My Little Pony - Friendship is magic : New adventures

The following day, it took all the willpower of Pinkie Pie to walk out of the griffons’ city, and even more so to say goodbye to Gilda to whom she was deeply attached ; once she managed to get over it, the ponies began their hunt.

Finding the path and following it was easy ; however, they had or a very long delay compared to the creature or had severely underestimated its speed ; they seemed to make no progression at all, as the trail was not getting warmer.

After three hours, they finally saw a tiny spot – the size of a grain of salt – in the distance and felt tremors that were keeping gaining in intensity. Half an hour later, the spot was growing – it was now the size of a marble – and fresh footprints could be seen in the snow : their size and depths were so deep it was ridiculous.

"Oh my…" Rarity gasped once she saw them. "Do we have a weight measurement unit that we could apply here ?"

"I-I don’t think so", Twilight replied, worryingly biting her lips.

A growl interrupted their progress. They stopped right in their tracks : not far away from the trail, there was a bugbear seated in the snow.

"We… we’re in bug-bug-bugbear territory…" Fluttershy panicked ; she was on the verge of fainting.

The monstrous panda-bee hybrid did nothing to the ponies however ; it was keeping on growling, but not in an aggressive voice ; it was a low groan, and the monster was looking at his paws without seeing them. Water droplets briefly escaped its red eyes.

"He’s… he’s crying !" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

The bugbear finally noticed them and, after a few seconds of immobility, simply departed towards the few scattered pines that were miraculously still standing.

They continued their route for half an hour again, not hindered by the snow which was crushed or by the temperature which was almost warm. Their target had disappeared, putting further strain on them. They quickly found out the reason however : the trail was making an almost ninety degree turn to the West. Twilight theorized that the creature, seeing it was getting nowhere, had changed direction. The ponies really began to tire after following the trail for fifteen minutes. Rarity complained about her aching hooves and Pinkie Pie about her loudly growling stomach ; they were abruptly interrupted in their progression by a powerful earthquake that made Pinkie Pie, Spike, Rarity and Fluttershy lose their balance and fall.

"What was that !? Another mountain !?" Applejack exclaimed.

"Let’s go !" Twilight immediately darted in the direction of the tremors.

They galloped for five minutes before stopping : the trail was gone, replaced by a crater big enough to be filled with thousands of ponies.

"What… what in the world…" Applejack spluttered.

Twilight and Starlight stayed silent for thirty seconds, the time during which they were lost in deep thought ; they reached the same conclusion at the same time :

"It jumped".

"What !?" The others exclaimed.

They were interrupted once again : hundreds of bugbears obscured the sky above them, and disappeared to the East so fast they had no time to be afraid.

"They’re fleeing the thing…" Starlight muttered.

"That’s not good", Twilight whispered to herself. "Not good at all. It was pretty bad already, but now… Let’s go home. I’m sorry : we did all of this for nothing".

"I’m glad we didn't encounter that monster", Fluttershy sighed in a relieved breath.

"Maybe you’re right", the Princess of Friendship said. "We’ll move up the meeting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to the day after tomorrow. Maybe they’ll have answers, but I doubt it ; they would’ve told me in the letter. Let’s take a break at the Crystal Empire. Apart from resting, we must warn Cadance too".

The way back was deadly calm : they walked in a deafening silence ; not a single bugbear was spotted. Even the small forest part before the Griffonstone station was devoid of animated life.

Once in the train, they almost bought all the food on their way to the Crystal Empire, as they had not eaten in hours ; the night was falling and they nearly missed the train station when they all fell asleep after the supper.

There was no magic force field around the majestic city yet. The group was greeted by Twilight’s brother and a few guards once they stepped in the city.

"How my niece’s doing ?" Twilight asked.

"Fine as always Twili. We hope we’ll bring her back to your castle soon", Shining Armor answered. "But you aren’t here for that apparently ; Cadance showed me the letter. Is that thing coming here ?"

"I don’t know. If only I knew…" Twilight replied, sadly shaking her head ; she was not only sad, but also tired, all of which was taking its toll on her mental.

Her brother put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Always taking the blame. Why, in the wide wide world of Equestria, are you feeling responsible for this ?" He interrogated as they trotted towards the castle and the throne room with the others.

"I saw it coming. These days I was… paranoid, really. And… I said to myself it was nothing, just stressing out for no reason like always, and I didn’t talk to my friends. I’m ashamed I…"

She was cut off by her brother : he was staring at her with a seriousness that was almost harsh.

"Repeat after me : it’s not my fault".

Twilight grumbled something incomprehensible.

"Louder", Shining Armor ordered.

"It’s not my fault", his sister murmured weakly.

"Again".

"It’s not my fault", Twilight repeated with enough conviction this time.

Her brother smiled.

"It would’ve probably come anyways, you know… Sometimes destiny put things on our paths that we just can’t avoid", he added.

They finally arrived in the throne room : it was empty.

"Where’s Cadance ?" Twilight interrogated.

"Oh, sorry sis’, Cadance’s at your favorite place : the library. She’s searching about the creature that you showed us. Creepy monster, never seen something like that."

The library was still this huge place that Twilight revered. Cadance was at a desk, rapidly flipping through the pages of a thick book ; at least thirty of them were piled up beside her. The princess noticed her friends and immediately dropped her book to greet them warmly.

"Oh Twilight, I’m so sorry that almost each time you come, it’s because of a disaster", she complained.

"It doesn’t keep us to spend time together", Twilight replied. "And… maybe that disaster isn’t coming after all. Did you find something in these books ?"

"Nothing at all. But I searched in only thirty of them".

"We’ll help", Twilight decided with a barely contained excitation despite her tiredness.

"Great", Rainbow Dash rejoiced sarcastically. "Twilight, you’re the only one who loves searching something through thousands of books…"

"So what ?" Twilight replied before happily trotting towards a shelf.

"Nothing"… Her friend grumbled before doing the same, with much less enthusiasm.

Everyone took a shelf. It was two hours of vain research, and Twilight fell asleep in the process. Even when Sunburst came to help – which woke up Twilight – they found nothing ; not even the slightest mention of such a creature.

"It’s helpless", Rarity complained. "My eyes are so strained that I just cannot properly see anymore", she yawned, rubbing her eyelids. "And I’m so tired…"

"Same here", Applejack concurred.

"I can’t believe that there isn’t a single word about this thing", Twilight groaned in frustration as she rubbed her eyes surrounded by impressive dark circles.

She was disappointed ; the library was so huge and filled with so many books about everything ; she slightly lowered her opinion of the place.

"Maybe… maybe it doesn’t come from here…" Fluttershy mused quietly.

"These books try to cover the unknown lands beyond Equestria, at least in part, and you already got there", Starlight objected.

"I didn’t mean that. Maybe it doesn’t come from this world at all", the timid pegasus clarified.

"Why didn’t I think of that !?" Twilight self-reprimanded ; she facehoofed.

"It would explain a lot of things", Starlight concurred.

"We must see it", Twilight decided. "After all, it hasn’t really attacked anypony. I don’t see why it would attack us. It… just keeps walking, searching for a princess : that’s the delicate part. Who knows… who knows for what it… it wants a princess, or who’s that princess. If… it’s me, I think I… can talk to it… and… convince it to stop", she said, searching her words and interrupting them with yawns.

"Twilight dear, I don’t think it is the best…" Rarity began before yawning loudly in an uncivilized manner. "I’m sorry, I…"

"I think it’s time for all of us to go to bed", Cadance declared. "Sleep will clear our minds".

Everyone wished each other good night, went to their respective bedrooms and, tired as they were, promptly fell asleep.