Applejack could feel her head pounding as she woke back up due to rays of the sun hitting her eyes, trying to move her hooves she found them to be tied together just as her muzzle was being kept shut by some rope.
Chapter 3
Ponyville
Rainbow woke up as she felt a hoof repeatedly stabbing her side, "Yeah, yeah. I'm awake." she grumbled, rubbing her eyes. Outside the sun had nearly set and the world began becoming darker.
Twilight passed an empty saddlebag to Rainbow as the pegasus stretched her legs. "I figured out the guard patrol route after those two guards pass that corner..." Twilight pointed at a house on the edge of town, "... Then we'll have about three minutes we can use to sneak in."
Rainbow nodded while looking at the town, it was anything but quiet in there, you could see various places where fires lit up the street and you could hear ponies laughing in the distance if you were listening carefully.
"You also need to put this on." Twilight said as she levitated over a hood to Rainbow, "Your hair would stand out too much if you just walked around with it."
Rainbow grumbled once again but didn't complain further as she put on the hood, Scootaloo climbed onto Rainbow's back again giving a tap to signal she was secured. The trio stepped outside, waiting in the shadows for the guard duo to pass.
"GO!" Twilight whispered as she sprinted to the edge of town, running into an alley they made a quick turn so they wouldn't be seen by any guards patrolling the outside perimeter.
"I think the middle of town is the unicorn HQ if we avoid that we'll be able to sneak towards the orchard unseen." Twilight Told Rainbow, who had put Scootaloo back on the ground.
"We should also watch out for earthponies, they might not like unicorns but that doesn't mean they'll side with us," Dash said as she checked if her hair, wings, and armor were still covered by the makeshift clothing.
"Agreed." Twilight said, "Let's get moving." The three stuck to the shadows as they made their way through town, to Rainbow's surprise no unicorn guards patrolled the inner streets but Twilight explained that on several occasions Earthponies had murdered the guards in the close-quarter environment of the streets where they had the advantage so unicorns just stuck to patrolling main roads and the outside perimeter.
At some point, the group made it to a little courtyard where ponies were drinking. Moonshine, Twilight concluded. They tried to sneak past but just as Rainbow was about to turn the corner out of sight one of the earthponies spotted her, "HEY YOU THERE!" He shouted, Rainbow freezing.
"Go on ahead, if we don't find each other again we'll meet back at the cottage." Dash whispered to Scootaloo and Twilight before she turned back to the earthponies, "What do you want?" she asked the pony who had shouted as she saw Scootaloo and Twilight disappear into the darkness behind her.
"You ain't from around here are ya." He said as he took another gulp from his drink, "I ain't know any earthpony around here that would wear a hood while in these streets."
Rainbow grimaced as she realized she had stepped too close to the earthpony as he suddenly pulled off the hood, revealing Dash's rainbow mane. The earthpony also looked slightly confused as it wasn't what he had expected, "No head-spike?" He muttered, "Sorry ma'am we sometimes get head-spikes sneaking through here to gather intelligence."
Dash let out the breath she was holding and slowly removed her left leg from the blade gauntlet's activation button, "I just try to hide this damn hair of mine from them." Dash replied.
The earthpony chuckled, "I can see why, you'd be singled out by the bastards every time they saw you." He said pushing a second mug of ale to Dash, "Have a drink on me, the least ah can do after troubling you."
Dash wanted to deny but saw she had the attention of pretty much everypony in the courtyard to some degree, Sitting down on one of the stools she threw the content of the mug down her throat. She almost gagged at the potency of the first gulp she took, the entire courtyard laughing at the disguised pegasus's reaction. "That's some damn strong stuff" She commented as she wiped a tear from her eyes.
"Most ponies don't even hold down the first the first gulp." The earthpony said as he couldn't stop grinning, "Mah name is, Rivet by the way"
"Rainbow" Dash replied, realizing too late that her name might not be the most typical for an earthpony.
"You from the northern earthpony cities?" He asked, "If ya got pegasus blood in ya that might explain the hair"
Rainbow was glad that the earthpony just rolled with her name as she made up a half-truth to tell him, "I was born and grew up in Maresaw, A couple of weeks ago I managed to break through the patrols on the edge of Whitetail. At first, I wanted to loop around the Canterlot mountain range into earthpony territory but the unicorns seem to be looking for something there so I went back to Whitetail to try and cut south through ponyville."
"Lie!" An orange earthpony wearing a Stetson hat shouted from a table over as she had been listening in, "Ah know a lie when ah hear one and YOU are keeping some information to yourself." Rainbow had by this point gotten of her little stool and was carefully walking backward, other earthponies who had previously been sitting now stood up. They apparently trusted this mare to speak the truth.
"Now ah know that unicorns can hide their horn with some fancy magic so why don't ya just show us yours, would make it a lot easier on us lot." She said as a couple of stallions formed up around her.
"Maybe if I had a horn I could," Dash replied getting in a battle stance, ready to activate her blade at a moment's notice. The earthpony mare stopped for a moment as she apparently couldn't detect a lie but before she could say anything another earthpony came running into the courtyard.
"UNICORNS ON THEIR WAY!" He shouted, everypony seemed to forget about Dash and started hiding the tables, stools, and beer while others just ran off into the few alleyways lining the courtyard. Rainbow also not interested in being caught by the unicorns also bolted into a street, she turned a couple of corners before coming to a stop behind some crates.
Letting out a couple of breaths Rainbow remembered that Twilight and Scootaloo had gone on their way to the apple orchard, she got up and took a step in the direction she believed it to be in...
...And then got kicked in the chest by an earthpony.
Rainbow tumbled into the stack of crates as the kick launched her a short distance, "Ah want answers! You show up in mah town, lie to us about where ya from, and then a bunch of unicorns come crashin' our drinkin' evening!" The orange earthpony from before furiously shouted at Dash. The pegasus was struggling to get back on her hooves as she was pretty sure she'd have broken ribs if she hadn't been wearing armour, "You're outmatched, earthpony," She grunted. "I'm not interested in fighting you so just leave while you can."
The earthpony raised an eyebrow at the statement but wasn't backing down, "And do what? report us to those stickheads so we can get arrested?" She growled, digging her hooves in for a charge. Dash saw this and got ready, she wasn't lying about not wanting to hurt the earthpony but she couldn't go look for companions while she was blocking her.
The earthpony shot forward but to Dash it was clear that she hadn't had any formal fighting training, deflecting the first strike from the earthpony and jabbing her on her throat as a warning punch, pegasus fighting style being such that they should be able to fight while only standing on hind legs. The mare coughed as Dash stepped out of striking distance again, "Last warning." Dash said threateningly as she got ready once again to deploy her blade if the earthpony attacked.
Hesitating for a moment the pony took a step back but then picked up a box and threw it at Dash, who dove out of the way finally extending her sword and pointing it at the Earthpony to stop any potential charges. The orange pony realizing the extent of her mistake turned around and bolted. "Oh no, you don't!" Dash shouted as she took to chasing the pony, only having a few pony lengths between the two Dash had to admit the earthpony was seriously fast as she was having trouble catching up. It also didn't help that she was keeping to narrow streets meaning that Dash couldn't use her wings to gain the speed advantage.
The Earthpony took a look behind her and to her horror saw Dash behind her with a determined scowl, making another turn she saw her destination, a red patched up barn on a hill within the apple orchard. Little did she know that by running into the relative openness of the trees she'd be giving Dash a massive advantage. Bolting from the alley the earthpony heard the sound of flapping as she suddenly got tackled from behind, landing on her back she got pinned by her assailant. Her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she saw a very menacing pegasus with open wings holding a blade to her throat.
"You should have just forgotten about me," Dash said as she raised the sword and plunged it down again.
"DASH STOP!" Rainbow heard Twilight shout from behind her, her blade having already slightly pierced the earthponies hide. Looking over at her friend she saw that she was levitating the strange compass in front of her as the needle was pointing at the earthpony while glowing orange.
"Oh great, you're going to tell me she's one of these 'elements' aren't you?" Dash deadpanned, Twilight nodded while Scootaloo just hid behind Twilight's legs. Dash looked back at the orange pony who was silently looking up at her, fear in her eyes and a small stream of blood coming from her neck. Dash retracted her blade and looked at the earthpony before suckerpunching her in the face.
"So what in Tartarus do we do now?" Dash asked as she stepped away from the unconscious mare that lay on the ground next to them. Twilight came up to the mare and started bandaging the wound Dash had made to prevent it from infecting, "I haven't got the faintest but we can't just leave her now and I don't think we can haul her back to the cottage without having every earthpony here coming down on us."
Rainbow couldn't agree more as she remembered that everypony at the makeshift bar had listened to the pony next to her when she said Dash was lying, "I think that barn there is her home, if we sneak her in there you can keep watch on her while I get the stuff we left at the cottage."
Twilight nodded as she dropped the disguise on her horn so she could more effectively levitate the unconscious mare, "I'll take care of getting her inside, you get the rest of our supplies." Rainbow opened her wings and took to the air, it was slightly cloudy and the unicorns hadn't set up any searchlights like they typically did when dealing with pegasi at night. A minute of flight later Rainbow landed at the back of the cottage and quickly grabbed the supplies they had left behind before taking back off again towards the barn, she could see the slight purplish glow as Twilight was levitating the pony up through a window.
"Need some help?" Dash asked as she helped the struggling unicorn by airlifting the earthpony through the window, helping Scootaloo and Twilight up afterward. The room contained a bed and a closet and clearly belonged to the earthpony as there were a few spare hats that lay about the room. "So we're just going to wait for her to wake up?" Dash asked as she searched a chest at the foot of the bed, "Jackpot!" Dash said as she revealed a couple of ropes, throwing them at Twilight who bound the ponies legs together and tied her muzzle shut.
"We'll take rotating shifts watching her, I'll take the first shift." Twilight said as she stat down in a corner of the room with a good view of the bed and the door. Dash shrugged and lay back down, trying to get some more rest for when the pony woke back up.
Applejack could feel her head pounding as she woke back up due to rays of the sun hitting her eyes, trying to move her hooves she found them to be tied together just as her muzzle was being kept shut by some rope.
"Finally awake I see?" She heard a raspy voice say, her eyes snapping open and focussing on where the voice came from. Sitting against the wall of her room was the pegasus who had almost slit her throat, next to her was a unicorn that seemed to just have woken up and on the other side of the pegasus was a small filly pegasus who was still sleeping.
AJ tried to say something but the rope around her muzzle was stopping her as the unicorn walked up next to the bed. "If you don't shout I'll remove the gag," She said, Applejack not seeing any other option made an approving grunt. A weird tingling feeling came from the ropes around her muzzle as the unicorn's horn lit up and the ropes came loose.
"What in tarnation do ya two want from mah." She asked, "I've got nothin' to give y'all."
Rainbow huffed, "You know about us, that's something we can't really allow right now." She said as she walked up to the other side of the bed, "You sure she is one of these 'elements', Twilight?"
The unicorn got something out of her saddlebag, an orange glowing compass, and levitated it to Rainbow. "If we are to believe this thing she is. The question we should ask is if there is one of those gems here as well."
Applejack meanwhile was mulling over the names the two had said, "Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash?" She said both the head of the unicorn and the pegasus snapped to her, "A captain and two lieutenants came by the village yesterday to question a few of us about if we had seen a unicorn called Twilight Sparkle and a pegasus called Rainbow Dash."
Twilight went slightly pale as she suspected the identity of the captain, "The Captain, what did he look like?"
"Stallion, white coat blue hair, his earth mark was of a shield covered by a star with three small stars above it." Applejack said, describing the Stallion she'd seen the day before. Twilight frowned, "Are you sure?"
Applejack huffed, "Y'all calling me a liar?" She said, slightly offended.
Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Careful with your words, earthpony."
Applejack brought her nose as close as she could to Rainbow's, "Mah name is Applejack!" She hissed.
"Calm down Dash, we've got bigger problems. The unicorn Captain described is my brother," Twilight said as she magically pulled the two ponies apart.
Rainbow frowned, "Well Ponyfea-"
The door to Applejack door flew open and a filly with a large bow came sprinting inside, "Applejack! There are unicorns coming to..." the little filly slowed down as she saw the other occupants of the room, "...the farm." She finished as Twilight caught hold of her with telekinesis.
"LET MAH SISTER GO." Applejack shouted as she struggled against the rope, Twilight ignored her. "What unicorns and how did they look?" She calmly asked.
"T-three of them, two stallions, a white a-and an orange one, and one b-blue mare. " She stuttered, Twilight dropped the filly on top of her sister. "He knows we're here, are there any other ponies in this building?" Twilight asked Applejack. "Why do you care?" AJ asked as she kept her sister between her bound hooves.
"Because my brother will kill everyone in this building to find out where I am if he knows I'm here," Twilight said as she strapped the saddlebag she had put on the ground back to her barrel. Twilight poked at Scootaloo, waking her.
"Me and mah sister are the only one here, mah Ma, Pa, and Granny got murdered by unicorns and mah brother is somewhere south." Applejack said, before adding. "Ah hope."
Twilight thought for a moment, "Do you have any weapons here?" Applejack nodded, Twilight walked up to the bed and extended the blade out of her gauntlet, cutting the ropes that were holding the earthpony in place. "Show me."
Applejack carefully walked up to the chest at the foot of the bed and pushed it aside, revealing a couple of loose floorboards. After removing the floorboards Applejack pulled up a unicorn shortsword. Twilight immediately levitated it over and attached it to her barrel while she started loosening her gauntlet. "What am I supposed to fight with now!" Applejack growled as her sister was hiding behind her back legs. Twilight tossed her gauntlet over to the earthpony, "That! You wouldn't have been able to effectively used that sword anyway!"
"We've got incoming! They just left the town and are now on the road coming here." Rainbow said as she peeked out the window, "Are there any back exits?" She asked AJ as she tightened the straps on the gauntlet.
"The kitchen door leads to the back of the barn, we can get out of there." Applejack said, loading her sister on her back.
"Good, that's our exit," Rainbow said, putting Scootaloo on her own back. Applejack leading the other ponies down to the kitchen where they left the house.
Twilight stopped for a moment and looked at Applejack, "I'm sorry for this."
Applejack shook her head. "You sh-" Twilight lit her horn and shot a fireball at the barn, "WHAT IN TARNATION ARE YA DOING!" Applejack shouted as the barn caught fire.
"I can't fight my brother one on one, this might slow him down!" She said as she started running away from the barn, Rainbow running up next to her. "Where are we going!" She asked, Twilight answering in a single word.
"Everfree!"
Applejack skidded to a halt, "WHAT, Why in tarnation would you lead us into that cursed forest!"
Twilight and rainbow also stopped, "If we go north the pegasi will kill us, East is towards my brother, and South is an open plain up until the Ghastly Gorge where they could just shoot us in the back with composite bows, which means we can only go west and west is the Everfree!" Twilight explained, "Even a forest as dangerous as the Everfree is a better option than that!"
Applejack hesitated a moment longer but got moving again after a string of curses, Rainbow and Twilight also turned and crossed into the forest. Applejack glanced back at the burning barn one more time before she ran into the forest, throwing her lot in with the other three fugitives.
Shining stood next to the smouldering barn as a couple of guards dragged a beaten earthpony forward, "Name." He ordered.
"Rivet." The earthpony answered, looking down at the dirt.
Shining looked at the pathetic mud-pony, "You said you saw something last night but didn't tell us?"
"N-No! I-I did tell! I saw a pony with a rainbow mane last night, she said she was heading south, but after the guards came to break us up she fled." He explained quickly before coughing up blood. Shining frowned at the pony, "You have a duty as a serf to report any suspicious ponies to the authorities." He said with an icy voice, "Punishment for not complying with this law is death."
"W-What!" Rivet stammered but was held in place by two unicorns. Shining got a spear and tossed it towards the stallion, the speak impaling the ground next to him.
"But you are right, you eventually chose to do right and report. You get away with your life this time, earthpony, do not hesitate to inform us sooner next time."
Comet Flash came walking up to Shining from behind, "We found tracks captain." He said as he threw a salute.
"Good, where do they lead, lieutenant?" Shining asked his friend, "They ran into the Everfree, Three sets of hooves, Sir." Comet answered.
Shining looked out at the forest to the west frowning at the forest, "Send word to units along the forest border that they have to look out for three ponies travelling through the forest." Shining ordered, he couldn't just follow into the forest without proper gear.
"Are we sure this is Sparkle's work?" Comet asked the captain as he looked at the smouldering barn.
"I can practically smell her magic coming off it." Shining growled, "It was her."
Comet nodded, "I'll inform Swift Star to gear up. We'll have the necessary supplies within two days." He said, "Hopefully command will be a little more flexible."
"See to it." Shining answered, "Dismissed." Comet ran off to inform his colleague and gather supplies, Shining looking over at the forest.
He'd get her somehow, even if that meant that he'd have to burn the entire damn forest to the ground.