By the time the refugees finally met up with the Equestrians, this one was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The Shimmer-mare had vanished in the middle of the night after the Glimmer-nag attacked us, and then Puzzle and the Heartstrings-mare went chasing off after her. This one was left alone with the column, all by itself. They told this one that it needed to make sure the Shimmer-mare’s letter made it to The White Pony, but it suspected that was really just an excuse to leave it behind while they all ran off into another situation that was too dangerous for a little kid.
Not that this one could blame them. It was not looking forward to getting home and telling Mom and Dad about everything that had happened in Northmarch. This one would be lucky if they even let it leave the house again before its eighteenth birthday.
This one didn’t know what to do with itself. Shimmer-mare had gone off to try and fight the dragon who had ... who had...
And now she was all by herself. Not that this one could’ve done anything to help her, but it wanted to be there. It was her apprentice—it should be there to help her whenever she needed it. But it couldn’t do anything. It was just a stupid little grub who couldn’t do anything more than carry a letter to someone older and more important.
At least once we met up with the Equestrians this one could do the one thing it was capable of. The army waiting for us was the biggest this one had ever seen, far larger than the last clan muster. Evidently the White Pony took Blackfyre’s return very seriously. This one had always known Equestria was a massive nation, but there had to be tens of thousands of soldiers here, and this was just one army. It made this one feel very, very small.
A detachment of soldiers met up with the refugee column, accompanied by carts full of fresh food and loaded down with medical supplies and ponies who knew how to use them. This one was glad to see the civilians getting the help they needed, but hundreds of soldiers and thousands of refugees scrambling about added an extra layer of chaos that made it that much harder for this one to get anywhere.
This one had spent the last half hour trying to find someone to help it, but they’d all been too busy to pay attention to it. Thankfully its education in the clan had included lessons on Equestrian military rank insignia, so it eventually managed to spot an officer who didn’t seem to be too busy at the moment. It rushed over to him. “This o—” I caught myself and quickly corrected. “Sorry, I need to talk to someone in charge! It can’t wait, please!”
The officer, a second lieutenant, blinked and looked down at me. “What do you need? Trying to find your parents?”
“No, I have a letter from the front line for the White Pony!” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to remember that I was supposed to be acting like a pony, not a Free Mind. Most of the Equestrians didn’t have anywhere near enough experience with Free Minds to recognize our names. “For Princess Celestia, from Sunset Shimmer. This one needs to see her at once!”
The soldier sighed and gave this one an infuriatingly patient and just a touch condescending look this one had become all too familiar with over the last half hour. “I’m sorry, but Princess Celestia is very busy talking to a lot of very important ponies and caribou about really important things. But if there’s anything I can help you with, like finding your parents, I’d be happy to—”
“This one’s parents are thousand of miles—” This one groaned and turned its back on him, stomping off to find someone more useful. Trying to argue with an adult once they’ve decided you’re just a stupid kid who doesn’t need to be taken seriously was pointless. He wouldn’t really listen no matter what this one said.
Clearly this one needed to alter its approach. Find someone who would take it seriously, and had enough rank to make others do so as well. And figure out what to say that would immediately get their attention before their ‘It’s a kid, don’t take it seriously’ instincts kicked in.
This one spent a few minutes wandering the camp until it spotted a likely pony: a pegasus mare with captain’s bars who carried herself like Mom; a soldier who’d been in a lot of fights and knew how to handle herself. Even more interesting, she had a red insignia on her armor this one had only ever seen in books—she was a Kicker.
Sure, our clans might have fought once in the ancient past, but that was a long time ago and a fellow clanpony would still be way more reasonable than the average soldier. Not to mention it gave this one an obvious way in. It rushed over to her, slipping past a couple soldiers who had been busy around her. “Captain Kicker, ma’am—hi, sorry! This can't wait! This one’s Kukri Doo and it has a really important message!”
As this one had hoped it would, dropping the clan name was enough to get her attention. She turned to face this one, and her face staying serious and businesslike instead of shifting to the one adults always use when they think they’re indulging a stupid little grub acting childish. “What message?”
Now that this one finally had someone paying attention to it, it realized that it had never really considered what to do after that. It tried to get everything out at once. “This one is Kukri Doo, and it is the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice and she gave it a really important letter that it was to deliver to the White Pony as soon as possible because she went off to go fight the evil dragon so now this one has to go to the White Pony with the letter to tell her what happened and it doesn’t know what to do and if it gets this wrong it could ruin everything!” This one took a deep breath. “And then the Heartstrings-mare and Puzzle Piece went off after her and—”
The captain held up a hoof to cut this one off. “You said your name was Kukri Doo, right? Sunset Shimmer’s apprentice?”
“Yes! Thank the night, that’s me.” A moment later, this one realized that she’d followed all that surprisingly well considering how fast it said everything. Did that mean... “Wait, you know who this one is?”
The Kicker nodded. “We were briefed about Sunset Shimmer and her companions. The Princess wants to see your master as soon as possible. From what you said, it sounds like she’s not here.”
This one nodded along. “She’s still in the north, but she told this one to bring the White Pony a letter.” This one quickly retrieved the letter from its bag, waving it about. “She said it’s ... what was the phra—right, a Code Gold!”
Captain Kicker gave the envelope a quick once-over, then nodded to herself. “Right, come with me.” She marched off without another word, leaving this one scampering to keep up with her.
“Finally.” After a bit of jogging this one managed to pull up alongside, and thankfully she slowed down a bit to let this one keep up. “Um, thank you. For listening. This one couldn’t get any of the normal soldiers to pay attention to it. This one really appreciates all the help you’re giving it, Captain Kicker.”
“Gust.” A second later she clarified. “Nimbus Gust. I married into the clan.”
“Oh.” A second later this one realized it should properly introduce itself. “Kukri Doo.” Moments after speaking its mind caught up with its manners. “But you know that. Sorry. Thanks, Captain Nimbus. It’s been a long trip...”
She nodded, her attention fixed on a very large pavillion we seemed to headed straight for. Doubtless the White Pony’s; leaders always got the biggest, fanciest tents. “Almost to the end of it now.”
Some guards in especially fancy golden armor shifted aside as Captain Gust approached, and this one could finally see into the pavillion itself. As this one should have expected of an army headquarters there were dozens of ponies, most of them in some sort of military uniform. Judging by the quick and very faint smile and nod Nimbus shot at one of the ponies on the general staff, her husband was evidently among them.
Normally this one might have been intrigued by all the high-ranking soldiers, but the pony at the center of the group overshadowed all of them. Quite literally, in fact. This one had read the books and heard the stories, but had never realized just how big the White Pony was. It’s one thing to read about it in stories, and quite another to see her towering over full-grown ponies the way this one’s parents towered over it. And unlike this one, all the ponies smaller than her could never hope to grow up enough to stand as her equal.
The White Pony turned to face us, her eyes settling on this one. It uncertainly waved at her, trying to get her attention while privately dreading it. How did ponies talk to someone so big and powerful without constantly being terrified?
Captain Gust strode up to her, snapping off a salute. “Princess, I found Kukri Doo. She says she has a message from Sunset Shimmer.”
The White Pony focused her attention entirely on this one, along with most of the other ponies there. That just made this one feel even smaller than it already did. After all, this was The White Pony! The one who’d trained the Shimmer-mare, and a thousand other things. In a way she was even scarier than Argentium, even though her power wasn’t as obvious. Or maybe because she still looked almost like a normal pony, while still carrying all the obvious signs that she was so much more than that.
Captain Gust cleared her throat, and this one realized it had been standing there staring at the White Pony while everyone was waiting for it to pass along the message. “Right, yes! Sorry, hi, Kukri Doo! The Shimmer-mare’s still in the north.” I quickly passed the letter over to the captain, who gave it to the White Pony. “She said something about Code Gold, and that you need to read this as soon as you got it.”
“I see.” The White Pony took the letter from her, quickly opening it up and reading through it. As she read a lock of the Shimmer-mare’s mane also drifted up from within the envelope, hovering in the White Pony’s grasp.
This one gasped as it connected the dots. “It’s for a tracking spell!”
“Yes,” the White Pony murmured absently, not even looking up from the letter. Judging by the way her initial welcoming smile slowly turned into a pained grimace, she didn’t like what she was reading. Her response when she finally reached the end of it confirmed as much. “Sunset, what were you thinking?”
One of her advisors spoke up, this one couldn’t tell which one, though she sounded remarkably young to be a general. “What did she do now?”
“Something incredibly brave and extremely foolish.” Celestia sighed and shook her head. “She went off to face Blackfyre alone.”
“Let’s just hope she went there to fight him and not to join him.” The crowd parted around the speaker, letting this one get a good look at her. The first thing this one couldn’t help but notice about her was that she was a bright pink alicorn. Normally that would’ve been enough to stun this one, but even that fact paled in significance to the other thing about her. She smelled like ... food. All the most delicious food in the world, all in a single place.
Thankfully this one had kept itself adequately supplies with plasm, because if it wasn’t well fed it probably would’ve had a hard time maintaining its composure. She was just so...
“Sunset would never willingly join forces with a creature like Blackfyre, Cadance.” Celestia’s voice snapped this one back to reality.
“It doesn’t have to be willing,” the other alicorn pointed out. “From what you said, Blackfyre’s very good at coercion and magical compulsion.”
This one felt compelled to say something in defense of its teacher. “The Shimmer-mare would never give in to a monster like him!”
The ... Cadance-mare? Cadenza-mare? The Food Pony? Whatever this one was supposed to call her, she frowned and shook her head. “He’s supposed to be a master of corruption. All he needs is a little bit of darkness to turn someone into a full blown monster, and...” She trailed off, rubbing on her her legs as her eyes flicked down to the ground.
The White Pony spoke up, putting the matter to rest. “Whatever the case, we need to stop him as fast as possible. Sunset might have thrown herself head-first into mortal peril, but at least she had enough foresight to let us know how to find and rescue her.” She pulled out a second lock of hair, which had to belong to the Heartstrings-mare judging by the color. “Captain Gust, get Machwing Company ready to move out at once.” She worked a bit of a magic, and the hair floated over to her encased in a golden bubble. “That should help you rendezvous with Agent Heartstrings. She and her associate have been following Sunset's trail using non-magical tracking.” A faint hint of a cold grin tugged at her lips. “Blackfyre might be able to block a tracking spell, but I doubt he can hide the trail dozens of his spawn leave behind.”
Captain Gust snapped off a salute and took the enchanted lock of the Heartstrings-mare’s mane. “Yes, Your Highness.” She promptly headed off at a fast trot.
This one watched her go, struggling against the urge to yell at her to go faster. It knew that galloping about as fast as possible would likely to be counterproductive compared to moving swiftly but taking the time to plan things out. There was no point in getting there fast if the Equestrians arrived so poorly prepared that Blackfyre stomped on them.
But ... the Shimmer-mare was all alone. And up against the monster who’d taken away her leg the last time she fought him. If they didn’t get there to rescue her soon, there might not be a Shimmer-mare left to...
This one sighed and shook its head. This one should be there with the Shimmer-mare. Even if there was nothing it could really do, at least she wouldn’t be alone. But this one couldn’t even manage that much. Its shoulders slumped as it accepted its helplessness. “Um ... I know you’ve got a lot to do, but ... thanks. And it was good to meet you.”
The White Pony held up a hoof before this one could depart. “We’re not done yet. I might need your help, Kukri.” She turned to the Food Pony. “I might be leaving the army soon. If that happens, you’ll need to take command, Cadance.”
The Food Pony frowned at her. “You’re going to go after her, aren’t you?”
“How could I not?” The White Pony answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I won’t leave Sunset in that monster’s clutches.”
The Food Pony’s frown turned into a full-blown scowl. “You know he’s setting a trap for you. It has to be why he’s gone to so much trouble capturing Sunset. It’s the perfect bait to draw you in.” She took a deep breath. “Aunt Celestia, I know you probably don’t want to hear it and you’ll think I’m biased—I probably am—but you’re the ruler of Equestria. You can’t just drop everything and go running off by yourself to go rescue Sunset, especially when we know that’s exactly what Blackfyre wants you to do.”
This one was tempted to pounce on the Food Pony and do its best to pummel her senseless. How dare she try to leave the Shimmer-mare in danger?! All because of some stupid childhood grudge between the two of them—one the Food Pony must have started in the first place. If not for the fact that the Food Pony was much bigger than this one and could probably swat it like a fly...
The White Pony stared at the Food Pony for long enough that the Food Pony shuffled in place, refusing to meet her gaze. Finally, the White Pony spoke. “I know it’s a risk, but if I was willing to abandon the ones I love simply because that might be the safer course of action, I wouldn’t be who I am. Blackfyre may have his plans, but that doesn’t mean we’re walking in blind, or that he’s the only player in the game. Through her sacrifice Sunset has given us everything I need to pinpoint his location at a time when he cannot afford an open battle.” A mournful yet slightly wry smile tugged at The White Pony’s lips. “And Sunset has never been one to fit neatly into anyone’s plans but her own.”
The Food Pony sighed and nodded. “Okay, just ... just be careful. Equestria needs you.”
The White Pony stepped to her side, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “Equestria existed before I was born, and it shall endure long after my death. Not that I have any intention of letting that happen today.”
The Food Pony took a deep breath. “How can I help? I don’t know the first thing about leading an army into Northmarch.”
“Neither did I, when I was your age.” The White Pony chuckled softly. “Don’t worry Cadance, I know you’re a very wise young lady with a good head on her shoulders. And we do have military advisors for a reason.”
The Food Pony took a deep breath, then nodded sharply. “Okay. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does I’ll be ready.”
The White Pony smiled approvingly. “I know you will.” She turned her back on the Food Pony, heading for an impressively massive tent. “Come along, Kukri. We have much work to do and little time.”
“Oh, okay.” This one quickly followed after her, giving The Food Pony as wide of a berth as it could without seeming obvious or rude about it. The Food Pony shot a curious look this one’s way that made it think she’d realized what it was doing, but a second later she shrugged and walked off. She probably just assumed this one hated her because of the grudge between her and the Shimmer-mare. Which ... well this one didn’t exactly know her well enough to hate her, but it knew whose side it was on.
Once this one joined the White Pony in her tent, it felt the familiar tingle of a privacy ward. Then the White Pony got straight to business. “Cadance was right that Blackfyre will try to put Sunset under his control. If that happens, the two of us are the best hope for snapping her out of whatever spell she’s under.”
This one nodded along. “She loves you very much ... and this one would like to think it is special to her as well.”
The White Pony smiled down at this one. “If how much she’s talked about you whenever we correspond is anything to go by, you most certainly are.” A second later her smile faded away into a resigned grimace. “Speaking of personal connections, that is also why it would probably be best if Cadance was not present.”
This one frowned down at the floor. “Yeah ... this one doesn’t know the whole story, but it knows something happened between the Shimmer-mare and The Food Pony.” A second after the words left its mouth, this one realized what it had said and clapped it’s hooves over its lips as if that could somehow take the words back.
The White Pony turned to this one, a single eyebrow raised. “The ... Food Pony? My Free Mind nickname always seemed rather self-explanatory, but...” She frowned a moment, then it abruptly shifted to a smile and a soft chuckle. “Oh, of course. I suppose from a changeling’s perspective she would be the Princess of Food, wouldn’t she?”
This one coughed and wished it could shapeshift its way into the floor. “It, uh, she makes this one think of food. It’s just a silly nickname.”
“One I must share with her when I get the chance.” The White Pony chuckled softly, but the mirth slowly faded from her eyes as the moment passed. “But yes, their first meeting was ... less than ideal. There is no shortage of blame to go around for what happened, but I think I must take the largest share. I failed to realize what a volatile situation I created. Pity we cannot undo our past mistakes.”
This one nodded along. “This one’s mom says that the only way to never make a mistake is to never try, and dad says that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes.” This one frowned, it’s tongue starting to poke out of its mouth as it thought, only to wish that the Shimmer-mare was here to fuss at it about that. It would endure dozens of lectures about how that was not dignified if it meant the Shimmer-mare was back and safe. “Even if she never planned to come to Freeport, she’s done a lot of good. Perhaps Freeport might not be her destiny, but what she did still matters.”
“Yes, it does.” The White Pony lifted up the lock of Shimmer-mare’s hair, pouring magic into it with several spells well beyond this one’s comprehension. “And I’ve found that destiny is one of the most misunderstood forces in the universe. Or at least one of the most debated. I remember an old companion who despised the concept of some mystical force determining her fate, but I think Sunbeam always viewed it a touch too ... deterministically. One of the great questions debated by philosophers over the ages is whether a pony can change their destiny. But the very question includes a dangerous assumption. Have you spotted it?”
This one sat down and thought it over while the White Pony worked her magic on the Shimmer-mare’s hair. It took several minutes and a few false starts for this one to finally hit on what seemed like a good answer. “That we know what our destiny is.”
The White Pony nodded, though she didn’t take her eyes off the spell. “Indeed. A bit of hubris even I have fallen prey to at times. I have been convinced I knew how destiny would play out, only to have my expectations violently shattered. Our destinies are not always what we expect them to be, and perhaps it would be wiser if we never sought to know them at all. Or at least exercised our best judgement, until our destiny revealed itself.”
“Right...” This one frowned, trying to wrap its head around all this talk of fate and destiny. Then it realized that the White Pony was probably just keeping it distracted from the matter at hoof. “Have you found out anything about the Shimmer-mare?! Is she okay? Where is she?” This one latched onto one of her legs. “What’s going on?”
The White Pony frowned, trying to focus on her spell. “I can’t pin down her exact location, so she’s almost certainly within Blackfyre’s lair.”
“She’s...” This one swallowed and tightened its grip on The White Pony’s leg. “She’s still alive though, right? She could be fighting him right now, right?”
The White Pony hesitated just long enough that this one knew she was trying to think of a way to avoid giving this one bad news. Adults always do that, like this one was too young to be able to handle the truth. “She might be. As far as finding her, I think we'll need to try the spell from a few more locations to triangulate her location.”
Before this one could ask how she planned to do that, The White Pony wrapped a wing around this one and there was a bright flash of light. This one stumbled as its feet landed in wet snow, and a second later it gasped in shock as the cold wind cut into it. “Wh-what?!” This one instinctively latched onto the White Pony again, mostly out of surprise and because she was by far the warmest thing present.
This one blinked several times, its eyes slowly adjusting to the much brighter light. We were no longer in the White Pony’s camp at all. In fact, so far as this one could tell we were in the middle of a frozen wasteland, with nothing in sight other than empty snowfields.
This one stared up at the White Pony as it realized what had just happened. She’d teleported both of us, and far enough for it to get this much colder. It must have been hundreds of miles. The Shimmer-mare had never teleported along with this one, and while it had never asked her exactly how far she could teleport, it had never seen her go beyond line of sight jumps.
This one swallowed and stared up at the White Pony. How far could she go?
The White Pony tried a few more spells, frowning to herself at the results. “We’ll need to travel again. I hope it wasn’t too disorienting, but we need to move swiftly. Let me know when you’re ready for the next translocation.”
This one took a deep breath, then nodded. Compared to the summer storms this one had suffered through on the Venture, teleportation wasn’t so bad. “Okay. This one is ready.”
There was another flash of light, and this time we wound up somewhere that wasn’t quite as cold but a lot windier. When it looked around this time, it saw the ocean off in the distance.
The White Pony went back to her spellcasting. This one tried to follow along with what she was doing. Maybe it could learn something by watching its teacher’s teacher?
After a couple minutes of trying to silently observe, all it had learned was that whatever the White Pony was doing was way over its head. Maybe this one shouldn’t be surprised. It cleared its throat. “Um, can this one ask what you’re doing?”
The White Pony spared a brief glance for this one. “Blackfyre's wards make it impossible to directly track Sunset, but by attempting the spell from three different locations I might be able to glean enough information to triangulate her location.”
This one’s ears perked up at the explanation. “Oh, that makes a lot of sense. The Shimmer-mare had this one practice something like that.” This one frowned and looked over its surroundings. “Though this one was only finding things inside her tower, not...”
The White Pony chuckled softly. “The basic principle is much the same, even if we’re operating on a much larger scale than you’re used to. I could even get you to help me with the math, if you feel up to some trigonometry.”
This one grimaced at the thought of having to do advanced math. It was quite convinced that whoever invented trigonometry was in league with Blackfyre and the Old Mind, like some sort of triangle of evil. Which he then used trigonometry to calculate.
This one did its best to put such thoughts out of its mind, focusing on the present, and the White Pony’s spells. “This is incredible. Every time it thinks it knows something, it finds out that it’s just been wading in a tide pool when there’s an entire ocean out there. It’s a bit terrifying sometimes ... but also fascinating.”
The White Pony smiled down at this one. “Yes, magic is one of the most incredible forces in our world, capable of producing wonderous things in the right hooves—or unleashing terrible evils in the wrong ones. Blackfyre himself is a testament to the dangers of unchecked power. With his fleshcrafting he could heal the sick, mend the crippled, and help create new treatments for countless diseases. Instead, he chose to find the absolute limit he could take his powers to, and created hordes of ravening beasts, not to enforce his will or advance some grand agenda, but just to see how much further he could go.”
“He’s evil,” this one declared, shivering as it remembered the destruction of Coldharbor.
“Yes,” Celestia agreed, “though I’ve personally never cared for that term. It is somewhat too broad in attempting to capture the complexities of morals and ethics. Blackfyre, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Sombra have all been called evil, yet each of them is very different in personality, methods, and goals.”
This one bit its lip and asked a question it feared it already knew the answer to. “Do you think the Shimmer-mare can beat Blackfyre?”
“In a conventional battle of strength against strength?” The White Pony asked. “No. But there are other paths to victory. One of the many lessons I tried to teach her: if you can’t win a contest, change the rules.”
This one did vaguely recall hearing the Shimmer-mare offer similar wisdom. “Right, like how she beat the Glimmer-mare. She couldn’t win a duel, so she got Puzzle and the Heartstrings-mare to team up with her.” This one sighed, its eyes flicking to the north. “This one’s really learned a lot from her. It was just a cabin filly when it met her, and now it’s doing so much more than it ever thought it could. It’s talking to The White Pony right now. How many cabin fillies get to do something like that?”
“Not many,” The White Pony agreed. “Though it’s a pleasure to meet you properly. Agent Heartstrings' reports were quite thorough, but reading letters is a poor substitute for a proper introduction. Pity I couldn’t visit Freeport more often.”
“You are very busy,” this one allowed. Too bad this one had been with its family out in the clan islands the one time she’d been in Freeport.
“Yes, but I still try to make time for Sunset when I can,” The White Pony answered. “I would have visited again, but I think Sunset wanted a bit more time to find her own path. Once we see to Blackfyre we should have a bit more leisure time.”
“Especially since you want the Shimmer-mare to come back and teach at your school,” this one said, wondering if perhaps it was speaking out of turn.
“It would be nice to have her back,” The White Pony murmured. “It ... can be a difficult balance sometimes. Trusting her to make her own decisions, while always being there to offer guidance and help if she needs it. If I’d gotten here sooner...”
This one took a deep breath. “The Shimmer-mare chose to go after Blackfyre herself, not because you were taking too long to get here. And you’re still the best parental figure in her life by far.” This one scowled as it thought back to everything the Runeseeker-magus had done. Even if she helped in the later fight against Blackfyre, it had not forgotten what came before that.
The White Pony sighed. “For a time, I blamed myself for Sunset’s poor relationship with her parents. I can rather easily be something of an overwhelming presence in a pony’s life. However, I cannot bear responsibility for Scarlett’s choices, or Solar’s obsession. I might not have planned to find myself as a de facto surrogate mother for Sunset, but fate has cast me in the role and I have no intention of failing. Fortunately, Sunset made my job a bit easier.”
“She did?” This one stared up at her. “How?”
She tapped this one’s shoulder, and the world shifted again. Now we were in the middle of a heavily trampled snowy depression. This one gagged when it spotted a pile of half-eaten frozen meat off to the side. “What’s...”
The White Pony’s horn lit up, and a second later several hairs floated up from the snow. This one recognized them immediately. “Shimmer-mare.”
“She’s been here,” The White Pony confirmed.
We repeated the process two more times, with each jump being accompanied with finding a couple more hairs.
This one frowned and tapped its chin. “So we have a trail. Can we follow it all the way to Blackfyre’s cave?”
The White Pony sighed and shook her head. “No such luck, I’m afraid. I’m sure she tried to leave us something closer to the entrance, but it must have been close enough to fall within his wards. Or he had the foresight to collect or destroy it. Still, between this and the results of my spells, I think we have enough.”
“Enough to what?” this one asked, before the world blurred away once more.
This one groaned and stretched out on the cushions within The White Pony’s tent. A moment later it realized where it was. “What happened? When did we get back?”
“We’ve been here the whole time,” The White Pony responded with an enigmatic smile. “Or at least, our bodies were here. Our consciousness ventured far and wide.”
This one blinked as her words sank in. “That was a ... um...”
“A sending,” The White Pony supplied. “Our minds and spirits covered the distances needed far faster and more easily than our bodies could.” She rose to her hooves, walking over to a large map and marking several positions on it. Presumably recording the information from our journey. “Physically moving both us over such vast distances would tax even my strength, and if we will face Blackfyre in battle soon I intend to save as much of it as I can.”
This one nodded along, watching as she worked along the map, eventually circling a section of the mountains “Well ... that is both incredibly helpful, and nowhere near enough. I’ve managed to pin down Sunset’s location to within twenty-five kilometers of this point.” She tapped on the map. “Considerably more than we had to go on before, it still leaves us with nearly two thousand square kilometers of territory to search.”
“That’s ... a lot.” This one frowned at the map. “But there has to be more you can do to narrow it down, right?”
“Once we start searching the area directly, yes,” The White Pony confirmed, pulling out a quill and ink. “Argentium and I will start searching as soon as we can get there, and there will be quite a few places that are obviously unsuited to a dragon’s lair. Not to mention Agent Heartstrings and Machwing company will be following her trail by less magical means, and might have even found his cavern already. They do have several hours head start on us. I’ll need to move swiftly. Especially since if I’ve calculated all the distances correctly, it’s been two or three days since Sunset reached Blackfyre’s lair.”
This one hesitated to ask the question on its mind, considering it knew what the answer was likely to be. “Is this one going to be coming along too?”
The White Pony frowned, staring at the map for several seconds. “I should leave you here, safe behind the lines. Although if Sunset is under Blackfyre’s control, I might need your help to free her from it. But that would mean endangering someone else’s daughter to save my own. That ... does not sit well with me.”
This one sighed. “But this one wants to help! This will be its only chance! Mom and Dad probably aren't going to let this one off the clanhold for years after this! Not after what was supposed to be a field trip with the Shimmer-mare turned into ... this.”
“I know.” She closed her eyes. “But I’m afraid it just wouldn’t be responsible for me to bring you along. It’s too dangerous.”
“This one knows it’s dangerous!” it groaned. “It knows it’s just a kid, but it’s not stupid. And if the Shimmer-mare gets hurt because this one isn’t there to help her, or if she ... if she...” This one tried to swallow the lump in its throat, but it couldn’t bring itself to say what else could happen to her. “Please. She’s not just this one’s teacher, or just a friend. She’s ... she’s family. Like another big sister.”
The White Pony sighed and gently wrapped a wing around this one. “I know. She’s very precious to me too. Don’t worry, Kukri. I won't let anything—”
The White Pony abruptly cut herself off with a gasp. This one was about to ask what had happened when it felt ... something. What exactly it was ... it couldn’t say. It was an odd sort of ripple in the air, almost like ... like someone had just dropped a huge rock into a still pond, and we were all feeling the ripples it set off.
“What was that?!” this one yelped.
The White Pony closed her eyes for a couple seconds, then gasped softly. “Sunset...”
This one’s eyes shot open, and it latched onto her foreleg. “What happened?! What just happened to the Shimmer-mare?!”