As I stood there in the cave I was struck with awe. The ordeals of my quest so far had done nothing to prepare me for this, even the fierce manticore I defeated seemed like a cute little kitten compared to the fearsome dragon that lay sleeping before me.
However, the sound of the little filly crying was still echoing in my head, and I have never been known to break a promise. Besides if I couldn’t get the amulet nopony could, it's not for nothing that they call me the greatest adventurer of our time.
So I spread my wings and flew up-
"Yes. Seedling?" He turned his attention to the foal who had just interrupted his story, a pink variety of earth pony with a blue mane.
"You're a unicorn, you don't have wings." A mumbling broke out among the gathered foals, as if the rest of them had only just realized that now.
"Ahh my dear filly, you see, I'm a unicorn with a talent for everything" He waited a short moment to let the information sink in; when he was sure he once again had their full attention he continued. "I simply created them."
The foals marveled in amazement. Meanwhile, at the other side of the campfire, a green coated mare turned her attention back to the stallion beside her. He was a beige-colored pegasus with an orange mane and three birds for a cutie mark. "Did that actually happen?"
The pegasus smiled, "In essence, yes. Although I do remember that particular incident as involving a lot more of me saving his flank and us running for our lives." She laughed. "Anyway, I haven't seen you before, how long have you been here?"
"About two weeks now," her ears went down and she looked at the ground "Sun Leaf has been good to me"
The sudden mood swing caught him off guard. He took a closer look at her, earth pony, green coat, cyan mane, a small tree branch for a cutie mark. Seemed normal enough, but something about her felt out of place. Although currently messy, her mane was well kept, she spoke with a slight Canterlot accent and her manners indicated that she was brought up in higher class.
"Am I that interesting?" the mare had caught him starring at her.
"What? No... I mean yes... No I mean, ehh-"
She cut him off giggling "relax, I'm not holding it against you." She smiled reassuringly "So what about you two? You come here often?"
Thankful for the change of subject the stallion replied "Whenever we're in the neighborhood. We have a history with this place, and Night Dew likes entertaining the foals."
"Speaking of him. What exactly is his talent?"
"What? Didn't you hear him? I believe he just said it was everything"
She raised an eyebrow "Really?"
He held it for a moment before breaking into laughter, and soon enough she joined him.
As they finished, he continued. "No, actually its-"
"Hey Bird Chaser. Who’s your marefriend?"
The pegasus replied without even turning his attention to the unicorn behind him. "Night Dew, you're kind of interrupting something"
"Oh, its okay" the mare stated "its not everyday you get to speak with such a big adventurer."
Night Dew was ether completely oblivious to her irony, or simply chose to ignore it. "The pleasure is all mine miss …?"
"Spring Dancer, my name is Spring Dancer"
"Miss Spring Dancer. I'm Night Dew"
She smiled "I know"
Night Dew was a dark purple unicorn with a black mane and something that resembled a drop of water being dissolved into magic energy as a cutie mark.
Not wanting to be let out of the conversation, Bird Chaser decided to take the word again. "So I take it you finished telling your story then?"
"Yep"
"You did remember the part where the dragon knocked you unconscious and I had to dive in for a last minute rescue right?"
"Naa, didn't want to bore them with details"
"Sometimes," Spring Dancer interrupted, "details can make all the difference between a true hero and just a regular boaster."
"Hey" Night Dew was not happy with the direction the conversation was going. "You did tell her that I actually got the amulet. Right?"
"Naa, didn't want to bore her with details"
Hilltop was a house, which as the name implied lay atop a hill half an hours walk from the nearest town. Founded and run by the now elderly mare Sun Leaf, it served as a home for ponies that had nowhere else to go which included both orphans and grown ponies, who in change for their stay took care of keeping the house and growing food, making them completely self-sufficient.
Everypony was welcome at Hilltop, and thus the two adventurers had gotten themselves sleeping arrangements in the main sleeping hall. There were of course smaller rooms in the house, but they were reserved for the more permanent residents, and even they still had to share with a few others.
Bird Chaser lay awake; nothing in particular bothered his mind, but still he couldn’t sleep. Not that it was anything new, the act of sleeping had been difficult for him the last few years. He turned to look at his friend, sound asleep, not that that was anything new ether, how did he always find sleep that easy?
Rolling to his back staring into the ceiling, his body finally started to relax, his eyelids grew heavy and he was just about to enter the sweet sleep when he was rudely torn back to reality by a scream echoing throughout the house.
He got on his hoofs in a matter of seconds. The scream did not come from the sleeping hall. He glanced at Night Dew who had been woken by the sound as well, but was a lot slower at getting out of bed.
With no time to lose Bird Chaser left his friend behind, and galloped in the general direction of the scream. Even though it had died out it wasn’t hard to locate the source by simply looking for the nearest group of curious ponies.
"What happened?" He had gotten through the crowd and into the room that seemed to be the point of interest; it was furnished to house four ponies, foals judging by the size of the bunk beds.
In the middle sat Spring Dancer comforting three scared fillies, one of whom managed to stutter a response "He.. he took her."
"Who?"
"Se.. Seedling, he.. he took Seedling"
Vague answer, but okay, it was his own fault for asking so vaguely. "Who took seedling?"
The filly took a deep breath to calm herself down a bit before answering, "Spiler"
A collective gasp went through the gathered ponies, followed by silence. Clearly the news came as a surprise to everypony.
"Who’s Spiler?" Night Dew had caught up and was now making his way through the crowd, suddenly tripping as they moved to make room for Sun Leaf who had just arrived as well.
"An ungrateful colt, whom I have housed and fed on several occasions;" she took a closer look at the room and sighed. "Night Dew, Bird Chaser. I know its a lot to ask, but it will take hours to mobilize the city guard, and the two of you do have experience with-"
"Say no more" Night Dew cut her off "we're already on it!" He did his best to pull off a hero pose, and then charged for the exit.
Behind him Bird Chaser turned his attention back to Sun Leaf. "Don't worry, he'll be back when he realizes that he have no idea where he's going. In the meantime, I'd like to ask a few questions"
"So, what are we looking for?"
"A narrow cave entrance. Which you might had known, had you not chased off the moment you got the chance to act heroic."
"A little filly was foalnapped, did you expect me to just sit idly by?"
"Gathering information is NOT sitting idly by. Often, as in this case, it's quite necessary."
A tense silence followed. Bird Chaser sighed; he couldn’t stay mad at the unicorn, his carefree way of acting was after all one of the main reasons he teamed up with him in the first place. And even through he didn't want to admit it, Night Dew did have a point.
He was just about to apologize when his friend spoke up. "His cutie mark was a spider. Right?"
"Ehhm. Yes. Why?"
"I think I just found the cave"
There was no mistake, a narrow cave entrance sealed off with a giant spiderweb, that, judging by the few things stuck in it, hadn’t been there very long.
"So is this his work, or are we dealing with giant spiders as well?"
"It's possible," Bird Chaser replied. "He is a unicorn. But why don't you tell me? You are the expert after all."
"Right" Night Dew's light spell went out, as he had to concentrate on the new one, leaving the lantern Bird Chaser had brought as the only light source.
Slowly he neared the web, stopping just before his horn touched it. Small particles began traveling up and down the strings as the spell did its work. The web suddenly burst into green flames making Night Dew jump backwards into his friend.
"Woah! What happened?"
"It's magic. It's definitely magic," the unicorn concluded, watching the rest of the web burn away.
On the inside the cave quickly grew larger, and it became clear that they might be dealing with an entire cave system rather than just a lair. Luckily, so far there hadn't been any side routes.
Moving on, they spotted quite a few almost comically obvious web traps, which they had no trouble avoiding, and thus their advancement was uninterrupted until they reached a large chasm with no visible way across.
Night Dew smiled as his horn lit up for a spell, which in turn brought a sigh from Bird Chaser "Didn't you just say we had to hurry?" No response. "Just let me carry you across."
"Just give me a second. I can do this."
The pegasus sighed again. There really was no point in arguing with him when he was like that.
More than a second later, actually a few minutes, two bat style wings appeared on Night Dew's back. He flapped them proudly, but due to them being bat sized as well he failed to actually leave the ground.
"Now can I carry you?" The newly winged unicorn remained silent, but Bird Chaser knew him well enough to take that as a yes, and soon they were flying across the gap.
Night Dew spoke up, "How do he get past here? You said he was a unicorn right?"
"He is, and that's just one of the things that troubles me about this."
"What troubles you?" his passenger looked wondering at him.
"Well for starters, he entered through the front door but left through the window in the following confusion."
"And that is strange why?"
"They were on the third floor"
"Oh." Night Dew was silent for a moment, thinking about it. "Do you think he can make wings too?"
"Maybe, or maybe he has something like your soft impact spell. In any case, what really worries me is that we might be dealing with a magic talent"
"Is that all? We can take- Stop!"
The sudden outburst brought Bird Chaser to an abrupt halt, just inches before a thin, in the dark, almost invisible web that could had had deadly consequences had it gotten entangled with his wings. He maintained his position, first surprised that a unicorn had spotted it before him. Then his eyes widened as he suddenly realized the purpose of the previously obvious placed traps. "Oh. He's good"
One magic removal of web later the two once again found their hoofs safely placed upon the cave floor, "So as I was saying," Night Dew continued as if nothing had happened, "what if he's a magic talent? That doesn't change anything. We can take him."
"I never said we couldn't, but this is his cave and if he is a magic talent we need to be careful."
"Fine. I'll be careful..." Bird Chaser didn't seem convinced. "So mister 'thinks about everything', which way?"
Three tunnels connected the current cave with the rest of the cave system, none of which seemed more obvious than the other. "That one."
It was now Night Dew's turn to look unconvinced. "And you're sure of this why?"
"The tracks seem to go this way, and why are you questioning me? I'm the tracker here"
"Okay, okay, lead the way"
What followed was a web of tunnels going off in all directions, some horizontal, others vertical, a few they had to be careful not to fall into.
"Come on Bird, we've walked for hours, just admit we're lost."
"We've walked for maybe half an hour, one max... And we're not lost." Bird Chaser took a right turn and walked five steps before facing a wall. Looking around he found no side tunnels or any other signs of a way forward. He sighed, "Okay... we're lost."
Night Dew had that annoying told you look
"I don't get it though; tracking a pony on stone ground is hard, but not impossible, and I should be more than capable of it. Yet his tracks keep disappearing, only to reappear in an entirely different direction. At this rate I have no idea how we-"
"ARGH! BY CELESTIA'S SUN!"
The screaming came from somewhere in the cave. The two friends looked at each other for a moment before Night Dew stated the obvious: "Or we could just follow that?"
Things were not going Spilers way. Just waiting around after having foalnapped a filly was frustrating enough on its own, and to add to it he had just hit his hoof against a rock doing his reckless aimless walking. He started cursing loudly and found that it did indeed relieve him of some of his frustration, so he kept it up.
When he could no longer think of new words to condemn the world he sat down and took a deep breath. Maybe it wasn't so bad - how hard could it be to contain one filly for just a bit longer?
"Hello Spiler" he turned around and was now face to face with the duo. Taking a few steps backwards he silently cursed himself for not paying more attention before Bird Chaser continued "oh, don't mind us, we're just here to pick up a lost filly." Wasting no time Spiler turned again and charged directly towards the nearest wall, continued up and disappeared into one of the tunnels near the ceiling. "And he can walk on walls" the pegasus concluded. "Of course. Wait here" the last part was directed at Night Dew. He then took up pursuit.
Getting to the entrance was easy, but as soon as he entered flying got difficult and he had to switch between flying and running, depending on the width of the tunnel. Luckily the glow from Spilers horn and the sound of his hooves hitting rock made him easy to follow.
Bird Chaser made a right turn; his prey had the upper hoof in this environment and he had to turn that around. Another right turn. The tunnel expanded a bit allowing him to use his wings and get some speed. A left turn. He had no choice but rely on his wings for the extra speed needed to keep up.
Spiler ran up a wall into a vertical tunnel knowing that it would not stop his pegasus pursuer, but he hoped it would at least confuse him for a short while. He was quickly getting fatigued as he was not in that good of a shape and running and casting spells at the same time took its toll on him. He entered a horizontal tunnel. There was no way he could keep this up, he had to outwit him. After turning a corner he stopped. He had a plan.
Straight up. Bird Chaser counted himself lucky that the tunnel was wide enough for him to actually fly; all Spiler had to do was to find a slimmer vertical tunnel and he would had gotten away. Gone? No, he must have taken one of the side tunnels. After looking around for a few moments Bird Chaser finally noticed a faint glow in one of the tunnels. "Got you"
That was it, the trap was set, now all Spiler had to do was getting his flank out of there. He continued onwards and turned right. The tunnel led back into the open cave he came from; the space would give the pegasus the advantage, but it would also offer access to a lot more tunnels.
Bird Chaser got his hoof caught in the web and went face first into the stone floor. That he had avoided getting his wings entangled, as was clearly the purpose of the trap, he thanked his reflexes for. No time to lose he got up again, he had hurt his leg but for now the tunnel was wide enough to fly.
Spiler looked back as he entered the large cave again, this time running on the ceiling; the trap had done its work, not as efficiently as he had hoped for but it should give him enough time to hide himself in one of the smaller tunnels, He turned his attention forward again, just in time to see Night Dew right in front of him, now with a much larger second pair of bat wings on his back and generating some kind of large green orb from his horn. Impact was inevitable.
The pegasus sped up as he exited the tunnel, this was his chance.
The two unicorns collided midair, and the orb exploded. Bird Chaser managed to make a last second dodge, brought himself to a halt and looked up at the two, now helplessly glued to the ceiling with green slime.
Night Dew shook of the initial confusion "I... I meant to do that."
"So, a spider cutie mark" Bird Chaser walked around their prisoner, examining him. "Do you have a talent for being a spider?"
Spiler did not respond. He was occupied with planning his next escape, witch was made difficult by the magic shackles now binding him to the floor.
"Silence. I see. You didn't seem to have any problem talking before" still no response. "That's okay, I can work with that."
He looked back at Night Dew who got his cue and started channeling magic. "Have you met my friend Night Dew? He's a magic talent." The confused look on Spilers face told him everything he needed to know. "They're powerful unicorns with talents tying directly into magic." He paused for a few seconds to let it sink in. "Night Dew here has a talent for wild casting, you know, that kind of casting you unicorns do when you have no idea what you're doing. He should be capable of turning that into a spell that makes you talk. Of course even though he is talented we are talking about wild casting here, chances are he might turn you into a frog instead." Spiler gulped. "Then again, if you won't talk anyway it doesn't really make a difference if you're a species that can."
Bird Chasers speech had worked as intended and his captive was now sweating and nervelessly looking for any way out; as any unicorn he clearly understood the dangers of wild casting, Night Dew took a step closer and increased his channeling which was finally enough to break Spiler
"Okay, okay I'll talk." He looked at the unicorn. "Just... just don't use that on me."
Night Dew stopped his channeling - he was never actually preparing a spell anyway.
"So, foalnapping." Bird Chaser was back to interrogating. "You've done a lot of that?"
"No."
"Very well, what made you start then?"
"I..." his left eye tweaked for a moment. "I wanted ransom."
"From Sun Leaf?"
"Yes"
He was clearly lying, but that didn't matter for now. "What's so special about Seedling?"
Spiler hesitated a moment before answering "Nothing." Bird Chaser raised his eyebrows. "There's nothing special about her, I could have picked any foal."
"Please don't lie to me, I don't like being lied to." His captive's breathing quickened a bit. "You didn't go in through the window, even though you are clearly capable of doing so. My guess is that you didn't know which window was the right one, and there were no way of telling though the curtains, so you went through the house, passing by several rooms, not to mention floors, of possible foals to foalnap. When you finally got to Seedling's room you didn't pick the foal closest to the door, nor the window, both of which would had made your escape easier, but instead went through the trouble of identifying Seedling in the top bunk, grabbed her and then made your escape"
Both unicorns stood still blinking a few times before he continued: "So I'll ask you again, what's so special about Seedling?"
"I... She..." Spiler took his time trying to piece an explanation together in his head. Night Dew's horn lit up as he began channeling again. "She was left behind by somepony named Dust Quell!"
The cave went silent and Bird Chaser's pupils shrank a considerable amount. When he finally spoke again his voice had turned monotone "Who are you working for?"
The sudden change in attitude caught Spiler off guard, and instead of answering he just stared at the pegasus, who in turn didn't wait for him to find his voice but pushed him to the ground placing a hoof on his chest.
"I asked you a question. Who are you working for?" He was yelling now and when the unicorn still didn't respond he started pressing his hoof harder against his chest.
Tears started to form in Spilers eyes: "Please. He... He'll hurt me."
"No. I'll hurt you." He lifted his free hoof and slammed it at full force against his captive's head.
It never connected, though, as his entire body was suddenly covered in magic aura and frozen in place. He tried to force himself free but was only rewarded with being slammed into the wall.
"I do believe that's quite enough," Night Dew said, releasing his friend from his telekinetic grip. Bird Chaser remained silent, and the unicorn turned towards Spiler who was now laying sobbing on the floor. "Where's Seedling?"
"And that's when I realized that if we were ever to catch Spiler I had to interfere, though it pained me as I was determined to let Bird Chaser have a chance at being the hero. But in the end I valued your safety higher. So I conjured myself some wings and flew up to stop him with a spell I had prepared, mimicking his own web spell."
"Wow!" Seedling was impressed and Night Dew was happy. They were on their way out after having rescued her from her cell, a surprisingly pleasant room that even had a bed, properly Spilers own sleeping chamber.
"We're wasting time Dew. That creep has valuable information, we can't just let him go."
"We just have. And I think you traumatized him enough for now." His face had gone from smiling to staring angrily at Bird Chaser surprisingly fast. "I, by the way, look forward to hearing what that was all about."
"What what was all about?" Seedling intertwined.
"Why I had to do all the work of course."
They stopped as they had once again reached the chasm; Bird Chaser took a good hold of Seedling before the three of them started crossing.
"Why do you have four wings?"
"Easy my dear filly, a pony like me-" He was interrupted by a sudden jolt going through his back. In a split second he realized what had just happened: the two flight spells were obviously incompatible and had just canceled each other leaving him to see how deep the chasm actually went.
He cursed himself for ever thinking that four wings would be cool, instead of playing it safe and dispelling the first spell before casting a new one. Oh well, falling wasn't the worst thing that could happen, in fact he had gotten so used to it by now that the only spell he actually mastered was a spell to remove impact on a surface, making him capable of surviving a fall from any height.
He intensified the light from his horn. For the spell to work he had to know exactly when he would hit ground. Not so much further, just a few more seconds and he would hit... spikes... "Oh horseapples."
"Dew!" Bird Chaser yelled, almost dropping the lantern. He quickly sat down Seedling on the other side, telling her to wait, before he himself dove into the chasm. True, he knew that his friend was capable of nullifying impact, but it wouldn't be the first time a spell of his had failed, and whatever had caused his wings to dispel could had had more consequences.
Panic hit Night Dew like a hammer. There were no surface to bounce his spell off, only pointy death. He closed his eyes tying to think of anything that could save his life, flight spells, levitation, instant safety net. Nothing he could think of would be castable in the very limited time he had at his disposal. He would hit the spikes anytime now. Anytime.
Something was wrong. No, not wrong, just different... he was falling at a much slower rate than before, as if time itself had slowed down. Looking down, he saw himself, or to be more correct, the energy that made up his body. He was wild casting.
This was not the first time Night Dew had been wild casting, but the surrealism of it still amazed him. Below him he could see his body, currently in the hoofs of his subconscious. Directly above him another pile of energy was diving towards him, probably Bird Chaser, and beyond him a smaller pile that he guessed was most likely Seedling.
As he watched the scene unfold in slow motion he suddenly noticed something else - something not present in the physical realm but magical in nature. It looked like a web made up of red strings most of which warped around Seedling; a few went away from her and entangled Bird Chaser, almost as if to catch him, and yet a few went beyond him. He turned around to look down again and just as expected the strings reached his body too.
Figuring out what they meant had to wait however as he was now only a few moments away from catching up to his body, and whatever magic effect his subconscious was making would become his reality.
A flash of light made Bird Chaser halt his dive. When it settled he tried calling out to his friend again, but to no avail. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then started searching the spikes. He found no signs of the unicorn - this of course was a good thing, as it meant no dead body ether. "Magic" he mumbled to himself before taking another glance over the spikes.
Satisfied that Night Dew, or his body, was nowhere to be found, he went back up to an eagerly awaiting Seedling who immediately asked "Where's Night Dew?"
He landed next to her before replying: "He's gone." The horrified look on the filly's face made him realize what he just said. "No, not like that! He's probably fine." He was just as much trying to reassure himself. "My guess is that he ether figured out how to teleport himself, or how to pass through solid objects."
"So where is he?"
"I don't know," Bird Chaser admitted. He honestly had no idea, Night Dew could be anywhere.
"Aren't we going to look for him?"
"No. I'm going to look for him, you're going back to Hilltop"
"But I-"
"This is not a matter for discussion." He softened up a bit before continuing "I really can't have you tagging along for this."
"Fine."
Bird Chaser gratefully inhaled the fresh air as they exited the cave system. Like any pegasus he felt much more at ease under the open sky. He looked up; the sky was painted by the early sunrise, maybe if he hurried back he could catch a few hours of sleep before he had to move on. After all, this night had left him with a lot of questions.
Luckily he knew where to start looking for the answers.
Note: In case you want a short recap of the first chapter. Click Here
Pain can mean a lot of things. Often it's a sign of danger, that one has been damaged and need to take care of one's body. Other times its a joyous thing, as when new life is brought to the world.
To Night Dew, as he slowly regained consciousness, it was a strong indicator that he was still alive. That or that the afterlife was way more painful that he had been led to believe. He took his chances with the first option and opened his eyes.
The sun was high in the sky, hinting that he had been out cold for some hours, which perfectly matched the bits of memory he was beginning to recall. He had materialized some distance above ground level, but hadn’t had time to cast his impact nullifier spell before said impact send him to dreamland.
He inspected the landscape around him, nothing but barren land. "Well, can't stay here" he said out loud and tried to get back on his legs, an effort that failed with another jolt of pain as his legs gave way and send him face down in the dirt.
Looking back, he saw the prime source of his pain; his right hind leg had been pierced before he had managed to teleport himself away, which also had made him lose quit a lot of blood.
"Okay. That's okay, Dew" he said, mostly to keep himself from panicking. "Your talent is everything. Healing magic is a part of everything." He took a deep breath. "You can do this." Truth be told, he had never cast a healing spell before. Nevertheless, his horn lit up and sparks began to run along his body towards the wound.
The scream could be heard miles away. As it died off Night Dew was left panting on the ground. "New statement." He bit in another jolt of pain from his leg. "My talent is everything BUT healing magic"
Leaf Grinder poured the content of his mortar into a box; he had yet to name this blend, but the sweet aroma already filed his small shop. Tea making had never been a very respected talent amongst earth ponies like himself, but for some reason, unicorns couldn't seem to get enough of it, earning him most of his customers. And he had a good feeling that this new one was going to be a popular one.
As he placed the box with the others a small bell rang, the telltale sound that somepony had just entered. "Good day, how can I be of ser- Bird Chaser?"
"Hey Leaf, long time." The pegasus had entered, wearing a cloak that covered most of his body.
"What..." The shop owner blinked a few times, and instead of finishing his sentence he rushed to the door and looked nervously out into the street before he locked it and turned the open sign to closed. "Have you grown suicidal all of a sudden? Showing up in town and all"
"Its good to see you too, Leaf."
"Sorry;" he calmed down a bit. "But if the Golden Rock saw you go in here, you're not the only pony in trouble."
"Relax, if they had seen me I would never have gotten this far into town. And why do you think I went through the trouble of hiding my wings and cutie mark?"
"I really hope you're right. But let's at least go out back before somepony does see you."
Unlike the shop itself, the office was a mess. Books and papers were spread everywhere and there seemed to be a lot more of them than what was reasonable for a simple tea shop. As if to add to the atmosphere, the windows had been permanently covered, leaving the room with no real lighting.
Having closed the door after them, Leaf Grinder took his seat behind the desk "So I'm guessing you didn't risk being able to use your wings just to say hi to an old friend."
"Maybe another day," Bird Chaser took the seat in front of the desk. "I'm looking for a young stallion, green coat, purple mane, has a spider cutie mark and goes by the name Spiler."
"Sorry, doesn't ring any bells."
"He's working for somepony. Somepony that seems interested in Dust Quill." His friend didn't answer. "Well?"
"Look, I can assure you that he has no involvement with the rock; they haven't been looking into Dust Quill since that time."
"But you know who he is." That was not a question.
"Bird. You're way out of your league here. I cannot discourage you enough from following up on this."
"I can pay, how much extra do you want?"
"I'm not even going to take payment for the first bit of information, I'm telling you this as a friend. Keep your flank out of this."
The sincere concern was unlike Leaf Grinder, and it took Bird Chaser several moments before he could answer. "I can't do that. Sorry."
"I was afraid you'd say that" He opened one of his notebooks and flipped through the pages. Having found the one he was searching for, he passed it on. "The pony you're looking for is a unicorn by the name Sole Ray."
Bird Chaser scanned the page; as usual his friend had been thorough - there was even a drawing of his cutie mark, a shattered ring. He noted down the most important details: white fur and a dark red Mane.
Leaf Grinder continued: "He came by about 3 days ago looking for information on Dust Quill."
"And I'm guessing you gave it to him."
"I'm running a business here, of course I did." He sighed "Bird. He's with New Cosmos."
The pegasus looked up from the notes. "The group of rogue magic talents?"
"Yes. Compared to them the Golden Rock is nothing more than a bunch of foals." He paused. "If I can't convince you not to follow up on this, at least promise me that you'll look out for yourself, okay?"
"Don't worry. I will."
After they said their goodbyes, Bird Chaser found himself in the ally behind the shop. Leaf Grinder had insisted that he use the back door in order to avoid spying eyes. He could be a bit paranoid at times, but then again the Golden Rock was no laughing matter.
The visit had not proven as fruitful as he had hoped; his initial fear had been ruled out, but only to be replaced with the involvement of New Cosmos. Not an improvement.
He sighed. At least he had made some progress, however small it was, and there was still one option left although he really didn't want to go there. On the other hoof, if Sole Ray was on the same track, he had to get there before him if that wasn’t already too late.
Luckily his wings gave him the speed advantage - he just had to get out of town first.
His train of thoughts was interrupted as he heard a sound behind him; however, turning his head to look he saw nopony - a cat maybe? Or maybe Leaf Grinder's words were just getting to him. In any case, being careful seemed like a good idea.
He turned down another ally, paying close attention to his surroundings. No - somepony was definitely following him. This was bad. Had the Golden Rock spotted him anyway? Possibly, but the fact that he was being shadowed instead of ambushed hinted at another motive.
No matter what this mysterious pony wanted, he couldn't afford to get caught. He turned down another ally and hid behind some crates, reasoning that the best way to get out of town in one piece was to surprise his follower and put him out of action long enough to get away.
A terrible sound went through the entrance hall at Hilltop as a vase was shattered by an energy ray that continued on and added a new entrance through the wall.
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Sole Ray asked Sun Leaf, whom he had just barely avoided hitting with his attack. Behind him Spiler stood nervously, trying to avoid eye contact with the other ponies in the room, and on the other side, Spring Dancer was busy trying to get the foals to safety.
"I said, you are not getting any further in, and we will most certainly not hand over Seedling to you."
"Oh, so I did hear that right." He started smiling as he lifted the elderly mare into the air with his magic. "You know, at your age you really should think more about your health." He then proceeded to throw her across the room.
A pegasus resident managed to catch her just before she hit the floor. Spiler ran to her side, but an angry glare from the other ponies made him stop.
"Now, unless there are any further interruptions..." Sole Ray turned back towards the hallway he was heading for in the first place, this time, however, getting cut off by Spring Dancer. "Oh, come on."
"You might be strong." She positioned herself ready to fight. "But there's no way you can take on all of us."
"Is that so?" His horn lit up and a single beam hit the earth pony, who collapsed on the spot. "Anypony else feel the urge to stop me?" The room remained silent. "Good. Come on Spiler." He then proceeded down the hallway.
Spiler hesitated for a moment, but the unwelcoming atmosphere ultimately made him follow. "Wait!" The other pony ignored him so he started galloping and finally managed to catch up to the unicorn just before the staircase. "Wait."
Sole Ray finally stopped. "What?"
"Did. Did you kill her?"
"No. Of course not." Spiler heaved a relieved sigh. "She should be perfectly fine, as long as she receives medical attention within the next few hours." He started ascending the stairs. "I really don't have time to deal with a murder investigation right now."
"Do we have to be this brutal about it?"
"No you're right. An idea just hit me." Sole Ray stopped again for a second to emphasize his words. "Maybe one of us could sneak in here at night and foalnap her." Spiler didn't look amused. "All he would have to do then would be keeping an eye on her for a few hours. I mean, who could fail that?"
"I told you. I was attacked by a pegasus and a unicorn who-"
"Had wild casting as his special talent." Sole Ray finished his sentence.
"Yes."
"If you were just half as competent as you're gullible we wouldn't even be here now."
They continued in silence until they reached the hallway on the third floor where Spiler pointed out a door. As they approached it, they could clearly hear the fillies behind it moving furniture around, probably in an attempt to barricade the door.
They tried the handle – locked, of course. "Okay." Sole Ray said while his horn lit up. "Stand back."
"Seedling?" Bird Chaser had at the very last moment realized who he was attacking and had thus barely avoided actually hurting her.
"Oh, you got me," she cheerfully replied.
"What the-" He looked nervously but didn't see anypony else. "What are you doing here?"
"I followed you."
"Why?.. How?.." Her happy matter-of-fact way of saying that completely threw him off. "Never mind. If you're here, we need to get out of town as soon as possible." He threw away his cloak, grabbed the filly and set off into the sky.
"Yay! Where're we going?"
"Hilltop."
"What?" Seedling sounded somewhere between surprised and disappointed. "Why? I want to go with you and Night Dew."
"Night Dew's not here."
"We'll go on a search for him. It'll be awesome."
Bird Chaser sighed. "This isn't a game. Or one of Dews adventure stories."
"But-" The filly started arguing, but was cut off.
"We'll talk about this later."
"So." Sole Ray was holding one of the three fillies present with his magic. "Where's Seedling?"
The other two were doing their best to hide behind the broken furniture that now lay shattered around the room after the door was blasted in. "She. She left." The first filly managed to say between sobs.
"So I've noticed." He moved himself closer to her face. "Where to?"
"She's going to get Night Dew. He'll beat the hay out of you."
"Night Dew?" He turned towards Spiler. "Purple fur, black mane has a cutie mark with a water drop?"
The unicorn blinked a few times. "He's the one who attacked me, yes?"
Sole Ray smiled and let go of the filly who fell to the floor with with a bump. "It sure is a small world. Come on." He then left the room, shortly thereafter followed by his sidekick.
"So where do we find her?"
"We don't." He looked back at Spiler who much to his amusement had stopped up in confusion. "If Night Dew has her I think a change in priorities are in order."
Night Dew was getting exhausted. He had been walking through the sunbathed barren landscape for what seemed like days, although the lack of nights indicated that it was probably just hours.
He sat down to try and regain some strength. His healing spell had, if nothing else, stopped the bleeding, but his leg remained useless. Adding to that, his heart beat seemed unable to slow down and just staying awake had started to become a challenge on its own, making his journey almost unbearable.
Sleep. Maybe that was- No. He had to keep on going, had to find some kind of settlement or at least another friendly being. With a burst of willpower he managed to get back up, grimacing at the sudden pain as he instinctively tried to use his damaged leg in the process.
He was moving again. Maybe it wasn't so impossible after all. His confidence was quickly crushed, however, when he lost balance only a few steps later and fell to the ground. Maybe he really did need sleep, just a few minutes, just to regain strength.
His eyelids closed as he slowly lost consciousness.
Just a few minutes.
"So?" Spiler broke the silence. They had been walking for some time now after leaving Hilltop. "Night Dew really is strong?"
"He's a magic talent," Sole Ray answered absently while clearly looking for something. "So he's stronger than most unicorns." His search seemed to remain fruitless.
"So he can wild cast?"
Sole Ray sighed and finally turned to face his sidekick. "Look. Every unicorn can wild cast, we just learn from a young age that it's a really bad idea, or most of us do. Night Dew might be a magic talent, but he's not nearly as powerful as he tends to claim. No pony that I have ever heard of have had wild casting, or 'everything', as Night Dew boasts, as their special talent."
"Ah!" Spiler blinked as he realized the obviousness of the statement. "But what is his special talent then?"
"Fudging."
"Fudging?"
"Or magical fudging to be precise." Spiler still looked like a living question mark, so Sole Ray went on. "You know, when you don't know how to cast a spell, but you have a good idea of the basic components that make it up, so instead of actually casting the spell, you're using them to try and create a magical effect with the same results. Night Dew is very talented at figuring out the components of spells he don't know and using that."
"That sounds powerful."
Sole Ray snorted. "It would be, but since he's relying so much on it, he never actually learns the spells. Last time I met him, he could only properly cast one spell. And even though magical fudging is useful, it will always leave you with something along the lines of what you wanted, but never exactly what you wanted. Sometimes, if you aren't careful, you might even end up causing more problems with it than solutions."
Spiler nodded. "So all in all he's not really that dangerous?"
"No, he's only a C rank." Sole Ray instantly regretted saying that as Spiler went right back to imitating a question mark. He sighed once more. "Okay, to grossly oversimplify think of the ranks as a measurement of how strong a unicorn is. They span from F, which is basically a normal unicorn who can levitate objects and light up their horns, to A who can more or less bend reality to their will. Most unicorns at E and every one above are considered a magic talent. That makes roughly 15% of the unicorn population." Confident that he had answered the question he went back to his search.
Spiler thought it over for a few moments. "You're a magic talent, aren't you?"
"I am."
"What rank?"
He smiled, he had been waiting for that question. "A."
Bird Chaser landed outside Hilltop, a bit exhausted from carrying the filly all the way. He was met by a crowd of ponies running around each other in confusion. A few of them immediately greeted Seedling with a mixture of "Thank Celestia you're safe!" and "What were you thinking running off like that!?" He stopped one of them. "What happened here?"
"We were attacked by Spiler and some other unicorn. Spring Dancer's in hospital and Sun Leaf almost followed."
"She's still here? I need to talk to her right away."
"Good," another mare interrupted. "Maybe you can talk some sense into her. She refuses to inform the guards."
"No. She's right in not involving them." His words earned him some confused looks. "At least not yet. Look, can one of you please take me to her?"
"Right. This way," the first mare said before leading him indoor into a room decorated with old photos and furniture, Sun Leaf's personal quarters.
On a rocking chair in the center sat the mare in question. Before her one of the older colts was serving her a bowl of soup. As they entered she instantly reacted. "Bird Chaser, please tell me that Seedling is with you."
"She is."
Sun Leaf drew a relieved sigh. "Oh thank goodness. That filly, sometimes I don't know what to do with her."
"We need to talk." She just nodded and, much to the pegasus' dislike, allowed the other two ponies to stay. "About Dust Quill."
A long silence followed before the elderly mare finally spoke. "Could you two please leave us for a moment?" After the door was closed, she continued. "So this is about him."
"Most likely yes. You were attacked by Sole Ray, right?"
"He didn't tell me his name, and to be honest I didn't think of asking."
"White unicorn with a shattered circle cutie mark."
"You know him?"
"I know of him. I also know that Dust Quill was in possession of a magical artifact that boosts your power, which is most likely what Sole Ray is after." He paused for a moment to let the information sink in, as he thought the mare didn't seem surprised. "Now, I thought that we were dealing with the Golden Rock and that they planned to use Seedling as a hostage to get what they wanted. But turns out we're dealing with a much stronger foe; they don't need hostages as they can simply take what they want. So why do they want Seedling?"
Sun Leaf shook her head. "I don't know."
"Do you know who she is? Last I heard, Dust Quill never had any foals, and her age taken into consideration, he couldn’t had had her since."
"No. All I know is that he left her in my protection."
"And from what I know about him," Bird Chaser added. "That means from the royal guard as well as thugs." She nodded. "Okay. I know he moved, but not where to. Do you?" She didn't answer. "I know you want to protect them, but Sole Ray is probably on his way there now. If he could figure out Seedling's connection to Dust Quill, and find her here, I don't think finding one little house will be that hard for him, and I really need to get there first."
They sat in silence again for a while. Then Sun Leaf sighed. "You're right, of course. I just can't shake the feeling of betraying him. The house is located not far from Dodge City. That is unfortunately all I know, but I imagine it won't be that hard for you to find it from there."
The pegasus nodded. "That should be enough. Thank you."
Silence once again filled the room. There was one more subject that needed to be discussed, but neither of them wanted to bring it up. Finally Sun Leaf spoke. "We can't protect Seedling."
"You can't," Bird Chaser agreed. "Had she been here earlier, Sole Ray would had had her by now, and you also need to protect the other residents."
"So what do you suggest?"
Bird Chaser sighed. What he was about to say went against a lot of his principles. "I suggest that I take her with me. I might be going the same way as them, but I like my life enough to not confront them, and should we run into them, I'm lucky enough to have wings."
"I might not be a pegasus," Sun Leaf argued, "but even I know that it gets harder to move around in the air when you're carrying somepony, and add to that that you need to avoid whatever that unicorn throws at you. Are you sure you can do it?"
"I know it's a bit of a gamble. But it's only 'till I find Dew, then we'll stand a lot better chance of protecting her."
"How do you plan to find him? He can quite literally be anywhere."
"True, and that's why I'm not going to look for him." His words seemed to raise some confusion. "He might be a big foal, but he's not stupid. If he can move he'll ether take up the trail on Dust Quill himself, or come back here where you'll probably send him in that direction. The easiest way for me to find him is doing the same."
Sun Leaf took her time considering the situation before replying. "Very well, you've convinced me. I hope you know what you're doing."
"So do I."
They parted, and Bird Chaser went looking for Seedling, a task that proved a bit more difficult than expected as nopony seemed to know where she was. In the end, she found him, as she jumped out from below a sofa where she had been hiding.
"They're everywhere."
"Who?"
"Them! With all their 'Thank Celestia you're safe, never run off again.' I wouldn't be safe if I hadn't!" The pegasus couldn't help but chuckle. "Please let me come with you. I promise I'll be
good. Please, please, please, please, please, please."
Bird Chaser held a hoof to her mouth to stop her. "Well, I guess I got some good news for you then."
"What is that?" Spiler asked, looking at the blue orb Sole Ray had manifested above the magic circle that apparently had been the object of his search.
"A beacon."
"What for?"
"Me!"
Spiler's heart skipped a beat - the last answer had come from somewhere behind him, and as he turned around he came face to face with a transparent unicorn colt who levitated a small distance above the ground.
"Hello Ghost," Sole Ray greeted him.
"Ray! I was beginning to lose faith that you would ever get your horn out of your hindquarters and actually do something. Who's this?" Ghost had moved himself in a circle around them and was now levitating upside down looking at Spiler. "A new member?"
"No. he's just with me. And it's going to stay that way." He looked at the unicorn in question, who seemed moments away from peeing himself. "Spiler, this is Ghost. He is a member of New Cosmos and no, he's not really a ghost, he can just turn himself incorporeal."
"Awww, come on, Ray. Don't be such a spoilsport."
Sole Ray looked at him a few seconds. "He's also not nearly as young as he looks, he doesn't age in that form. And before you ask, he's a D rank."
"Ouch. Are you actually trying to make enemies?"
"Just tell me what you found out and then you can get your transparent flank back to headquarters and report on me."
"Or I could just do that now and leave you to try and figure it out yourself." Ghost was getting increasingly angry.
"You know," Sole Ray remained calm. "I've always wondered if I can actually hit you. I mean in theory, you currently have about the same mass as my rays, it shouldn’t really be that hard." Ghost's pupils shrunk. "Do you think you'll leave behind a body? You being incorporeal and all."
"Okay, okay. No reason to get violent." He gulped. "It wasn't easy. Dust Quill knew what he was doing when he cast his protection spell."
"Did you or did you not find it?"
"Of course I did." Ghost smiled, and a map materialized beside him.
Sole Ray studied it "Dodge City? Seems like we're going south."
"Thunder Spark, Storm Runner, you two get down here this very instant!"
The twins playfully tumbled trough the sky, pretending not to hear their earthbound mother. This was their domain- in the air, nopony could reach them.
"When I get my hoofs on you-" the earth pony stopped to catch her breath while her sons just got further away.
"Hey Spark! Race ya to that hill." Storm Runner pointed at the proposed goal. They both knew that sooner or later, they had to listen to their mother, but one last race for the day only seemed fair.
"You're on!" Thunder Spark replied before using a powerful flap to earn himself a head start. It didn't last long, though, and his brother was soon side by side with him again, trying to make him slow down by leaning in on his front. However, Thunder Spark wasn't about to lose that easily - he rolled around, forcing his brother to follow in order not to collide and thus flipping their positions and regaining his lead.
Storm Runner regained his balance; that last stunt had almost thrown him off - almost. He narrowed his eyes. He had already lost once this day and didn't want to repeat that success. Putting his wings to the job he managed to close the gap between them and then passed at a rapid speed as his brother had suddenly stopped mid air. He looked back in confusion. "Hey, what's up?"
Thunder Spark didn't answer, but instead descended to the ground where he landed beside a purple unicorn lying in the dust.
"Cool!" Storm Runner had joined up. "Do you think he's dead?"
"I dunno." He tilted his head "Try poking him."
The colt hesitated a moment before following through on the suggestion. There was no reaction.
"By Celestia!" Their mother had finally caught up with them. "When we get back you're in so much tro-" She stopped mid sentence when she saw the scene before her, and without saying another word, she rushed to the unicorn, checking his pulse. With a relieved sigh, she once again addressed the twins. "You two, hurry back to Jade Heart and tell her to have the guest bed ready. Seems like we're going to have company."
Author's Note
Who is Dust Quill?
Who exactly is Seedling?
How do they connect?
What is Sole Ray trying to achieve?
What is Bird Chasers connection to the Golden Rock?
Will Night Dew ever get more screen time again?
So many questions! I better get writing on the next chapter.
Oh and just in case you did think Night Dew had too little screen time, check out Drunken Songs. A one shot where he's on almost the entire story.
Till next time.
