The dark pony stumbled through the underbrush, leaping weakly over roots. Her horn glows briefly, then sputters out, and a groan of impatience echoes through the forest. She reaches a clearing and sits down, panting tiredly. Standing back up, she crouches down a bit, bending her legs. Fluttering her wings unevenly, she prepares for takeoff. One strong blast of her wings later, she remains on the ground, collapsed to her knees. Flopping to her side, she let out a weak moan, then pulled her legs into herself as rain began to sprinkle down.
LLL
"Twilight! Where is she?" stressed a yellow pegasus, pacing back in forth.
"I don't know Fluttershy!" yelled an angry Twilight, throwing the papers she had been looking over into the air. "I am trying. Princess Celestia is trying! We have been trying for the last two hours! Do we need to recruit the entire royal guard too, or are you satisfied with the three-quarters of it we have out there?"
"I-I'm sorry," whimpered Fluttershy, turning away from Twilight quietly.
"It's not your fault Fluttershy. I know you're worried. I'd be worried too, if Pinkie disappeared. But we can't do much more, and you need to accept that. Why don't you help me out here?" she offered, looking kindly at Fluttershy.
"A-are you sure I can help? I am a pegasus, not a unicorn," she reminded her friend, somewhat jokingly.
"I am sure. Now, do you know what I'm doing? I'm creating a potion," said Twilight, rushing to grab a beaker that nearly overturned its contents onto the hardwood floors. "It takes a lot of time and practice. This one should let me know where she is, by showing me a pinpoint location on this map here. The hard part is getting it to adapt to DNA. In theory, it will work as soon as I 'convince' the potion and the magic to balance out. This one over here is too heavily the potion, and thusly only locates the map. That one is too heavily magic and is pointing out everything that I've ever touched. As soon as they balance each other out, it will work."
Fluttershy nodded confusedly, and Twilight sighed.
"When you work with your animals, and you have to mix their medicine in with their food, you have to get it to the right mixture, correct?"
"Well, yes. If there's too much medicine, they'll know right away, but if there's too much food they won't eat it."
"Exactly! That's just like this. If there's too much magic, the potion will reject it, and if there's too much potion, the magic will reject it. Now, can you grab me that beaker?" asked Twilight, pointing at it with a tendril of magic while walking towards an open table. Fluttershy carried the beaker over, holding it tightly in her wings. Twilight nodded her thanks, lifting the beaker from Fluttershy and setting it down. Unfurling a map and holding it flat with two small stones, she let out a long, low sigh. "Back up please," she commanded the pegasus, and she cautiously obeyed. Twilight lifted a small dropper, then filled it with the potion.
"Umm, is there anything—"
"Test tube," commanded Twilight through her teeth, and Fluttershy hastily grabbed it. Twilight looked it over, checking for cracks, then dropped three drops of the purple potion in. Setting the beaker down, Twilight focused solely on the test tube held in her magical grasp. Her magic began to change into a pale green, then the potion began to change as well. Originally a purple, it began to bubble and grow, becoming a light pink. Twilight squinted, bracing herself, then everything stopped.
"Umm, Twilight?" whispered Fluttershy after a moment's quiet.
"Are you ready to test this?"
"Sure?" replied Fluttershy, definitely uncertain herself. Twilight plucked a feather and a piece of mane from her friend, then dropped them both in the potion. It began to swirl, and Twilight hastily poured it onto the map of Ponyville in front of her, then unfurled another map of Equestria and poured a bit on as well. The potion wobbled around, darting backwards and forwards, then stopped over Twilight's library. The potion on the map of Equestria began to shrink into a small dot, the rest of it going back into the beaker, while the small dot landed right over the coordinates of Ponyville library.
"It worked," declared Twilight, in a deadpan tone. "It worked!" she exclaimed as it sank in, running to the chalkboard on the other side of the room. Lifting the piece of chalk, she began magically erase the board, writing over the blank spots as soon as they were clear. "If it's three parts potion to two parts magic, then I can use any quantity of potion and magic for this to work! I need to tell the Princess!" she exclaimed, turning away from the chalkboard and running up the stairs, leaving behind a cartoonish cloud of dust.
"Twilight?" asked a dusty Fluttershy as the cloud died down. Upstairs, crashing and clanging could be heard, then Twilight commanding Spike. Moments later, an exhausted Spike was thrown down the stairs, followed by Twilight.
"Spike, take a letter! Dear Princess Celestia, I have found the proper mixture to the potion. 3:2, potion to magic. I'll be testing it out with the bits of mane and feather you've provided, and thank you. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle," she added, then magically rolled up the letter, snatching it from Spike's grasp, and slapping a seal on it.
"Twilight?" asked Fluttershy again, now dustless.
"Send it Spike!" yelled Twilight energetically, and Spike complied after a sharp salute, blowing his trademark green fire and watching the smoke blow out the window. A few moments passed, then Spike was bent over, coughing out a letter. Twilight snatched it instantaneously, then began to read.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle," mocked Spike, silenced by a glare from Twilight.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle, Congratulations! You have accomplished in mere hours what others would take years to do. Begin testing immediately, and contact me with your results. Try using the world map though, not just the Equestrian one. Your mentor, Princess Celestia. Do you know what this means?" yelled Twilight, seemingly taking yelling as her favorite form of communication. Shoving Spike out of the way as he began to cough again, she lifted yet another map from a shelf and spread it over a table.
"Twilight?" he asked weakly, holding out a letter. She snatched it up yet again, and as she read it, her cheeks filled with a distinct pink blush.
"Dear Twilight, Please stop yelling as well. Princess Celestia," she finished, then subtly set down the letter and lifted another test tube with three drops of potion. Concentrating, she added her magic to the brew, then dropped a small bit of Princess Luna's mane. Pouring it on the map, everypony gathered around, staring with wide eyes.
"Twilight?" whispered Fluttershy again, silenced by two 'shhh's from the others in the room. The potion skittered across the page, almost like a caterpillar, then came to a stop. Right in the center of the Everfree Forest. Twilight let out a slightly overdramatic gasp, then created another magic potion and poured it over the Ponyville map. The potion ran back and forth, then disappeared, running onto the Equestrian map. It came to a stop, in a clearing barely noticeable on the map. Then began to move, ever so slowly, forward.
LLL
The dark figure lets out an exhausted gasp, then picks itself up again. Whimpering, it begins to trudge forward. Ignoring the crunching of sticks echoing around, and the scuttling through the leaves, it pulls onwards. Stopping under the shelter of a tree, it curls up again. Then goes to sleep.
