The unicorns ran in the depths of the forest, getting away from the diamond dogs as much as possible, taking advantage of the fact that they were trapped. After running for a long time, they laid on their backs on a circle, panting in a mixture of exhaustion and panic.
“Did we lose them?” Gusty asked.
“We must have!” Lancer deduced. “We´ve been running for like half an hour!”
“I think it is safe to deduce we did.” Glory opined. “And even if we weren´t far enough, most of the diamond dogs are either injured or stuck in ice, which means they will need time to recover. So, at least for noo, we´re free from danger.”
“Does that mean that we can stop? Please tell me so because I´m feeling super dizzy.” Fizzy massaged her temples.
“I think so.” Glory replied.
“Ah, thank you.” Fizzy covered her mouth and turned to the right.
“Wow. If Fizzy of all ponies, is feeling dizzy, then that means we really did a sprint!” Buttons commented, making everypony smile.
“Yeah. And survived an army of diamond dogs.” Gusty added.
“Not only that. We actually defeated them.” Glory pointed out.
The unicorns widened their eyes in realization.
“Yeah. We did.” Gusty said in shock after processing Lancer´s words.
“Th-that was real, right? It was not a dream.” Buttons asked to reassure herself.
“Well, there must be a reason I ran so much to the point of feeling like this, isn´t there?” Fizzy said.
“So me attacking the captain and soldiers really did happen?” Starswirl covered his face. “Oh dear…”
“And what´s more surprising… We did this without Majesty.” said Lancer.
“You never fought in a battle without Majesty?” Gusty asked him.
“I did, but Majesty´s the one that does all the planning and leads us. Without her, all of us feel kind of lost.”
“Especially the ones who are new at military, such as me.” Glory commented. “And even when I was a spy, she guided us.”
“Wish I could say the same.” Gusty muttered under her breath, somewhat resentful of her due to her experience in Grogar´s castle.
“Wait. You two were spying at Grogar? In his castle?!” Starswirl asked shocked.
“It´s a very long story.” Gusty smiled nervously.
“So, fighting without her guidance was kind of a frightening experience.” Glory continued.
“Yet here you are standing with us alive.”
“Unless all of us are dead and we don´t know it.” said Lancer.
“We are alive. You guys did it. Without Majesty. And you will do so if the case ever comes again.”
“Maybe this was pure luck.” Glory fidgeted with her hooves. “What guarantees us the next time will be ok?”
“There´s a chance that it won´t be ok but there´s also a chance it could be. Who says it won´t be ok again?”
Lancer and Glory shared worried looks.
“No offense, but I think you two depend too much on her.” Fizzy said to them.
“How could we not?! We owe her our lives!” Lancer answered upset.
“I know that. I´m not saying what you do is wrong, but what if for some reason Majesty is unable to guide you for some time again? What will you do then?”
“I… didn´t think about that.” Glory replied.
“Ok, you´re right, fine. But I believe is better having Majesty around.”
“I agree with that.”
“To be honest, I kind of felt relieved she wasn´t around.” Buttons confessed a bit ashamed.
“What?!” Lancer and Glory asked in unison somewhat upset.
“It´s just I am not as good with a sword as you are Lancer. And I sometimes feel like she somewhat disdains me for that. As if she thinks I´m going to die soon or something.”
“You dying?!” Gusty scoffed. “Buttons, you literally defeated a group of diamond dogs with only your moves!”
“But that´s not what she taught us…”
“Well, she didn´t teach me to fight with water and yet I fight with it all the time. And Gusty always fights with her wind as well. Maybe you could prove her wrong by doing what you did today.” Fizzy winked an eye.
“Maybe.” she turned to Lancer and Glory. “How do you think she would react?”
“She´s very methodical, but if she sees it works, I believe she´ll accept it.” Glory replied. “As Fizzy said, if she and Gusty can fight their way, why can´t you?”
Buttons smiles.
“I can see why she likes you two. You are amazing fighting!”
“Years of experience!” Lancer said proudly.
“I do have a close relationship with Majesty, but I still have to improve my fighting.”
“Seriously?” Lancer turned to Glory. “Did you see how you were fighting Cavall?! How were you so fast?”
“It´s just a matter of knowing your enemy´s pattern.”
“And how did you know it?”
“Long talks with Majesty.”
“I´m sorry to interrupt, but does any of you have water?” Fizzy asked. “I spent all of mine fighting the diamond dogs.”
“Of course, chérie.” Buttons passed hers to her. “You deserve it after holding our back.” she patted Fizzy´s shoulder. She widened her eyes when she observed how fast Fizzy was dirnking “Slowly.” she lowered her canteen. “Otherwise, your tummy will hurt.”
Fizzy sighed after drinking.
“Sorry.” Fizzy apologized.
“I never had the chance to tell you this but the way you manipulate the water is amazing!” Glory told her.
“You really think that?” Fizzy asked excited.
“Even though I got the impression you wouldn´t make it through one second in battle, you certainly showed me otherwise today.” Lancer admitted.
After listening to him, Fizzy´s dizziness went away, allowing her to spring to Lancer and hug him. Gusty, Buttons and Glory held their laughter.
“I knew that deep down you liked me!” Fizzy exclaimed excited.
“What? No! I don´t like you.” he replied as he struggled to undo her hug.
“Yes, you do!”
“Ok, I am starting to tolerate you, but if you don´t let me go right now, I might change my mind.”
“Ok. Ok.” Fizzy raised her hooves calmly. Seeing she was making him grumpy, she kept on smirking teasingly.
“It was amazing fighting alongside you Fizzy.” Gusty said as she and the rest incorporated to sit down. “Who knew that we could do so much by combining our magic?”
“Same here! But it´s mostly thanks to you. If it wasn´t for your plan, this wouldn´t have been possible.”
“Oh, don´t say that.” she stroked her own mane nervously. “Any of you could have come up with that.”
“Well, apparently none of us did.” Buttons said in reply.
“You still have a lot to improve in your planning, but you did great.” Lancer said. “At least you´re not Fizzy.”
“Hey!” Fizzy complained.
Gusty giggled.
“And Starswirl.” she turned to him. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“Huh?” the unicorn said in response, as he was too focused on his thoughts.
“I said thank you for saving my life. It was very brave of you to do that, considering that you´ve never fought before.” Gusty smiled honestly.
Starswirl blinked surprised. He felt his heart pounding faster, which caused him to take some time to answer.
“Oh.” he scoffed nervous. “I- It´s the least I could do. You risked your life for me as well. I had to return the favour somehow.” he returned the smile to Gusty.
“I´m sorry for the interruption guys, but it´s getting dark.” Lancer looked at the sky so everypony did the same. “I suggest we gather some food and make a fire.”
“Yeah, maybe we should.” Gusty smiled nervous.
“Wohoo! Dinner time together!” Fizzy jumped excited.
“We always have dinner together, Fizzy.” Buttons told her.
“But I love having dinner with all of you, no matter how many times!” she replicated.
Buttons shook her head as she rolled her eyes playfully.
“Ah finally we eat something.” Fizzy sat down next to Buttons. “I´ve been starving all day!”
“If we hadn´t been attacked, we would have had more food at the camping, but I think this will be enough to survive the night.” Glory said as she served everypony some berries.
“Speaking of that, does anypony know how to go to Trottingham from here?” Gusty asked.
“Well, I haven´t been this far in the forest but I know Trottingam is that way,” Starswirl pointed at the left. “and Catnada the other way.” he pointed at the north.
“Catnada?”
“That´s Katrina´s domains, in other words, the previous earth pony kingdom.” Glory explained.
“If Katrina gets involved, will we have to go there?” Buttons asked her.
“I don’t think it will be necessary. Katrina will send her soldiers to Trottingham for help. Plus, I´m pretty sure earth ponies won´t take kindly that we step into their territories, let alone, fight in them.”
“And it´s further than Trottingham.” Starswirl added.
“Either way, I wouldn´t mind paying a visit.” Fizzy gave her opinion after eating some berries. “I love seeing new places, even if the inhabitants aren´t unicorns.”
“Yeah? Let´s see if you still think that once you interact with the earth ponies.” Lancer said in reply.
“And what is Trottingham like?” Gusty asked Starswirl.
“Like every empire´s city. There´s not much of difference except in its sight.”
“Yeah, of course. We are talking about Tambelon, after all.” Gusty said sarcastically, making Starswirl chuckle.
“You´ve been in Trottingham?” Buttons asked surprised.
“I´m actually from there.”
“Really?”
Starswirl nodded.
“I was born and lived there for some time. But then I had to run away and take refuge in the forest.”
“For owing books about magic, am I right?” Lancer deduced. “Which makes me wonder, how on earth did you get those?”
“Let´s just say Majesty´s rebellion wasn´t the only one that existed.”
Everypony widened their eyes.
“You were part of a rebellion?!” Fizzy asked dramatically.
“Kind of, yes. But it wasn´t like yours that intended to dethrone Grogar. This was more of a fight for knowledge. To discover what we were capable of. Like in every other kingdom, Maragon´s scholars were clerics, since they were the ones tasked with studying magic to teach everypony how to use it correctly so that they took good care of the spirits and followed their teachings. Grogar attacked many monasteries to wipe those books from everypony´s memory. However, the clerics made a deal with him: they would teach him everything they knew about magic in exchange of keeping their books and lives.”
“But what could Grogar not have known about magic by then?”
“He already knew a lot, that´s true. But he didn´t know about pony magic. Knowing everything about your enemy, whether their strengths and weaknesses, their family or anything, always gives you an upper hoof.”
Those words struck Gusty´s mind. She told Grogar about her family. What could he do to them? Despite her thoughts, she still payed attention to Starswirl.
“But clerics were not willing to sacrifice their knowledge to Grogar. They always had copies of the books, so even if they had to give all their books to Grogar, they´d still have all the information they needed to keep on studying and teaching it.”
“And since clerics live isolated, he wouldn´t realize anything was going on.” Gusty concluded.
“Not really. Grogar was always smart enough to send guards to check there was no `illegal´ activity in there.” Starswirl made an air quote. “However, clerics kept their secret very well-hidden.”
“And what did they do to cover it up?” Buttons ate some berries.
“They pretended to do what everypony did. Farming, blacksmithing…”
“So, I guess your family was part of that clergy, am I right?” Lancer presumed.
“No. Clerics seldom had children. They were so dedicated to the study of magic that they didn´t dedicate time to forming a family, even though, there´s not a rule anywhere that forbids it, then again it depends on the head of the monastery. However, that didn´t mean that they couldn´t adopt orphans to form them.”
“Wait. Ye´re an orphan?” Glory asked him.
“Hmm.” Starswirl nodded. “My parents were very sick, and if you couldn´t find anypony to take care of your children, you could write a scroll to the monastery and asked them if they could, so that´s what they did with me. I was lucky, because not everypony could afford to do that.”
“I see. At what age?”
“I think I was nine years old. What about you? I presume you asked me this because you are too.”
“Younger, six years old, I believe.”
“And what happened to them? How did you end up alone in the forest?” Gusty asked fearful, already guessing the end of the story.
Starswirl looked down.
“There are two ways a rebellion can end: either you are the winner, or you are loser. You take all you wanted, or you lose it all. Some are lucky and prevail while other don´t. My case was one of the unlucky ones.” he sighed sadly at the same time he shook his head. “Unfortunately, Grogar caught us out off guard and discovered our disobedience. And as punishment, he burnt our home. The survivors of the fire were captured and executed.”
“So… You were the only one to live.” Said Gusty.
Starswirl closed his eyes in pain.
“And how were not caught?” Lancer asked in disbelief.
“Because it took me longer to get out of the castle. I was trapped at the library but managed to get out. By that time, I watched how Grogar´s soldiers took them away. The worst thing is that I didn´t do anything.” his eyes filled with tears. “I just ran away and hid. Like a coward.” he whimpered.
Everypony showed sympathy in their faces as Starswirl told his story. They stayed silent, trying to process all that they heard, another reason being not knowing what to say. Gusty felt every word he said. Starswirl looked at her.
“So, when I saw you were about to be attacked, I couldn´t stay still, not like before. I had to do something. But then you had to risk yourself to defend me.”
Gusty frowned. She got up and ran to hug him. Everypony was left astonished by her reaction, especially Starswirl, whose cheeks turned redder each second it passed.
“It´s ok. It wasn´t your fault.” she softly said to him.
“Um… Thank you, I guess.” he tried to return the hug but could barely move from the surprise.
“No, I mean it.” Gusty put her hooves on his shoulders. “I´ve gone through something similar and I know the pain and guilt than brings.”
“And how did you stop feeling like that?”
“I didn´t. I never did. However, there were ponies who needed me, so I helped them. It might never go away fully but it will minimize if you do what they would have liked you to do. And you´re doing so already. That´s a first step.”
Starswirl gave her a small smile.
“Wow. How is it the only ones that don´t have a sad backstory?” Fizzy asked Buttons.
“If you look backwards, neither your life nor mine was a walk of roses. However, we did have each other.” she held her hoof. “I guess that´s what made it easier.”
“I´ve been wondering, how long have you known each other?” Gusty walked back to her seat.
“In one of her shows, actually.” Buttons replied.
“Shows?” Lancer raised an eyebrow.
“My family were musical entertainers. And we travelled from Puerto Caballo to Tambelon´s capital! We all sang songs, played music and did tricks.”
“I suppose yours involved water.” Glory grinned playfully.
“Por supuesto!Wanna see me do one?”
Fizzy took air. She closed her eyes and held her breath to make bubbles in Buttons´ canteen.
“Fizzy!” Buttons scolded her.
“Sorry.” Fizzy shrugged. “Had to do a demonstration. Besides, who doesn´t like bubbles?”
Buttons rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, my family used to watch her shows faithfully.” she continued explaining.
“She was the one who gave us the most money!” Fizzy hugged her.
“She always thanked me for that. Slowly, we began to know each other and became the best of friends. Especially when both of us were captured as slaves.”
“That´s how you ended in Grogar´s castle.” Gusty finished the sentence.
“Exactly.”
“I´m sorry, but I think I never got to know your names.” Starswirl said to everypony. “Except you, Gusty.”
“I am Fizzy.”
“I am Buttons.”
“You´re from Prance, right? I say it because of the accent.”
“Oui.”
“I am Glory, the other orphan.” Glory chuckled. “I´m from Trotland.”
“And finally, I´m Lancer. My birthplace? Same as Majesty´s.”
“The monastery?!” Gusty and Buttons asked in unison.
“You have Majesty´s age? I didn´t think you were that old.” Fizzy scratched her head.
“Hey, Majesty´s a mature unicorn but she´s not that old. And neither I am. I´m almost two decades younger than her, for your information. My family formed part of the nobility that served Majesty´s family, and they were residing with her parents.” he shook her. “You idiot.”
“Call me everything you want, but previously, you gave me proof that you tolerated me.”
Lancer groaned, making everypony laughed.
“You know what? I enjoyed knowing more of you.” Gusty told everypony once she was done laughing. “It´s a great way to strengthen our bonds as a team.”
Everypony stared at Gusty.
“A team?” Lancer asked.
“Yeah, we are a team, aren´t we? Because I believe we make a good one.”
“Aye, it´s true.” Glory said in realization. “We make a good team!”
Buttons and Fizzy nodded in agreement.
“Well, it´s not that bad working with you.” Lancer admitted.
Though Starswirl happy for the unicorns, another part of him was sad, causing him to give them a bittersweet smile. Gusty noticed that detail. But just when she was about to ask him about what was troubling him, Fizzy yawned.
“I´d love to keep talking with you guys, but I´m feeling a bit sleepy, aren´t you?”
“Aye. I think it´s time we slept.” Glory agreed with Fizzy. “Besides, tomorrow we have a long journey ahead of us.”
“Yeah, of course.” said Gusty, before taking a worried glance at Starswirl.
Of all the ponies, Gusty was the only one awake. She couldn´t stop replaying in her mind the stressful events that had happened earlier. Especially the part were Gaueko held a sword at Starswirl´s throat, which would lead to flashbacks of her husband. Gusty touched her neck to hold her necklace, only to realize that she wasn´t wearing it. She gasped horrified.
“Min.” she muttered. “No, no, it can´t be.”
Feeling that she was hyperventilating, she got up and walked away to a distance safe enough for everypony in case she couldn´t control her anxiety, and thus her magic.
“Min, min, min.” she kept repeating to herself.
Naturally, a slight wind started to form. The wind caressed Starswirl´s cheek, waking him up. He gasped softy when she noticed the wind around Gusty. He got up and walked to her, struggling to advance though the wind.
“Hey, are you ok?”
“Huh?” the wind stopped abruptly. Gusty turned back. “Oh. Well… Not really. I lost my necklace. Gaueko must have untied it when he scratched my neck.”
“You think he has it?”
“Likely. I know this will sound stupid, since I´m pretty sure he´ll use it to track us down, I hope he does. Because that means that I might have a chance to take it back.” she sighed. “That necklace is not just a necklace. A very special pony gave it to me.”
“Who was that pony?”
“My husband.”
“Oh!” Starswirl said somewhat disappointed. “Uh… You have a husband?”
“Used to.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was murdered.”
Starswirl widened his eyes.
“Oh… I am so sorry.” he said shocked and concerned. “No wonder why you said those words to me before. And probably why you were so frightened when Gaueko trapped me. When did that happen?”
“Three years ago.”
“And how have you been doing ever since?”
“Well, in the beginning was hard but like I said, some ponies needed me, and that kind of serves me as a escape.”
“Is that why you became the Wind Warrior?”
Gusty turned his head to him.
“I noticed Gaueko called you that. Though it estranged me, since you told me that you joined Majesty recently.
“Oh!” Gusty chuckled. “Well, that´s connected to the reason I joined Majesty but not the main reason. It was for somepony else.”
Starswirl widened his eyes.
“You have foals?”
Gusty nodded.
“Two beautiful fillies. I was fired from my previous job so one of Majesty´s unicorns found me and took me to her, that´s when she offered me food and money in exchange of spying on Grogar´s castle.”
“You mentioned it earlier, yes.”
“Unfortunately, I got caught by him, but we managed to run away. Majesty was super willing to kick me out, but then she discovered that I was part of a prophecy that said that a wind warrior would defeat Grogar.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“Well, that must have been a lot to digest.”
“Definitely. But you know what? When you said to me that we brought you hope, it made me feel needed. My husband always loved to help others, so I guess he must be proud that I´m helping other ponies.”
“Yeah. Who knows, maybe they are feeling the same today.”
“How did you deal with it? You were on your own for so many years! I could have never done it if I was alone.”
“Well… You get used to it.”
“And don´t you feel lonely?”
Starswirl clicked his tongue.
“Sometimes.”
Gusty looked at the sleeping unicorns and then at Starswirl. She smiled.
“You know, when I said to everypony that we make a good team, I was talking about all of us.”
“Yeah, I know.” Starswirl said relaxed at first, though his attitude changed when he understood what Gusty meant. “Wait. You mean me too?”
Gusty nodded.
“You want me to be part of your team?” he put his hooves on his chest.
“I do.”
“But. I have no training. How do you expect me to go in a battle? You saw what happened today, how panicked I was, I-” Starswirl talked in a fast pace.
“Sure, you need polishing. But you proved to us today what you are capable of. Besides, an expert in magic would come in handy.”
“You are saying it because you don´t want me to be alone. It´s ok, I´m fine, really. I´ll only slow you down. Besides, it´s not only up to you.” Starswirl pointed at the others.
“But if you don´t come with us, what will you do?”
Starswirl couldn´t find an answer to that question. The diamond dogs knew where he lived, so it would be unwise to come back.
“I´ll… I´ll figure out.”
Gusty exhaled air from her nose.
“It´s ok, take all the time you need. But remember to sleep too!” she winked an eye.
Starswirl chuckled nervously.
“I´m going back to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.” she said as she and Starswirl went back to where they were sleeping.
“Whatever I choose, I wish you the best. And I´m pretty sure that you´ll take back your necklace.”
Gusty smiled tenderly.
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
Gusty fell asleep faster than Starswirl. The stallion took some time to think Gusty´s offer. Once he made up his mind, he slept peacefully, like everypony else. However, that didn´t mean they were free form danger.
Some hours later, Fizzy woke up abruptly after she heard a deep, loud roar, as if a beast was just next to her. She panted while she checked around.
“Maybe it was just a dream.” she thought aloud, since she didn´t see anything.
However, she heard the roar again. She looked at the bushes to see if they were moving, but it was too dark to see a thing. After gulping, she ignited her horn and approached the bushes. After getting a close view, she saw nothing. She walked around and still found nothing.
“I don´t see a beast anywhere, why is it so loud?” she asked frustrated while spinning around.
Gradually, the roar turned softer, and softer, to the point of almost being inaudible. Fizzy sighed relieved.
“It´s away now.”
Poor Fizzy couldn´t be more mistaken. After taking some steps back she noticed something furry. Slowly, she looked up, finding a pair of narrowing, glowing amber eyes with narrow pupils staring at her. She roared at her.
“Miércoles.” Fizzy mumbled.
Her yell awakened everypony.
“Fizzy?” Buttons asked half-asleep.
Everypony gasped horrified when they realized she had disappeared.
“Oh no.” Gusty said horrified.