//------------------------------// // I // Story: Until We Meet the Horizon // by DunkelWars //------------------------------// In the zebrizcan king’s castle, on the first floor to be exact, a zebra mare sat in the middle of her room, staring outside her window. In her mind she went through her list once more. 'Bag? On my back. Contents? Where they should be. Hopefully-working invisibility charm? Ready to be put on. Open front gate for the guards change of shifts? Should happen any second now.' Suddenly though, there were hoofsteps coming towards her room and shortly after there was a knock on her door. “Who is it?” she called through the door. “It is I, my dear princess, and it’s time for us to continue with your classes.” an old, yet still smooth, female voice answered. She could see the guards approaching the gate. It was now or never. “I-I’ll be with you in a second Thyria, I just need to clean up in here really quick.”. She put on the charm, smiling as she felt the magic working. The door opened behind her. “Oh princess. The maid can do that later… princess?” For a second, the old mare was confused upon not seeing her student, though upon taking a closer look she recognized the ingredients that lay on the floor. She then looked out the window and saw the guard opening the front gate. Her eyes widened in shock as she realised what was going on. As the princess ran across the patch of grass towards the gate she could hear her mentor shouting that the guards should close the gates, but it was too late. The guard turned around to see who was shouting and suddenly felt something hit him hard on his right side. As he fell over he could, for a faint moment, see what had crashed into him, the collision had caused the invisibility charm to stop working for a second. The grand city of Lusatrin bustled with life; One could find almost all sapient species of Hardille if he just looked long enough. Today though, one could walk into something where there was nothing and. Though, nobody paid much mind to this, everybody was busy with themselves. The invisible being that tried to make it’s way through the masses though had enough of it and walked into a small alleyway. She did not realise that there was a pair of eyes following her every move and, once she was out of sight, the owner of those eyes walked into the same alley. He followed her for at least another half an hour making sure that she stayed oblivious to his presence. Only when she was about to enter the harbor, he decided to speak up. “Do you need a place to hide?” She immediately spun around and saw who had spoken these words. In front of her stood a pegasus with a grey coat, a blonde mane and deep green eyes. She was about to say something, then decided not to do it. Maybe the pegasus wasn’t talking to her. He looked once to his left and right and then spoke again. “You there. The zebra with the invisibility charm. That won’t last much longer. If you don’t find a hiding place soon, you’ll be out in the open. And I doubt you’d want that.” Figuring that he definitely meant her, she answered; “And what makes you think that?” “You’re using an invisibility charm. That’s all the info I need to know that someone doesn’t want to be seen. So I’ll ask again. Do you need a place to hide?” She thought. It was true, her charm would be out of herbs very soon. And crossing the harbor without it was impossible without being seen. So she took a chance and asked something herself. “Can you get me out of the city?” She closed her eyes and prayed to every god that she could think of. He had to have a cart or a be with a caravan. Just something that would allow her to leave unseen. “If you don’t mind a few days on sea, then yes.” Her eyes shot open. 'He's here per ship? That's better than I had hoped for! “Then yes! Thank you so much!” She could’ve kissed that stallion right where he was standing. “We have to hurry. You got 3 minutes left before your charm starts feeding off of you; at best,” With that he moved past her and stepped into the open. He started walking into the crowd and motioned her to follow with a move of his head. From where they had started, they walked towards the eastern end of the haven, when he suddenly stopped, which caused her to bump into him. She was about to ask what was wrong when she saw it herself: A group of four guards, at least one of them equipped with a disrupting charm. They carefully moved around the group and continued their way. They had reached the dock by now and were moving in a straight line. Then another group of guards came close to them. The pegasus stopped next to a ramp which led onto a ship and moved his head a little bit to the left. To their luck she caught on what he meant and walked up the ramp. He was right behind her and the moment they were on the deck he pushed her under the railing. Seconds later her charm went out. He looked around once and then looked at her. She looked mostly like every other zebra he had seen in the town, though there was something off about her what-should-have-been-black stripes, there was a touch of green in them. Not much but just enough to be recognizable. Her eyes were sky-blue. He stopped looking over her and started talking. “Phew. Okay. You see that door over there?” He extended a hoof and she followed it with her eyes, when she saw the door she looked back towards him and nodded. “Get inside.  Once you’re in, turn left and enter the fourth door on your right side. There should be an empty cabin in there. If you haven’t changed your mind, that’ll be where you spend the next few days. It’s probably the best for you to stay inside until we leave. Which will be happening this evening by the way. If you need anything just knock on the door, okay?” She nodded and half-walking, half-crawling started to move towards the door. Then she turned around again. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?” He looked at her and waited for a moment before saying, “Blitz Rush. What’s yours?” She quickly made up a name, now that she was out of immediate danger to get captured again, she could overthink things again and she decided that she did not trust this stallion just enough to know her name. “It’s... Lyrin,” and with that she started moving towards the door again.