The small boat, with hasty repairs made to the sails, gently nudged up against the dock with absolutely no help from Sunset. She had been told several times that while yes, her spell had made the boat faster, it was by no means an experience anypony wanted to repeat - especially since they’d managed to avoid death once already.
“I can’t believe you threw our only weapon into its mouth!” Sunset said, for the hundredth time.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Velvet asked. “If we didn’t do something, we would have died.”
“You could have done something else, though,” Sunset pouted. “Do you know how important that artifact was?”
“Yes, I do,” Velvet said. “It could be used to imprison a monster in stone. Since that’s how I ended up using it, I consider it a net gain.”
“It could be used to imprison all of them!” Sunset snapped. “It held them for hundreds of years! Now instead of holding four monsters, it’s in the belly of one monster.”
“We tried getting it back,” Cadance sighed.
“You gave up after just two hours!” Sunset huffed. “All we have to do is dig through a little rock!”
“We have no tools, and even with trained ponies it would take a long time to dig through solid rock,” Cadance said. “Besides, wouldn’t you rather assign some guards to it?”
“...I do have better things to do than get my own hooves dirty digging in the dirt,” Sunset admitted.
“You know, you could look at it as two monsters down, two to go,” Night Light said. “That’s pretty good, right?”
“That’s fifty percent,” Sunset snapped. “You know what fifty percent is? It’s a failing grade! Failing!”
“We’re not being graded on hunting monsters,” Cadance said. Then she paused, mid-step. “We’re not, are we? This isn’t some giant test from Celestia to make sure I’m ready to be a Princess, is it?”
“You’d better hope not!” Sunset said, teleporting past her. “Otherwise you’re gonna end up flunking out and I’ll have to teach you all over again!”
“We should let everypony know they can come back home,” Velvet said. “I’m sure they’ll be glad it’s over.”
“Are you kidding?” Sunset snorted. “The ponies here are always grumpy and they stink like fish. They’re probably going to complain that we made them leave and the volcano didn’t explode. They’ll talk about how we made them walk all that way and there wasn’t even an earth-shattering kaboom to make it worth the wait.”
“She’s probably right,” Cadance admitted.
“We could let Sunset blow up a few buildings and tell them the volcano erupted a little bit,” Night Light suggested.
“We’ll see how much they complain first,” Cadance said. “Maybe if they’re polite we won’t have to burn anything down at all.”
The alicorn giggled, and it spread to the others, even Sunset laughing a little, though more at the thought of actually burning things than the absurdity of the idea.
Three gold-armored guards saluted as they walked into town.
“Princess, we have good news,” the patrol leader said. “A short time ago, the ponies we had in custody started recovering. It was like they snapped out of a waking dream.”
“That makes sense,” Velvet said. “The same thing happened with my father.”
“How are they?” Cadance asked. “They looked like they were in poor health.”
“Dehydrated,” the patrol leader said. “Two guards are still with them and doing what they can. Thankfully one of them had some training as a medic. We’ve got them sipping water slowly so they won’t get sick from it.”
“I’d like to speak with them,” Cadance said. “It’s likely they don’t have a home to go back to.”
“Of course, Princess. This way.”
Cadance nodded.
“You know, you only flinched a little when they said ‘princess’,” Velvet whispered, as they walked.
Cadance blushed. “I feel a little more like one, after that.”
“It came right out of the earth,” the former slave said, through cracked lips. “It actually swam through the earth under the ocean, and our island was just the easiest place to surface.”
“Take your time,” Cadance said, patting his back as he descended into coughs. “It’s over now. The monster is gone. Mostly. It won’t bother you again.”
“Thank you so much, Princess,” the pony said. “We can’t thank you enough.”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t do more. Whether you decide to go back to your homes and rebuild or settle somewhere else, I’ll make sure Crown funding is there to help.”
The pony nodded.
“Once the ponies that live here come back, I’ll get you a nice, home-cooked meal,” Cadance said, patting his head like a foal.
“That sounds great,” the pony wheezed, smiling.
“For now I just want you to rest.” Cadance stepped back and nodded to the guards. “Let me know if anything changes. These ponies have been through a lot.”
“Are you done playing at being a nurse yet?” Sunset yelled, from the door to the guard post. “We’ve got more important things to do!”
“You know, Sunset, I think Princess Celestia would want you caring more about the ponies around you,” Cadance said, smiling at her young tutor. “Maybe you could try telling these ponies that they’re going to be safe because you helped imprison the monster that was hurting them? I’m sure they’d be very thankful.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Hey, old guy!”
“Not a good start, Sunset,” Cadance mumbled through her teeth.
“You better not die after we saved you, you hear me?” Sunset yelled. “It was a ton of trouble fighting that stupid monster!”
The stallion laughed, the chuckles turning into coughs. “Sorry about the trouble,” he said, once he could speak.
Sunset nodded sharply and left, Cadance shaking her head and following her outside.
“Nicer, Sunset,” Cadance sighed. “We were focusing on being nice.”
“Whatever,” Sunset shrugged. “The point is, he lost to the monster, and I won. That makes me better. It’s just the order of things. Me on top, him below. Far below.”
“Where did you get that from?”
“Prince Blueblood. He’s basically like, the highest nobility in Equestria. Aside from Celestia, obviously. He knows how ponies are supposed to act around their betters.” Sunset tapped her chin. “You should probably get some lessons from him if you’re going to be in Canterlot.”
“I think Prince Blueblood and I have some very different ideas on how to treat ponies,” Cadance said.
One of the guards sounded the alarm bell, hitting it with a stick until everypony was looking his way. “Princess! There’s a pony on the road!”
“Is it a good pony or an evil pony?” Sunset yelled.
“I’m not qualified to judge the subjective morality of others, Ma’am, but objectively it looks like it’s one of the guards we sent with the Princess’ subjects to keep them safe while they evacuated the town.”
“They’re not my subjects, they’re--” Cadance sighed. “He’s probably coming to check if the danger from the volcano has passed. We’ve got good news to give him, so this is his lucky day!”
Cadance pranced over to the gate across the road, opening it with her magic so she could get a look at the approaching pegasus guard.
Her expression fell when she saw his soot-stained appearance.
“It’s terrible!” he yelled, sprinting the last of the distance and collapsing at Cadance’s hooves. “We were making a temporary camp in the woods to the north to shelter overnight, and this mist started rolling down from the mountains around us.”
“Mist?” Cadance asked.
“That’s what we thought it was, but when it got to us, we all started choking on it!”
“Oh no,” Sunset said. “Velvet! Night Light! Get over here!”
“Sunset?” Cadance looked at her.
“I knew that stupid fabric wouldn’t hold it for long,” Sunset muttered. When the others arrived, she glared up at them with fire in her eyes. “It was your stupid plan that lost us the Sun’s Heart and didn’t actually trap the stupid smoke monster, so you have to deal with this!”
“What happened?” Velvet asked, immediately worried.
“I flew over it,” the pegasus said. “It stayed close to ground level. I couldn’t get it to disperse no matter what I tried. I waited it out, but instead of fading away, it just crawled back into the mountains, and all the ponies went with it.”
“The whole village?” Cadance whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Princess,” the guard whispered. “I couldn’t protect them.”
“According to what he said, they went this way,” Sunset said, drawing a line on the map. “It goes right into the mountains. All the cities here are along the coast, though, so it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe we hurt it worse than we thought,” Night Light suggested. “It could be hiding somewhere licking its wounds.”
“But it can’t be out in sunlight,” Velvet pointed out. “It can’t just be sitting in the open. And it eats pony magic, so we’re looking for shelter and ponies.”
“The nearest town on the map is here,” Sunset said. “All the way on the other side of the mountains.”
“There’s something closer,” one of the dried-up ponies said, from behind them. “Sorry, I just overheard you talking, and…”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Cadance assured him. “We can use any help we can get.”
“Raven Valley,” the pony said. “It’s sort of a mining camp. It’s in the mountains and isn’t really on any map. Ponies don’t come and go from there so often, but we had a trader that’d do business there from time to time, got us coal and brought them crops.”
“Where is it?” Velvet asked.
“Help me up,” the pony said.
Cadance helped the exhausted pony stand, and they limped over to the map. He looked at it carefully, then drew an X on a deep rift valley.
“There,” he said. “That’s where you’ll have to go.”
“This was a better plan,” Sunset said, pleased. “We should have taken all the guards, though.”
They trotted along the trail into the mountains, following the vague directions they’d gotten third-hoof, though they’d proven accurate so far. Three of the royal guards walked with them, two ahead and one taking up the rear.
“The others needed to stay in town and tend to the wounded,” Cadance said. “I feel guilty about taking anypony.”
“We couldn’t let you go alone, Princess,” one of them said. “Even if you refused our aid, our comrades are caught up in this. That monster took ponies we care about and trained with.”
“I’m just here because Sunset asked so nicely,” Velvet muttered. “I think it was the first time a filly half my age threatened to tear off my tail.”
“We’re in this mess because we keep following your dumb plans,” Sunset said. “It’s too bad you have future sense instead of common sense.”
“I’m here because I want to be here!” Night Light said. “I couldn’t let you girls go after the pooka alone.”
“Well, that and you’re sweet on Cadance,” Velvet whispered, bumping her flank into his.
“Huh?”
“No, nothing, it’s fine. She is hot enough to make the list.”
“The list?” Night Light whispered. “What list?”
“You know. The list of mares that are attractive enough to make you question how dedicated you are to stallions,” Velvet shrugged. “You’ve got a list like that, right? Of stallions you’d be with?”
“What are you two whispering about back there?” Sunset yelled. “It had better be battle plans!”
“I thought you didn’t want me to make any more plans?” Velvet asked.
Sunset was silent for a moment. “...Right! No battle plans!” She snapped. “Your plans are all dumb, so you’re not allowed to think of them anymore!”
Velvet saluted. “No problem, Ma’am.”
Sunset huffed and double-timed her march, pushing past the soldiers to take point.
“I’m still a little worried about what we’ll do without the Sun’s Heart,” Night Light admitted.
“Are you going to blame me for throwing it?” Velvet huffed.
“No! It worked, so… you can only tackle the problem in front of you, right? It’s like when you play a game, you might try to save the best cards for later, but if you wait too long, the game is over and you never used them even when they would have made things easier.”
“That’s a really weird comparison,” Velvet said, giggling.
“Is it?” Night Light blushed. “Sorry. I play a lot of games.”
“This is no time for games,” Cadance said.
They stood at the crest of a hill. Below them, the valley was shrouded in mist. Rocky mountains surrounded it with sheer cliff faces, so high that sunlight didn’t reach the bottom. A few buildings stood in the distant smog like tombstones, black against the white mist.
“I think we’re here.”