The Light Inside Us

The night had fully arrived and the darkness was completely swallowing the small light produced from the alicorn’s horns. Thorax was the only one able to get a clear mental image of where everything was.

“Everyone relax,” he said calmly.

“How can I relax when Gallus is gone?!” Smolder yelled.

“Quiet!” Thorax said. “You're messing up my echo-location!”

“Sound impares it?” Twi asked, almost slipping into her normal dorky self.

“Yeah,” Thorax said softly. His ears were perked up.

Everyone quieted down, except Fluttershy, who was whimpering, obviously terrified.

Thorax’s senses were on high alert.

“That way!” Thorax said, pointing east.

Fluttershy yelped.

Being annoyed was now completely going against Dash’s nature, and she finally gave in to her conscience.

“It’s okay,” she told Fluttershy, who’d gone white as a ghost. “It’ll all be fine.”

Dash was kicking herself for not being able to come up with something less generic, but it seemed to have a good effect on Fluttershy. Her breathing relaxed slightly.

“Sorry to break this very sentimental moment up,” Smolder said, ”but Thorax, was that signal or whatever it was that you picked up Gallus?”

Thorax shrugged. “I can’t be sure. My sense works better to find areas of blankness, like clearings, rather than pick up individual shapes.”

“It’s in the direction of the clearing,” Twi said.

“What?” asked Smolder, who obviously hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation. It looked like she’d just been staring in the direction Thorax had said Gallus might be in.

“The clearing,” Twi said. “It was in the direction that Thorax thought Gallus might be in.”

“With any luck Gallus might even stumble across the said clearing,” Cadence added. “I say we just keep on heading that way.”

“What if he changes course?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“It’s a possibility,” Thorax admitted. “So we just have to hope.”

“Let’s go then!” Smolder exclaimed. “Quicker we make it to the clearing the better. We’ve just been standing around here! Gallus has a big head start on us!”

Twi nodded. “Let’s go.”

Thorax started walking.

~~~~

Gallus kept his ears perked up for any sound of the rest of the group. He wasn’t sure when he’d been separated from the group. He’d been focusing too much on who Theo and Snowy were, that when the sound of the group’s walking slowly died down to nothing, he barely noticed it. Eventually though, he became aware that he was all alone in the forest.

Griffons have decent night vision, but Gallus had always felt as though his vision was weaker than the average griffons.

He was able to make out what he felt like was the path, and quickened his pace. Twenty minutes later, he still hadn’t caught up to the group, and was forced to admit that he’d strayed from the original path, and was now on a different one. And he’d still been walking much slower than the others, so chances were that he was now far behind them. He wanted to fly up into the air, and see if he could spot the clearing that Thorax had mentioned, and go there. He decided against it though, because flying was too risky–if one of Theo’s men spotted him, Gallus was gonna have far worse problems than being lost in a dark forest at night.

The path abruptly cut off, and Gallus found himself looking over the precipice of a ravine. Hundreds of hooves below, a river raged.

He looked around for any of Theo’s mercenaries. The area seemed deserted besides him.

Looking across the chasm, Gallus noticed that the trail he’d been on continued.

All he had to do was cross the chasm.

In the total darkness, Gallus made a decision: to quickly fly across the gap. As a griffon, he had better night vision than any pony. The chances of being spotted seemed low to him.

The griffon took one last careful look around, and then, heart pounding, he set off flying over the ravine.

He only fought the urge to look down for a few seconds. There was a river, far below, that could have very well been the one that he had climbed out of, less than an hour ago.

Gallus realized it wasn’t, because they had been walking down the riverbank, before turning left, into the forest, meaning unless his path had looped around, he was looking at a new riv–

A flashlight beam sliced across Gallus’ vision, blinding him. He felt disoriented, and flew in the direction of the path.

Or what he thought was the direction of the path.

There was a yell from somewhere to the left of Gallus, whose vision was slowly returning. He angled towards the path, when something slammed into him.

The collision happened near enough to the edge of the ravine that Gallus and his attacker landed on solid ground.

Gallus was shoved roughly up against a tree, his throat being constricted. He was just able to see his attacker, a pegasus with a black coat and a dark navy mane, who seemed to have a scar across one of his or her eyes.

“Who. Are. You.” said the black pegasus in a deadly calm tone. It also revealed she was a mare.

Gallus couldn’t really speak with his throat as constricted as it was, and so all he managed was a strangled gasp.

“What?” snapped his attacker, loosening her grasp a little.

“None of your business,” said Gallus. His arms, which had formerly been hanging limply at his sides, swung up, and his claws slashed the pegasus’ side.

She screamed. Gallus kicked her in the stomach, and slashed out with his other claw, catching her across her snout.

Another pegasus landed. Gallus was already running.

~~~~

There was a knock at Bon Bon’s door.

“I got it,” said Lyra, rising, and heading over to the door.

Bon Bon let her spoon slip into her cereal bowl.

Bon Bon was a former spy. She’d worked with the CIA (Canterlot Intelligence Agency), before switching to work for S.M.I.L.E.

After that, she decided to settle down in Ponyville. She eventually married Lyra Heartstrings, and had been living with her in a small cottage near the outskirts of Ponyville.

Life was good.

“It’s just the mail,” Lyra called.

The pony standing in the doorway was gray, with a vibrant aqua mane.

“Got your mail,” he said kindly. “A package for a ‘Sweetie Drops.’”

Bon Bon went on high alert. Nopony besides Lyra knew her real name.

“Okay,” said Lyra. “Let me just grab a pen….” She turned around.

“Lyra!” yelled Bon Bon, jumping up, just as the mailpony lunged forward and slammed Lyra into a glass bookshelf. Glass sprinkled the floor.

Bon Bon yanked a knife out of her pocket, but she was far too late.

“Don’t even try.” The kind tone dropped immediately, and the gray stallion’s tone turned venomous. He had grabbed Lyra in a chokehold, and had a knife to her throat.

“Don’t do anything crazy,” said Bon Bon, struggling to keep her calm. She pointed her knife at him.

“Is this normal?” asked Lyra dreamily. “D’you get ponynapped a lot?”

The gray pony flipped the knife around, and Bon Bon flinched. “Don’t try anything either,” he said calmly, unperturbed by Bon Bon’s threat, “or she dies.”

“Well what do you want from me?” asked Bon Bon desperately, not taking her eyes off Lyra.

“You're a spy right?” asked the gray stallion, a broad smile spreading across his face.

“No,” said Bon Bon immediately.

His smile faded. “Cut it. I already know who you are.”

“You don’t have a clue who I am!” Bon Bon yelled at random.

“I know all about you. I’ve read all your files. Even the ones that aren’t supposed to exist.”

“You're lying!”

The stallion’s smile returned. “Let’s not get lost on a tangent. You’re a spy for S.M.I.L.E, and that’s all I need to know.”

“Not anymore,” Bon Bon said. “Now I’m an ex-agent.”

Lyra shook her head slightly. “Huh?” she asked, “why are you telling him?”

Bon Bon’s heart felt like it was in danger of bursting out of her chest.

“So you were a spy,” said the stallion. “Same difference really.”

The focus suddenly returned to Lyra’s eyes, and she yelled, “Let me go!”

The phony mailpony turned and looked directly into Bon Bon’s eyes. “Kill Twilight Sparkle.”

Bon Bon threw herself at him, just as his horn lit up, and a portal appeared in front of her.

Bon Bon crashed into her sofa, just as the gray pony pulled Lyra through the other side of the portal.

Bon Bon shakily got back up. The portal was gone. Bon Bon’s ears flattened, and then she hugged one of the sofa cushions and cried.