Dim light from the moon above glinted off the scales of a fish that passed before me. The fish followed me for a moment, lured by the glowing orb at the tip of my horn. Sand at the bottom of the lake shifted as I sifted through it. I'd been down here for the better part of an hour, breathing via a bubble of air brought from the surface. Several times so far I had to disentangle myself from underwater plants, and the search had gone poorly. At last, I conceded the fragment of the changeling throne was lost, and the amulet with it. With a pop my air bubble vanished when I broke the surface, my ears followed suit with the change in pressure.
“Did you find it?” Applejack stood atop a rock nearby, waiting for me. Pinkie Pie, scraped up but not seriously injured, waited for us to return over by the treeline. Rainbow Dash had gone back to the village to let the others know how the encounter ended.
“No.” I shook my head and climbed out of the water, flicking my wings dry. “It’s down there, I’m sure. But I can’t find it.” Another pony broke through the lake’s surface; Starlight Glimmer was searching as well. “Please tell me you’re having more luck than I am.” The other Unicorn shook her head as she dragged herself out of the lake.
“Only if you’re looking for dirt and sand.”
“Let me try something.” I had seen Sable cast his tracking spell repeatedly over the last few days, and I thought I’d figured it out. Those same magic circles appeared around my horn, with the arrow at the tip spinning in random directions. Either I was casting the spell wrong, or the amulet was within the anti-magic field of the throne fragment. The latter was more likely if I saw it right. With an annoyed sigh, I dropped the spell, looking down at my moonlit reflection on the lake.
“Sugarcube, it’s time to pack it in.” Applejack stepped up beside me.
“She’s right. We aren’t going to find it tonight anyway, that's for sure.” Starlight yawned. “Besides, we’ve been up and running all day, I’ve had enough.”
“What if he comes back?”
“Then he won’t will not find it neither.” Pinkie wandered over, a little unsteady. “Uh, did that make sense?” In context, it was clear what she meant.
“Besides, the Amulet is far out of reach now. There’s no way to find it, and the throne is buried somewhere under the lake. It’s as safe here as it’s ever been. Safer even.” Glimmer was probably right.
“I don’t think he’ll come back anytime soon; we gave him one heck of a beating.” Applejack turned back towards Pinewood Village and started off. I bit my lip, still worried.
“Come on Twilight. There’s nothing more we can do tonight. Things will be better in the morning.”
“Or at least the light will be.” Pinkie giggled, I didn’t see what was funny. “I also want to see how the others are doing with Sable.” That had almost slipped my mind. It took quite a bit longer to walk back to town than to get out here in the first place, everypony was exhausted and weary, the darkness didn’t help. Applejack led us back to the inn, right where Sable said it was, it was now late enough there were no more local ponies out in the street. Spike waved to us when we drew near, waiting out front. We found Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy in an upstairs room, with Sable lying in one of the four beds.
“How is he?” Sable’s eyes swerved towards us as we entered the room, but he said nothing.
“Calm, for the moment.” Fluttershy was sitting beside him. “We’re you able to find the Alicorn Amulet?” I shook my head, letting my gaze drop to the floor.
“What about the thief?” Rarity wondered. “Did you catch his trail?”
“No luck there either. Vanished into the night.” Starlight answered for me as we all filtered into the room.
“Then this was all pointless?” Dash was clearly disheartened.
“Hardly, we got the Amulet away from the thief, and it’s where it can’t be found. That's no waste.”
“And we found Sable’s hometown and family.” Sable jerked his head up, snarling at Pinkie Pie. “Uh, sorry?” He stood weakly and made to leave.
“Sable, wait.” At first, he ignored me. Then I blocked his path with an extended wing. “There’s more I need to talk to you about.” He glared at me, obviously in no mood to talk. “The thief, he said some things I want your insight on.” He lifted his head until he could stare down at me, both curious and still quite upset. “Some of it concerns you directly.” It was easy to see the tension build in him, and his wings creaked and ground. “Actually, I think most of it does.”
“In private.” His voice was cracked and dry.
“Hey!” Dash shouted. “That’s not fair!” In return, Sable fixed his neon blue eyes scornfully on her. A quick survey revealed the others all agreed with the blue Pegasus. Some of them voiced a similar sentiment.
“Sable.” Fluttershy spoke calmly when the uproar ended. “Rainbow Dash is right; we’re involved in this now.” Everypony quieted. “We need to know. Please don’t push us away again.” At first, I thought he was going to push past me, but this last word broke him. He wiped away the tears before he lost control, and nodded slowly. Before I started, I waited until Sable returned to his spot on the bed, still listening but not facing me.
I sat down on one of the open beds, folding my legs under myself. It took only a few minutes to tell them the conversation I had with the thief and the claims he made while I was trapped under his barrier. The only thing I left out was my internal doubts regarding Sable’s recovery.
“The last thing he said was that he swore he would make Equestria face despair, and then teleported away.”
“I doubt this is over. We’ll meet him again.” Exasperation in Starlight’s voice as she rubbed her temples.
“He certainly didn’t think much of you, did he?” Applejack directed this towards Sable. He stared down at his hooves, unresponsive.
“Sable, I know sometimes you find things familiar even when you don’t remember them. Do you feel anything like that about this thief?” He shook his head at my question.
“No. Nothing. As far as I know, our first meeting was when he stormed the castle.”
“What do you think he meant about doing something to Sable’s family?” Dash’s wings twitched. “Could he have wiped him out of their memory?” At this Sable froze, there was no way he hadn’t already considered the same thing. It was different to hear it out loud.
“Why would anypony do that? That’s horrible and evil.” I had to agree with Pinkie. Sable cringed again.
“Maybe he was jealous?” At Fluttershy’s suggestion, Sable’s only response was to laugh once, loudly and not kindly. It was pretty easy to guess his thoughts, although he didn’t share them.
“Well, we do know he has that kind of magic available to him. When he attacked me in the Crystal Empire, he stole something out of my mind. It wouldn’t be much harder to destroy memory instead of just taking it.”
“And what about Sable’s memory? The story he gave me is entirely different.” Sable met my eyes. “Are we going to assume he manipulated your mind too?”
“This is pointless.” Sable interjected, somewhat angrily. “I’m going to bed. If you want to speculate, do it quietly or better yet, somewhere else.” With that, he yanked the blanket over his head and defiantly flipped around, so he faced the wall. The topic was apparently more than he was willing to deal with.
“We really should get some sleep.” Rarity yawned. “Things won’t be any worse in the morning.” Sable derisively snorted as if to say it could always get worse.
“There’s that temper again.”
“This time I think he’s earned some leeway with that. It was a pretty stressful day.”
“So, did it get worse?”
“The short version? Yes.”