This Nose Knows

by Irrespective


27. - The Search

“Will you stop with that infernal tapping already?” Luna snapped with a lash of her tail.

“Why?” Celestia cheerfully replied, and she resumed tapping on the chain that held her bound with an increased tempo. “Isn't this a lovely beat?”

“Nay, it is not. It reminds me of when Brilliant Idea showed us that ‘mechanical’ pencil invention of his.”

“And I would still be clicking it to this day, if you hadn't fed it to that Urlock.” Celestia pouted. “I think that poor thing is so grumpy because he’s still trying to swallow it.”

“Do you think Shiny could be convinced to move here?” Cadence asked with a small smile. “It’s so delightfully dark here, and wonderfully depressing. It’s the first time I’ve felt a place speak to my inner emptiness.”

“I swear, Cadence,” Luna snarled, “if you mention another word about depression, blackness, or anything else like that, I will personally stuff a rainbow down your throat.”

Celestia giggled furiously, and she clamped both hooves over her mouth. “Rainbow stuffing! Mmphf! Ha!”

A bright flash of light pierced the very air around them, and the three alicorns sat up in surprise as a large cage appeared on a nearby rocky platform, with a weak and sickly-looking Tirek trapped within. The chains that held the Princesses bound then melted away and evaporated, and Celestia breathed in the delightful scent of victory while she felt her magic and her strength flow back into her.

“She did it,” Celestia whispered with a laugh and a smile while Luna and Cadence gasped and drank in the rush of energy. “Twilight has found her place.”

“Ugh!” Cadence shivered and ruffled her wings furiously while doing a little dance on the tips of her hooves. “I most certainly do not want to go through that again.”

“It wasn't so bad,” Luna replied with a devious smile. “I found the whole affair to be most enlightening. Or, perhaps I should say ‘en-shadowing’?”

“We must never speak of what happened to us,” Cadence replied with a blush. “Ever.”

“Oh,” Luna pouted, “but you would look so lovely with some black eyeshadow and piercings at the tips of your ears. Perhaps you and Shining could get a matching set?”

“Never. Again.” Cadence dropped her face into her hooves. “I don't even want to think about the jokes Shiny would come up with.”

Cadence’s aunts shared a laugh, but then both crossed their hearts with their hooves.

“We both Pinkie Promise to never speak of this again,” Luna offered.

“Except for Bean. I think he should be told,” Celestia offered with a quick waggle of her eyebrows. “But we’ll also have him promise to keep it to himself.”

“We should return to them.” Cadence flared her wings with her fellow alicorns and all three took to the air. “I don't know about you, Aunt Celly, but I want to grab my husband… um, pull him into a tight embrace, and never let go. Yes, that's it.”

“Indeed,” Celestia replied with a deep smile. “I am most eager to reclaim my Bean.”

But as the three rose towards the light of Equestria, Luna couldn't help herself.

“You could always add just one streak of black to your mane, you know.”

“Absolutely not!”


Celestia let loose a nicker of delight while her wings propelled her towards her Beloved. She had it all planned out: first, she was going to entice Bean out of the safehouse with some teasing laughs and gentle summons, and then she was going to tackle him when he rounded the corner to the old throne room, and then she would hold him as closely as she could for as long as possible. Tickling would certainly be involved. And kissing. Lots of kissing. Enough kissing that he would blush right down to the roots of his adorable ears and complain, although not too loudly. Even in her recent less-than-ideal mental state, she had pined for his love and his loving embrace, and now that all was well, there was nothing that would keep her from that delightful and delectable yellow stallion and his world-altering kisses.

That was until she heard a deep rumbling, and a bright rainbow burst out of the Everfree Forest and touched down at the outskirts of Ponyville. The origin point appeared to be where the Tree of Harmony was located, and all three Princesses halted in mid-air.

“Aunt Celly? What is that?” Cadence asked.

The answer showed itself before Celestia could reply. Before their eyes, and to their great astonishment, a giant crystalline castle fairly exploded up and out of the ground, and the three alicorns shared an “ooh” together while they flew towards the new structure.

“It would appear that your most faithful student has unlocked the chest,” Luna observed while they touched down in front of the new glittering building. “And now, all the Princesses of Equestria have a castle to call their own.”

Celestia felt like she might burst with joy. She had always known that Twilight Sparkle would achieve her own greatness in due time, but now that the time was here, she couldn't help but be proud.

“Do we need to worry about him?” Cadence asked, and she trotted over to a small blue foal who was clinging to a nearby tree branch like his life depended on it, and was chewing on the bark with all of his might. “Hey little guy, how’d you get up here?”

“Why don’t you slag off, and mind your own-GAH!” A sudden snap of the branch sent the little colt tumbling down, only to be snared in Cadence’s aura.

“Whoa! Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Flint growled softly. “When my day of reckoning comes, you and yours will be spared,” he grumbled before being hefted into her arms.

“I appreciate that very much,” she giggled before giving him a nuzzle. ”C’mon, let’s go find your mommy.”

“Perhaps if you dropped him it may improve his disposition,” Luna dryly suggested.

Flint answered this with a contemptuous hiss. “No such quarter shall be granted to you, moon hag. And let me go! I have laid waste to countless civilizations; I'm more than capable of finding my own ‘mother.’”

“It’s probably best to do as he requests,” Celestia replied with an amused shake of her head. She then began to mentally organize a list of things she would need to do before she could properly celebrate the week-long party that Pinkie Pie was bound to produce, and she put one particular entry at the very top with a smile.

☐ - Recover one husband.
☐ - Find a private location.
☐ - Tell Bean about Epiphany.

Twilight and her friends then popped in with a flash of light, and Celestia smiled all the more when she beheld the new and colorful transformation Twilight and her friends had undergone. While she would need to confirm what she suspected, she was confident that the Elements of Harmony - or the power of the Elements, perhaps - were once again available to ponykind.

Celestia then started to congratulate the Element Bearers, but the words were cut off when Applejack gasped.

“Great hopping horny toads! Where’s Bean? Bean!”

Five ponies then galloped past her at full speed, their appearances having reverted back to normal, and Celestia watched them for a moment before returning to her former student.

“Twilight?” she asked calmly despite the leaden lump that was building in her stomach. “Is everything all right?”

“Quick!” Rainbow Dash’s voice cut through the air. “Derpy, Flitter, Cloud Chaser! You’re with me! We gotta find him!”

“I don't know what’s going on,” Twilight offered in bemusement while the reunited princesses watched Applejack and Pinkie Pie dash off towards the Everfree with a small gaggle of ponies on their tails. “I thought Prince Bean was at a safehouse.”

“Perhaps Bean disobeyed your orders?” Luna remarked while pointing to several scorched and pie-splattered buildings in town, one of which was still on fire. “I have not fought a proper war in a thousand years, but if this is not a battlefield then I am a goat.”

“This is a priority search!” Pokey’s voice rang out. “Execute search pattern alpha, no separation! Move out!”

“Bean?” Celestia softly questioned while a platoon of pegasus guards followed Pokey into the woods. There was a quick flash of golden magic, and Celestia was gone.

“What happened?” Twilight asked herself while she surveyed the damage Ponyville had suffered. “I thought I asked for everypony in town to go hide!”

“Twilight, darling!” Rarity called out with a furious beckoning motion of her hoof. “You know how I hate to intrude, but I do believe that we are in need of your organizational skills!”

“What’s going on?!” Twilight demanded while the three Princesses joined the frazzled fashionista and a nearby group of about ten ponies, but Rarity shook her head in reply.

“It would take too long to explain, and Prince Bean is in grave peril. Simply put, he rallied the town against Tirek, but he was thrown into the Everfree by that boorish brute before he stole our magic. We need to find him.”

“Baked Bean fought Tirek?”

All nearby eyes went wide in alarm, and the group slowly turned to face Princess Celestia. Somehow she had reappeared behind Cadence without alerting anypony, and Rarity chuckled nervously.

“Ah, well, you see, he didn’t fight by himself, Your Highness,” she stammered. “We all helped him.”

Celestia’s stance widened, her chest began to heave wildly, and her nostrils flared. “Bean… was… thrown?”

“I’m sure he’s just fi—” Rarity began, but she got no further.

“SERGEANT CLOVER LEAF!”

The Sergeant appeared in a flash of golden magic, and she nearly flew face first into Cadence. Celestia’s magic instantly snagged the hapless guard, and Clover would have saluted, if she had the ability to move. “Princess Celestia! Nice to have you back, ma’am.”

“Where. Is. My. Husband?”

“Y-your husband?” Clover stammered dumbly. She had never seen her liege so unsettlingly livid.

“Yes. My husband. Your charge. The one whom you swore to protect with a most solemn oath. The one I specifically ORDERED you to keep safe.”

There was the distinct smell and sound of hair being burnt, and the poor Sergeant shrunk back a bit from the barely contained fury before her. “Um, we’re not one hundred percent sure at the moment, but we believe he is somewhere in the central part of the Everfree. We last saw him on an arching trajectory heading towards—”

Clover was dropped, and Celestia disappeared once again.

“All right. We need to get a grid pattern set up,” Twilight announced, and her magic grabbed a nearby stick to begin drawing in the dirt. “Otherwise we’ll get lost ourselves while we look for him. Now, I think I can calculate Bean’s likely landing place, and we can use that as our staging point.”

A low, mournful, and impassioned cry then rose up from the Forest; a forlorn howl that came from a voice that was usually regarded to be the polar opposite of such a thing.

“BE-E-E-EAN! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“We must act swiftly,” Luna said. “My sister will not last long without him.”


Several days passed, but to the dismay of the entire kingdom, there came no trace of the wayward Prince.

In the wake of a victory over one of the most destructive and cruel tyrants Equestria had ever known, there should have been grand celebrations and spontaneous parties that proclaimed the gratitude of ponykind to the Elements of Harmony, but such could not be while the worst was feared for Celestia’s love. The very sun itself seemed reluctant to move, lest the mare who controlled it missed one clue, one hint of a sign that the one she had grown to treasure above all had been where she was seeking.

Even in the newly formed Crystal Castle of Ponyville, the situation felt sullen and grim. Each passing hour chipped away at the hopes of the search parties that ventured into the Everfree after their Prince, and though none wanted to admit it, the citizens of the fair town began to feel in their hearts that the worst had happened.

It was in this most abysmal light that Twilight’s friends - and Applejack, in particular - decided that a frank assessment of the situation was needed with the newly christened Princess of Friendship.

“But what if she doesn’t listen to us?” Fluttershy asked while they made their way to the new throne room.

“She will,” Applejack replied. “She just needs to hear the truth.”

“I don’t think she’s going to like it, though.”

“That may be,” Applejack said as the reached the main doors. “But she’s gotta do something, right?”

There were murmurs of agreement to this, but they were reluctant and hesitant. Applejack then nodded, and she pushed open the doors.

“You alright there, sugarcube?”

Twilight snorted herself awake, and her head dipped dangerously close to the crystal table in front of her before she caught herself and looked back up. “Yes, Applejack, thank you. I’m fine.”

“You sure don’t look it,” the farmer noted while everypony entered the room. “Have you slept at all since Bean disappeared?”

Twilight nodded and yawned. “Of course I have. I was able to catch a lovely fifteen minute power nap out in that big foyer-looking area with all the flags a few hours ago.”

“And before that?”

“Oh, I slept … in the …” Twilight paused, her eyes unfocused for a moment, but then she shook her head and snapped back to reality. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Even if I did have the time to sleep, I have no idea where the bedrooms are in this place.”

“You can’t go on like this, sugarcube. Ah know we’re all plum tuckered out, but ponies have to rest sometime. Even alicons.

“Look, Twilight,” Applejack began by removing her hat and placing it on the table while her friends took their respective seats. “Ah always did like Bean; he was a good stallion and when the time came he stepped up, and then some. He made us all proud. But ...” she stopped and looked around with her hooves tapping on the table for a moment before she continued, “but even if he was the heartiest of earth ponies, there ain’t no way he would have survived that fall.”

“But we still would have found …” Fluttershy spoke up, but she choked slightly on what she was implying.

“True,” Applejack said with a nod. “We would have found a trace of him, and maybe that is cause for some optimism. But let’s be real here, there are things that are in those woods that would carry off a pony and other things that would pick it clean. Even if he had survived somehow, he would’ve been snapped up by a timberwolf, more than likely.”

Silence overtook the room.

“So you’re suggesting we give up?” Twilight asked after a moment, with a cold note in her words.

“No. Not at all,” Applejack said resolutely. “Ah meant what Ah said. He deserves to be found, in whatever shape he is in, even if it is to give him a proper send off.” She returned her hat to her head. “But we owe it to ourselves to see to other matters, too.”

“So we should scale back the search, then?” Twilight added thoughtfully.

“Ah’m thinkin’ so. Three days in the Everfree, even without the fall, is too long for anypony. He’s … he’s bound to be dead.”

“Are you willing to tell the Princess that?” Rainbow pressed.

“It wouldn’t be the first time Ah was handed bad news, Rainbow; nor the first time Ah had to give it. I’ll do it.”

The silence that overcame them was deafening.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight dared to interrupt. “Has there been any word from Discord?”

Fluttershy frowned, and her gaze went to the table. “He’s still very ashamed for what he did—”

“Good,” Rainbow added bitterly, but Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder and frowned to prevent any further comment.

“—but he … he won’t say much else to me, other than to apologize. I get the feeling he is looking for Bean, in his own way. I don’t even think he’ll rest until Bean comes back.”

Twilight rubbed her face with a hoof. “I don’t think anypony will rest until we find Prince Bean. Even the volunteers are refusing to sleep.”

A knock on the chamber doors interrupted the conversation, and at Twilight’s invitation, Private Lemon Tart stumbled into the room. She removed her helm and bowed to the Princess, but for a moment, Twilight was afraid Tart wouldn’t be able to pick her head back up again.

“Search Group Foxtrot reporting in, Princess. Sector fifty five has been cleared.”

Twilight’s magic picked up a nearby wax pencil, and she put a large X on a map that was spread before her. A few papers and scrolls then floated over, and Twilight shuffled them for a moment before writing on one of them.

“Did you find anything at all, Private?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Frogs. Mosquitos. A few dragonflies. Peat moss.”

“That’s better than Search Group Tango,” Twilight chuckled mirthlessly. “They stumbled into a nest of chimeras, with newborns. I was told Bon Bon only needed three stitches, and Lyra insists she’ll regain her hearing in a day or two.”

“What are your orders, Princess?”

Twilight took a long look at the Private. Her eyes were sunken, bloodshot, and hollow; her coat was nearly covered from withers to hooves in mud and dirt, twigs and branches were hopelessly tangled in her mane and tail, and her armor looked like it was beginning to rust in places.

“Is the rest of your group outside?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, ma’am. They’re ready and rearing to get back to the search. Oh, I was also supposed to report that Doctor Whooves is still working on the calibration to his ‘Bean Counting’ machine. I still have no idea how that’s supposed to find the Prince, but I did promise to relay the message.”

“Thank you, Private,” Twilight replied with a glance over to Applejack, who nodded slowly. “I think the best thing to do for now is to get some rest. You’ve all been putting in long hours, and you need to take a break.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Tart replied with a sloppy salute. “I’ll tell Foxtrot they have half an hour, and then we’ll start on sector fifty six.”

“No, wait. I said you and your group need to rest. Have the local ponies go home for the night, and you go find a bed. I’m sure there’s one around here somewhere. I’ll have you report back at oh-six hundred tomorrow morning.”

Tart didn’t move, and Twilight worried for a moment that her words had knocked out what little sense remained in the harried guard. There was a slow blink, and then confusion, before the reply came.

“But what about Bean, ma’am? We need to find him.”

“Yes, but you’re not going to find him in the state you’re in. Really. I have plenty of patrols still out, so you can take a break. Please don’t make me order you.”

“Very well, ma’am.” Tart replied, and her eyes drifted to the floor. “I’ll tell everypony to regroup at oh-six hundred.”

“Thank you, Private. You may go.”

Tart then simply shuffled out, and the doors closed softly behind her.

“Y’see?” Applejack pointed to the door. “That’s exactly what Ah’m talking about!”

“I know, I know,” Twilight groaned. “But you saw how disappointed she was! I feel so horrible about telling them to stop. They’re desperate to find him.”

“Just like the Princess is,” Applejack observed. “Celestia ain’t even returned to Canterlot yet. She spends all her time out in them woods. Shoot, Ah think she’s felled half of the trees in the Everfree in her desperation. Do we even know if she’s been taking care of the sun like she should?”

“I know she has been,” Twilight replied with a wry smile. “Princess Luna isn't covered in hives.”

“Still, she can't go on like she’s been doing. C’mon, she was your teacher. Can’t you talk the Princess into taking a break? If she did, the rest of them would follow.”

“Would you take a break if it was Big Mac out there?” Twilight hunched over the map, and she made a few marks to indicate where the search parties should be. “Neither will she.”

“Twilight, she’s starting to scare the searchers,” Applejack stated with the concern heavy in her voice. “The way she acted when that hydra ate that Pokey feller ... ah didn't even know there was a spell to make one of them critters dump the contents of their stomach that way. And so rapidly.”

“She’s not the only one that’s taking this badly. Sergeant Pokey had to be tied down to his hospital bed, otherwise he’d be back out there. And Sergeant Clover hasn't been seen for …” Twilight paused and she quickly looked over some papers, “thirty-two hours. I’m worried about her, but she told me she wouldn’t be back until she found him.”

“I think Celestia scared the applesauce out of her when she first found out Bean was missing.”

“A fact I greatly regret,” Celestia said while she strode into the room, and the Element Bearers stood and bowed. “Please, there’s no need for that. You are right, Applejack, my behavior was most unbecoming, and I should not have allowed my anger to flare out of control as it did. I will make amends when I can, but at this moment I am in need of your help, Twilight.”

“Of course, Princess! What do you need?”

“I believe I have a scrying spell that can find Bean, but I do not possess enough power on my own to make it effective.”

“But, all of our other scrying spells haven’t been able to penetrate the overgrowth and the trees. What did you do to compensate for that?”

“Another time, Twilight. Please. I will share everything I have done with you, but we must find Bean first. I am greatly concerned for his welfare at this point.”

“Oh! Right, sorry. Let’s go.”

“Applejack, could I ask a favor of you as well?” Celestia asked.

“Sure thing.” Applejack smiled. “Just name it.”

“Garbanzo and Lima are due to check back in with their search party in ten minutes. When they do, will you please escort them to Town Hall? Once we determine Bean’s location, I want them to accompany me for his retrieval.”

“Ah’ll make sure they get there, Princess.”

“Thank you,” Celestia replied.

The two Princesses of Equestria then made their way towards the exit with calls for good luck from the group, and Twilight took a few moments in the ensuing silence to evaluate her revered teacher and personal friend. Celestia had been out searching for Bean nearly non-stop, usually with a search party but a few times by herself. Applejack had been right to worry about Celestia’s mental and physical well-being; Twilight was sure the Princess hadn’t slept since the search began. She would insist the searchers eat and drink before she did when meals were prepared, and now that Twilight thought about it, it was very possible that Celestia had eaten as often as she’d slept.

“This is a fine castle you have been gifted with, Twilight,” Celestia remarked while they approached the main doors. “I would greatly appreciate you taking me on a tour, when all of this is settled and resolved.”

“I would love to, Princess. I’d just need to figure out where everything is first.”

A wan smile came to the solar princess, but Twilight couldn’t help but notice the deep lines that had formed in the corners of Celestia’s eyes and along her cheekbones. They made her look so depressed, so dejected.

So old.

Twilight had never been able to envision Celestia as anything other than her eternally youthful self, but for the first time, the everlasting bringer of the day began to look her age, and it broke Twilight’s heart anew.

“Um, Princess? Can I ask you something?” Twilight quietly asked while her magic opened the main doors of the castle.

“Of course, Twilight. What is it?”

“Have you slept at all since Bean disappeared?”

Celestia faltered, but just for a moment. “I have not, Twilight. I doubt that I will be able to do so until I have recovered my Bean.”

“You do realize that there’s a good chance he’s … um …”

“I refuse to believe that,” Celestia stated firmly, and her face hardened into a scowl of determination. “He would not leave me, nor would I leave him, for any reason. He is out there, and he awaits our rescue. He may be disoriented and confused, alone and injured, but he is there.”

“Are you mad at him?”

Celestia didn’t get a chance to answer. Luna landed before them at that exact moment, and she nodded quickly before falling in step with her fellow alicorns. “Everything has been prepared, Sister. Cadence awaits us, and she has a scrying crystal that has been cut and calibrated according to your instructions.”

“Did you review my notes?” Celestia asked, and Luna nodded again.

“Indeed. To my eyes, you have done no wrong. Perhaps you should allow Twilight to review the formula, though.”

“I’ll look it over only if it doesn’t work,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “I’m sure Princess Celestia got it right.”

“Then come. We must make haste.”

The remainder of the trot to Town Hall was in determined silence, but when they entered the main meeting hall, Twilight paused. A large, pewter colored crystal stood in the center of the room, easily standing at her height and shining with a clarity that she’d only seen in the Crystal Heart. Cadence stood nearby and she gave a quick hug to her sister-in-law, and then Twilight noticed her brother was drawing some rather intricate runes around the base of the crystal.

“You’re going to amplify the scrying spell by synchronizing four spells into one,” Twilight observed while she looked Shining’s work over.

“Yes,” Celestia replied. “The crystal should be able to provide the amplification we need to penetrate through the forest and allow us to find Bean quickly. Shining Armor, are the runepaths ready?”

“Just about … got it,” he announced, and he stepped back to admire his handiwork. “That should do it.”

“Thank you. Cadence, Twilight, may I impose upon you one more time?”

“Of course!” Cadence replied, and she quickly moved over to one of the rune circles that had been created.

“Are you assuming that I will help, Sister?” Luna teased while moving over to another circle. “There is no need to ask, for it is a foregone conclusion?”

“Luna, I am so sorry! I should have—”

“You are just too easy to tease sometimes, Celly,” Luna cut her off with a sly grin and a wink. “We both know you never need to ask for my assistance.”

“Thank you, dear sister,” Celestia replied while she moved to her own spot. “Twilight, are you prepared?”

“Shining, you really should have used a potrubie hlavný pattern, not a splynutie.” Twilight replied while she studied the runemarks in front of her. “You could gain a twelve percent increase in output if you had … oh.” Twilight smiled sheepishly when she looked up and saw everypony staring at her. “Right. It’s fine, the amplification factor is well beyond what you need.”

“I’ll remember that for next time, Twily.” Shining chuckled.

“Let us begin. Remember to focus all your thoughts on Baked Bean while the spell is being cast,” said Celestia. “This should only take a minute, at most.”

Four alicorns brought their magic up to full power, and in unison, four alicorns aimed a magical stream of energy at the crystal before them. The runemarks on the floor began to glow and pulse with energy, and it only took a moment for Twilight to feel the same surge of power that she had felt when the totality of alicorn magic had been gifted to her by her fellow Princesses.

For a brief moment, Twilight’s concentration was broken when she heard Cadence gasp and saw her falter slightly from the surge of magic, but she quickly regained her composure and stood tall, and by appearances, she was giving this spell everything she had. Twilight then forced herself to think of Baked Bean, of his visit to Ponyville and when she had first met him in Canterlot. She thought of both weddings he had shared with Celestia, and how happy her teacher had been in those moments. She thought of how that happiness had grown and ingrained into not only Celestia, but outwards from her and to all of the little ponies she served, day in and day out. She thought of the immense loss Equestria would feel if Bean was no longer the Prince, and she fought back a sniffle when she thought of the personal agony she would feel if Bean was no more.

The crystal before them began to glow, but instead of producing a clear picture of Baked Bean or his location, the crystal simply became cloudy and full of darkness. Twilight felt her confusion building, but she doubled her effort to pour magic in, and she began to grunt and sweat slightly from exertion. Maybe, with just a bit more energy and magic, the spell could penetrate through whatever was blocking out Bean, and …

“Watch out!” Shining Armor yelled, and he managed to form a shield around the crystal a mere instant before the whole of it cracked and shattered like a broken mirror. Without his shield, shards of razor sharp crystal would have been sent flying in all directions, and Twilight smiled deeply when she saw that her brother had flung himself between his wife and the potential explosion.

“I don't understand.” Celestia’s magic conjured up a large blackboard covered in magical, elemental, and mathematical symbols. “I accounted for everything. The crystal should have shown us where he was.”

Twilight stepped up next to her mentor and looked over the work. At first glance, she could see no fault in the work, and Celestia had been most meticulous in her calculations.

“Why did the crystal explode?” Luna asked, and she poked at the shards with a hoof.

“Too much power,” said Cadence. “I bet you did what I did; when the crystal became clouded, I forced more of my magic into it. It was too much; and the resulting overflow caused the cataclysmic failure.”

“But we should have seen something before that,” Twilight said while pointing to the board. “There’s nothing wrong with this. The only reason the scrying spell would have failed is if he were—”

There was a loud, crashing thump just before Sergeant Clover Leaf burst through and careened off the doors leading in, and she skidded to a stop on her face. Twilight and the other Princesses were instantly at her side, and all four gasped when they saw her condition.

Most of Clover’s armor was missing, and the claw marks that raked her barrel made it clear she had not been separated from her accoutrements willingly. Her helm was battered and gouged, her mane was half burnt and half torn from her scalp in large patches, one wing was bent in an angle it was never meant to be in, and she desperately clung to something with chipped and cracked hooves.

“Prince … Bean …” Clover managed to get out, but then her eyes rolled back in her head. Her grip gave out with her consciousness, and a scroll rolled out while Shining Armor rushed to aid his fallen comrade.

“Twilight, quick!”


“How is she?” Celestia asked, and Doctor Horsenpfeffer sighed while she gently shut the door.

“She’ll live, but we’re going to need to keep an eye on her. Thankfully, the staff here is top notch, and I actually went through residency with Doctor Stitch, so I know she’s in good hooves. I'll have her stay here in Ponyville for a few days while she stabilizes, and then we’ll get her transferred back to Canterlot.”

“Good. I have lost far too many guards in my lifetime.”

“But you have yet to lose a husband, and I would hate to see that streak end already,” Horsenpfeffer replied with a nod towards the door. “Go find him. I'll be ready and waiting for you both here.”

Celestia nodded and smiled quickly before teleporting back to the town hall. The broken crystal had been cleared away, the runemarks had been scrubbed, and the blackboard had been erased and filled with a crude map of the Everfree. Shining Armor and Sergeant Pokey had been discussing something, but the conversation died with their snap to attention and crisp salutes.

“I thought you were still supposed to be in bed,” Celestia said to Pokey while she looked over the fresh bandages around his barrel, the splint on his left wing, and the cast on his left rear leg.

“Not happening while my charge is missing, ma’am.”

“He ripped the restraints from the bed,” Shining Armor added. “They were still around his fetlocks when he arrived here.”

“I see.” Celestia nodded to the map. “Have you found him? What did that scroll say?”

The two guards exchanged a look between them that Celestia instantly feared.

“They were coordinates, ma’am. I think it would be best if we took you there,” Pokey answered.

~*~

Celestia was sure she would stop breathing at any moment.

The coordinates had led them deep into the Everfree, until finally they had come to a small thicket of thorns and pricklebushes that were growing near a pond that was no wider than Celestia was tall. There was still no Bean, but what they had found was even worse.

“The divots here indicate he came in pretty fast, and at a somewhat shallow angle,” Pokey said softly with a nod to the apparent landing site. “And we can pretty well see which trees he hit on the way in. The, um, tracks in the dirt parallel the bloodtrail, and they are those of a chimera. We think there is a nearby nest that came to investigate, and it may be that is what caused the injuries to Sergeant Clover, but we haven't been able to confirm anything yet.”

Pokey paused, and both he and Shining Armor swallowed hard. “Princess, I'm afraid we have no choice but to conclude that the Prince was killed by the chimera, or that he perished upon landing and his body was taken. There are no hoofprints or any other signs that would indicate that Prince Bean left here under his own power.”

Fire roared in her mind, an all consuming blaze that could devour the world, and in particular, every infernal chimera in the forest. They dared to consume her Beloved? For that, they would burn with fire eternal, and the world would gawk and tremble at the blazing pit her rage would leave where there once was untamed wilderness.

“Aunt Celly? Are you okay?” Shining gently touched her shoulder.

Celestia’s eyes popped open, and for a brief moment, she could feel them burning with the golden fury of the one who could never be satisfied. She forced herself to take deep breaths, and she nodded slowly after a minute.

“Captain, please have all the searchers meet at the town hall. There is no reason for them to risk their lives any longer. I would like one small squad to remain and continue searching until we know for sure what happened.”

“Of course. I’ll put my best soldiers on it. We’ll find him, no matter what.”

“Thank you. I … I will need a few moments alone.”

“We’ll see you back in town, ma’am,” Pokey replied with a grim nod.

Celestia spread her wings and took to the air quickly. She could feel her burning anger rising within her, pulsing and pushing with every wild beat of her broken heart. If she did not remove herself from the forest, there would be almost nothing that could keep her from turning the whole place to ash and burning cinders.

“No,” she told herself with a long and shuddering breath. “I will harm no creature simply because it was acting upon instinct. The fault is mine, and the blame for what has happened belongs on me and none other.”

But she knew there was a way to bring him back to her. There was a power, a raw well of pure energy that she could draw from to keep her from feeling the pain of Bean’s loss.

“I will not tread that path,” she stated with tears in her eyes. “If I let it out, I will experience a pain beyond any mortal comprehension.”