The cave, Pinkie was ready to admit, wasn't all she had pictured it to be. Sure, it was spooky, and kind of dark, but the ancient reverstone ponies could have gotten away with some hieroglyphics or something. Of course, the pair of adventurers hadn't even made it inside yet.

"Pinkie," Twilight began, "I know this means nothing to you, but I want to get it out into the open anyway: I have a really bad feeling about this."

Twilight was peeking into the cave's entrance, her expression saying that she was repulsed by it. It was hard to know why, really. It was just a cave.

"Your opinion is always important to me, Twilight. Well, except your wrong ones."

The pink pony pranced through the barrier dividing the outside world from the rock-side tomb with a content smile on her face. She could have sworn there was a growl from Twilight's direction, but chocked it up to her imagination.

The first obstacle (of an unknown number of them) was pretty simple: a flight of stairs heading down into the earth. The steps alone were plenty to set the mood, though. They were dirty, moldy, chipped, and overall seemed pretty dangerous to step on. That made her feel lucky that danger was her middle name. Pinkamena Diane Responsibility Danger Pie. It did have the notable fault of not being easy to write, but some sacrifices were just worth it.

This was so exciting. She could grab the rock and within moments see every one of her friends again! Vacations were available, too. Twilight would no doubt love to visit old-timey Equestria, or if they found Rainbow Dash, they could go back to the Wonderbolts' very first show! ... But on the other hand, maybe "within moments" was a little too immediate. She didn't really give the Cakes much of a goodbye. She should at least give them a quick "see ya" before departing off into space-time.

"Pinkie, shhh!" Twilight commanded with a harsh whisper.

Always quick to obey an order, Pinkie Pie instantly halted her trotting. The entire downstairs way was silent. For a moment.

"... then... But I... !"

It was impossible to pinpoint exactly where they were coming from, but words that neither Pinkie nor Twilight were saying could be heard post-echo. The muttering was near constant, but it was too difficult to pick out many words.

"See?!" spat Twilight, still keeping her voice as low as possible, "I told you this was some sort of trap!"

"This isn't a trap," Pinkie responded, also in a hushed tone. She couldn't stop the adventurous grin that wanted to break out. "It means that there are opposing fortune hunters here! We got to beat 'em to the punch, Twilight!"

Her friend stared straight at her, her mouth gaping. It took a couple seconds for a reply. "That's the first thing that comes to your mind?"

"Yep. Now c'mon! We have the element of surprise on them."

Pinkie continued creeping down the stairs, one hoof at a time. She kept her hearing sharp, making sure that the mysterious conversation continued. If it came to a sudden halt, it could mean they had gotten caught; that was something Pinkie wanted to be aware of beforehand. A few seconds later, she heard Twilight behind her, following.

They were approaching the bottom of the staircase. Below them was a stone floor of which had a condition resembling the stairs they had traversed to reach it. Walls comprised of dirt and very old-looking rocks blocked two of their directions, leaving only a ninety-degree turn to the right. That was advantageous to their stealth mission. Taking charge, Pinkie sidled close to the wall and leaned outward to see what was up ahead.

Beyond that wall, Pinkie found, was a hall. Created with the same dusty tools as most everything else down here, two walls incased a floor, this one made entirely from dirt. The hallway's distance was short, and it looked like it broke apart into both directions at the end. She listened carefully for an update on the voices.

"... And that was when she... the rope, and I..."

"Listen... someone else? I've already heard this one..."

Two voices! So he definitely wasn't just talking to himself, then. Though less important, she noted the mention of the rope. They couldn't possibly be talking about the one Twilight had found, right? Had they been the ones to drop it? Either way, it sounded like their voices were coming from the left up there. Carefully, Pinkie spun around the corner and tip-hooved her way across the floor. It being dirt already helped conceal the sound, but one could never be too sneaky.

While making her way forward, she thought about Twilight. Sure, she might be trying her best to stay quiet, but she could at least get into the spirit of things. If there were fellow hunters here, things could get ugly, or even dangerous. Not taking things seriously enough could turn out pretty badly.

Pinkie was close to the forking paths. Even if it didn't look like much of a fork. With those voices coming from the left, she decided to hug that wall, leaving her exposed to the right passageway. Before proceeding, she checked in on her partner; Twilight was found close behind her, following her lead to a tee. It was about time she listened!

One hoofstep, then two. She leaned on the wall with her back, allowing her to stay on two legs and further out of sight. Creeping forward, she first found out what was down the opposite way: a staircase. That would lead them down even further, even though it got pretty dark down that way. Noted.

But now was the time for truth. Ever so conservatively, Pinkie leaned outward, tilting her head so she could see around the corner as soon as possible.

Awaiting her was something she hadn't expected. There weren't a couple of rogue ponies dressed in archaeologist clothes with magnifying glasses in front of their eyes. Not even close. Two black-furred, brown-muzzled bears were each sitting in a corner of the room, luckily not paying attention to the entrance. They were hulking. They were huge! They were... a lot like Sam's size. And they didn't look like they were exploring for treasure. It looked more like they were guarding the room, which speaking of, didn't seem like much worth guarding. It was maybe the size of Sugarcube Corner's main bakery room, with far fewer treats. A couple torches were on the walls for light's sake, which revealed a second staircase going down, and a wooden door on the far side where the bears were.

"Well?" Twilight asked when Pinkie moved back behind the wall.

"They're a couple of grizzly battlers!" she answered, "Some overbearing brutish brawlers!"

The purple mare nodded in understanding. She was probably already assuming she was right. There was still no evidence that this was a trap. "How many of them are there? And are they paying attention?"

Pinkie chanced one more glance out into the room. "Two, and no."

"All right, let's go down those stairs," Twilight suggested, pointing a hoof to their exit on the right. "Maybe we'll find something down there we can use against them."

For someone who wasn't coming up with the plans, that wasn't a bad idea. Pinkie silently showed her agreement with a nod. Together, both ponies moved toward the downstairs chamber, careful not to make a sound that might alert the bears in the opposite room. How far down did this cave go?

That question was quite predictably answered when they ran out of stairs to descend. They were surrounded by total blackness, making the last step somewhat startling. Pinkie barely stopped herself from tripping, squeaking, and inevitably creating a lot of noise. Twilight, on the other hand, seemed fed up with it completely.

"Ugh. Pinkie, we're just going to need to risk getting caught here. I can't see my own hoof in front of my face! I'll cast just a little light, all right?"

"Good," was the captain's reply, "I think I just stepped in something..."

Pinkie wasn't very knowledgeable about the intricacies of having a horn. Twilight always took a moment to "power up," even if it was a spell as easy as that one. She's the magicalist mare that Pinkie Pie knew, so shouldn't the start-up time be reduced to almost nothing?

Twilight wasn't even able to activate the spell yet. Apparently, they had made too much noise. A strongly accented voice cornered them from a short distance away, causing both ponies to freeze where they stood. "Ah, just great." It was female, and her tone sounded kind of weary. "More'a you overgrown mutts wander down here t' torture me a bit more?"

Heeyy. Hold on a second.

Twilight, now unfrozen, gasped. She seemed to work even faster to pull her spell off. A small bubble around the unicorn was illuminated, just like the night before. Their surroundings were unveiled, and much more sinister than originally imagined. The entire cellar was lined with cages—cells—big enough to fit any sized pony. Any sort of luxury was out of the question; they couldn't bother to spare a torch down here, much less hand out cable TV. This whole place was like a jail, except all the cages were empty.

"Com'on, then. Let's git this one done with."

Except that cell up there.

Pinkie and Twilight dashed off, temporarily forgetting the stone floor would gladly carry the sound of their hoofsteps for them. They slowed as quickly as they could when the noise reached their ears, even if both of them still felt the urgent need to reach that voice.

"Hang on. Is that... cloppin' I hear?"

"Surprise!" Pinkie whisper-shouted, leaping ahead of Twilight. The need to arrive in first set the pink mare off-balance, forcing a harmless tumble to the floor.

Twilight seemed to simply ignore that and step in front of the cell. Everything inside the steel box enjoyed a burst of light, including the living creature in it. Orange-colored, blonde mane, slack-jawed, and dirty all over, the pony inside was unable to do anything but stare at the two that were outside. Pinkie, for one, had a giant smile on her pony mug.

"Applejack!"

"A-Applejack..." Twilight stammered, unblinking at her lost friend. "This makes no sense. How did you get here? Why are you in that cage?"

Pinkie Pie finally recovered from her earlier pratfall. As soon as she did, her eyes watered; she was forced to shove a hoof in front of her nose. "And why do you smell so bad?"

The cowpony shook her head, as if she needed to do so to get back to reality. That same head was notably hat-less, making the mare look somehow different than memory suggested. "Whoa, hold up. My question first. Ya'll didn't get yerselves caught too, did you?"

"Caught?" Twilight echoed, "Caught by wha—"

A shout boomed from over near the staircase. It grew somewhat closer with each second, but its owner wasn't down the steps yet. "Who're you down here yakking too?"

Pinkie felt that feeling again. She had the same sensation right before that sand tornado from earlier. It was... her brain. Ever since she had read those Daring Do books, and got inside the fictional mare's mind for the sake of writing her story, Pinkie was somehow able to come up with a solution to bad situations right off the top of her head, just like Daring would. It was a pretty cool feeling, she thought. "Twilight, you have to go!" she ordered under her breath, "Teleport somewhere safe!"

"What?!" Twilight countered, frantically looking between the approaching enemy and her close friends. "I can't just leave you here!"

AJ seemed to side with Pinkie. Giving a stern look at the unicorn, she whispered, "I didn't hear the girl say to not come back. Now beat it!"

"Oohh..." she moaned. With less than two seconds before their unwanted guest showed up, she made an impulse judgment call. After just a touch of concentration, she obeyed her friends' requests and vanished with nothing but a short glimmer left behind.

The two earth ponies weren't able to even get a word out to each other. A humongous bear rounded the corner; Twilight's glow may have vanished, but the enemy was considerate enough to bring a torch along with him. The fiery light clashed with the creature's midnight black fur for a chilling effect. Even with one occupied claw, the bear seemed to have little problem walking toward the group of two on three legs. "So, a pony decided to play hero, is that it?"

Pinkie squatted down in what she hoped was an intimidating pose. In truth, she had nothing on him, but it wouldn't hurt to try. "What did you do to my friend Applejack?!" she demanded convincingly.

The large mammal (that looked barely anything like Sam) didn't reply until he towered over Pinkie. They stared in each other's eyes for a moment. His were a creepy blood red color, which was pretty helpful for his scary image. "We locked her in a cage," he reported honestly using his gruff voice. He moved to unlock Applejack's cage, letting the door swing wide open. In a single swipe, the bear grabbed Pinkie's side and shoved her right next to her friend. "Like that."

He slammed the door once more into its most common position, forcing the lock into place right after it. Appearing to be completely uninterested in these events, he shifted back around and started on his way back to the stairs.

"Hey!" Pinkie shouted, running right up to the front of the cage. "Hey! Don't ignore me! Get back here and explain your evil plan to me right now!"

The result of that was unexpected. The bear completely ignored her; Applejack, next to her, started to chuckle. "Easy there, Pinkie. I think we have enough questions for each other for the time being."

The glimmer of the torch had just vanished, and already Pinkie's eyes hurt from the overwhelming darkness. She sighed when she realized the bear was gone for good, then set her backside on the ground in defeat. "This is going to be boring, isn't it?"

"It ain't no bull-ridin' event," her cellmate answered, all of the laughs already out of her. "How in the world did you an' Twilight even find this place?"

"Sam told us about it."

Applejack made some shuffling noise. Maybe she had sat on the floor too. "I'm sorry, Pinkie, it's been awhile since I was in Ponyville. Which one was Sam again?"

"Sam isn't from Ponyville," Pinkie answered. She surprised herself at how little emotion was inside her words. That was due mostly to her inner self battling to decide if Twilight really had been right about him. "We met him on the way. He's really big, and had a black coat on and everything. I couldn't see much else on him." (That was only sort of a lie. Were the details about the claws and teeth really necessary?)

"And what were you talkin' to him for?" AJ asked next, her tone sounding suddenly suspicious.

"He said he knew where the reverstone was. It was in a cave just past the desert!"

"... Wait, the wha'?"

Happiness was ever-so slowly returning to Pinkie's voice. If only she could see AJ's expression to see if she would need to convince her too or not. "The reverstone! It lets you go through time and do other neat things. Actually, that's pretty much it, but that's not bad for a rock."

"Uhh." She cleared her throat. "I'ma just wait and get that answer from Twi. But, sugar cube..."

Sugar cube. It had been a month since she had been called that. Until it was spoken to her, so close, she hadn't realized just how much she missed that nickname. Sure, she shared it with almost every other pony, but the way she said it to Pinkie felt special. It was only Applejack's friends that she would call that, after all. She continued, "I got some bad news. It sounds to me like you were talkin' to a scout of one of these monsters. I might suggest you don't hang around with him too much anymore."

She didn't need those other details, apparently. Now Pinkie was outvoted two-and-a-half to another half. Had she been too quick to befriend him? Maybe it was worthwhile taking potential new friends' appearance into consideration... at least if they're about seven hooves tall and wearing an unnecessarily shady jacket.

Pinkie Pie was silent for a moment. Applejack seemed to take this as a cue and move along topics. "These critters have lost their minds," she vented. "They call themselves werebears. An' for whatever reason, they keep goin' on about capturing ponies, especially from Ponyville."

"What?!" huffed Pinkie, angered out of her contemplative state. "Why would they do that?"

"Not too sure, Pinkie." AJ's tone became distant. "Reckon I don't wanna find out, either. Stands to reason the both of us are the only ones stuck here right now, though."

Pinkie lowered the volume, deciding a whisper was more appropriate as she asked, "But what happens if they catch Twilight?"