Morning Discussions

Several hours had passed since LaurFa had returned to the palace and she was still laying in her sleeping chambers questioning herself over the events of the day. She continued to question going into that back chamber and given that it was her researching that caused White Wings to go to the cave to start with, she placed the blame on herself there as well. Eventually though she realized that she simply could not hide out in her room. She knew that outside of Colgate, all of the leaders would have to be notified.

She headed out onto her balcony and looked off to the east. She thought that out of all the leaders that would need to be notified first, it should be Celestia since she shares the same landmass as Colgate. She did know one thing though, she knew that flying to Equestria would be a true test of her abilities. One part of her thought that maybe she should just sail there but she also knew that doing so would take way too long, long enough that it would provide Colgate more than enough time to act on any plans she had. What she knew the most though, she would have to be well rested and have a full stomach so she decided to wait until the following morning to depart.

As she turned in for the night, she tried hard to get some sleep but she just couldn't. The events of the day, the death of White Wings in particular, haunted her thoughts. She knew that there would be only one way to finally get to sleep, to clear her mind entirely. At first it was difficult, but once she got her mind cleared, falling asleep was easy.

When the following morning arrived, LaurFa was well rested and knew that after a decent breakfast, that the time to take the flight of her life would arrive. When she headed down to the dining hall, she was greeted by her top general, General Blazing Skies. He greeted her warmly like he always does, "Your Majesty, did you rest well?"

LaurFa replied, "At first no but then yes and it is good that I did because I have to fly to Equestria after I finish breakfast."

Her general knew of the great distance that lie between Alicorn Island and Equestria. He gasped, "Your Majesty that is thousands of miles! How are you going to manage that?"

LaurFa replied, "While it may not be the most direct route, there is a path I can take where some small islands lie, hopefully islands with vegetation."

Blazing Skies had always thought highly of LaurFa and was not sure if she should travel alone, "Your Majesty, do you think you should go alone? Don't you think that having a guard travel with you would be in your best interests?"

LaurFa replied, "I appreciate your offer general but once I do get to Canterlot, I along with the other leaders will have to travel around the world before returning here to go over that journal."

Blazing Skies gasped, "You're all going to be flying those huge of distances? I'm concerned that even you can't make it to Equestria, much less do that much flying!"

LaurFa replied, "I'm thinking that after getting Celestia and Scootaloo, we may just have to set sail, even if it does take us a month."

Blazing Skies, like White Wings, was present during the last summit. He asked, "Your Majesty, are you sure you should be taking Scootaloo with you anywhere? She is very close to Colgate after all."

Like it was with White Wings, LaurFa couldn't understand why her general would distrust Scootaloo, "General, yes they are close but one thing she does does know, if she were to betray us, she would have many, many powerful leaders coming to her and all she would have is Colgate."

Her general sighed, "Very well, you know what is best."

Things quieted down between the two as breakfast arrived. LaurFa really wanted to drop the issue of any disloyalty coming from the Crystal Empire and Blazing Skies was never much for stressful situations involving his leader.

After breakfast, LaurFa grabbed her saddlebags and began to fill them with fruit knowing that those islands along the path she would be taking were no short distant apart. Once she had gathered what she thought was a sufficient amount of fruit, she headed towards the exit where she would be approached by her general, "Well your Majesty, you be careful. Don't overexert yourself, alright?"

LaurFa replied, "Don't worry general, I won't."

A Dangerous Journey

Once LaurFa took off to the east, she began to think about what was part of the prophecy she could make out, the parts involving a tower, death and destruction. Once she had flown further out she began to wonder more about Scootaloo and if she had betrayed them given that the only one who would even show the slightest interest in Alicorn gems would be her mentor since she would want to stop any plans of theirs to spy upon her.

During the first few hours of her flight, she had a good tail wind pushing her along, causing her to arrive at a decent sized island ahead of schedule for lunch. When she landed, she was glad that it was an island that still had yet to be inhabited by anypony. While she did have some fruit in her saddlebags, the trees of the island had things that she had not packed with her, lemons.

As if she were a regular pony without a drop of royal or regal blood in her, LaurFa began levitating the lemons off of the trees and feasted on them. She knew that she could not eat too much because an overly full stomach would slow her down. Once she took to the sky again, she had even stronger tailwind pushing her along. While she knew that she definitely wouldn't reach Equestria in one day, she had a feeling that, barring any headwinds or crosswinds, that she would reach her destination as soon as the next day.

Not too long after taking flight, she wound up encountering a nasty headwind, a headwind that had slowed her progress significantly. After a couple of hours of flying, her wings here in so much pain that she had to land. Like the last island, it appeared as though the island was uninhabited but unlike the last island, it did not have much in the way of trees. She looked around and realized that besides what she had packed, she would have to eat berries off of the bushes that covered the island.

Given that there were still several hours of daylight left, LaurFa figured that she would fly further towards the center of the island, hoping that she could find some trees with something more substantial than berries growing from them. Once she arrived in what seemed to be the center of the island, not only were there a lot of trees, lemon and lime trees but there was also a cave nearby in the event she decided to camp out there overnight.

As the day progressed, LaurFa noticed that a storm was moving in from the east, which would produce even stronger headwinds than she had faced earlier. At that moment she made the decision to spend the night on the island. She thought to herself, "This won't be so bad. There is plenty of food here and there is shelter to keep me dry from the coming storm."

It would not be long until a heavy rain began to fall accompanied by strong winds. LaurFa immediately took shelter in the cave, deep enough that the winds would not suck her out. As she sat there towards the back, she couldn't help but wonder how long the storm would last. "Will it be fast moving, will it be slow moving, will it delay my arrival in Canterlot?" she thought as the storm continued to intensify.

Once it was totally dark, LaurFa tried to get some sleep. She was used to sleeping in her comfy bed and it had been so long that she couldn't remember the last time she had to sleep on the ground, much less on the hard, jagged rocks that were in the cave. The uncomfortable sleeping conditions were only one part of her being unable to go to sleep. The wind was howling, creating a horrible din inside the cave.

Once she did finally get to sleep, she had not so pleasant dreams. She had a terrifying dream involving not just the death of White Wings, but her own at the hooves of the one pony that many had grown to distrust over the years, Supreme Commander Colgate. Just as Colgate was about to plunge a cursed blade into her heart, she woke up screaming, "No, no, please don't!"

LaurFa continued to scream for over a minute before she finally realized it was just a dream and was able to calm herself down. By that point, the rain had become so heavy that the cave had begun to flood. LaurFa stood up and was soaking wet. She began to wonder if she should have just took a ship despite it likely having took a week. She sighed, "Well I can't go back now, I'll just have to do my best."

After a much longer than normal night, day had finally arrived on the island but the rain continued to pour and the winds continued to howl. That morning, despite being tired, she knew that she would have to try to get to Equestria, storm or no storm. Those thoughts would be put on the back burner when she heard something outside the cave. She was not sure what it was but she decided to go and check it out.

She headed out into the pouring rain and saw a bulge in the ground that was moving. While she had never dealt with one personally, she knew what it was, it was a Tatzlwurm. The last time one had even been dealt with by ponies was eons ago. One thing she did know, that they can only go through the dirt, that if she stayed in the cave, that it couldn't get her but that would create another problem, the creature would basically be able to wait until she starved in the cave.

Eventually she knew that she couldn't just wait for that thing to leave given that they hunt by sensing seismic vibrations, even the tiniest movement would attract it. She had but one option, fly out of there. The moment she got airborne, the beast leapt out of the ground and grabbed her with its tentacles. As it began to fall, it tried pulling her into its mouth.

LaurFa was not the type to get scared in such a situation though. She began firing energy at the worm and was able to free herself. Again it leapt out of the ground after her and again it grabbed her. This time though she was not only going to free herself, she was going to make sure the worm never hurt anything ever again. After freeing herself, she began to burn it with powerful bursts of energy. With each strike, it cried out in pain. This did not cause LaurFa to show any sympathy, "This is what you get you dirty beast! This is what your kind deserves!"

After yelling at the worm, she began to glow as bright as the noonday sun and struck the beast with one final bolt of energy and killed it. While it did not do anything to ease the storm any, she had taken out a creature that was trying to make a meal out of her. Despite being dead tired and the storm still raging, she knew that she had to continue her journey in the event more Tatzlwurms inhabited the island.

She continued her flight east and despite facing horrible headwinds and a torrential downpour, it was evening when she arrived in Equestria. LaurFa was starving by the time she reached the coast but one thing that did brighten her spirits were the delicious apples that had grown in that area for what seemed to be eons.

Once she had finished her meal, she continued her flight east and much to her delight, the rain stopped and she got a nice tailwind to push her towards Canterlot. When she arrived, it was dark and quiet but that would not stop her from heading to the one place she needed to go, the palace.

Author's Note

Tatzlwurm