A Near Miss

After they sat in silence for a while, Near Miss spoke up, "Since you're not going anywhere in particular, would you like to travel with me for a while? It would be a lot easier going with the two of us than just going alone."

Finishing the last of her haycakes, Long Shot added, "And more fun too, I'm in."

After helping clean up, and losing a coin toss, Long was pulling the caravan when she put on mirrored sunglasses without saying a word. "Did you just make a bad pun in your head?" Asked Near.

"Maybe," Long replied, "But to be fair, it is really bright for a thestral, so lets go with that instead." Long paused for a moment as she spotted a cloud of dust in the distance ahead. "What do you think that is?" She asked.

"I have no idea," Near said, "But it looks like it's coming this way. Maybe we should pull off the road to let it get by." Long nodded in agreement, and the two of them quickly forced the caravan several feet into one of the fields on the side of the road.

By this point they could see two ponies galloping away from a much larger group of ponies. As the two in front drew closer, Near saw that they were both unicorn stallions, with tan coats and red and white manes. Behind them was what looked like a rather angry mob of ponies in hot persuit. "What do you think they did to make so many ponies so angry?" Asked Near.

"I bet they used some kind of forbidden magic and now all those ponies are cursed and angry about it," Long answered as the two stallions ran past them.

Near paused before replying, "They don't look cursed," She said as the angry mob ran past the watching mares, "Maybe they took something important."

"Try took and clumsily destroyed," Said a guardsmare pegasus flying past, lazily following the angry mob.

"You're a royal guard," accused Long Shot, "Shouldn't you be stopping this?"

"I'm under direct orders from the princess, 'Keep them from being killed, but don't otherwise interfere,' so I'm keeping an eye on them," answered the guard, "And with the lead those two have right now, I figure the angry mob will get tired and go home long before they can catch up."

With that the guard flew off leaving Near and Long shaking their heads.