Where You're Needed Most

Twilight exited the library with Spike right behind her, carrying several boxes of books and having to weave back and forth to avoid dropping them all. She was met by a very tired looking Applejack, who had brought with her a large cart filled with bushels of apples, several bales of hay, and quite a lot of farm tools destined to be sent out to the neighboring farms after she helped Twilight deliver the boxes of books to the mail post.

"Applejack, you look exhausted." Twilight said, tilting her head a little. It looked as if the cowpony hadn't gotten sleep in a couple of days.

"It's been a long few days, Twi." Applejack said, exhaustion in her voice. "Ah'm takin' the weekend off after this. The farm can wait a coupla' days."

Twilight nodded as Spike loaded the boxes into the cart. "What happened?"

Applejack rolled her eyes. "More like what didn't happen or what couldn't go wrong. First we found a nasty fungus drawin' the strength out of several of the trees in th' orchard. It made them brittle to the point where I bucked them, they and the apples went clear sailin' over to the other side of th' farm. Ah almost hit Apple Bloom by mistake with one of 'em. We're tryin' to track down where the fungus came from, but it's not provin' easy. It seems to mimic other beneficial fungi to better hide itself."

"I can help with that." Twilight replied as Spike jumped into the cart and grabbed the reins, snapping them with a "Giddyup!" directed at Applejack. She ignored him.

"Thanks all the same, sugarcube, but we got this." Applejack said. "After we found the fungus, there was a fire in th' barn. Remember how hot it was yesterday? Some of the hay couldn't take it and started to burn under what we assume was sunlight focused through th' windows. Big Mac managed to put the fire out before it got really bad, though." The group began to head into Ponyville to meet up with Zecora, who was in town to give them potions and herbs and all manner of alchemical things for display and trade in the other cities.

"Let me guess." Twilight said. "Big Macintosh got himself injured again because of it?"

"Got it in one." Applejack nodded. "He knocked over a hay bale and it took down three or four others somehow and the whole thing came down and damaged one of the barn's rafters, which broke and came down on his head. Ah was up all night with worry because he'd knocked himself cold. Those things ain't lightweight and it takes a lot of effort to pile 'em back up."

"Big Mac can handle it, he's shrugged off worse, right?" Twilight asked.

"That doesn't mean ah don't still worry for 'im though." Applejack yawned as Spike snapped the reins again. "Then Granny Smith needed all sorts of help. She's slowing down, Twi. More than is normal for her. Ah worry."

The group headed into Ponyville, enjoying the sunlight. Rainbow Dash had said that the rest of the week was going to be clear sailing, and that the heat wave that had occurred when somepony hadn't been paying attention up in the weather factory would be broken by a thunderstorm by the time the new week began. She'd promised Twilight an "interesting light show", which probably meant lightning being formed into fancy shapes for the ponies on the ground to watch and be amazed by.

Their first stop was by the Carousel Boutique, as Twilight had to pick up a couple of dresses for a friend back in Canterlot. The door was open, and just as they were about to enter, they were almost knocked down by a couple of fleeing ponies carrying between them some sort of strange contraption.

"Out, out!" Rarity could be heard calling to the fleeing ponies. "I don't want your 'Super-Duper Cloth-Colorizer 6650!' I can get by just fine!"

Applejack snorted, watching the Flim-Flam Brothers run from Rarity, who was inside waving several dressmaking tools at them. "And if you come back I'll make dresses... for you!" Then she dropped the anger act and nodded to Twilight, who'd stepped in. "Twilight, darling, you're early."

Twilight nodded, looking around and then back out at the still-retreating Flim-Flam Brothers, whom Applejack was giving a rather nasty stare to. "Um... is there something I should know?"

Rarity put down her dressmaking tools. "They were trying to sell me on some strange invention that could color cloth to anything anypony would want, including colors so gaudy it hurt my eyes to look at them." Her horn lit up as a white square of cut cloth levitated of its own accord and then changed color to a rich, bright red. "And I have my own magic for color change and coordination. I decided not to give them any more of my attention."

"If you ask me, they'd look good in a dress." Applejack said, stepping inside.

"Applejack! You look terrible!" Rarity said. "Your hair... your hooves, even your hat is off-center!"

Applejack shrugged. "It's been a long week. Stuff on th' farm, y'know? Nothin' a good day or two of rest won't fix right up."

"Nonsense, darling. Let me fix you up." Rarity replied, concentrating. Her horn lit up with magic and Applejack's mane smoothed out, then the dust and dirt that had been covering her hooves fell off and clumped itself into little balls which rolled out of the boutique. "There, all better. You look more presentable now. Can't have a good cowpony look like she's been wrestled to the ground by ruffians, right?"

"Something tells me if she can take on farm duties, she can take on 'ruffians'." Twilight said as Spike poked his head in, eyes trained on Rarity.

"It's nothin', really." Applejack looked slightly embarassed.

"Do you have the dresses ready?" Twilight asked. "My friend in Canterlot really wants to see some of your designs."

Rarity smiled and nodded as six beautiful white dresses with various colors of trim and attached baubles floated out of a closet, one by one. "I finished the last one yesterday." The dresses levitated over to Spike, who stepped in and caught them as they fell on him, and he stuck his hand out of the pile of dresses with a thumbs-up sign. "Spike, be a dear and carry those to the cart, will you?"

"Right away, miss Rarity." Spike quickly picked himself up out of the pile of clothes and quickly carried them out one by one so as not to damage them.

"Did you hear about the missing ponies?" Rarity asked as she turned back to her tools and began to organize them a little bit; the table in front of her was absolutely covered in cloth, string, fancy ornamental gemstones, and various colors of ribbon.

"Yeah, they used a banishment spell written by that old man, Silent Eagle." Twilight said. "I'm going to talk to Zecora about it later today and see if there's anything she can do, like a scrying potion or something to see if they're safe. If they're in trouble I'll have Spike send word to Princess Celestia."

Rarity wrinkled her nose. "Silent Eagle? He was an eccentric one, all right..."

Twilight shrugged "Yeah. Apparently Rapid Waters found one of his spellbooks in one of the boxes I was organizing for sending on to Canterlot; I didn't even know I had the thing in the library in the first place. She got herself and her friends banished to someplace labeled as 'where they're needed most'."

"Aren't they needed most here in Ponyville?" Applejack asked.

"The spell was labeled as such, but anypony who knows Silent Eagle's history is that things aren't always what they seem." Twilight replied as Spike returned.

"Thank you, Spike. Have a small gem as a token of my appreciation." Rarity said, and a small emerald floated over to the little dragon, depositing itself in his hand. He hugged it with a big smile on his face as Rarity turned back to Twilight. "Not always what they seem? More like NEVER what they seem." She looked disgusted. "He never had any appreciation for my designs and kept going 'you need to do this, and that, and that, and that.'" She turned up her nose, mocking him. "He had no true eye for fashion. As bad as it sounds I am glad he was tricked into going away. I think the whole of Ponyville was getting tired of his insults."

"Well, in either case, Zecora mentioned to me that she knew him as a frequent visitor to the area around her hut, so if there's anypony who has a way to get our friends back from this spell unharmed, she'd know at least where to start looking. I'd rather not get Princess Celestia involved; she has enough to do as it is." Twilight said.

Rarity nodded. "I saw Zecora out by Sugarcube Corner, watching ponies walk by and enjoying the day. I think Pinkie Pie was going to ask her to try some new recipes of hers."

Applejack and Twilight looked at each other and then bolted out of the boutique, with Twilight grabbing Spike on her way out. With a quick "Thanks for the dresses!" they quickly headed off to Sugarcube Corner.

*****************

"What do you mean, you lost the book?" Weighted Words said, looking around at the cave that the group had materialized in.

"I don't know." Rapid Waters looked clueless. "It was right there when you cast the spell."

Triple Blaze was walking toward the beams of sunlight coming in through the ceiling of the large cave they had appeared in. The cave showed signs of habitation or occupation, as there were signs that it had been extensively mined. Broken pickaxes, a large iron shovel, two buckets of water and several chunks of iron ore lay in a corner next to a very large chunk of a spiky, reddish stone.

"Well, we're here." Sunny Rose said. "Now what do we do?"

"But where's here?" Weighted Words replied.

"We do what we need to do, of course!" Rapid Waters flew towards the sunlight. "Somewhere within five miles of here, something needs to be done and we're going to do it."

"Now hold on, let's get ourselves situated before we go running off here." Triple Blaze said, looking at the large pile of wooden planks and boards that had once been scaffolding to the top of the cave. "Let's at least look at where we are first, then we can start exploring. We don't even have food or water, so we can't waste time."

Rapid Waters flew up to the hole in the ceiling where the sunlight brightly streamed in. "There's a rope ladder here, let me..." For a moment she stopped talking and then a rope ladder unrolled from the wall of the cave, leading up and out. "And there we go! Come on up and let's see where we are!"

"I can tell you where you are." Weighted Words said. "Six miles east of crazy." It was clear he was already regretting casting the spell. "We don't even have the book to use to get back, Rapid. Even if we accomplish whatever-it-is, how are we supposed to get back?"

"Oh, you know how these adventures always end." Rapid said with a smile as Sunny Rose and Triple Blaze climbed the ladder. "They always get sent back where they started the adventure, like in all those video games you like to play."

"This isn't a game, Rapid." Weighted Words grumbled, being helped out of the cave by Sunny Rose.

The group emerged on a large plateau made of a reddish-orange rock, dusty under their hooves. All around them was mountainous jungle, with strange trees and plants everywhere one looked. They were on a large cliff plateau, and far below they could see a lake and a waterfall. Across from them was another cliff face where there was a worked series of stone steps leading further up the mountains; further ahead they could see a a large walled-off structure.

"Well, that's as good a direction to go as any..." Sunny Rose said, looking down at all the trees and plants. "I wish I brought some of my tools with me, I'd love to take some samples ba--"

Behind her, Triple Blaze rushed back down the rope ladder and one could hear him breaking some of the planks. Before long he'd bolted back up at full speed, holding in one hoof a small box attached to a small makeshift wooden "saddle" (such as it was) so it would be easy to carry.

"You rang?" Weighted Words joked.

"Rapid, fly on ahead and see what that big structure is." Triple Blaze said. "We'll wait."

"You got it, I'm on my way! I'll be back before you know it!" Rapid Waters replied with a smile, bolting off into the distance so fast she was a blur, her wings beating a mile a minute to carry her to her destination.

*****************

Twilight and Applejack reached Sugarcube Corner to the sounds of a song; Pinkie was singing some kind of show-tune kind of song and the assembled ponies around her were nodding their heads to the beat and generally enjoying themselves.

"So far, so good?" Spike weakly joked.

Twilight scanned the crowd while briefly tuning out Pinkie Pie, then she spotted Zecora off sitting under a tree with a basket of potions and bundles of herbs next to her. She was turning a cupcake over in her hooves, looking at it quizzically with a "this is edible?" expression on her face.

"Hey, Zecora. Enjoying the day?" Twilight asked as they came up to her.

"Twilight, my friend! How have you been?" Zecora replied, standing up and giving the unicorn a hug. "Applejack, a friend so true, it's wonderful to be seeing you."

"Still rhymin' as always?" Applejack couldn't help but smile.

"We're on our way to the mail post with all this other stuff," Twilight said, turning to look at the cart. Spike had taken his position at the reins again. "We can talk while we head there. Do you have the potions and things I asked for in my letter?"

"The goods I turn loose, to be put to good use." Zecora said, patting the basket next to her. "Normally I would not dare, for some of these are quite, quite rare."

Twilight smiled as they set off down the road, leaving Pinkie Pie continuing her singing oblivious to them. The ponies around her were completely enthralled; leave it to Pinkie Pie to make everypony feel good on top of a good day. "Well, thanks. There's what I understand to be a 'herbalist workshop' in Manehattan in a couple of months, and as I understand it, some of these herbs need that long to prepare properly."

"Preparation is always key, to get the right results, you see." Zecora said. "I hear that you have found a book, that was not what it seemed when others first looked?"

Applejack nodded. "Some Silent Eagle guy's spellbook, Ah think."

Zecora gave Applejack and then Twilight a hard look. "Why would you ever bother to work with that classless twit and insufferable jerk?"

"Ah take it you know 'im?" Applejack asked.

Zecora shook her head, looking exasperated as they continued down the road. "Knew him I did, and glad to be rid. He was revolting, crude, and insulting."

"Is there ANYPONY that liked him?" Twilight asked.

Applejack snorted, adjusting her hat. "Doesn't sound like it."

Zecora shook her head. "One thinks he enjoyed being so low. It is good to see that he reaped what he sowed."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that. The spell that was cast that banished the others was the same one he'd been fooled with."

Zecora turned back to her. "Then they are in range of his vile, evil ways. We must now make sure that such spells do not pay."

"Ah get it." Applejack said. "They got sent to wherever this Silent Eagle guy was sent to, right?"

Zecora nodded quietly as they made their way to the mail post and set up the deliveries. "Meaner he grew as his magic turned fancy. He aimed to bring back foul necromancy."

Twilight stopped short. "He what?"

Zecora quickened her pace as the mailmares took in the wagon and Spike assisted. "He wanted to bring back that forbidden art. I didn't ask, for I wanted no part."

"Necro-whut?" Applejack asked, tilting her head.

Now Zecora was running and Twilight and Applejack had to run to catch up. "For this potion many things I will need, so you take this list and please follow my lead."

"Potion for what?" Twilight asked, as Zecora thrust a slip of paper into her face.

Zecora didn't reply as she tore off down the road, looking far, far more worried than either of them had seen. Were the "banished" ponies in far more danger than Twilight knew?

*****************

Next: We return to Sunny Rose and company for a couple of chapters, since they're (supposed to be) the "heroes" of the story. :) I apologize in advance if I butchered Zecora's lines; writing for her was harder than I thought.