Surprise and Ditzy flew into the air, the former leading the latter to where she found the campsite. Trixie and Vinyl head into the woods, Trixie leading the way as she followed the trail of magical energy that her scrying spell relied on. Maud, Cheerilee, and Octavia followed soon after the unicorns, being lead by Maud.
The game of extreme hide and seek had truly begun.
The spell Trixie used for scrying was in fact more than just a simple scrying spell. It was in fact a spell to see magical energy, combined with a scanning spell, to detect a specifical magical signature.
She watched the ambient magic around her. She watched as tree branches created magical ebbs and flows with every wave in the wind. She saw the wind itself flowing like a river. She saw where Vinyl was; a blue magical bubble of the silence spell and a cyan magical aura inside the bubble of her own invisibility spell, as well as the spell matrices of both spells.
Then there was a specific ribbon of magic that she’s been tracking. There were multiple ribbons of magic everywhere that were connected to other ponies and other creatures. But they weren’t that notable. Her scanning spell however allowed the specific magic ribbon to stand out. For this reason, what can normally block most scrying spells don’t affect Trixie’s spell.
This ribbon of magic was a light gray. It was small, which is expected from a filly, seeing as they are still young and have yet to produce much magical aura. But it was enough to track. And the path that the ribbon went through also had a faint disruption to the natural magic around it.
“Let’s go,” Trixie said simply, indicating for Vinyl to follow her. Trixie led the way through the woods, following the ribbon of magic she was tracking.
They followed the path as silently as they could…even though effort was unnecessary, considering their silencing spell. But because of the limitations of the silencing spell, they had to be careful about the surrounding environment.
After spending a little while following the trail, they came to a spot where a campsite had been. It was apparent that it was far to recent, and that it had only been recently abandoned. The magical trail had led to the campsite to a point where a pool of ambient magic had formed, meaning that the filly she was specifically tracking had been here for a little while before leaving.
Trixie saw another ribbon coming from the pool. This ribbon was much stronger and would most certainly lead to the source. She put her hoof to her earpiece and spoke, “They had left the campsite,” Trixie informed the others, “We’ll follow the trail to them.”
“Ditzy noticed this and we’re on the move following them.” Surprise said through the com system, “I don’t know how she knows where to go, since I can’t even see where they are. Maybe she has a Ditzy sense for something?”
“I’m the one with special senses…” a monotoned earth pony said, “The Maud Sense.”
“You mean things like that are a thing?” Surprise commented.
“In Ditzy’s case, there are a few undeniable facts about nature,” Cheerilee said, “One of them is to never get between a mother and her foal.”
Dinky was playing along with her captors. She was staying strong for her friends, but she was afraid on the inside. She needed to keep strong to comfort Silver Spoon. Scootaloo…well…she was Scootaloo. It’s hard to tell her her actions are the result of being defiant, or just her way of coping with the situation.
The unicorn captor currently had a bloody nose. Though he was holding Scootaloo in his magic to keep her from escaping, he was holding her a little too close, allowing her to get a good kick in. This caused enough of a distraction for her to escape momentarily. Now, instead of using a paralysis spell on her or just carrying her, Scootaloo had been magically put to sleep.
For the sake of keeping her away from the unicorn (whether it be for the unicorn’s safety or Scootaloo’s is anyponies guess), Scootaloo was being carried by an earth pony. A second unicorn, a unicorn mare, was leading the other two fillies through the forest as they continued.
“You fillies shouldn’t be afraid of us,” the unicorn mare said in a gentle and inviting tone, “We have no intent to harm you in any way.”
“Then why did you foalnap us?” Dinky asked, her voice having a stressed emotionless tone.
“It was either that or let them neglect teaching you just how much the Empress of the Night should be worshipped,” the unicorn said, “Most schools teach you that she is just a princess rather than the goddess that she is.”
Gailin, who had been flying under the canopy, had just landed with an annoyed look on her face, “We need to pick up the pace,” Gailin said, “It seems we’re being followed.”
“By who?” the unicorn mare asked.
“I saw two pegasi following us,” Gailin said. This caught Dinky’s attention.
“Two pegasi? That’s it?” the unicorn mare asked, “We can easily take on a couple of pegasi. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“FOOL!” Gailin roared, “Do you honestly think they’re alone?! Let’s look at the evidence. For starters, there are only two. If they’re a rescue team, there should be a minimum of three, each of them being a family member. There were only two pegasi, and only one of them looked like she’s related to one of them. And even that’s a stretch, considering she looks like the unicorn.”
If the captors would’ve been paying attention, they would’ve seen that a new well of energy entered Dinky at the mention of a pegasus who looks like her.
“If it’s only the two of them, then they are fools,” Gailin continued, “And though that is a possibility, it’s highly unlikely. Another thing I noticed is that they were silent. And before you ask the obvious question, no, it wasn’t that I just couldn’t hear them, it’s that they weren’t making any sound. Pegasi flying that fast don’t fly that fast without making a sound. So I think it’s safe to assume that there’s at least one unicorn somewhere. A unicorn that can use a silencing spell.”
Silver Spoon suddenly gasped as hope returned to her from hearing the mention sound magic, a trait of her aunt. Unfortunately, her gasp didn’t go unnoticed.
“And it seems that we have a positive confirmation right there,” Gailin continued with a cocky grin, “And if we have a unicorn connected with an earth pony, then I think it’s safe to assume that it’s possible that pegasus is connected to this unicorn here.”
Dinky’s ears drooped at that comment. And unfortunately for her, that was another confirmation for the griffon.
“And with that confirmation right there, either that second pegasus is connected to the sleeping pegasus we have, or we have a whole rescue team,” Gailin deducted, “And at the speed the pegasi are flying, they’ll be able to cut us off before we reach our rendezvous point. We’ll need to restrain the pegasi. Comet Tail, you hold off the pegasi.”
“At least it means I don’t have to deal with that little orange monster,” the unicorn with the bloody nose said. He aimed a spell into the air. Anypony to passed through the area would be caught in a paralysis spell.
As Comet Tail stayed to sustain the spell, the others took the fillies to continue their escape.
“The group is picking up speed! I think they’re onto us!” Surprise said through the com system.
“Well that’s just perfect!” Trixie complained. As she watched the magic around her, she noticed in the distance a navy blue spell matrix cover a wide range of area in the sky. And she saw two cyan bubbles zooming towards it. Trixie put her hoof to her earpiece, “Hold on! There’s a spell being cast affecting the area in front of you!”
One of the bubbles stopped, “What kind of spell?” Ditzy’s voice came through.
The other bubble flew into the area of effect. It then stopped and dropped the the forest floor.
“Ditzy, do NOT follow her!” Trixie commanded, “It’s a paralyzation spell! Flying is no longer an option! Land and find one of the others!”
“I’ll meet up with her…” Maud’s voice came over the com system, “I’m right near her.”
“We’ll deal with how you got ahead of us so quickly and how you know where Ditzy is later,” Trixie said, not wanting to waste time asking questions.
“Maud sense…”
“That’s it!” Cheerilee’s voice is heard, “I’m going after them and getting my sister back!”
“You’re gonna get yourself hurt!” Trixie exclaimed.
“Not before I hurt them first!” Cheerilee countered.
“Not without me you’re not!” Octavia exclaimed, “They’ve got my daughter, and I’m getting her back!”
“Don’t forget that there are three fillies in there that need saving, not just two!” Ditzy exclaimed.
Suddenly, cyan text laser light appeared in front of Trixie saying ‘I’m going too!’.
Trixie sighed, “It seems that we have a majority rule,” Trixie admitted. Let’s at least regroup. Surprise will have to wait. Sorry Surprise.”
Trixie then released the invisibility spell on Vinyl and herself. They headed to the regroup area.
After regrouping, Trixie came up with another plan. This time, stealth wasn’t part of the plan. They did however keep the silencing spell up so that they could talk to each other without being overheard.
“Your combined speed will allow you to get there within five minutes if I’m not mistaken,” Trixie said, finalizing the plan, “So you four will meet up with me and Vinyl there. After that, you know what to do.”
Vinyl Scratch then cast a spell. And with a magical ‘pop’, she and Trixie were gone.
Trixie reappeared in the way of the escape team, “And just where do you think you’re going?” Trixie said after cancelling Vinyl’s silencing spell on herself.
“Get out of the way!” Gailin shouted, “This has nothing to do with you!”
“It does have something to do with Luna’s subjects!” Trixie said, “And being Luna’s personal protege, I, the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie, feel that it is my duty to express her disapproval of your actions this day.”
“If you truly are the personal protege of the Empress of the Night, then why aren’t you helping us?” Gailin asked, “Everything we do is for the benefit of her!”
“Why is it that the group that is the most devoted to Princess Luna is also the group that knows the least about her?” Trixie continued.
As Trixie distracted the group, Vinyl, who had appeared off to the side out of sight, had snuck up, still with her silence spell, to get the fillies to safety.
Sneaking up behind them, Vinyl started by tapping Silver on the shoulder. All Silver could see was a blur. But the color scheme was that of her aunt, Dinky noticed Silver’s reaction and also saw Vinyl, who made sure to put a hoof to her mouth to shush her. Vinyl then looked around for the third filly. Unfortunately, she was unconscious and being carried on an earth pony’s back. And even with magic, she wouldn’t be able to get her off without the pony noticing. Vinyl did however remove Dinky’s anti-magic ring.
Once Vinyl cast silence spells on the two conscious fillies, Silver Spoon instantly hugged Vinyl tightly.
“Do you honestly think that you alone can take on the three of us?” Gailin asked Trixie as their conversation continued.
“Trixie would be a fool to think she could take the three of you one all by herself,” Trixie said, shifting into third person, “But Trixie doesn’t have to. Trixie is just acting as a distraction.”
“WHAT?!” the captors exclaim at once.
“One of the facts about nature is never get in between a mother and her foal,” Trixie said before the three captors were attacked from behind by two earth ponies and a pegasus.
Ditzy tackled the unicorn from behind. But before she could even fall over, Ditzy grabbed onto her and flew her into the air before doing a spinning dropkick, sending the unicorn face first into a tree, impaling her horn into the tree for her to just hang there by her horn unconscious.
Cheerilee’s attack was short but sweet. She grabbed the earth pony from the back and performed a Germane Suplex, knocking the earth pony out at the contact of the ground.
Octavia’s attack on Gailin wasn’t that flashy. But it was painful for the griffon nonetheless. She grabbed onto her wing and pulled until there was a pop and a scream of pain. Octavia had pulled the griffon’s wing hard, dislocating it. She then went to do the same with the other wing.
After the attack was over, Ditzy ran over to Dinky and hugged her tightly as well as planting multiple kisses on the increasingly embarrassed unicorn filly. Octavia ran over to Silver Spoon, setting her glasses on her muzzle before giving the filly a barrage of hugs and kisses to her.
Cheerilee however was worried, “Scootaloo’s not waking up!” Cheerilee panicked as she tried to shake the sleeping pegasus awake, “Why isn’t Scootaloo waking up?!”
“Because the spell she’s under doesn’t need to be sustained,” Gailin said through a clenched beak, fighting through her pain, “The one who cast the spell is hanging from a tree up there. And without knowing what spell was cast, the spell can’t be undone.”
Trixie lit up her horn, causing her eyes to glow blue. After analyzing the spell matrix, Trixie turned to the griffon to make sure she was watching. But she was gone. But that didn’t matter. The fillies were safe.
“I can release the spell. But perhaps we should get out of the woods first,” Trixie suggested, “For now, let’s go get Surprise and...hey, where’s Maud?”
As if on cue, Maud came walking to the group, carrying the other, now unconscious unicorn. Surprise following behind.
“Wait, you let the group here the entire way, right?” Trixie asked Maud.
“Yes…”
“And that trip is five minutes at full speed, right?” Trixie asked.
“Yes…”
“Then how in Equestria did you manage to get from here to where Surprise is, knock out that pony, and back here while carrying that pony… IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES?!!” Trixie exclaimed.
“I know a shortcut…” Maud said bluntly.
“Wait, if you knew a shortcut, then why didn’t we take that on the way here?” Surprise asked, “We could’ve gotten here sooner, right?”
“It’s not that kind of shortcut…” Maud said, “Besides, how I did it isn’t what matters. What matters is that saved the fillies.”
“This has something to do with the ‘Maud sense’, does it?” Trixie asked.
“Yes…”
“Why do I get the feeling that trying to understand your Maud sense is just going to result in giving me a headache?” Trixie asked.
“Because there are things in this world that some ponies just aren’t meant to understand…” Maud said, “And attempting to understand what isn’t meant to be understood puts strain on the mind, resulting in the formation of a migraine.”
“That was only supposed to be a hypothetical question,” Trixie groaned.
The group had finally gotten out of the woods and were out in the open again. Cheerilee set Scootaloo on the ground, “We’re out of the woods now,” Cheerilee said, “Now wake up my sister!”
“Okay, okay,” Trixie said defensively, “You don’t have to bite my head off.”
Trixie then undid the sleep spell. Scootaloo then let out a groggy yawn, “Woah, what a wild nightmare,” Scootaloo said as she sat up, “I had a dream where me and the other crusaders got foalnapped, and… “ Scootaloo is then aware of the fact that she wasn’t in bed and had several ponies surrounding her, “That wasn’t a dream, was it?”
Scootaloo got a hug from Cheerilee, It was apparent that she was relieved that Scootaloo was okay.
“…And if Dinky wasn’t there to talk to me so that I knew she was there, I don’t think I would’ve gotten through that,” Silver Spoon said to her mother and aunt, tears welling up in her eyes. Octavia made sure to give her daughter a comforting hug.
Ditzy, who was listening in, was proud of her daughter, “Wow! You were really brave in there!”
“I had to be,” Dinky said in a flat tone, “For Silver Spoon.”
Ditzy, noticing the tone of Dinky’s voice, went into mom mode, “Well, it’s all over now,” Ditzy said in a much more soothing tone, “You don’t have to be strong for her anymore.”
With that said, Dinky started sobbing, the emotional damn broken. Ditzy just sat there, holding Dinky and rocking her back and forth to try to sooth her.
Trixie, noticing Dinky’s outburst of tears, just sat there watching. Dinky’s crying was breaking her heart. At the same time, it was infuriating her that those foalnappers would do this sort of thing to them. But that’s not all she notice. She also took note of Scootaloo, who had gone off on her own to sit alone. She seemed to be quivering as if she’s trying to hold in her crying.
“Cheerilee, why is Scootaloo just sitting over there?” Trixie asked.
“It’s just how she is,” Cheerilee said, “She’s a very prideful filly, and refuses to let anypony see her cry. Not even me.”
“Why?” Trixie ask.
“It’s a personal subject for her,” Cheerilee said.
“Well… I’m sure she’ll be happy to see her parents,” Trixie said.
“Yeah…” Cheerilee said, though her tone wasn’t missed by Trixie’s ears.
After getting back to Ponyville, they put the criminals in prison…or they would have if they weren’t put in the hospital first. The fillies, now reunited with their families, needed some time to recover from the day’s events.
Trixie and Surprise headed back to the magic shop. But they were joined by Maud for some reason.
“Oh, hey, Maud,” Surprise said, “What’s up?”
“Clouds…”
Surprise was suddenly reminded of a joke she’s heard before. But she shook that thought off, “That’s not what I meant. What I mean is, how are you doing?”
“Okay…”
“Not to sound rude or anything,” Trixie said, “But why are you following us?”
“The hotel I was supposed to stay at said that my reservation wasn’t in the system, and there are no rooms available…”
“Lemme guess,” Trixie deadpanned, “You were hoping that you could stay with us?”
“I assumed that because we’re friends now, you’d let me stay with you…” Maud said, “That’s what friends do for each other, right?”
How that was worded, something occurred to Trixie. Had Maud ever experienced friendship before? It’s not like she’s wrong about how friends are willing to help each other. But how she said it sounded like she wasn’t sure, like she only knew of friendship from movies and books, and not through experience.
“This is temporary, right?” Trixie said, mental exhaustion evident in her voice, “Again, I don’t mean to sound rude. It’s just been a long day.”
“It’s only the middle of the day…”
“It’s a figure of speech,” Trixie explained, “I mean that if feels like it’s been a long day.”
“You can’t feel time…”
Trixie was sure that if there was an Element of Blunt Literalism, she found her, “We had experienced a lot of activity today,” Trixie tried to explain the colloquialism as best she could, “These activities were also emotionally exhausting. The combination of actions and emotions makes it feel…it makes the experience seem like we’ve done more in that amount of time than what should be done. In short, today’s activities make the experience seem longer than it was, hence the colloquialism ‘it's been a long day’.”
“Okay…”
Maud may not be that expressive. But Trixie at least expected more than that, “Anyway, about it being temporary?”
“Yes…” Maud confirmed, “I can provide for myself otherwise.”
“Yes, you can stay,” Trixie sighed, “When Princess Luna sent me to Ponyville, this was not how I expected things to turn out.”