Exiled From Equestria

Twilight wakes up to a fresh sunrise. Golden light seeps into the room. She blinks all the sleep from her eyes and sits up, stretching her forelegs behind her back with a yawn.

The campfire from last night is burnt down to ash and a few remaining twigs. Midnight Blaze is sound asleep. Shooting Star is snoring. Twilight Sparkle smiles to herself. This is her second day of waking up someplace other than Equestria. Each day, the thought became less and less foreign.

Twilight's saddlebags glow pink. They hover above the ground and tilt so that their owner can peer inside. An apple and a 3/4 full water bottle float out, then the bags are placed back on the ground. The apple levitates to Twilight's lips. She takes a large bite, then takes a small sip of water. She does the same routine as she flops her forelegs over the edge of the large, sandy hole, so she can watch the sunrise.

A small rustling sound comes from the deep hole in the ground, known as their camping room, or shelter. Twilight turns her head around. Midnight Blaze has woken up and is already tip-hoofing past Shooting Star up to Twilight with an almost empty bag of oats in her magic.

Midnight flops her own forelegs over the edge next to Twilight and smiles.

"How's your leg?"

"My leg?"

"The rat bite," Twilight replies. Midnight levitates a sprinkle of oats onto her tongue of which she swallows, then shrugs.

"I'm okay."

They don't talk again until the sun has fully risen over the sand horizon. The apple and oats are gone. Twilight's water bottle is now only half full. "How long until we get out of this desert? It's too barren for my liking."

"Not long, actually. If we keep heading northeast, we're eventually going to run into snow."

"Snow?"

"The Frozen North, to be precise." Midnight Blaze hops down quietly from the ledge onto her four hooves. Twilight does the same. "It is the land just above Equestria. But that is still a long ways away."

Twilight mumbles something about the cold. "How long will it take to get there?"

"Gosh, Twilight." She laughs like Twilight just asked a foal's question. "You're not going to get to Ponyville for awhile. I mean, we're still in Trica."

"Will you two shut up already?" Shooting Star asks with her voice muffled by a blanket. "I'm trying to sleep."

Midnight turns to her sleepy friend. "We should actually get going now." Midnight trots over to her saddlebags and slips them on. She folds and levitates her blanket one. Once Twilight and her are both ready, the yellow unicorn nudges Shooting's shoulder. "Wake up."

"Mphm..."

"What?" Shooting Star grumbles again. Midnight Blaze rolls her eyes and trots to the end of her blanket. Then, with a quick tug, it's pulled off her body. Star's eyes open. She sits up and glares.

"Give me back my blanket."

"No."

"Give," she demands, reaching for the soft fabric.

"Come on, pack your things, it's time to go."

Shooting Star huffs, then starts packing all her stuff. Only then does Midnight return her blanket, which Star packs while mumbling about sleep.

The three ponies leap out of the hole and onto the sand. Midnight Blaze pulls a compass from her bag to navigate. Grains of the gravel fly from their hooves with each step they take.

Twilight doesn't realize she's sweating until warm water drips onto he muzzle. She lifts a hoof to her forehead. It's soaking wet. She uses her magic to levitate her bottle of water out of her bag and into her mouth. It's only half full, and she knows she should be savoring it, but she's too thirsty and drinks it all in a short span of time.

They keep walking for about an hour. Midnight Blaze tells everypony to take a break. The obey without hesitation and flop into the ground. Each of their faces are slick with sweat from the heat of the sun and the constant walking. Twilight reaches into her bag for her water bottle, but finds it empty. She turns to her friends.

"Do either of you have any water I can drink?" Star and Midnight reach into their own bags and both pull out an empty bottle of water. Twilight would gulp right there if she had any saliva left.

"What about the juice in your apples, Twilight?"

The lavender pony's face brightens. As she is turning to her saddlebag once more, she spots the rat bites on her friends' legs from the corner of her vision. Even though it had been blood red before, it's now lime green and glowing. "Ugh... Girls? Your bites aren't looking so good." Her friends stretch out their back legs. Shooting Star and Midnight Blaze bite their lower lips.

"Is that...puss?"

"Puss doesn't glow like this, Midnight," Star replies. Twilight looks at them uneasily. Bites aren't supposed to glow—especially not green.

All her worries become worse when the sections of veins around the bites start glowing as well. Midnight panics as the green glow around the bite spreads through her veins, slowly creeping closer and closer to her knees right above the bite. "Twilight, what's happening to us?" Midnight's voice shakes and is raspy.

"Calm down. Panicking will only make it worse."

"This can't possibly get any worse!" Midnight shrieks. Deep inside, Shooting is scared too, but she refuses to admit it.

Shooting Star glances from her bite to Midnight's, then her friend's panic-stricken face. "I'm no doctor, but I thinks that we needs ta gets to a hospital."

After a minute of panicking, the green glow has spread through their whole hind legs. Shooting jumps from the ground and starts shaking her leg rapidly as if to shake the color off. "There must be a hospital around here somewhere?"

"I don't know of one around here, but maybe if we run that way...?" Twilight looks around with eyes full of worry. By the time she turns back around, her friends' tails, back legs, and flanks are all wrapped in a green glow.

Midnight starts hyperventilating. Twilight tries to calm them down as the green spreads up their bodies, but it's all too much. Soon enough, the green is everywhere but the tip of their muzzles.

The second they're entirely green, Shooting and Midnight vanish.

***

Applejack bends one more large leaf to reveal a clearing with a variety of rainbow waterfalls. On one side of the clearing, the forest continues up the mountain where Canterlot lays. On the other is a cliff and a path that leads to Unicorn Range down below. The sun is setting, bathing Equestria in a soft, orange glow and casting bright yellow rays across the sky.

"Who-wee! Would ya look at that view?" Applejack comments as all the ponies trot down into the rainbow waterfall-filled clearing. Pinkie Pie stops at a pool of rainbow water and watches her shimmering, rainbow reflection while making silly faces. She giggles, then joins the others once more in a cheerful bounce.

"It is quite lovely, if I do say so myself. Great inspiration for my next fashion line," cheers Rarity.

The five friends allow themselves a rest at the edge of the clearing, overlooking Unicorn Range's tall mountains and the green valleys. All except for Fluttershy who stays a good six tail-lengths away, curled up beside a rainbow pool.

Rarity reaches into her saddlebags. The only items they hold are the map, five sandwiches, and five water bottles that are almost empty due to their long-distance hiking. She levitates the sandwiches out onto each of her friends' laps. Applejack is sitting with her back legs dangling over the edge as well as Rainbow Dash, but Rarity and Pinkie Pie are laying down on their legs and belly like the would on a bench. Fluttershy, who is quietly nibbling on her sandwich while watching the ripples of the rainbow falls pouring into the rainbow pools, is sitting on her back legs and forelegs, though her forelegs are tucked under her chest. It's the same position she was in when she set her first hoof steps on the solid ground after being saved by some butterflies.

Rainbow Dash has trouble eating her PB&J sandwich with on,y one foreleg, so she instead gets in a different position where it's set down on the ground.

All is peaceful. If Twilight hadn't disappeared, then the five friends would have much more enjoyed the setting sun. But with all that has happened these past two days, too much is on hey heir minds to really enjoy the peace. It actually feels discomforting.

It doesn't take long for them all to finish their small dinners.

"Ready ta get headin' fer the mountain?" Applejack asks. Everypony looks back at Canterlot, the large city plenty of distance above their heads. Then they turns to the zig-zagged path on the edge of the mountain that leads to the city.

Pinkie Pie sighs. She's all up for parties and fun, but this whole trip has been about worry and despair. No parties here. "What do you think Twilight is doing right now?" she asks.

Rarity giggles a bit. She turns to Pinkie's silhouetted face against the orange sky. "Maybe she's wondering what we're doing right now."

"Ah sure hope she's not fightin' with any timberwolves or dragons."

"I don't know, Applejack," whispers Fluttershy, who is getting closer to the cliff side. "We don't know what's outside of Equestria."

"More ponies?" Rainbow asks.

"Maybe, but I bet there's also many different creatures that we've never heard of."

A hush falls over the ponies.

The last golden light of the sun shines at the friends. They wonder how Nightmare Moon is handling the situation. How she is still rising and lowering the moon and sun, even though still in shock.

At least she's not here to bath Equestria in eternal night.

Applejack sighs. "Wherever Twilight is, Ah just hope that she's okay."