A dark blur, followed by a silver and dark red streak, sped across the sky. The Pegasus flew over the land, his large wings created enormous amounts of force with each flap. His dark blue body stood out against the light blue sky and white clouds.
The winged pony began to descend towards a small field. After landing, he took a moment to fix his wind-blown mane and tail. He usually kept his mane rather short (not liking the hair sticking to his neck when he got hot) and in a charming spike-filled mess. His tail was the same way, except he lets that hair grow out more, liking how it leaves a longer streak behind him as he flew. His mane and tail were a silver-gray color with streaks of dark red through it.
He stretched out a little, allowing the sun to shine off of his silver cloud cutie mark. He was tired, having just flown from some ruins by Galloping Gorge, on the western side of Equestria, across most of the northern side of the kingdom, and to this small field by Fillydelphia, on the east coast of Equestria.
The stallion looked at his surroundings, making sure he had landed in the right clearing. In the middle of the field was a small, shimmering lake. A little to the east of the lake was a massive oak tree, bigger than most the trees in Equestria. Past the tree, further east, the Fillydelphia skyline could be seen. South of the clearing stood the edge of some un-named forest, a few mountains rising up from the center of the sea of trees. The north held the rugged Foal Mountains; a place the dark blue stallion had adventured into quite often when he got bored, due to its many hiding places for caves and a few legends of lost cities. Far to the east stood the powerful city of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, where the princesses Celestia and Luna ruled over all of ponykind from their mountain-top castle.
With another quick look around, the large-winged Pegasus decided that he had time to take a quick nap before the others arrived. He trotted up to the side of the lake, laying down on the soft grass, and closed his eyes…
"WAKE UP, SILVER! OR YOU'RE NEVER GETTING LAID!"
Silver woke up with a start. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep by the lake, but it was long enough for some pony to sneak up to him, lean down by his head, and yell in his ear. His first thoughts were "WHAT THE HELL!?" followed closely by "Wait…I recognize that voice…" It took him just a few moments of hearing the giggle that came from beside him to recognize the culprit.
Sitting beside Silverlining was a white unicorn mare. Her eyes were blue with a purple tint and were surrounded by a pair of simple black rimmed glasses. Her mane was a swirl of blue and gray curls. Her tail rose from her flanks and elegantly fell like a waterfall of blue and gray. Her flanks bore a cutie mark in the shape of a white heart with a pair of elaborately elegant blue wings wrapping around and embracing the heart.
The mare then spoke again, her voice now much quieter in comparison to when she last spoke. Her voice was gentle and sweet, her words sounding like music to Silver's ears. "Are you awake now, honey?"
Silver smiled at the white mare, knowing that he should have expected this to happen. "Yes, yes I am, Ocean." He rolled his eyes and laughed a little.
Ocean Selene giggled again, and then launched herself at Silver, barraging him with kisses. The mare kissed him repeatedly on the lips, wrapping her fore hooves around Silver's neck while Silver kissed back and wrapped his around her midsection. After a minute, the mare backed off, allowing Silver to stand up and greet the others, whom he knew would not have let Ocean travel from Fillydelphia to this field alone.
A large, brown earth pony stood a few yards away, laughing quietly at the events that just occurred in front of him. The stallion had green eyes, over which he wore a pair of simple, wire-rimmed glasses that had been painted a darker, mystic green. His mane and tail were a dark green with a black stripe in the middle. His mane formed into a famer style set of bangs and it swooped down to lightly lie on the back of his neck. His tail simply rose from his flanks and fell back down, giving volume to the rather short tail. A picture of a small sapling with two leaves shown on his flanks. Over-all, Earthroot was a strong stallion and a good friend.
To Earthroot's left stood another stallion. Pyroneus Dawnlight stood shorter than Earthroot, but he was much more intimidating. The dark blue stallion had a pair of bat-like wings, and a matching fin where his mane should be. To add to his Nightmare Night-like appearance, he had a long, skinny tail that ended in three spikes. To top off the costume that was the way he was born, he had piercing red eyes that would scare most ponies half to death with just a glance. His flanks were covered by an anvil and sword cutie mark.
Silver smiled at the two stallions, and then looked past them, to the base of the oak tree. Sitting under the tree, by himself, writing in his notebook (as he always did), was Cresant Quill. Quill was a small green earth pony with an even brighter green mane and tail. His mane barely touched the back of his neck as it fell from his head in a wavy fashion. His tail, on the other hoof, was long and curly. He wore glasses that were rounded at the muzzle and ended in points up by his ears. His eyes were also a bright green, matching his mane very well. He wore a green vest and a gray-silver band around each leg. He also had a simple watch on his left foreleg. He always had his quill and notebook with him. He sported a cresant moon and quill cutie mark on his flanks. He could easily blend into a crowd, except that he had a pair of small antlers growing from his head.
Silver began trotting over to the tree, motioning the others to follow him as he went. Silver couldn't help but chuckle silently as he thought about how weird this little group of friends must look to everypony else who saw them. Quill had antlers, and often kept to himself, but he hung out with Silver, Ocean, Pyroneus, and Earthroot because they were all a little more unique than the average pony. Silver was a ruins explorer, but that wasn't the strange thing about him. Silver was 1/4th Alicorn, and managed to get the genes for Alicorn wings. Earthroot was a botanist, but Silver and Pyroneus suspected there was something else that he did that they did not know about. Pyroneus was the most mysterious of the group. He never told them about his past, and all he would ever say was that he was not from Equestria. Quill liked to document Silver's adventures, as well as the exploits of the others in the group. Ocean, however, was the most unique out of any of them.
Everypony has a virtue, something that defines them the best, the one characteristic about them that stands out the most. The six most powerful virtues in Equestria are known as the Elements of Harmony; kindness, loyalty, honesty, laughter, generosity, and magic. Silver's virtue was protection and Quill's was observation, for example. Ocean didn't really have a virtue. She had multiple virtues. Ocean had multiple personalities living within her. Nopony knows why she has multiple personalities, but they are there, and more importantly, they each represented an Element of Harmony; Cici was honesty, Asher was laughter, Zarina May was magic, Rosina was kindness, Mela was generosity, and Rina was loyalty. However, the other personalities have gone into a dormant state, "ever since those six ponies defeated Nightmare Moon in the Everfree" Silver thought to himself.
After some talking and sharing of their recent adventures since they had seen each other last, Silver stood up and cleared his throat.
"Ahem! So, now that we are all here, shall I explain WHY we are here?" Silver looked around at his friends, all of whom had looks of excitement and curiosity on their faces. He smiled and spoke again, "The other week, while looking for a specific ruined temple that was rumored to be located at the base of one of those mountains over there," he pointed south, towards the mountains that rose out of the un-named forest, "I stumbled upon something amazing!" He spread his hooves to emphasize his last word. "I am going to show you guys." He smiled as he saw each of his friends give into their curiosity, due to all of their eyes lighting up in varying degrees.
Silver took the lead, with Ocean close to his side. Quill followed the couple, Earthroot behind him. Pyroneus took up the rear of the group. They usually took this kind of formation when Silver led them on one of his infamous adventures. They usually ended up with a cave in, flooding, or lots and lots of fire…or any combination of the tree. It was a common occurrence that curiosity would get the better of Silver, Ocean, or Earthroot.
The group traveled throughout the day, heading towards one of the mountains in the forest. Silver wouldn't tell them anything about where he was taking them other than that it was going to be awesome. Traveling through the forest had been uneventful, so had their climb up the mountain.
"Ok. Let's stop here!" Silver announced as they walked onto a nice sized ledge. It had a magnificent view of the forest below, one that kept Earthroot's attention for several minutes. The ledge was relatively flat, and had nothing but dirt and rock on it, except for a rather large bolder that sat against the mountain on the inside-most part of the ledge.
After getting the fire started and eating, Silver seemed to be more energized than normal. "Silver, dear? Are you ok?" Ocean asked Silver.
"Yes! We're here!" Silver said excitedly while looking at the bolder.