This fanfiction is intended to be a proof-of-concept for ideas that could be used for in the future for Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise; therefore, the author of this work hereby grants Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media, express, written permission to use, create derivative works of, sell, claim as their own intellectual property, and in general take any action they see fit with all and any content of this fanfiction, including, but not limited, to narration, dialog, story elements, story events, names of characters, names of fictional locations, names of fictional objects, fictional properties assigned to objects that exist in real life, character traits and backstories, worldbuilding elements, lyrics, and fictional magic spells. The author of this work relinquishes all and any intellectual property rights for all and any content of this fanfiction work to Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media.

The sensation of tumbling through space can hardly be described. Twilight felt like she couldn't move or breathe, but also like she didn't need to do either. The transit from Ponyland to Unicornia took a few minutes, and while Twilight knew she was travelling at impossible speeds of thousands of miles per second, she felt like she was hardly moving at all. She had a faint sensation of tiny stones or particles of dust flying through her...or maybe she was flying through them, and it kind of looked like rain while she was in flight-but it didn't feel like rain. It didn't feel like anything. For that matter, she felt neither cold nor warm-neither caged nor free, neither afraid nor safe, almost neither alive nor dead.

Suddenly, the round circle of Unicornia, which was just a tiny dot in the night sky when you looked at it from Ponyland, grew larger and larger until it rushed, almost exploded, at them and covered their whole field of vision-it was almost as if a huge predator had come out of nowhere and gobbled them up!

The next thing Twilight knew, she was looking up at an evening sky, with what seemed like a box canyon around her, and she was gasping for air. Shining Armor and Applejack were in the same position, picking themselves up and breathing heavily. Applejack growled, "What have you gotten me involved in THIS time, Twilight?!"

Twilight stammered, "A bear was going to eat my brother! What was I supposed to do? We had to get away from him somehow!"

Shining Armor gasped. "But we didn't get away from him!" Applejack and Twilight looked at what he was looking at, and to their shock and horror, the same spell that had whisked them to another world had also whisked the grizzly bear along with them. He was again closing in on them with mouth watering, and in that box canyon, there was nowhere to run.

Twilight sniffled. "I'm sorry, Shining Armor...I tried!"

"We both did," he answered softly.

"OY!"

That loud cry gave the three ponies and the bear pause. There was a yellow glow coming from a bush on the other side of the bear, still inside the box canyon, but how that glow was happening, they couldn't tell.

The same voice continued, in a very disciplinarian tone and an accent they were unfamiliar with, "You don't eat ponies! It's not noice!"

The bear turned around and began making noises back at this yellow glow.

As if involved in a conversation with this bear, the first voice answered, "I don't care 'ow delicious one of 'em smells! 'ow would your mum feel if, when you was a cub, some big monster thought you smelled delicious and gobbled you up?"

The bear let out a few grunts of sadness, then seemed to protest further, but with less enthusiasm in his voice.

"If you're 'ungry, there's a meadow full of delicious pine nuts just south of 'ere. They don't have any mums or dads who'd be crying themselves to sleep if you ate them!"

Chastened, the bear walked away with his head down for a little while, then perked up and began running toward the exit of the box canyon with glee, his mind full of the thought of delicious pine nuts in his belly.

Shining Armor couldn't help but follow the bear a little ways, to see if he was really going to leave them alone. And surprisingly, he really was! It was as if that bear had forgotten all about them! But just who was it that had just saved them?

He turned toward the bush where he thought the glow had come from, slowly walked towards it, and said, "Hey...whoever you are, thanks for saving our lives!"

But with an abruptness that made him jump back, the voice screamed, "Don'tcomeanyclosertomeeeeeeee!"

A tense silence gripped them all. Shining Armor finally answered, "I...I won't, but...why not?"

"Because there's a 'orrible curse on me!" the voice whimpered back.

Twilight pulled her saddlebags back onto her back, walked slowly toward the bush, and softly asked, "What kind of curse? I've read up on a lot of magic, but this is the first time I've heard of a curse!"

The voice let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a sob, then answered, "There's...just something about me that causes any pony 'ho lays eye on me to 'ate me!"

There was silence for a moment, then Applejack asked, "There's something about you that makes other ponies want to eat you?"

"Not eat me...h-h-hate me! I'm sorry, I 'aven't 'ad to speak with ponies in so long, I've clean forgotten all I learned in school about 'ow to pronounce words!"

"So...you're a pony?" Shining Armor asked. "How did you make that golden glow happen?"

"It was just me 'orn magic!" the voice whimpered.

"Your...horn-magic?" Twilight asked, starting to see a pattern to her speech; "h" was apparently silent for her. "...So you're a unicorn?"

"Y...yes," she feebly answered.

There was silence for a moment. Then Twilight said, "I have an idea!" She pulled her tomato-red rain cape out of her bag. "Listen...if it's seeing you that triggers the curse, then...what if you wore my cape? It's got a big hood-the cape is magic, so it's supposed to be able to hold pretty huge hairstyles-so it'll probably hold your horn; it should fit. In fact, if you have the hood up, you'll look like an earth pony, just like the three of us..."

Twilight waited for the unicorn to ask what she meant by "earth pony", but she didn't ask. She was just silent.

So Twilight instead asked, "So...is it okay if I set this cape down on top of your bush, and then we'll turn around while you put the cape on?"

After a moment, she heard a sniffle, and the unicorn whispered back, "Okay..."

Twilight slowly stepped up to the bush, which began trembling, and shook more and more the closer Twilight got to it. It was scary just how frightened this poor unicorn was of her! But Twilight said nothing, and just laid her prized cape on top of the bush, took a few steps back, then turned around.

Applejack and Shining Armor also turned their backs to the bush, and Shining Armor said, "Okay-it's safe to come out and put the cape on."

They heard some rustling as she stepped out of the bush and slid the cape on, and they heard the rumple of waterproof fabric as she pulled the hood up over her head. After a moment, she whispered, "Okay...you can turn around now...I 'ope...!"

The three of them did, and saw a trembling, crouched-down figure, looking at them with terrified, uncertain eyes. They couldn't quite see her face; it was shrouded in shadows under the hood, but they could see when her mouth or eyes moved. Her eyes darted from pony to pony, and her lips quivered a little as if she were about to begin crying at any moment. It was a pitiable sight, and hurt all the more because this unicorn was afraid of them, even though they meant her no harm and felt nothing towards her but gratitude for saving their lives!

After a few moments of silence with her huddling by the ground and them staring at her in pity and confusion, she whimpered, "Do you 'ate me?"

Twilight shook her head. "No. Not even a little."

There was another pause; it was so hard to know what to say to this unicorn; she looked so fragile, like she was about to burst into tears or run away at the slightest emotional prodding. Twilight thought to herself that it was astonishing that she wasn't afraid of a grizzly at all, but she was terrified of other ponies!

"What's your name?" Twilight asked softly.

"Fluttershy," she answered weakly. She didn't say another word, and just stared at Twilight in fear.

Twilight felt like she had to avoid that gaze, so she looked at the ground and stammered, "My name is Twilight, and this is my brother Shining Armor, and...and his best friend's sister, Applejack. We're...well, we're explorers from Ponyland, and we more-or-less ended up on Unicornia by accident." She blushed a little. "You see, there's this magic spell I found that lets a pony teleport herself and her party to another world, and I'd like to use it to get the three of us back to Ponyland, but...well, we'll need to buy a gem to use the spell. Can you tell us where we can find a town that has a gem dealer?"

Fluttershy swallowed hard. "I...I know the way, but...but...but it's got so many twists and turns...I couldn't just tell you 'ow to get there; I'd need to take you to Canterlot myself!"

"...Can you take us there? Please?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy whimpered. "That's where I grew up, and all the ponies there were so mean to me!"

"They won't recognize you," Shining Armor assured her. "When you're under that cloak, they'll think you're another earth pony, like us!" After a pause, Shining Armor added, "I hate to ask you to do something that scares you, but...well, our only chance to get home is to get to a city where we can buy a mountain ruby, and if we don't make it back home within about 48 hours...our family is going to lose their home."

Fluttershy gasped when she heard this. "Oh...I..." She swallowed hard. "I'll show you the way. But...we won't get there before dark; we'll need to stop in a cave for the night...I know that cave well; I shelter there all the time..." After a moment's hesitation, she began trotting out of the box canyon, and the three earth ponies began to follow her.

After a few minutes of moving through unfamiliar wilderness with unfamiliar trees, unfamiliar grasses, and even unfamiliar stones, Twilight decided to ask their guide a little more about herself. She trotted a little faster for a few seconds so that she was walking alongside Fluttershy, but when Fluttershy turned and saw her there, Fluttershy seemed to shrink back into the hood of her cloak, terrified.

Twilight gasped, not sure how to react. Finally, she said, "I...I still don't hate you...I'm not going to hurt you..." After another pause as Fluttershy seemed to calm down a little, Twilight asked, "Do you...live out here in the wilderness?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"That's so that you don't meet any ponies?"

Fluttershy nodded again.

"But...how can you survive when you're always all alone out here?"

"Oh, I'm not always alone!"

"Do other ponies come and visit you?"

"Oh, never ponies! Whenever I see or hear another pony, I always run away and find a place to 'ide until they leave!"

"...Then who are you with?"

"Why, the animals, of course. A sharp-eyed eagle told me something was coming to that canyon, and I'd 'oped it'd be a new animal friend... I guess to make up for the fact that ponies always 'ate me, animals always love me, and when I use me magic, they can understand whatever I say!"

"Wow...isn't it dangerous, though? Wouldn't a predator eat you as soon as it found you?"

"Oh, never. They'd never do anything so mean-not to me, at least! It's a common myth that predators are mean; once you get to know them, they can be the kindest and gentlest creatures you've ever met! Why, just last week, I was playing with a wolf pack's latest litter of cubs! They were the most darling little creatures you ever saw!"

Fluttershy saw Twilight's look of confusion and took it the wrong way. She whimpered again and asked, "Are you starting to 'ate me?"

"No-no," Twilight hastily answered. "It's just that...it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that you aren't afraid of wolves or bears, but you are afraid of other ponies."

Fluttershy looked down at the ground in shame, and a teardrop splattered on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Twilight apologized, "I didn't mean to make you cry! I...I..." she had no idea what to say.

Fluttershy sniffled. "The bears and wolves are always nice to me. Ponies never are." Fluttershy sobbed. "And...it's only a matter of time before you three start to 'ate me, too!"

Twilight looked at the ground and remember how much she hated Applejack. But I hate Applejack because she's such a jerkface! Twilight thought. I can't imagine Fluttershy being a jerkface, but...what if there really is some kind of magic that makes ponies hate her? It was a scary thought to Twilight, that something could reach into her mind and reconfigure it against her will so that she'd hate a pony who'd saved her life...!

"Even if I do start to hate you," Twilight whispered, "I'll at least try not to be mean to you..." Twilight began to think about her interactions with Applejack, and a little pang of conscience hit her-she had thrown insults at Applejack, and not really in response to any one thing AJ had said to her-and least not on that adventure! And worst of all, she'd wished Applejack would jump off a cliff. Twilight started to feel very mixed-up when she remembered that, and hoped that writing in her journal that evening would help her get her thoughts in order.

"Thanks," Fluttershy whimpered.

Twilight felt like the conversation ought to be over at that point, so she slowed her trotting until she was next to Applejack. She whispered to her, "I'm really worried about Fluttershy..."

"Me too," she whispered back. "It feels like one...less-than-kind word would make her start crying! That why I haven't been talking much..."

"About that...can we...call a truce?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Shining Armor snarked.

"All right," Applejack answered. She thought of adding "If you break it, all bets are off!" but she thought that such an implied threat would make Fluttershy yelp, or start crying, or (worst of all) run away and leave them in the middle of nowhere, so she didn't say it.

After a few more minutes, Fluttershy led them into a cave. It wasn't like the cave with the diamonds in it that immediately opened into a huge chamber; a long tunnel led from the entrance before it opened up into a chamber. Twilight and Shining Armor brought their lanterns out of their saddlebags, and Fluttershy stopped and gasped and stared at the huge stalactites hanging high above from the ceiling.

"I thought you were familiar with this cave?" Shining Armor asked.

"Yes, but...I never seen it before; I always felt and...well, sort of listened my way into it before!"

"You've always been in total darkness in here?" Twilight wondered aloud.

"Mm-hmm."

"And the dark didn't scare you?"

"...No..."

Twilight blinked. She couldn't think what to say, so she stayed silent and began looking in her saddlebag for her journal-she just had to get her thoughts written out! But no matter where she looked, she couldn't find it. In frustration, she dumped her saddlebags out on the ground, and rifled through everything she had-her towel, her diamonds, her pick and shovel, her writing utensils and bracelet were all there, but not her journal. Twilight looked up with tears in her eyes.

For her part, Fluttershy was surprised at the sight of the diamonds, but saw that Twilight was about to cry, and began to look confused.

Twilight looked over at Shining Armor, then sobbed, "My journal! It must still be on Rainbow Mountain!" She rushed to her brother and began sobbing into his shoulder.

He rested his head against her cheek and tried to comfort her. "I know how much that journal means to you, Twilight. We'll get it back on our way back home!"

"But what if it rains down on my journal? It'll be ruined!"

"Shhhh..." he whispered back. "I know you've poured your heart and soul into that book, but the important thing is that we're safe, and that we come back home with the diamonds to pay the mortgage. You're going to be okay...trust me."

"But...but I'm not okay NOW!" Twilight cried. And there was nothing she could do about it, so she did the only thing she could, and she kept crying and crying onto her brother's shoulder.

Fluttershy stood back from this display of sorrow and affection with a look on her face like a starving child looking into a restaurant window. Anyone who had looked at her could've told: she had very often wished for a shoulder to cry on, but had never gotten one.

But nopony was looking at her: Shining Armor was looking to Twilight, Twilight's eyes were clouded over with tears, and Applejack was looking at Twilight, trying not to smile. Applejack knew that she was the reason Twilight was crying like this, and it gave her no small amount of pleasure-but she also knew that, if she started smirking or yelling at Twilight, it'd give away the fact that she stole the journal, it'd break the truce, and it'd probably break Fluttershy's heart-she had no desire to hurt her! So, thinking that some polite way of excusing herself would grant the best appearance of kindness and give her a chance to read what was in Twilight's journal, she asked, "Shining Armor, may I take your lantern? I think one of us should stand watch while the others sleep-I volunteer for the first shift."

"Go ahead," Shining Armor softly answered, still cradling his sister.

Applejack picked up his lantern with her teeth and walked back up the tunnel. She noticed that there was plenty of gravel on part of the tunnel's floor, which was perfect as far as she was concerned: if somepony decided to leave to answer the call of nature, the noise of hooves on that gravel would give her plenty of warning. She pulled her father's duster out of her saddlebags, both to keep herself warmer during the night, and to give herself a place to hide the journal if somepony came up behind her.

She listened, and heard the sound of Twilight, crying herself to sleep. Now I'm paying you back for that apple stand, she thought to herself, And THAT was just the first installment!

She slipped the journal out as quietly as she could and opened it to the first entry. It was actually from several years ago:

Dear Diary-

Finally, I earned enough money to buy you! You're actually my second diary, but my first one was all filled up with notes about researching air and earth magic-I've already proven, without a doubt, that the storms that always form over Rainbow Mountain have GOT to be because the mountain is honeycombed all over with a cave system, and that cave system just HAS to be GLITTERING with magic-exuding rainbow diamonds! And nopony except my family even knows that this cave system even exists! The only question left is: how do we GET those diamonds?!

The only way to find out: explore the mountain until we find the entrance!

Unfortunately, we can't do that until we get enough equipment for exploring. The bare minimum we need is:

Raingear for both Shining Armor and me (they don't call it Rainbow Mountain for nothing!)
Saddlebags to carry diamonds back
A pick
A shovel
A lantern
Paper and pen and a bracelet to make a map

I'll use this journal and the pen and bracelet I'm writing this with right now to make a map of the mountain...once we get that far. So far, that's the only item on that list that we've managed to get our hooves on!

The reason I could afford to buy this journal and the pen and bracelet I'm using now is because Shining Armor and I are working for Dad. Binding books together...it's very boring, very repetitive work, but at least the books look nice when we're done. The problem is, we can barely earn three silver bits in a week, and it'll take at least two hundred to buy all that stuff for the both of us! We can always hope for a sale at the outfitters, but even if there is a sale, will we have enough money to make a purchase when the sale happens?

I'd wanted to save up and buy the big stuff first, like the raingear and the lantern, but Shining Armor insisted that we'd be better motivated if we bought a small thing first. He actually pooled his money with mine to buy you-can you believe it?

I'm lucky to have a big brother like him who believes in me...I was so afraid that Mom and Dad and Shining Armor just wouldn't believe me when I told them about all my research, but I should've known better than to worry about THAT! They're my FAMILY! Of COURSE they ALL believe in me!

Well, I guess I'd better turn in. There's a lot of bookbinding work ahead of me tomorrow morning, and the more books I bind, the sooner I can get the rest of that gear!

Applejack was taken aback. TWILIGHT, of all ponies, working hard?! This didn't seem like the Twilight she knew and hated. It made no sense at all! Did she deliberately leave fake entries in her journal, just in case Applejack ever stole it?

No...that made even less sense than a hardworking Twilight!

Applejack puzzled over this for a few minutes, then concluded that the only thing to do was to keep reading and hope for better answers...

Dear Diary-

Saving up silver bits for our exploration is getting harder, especially when there are so many tempting things to spend them on that aren't exploration gear!

Applejack did something to me that was so mean...and worst of all, at first, it seemed like she was being nice to me! She was eating ice cream-I haven't had any ice cream since I was a little filly! And she offered me a little taste. I accepted her offer, and that tiny half-mouthful she gave me tasted so, so good! I wanted more! Just a couple of bites, but she wouldn't let me. In fact, she gobbled the whole thing up and gave me some speech about how you only get things like ice cream as a reward for hard work. Doesn't she realize I am working hard?

Applejack remembered this moment. She had actually been trying to be nice, trying to impress a lesson on Twilight, to motivate her to work hard-her own parents had done the same thing with her when she had just graduated from school: they took her out to eat ice cream at Lickety Split's parlor, but they only let her have one little taste. They told her that she had to work hard and earn her own allowance in order to afford to buy her own ice cream, and she took that lesson to heart and bought some ice cream every time the family had been able to afford to give her an allowance.

She thought that was a very, very good lesson, and she was only trying to share that lesson with Twilight. After all, the ice cream tasted better when she knew she'd earned it! Why didn't Twilight understand that?!

She read on:

We need two hundred silver bits to afford the rest of our exploration gear, but we only have thirty. If the outfitters have a sale (and they could at any time), then just one bit could make the difference between getting one step closer to being able to explore the mountain and being left behind-I can't afford to spend anything on ice cream!

I'm actually crying right now, because it would've been better if I'd never been given a reminder of how good ice cream tasted...did Applejack do that just to be mean to me?! I mean, the second I asked for another bite, she gobbled the whole thing up!

Applejack tried to think: if I'd known then what I know now, would I have let her have more? She remembered that she had been worried that Twilight would've stolen another bite if she didn't eat it all herself before Twilight got the chance, but now...she almost felt bad about doing wolfing it down.

Wait-what am I feeling bad for? Applejack asked herself. This is Twilight, the ultimate jerkface, that we're talking about! She deserves to feel rotten!

Applejack read a little ways on, and the next few pages were just updates on how much money they'd saved and wishing the outfitters would have a sale. Finally, she saw the entry where they'd gotten enough money to buy their equipment:

Dear Diary-

I...I'm not sure how I feel, right now...

We FINALLY saved up enough money to buy rain ponchos for me and Shining Armor, one pick, one shovel, a lantern, and a set of saddlebags for him. We decided it'd have to be enough for our first trip up the mountain, and we felt very happy to have enough to BEGIN exploring that huge mountain.

We stopped at a ledge partway up the mountain that gave us an amazing view of Ponyville! You could see the whole town from up there! I'm never going to forget that feeling, looking down on everything-it all seemed so small from up there! Like we're a tiny part of a much bigger world, like...shoot, how do I say this? I know our mortgage and the business dealings in Ponyville are important; paying off the mortgage is one of the main reasons we come up here! But when you look at Ponyville from up here, where everything seems so small...it kind of makes you forget how important it is, and almost makes you feel like it's a small debt owed by small ponies to a small bank. I wish that kind of feeling could last forever!

Applejack had to pause here; she remembered the feeling of looking down at Ponyville from the mountain for the first time. She knew the very emotion Twilight was trying to convey, and just at that moment, she felt like her grudge against Twilight was a small thing, too. But she shook that feeling off, tried to remember who she was, what she was doing, and who she hated, and then read on.

But after that...something happened. Something VERY scary, something that made me want to go back to binding books all day instead of ever going NEAR the mountain again: a rainstorm came up on the mountain, and there was barely enough time for us to pull our ponchos out of Shining Armor's bags and put them on before it started to pour! I saw a cave just up ahead while it was raining, and I figured that, even if there isn't a diamond in there, we can at least take shelter from the rain there.

But the rain made the rocks slippery...so slippery that I lost my balance and began sliding towards one of the cliffs! Shining Armor must've lunged towards me to save my life, and the next thing I knew, he was dangling off the edge of the cliff, and I was holding onto his hooves! My head was over the cliff, so I could see how far down it went, and I knew that if I'd let go, he'd be...he'd be DEAD right now!

Applejack noticed that there were teardrops staining the page; ink had mixed with them and made the shapes of the drops permanent. So why don't you just stay at home where it's safe, and WORK, then? Applejack thought to herself.

I was SO scared! I wanted to pull him up, but he just kept screaming "Don't move, Twilight! Don't move! The rocks are too slippery; don't move a muscle, Twilight! Don't MOVE!" I think I'm going to shudder every time I hear somepony tell me not to move for the rest of my LIFE! Even just writing it here...it's so SCARY! It was the most awful moment of my life; there was thunder and lightning all around me, rain was pouring down onto me and onto Shining Armor, it was so cold, it felt like everything was happening in slow-motion, I was so afraid that my grip on his hooves would slip, and he'd go crashing down and I'd never ever see him again, and it would be all my fault because it was MY idea to go on that stupid mountain in the first place!

Applejack had to stop reading for a few minutes. This was far too much like the moment where Big Mackintosh saved her life from the falling silo. The moment after she heard the awful sound of the silo crashing to the ground and had turned around and seen him half-crushed beneath the wreckage had absolutely terrified her to her core, and she found herself unable not to sympathize with Twilight at this awful moment of her life.

She reminded herself that the stallion she was reading about had to have survived this danger, that she'd spoken with him less than an hour ago, that he'd agreed to let her borrow his lantern, the very lantern whose light she was reading these pages by-he was alive for Pete's sake! Why feel worried about him now? She tried to shake off the awful feelings of fear and keep reading.

The scariest part was that I thought that my grip was already slipping! Looking back on it now, I must've had a pretty good grip on him the whole time, because he never actually got further away, and I never moved at all while I was holding onto him. I guess I was just feeling rain falling through my fur and onto my hooves, and the feeling of that rainwater going down made me afraid that Shining Armor's hooves were also going down. If I tried to get a better grip, he might slip, but if I did nothing, he might already BE slipping! It was only because Shining Armor kept screaming and screaming not to move a muscle that I didn't try to get a better grip; I was so afraid that I was already losing him that I almost made a mistake and DID lose him!

More teardrops stained the page here-much more. Applejack had to turn the page before she could read on:

He kept telling me not to move long after the rain finally stopped. Eventually I shouted back, right in his face, "I can't hold on forever! When CAN I move?!" And he told me that, when the rocks and my fur were dry, then I can try to pull him up. I waited and waited what felt like an eternity, and finally he asked me whether the rocks were dry. They were, so I finally pulled him up.

Once he was away from that awful cluff, I hugged him so tightly, and I cried and I cried until I couldn't cry any more. I think I told him I wanted to go home, and never go up that mountain again. But he looked into that cave I'd seen earlier, and inside, there was a sparkling diamond! If he hadn't spotted that diamond, I don't think I could EVER go up on that mountain again!

We took it to a gems dealer in town, Amethyst Star. We bought another pick, another shovel, another lantern, and another set of saddlebags for me, but we made a family decision and saved the rest of the money in an emergency fund. If one of us gets hurt while we're exploring, we'll need to be able to hire a doctor...if we make it back alive, that is.

...Writing that last line was scary, too! Oh, I hope it never comes down to that...!

You know, it felt really strange, shopping at the outfitters' for more exploring equipment. I felt like I was buying things to go on a trip that I didn't want to take, anymore. I told Shining Armor haw I felt, and he insisted that this wouldn't happen again if we followed the golden rule of mountain climbing: never move your hooves while it's raining. And he said that if we just follow that one rule, we'll be safe.

I sure hope he's right. Today was so scary, so awful, that it's going to take all my courage to go up that mountain again. But if we find more diamonds, we could have the mortgage paid off even faster!

It feels so good to be back home, right now...lying in the bed Shining Armor and I have shared since I was a toddler, his hooves wrapped around me, safe and warm and alive...I sure hope I can find enough courage inside me to go up on that mountain again! I know I've worked and waited for years to get this far, and if we stop exploring after our first trip up the mountain, then all of that hard work and waiting will be for nothing! But...exploring can be so dangerous and scary!

I'm definitely going to at least try to go up on the mountain again. But I'm definitely going to be more careful from now on!

Applejack found herself in suspense while reading Twilight's journal. She'd never expected that she'd enjoy reading it for its own sake, and not just to find secrets and weaknesses with which she could get back at Twilight later. It took her a moment to realize that she could make Twilight shudder any time she wanted by yelling "Don't move!"

But then she realized something else: while she had been reading the story of her first trip up the mountain, Applejack had actually been hoping that Twilight would have a happy ending to her story. That realization hit her like a ton of bricks; she had to remind herself that she was reading the journal of an utter jerkface who didn't deserve to have Applejack care about her at all.

But at the same time, she found it hard to believe the same jerkface who'd spent a gold coin just to be cruel was the same pony who had written this journal.