Author's Notes:

Just to be clear on one thing. This entire chapter takes place in the Mane Six's timeline before the world went to Hell.

This will sort of be short and sweet, similar to the first chapter of the story as this one introduces a different protagonist during a different timeline.

Ponyville (Outskirts)
November 2nd, 2012
1:37 P.M.
27 Years Ago

Rainbow Dash hated being late.

The mere concept of the act irritated her. Granted, it didn’t happen often for “Equestria’s fastest flyer,” but those few instances of her failure to prove that title stuck with her.

As it did now.

The rainbow maned pegasus had just exited Ponyville and continued on by making her way through the Everfree Forest in record time before arriving at her destination.

Ghastly Gorge.

Now where were they?

Reaching into her saddlebag, Rainbow hovered casually as she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with her hooves. After a few quick unraveling of the folded sections, she was faced with a familiar note and crude illustration.

Dear Dashie,

Remember when we held that contest to find a pet for you - and you had the contestants race at Ghastly Gorge - and those big meanie eels tried to eat everyone? Well, my sisters took me back there to show me how they study Rockology but we found something… well, funny. Come meet me there tomorrow and I’ll show you!

Underneath the letter was a crude drawing of what Dash assumed was the gorge from a top-down view. Towards the front entrance of the gorge was an “x” written in red ink like a treasure map would have.

Finding a treasure chest today would be cool. She thought. Might even get to kick some eel flank in the-

The cyan pegasus’ thoughts were interrupted when a familiar cheerful voice bounced off the walls of the gorge.

“DASHIE, DOWN HERE!” It called.
Looking down, Rainbow spotted a bouncing pink dot alongside various still gray ones. She raced down and landed next to the pink Earth Pony and her sisters.

“Heya, Pinks.” She greeted me. “Whats up?”

Before responding, the energetic pink pony embraced her friend in a quick hug.

“The sky, silly.”

“I mean what's up with that ‘funny’ thing from the letter?” Rainbow playfully corrected.

“Oh, that!” Pinkie confirmed. “It's through here. Follow me!”

Pinkie led the way as she approached multiple deep cuts in both sides of the gorge. Rainbow knew all too well what these cuts housed.

Quarry Eels.

While the pink and purple monsters were no problem for somepony as awesome as herself, Rainbow feared for the ability of four Earth Ponies to dodge the swift jaws of death. Lucky for them she was there.

Taking to the sky and proudly placing herself in front of her companions, the cyan pegasus prepared to fight as she flew in front of the first hole in the gorge. She quickly leaned her head next to it, prepared to pull back at a moment’s notice, as she searched for her opponent.

But there was nothing inside.

A bit taken aback by the lack of her predicted foe, Rainbow flew over to the next closest hole.

Huh. Probably just out today. She thought while placing herself next to the other hole.

Repeating the same process yielded the same result. No sharp teeth jutting out to reach her. No piercing orange eyes sizing her up. Nothing.

Nothing at all.

“Funny, huh?” Pinkie called from below.

Rainbow did a couple more double takes as she threw caution to the wind, checking every nearby hole only to find nothing.

“Where are they?” She asked, her curiosity overriding her thirst for action.

“Dunno.” Pinkie spoke up from beside her sisters. “It was the same yesterday. They all just disappeared.”

“They probably heard us coming and knew what was good for them.” Limestone’s rough voice joined in.

“Is this what you wanted to show me?” Dash asked as she landed next to her friends.

“Not exactly…” Pinkie replied before pointing a hoof to her right.

Embedded in the gorge about forty steps - or a second away for Dash - sat a huge perfectly circular hole cut into the side of the valley.

“That's new.” Dash commented.

Marble Pie gave her trademark “Mm-hmm” in response.

The five mares found themselves all gathered around the huge cut in the gorge. They stared down into the opening that seemed like the mouth belonging to a beast of titanic proportions ready to swallow them up whole. Every intake of breath and every beat of the mare’s hearts were lightly verberated as they bounced off of the gorge’s walls back at their origin points.

Limestone finally broke the silence as she cleared her throat.

“Let’s get this over with.” She said before switching on her helmet’s light and beginning a steady - if not slow - walk into the unknown.

Rainbow looked all around the opening. Something was just plain wrong here. The cut was too perfect. She was no rock expert, but it was obvious that this hole wasn’t natural. The hole was also new. She hadn’t seen it when her friends were last here, which would have been about two weeks ago.

“You coming?” Limestone, who was clearly beginning to become agitated, asked from deeper inside the cave.

Rainbow shook the growing fear - no, tension from her mind. Rainbow Dash didn’t fear anything. Whatever had done this had all the reason to fear her!

Right?

Pinkie energetically bounced after her agitated sister with Rainbow and the other two in tow. Luckily, Limestone wasn’t the only one wearing a miner’s cap and flashlight. Maud Pie also sported one as she lazily scanned the bowels of the cave’s interior.

Limestone and Pinkie were up ahead, Rainbow and Maud in the middle, and an increasingly more terrified Marble was cowering behind them.

“Have you been in here yet?” Rainbow asked, her voice amplified tremendously by the constricting walls of the cave.

Marble jumped at the sudden voice of her companion and backed into a corner. Her left hindleg ended up on a loose piece of stone that sank once her hoof made contact with it.

The screeching sound of rock sliding on stone cut off the inevitable answer to Rainbows question, causing the mares to turn their heads in the direction of the noise. Both Limestone and Maud’s flashlight beams illuminated a section of wall that began to slide into an unseen cut deeper within.

Nopony made a sound. They just sat there rooted to their respective spots until Rainbow once again broke the silence.

“Ha! This is just like a Daring Do adventure!” She squealed excitedly with a pump of her hoof, momentarily forgetting the knot that had formed in her stomach. “Let’s go, girls!”

Limestone took up the front with Rainbow this time as the others followed suit behind. The newly opened passage was tight, meaning the mares had to travel in a single file line with Limestone leading to light the way.

This wasn’t what Rainbow had been expecting.

She had imagined scrawls of ancient civilizations, razor sharp traps, and even a monster - or a few - but this was just plain boring. The group had been walking for a few moments without a single interruption of what would be characteristic of a Daring Do book when they came upon it…

A door.

Not just any ordinary wooden or stone door. This one was made of polished marble and had engravings of seven objects on it. The first six were obvious to both Rainbow and Pinkie. They would recognize the elements they had come to represent any day, but the seventh item was foreign to the girls.

The seventh engraving appeared to be an eye of some sort that was drawn in a way to portray what was it? Anger? Determination? Whatever it was, the eye didn’t look friendly as it pierced the five mares standing before it.

“Now the interesting part begins…” Rainbow said to nopony in particular as she placed a hoof on the door to open it.

It didn’t budge.

Suddenly, the engraving of the Element of Loyalty started to glow a bright and brilliant blue upon her touch. Rainbow swifty retracted her hoof and stared at the symbol.

“Ooo! Let me try!” Pinkie exclaimed as she practically shoved the cyan pegasus out of the way. Placing her hoof on the door revealed that the door was still in fact sealed tight, but her efforts weren’t entirely in vain as the engraving of the Element of Laughter started to glow a pink hue.

Rainbow tried once again to open the door only to find the same result. She even slammed into it a couple times just for good measure. It was shut. Tight.

“It’s not opening.” Rainbow concluded aloud. “We need the others.”

“Well let’s go get them! The longer we sit in this spooky cave, the longer we wait to find out what's on the other side!” Pinkie replied.

“Mm-hmm” Came Marble’s eager response to leave the cave from behind the two.

Nearly half an hour later, Pinkie’s sisters had all been called back to the farm, leaving the Mane Six and Spike planted in front of the marble door. Each mare had done as Rainbow instructed by placing their hooves on the door to cause their respective element engraving to light up.

“Oh, I hope it's a giant chest full of gems!” Rarity commented from the back of the line.

“Yeah, that would be amazing.” Rainbow replied sarcastically.

“What's the problem with wishing for some riches for my boutique?” Rarity questioned with an audible “hmph” and flick of her tail.

“Oh - nothing, darling.” Rainbow continued in a semi-mocking tone.

“Would yall cut it out.” Applejack interrupted, silencing the two mares.

Suddenly, a streak of a rainbow-like light protruded from Twilight’s element before it traveled from element to element, creating a full hexagon of rainbow colors. The audible clunking of a large lock behind the door snapping open signaled that the door was now unlocked.

Before anypony could react, the door swung itself open violently, revealing another dark passage. Rainbow was the first to step into the new domain. As soon as her hoof hit the cold stone, two torches - one on each side of the wall - ignited with an orange flame.

The mare almost jumped back at the sudden addition of light, but she continued forward. With each step she took, another set of torches lit up her path. The light was hardly enough to be prepared for any possible threat lurking in the shadows, so Twilight and Rarity used their horns to light the passage better.

After a few brief moments of walking, the group found themselves in a small chamber. It wasn’t small by any real standards when compared to the cramped passage they had just emerged from, but it wasn’t massive either.

The torches’ pacing with the mares ceased before an entire ring around the chamber burst to life. This time the torches had one major difference.

The flames were blue.

But the mares weren’t focused on the color of the flames as something far more interesting was in the room with them. In the center of the circular chamber sat a large square pedestal, which was also carved from marble - and like the door before it - had multiple engravings on the sides. Sadly, the engravings were difficult for the mares to make out from their current distance.

The thing that really caught their attention was some sort of unknown object that was floating suspended atop the pedestal in an aura of blue magic.

“I-I don’t think this is a good idea, Twilight.” Fluttershy squealed from the back of the group.

“Ah come on, Flutters.” Rainbow assured her timid friend with a hoof around her shoulder. “It can’t be that bad. After all this was meant for us.”

“That's true.” Twilight chimed in. “That door did have our elements on it, so we were meant to find whatever this is.”

“Well, then what are we waiting for?” Rainbow asked with determination and excitement as she took to the air and was about to charge towards the object, but an orange hoof stopped her.

“Woah, Nelly,” Applejack halted her. “We don’t know what that thing is. Let’s do this together.”

“Ugh.” Rainbow whined with an audible grunt as she landed on the ground and folded her wings at her sides. “Fine, but let's hurry then.”

With the brash pegasus leading them, the group of six mares and a dragon advanced closer to the floating object before them. When they were close enough, Rarity popped the question.

“What is it?”

“Looks like some sorta expensive farming equipment” Applejack replied.

“No, it looks like a guard’s weapon.” Twilight corrected.

“How do ya know that?”

“I saw Shining Armor carrying one once while on Patrol.”

“Well, what is it then?” Rainbow piped up, clearly losing interest with this “dragging out” game.

“Some kind of crossbow - I think.” Twilight quickly added.

“Aren’t those things like standard-issue or something?” Rainbow asked. “Why would somepony leave one all the way out here?”

“Yeah, that's askin’ for a hounding from their officer.” Applejack added.

“Nopony just left it here, girls.” Twilight continued. “How would anypony besides us get into this room in the first place? It’s locked with our elements so we are the only ones who could access it.”

“Sweet!” Rainbow exclaimed. “We get a special crossbow?! Let’s go test it out!”

Another protective hoof from the orange Earth pony stopped her.

“Now hold on here.” She began. “How da we know that thing ain’t gonna be a trap? Something is clearly holding it with magic.”

“Yeah, it’s holding it for us.” Rainbow justified. “Besides, I’m not scared of any magic user too afraid to show themselves!” She put a larger emphasis on that last part, challenging the would-be owner of the magical aura.

Nothing happened. Nopony - or creature for that matter - came out to take back what was rightfully it’s. Absolutely nothing happened as the chamber’s ecchoing of Rainbow’s voice eventually faded out entirely.

“See? Nothing.” Rainbow boasted as she swiped Applejack’s hoof away from her path.

“Please, Rainbow” Fluttershy begged. “Don’t do anything brash just yet.”

“What?” Rainbow almost snapped. “You girls don’t trust me with this? How bad could it be? We’ve handled way worse than a free toy before!”

“That’s true, darling,” Rarity joined, “But we don’t know why it's here. It’s not ours for the taking.”

“Uh, yeah - it is.” Rainbow replied. “Our elements were on the door to it. Who else is it for?”

“Well I for one don’t wanna find out.” Applejack answered honestly. “At least not until we have ah better approach.”

The others began to nod their heads in agreement with the orange mare. Rainbow let out a frustrated sigh as her face turned towards one of a pouty nature.

“Fine. How do we do this the ‘safe’ way?” She asked, sarcasm lacing her voice.

“Leave that to me.” Twilight replied in a confident fashion that only an egghead could pull off.

Ten minutes later and they still had nothing. Twilight and Spike were busy trying to interpret the engravings on the pedestal the crossbow-like object was floating atop of. Pinkie was also “helping” by spouting out guesses as to what the illustrations depicted at a hundred miles an hour.

Applejack and Rarity were talking about Celestia-knows-what, leaving Fluttershy and Rainbow to lie on the cold, hard stone while they waited.

Fluttershy was content with the wait as she wasn’t all too eager to summon some sort of angry monster as she had put it earlier, but Rainbow was in agony. Well, boredom was the more appropriate word had she been anypony else.

But she wasn’t.

Five more minutes rolled around before the cyan pegasus couldn’t take it anymore.

“Alright - That’s it!” She exclaimed before getting up on all four hooves and darting over to the pedestal. “I’m grabbing this thing now!”

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight cautioned. “I’ve been looking at these engravings and they show-”

“Yeah, yeah, a warning of some grave danger.” Rainbow interrupted. “What’s this owner gonna do? Sue me for borrowed property. I just wanna try this thing out then I’ll return it.”

“No that's not-” Was all Twilight could get out before Rainbow’s hoof made contact with the blue aura.

Then the room exploded.

Not a literal explosion caused by a combustion or build up of flammable materials, but an explosion of light that was purple with a hint of blue that mirrored the same color as the aura - and torches for that matter - as it engulfed the central section of the room.

Twilight had just managed to teleport Spike, who was right beside her, and herself out of the light's path. Not even Equestria's fastest flyer had time to react as the light engulfed her form.

Somepony screamed.

It might have been Fluttershy, but it was impossible to tell with the lack of vision and a new “pulsing” sound emanating from the light.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called out, hoping that her friend was okay. “Can you hear me?!”

Silence.

No proud boasting of her success and bravery. No obnoxious taunting of the lavender unicorn’s carefulness. No “I told you so's” or “See? Perfectly Safe's.”

Just silence.

After a brief moment, the purple and blue flash died down and the girl’s vision returned. The room had returned to normal. Well, almost.

Rainbow Dash was missing...