Strangers

by Isuvyw

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Young Six, Drama, Original Character, Adventure, Violence
Length: 6429

The Young Six are called by the Map to solve a friendship problem in a faraway land. They have yet to discover just how far away it is and how serious the problem is.

A sudden and unexpected call by the Cutie Map to solve a friendship problem lands the Young Six in a strange faraway land, where war has torn everything apart and nopony knows who they are. In a strange land, strange culture, strange language, strange everything, they embark on a life-threatening quest to solve that friendship problem, which might be a hundred times bigger then they can imagine.

Published 2021-11-06 09:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-11-13 08:09:44 UTC

Chapter 1: Spirited Away

It was a beautiful day. The sun smiled, the trees swayed, and the birds chirped a little tune. A green earth pony and big brown furry yak lied on a sloping hillside, watching the flowers under the shade of a tree, on whose branches sat a pink hippogriff and blue gryphon. Sandbar sighed in contentment, “Sigh…I love springtime; it always has been my favorite! Don’t you think so, Yona?” The yak nodded. “Yona like spring, but like winter even more! Yaks smash through snow very strong! But springtime have no snow, only grass. Still, Yona enjoy spring.”

“Oh Yona, couldn’t yaks do anything else other than smashing?” commented Smolder, who was basking in the warm sun just outside the tree’s shade. “Yaks best at smashing! Smash all year round! Yaks even have yearly festival where you-” “Smash stuff, we get it. Easy to guess when you’ve heard it a thousand times over,” Gallus cut in from atop his tree branch, though Yona didn’t seem to flinch, probably a sign she had gotten used to his merciless sarcasm.

“C’mon Gallus, don’t be such a meanie!” cooed Silverstream. The pink hippogriff flew down and pressed the yak into a tight hug. “Without her smashing strength I wouldn’t have gotten free of that huuuuge boulder!” The yak smiled at the compliment.

“Ok fine, I’ll give that an exception,” grunted the blue gryphon, shifting on his branch; he remembered that time when Silverstream got herself stuck in a pile of boulders, and Yona had to smash them to get her free. Ocellus, who was sitting against the trunk reading a book, squinted her eyes at Sandbar with curiosity.

“Um, Sandbar, what’s that on your cutie mark?” she queried. The earth pony turned to his flank and found his cutie mark of three turtles glowing with lime green light. “Huh, now that’s interesting, never seen it before. Oh Yona, you’re glowing too, on your fur!”

The yak inspected her fur and, true enough, saw it glowing, only this time dancing around her brown hair as she lacked a cutie mark. Ocellus glanced at both Silverstream and Gallus and noticed the same thing about the duo. “Uh, Silverstream, Gallus, your feathers– they are glowing too!” Both checked themselves respectively and found it to be true. “Now what’s all this?” grumbled Gallus, a mixture of curiosity and annoyance as to what it all was about.

“Hey Ocellus,” called Silverstream. “You’re glowing as well! We’re all glowing! Gasp! I wonder what this could mean!” They all noticed the glowing, except for Smolder; the orange dragoness was still enjoying her bask. She yawned and opened one eye, only to see five pairs of eyes staring at her. “What? Can’t a dragon bask? I mean, it's in our blood to love heat, right?” Gallus facetaloned. “No Smolder, we aren’t looking at you for that. Your scales, look.” Smolder looked and could now see that her back scales were glowing. “What’s this? Why am I glowing? Uh, why are y’all glowing?”

“Yaaay, now we all are glowing!” chirped Silverstream, unable to keep her curiosity at minimum level any longer. The six creatures now looked like glowing anomalies, though it didn’t seem to bother any passer-bys, although it did bother them as to why they were glowing, except for Silverstream; the hippogriff was too excited to care. Gallus thought for a bit, then had an idea. “Maybe we should go see Headmare Twilight about this? After all, she’s like, the smartest pony in all of Equestria? Ok, maybe not smarter than Princess Celestia but eh, she could probably tell us what’s going on.” Nodding in agreement, the six started off towards said princess’ castle, hoping she would explain what all this glowing weirdness was all about.

Twilight Sparkle entered the throne room with the widest grin Equestria had seen. Princess Celestia had just dropped by and given her a gift. A gift! From the Princess of the Sun! It was a scarce, indeed rare, thing for Celestia to just show up and give something, much less a present, so it indicated that whatever she had given might be extremely important. Just as she sat down to undo the golden ribbon that bound the box, the table began to hum and blink. “Ooh? Maybe there’s a friendship problem we need to solve! Wonder what it could be this time!” She beamed with extra excitement, expecting any familiar cutie mark to hover over the holographic map of Equestria, which was beginning to surface onto the great table.

In a flash, a mark appeared, and Twilight would have yelped in anticipation if not for the fact that it wasn’t a cutie mark that appeared, but rather a color – and a brown one for that. Confused, she leaned over, where the little ball of brown light hovered over the map aimlessly. Twilight charged up her horn and prepared to capture the anomaly for inspection, but before she did so, more came, this time in beams of pink, blue, and orange light. The strange things hovered over the map with the same aimlessness, and Twilight glared at the spectacle like it was some strange magic show. Then to her surprise, a cutie mark appeared – of three little turtles – which to her slight relief and curiosity she recognized as Sandbar’s. The ball of lights stopped their little dance and converged together, a low magic hum beginning to emanate. Sandbar’s cutie mark inserted itself into the anomaly, and before Twilight had any chance to blink her eyes, Bam! The ball exploded into a great big flash of bright white light, nearly blinding the princess. Thankfully the flashed ceased and said colors disappeared; she rubbed and blinked her eyes in rapid succession before taking a look at the Map, at which she melted into pure confusion: it had changed.

“Ok, whaaat is going on here?!” she cried, staring at the Map dumbfoundedly. A holographic chain of islands running from the top-left to bottom-right were displayed instead of the usual Equestria, and cast in big bold letters were a script of an unknown sort, its curves and serifs glaring at her like a formidable force. She did not pay attention to Starlight Glimmer trotting in from behind the open doors.

“…wilight? Twilight? Twi– oh, hey Twilight! I was just gonna ask if you had any more of that tea that um…what’s it called..? Oh yes, matcha! I find that it really soothes my headaches, which has lately been really bothering me; and also, before I forget, we still have tha– Woah…what is that?” Starlight leaned in and, seeing the altered Map, fell deadly mystified. “Uh, Twilight, what happened here?” “I–I don’t know Starlight! It just– a bunch of colors and Sandbar’s cutie mark just appeared right here and poofed into a bright white light, and then when it disappeared this was here!” Twilight slumped into her warm seat. “And those big bold letters…Celestia-knows-what it is!”

“Uh-huh, these are weird indeed. Wonder if we could magically fix it?” An idea flashed before Twilight, but before she could answer, the doors were besieged with a knock so loud it scared the living daylights out of the two mares. “Coming, coming!” grunted the princess, annoyed by the suddenness of whoever wanted to visit. Immediately after she turned the knob of the door six colorful creatures burst in, nearly knocking her over; her grunt could not be heard over the cries of, “Oh, Headmare Twilight!” coming from the Young Six. “Hey you all! Whatever’s brought you here?” she asked, trying not to get annoyed as she closed the door. “We were just lounging and enjoying the weather when this happened,” said Sandbar, showing his flank where his three-turtled cutie mark was still glowing. “Yak hair also glowing!” chimed in Yona; the rest followed suit and showed their glowing areas. Twilight and Starlight were rather stunned.

“Wait, do you think…no, no, no it can’t be, the Map can’t have called you all, because its changed…” Ocellus’ ears perked. “What’s changed Headmare? And what do you mean by ‘The Map called us’?” she questioned. “Oh it’s, well…come, I’ll just show you.” The princess led the six toward the throne room, where the Map glowed ever so brightly, the mysterious map on full display, and all over it, next to dots, little markings, and geographical info was more foreign writing, possibly the names of those particular locations. “If there’s any friendship problems around Equestria, this special map will activate and send somepon– I mean, somecreature, to solve it. Everytime the Map calls somepony, the map of Equestria will surface and the cutie mark of whomever is called will float over a location. But this isn’t Equestria! It’s a map of some…mysterious land whose name and details I don’t even know!” Twilight let out a frustrated sigh, her hooves resting on the crystalline table. The six gasped in awe at the map, Ocellus even more as she took a good look at the writing. “Wait, so, if the map is supposed to be Equestria and its changed to this, doesn’t it mean that something happened to it?” analyzed Gallus. “Uh well, I was just about to do some study when Sandbar’s cutie mark and a bunch of colors just came in here and poof! changed the map! And worse, its all written in some strange writing that I can’t identify, and if I can’t identify what this is, then how am I gonna fix–” “Wait, did you say colors? What colors?” asked Ocellus, her mind beginning to piece something together. “Uh, I dunno, brown, pink, blue – there were two blues, one light, one dark, orange…then Sandbar’s cutie mar– Wait.” She turned to Ocellus, whose expression was now something in between shock, surprise, and fear. “Wait, aren’t those our colors?” said Smolder, her face and that of the rest turning into realization.

“You said something like the Map calling us. Do you think there's, like, some friendship problem that it needs us to solve?” Ocellus wondered. “But this isn’t Equestria! The Map won’t send you all to some unknown place!” called Twilight. Silverstream piped in, “Well maybe the Map just went funny and needs a little fixing! Back in Mount Aris, Dad always has something that needs fixing, and I tell you, Mom always gets–” “Uh, Silverstream, the elephant in the room?” quipped Gallus, a hint of annoyance escaping his beak. “Oh right, sorry! I mean, a Map that solves friendship problems just called us to somewhere! Gasp, you think, perhaps, it might be a dangerous place? Full of wild animals and flesh-eating…creatures..? Eek!”

“Uh, Silver, I’m pretty sure that the original Map won’t send us to such a place, let alone this…I dunno, map-with-weird-shtick?” sighed Gallus.

Twilight looked up as she suddenly remembered the idea that had crossed her mind before the six came. “Actually, I could try to reset it; it should return to normal, but it will take some time. Just gimme a sec…” She began powering up her horn, purple magic sparkling to life as she mustered a reset spell. Reeling a little, she fired the spell toward the table, expecting a reboot to follow shortly after. Sizzling with electric sparks, a bright white flash emanated, engulfing the map. Instead of a reboot, the six students suddenly floated into the air, eyes wide with shock and fear as a sparkling white aura began to cover them. Twilight had instantly realized that something had gone very wrong and was now trying to muster a reversal spell to halt the strange phenomenon. It was too late. The aura completely wrapped the six screaming creatures into a big ball of bright light and, with a hiss of energy, floated over the map, inserting its arcane self into it, and disappeared with a flash into oblivion. Silence ensued.

Twilight, Starlight, and now Spike, who had come into the throne room to see what was going on, stared at the table with wide eyes and dropped jaws in shock and disbelief in the wake of the whole event, which could not have lasted more than ten seconds. It took some time for a beeping sound to make its way into their ears, which shook them out of their frozen statuette positions; trotting over to the map, Twilight’s face contorted into ferocious fear as she eyed a location marker, inscribed with squiggly writing that she took as its name, blinking with stark calmness; her heartbeat running at miles per minute, she realized that her students had been teleported to wherever this unknown place was.

Author's Note

Can anyone guess where they've been teleported to?

Chapter 2: Where are We?

Headaches raged, limbs burned with pain, and opening their eyes felt like a hopeless climb up the great Mount Everhoof. Gallus woke up with such pain in his limbs that he felt like he had been stretched ten thousand times over. Sandbar’s groans came into his hearing as he blearily took in his surroundings, a weary grumble escaping his beak.

“Guys, I think…we’ve got transported somewhere, again,” he groaned, remembering the time when they first encountered the Tree of Harmony; though in the end it helped strengthen their friendship with each other, he still could not forget the same feeling of exhaustion and anxiety when he first woke up in that ever-shrinking cave. Except that in this case, he – and the others that were still coming to – found themselves in the middle of a small clearing, surrounded by a forest; at least no claustrophobia this time, but that was unfortunately compensated for by tall formidable trunks of dark wood, whose wizened barks glared at the waking intruders, and thick branches that hung with sadness in their leafy boughs. A breeze devoid of any warmth slithered its way through the forest, eliciting a shiver from Gallus as he took a quick glance around for his friends. Thankfully, he didn’t have to take long to find them.

Sandbar sighed as he struggled to gently push Yona off of him, the yak having crushed him under her great size. “I’m kinda worried of what Yona might do to you in bed, Sandbar,” giggled the gryphon as he extended a talon to help him out. “Dude, please! H-how could you–agh, you–we’re not even married yet! We’re far, far, faaar from that stage!” Gallus turned to sardonic laughter as the green earth pony flashed a bright rosy red on his cheeks.

“Just thank me for giving you life advice for future use.”

“Well, uh, I’d rather take my parents’ advice, thank you very much,” mumbled Sandbar as he softly shook Yona, trying to wake her.

“Hrr, this breeze is too cold for my liking,” grumbled Smolder, stretching her whole body in an effort to get it to move. Ocellus rubbed her forehead with a tired sigh, the changeling still disoriented from the suddenness of everything. “Um, where are we, guys?” queried Silverstream, the pink hippogriff expressing curiosity at her surroundings. “Well, good question Silverstream: I dunno,” said Gallus, face scrunched in worry as he flew up beside her. “Just some weird forest where we are stuck in and can’t locate ourselves, at least for now.” Her eyes shot wide.

“Wait, we can’t locate ourselves?! T-then, then, how are we gonna go back home? What if, what if…we’re lost here forever? Will the weird-map-thingy be able to teleport us back again? And what about this forest– Gasp! What if there are timberwolves lurking around, waiting to sneak up on us and eat us?!” she raised her voice at that last line, prompting Gallus and Sandbar to silence her with a hissing shush. “Not to be cynical Silver, but your voice will attract such creatures if you yell like that again,” mumbled Gallus. “Sorry, sorry…”

“Well actually, we’re not all that lost. We just need to find some village or place of civilization,” suggested Ocellus, her wings beginning to flap. “Tch yeah, like, we’re gonna find a village in this damn forest? With thick big trees and barely any sunlight, well, I‘d like to see you try Ocellus,” snarked Gallus, though said changeling didn’t show any sign of backing down. Ignoring his sarcasm, she continued, “Well, a column of smoke is one way to identify any nearby settlements, because it most likely comes from a fireplace.” Smolder and Gallus eyed each other skeptically, not sure of what to think about the changeling’s suggestion. Yona was now trudging in, drowsy and still getting adjusted to the new environment, slurring a hello and sitting on the ground with a loud thud. “Um, is everything alright Yona? You look a bit…mm, how do I say this, uh...” Silverstream stuttered, unable to find the right words for Yona’s condition. “I think she just needs some water and rest, she’s still kinda knocked up,” sighed Sandbar. “Yona not feeling well, head feels funny,” she slurred. “Don’t worry Yona, we’re gonna get us out of here in no time, alright? Just stay close to us and we wi–“ Smolder was rudely cut off by a distant screaming sound that seemed to become louder and closer; she flared, “What’s that?” “Uh, timberwolves don’t scream like that right?” questioned Silverstream. “It kinda sounds like a pony,” Ocellus observed, slowly brightening up. “Hey, maybe it is a pony! We could ask him for directions! See, we’re not totally lost!” she said, triumphantly throwing a glance at Gallus.

The sound of galloping hooves was now coming closer as the Six began to feel tiny vibrations underneath their hooves. A pony with tanned coat and black mane suddenly burst into their view, apparently running from something, though they didn’t know what. What relief that came at seeing a pony, however, soon vanished as they noted his appearance, a dark green and baggy coat of sorts serving as his dressing, while his black mane was actually closer to gray and matted with dirt, straw, and bloodstains. It took a few moments for them to realize that the screaming had stopped, and the pony – a rather lanky stallion – was now staring at them with wide fear-filled eyes. Gallus made the first move. “Uh, excuse me sir, but what’s happened? Why are you–” “Aghhh!!” cried the stallion, breaking into a gallop twice as fast, leaving Gallus and the rest in a haze of confusion and worry. “What that was all about?” wondered an annoyed Gallus. The ground shook again, a little stronger this time. “Uh, why is ground shaking?” said Yona, uncertainty trailing her voice. Ocellus’ face flashed with alarm. “Um, you don’t think–”

Nine or ten ponies broke into the clearing, passing by the same way the stallion had gone, each sporting coats of brown, beige, or orange that were marred with stains, cuts, and bruises, along with dirt-and-straw-matted manes. They all seemed to be running away, but from what? A mare, paying no heed to where she was going, slammed into Gallus, the two rolling into a ball before stopping short at the base of a tree. Neither had time to register what had happened to either, but as soon as she had crashed into Gallus, she got up, mumbled an apology, and tried breaking into a run for it, except that Gallus firmly held her hoof and asked, “What’s happening? Why are y’all running with dirt and blood on yourselves?” The answer that he received was nothing sort of shocking. Her mouth trembling, she screamed, in short, choppy phrases, a tongue completely foreign to Gallus. Hearing her chaotic rambles, the rest scooted closer to hear what was going on, but the mare finished her rant and instantly departed, leaving Gallus and the five others in a trail of utter confusion.

“Uh, Gallus, what was that about?” asked Ocellus nervously. “I…I have no idea. She just began ranting to me in this strange language, which probably means she doesn’t speak Ponish. But put aside all that, why do they have such bad injuries? And what are they running from? It just seems to me that something is up, guys; we have to–”

“Gallus!” cried Silverstream. He turned and looked, and the answer to his question suddenly appeared right before him and the other five. Where the ponies had come through, just at the entrance of the clearing, were three gryphons, on whom were saddled two formidable stallions and a mare. They were clad in bold colorful armor, at least colorful to the Six, but no less threatening. The air around them tensed as the mare, who seemed to be the leader, made a remark in the strange language again, her voice gruff and almost guttural. After exchanging a few words with the stallion on her right, Gallus eyed with fear when she brought a spear up to her side, pointing at the six of them, its steel head glinting daggers. Must be brave, thought Gallus. “H-hey, huh, um, excuse us,” he laughed dryly, trying not to sound awkward; the stallions cocked their heads but did nothing. “Erm, we are kinda lost...well, we didn’t come here on our own, it's kind of a long story, and–” cut in the mare, although Gallus obviously didn’t understand her tongue. “L-look, we just need your help. We’re lost and kinda scared and we would really appreciate if you cou–”

Slash! Warm blood and pain trickled down Gallus’ cheek, a sanguine talon moving away from his peripheral vision; looking up with a hiss he saw that it belonged to the gryphon on whom the mare rode. As if on cue, the two stallions prompted their gryphons and surrounded company, spears at the ready. Anger flashed in Gallus’ eyes. “Hey, stop right there! These are my friends!”

“Gallus, no!”

He lunged forward without a second thought. He brought the stallion down to the ground in a furious tackle, but then reared in agony as a searing pain tore his back; turning quickly he thrust an uppercut onto his attacker, catching a glimpse of a gryphon caressing its jaw before a strong kick knocked him to the ground, breathless. The stallion had pinned him under his weight, a toothy grin on his mouth, which soon creased into clenched teeth when Gallus swung a sharp talon onto his cheeks, wriggling out of his weakened grasp. A strange glint met his eyes, however, and looking up he saw the mare smiling wryly, hoof clenched onto the hilt of a dangerously glaring sword; behind her was the other mounted stallion holding a staff to the necks of his terror-filled friends. An oddly-angled spearhead was perched at one end, and a pit formed in Gallus’ insides when he realized that it was designed to slice the throats of whoever was held beneath the staff’s grasp, should it be drawn across. He gulped. Then he heard hoofsteps stagger behind him, and risking a glance around realized that it was the first stallion, face bloodied from Gallus’ attack, grappling a sword that was similar to the mare’s. There was no way out. He would die here and his friends would be doomed to a horrible fate…

Determined, measured, and thunderous was all Gallus could mentally describe when he heard those hoofsteps. And he absolutely shrank in fear and awe at the sight he saw. Mounted on a gryphon larger than the ones present and nearly armored to the teeth, a brown-greyish stallion of big build and eyes made of steel entered into the messy clearing, his cold and calculating eyes sending shivers of unbridled fear down the Six’s spines; the gryphon was no less different from its rider, beak poised and talons outstretched, ready to deal a killing blow. Gallus briefly wondered if all these gryphons were sentient like himself, but that thought was cut off as the three warriors dipped their heads in a bow and shoved Gallus and company onto their knees before him. The stallion said nothing, but the absence of words is sometimes more dangerous, and in this case, the Six could feel it was. Was he going to execute them? Enslave them? Perhaps torture them and then make an example of them, a fate none of them were ready for? His tongue moved, speaking words foreign to their ears, and although Gallus picked up a few ’s and ’s, he couldn’t hear them talking. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what they were speaking; he obviously couldn’t anyway. But it was a fear, the fear, that these foreign words might spell out their unknown end, and he prayed to not hear it.

As sudden as he had come, it was as sudden when he stopped speaking, at least sudden to Gallus. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, slowly falling into a deep sleep, managing to catch a glimpse of the stallion departing with few shouts and whimpers in the background, but no more as his eyes closed. He was knocked out cold.

Author's Note

Hi there! It took a bit of time, but here's Chapter 2!

Feedback, suggestions, and criticism is very much appreciated! I would love to hear your thoughts on how things could be improved, because writing is sort of a journey, both for me, the writer, and you, the reader.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Captives

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.

With that, the stallion arose, bowed with a dip of his head, and trotted out of the room, the same measured steps resounding around the corridor.