Chapter 4: Runaways

Chapter 4: Runaways

"Glad to see you're awake."

Star's voice sounds hoarse and very tired through the haze of waking up. As I sit up, the grass I was laying on lost it's comfort, and just made me feel itchy all over. Wait... Grass! The shock wakes me up almost instantaneously.

"How long have I been out this time? And where the hell are we?" I say, matching Star Charmer's tone.

"Oh, I'd say you've been out cold for about half a day. The sun is already starting to rise. As for where we are, the forest to the west of Canterlot." Star did sound quite irritated

I breathe in the first breath of fresh air that I have had in days. Not going to lie, it feels great to be... Outside! I forget Star's cranky attitude for a moment while I take it all in. I frantically look around at the trees around me. The bark was a dark brown with the occasional growth of moss dangling from the branches. The canopy overhead was a vibrant green that reflects the light of the golden sunrise.

"Hold on a second, we're out? That means the... Sun goddess, or whatever the hell she is following us!" Panicked, I raise my voice to just below a shout. This is bad. Very very bad. There is no way the ruler of a nation would be completely oblivious to an escapee from her own prison.

"Oh trust me, she's after us all right," Star's voice suddenly takes on a dark tone. "She probably has her guards searching for us right this minute."

Worried more than ever, I ask the only thing on my mind. "Then... What are we supposed to do?"

"We move forward. The farther from canterlot the better" At this, Star looks sadly at the silhouette of a castle that still loomed over the forest. I follow her gaze. The castle gleams in the sunlight. The castle was a sight to behold itself. The architecture seemed impossible, tall immaculate towers sat precariously on the cliff face of a mountain with virtually nothing to hold it up. However, with a blink the image suddenly shifted.

The sky itself seemed to tint red with this different sight. The stone looked gray from falling ash and dust. Multiple buildings were either collapsed or are burning to the ground. Many of the walls had holes in them, and another portion of the fortress fell away all together.

"But..." Star Charmers uneasy voice broke the horrific vision. With a blink, the beautiful city returned and the sky went back to be it's usual light blue.

"But what?" I responded, shaking my head slightly in an attempt to adjust to the familiar surroundings again.

Star turns back to me, a strange look of curiosity and worry on her face. "What happened while you were out Em?"

I haven't forgotten what happened in those dreams. They were so lucid it was frightening to watch. I could smell the billowing smoke. Hear the crackling of the flames. And, the scariest thing of all, I felt the pain of seeing those corpses. A hollow and unbearable sadness. It was terrifying. However, Star needn't know about that. I'm on thin ice as is.

"No- Nothing. Nothing happened,"  I stammered.

The look on Star's face said it all. That ice just shattered, and here comes the freezing water underneath. "You hesitated there Emerald. Tell me truthfully, what happened?" At least Star is fully awake now, a cold stare boring deep into my being.

Star's face is unchanging, and looked as hard as stone. She is suspicious of me. But, then again, why shouldn't she be?

"Star... I'm fine. I-"

"But I'm not!" Star raises her voice to a booming shout. Her pupils and irises shrink, leaving an intense look on her face. The sudden change in volume forces me to flinch a bit at the sudden outburst. Her hooves fly up in frustration. "You've been unconscious for almost half a day, and I am left to teleport, not just myself, but you as well, all the way here! And to top it all off, your eyes were glowing the entire time you were out!."

"Wait, my eyes were glowing?" Now i'm just as confused as Star. Glowing eyes? Was that even possible?

"Oh you didn't know!? I swear to Celestia that If I don't get some answers, I'm gonna-" As if realizing what she said, Star's hoof covers her mouth in an instant. "Em, we gotta move. Quickly! And stay quiet!"

With a foreleg, Star helps me to my feet and I sprint behind her. Being a horse running in a full gallop it quickly becomes hard for me to keep up. In fear, I find a new source of energy that allowed me to catch up. Breathing heavily, I force my legs to move so fast that my muscles began to burn in pain. For a few second's we just ran. But, star suddenly stops behind a bush, and motions for me to do the same.

As I duck behind the bush, a bright flash of light illuminates the trees around us. We remain silent as we try to make ourselves as small as possible behind the relatively small bush. Star is able to hide much more effectively while my body was slightly too large for the shrubbery.

A few seconds pass that feel more like minutes when I finally risk taking a peek. I poke my head out from behind the bush just enough to see the clearing where Star and I just were. Standing in the middle of the clearing was a large, immaculately white horse wearing a golden jeweled collar. The horse's mane was a pale rainbow that seemed to flow in a non existent breeze.

And with another blink, the large equine was gone, replaced by a shadow with a smoky green mane replacing the pastel rainbow of colors. The forest was lit ablaze, logs burning laying across the ground. I snap myself back to reality shaking my head to return to some form of normality.

After a few more moments of gawking, I turn back, hiding myself from the princess's view.

"So that was her? Was that Celes-?"

Star's hoof landed squarely on my lips, preventing me from finishing the name.

We sat there behind the bush for a while as the ruler of Equestria loomed just a few yards away. The hoofsteps were almost silent for the alicorn was incredibly light on her hooves. The air was filled only with the sound of the wind rustling the canopy overhead and the distant crowing of a rooster. Even as the we sat here, the sun sat un-moving in the sky. It simply loomed there, as if it was just waiting. The tension hung in the air like a thick invisible fog.

A loud stomp of the hoof and a second flash of gold light signaled the sun goddess's departure.

"Don't ever say her name! Got me?" Star's face grew worried as she looked over the bush searching for her ruler's presence.

"Why not, It's just a name."

"It's not just a name!" Star Charmer snapped back. "That name is tabooed. Whenever somepony, or somebody as the case may be, says her name, she can easily pinpoint the rough location of the thing that said her name!"

The concept simply baffled me. "Um... What?"

With a hoof against her forehead Star looks up at me, trying to think of the best way to describe what she meant. "Magic" she finally replied in a flat tone.

"Works for me" I say, with a rather sarcastic shrug.

"Just whatever you do," Star continued with a foreboding undertone, "Do not say Her name." A special emphasis on the word 'Her'. "With your escape, she will send projections of her being to investigate almost every mention of her name. Did I mention she's paranoid?" Star turned away to sit on a rock near the bush we were hiding behind. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and let out a stressed sigh. I decided to move to lean against a nearby tree. The moss on the trunk was still wet from the morning dew making me feel rather uncomfortable. Both of us just lingered there for a few in complete silence. The only sound was the leaves gently rustling in the soft wind accompanied by the occasional chirping bird. As we sat there, the sun continued to rise, looming in the distance. I broke the silence.

"So," I said, a sigh of relief blended in with my normal voice, "what do we do again exactly?"

"Like I said earlier," Star said softly, pointing a hoof, "we move forward."

"Where are we going exactly?"

Star took a moment to ponder the question, but seemed to not be able to think of anything. "I have no idea" she replied. "As far away from that foal-of-a-nag as possible.

The mare's choice of words took me slightly off guard. One would think that the citizen of a monarchy would have some respect for his or her ruler. But I guess not all leaders turn out to be a good one. Still, apart from recent circumstances, Star only spoke fondly of the princess of the sun. I could confront her about that now, but what good would it do? I'll wait for when we are in a more safe location.

Star slides off the rock and turns to me. Her smile, even if it was a bit forced, seemed to pull me forward. I push off of the tree I was leaning against to stand next to her. I walk past, slightly scratching Star's ear as I walk past. Looking over my shoulder, I shoot the mare a smirk. I caught a glimpse of her expression before I turned back. She seemed to be caught between a look of complete shock shown in her eyes, and a content happiness from the grin on her face. Her eyes open wide in realization. With a shake of her head, she trots to catch up with me. I sneak another glance to find Star smirking, eyes forward, a hint of a blush underneath her white coat.

We walked though the forest with no dirt path underneath our feet and hooves respectively. The tension lifted slightly knowing that we just avoided being found out so easily. This close encounter was a glimmer of hope that allowed us some peace of mind, but it also left a lingering uneasiness in the pit of my stomach. This wasn't the last time I will come this close to the alicorn princess, not by a long shot.

The near catastrophe that Star Charmer's slip-up created was one unexpected surprise that she didn't need. She spent the whole night fretting about the night patrols that she didn't get a minute of sleep. Now that she and Emerald are safe, Star started to feel the drowsiness come back on. She barely felt Em brush her ear though the haze that started to cloud her mind. To keep Em from worrying, she plastered a sleepy grin on her face. It wasn't a forced smile, but the lack of sleep started to take it's toll. She strolled lazily along side her taller, bipedal companion.

The sun continued to rise as the day went on, and the city of canterlot grew smaller as they continued to put more distance between themselves and the mountain.They continued to walk underneath the canopy of thick green oak and spruce branches, but as time passed, Star's steps got progressively more unstable. She swayed with each hoof-fall. The sounds of the forest began to turn into murmurs and muddled noises. A slight misstep sent the white mare tumbling to the side into something, knocking it over. Star and the other object tumbled to the ground.

"Star?"

The sound of her own name, on top of the sensation of falling, woke the unicorn right up. Looking around, she noticed that her and Emerald were both lying down on the grass. Em looked both startled and confused.

"Star? Are you okay?" Emerald sat up to get a better look at his friend.

Even though Star Charmer was startled awake by the fall, she only half heard him. Her eyes were already starting to close, but she still was able to nod to try to discourage Em from fretting over her. That didn't stop him from fretting.

Through slits in her eyelids, she could still see Em's face full of worry. She had a few moments to think of a few things before she drifted off into unconsciousness. She did find it weird that Emerald had trusted her so easily. Her of all ponies. Their entire race besides her and Luna have treated her new friend as the enemy of Equestria. He has been beaten, imprisoned, and tortured in his own mind by his lack of memories. Yet despite all that, Emerald seemed to feel comfortable around Star Charmer. It was a perplexing thought how he was able to trust a pony when he has only been in their world for a little over a week.

In the last moment's of consciousness, Star Charmer got an idea. She drifted off into a nice quiet sleep, and her smile grew wider.

How that pony can fall asleep so quickly baffles me. Star Charmer, after only two hours of walking, is now lying in the grass snoring as loudly as a bear in hibernation. Do bears even snore? I have not the slightest clue, but i digress.

But she just completely passed out in the middle of the day, she must have been up all night. That might explain Star's rather irritable mood earlier. Then again i should have noticed the bags underneath her eyes before she passed out. Not to mention that she didn't talk for a long while. We were walking for at least a good three hours in silence, but I was too distracted by the wildlife to notice the white unicorn's sleepiness. The sun still floated high through the blue, cloudless sky.

"Now is a good of a time as any to take a bit of a break," I say to myself.

I take a seat against a nearby tree, my feet red and raw from walking barefoot along the forest floor. The city of canterlot was now a speck on it's mountainside perch. Star and I made great time, even though we haven't come across another pony in hours. Then again I have only seen a handful of the equines, let alone get the opportunity to observe them clearly. The only two I really have met are Star Charmer and Princess Luna. Everypony else besides the sun princess has either been veiled by a disoriented haze or simply cloaked in darkness.

As if the simple thought of the princess was enough to bring bad fortune, a shadow blotted out the sun as a winged animal, too large to be a bird, flew above the canopy. Between the leaves, I could see the golden shine of the gilded armor the creature was wearing. 'Pegasus guard' I thought to myself. I grabbed Star Charmer's hooves, pulling her closer to the base of the tree where we would be less visible to the scout. There were sure to be another to follow. No one in their right mind would send out one lone scout.

Sure enough, withing the next thirty seconds a second shadow flew overhead. But, unlike the first, the soldier horse in gold armor touched down in a clearing not too far behind the tree I was leaning against, the air was sucked out of my lungs. The unicorn in my lap continued to snore, unaware of the threat a few yards away, continued to snore. Nervously, I begin raking my fingers gently through the sleeping Star Charmer's mane. To my surprise, I found that this gesture made her stop snoring. She adjusted herself into a more comfortable position, a peaceful grin on her muzzle. I would have thought that the mare to be cute if it wasn't for the guard padding the ground in the clearing behind us.

Having a pony similar to those who trapped me within the walls of Canterlot's dungeon within earshot got my heart beating as if I ran a good three miles in a flat out sprint. Emotions of everything from anger to fear began flowing though my mind. I am finding it hard to keep myself from tackling the miniature horse to the ground, but truthfully it would probably end with me having a few broken ribs. Even though the ponies are small in size, being only slightly taller than one meter, that one blow from a single hoof to the face a few days back still gave me a slight shiver down my spine.

The sound of hoof steps upon the forest floor grew louder as they got closer to the tree.

"Hey, Valor," a rather rough voice shouted from above the trees. The hooves stopped a few feet behind my tree  "Quit your lazing about, we still got a lot of ground to cover!"

"Cant a guy rest his wings for a moment?" The stallion behind the tree had a lower voice than the other scout's, but it was a lot smoother. "We've been flying all day so far."

A low whooshing sound that I can only assume comes from the flapping of wings signaled that the guard took off again, leaving Star and I alone underneath the tree. I let out a sigh of relief. It seems like it has been forever since the last time I took a breath. My heart still beating, I did not dare to move. I decide to wait a few more minutes and just let my nerves try to settle. But, while I wait, my mind filled in the lack of movement with thoughts of my time in Equestria.

My welcome committee was everything but friendly. Within my first few days in Equestria, I have had my nose broken, been placed in a jail cell, and subjected to more comatose stasis' that I probably will have a pretty severe case of brain damage. That would explain the lack of memories. But, still the ponies of Equestria do not seem like the most accepting group of equines out there.

That taken into account, how was it that I was able to accept Star Charmer as easily as I did. Even I don't have a clear answer to that one. She just seemed, different from the others. She laughed, smiled, and had a sense of humor. The thing that really gets me is that she never looked at me with fear. I guess that is why I took to her with such ease.

Everypony I have met was afraid of me, and that is not something I want. I have no idea who I am, but I do know that whatever they think I might do to harm them is not necessarily north on my moral compass. I don't think I'm one to purposelessly harm anything or anyone. Yet they treat me like I'm a murderer on the loose in a big city. They look at me, and they either run or fight. Not the greatest feeling in the world.

Looking down at the mare fast asleep in my lap, completely trusting me. Knowing fully well that she would eventually be put in this kind of position, she never left my side. Even though she is risking everything trying to keep me safe, she refuses to leave me alone or turn me in.

Her smile said it all, and I couldn't keep myself from chuckling slightly. I stand up picking up the unconscious mare. I placed most of her weight on my neck, and I draped her hooves and head over my shoulders. The sudden motion caused her to stir slightly, and she murmured in her sleep. Nothing I could understand, but it was kinda adorable.

I carry her on my shoulders, continuing in the direction we have been going ever since we left Canterlot. And, I couldn't be happier to have a friend in a world where everyone thinks I will leave a trail of fire in my footprints. Yet everywhere I go, flames and decay seem to conjour up in my wake