Chapter 1:
"Miss..." A stallion cooed to an older looking mare.
"Yes, yes. I know. We can't stay here forever, as much as our ansestors would want us to. This land is no longer providing to us as it once had." She sighed.
"What are we going to do?" The stallion quietly asked.
"Call a town meeting, midday tomorrow." She ordered.
"Yes, mayor." He said and ran off. The mayor sat down and sighed.
Everypony arrived to the called meeting. The mayor stood infront of them. She looked at the ponies and tried to hide her worry. The stallion she had been talking to the night before stood at her side.
"Ponies!" She called. In an attempt to quiet them. "My little ponies! Your attention please." She called again. Soon the room fell in to a deathly silence. "I assume that you know that our town is begining to fall. We are running out of supplies, and the mystical Luna and Celestia are no longer providing for us. We need a team of survivalists to go out and find other ponies to help us." The mayor briefly explained.
"There are no other ponies! We are the last ponies in existence! We are isolated!" One of the ponies yelled, which caused an uproar.
"Ponies! Please! Hear me out." The mayor yelled over the commotion.
"Give her a chance!" The stallion stood next to her yelled. A silvery pegasus flew to the front of the room.
"I agree. If we are to survive, it would be best to try." He reasoned. The mayor smiled. She knew this pony, but of course she knew. Everypony knew everypony here. Even the few ponies who dared to live in the surrounding mountains knew each other. This silver pegasus was named Silver Wing, a natural leader. Sometimes even better than the mayor herself. "Who's with me?" He asked. Another pegasus flew up. She was pure white. She flew next to Silver Wing. Her name was Melody Hooves, she was an excellent cook and adept at playing instruments.
"I'm in." She announced bravely. When stressed, she had a tendency to be unusually quite, but she knew all these ponies. The town blacksmith, a strong stallion named Iron Hide, climbed up on stage. He gave a smile to Silver Wing. Two unicorns, both spent most of the time in the mountains also climbed up on stage. The mare was named Snow Light and the stallion was Frozen Lightning. They tended to stick together. Lastly, a light blue pegasus flew up. She has an eye patch on her left eye, but she still managed to give a very menacing glare. This pony was the town detective, Hawk Eye. This almost stopped the timid florist from climbing on stage. She was one of the most kind ponies in the village. Her name was Flower Patch. The mayor counted the ponies, seven. The stallion looked at them and turned to the mayor and whispered something to her. She nodded and turned to the seven ponies on stage. She waved for them to follow her.
"Please sit down." She ordered. They all obliged, except Hawk Eye. "I thank you all for volunteering. I personally think there are no better ponies than you to go. Except..." She trailed off.
"Execpt what?" Snow asked.
"Except for you, Hawk Eye."
"WHAT!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" She hissed.
"My point proven. You lash out too easily." The mayor explained. Hawk Eye got ready to attack the mayor, but she knew it was best not to.
"I'll show you." She mumbled under her breath while she stormed out of the room. The others nervously looked at the mayor.
"What are we to do?" Flower Patch asked timidly.
"I am honestly not entirely sure. All I can say is to head west, take whatever supplies you want. I have to tend to the rest of the ponies. Please, leave and return as soon as you can." The mayor explained and left them to plan.
"We shouldn't leave in the afternoon. Always leave in the morning." Melody advised. Iron Hide nodded in agreement.
"I feel bad for Fleet..." Flower sighed.
"It is not our fault. Hawk Eye is insane, right Zen?" Snow said angrily. Frozen Lightning nodded.
"So we are leaving the the morning?" Silver quickly asked to avoid an argument. They all responded with a yes, execpt Iron Hide. "Steel?" He addressed Iron Hide's silence. He nodded.
"Then that settles it. Meet at Snow's house in the morning." Melody said. Snow replied with a sigh at first, but she nodded with the others soon after.
Morning came faster or them than it ever had. Of course they dreaded leaving their home. Nopony have left the village since it was started many thousands of years ago. In fact, nopony knew about the outside world. However, if anypony was qualified to lead these ponies out of their desperate need, it would be Silver. He was a natural born leader and he was never lost out in the woods. He was asked to be mayor many times, but the thrill of the woods was more important to him. He was the one pony who went out into the woods to retrieve lost ponies or help find herbs for the herbalists and doctors. Next in line was Melody. She was a chef as her primary job, but she also loved to play instruments. She would play any one, but she favored the trombone. She cooked for the ponies who don't have enough bits to pay for food, and it was common, bits were not that readily available in the village. The next two ponies are a pair. Snow and Zen. Snow lived and grew up in the mountains all her life. She and her family often got frost bitten. Over the years she found a special mixture of herbs and techniques to cure frost bite. Zen was the town messenger he was one of the only ones who was willing to go to the mountains. He got lost in the snowy mountains in a blizzard. He has severe frost bite on both of his hind legs. Luckily, he found Snow and she nursed Zen back to health, and he was able to keep both his hind legs. Since then they were almost always together. Next was Steel. He was one of the best black smiths the village has seen. He was quite, but passionate about his work. Some believe he was dumb, that he couldn't speak. However, once in a while he spoke. His hooves were burned from the hot metal he works with daily. He had a pretty good skill with this. He was very strong. The last pony was the timid Flower. She was friends with everybody, but had a tendency to be scared of everything, but she knew how to treat wounds. Flower was the town's florist, but she was also the herbalist. They all went to Snow's house, it was the house furthest west. She let them in.
"Everypony got everything?" Silver asked. The rest nodded, too petrified to say anything. "The mayor has given us each a gift. He set a sack down and pulled out six identical bands. They had the crest of the village stitched into them. "She told us to wear them." Silver said and passed them out. Flower inspected hers a little more.
"These-these bands..." She started.
"What, Flower?" Silver asked.
"They are reserved to be given to only the most important and richest. They are hard to make." She said.
"We are important." Zen pointed out. Flower shook her head.
"No, I can't accept this. This does not belong to a poor florist." She said. Melody sighed.
"Listen, this is weird for all of us, but you have to toughen up." She advised.
"Melody is right, this task is the most important thing this whole village needs. This band is to singnify that you are from this village and you are an important part." Silver explained. Flower still refused to wear it. However, she gently set it in her saddle bag.
"Let's go." Snow reminded them. Silver nodded.
"Our westward journey." Silver sighed. They opened the door to the snowy mountain tops and began their long journey.