An Equestrian Odyssey

9 Pararet missionis

The three ponies moved north through the forest, speedily darting around trees, jumping logs, and crashing through underbrush. “So,” Rare asked, “What’s our plan?”

Everypony was silent for a minute then Aurora spoke up, “Well, if I had to do this alone I would sneak in to wherever the Necromancer is and try to smuggle the kids out.”

“That might not work like you think it will. Kids make a lot of noise.” Char observed.

“Well yeah, but you two are helping me. I figure we find the Necro’s hide out and then you two make a diversion while I swoop in and get the kids.”

Rare frowned slightly, “Well… That might work. But how are we supposed to distract a horde of zombies? What if we have to fight our way out of them?”

Char sighed, “If only I hadn't lost my stuff. I had a few things in my pack which could have helped. Hell just my little red bag would have been awesome.”

Little red bag? Humm...I wonder if- “I don’t suppose you mean a red bag with white decorative markings made from a slippery sort of fabric?”

Char looked at her with confusion, “How do you know-”

“I found it and some other weird stuff in the woods a week ago. My colony is camped near here for now and well there was arcane looking things just left all alone in the woods. So I picked them up.” Aurora replied, turning in mid air to face Char while flying backwards.

The Pegasi grinned, “Awesome! Then I might be able to get a good distraction going.”

Aurora tapped a hoof to the ground thoughtfully. I could try and make her buy back the stuff… Nah she’s using it to help me, and maybe if I save these young ones some of the ponies just might stop seeing us as monsters. “We might have time to get them. How fast can you fly?”

Char grinned feebly, “Um heh heh… No idea. I actually haven't flown before.”

“Wha? Oof!” Aurora slammed back first into a thin tree as her surprise prevented her echolocation from warning her about the tree in time.

Rare laughed, “Oh wow I didn't ever think I would see that!”

Aurora slid down the tree, quickly getting to her hooves as she asked incredulously, “What do you mean you have never flown? You look about 20, you are clearly an adult, you are a pegasus. You were probably born on a cloud. How in the holy name of Lah’ren have you never flown?”

Char kicked one hoof against the forest floor, “W-well… Because this is my first week as a pegasus.”

Aurora frowned, she could hear Char’s breathing and heart rate. They had stayed the same as before, the hoofkick was a nervous gesture, but her eyes hadn’t dilated, and her explanation hadn’t been overly wordy. She is either an incredibly good liar or telling the truth… “Come again?”

Rare shot Char a nervous look, “Char we barely know her.”

“Yeah well, it’s not like she can go tell everypony. Besides I have no reason to lie… Also she’s right a normal pegasus would know how to fly.”

Aurora’s wings twitched curiously. No Aurora, we don't have much time. “Ok so you are not lying. This is all kinds of fascinating, but we have a job to do. I’ll follow up on this later. For now I seriously need to know what you can do.”

Char nodded, “I can sing, tell stories, and can shoot an energy ray from my left arm. Um left foreleg, sorry.”

“I can move objects, make light, give myself the ability to jump long distances, make fire, and create magical shields.” Rare informed.

Arora tapped her chin in thought for a moment, “Ok… I still have my lockpicks hidden in my tail, I can sneak around well enough, I have excellent hearing, and can handle myself in a bare-hoof brawl.” No need to mention I can pick pockets… or any of the other stuff.

“That isn't much to work with…” Char sighed.

“Yeah. What’s in your bag that could help? I could get it in about ten minutes.” Aurora asked.

“Well I have a machete on the side… It’s kind of like a sword. If you have my clothes my taser should be attached to them which would let me electrocute a few zombies… If I can pull the trigger with a hoof that is. I have a bunch of electronics in there, not as much as I had in the pack I lost traveling here but - Oh! I have my mini amp, my old MP3 player, a small mic, and I think some portable speakers! I could totally get a lot of noise going!” Char grinned.

Aurora looked at Rare curiously. Rare shrugged, “I don’t know what any of that is either.”

“Could you explain what you could do with the stuff in your pack a little more quickly?” Aurora asked.

“Sorry. If I had my pack I could jury rig a device which would let me make a lot of noise. It would help with a distraction, guaranteed. I also had a few weapons on my belt and in my bag.”

Aurora nodded, “Ok, that’s enough reason for me to go get it. You girls keep going north. There is a large wheat farm about a mile ahead. That’s where I saw them take the kids. I’ll meet you there ok?”

The other two ponies nodded. Aurora gave them a nod and jumped, pushing her wings down in one quick powerful stroke to take off. She flapped hard as she could, taking off vertically was always a challenge for her and with the tree branches she didn’t want to risk a normal take off. The second she broke through the tree tops Aurora squinted at the sun. Most nendaites couldn’t navigate by the sun but Aurora, being the insomniac she was, had figured out which way the sun moved when she was just a little pup.

Aurora’s colony’s camp was far closer than she had told her rescuers. No nendaite ever gave accurate information to anypony about their camp’s location, Aurora suspected the same was true for any bat-pony tribe. After all staying hidden was simply sensible. Within three minutes the swampy patch of forest they had driven their wagons into came into view as a large patch of dull green trees contrasting the more vibrant and healthy foliage which surrounded it.

The swamp had been chosen as their home since it was very unlikely anypony would come out into it and happen upon their camp. Last month’s camp in the steppes to the west had nearly gotten them wiped out by the Eighth Legion as it had been quite close to a trade rout, Aurora wouldn’t be the reason they had to move this time.

The familiar circle of eighteen Romani wagons welcomed Aurora back home. Each individual wagon was home to a different family, all of which she knew of and all of which she cared for greatly. Like the ponies who lived in them the wagons had seen more than their share of hard times. Once lavishly carved, polished, and painted wood was worn, chipped, and all too often marred by spell, blade, and arrow marks. Reminders of every time their colony’s camp had been found thus far.

As Aurora spiraled down to land in the middle of the wagon circle next to the communal cooking fire she screeched the password to the camp guards. The guards own screech welcomed her back as she trotted to the battered emerald green wagon she shared with her mother. Pulling the door open carefully Aurora stepped inside, ducking under the strings of drying herbs hung from the ceiling, and stepping around boxes of alchemical ingredients as she made her way to her bed.

The backpack was where she had left it, sitting right atop her bed, some of the contents spread out from when she was attempting to appraise the item’s value. As she slipped the bag onto her chest a startled yelp made her jump. “Aurora Haze! How many times have I told you to warn me if you are inside and awake during the day?” Her mother’s shrill voice chastised.

Aurora blushed, I must be more tired than I thought. “Sorry mom,” she apologized, “I’m just getting that bag I found and going back out.”

“Did you find somepony to sell it too? Oh praise Lah’ren! You need to tell everypony, if there is somepony in town to trade with-”

Aurora frowned, ears drooping, “No mom, I haven't found anypony yet. But-”

“Oh… Well I am sure you will soon. None of us has as much free time as you my sleepless little pup.” Her mother gave her a soothing smile, teal eyes glowing faintly in the dim light.

“I actually think I can get this village to warm up to us. Long story short, two of the towns ponies pups have been kidnapped, and I have two ponies willing to help me rescue them. If I can pull it off I am pretty sure we can at least get one trip to trade in exchange.” Aurora proudly stated before snickering and adding, “And then robbing blind two dozen ponies who gave me a hard time when I tried to tell them about the pups.”

Her mother sighed, “I wish you wouldn’t be so reckless. You don’t even bother with a cloak half the time.”

“I don’t need it mom. I… I thought this time might be different because well… young ones in danger. If I hadn’t wanted to be seen…” Aurora let her sentence trail off and dropped into a crouch to step to her right into some of the wagon’s darker shadows blending into the darkness with ease.

Her mother’s eyes narrowed, “Aurora! Don’t do that while I’m talking to you! … You’re already gone aren't you? If I’m talking to an empty wagon you will be cooking for yourself for a fortnight!”

Aurora stood up, grinning happily, “Sorry mom. It’s just so easy to hide from a pony who can’t echolocate… I know it’s not well… fair to do to you but you get my point right?”

Her mother nodded sighing sadly. “I do.”

Aurora trotted to the wagon’s door, opening it slowly. “Oh right! One of the ponies helping me today is a warlock! She might be able to fix your ears. She’s really nice if a bit of a wimp.”

“You think so?”

“Well maybe. I know she can do battlemagic so it stands to reason-”

“You are helping a warlock who knows battle magic? Do you want to be reunited with your father in Equestria that badly? Aurora-”

Aurora sighed, “Mom… look… the town’s ponies were going to lynch me. She saved my life, also she’s probably a thief like me. She’s traveling in disguise as a legion messenger and her companion is a bard. They seem like conponies to me and at the least since they are hiding their identities other ponies must hate them as much as us. You know the saying about outlaws.”

Her mother frowned, Aurora was a skilled judge of character but few things could make the disabled mare worry as much as her daughter did. “Just… be careful dear. We lost your father. I wouldn’t survive losing you as well.”

“I’m always careful.” Detecting her mother’s deadpan look Aurora rolled her eyes, “Ok ok… I’m usually careful. I’ll be back soon.”

Stepping through the door and closing it carefully behind her Aurora snapped her wings open and took off into the air, heading north.

~~

Rare and Char galloped through the forest, moving north in as straight a line as they could manage. A full twenty minutes of running later took them to the edge of a large field cleared out of the forest. A simple wooden fence sectioned the tilled soil off from the wilderness, separating the carefully arranged rows of wheat from the wild undergrowth the two mares had just run through. The field had certainly seen better days, most of the wheat was trampled, large sections of the field were covered in black ash, and the farm’s various outbuildings appeared to have been on fire for at least a little while.

Rare could see the burnt out remains of a large granary across the field from them, the square structure’s stone and plaster walls were blackened from flames, fallen over in a few places, and no scrap of what she supposed had been a thatched roof remained. Turning to Char Rare whispered, “I don’t know of any undead which light fires. We should weight for Aurora in the field so we can see if anyone or anything is coming for us.”

Char’s mind flashed back to the many summers spent playing Dungeons and Dragons with her father and his friends. She winced at the memories but eventually recited a list of monsters from memory, “Death Knights, Dracoliches, Effigies, Flameskulls, Flaming Skeletons, and any undead from the elemental plane of fire would have the ability to light a fire, or possess a flame based attack.”

Rare raised an eyebrow, “I thought your world was so boring you left it.”

“It is, but we have fantasy games and invent monsters for them. Since we are going to attack a Necromancer, and I am now in a world where everyone is a magical talking pony I would not be surprised if we wound up being attacked by a Great Elder Wyrm of the black variety.”

Rare flinched, “Gods forbid we encounter a dragon…”

Char held up a hoof, “Time out! Dragons exist here?”

“Yes, mostly to the north but sometimes they come down south… Why are you looking at me like that?”

Char stepped into the field and started walking towards the burnt out granary. “What other sorts of monsters exist here?”

“Plenty. I couldn’t tell you for sure but the forests are-”

“Overrun with all manner of dangerous beasts?”

“Yes, how did you know I was going to… Don’t tell me, humans have a game where you run around fighting monsters.”

“Yes we do! And since your world seems to be a lot like one, I think I have a good Idea of what we can expect. I’m not as powerful or skilled as any given character from any game I’ve ever played, but well the basic rules are the same. Check for traps, never touch the thing on the podium, don’t taunt the imprisoned monster, always have some rope, and never ever drink a potion you find in a chest in a ruined keep.” Char grinned at Rare.

Rare facehoofed in return, “Char, this isn’t a game.”

“I know that, but still... I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to be an adventurer.”

“I suppose that is useful to us. Do you really think your ‘experience’ can help us make it through this?”

“Unless the DM is an asshole, yeah.” Char joked as the two reached the burnt out ruin.

As they circled around to find a way inside a whistle pierced the air. Wheeling around fearfully to look both mares let out a sigh of relief as Aurora dropped to the ground, Char’s backpack strapped to her chest. “Sorry, just didn’t want to land and get blasted.” Aurora informed slipping the bag from her chest and holding it out to Char.

Char took the bag, quickly opening it with her teeth and dumping the contents on the ground. “Ok so let me see what I can do…”

She began to sort the pile of stuff out into categories. Her machete and hatchet, three more MREs, a small bag of trail mix, a few scrap electronics bits, her old MP3 player, and “Hello… I thought I put you in my other bag!” Char grinned as she picked up a small plastic project box with her hoof.

Rare looked at the white plastic object curiously, “What is that?”

“An old electronics project of mine. Its a… You know what I’ll just show you guys.” Charlotte hummed and poked at the box with her hoof wondering if she could press any of the buttons or manipulate the switches embedded flush with the plastic, let alone use the touch screen. However a few moments of fumbling and the box’s top lit up, a simple dot matrix interface taking shape. “How do these work? Hooves I mean.” Char asked perplexed as the dug through her other gizmos.

Aurora looked at Char suspiciously before turning to Rare, “She really hasn’t been a pegasus for long has she? Did she piss off a wizard or something?”

“A warlock.” Rare replied wondering what these devices Char was connecting were for.

Char took a cable splitter and jacked it into one side of the project box, connecting her MP3 player to one side of the splitter and a small microphone to the other. “Too bad I don't have any speakers in this pack. The internal speaker on this thing is kinda crappy.” She cautiously poked with a hoof tip at the screen, grumbling as nothing happened, then deciding to lick i instead.

“Ummm what are you doing?” Aurora asked taking a half step back.

“Trying to get a precise touch… I used to have hands, I kinda built this for use with hands.”

“So use your wingtips. Pegasi wings are fairly flexible.” Rare informed.

“They are?” Char bither lip in concentration trying to move her wings, yelping as she extended her wing forward and down and found she could manipulate her primary feathers individually. “Ok… thats… unsettling… Anyways.” Char clipped the mic to the neck of her poncho and prodded at the screen with a feather tip, smiling as the light touches worked. “Ok so what this does is it takes audio from a mic or any playback device really and lets you manipulate it in real time. I can amplify the sound, add in some effects, adjust the pitch and timbre, and store presets. For instance, I set up a borg voice check this out-”

Char tapped the screen and spoke, countless other voices echoed her words and a dull hum filled the background. “We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender…” Rare and Aurora jumped back in a mixture of surprise and alarm, Aurora clamping her hooves over her ears.

Char stopped as she noticed them tapping the screen to turn the effect off. “Sorry! I honestly don’t remember it working that well.”

Aurora winced looking up timidly, “I could see your voice. What enchantment is that?”

Rare nodded, “I second that.”

“Oh right… bat. Echolocation. My bad.” Char blushed, “I think I put in some ultrasonic background noise in that filter, can't say for sure I built this two years ago. But it’s not magic, it’s just technology. An old school touch screen connected to a raspberry pi micro computer and some custom circuitry along with a small but powerful amplifier hooked to a miniature loudspeaker… Which really shouldn’t have been that loud.”

Aurora looked over at Rare and asked, “Sooo she just explained warlock stuff right?”

Rare shrugged, “No idea. There is more than one kind of magic.”

“It’s not magic. It’s just a bunch of micro circuitry arranged in such a way as to have…” Char trailed off as she realized, “Ok, maybe it is a kind of magic. But where I come from you can just go buy something like this whenever you want. He have little gizmos for everything. I guess we kind of take them for granted.”

Aurora trotted over to Char and inspected the gizmo curiously, “Sooo what is the other thing you connected to this for?”

“It stores and plays recorded sound. I haven't used it in a long time but I don't think I took my old music off of it. I should have a ton of songs, a few audio books… Huh… I am holding 500 sounds in my hoof which I can play back anytime I like as much as I like… You girls called it, this is magic. Kind of.”

Rare smiled softly, “Well with that thing’s magic we definitely have a distraction.”

Aurora nodded in agreement. She hopped up into the air and flew up a few feet hovering as she looked around, “Ok… so we need to pick up their trail. I am pretty sure they went east from the house. You two check for prints, I’m going to see if I can't spot anything from the air.”

~~

The search for the undead’s trail took quite a while. None of the three were experienced trackers and the ground was a chaotic mess of ash, charred bits of wood, and dozens of overlapping prints. There had most certainly been a battle here, a fact which confused Char since they didn’t come across any bodies during their search. Rare however provided the explanation that the Necromancer probably wanted the bodies for minions.

Finally after ages of searching the farm grounds Aurora noticed drag marks leading off into the woods and the three set about following them deeper and deeper into the forest. The trail led east, heading in a fairly straight line marked by drag marks, broken branches, bent foliage, and the occasional shred of fabric. They followed the trail for hours, emerging from the edge of the forest into a large dry steppe just as the sun began to touch the horizon.

The knee high brush was brown, and the earth surrounding the sparse plant life was cracked and dry looking. Over a few shallow hills a few miles away the three could see a large decrepit looking town. Even at this distance it looked to be dead, the buildings clearly in disrepair, collapsing and crumbling much like the town’s rubble pile of a wall which was pocketed with huge gaps as if a titan decided to take bites out of the wall at random.

“Well, that will be it.” Rare said squinting to make out as much detail as she could.

“Yep. No better place for a Necromancer then a ghost town.” Aurora agreed.

“Sooo how do we do this? I think I can see a big temple kinda building on the left side of town. We can safely assume he will be there.” Char noted.

The other two gave her a confused look. “What? The Necromancer is always in some church, or a graveyard. Usually churches have graveyards, or catacombs. So you have a supply of corpses for your magic.”

“Oh. That actually makes perfect sense.” Rare mused, “So we should sneak into town, head to the church and then…”

“Well how long can you keep the zombies distracted?” Aurora asked as they continued their journey.

“Depends on the type of zombie. Do you know if they are like plague zombies, animated corpses, shamblers, Black Lantern style zombies, or any of the other countless possibilities?” Char asked.

“Do you dabble in Necromancy? Because you seem to know a lot about it.” Aurora asked suspiciously.

“No. I just used to play a game with my dad and his friends where you took on the role of an adventurer and fought monsters, navigated dungeons, stuff like that. Sure it’s not real adventuring but the games does require you to think intelligently about things. If these are just shamblers, I have my blaster, and Rare has her magic. We could probably hold them off as long as we liked. But if they are say, plague zombies then we have to worry about getting bit and becoming a zombie, so our odds of holding them back for long go down.”

“Your people made a game where you risk your life for fun?”

“Not realy. You make a character who has stats and roll dice to determine success or failure. It’s mostly imagination and group storytelling. Look my reality is really boring ok? You have to do something to pass the time, and well a lot of us think it would be fun to be adventures in a world of magic and monsters… Guess I’ll find out if it is pretty soon.” Char sighed mumbling, “Jake was right, they never talk about how much walking is involved with questing…”

“Your reality?” Aurora asked, eyes narrowed and face scrunched in confusion.

“A draconequus brought her here from another reality… and ordered me to take her to Equestria.” Rare admitted nervously.

Aurora nodded, “Ah I see that is completely underst-ummm wah?” Her eyes widened and jaw dropped in shock.

“I was in my home dimension, and a chaos spirit that apparently is called a draconequus used me to help him get back to this dimension… then a psychotic unicorn turned me into a pegasus.” Char said looking over her shoulder at Aurora who had stopped dead in her tracks.

“No, that all makes perfect sense.” Aurora pointed one hoof at Rare, “You said the draconequus told you to take her to Equestria.”

Rare nodded, “Yes… I hadn’t heard of the place before but he gave vague directions. Why do you know-”

Aurora gave the pair a glare which managed to be both suspicious and incredulous. “Why haven’t you killed her yet?”

Rare and Char’s eyes widened as they exclaimed together “What?”

“Equestria is the afterlife promised to us by the goddess of the night. It’s not a place you can travel to!”

Rare shook her head, “He said nothing about killing her. In fact he ordered me to bring her there safely.”

“My people have spent a millennia and a half roaming these lands searching for it. It doesn't exist here, it’s a haven for our dead’s souls.” Aurora insisted, grinding a hoof into the ground.

Rare frowned, she didn’t enjoy upsetting someone's beliefs but when they were clearly wrong… “Aurora, I was given clear directions on how to get there. You need to leave the Imperium and travel north, past the Amarezon and over a large mountain range until you find a large mountain all on it’s own. Inside there is a tunnel which takes you to a massive set of gold doors. Through them is a passageway which leads east from the mountain and if you keep heading east you will reach Equestria.”

Char hummed, “I wish I had been conscious at the time… This is the first I heard those directions.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Rare grinned faintly, “I guess I should have told you the rout in case anything-”

“You two… just…” Aurora ground her teeth for a moment, “you are… It’s the sacred resting place of my ancestors!”

“Well if that’s true then I guess you have a way to visit them and not be dead.” Char said, trying to calm the irate bat-pony. “Don’t you have any legends about people visiting a place like Heaven or Hell and returning? Hell even Christianity has one dude who visited Heaven. Greek mythology had people coming and going from the underworld all the time.”

“You are the first bat-pony I’ve met. I only knew your tribal name by reputation from overhearing the legionnaires while I was working. I had no idea your people call their elysium Equestria, I intended no offense, but I assure you that everything I have said is true.” Rare added.

“Yeah. Maybe you could tell us the story? It sounds interesting.” Char asked.

Aurora huffed, “Fine. All of this land used to be ours. Unfortunately we don't have horns so when an entire army of unicorns came from the north and attacked our Imperium was smashed apart. But we fought as best we could… Our last city was taken from us in less than a year and the unicorn’s leaders ordered their soldiers to chase us all down so we couldn’t regroup. Most of us were killed.

“The only permanent structure we had left was a single temple dedicated to the Titan Lah’ren, the mother of all things. Everyone who could traveled to the temple to seek refuge. The King who had taken our lands ordered his troops to let us travel… So he could have his armies follow along and when everyone was in the middle of praying for salvation they attacked to finish my people off. The temple was destroyed, and the few of us who survived were forced to start the nomadic life we live today.

“The next night every single one of the survivors shared a dream. A winged unicorn with a coat the color of night and a mane of stars came to them and told them that she had felt our people’s slaughter and her heart grieved for our lost brothers and sisters. She was the goddess of the night, and while we previously had been unknown to her she felt we were as her children and promised all bat-ponies a safe refuge in her Kingdom of Equestria and said she was certain that we would all one day see her there. We would know we had reached Equestria when we came to a land ruled by two sisters who raise the sun and the moon.

Aurora’s eyes lowered, looking at the ground in sadness, “My ancestors loaded up what they could into wagons and set about looking for this promised land… but no one ever found any sign of it. My grandfather believed that it was a place anyone could go too, but he was probably the last of us to think so. He eventually wandered off in search of it and never came back.”

Rare didn’t know what to say. She did not know much of the Imperium's history. How many times it had traded hooves was a mystery, but if a land could have been taken over once by a bandit and a warlock surely an army could have. “I…”

Char trotted over to Aurora and looked her in the eye, “Aurora, it’s a real place. I only learned that this world existed thanks to a chaos spirit coming over to my world for fun. I know for a fact that he was followed by ponies from Equestria, I was told so by someone who warned me to not make the chaos spirit angry as he had decided to use me to get back home. She said she lived there for a long time and had decided to come to my world… ok I can't remember why… but she lived there. I saw ponies from that place with my own eyes Aurora. It is a real place.”

Aurora rolled her eyes, “Well duh! But it’s a place for souls to rest. Luna said we would all see here there one day. She was talking about death, we all earned entry into paradise for our ancestors suffering!”

“They looked awfully alive to me. Also they left Equestria. This implies that it is a place which you can go to and leave.”

Aurora frowned, She isn’t lying… Unless she is a really good liar. I need to check. “Lie to me.”

“What?” Char asked raising one eyebrow.

“Lie to me. Please.”

“Um… ok. The sky is plaid.”

“More. Tell me a whole bunch.”

“Why?”

“So I can hear what your heart sounds like when you are lying.” Aurora informed, locking her eyes onto Char’s face.

“Ok. My mother is a great woman. I am the god-queen of space. Two and two equals eighty seven. I hate the smell of cinnamon rolls. No one has ever called me a nerd. I can juggle.”

Aurora nodded seeing how Char’s wingtips twitched slightly as she spoke, “Ok. I think I can see your tell… Would have been easier if you had been telling important lies.”

“Well sorry, I honestly don’t know what I could possibly lie to you about.” Char rolled her eyes, “Because we know each other so well and all.”

“Thank you, that confirmed it. Your right eye dilates a bit bigger when you lie.” There now she will focus on that and not think to control how her wing tips twitch. “Now, tell me that you can travel to Equestria.”

“Again? Seriously? Fine, Aurora, you can travel to Equestria. It is a place filled with living ponies, or at least anypony there can leave it and have a living body to use for a while… But I am very certain that its a place just like this.”

Aurora’s frown deepened. She isn’t lying… “Ok. So at the very least you believe what you are saying is true. I… I’m sorry for getting mad at you. But well, you just kinda blasphemed my people’s most sacred beliefs.”

Rare nodded apologetically, “I know, and I’m sorry. But truly, we are traveling there and have no reason to think we can’t arrive in Equestria. I was shown a very specific rout after all.”

“I’m sorry too.” Char said.

“It’s fine. You didn’t know, and are both a bit crazy. But hey, you made a deal with a draconequus so that’s to be expected. Let’s just save those kids and go our separate ways.” Aurora stood up and started to trot down the road towards the distant town.

“Sounds good.” Char sighed.

Rare nodded, “So I have been thinking about how we are going to do this. When we get to the town we should all sneak to the cemetery, then Aurora can scout the area so we can find a good place to distract the Necromancer from while she searches for the colt and filly. We will need a spot where we can set up defenses but can also run from once you find them.”

“Set up defenses? With what tools and time?” Aurora asked.

“I can conjure walls of fire. I don't know how long they last but we should be able to make the zombies come at us in one direction.”

Char smiled, “That’s a good plan! I am pretty sure I can hold off a lot of them myself if the zombies can’t flank us.”

Rare and Aurora gave Char a look. Rare’s was one of disgust, Aurora’s of amusement. Rare frowned, “This is no time for innuendos Char.” she scolded.

“What?” Char blinked twice before laughing, “Ohhhh! Ha! Humans use the word ‘flanked’ to mean having enemies on both sides of you.”

“Oh. Well it doesn't mean that here.”

“What does it mean?”

Rare blushed and looked away shyly.

Aurora smiled, “It’s when two mares get back to-”

“We were planning a rescue mission!” Rare chastised.

Aurora nodded, “Right. So I go in first, find you two a place to make a stand, find the kids, get them out of wherever they are being held, and then get them safely out of the town. What will you two do?”

Char hummed, “Well if you can signal us when you are getting them away safely we can book it and meet up with you on the road. It’s not like you can return the kids. The townsponies would hang you.”

Aurora flinched, “Don’t remind me… also don’t think I am going to abandon you two. We formed a wing, we're all in this till it’s over. I could screech once I am clear. You should hear it fairly well.”

Rare shook her head, “Not if we are fighting… It might work best to hold out as long as we can and then flee and meet up here.”

Char thought for a while then nodded, “Yeah that would work best. Too bad I don’t have a flare.”

Aurora nodded as well. “Yeah, it also improves my chances of getting away… I am pretty sure that it will be hard enough getting two frightened kids out of there without giving my position away.”

Rare went over their plan one last time, “Ok so we sneak into town. Aurora finds us a good spot to hold out at for as long as we can. She then finds the colt and filly the zombies took, frees them and sneaks back to the road here by say… that group of boulders over there. We hold out as long as we can and flee, shaking any zombies chasing us and we all regroup at the boulders and then get the two back to Nomaneus. Sounds simple enough.”

Aurora and Char nodded in agreement, “Yeah!”

With a plan in place the three mares moved as quietly as they could towards the town, the sun falling lower and lower with each step.