Taboo

Chapter 5: Search

Lunatic!

Imbecile!

Demented!

Twilight really couldn't blame her mind for yelling at her. It had every right to be upset with the young princess as she had willingly agreed to be part of this search and rescue. In all honesty she would of wanted nothing more than to just grab the pegasus with her magic and carry her back to the safety of the town. If her friend proved too uncooperative then teleportaion was always another option. Just a few moments ago she had flaunted her magic in an effort to deter Fluttershy from chasing after her beloved pet rabbit. With all the magic she had built up she could of easily relocated the two to Canterlot's gardens in the blink of an eye, but she hadn't.

Was that all that was? Just a show of force? Would I really have gone through with it and forced Fluttershy away from Angel? She cast a quick glance at the pegasus in question. Fluttershy's eyes were red and swollen, dried water trails covered her face, and her usually tidy flowing mane was ragged and splinter at the tips. Above all else she had a certain look in her eyes, they gleamed and shone of hope and fear. The answer was all too clear.

A sigh escaped the Princess, the cool night air allowing her to see her breath. "Fluttershy, I know I said I would go with you to look for Angel but I just need to know one thing. I just have one question I want to ask and I need you to answer me truthfully."

"I promise that I'll answer you  truthfully Twilight."

"Fluttershy, are you one hundred percent certain that Angel is still alive? I need to know that if we go searching for him that we'll save him. I won't risk mine or yours safety for a fools errand. Look me in the eye and tell me that you're absolutely sure that he's out there."

Fluttershy's mouth moved silently as if she was finding a way to word what was on her mind. Her eyes darted back and forth searching for nothing in particular, hoping to spot something that would assure her of Angel. She found none and she needed none. Angel was alive and she knew it, her beloved rabbit was out there somewhere waiting to be cradled lovingly again in her hooves. "Angel Bunny is alive Twilight. Don't ask me how I know because not even I'm sure how I can be so confident about this, but I am. He's out there Twilight, and we're going to rescue him."

It wasn't much to go on but at least it was something. Was it enough? For any other pony with at least an inch of sanity probably not. For Twilight however it was all she needed to go ahead with this insane rescue. "Right then, that just leaves the question of how we are going to find Angel."

An obvious question that left Fluttershy embarrassed, to say the least, that she hadn't thought of it herself. Her mind raced with possibilities of how the two of them were going to find Angel. Through her years of working with animals she had become an adequate tracker, being able to distinguish animals apart from the prints and remains they left behind. Most of her tracking had been done during daylight however and to make things worse she didn't know where to begin to look.

"Well if I had a good source of light I could probably track Angel. Could you maybe light up your horn and give me some light to do it? Oh but first I would have to find his tracks and that might take a while. Oh where would I even begin to look? Maybe I should..."

I highly doubt your rabbit just walked out of this cottage Fluttershy. Besides, I don't think he's the one we should be tracking if we want to find him. "I don't think he walked out of the cottage by himself Fluttershy. Most likely he was taken by force by that SkinWalker and probably carried out. If we'll have any chance of rescuing Angel then we need to find that SkinWalker. I really don't see any any other way of doing this."

"So we have to look for that monster?" Twilight slowly nodded her ahead. "But how are we going to find it?"

"That's what I've been pondering over as well, and I think that I  may actually have a solution." This really is the only way we're going to find that thing. "From what I saw in Mr. Ruffled Ears's shack there was a lot of blood, correct?" Fluttershy simply replied with an uneasy nod. "Most likely that SkinWalker is tracking blood then from when it attacked Mr. Ruffled Ears. All we have to do is follow the blood trail that it's leaving behind and it should eventually lead us to it and Angel, hopefully."

Twilight's plan seemed to make sense except for one flaw that Fluttershy couldn't help but overlook. "Um, Twilight, when I looked around my cottage just now I didn't see any...blood. How are we going to track it without a trail?"

Any other day any this would actually make  great lecture topic. "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence Fluttershy."

"Um, what?"

"Exactly, just because you can't see the blood doesn't mean that it isn't there. Allow me to demonstrate with this new spell I've been working on." Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to give off it's usual lavender glow. Furrowing her eyebrows a little, the light from her horn slowly began to change color. A pale bluish color was cast around the two friends in small radius.

Perhaps it was due to the darkness of night but Fluttershy had never seen a light like that before. "Twilight, what is that light?"

"Neat huh? It's called the Black Light spell."

"But the light isn't black, its bluish actually."

"I know, there isn't such a thing as black light. It's just the name given to the spell because of what the light does. Here let me show you." Twilight made her way inside Fluttershy's cottage and began blowing out all the reaming candles. As soon as the cottage was completely dark a new light began to shine from the floor.

Fluttershy's eyes widened as she noticed spots of pale orange glow around the inside of her home. "Why is the floor glowing orange in those places?"

"The black light is showing us the traces of blood that we wouldn't usually be able to see with our eyes. Those spots are orange are the traces of blood. Look, you can even see speckles of orange on your hooves." A quick glance and Fluttershy noticed that this was true. Where the blue light touched her hooves there were small spots of orange.

"With this spell we should be able to track the SkinWalker and find Angel." Walking out and closing the door behind her Twilight made her way down the path following the small spots of orange glow. Fluttershy quickly fell in line behind her friend as she was lead around her cottage and the grounds surrounding it.

The two walked around the cottage for a little while following the trail which at one point lead them away from the small home and to the entrance of the EverFree Forest. Just as I feared. That SkinWalker did head into the EverFree Forest.  No turning back now I guess. "Come on Fluttershy, the trail leads into the forest." Twilight half expected to hear a protest from her timid friend. When there was none she carried on and lead the way down the path and into the forest.

***

The two friends had walked on the path for about thirty minutes before the glowing trail lead them off of it. Most of the walk had been in silence with neither wanting to say anything for fear of startling the other.

Finally it was Fluttershy who broke the silence with a question that had been bugging her for the last couple of minutes. "Twilight, what are we going to do when we find the SkinWalker?"

"What do you mean Fluttershy?"

"Are we going to have to fight Twilight? I'm not really much of a fighter and I don't really like violence all too much either."

"It saddens me to say this Fluttershy but I really don't see any outcome where we don't have to have to fight the SkinWalker. According to the legends they're supposed to be prone to violence when confronted. Their physical strength is greater than the average pony and they have a high level of magic. When we do confront this SkinWalker it won't be an easy fight."

Twilight turned back to look at Fluttershy who was doing her best to hide the look of concern on her face. "I need you to understand one thing though Fluttershy. If it looks like we are in danger and I can't protect us from the SkinWalker then I won't hesitate to teleport us out of the forest. Is that clear?"

"Yes Twilight." Fluttershy said in almost a whisper.

"Good. Now lets stop here for a minute. I need to make some preparations for hopfully, I can't believe I'm actually hoping for this, our confrontation with the SkinWalker. Do me a favor and tear of branch from a tree will you?"

Doing as she was told the pegasus quickly flew up, grabbed hold of a decent sized skinny tree branch, snapped it off, and flew back down to Twilight. "All right, now place the branch in front of me please and then take a few steps back." Once the branch was in front of her and Fluttershy was a safe distance away, Twilight began to concentrate.

"Fluttershy I'm going to cease the Black Light spell and cast a new one. During that time we'll have no light until the new spell is cast and it will be pitch black for a moment. Don't panic alright?"

With that being said the pale blue light faded and the darkness of the forest over took them for a instant. In the next moment a magnificent flame erupted around the tree branch that laid in front of Twilight. The flame glowed in a prism of colors before finally resting on a white radiance. The white flame only lasted a few moments before it extinguished itself and once again the two friends fond themselves surrounded by darkness.

"Twilight, what did you just do?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"I created white ash. From what I've read about SkinWalkers their one major drawback is that they're susceptible to white ash for whatever reason. Should give us an edge."

As happy as Fluttershy was for having a way to defend themselves she was still a little put off by the darkness. "Twilight could you please make you're horn glow again? It's really dark in the EverFree Forest, more than I actually remembered."

"Sure, just let me cast the Black Light Spell again, then we'll just take the white ash and continue tracking this SkinWalker." Closing her eyes Twilight began to once again focus on the needed spell. Moments passed with no light being the result.

What the? Huh, that white ash spell must of taken more out me than I originally thought. Let me warm up with a simple illumination spell. Twilight once again closed her eyes and focused on the easier spell, still no light came from her. The young Princess became distraught when she realized that her horn wasn't even glowing with her aura.

Panic began to seep into her mind as she turned towards her friend. "Fluttershy, I can't use my magic."