I leapt up beside Clear Skies at her declaration and stared intensely in the direction of where she was looking. Straight up ahead of us where the mountains started their fierce climb upward was what appeared to be a large, dark opening in the rest of the steep snow-covered slopes. I was struck with both hope and relief at the sight of it - the prospect of finding the missing foals - as well as fear and uncertainty of what waited inside.

Almost immediately the rest of everyone appeared in a line on either side of Clear Skies and me. The few Wonderbolt members were to the right of Clear Skies' shoulder while the rest of our local team appeared at the left of mine, all looking on with the same unspoken feelings I had. After trading some soulful looks, in a disorganized sequence we all spread our wings and glided up to the entrance. It was a relatively large entrance - maybe thirty yards wide and thirty yards high - but inside was pitch black, and if anything, with help from Blossomforth's lighted flare, it seemed to shrink down even smaller as it moved into the mountain. Though I was eager to go in there, I had to take a minute to come to terms with my inner terror staring into the blackness and I required a lot of encouragement from the feather behind my right ear.

"N-now what do we do?" asked Buddy. I'm glad he got the ball rolling; we couldn't waste any more time.

"We don't know if they're in there obviously... but this is the best lead we have," remarked Blossomforth uneasily. "This cave is under the range the railroad runs over... the tracks are up there somewhere," she said, as we all turned our heads almost straight up to see the mountain disappearing into the dark and snowy wonder above us.

"We should go get Spitfire then. Let's all get her together and then come back. Or you all could wait here while we go back and get her and the rest of the team," Soarin' proposed. Though the thought of reuniting with the captain was unpleasant for them the rest of the team seemed to reluctantly accept this position given that more numbers seemed to be a comforting thought. But I had my own objections to that plan.

"With every minute that goes by those foals' chances decrease," I pleaded to them with a heavy heart, remembering their helpless cries in my dreams. All my thoughts were bent on delivering them from that being. To me it seemed true that every minute we spent going to get Spitfire was an extra minute of helplessness for those foals, each one closer to their death than the last. I couldn't bare the thought of standing here or even leaving when I could be going inside. Most of them seemed to respond this tenderly to my concerns with conflicted expressions, Soarin' among them. "Someone has to go in there now and at least scout it out. Those foals are desperate to see someone."

"We could go in first... while you guys go and get Spitfire," offered Thunderlane, motioning to Soarin' and his team. "Then you catch can up to us from behind."

Soarin' sighed with stress, looking back to the south before coming back to the cave nervously. Whitewash shook his head, chuckling with contempt.

"So are we really about to go in here by ourselves again without the Wonderbolts?" asked Whitewash, glaring at Soarin'. "Once again, we're the ones doing the dirty work."

"Yeah... " Blossomforth added in cold agreement. "But after all, we did interrupt their break time."

"Look..." replied Soarin', defensively but not angrily. "You know that I don't give the orders, so I could really do without the comments. She assumed that you were going to take a rest on your own-"

"Well we didn't take a break on our own," she interrupted. "We didn't get oats like you guys did. We got wolves... with wings. It's a miracle we're ok. We just barely got a break underneath that tree and then you showed up-"

"Guys," I pleaded, desperate to end this fighting in the most humble tone I could muster. I really knew where my team was coming from having been through it all with them, but I knew that unity between the two groups was essential and I was willing to bear anything for the sake of those foals. "I understand your frustrations but I just don't know how fruitful these discussions are right now."

Blossomforth and Whitewash both turned their eyes off and away from anyone.

"Alright," muttered Blossomforth. "Let's make an official decision here, because Sonic is right - time is precious and we have to make decisions fast," she said in a tone that still seemed to be demanding the respect from Soarin' and his team.

"We don't even know what's in here," remarked Whitewash.

"But that's why we should go in though!" cried Clear Skies. "The kids could be in there!"

"Ok... for the sake of being emotionally prepared can we all agree that there's a good chance that this may be an ice dragon cave, and if not that then something just as bad?" asked Thunderlane. My heart recoiled in fear knowing he was right, and I didn't seem to be alone.

"Remember the Princess told us that there's a good chance they'll be in a cave or something," added Merry May quietly, reassuring everyone that we had no choice but to go in.

"It's stupid to speculate about what we're gonna do when we get in there if we don't know what's in there," asserted Blossomforth. "Our choice of action here is obvious; we go in and make it up as we go along according to whatever we find."

"I think we should go in fast but quietly," I offered gently. "Whatever is in there, we have a better chance of saving those kids if it doesn't know we're there."

"Fine," said Soarin', conceding defeat. "If you guys wanna go in now, I'll leave these four with you and I'll go alone to get Spitfire."

"But what if something attacks you on your way there?" offered the deeply concerned Buddy, who still looked very frightened yet his advice showed he was thinking clearly. "Those wolves could be right there still. You don't wanna go alone."

Soarin' sighed again with huge reluctance, looking back into the shadowy patch of trees that disappeared quickly into the dark and snow, mostly because he knew Buddy had a point. He traded looks with the ponies on either side of him. I was touched with Buddy's concern, considering he was forfeiting the comfort of extra ponies for the sake of another despite being the most visibly frightened pony here.

"Ok... We'll go back and get her ourselves. Then we'll come straight back and come in after you guys provided nothing else happens," Soarin' offered, seemingly regretting his own pronouncement.

The rest of us looked at each other in silence. Despite our differences we didn't want to go in without them, but we couldn't afford to waste more minutes. Though none of us said anything, there was a reluctant and silent agreement with the plan among everyone. All of their eyes seemed to weary of that dark cave behind us. I didn't want to rush them - I had all the same feelings they did. But I knew Rainbow would already be in the cave if she were here, so I turned around to face it hoping to encourage action.

"Fine," muttered Blossomforth. "But don't give yourselves away when you come in. Be quiet and fast."

"Before we go... I want all of you to know," said Soarin', speaking for his companions as well. "That all of you have all of my respect. We'll be as quick as possible, we promise. Without compromising your positions."

No one vocally acknowledged his compliments though I think all of us appreciated them. It didn't seem like they could amount to much in terms of comfort, I think that any bit of confidence no matter the degree was deeply beneficial for us. I nodded my head and thanked him with my expression as best I could while the rest of us turned around, drawing strength from each other. It was time to enter the cave and face whatever was in here. Do you know what thing that I was the most afraid of finding in here? Nothing.

Not far past the entrance to the cave the walls had quickly closed in around us so that the corridor was much narrower, probably now about ten yards wide and maybe ten yards tall, and we had only Blossomforth's lit orange flare to guide us. The walls were a dark and wet though there were occasional icicles or some of crystal like substance coming down the walls. It was actually not as cold in this cave as it was out in the valley, not even close - one of the only plus sides, no icy wind to chip away at your morale.

We tried flying down the tunnel at first, but it was difficult to see and there were unexpected turns and stalagmites hanging down from the ceiling and we couldn't fly without relying on so much light from Blossomforth's flare that it could give us away to anything in here. So we had all slowed down to a fast, stealthy walk that allowed us to hide some of the light in Blossomforth's bag. The width of the cave now was just wide enough for the seven of us to walk shoulder-to-shoulder beside each other. Starting from the right side it was Buddy and Clear Skies, and to their left was Merry May and Blossomforth, who I was beside. To my left was Thunderlane and Whitewash. The ceiling height of the passage in this area was maybe five or six ponies tall.

We'd barely talked thus far. I was curious again to know how they were feeling, if they were as scared as I was. The feather, the adrenaline and the recurring image of those foals' smiling faces kept me moving forward. I was so worried about them and about Rainbow Dash, who swore to meet us out here. She can handle herself, I thought to myself. My job right now is to look after my team members and save those kids. It's amazing I kept it together considering how torn my mind and heart were in so many ways. Not only that, I was fighting to suppress certain thoughts, like the thought of getting to those kids whom I loved so much too late, or the thought of my incompetence damning one of my team members. Or the thought of never seeing Rainbow again.

Without making it too obvious I tried to glance at them. Buddy and Clear Skies were scared but they aided each other and kept moving forward. Merry May had very quiet, but she always had a determined look on her expression. I could tell that she had an emotional investment with some of these foals.

Again I found myself wishing there was something I could say to encourage them. I was desperate to help them. I didn't like that we weren't talking - this cave was strangely and disturbingly quiet aside from dripping noises. I wanted to say that I loved them or something. But none of us knew what was coming - maybe that was part of our silence. Rainbow of course would've known exactly how to handle this situation. As I was about to speak up, Thunderlane beat me to it.

"Well, I wanted an adventure. Can't say this is quite what I had in mind," he whispered sadly to the rest of the group. "How long do you think since we entered? Twenty minutes? Thirty?"

"That sounds about right, I'd say," shot back Clear Skies in a whisper.

"How long do you think we should keep going?" he asked. "We have no idea where this cave goes. For all we know it could go all the way through to the other side or something."

"Maybe we should speed up," I suggested, eager to discover something and getting nervous.

"Does it seem to be getting lighter?" asked Buddy quietly. Up ahead there seemed to be more crystals and icicles hanging down from the ceiling that the light could reflect through.

"I think it's the light from the flare going through the ice, or whatever those things all are," said Blossomforth, looking at her flare. It had been going for a while now, and it occurred to me that it might not have much longer based on what Princess Luna had said about their longevity.

"Ok, I know this kind of off topic but did you guys ever read that book series Wings of Pyre?" asked Thunderlane, continuing the hushed-voice trend.

"Huh?" whispered Whitewash in a confused tone and with an even more confused look.

"Yeah. Why?" whispered Blossomforth.

"What did you think of the ending of the forth book?" inquired Thunderlane, to the bewilderment of many of us including myself. "Weren't you disappointed by it?"

"You must be joking," said a disbelieving Blossomforth. "We're risking our lives trying to save some kids right now and you're thinking about *that*?"

"Of course I'm thinking about the kids," shot back Thunder in an angry whisper. "I've been thinking about them this whole time. I'm just nervous and trying to relax a little bit. We think better when we're relaxed, and we've got nothing else to really do right now," he offered. I could definitely see where he was coming from, even if I struggled to actually comprehend how I could think about anything else. "But really... the author had it set up for a like an epic fight between the two tribes and then when the volcano erupted they suddenly went all pacifist and 'set aside their differences' for like no reason."

"Did you even read the fifth book?" asked Blossomforth. "Because you if you had, which you clearly didn't, you know how stupid you sound - wait a minute, tell me again why we're talking about a book series right now?"

"I've been in situations like this five times before, it's good to think about other things and relax-" started Thunder.

"When have you ever been in this situation before?" asked Whitewash angrily, but in a whisper.

"Ok fine, I haven't. I'm just trying to keep up morale," he offered back, at which several team members sighed.

Before anyone could respond though, there was a sound up ahead of us. We all stopped. It sounded like a squeal or a high-pitched whine of some kind. There was no telling how far it was in front, but it couldn't have been too far up ahead. It didn't sound very big, nor did it sound like a pony. If anything it sounded like the yelp of a young animal or something. But any noise was a great interest to us, and all of our ears were pointed firmly ahead. It proved that we were not alone in this cave.

"What was that?" muttered Buddy.

"Shhh!" hushed Blossomforth.

We waited a few more seconds for more noise, but nothing came.

"Maybe we should put the flare out," suggested Merry May.

"Then we won't be able to see anything," said Blossomforth.

"I think - I think there's like a natural light in these crystals and we might actually be able to see without the flare," I heard myself say in the quietest voice I could muster. "If anything at all it seems to have gotten the tiniest bit brighter. There is a natural light in here, however dim it may be."

"Look," said Whitewash. We saw his eyes pointed towards a spot in the cave walls. It was a small hole a few feet wide and pitch black on the inside.

"There's another one back here too," said Buddy, looking backwards on a wall we'd already walked past.

"What do we do?" asked a worried Clear Skies.

We all huddled together and looked nervously in front of us.

"We have to keep going," I cried anxiously, sympathetic to their fears as one racked with tons of it myself.

Then, suddenly - to the shock and terror of everyone - there was a small yelp directly behind us. It was a terrible jumpscare and with loud gasps we shot forward and whipped around simultaneously. I flew forward several feet before I turned around. We froze together and saw what looked like a baby dragon-like creature staring up at us with innocent and seemingly harmless curiosity. It wasn't big at all - smaller than us - its eyes were not quite on our level. I wondered if it was big enough to hurt us if it wanted to, and sported shiny talons on its claws. After the initial fear and shock subsided (and the lack of any attack from the baby dragon). Somehow - miraculously - no one in the group let out a loud or distinct yell that could echo down the cave chambers, and that includes me and Buddy.

We looked nervously at each other, not knowing what to do. We came back to the ground and huddled up together once again, watching it frightfully. Thankfully, it didn't do anything other than continue its curious staring. It was actually somewhat pony-like. Its general body was similar to a pony's in that it had four legs, a similar chest and back, and it had a neck and snout that resembled a pony, though its snout was longer a little longer and narrower than a pony's, and a few small white fangs were visible even with its mouth closed. It had a large eyes and a tail that was almost as a long as the rest of its body, in that way it differed from a pony and appeared more slender and serpentine. Its body was a bluish grey, and it had white silvery spikes on the top of its head that ran down its neck and spine. Its wings were the same color as its body. Its eyes were the same color as Thunderlane's.

"Is that... an ice dragon?" asked Clear Skies.

"It looks like a... baby, or toddler, or... whatever they call young really dragons," said Blossomforth.

"Dragonets?" offered Merry May.

"If it's a baby, then where are its parents?" asked an alarmed Clear Skies, a dark reminder that caused us all to look nervously down the cave.

The dragonet continued to look at us. We were all wondering if it was dangerous or not. It seemed to have no predatory instincts or malevolence in its eyes; just wondering and youthful curiosity. Suddenly it raised its snout and let out a high pitch yelp that confirmed it was what we'd heard before. It caught us by surprise, and its small cry though not penetrating or powerful traveled a little ways down the cave in either direction. There was no sign of Spitfire or the rest of the team right behind us, though they might not have been far behind.

"Hey little guy," said Thunderlane, shaking with nerves along with the rest of us. "It doesn't look evil... right?" he whispered to us.

The dragonet's wandering eyes locked onto Thunderlane and stayed on him, which I could feel caused his anxiousness to jump somewhat. It started to walk up slowly to him and he huddled closer to the group though he kept smiling nervously at it.

"Hey little guy!" he repeated, though we were all scared now, and I wrapped my front leg around his shoulder for support, even though it didn't look like it was angry or about to attack. It turned its head and then to the shock of us all, it nipped at Thunderlane's chest and then buried its head into him playfully.

He seemed surprised at first - we all were - but then he laughed with a tickled disbelief.

"Hey there," he said more comfortably. "Oh that's cold. Must be an ice dragon," he whispered. "Just keep that frosty breath off me and we're cool. Wait, that's not the right way to put it."

Without any warning (and to our shocking surprise yet again) the dragon laid itself into him forcefully and pushed him back onto the ground, batting at him with its claws though not harming him with its talons. This all started happening and the rest of us watched in disbelief not knowing what to do. It didn't seem to be hurting him in any way. Thunderlane - still a bit confused - tried to get up at first but then realized the dragonet was just playing with him and nipping and yelping harmlessly.

"I think it likes you," I remarked with a smile.

"I'd say so," replied Blossomforth, shaking her head. "Geez, it kinda even looks like you. Maybe thinks you're related to it."

She was right; it did have an odd resemblance to him. Not only did it have his eyes, its bluish gray was close to Thunderlane's charcoal gray and its spikes were roughly the color of Thunderlane's mane and tail. He started to laugh as he wrestled with the dragonet on the cave floor, and at the sight of this undeniably cute (and unexpected) image I forgot for a short moment this terrible dilemma.

"My gosh... it does look like him," commented Merry May.

"Hehe," chuckled Clear Skies. "Maybe they are related and this is all a scheme to feed his family."

Thunderlane stopped and looked at all of us. I shook my head while the others raised their eyebrows, maybe entertaining the idea or just trying to tease him. He seemed somewhat horrified at the suggestion as he got up off the ground while the dragon continued to try playing with him.

"Wait," he said, chuckling with embarrassment. "You're not saying that I- that me and some lady ice dragon are-"

"Well, you've never had a girlfriend. A pony girlfriend anyway," muttered Blossomforth with merciless smugness. "Maybe this explains it."

"Oh, very funny, million laughs," replied an unamused Thunderlane, though the other team members including myself and even Whitewash couldn't hold back at least faint smiles. Clear Skies was laughing.

"I don't know how you would get in the mood for kids in here," uttered Whitewash, at which Clear Skies, Blossomforth, and Buddy all chuckled.

"Oh sure, now he finally makes a joke," rebutted Thunderlane, now even more annoyed. He ignored them and to the delight of the dragonet started showing attention to it again.

"Shhh," hushed Blossomforth.

Continuing the trend of surprises and our team being caught off guard, at another sound we whipped around towards the direction of the cave we were heading - the direction we were trying to get to - and two more dragonets (looking very similar to the first, if not almost identical) appeared and immediately joined up with the first one. They briefly looked over Thunderlane and then quickly began playing and yelping with him and each other, ignoring the rest of us. Thunderlane now seemed to be all at once a mixture of shocked and mildly uncomfortable but also proud and happy with his friendly status among baby ice dragons.

Blossomforth, however, couldn't let it go.

"Geez, Thunder... you've been busy-"

"WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT?" he suddenly bellowed.

His yell - much louder than any other noise we'd made by far - echoed loudly down through the cave so that we were all left in a frozen, uncomfortable stillness while we listened to the echo go further and further. Thunderlane in particular had a look of horror as he sat up off the ground (though the dragonets didn't seem to mind) and listened to his voice over and over again as it faded away. Any relaxed feelings of mine were now gone.

"You moron!" whispered a furious Blossomforth when the echo finally subsided.

Suddenly there came from up in front of us a snarl that sounded like it belonged to something much bigger than these dragonets, who at the sound of this all stood up and looked anxiously down the cave.

"What have I done?" muttered Thunder to himself, and I felt very bad for my friend and I sought to comfort him somehow.

"What do we do now?" asked a terrified Buddy. I thought long and hard, trying to resist the crippling fear and think clearly in spite of the moment.

"You've blown our cover," uttered Whitewash as we all stared up in front of us. There was a sound like movement from something large coming down the cave in our direction. We froze like deer. All I could think about was Rainbow and Scootaloo.

"Send the Wonderbolts back," muttered Blossomforth, covering her eyes with her front hooves before looking over at Thunderlane grievously. "Send them back!"

Thunderlane, looking wrought with angst, turned around and put his hooves on either side of his mouth.

"Go back!!!" he yelled down the passage we had come up. "GOOO BAAAACK!!!!!"

"Put out the flare!" I told Blossomforth, who turned her eyes to her saddle back. She reached into it and pulled it out just as sparks started flickering from the tip, indicating its imminent death. She spat it out on the ground and started stomping it out with her hooves. The light around us dimmed but we still could see each other because there was some other faint light from the crystals keeping the cave just lit enough that we could still see several feet in any direction. The dragonets had disappeared. After that we huddled together and faced the darkness in front of us. My heart rate skyrocketed and the despairing dread of failure shot through me. Think, Sonic! For the love of Rainbow and Scootaloo, think!!! I went to look at up the stars to ask their help but the only ceiling above me was dark, wet, and starless.

"Let's get out of here," said Whitewash, as we all started to back up with our eyes locked ahead.

"I don't think so," muttered a deep and gravelly male voice from behind us.

Most of us cried out at the sound of it and blasted ourselves forward in terror. We whipped around and saw a much larger dragon that looked very similar to the dragonets blocking our escape, but his scales were lighter and more bluish, and he had icy blue eyes. His head on top of an upward-extending neck was about halfway between the floor and the ceiling, maybe three stallions tall. His neck and tail were also a little longer proportionately to the rest of his body, giving him an even more serpentine appearance. Also contrary to the dragonets, this dragon's eyes were more intelligent and decidedly unfriendly accompanying an arrogant smile.

We huddled together and backed away from him as he stood still - menacingly consistent in his expression. I was in the front middle of our group and instinctively my wings were spread out shielding the rest of them; as a group we went to turn around and head up other direction but we were suddenly face to face with another almost-identical-looking dragon as it snarled us into a freeze, causing most of us to scream. We were now stuck between two smirking and impassable dragons on either of us, completely and utterly helpless.

"You will make a nice gift for our father," laughed the first dragon we encountered, blocking the only way out we knew of. The other dragon lowered its head to our level and stuck its snout right up to us, foremost poor, shaking Buddy who now had his eyes closed. The dragon closed its own eyes and breathed deeply through its large nostrils.

"Why would we take them to him when we could have them to ourselves?" he asked, sporting a similarly dreadful voice. The more they talked the younger they sounded, almost like dragon teenagers or something.

"You're his favorite right now," snapped his apparent brother. "If we are lucky, he will share them. He'll be very pleased with us."

"Or he will give them to our mother," said the other dragon as though that were a bad thing and lifting his head over up and over us towards his brother. "Who will just want to play with them."

"I found them first," snarled the first dragon.

"I heard them first," hissed his brother. Though frozen with terror, I suddenly had the conscious thought that while it might naturally seem good if they started fighting over us (one dragon is better than two, and in theory we could slip away while that happened), we couldn't afford to let them fight over us here standing in between them as we'd be caught in the crossfire... or cross-ice.

"You thought it was our little brothers," replied the first dragon.

"They were just here, you heard them," argued the second one, before he once again brought his toothy and most unsettling grin back to us. "Tell me my little ponies, did you see any of our little brothers here just now? They would only be a bit smaller than yourselves," he asked.

"I smelled them," hissed his brother before any of us could talk, leading one closer to us to snarl as his only reply. I had to think that I sided with the first dragon. I don't know what he meant by giving us as a "gift" but all of my intuition told me that it was as a meal. This led to the terrible and unbearable thought that perhaps the dragons had done, well... you know what to those foals. But it also meant maybe they were still alive and being saved for later, as the Princess had suggested.

"Fine," said the second dragon, angrily conceding. "But you must tell our father that we both found them."

"Agreed," he muttered, reluctantly.

Following that he turned his eyes back on us and smiled disturbingly as he walked forward slowly, as though we were all in for a wicked future. I was scared, but at least I was alive, and would be kept alive for a little longer. As long as I was alive, and as long as those foals were still alive, there was hope.

"Why are you so afraid?" he asked, though nothing about him suggested we didn't have a reason to be afraid.

"One of them called to someone," said the second dragon to this brother. "Someone behind them. Did you see them?"

"No, as a matter of fact I did not," replied the first dragon, twisting his head around and looking down the tunnel. He chuckled to himself and eventually turned his entire body in their direction and then took a deep inhale, rearing back and spreading his wings across the width of the cave. All of us watched in horror as a stream of icy mist poured from his mouth and shot down the tunnel away from us. Ice dragons don't breath fire, I learned. Instead it's some kind of freezing death breath. The only comforting thought was that his breath couldn't have traveled that far, and the Wonderbolts - provided they were even close enough to hear Thunderlane's warning - had plenty of time to retreat.

The first dragon turned back around and smiled to his brother, motioning him forward. He turned his body around and kept his head turned so that he could look back at us with a discomforting beam. His brother - the one blocking our way out - walked forward slowly and kept lowered his head, matching his brother's expression. The idea was clearly for us to start moving with both brothers escorting us to their parent's lair - wherever that was, deeper into the mountain - and thinking it quickly all the way through, to me this seemed to be our only option. Trying to escape from them like this seemed stupid.

With no other option, at the dragons' reckoning we submissively started to move along as a herd. The way it played out I was in the back of our group now, and I was wrought with fear and fiercely desired Rainbow's comforting presence. But I hadn't given up yet. I started wondering about possible plans. Maybe we can negotiate our way out... or maybe we can get them to fight over us during which we slip away from them... hopefully with the foals...

"You privileged few," said the first dragon from behind us. "You get to meet our entire family."

Yet again I found myself wondering what to do and what to say to them, and once again - to my great sorrow - I was drawing a blank. Rainbow would know what to do... I could tell they were scared like me, I just wanted to help them so badly... I will help you all as best I can...

"Sonic," suddenly whispered Blossomforth back to me, as quiet as possible and with urgent eyes that refused to look back at me. "Where's Thunderlane?"