"I need to get you to The Ridg..." Nanda started saying, but remembered that Applejack didn't know how to read Surane's script and took a piece of paper "A small shop, the sign looked like this last time I saw it," she drew on it and showed it to Applejack.
"Why is the dog sad?" Applejack couldn't help but ask "And is that how they write? seems hard"
"Its a bear, ask the owner, it isn't hard when you are born into it, and have some focus"
"Sorry, its-" she rubbed the side of her head "What was that smoke? I think it made me dizzy"
"Nothing, just some static on the street's dust" Nanda gave her a worried look but kept walking "Is it too bad?"
"I just need some-" she cut herself "Some- some-"
"What?" Applejack's legs felt weak, and Nanda barely had time to grab her "What's wrong?"
"I can't-" her tongue, usually a nimble tool, just wouldn't match the language that was on her mind "drelei- se-ru-lin-- ngas- setron-"
"Applejack!" Nanda blinked several times until an ephemeral glow appeared in her eyes "What!? something's pull-
nely in the void, calling her
"-ing you in-"
hild, I say, expect to help m
"-to oneir-"
for whom the passage of centu
ries is but the blink of an e
"-you-"
over a desert? Come in, child
"I'll hav-"
and have a taste of the wines-
"-HERE!" Nanda shouted at her face "Focus, kid! What did you see? Did he say anything?"
Applejack stared at her, the world nothing but a painfully confusing mass of light and colors, refusing to arrange themselves and make sense...
"Focus! Look at me, don't let yourself grow distracted" Nanda forced her will into the song, humming softly "Can you understand me?" she risked interrupting the hum to ask "Look at my mouth, try to understand"
Applejack just trembled, her mind overloaded by the message that had been forced into it. Slowly, Nanda forced meaning into it, oiling the delicate cogs that allowed it to interact with body and soul.
"Now?" the magics she was manipulating nearly collapsed in the time it took her to say it. She forced herself to ignore the small mass that had started to form around them like a clog in the city's arteries, ogling in curiosity. Even when she had been younger and bolder she had hated masses, the way in which every individual surrendered to the herd regardless of species.
There were clicks of claws over the pavement, and then that of loaded crossbows.
"We are authorised to wound and cripple, witch. You will surrender and enter the cage" said the front pegasus, three gryphons behind him pointed silently.
The small crowd increased in size, and Nanda watched them for a moment, weighting them. Crowds could be useful tools, if used the right way, and so where scenes, so she took care of changing her stance softly.
"...'scusse me, 'scusse me..." said someone outside her field of view, pushing into the crowd.
"Dude, its an old woman and an earthy with epileptics!" shouted someone from the protection of the crowd "What will they do, ask for coin?"
"Yeah!" said someone behind the first.
"That's left to be seen," the pegasus gestured at a caged flying chariot behind her "Go in"
"I am just-" she had to hum, covering the song under a cough "-just trying to help my friend"
Winona added a whine, gaining a small shout at the soldier from the crowd.
"...Sorry, ma'am, but I don't- Oh, here, have your basket. Now, if you could leave me pass...?"
"As I said, do go in" the gryphon gestured at the chariot again.
"I don't care about your fruit, will you stop blocking my way!?" growled the voice, and was answered with a small voice "Thanks"
The pegasus's eyes opened wide, and the crossbows changed aims.
"I remind you than that, as I am sure you know, would be an act of war against Equestria, and that I have your queen's and my princess' authority to support my every action" Spike glared at them, standing to his full height, until they lowered their weapons "Now, if you could stop trying to arrest my friend? Thanks" he put silk gloves -their tips metallic- over his claws and picked up Applejack, shifting to his natural, slightly bent, stance.
"What happened to her?" he asked to Nanda, starting to walk with Applejack cradled in his arms "Nanna something, right? Come, Twilight's waiting us"