The Power Within

Chapter 7 - My Friend

The feeling of relief was surprisingly overwhelming when I told Redheart about my plans to go back to Whitestone. It felt good to get it off of my chest. Despite this, it was sad to see her utterly helpless reaction to the sudden news. She was surprised of course, but the empty look in her eyes told me a lot more; she was scared, maybe even terrified. One could only imagine what was going through her mind right now. I doubt it was anything soothing. She probably thought that the soldiers would attack Ponyville as well, but I didn’t think it was plausible. The distance alone would be a challenge. Besides, there had to be a reason for why they targeted Whitestone in the first place.

I simply waited and gave Redheart a moment to pull herself together. Even if I was in a hurry, I had to make sure that she was going to be okay.

Soon, the white mare in front of me had stopped shifting on her spot and now stared at me worriedly.

“W-what? Why?” She asked confused.

For Redheart, the question was more than justified as she didn’t know about my sister yet. For her, it probably sounded like I was just going to get myself killed. A heavy sigh left my lungs as I prepared myself to tell her what was going on.

“It’s... It’s my sister...” I started and felt how a lump formed in my throat. “They have my sister,” I continued and forced myself to hold back the tears. Be strong now…

Redheart’s expression turned from confused to stunned as she gasped and put a hoof over her mouth. We both thought that I had lost everything just a few days ago, but now, I suddenly had something to fight for. I hoped she understood my motives better.

What felt like an eternity of Redheart processing my news, also made me feel a bit better about the situation. At least she wasn’t straight up denying my plans. Then again, she might be in a shock, unable to say anything at all.

“Leaf Trotter is going to help me rescue her. We are supposed to leave as soon as possible,” I continued quietly and took no eye contact as I felt awful by doing this to her.

But I had to go. If it wasn’t for Crescent Rain of all ponies, I wouldn’t go back at all. Was it selfish? Probably, but I didn’t care. If Redheart only knew how important my sister was to me... Of course, I loved my parents too, even if we had had our problems. Even though I found it hard to believe they were still alive, I wanted to tell them that I was sorry for everything I had said.

As the nurse still didn’t reply, I dropped my head and sighed, “I’m sorry, Redheart, but I need to do this.”

The white mare in front of me looked down at first, before raising her head again and giving me a serious stare and nod.

“Then I’m coming with you,” Nurse Redheart stated gravely.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Not only had I thought she’d try to stop me from going, but she actually wanted to come with me? Had she completely lost her mind or something? I couldn’t possibly allow her to come with us, not to a trip as dangerous as this one.

“No! You can’t go, it’s too dangerous!” I shouted surprised.

Redheart stared at me for a moment before pressing her head down again. “But ...”

“You are needed here, all those ponies in the hospital, they need you. Heck, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, Redheart,” I stated softly, trying to convince her to stay behind.

My white caretaker smiled faintly at my kind words, but the expression didn’t last for long. Her demeanor got suddenly much more serious. The scary part was that I had no idea of why, though.

“That’s really sweet of you, but … I can’t go on like this much longer,” the nurse murmured, earning a stunned look from me in return. “I feel like I have nothing but my job in my life and it’s driving me nuts. I want to be more than - No! I am more than just a nurse! You have been the only pony with whom I have been able to talk about normal things for a long time. I can’t lose the only friend I have made.” Redheart pleaded on the verge of tears.

What could one say to that, honestly? I only made a mental note to scold the director of the hospital if I ever came back from the trip. This poor mare had practically no life outside her job, but if she came with me, she might have no future either.

“But, Redheart …” I pleaded back, touched by her words.

“Please,” Redheart begged while looking at me with her big light blue eyes that glittered with tears.

Saying no to somepony had always been hard for me. I rarely got to decide anything, had it not been for my parents being so dominant over our lives. You simply didn’t say no to them and I couldn’t say no to Redheart either. However, this decision wasn’t made because of my submissive nature. It was simply made because I felt so bad for Redheart.

I released a heavy sigh and looked into her caring eyes, “Okay - you can come,” I stated softly and almost immediately regretted my decision. Fortunately, I managed to hide my hesitation.

Redheart smiled widely before she squealed and jumped on my neck, hugging me tightly. I felt my cheeks getting hotter suddenly. My eyes wandered onto the tray of food sitting on the nightstand as the delicious smell caused my stomach to growl loudly, greatly intensifying my blush.

The nurse giggled softly before releasing me from her gentle embrace. “I think we should eat something before we go.”

I gave the breakfast another hungry look and decided that she was right.

After we had eaten, we snuck outside where the sun was already shining brightly in the sky. The air felt warm and fresh after such a cold night. Autumn wasn’t too far away anymore.

There were also few other ponies walking around the town, but I paid little mind to them as I shifted on my spot anxiously. Redheart seemed to reflect my nervousness as well while we waited for Leaf Trotter to appear.

He probably wasn’t waiting for me to show up with anypony, but It was too late to protest. I had promised Redheart that she could come with us and LT had no saying in my decision.

“Is he supposed to meet you here?” Nurse Redheart asked quietly.

I had told her what we had planned with Leaf Trotter and I could tell she was still a little bit uneasy whenever I mentioned his name. He wasn’t that scary.

“Yeah, he’s probably watching us right now. I was supposed to be alone, but it’s okay,” I said calmly, trying to make her feel more comfortable.

Soon enough, there was a light rustle in the bush not too far away from us. A green head popped out first, then the whole pony. The look on his face was a bit baffled, but he walked toward us. However, he did look a bit tired.

“Oh dear,” Redheart whispered, mostly to herself I think. Maybe she wasn’t used to seeing ponies sleeping outside?

“Morning.” I greeted my friend ever so casually.

LT shot a questioning glance between me and Redheart, making the nurse put her gaze down. I wonder why she wanted to come if she wasn’t comfortable around my friend?

“I thought you’d be alone,” Leafy said blankly.

“Uh, yeah... She wanted to come with us,” I revealed the situation to my friend and wondered if he was going to protest.

“Why?” Leaf asked, looking directly at her.

“Well, she is a nurse after all, so if anypony gets hurt, she can help,” I said and gave a warm smile to my white caretaker, who then gave me one back as well. However, the smile soon faded away.

Redheart gazed behind herself past the library and became even more anxious. Leafy and I merely followed her example but saw nothing out of ordinary and gave the nurse a questioning look.

“Uh, I need to get my saddlebag from my home first, and then I need to inform the hospital that I’ll take a few days off; if that’s okay?” the nurse said and circled her hoof on the ground. “Today is my only day off anyway, so they will have some time to get a substitute.”

Ah, so she had a day off after all, good thing she wasn’t neglecting her job even when she was already working so much. I would have skipped a day myself, but then again, her job was significantly more important than mine was. If I skipped a day, we might only suffer from a little storm.

Leaf interrupted my thoughts and gave me a questioning stare. It was almost like he was asking if it was going to be okay for me if Redheart took care of her business first. Of course it was. The last thing I wanted was to cause trouble for Redheart. Still, we were in a hurry and didn’t have too much time to waste.

“Okay, let's meet at the hill just outside of the town,” I said and pointed at the direction of said hill with my wing.

It was the same place where Leaf and I had sat chatting last night. I bet Redheart knew the place as well. The nurse nodded to us and galloped away while Leafy kept staring at the said place. I couldn’t quite put my hoof on why, but he looked sad suddenly.

“Hey, are you alright?” I asked.

Leaf Trotter lowered his head and sighed, before looking right at me, “What if we can’t save Cres?”

The question caught me off guard as such a scenario had never occurred to me. I was going to save her and that’s that. But… What if we actually failed? What if she was already dead and we were going to walk right into their trap? What did that mean to me - to all of us? I think we all knew the answer to that.

“Well, I-” I started, only to get immediately interrupted.

“You have to escape,” Leaf Trotter said, sounding depressed suddenly. No doubt he was thinking about what I said to him last night. Or was there something more?

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen after somepony hurt my sister. I’m not going to run away, and you…” but then I paused. I just realized what he had said.

He said that I’d have to run. He didn’t say we - I’d have to run. Leaf drooped his head even lower after noticing my realization.

“Bullshit!” I shouted. “You are not going to kill yourself! I have already lost a-” I tried to scold my friend but he interrupted me again by raising his hoof in front of me.

“Please, stop…” Leaf pleaded, tears in his eyes.

“Leafy...?” I asked quietly, tears now filling my eyes as well.

This was the second time I saw him crying. Something was seriously wrong here, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear it.

“I’m dying, Shimmering. I… I don’t have much time left,” Leaf stated quietly, while tears ran along his jade-green cheeks.

I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t want to believe what he just said. A complete denial of truth took over me as I shook my head in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening!

“No! You are lying! You are going to be fine, you can’t die! We will find the cure!” I shouted and looked around in panic as if Nurse Redheart was still nearby. However, there was nopony in sight at the time.

“No, Shimmering… It’s too late. I won’t see the autumn leaves dancing in the sky, or feel the fresh breeze of an upcoming winter on my face... I have a month at best,” Leaf Trotter said poetically and gazed at the sky.“ I wonder if I can finally see my family and tell everypony that I’m sorry,” Leaf ended with a sob while having a small, hopeful smile on his face.

However, on my face, there was only sadness, disbelief and sorrow. I was simply devastated by the news. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t know how. Was there anything I could do or was it really too late already?

“Wha- what is it then? W-what’s wrong with you?” I sobbed, letting the tears flow freely.

“It’s a brain tumor. A bad one. It developed quickly and I never saw a doctor before last week. They told me that it’s too late to do anything. They could probably slow it down by a few weeks, but I’m not going to spend my last days in a hospital. So I traveled to Whitestone to find you and say goodbye to everypony, but the town was already gone. And, well… You know the rest,” Leafy ended, wiping off his tears.

Of all ponies in Equestria, Leafy was the last pony to deserve this. None of this was fair! He has always been a healthy stallion, an exceptional athlete even. Did I have to lose one of my only friends so soon after so many years? Did I really have to lose everypony I ever knew?

“Shimmering…” Leaf spoke quietly, interrupting my panicked sobbing. “Please, don’t be sad. Let me help you to save Cres. Let it be the last thing I do.”

Mentioning the name of my sister somehow gave me the small boost of energy I needed to pull myself together. She might be still alive and I wanted to save her. So I gave my friend a subtle nod before sniffling.

“For Crescent Rain!” Leaf shouted and raised his hoof in the air.

“For Crescent Rain!” I repeated after him and mirrored his move, my vision being obscured by tears.

The morning had progressed a little bit further as we sat on the hill with Leaf Trotter. The atmosphere was tense and neither of us had said anything for a while. Nurse Redheart should be here any minute now and we didn’t want her to overhear anything.

LT had requested me to not tell Redheart anything about his situation, and I had promised to keep my mouth shut. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I wanted to respect his will. Besides, I didn’t want Redheart to worry about him as well. She didn’t need to know. If we ever came back from this trip, Leaf would leave and none of us would ever see him alive again. It was a crushing thought and I barely managed to back my tears.

While it was true that Leaf and I never saw each other that often, he was still like a big brother to me. He had helped me to believe in myself and cheered me up when I most needed it. Even if he had his own problems, he had always found time for me.

I remembered one time he had helped me when I was just a young colt. It was spring time and I was preparing to go home from school. I had to walk because I still couldn’t fly. Other ponies thought it was weird because I was a son of such a great flyer like my dad.

A few earth ponies had stopped me outside of the school and started to push me around, asking why I couldn’t fly yet and why my mane and tail were glowing. I didn’t even know the answer myself and still don’t know today. I was never aggressive towards them. I simply took the hits and waited for somepony to come and help me, but usually, nopony came.

That day, however, somepony did come. Leaf Trotter happened to be around and he ran to us and told the bullies to leave me alone - or else…

Leafy had already graduated from the school as he was a few years older than me. He also happened to be the leader of our school’s sport team. Everypony respected him as he always won every possible contest you could imagine. He was never violent, though.

Whatever Leaf had threatened them with, seemed to do the trick as the bullies soon apologized to me and then ran away.

After that, Leafy had helped me up and we had chatted a long time. He had told me that I didn’t need to worry about being bullied by them ever again. He also taught me self defense.

Everything was fine from then on, none of them had bullied me ever since, just like Leaf told me.

I slowly peeked at the jade-green stallion next to me and smiled thankfully. Leaf Trotter too had a faint smile on his face while he gazed at the sky. Why he smiled, though, was beyond me. If I had a month to live I’d probably go crazy, but Leafy seemed to be okay with the situation. I guess it was a good thing in a way, I didn’t want him to be sad.

Suddenly, we heard hoof steps closing in and saw Nurse Redheart trotting our way. It was finally time to go.

Redheart walked next to us, panting lightly. “I’m sorry, it took a bit longer than I thought, but I got everything settled.”

I simply nodded to her before taking a deep breath. “Okay, let’s go then.”

Hours went by and our little team started to get exhausted. We had galloped a long time without breaks and everypony was slowing down as we arrived in a peaceful looking clearing between two forest areas. Being able to fly, I wasn’t that tired, but Redheart looked like she was going to collapse at any moment. I peeked at my friend and noticed that he wasn’t doing that good either. He was panting heavily, so heavily that even Redheart gave him a worried look. It has been a proper workout for everypony, even for Leaf.

Now would have been a great time for lunch, but we didn’t have any food with us; that is if Redheart hadn’t brought any. Some water would also be great, as my panting friend clearly needed a longer break.

Wait, no. That wasn’t panting anymore, he was downright groaning.

Before Redheart or I managed to do as much as blink, Leaf Trotter lowered his head and threw up with a huge volume. I grimaced as he threw up a few more times, the puddle at his hooves growing larger and larger by every outburst.

Redheart stared at him in disbelief before taking a couple hoof steps closer to him. “Dear Celestia, are you alright, Mr. Trotter?” the nurse asked wearily and walked a bit closer again, but Leaf only raised his hoof to stop her.

“I’m fine,” Leaf mumbled exhausted and spat few times on the ground to empty his mouth.

“That doesn’t look fine to me,” the white mare protested quietly. She then took her saddlebag off and rummaged through it, trying to find something that’d help the poor stallion.

I followed the situation from the distance as Leafy fell on his haunches, just barely missing the smelly puddle. This had to be because of his illness. A lonely tear made its way down my cheek and I sniffled quietly. I felt so bad for him. Redheart would find out at any moment now.

“I’m fine, really,” Leaf repeated annoyedly. “I just ran a bit too hard, that’s all,” he continued and spat on the ground again.

Redheart didn’t care though, she took out a bottle of water and walked closer to my friend. “Please, take some water at least. It must taste awful,” the nurse pleaded and gave the bottle to Leaf.

He opened it and took a gulp. And another one. “See, I’m better already,” the green stallion stated and tried to stand up, but lost his balance and fell right on the puddle.

I quickly turned my head away - I couldn’t watch anymore. He didn’t deserve this kind of humiliation.

But much to my surprise, Leafy didn’t drop his act. Hardheaded, my friend was.

“Woops, I think I slipped,” Leaf said and released a nervous laugh, that neither of us joined in.

“Let me help you up,” Nurse Redheart said and grabbed a towel from her saddlebag.

However, my puke encrusted friend wasn’t going to accept any kind of help. Some things never change.

“I can get up myself, thank you very much,” Leaf groaned, seemingly more irritated now.

Redheart shot me a surprised look and I simply shook my head and tried to smile at her. If a pony had been living almost his whole life alone, he was probably more than embarrassed if somepony was trying to help him.

“I think he’s alright,” I stated quietly, trying to give Redheart a look that’d make her leave my poor friend alone for a moment.

“Thank you,” Leaf Trotter retorted before releasing a sigh. “I think there’s a small pond nearby. If you don’t mind, I’d like to clean myself up,”

I nodded to him and just like that, he was on his way. There was no argue from the nurse. Taking a quick look at the white mare told me that she was shocked, to say the least. Maybe it was for the better if I apologized for my friend.

“Well, that’s Leafy for you,” I laughed nervously, “He didn’t mean anything by that. I mean, he’s used to being independent. Taking help from others makes him feel, um… kind of helpless,” I continued while following Leaf with my gaze as he trotted away.

Redheart didn’t look too happy about my explanation, though. She took one last look at the puddle of vomit before looking at me, sadness dominating her demeanor.

“But… Why did he throw up? It’s not normal you know?” the nurse mumbled, almost like guessing there was something wrong with him.

“He already told you,” I defended my friend, managing to sound nonchalant about it.

“It’s not normal, Shimmering,” Redheart repeated, disappointed that I wasn’t on her side.

I had promised to keep Leaf’s condition to myself and I wasn’t about to let him down now. Still, I didn’t know for sure why did my friend throw up in the first place.

“Well, maybe it was something he ate? Some bad food maybe?” I suggested.

That seemed to work as Redheart sighed quietly. It was heartbreaking to see Leaf Trotter doing so bad, but even more heartbreaking was that I couldn’t tell Redheart about it. I had promised not to. I had promised something to one of my few friends who was going to die soon. I simply couldn’t break a promise like that.

“Well, maybe you are right,” the nurse mumbled a moment later.

Still, I could tell that she didn’t believe me. She was a nurse for Celestia’s sake. She knew that there was something wrong with him. Maybe she knew that I knew it as well? She had to know. I wasn’t that good of a liar.

We simply started to walk in the same direction that Leaf went, leaving the smelly puddle behind us. Neither of us said anything as there wasn’t really all that much to talk about. We were all nervous as we didn’t know what to expect once we arrived at Whitestone. Or what was left of it anyway...

An hour later, the atmosphere was a little bit better. We were sitting in a middle of the forest, eating some food that Redheart had brought with her. She made sure that Leaf would get the most of it, leaving a smaller portion to herself.

Leaf was telling us about his life as a traveler, explaining to Redheart why he acted like a jerk earlier. Of course, he never told the nurse why he was living all alone. Redheart simply thought it was his choice.

It was great to hear more about his life, this was probably just as revealing moment for me as it was for Redheart. These stories even I haven’t heard of yet and I bet there was a lot more that he didn’t want to share with us.

We all laughed our flanks off when Leaf told us how his old and trusty vine hammock had broken down in a middle of the night. The poor Stallion had dropped from the tree and into the pond below. Building a hammock in the tree was a lot safer than sleeping on the ground. I could just fly on a cloud, but he didn’t have that kind of luxury.

Redheart then asked if Leaf Trotter had any stories about me, but the green stallion simply chuckled.

“That you’ll have to ask from Shimmering himself. Besides, I think it’s time to continue our journey,” Leaf said, smiling softly at us.

It was nice to see Redheart being more comfortable around my friend, regardless his situation. I think Leaf didn’t want to be a jerk either on the last of his days. Sharing his memories like that must feel good. Spending time with his old friend. His best friend even? He never mentioned any other ponies being in his life than me, and Redheart never asked.

However, I had a question of my own. It was probably going to ruin the atmosphere once again, but I had to know.

“You said you knew the mare who attacked our town, right?” I asked quietly, bringing the silence to the forest as both Leaf and Redheart now stared at me. “Who is she and why did she attack us like that?” I continued while holding up my tears.

Leaf didn’t say anything at first, only observed my changing expressions between sadness, anger and desperation.

“I don’t know much about her, just her name, Silvermane. She apparently has an army that she uses to rob small villages, but this was the first time I know that they’ve actually hurt somepony,” Leaf said and frowned. “I was following them around in order to collect some evidence against them, but then I … I lost them,” Leaf continued and scratched his neck.

He was lying. No way he’d lose them, I bet he started to feel sick and went to see a doctor. But of course he couldn’t say that if he was going to keep his condition from the nurse sitting next to me.

“I see,” I mumbled quietly and peeked at the nurse to see if she had caught the same lie as i did. However, the mare looked like she believed my friend for once. “But why are they now hurting ponies?” I inquired.

“I don’t know, Shimmering. Crescent said that they might be looking for something valuable,” LT pondered.

Something valuable? We didn’t have anything like that. There wasn’t anything even remotely valuable in our town. Though my mind soon wandered back to my sister.

“Why didn’t you try to help her?” I asked annoyed.

“And get her killed? I was barely able to sneak close enough to whisper with her while the soldiers were distracted by Silvermane. Cres asked me to find you, so I did just that,” Leaf stated, sounding a bit offended.

Of course he did the right thing. I was just so worried about Cres that I couldn’t think clearly anymore.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. It would have been too risky,” I mumbled and gazed to the forest. “Okay, is everypony ready to go?” I inquired, knowing the answer already.

A nod from both Leaf and Redheart set us on the move again.

Hours. We had been walking for hours by now. Sometimes, we would run, but most of the time we walked. We began walking more carefully the closer we came to our final destination. It was almost evening already.

Slowly, the scenery started to look more and more familiar and our little team was beginning to feel really anxious. Leaf’s ears were turning around a lot and his steps were feather light.

I was flying and Nurse Redheart followed us a few hoof steps behind. Her face told me everything. Things were getting serious from now on.

I soon recognized the mountains that surrounded our town. Because of the harsh land, there wasn’t too much flora around these parts. The mountains often caused a very unpredictable weather and because of the dry air, thunderstorms often appeared close to our little community. That made those few pegasi in our town to practice the profession we called cloud control.

Basically, a group of pegasi worked in a team in order to subdue the storm so it wouldn’t hurt anypony.

It wasn’t a necessary profession, but one that town ponies appreciated and one that brought the bread to our table. Pegasi weren’t that common around here, as most of us were earth ponies alongside an even fewer amount of unicorns.

I gazed at the mountains and landed quietly on the ground. Leaf and Redheart stopped as well, looking at me questioningly. I felt it in the air.

“There’s going to be a huge storm…” I stated while still looking at the mountains.

“Still got it, huh?” Leaf smirked at me, but the seriousness of the situation prevented me from noticing his comment.

“How can you tell?” Redheart asked with a shaky voice.

Maybe it was the lack of pegasi doing their work, but this storm felt a lot stronger than usual. I took a deep breath before sighing.

“I just feel it. Behind those mountains is where Whitestone resides. We are almost there,” I muttered, feeling like my stomach was doing backflips again.

A subtle gasp was heard from Redheart’s direction. Of course she was scared, I was too. Not of my own safety, but of my sister’s. Best case scenario, we’d never see those criminals, but in the worst case, we would be all dead. Wait, was that really the worst possible scenario?

What if they didn’t kill us, but held as prisoners for the rest of our lives? What if they tortured us beyond our wildest imagination? I’d rather die than watch my friends and sister being tortured, or worse. No, I’d fight until the bitter end to make sure they’d be safe.

A sudden cough got my attention, bringing me back to Equestria again; Leaf stared at me questioningly.

“Should we continue further or take cover from the storm then?” he asked monotonically.

What options did we have? If we waited for the storm to be over, it might be too late to save Cres. But if we went into the storm, we could get hurt badly. On the other hoof, the storm would create a nice cover for us to free my sister without them noticing a thing. Suddenly, I realized that I have to decide what to do - and I wanted to save my sister.

“We’ll go forward. We can use the storm to our advantage. They won’t even know we were there,” I said, a sly grin creeping on my face.

Leaf Trotter nodded to my idea, but Redheart stayed silent.

I gave her a serious look and noticed a moment of hesitation in her demeanor.

“It’s not too late to go back, Redheart,” I offered quietly.

The mare raised her gaze and looked at me for a moment, obviously considering her options. For a moment, I hoped she’d stay with us, but then I remembered that she had the most to lose out of all of us. Or wait, what did she have to lose? Her ludicrous work schedule and her non-existing friends? What was the real reason for her to come with us? One messed up suicide-squad this was...

“I- I’m going to stay with you guys, I mean, somepony must look after you, right?” Redheart rambled nervously.

Her statement raised my eyebrow higher than usual, but I let it go this time. Maybe she was just trying to lighten up the mood.

“Okay, then. Let’s continue,” Leaf stated and started to walk toward the mountains, Redheart and me in his wake.

Some darker looking clouds were already gathering over the mountains as the air got even hotter. It was just on days like this when the most powerful storms appeared.

However, I couldn’t take care of a storm all by myself. Not a whole storm at least, even if the bolts wouldn’t hurt me. It was a job for a highly trained pegasus team, but since everypony has probably been killed, we had no way of stopping the storm now.

I took a look at my companions as we walked, they both looked exhausted. I was tired as well, but we had to push forward. I knew a small cave nearby we could use to rest for a moment if the storm decided to start raging.

“Just a little bit more,” I encouraged my friends, only to receive faint smiles in return.

After an hour or so, we were almost there. Signs of a pony civilization started to pop up every now and then. There was a broken cart in a ditch, as well as abandoned shed next to it. There was also an actual road now to follow. I was home.

To our left was a small wheat field, and on our right was an old mine that had been closed for years now. It was simply a failed attempt of a certain greedy unicorn to open a profitable mining business. But because the guy didn’t trust earth ponies or pegasi, he was trying to hire unicorns.

And there wasn’t a whole lot of them. Only a dozen individuals came to my mind. Needless to say, that not all of those unicorns wanted to work in the mines. But those who did weren’t exactly pleased with the pay. And from what I had heard, the guy wasn’t too nice to the workers either, so he went out of business in a year.

The old mine gave me the creeps as I eyed the old equipment left outside to rust.

Everything looked so different after spending a few days in Ponyville. There were no colorful houses anywhere. The delicious smells of different pastries and other goodies were also missing. Not to mention friendly ponies.

We walked slower and slower, keeping our eyes and ears open. Suddenly, Leaf Trotter stopped. We all stopped.

There was something on the road - or not something, but rather somepony. All we could do was stare horrified.

We held our breaths as the smell of the rotting corpse hit our muzzles.

An orange pegasus was lying on the road, arrows sticking out of her head and throat. She had a pale yellow, curly mane and tail, but her cutie mark wasn’t recognizable anymore. However, I still knew who she was.

I pressed my head down and sniffled as few tears dropped on the ground.

“S-she’s… she was our flight teacher,” I sobbed through my tears. “Sunshine, we always called her… because she was always so happy and kind,” I mongered.

Redheart came next to me and gave me a gentle hug. She tried to keep her eyes away from the corpse but I saw she couldn’t. Though, I doubt this was the first time she had seen a dead pony. But a murdered pony? Yeah, probably.

Leaf, however, stepped between Redheart and the body, blocking our unpleasant view. My green friend somehow managed to stay a lot calmer than us. I could tell that he was sad too, but his mental strength was sometimes beyond me.

“Thanks, Leafy,” I murmured, earning a nod from him.

I knew this would only be the first of many corpses we were going to see, but we couldn’t let that endanger our mission.

We carefully walked around the body and continued forward, but not on the road anymore. We needed to hide and think about our strategy.

The storm would be here at any minute now. The first drops of rain already came down as the wind started to pick up. This wouldn’t be pretty…

“Hey, I know a small cave nearby. What if we go there?” I whispered as we sneaked closer to the mountains near town.

“I don’t know, what if those filthy criminals are in there?” Redheart pondered.

“Oh, the language. Is that how you greet your queen?” Somepony spoke above us.

We raised our heads and saw a gray unicorn mare standing on the cliff. She had a long gray, almost silvery mane. I recognized her. She was the one who attacked our town, she was the commander Silvermane that Leaf had told us about - and she had spotted us.

So much for the element of surprise...