Author's Note

Sorry it took so long for this chapter I'll try to make the next chapters sooner

Plan

”We’re here,” Thorax said.

He stepped into the clearing, followed closely by the others. The clearing was bigger than Thorax had expected, easily being big enough for all of them to set up tents.

There was a burst of flame, and a campfire ignited, the flames flickering playfully.

Smolder looked around the clearing. “Gallus isn’t here.”

“At least you got us a fire,” said Cadence supportively.

Smolder sighed. “I guess.”

~~~~

Gallus saw the fire from a ways away, whilst taking a rest on a hill. He stopped and sat down on a rock, staring at the fire. His first thought was that it might be an enemy camp. If that was true, it made sense to get as far away from the fire as possible.

But there was a tingling sensation in the back of his mind that said it wasn’t an enemy fire.

Gallus struggled to decipher which direction he was heading. It was either towards Thorax’s clearing or away from it.

Gallus squinted towards the fire, but the trees blocked any view of the encampment. His own path ended on top of the hill.

Without any good options, Gallus headed towards the fire.

There wasn’t any path, and so the trek to the fire took an hour. Gallus looked into the clearing.

~~~~

Smolder heard a rustling of branches. She turned her head towards the sound, just in time to see Gallus stepping into the clearing.

“Gallus!” she yelled, and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

“That makes things easier,” Thorax said to Cadence.

“How’d you find us?” asked Fluttershy quietly.

“I just saw the smoke from the fire and went to it,” said Gallus.

Twi frowned, and put a quick enchantment on the fire.

“Do you think anypony saw the smoke other than gallus?” Smolder asked worriedly.

“Let’s hope not,” said Gallus. “But even if somepony did, there’s no more smoke trail, so I think we’re safe. Let’s just get some sleep.”

Cadence set up some tents with her magic, and everyone entered their tents.

With two exceptions.

Twilight slid over so she was sitting next to Dash. The fire crackled, giving off enough warmth that they weren’t cold. “I’m sorry for what happened before,” Twi said.

A moment passed before Dash said softly, “It’s okay.”

~~~~

Smolder fist pumped. Finally things were working out. Gallus had come back. Twi and Dash had made up. They had a nice place to sleep. Everything was–.

A scroll suddenly dropped in front of Smolder. She quickly opened it.

Dear Smolder, Twilight, Rainbow, Cadence, Thorax, Gallus, and Fluttershy,
We hope you are okay. We’re all starting to get worried about you. Some ponies in suits showed up at Rarity’s Boutique asking about you. They said they were “here for legal reasons,” but I’m not buying it. Bon Bon also showed up, and she’s freaked out. Said she was looking to meet Cadence, but it seemed like she was lying.
Are you OK? If something bad has happened, hopefully you can contact us, and we’ll try to help.

–Spike and the others

Smolder stared at the message for a long second, before running out of her tent, and getting everyone gathered around the fire. She read the message out loud.

There was a long moment of silence.

Dash broke it by saying, “So ponies are showing up at our friends’ places, hunting for us?”

Twi stared at the fire. “It seems so.”

“They won’t hurt them,” asked Thorax, “Will they?”

Twi’s gaze moved to the starry sky. “I really hope not.” What she didn’t say was that if the hunters were any bit as mentally insane as Theo and Snowy, they probably would.

A second scroll flashed into existence right in front of Cadence. She read it, and her brow furrowed.

“Shiny sent this,” she said. “He’s been getting reports of members of the Royal Guard acting strange. The scroll’s a warning.”

“Double agents?” asked Dash worriedly. “That means Theo’s way more than we thought.”

Cadence nodded worriedly.

“Well we’d best stay organized,” Twi said, “What do we know about Theo?”

“He’s a psychopath,” said Dash.

“He’s scary,” whispered Fluttershy.

“He’s crazy,” said Thorax, “and deranged, and mentally ill, and insane.”

“He ran for captain of the Royal Guard,” said Cadence.

Everyone paused.

“Wait, since when have you known that?” asked Smolder.

“Shiny was telling me about some files he was reading up on from the Canterlot Crypts,” Cadence explained. “He mentioned Theo.”

Everyone waited with baited breath, while Cadence remembered the details.

“I think he said that Theo had run for captain of the Royal Guard,” she said finally, “but had been put out of the running when it was discovered one of his close friends was a double agent for the Lunar Republic.”

“The Lunar Republic?” asked Twi in surprise. “As in Luna’s supporters?”

Cadence nodded solemnly. “It was a different time back then. Canterlot was constantly at arms with the Lunar Republic. Finding the traitor would be a key advantage in the battle.”

“Who found it?” asked Fluttershy softly.

Cadence’s expression brightened. “Shiny did! And he was promoted to the captain of the Royal Guard right after.”

“And after that Twilight and her friends helped reform Luna, right?” Gallus said.

“Yes,” said Dash coldly, “we did.”

“I wasn’t saying that you didn’t play a part in it,” Gallus said quickly.

Dash smiled, though it seemed fake.

Thorax summarized. “So one of Theo’s friends got exposed as a traitor, and Theo just got all of his dreams dashed because of it. After that–.”

Dash suddenly stood up, and glared at Thorax. “Yeah,” she growled. “Yeah, that's right. I’m a total–.”

Breathing hard, Dash stormed into her tent, and angrily zipped it closed. She couldn’t slam a door, but it got the point across.

“What did I say?” asked Thorax.

“I think you said Theo’s dreams got ‘dashed’,” Twi mumbled, staring at the ground.

“Oh,” said Thorax quietly.

“Why is Dash being such a jerk?” asked Gallus suddenly. “I mean it should have been obvious that Thorax wasn’t attacking her.”

Twilight thought about it. Then she sighed. Her mind, usually so good at knowing why her friends were having trouble, had drawn a blank.

~~~~

Twilight barely got any sleep that night. She’d been sure that Dash had been angry at her, and that simply apologizing would fix any ill will.

But Dash was still angry, and Twi no longer had any idea why.

The next morning the group gathered around the burned out fire. Twi was pleased to see that Dash wasn’t showing any signs of hostility. Maybe it was just an unfortunate series of events, she thought, and Dash isn’t really mad anymore.

Smolder was glancing at Dash worriedly, noticing the lines under her eyes.

“Did you all get enough sleep?” asked Cadence, evidently also noticing Dash’s visible tiredness.

“Cheap trick,” muttered Dash, “And no, I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

“We need a game plan,” said Gallus, not letting a moment of awkwardness pass after Dash’s words. “I’m thinking that staying here’s not such a great idea. The smoke from the fire could have been spotted from a ways away, and with Theo’s mercenaries looking for us, this spot seems compromised.”

“Where can we go?” asked Thorax. “Shining Armor said that we have to be on the lookout for double agents within the Royal Guard. That makes Canterlot a risky location to head to.”

“We may have to go anyway,” said Cadence.

“D’you mind me asking why?” asked Dash testily.

“The Canterlot Crypts,” said Cadence. “I only remember some general details from what Shiny told me about Theo’s file. Getting our hooves on it could give us an edge.”

Dash suddenly stared intensely at the burned out ashes of the firepit.

Naturally, everyone else looked at it too.

Gallus was the first one to notice it. “Hey look, there’s paper in there!”

He reached in, and extracted a bit of paper from the ashes. It was severely blackened around the edges, and curled up.

Gallus squinted at it. He looked up sharply. “Raven,” he said. “That’s all it says.”

Dash reached over and snatched it out of Gallus’ claws, breaking some of the burned curls off.

Dash studied it for a moment before saying, “it doesn’t say Raven, It’s signed Raven!”

“Ya’ know,” said Smolder. “Everyone take a moment to consider why there’s a perfectly made fire pit in the center of a pristine clearing.”

“It’s an encampment!” said Twilight, “And probably an enemy one.”

“If it’s an enemy encampment, it would explain why there’s so many ponies in these woods,” Cadence said. “And it looks like that signature from ‘Raven’ means that this particular encampment was abandoned just before we arrived.”

A realization hit Twilight, and it felt like a bowling ball had just been dropped into her gut. “Who said it was abandoned?”

“We have to leave now!” Thorax said, jumping up. “Canterlot seems to be the strategic choice.”

Cadence’s horn lit up, and all the tents vanished.

“Which way to Canterlot?” asked Twilight in a panicky tone.

Dash pulled out a compass. “That way!” she said, pointing to a section of particularly thick trees.

“You're kidding right?” said Smolder.

“Nope, and I don’t think I’m even capable of doing so in my emotionally tense state,” Dash said, tucking the compass back into her mane.

“Looks like Pinkie taught you some tricks,” said Twilight.

Dash nodded.

“Let’s take the train,” said Cadence suddenly.

“Oh, that's a good idea,” said Fluttershy softly.

“The train’s that way,” said Thorax, pointing to the trail leading out of the clearing.

“Let’s just follow the path,” said Gallus. “And then take the Ponyville train to Canterlot.”

Twi felt a sudden pang in her chest as she thought about her other friends.

Dash evidently knew what she was thinking, because she said, “Spike’s letter said that there were ‘ponies in suits’ at Rarity’s for ‘legal reasons.’ Those ‘ponies in suits’ are probably still watching all of our friend’s places. And Bon Bon’s a spy who’s acting ‘freaked out,’ so staying away from Ponyville entirely would probably be a good idea.” She paused. “‘Cept for the train station, cuz there isn’t another one close.”

Twi sighed. “Can we at least send them a letter? I know there’s a post office right next to the station.”

“Of course,” said Cadence comfortingly.

“Better start moving,” said Thorax, glancing up at the sky. It was already almost noon. “We’re running out of time.”

~~~~

Raven sighed, and stepped out of her tent. “How do I look?” she asked tentatively.

There were a couple of scattered responses, all upon the line of, “Not bad.”

“Menacing,” casually said a stallion who was leaning casually against a tree. He had a dark gray coat and red mane. His name was Radcliffe.

He was a serial killer.

He’d recently been broken out of prison by Theo, who’d said they were old friends.

Raven thought they were brothers at first.

“Thanks,” she said.

Raven turned to a cream colored mare with a two tone mane. The mare glared at her. “What do you think, twit?”

Bon Bon gave a derisive snort. “Shut up,” she said with a few more swear words added in.

“Fine!” screamed Raven, and sent a knife into a tree, missing Bon Bon by a few inches. “I don’t care what you think psychopathic–.”

“Chill on the cuss words,” Radcliffe laughed. “Contrary to popular belief, cussing doesn't make you scarier, it just makes you seem indecent.”

“You suck,” said Raven, pulling out another knife. She quickly turned and stormed back into her tent.

“Stop having temper tantrums,” Radcliffe taunted softly, so that Raven couldn’t hear.

Raven was an assassin who was friends with Theo and Snowy, from back in their time in the Royal Guard. She was currently tracking Twilight and co.

Raven grabbed a crossbow and all of her knives, before exiting her tent again, and turning to her colleagues. “We’re leaving!” she said. “To the smoke we saw last night!”

“Why?” asked Bon Bon with a smile.

“Cos Lyra asked us to,” Raven retorted with a smirk.

That shut Bon Bon up.

“Now let’s go!” Raven commanded. She smiled. “Look out Twilight,” she smirked. “Your heartbeats are numbered.”