To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Four months later

Twilight Sparkle's eyes were temporarily blinded by the sun as she approached Canterlot, and she had to block it with a hoof for a moment to see her path forward.

The gates swung open, and she entered the city and headed straight for the castle with practised steps. Every path taken done over before many a time in her past.

Her expression was somber, etched with lines of deep thought. It was though she was a solitary island amidst a sea of chaos around her, steadfast and unwavering.

An hour later, and she was finally there. Celestia suddenly rushed into view from across the hall from around a corner, followed by some not-so-disturbed guards.

"Twilight! You have no idea how happy I am to see you back! Quickly! Let's have tea in my room, shall we...?"

In the quiet of the afternoon, Celestia sat waiting in anticipation to hear from Twilight across the table, completely unaware of the storm brewing on the horizon. Twilight was just staring at her, how very peculiar.

"Well Twilight, don't keep me waiting! Was it a success, how was the trip? It took a little longer than we had predicted, but no problem at all."

Twilight took a deep breath that turned into a sigh. "Celestia, I don't even know where to begin."

"What are you talking about Twilight...."

A massive pit formed in Celestia's stomach. This was going far too strangely to how she thought this would be.

"What... in gods name did you do to Luna? How could you have done that? I can't even..."

"...!"

"Please... please explain everything... Celestia... I need to understand..."

Return to four months earlier

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm golden glow over the tranquil landscape.

In the heart of the wilderness, in an area heavily covered by pine, a tent was pitched. Outside of it, she sat next to a crackling makeshift fire, surrounded by assembled stones. Soon, the glow of the fire would be the only beacon of light in this desolate part of the world. But that was a good thing sometimes.

The excitement of the mission had already begun to wear off.

The anxiety on the start had been replaced quickly with a rigorous contentment. Twilight had focused on making sure she was taking the right paths, and camping at the best locations. She had been saving extra packed food for god knows what, and tonight she splurged. She did this because she knew tomorrow morning she'd finally arive at Rydenbrook and be able to grab more to pack.

Twilight had already passed a few dozen ponies on the trail now, and seen a few pegasi flown overhead. It was always refreshing to see other ponies your first time being this alone. It allowed her to continue forward with renewed confidence, civilization was beckoning me once again, and she wasn't about to stay where she needed to be longer than needed. Despite all of this, there was a pervading sense of loneliness that couldn't be shaken. Twilight had been around so many others until recently that it felt like withdrawal.

Memories of yesterday flashed in my mind:

She stood frozen, shivering all over. She had dropped my pack just twenty feet away, just to make a short trip to the stream and drink some water. It was a completely natural thing to do. Why had she been so unlucky already? Everything was in jeopardy, and she fell into a complete panic attack knowing that turning tail and returning to Celestia empty handed so soon after leaving would be the most embarrassing moment of my life.

An eagle had swooped down and stolen my large saddle bag.

Her eye twitched, completely paralyzed. She only had two hours at most before night. Not only did she need to start preparing a camp soon, but she would never have even the slightest chance of recovering of her things if she waited until tomorrow. Who knew what would become of it by then. She had to do something, something right now.

She had seen the eagle fly off to my left with all of my things, but it quickly broke my line of vision. That was the information she was working with.

Twilight had learned multiple spells while preparing for this trip, but she never expected to have to use them this quickly or in this manner. It wasn't even a situation she had directly planned for, she bit my lip that she could have been so foolish to drop her stuff and rush off for some water, when Twilight still had some that also could've been refilled here while closer to my saddlebags. She was about to do that after quenching my thirst, but this had happened by then.

Her breathing had run ragged by this point, thoughts repeating over and over. I screwed up, I screwed up, I screwed up.

Her breath hitched, and settled on one thing in particular. Krazor's spell. Twilight had gone over different aspects of the spell with Celestia over and over. Technically speaking, the pillars could be activated several times as long as the magic inside of them didn't run out. The amount of magic consumed from the pillar to cast the spell was dependent on the distance between them. They were currently all tucked away in my bag, so they would use an extremely minimal amount, that would never interfere with the larger casting to come. Suddenly, all her worries had seemed so unfounded she had to stop and laugh a little. It calmed her out of the locked up state. Almost.

She lit my horn, and carefully prepared the magical signature spell. Another few precious moments, and she cast out a ping spell. It was an invisible spell, but the results of which arrived reverberated back into my mind immediately. It was a long distance spell so using it this close meant the result was basically instantly. Because of how close her stuff was, Twilight was able to gauge the distance and direction towards her pack, and after a few hundred steps later she was standing over a tree with the tell-tale sign of a birds nest. The eagle was gone currently, probably off looking for some real food or something.

A beam fired off with precise accuracy, and the branch the nest lay on broke off. As it neared the ground, Twilight quickly grabbed it in her telekinesis, laying it gently across the ground. She quickly retrieved the stuff, and thought about the fact the eagle would have to rebuild. Heh. Serves the thing right.

It was at this point she realized how unfounded my worries were. Twilight set off back towards the main path again quickly, and the quick retrospection made me feel so utterly foolish. Why had she panicked so easily like that? Almost any situation could be solved with calm quick thinking.

But as she returned to the trail, it had the opposite effect on Twilight. She had passed this first trial and was starting to come to the conclusion that, no matter how bad a situation could be, that she could handle it if her critical thinking skills stayed sharp. I'd also deign to make less mistakes in the future. Her confidence had boosted.

She only walked another hour before setting up camp for the night.