Mistresses of The Oasis

For the past couple of days, things in the small town of Ponyville have not been easy to say the least. Things have been tense and extremely emotional ever since the town’s iconic residents and local heroes discovered that a dear friend of theirs has disappeared without a trace. Even after turning Ponyville upside down and tearing it apart twice over, they could not find him. To the residents of Ponyville, the Element Bearers and their friends appeared to be going off the deep end. They didn’t appear to be the happy and ever friendly group they are. Without their dragon friend, the mares all appeared depressed, sad and desperate. More so when Princess Celestia herself had arrived… In a massive ball of fire.

The ruling princess of Equestria appeared on the warpath, leaving the Ponyville residents quite timid at the very sight of her. Yet, even with the sun princess’s assistance, the group made no progress in finding Ponyville’s resident dragon. This only made the mares more saddened and desperate.

In the Castle of Friendship, at the Map of Friendship, were the Princesses Twilight and Celestia but they were silent and beyond tired.

Celestia sat in one of the thrones, crouched forward, elbows on the table with her face buried in her hands. After some time, Celestia abandoned her war armor and went back to her usual white dress but beyond that, her usual flowing hair looked a complete mess. Most of all, she was on the verge of tears once more but her eyes clearly showed she was tired, proving she hadn’t slept much since her beloved dragon son disappeared. Very rarely has Celestia ever appeared so distraught and full of sorrow. The only time that could match such a state was when her sister Luna was first banished to the moon.

Twilight, on her part, paced back and forth almost indenting the ground beneath her. Like her former mentor, she had bangs under her eyes as she hasn’t slept that much since Spike disappeared. Despite her friend's pleas for her to rest, Twilight refused. Unless she got some clue as to Spike’s whereabouts, she will not rest until she or her friends find him.

Finally, Celestia spoke. “Three days…” her voice was ragged. “Three bucking days and STILL no sign of Spike!”

“It doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight proclaimed. “We searched high and low throughout Ponyville and couldn’t find him! Our friends in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire have seen no sign of him!”

“I can’t take much more of this…” Celestia sobbed. “I want my son back!"

Celestia slammed her fists on the table, sending a small shockwave through the room, frightening Twilight.

The sun diarch noticed the lavender alicorn's fearful expression and lowered her head in shame. "Please forgive me Twilight." She apologized.

“It's alright, Princess. I understand. We all want Spike back.” Twilight tried to comfort her old teacher. “We won’t rest until we find some clue to his whereabouts.”

Princess Celestia didn’t appear to be reassured.

“Speaking of clues, has anyone even checked Spike’s room to see if there are any?” Starlight said as she entered the room.

Twilight’s eyes just widened after hearing Starlight’s question.

“Twilight…” Celestia spoke, her anger rising a bit just as she rose from her seat. “Did you check for anything in Spike’s room when he went missing?”

“W-Well… I um… Never really… T-The thought about…” Twilight stammered to the point of sobbing as her former teacher hovered over her with threatening eyes.

Starlight, thankfully, got between them, "It was probably an oversight princess." She said calmly, hoping to diffuse the situation, "With everything that's happening right now, can you really blame Twilight for missing that one little detail?"

This caused Celestia's anger to quell quite a bit, especially after seeing that her always faithful student is about to burst into tears, "No. I guess not." She said with a sigh.

As Celestia slumped back into her chair, Twilight and Starlight headed towards Spike’s room quickly.

“T-Thanks Starlight.” Twilight spoke, struggling not to burst into tears.

“No problem Twilight.” Starlight spoke in return. “We are all worried about Spike and want him back home. Maybe we can find something in Spike’s room that may explain why he disappeared and if so, maybe Princess Celestia will calm down.”

Twilight understood Starlight’s logic but she didn’t appear convinced since Celestia was either on the warpath in finding Spike or lost in hysterical tears when nothing to his whereabouts was found.

When the two ponies reached Spike's room, they tried to see if they could find anything that was out of the ordinary.

Twilight found Spike’s favorite comics littered on the floor next to his bed and the alicorn immediately knew that something bad must have happened as Spike took immaculate care of his comics. Almost how Twilight treats her favorite books.

Aside from that, Starlight and Twilight didn’t find much, just his comic books and his unmade bed. This only made Twilight’s heart sink.

“T-There’s nothing…” Twilight sobbed.

“Other than his comics being out of place, I don’t see much of a clue.” Starlight concluded.

However, something caught her eye. "Wait a minute," She said as she noticed small grains of sand on Spike's sheet and blanket. Starlight takes a closer look and picks some of the grain up.

As she brought it closer to her face however, she suddenly felt drowsy and stammered back a little.

Twilight notices Starlight was on the verge of fainting and manages to catch her, "Starlight! Are you ok?!" The alicorn shouted as she took the unicorn to a chair.

"Y-Yeah," Starlight said tiredly, "I noticed some grains of sand on Spike's bed and when I took a closer look, I suddenly felt like I was about to crash. I think that stuff is some kind of sleeping sand."

Twilight's widened at hearing this. Sleeping sand was a powerful magical substance that could put even a fully grown hydra to sleep. The thing was however, sleeping sand is rare and hard to find in Equestria. The only place where they could be found is from a plant that grows in very vast deserts.

As Twilight was taking this new information in, she noticed something on the floor. "What the…" Was all she said as she noticed some strains of black hair on the floor. She picked some up and sniffed it a little bit, "These came from a canine."

"How… do you… know that?" Starlight asked, still a little woozy from the sleeping sand.

"When you hang around with Fluttershy as long as I do, you learn a few things." Twilight explained.

"Did you two find anything?" Came the sudden voice of Celestia as she entered the room and startled the girls.

"W-Well, we did find a couple of things," Twilight explained, recovering from the shock, "We found grains of sand from Spike's bed. Be careful, it's sleeping sand as Starlight found that out the hard way."

"Don't… remind me…" The unicorn grumbled, still a bit drowsy.

"We also found bits of canine hair on the floor. Though what kind of canine, we don't know yet." Twilight concluded.

"I see…" Was all Celestia said as she was in deep thought. She looked around and her eyes suddenly lit up in a golden hue. As the sun alicorn searched the room with her magic eyes, she noticed three different sets of footprints that stand out. They looked similar to a diamond dog's but slightly smaller.

Celestia followed the foot tracks until they stopped at a certain spot in the room. She investigates this spot before turning to the girls and says, "A portal was opened here. At this very spot."

Both Twilight's and Starlight's eyes widen at this. Before either of them could say anything, they soon heard someone shouting down the hall.

"Twilight! Twilight, where are ya?!" Suddenly came the voice of Applejack.

All three mares left Spike's room and came down the hall to find the farmer pony holding what looked like a scroll.

"What is it, Applejack?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I got something y'all might wanna see. Applebloom was on her way back from Zecora's when she found this." Applejack explained, showing them the scroll.

All three mares were shocked as it had a little message on the outside that said; From Spike.

Later that day, Twilight, Celestia, Starlight, and the rest of the element bearers were in Twilight's throne room with the lavender Alicorn opening up the letter and reading it.

To Twilight, Starlight, or anyone else reading this.

I just want to assure you all that I'm alive and well. Though, I'm afraid I can't tell you where I am or the reason why I have been brought to this certain location in the first place.

But I will say that the ones who… brought me here have been treating me rather well. This… task I was giving is VERY important to these people and… well, let's just say I'm probably gonna be here for quite awhile and you most likely won't be seeing me anytime soon.

Regardless, I just wanna let you guys know that I'm ok and I hope you're doing well without me.

With love, Spike.

P.S. Please don't tell Princess Celestia about any of this. She'll most likely freak out if she found out.

As Twilight read the letter out loud, the other mares tried to take all this in.

“Too late with Celestia freaking out…” Rainbow Dash quietly snarked but everyone heard and said princess sent the speedster a VERY chilling glare that could melt stone.

"...W-Well, at least we know Spikey-Wikey is ok." Rarity said.

"Maybe but what in tarnation is this 'task' he mentioned?" Applejack questioned. "And why won't he tell us what it is?"

“You heard what the letter said, he can’t tell us who took him and what they want him for.” Starlight answered. “Whoever has him doesn’t want us to interfere.”

“Are we sure that Spike wrote this letter and sent it?” Rainbow asked.

“No.” Twilight answered with absolute surety. “I recognize his handwriting anywhere. It’s almost as good as mine. He wrote it but it wasn’t sent by him. Whoever has him, sent it via their own methods rather than his dragon fire. Celestia confirmed that.”

“Whoever sent it, they used a brand of magic I haven’t seen or recall.” Celestia added with a hint of bitterness. “And these same individuals are holding Spike for a specific purpose and now he is agreeing to help them…”

There was an awkward silence for a moment between the mares.

“So…” Pinkie spoke. “Does that mean we can lighten up and just wait until we hear from Spike again?”

“Of course not!!!” Celestia shouted, causing all the mares to jump in shock. “We are finding Spike and bringing him home! I don’t care if he’s agreed to this “task”, he was likely beguiled or guilted into helping whoever kidnapped him. Whoever sent that letter obviously teleported it near the Everfree Forest on purpose and didn’t want it to be found, at least not too soon.”

“But princess, we still don’t even know where Spike is right now. Where do we even begin to look?” Starlight pointed out.

This put Celestia in deep thought before answering, “I have an idea but I need time. Twilight, do you by any chance have some sort of workshop?”

"Yes I do. But what do you have in mind?" Twilight asked.

"The magic that sent this letter as well as the portal that opened in Spike's is very faint but I think I could still be able to track it." Celestia replied.

"Er, with all due respect princess but why can't Princess Luna just locate Spike in the Dream Realm?" Rainbow asked.

Celestia sighed, "We tried that but I'm afraid my sister can only enter the dream of those who are within the borders of our kingdom. That was my first clue that Spike wasn't in Equestria." She replied.

"Well that's convenient…" Pinkie muttered under her breath.

It's been a couple hours since Celestia and Twilight entered the latter's workshop and got to work with the other mares waiting anxiously.

After a while the two Alicorns returned to the throne room.

"We may have found a way to track Spike." Twilight said happily if a bit tired.

"That's great news Twilight." Starlight said. "Though, how are we going to be able to find him?"

"With this." Celestia replied, holding out a golden compass. If one looked very closely, it was pointing in a specific direction. "With the faint magic I traced from both the letter and the portal that opened in Spike's room, I was able to make a compass that will follow it back to its source."

"And wherever this source is, Spike is most likely to be there." Twilight added.

"Alright! Let's get to it then! The sooner we find Spike, the better!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"Not us, Rainbow." Twilight said.

Rainbow stammered back. "Wait what!?"

"Twilight is right I'm afraid." Celestia replied. "Wherever Spike is, he is far from Equestria. Very far. This requires the work of an expert, someone who has left far beyond Equestria's borders. Luckily, we happened to know a couple." She then turned towards the door. "You can come in now ladies."

Stepping in the throne room were two very familiar mares. One is a unicorn while the other is a Pegasus.

The unicorn, in appearance, had a broken horn and a scar across her right eye. She also had a dark orchid coat, her hair was a moderate rose with lighter edges, and her eyes were moderate opal. She was also quite muscular but nonetheless had a very curvaceous figure, which her attire took advantage of quite well. For said attire, she wore a black bodysuit covered in dark gray armor.

The Pegasus, in appearance, looks nearly identical to Rainbow Dash except for a golden brown coat and black hair with some shades of gray. While she wasn't as muscular as her unicorn counterpart, she still looks pretty well built. For attire, she wore an explorer's cap, a short sleeveless jacket over a dark brown shirt, light brown traveling shorts, and brown explorer's boots.

The former was Tempest Shadow, former commander for the late Storm King's army and enemy-turned-friend, while the latter is Daring Do, a renowned explorer and book writer.

“DARING DO?!?!?” Rainbow Dash screamed in utter surprise and excitement. The explorer and book writer is basically her hero after all.

“Tempest?” Twilight was surprised her former foe was called forth. “Your helping us find Spike?”

“It’s the least I could do after how you helped me find my way after the battle with the Storm King.” Tempest replied. “Also, Spike is a friend and if there is one thing I learned from you all is that you don’t abandon a friend.”

“Same here after you helped me with my last adventures.” Daring Do added. “Besides, this adventure could be perfect for my next book.”

Celestia approached the two mares. “I hope you two realize that this task you are being given is very important.”

Both Tempest and Daring nodded at this, “We understand princess.” Tempest said.

“Good. The reason we are giving this task to the both of you is because you have far more experience outside of Equestria’s borders than Twilight and her friends, and are better prepared for it. I don’t know what you’ll find when you locate Spike but I know you'll be ready for it.” Celestia explained.

She then gave Daring the compass and gave Tempest a white crystal. "This is a teleporter crystal," Celestia explained, "When you find Spike or find where he is, plant it to the ground and let it do the rest. That is a very rare jewel so don't lose it."

"Don't worry princess, I won't." Tempest said.

Celestia was silent for a moment before adding, "You have no idea how much this means to us. Please, find my son and bring him home." She pleaded, tears swelling up in her eyes.

"We won't let you down princess." Tempest said, resolute in what she needed to do.

"Yeah, you can count on us!" Daring added with determination.

Celestia smiled tearfully, "Thank you. Both of you."

The two ponies then made one last bow before running out of the castle to begin their rescue mission.

Meanwhile, Somewhere in Zenthia

In a village that is ablaze, a lone Zenthian jackal with a look of fear in her face was running for her life down a narrow empty street before making a sharp turn to an alleyway.

After spotting a cart, she immediately slid under it. She panted frantically with sweat running down her entire body and her heart beating rapidly.

Her eyes widened when she heard a low growl and suddenly saw an armored pair of cloven hooves coming down the alleyway.

The Zenthian quickly covered her mouth when the creature came closer to the cart.

The creature was walking around the cart, obviously inspecting it. The Zenthian's blood suddenly ran cold when she saw an armored claw grabbing the bottom of the cart, no doubt getting ready to lift it.

Before it could do so however, a loud, ungodly horn-like sound was heard. The Zenthian heard the creature snort before letting go of the cart and leaving.

When the creature was out of sight, the jackal let go of her mouth so she could start breathing again. She huddled up in a fetal position and silently started to weep.