Strangers

Twilight’s purple aura darted here and there, constantly pulling all sorts of books, big and small, in an effort to locate and teleport the Six back to her castle. While flipping the pages of a constant stream of various spellbooks, she had pulled out maps of varying sizes showing different cartographies of Equestria from ancient times till the most recent one. Her eyes bounced back and forth, occasionally grumbling a “No...” or “Not this…” Then she stopped for a moment as she realized she had forgotten something. “Starlight!” she called. “Could you please help me search for whatever this language and writing is?” In no time the light purple unicorn had set to work, steadily flipping through thousands and thousands of pages in an attempt to match up with the writing displayed on the map. Meanwhile Twilight became desperate in her search for a reversal spell; going back in time was out of the question, as the potential to unintentionally spawn alternate timelines was too great of a risk.

“I found nothing that resembles this writing,” sighed Starlight, setting all the linguistic books into a neat stack. “Neither did I find any spell or location of the students,” whimpered Twilight, releasing every book and map from her magical grasp and letting it hit the floor like rain. “No…they can’t just vanish like that! But yet…they did, and now, they’re lost in a place I don’t even recognize, that’s not even documented…and, a-and, I don’t think I can face any of their guardians if they ask!” A few tears slid down her cheeks.

“No, we can’t stop!” said Starlight. “Twilight, we can do this.” “No, we can’t.” “Yes, we can,” accented Starlight. “There’s more than one way to find out where they went or how to bring them back! Remember the Canterlot Archives? Or the Library of Magic? C’mon Twilight, these places are bigger and better than your library collection – uh, no offense, of course – but what I mean is, those places should hold the info we need, whether about this strange land, or this weird writing, but most of all, we could find a spell that could teleport them back! Don’t lose hope, Twilight, we can do it.”

Twilight sighed, took a deep breath, and, managing a small smile, said, “Ok, Starlight, let’s do this.”

“That’s my Twilight!”

Gallus felt like he was swimming to the surface of the water, but with great difficulty. As he reached the surface pain began to throb his head, and another pain manifested on his right cheek. The light shimmered at the surface, driving a curiosity in the gryphon that kept him swimming, no matter the difficulty. The surface was just at the tip of his beak, and he wondered what awaited him there as he broke through…

An earthy, musty smell greeted his nostrils, with the aroma of a stew hovering in the background. A crackling made itself known to his ears, and warmth enveloped around him like a nice little bubble. He felt a soft but rather itchy surface scritching his back, and a fleeting thought told him it was some sort of bedding. But the most surprising thing that greeted him was the thatched roof that met his weary eyes. Recollecting his thoughts, he remembered that he was knocked out; how then did he end up in a house? And where were his friends? Were they safe? Was he safe? Ten thousand more questions would have streamed through his worried mind if he did not suddenly feel the weight of a certain pink-colored hippogriff sprawled on across his lap, snoring away peacefully. “…Silverstream?”

“Snore…snor–hgrr, huh…Oh, Gallus, you’re awake…” yawned Silverstream, rising up and giving her front limbs a nice long stretch. “Sorry, I was kinda tired after helping bandage you up!”

“Uh, bandage me? And whom did you help?” “Oh, a mare came and cleaned up your wounds and sort of pointed at a roll of cloth, so I guess she wanted me to help. She didn’t say anything when I brought it to her, and those soldier ponies didn’t say anything when they saw you sleeping, sooo I guess that’s fine and all.”

“No, no, no, no…I meant, like, I thought they captured you– I mean, all of us? What’s going on? A-are the rest ok?” Silverstream blinked, an orange light dancing around her eyes; behind her, to Gallus’ right, was a small fire, on which sat a boiling pot, bubbles simmering over the surface. “Slow down Gallus, we’re fine. We just…our captors were a bit…rough, but they led us here and gave us a meal and let us rest for awhile, before they got us to…work for them?”

“Work for them?! Silverstream, we’re not here to work for some strange terrifying ponies who threatened us, captured us, who don’t even speak our language, and who live in a completely different land! How could you– argh…” Tears threatened to fill Gallus’ eyes, but he furiously forced them back, and they obeyed. Until he felt two wings wrap around his shoulder, drawing a sniffle from his nostrils; before he knew it, Silverstream pulled him into an embrace, warm and tender, and the dam broke. Tears no longer obeyed his mental command to stay back; they flowed freely like rain on an autumn day. “I’m scared, Gallus, I truly am,” whispered the hippogriff. “But we still got each other…me, Smolder, Ocellus…Sandbar, and Yona; we still have each other.”

After a few more minutes of bawling into her shoulders, Gallus’ tears ebbed and slowed, reducing to a quiet sob. “I’m sorry Silverstream…I’m just scared too.” She smiled.

“We still have each other.” He smiled back.

“Thanks.”

“It’s ok, Gallus.”

His fur began to glow blue, and Silverstream’s began to glow pink. They eyed each other for a minute with you-think-what-I’m-thinking expressions. Gallus broke the silence. “You don’t think…this is the friendship problem we are called to solve..?”

“Hmm…I don’t know Gallus, it may well be, and if it is…we’ll face it together.”

“Yeah…I’m just wondering how we’re gonna survive.”

“Well, the Tree of Harmony wouldn’t task us with something like this if It knew that we couldn’t handle it, right?”

“I guess you’re right.” She smiled again, tenderness creasing her beak, and Gallus felt something that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Was it...?

“Weeeell, you wouldn’t believe what I found in this house!” burst Silverstream. Gallus flinched at the sudden change of mood, but had no time to think about it as a book, worn and damp, was flashed in front of his face. “It’s obviously in their language, so I don’t understand any of it! But the writing Is. So. Cool!!!” Her talon traced a bunch of squiggly text written from top to bottom..? At least that’s what his mind told him when he noticed the neatness of the columns; certainly a strange format, but the hippogriff didn’t seem to care about it at all, because it was cool to her anyways. “And look at this!” she pointed to a picture, an illustration, of what looked like a Discord battling with two…alicorns? Huh, so they were aware of Equestrian history…

“It’s cool right? I can’t believe these ponies also know Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! Hehee!”

“Well, they are ponies, duh.”

“Yeah, but why do they speak in a weird language with funny sounds? But it still kinda sounds cool though...wonder if we could learn it!” Just then Ocellus trotted in, horn aglow with some paper and a quill in its aura.

“Silverstream– oh, Gallus, glad to see you awake! Uh, ahem, I’ve got some news.”

“Uh, good or bad?” questioned Gallus.

“Well, both. So, the good news is that it's actually quite easy to pronounce their language! I’ve written a few of their words…hopefully it’s accurate.”

“And the bad news?” queried Silverstream. “Eh, their grammar seems to be really difficult. Like, from what I heard and wrote, there seems to be different ending syllables for different words? Like it–” “Wait, they speak syllables?” interjected Gallus. “Er, yes, I think they do.”

“What about this?” asked Silverstream, bringing to Ocellus the book she had shown Gallus. “Er, yeah…it must be their writing…which is gonna take a really long time to find out.”

“Well, I guess we just have to start somewhere,” mumbled Gallus. “Oh, by the way, where’s Smolder, Sandbar, and Yona?” Ocellus blinked. “Well…Smolder is kind of helping make charcoal with her fiery breath, while Sandbar and Yona are helping bring in lumber for whatever our…captors are building. I was just lobbying around, pointing my hoof to objects and motioning to them what it is in their language…eh, it sorta works. But, I did learn a few translation spells that Headmare Twilight taught me!” Gallus shifted uncomfortably. “I still don’t get it that after capturing us they make y’all work.” Ocellus’ smile dimmed a little. “Well, we have no other choice right? Like, they're armored to the teeth, and they have really scary weapons?” her voice lowering to a whisper.

“Oh, well…”

Ahem. The trio turned to see a mare with a light blue coat and darker blue mane streaked with white, signaling them to follow her, her expression dull and motions almost mechanical. But when Gallus began to sit up, she jutted a hoof forward and shook her head, signaling that Gallus was not to follow. Seeing his confused and worried expression, Silverstream smiled. “Don’t worry Gallus, we’ll be fine. Just rest, ok?” She and Ocellus followed the mare outside, leaving Gallus to his thoughts.

The wooden floorboards creaked under his weight, but he bore no heed to it. Flanked by two pony retainers, the stallion trotted at a measured pace through a corridor of oak-framed paper walls, decorated with simple flower patterns. He creaked a small smile as he eyed the passing designs, as they reminded him of his homeland...

He refocused. He was here to report to his lord, not daydream of his colthood home. These flowers…curse these flowers, why did they have to come from there? Couldn’t the designer have chosen a different flower pattern? Yet, he had chosen this particular one, one that grew in abundance in his former home province. He wondered if they still grew there…if they had survived the– no, don’t think about that. It was ugly, the flower patterns that now passed like a moving frieze looked ugly to him. It was tainted with the blood of many innocent lives, and stained by those abominable, wretched–

He now reached the doors, of similar construction to the walls, which had been slid ajar, revealing a modest room. Light was brightest here, as there were four lamps placed at each corner of the room. At the opposite end, on a raised dais, sat a young stallion garbed in swelling blue robes with an equally matching green vest, while at his side sat another stallion, aged and in similar dress, his face wrinkled with many years of service to the lord. He set hoof in, bowed to the lord by crouching on all fours, then sat cross-legged and bowed once again with a deep bob of his head.

His voice was deep, resonant, and seasoned with years of battle.

answered the lord, his voice also deep but slightly accented with ambition.

<Hmm…I want to see them, and see if they should be of good use to our cause.>

His face darkened.