A few days after Twilight and her friends started to believe Dusts tale about the attack and how he ended up here, they decided to help him. He told them a lot from where he was sent to Canterlot. Dust came from a distant kingdom, far away in the east. They sent him to Equestria in the hope of finding allies in a seemingly lost war, after they found ancient documents telling them about Equestria – but not where it was. Those documents just told them that this land called Equestria was located in the west, so they sent out some scouts to find it – each one with magically sealed saddlebags. They didn’t tell the scouts what was in those bags, though, and just sent them into the wilderness.
Dust was allowed to leave the hospital now, and he started immediately preparing supplies to chase whatever attacked him. He had a vague idea where it would go if it really just was after his saddlebags. The townsfolk were a bit scared of him, but it didn’t stop them from helping him with rations and other items he would need for chasing the creature who stole his saddlebag. He would fulfill his duty. It might have a few days lead from him, but he wouldn’t just give up. He was trained to succeed and not to give up. And besides, now he had some allies: The three mares agreed on helping him on his quest. While he prepared the chase, they said goodbye to their friends and families. They wouldn’t see them for a long time.
He was already standing at the town square, as the three friends arrived there, each of them with her own saddlebags. “Well, everypony’s ready now? We have to hurry up.” He wouldn’t waste any more time. The distance between them and the creature was long enough, and was growing by the minute. The lavender unicorn nodded. “We’re ready.” He then took the lead of the little group and they left the city. This time, he was the predator, not the prey. He would get the object back, no matter was it is and would fulfill his duty. He was trained to succeed, not to fail. He hadn’t spent years in the military training camps for nothing. He looked at the three mares walking behind him. A pegasus would be useful for scouting the area ahead of them, while the magic of a unicorn could be helpful in some situations.
But why in the name of everything that was holy did they need to bring a simple earth pony with them? He looked at the pink pony with the springy walk. She seemed to never run out of happiness and energy. She would probably help to keep the morale up, if they knew something like that. Back at home they didn’t allow girls to join the military, but he just guessed they didn’t have any military at all here, so this was the best he could get. The town disappeared behind them as they walked on the road leading to the east.
Twilight looked on the stallion walking in front of her and her friends. While Rainbow still didn’t trust him and wouldn’t leave Twilights side when she said she would go with him on his quest, Pinkie Pie didn’t worry at all about what dangers this venture could bring. Twilight herself believed Dust with his tale since they found the bloodstained fabric outside of Ponyville, but his personality was still a mystery to her. She had never seen anypony like him; he was even more stoical than Applejack when she tried to harvest all the apples during the applebuck season on herself. And she certainly didn’t like the way he looked back at them right now, as if he were something better than them.
She could imagine that his behavior would just increase the mistrust of Rainbow against him. The day went on as they kept walking. Occasionally Rainbow took off to fly around a bit, but she always kept in sight to them. Twilight knew exactly that the Pegasus lived for flying and would rather fly above them than to walk beside them. Twilight could see that Dust also mistrusted the pegasus as she soared high into the sky and dove down to earth again, flew loops and performed other tricks while she was in the air. The unicorn knew that her friend felt truly free when she could fly freely through the sky, leaving a rainbow behind her.
“Tell her to stop this.” Dust didn’t turn around to her as he said this. “Somepony could see it. If our target can see this, it would be warned that something is coming.” He turned around again and continued walking. He probably was right, but Twilight still didn’t enjoy the thought to tell Rainbow that she shouldn’t fly up that high anymore. It was like if somepony took Twilights books from her and prohibited her to read.
When Rainbow returned from her latest trip into the sky and heard about what Dust ordered, she wasn’t very happy about it. “I won’t stop flying, not even on this journey!” She complained to Twilight. “You don’t have to stop flying, but could you just keep below the tree tops? You know that he’s right.” The pegasus looked down on the ground and nodded. “I know, I know. Yeah, I’ll stay below the tree tops.” Twilight felt sorry for her friend, but she couldn’t do anything about it. The stallion was right; they shouldn’t draw any unwanted attention to themselves.
As the dusk came, she already questioned herself if it was a good idea to join Dust on his quest … but they couldn’t let him go alone. They were walking from noon till dusk now, and it didn’t look like Dust planned on putting up a camp soon. Twilight looked at her friends. Rainbow was flying next to them on a low altitude since Dust ordered that she shouldn’t fly over the tree tops anymore and Twilight thought she could see hate in her eyes. Pinkie Pie was still walking uncaringly next to her. While she was watching her friends reactions to their self-named leader, she didn’t watch were she was walked and promptly bumped into Dust. “We will stop here. Go and collect firewood for a campfire, we’re staying here for the night.” While Rainbow just hovered in place, Pinkie looked at Twilight with a questioning look on her face. The lavender unicorn just shrugged. “Let’s collect some firewood. It is almost dark now.”
When they returned with a pile of firewood, it was already dark and some stars were sparkling in the sky. However, the pale light of the moon provided enough light for them to see that Dust was still waiting for them. Twilight wondered if he ever did something by himself or just let others do the work for him. At least he lightened up the fire. Dust watched the fire crackling for a while, then he turned around and rolled up to sleep, his back towards the others. Twilight was lying on her side next to the fire and pulled out the journal she had packed before they left Ponyville, as well as some quills and an inkpot. She quickly looked through the white pages and began to fill them with what had happened during the first days on their new quest.
Rainbow was just staring into the night sky and gazed at the stars so far above her. She was wishing she would have been allowed to fly. She sighed and looked over to Twilight, who was still concentrated on writing down what had happened till now. “Hey Twi, what are you writing there?” The pegasus asked, but the lavender mare didn’t answer as she was focused on her writings. Rainbow was sighing and crossed her fore hooves to rest her head on it and tried to sleep. She just was hoping they would get this done soon so they could return to Ponyville and get rid of this guy. She didn’t like him and wouldn’t hide it. She threw a last look over to Pinkie Pie, who was munching on a cupcake she brought with her before the pegasus closed her eyes.
Twilight was still writing as Pinkie also rolled up and slept. The unicorn felt a bit bothered by the snoring of the stallion on the other side of the fire, but she did her best to ignore it. Occasionally she threw some of the firewood in the fire, which was greedily devouring the wood. When she heard a noise out of the darkness around them, she stared to where she heard the sound from, but it was outside of the range their small campfire lightened up. As she didn’t hear anything else, she guessed that it was just an animal and didn’t pose a threat to them. The unicorn went back to her writings. As she finished the first entry of her journal, she also was trying to catch some sleep before the night was over.
But since she couldn’t sleep because of the noise she heard earlier, she stood up and went looking around their camp, levitating a burning branch next to her. She found nothing suspicious around, so she returned to the others and hoped that she could find some sleep now that she reassured herself that it was safe around. She looked over to the snoring brown stallion a last time till she was sure that he was also asleep.
It was almost morning as Rainbow Dash got woken up by a cracking branch. The sun didn’t rise now, but she could see enough that a quick look around revealed to her that Dust was missing. “I always knew that we couldn’t trust him.” She was muttering to herself as she stood up. She looked at her friends, who were still asleep and decided to let them sleep a little longer. She hovered slightly above the ground, careful to not make any sound as she was flying around the camp to look for Dust.
She found him as he was on his way back to their camp. “Where did you go?” The pegasus asked. “I was checking the area around.” He then ignored her and went back to the camp, followed by her. As they were back at the camp, his look fell on Twilights journal she left outside of her saddle bags beneath her as she slept in. He went to pick it up, but Rainbow put her hoof on it and kept it lying on the ground. “No. You’ll touch this book only when Twilight allows you to.” She earned a hateful look from the stallion, but he left the book alone. She wouldn’t let him do whatever he wants to. They’re here on their own will and not because they were ordered to.
Dust already felt hate rising up within him, but he suppressed it. He wouldn’t let that pegasus hinder his mission. Winged or not, this mare wasn’t worth it to endure her behavior. But he will remain silent in this case … till he fulfilled his mission. He would be very happy if he could go back into the east again and getting rid of those annoying mares, but he would have to endure them until the end. He was sighing as he thought that this was probably still far in the future. He’ll see what the future will bring. He woke up the unicorn and the other pony, as the sun dawned. “It’s time to move on. Pack your stuff, we’re still behind.” He said, watching closely in which saddlebag the unicorn put her book. He would read it anyway, if the pegasus cared about it or not. He wanted to know what she wrote down in it. He could feel the look of the pegasus resting on him as they moved on. She was the only one of them who really mistrusted him. Which lead to that he also mistrusted her. But for now, it was time to go on.