Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Zeph continued to watch Kira diligently, despite the fact that she had done little more than scratch her nose once in her sleep. Zeph had taken first watch on account of not particularly trusting Cedar nor Argon to watch Kira close enough. Despite Zeph’s reservations, Argon had seemingly accepted her as a trustworthy friend from the get-go. When Zeph expressed her concerns to Argon in private, he had simply shaken his head and motioned that it was too complicated to explain, but that he trusted her. Zeph felt guilty for not trusting Argon, but at the same point, he hadn’t been the one watching what happened.

Feeling Argon wake next to her, she moved her gaze away from Kira to him.

Argon held out his paw towards Kira as if to ask, “Are you satisfied yet?”

“No. It’s too convenient that she doesn’t remember anything. I’m pretty sure selective amnesia is a story trope, not a real thing. If she really couldn’t remember anything, she shouldn’t remember how to talk.”

Argon stared at her unamused as if to say, “We already went over this.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but your explanation didn’t make much sense.”

Argon hopped in front of Zeph and put his paw on her leg and looked at her with a pleading smile as if to say, “Okay, but can’t you just trust me?”

“Fine, but kick me the moment she moves an inch.”

Argon patted Zeph on the leg as he nodded his head as if to say, “Okay, as long as you’ll get some sleep.”

Moving back over to Zeph’s side, Argon went into what she dubbed guard bunny mode, which made Zeph smile. He might be overly trusting of strange ponies, but when it came to keeping track of things while on high alert, it didn’t seem like anything could get past him.

Laying her head down, Zeph did her best to forget the events of the day, but found herself holding Argon tightly in her dreams. No matter what happened in her dreams, she refused to let him go. Upon waking, she found that she had, in fact, at some point grabbed Argon in her sleep and was holding him tightly.

Hearing movement from her side, Zeph looked over to see Cedar waking up and starting his usual stretch routine. A moment later, she heard a sound in front of her, causing her attention to refocus on Kira, who had sprung up and started copying Cedar.

The one thing Zeph had to give Kira and her amnesia story was that she did seem genuinely enthusiastic about copycatting, as if everything she experienced was the first time she was experiencing it and didn’t know any other way to do things. Even sleeping had been a foreign concept to her. She admitted to knowing what the words meant, but felt the whole idea was quite strange.

Once every pony and bunny had properly woken up and had a snack, the group carefully made their way out of the building they had found Kira in. Originally, the group had set up camp outside, but early on in the evening had moved back to the safety of the inner room of what they dubbed the central ruin after some rather unnervingly enormous creatures began circling overhead.

As the group neared the outside, Cedar made a loud clap with his hooves. “Leaving the ruins, round two!”

“Hopefully we get to a place with less night. I don’t really like the night.” Commented Kira as she followed behind Cedar.

“I don’t think that’s possible, but hopefully we get someplace else today, regardless. We have enough glow berries to survive for a couple more days at the most.” Remarked Zeph as she looked around the corner of the outside wall.

Not long after making their way outside, Kira ran over to a nearby bush filled with eerily purple glittering berries. “Why don’t we just eat these? They seem to be everywhere.”

“Because Argon doesn’t know if they're safe, and unless we get really desperate, none of us should be volunteering to find out if they are.”

“Something tells me they are. Maybe some kind of inkling of a memory?”

“No offense, but we shouldn’t be risking our lives on an ‘inkling,’ unless we have no other choice. So unless you can remember anything more concrete—no nibbling strange berries.” Zeph tried to sound firm, as she had come to realize she was the authority of the group. Cedar, despite being older than her by a large margin, was mature in many ways, but still mostly acted like a school-aged colt. Kira may as well be a little filly with a big vocabulary, and Argon was… Well, a bunny. A bunny that, as far as she was concerned, needed to be protected at all costs.

Feeling a kick, Zeph looked back at Argon, who was pointing up at the sky.

Gulping hard, Zeph muttered. “Looks like we’re still not alone…”

“I say we make a run for it. I’m pretty certain I can carry all three of you, at least for a while,” said Cedar as he lowered to the ground.

Not wanting to get a closer look at what was circling above, Zeph hopped on Cedar, followed shortly by Kira.

“Hold on!” Exclaimed Cedar as he began rushing through the maze of vine-covered mounds. As he went, the creatures flew low enough to allow Zeph to get a clear look at them. They were a mass of leaves, with eyes made of flowers, and beaks and claws made of branches covered in razor-sharp barbs. From a distance, they had looked like giant birds, but up close, they looked like some kind of horrifying frightmare night parade float that had come to life.

Seeing that there was no way Cedar was going to outrun the birds, she instructed him to stop at a mound and kick the smallest hole inside he could. Rushing into the building, they were followed shortly by beaks trying to come in after them. After a few moments of frantically struggling to get in, the beaks pulled away and were replaced by an eerie flower that seemed to watch them for quite some time before pulling away.

Peeking outside, Zeph could see the birds circling high above them again.

“We made it a good distance, but even if we could do that again once we got to the forest, we’d be out of buildings to duck into.” Declared Zeph as she made her way back into the building. “They didn’t bother us when we first got here.” Zeph muttered as she looked suspiciously at Kira.

“You think they want that shiny cube we found? Birds do love shiny things.” Remarked Cedar as he looked out the hole in the wall.

“Not exactly what I was thinking, but you do have a point. It is a glowing cube, so it has to be magical. Of course, if they were chasing us over magic, why didn’t they chase us when we first got here? After all, we have a magical pendant and two compasses.”

“Maybe they only like square-shaped shiny things?”

Zeph rolled her eyes as she looked away from Cedar and to Argon, hoping he’d have a better theory. When she got a mental image of him running out on his own to see if the birds would chase him, she glared at him in disapproval. Which was met by a raised eyebrow from Argon, who made a motion that seemed to indicate that he would be fine.

“You’re not going out there on your own.”

Argon stared back at her unamused as if to say, “I can if I want to.”

“I know, but we’re a team.” Zeph said as she took the cube out of her saddlebag and placed it on the ground next to Cedar. “We go together, and that’s that.” Zeph gave Argon a determined smile.

Zeph approached the door and took a deep breath as she watched one of the birds fly overhead. “You ready?” Zeph asked as she looked back at Argon.

With a nod from Argon, Zeph nervously walked outside and around the area several times before making her way to a larger clearing, all without the birds seeming to care.

“Well, I guess this proves either the cube or Kira is what they want.”

Zeph got a mental image of the gemstone on Kira’s forehead.

“Yeah, I don’t trust that stone. Anyway, let’s get back.”

Getting back, Zeph reported the results, and this time upon leaving the building, the group left only the cube behind, and as before, the birds showed no interest in them. Seemingly proving that Kira was, in fact, not what they were after. Which made Zeph feel guilty for having been so biased towards believing it had been her.

Reaching the same clearing as before, Zeph looked back at the building they had left the cube in. “It seems like a shame to leave it here after coming all the way to get it, but do we have any choice?”

“Since we know it’s just the cube they want, I could run ahead with it and find good hiding spots for it as we go.”

Zeph rolled her eyes at Cedar’s idea. “Not having ponies on your back isn’t going to speed you up enough to outrun them.”

“Maybe if we put it inside something—really thick, they wouldn’t notice it?” Remarked Kira.

“They seem to be able to sense it through buildings, and I’m pretty sure not even Cedar could haul around a building.”

Looking towards Argon, Zeph was hopeful he had an idea, but was met with a dismissive shrug.

Sighing in defeat, Zeph looked back towards the building one last time. “At least we know where we left it if we ever need it.”