Sunset wanted nothing more than to get where her daughter was as soon as possible. In the back of her head there was the thought that maybe she was hearing things due to the amount of time she spent in the dark void, and those memories of Blazy were haunting her.
But she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything anymore besides finding Blazy and getting revenge on Sunbutt, and she was sure as hay that nothing will prevent her from making those two wishes a reality.
After arriving to the train station she was facing a dilemma, where should she go next? There weren’t as many guards around now due to most of them going to check on her little fireplace. So she had time to check the map in detail.
‘Where could Blazy be right now? Hmm,’ her eyes glanced at Canterlot, ‘Canterlot is a big no. If she were to be there Sunbutt would have caught her already.’ She keep looking at the map, ‘from what I got from Proud Chaser before his “departure,” Sunbutt is looking over the big cities for both of us, so my destination should be a small town,’ her focus changed to the south of Equestria, ‘Appleloosa, Dodge Junction or Ponyville are good choices. Hollow Shades is another possibility but it’s in between here and Canterlot so there’s probably guard presence there as well.’
Taping her chin some she made her mind, ‘alright, I’ll go directly to Ponyville, hopefully no guards will be roaming around there. Sure, it is close to Canterlot and that could be an issue, but if I remember correctly most stuck up ponies from Canterlot despise the southern areas of Equestria. I’ll check if Blazy is around and then go to Appleloosa if I don’t find anything.’
Sunset then went to the box-office to buy her tickets and waited for her train to come.
Half an hour later she was on board, ‘Blazy… I’ll be there soon, I promise.’ This was her last thought before trying to sleep some. This was a long trip after all.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was not happy with the results her guards have brought to her.
She was on her personal chambers for privacy’s sake, “how is this possible? How can a single mare avoid detection for so long?”
Celestia critically analyzed the situation at hoof as she served herself a cup of tea, “for one side Sunset was always on top of her class during her time in the school for gifted unicorns. She always focused on improving herself, even in combat which was strange, normally brilliant unicorns tend to end up like Twilight, but Sunset was different. Could it be possible that Sunset went as far as to learn spells that were used for war in the old days? For what purpose? Did she suspect anything beforehoof?”
“Then there is the report about Proud Chaser’s decease in a burn down shed on Manehattan, that was Sunset’s doing without a doubt. It is too much of a coincidence to be anything else and still she managed to stay unseen.”
She took a sip from her tea and re arranged the reports on her table, “On the other side there’s Blazing Heart, what happened to her is still something I cannot understand. The spell I put on her brain should have been perfect, how was she able to break free of it? Sunset couldn’t have possibly done that, right?”
Suddenly her room became darker as if it were night time.
“What is this!?” Celestia stood up rapidly and scanned the area, “Gua-“
“Don’t even bother, I disposed of them already fufufu~” a sweet alluring voice spoke up.
“Who’s there!? Show yourself!” Celestia demanded trying her hardest to locate the intruder.
The voice giggled darkly, “A Princess shouldn’t lose her composure under any circumstances. What would your subjects think if they were to see you like this?”
Soon after a soft clopping of hooves could be heard on the room, then a light gray unicorn mare with a long and smooth black mane tied on twin tails emerged from the darkness. On her dark purple magic an open foldable wooden fan was floating covering her mouth, the bangs of her mane covered her left eye and her right eye was red.
“Who are you?” Celestia asked with hostility at the mare in front of her.
The mare grew an amusing expression, “I’ am the spirit of darkness, Nightmare. But lowly ponies like you know me as Shadow Dancer.”
“Another spirit?” Celestia was confused since she didn’t know other spirits existed.
“Yes, you wouldn’t have thought that Efreet was the only spirit now, have you?” She folded her fan and put the tip over her lips as an innocent smile adorned her features.
“There were only legends, but nopony ever managed to get any proof of other spirits existing besides Efreet. Regardless this is perfect,” Celestia’s expression changed to a devious one, “I now can get another spirit under my control.” She rose to her full height.
Shadow Dancer giggled amusingly, “my, my. You seem to think that you can do something against a fully awakened spirit. You underestimate us majesty.”
Celestia did not lose her confidence, “There’s nothing for me to fear, you spirits are just normal ponies with control over ancestral magic, but normal ponies nonetheless. I managed to get Efreet under my control once, so I can do it again with you Nightmare.”
Celestia ignited her horn and threw a blast of magic towards Nightmare; it collided sending the mare crashing against a wall.
Brimming with confidence Celestia approached the downed unicorn, just to hear a laugh behind her. This sent a chill down her spine and turned rapidly.
“Jijiji, you don’t seem to understand Princess. I’ am not the same as my dear Efreet, this body you see is my own. I’m not limited by a host, and most importantly,” Nightmare’s pupils shrunk and gave a maniac look, “I’m not the kind of spirit you would like to mess with.”
Soon after, Celestia was tackled down by completely blackened out ponies.
“What is this!?” Celestia managed as she struggled to fend them off.
“I’m the spirit of darkness highness; I can produce and control any darkness. Creating darkness clones is very much within my capabilities, for example…” Nightmare ignited her horn and formed a black circle in the floor in front of her.
From the circle emerged a black mass, this wiggled, expanded and contorted for a while, until it took the shape of Celestia with darkened colors.
Celestia looked with shock at her dark clone.
“She’s a cutie isn’t she?” Nightmare extended a hoof at which the dark Celestia lowered her head to receive some head pats.
Dark Celestia sat down and looked at real Celestia with a smug expression.
“What do you plan on doing?” Celestia dared to ask.
“Fufufu,” Nightmare giggled, “nothing for the time being, what happened here is just a warning. I’m in search for my dear Efreet, so I humbly request for you to step aside and do not interfere. I have my own plans for her.”
The clones disappeared inside black circles on the ground and Nightmare was ready to leave.
“Wait, Nightmare,” Celestia called after getting up, Nightmare turned her head to see her, “I propose we work together.”
“What is there for me if I were to accept this proposal of yours?”
“My guards are all around Equestria looking for her, I could tell you where she is as soon as one of them finds her, you could escort her here and I will give you a space for the two of you. What do you say?”
Nightmare looked at Celestia with a raised eyebrow, after thinking it for a moment she smiled, “I don’t need you to locate her really, but I’m intrigued for what you want to do, so I’ll humor you for now.” Her expression went darker, “just let me give you a friendly warning, if you try anything funny I’ll kill you. Regardless, I’ll keep one of my clones around; if you have any news on my dear Efreet just tell her.”
With that said Nightmare looked at a corner of the room for a moment, she smiled and then banished in the darkness, moments later the room lit up again.
Celestia let out a tired sigh and waited for a few seconds to compose herself, but after relaxing she smiled with satisfaction, ‘she’s dangerous but she will be of great assistance for capturing Blazing Heart, I will have to put up with her for now, but that will change soon.’
Celestia left the room; she had a plan to make.
In that one corner Nightmare took a quick glance before leaving emerged Princess Luna. Nightmare’s sudden appearance made it easier for her to sneak in the room without being detected by Celestia, but what she now knew was not something to be happy about. She wasn’t aware of the other spirits either and this one apparently is going to aid her sister in her sinister plots, ‘I need to make Blazing Heart aware of this situation at once!’ then she teleported to her room.
Back to the mountain where our heroines were… well…
“Are we there yet? Pinkie asked.
“No,” the rest except for Fluttershy replied.
Ten seconds later, “are we there yet?” Pinkie asked again.
“No…” was the other’s reply with slightly less patience in their voices.
Another ten seconds later, “are we there yet?”
“No!” the others yelled in unison.
Then another ten seconds after… “Are we-“ Pinkie started.
“Pinkie!” Twilight called.
“Yeeeeees?” Pinkie replied innocently.
“You’ve been asking that for the past twenty minutes, please stop it already.”
“But Twilight…”
“No buts!”
“Thank you, darling. I don’t know how much of that I could have possibly tolerated,” Rarity said with a thankful nod.
The group was in peace and quietness for about two minutes, they didn’t notice the two new ponies following at Pinkie and Fluttershy’s side.
Then the one at Pinkie’s side that looked like she was up to no good spoke up, “Hey, Twilight,” she said in her cheerful voice.
“What now?” Twilight replied robotically not noticing the difference in voices.
“Are we there yet?” the cheerful new pony snorted, the other one who looked very bored facehoofed in response. Fluttershy and Pinkie couldn’t help but smile at these silly antics.
Twilight twitched and violently turned, “Pin-“ but her sentence got cut short when she was face to face with a different pony, “kie?”
“Hi!” the light orange unicorn mare with a darker orange mane tied in a ponytail with a yellow ribbon said enthusiastically. “Also no, I’m not Pinkie. I’m Gale, Gale Graywind! And that one over there,” Gale pointed at the other mare who looked almost exactly the same as her but didn’t show nearly the same enthusiasm, “that’s my sis, Breeze.”
“Hi,” Breeze said plainly and without putting much energy into it.
Twilight was speechless at first but recovered soon after, and then a round of introductions happened.
“Excuse me if this sound rather rude but, why are you following us and how did you got here for that matter?” Twilight asked, she didn’t know why but she had a hunch that these two weren’t just any two random sisters.
Gale tapped her chin faking thoughtfulness; Breeze smacked her on the back of the head.
“Ow! Why did you do that, sis?” Gale complained as she rubbed the back of her head.
Breeze’s expression grew sterner. Even if her overall appearance didn’t change at all, it gave this feeling of authority, “Reply. Because you’re messing around with them.”
“But you didn’t have to hit me so hard!” Gale yelled indignantly.
“Counter point. Maybe that way your brain will work better.” Breeze replied with no change of tone.
The rest of the group stared at each other by this strange speaking pattern that just manifested itself and shrugged.
Breeze looked at them, they stiffened in place, but relaxed when her expression softened or at least gave that sensation, “Apology. Please forgive her, she’s an airhead.” Breeze lowered her head and used her leg to make Gale do the same regardless of her protests.
Twilight giggled awkwardly, “Please rise, everything’s ok. Let’s not make this more awkward than it already is.”
Breeze let her sister go; due to Gale fighting back Breeze’s pressure she stumbled backwards and fell on her back.
“Thankful. Thank you for understanding,” Breeze gave a thankful nod.
“Sis, speak normally! You were doing fine just a little while ago!” Gale yelled from her place on the ground.
Breeze looked at her sister with a frown, “Offended. There’s nothing wrong with my way of speaking sis. I dropped the other way because I didn’t like it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gale waved a hoof dismissively.
Breeze was silent for a brief moment but then she seemed to remember something, “Reminded. We’ve been following you for a bit now, we teleported here after feeling big sis Efreet around.”
That last part raised some red flags on the group.
“Efreet? May I ask who that is?” Twilight being cautious tested the waters.
Gale got up and with a smug smile pointed at the unconscious Blazing Heart, “don’t play dumb now, we now that one is Ifry!”
“Hey! That’s how I call her! Don’t steal my nicknames!” Pinkie complained.
Gale booped Pinkie, “I have known Ifry for way longer and she loves me! So she will not mind me borrowing a nickname from you!”
Pinkie scrunched her face for a moment, but then countered back with a boop herself, “now that’s where you’re wrong Galey! My cute niece loves me! So she will not let you call her that!”
Gale scrunched her face very much like Pinkie did due to the boop on her nose. Then she frowned at the pink pony, “Oh, is that a challenge!?”
Pinkie patted Gale on the head, “there’s no challenge when the winner is already decided, little grasshopper,” she said with smugness that wasn’t very common to see on her.
“Oh yeah?” Gale asked.
“Yeah!” Pinkie replied.
This exchange lasted for a good five minutes before something different was said, no need to say that the others were staring dumbfounded at the ridiculous situation playing out in front of their eyes.
“Well my niece and I had a lot of fun playing, eating sweets and hopping around!” Pinkie shot.
“Oh yeah? Well, we got to the fair and Ifry got a plushy for me that I still sleep with to this very day!” Gale shot back.
The amount of random things these two shouted at each other ranged from unrelated to highly embarrassing, how they managed to keep it going with a straight face was a mystery for those who were present.
Ten minutes passed…
Both of them were out of breath for yelling with no rest.
“Well…” Pinkie paused due to lack of oxygen, “how about that?”
Gale was just as out of breath as the party pony but she had one last thing to say, “t-that’s nothing,” she paused, “we’re going to get married!” she shouted one last time.
But what she just said made everypony stop their mental processes just to make sure they heard it correctly.
Except for one, “no, you’re not,” Fluttershy’s soft voice was heard as she closed the distance.
Gale focused on the butter colored pegasus now, “what did you say?”
“No, you’re not going to do that,” Fluttershy repeated in a weirdly calm tone and neutral expression.
“Who’s gonna stop me?” Gale said defiantly not knowing what she could unleash by being so in this situation.
“I’ am,” was Fluttershy’s only reply as she stared Gale dead in the eye without even blinking a single time.
“Worry. Sis, you should stop that,” Breeze warned Gale something wasn’t right for her right now.
Gale wasn’t even paying attention to her sister, “not now, sis.” She waved a dismissive hoof in her direction before focusing on Fluttershy again, “sorry, where were we again?”
“We were at the point where you forgot about the marrying idea,” Fluttershy stated firmly.
“Oh right, how about no? I kind of need that idea to make it a reality you know,” Gale still insisted on it.
The rest shied away without making a comment.
Fluttershy got right in front of Gale, “You may want to stay away of such ideas, if that’s not an inconvenience.”
Gale raised an eye-brow, “didn’t you hear me before? I won’t-“ then she noticed Fluttershy’s intense stare and it made her nervous somehow, “forget about it?”
“You may want to forget it,” Fluttershy repeated.
“I won’t-“ Gale started
“You may want to forget it,” Fluttershy cut her off with the same sentence with no difference in tone.
“I…” Gale wasn’t sure about what to say anymore as she backed away.
“You may,” Fluttershy stared down at the mare as she followed her until she cowered behind her sister.
“S-sis, do something!” Gale asked for help.
Breeze sighed, “Affirmation. I’ll make sure she forgets that, so please don’t traumatize her.”
Fluttershy smiled at Breeze, “thank you very much.”
Breeze nodded.
“Hey!” Gale complained but soon regretted it when her sister and Fluttershy stared at her, “n-nevermind.”
The ones who were outside this little situation just stared at Fluttershy with some newfound respect and a little fear.
“Please remind me to never annoy Fluttershy,” Rainbow stated suddenly.
“I got it wrote down already, I’ll give you a copy later Rainbow,” Twilight added, “I’ll have more ready for you too Rarity, Applejack,” she said, receiving thankful nods from her friends.
“For now I think it’s better if we keep going,” Twilight suggested as she saw nothing else was happening anymore, everypony agreed and they were on their way again with their new companions.
Meanwhile at the cave that was at the peak of the mountain, Razer was tapping his claws on the floor with impatience.
“Mares, always taking forever to do stuff,” he said to no one in particular.
“Razer… you are making assumptions now…” Winter told him as she folded the sheet he put on her during her short nap.
“Probably,” Razer paused to think for a second, “but judging by your interactions with other ponies, I won’t be surprised if I’m right on this one.”
Winter rested a hoof on him, “I just wish they are not mean…”
“We’ll know soon enough I think, I just want it to be today,” Razer said sarcastically as he keep looking at the entrance of the cave.