They left as soon as the sun rose high enough to see a comforting distance ahead and around them. Both Fluttershy and Twilight now knew of the dangers lurking in the Weald, and not even the urgency of catching Sombra’s cultist could overrule the folly of trying to traverse it in the dark. Also, they hoped the villagers and foals would no longer be out hunting once the sun was up. The cultist had told them to ” hunt together tonight,” after all.
”Here we are,” Fluttershy said and pointed towards the shrubbery she had hidden behind. ”This is where I hid, and they were standing over there by the rocks.” She pointed. The mound of stones and dirt looked a lot less menacing now than it did during the night. In fact, what she had taken for a cave was really nothing more than a hole formed by the random stacking of the stones. It was not more than a ponylength deep and had a strange conic shape towards the back.
Twilight resolutely trotted up to the mound and flew up on it. Fluttershy followed after a moment’s hesitation. ”So she stood here?” Twilight asked as she looked around at the top of the rocks.
”Yes,” Fluttershy said. ”Right here.”
Twilight nodded. ”Well then, I guess we will have to look around and see if we can find out where she came from.” She jumped from stone to stone until she was down on the other side of the mound. ”Whoa! Look at this!” Twilight called. Fluttershy ran to her friend. It did not sound like Twilight was in danger, but Fluttershy knew from the Hooclaw Recluse that all dangers were not visible at first glance.
The back of the stone mound had a similar opening as in the front, only much larger. ”Strange,” Twilight said and went in. She looked around quickly, but there was not much to see in the cave. It narrowed quickly and offered no place to hide oneself or anything else.
”Do you see anything that could lead us on from here?” Twilight asked when she came out. ”You are more at home with this sort of thing than I am.”
”Well…” Fluttershy looked down to the ground. She was not a good tracker by any means, but did occasionally have to follow animals into the Everfree Forest. Sadly, most of the Everfree had a bare forest floor of dirt and dry leaves which were easily disturbed by any movement. The moss in The Weald was soft and dampening. Mere moments after she stepped on it there was not a trace left of her hoofprint. Unless you really knew what to look for, this moss would conceal any tracks, especially if the tracked creature knew to be careful. ”Well, no, but there must be something here we can use to find our way.”
”Right. Let’s look around.”
Twilight stayed behind and looked around the larger opening, while Fluttershy decided to walk around to the glade again. She stopped and stared at the shallow ”cave.” She could not quite put her hoof on it, but she felt like there was something off about it. The conic shape was unlike anything she had ever seen in nature before. The walls looked too smooth and to symmetric be natural.
”How strange,” she mumbled.
HOW STRANGE!
Fluttershy let out a squeak of surprise and jumped up in the air before she realized it was just an echo. A very loud echo.
”Flddrshy?”
It took Fluttershy a few moments to realize that the distortion was not due to some echo in the cave. Twilight had spoken to her from the other, larger cave, and her voice swayed strangely, almost like she had been drinking. Fluttershy flew over the mound and saw the alicorn wobble around in front of the large cave with a dazed expression. Eventually she fell back on her haunches and stared blankly ahead.
”Ehm, Twilight, what happened!? Are you okay!?” Fluttershy flew up to her friend and looked her over worriedly.
”I was just looking around when suddenly it sounded like the thunder went off just beside me,” Twilight answered and placed her forehooves on her temples. ”Ow, my head…”
”Oh! I understand it now, Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed, causing Twilight to clutch her head harder. ”The cultist must have her hideaway in this direction!” She pointed straight into the forest in the direction the cave was open to. ”Come, we have to hurry!”
”Uh… why do you think that?” Twilight said as she got up.
”The wolf stood and howled into the other end of the cave last night! That’s how the cultist knew she should come, this cave works like a big flute! When the wolf howls on one side the sound is amplified and can be heard really far away! The house must be right in front of the large cave opening, just where you sat!”
”It sounds plausible,” Twilight said and looked from the large cave and into the forest beyond it. She shook her head. ”Okay, let’s check it at least.”
*****
”Is this it?” Twilight asked loudly.
”Well… it’s something,” Fluttershy said dubiously. ”But it doesn’t really look like a cultist hideout, does it?”
Twilight could only agree. They had gone straight since they figured out the cave’s secret, making their way through the forest for more than half a day when they arrived at the stone cottage standing in the shelter of an especially old and gnarled oak. The stones were almost completely covered by a thick layer of green moss, including the slate tiles that made up the roof. Beside the cottage ran a cheerful, rippling brook. Also beside the wall of the house stood quite a few queer plants and mushrooms. Even from here she could smell a pungent, rotting odor, coming from the makeshift plantation.
Twilight realized the strangeness of the place, not only because the sun was starting to dip and cast long, contorted shadows over the scene. This was also the first oak she had seen in the forest. Even more though, the fact that there was a lonesome house here in the first place told her that something strange was ahoof. Especially since the flowers pointed towards the notion that somepony- or something- lived here.
Still, this cottage was hardly larger than a normal home in Ponyville. With Sombra’s pride and arrogance it felt incredible that one of his cultists would be satisfied with living in this little house.
Twilight lifted her ears and listened carefully. There was not a sound to be heard from the house aside from the water flowing in the brook. She looked to her friend and nodded to the house. They should stay quiet, just in case. Together they made their way up to the house proper. The odor was even more pungent here and enough to make Twilight scrunch up her muzzle. She soon identified the source to be a few large, aggressively red-leaved vines that crawled over the ground and up the wall of the house.
Twilight spread her wings, took a deep breath and readied herself. If Sombra’s cultist was inside, then this was going to be a bitter battle. She took one last moment to listen before she flapped her wings and flew forward, her heart hammering in anticipation.She came up to the door, lifted it off hinges with her magic and smacked it down. The door fell inward. Twilight was over the threshold before it hit the ground. She landed on it and once again called for her magic. A lilac ring centered on her and quickly spread outward like waves on a lake. It went through the walls of the house without a trace, through Fluttershy, and out into the woods without a sound.
Silence settled. Twilight breathed heavily and shook a little from the jolt of adrenaline her body had received. Her horn still shimmered, but soon it too went out.
”Nothing?” Fluttershy whispered. ”Is there nothing there?”
Twilight shook her head. ”No, my spell would have caught it if there was another pony nearby.” She looked around. The house was gloomy and cold. A slight stench of decay and mold had begun to mingle with the sharp odor from the plants outside. A similar sensation began to prickle her tongue, scratching it like a thousand needles as she stood there. She did not care about any of it. She just stood still, looking around at everything. Fluttershy gently came up beside her. Twilight heard her small gasp.
The walls were covered in shelves, and they were filled with jars, pots, vials, knives, sickles, mortars and boxes of all shapes. From the roof hung a long thread with pieces of plants and mushrooms, evidently for drying. Glass jars of preserved leaves and roots stood in neat rows on the shelves, each one with a small label. Twilight carefully stepped forward. Right in front of her the room broadened, though the shelves continued uninterrupted over the walls. In the larger room she was immediately greeted by a fireplace with a heavy cauldron nestled inside. Beside the fireplace stood a stack of firewood and a dark iron poker. The only light came from a window, nearly covered by another line of drying plants. Her eyes fell on a counter nearby.
It took Twilight a few moments to understand what she was seeing, but when she did she gagged in repulsion and took a step back.
”Hmm? Twilight, what are you-” Fluttershy silenced and stared at the jar. It stared back.
Dozens of eyes stared emptily out in the room from the jar. For a moment Twilight thought they were pony eyes, but then she realized they were much too small. They must be from some forest animal.
”Fluttershy, look away,” Twilight told her friend. She went up to Fluttershy and gently steered her face away from the macabre jar. ”Don’t look at it, Fluttershy. Look at me instead.”
”Who would… why would anypony do this?” Fluttershy whispered as she stared at the floor in front of Twilight’s hooves. ”Ponies can’t…” she hiccuped, and for the first time since they came into the woods, started to cry. ”I don’t understand Twilight… Why is it like this here? What in this forest makes ponies do this? How can’t they see that animals have feelings and lives like you and me? This… this isn’t even for their survival!” Fluttershy hiccuped again, swallowed and pushed Twilight away. She flew up to the jar of eyes and grabbed it. ”This is not for surviving! This is just sick! Sick and wrong!” She made a motion to throw the jar, but stopped herself. She instead went past Twilight and out of the house. Twilight watched her open the jar and dump the macabre contents inthe brook nearby.
”No, wait! What are you doing!? I need those! No!”
Twilight was airborne the mere second after she heard the shrill cry. She shot out of the house, located the pony who had screamed and immediately applied the full pressure of her magic.
The pony gave a startled yelp before she was knocked flat on the forest floor as if an organ had dropped on her back. She laid practically flat with her legs spread in every direction. Twilight could see her eyes dilating in shock, even if the pony made no attempt to speak. Most likely the hard impact had knocked the air from her lungs.
Twilight assumed her most regal look and slowly made her way over to her quarry. The flattened pony was completely black, both in mane and tail. She had no horn or wings either, but Twilight was not surprised. All the potion-making supplies in the cottage had pointed towards it being occupied by an earth pony as they had an aptitude for plants and mushrooms not only when they grew, but also when used for cooking and brewing. The pony wore two large rawhide saddlebags, both to them well filled based on how they budged out.
”So you live here, do you?” Twilight questioned regally. The other pony was silent. ”Answer me!”
”Yes, I do,” The pony coughed forth. Her voice would probably have been cheerful if she had been able to speak normally. ”Why are you attacking me? What have I done?”
”Sombra’s cultist has a lair in this direction. Your house is the first place we have found. How do you explain that?”
”I… I don’t know,” the pony said lamely. ”I just live here. I don’t know nothing- cough -about a cultist.”
”Ehm, Twilight,” Fluttershy said shyly, ”I don’t think she can breathe properly like that. Maybe you could just lift her a little?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Just a minute ago, Fluttershy had wailed about this pony killing innocent animals, but now she was worried about her comfort? Still, Twilight complied and lifted the cultist up and kept her hovering a little bit over the ground. The cultist blinked and stared at Twilight. Her eyes had the same color as polished copper, and she looked strangely young, just barely older than Twilight herself, maybe not even that. Twilight suppressed a smile at her captive's confounded face. ”You are an alicorn! You are Twilight Sparkle!”
”So you know what an alicorn is?” Twilight asked. ”Nopony in the village did. How do you explain that? And my name.” She levitated the black pony a bit higher, up to her eye level. ”Nopony in the village knew my name. For living here, in the middle of nowhere, you are very well informed.”
The other pony bit her lip and said nothing.
Twilight nodded. ”I think you are the cultist I’m after. You will come with me to Canterlot, and the Princesses themselves will get to have a good look at you.” If this pony was the cultist, then chances were that Celestia and Luna might recognize her.
”I don’t- wait,” the captive pony said lamely. ”You can’t do this to me! I have rights!” She thrashed in the magic shell, but to no avail. ”Not now!” She whispered something more, though her voice was too weak for Twilight to hear what it was. However, she felt a small tingle of satisfaction at the fear in the cultist’s voice.
”But what about the creature I saw?” Fluttershy asked. ”It can’t have been her, I know it wasn’t a pony.”
”I don’t know,” Twilight said. ”But I think we might get some answers back in Canterlot. I have been working on a way to use the Element of Honesty to compel a pony to tell the truth. I think the method is ready for its first test.”
SNAP!
A sharp sound, almost like a whiplash echoed through the forest. The cultist paled as if in terrible pain, even if not a sound escaped her lips. It took Twilight a moment to understand why, but when she did, she gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof. The cultist’s right hoof hung limp. The tendon had snapped. ”H-honored be His Majesty, King Sombra…!” she stammered, breathless with pain. ”I pledge… to destroy your enemies. Whatever it costs me…”