The Light Inside Us

Twilight dragged herself out of the river, and onto the bank. She glanced downstream, and saw Cadence, Thorax, and Fluttershy doing the same.

“You good?” asked a voice behind Twi.

Twi looked behind her, to see Dash standing there. She was surprisingly dry, and only seemed to have a few scratches on her wings.

“I’m fine,” said Twi. “I doubt I even have to ask you. How are you even so– ok?”

“Theo brilliantly tried to ‘get rid of me’ by throwing me over the edge. It did not work whatsoever.” Dash’s voice was bitter. “I thought Theo, or whatever that psycho’s name was, might do something evil. Though of course, I was not expecting my home to go supernova or my whole life to get turned upside-down.”

Twi noticed the bitterness in Dash’s voice. “Maybe I do need to ask you. ‘Cuz you really don’t sound okay.”

Dash snorted derisively. “Who is Theo?”

Twi was surprised by the shift in conversation, and didn’t have a good answer to the question. “I have no idea,” she admitted.

“Great. Just great.”

“Now’s not the time for sarcasm.”

“I know!” Dash snapped. “I know! But what I don’t know, is if you care that my home just got melted!”

Twi recoiled. “Dash, that’s not what I meant–.”

Dash jumped into the air. “Point.”

“Wha–.”

“What’s your point?”

Twi paused. “Look Dash, I know this is hard for you–.”

“Mmhmm.”

Twi sighed. “Let’s just go home.”

Smolder and Gallus came around a corner and landed next to Twi and Dash.

“If only it were that simple,” Smolder said.

“There are plenty of ponies who are not firefighters or cops around in the forest,” Gallus said, pointing upstream. “They might be Theo’s soldiers.”

Twi stared at Gallus. “Theo has soldiers?”

Gallus shrugged. “Who else could they be?”

“Hikers?” Twi suggested uncertainty.

“Who have decided to hike in a burning forest?”

“Downstream it is,” said Dash bluntly.

Smolder cocked her head slightly. Dash and Gallus started heading downstream. After a few seconds, Smolder and Twi followed.

“Did something happen with you and Dash?” Smolder asked quietly.

“Can we fly out of here?” Twilight asked, avoiding Smolder’s question.

Smolder sighed. “No, we can’t. The sky’s being patrolled by pegasi. We’d be spotted immediately.”

“Of course,” Twi grumbled.

Smolder tried again. “Why’s Dash–.”

“It’s the strain Smolder! The strain and stress of this! I don’t know if you get chased by psychos every other week or something, but for us mortals, it’s stressful!”

“Yikes,” Smolder muttered to herself.

Twi didn’t even notice.

Dash and Gallus reached Cadence, Thorax, and Fluttershy.

“Hey,” said Gallus. “Let’s keep going downstream.”

As Gallus briefed the others on what was happening, Twi glanced at Dash.

Dash was staring at the sandy beach. She evidently sensed she was being watched, and jumped into the air.

Twi sighed.

Smolder coughed. “Will I be attacked again?”

“Maybe,” said Twi, not looking at Smolder. “Though I’d say we’re all under risk of being attacked by Theo. I don’t see what makes you special.”

Smolder rolled her eyes and flew over to Gallus.

Cadence slowed until she was side by side with Twi.

“How are you feeling?”

Twi paused for a moment. She felt safe enough talking to her sister-in-law, and so she decided to spill the beans. “I kinda had a fight with Dash.”

Cadence was silent for a moment. “To be fair, her home and probably a good part of her day-to-day life just got destroyed. She has every right to be annoyed.”

Twi sighed. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Okay! I, I was a little…tough on Dash!” Twi exhaled, feeling much better about herself. “Thanks.”

“What do sisters do? Now you just gotta say it to Dash.”

Cadence smiled to herself, before looking up. The sky was still red and pink, but it would be darkening soon.

“We gotta set up camp somewhere,” Gallus said. “We’ll have real trouble if it gets night, and we don’t have a place to c–.”

“We get it!” Dash snapped. “No need to keep going around saying how terrible our predicament is!”

Gallus raised his claws in surrender. “Ok, wow. If I’d known trying to help would just cause you to blow up, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

Twi almost facehoofed. Dash wasn’t just being mean to her now, she was being mean to anyone who annoyed her.

Twilight had to fix this.

She quickened her pace until she was side by side with Dash.

Dash glanced over. “I’m not even saying anything about how long this ‘adventure’ is gonna wind up being, cuz if I do I’ll probably jinx it.”

Twi inhaled. “Rainbow Dash I’m–.”

“Found something!” Thorax yelled.

Twi actually did facehoof this time, and Dash groaned.

“Where?” Cadence asked.

Dash shot back to the rest of the group. Twi was a little slower to follow.

“There,” said Thorax, pointing into the forest.

Dash squinted into the forest. The sun was already entirely gone behind a mountain, and the sky was darkening quickly.

Twi arrived and looked into the darkness. There was a small trail leading into it. After about fifty hooves it melted into the darkness.

“A trail?” Smolder asked.

Thorax shook his head. “A clearing. Probably about…maybe a quarter mile along the trail, then about a hundred hooves to the right.”

Even Dash had to pause being annoyed for a moment to marvel at how far Thorax could see, before falling back into annoyance. “No way that you can see that far,” she said.

“I can’t,” said Thorax.

“Uh, what in the world Thorax?” Gallus said.

Thorax sighed. “Haven't I ever told you about my echo-location?”

A second passed, during which the day steadily transitioned into night.

“We might wanna get moving,” said Twi, slightly shocked that Thorax could echo-locate, and more so that she’d never known about it. “It’s gonna become impossible for anyone besides Thorax to navigate, real soon.”

“I can’t really object to that,” Dash said pointedly.

“Thorax should really lead,” Smolder said. “Then Cadence and Twi can light their horns, and we should be good.”

Thorax stepped onto the trail, Cadence nodded, and Twi lit up her horn.

“I, I didn’t know you can e–echo-locate,” Fluttershy said softly to Thorax.

Thorax smiled. Or at least Fluttershy thought he smiled. She couldn’t really tell because of the encroaching darkness.

“Not all changelings can,” Thorax said. “I was trained back at the Hive as an Invader. Basically, my job was to go in after the others had taken out the guards, and capture prey….”

Thorax winced, and this time Fluttershy was sure he did. She already knew Thorax was touchy when it came to his past, and so she took it as a good omen that he voluntarily brought it up. He obviously trusted Fluttershy plenty.

“How does it have to do with echo-location?” Fluttershy asked, trying to get the topic off of Thorax’s past.

“Often, the power had been taken out,” Thorax said gratefully, leading the group to the left of a split, after his sense brought up a large chasm to the right. “Or the location was underground. Anyways it was often dark, and having echo-location was a useful asset to have.”

“Interesting, can I put that in my journal?”

“You have a journal?”

“Mmhmm! I think I might wanna become a zoologist. The prospect of spending all that time with animals excites me!”

In the quiet darkness, and with Thorax by her side, Fluttershy felt calm and peaceful. Maybe even brave.

At which point Smolder ruined everything by asking the question, “Where’s Gallus?!”