//------------------------------// // Trip // Story: White Sun // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Twilight was standing at the entrance of her home, her body shaking from nervousness. She had never left her home for days at a time before. At least, not purposefully. It brought up bad memories of times past. "It's okay, Twilight," the mare told herself with every deep breath. "It's okay, Twilight. You can do this. Spike has the bags of supplies, you brought a book to tell you what you can eat when you're down there. You even got a water purifying spell and can just boil it and sift it through." She shivered. "Even if it's gross." The mare readjusted her own saddlebags and checked her and Spike's medallions again. The anchor point was right in the middle of her home and only went one way, and after a few hours of testing, she confirmed that Spike would automatically follow her back. Twilight felt tempted to do more tests just to be sure, but she knew that was just her stalling for time. She was the only one who could help Princess Celestia, and so she had to push through her own fears to accomplish it. "Well, Spike. We're going south. Far south..." She rubbed the top of her muzzle with a hoof. "I wish we could just take a train or a blimp there." An idea filled Twilight's mind. A nasty one that made her feel bile dig through her throat. What if she brought back some ponies as skeletons and had them pull a chariot for her? he unicorn shook her head. They weren't there to serve as her vehicles or servants. She wouldn't dare do such a thing if it was to help her accelerate her work into reviving Princess Celestia. She took a look at her medallion again and passed a hoof across its surface. Was it influencing her or was she just being paranoid and that was just her imagination. Millions of questions and theories about what she encountered in the city dug away at Twilight's mind. At least she would have something to occupy her mind during the travel. "Let's go, Spike." Free from her home, Twilight looked towards Flarolina and heaved a silent sigh. She adjusted her bags and got to walking through the woods and the cold wind cutting away at her fur. The first two days of travel were mostly uneventful. Twilight was still in the region she was accustomed to. It was only when she realized that the rocks decorating the ground started becoming sparse that it was apparent the unicorn was entering a new region. The air had already become warmer and the ground softer. Much of the plants she could see were mixing in with the hardy and stubborn mountain foliage, both finding common ground in a soil swirling with nutrients from two different worlds. The gray, gravely landscape became nothing but dirt and grass further down Twilight's personal route, and from then on she would be in regions unknown, or regions forgotten. The idea of being anywhere but near and around Flarolina was too distant and too unwanted a thought for the lavender pony. Still. She needed to get going. Her research wasn't going to wait. At least the ponies that died in the desert tended to mummify instead of rot because of the heat and almost total lack of moisture in the air. If Celestia's body had been dropped into a place like this, then it would stand to reason to bring those desiccated remains back and figure out how to restore and reanimate them. After all, the desert was a harsh and angry place, and if Twilight wasn't careful, then she would end up like those she was looking for. "Here we go. The first step outside of the mountains..." Twilight mumbled to herself. She started regretting not going north towards the Crystal Empire. Twilight instinctively pulled back her leg upon the first step before slowly bringing it back down. There was no rough crunching from small pebbles grinding against her horseshoes and each other. Instead, the ground seemed to sink and mold around her weight. The softness was a feeling Twilight had forgotten, but she steeled her mind. She couldn't be distracted. Being a space far from major cities, Twilight didn't have to worry too much about patrols around this location. That said, she didn't account for the lack of woods and thick tree lines. She and Spike were mostly trapped in the open, which prompted the few ponies they crossed to run or fly away in fear, prompting the duo to pick up the pace. In some areas Twilight could smell burning wood. There were lumber mills and charcoal kilns around the few forests that could be spotted, thankfully, but again: An impasse. The forests were being scouted and torn down by the lumberjacks, making it too dangerous to travel through even these wooded areas. The unicorn reddened in frustration knowing she was being forced into the open. Her first day of walking had ended a few feet past a bridge cover a water stream. Unfortunately, there weren't any caves or forests for her to hide in, so Twilight went with plan B. She bored a hole in the ground with her magic and dug out a small burrow for herself and Spike. She used a fetish made from acorns and a Scorpio's stinger to pick up the errant traces of her magic after sealing up the burrow as best she could. It was far enough from the road that most ponies would ignore it, and a patch of bare dirt shouldn't, at least Twilight really didn't want it to, garner any attention. She took out some dried lettuce and hardtack Silvery kept on hoof for long trips and ate both. With a bit of water the hardtack became softer and more enjoyable to eat. Twilight proposed one to Spike, but the undead simply gave Twilight the same, empty stare it had since it arose. The makeshift shelter became somehow 'extra cozy' to Twilight when she heard the pitter patter of rain above her. Scampering to her hooves, she pulled out two empty containers from Spike's bags and opened a small hole for the rainwater to funnel through and reach the containers. There was only enough drizzle to fill up one and barely affect the base of the second, but Twilight had her next task to accomplish later: Boiling and filtering the fluid. On the fourth day of her trip, Twilight found herself in a small village that specialized in dye. Surrounding it were vast fields of plants the mare only vaguely recognized as sources of pulp that changed color when crushed. The 'sap' from their 'veins' was quite colorful even from where the unicorn was standing. From what the mare could tell, she had just stumbled upon a conflict between two rival dye makers that became bigger than it needed to be. One such fight had broken out right before Twilight arrived, intent on gathering some more supplies before she dug into her reserves. Everypony was distracted by the fighting among the simple 'hovel'-type buildings, giving the mare ample time to rummage through unprotected produce and shove them in her saddlebags. "Hey now, what're y'all doin' here?" a voice called out. The unicorn turned around with a pear in her mouth to see that a newcomer had arrived. One with a weird southern 'twang' Twilight didn't recognize. "Y'all prefer ta fight than talk it out?" This orange mare sporting a brown stetson hat produced a lasso she used on one group of five ponies to pull them away while the others were caught in an aura of blue magic. This newcomer was a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail cared for and soft to the eyes. They curled and twisted on each other, creating a fine contrast from the straw-like hair of the bulkier pony. "Now now, Applejack. No need to treat these ponies so harshly. I'm sure their..." The white unicorn paused, looking for the words. "Comely ponies would be willing to be open to reason." The orange pony chuckled and backed her head up slightly. "Oh yeah. 'N how do ya s'pose? Dang tree done sent us to some village nowhere." She looked around and her disdain slowly turned to respect then enjoyment. " 'N Ah can see that these folks take care of their lands. Would be perfect fer some farmin'." "Hey! Dye making is a respectable pursuit!" a small colt said as he confronted the rough mare. 'Applejack' raised a hoof defensively. " 'Course it is. Any hard work is good work from where Ah'm standin'." Twilight squeezed her eyes in an attempt to get a better look at these two newcomers. Almost instantly they had defused a violent situation and started speaking with the formerly fighting ponies. The mare's fur stuck up. There was something unnerving about the magic surrounding these two, like something else had latched onto them, but symbiotically. Both seemed to grow stronger off of each other rather than keeping each other healthy to begin with. Already stocked up on necessities and dropping a few coins just in-case, Twilight tried to slowly sneak away with her loot in tow. She felt a shock to her neck slowly followed by something she didn't want to hear. "Hey! She's stealing from the stands!" Twilight cursed and took off with the two odd ponies behind her. "Go away!" Twilight begged them. "Y'all can't go 'n steal from ponies, thief!" the orange mare shouted. "Come back 'n we'll get this all sorted out!" Twilight knew exactly what was going to happen if they caught her. If they didn't recognize her then she would be trapped in this village to work in the fields and she would never see her end goal accomplished. If they caught and recognized her, though... With the acuity the lavender unicorn developed over years of ritual casting and surgical procedures, she was able to spot and cut through the lasso of the rough pony before it was able to wrap itself around Twilight's neck and lock her in place. Almost instantly afterwards, Twilight felt an aura of magic starting to form around her body and dissolved it with her own. "Hoo! This one is talented in magic," the white pony complimented. Twilight skid on the dry dirt pathway and drifted into another street, surprising her chasers and causing them to fumble and roll away briefly. The mare laughed but her mirth quickly devolved to panic when she saw the orange pony breaking through a bunch of old wooden containers carrying trash and sporting the most furious glare Twilight had ever witnessed. Well...second most furious. Even though they had managed to get out of the village, Twilight wasn't able to get her pursuer off her back, and, even worse, the rough pony was catching up. It didn't help that the lavender unicorn didn't exactly do much galloping and was content with walking around to avoid attention. "Ugh. I can't...keep this up...anymore...Spike!" Twilight wheezed as she started limping. "Ha! Leave it ta a thief ta have no stamina. Never worked an honest day's work!" Applejack proclaimed. "Could've just waited 'n we would've just talked 'bout it!" Those were lies if Twilight had ever heard them. She noticed a shadow right in front of her and just barely dodged her undead. In a fraction of a second, Spike had vaulted over Twilight and brought its large claws down to smack the mare's pursuer like he did the farm pony a few weeks ago. To the mare's surprise, Applejack managed to stop herself, standing on her hind legs to diminish the chance Spike's hand could reach her. Hooves stepped onto the undead's arm to gallop up it. "Ha! Gonna have ta do better'n that ta-Grf!" Spike still had the left arm it used to grab Applejack, wind it back, then throw her as hard as possible through the air and back into the village. The undead quickly slung its master over its shoulder then made for the south, giving a wide berth to the village. It held threats to its master and, thus, could not be approached nor could they remain in proximity, and so it pursued the direction the tired unicorn was taking before stopping. The ride was quite bumpy and very uncomfortable, but at least Twilight was relatively safe now. She still had the nagging feeling that she crossed ponies she shouldn't have messed with. She wanted to go home, sleep in her bed, then wake up in the hopes that all of this was a bad dream. The temptation of using the medallions was strong, but she was already so close to her goal. It would be extremely aggravating to have gone all this way for nothing just to get caught by annoying ponies. At least she escaped her problems...this time.