//------------------------------//
// — Chapter Thirty-Eight — 
// Story: Finding Friendship 
// by Kamen-Zero 
//------------------------------//


--- Desperate Times ---


Twilight stood there in absolute silence as she patiently waited through Applejack's story. At Fluttershy's request, the earth pony was made to recount the events that had brought her here in the first place. And based on the story thus far, it wasn't a challenge to see why she had chosen to come to Fluttershy of all people for help in this matter. It was well-known knowledge that Fluttershy was Ponyville's resident animal expert—even without her veterinary expertise taken into account—meaning that she was on the top of the list of ponies to call when any animal-related event was going on. And the sighting of what seemed to be an unknown animal definitely fell under that category. But for the duration of the admittedly short story thus far, however, it took more than a fair amount of Twilight's inner strength and raw willpower to keep herself from exploding at the earth pony for referring to her son as some "snake dog thing." And to keep herself from rushing out in another panicked frenzy before she could get the information she needed.

"—I didn't even have time to get a good look at it myself, it ran off way too fast, but I know it went down market street towards city hall," Applejack explained with a mixture of haste and confusion. It was apparent enough that she didn't quite know why she had to repeat everything for Twilight's sake, but it wasn't enough to keep her from doing so in the first place. Although Twilight's current expression seemed like it was coming close to making her cease, the farmer glancing back now and again to the unnerving grin with noticeable hesitance. "It freaked the ever-living daylights outta everyone to boot. Big Mac said its mouth was all bloody and—"

"Bloody?" The color drained from Fluttershy's face, this part of the story being new to her as well. Her eyes were immediately on Twilight, almost as concerned as the disguised alicorn was about this whole mess. "Why would he be bloody? Did he get hurt?"

Twilight pulled her wounded leg up towards her body as if to keep it hidden, not that anybody could see it from underneath her cloak anyway. She knew damn well why the long dragon would be covered in blood right now, the sting of the bite still fresh in her mind. It was yet another thing to add to the list of things that she couldn't help but blame herself for today, doubly so knowing that it was her blood that was dripping from his maw. And the crimson red upon his face would be more than enough to make Spike look like a vicious wild animal without question, which both explained Applejack's uneasy persona at the moment while also serving to further agitate Twilight. 

"You two know that critter?" Applejack asked bluntly with a mixture of relief and renewed panic. "What is it? Why's it in Ponyville? What's it gonna—?" She stopped herself short of the last question, her eyes now wide in response to a sudden realization. The gears in her head were turning faster and faster with each passing second as she swiftly glanced back and forth between Fluttershy and Twilight. "Twilight, is there something bigger going on here?" Further concern made itself known on Applejack's face. She spoke in a hushed tone, glancing over to Fluttershy one last time before going on. "Don't tell me this has something to do with... you-know-who..."

There was an honest moment where Twilight, in her enraged and uneasy state, didn't have the faintest idea what Applejack was even talking about. And she showed this quite blatantly with this narrow-eyed grimace accompanied by a slow shake of her head. It was only after a few seconds that Twilight was able to catch up with Applejack's train of thought and figure out what the farmer was going on about. How Twilight had promised to take care of the issues pertaining to Knox Onwud and whatever schemes he was scheming behind the scenes, a promise that had been a byproduct of her curiosity that had eventually led her to want to solve these issues on her own accord. And how she had mentioned Fluttershy's limited knowledge of the situation just yesterday at the train station. From there, it was simple enough to see how Applejack had managed to connect all of this back to Onwud, even if she was as far off the mark as someone could be right now.

"No, it's got nothing to do with any of that." Twilight's snappy response to Applejack was kept brief as she looked back over to Fluttershy. "And no, he's not hurt. At least he wasn't when I saw him last."

"Then why's he covered in blood?!" Fluttershy's question wasn't an unreasonable one by any stretch of the imagination. "What in the world happened?!"

"Did it kill someone's cat or something?!" Applejack added in, freaking out more as something she overheard on the way here came to mind.

"He bit me, alright?!" Twilight shouted back without thinking, causing an uncomfortable silence to wash over the three of them in quick succession. To emphasize her point she lifted her cloak enough to show the dressed wound, taking great shame in what she had just admitted as the eyes fell to gaze upon her bandages. "I-it was an accident," she quickly tried to explain, "There was an accident, he probably blamed himself, and he ran away... And I need to find him before someone else does."

That was the last thing Twilight said before she took off running at blinding speeds. Applejack yelped loudly as Twilight slid her way around her to get through the front door, and Fluttershy had barked out something to try and get Twilight to stop. But neither of those reached Twilight's ears as she pressed ever onward, as she chose to try and focus on the brighter half of the previous conversation instead. She had a general direction now of where Spike could be now, a vast improvement over what she had to work with earlier today. Though this glint of hope was still far outmatched by anxiety and dread. The worst possible scenario had made itself a reality, and now the whole of Ponyville was looking for the long dragon in tandem with Twilight. While the situation had improved, it still wasn't optimal in any sense of the word. And it only got worse as she kept racing through town much to her dismay.

As she made her way through the streets of Ponyville, Twilight couldn't help but catch sights of the citizens out and about right now. It seemed that news about Spike had spread like a plague throughout the town which had prompted a series of town guards, easily identified by the uniform sashes and simplistic helmets that marked them as such, to begin searching high and low for the little guy. Most bore ropes and nets at the ready for when they found their unidentified creature, giving Twilight a brief moment of respite knowing that they weren't just going to try and kill him outright. It wasn't much, but it was a small victory.

But the town guards weren't alone in their efforts, as several civilians had also been trying to find Spike as well. Those who were bold enough to help in the efforts were using the same methods as the town guards while others were trying to set up makeshift traps. Though most of them seemed to care more about seeing the long dragon rather than capturing him, made evident by the cameras that they were carrying around instead of anything practical. The town guard's efforts were split down the middle trying to get these bolder ponies to cease and return to their homes, though they weren't having much luck on that front either.

Nobody as of yet had elected to grab clubs or other weapons—for as far as Twilight could see, anyway. But even still, the thought of one of these people finding Spike first was tormenting in and of itself. The idea of her precious baby being caught, muzzled, and thrown into a cage and shipped off to who-knew-where was the most pleasant of the scenarios that her mind was able to present her with. All of the others being far too grisly for Twilight to even entertain for her own sake.

He went towards city hall, Twilight kept telling herself, over and over again in some attempt to drown out the other thoughts in her head. He's gotta be somewhere around there.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep her focused on her mission. The market street was nothing but a blur as Twilight doubled her efforts, knowing full well that she would need to make up for the significant head start that Spike had gotten in the time it had taken her to get this far. It wouldn't be easy, but at least she wouldn't draw any more unneeded attention to herself. Not with the whole town searching for the same thing she was, if anything else she was blending in more then she ever had before. Not that she had the time or patience to appreciate that. And thus, Twilight was back to frantically searching the town for any sign of her little long dragon, just as she was earlier this morning. She poked her head into just about every nook and cranny that looked even remotely big enough for Spike to hide in, making sure to keep an ear open for any sorts of screams or shouts on the behalf of any of the other ponies around just in case one of them caught sight of the dragon first. That was the absolute worst-case scenario, but it was one that had to be prepped for. Just in case.

"Excuse me, miss?" A gruff voice tempered by years of hard work asked suddenly from behind. When Twilight turned and faced him it became clear that the voice belonged to an older earth pony guard, one who wasn't too amused by Twilight joining in on the search efforts. "There's an unidentified creature that was seen in town. We don't know if it's dangerous or not, so we need you to get back to your home."

"He's not dangerous," Twilight bitterly spoke without thinking, insulted by the implication that her son was a threat to anybody. "He's just scared."

"I'm sorry, what?" The reaction got the stoic stallion off guard, shown by the raising of a curious and intrigued eyebrow. "Do you know anything about this animal?" 

Ah, horse apples. It was now that Twilight came to share a similar sense of shock as this guard here, as well as an immediate sense of regret and self-loathing. That, on top of the sense of panic she already felt from this whole day in general, was enough to drive Twilight to make yet another hasty decision to try and get out of this mess as quickly as she could. Somewhere deep down, she knew there'd be consequences to this, but right now she really couldn't care about that.

"I'm going to need you to—" That was all the earth pony guard was able to say before a flash from Twilight's horn caused his very existence to cease.

At least for the few milliseconds of transit time before he reappeared on the other side of town no worse for wear. He was probably startled out of his mind, spontaneous and unexpected teleportation will do that to someone while asking himself a fair deal of questions about what had just happened. But unless Twilight had royally botched up the spell he wasn't hurt, just displaced a fair distance away from this very spot. Which wasn't much, but it did give Twilight a bit more time to act on her own accord before she'd have to deal with him again. Hopefully, she'd find Spike by then, seeing as how the guard would no doubt bring a few friends with him to try and apprehend her next time. This was a problem to be dealt with in the future, as Twilight was keen on getting back to her search for Spike.

Though while she planned to keep searching for her son with nary another interruption, that interruption came regardless of her feelings when she turned around saw the last two ponies she wanted to see right now. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were out and about, still together for one reason or another. It was obvious enough as to why Pinkie was out here with how she was snooping around with a camera dangling from around her neck. She was out to try and find Spike, just like everyone else in town was. Rarity's presence here was harder to pin down, as she didn't look like she was helping with the efforts at all. But that conundrum was solved when she continued to speak.

"I still don't see how you're okay with all of this," Rarity went on in an exasperated tone, following Pinkie around as the later continued the search for the missing dragon. "She's clearly deranged and dangerous. We have to tell someone about her!"

It was clear enough now that the two were talking about their run-in with Twilight, and that they had yet to notice her arrival on the scene. And despite everything going on in her head right now, this caught Twilight's attention. Based on what she just overheard, Rarity had walked away from that encounter with a few new opinions of her. And in her emotionally vulnerable state Twilight couldn't help but stop for a moment to listen to what Rarity had to say. 

"Rarity, it's Twilight, she's not going to do anything," Pinkie argued back only half invested in the argument, the rest of her focus going towards searching for the long dragon that was loose in town. "If she was going to, she would have done something by now."

"You did see how angry she was, right?" Rarity asked almost mockingly. "I can't be the only one who saw that tantrum she threw. That couch could have been us."

This was what got Pinkie to stop and face her unicorn friend, a stern look upon her face. "And did you see how much I hurt her by barging in like that? I've already caused her enough problems today, I don't wanna cause her anymore!"

"Pinkie, you couldn't have known she was—"

"Don't say it! I promised we wouldn't say anything!"

"But we have to tell someone!" Twilight's outburst from earlier didn't just have a lasting impact on Spike, and Rarity was showing just how much it had shaken her up. Not that Twilight could blame her, she'd probably feel the same if their roles were reversed. "Just think of what—"

And that's where Twilight's observation of the conversation was abruptly ended. What goes around comes around, and the karma from her earlier transgression against one of Ponyville's local guards had come back around to Twilight in the form of an almost-blinding flash of blue light. It wasn't difficult for her to recognize the familiar feeling of teleportation, though it was an odd sensation when she wasn't the one who triggered it. When she reappeared shortly after a fair way away, it became abundantly clear who the culprit behind her sudden displacement was. After all, Starlight Glimmer was just standing right in front of Twilight, waiting for the cloaked pony with a look of mixed stress and panic not unlike Twilight's own.

"You again?!" Twilight blurted, not exactly happy to see Onwud's accomplice here right now. This displeasure was only matched by confusion, as even now Twilight knew that this mare should also be on the guard's list of arrests to make. "What're you—"

"He went that way. Towards Sweet Apple Acres." The unicorn spoke bluntly, jutting her head off to the left to indicate the dirrection she was talking about. "Saw some guards headed that way. They didn't make a fuss about it... for obvious reasons." She gingerly gestured a hoof off to the right, and a series of ponies searching high and low for the unknown creature spotted in their town.

Twilight, understandably so, was caught off guard by the statement. It was the absolute last thing that Twilight expected to hear right now, and it had come from the absolute last person she had expected to hear it from. There was no possible way that this pony could be talking about Spike, right? How in the world would she know about him? It didn't add up. There had to be something else going on here, something to do with Knox and the whole mess Twilight had made herself a part of. That had to be it, she thought.

"You know. The little... snake... dog... dragon-looking guy, right?" Starlight spoke again, trailing off mid-sentence as if she didn't know quite how to describe what she was thinking of. "He's probably at Sweet Apple Acres by now. If you hurry, you might find him first."

Just like that, Twilight's confusion was swallowed back up by her rage. In this one moment, Starlight Glimmer had just shown that she knew far more than Twilight first expected of her, and the implications of what that meant were heavy. Had she been spying on her? How much did she know? What was her game? All these questions and more suddenly began to ring out in Twilight's head, and each one demanded answers.

"How do you—"

"I'd love to explain, I really would, but I don't think either of us has the time for that." Starlight took a few steps back with great haste, a wave of obvious nervousness washing over her as this conversation went on. "I'm pretty sure we both have places to be right now." And just as she had brought Twilight here in a burst of blue light, so too did the unicorn make her exit. Blinking out of existence with a magical pop, she left Twilight alone with nothing else but a series of unanswered questions and a few more gallons added to the sea of anxieties and frustrations that she'd been swimming in all day.

And Twilight was left to stand there and wallow in all of this, unsure of exactly where to go from this current juncture. That brief interaction with Starlight had brought more than a few things into question and reconsideration, and the young alicorn wasn't sure what any of it meant at this point. She found herself looking in the direction Starlight had pointed her in with longing and concern. Did Spike really run off that way as she said? It was certainly possible, but what reason would that unicorn have for telling that to Twilight? How would she even know Twilight was looking for him in the first place? It was frustratingly nonsensical, just as Starlight's actions from the previous night had been, and that wasn't something that was lost on Twilight even now. If nothing else, she knew now that this Starlight Glimmer person was up to something else. But as to what that was, Twilight hadn't the faintest.

But that wasn't at the top of Twilight's priorities right now, far from it. No, right now she was solely focused on deciding whether or not she should take Starlight's tip or continue searching on her own accord. It was far too specific advice to just be a coincidence, Starlight wanted Twilight to head to Sweet Apple Acres for one reason or another. Maybe Spike was there right now, doing what he could to avoid being caught by the town guards who were supposedly on his trail. Or maybe this was a trap devised by Knox's associates to get the upper hoof on Twilight, which also wasn't out of the realm of possibility. It was a tough choice to make, but her current desperation and stress expedited the process significantly.

Without further delay, Twilight ran off towards Sweet Apple Acres.

One of two things was going to happen when she got there. She was either going to find her son, or she would make life very unpleasant for whatever poor unfortunate fool thought that ambushing an agitated alicorn was in any way a good idea.