From Mythos to Logos

The now-named mystery unicorn, Forestglow, sprinted through the forest without hesitation. Their horn remained unlit, but Amethyst could still see them thanks to her signature. Her friends, being unable to see Forestglow, had fallen behind. Twirly had grabbed the Silver Apple when she had started to run.

Amethyst didn't know what Forestglow was trying to accomplish, but the fact that they had the Silver Apple meant something important. The two ran out of the forest back into the bright sunlight, neither dropping their pace. Forestglow stood out far more heavily than they had in the forest, as their evergreen cloak was easy to pick out in the light.

The few ponies strolling about jumped out of the way as the two unicorns continued on their chase. Forestglow made a beeline for Aerial, easily pushing through the crowd. Amethyst continued after her, but came to quickly regret as Forestglow whipped around with her horn ablaze with an orange aura, and smashed her horn into Amethyst's, causing her to be knocked down to the ground.

"Amethyst!" Fluttershy flew over to her in an instant. "Oh my Celestia, are you alright?"

Forestglow turned back around to continue on what they were doing, only to encounter Applejack right in front of them. "Ah suggest that ya either surrender now, or run away with yer tail between yer legs." She pulled her hat down to shade her eyes. "Don't 'cha think that yer the first ruffian to meddle 'round in Ponyville."

Forestglow sneered. "And who do you think you are?"

Rainbow flew down and landed on Forestglow's side. "Just some ponies who are ready to kick your flank." She smirked. "Can't run now."

Amethyst's horn lit up, and she grabbed Forestglow's hood in her magic, but she winced as her aura suddenly snapped. "Orchicalcum beads," answered Forestglow smugly. "Can't make things easy for you, Sta-"

They were suddenly slammed down against the ground by Amethyst, fury in her eyes. "Don't you call me that!" Rainbow and Applejack cautiously stepped back as her horn sparked dangerously.

"Funny, I could have sworn that I called you that earlier." Amethyst's horn glowed even brighter. "Oh, please. You don't know any combat spells."

Amethyst growled in frustration. "Try me."

Forestglow smirked. "If you say so."

As Amethyst had done to them only minutes ago, Forestglow smashed their back hooves into Amethyst's stomach, though far harder, knocking her back. Rainbow's wings sprang open as to fly at Forestglow, but they quickly snatched her left wing and painfully twisted it back to near breakage.

Rainbow yelped in pain, her tough-as-nails attitude falling away in an instant. Forestglow quickly got to their hooves, only to have to dodge out of the way as Applejack attempted to kick their horn. Fluttershy helped up Amethyst once again, and then hurried over to Rainbow to check on her.

Amethyst sprinted at Forestglow, and then jumped at them. She grabbed their neck, and the two tumbled across the ground with their horns glowing brightly. While Forestglow's hood stubbornly remained over their head, whatever sort of mask that had been muffling their voice simply just broke off, revealing a lilac muzzle.

But Amethyst had focused on the characteristic for just a few milliseconds too long, and Forestglow struck her muzzle with their horn still ablaze. She swiped her hoof across her muzzle to check for any blood, feeling none with relief, and then rolled to the side to dodge out of the way of Forestglow seemingly trying to break her ribs with a sharp stomp.

Amethyst began preparing a sunbeam, only to be interrupted by Forestglow chucking the orchicalcum ring they had at her horn. As one of the few who hadn't been hit with orchicalcum at the Hearth's Warming Celebration, the feeling was new for her. And she was extremely grateful that it was, as even the minimal contact against her horn caused the energy she had been building up to break, and hit her with a painful amount of backlash.

Forestglow sneered at Amethyst, and the aura around their horn flared up. There was a flash of light, and they vanished just as Fleetfoot zipped over to kick their horn. This instead resulted in the pegasus doing a flip, and landing on the ground with a frown.

"-dissappear..." muttered Fleetfoot, as if finishing off a thought.

Amethyst slumped down, not bothering to try and get up, and groaned. "So close to catching one of them..." She picked up the ring Forestglow had thrown at her. "At least we got something..."

"Amy! Twirly zipped over to her, still holding the Silver Apple. "Are you okay?!"

She eyes the apple, and allowed the hint of a smile to form. "Two things... Twirly, grab me some paper. I need to write a letter to Twilight."

"Why me?" asked Rainbow, hovering above Amethyst in the air.

"Because you know where Twilight would be!" snapped Amethyst, her patience wearing thin. "I know that you visit her every week to work on blocking neuromancy!" Rainbow stared blankly at her. "Mind-control resistance, Rainbow!"

"Oh, right. I knew that."

She exhaled sharply, and shoved a small box held in her magic at Rainbow. "Then just go and bring this stuff to Twilight. She needs to know about the unicorn, and the apple needs to be put someplace safe! And I swear to Celestia if you manage to lose anything in there-"

"Yeesh, I'll be careful!" Rainbow grabbed the box. "Lighten up, Sparky!" She quickly flew off before she could be reprimanded for the nickname.

"Impetuous..." Amethyst turned away from the rainbow blur in irritation, and grabbed onto the wheel of the ship. "Fleetfoot, Flitter, get those gemstones at the right angle!"

"Are you sure you still want to go now?" asked Saffron from the deck.

"Yes," she replied bluntly. "If the Silver Apple is real, then everything else on the list could be too. We need to make sure that it ends up in the right hooves."

There was a sharp trill from below deck, followed by Limestone calling up to Amethyst. "Engine's on!"

Lotus pulled at the ropes for the sails, opening them up to fly. Fleetfoot zipped over to the amethyst that Amethyst had attached to the front sail, and flicked a bit of her smoky contrail into it. A small wind began to blow out of the gemstone, soon followed by the same happening with the citrine and turquoise.

Aerial began to lift up off the ground, followed by excited chatter from the crowd. Saffron walked over to the front of the ship with the grape soda in her magic, and smashed it open on the hull with an excited grin. Twirly pushed down with all of her strength on a pedal beneath the steering wheel, and Aerial rapidly gained altitude.

The crowd below cheered with excitement, a sentiment that Twirly shared. "Time for adventure!"