//------------------------------// // Chapter Ten- The Journey Begins // Story: Gems I: The Sun Princess // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Chapter Ten- The Journey Begins It had been a few hours since Midnight and Stardust had returned to the capital to report the false goddess escaping with Watcher. True it pained them to say everything to them about their former friends, but of course it was the right thing to do and the Chancellor was more than pleased by their reports. “Midnight, you and Stardust have done many things for the Order and I am more than pleased by the results. Even if you failed to capture this… mare that claims to be our benevolent goddess of the Sun.” Apollo said, praising them for their efforts even if the target escaped. “Again, we’re sorry Chancellor Apollo, if it wasn’t for Watcher than we would have been able to capture her and none of this would have happened,” Midnight explained, still frustrated at how close Watcher’s final attack was to killing him, barely missing his face as a some of his mane was clipped. The two had spent years together, studying and training in all sorts of magic and combat as well as having fun, but now he was an Alpha- Class unicorn with more responsibilities… and Watcher was just a nopony dropout. Yet, he had previously saved his life, something that was beginning to get hard to ignore. Either they were mortal enemies, or friends each on the other side of a bad conflict… but it was hard to tell at the moment. “It’s apparent, I can see you’re missing some hair,” chuckled Apollo softly, “ah… it seems you underestimated Watcher’s ability. Oh such a talented little stallion he is!” Midnight was confused by the chancellor’s lack of anger, “Sir? You’re not… angry?” “I might have been angry if I knew he’d have been an easy target for you, but that’s simply not the case my colt,” came the reply with another chuckle, as if Apollo was acting like his grandfather, “Watcher will be very, very difficult to subdue. I am proud you came as close as you did to defeating him as you have, the wound you inflicted upon him will serve as a good lesson. Perhaps he will turn himself in before matters get worse, hmmm?” “I… I did land that blow on him,” stuttered Midnight, “I guess we just need to keep the pressure up.” “Yes, yes, that’s the idea,” he nodded in return, “now, I will have some of my troops search for them. I’m sure once we catch them, we can get that poor, confused mare some medication so that she stops claiming she’s a long dead, much missed alicorn. Please continue with your best efforts, Midnight Blaze… I expect great things out of you, although I’m sure you’ll deliver!” “I promise not to let you down!” “I’m sure you won’t Midnight, now if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d like for you to send in Mrs. Stardust… I have an assignment for her.” He asked, smiling at him as he levitated an empty glass and a bottle of vintage white wine. Pouring himself a glass as the sapphire unicorn bowed his head and made his way out. “I do wonder where Watcher and this… Celestia are now?” Downtown of Baltimare It had been hours since Watcher had gotten any sleep, all he could do was worry about the authorities all night as the two managed to have hideout near an old abandoned apartment building. It wasn’t much, but they had a roof over their heads for the night at the very least, but he couldn’t rest… not when his former friends were after them. Watcher soon looked at Celestia’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but sigh, before looking out the window. ‘What did I get myself into? I’m literally hiding at a trashy old apartment with a goddess that everypony wants dead while also being hunted by my only friends. Maybe I should have been a lawyer? I could have at least made a living off of it.’ Still he couldn’t help but smile at the sleeping unicorn before turning his attention back towards the window, watching ponies pass by the old building, smiling and enjoying their day, before turning back towards Celestia. He knew the authorities would search this place eventually and the two needed to be out of the city before the Order could spread word about them to the public. Watcher walked over to Celestia and gently shook her. “Celestia… we… need to go now.” He said, yawning as Celestia began to stir from her sleep. “Can’t we just… sleep for five more minutes?” She looked at him lazily, trying to keep her eyes opened. “I… know how you feel Tia, but you’ve slept enough… I on the other hoof haven’t slept a wink since we got here… and I’m still willing… to try and… get a head start.” Watcher tried his best to explain as he to tried to keep his eyes opened. Celestia could see the bags under his eyes as he struggled to stay up. “Watcher, you need to sleep… You’ve been up all night.” she said as the stallion groaned. “I-” Before for he could even say anything Celestia placed a hoof over his mouth. “Watcher, we can leave later. The two of us won’t make it very far if you're falling asleep on me.” She joked, earning a slight chuckle from the stallion as he began to lay down. “Okay, I guess I could sleep for an hour at the very least… be sure to wake me up if something happens. Okay?” He said, closing his eyes before falling asleep. Celestia couldn’t help but giggle before laying next to him. ‘I’m sure he won’t mind if I get little more rest as well.’ And soon the sun princess was sound asleep. Back at the Library “Alright everypony, fan out and start looking for information about Watcher’s whereabouts,” ordered Midnight Blaze, directing a group of stallions clad in armor around the dusty, now-abandoned building. The stallions gave a quick affirmative before fanning out and beginning to search for hints. Apollo had sent some of his finest agents from the intelligence gathering branch of his troops to help Midnight out. If there was any hope of finding more information, the chancellor’s top spies were going to be able to find it. Stardust too joined the search, scouring the books for information or evidence of use. “Sir, you might want to come see this,” said one of the spies urgently. Midnight walked over to where he was, the spy had found the opened forbidden section, the gate to it clearly unlocked, and the ancient books in a mess. “It looks like they’ve been reading some kind of ancient tomes, sir,” he said, “we’ve got their hoofprints all over these books.” “Oh, and what are they about?” he asked curiously. “Well from what we can tell… they are stories about the ancient princesses, mythology really, probably just a pastime those two had.” “Let me see those,” ordered Midnight, pushing past him to look at the ancient material. The unicorn picked up the massive book with his magic and began to run through it, reading about Princess Celestia’s past. Watcher’s companion certainly had a few similarities, but being mistaken for a celebrity was a historically common thing, sometimes ponies saw a famous singer that had been dead for decades while they were out in the town. Stardust entered the forbidden section and walked to Midnight’s side, scanning the books with him curiously. It seemed Watcher had been only reading a half of the book, a fair assumption given the size of each one. Midnight flipped back, disappointed in the lack of an index, and turned the page to look at the very first one with pictures and writing. There he saw an illustration of four stylized alicorn ponies fighting with a massive drawing that looked like a dragon colored with blue. Each of them was attacking the monster from different sides with their magical attacks from their horns, only for them to just wear down the monster. In the next page, the illustration had changed, this time the ponies were missing, and the dragon held floating beneath his cupped hands four gemstones that glowed brightly. It was a cryptic message, perhaps an ancient story or ritual of some kind that had since been lost to time. A large amount of text in very small writing sat beneath the drawings, likely a quill guided by unicorn magic had written it. “The Dragon, blue as the drowning depths of the sea, and with a heart as cold as the strongest ice, lay waste to everything in his path,” read Midnight, squinting to see the old writing and also to translate the old grammatical ways of the ancient script to modern speech, “the Four went to slay the beast, and began to break him a piece at a time. With his might, he used all the energy he had to trap them in gems, and scattered them throughout the land. He had won, but at a price, for turning his enemies to stones had drained him of his strength. The Dragon would have to go into hiding… for now.” “What do you suppose all that means?” asked Stardust, raising an eyebrow at the cryptic story. “I don’t know, it’s some kind of ancient story, probably just a myth,” droned Midnight, closing the book, “doesn’t help us out really.” Stardust made a suggestion, “Hmm, do you think maybe there’s any connection between the stories, babe?” “There could be,” he answered, “it looks like these mythical goddesses have been a topic of interest for Watcher. Maybe he thinks that mare is one of them.” “But in this story they were turned to stone by some dragon,” Stardust countered, poking at the other book, “how could she be them if they were all turned into gems?” “I… I don’t know,” Midnight said honestly, sighing, “I think maybe Watcher’s finally gone nuts. That fight with him should have been my first clue though.” “Sir, you need to see this,” interrupted a spy, holding up a piece of paper with his magic. Midnight walked over to the investigator and snatched the small leaflet from him. It was a folded piece of scrap paper, which Midnight unraveled in mid-air, revealing a wrinkled, crude set of directions. On it were a list of emergency contacts and places to buy supplies, a very strange thing for a librarian to keep around. “Where did you find this?” he asked. “It was in a nightstand upstairs,” answered the soldier. He pointed with a hoof to the staircase that lead to the upper loft area, several of the boards having been torn up from the fight between Celestia and Stardust. Splinters lay smashed all around, making half of the steps unuseable. “From which bed?” asked Midnight, wanting to know the owner of the crumpled page. “There’s only one bed, sir,” answered the guard. “Oooh,” hummed Stardust, biting her lip. “Don’t start,” said Midnight sternly, “she was probably couchsurfing.” “I didn’t say anything!” giggled Stardust, swishing her tail and rolling her eyes. “Anyways,” he continued, ignoring her, “we’re just going to have to assume it belongs to both of them, and their first item on their list is Everfree City.” “Now why would Watcher go there?” she asked, “He’s just a librarian.” “He’s smarter than what you think,” explained the blue unicorn, “Watcher has suspected everypony’s out to get him since he got kicked out for ‘saving me’. That exam we were taking was partially an exam, but also a test designed to weed out dark magic users who might be questioning The Order’s ethics and standards.” “But Blackstar cooked you alive!” “Yeah, and we weeded him out too,” snickered Midnight, “I was there when they froze him in ice. He’s going to be in the underground correctional facility for a long time. They told me I could have had him turned to ash, but we might need him later.” “Oh… so I guess you took one for the team.” “Well, I had a little ‘healing’ from you to make it better,” he answered, teasing her. “Sir, please,” cautioned one of the spies, hoping he could get him to stay focused. “Right, right, sorry,” continued Midnight as he held up the piece of paper, “I’m pretty sure he’s headed to Everfree City to stock up on supplies. From there he’ll either head for Rebel country, or...” “Or what?” asked another soldier nearby. “Or he’ll be looking for the other three mares that are pretending to be these mythical characters,” said Midnight, “Watcher is probably not much of a cultist, but I’ve got a strange feeling Chancellor Apollo wouldn’t have us on this case unless there’s some kind of importance behind that mare Tia and these books…” “Oh come on, she’s not actually a goddess,” laughed Stardust. “Maybe not… but the Rebels might believe that, and it might give them motivation to keep fighting,” suggested Midnight, “and that’s why we’re going to have to take out Watcher and bring that mare back with us. Now how soon can we get to Everfree City?” “If we leave at once,” said the closest spy, “we can possibly make it there in four days, maybe we’ll beat them there… if that’s where they are really going. It will be a huge waste of time if they are not there, Sir.” “Look, Watcher’s a nerd, he’s going to have followed his own list in order,” grunted the unicorn in response, “I’m sure he’s going to be there. Now move out!” They left the library quickly to catch a train to the city, hoping to cut off Watcher before he could escape and leave for Rebel territory. Midnight shut the door behind him, closing the badly damaged library down. It felt strange, knowing he was going to be trying once again to kill someone he had called a friend for a long time. A hot marefriend and the best job in the world had led him down a different path now, and it was as if the Midnight who had entered The Order as friends with Watcher… was very dead. The hot feeling on his scalped from his damaged hair that was burnt away made him strongly think about his choice. Back at the Abandoned Apartment Watcher had begun to stir from his slumber, feeling something heavy on top of him that was strangely warm and soft too. He tried to get up, but whatever was on top of him was right on top of his hooves. It wasn’t long until he heard a heartbeat coming from what was on top of him. He soon realized at this moment what or who was on top of him. The charcoal unicorn soon turned his head to see Celestia sleeping on his back, drooling on his fur. He couldn’t help but mentally face hoof himself as he tried to wiggle free from Celestia, but her hooves wrapped around his waist, refusing to release him no matter how much he struggled. ‘I can’t use magic or they might find us, but… Why is she sleeping on me?!’ “Celestia… get up… we need to go!” “Huh…” She jerked up as drool landed over the stallion’s back, grossing him out as he literally threw her off his back as he tried to wipe it off. “Oh, Watcher… Sorry I must have dozed off a little. “A Little! Look outside you idiot! It’s fricken Night now!” he yelled at the top of his lungs as the former goddess began to whimper as tears formed in her eyes. He couldn’t help but sigh at her, he had pushed her a bit too hard again. “We need to go… now!” “Okay… just one issue.” She paused looking out the window. “What is it?” He said taking a look out the window to see a group of officers looking around the outside of the apartment. “Just Perfect!” “How could they have known where we were going to be?” whimpered Celestia. “Somepony must have tipped them off,” answered Watcher, “we’ve got to get out of here and head for the woods.” “The woods? But why?” she demanded to know. “Because if we keep poofing around with teleportation, we’ll be found every time,” he explained quickly, “they’re tracking our magic.” They heard the door downstairs get smashed to bits as the police captain and his crew entered the ground floor to go capture their quarry. Hurrying, the two unicorns started to head for the rear exit of the apartment to get to the ground via the fire ladders on the outside of the apartments. The stallions on the ground floor swept the dusty lobby of the apartment complex with their light spells, illuminating the abandoned, rotting furniture. “I hear hoofsteps upstairs, move quickly!” ordered the police captain, his troops obeying them. Watcher guided Celestia out of the rear window and onto the metal platform, where he quickly kicked the fire ladder, deploying it with a loud slam. “We’re gonna have to slide down it,” he said, jumping on it and skidding the whole way with his hooves stretched over the sides, “come on, Tia!” She carefully got around the ladder, and tried to slide down the same way, but fell off almost immediately. Watcher galloped over to the mare as she plummeted, and broke her fall with himself. “Ouch! I said slide down, not fall down!” he groaned as she stood up again. “I’m sorry, thanks for saving me again…” The police officers appeared at the window and readied a pair of crossbows, aimed right for the fugitives. “You can thank me later!” Watcher said, “Let’s get out of here!” They moved just in time for the two bolts to smack into the road, shattering on impact. The stallions manning the weapons muttered some unpleasant language and began to reload the weapons when the chief stopped them with his hoof. His gray coat made him stand out amongst his team, as did his red peaked officer’s hat. “Hold a minute, gentlecolts. It looks like that report of squatters at the old apartment site has led us to our old friend, that mare who was looting the market a while back. Looks like she’s found herself a nice little coltfriend.” “We’re going to pursue, right sir?” asked one of the officers, putting the crossbow down. He smirked and flicked his blue, ropelike tail, “Of course, but not right behind them like some mob of idiots. They’re thieves, they know every little way to lose officers in alleyways and crowds. But I do know one thing, there’s nothing after a few blocks past where they’ve run off to, just a forest with a river.” “So we lay a trap...” “Exactly,” the captain chuckled, “they’ll run out of city, and then we’ll catch them.” Next to old restaurant “I… Think we lost them…” Watcher said, taking deep breaths as he leaned against the wall in the back alley of a noodle restaurant as the former sun princess fell to the ground, trying to catch her breath. “It’s going to be hard to leave the city at this rate!” “... Well what should we do than? The cops will be everywhere and we can’t risk using our magic or the Order will follow our trail.” She asked. “I have one idea and it’ll help us get out of the city… but you aren’t going to like it.” He said, turning towards a sewer lid just a few feet behind him. After arguing for a brief moment… the Charcoal unicorn had won as the two entered the sewers, of course Celestia wasn’t too thrilled about it… especially after accidentally slipping into the filthy water while walking on the path and Watcher couldn’t help but laugh at the poor dear princess and her now-stained fur on her legs. “Urgh! W-Why did this happen to ME?!” She cried as dirty water dripped from her mane and coat, her eyes watering as she walked a few feet behind her friend. “I did tell you to watch your step, but you didn’t want to listen to me.” Watcher sighed as he looked back at her. All she needed was a bath and she’ll be clean and beautiful once again. Still it was rather amusing to see her so upset. ‘Why is she so fricken cute?! No matter what we do she’s always acting cute! Even if she’s filthy now’ “W-what are… you staring at?!” She asked, shivering as her body began to get cold from the wetness of her fur. “Huh? Oh well… just thinking that you can take a bath once we get out of here is all.” He said, shaking his previous thoughts from before and continued to lead them through the sewers, but the smell was actually bothering the stallion and he couldn’t tell what smelled worse, the sewers or Celestia. “H-how long… until we get to… t-the surface? I-It’s freezing?” Celestia said, Watcher couldn’t help but chuckle again. “Don’t worry Celestia… Once we get of the city we can stop by a lake wash off or find an inn and get you cleaned up.” Watcher said, still trying his best to stifle his laughter as Tia pouted at the stallion. “J-jerk!” She stuttered, shivering a her face burned with embarrassment. “Y-you better find… us an inn! Or e-else!” “Fine! Let’s get going than!” Watcher groaned, leading on as Celestia continued to whimper as her nostrils flared from the smell of her coat. It took them almost an hour, but they managed to have found a way out of the sewers and out near a hidden dirt road, leading out of the city. Watcher couldn’t have been more relieved, because Celestia was giving him a headache from her constant whimpering echoing throughout the sewers. Watcher was the first to emerge from there and out into the open, checking to make sure the coast was clear, he was about to offer his hoof to help her up, but his nose flared up and he immediately jumped away from her and hid behind a tree, trying to stay as far away from that awful stench coming from the mare. Which made her growled in response. “W-why… are you hiding?” She asked as Watcher gave her a deadpan look from afar. “You’re really going to ask me that? I think it should be pretty obvious from where I’m standing,” He said, as Celestia growled with her face beat red, “Jerk!” “Happy to be a jerk if it means saving my poor nose,” he teased. “You really ought not to be so mean, Watcher,” she said, huffing at him, “I bet you don’t realize how lucky you have it! Back in the middle ages of Equestria, ponies used to throw this kind of sewage right out their windows, and you were lucky to bathe once per year.” “Oh no, please not a ‘back in my day when ice cream was a bit’, story,” whimpered Watcher, “look, I said I believed you’re really Celestia, isn’t that enough?” “No,” she answered rolling her eyes, “you’re still a stallion who calls a lady smelly and large-bottomed. I have yet to do it, but I shall turn you into a refined gentlecolt, Watcher!” “You would have done the same thing if our positions were reversed!” He shouted from afar, but sighed while he came out from behind thXe tree. “Look, let’s just find you a lake and we can wash this smell off of us… well more so for you, but still.” “Fine… let’s get going already… I hate this.” “I can tell.” He searched for the nearest body of water with due diligence, mostly because he was getting really tired of smelling the foul air around his companion, but also because a swim in the lake might be a bit of fun. It was getting a bit boring being hounded, shot at, stabbed, and overall being a wanted fugitive for seemingly no good reason. Maybe a little bit of recreation would lift his spirits before they headed out to Everfree City. Eventually he spotted it, a crystal-clear lake surrounded by tall, healthy cattails. The marsh plants had filtered the large, shimmering body of water to perfection, and a couple of wild sunfish leapt and swam in the shallows of the pond. Watcher galloped up to the water eagerly and stuck a hoof in, the water nice and cool on his leg. “Woah, it’s perfect!” he said, stirring the shallows around, “Hey Celestia, come on in!” She got a running start, and with a woosh of speed and a long jump, the unicorn made a long arc over Watcher’s head, and landed in the water with a loud splash, sending a column of water up and scaring the poor fish away. He was struck by a spray of water droplets, half sewage and half clean water. Celestia’s body muddied up the water with a sickly teal cloud, evidence the nasty liquid was washing out of her coat. “Come on in, the water is perfect!” she said, rinsing her mane out. “I think I’ll be fine over here,” he answered, shaking his head. “Suit yourself,” winked Celestia before continuing to frolic in the shallows. Watcher couldn’t help but stare, her wet mane sticking to her now clean as snow coat fur, her sparkling eyes watching him as she splashed and cleaned off. Soft pink hair waved and flowed with droplets of water around her curved, slender body. A warm feeling stirred in his heart, a feeling he wanted to suppress, but couldn’t help at all. A cold splash of water hit him in the face, waking the unicorn up from his short daydreaming. She reminded him with a laugh, “Excuse me, you’re staring! Perhaps you’d like to join me after all?” He shook like a dog to get rid of the water, and cursed his obliviousness. Now he was going to get teased even more later! “No, I’m fine!” he answered stubbornly, “Now hurry up and let’s go!” “Fine… It’s not like you fell into sewage!” She pointed out only for him to scuff at her. “Well I did warn you…” He stated as Celestia groaned, scowling at the stallion as she continued to wash herself in the lake. After what felt like an eternity, Celestia had finally finished her ‘quick bath’ as she put it. “Alright… next stop the Everfree City” Now that the danger had passed, it was time for Watcher and Celestia to begin their journey to the Everfree Forest.