The right end of the horizontal beam we were hanging from slid out of it's place in the strange tall pillar that held it up, and with that we all came crashing down with it. Now equally hindered by gravity themselves I felt the chains that we were tangled in loosen around my body and I struggled to free my wings to soften my landing, which by the grace of heaven I was somehow able to. Miraculously we all managed to stay in front of the beam when it fell so that it didn't crush any of us though we still fell crashing to the ground with everything in an incredibly noisy combination.

When the dust cleared, I fought to stand up and free myself from my pile of chains that weren't tightly wrapped around my body anymore. There was a new and intense sense of urgency that came with temporary freedom - finally, at least, a lead on the location of the lost foals. After a quick second to get over the shock I looked up and saw Avalanche staring at us with a kind of furious disbelief, his face locked straight on me. Thunderlane stood behind him in his own petrified state not really knowing what to do next.

The huge blue ice dragon lumbered forward and clearly he was drawing up freezing death breath in his mouth. I was like a deer in headlights and couldn't move; suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw Whitewash dart behind one of the pillars that formed the H shape we had hung from up. He rammed into it with of all his might, and when I realized what was he was doing, I suddenly leapt up into the air to help him; I flew back behind it, stopped on a dime and rammed into the pillar about half way up, putting my shoulder into the hit - joining us in ramming pillar at the same time at different levels were Clear Skies and Blossomforth, who must have freed themselves and seen what Whitewash was doing. We crashed into it almost simultaneously and I felt it crack at the base, but not quite enough to tip - not until Buddy slammed into it right after us.

Meanwhile, Avalanche had moved up close and reared back, preparing to freeze us all to death with one blast from his throat, but just before he could unleash it he looked up and saw the pillar falling down on him; he couldn't react soon enough, he moved his head just in time but it landed on the back of his neck and the weight forced his head and neck all the way the ground and his chin smacked against the cave floor. In a deafening roar of pain and disorientation he flapped his wings wildly and propelled himself backwards - crashing himself into Glacier and Tundra and sending them all into a horde of crystals and treasures.

I looked over frantically and saw the that the rest of the team was finally up and ready to go, and they went to fly away.

"No! WAIT!" I called to them hysterically. They looked at me and I pointed down at our cloaks and supplies. Not only did we need them to survive the temperatures in the valley for a longer period of time, they still had all of our supplies as well that off of the side of our backs.

I landed back down and found my cloak on the cave floor and slipped into it as fast I possibly could while the others followed suit. Avalanche seemed to be coming back to, snarling and thrashing his way through the jewels and crystals with with a vengeance.

"Time to go!" shouted Blossomforth who's head popped out of the hood in her winter coat. I helped Clear Skies into hers and made my way over to Buddy as well.

"Well done!" I told him breathlessly. Meanwhile, Blizzard this whole time had done virtually nothing besides watch us with emotional reactions but thankfully no action against us.

"You're leaving?" she asked, though we ignored her and took off as a team as Thunderlane flew up to join us, but not before looking back at Blizzard, who seemed oddly devastated to see him leaving. He hesitated giving her a glance back.

"THUNDERLANE, COME ON!" screamed Blossomforth over Avalanche's approaching roars.

"Thunderlane of Ponyville!" he said to her, "I'll be in touch!" he called back to her as he flew away with me who'd been waiting for him.

Avalanche blasted a huge stream of deadly frost breath after us that engulfed everything in its path. The last thing Thunderlane and I saw before we entered the tunnel was a huge wall of icy white steam freezing everything in its path bearing down on us.

We darted into the cave at almost full flight speed, close on the tails of our other companions. Upon entering the level of light was greatly diminished almost instantly and we were left navigating the corridor back to the valley with nothing but dimly lit crystals. Loud commotion persisted behind us, everyone knowing full well we had zero margin for error.

"Took you guys long enough!" cried Thunderlane as I weaved to the right dodged a stalactite crystal hanging from the ceiling, over the constant roars and moving dragon sounds following us everywhere.

"Sorry that it took us a second to process you flirting with a dragon!" shouted Blossomforth.

"It's called acting, I was trying to get all their attention on me so you could escape," he shot back, the rest of us weren't really paying attention as we struggled not to crash into the walls of the cave or crystals jetting out from any direction.

"You just told her your name and where we live!" she rebutted as she shifted right to barely miss ramming into a huge stalagmite.

"What's your point?"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Whitewash from the front, a rare vocalization from the stallion who immediately after saying it crashed into a cave crystal jetting down from the ceiling. It took everything I had to stop and land at his side. He was hurting as he broke the crystal on his shoulder and was slow to get up. I wrapped my front legs around him flapping us forward as hard, he beat his wings slowly at first but increased as he came back to his senses - then he picked up his own speed was able to carry himself.

We both caught back up with the group when Clear Skies and Merry May went down as well, one of them hitting the wall on a turn and the other brushing a dip down in the ceiling. I stopped again to help up the two mares while Whitewash continued forward.

"I can't hardly see anything!" shouted Merry May. The sounds of Avalanche were getting louder and louder.

"We're gonna get frozen!" screamed Buddy as a sound of furious rushing wind started to roar up from behind us.

"No were not, just fly!" shouted Blossomforth.

"In here!!" screamed Thunderlane as he darted forward and into a small dark hole in the cave that I would've definitely missed if he hadn't flown in there first. Everyone made it inside except Blossomforth and I, who was behind me. I looked up and saw Thunderlane's eyes widen with desperate horror at something behind me.

I whipped my head around to see Blossomforth lying on the ground, behind whom a wall of icy air was hissing up the tunnel. She deliriously reached her right hoof up to her head before she turned around and stared helplessly as her impending death rushed in on her, her eyes rank with the same fear that had plagued my heart for so long.

A passionate desire to save her overwhelmed in me and unable to watch her die I turned around propelled myself towards her - prompting Thunderlane to scream my name from behind me. I reached my hooves around her and we both flapped like our lives depended on it. I was barely able to lift her off the ground, but drawing strength from my feather and putting my heart and soul into every stroke up of wings I was able to somehow get us both moving in the direction of the hole in the wall where Thunderlane waited for us.

She slipped my grip as we approached the hole and fell to the ground but she had regained her senses enough to hop in. Thunderlane and I both grabbed each of her front hooves as the swirl of icy steam closed in. We dragged her into the hole and braced ourselves while the rush of freezing air blasted past... it actually made direct contact with the very tip of my tail and bleached it into a shiny light-blueish white.

The streamof deadly breath did not enter the hole but save for some intense blasts of cold air that did no actual harm to us other than make us all shiver. Suddenly thundering past the hole was Tundra, slithering through right past us. All of us were now crowded into this very small pitch black tunnel that was barely tall enough for us to stand and barely wide enough for us to squeeze through.

We were all catching our breath, though I think every one of us' heart rate remained at about a thousand beats per minute. I looked back and saw nothing but the glints in the wide eyes of all of them in the darkness except for a vague outline of Thunderlane who stood right next to me at the entrance. After a short silence that featured no sounds but our heavy breathing, Tundra came back through as we all held our breath, slithering up the way we had just come.

Suddenly we heard his movements stop.

"Anything?" asked the voice of Glacier, who we didn't even know was there. He too was some ways back, probably coming up behind his brother. We couldn't hear them very well, so we were all as silent and still as the grave to try to listen in.

"Nothing... those flying rats are a lot faster than I thought," replied Tundra.

Out of nowhere we started to feel what almost seemed like a tremor of some sort coming from above us, the cave walls around us shaking and rattling and left us looking desperately at one another for answers. It seemed like whatever it was was moving down the tunnel in the same direction we were moving though it was above us. It was like a great mass that was drilling through the mountain above us.

"Father is very angry," remarked the voice of Glacier, and we understood that must've been the noise above us, moving through a higher tunnel.

"They couldn't have gotten this far, they must've gone down one of the side tunnels back there," growled Tundra while the rest of us wondered if that meant searching our tunnel.

To our tremendous relief it apparently didn't as they slithered back down the tunnel in the opposite direction and seemed to enter different passages that we hadn't even seen or come across and the tunnel we had traveled down - the only one we were familiar with - went silent, which left us in a new deeply uncomfortable environment.

"Now what do we do?" asked the voice of Buddy in the pitch black, and I looked down the line of eyes and saw his blue ones almost at the rear furthest into this little cavity.

"This tunnel right here is the only passage we know will take us straight to the cave exit if we continue down," whispered the dark pink eyes of Merry May.

"It's so hard to navigate... and we're still far from the entrance," replied Blossomforth.

"Not necessarily," replied Thunderlane breathlessly. "This is around the area we were captured and it took us, what, maybe a half an hour to walk up the tunnel to this point? If we fly back as fast we can we could be out of here in five minutes!"

"Avalanche," I muttered, my head turned upward as I fearfully recalled his movement up there. "He's moving towards the entrance right now..."

"If that's the case then what are we doing here?!?" whispered Buddy.

"LET'S GO!" screamed Whitewash angrily.

When I felt a nudge on my rump I darted out of the hole and spread my wings, and Thunderlane was right behind me doing the same who was immediately followed by Blossom, Whitewash, Merry May, Buddy and Clear Skies. I guess being at the front of the tunnel I had no choice, and I had no more time to doubt myself.

Locking in on everything in front of me I quickly adjusted to anything jetting out or dipping down. Every second of the way my eyes studied and reacted, trying to absorb as much new information about the next fifty feet that I could with the little light that was available to me. This was even more strenuous and exhilarating than before because at least then I was in the back of the pack; now they all depended on my movements... I would occasionally make lightning quick glances back at them to make sure they were all doing ok.

"Down!" I yelled instinctively as I just barely propelled myself under a hidden rock that had come down from the ceiling. After clearing it I looked back to make sure they all made which to my relief they did, and I turned my head around and went right back to work. Occasionally I had to dodge a crystal or rock here and there, which the team then avoided, but I had a system in place that seemed to be working. I was just waiting for Tundra or Glacier to emerge from an unseen passage or an icy death from Avalanche in front of us.

"Watch out! Buddy!" I heard Merry Cry.

"Cleary - duck!" shouted Thunderlane.

"On your right!" cried Buddy to Whitewash.

Teamwork like this continued the whole way down and we pressed forward with tremendous gains in a short period that seemed even shorter with the thrill of racing Avalance in the tunnels above to the entrance of the mountain. The cave tunnel started to widen, and Thunderlane and Whitewash were now barely behind me on either side of me as we shot down the passageway with more and more speed. I kept thinking of the kids and my teammates. Just keep moving Sonic!!! Go! Go! GOO!!!

"We're almost there!" I called out as loud as I could as I recognized one of the last straightaways of our race before hitting the entrance.

"We're gonna do it!" cried Clear Skies from somewhere close behind.

"We're past him now!" added Merry May over the loud rumbles that were now behind us; we had now definitely moved ahead of Avalanche.

I looked ahead and saw the dim light getting a little bit brighter as I realized we had one last turn before the entrance to the cave would be visible. Rainbow's face was visible in my mind; it seemed like every hour was topping the last for most intense moments of my life.

Suddenly though Clear Skies and Merry May let out terrible screams. I heard the scariest roar not from the front or back, but from the side - Tundra emerged from a darkness with a gaping mouth. Immediately afterward on the opposite side there was a fierce snarl as Glacier blasted out from one of the passages we'd missed on that side.

We were flying so fast we though whizzed past them both, which surprised them, but side by side they both sent blasts of ice breath after us that curdled it's way down the tunnel that was right on our tails. Before it could freeze us though there was a sound like the mountain itself was collapsing from above us. We looked back and just barely missing us was Avalance's body thundering down from a giant black hole on the ceiling. He managed to get his body all the way through which upon falling to cave floor seemed to shake the entire mountain; his body blocked both Glacier and Tundra and the ice blasts they had both sent.

When he went to advance himself after us, however, he there was a brief narrowing in the cave that he was unable to get his body through as his queen had mentioned to Thunderlane earlier. Frustrated beyond words he thrashed and screamed. My eardrums felt like they were going to rupture and I seriously wondered if every corner of Equestria heard his roar. I turned the corner and saw the cave entrance up in front and the grey snowy valley outside.

The Wonderbolts were there at the cave entrance hovering in mid air, and their faces had nothing but fear and confusion as they spotted us thundering towards them. Spitfire was covering her ears in pain and backing away from us. We flew down the last stretch of tunnel as the thundering roar got and louder, which was initially curious considering we were getting further away from Avalanche - some other incredibly loud noise seemed to be taking over. Rocks and icicles were now falling all around us and I was wondering if even my feather could get me through the hysteria that raged through my body.

We joined up with the Wonderbolts and started to fly into the valley, but we looked up and behind us discovered a massive white cloud of rushing snow collapsing down the side of the mountain directly above us.

"AVALANCHE!!!!" cried the voice of a female Wonderbolt.

I looked up and saw my hopes and dreams falling apart at the seams... Visions of Rainbow, Scootaloo, and my childhood flashed before me in a heartbeat and just like that the giant white mountain devoured us.

Rainbow?

Yeah Sonic?

You're my favoritest pony in the whole world.

You're my favoritest pony in the whole universe, Sonic.

It felt like I was back at junior speedster flight camp. There was light all around me... I could feel it but I somehow I couldn't see it. Nor could I really see anything. I heard the sound of laughter all around me. Thunderlane's, Blossomforth's... we were all ten again. And then of course there was her voice, laughing and whispering to me.

It was almost as if I was half there and half in some other world, floating in between the two. I now saw the most brilliant sky I'd ever seen with all the colors of the sunrise whose brilliance was amplified times ten and the most dazzling and prolific sea of stars I'd ever seen.

Then there was a large cloud on which two pony-like beings stood, but they were bigger and more regal than any I'd ever seen. They were like magnificent celestial horses, each with a pair of giant wings and a glow of light that seemed to shine within their translucent bodies. They were both standing right next to each other looking down directly at me. Their expressions were difficult to explain, they were not smiling but their eyes were strong and deep, and seemed to reflect a great knowledge of me. I got no sense that they were evil, on the contrary there seemed to be great pity in them... I couldn't quite make out their faces, but on closer examination they looked strangely peculiar. They had features that almost seemed to resemble...

Suddenly they were gone, and I was getting heightened feelings throughout my whole body coming back to consciousness. My limbs at once felt colder and wetter. My sense of reality and the rest of my senses seemed to be coming back to me as I started to realized my limbs were actually freezing. I felt flow of cold air through my nostrils, and I opened my eyes to total darkness. My face was numb if not barely able to feel what felt like melting snow. I shook my head and formed a breathing cavity when I suddenly remembered the wall of snow that landed on top of me. I was buried. Apparently buried alive.

I shook and thrashed my body around as everything else came back to me, my clear thoughts, my memories... and my soaring stress and suffering as I remembered everything. I swam and swam around and formed wider gaps between my body and the snow around my limbs when suddenly a dash of light crept through the snow in front of my eyes. With a ferocious push I forced my neck upward and my head popped out of the snow. All around me was the dark snow-covered valley and a gentle but stiff arctic wind blew through my ears. On one side the mountain we were just inside towered over us, but the entrance was now mostly snow-covered from the avalanche. There were no signs of ice dragons. But there was something much worse than that; no signs of anyone else.

"NOO!!!!!" I cried, as all the horrible possibilities crept into my head. Did they leave me there? Were they all buried and died? Was the mission and my life now concluded? That meant all the little foals were lost, all of their families would never see them again, and that Rainbow herself may never be happy ever again.

I crawled out of the snow and looked around in all directions desperately, ignoring the shock of cold that still gripped my body before despair and death came crashing down on me.

"THUNDERLANE!!!" I called into the snow. "BLOSSOMFORTH!!" "RAINBOW!!!!!"

As I scanned the snow madly for any sign of anyone, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye... something black barely peaking out of the snow. I leapt over to it and examined it closer; it looked like a tail. Without thinking I grabbed ahold of it in my mouth and heaved backward. I made little progress at first, but soon saw the back end of someone though I couldn't tell given the cloak. I dug frantically around the snow so that I could reach under them and pull them up - I did so and Soarin' - the kindly Wonderbolt - emerged from the snow.

"Soarin'!" I said, looking into his face. His eyes were shut initially but now they were opening deliriously. When they opened more and he got a good look at me, they shot open with shock and confusion as he regained himself and grappled with what happened. "You alright??" I asked him.

"Not really, but I guess I'm alive," he replied, his gaze showed me some genuine gratitude. "Thanks dude."

"We gotta find the others," I told him and as I helped him stand up.

I scanned the snow all around me with extreme intensity, dismissing all the pain from the cold in various parts of my body, especially now that the wind was back it on my exposed face and ears. I knew the severity of the situation but I did my best to ignore it and stay focused, though anxieties seemed at an all time. Soarin' and I stayed close but far enough so that we could cover wider areas.

"I've got someone over here!" he shouted and I sprinted over.

He was standing over what looked like a turquoise ear sticking out of the snow. We both dug and stomped around it trying to clear out some snow but now being too rough knowing there was probably a head right there. Soarin' grabbed the ear in his mouth and pulled up gently and a snowy mane popped up through the snow alone with the turquoise head of Fleetfoot. Her eyes were closed as well, but we both dug and pulled her out together and laid her in the snow. I stuck my face right in front of hers and blew some of my breath on her nose, and her nose twitched and her eyes opened as she looked around. There was a flash of silver in the snow not too far from where I was laying with her so I walked over, bit it, and pulled.

"Gosh that's cold," said the emerging head of Thunderlane, though we were both happy to see each other. I helped him out of the snow as some other heads began to pop out of the snow all around us, with cries of stress and pain entering the air with the wind. I ran all around and helped ponies out of the snow and then moved right on to the next but I couldn't relax even in the slightest until I knew they were all accounted for, especially my team members.

Soon enough it seemed just about everyone was accounted for. Everyone except Spitfire and Whitewash. I kept my eyes open for any sign of orange or blue but naturally I was more keen to finding blue first. I looked everywhere for any sign of his tail or mane but had no luck in the immediate vicinity of everyone else. I moved further away from the mountain out into the valley and suddenly, sure enough, I saw specks of blue in the snow not too far ahead.

I ran up, bit down on his mane, and walked backward. Whitewash being a bigger-bodied stallion I had no luck at first so I started digging all around him. I moved up to where his head would've been and cleared the snow around it so he could breathe. His eyes were shut and his head hung loosely but it seemed like he was alive.

I breathed air into his nostrils and slowly his eyes opened.. they were humbled from the experience with confusion and anxiety mixed in, but regaining their strength. Then they looked at me wondrously, but when he realized what I was doing he fought and thrashed himself out of the snow, looking all around to see what had happened.

"You alright?" I asked him, looking him over for myself. He was strong willed and seemed ok, though I know to take that with a grain of salt considering how well I can hide my own emotions. He nodded, visibly shaken in his face as he knocked off the snow of his body.

"Avalanche?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "an actual avalanche, not the ice dragon."

"You're the only one that came out here?" he asked quietly, looking away though his voice seemed to reflect a kind of gratitude, which I admittedly appreciated a great deal.

"Of course," I replied.

When we got back to the group most ponies were just standing up now, moaning, shivering, shaking, and beyond miserable. I looked around for any sign of Spitfire when to the surprise of everyone her fiery mane and yellow head emerged quickly from the snow in the middle of the crowd. She seemed much more alert as though she was totally conscious the whole time, her face looked defeated and broken. As she went to pull herself out of the snow two Wonderbolts went over to help her out of it and her body went limp as she allowed them to do all the work. My heart sank though when I got a good look at her and I saw just how broken she actually was, and as the official leader of the group what that meant for the rest of us.

"Alright guys!!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "I'm not freezing to death out here for that Princess! LET'S GO HOME!"

"What?" I muttered in disbelief, too quiet to be heard by anyone. At this point I'd been let down so many times that I should've been numb to it, but the bad feelings were just as strong as they'd ever been, if not stronger considering all the things we'd been through at this point. I looked across at the group of ponies and just as I feared saw that they almost seemed relieved at her suggestion. They agreed with her. Think Sonic, think!!!

"We haven't even tried exploring the higher elevations or the tracks up there for any sign of a train car," I said. The conditions in the valley at the lowest elevations were in a state of perpetual blizzard... going up in any substantial direction would be way more dangerous of course, but we had been assured earlier there was some kind of "plan" to explore the tracks above. Spitfire was forcefully dismissive.

"We sent two scouts up there while you in the cave, and the conditions were terrible... there was no sign of the train car anywhere. We need to get out of here now or we won't survive!"

"But we can't," I continued. A public argument between the two of us was the absolute last thing that I wanted but the words came out on their own. She looked over at me with what looked like a hateful rage like I'd never seen in her - that judgmental and dismissive look I'd seen so many times that made me feel like I was worth so little... like a homeless orphan begging for food who could never deserve anyone like Rainbow Dash.

"Look..." she said, her face straightening out as though she was struggling to justify herself to herself in her head. "What happened here," she started, speaking to the whole group once again. "... is a terrible, terrible situation. I mean, I feel so bad for those-" she continued, and I definitely saw genuine pain and pity in her expression as she thought about it. "But if we stay out here much longer, we're all gonna freeze to death." She took deep, heavy breaths in between statements. "The Princesses knew this was a long shot and we had to come out here and say we tried. But let's be honest, deep down everyone here knew we never had a shot."

"No," I replied, shaking my head desperately. I couldn't hear it.

"Surprise surprise, look who's trying to be the hero again," she spat angrily with piercing eyes that caused my heart to retreat and my ears to fall.

"Spitfire," remarked Soarin' quietly, stepping towards her and shaking his head pleadingly. "That's enough."

"YOU GOT ANY BETTER SUGGESTIONS?" she screamed at him. "We have nothing left!"

The other Wonderbolts sided with her - I could feel it in my heart and I could see it on their faces. Suddenly it felt like the entire quest was shifting squarely to me on my shoulders and I was starting to comprehend how pivotal of a moment this was quickly turning to.

"You don't understand!" I pleaded. "We have a lead now."

"What?" she replied, her eyes squinting with sudden interest as the Wonderbolts looked up startled from various places in the snow.

"What do you mean?" asked a female Wonderbolt.

"Did you see them in there?" asked another.

"How we are we supposed to get back in there?" asked Fleetfoot. "The entrance is blocked off!"

"The foals aren't in there," piped up Buddy.

"Then how do you have any idea where they are?" asked a Wonderbolt stallion, as emotions were running high.

"The lady ice dragon told us that-" started Clear Skies.

"Ice dragons?" asked Spitfire.

"Yes!" I nodded breathlessly. "We w-were captured by ice dragons."

"But if the foals weren't in there, then how do you-"

"If you would just shut up and listen to us talk for a second we could-" barked Merry May.

"WHAT IS IT THEN?" yelled Spitfire.

"The queen told us they were with 'the white-eyed one'," I continued.

"It's true," said the voice of Blossomforth. She was down on her stomach breathing hard. The avalanche, nearly dying in the cave, and everything else had clearly taken a toll on her as her voice was softer and less firm than it usually is. She wouldn't be alone in that regard either. "It' s not much, but the ice dragons definitely knew about them, there's no question about that... and they wouldn't tell us more."

"They're in the valley somewhere..." I offered. "They 100% confirmed it."

"Ok..." remarked Spitfire, absorbing all of it but obviously coming to the same pessimistic conclusion. "Tell us then. Where is this 'white-eyed one'? Where do we look for him?"

Her question didn't really occur to me until just then. I had been so excited about the new information that I didn't really know how applying this new information was going to look once we got out here into the valley. But now that I actually thought about it, maybe this lead wasn't really that much to go on in practice after all. The true answer to her question was that we had no idea where this creature was nor even who or what it was. All eyes were now on me and they could all see that I had nothing to offer. And it was a torturous and sinking reality.

"W-we don't know," I muttered quietly. Rainbow... tell me what to do... you'd know exactly what to say.

"You don't know?" clarified Spitfire, shaking her head in disgust. She turned her head back to Merry May. "It's not much? It's *nothing*. You call that a lead? Where do you suggest we start looking?"

"Well, we know they are west of this cave entrance," I said, though I knew I was grasping desperately at straws.

"West of this cave," she repeated slowly with piercing eyes, talking loud over the wind and looking down the valley to the west as it disappeared into darkness. With visibility so low there was no telling how far it went. The snow had been light when we entered the cave, but now it was getting stronger. "Is that all?"

Again all eyes came to me for an answer. Now more than ever I felt like everything - the salvation of the foals, and certainly to other degrees myself and Rainbow's - rested entirely on my shoulders at this moment. I thought and thought for something more I could give them. But I had nothing, and nothing came. This is exactly what I feared going into this mission... a situation where - with Rainbow being gone - it all came down to me. Her absence I was feeling the extremes of in every negative way imaginable.

"S-so what are you suggesting then?" I asked, occasionally glancing at the rest of them - even my own team separate from the Wonderbolts seemed to be laying it all on me to convince them otherwise. "That we just-... that we just give up? We let them die out here?"

"What do *you* suggest that we do?!?" she retorted, forcefully throwing it right back to me.

"K-keep," I started, fighting back tears. "Keep looking. Search every cave, every corner of the valley. Fly up the mountains if we have to."

"Starting with where?" asked Fleetfoot dismissively.

"Anywhere!" cried Merry May and Clear Skies together.

"Look man," muttered Soarin' as the rest went silent. He stepped towards me with a look of devastated sorrow on his face. It was clear that I was fighting everyone now, and I was losing both to them and myself. "We tried our best, but- maybe... maybe it's time we... I don't wanna die out here."

"You think I do??" I screamed flabbergasted, and once again it went silent with all eyes on me as I lost control of my emotions. "I wanna go home. I'm so tired. And cold. I know how hard this has been for everyone, *believe me* I know... But if we're this miserable... then that means there's kids out there that-"

"For goodness sake," screamed Spitfire. "Quit trying to play the hero!"

"Spitfire!" cried Soarin', shaking his head with a kind of disbelieving sadness. "What has gotten into you?"

"If you had one fifth of Sonic's heart," growled Thunderlane hatefully at her, and their eyes met and it looked like they were about to fight.

"You're all dreaming. We never stood a chance! What in the world are we doing out here?" remarked Fleetfoot.

"Dreaming!!" I repeated, in full emotional collapse as I was searching every last lost-cause place for something to fight back. "What we've been doing out here all this time! We fought off the wolves with wings. We escaped from the ice dragons. Survived an avalanche. No one gave us a shot to do any of those things... If we can just save one foal... just one..."

"What are you trying to say?" scolded Spitfire, deeply offended by my remarks. "That you're better than us because you had to fight wolves and dragons and we didn't?"

Her eyes were now seething with rage. Everyone went silent and looked from her to me. Having had enough, she shook her head and walked towards me, studying every ounce of my being and judging harsher with every second, so obviously unimpressed. In my heart I knew exactly what she was wondering as she pierced my last inner fortresses. I could practically see the question itself in her eyes. I just turned my head to the side and looked down. I made a vow to Rainbow at the train station that I was now in grave danger of violating.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly so no one else could hear.

"Why don't you just ask it," I whispered looking back at her as I accepted judgment, not meaning for her to actually hear it.

"Ask *what*?"

"Why don't you just ask how it is that someone like Rainbow could ever love someone like me."

I knew the answer to her spoken question. *No one.* I accomplished so little as a foal that I was left by myself. I went years without having a single pony I could even call a real friend. I had made no money and had no accolades of any kind. I couldn't lead anybody or do anything right. I was just the opposite of everything Rainbow Dash was. Maybe now it's finally time to stop pretending.

My reply seemed to have an a strong effect on her. She was shocked at first as though it was some kind of miracle that I had read her mind, and she took several steps back in confusion, mangling with the question as though it had rocked her world. I felt Thunderlane step beside me with his wing over my shoulder. He didn't need to say anything on my behalf with words; he stood tall with a stare of defiance that was so intense it seemed to scare a Spitfire who in the face seemed to be struggling now with herself more than anyone. Suddenly I felt another pony at my side... a cream colored mare with a pink and green mane and tail.

"Sonic has been an incredible teammate. You have lost all my respect, and he has gained all of mine.. you constantly pick on him and berate him when I don't believe for a second that he had anything to do with the incident in Ponyville," said Blossomforth, who put her wing on my other shoulder and copied Thunderlane's pose.

"Well said," said Merry May, joining me at my side.

"Agreed," offered Buddy and Clear Skies at the same time, following suit.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Soarin' to Spitfire, who seemed very seriously hurt and disappointed with her; she was just silent, her mind swirling with angst, and just based on her expression, possibly regret.

"I-I don't know," she said shaking her head, staring into space. "It's just this valley... and death... and I'm so cold... "

Spitfire had given me hard a time on this journey up to this point as you well know, but I could see suddenly that she was in a lot of pain and I felt so bad for her, and I would ease it if I could.

"Guys," chimed in Fleetfoot. "There's nothing but death for us out here. We fought the good fight. We leave now or we die. Let's go home."

Every pony had tears in their eyes now as they looked at each other and around the valley defeatedly. Merry May, Clear Skies, and Blossomforth all started to sob. Buddy and Whitewash were themselves overcome with anguish, the latter unable to hide his emotions anymore. Thunderlane shook and his head and covered his face with his hooves.

"Sonic... maybe... maybe she's right. We did all we could."

No... My head hurt, my vision was getting blurry... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had failed.

"Are you coming back with us?" asked Spitfire to me.

"I can't go back..."

Fleetfoot started the movement back, dipping her head and walking somberly in the direction of the valley's entrance, before taking off into flight, and Spitfire, Soarin, and the rest of the Wonderbolts started to leave with her, nobody saying a word. I wanted to call out to them, to give them some inspirational speech that could persuade them to say and help me look for these foals, but I said nothing. I wasn't capable of things like that, that was Rainbow's job. I just sat back and fell into the snow and listened to violent winds.

"Sonic," said Thunderlane. He was the last one there with me, as the rest had already disappeared into the snow. None of them wanted to see me. Never before had I seen such pleading and begging and never before have I felt worse in my life. "I'm gonna have to live with this.... I got a little brother of my own... don't do this to me too... please come back with us... Sonic..."

I couldn't respond. My best friend besides Rainbow, a beautiful and special spirt in his own right, but I couldn't process what was happening and make words. My body was going numb and it felt like I was passing out and nearing death, paralyzed in a state of shock. Unable to look at me anymore and turned away and took off into the snow crying.

I took a few stumbling steps in the snow and tumbled over. I lied there, completely still, and my eyes closed on their own. I started to fathom that I had failed Rainbow, I had failed the foals, and they were likely all going to die out here, I was going to die out here, and Rainbow was going to miserable for the rest of her life. My memories of those foals at that train station, those innocent children and shining lights, were now my worst enemies... My spirit finally, at this time, seemed too depressed to carry on. It was all happening too fast and was too much to handle. I just couldn't take it anymore.

My energy, ability to think, even my own consciousness was free-falling... I managed to open my eyes, and once again in the sky right above were those two otherworldly horse-like beings, standing side by side and staring down intently at me. I thought vaguely about the time I saw them dreaming when I was unconscious from the avalanche and knew I must be hallucinating.

My eyes shut, and there she was - Rainbow Dash in all her glory. She was back in Ponyville with a setting sun behind her, giving me that deep look of unfailing love I used to dream about as I clutched her feather as a foal. The love I was desperate and ready to return.

"Breathe Sonic," she said.

My nostrils inhaled, and I instinctively lifted my head. The dark valley came back into view and I briefly felt the cold coming back all around my body again... involuntarily my eyes closed and my head fell again, and I saw her this time with all of the foals from the train behind her at the platform with all the beautiful pastures and blue skies in every direction. They were all looking at me, and I suppressed the thoughts that concluded I had failed them.

"Breathe Sonic!" they said together.

Another deeper inhale and I stood up fully conscious again, surrounded by snow. I took a deep breath and did my best suppress the negative thoughts. As long as I live I owe it to her, I owe it to them to keep fighting... I was deeply afraid of dying, but then I heard my name again, though now I was conscious, so how was that possible? It came was soft in tone but just loud enough to pierce through the snows.

"Sonic?" said the voice, whose which there was no mistaking.

I looked over towards the direction I heard it, and there in the gray coming towards me was a pony hooded and cloaked like I was... after a moment I saw faintly in the hood the light blue in coloration and the huge magenta eyes. Standing across from me was Rainbow herself, unlike in my dream looking every bit as cold, rugged and worn down as I was, and then some.