Silverstream was the first one to resurface, she shook her head and looked around, Scootaloo floating silently at the bottom of the stream, and Spike had been splattered on impact and was in the middle of pulling the goo that was his body back together, Silverstream waited patiently for her friends as they floated away from the waterfall and down the stream.
"If I'm remembering my Geography correctly." Silverstream muttered as she looked around "This stream is the Ponyville stream, so if we ride down it and get off at the Train Bridge it'll be a straight shot to Applelossa." Spike gasped out as he broke the surface.
"Wrong!" He said as Scootaloo joined them. "this is the Ponyville Stream, but ponyville is upstream." He pointed behind them "We are currently on a direct course to the South Luna ocean."
"We're going the wrong way!?" Scootaloo demanded, "Why didn't you say that earlier!?"
"I knew where we were going! we where in the White Tail woods, getting swept away wasn't part of my plan, all we have to do is copy Silverstream's original plan and edit it slightly." Spike motioned up ahead "Downstream is a Train Bridge, we get out, and it'll be a straight shot to Los Pegasus, then we head to Gastel Gorge, go around the Everfree Forest-"
"Wait I thought we were avoiding Ponyville?" Silverstream interpret.
"-The Otherside of the Everfree forest." Spike added "Then we go to Applelossa, stay a day or two at an inn to rest up, then head to Dodge Junction, then we follow the stream through the Hayseed Swamps, Then do the tedious trek threw Baltimare and Filly Delphia, then when we reach Manehattan we follow the train and then we shall arrive at Starlight's old town." Spike nodded "And then the first third of our journey shall end."
"Holly shit!" Scootaloo said as she procced that "How the fuck are we going to do this!?"
"Oh don't worry." Silverstream said happily "The odds are we'll get caught by Twilight or get bounty hunted and delivered to her before we even finish the first half."
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Spike said with a nod. "But if you want we can just give up-"
"I'm no quitter!" Scootaloo replied splashing her hoof down, "Let fucking go!"
"Worth a shot," Spike replied with a shrug as he dove under and resurfaced belly up "Now we just have to wait till we spot the bridge,"
"Any clues?" Rainbow asked as she looked over the darted map full of possible locations of the runaways.
"Cadance said no sign of them, but she'll keep an eye out for them." Twilight said as she looked over the list "Ember hasn't responded yet, Thorax said he wasn't going to side against Spike's choice, Rutherford said this is just a Dragon thing and to let it go." Twilight rubbed her temples "And Celestia just wants to meet Spike's Girlfriend, Luna said she'd try to track them down in their sleep but no promises, so by the by..."
"We're pretty much on our own here," Rainbow said as she looked around the map, next to her Princess Skystar and Pinkie were putting darts in interesting locations,
"Oh don't worry Dashie," Pinkie said casually "Twilight will figure out the obvious way to tack them soon."
"What?" both Twilight and Rainbow asked in unison looking at her, Pinkie blinked.
"Well, you said they used A Teleportation potion right? the ones you made right? So just...go to where you keep them and locate the ones that are missing." Twilight stared at Pinkie slack-jawed. before face hoofing herself.
"I'm a Celestia damed idiot!" Twilight turned on the spot and B-lined it to her potion room with Rainbow right behind her, Twilight flipped threw some racks until she found the missing bottles. "Alright, he took 4, now which one would he have most likely have used?" Twilight pulled out her potion log and attempted to locate the missing potions.
"Oh, Celestia dammit." Rainbow sighed as she leaned against the wall "This is going to take a while."
The Trio floated in place as they looked at the sight in front of them, after a moment Spike spoke up.
"This isn't on any of the Map's I've seen." He said bluntly as they looked at the mess of a river in front of them, there were a total of 3 different splits in the stream, each flow away from Los Pegasus "this is always just a single stream that goes to the sea, what is this?"
"Guess you should have looked at some regional maps," Scootaloo replied as the looked at the crossroads. "I say we go right, it looks like after it bends it starts going straight again, the one in front looks like it's curving inland, and that other one looks like it was made by Ponies, not nature."
"Silverstream can you turn me or you back so we can fly up and..."
"No!" Scootaloo shot back "No flying, this is part of our adventure, a choice that could lead us on our way, or take us horribly out of the way."
"Well, I think we should take Pony made way." Spike said "Since it was made by ponies, it probably leads to a town.
"I think we should go straight." Silverstream added, "Casue that's the way the Bridge is supposed to be."
"But the forward path curves to the left!" Scootaloo shot back, the right one starts going right, then curves back forward, straight on towards the bridge."
"The left one will, straight-up, lead us to a town!" Spike shot back "Why take the risk of going not going the right way?"
"Spike is right." Silverstream decided "We should go the right way!"
"Ha!" Scootaloo laughed "You played yourself!" Spike muttered irritably as he followed the other two to the right path, "See it curves, then it goes straight!"
"And then it U-turns into the forest," Spike said pointing to the turn. Scootaloo floated in silence as they rounded the bend and where meet with a series of low dips, jagged rocks, and rapidly moving water.
"Oh, this is gonna be awesome." She said as they approached the danger.
"I hate you." Spike decided.