“So, remind me again why you chose to leave at night?” asked Azurinne in a dejected looking mood. The Azurinne and I were just past the town’s limit near the foot of mountain that headed to the rest of Equestria.

“We won’t be able to go in the morning because of school,” I answered as I looked equally dispirited, “and I can tell you this, our teacher is quite the mean one if you try to ditch class while she’s awake.” The two of us were talking all day about what was going on and what happened in the past. I got angry a few times, and even started shaking my hooves, but the whole time she just sat there peacefully and explained all the facts. After the conversation, I finally broke down and began crying, apologizing for everything I called her and accused her of. Long story short, I’m not exactly ‘naturally’ born, and not exactly a ‘success’ either. Now my parents, or rather the two ponies that both created and ran away with me, have been captured and are being forced to continue where they left off. The letter explained about half of that, and Azurinne had to explain the rest. “Before we begin climbing the rather steep mountain to the tunnel leading through,” I say, “is there anything you can do to make it easier for us? Admittedly, I haven’t read the book in forever, but you must have something that could help us?”

“Well if I could make doors to seemingly anywhere, wouldn’t I have just made one to your parents, hours ago?” asked Azurinne, “but I suppose I can teach you a spell to walk up the mountain.” I look at her in disbelief as she pulls a book out from inside her ear. She floats me the book and continues, “Now read quickly, or the knowledge will just fly off on its own.” Worried the words may indeed just jump out of the book and fly away, I begin to read the spell book. “I’ll meet you at the entrance, cherry,” she said as all but her mouth disappeared, “now do hurry, so I don’t get bored up there.” With that her mouth vanished as well.

Reading and understanding the spell was easy enough, and casting it on myself was even easier. The hard part? Staring at the village I lived in my entire life, and having to say goodbye to it. “Goodbye, I’ll miss you,” I said to myself, “except you, Stained Glass, I won’t be missing you anytime soon.” I turn back and begin to climb.

“You say your goodbyes?” asks Azurinne in a very gentle tone. I nod and we begin to walk through the cave. “You know,” she begins to speak while walking on the ceiling, “you are way too mature for me to remember your still a filly sometimes.” I give her a smile. A complement given is always appreciated. “With that said,” she continues, “you don’t really know many spells, do you?”

“Truthfully,” I begin to reply, “the only spells I know are that climbing spell you gave me, a basic levitation spell that all unicorns know, or so my parents told me, and an invisibility spell I use whenever I want to be alone.”

“Then let’s add two more spells to that list,” she said as she pulls two books from behind her ear and floats them to me, “the book on top is an offensive spell, and the one on the bottom is a defensive spell.” I looked at them and was puzzled. “We don’t know how much danger is going to be on this journey, and I certainly won’t be able to protect you all the time.” I nodded in agreement as I began to read.

We traveled for a seemingly long time down different winding paths as I completed one book, then the other. The spells seemed basic enough. The offensive spell is a simple straight blast from my horn that I can make stronger or weaker depending on how much magic I add. The interesting thing about the spell is, if I concentrate well enough I can imbue it with an element of my choice. The defensive spell is a magic shield. It can also be imbued, but it can block any attack, so long as I have enough magic left to do so. “Do you really think I’ll need this?” I ask, “I mean, most ponies are rather nice.”

“Yes, most ‘ponies’ are nice,” she stated, “but we won’t be dealing with only just ponies. Take them for example.” She pointed to some rats off in the distance. We stop as she continues, “Those are trouble just waiting for us.”

“Why are there rats in the tunnel?” I ask, “I mean I guess, somethings have to live here, but if those are so dangerous why would the mail mare continue to go through this way?”

“Well…” she suddenly trailed off, “we may have taken a wrong turn? I mean these tunnels are pretty much a maze.”

“Are you trying to say that we’re lost?” I ask, “On top of looking like we are about to be something’s dinner, we are lost?”

“Yes…?” She tries to say and then gives me that grin of hers. I deadpan her.

“Well at least they’re small,” I say, “they can’t be too much trouble.”

“Um… Cherry?” she calls, “You do realize those things are pretty far away, right?”

“Well yeah, what’s your point…” I begin to realize what she meant as the rats come up much closer to us. She had quite the point. These rats were not tiny at all, in fact, they were three very, very large rats. “Oh… that’s what you meant,” I say to her, “I guess it’s now or never.”

With that the rats leaped at us. I jumped to the side, barely missing the first one. Only to find myself facing the second one. It opened its mouth to attack, but I countered with my shield imbuing it with fire. That seemed to cause some damage to it, and made it jump back. The third rat seemed to be trying to continuously scratch at Azurinne, but she was too fast and subsequently began to counter by hitting it with her tail in the shape of a bat. A fruit bat if I was noticing correctly.

The first rat leaped at me again, but this time it met with a thunder imbued magic blast. This caused a lot of visible damage, and made the rat begin to back away. The second rat also began to back away. This gave me a good chance to take the offensive and I began to charge my blast while imbuing it with thunder again. At the sight of this, the two rats I was facing began running, leaving the third one to take the full force of my blast while it was distracted with trying to catch Azurinne.

The blast was enough to almost knock it out, and joined its friends in running away once it got back up. “Teach you two basic spells, and you suddenly become amazing in a fight,” she says, “weren’t you scared at all?”

“No, yes, I don’t know…” I reply trying to calm myself down, “I’m still trying to process what I just did.” This makes her smile, and then she frowns. She walks up to me.

“I’m sorry,” she says, “I just put you in danger, and I could barely do anything to help.” I smile at her and get close enough to hug her.

“Admittedly, yes, I could have done without us getting lost,” I begin to say as I make eye contact with her, “but as terrifying as that was, it was equally exciting.” I look at her making sure my eyes don’t turn away, “You also taught me the spells that, quite frankly, saved my life.”

We exited the path that lead us to the rats and I use my blast to mark a rat symbol for future reference. As we continue on a new path, I stop as the sudden realization hits me. “I could have died,” I say aloud. Azurinne nods. Suddenly, my body feels heavy. I sit down as start to wish I was home with my mom and dad.

Author's Note

Need some help, anyone got a good nick name for Azurinne? I'm stuck between the obvious Az, the cute Azzy, or Rin. Hope you are enjoying the story.