"Is this really the best use of our time?"
Sabre sat beside a giddy Bright, who was, in turn, watching a spectacle befall before him. I was flying or trying to. My wings flapped, flapped, and flapped some more. I'd make it a meter or two off the ground and then prompt a fall on my butt. Spade stood nearby, offering what guidance he could, but here I was flightless, like the majestic penguin.
"Come on, come on."
I huffed and puffed, and there I went falling again. You'd think flying would be more instinctual. Nope, lots of muscle memory and air currents. Oh sure, once you get it, it sticks, but the attempts getting there. A lot of dirt and sore bottoms.
It had been three days, three days of skirting the coast of every town and hamlet we passed. We'd seen scout flyers a few times and a patrol here and there, but the pony hunt felt kind of weak, all things considered. Though I suppose they only had a direction to follow, if they'd known where we were headed directly, I doubt we'd have it half as lucky. I'd wager the oh-so-loving queen of these lands would have an army marching and every nook and cranny full of spears and spells. We'd be dead in short, and that topped sore bums by quite a bit.
"Probably not, but it's way more fun."
Bright smiled on, and that was that. Sabre surrendered to his iron-clad logic. So, that is what happened. I flapped, they swatched, and I silently judged them all for it. That was until Blueblood entered the fray. The hidden little grotto we'd made camp in for the night was nestled right next to a clearing. That clearing is where I practiced falling with style. Blueblood took a single look, snorted, and then turned to Sabre and Bright.
"Is this really the best use of our time?"
"That's exactly what I asked," Sabre mused.
"The answer goes back to yourselves, you voyeuristic sadists."
My decree was heard and sowed a bit of shame into my derelict friends. Well, every one by Bright who shrugged and returned to his favorite rerun, me falling again. Spade had all but used up his well of wisdom and was now hovering near my zenith and pointing out how his muscles bent and twitched and all the bodily functions muscles on flight-giving limbs should have. It wasn't helping much, but it was better than me going in blind.
"Come on, Star, you need to angle down if you inclining. Otherwise, your body builds drag, which is why you fall. You know? You have to really want it. Your desire can't be a simple flight of fancy."
"Hate, hate so much," I said between haggard breaths.
"Less hate, more proper breath control. You'll pass out if you don't measure your intake. The higher you go, the less air circulates. Or, as I like to say. The higher you go, the more likely you'll fall to your death if you get the hiccups."
Spade pat my shoulder and motioned for me to follow.
"We'll stop for today. Still plenty of ground between us and this fairytale hideaway, and I'd like to keep it between us and not on top of us."
Sabre smirked. "You're twisted, you know that, right?"
Spade didn't even acknowledge the statement. I had to assume the truth was just too much to bare for his fragile soul. It turned out flying was hard, but what wasn't hard? Walking in a straight line for hours on end. That was cake.
---
My ears pricked. Sabre had us all squashed, and we crept through the brush slowly. Every single step was in hyper-focus. It was almost in opposition to the last few days on consistent travel. We'd made it more than halfway to the north. We'd been moving better than even Blue expected. So, I had to wonder why karma hated me.
"Comb the area. The hounds have the scent of the mapmaker and the traitor playing a soldier. We find them. We find the rest. Keep it simple and thorough. The queen wants them alive, but she left in what condition they're into us. So, beat but no bleed."
So, there we had it. I never understood why the military trained their officers in monologues and yelling while hunting someone you clearly knew was on the run. It made it all the easier to avoid their ire. I supposed it could be an intimidation tactic, but if it was, it sucked, and they needed new strategies.
There were more than a dozen of the night guard and three bloodhounds. The things were leaping, smelling everything, and steadily creeping in our direction. It looked like confrontation was the name of the game. I looked over to find Sabre jiggling the pommel of his sword, his whole body was tensed, and his eyes were trained on the Night Guard officer. It seemed the hunter was being hunted. The odds weren't great even if Sabre got the pounce on the head. This beast had a dozen more, and that's only if the metaphor didn't devolve into hydra territory. They could have more reinforcements in the wait.
I hadn't expected the looks on Thorax and Blueblood. They looked almost as wound up as Sabre. I knew Thorax had seen fighting and had defended himself before, but he'd never seemed proud of those moments. His frame shook as he spread his legs and lowed himself to pounce. Blueblood on the other hoof. I wasn't so surprised he was willing to fight, but more so that I'd never considered if Blue could fight. I mean, really fight, bot some back alley scuffle. If the flicker of light that arched up his horn was anything to go by, he was very ready and willing.
The hounds drew closer, and armor clanking and heavy breathing followed. The foliage we'd used as concealment wouldn't work once they were on top of us. I could feel the tension and taste the blood yet spilled. The shadows clawed at my vision, and I felt sick and restless. I found myself grinding my teeth.
Dark, the breathing and panting of the dogs. Dark, the sound of my own heartbeat. Dark, the sound of metal and leather. Dark and the sound of growling. It was so dark, I could hear it all. I listened to the tearing of flesh and the surprised yelp of the guards and their dogs. It was a haze, the sound of laughter, neither mocking nor manic. It was the laugh of one catching the sight of a disaster. The laugh of something other than pony. A pony, not even Nightmare Moon, could laugh in all this mania, laugh as the world burned.
Then there was light. I blinked. The surrounding road, the one the Night Guard had occupied, was quiet. I sat in the middle of the dirt. The laughter had stopped. It was over before I'd even known it began. The guards were, strewn about. Most of all were still breathing but were incapable of retaliation at this point. I looked about the roadside in the confused stupid I'd been roused from. It wasn't until I found my friends standing, their eyes wide, staring at me, then the points connected. It seemed not all of it. Not all of the dark was in my head.
"What happened?" I asked.
The others didn't immediately answer. They seemed dumbstruck. Sabre was the first to recover, though he stilled seemed at a loss. I tilted my head, ears erect as I waited for some explanation. Sabre took a single step forward.
"What was that, sir?" he asked.
"What was what?" I asked.
"When the guard spotted us. It was like you walked through the ensuing struggle. You seemed untouchable. It was uncanny at best. Your eyes didn't focus on anything you simply dodged about like you were something else entirely. You never even through a kick. You just, I don't know. It wasn't natural, sir."
"Oh?"
I didn't know what to say. I walked through the fight, how I'd thought I was having a panic attack. What Sabre described was undoubtedly not a panic attack. The others seemed to draw out of their own daze. Bright and Spade seemed to shrug it off. Both gave me an odd look but didn't pursue it any further. When Blue finally spoke, he did not sound happy.
"I've come to expect the bizarre. This whole adventure is an odd if not interesting pursuit. I've come to find this strange group of ours to become comforting, if not aggravating. I am at a loss for what mad dance you dragged up in the face of death? So, for the sake of our fellowship, answers are needed."
It was a fair request. I'm sure I'd have asked the same in his position. The shadows seemed to stalk me, always on the edge of my vision. I'd come to simply ignore them. They were merely another facet of my life here. Then there were my mind-boggling dreams, the voices, the crystals, none of which made a lick of sense. I'd like answers as well.
A groan from one of the guards had me jump. Answers would come. My friends deserved the full summary of my slowly degrading sanity. Those answers could wait until we weren't neck-deep in some sure-to-rise, quite livid guards who wanted us beaten senseless, to begin with.
"Right, that's fair, Blue. However, can this wait until we're somewhere a little less covered in Nightmare pawns and the like?"
The others looked about at the guards. And submitted to my request. I doubt any of us wanted or needed to be surrounded by crazy bloodlusted thestrals. It wasn't at the top of my vacation places anyhow.
This was gonna be a long walk and an even more extended talk.
---
"They were getting worse, sir?" Sabre loomed over me, teeth-gnashing as he stared down at me. I felt very small at this moment. The armor and blade at his side didn't help. I'd done exactly what I said I'd do. We'd taken a side route and looped back around, and past the area, we had fought off the Night Guard. We were as safe as we could be for the moment.
Well, I wasn't very safe at the moment. Sabre looked ready to pound me flat, Blue seemed less than pleased, Bright seemed sad, for Bright, and both Thorax and Spade seemed confused and concerned. All in all, I expected worse.
"Sir!" Sabre repeated slowly and perhaps too loud for our circumstances.
"I mean, it depends on the dream, I guess." I offered a choked laugh, one that died on the tongue. Sabre continued to be all gloom and doom, and I continued to be very small.
"These dreams of yours, they seem dire. Your arrival was peculiar, your memory loss convenient, but this makes it intentional."
Blue, as direct as always, accounted pointedly jabbing a hoof with each thought.
"You think he's lying?" Bright asked.
Blue shook his head. "Not exactly."
"Well, I believe Star. He's nothing but try to make things better."
"So, you have no concerns about his dreams?" Blue asked.
Bright sagged a bit. "I mean, they're kinda, not great. The thing with the guards was a bit spooky. But still. I don't think he's been lying. Stargazer is Stargazer, through and through."
Bright, refusing to doubt his friends. It was sweet, maybe misguided, but that earnestness was Bright from beginning to end. Blue rubbed his temple. Blue wasn't wrong either. My past and these dreams, there's something to it all.
"Blue has a point. What if someone or something did this to me. What if who I was, isn't who I am. How would I even know?"
"Sir."
Sabre smacked me upside the head. I yelped and rubbed the spot as Sabre took a few steps back and waited. The silence was telling. The group as a whole was burin out every brain cell we had, with even less time we had left.
"So, what now?" I asked.
"We head north," Sabre said flatly.
I balked. "After all this," I said, pointing to everywhere and nowhere at all.
"Where else would we go?" Blue asked.
"We have a mission," Thorax spoke up for the first time since my tale wrapped up.
"Who else will save the day?" Bright asked.
"I'm here under duress," Spade said with a wink.
"You guys are hopeless."
I didn't know what else to say. These crazy, unorthodox, insane, absolutely irreplaceable fools were going to die, just on the off chance. I'm not out of my mind. How did anyone respond to something like that?
"Besides, the voices have my interest. If you are being strung along, the question is who and why? Why the north, why a fairytale city hidden in the snow? That alone is worth finishing this jaunty stroll if you ask me."
Blue tossed his mane back and held his chin high. Some habits wouldn't die, no matter how long you were a hermit. Sabre seemed attentive to the idea as well.
"Yep, and once we save Equestria, I'm gonna make it a novel series and show it to everyone everywhere. It's gonna be epic."
"Ew, creatives. Help, I need monotony and the promise of death. I refuse to go bankrupt on Bright's bit," Spade said, feigning collapse.
"They're right," Thorax had me in a hug faster than I had time to process it. "We're in this together. That's what a hive does."
"Can't breathe," I wheezed as Thorax crushed the sorrow from my chest.
"Sorry."
Thorax released me, even if his stupid uplifting grin didn't fade. That settled that, I guess. We're all crazy, and half of these stallions were turning this into a cash cow. I'd have been impressed. If this were anyone else.
"Okay, but Blue has a point. We don't really know what's going on up here. "I tap the side of my head. "This could be a trap, or a demon or something. There are multiple voices. Who knows which ones are honest and which aren't."
"Time will tell. We have to see the crystal city before making any assumptions about who is or is not trustworthy."
"The thing with the guards was still pretty weird," Spade said.
"Yes, yes it was."
"We have a couple more days ahead of us. We're burning starlight." Sabre took a single deep breath, turned on his hooves, and started marching.
"Always on the move," Blueblood said and followed. The rest of us fell in lockstep as our journey continued. At this point, at least I'd gotten all those dreams and stuff off my chest. It might make figuring them out easier.
The night carried on, one night close to its end and another to come. The significant snows of the north hung clear beyond the horizon. The moon continued to bare down and watch our every step. The nightmare on the march behind us.
"My my, whatever will you do, little pony."
I yelped as the voice, like a whisper behind me, pondered. Thorax looked back at me. I coughed into a hoof.
"Sorry, It's just the voices in my head."
"Another one?" Thorac asked.
I shook my head. "The last voice, the one from my last dream. It's the hardest to hear, like a whisper, a whisper lost to time."
"Joy," Blue called from ahead of Thorax and myself. "Two minutes later, you're already talking to your imaginary friend."
"What'd they say?" Thorax asked.
"Go on, don't be shy. I'm not hiding anything."
"It's narrating, sort of, or giving voice to my thoughts. If they're my thoughts at all."
"All three ghosts of Hearth's warming eve. Watch out. If everything goes to plan, that last one might be requisitioning a commission."
Spade started tp hum, seeming to mull over whatever imaginary request he thought he voices in my head might make.
“Gee, Spade, glad to know you got my back.”
"Interesting. And the other two?" Blue asked.
"Just the one, for now."
"Good, keep it that way."
Sabre sounded drained. Even as he marched, I could tell. If it weren't for his training, I don't know how much longer he'd be able to keep this pace up. He took double the night watches and was always ahead of the herd. That didn't even account for whatever happened with the Night Guard earlier. I sighed and picked up my pace a bit.
"The question is, why are so many interested in little old you, Stargazer? For now, Even I'm at a loss for those answers. Good luck. All of you will need it."
"Ominous," I mumbled. Why couldn't anything be simple? At least the other voices kept to the sleeping world."