Home.
Thoughts, too many thoughts, swirling, endless in nature; they swarmed my mind like flies around a carcass.
I could feel grains of something stuck in the corners of my eyes and a dry stinging pricked at my whites.
I groaned as I rolled over in bed before falling off. I stumbled to my hooves and noted the fact that my disguise had held.
I sighed as I felt vertebrae loosen and pop as I stretched my back.
My neck followed suit and granted me sweeping panoramas of my room as I twisted away my stiffness.
The once empty nightstand now had a few special little rocks that lined the top.
Some were mottled, others were plain, green, brown, gray, but all of them were precious.
Why? Well, I honestly couldn’t say, but the children always insisted that “This one is so cool!” or that “you just have to keep this one, you just have to!”
Among the little collection of stones, I picked out the single true gem of the lot.
A small prism of quartz that jutted from a flat-bottomed rock.
Sugarplum hadn’t stolen it, I’d made sure.
However, I couldn’t fathom where she’d found it!
After two weeks of grilling her, the other children, Ms. Heart, and even the surrounding landscape, I couldn’t figure it out!
My eye twitched as I glared at the wonderful enigma of precious stone before I just sighed the logical inconsistencies away.
Just don’t question it, just don’t question it.
After all, I’ve been here for a month and I still don’t know why they have Seventh street between Ninth and Tenth street.
I guess it’s just another one of this colorful world’s inconsistencies.
I turned from the rock collection to gaze at the walls of my room.
Before, the wood was plain and bare; it was effective but bland.
However, pictures now hung haphazardly all over, pinned in place with minute needles of magic.
Some were barely more than a scribble, others mere doodles, but a few managed to actually capture an image or two.
Sure, proportions were off and the shading was lacking but I could see the effort.
I sighed as I prepared to face the day and with a wide smile, pushed through my bedroom door.
The hall was bare of ponies, the stairs were empty, but the bar had a couple of stallions sitting at the counter.
The same two that have been here almost every day since I got here.
The one closer to me rose a hoof as he smiled.
“G’morning Pathfinder, ya look a ‘lil rough ‘round the edges, somethin’ on ya mind?”
I shook my head as I plodded up to the seat beside Hotshot and sighed as I plopped myself down.
“No, I’m fine, just had a rough time getting to sleep.”
Hotshot cocked an eyebrow.
“I ain’t a fool, Path. Somethin’s wrong, what is it?”
I sighed as I rested my chin on the wood of the counter.
“Twisted Twisters got out again, the little liar just wanders around the town at ridiculous times.”
My breath hissed as I inhaled.
“Sometimes, she’ll disappear for a day, sometimes two, but never more than that.”
Hotshot frowned at me before his brows shot up when I continued.
“And today’s day four of her latest disappearance. Heart is in a panic, some of the kids wanna go looking for her while others are just worried, and I’m getting so bucking tired.”
With my rant over, I finally completely slumped forward.
Hotshot stared at me for another moment before facing forward.
“That’s rough buddy.”
Before I could respond, the barkeep stormed through the kitchen entrance.
“Alrighty then, which one of ya bleedin’ idiots got inta the kitchen?”
I frowned while Hotshot snickered.
“Dirk thought his cutiemark also covered washing utensils cause knives were utensils! Still, how the buck did he manage to mess up dishwashing.”
The rest of his sentence was cut off by his own raucous laughter, followed by a growl from the barkeep.
I really ought to learn her name sometime… Eh, I’ll get around to it eventually.
My stomach rumbled at a volume that even the barkeep could hear.
I coughed into a hoof before I adopted a sheepish smile.
“Is breakfast soon or…?”
The barkeep gave me a blank stare before she sighed.
“Did ya not hear wha’ I said ‘bout the dishes?”
I simply stared and she glared back before continuing.
“No, breakfast won’t be soon.”
I shrugged before I got up.
“Then I gotta go, got breakfast to eat, a filly to find, and some plundervines to maim!”
A cheery smile masked my fatigue as I walked out, and it immediately dropped when I closed the door.
I took a deep breath, and another, and another.
After I almost fell asleep standing, I decided that deep breaths wouldn’t help and began trotting to the nearest bakery.
The market had its usual swirl of colors and smells that dominated my senses.
However, something was off, the air felt charged in a way as if a bolt of lightning was about to strike.
A quick (literal) rain check revealed that there was not a cloud in the sky.
I huffed as I dismissed my worries to continue towards breakfast, though the electric feeling in the air remained.
A pit in my stomach continued to grow as I felt my chest tighten.
However, that might’ve just been a product of being tired and hungry.
I shook the odd feeling out of my head as I finally turned the corner and trotted into the store.
The familiar sweet scents of freshly baked cakes, bread, and other foods assaulted my nose as I walked up to the glass display case.
A quick look presented me with a myriad of choices, only one caught my eye though.
After I ordered, I took my precious donut from the baker to eat outside.
Both the table and stool were made of wood, though the seat was far more wobbly than the table.
I got comfortable before I took a bite. The wonderfully muted flavor of chocolate served to accent the sharp tart sweetness of the cherry jelly.
As I chewed, I watched the road to keep an eye out for the troublesome little filly that had eluded me thus far.
There were far fewer people walking the streets.
Usually, there were numerous ponies trotting to and fro, rushing to their work or dealing with an errand.
However, Main Street only had a few pedestrians walking the road at the moment.
I shook my head as I finished before I got up.
Another deep breath later, and I started forward.
I walked the whole length of Main Street, looked into the various alleys that served as tributaries for the market-lined road, and asked the ponies I did see if my quarry had been spotted.
Unfortunately, nopony had seen either heads or tails of Twisted Twister.
Eventually, I traversed the whole road and found myself before the guard gate.
With no better options, I called out to the guards on the wall.
“Hello good sirs, have you by chance seen a white batpony pass by the gate recently?”
One of the guards twitched to glance at me before returning his gaze to whatever lay beyond the wall.
“No.”
The other guard cocked an eyebrow at his compatriot before speaking.
“Actually, we have, I don’t know why he keeps denying it.”
The denier growled at his buddy before glaring at me.
“Batponies don’t come in white, we were probably tired and were seeing things, it was close to midnight.”
I sighed as I rubbed my muzzle with a hoof.
“Which way did she go?”
The more reasonable of the two pointed at something over a wall.
My blank stare helped the stallion realize his mistake.
“I think they went into the forest over there.”
I nodded.
“Thank you, do you mind opening the door for me? I kinda need to take her home.”
The white-batpony-disbeliever scowled at me.
“Why do you need to go there?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, I just need some milk and the forest just so happens to have a milk shop at the center. I’ll probably grab a carrot cake on the way, and if I’m lucky, might even find the secret to immortality on the way back. No, I’m going to look for the filly, the buck you think?”
The angry guard snorted and opened his mouth but the friendly guard smacked the back of the first one’s head.
“Yeah, go right ahead, we’ll let you back in.”
I sighed.
“Thanks for being reasonable.”
The friendly guy smiled.
“No problem.”
My hooves beat a quick and steady rhythm as I walked the outskirts of the forest.
My search lasted a few minutes before I noticed a line of broken branches.
None of them were very large but a twig here and a bundle of leaves there are the telltale signs of a small flier.
With a frown I stepped into the woods, trying to watch my step while I kept the trail in sight.
Why the hell is she out here? She’s never been this adventurous before… Is she hiding something?
After almost ten minutes of this, my thoughts were broken by the sounds of hushed conversation.
However, the voices were just below the range of audibility.
With a flick of my magic, I drew a cloak of invisibility around myself and lifted myself up into the air.
It was slow going with how much foliage I had to avoid but I did end up in hearing range eventually.
A grown mare’s voice cut through the ambient noise of the forest.
“Look, all I’m saying is that this place is a prime target! The town guard is lazy, they have mines, they have good smiths, and they’re so far away from the capitol that the princesses would never send reinforcements.”
That voice sounds familiar.
I got a little closer and figured out that the voices were coming from behind a wall of bushes.
A low voice rumbled through the greenery.
“Yes yes, I’ve heard your spiel a hundred times now False Wind, and guess what, I don’t care. We don’t need another mining town, we don’t need another small backwater, and we sure as Tartarus don’t need another place that might revolt under us.”
False Wind… is that an alias? That sounds a lot like…
“Fine, just don’t come crying to me when you run low on arrows again.”
The other pony growled.
“That was never a metal issue, our fletchers just weren’t able to produce fast enough!”
I neared the top as the mare snorted.
“Yeah, and half of us are still waiting on chainmail! The supply lines are a joke, we can’t armor our ponies, we can’t arm them, and we can barely feed them. This whole shtick is gonna fail and when it-”
“Stop, I don’t need to hear this from you, get out of here and go back to doing your job, you ungrateful subpar spook.”
When I peeked over the edge of the shrubbery, I had to suppress a gasp.
The only two ponies in the clearing ahead were a fully-grown gray thestral and a very familiar white one.
The big one nodded.
“You are dismissed, False Wind.”
The little white mare grumbled as she flew towards my hiding spot.
I had to flail my head around for a moment to find a suitable place to relocate to but I managed it just in time.
I let out my quietest sigh when I saw Distorted Gale or was it Twisted Twisters or...
Gah, how can one pony keep track of all those names?
The ‘filly’ missed the exhale, but her compatriot certainly didn’t.
He snapped his head to exactly where I floated and called to me.
“Come on out, I don’t bite.”
The calm tone and tired inflection only lowered my guard a smidgen when I floated to the ground in front of him.
I dismissed my invisibility in a wave of magic that dramatically revealed me as a smiling gray unicorn.
The thestral rolled his eyes.
“Neat trick but I know that’s all it is. How much did you hear?”
I shrugged.
“Oh, I heard enough.”
My teeth began to show in my smile as I let my eyes flash red.
“Though, I really don’t care about your resistance, revolt, or whatever else you decide to call your insurrection.”
I raised a hoof to cut off his retort of no-doubt propaganda fueled bull that he’d spew at any possible recruit.
“I don’t like the royal sisters but I don’t hate them enough to go looking for a fight. Just stay away from Sunshine Smiles, the town orphanage, and I’ll be just fine with keeping quiet about your connections here.”
The thestral glared at me.
“What makes you think that you have the leverage to threaten us?”
“I really don’t.”
He stared at me for a moment before I clarified.
“I just want to stay out of your business and for you to stay out of mine. You do that and you have one less enemy.”
He seemed unconvinced with the way his muscles coiled to strike like a lunging cobra so I locked his entire body with my magic.
I strolled up and got within inches of his face before I smiled again. This time my teeth were sharp as a dragon's, my eyes gained a yellow tinge, and my current horn disappeared in favor of a goat’s horn accompanied by a deer antler.
The thestral twitched against his bonds but failed to escape as he saw both versions of me, what I really was and what I pretended to be, at the same time.
However, I doubt he truly knew which was the lie and which was the truth.
“I don’t care about your little rebellion and I suggest you don’t give me a reason to.”
He tried to glare at me, but the way his eyes were shaped didn’t show anger, they showed fear.
His twitching torso and legs weren’t going for my throat, they were retreating from me as if I was a venomous snake ready to strike.
When I let him go, the thestral dove through the forest lining the clearing and dashed off into the wilderness.
Meanwhile, I rewove my disguise and floated homewards with a dark scowl.
How many names can one pony have? How many names?