The Brightest Light Casts the Longest Shadows

I realized rather quickly that there were three problems that had caused me to wake; the first was the cold wind that rushed across my body, the second was that the drapes were snapping in the wind, the third was my legs, they hurt worse than that time when Shiny had convinced me to go hiking with him and father found out. After three days of hiking around the Canterhorn we returned home and both of our hides had been so thoroughly tanned that I’m pretty sure mine had permanently changed color under my fur.

Fortunately the cold and pain was offset by the sun shining down on my back and the nice, warm body pressed against the front of my barrel. I smiled as I nuzzled the pony's slightly rough fur and basked in the warmth of their body.

With a sigh, but remarkably little internal conflict, I decided that I needed to get up, check the time, get cleaned up and head out to face the day, especially before somepony discovered me in a bed with another. I opened my eyes and started to climb out of the pegasus’ grasp when I realized something rather important; I was in a tent, with an unknown pegasus, not good.

Realization of why I was in a tent dawned upon me as I remembered what had happened the previous day... and Shiny's warning about outsiders, now I just needed to find out why I was in this tent with another pony. I scrambled to stand up. That was a mistake, I had stepped on the blanket that was still on top of my back, my front legs slid out from under me until they hit the pegasus' body and I fell forward, I quickly found my face pressed into the crook of the pegasus’ neck.

It took me a few seconds to gather my wits and remove my face from the pegasus' neck, that's when I realized that my face was about half a foot from the pegasus’. He had an eyebrow raised. “Yes…?”

Blood rushed to my face as my cheeks flushed. “I. In bed. You.”

“Yes…?”

“Why?”

“Because preserving body heat is important, especially when its cold.”

I remembered more specifics of the previous night; I had gone to set up my tent when the pegasus proposed sharing a tent to keep warm and safe as a group. I had readily accepted, having no desire to freeze to death or lose sleep to the cold.

From what I could determine and recall there were no activities the previous night. There wasn't a musky smell, nor did I remember anything other than climbing under the blankets and going straight to sleep.

The pegasus slipped out from under the blankets and jabbed the center of the north-facing wall, where the two flaps of the tent overlapped. The straps holding the tent closed slipped out of the strips of cloth on the opposite flap that were holding them in place, allowing the tent to open. Without exiting the tent the pegasus turned to me. “Tell me, do you treat all your bedmates this way in the morning?”

I looked down and mumbled to myself. “Never been able to stay ‘till morning.”

He swung around and exited the tent backwards. “What was that?”

“I… I never could stay the night… too much to lose if either of us got caught…”

The smirk that he had been wearing since I woke him slipped off his face. “Right, civilized ponies.” One could almost hear the eye rolls and hoof-quotations when he said ‘civilized ponies’. In an instant the smile was right back on his face. “Come on. Let’s get some food I am star-ving.”

___ ______ ___

During breakfast I learned that there were four ponies in the group; ‘One’ or ‘Boss’ was an earth pony. ‘Three’ was the pegasus who had carried me to the camp and ‘Doc’ or ‘Four’ was Spine. ‘Two’ wasn’t there, presumably he or she was in Canterlot for business. The two pegasi who had attacked me the previous day were so tightly bound that they wouldn’t be able to walk, I assumed that their bindings would be loosened before we set off.

By the time the sun was fully above the horizon, around eight if my guess was correct, we had packed up the entire camp and started on the road. My assumption that the two pegasi would be less tightly bound then when we were in camp proved correct; they had their front and rear legs bound loosely enough that they could walk, but only in short, rapid steps, their wings were tied against their bodies and they had blinders fitted over their eyes to keep them facing forward and prevent them from getting any ideas.

One was in the front, guiding the group and helping the prisoners along. Three watched the prisoners from behind. Doc and myself trailed behind him so as to not get in the way.

___ ______ ___

The single most important lesson for any filly to learn is that they should learn from mistakes. I learned this lesson well; during my studies I had made many mistakes, but one that I never made was to make the same mistake twice.

Today I was applying that lesson to my every action; I was determined not be caught off guard by an attack from the skies again. To that end I was alternating between observing the road, the trees that lined it and the sky.

Two hours into the somewhat frustrating and very tiring exercise Doc sped up and trotted until his head was lined up with mine. “Keep your head high with your eyes level.”

“Huh?” I was caught off guard; Doc was a nice pony; but he seemed not to talk unless he was awkwardly flirting or had a good reason.

“Stop swinging your head around so much. Keep it level and pointed at the same place. Use your peripherals that way your eyes are moving instead of your head. Keep swinging your head and you’ll won’t have any baseline to compare changes to; you won’t be able to tell when something’s changed.” He ducked under a branch that was hanging over his part of the road.

I made a snap decision to follow Doc’s advice; he was more experienced and knowledgeable that I was, therefor I deferred to his expertise.  I was already determined to break my habit of looking at the ground while walking, now I just needed to introduce the habit of keeping my head up and my eyes on the look out.

___ ______ ___

About twenty minuets after giving me his (extremely helpful) advice Doc passed me and trotted up closer to Three. He nearly had to yell to be heard over the wind. “Three.”

Three glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, Doc?”

“You look a little bored and tired. Why don’t you let me take the prisoners and you go flap your wings for a few minuets. Maybe... I dunno... head over that way.” He motioned to the southeast on our right.

Three nodded. “Sure, sounds good. I’ll be back in less than a half hour. If you need me call quick ‘cause I’ll be out of range in-” he looked at the treetops swaying in the wind. “-maybe... three minuets tops.”

Three jumped into the air and sped off to the right and rear of us.

Boss called out to the two of us that remained. “Miss, a word please.”

I scurried up beside her and practically pressed our bodies together so that we could talk without yelling. “Yes?”

“You know any shield spells?”

I was a little confused and concerned now, and the incessant wind made conversation more difficult. “A few. Why?”

“Well, I don’t need a few, I just need one. In about two minuets I’m going to call Four ‘Mister Doctorate’. When that happens you cast that spell around yourself and those two chuckleheads to keep yourselves safe. Cast quickly and make sure the prisoners don’t get away. We’ll take care of anything that comes our way, don't you worry about that, you just focus on the shield and the prisoners. Understand?”

I nodded. “Two minuets, you call Doc ‘Mister Doctorate’, I cast shield spell on myself and the prisoners. Anything else.”

“Whatever happens, I’ll be over fast. Very fast. You confident?”

The wind was really trying to disrupt our conversation and I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to cast the spell with it giving me as much of a headache as it did. “No.”

“Good, confidence ‘ll get you killed. So long as you remember your part and your nerves don’t give us away before then we’ll be fine.”

I slowed down a little. “Thanks… I think…”

She chuckled. “That’s the spirit. Doc, a word.”

Doc and I traded places; me to the back of the group to watch the prisoners and him next to Boss. Despite only being ten or so paces behind them I couldn’t hear them.

Stupid, annoying wind. I supposed that I should have been thankful for it. It had, after all, allowed my conversation to go without detection by an outside party and gave Doc and Boss’ the same protection.

I started my mental countdown. One hundred seconds.

There was more rustling in the trees. Doc continued his conversation with Boss. They were both facing forward.

Eighty seconds left.

I had no idea where Three could possibly have gone, but it wasn’t good; the group was under a threat and we were missing a member.

Sixty seconds.

Doc began motioning towards me with his head. The discussion was getting a little heated. Most likely they were discussing if I could be trusted with my assigned duties, or trusted at all for that matter.

Forty-five seconds.

Doc stopped and waited until the prisoners and myself had walked past him. We continued in silence.

Ten seconds left.

Boss yelled over her shoulder. “Hey! Doc!”

“Yeah?”

“You ever have to deal with a body that had its limbs falling off?”

Doc bent his neck to each side, loudly cracking it as he did. “No, why?”

“Because mine feel like they’re about to, what with all the walking up and down this mountain that we’ve done? It feels like torture!”

Doc responded very quickly. “Well, it’s not actually possible to have your legs fall off from too much w-”

Boss cut him off. “We get it Mister Doctorate! You went through a few bio classes, where apparently they do not teach you how to take a joke.” She had butted in rather quickly and rudely, apparently not wanting that lecture to occur. That made me sad, I wanted to listen to it.

Wait, she just said ‘Mister Doctorate’.

So much for paying attention and acting when my cues came up.

I called magic to my horn and channeled the magic. As with all magic I had a few choices to make; I quickly made them, a particle-force duality for the barrier with an effective ployhedral, geodesic dome made of effective particles forming a partial sphere for the framework. For all intents and purposes I created billions and billions of tiny magical force-particles that together created a dome frame that would then have a magical field laid down on top of it.

Even most unicorns don’t know even the basics about what is truly happening when they use magic. It’s a pity for two reasons; the first is that understanding on a fundamental level what you’re doing instead of just casting on instinct reduces the chances of a misfire, backfire, unintended reaction or consequence. The other is that creating new spells or making old ones more efficient is much easier when you understand what’s happening as opposed to guessing and hoping or working off of very limited, and in all but empirical matters, wrong information.

In less than an eighth of a second I had established the necessary framework. It was at that point, hardly more than a levitation spell. Within a quarter of a second I had called the necessary magic to my horn and established the field around it to create a shield.

Boss and Doc, to the front and rear of me respectively, crouched down and faced the trees that had been rustling. They looked ready to do violence on whoever came out of the trees.

My first fight. This was happening now.

I was scared, but also a little… excited… huh, that’s interesting.