//------------------------------// // Seeds of mistrust // Story: Before and Beyond - Disharmony in an orb // by amastelaire //------------------------------// "Aargh, I can't take it anymore," groaned Rainbow Dash clearly annoyed by the long march, "In all Equestria, of course we had to be sent to the only place without a train station..." “Can you stop whining” responded Flash Magnus, eyes focused on the little leathered book he was holding. “The only reason we didn’t fly here is ‘cause of that stupid book.” Flash rolled his eyes, closing the book he was reading. “Do you at least know where we are?” “Yeah, Yeah, Ponizonian jungle, The temple of Forasem and all of that…” “And from where did you get that from?” Rainbow Dash was now hovering above Flash Magnus, playing with a little machete. “Daring Do and the gilded staff, Volume two!” Flash put his book bag into his saddlebag while giving a judging glance to the blue pegasus. “You came in a hostile environment with the only preparation being fiction novels? How great!” “Don’t you dare call it fiction!” Dash had come down to Flash’s eyes, giving him a look that likely meant “I’m ready to fight over this.” Flash Magnus didn’t react, only adding “And did your really real source talk about the SIlvathorns, because that might be a more important facet of the Ponyzonian Jungle than artifact retrieving!” “The thing Twilight talked about, who cares?” Dash answered, flying in circle around her elder, “We’re here for the fragment thingy, not an history lesson!” Flash sighed deeply, he wanted to correct the pegasus about the numerous errors and misjudgment Rainbow Dash just spitted out, but he knew that whatever he said, it would never change the stubborn mare mind. He instead hopped in the sky, joining Dash in her flight, and only warned her about the Eastern Wind, who was pretty strong this far south. “We can cover more terrain if we split up, If you still have the flare I gave you.” Rainbow Dash only nodded in response, letting the golden pegasus fly away, maybe he would be able to finish is chapter in peace. Rainbow Dash spotted a colored shimmer through the foliage, and plunged downward to what she thought was the fragment they researched. Branches and leaves slapped around Dash’s body, leaving small scratches on her sky-blue coat as she finally reached the ground, the forest down here was oppressive, the trees and foliage were covering Dash’s whole vision, and the small blur she had seen was nowhere to be found. With no choices left, she took her machete, a small lighting-shaped blade that Luna had offered her after she defeated a troop of revolted changeling by herself, and started to slice the lush green around. The thick jungle abruptly led to a well-maintained path who didn’t seem to lead anywhere as it twisted and turned, the end hidden by the trees and the flowers. Dash glanced back to the mess she left on her way here, whether or not this path would lead to the fragment she was seeking, it would be way better than having to cut back through the deep jungle, she examined the two sides of the path, until she noticed smalls hoofprints covering a muddy puddle, somepony had just been here, and Rainbow Dash was ready to find who. From an outside observer, Rainbow Dash would only be seen as a light-blue blur across the jungle, the pegasus was flying so fast that even she had difficulties to navigate through the twisting path, the hoofprints were sparce, only seen in the rare muddy puddles across the path’s edge, but they were fresh and seemed to all go in a single direction, Rainbow Dash’s eye were meticulously looking around, the few wigs on the ground snapping as she flew above them, but the pegasus braked before taking a tree right in the face, even if a little dizzy from the impact, she frantically examined the nearby area, but the efforts were in vain as the prints had vanished. Rainbow Dash slowed down, walking around the place where she had last seen the print, an ear tended to any sound she might hear, whatever was here betrayed his position when a crack could be heard, Dash’s head snapping toward the origin of the sound but she couldn’t see anything, only hearing scattered and frightened breaths. The breaths grew heavier and more unpacked as Rainbow Dash walked closer, she couldn’t see what was making those sounds, but she knew it was here. Rainbow Dash had closed almost all the distance between her and the sounds, her hooves felt a warm fur, and the pegasus stumbled on the invisible creature that was here. The shock may have also disoriented whatever was here because a form slowly faded in existence, the invisible creature revealing itself. A delicate pale-green coat started to appear before Dash’s intrigued gaze, the form of the creatures slowly taking shape as it was disoriented by the Rainbow Dash fall onto it. The creature body was almost one of a pony, but his legs were slender and taller, the pale-green fur disappeared to a lush green moss-like mane stretching from the top of its head to his back, ending in a small bunny-like tail. The creature’s head was adorned with a single antler in the center of his cranium, between its deep silvery eyes and his flower-filled mane. Dash tilted her head to look into the creature eyes, filled with curiousness. When she finally met the gaze of the creature stuck underneath her, it stared directly into Rainbow Dash’s eyes, its eyes filled with terror and stress. “Hey, calm down, I won’t hurt you.” Softly said Dash, trying to relieve the strange creature she had just encountered. “You… Are you the sorceress?” The creature struggled to find the words to express itself, only letting a barely comprehensible babble out, “You want to cast evil spells on me!” “Sorceress?” Dash was almost laughing, “I’m not a unicorn, silly, I can’t cast spells.” The mentions of a sorceress still intrigued her, “if there’s something or someone wrecking havoc around here, it was surely under the influence of that shard” thought dash, and with a quick hoof movement who sent the creature startling, grabbed a small cylinder, pushing the pin underneath. Flash Magnus was still flying over the northern part of the jungle when he saw the multicolored flare coming from within the trees, Rainbow Dash was calling for him and she was either stuck in a delicate situation, or she had found something. The book Flash held was quickly put back in his saddlebag and replaced by a small coppery shield, the golden pegasus rushed toward the rainbow flare, and as he approached the location, started to shout in the air. “Rainbow Dash, is everything okay?” Without any response, Flash flew downward, approaching the treetops, the foliage of the jungle seemed impenetrable, only small rays of light passing through the compact arrangement of flora. Flash followed along the branches, he spotted a hole into the thick blanket of plantlife, the branches supporting his body weren’t as thick as the rest of the forest, and snapped under his weight, letting the pegasus fall into the jungle. Thump - The sound of Flash Magnus falling onto the grass stopped Rainbow Dash one-way conversation, the pony and the creature turning to see what had just fallen right next to them. “What happened Rainbow Dash?” asked Flash Magnus as he was getting back up. “I stumbled on that” answered Rainbow Dash, a hoof pointed towards the still laying creature Flash’s eyes widened as he saw what Rainbow Dash was referring to. “A silvathorn!” The creature met the eyes of the Flash Magnus, her expression now closer to wonder than fear. “The gilded pegasus?” The two stared, Flash reassured by the presence of the creature and the silvathorn shocked by the sight of the legendary pony standing before him. “Allow me to introduce myself, O powerful gilded pegasus!” said the silvathorn, now less stressed in the company of Flash Magnus. “I’m Mint!” Flash looked in incomprehension toward Rainbow Dash who was even more lost, but their staring contest quickly stopped as the voice of Mint continued “Dear gilded pegasus, may you lend us your help once again?” Mint was bowing down so far that he was almost laying on the ground. “The jungle is uncontrollable, and Great Oak think that a traitor or a curse might behind all of that!” Flash Magnus didn’t really know how to respond, but Rainbow Dash was eager to intervene, a little jealous of Flash’s legendary status among the silvathorns. “Of course, that’s why we’re here!” Mint gave a mistrusting glance to the blue pegasus, before she faced back Flash Magnus and asked “Is she with you?” Flash snapped back from his thought, is mind still trying to find the best way to interact, and in a moment of clarity, said, “Yes, That’s Rainbow Dash, and you can call me Flash Magnus, not whatever that name was!” a wide smile streaking the silvathorn’s face as he spoke. Mint turned back around and was now guiding the group toward her village, he was followed closely by Flash Magnus, and a little less closely by Rainbow Dash who was still jealously rumbling on her own. The blue pegasus took Flash’s hoof and discreetly dragged him away from Mint. “Can you explain what just happened?” she whispered, trying to not be heard by the silvathorn. “You would know if you had read my book instead of mumbling about walking.” retorqued Flash, teasing Rainbow Dash. “Please explain it to me, I don’t get what’s going on at all!” almost implored Rainbow Dash who was now walking backward to keep her eyes on Flash Magnus. “You really want to know?” Flash’s question was answered by a small nod from Dash. “Well, when I was a member of the Cloudsdale Royal Legion, I was sent here to stop an invasion of cragadiles, and to do so I had to team with the silvathorns so we could force the creatures back to the swamp in the south. I guess I became a part of the folklore after I disappeared for a thousand years!” “Yeah, Yeah, that’s great and all of that, but what is he?” “Didn’t you listen, he’s a silvathorn, they were a big ally to Equestria before they cut off all bridges and secluded themselves in the Ponyzonian Jungle, their deep connection to nature permitting them to live in total autarky,” Continued Flash Magnus. “From what I was told, their ability to change the color of their fur to blend in the surroundings had caused them to be recruited as assassins or spies during the Great Hill’s War, but Star Swirl never told me more about this conflict.” “That’s really how it happened, Gilded Pegasus?” asked an intrigued voice to his left, Flash Magnus and Rainbow Dash didn’t realise that Mint had noticed them talking, and they didn’t even know since when he had been listening to them. After all, the silvathorns were really good at going unnoticed. “Anyway, here we are!” stated Mint, his antler emitting smalls jade-green sparkles as the vines in front of him slowly retracted, revealing a dimly lit clearing in the jungle. The clearing was pretty wide and almost empty if it wasn’t for the gigantic oak tree in the center, most of the rocks and trees that formed the ‘walls’ around the clearing were carved to accommodate housings and workplaces, there were also twisted black vines whose covered the ground and some of the trees, but even if that was normal, the place had an eerie quiet to it, this was a place were people should be running around, doing their daily life, but no one was here, or at least was seen. “This feel… Empty.” Stated Rainbow Dash, startled by the quietness of the place. “Since the jungle as gone wild, those dark vines started to grow, and everyone is accusing each other to do it!” replied Mint quickly, his voice carried away by his annoyance. “But I thought changing your fur color took a lot of magical energy from you?” added Flash Magnus, he had seen Silvathorns use their magic before, and keeping their furs changed for hours seemed extremely hard, so he couldn’t understand that mistrust would lead them to do it all day long. “No, they aren’t invisible, they keep hiding in their homes, behind closed doors, the only ones outside is great oak and some guards, who have keeping guard on the vines around the clearing!” Rainbow Dash sighed, exasperated by how lame her mission seemed to be, “But I came here for action, not to play a game of Clue with an unknown species who can’t even trust itself!” she complained, resulting in a quick shoulder-kick from Flash Magnus who was looking her straight in her eyes, reminding her that they had come here to help, and not to do some Daring-Doesque adventure in the temples. Rainbow Dash sighed again, louder this time, “Fine, but I’ll help my way!” “Dash, calm down, remember what we came –“ Flash tried to grab one of Dash’s hooves, but the pegasus was quick enough to evade and fly toward the majestic overlooking oak tree. “– here for…” The blue pegasus was now gliding around the immense tree, looking around and trying to spot an entrance, and there it was, on one of the sides where a bunch of branches twisting to form a balcony, and a circular opening could be seen at it’s side, leading into the interior of the millennial tree, without thinking much (it’s Rainbow Dash, what did you expect?), Dash sped up, small leaves flowing in her trail as she entered the tree in a loud crash. She looked around, her gaze met by three silvathorns, two of them were a deep emerald green, covered in a turquoise armor and armed with a long wooden spear with an intricate carved blade made of aventurine, the ‘peace-giving stone’ the last silvathorn was different, he was way skinnier and wrinkled, his coat was brown like the bark of a hundred-year-old tree, his antler was almost as long as his neck and covered in slightly glowing lichen and vines, and two nubs-sized mushrooms could be seen on the right side of his head, even though his appearance was making him look weak and fragile, he carried a war-hammer about twice his size, and was wearing a pure black helmet made of obsidian. Dash’s impact was almost instantly answered by the disappearance of the three beings, vanishing as only their weapons and armor pieces could be seen, the two floating spears were brandished to the neck of the stumbled pegasus before them, and the face of the elder silvathorns started to appear again, seriousness drawn on his features. “Who are you, little pony?” asked the floating head in front of Dash. “Um, Rainbow Dash, the greatest flyer of Equestria?” answered the sky-blue intruder, while she had crashed and was now on the ground, she didn’t let her pride go away. “Wrong answer, little pony! We didn’t see any of your kind for generations, and you suddenly appear when the jungle descends into madness? We know what you did, little pony.” The silvathorn voice was deep to an almost eerie point, it was like he was speaking directly into Rainbow Dash head. “Guards, put her in a rooted cell.” Dash tried to protest, but was quickly overpowered by his unseeable adversaries. As she was dragged toward a curved stairway in a side of the old tree, another loud THUMP could be heard behind her, followed quickly by the sound of a spear getting dropped, the grasp of her invisible foes loosing up, she quickly turned back to see what at just landed on the balcony. “The Gilded Pegasus!?” the voice of the elder silvathorn gasped. “Is it you, The savior of Grand Fir and the guardian of the Foraweln flow?” “What the hell happened in the last thousand years?” shouted Flash Magnus as he took a step backward, while this was only the second silvathorns since he came back, all of them had seen him as a divinity, and this was extremely confusing. Yes, he did save Grand Fir from cragadiles, but it was part of his mission and he wasn’t even alone, the fact he was only referred as the ‘Gilded Pegasus’ was truly starting to annoy him, the years had transformed his story and he was given way more credit and responsibilities that he could hold, but at least that meant the silvathorns would listen to him, right? Great Oak reappeared and walked toward the center of the room, his antler sending brown sparkles onto a large stump underneath, the stump started to be overgrown by moss and flower, drawing a map of the Ponizonian Jungle ontop of it. Great Oak pointed one of his hooves toward the western side of the map-stump where a small stream of water was flowing. “Gilded Pegasus, the western forest is in shamble, covered by dark vines, and whoever is doing that is still hiding it, as we can’t guess who or why somesilvathorn would be doing that.” The voice of Great Oak resonated across the tree. “Everything western of the Foraweln flow is under the vines control, and no silvathorn was able to stop them. For now, a group of guards were able do divert the vines towards the southern temples.” “So everycreature here is a potential suspect” continued one of the onyx-green guards “it could be somecreature, or it could be something!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash, she was in a corner playing with her machete again, listening with one hear as she looked over the edge of the clearing, losing against an old guy had shattered her ego a little, but she was still giving herself the credit of finding the silvathorn. “Do you really think that it could be?” replied Flash, starting to comprehend what Dash was referring to. “I’m not thinking, I’m certain about it, it must me the broken magical thing that bolted away from the orb,” answered Rainbow Dash. “I guess I will do an adventure after all!” The three silvathorns seemed confused, but there was no time for explaining the whole story, so Flash quickly resumed the goal in a single sentence, “We need to find where this red shard is!” “A red shard? Like the one in the fern valley at the side of the Foraweln flow?” a smaller voice said from behind the group, it was Mint who had been able to enter the tree after longs minutes of climbing up its sides. “I was watching this part of the jungle before SHE stumbled on me!” “So now we have an objective and a location, what are we waiting for!” Rainbow dash was excited for whatever trial was next, she had already spread her wings out and was ready to take off toward wherever the Foraweln flow was. “You won’t go alone,” Great oak said, his war-hammer placed at his side. “I need to get everysilvathorn here to try and get them together so they could offer support against the vines, and I’ll need the guards for that, but Mint is a great archer, and he’ll go with you” “What! but I can’t! it’s too dangerous! and I’m not strong enough! What if I fail! Or what if I –“ Mint was stopped in his panic attack when Flash came to his side and wrapped his wing around him. “Calm down, get your courage back. Why would anything bad happen to you, you’re with the ‘gilded pegasus’ remember!” he added, half joking. One hundred meters ahead, beyond the calming sounds of the flowing river was a large field of ferns covering an area as big as the clearing, it would have been a cool sight, maybe the perfect place to play hide and seek, if it wasn’t for the thick spiked vines twisting around, cracking the trees and burrowing the muddy soil around the edge of Foraweln flow, literally meaning “The Flow of the western forest” in old silvean. The creeping vines were starting to twist around an old structure, a red shimmering crystal could be seen on top of the stone pedestal, radiating a nauseous magical glow. The vines quicky embedded the stones around the pedestal, and the rocks started to slowly move from the chaotic magical grasps, controlled by the shard of the alteration orb. The piles of rocks were now no longer just inanimate platforms and started to move on their own, kept together by the vines, as the golems who had just been created moved away, the vines continued to grasp onto other stones, repeating the same steps, the jungle seemed to create an army of stony servant to help propagate the infestation of the magical vines around, and it started to get really out of hoof. Mint was standing on a branch not far away from the river, the vines were too omnipresent for the group to fly directly to the crystal, and the current was too strong for them to simply swim by, so he was left with a single solution, pulling on a thin string of ivy, he shot an arrow of his bow made of ornated hazel wood, the arrow split the air in two and reached the other bank, the ivy rope still firmly tied behind, now creating a bond between the two sides, "Go on, climb on it!" exclaimed Mint, confident in his plan "It's extremely resistant!" The two pegasi knew that flying was too risked, a single blow at their wings from those vines would make them fall in the river and incapacitate their flying capacity, letting them drift away in the current if they were lucky enough to not drown “Well, I guess it’s my turn to do a Somnanbula!” Flash Magnus was clearly trying to brighten the situation, but his joke only left Rainbow Dash unphased and Mint confused The river was only two or three meters large, but the precarious rope was their only safe way across; It didn’t deter Rainbow Dash tho, as the pegasus didn’t bother answering Flash’s pun and instead jumped on the ivy rope stretching above the hungry waters of the unchained river underneath. “Hey, I said resistant, not indestructible!” commented Mint, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop Dash in her adventurous quest, who was quick enough to get to the other side, landing on a bunch of vines who were creeping around the buried arrow. “Your turn Mint!” The silvathorn jumped from the tree, holding onto his bow as it split on the ivy rope he created, letting him cross the river like he was on a zipline. The silvathorn was now on the other side, but the vines started to move closer and closer, and he needed to help Dash fighting them back so Flash could cross, and in a flick of magic, Mint’s horn started to emit his recognisable jade-green sparkles, moving large fern’s leaves to shield them and force the struggling vines to back up. Flash Magnus needed to cross fast, and in the blink of an eye, threw his iconic shield up, flying at his side and landing on top of it, surfing on the ivy rope. The shield then pierced through one of the ferns’ leaf wielded by Mint while Flash leaped above it, landing on the other side with the shield in hoof, pushing through the vines, Dash was just behind, cutting the ones remaining from Mint and Flash’s combined effort with her machete. The push-trough wasn’t gone unnoticed by the shard, as a small army of golems made of rocks and polished bricks started to approach the group. The team was only a dozen of meters away from the red shatter when they began to be surrounded by the golems and forced into confrontation with the rocky creatures. With no option left, Flash Magnus and Rainbow Dash turned ready to fight what was blocking the way. “You go alone!” Flash ordered to Mint, the small silvathorn only answering by disappearing in front of them, pushing deeper into the vines and toward their prize. “Guess I got what I wanted after all!” Rainbow Dash was throwing her machete, flying through the vines and rushing toward a gigantic golem made of what seemed to be an old archway; Her blade was cutting through the plants like they were made of butter, and was sharp enough to slice the golem stone-legs in half, letting the rocks roll back in their inanimate form. While Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy the little fight sequence, Flash was left alone to face the twenty-something other golems who were starting to lock him in place, vines growing upward and forming a dome around him, he was a little rusty from over a thousand years of being in this limbo-state, but a little battle against magical creature who will decide the fate of Equestria might be the perfect way to unclog the mechanism. Flash smiled; it might be time to give a little lesson to Rainbow Dash on what real fighting is! Rocks flied in the air as Flash’s shield struck the abdomen of one of the golem, the fragments of limestone piercing through the dome of vines that surrounded him, the opening was little, but gave him the opportunity to escape the dire situation, and in a powerful leap, he passed right in-between the cluster of golems, pushing them out of the way, and as his body appeared in the sunlight and out of the sphere of magical flora, did he spreaded his wings backward, giving a strong push to the air underneath that propelled him even higher. Flash Magnus was now above the golems, their stone-body brought into life by the intertwining’s roots keeping the rocks together; Being out of reach of the creeping’s vines? Flash stretched out his hooves to the back of his armor, unfolding two long wings of yellowed metal; Wingblades were rarely used as they impaired the users’ flying capabilities, but Flash’s ones were so precisely forged that they almost seem like another pair of wings, letting him have full control on his gliding capabilities. The sight of the armored pegasus was taken to another level when the shield he had thrown earlier bounced back to him, bonking two golems who crumbled down from the shock in the way, Flash clipped the shield right on the front of his helmet, covering his face like a mask, the two holes used as handles now only letting his piercing turquoise eyes. No wonder why he was being referred to as “the gilded pegasus”. Flash Magnus was now hovering above the vinefield, and the golems started to diverge toward Rainbow Dash, abandoning their previous target, in the corner of his sight, he could still see the slim shimmer of Mint’s bow who was looking like a wooden snake slithering toward the center pedestal, still unremarked by the chaos shard, everything was according to plan, and Flash could join back the fight to help Rainbow Dash. And join the fight he did, he recurved back his wings, now only gliding on the metallic ones, the speed was pretty high when he fell onto a larger golem, shattering him in thousands of pieces as small as pebbles, his wingblades leaving a cutting through the vines and rock as if they were mere pages of papers. Rainbow Dash was just behind, fighting a slender golem carved in what seem to be the remnants of a solar quadrant, her machete was leaving deeps cut into the creatures and her punches were cracking his friable limestone form, but she could see the fast-approaching boulder-like golem rolling toward her, but Flash was quicker than the rolling stone, his wingblade slicing it in half with a laser-like cut. “Not bad!” said the blue pegasus, a little jealous of Flash Magnus’ fighting skills. The vinefield was covered in the fragments of the obliterated golems, the stone building a graveyard of all of the now back-to-inanimate magical creatures, the vines and roots were no match for the razor-sharp blades and the quasi-instant reflexes of the pegasi who were making their way to the center of the fern forest, and now concentrate all of its magical capabilities onto of gigantic fern-leaf, the leaf grew, and grew, and grew even more, almost stretching to the canopy, the flow of magic was so intense it formed a riverlike bind between the fern leaf and the red shard. Now that’s the leaf was standing tall, it started to get ripped apart, carving claws, teeth, legs, eyes and arms in the curved plant; The creature’s leafy skin thickened as it roared in an angry, beasty manner. Mint was right behind, he had been able to get to the shard and contain it, but it didn’t seem to affect the leaf monster who was still very much alive and angry, he quickly reappeared, waving to his two newfound pegasi friends to let them know he had succeeded in his task, before he drew his bow back, the arrow with mint leaves covering its tip didn’t rest longer onto the string as it was flunged in the air, piercing the gigantic monster, the impact had crushed the mint leaves who liberated a fresh light-green smoke barrage, the blow distracted the leaf monster, and in an incredible coordination, Rainbow Dash used herself as a spring to propel Flash Magnus right into one of the monster’s sides, his sharp wingblades cutting the leafy body and ripping a whole side apart, letting Dahs rush to the other side and make it fall onto the ground. The monster was now lying on the ground, and mint pulled his last arrow out of his quiver, it was covered into coal dust and small tumbleweeds, the arrow lit up as it was shot off, and struck the monster right above it’s left eye-hole, the flames engulfing the leaf and the vines around, burning quickly the creature to a crisp. The ferns around seemed to flee the fire, the leaves curled on themselves and moved outward so they wouldn’t be set ablaze, preventing the fire from spreading to the rest of the jungle, such control over the plants was quite impressive. The three creatures quickly regrouped and Flash took the little box where the chaos shard laid and carefully place it in his saddlebag. “So now that we have retrieved the magical thing, we can go back to the old guy and tell him that we stopped the jungle from going crazy right?” Asked Rainbow Dash, dusting off her coat. “You’re lucky Great Oak can’t hear you,” Sighed Flash in response. “Oh, but I can.” a voice aired behind them, from the other side of the river. The two pegasi turned back as silvathorns started to appear from the trees and foliage on the other bank of the Foraweln flow, the distinct silhouette of Great Oak shaping itself in the center of the groups of silvathorns, “You didn’t think Mint could pull such magical control alone, did you?” Flash Magnus had retracted his armored wings and unclunched his shield-mask, if they flew quick enough, they might get back to Ponyville before Luna would bring the moon up; while he was ready, not the same could be said for Rainbow Dash who was still discussing with Mint. Seeing that Flash was ready to fly off, Mint ended the discussion, his tone colder and gloomier. “Well, it’s time to go I guess, you promise you would come back to say hi Dash?” “Hey, if you’re really that sad about us going home, why don’t you join us!” Dash answered, her smile shining bright. And with that said, the blue pegasus launched the silvathorn onto her back, “I can easily carry you with me!” The silvathorn nodded in agreement, and the two pegasi launched off in the distance, flying above the tree and toward the sunset, going home with the artifact retrieved and new friends made along the way.