//------------------------------//
// A Mysterious Voice 
// Story: The Ties that Bind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

True to his word, Ancient Scroll woke the girls early the next morning so they could get ready for the trip to the next town.

All of the fillies were still groggy -- even Corona, who was normally a morning pony -- but they all did their best to shake off the sleep regardless. Both Apple Stem and Apple Seed greeted the other fillies with an air of enthusiasm Fia found rather disturbing given how early it was.

Fia was most certainly not a morning pony.

The storm had long since passed during the night and the Sun could be seen just barely peeking over the eastern horizon when they all stepped outside. Apple Core had let the group purchase a small stock of apple cider -- both hard and non-alcoholic -- which Yojimbo was more than happy to store in the Vardo.

After everything was said and done, and all the fillies had said their goodbyes, Ancient Scroll started up the caravan and the group was off to their next destination. He informed the fillies and his fellow adults that the next stop would be a quick one to Hayton Fields -- a small farming village that was only about an hour away.

The village was the last stop before they had to travel northeast through another forest. The Farhoof Forest -- while less dense than the unnamed forest they had gone through before -- was much larger and would take at least two days of travel by caravan to get through.

After that it was another week or so of travel before they hit another settlement. With this in mind, Ancient Scroll had planned to use a generous amount of bits to stock up on more supplies in Hayton Fields. 

As the Vardo left the tavern and made it's way further east, the group took some time to rearrange the interior of the caravan to better prepare for the extended journey ahead. 

While the adults were busy unboxing and decorating the sitting room, Blue Moon took the chance to talk to Fia and Corona about her unique issue as they worked on fixing up the bedroom.

"Blue Moon heard a voice inside her head, speaking to her yesterday."

Corona's magic faltered for a moment and she very nearly dropped the bookshelf she and Fia were setting up on top of the black filly. Fia yelped in surprise and had to put more magic into her Telekinesis to stop the rather heavy bookshelf from crushing her.

"Oh, geez!" Corona cried, as the red aura of her Telekinesis mingled with Fia's once more, "sorry, about that, Fia. Blue Moon over there just... caught me off guard."

"It's alright..." Fia grunted, "just... focus on the bookshelf right now..."

Once the bookshelf was set up against the wall, both Fia and Corona gave Blue Moon their full attention. Blue Moon herself was on the opposite side of the room where she had just finished setting up a long thin desk Rouge had brought from her house.

"Now what was that about a voice?" Fia asked as she and Corona made their way over to where Blue Moon was, "you said you heard a voice inside your head?"

Blue Moon sighed and turned to fully face the approaching fillies.

"It happened after we had that... talk yesterday," she explained, "Blue Moon was trying to read her book, and out of nowhere she hears this voice talking to her."

"I knew something was up!" Corona exclaimed gesturing to Blue Moon, "that's why you freaked out all of a sudden!"

"Wait, hang on," Fia added with a bewildered frown, "if you were hearing voices, why didn't you tell us before?"

Blue Moon pawed at the ground and looked away nervously.

"Well..." she muttered, "Blue Moon noticed that you two couldn't hear anything, and she didn't want you to think she was crazy or anything."

"Blue Moon," Corona replied flatly, "did you forget that I had a voice talking in my head? I don't think I told you this, but that voice stuck around for at least a week or so before I left the castle."

"And all that time you never figured out who or what it was?" Fia asked with a raised brow.

"No," Corona replied with a frustrated huff, " aside from when I woke up and when I left, it never told me anything useful. It mostly just made stupid and annoying jokes at my expense and crude comments about Celestia's flank and... just more random nonsense that didn't mean anything."

"Well, this voice wasn't like that," Blue Moon interjected, "it was a lot more... refined? Commanding?" Blue Moon struggled with her description for a moment before shaking her head, "it wasn't like the voice in your head, that's for sure."

"So what did it tell you?" Fia asked in concern.

Blue Moon shuffled her hooves uneasily before letting out another sigh of resignation.

"Blue Moon was... worrried about some things," she frowned, "no... I was wondering when I'd be able to get over what happened to me and at least try to move on, like you and Sun... Corona, and it was like the voice knew what I was thinking."

"Blue Moon," Corona shook her head and put a hoof on Blue Moon's shoulder, "Trixie, we talked about this before. While you do have to move on eventually, you don't have to force it before you're ready. If you're having trouble, talk to us."

"Yeah," Fia added with a nod and a reassuring smile, "Sunset, Ancient Scroll, and I -- and I bet even Rouge and Yojimbo -- will be there for you if you need anything."

"I know that already, believe me," Blue Moon replied, removing Corona's hoof, "I know I'll probably get over it at some point, it's just frustrating and hard to talk about right now."

"Well, why not start with what this voice said?" Fia suggested, "what was it?"

"...It said the 'time may come sooner than I realize'."

"What the hay does that mean?" Corona asked with a confused tilt of her head, "the time for what?"

"I don't know," Blue Moon replied with a shrug, "the time for me to finally get over my past, I guess."

"That sounds... kind of ominous," Fia muttered with a contemplative frown, "I don't like the sound of that," she turned a questioning gaze to Corona, "you're the one who's had a voice in her head before, what do you think?"

"Me?" Corona asked incredulously, "I have no idea! Like I said, the voice in my head was crazy and it didn't say anything ominous or cryptic like that -- well, other than when I first heard it -- but other than that, it was all just jokes and random comments."

"Oh," Blue Moon replied a bit dejectedly, "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me what to expect in case I heard the voice again..."

"Do you think you will?" Fia inquired curiously, "I've never heard any voices, so I don't know how these things work, or if there even is some kind of process."

"Process?" Corona asked, turning to the black coated filly with a raised eyebrow, "why would there be a process? Do you think there's some kind of network of mysterious beings putting voices into ponies heads on a regular basis?"

"N-No, of course not! That'd be ridiculous," Fia replied, her face reddening slightly, "I'm just saying there might be something more to this that we don't understand is all."

"Well in any case," Corona responded, turning back to Blue Moon once more, "I get the feeling that voice might try to use you for some kind of evil purpose or something, so if you hear it again, don't listen to it and tell us or Uncle Scroll about it."

"And... what if it's not?" Blue Moon asked tentatively, "what if it's really trying to help me?"

"With how you described the voice, I doubt that's the case," Fia answered, "but if it sincerely wants to help you move on from what happened to you, then... um..." she turned to Corona for help and the maroon filly shrugged. Fia looked back to Blue Moon with an uncertain shrug of her own, "I don't know, I guess you'll have to use your own judgement."

"Seriously though," Corona added with a stern frown, "I really wouldn't listen to it if I were you. Whenever I thought the voice in my head was trying to help, it just ended up getting me into some kind of trouble -- and those were just stupid pranks. This sounds like it might be a lot more serious."

"...Alright," Blue Moon conceded, "I'll... Blue Moon will think about what you girls said and what she should do about the voice. But I did have one question."

"Yeah?" Corona replied curiously, "what is it?"

Blue Moon looked Corona in the eye as she responded.

"If the voice you were hearing tried to trick you and was so unhelpful, then why did you listen when it told you to leave?"

That caught Corona off guard and she took a step back. She stared at Blue Moon for a moment before sinking to her haunches and turning her gaze to her hooves.

"I... was in a bad place," she explained, "I had a really bad panic attack and I was freaking out and crying and... well, it was just really bad." she slowly shook her head and looked back up at the other two, "when the voice told me to leave, it sounded... I don't know... sincerely worried, I guess." 

"Really?" Fia asked with a sad look, "was it that bad?"

Corona nodded with a grimace.

"I was a mess, and I guess the voice took pity on me or something, because when I decided to leave, it helped me sneak out of the castle undetected," Corona furrowed her brow, "now that I'm thinking about it... it actually did mention something ominous just before I made it out of the castle."

"What was it?" Blue Moon asked? "was it like the voice I heard?"

"Well," Corona scrunched up her face in thought, "it... I think it said something about Celestia... yeah," she nodded once, "it said not to worry about Sunbutt -- that she'll get what's coming to her soon enough and that when the time comes, I might be able to meet him face-to-face."

"What?" Fia cried incredulously, "how do you just forget something like that?"

Corona merely shrugged in response.

"It was a while ago," she replied, "and I was kinda panicking at the time."

Fia wanted to say more, but couldn't find the words and closed her mouth with an annoyed grunt.

"You said 'him'?" Blue Moon asked, "it was a stallion's voice?"

"Yeah," Corona replied, "and he sounded really old."

"Well then," the light blue filly responded, "if that's the case, we definitely heard two different voices because the one I heard was the voice of a mare."

Fia shook her head and sat down, frowning deeply.

"That's... this is all too weird," she muttered to herself, "I need some time to think... just what on Equus is going on? All of this -- my family, these rebel ponies, these voices, the Princess, my magic... I just... ugh!" 

She shook her head, rose to her hooves, and began pacing the room. The other two fillies watched her mutter to herself incoherently -- their task of fixing up the bedroom all but forgotten in the face of Blue Moon's confession and the resulting conversation.

"Um... Fia?" Corona tried, "are you okay?"

The black filly didn't respond, completely ignoring Corona as she continued her increasingly frantic pacing and muttering. She turned and trotted over to the large box of books they had yet to put on the bookshelf.

Still muttering to herself, she absently began to float the books out of one of the boxes around the room in a steady stream and place them onto the shelf -- in alphabetical order Corona noted.

"Blue Moon thinks the stress is finally getting to her," Blue Moon whispered to Corona, "maybe we should leave her alone for awhile?"

"Good idea," Corona agreed with a nod, "wanna go get something to eat?"

Blue Moon nodded in response and the two fillies stepped out of the room, not taking their worried gaze off their frazzled friend until the door closed behind them.