two poured through all they saw, inspecting gems, gold bars, silver cups, anything that took their fancy. The others walked behind them, and while not as enamoured with this fortuitous find, they nevertheless remained impressed by it.

"I'm royalty, and even I've never seen this level of treasure before!" Silverstream remarked.

"It's all so...pretty," Ocellus commented, her eyes widening.

"Yona like! Yona like very much!"

Sandbar chuckled to this, but before he could say anything, he looked up to Gallus as the latter called down to him.

"Hey, Sandy! What the heck, buddy? Why'd you ponies never come up here for any of this stuff?"

Sandbar shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, aside from the fact that it's pretty dangerous to get up here, there's probably too much stuff here for anyone back home to even know what to do with it!"

Hearing that, Smolder let out a hearty cackle.

"Well, I know what I'm doing with it! Taking some home!"

The others, while they were all happy to have found all this stuff, were still surprised at her remark. But, ever so slowly, they looked to one another.

"You know...we could take some of it back. As a souvenir, maybe?" Silverstream suggested.

Sandbar tapped the end of his chin with his hoof, nodding slowly.

"Yeah...maybe a few small things. A reminder of our day here together."

A knowing smirk came to him.

"Celestia knows we can't haul all this stuff out."

Though she agreed with that sentiment, Smolder let out an irritated grunt to it.

"Ugh! I know! Shame."

She deliberately fell back into the treasure pile, making some "gold angels" with her motions, all while the others looked on with amusement at her. But, they said nothing as she spoke up again.

"One thing I will say though...it'll take a while to get the stink of that other dragon off this stuff."

The others looked to her with confusion, prompting her to elaborate.

"Trust me, dragon noses are way more sensitive than yours. And believe me when I say that I can still smell whoever...whoever..."

Her words had become slower and slower with the last few moments, as an odd look soon came to her. She looked down to the gold coins she was sitting on, and quickly picked up one of them. Then, to her friends' confusion, she started to sniff that coin a few times. Her eyes widened, and realisation came to her.

"Wait, I...I know that smell."

The coin dropped from her claws and back into the pile, and she looked to her friend with a clear look of disbelief.

"This...this treasure was hoarded by my Great-Grandpa Blazer!"

Stepping forward, Sandbar looked to her with a mixture of both surprise and incredulity.

"Wait, what?! You mean it was someone from your family who nearly covered Ponyville in endless smoke?!"

Smolder frowned to him.

"Nevermind that! Now I have to deal with the fact that my idol was beaten by a bunch of ponies!"

She paused, then softened her expression as she, once again, saw Sandbar's slightly insulted look.

"I mean...no offense."

The young stallion rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, none taken."

But Smolder was still looking distraught.

"Ugh! How's my family gonna live this down?! Heck how am I gonna live this down?!"

With that, she flopped back into the pile of coins beneath her, and Sandbar, letting out a long sigh, walked closer to her and spoke in a calmer tone than before.

"Hey, look, I know this seems like a disappointment to you, but think about it this way..."

Smolder looked to him with a raised eyebrow as he continued.

"Sure, your Grandpa was beaten by ponies, but not just any ponies. It took six world-saviours, including a mare who would one day become an alicorn to do it!"

Smolder remained silent, thinking on that, before slowly starting to nod.

"Yeah..."

Her smile returned.

"...yeah! It took the best Equestria had to offer to oust him out of here! Yeah, I can live with that!"

Her chest puffed up with pride yet again, promoting another eye-roll from not only Sandbar, but also all the rest of the youths as well. Then, before any of them had the chance to say anything, Smolder, looking a little nervous, cleared her throat, gaining their attention.

"Um...Sandbar? Would you mind...er...helping me with something?"

Sandbar tilted his head to that, and soon after, Smolder took on a more aggressive stance, stamping her foot into the treasure.

"This gold is mine, pony! And you're not making me give it up!"

Naturally, Sandbar was more than a little taken aback by this sudden shift in behaviour his friend was displaying, but then, he turned to Ocellus as the latter placed her hoof upon his shoulder. A moment of silence passed between them, and then, understanding came to the stallion.

"Oh! Right! Um..."

He too cleared his throat, then took another step forward, towards Smolder, before giving a very formal-looking bow to her.

"And I, the pony entering your cave, do hereby surrender my attempt to get you to leave."

Smolder smiled to that, flapping her wings and launching herself off the treasure, before landing back in front of Sandbar. The stallion, standing up from his bow, looked to her with a somewhat done look.

"So...honour satisfied?"

Smolder, after thinking on that, gave a nod.

"Yes...very."

She then showed a moment of hesitation before speaking again.

"Oh...and I'm sorry my Great-Grandpa nearly covered your home in smoke for, like, hundreds of years...or something."

Sandbar, hearing that, gave a quick shrug of his shoulders.

"Sure, I can go with that."

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