As the chosen time approached, Dusk walked west through the town, his well-used (but well-maintained) armor muffled and hidden beneath hes cloak, his custom-made wing-blades concealed and ready to be used at a moment's notice. As he did so, he wondered why Dusty had chosen the west edge of town. There were no roads leading out of town in that direction. He didn't think there were any trails leading in that direction, only wild, untamed forest (which Dusk had heard had been unheard of outside of the Everfree before Nightmare Moon rose to power).
When he reached the edge of town (not long after - the town was not large), he saw two ponies waiting. One of them was Dusty cloak (or at least he presumed so - the cloak that they were wearing made it impossible to be certain). The other was a unicorn mare with a very dark purple coat, a long, straight, black mane, and bright green eyes. Her cutie mark was a knife with a black blade. It did not include any blood (like an assassin's would), but it did not include any smithing equipment (like a cutler's or knifesmith's would), either.
"Hello, Dusk!" the cloaked pony called, her familiar, distorted voice confirming that it was, in fact, Dusty Cloak. She indicated the other pony waiting. "As you may have guessed, this is Obsidia."
Obsidia nodded towards Dusk. "Greetings," she said, her voice smooth and refined, marking her as a pony of noble birth and upbringing.
Dusk nodded back, and turned towards Dusty. "So, why did you chose to meet here? There's nothing in this direction besides forest."
"That's exactly why. Because there's nothing here, there aren't any ponies here, so I figured it would be easy for us to find each other," Dusty replied.
"That's smart. So where do we go now?" Dusk asked.
"The way I see it, we have two options. We can either take the main road north, as that's the only road out of town; or we can travel through the forest. I don't see any reason to go through the forest, as we haven't yet done anything worthy of being stopped by the guards, so I think that we should take the road," Obsidia said.
"I still think that we should go through the forest. If we travel by road, then the guards could record our journey (which my disguise makes more likely), and, once we do do something to attract the attention of the guards, they could retrace our journey and find anypony who has helped us and punish and/or question them," Dusty argued.
"Looks like you'll have to act as the tiebreaker, Dusk," Obsidia observed.
Dusk thought for a few seconds before coming to a decision. "We should travel through the forest to enter and leave towns in order to avoid the guards, but travel on the roads for most of the journey for safety," Dusk said.
Obsidia thought for a moment. "Coming onto the road from the forest is suspicious, but we might not be seen doing so, and not everypony who sees us will report us to the guards, so the overall risk is lower."
"I still don't like it. I can't really exercise in this cloak, and traveling on a road increases the chance that somepony will stumble on me when I'm exercising," Dusty said.
"Hmm... That's a good point... Maybe we could camp a bit farther into the forest than normal? Or you could walk a bit into the forest to exercise?" Dusk suggested.
"That's... fair. Let's do that," Dusty agreed.
"So... where are we going?" Dusk asked.
"Good question... Dusty?" Obsidia said, looking towards Dusty.
"I haven't decided yet... but I feel that we should go to Hourton. I don't have any logical reason for that, just a feeling," Dusty replied.
Obsidia thought for a moment, before sighing. "I can't think of a better place to go. I'm sure there is a better place to go, I just can't think of it, so let's go with that."
"If we're going to Hourton, it might be faster to go straight through the forest rather than travel on the roads. More dangerous, but likely faster," Dusk added.
"We have two powerful mages and a professional bodyguard. I think that we can handle the increased danger," Dusty said.
"In my experience, having somepony say something like that means that things will go very poorly," Dusk grumbled, "but if that's the course that you two want to take, then I'll go along."
Several hours later, the three ponies were heading north-east through the forest. Dusty' and Obsidia's magelights, combined with what little moonlight filtered through the thick foliage, allowed them to see their surroundings. Not as much as they would have liked, but enough to move through the forest.
Dusk was using his wing-blades to clear a path through the thick vegetation, with Obsidia using her bright-green magic to cut through the branches that were too tough for Dusk to cut.
Dusty's horn glowed as she cast a spell to check the time. "We should probably stop for lunch before too long. It's after noon."
"About time. I could really use a break," Dusk replied.
"I'll get the food," Dusty said.
As Dusty retrieved the food from her interdimensional storage space, Dusk and Obsidia began retrieving their mess kits from their saddlebags.
"I don't think you'll need your mess kits for this. It's just daisy sandwiches," Dusty said.
Dusk and Obsidia both put their stuff back into their packs as Dusty distributed the sandwiches.
"So, how does that 'pocket dimension' thing of yours work, Dusty?" Dusk asked.
"First off, it's not a true pocket dimension. As for how it works, it opens a portal to the void between realms, a place where time does not pass. I put stuff in; the stuff stays there, unchanging; I take stuff out. Theoretically, anypony who can open such a portal could access my storage space, but only I know where it is in the void. And besides, only powerful and skilled mages can cast the spell required," Dusty answered.
"Okay... so how is that different from a pocket dimension?" Dusk asked.
Obsidia replied this time. "A pocket dimension is just that - a dimension created by the user for some purpose. Currently, there is no known portable way to access pocket dimensions - it's just too magic-intensive for any pony or known pony-portable artifact to do. What Dusty is doing is putting stuff in the space between dimensions, which is much easier to do."
"Hmm..." Dusk thought, before changing the subject. "So, how far are we from Hourton?"
Obsidia's horn lit up as she cast a spell to determine her position. "We've made good time. At our current pace, I'd say we're about another two to three hours away."
After the sandwiches had been eaten, Dusty spoke to Obsidia. "Obsidia, do you want me to be on branch-cutting duty for the rest of the day?"
"No, it's fine. Besides, you are more experienced with combat magic than I am, so it makes sense for you to conserve your magic for when we run into something nasty," Obsidia replied.
As if on cue, a howl disrupted the relatively-peaceful forest. Birds flew from the trees and small animals skittered away towards safety.
Dusk recognized the the howl. He had heard it many times before.
"Timberwolves."
Crown Princess Nyx walked to her parents' room in the Everfree Palace, knocking on the door twice before entering.
"Mom?" she called.
"Yes, sweetie?" Queen Nightmare Moon replied.
"Amaryllis and I were doing some research, and we found some references to six magical artifacts that could be used to defeat you and Dad, the 'Elements of Harmony'. One of them was last seen in your possession, so I assume that you or Dad know where it is, so we figured that we should go retrieve the other five. We already have a plan."
"Chrysalis's changelings have been searching for the remaining five Elements for decades. What makes you think you can find them when they haven't?"
Nyx explained the plan that she and Amaryllis had come up with.
Nightmare Moon smiled. "That might actually work. Well done, sweetie. But why should you go instead of a well-chosen group of guards?"
"I just feel that this is important enough to warrant our action. And besides, even a well-chosen guard might turn out to be disloyal, especially given the circumstances of the plan. Don't forget that both Amaryllis and I are probably in the top five mages in the world, so we can handle just about anything."
"Well spoken, sweetie. You've convinced me. We'll just have to see if you can convince your father."
Princess Amaryllis walked into the throne room of the primary Changeling Hive.
Queen Chrysalis got up off of her throne and walked towards her. "What do you need, my daughter?"
"Nyx and I were doing some research, and we found that there are some magical artifacts that could be used to kill King Sombra and Queen Nightmare Moon, so we feel that we should retrieve them."
Chrysalis thought for a few moments. "If Nyx's parents say she can go, you can go too."
"Really? Thanks, mom!"
That evening, Nyx and Amaryllis met in the Palace's courtyard.
"What did your parents say?" Amaryllis asked.
"They said that I can go!" Nyx replied. "What about yours?"
"Mom said I can go if you can go."
"Great! You go get your stuff, I'll go get my stuff, and we'll meet pack here in, say, two hours? Then, we'll go get those Elements!"