She tried to tell herself that the words didn't represent the death of hope.
They've been taken.
It wasn't going well.
Every magical effect was potentially susceptible to resonance. Emotion could creep into any casting. And in Twilight's case, worry, stress, and a fast-increasing fear had put a distinctive vibration into the borders of the still-visible field bubble. It was taking so much of her concentration just to merely hold her brother's desperate missive, and that was as opposed to allowing her terror to convert it into fragments.
And that wasn't the only effect.
"Twi, your field's gettin' kind of bright there," Applejack's instant concern noted. "Didn't have the best angle t' start with, an' now Ah can't exactly read anything through it --"
The little mare's left forehoof came up. Touched the narrow rib cage, moved outwards again. Over and over, until the glow dimmed.
"...stress exercise?" Fluttershy softly asked.
"Yes..." Twilight took a slow breath, held it for a count of three before release. "Cadance taught it to me."
"...does it work?"
She couldn't quite find a smile.
I mostly get stuck on how stupid it looks if I do it in public. Which means I'm thinking about that instead of whatever I was stressing about, so... technically?
And she would have said all of it aloud, but -- there were other words which had to come first. His words.
Words, which, with her field's lumens diminished and viewing angles checked, could now be seen by others.
They've been taken.
Fluttershy gasped. Applejack's right forehoof briefly came up, then slammed into too-moist soil, and it took several vital seconds before the fast-spreading vibrations died away.
"Sorry," the farmer quickly began. "When y'all know already, it's easy t' jus' let some of it out --"
"Keep reading," Twilight grimly said, because she was already five lines down the scroll and still accelerating. "Just... keep reading."
So much of the lettering was shaky, and it was rare to see his handwriting skidding close to illegibility. Part of that aspect might have come from his own fear, or... it might have been illness. (A combination of factors wasn't exactly out of the question.) Twilight knew how humid the environment was, understood that her brother's biology hadn't been meant for extended exposure to such conditions.
He'd been afraid when the scroll had been written: she was sure of that. Scared and... alone.
She felt as if he'd tried to include everything he could, and yet she knew details had slipped: lost for lack of writing space, or drowned in a swamp of agitation. There was one portion which was rendered blindingly conspicuous by its absence, and it was something she couldn't try to start dealing with just yet.
But once she had all of his words...
Details could slip, when you were afraid -- and that was hardly the worst of it. You thought about the wrong things. Over and over. Sometimes you stopped thinking entirely. Moved too early, too late, or not at all. Acted in a panic, without considering which actions had a chance to work. Just so you could feel that you'd done something, anything, when those you loved were...
...lost.
So much of her wanted to gallop into the rain forest. To scream his name until her lungs threatened to collapse, because it was something she could do. And if she was going to have any real hope of finding her sibling, the first thing she needed to do was... finish reading.
She understood that, and the knowledge didn't do anything to stop the surge of helplessness and self-hate.
Just finish...
I'm going to send a scroll to Canterlot.
It's not just their needing to know what's going on, Twilight. Their leader identified herself: 'Starlight'. And maybe that's not her real name, but I've got a description, and I got a good look at her mark.
The next section was his attempt to describe the 'leader' for her, and... he'd kept crossing things out. Unusual, but he'd clearly been shaken, might still be utterly terrified at this very moment, and he was alone...
There was a sketch of the mark. Rough, but there was enough detail to let Twilight get the general idea. The icon itself was fully unfamiliar.
I hope it's enough for the palace to start investigating. Because usually the mark would be enough, but this could be about tampering with marks. That might not be her real one, or the original. And maybe having some kind of illusion spell going would explain why she felt so blurry.
Which struck Twilight as an odd choice of word.
There's something wrong with her. I don't know what. Just that it's WRONG.
I don't know what the palace will want to do. But they can't try to extract all of us without breaking the lockdown. Even if they decide to try it, we should all be together. We need to get together, fast.
That group didn't just come across us. That was planned. It felt like a scripted scene, and Starlight still hadn't memorized her lines.
Maybe her brother liked the theater a little too much...
They knew there were ponies in the forest. At least. But I didn't hear them ask about a dragon. I didn't hear anything after they got out of sight for the first time, because I couldn't risk getting too close. I managed to get to where I could see them, but I had to hang back because if I was close enough to overhear anything, then they were probably close enough to hear me moving through all the plants.
If they knew there were ponies around, that could be from magic. They could know about you.
I'm going to make a sign. Something you can see from above. Get up to where you can try to spot it. I saw binoculars being packed, so I'm hoping you have some because we didn't. When you spot it, try to come through the canopy near it. I'll stay close for as long as I can. But if they send out patrols or the magic finds me, I'll have to move.
I'm going to back away from the shield, then scout along some of the edge until I find a place to put the sign up. The shield isn't easy to see, and I know there's illusion at work there. There's no glow. Just hints of sparkles. And I only got a glimpse of what the other side really looks like just before the hole closed. When it was gone, I couldn't see them any more. Just the rain forest.
The easiest way to spot where it starts is the shallow trench in the ground, and you can't see that through the canopy.
It's big, Twilight. Too big. If it's a normal dome, then the curve is huge. I think it might go just about all the way to the waterfall. And I can't follow it that far. There might be another river to cross.
And he could swim, but -- he was small. A strong current would easily overpower him.
Look for the sparkles. Come in high and come in from behind. I don't know what happens if you touch the shield. Some of the branches on my side don't quite touch it, and they look like they haven't healed yet.
Be careful. Please.
Find me.
We have to find them.
We have to get them back.
It took her a moment to realize that the written words had run out. Two more breaths were required before she registered an odd soreness in a foreknee, and finally told that leg to stop flexing.
And then she had to force herself to wait, because all of her friends didn't read quite that fast.
"Might need t' have a word with Ms. Lulamoon, once we're all back together," Applejack finally said, and there was something odd lurking under the tension. "Hidin' him like that..."
"I'm not exactly happy about his being alone either," Twilight drastically understated. "But if he'd been taken inside the lockdown --"
"-- then we don't know anythin' when it comes t' what happened," the farmer didn't quite snap. "Ah get that, Twi. Said Ah want t' have a word with her, an' Ah meant it. Ah'm..." and the powerful body seemed to sag from within "...just not sure what the word is gonna be." More solidly, "Ah jus' know we've gotta find Spike. An' after that, we get everypony back together. Fast as we can."
We need everypony.
Everypony.
Fluttershy, who needed to read through a lot of veterinary journals every moon, had finished and was doubling back on the text.
"...Twilight... I'm really sorry if I missed something, but..." The hesitation stretched out for a little longer than usual. "...he... didn't write down what the sign was going to be, did he?"
"No," Twilight sighed. "Maybe he hadn't thought of anything yet." Or he did, and he just forgot to write it down because he was that upset. "But he was going to create something which we could see from the air..."
And she couldn't send anything back to him. Remind him of a detail overlooked, or ask for clarification. Of course, it was possible that an update would materialize at any second --
-- all right: not that exact second, but maybe during the next --
"Which means gettin' some altitude," Applejack pointed out. "Makes it easier for us t' be spotted, unless those ponies didn't clear out any part of the canopy when they moved in -- an' that still don't stop a flyin' patrol."
"I know," Twilight softly said. "And it doesn't matter. You saw what he wrote down, Applejack. They know there were ponies in the forest, and they moved to intercept. If it's magic, then they could know we're here."
"...and we can't be sure that they don't know about him," Fluttershy pointed out. "Unless it's a spell which only detects ponies, and that's why it missed Spike..." With open worry, "Twilight, have you felt any magic? At all?"
The little mare shook her head. "It's possible that something got past me, especially if it was made to slip by passive feel. But... given -- everything -- I've been actively checking more than I usually would. Nothing, Fluttershy." Nothing at all.
Detection of ponies only... that was possible. Maybe they just hadn't gotten close enough to be picked up. But if --
when
-- they found Spike... that was when they would almost have to be in the spell's range. She would need to have every sense on full alert.
"We've got the lenses, at least," Applejack pointed out. "Saw 'em when we were sortin' out the supplies." With a soft snort, "Wasn't sure why. Can't see ten body lengths ahead in here most of the time."
"We need them," Twilight stated, "and we have them. I'll take all the luck we can get."
The farmer nodded. "So how are we doin' this?"
Think...
"They're probably somewhere near the other face of the mountain," Twilight slowly said. "That means we'd have to finish turning the corner before we could really start to look. From above. And if it isn't magic detection, then that's where we're most likely to be spotted: in the air, with a clear line of sight to the ground."
But a shield dome...
...Rainbow went into the air a few times: I know that. Unless they've got a caster whose field is the exact color of the sky...
...at every time of day, under all possible conditions...
...she would have seen a normal shield eventually.
And that means...
It was a logical conclusion. Twilight felt that she still would have regarded the conclusion as logical even if it hadn't been skirting the outer edges of possible.
She needed to get a look at the actual results. Quickly.
"...and the longer we're in the air, trying to look," Fluttershy softly pointed out, "the more of a chance they'll have to see us."
We were so close to finishing the turn.
To having a chance at being together again.
After I...
...this is my fau --
Spike was out there.
There were a number of freshly-acquired facts tumbling about the interior of her skull, with every last one trying to knock conjectures loose and send them tumbling into the morass of paranoia. Only two were currently important.
Spike was still out there, and he was alone.
"Then we won't do it from the air," Twilight quietly stated. "We'll work from the ground."
Applejack blinked.
"Twi?"
"Give me a minute." Why hadn't she practiced more? "I need to get into the right mindset."
I do what must be done because I can't do anything else.
"Twi, Ah know that pickin' up on --" and the little mare listened as Honesty swallowed back self-censored words "--somepony's place on the ground was the first tool y'ever used, but it's still got a range. Pretty sure yours don't go out that far an' even if it does, with all the stuff movin' around in here -- finding jus' one pair of walkin' claws... even with true hearing, sensory overload is still a thing..."
I move without thinking because it's the only way to get things done in time...
"They still might spot us," Twilight said. "But that could wind up giving us a faster way in, because being spotted doesn't have the same price as before. They know there's ponies here now: learning about three more might not change things all that much. So we're going to find Spike. Then we're going to figure out what we're doing next. But --"
The next words might have been a sign that the mantra was already taking effect.
"-- we can't afford to be as cautious any more."
Twilight's wings flared out to their full span.
She'd had some rather natural concerns about trying to operate with a plan while in Rainbow mode. The pegasus was perfectly capable of creating and then executing a plan -- but the latter took place over the course of several years. 'Join the Wonderbolts' was Rainbow's idea of a plan goal. Anything more immediate tended to take the form of 'Go for it and if something goes wrong, feather into a recovery from the disaster which was in no way my fault. Then try the next thing.'
A stated objective of 'Find Spike' had felt as if it had a good chance to send Twilight speeding over the trees, desperately searching for any hints of dragon body heat. Hoping the inner fire would show itself through the canopy. Instant override of her original intentions, because wouldn't doing that just be faster? And if it went wrong, she could just think of something else...
But she'd managed to hold the aspect all the way through the canopy, and she was still ascending exactly as she'd intended.
(She'd gone through a momentary bout of claustrophobia as she'd neared the woven ceiling of leaves and branches. Had that been from Rainbow? What about the surge of relief which came from having reached open sky? But she couldn't afford to think about that too much right now, and perhaps not about much of anything else.)
She was going up the cliff face, keeping close company with the rock on what had been their side of the mountain. The stone was a mere three body lengths away, and part of her longed to see just how close she could come without having a wingtip brush the hard surface --
-- keep going up, gotta do this fast...
Aspects could be hard to hold. The absence of shouted queries regarding advanced magical theory didn't matter, because the pony mind possessed what seemed to be a near-infinite capacity for self-distraction . It meant extended flights were risky, and that was one of the reasons Fluttershy was following her up. Closely: the yellow form was a mere two Celests below, and moving with forelegs outstretched and spread. If Twilight slipped back to herself, then the caretaker would catch her.
Not that Twilight was (currently) worried. Because there were certain mental hazards to calling forth Rainbow's aspect, and the librarian still hadn't quite figured out if some of them were actually benefits.
I've got this.
Ascending, and pegasus sight told her that the humidity was diminishing somewhat with altitude. So was atmospheric density. The air was already noticeably thinner. An athlete's expertise made some notes on oxygen efficiency.
Canterlot's high up enough to need some adjustments, and this thing is taller. We shouldn't stay up there too long.
Go high enough, and even pegasi would become subject to altitude sickness. Pass that point, continue to ascend, and you would eventually run out of air to push against. For this intended height, it was possible to acclimate -- over several days. They didn't have that kind of time.
...she usually didn't fly for anywhere near this long, and even a nearly-pure vertical ascent still counted as distance. Her wings were starting to become sore. That meant pushing harder --
-- and then she saw the rim. Bare rock, about three body lengths across, with a new jungle directly behind that. Thicker and greener than what rested closer to sea level, packed so densely as to give even Twilight's small body trouble with slipping between trunks.
She landed, then released the aspect. The soreness in her wings instantly tripled, and aching joints individually sounded off their presence as feathers reluctantly tucked themselves against her sides. Twilight gulped for breath, found the results to be decidedly inefficient, and did it twice more just to get the benefits of one normal inhale. Her foreknees bent, and did so at the moment Fluttershy came over the rim.
The caretaker immediately touched down next to Twilight.
"You're okay? Wings?" The one visible blue-green eye was now focused on Twilight's heaving ribs. "Lungs?"
"...we're just -- really high up," Twilight gasped. "I think we're at least eighty percent above Canterlot's height right now..."
Fluttershy nodded. "It's the altitude. Just don't try to do too much for a couple of minutes --"
Which was when a certain degree of musical racket started to sound from the greenery: natural expressions of alarm at seeing anything new this far up --
"-- oh!" the caretaker gasped, and did so as her neck moved with a practiced twist and jerk. Something which flipped the mane back, leaving both eyes exposed. It was an action which was normally only taken if the hybrid was getting ready to Stare --
"Fluttershy?"
"-- can you hear them?"
"...them?" Twilight unevenly Fluttershied.
"The birds!"
-- or if there was something she really wanted to see.
"We're on the tepui now!" Fluttershy gushed. "Right on top of it -- oh, right: you don't read the taxonomy journals. It's the name for a flat-topped mountain like this, and we're right on the top! Each one can be its own little biome, Twilight! There's species which only exist here! Golden-tufted grackles! Pebble toads! Parrotlets and tinamous! Hardly anypony ever gets to see them, and we're right here! I could just go into the forest for three minutes, only three minutes, and --"
Both eyes blinked. The beautiful features contorted into a wince.
"...no," she softly said. "No. We're trying to find Spike. No. Take two minutes to recover. Then we'll go around the corner and get the right facing. And... I'm sorry..."
The little mare almost smiled.
"Don't be," she said, and meant it. "That happens." Because for Fluttershy to be offered a chance to meet so many new species...
Which brought out a rather embarrassed "...still..."
"You've been surrounded for days now," Twilight pointed out. "You'd already held out for that long."
"...I know, but... don't talk, Twilight. Not yet. Give your body two minutes..."
They both silently counted it off, and then the mares began to move.
"...I'm still sorry..."
"I'm not offended," Twilight sincerely said.
Wing joints had gone loose. The mane had come forward again, and the one visible eye was staring down at dark, bare rock. "...it's Spike -- I had to stop myself, it's Spike and I still had to --
They rounded the corner. Twilight began to orient on the new facing.
"Fluttershy," the little mare sighed, "just about everypony's been there. Less than thirty seconds of flank-brain. And that was it."
"...I shouldn't have..."
"Don't be so hard on yourself." The last word required an extra breath: the followup decibels dropped accordingly. "Come on: we've all seen it happen, right? And just about everypony's been through it. You find yourself in a situation which calls to the heart of your talent, and of course you'll want to investigate. It's natural -- okay, this feels like a good place to start. So let me just look down and -- Discord's twisted horn!"
"...Twilight?"
"I think I just -- there it is again! The air is sparkling! Intermittently, I mean, and it's a good thing it's a clear day because I'm pretty sure we'd be above a few clouds right now, but there's just enough to pick up on the distortions in the light when you can see them in bulk from above! And I can feel --"
"...Twilight..."
"-- it's changing color! The mountain is casting a shadow over that section, and it's changing color to match! Automatic hue adjustment, Fluttershy! It has to be automatic, because you can't ask somepony to do nothing except maintain it: they'd never be able to see every necessary change at once! Do you know how hard automatic changes are? Luna could do it with an illusion, but to bind that into a shield... and it has to have the lockdown present for maximum efficiency because of course you'd want it all to share the same border and maybe run off the same devices -- how many devices would it take to do this? That's huge, and all of it just looks like normal rain forest from here! There's no sign of any buildings, and maybe they're all under the canopy, but the thaum drain rate -- and you're asking them to keep all of the effects going in the same construct! How would you make it all cooperate? Or maybe it isn't devices? This could still be individual casters, but the combination limit on Gromway's is still three and with that theoretical drain rate... dear Sun, the amount of skill involved for any of this --"
"...Twilight --"
"-- I've got to study --"
A yellow wingtip gently brushed her snout.
Twilight blinked.
"I have to find Spike," the shame eventually whispered. "I have to..."
"...maybe forty whole seconds of flank-brain," Fluttershy gently told her. "When you were looking at something which called to the heart of your talent, and you naturally wanted to investigate."
"I shouldn't have..."
"...I'll forgive me," Kindness offered. "But only if you'll forgive you."
Eventually, the little mare managed to lie up a nod. Looked around the area, getting it memorized.
"All right," she finally said. "I'm just about ready. But I need to check something first." And winced. "Which means this next part is going to look a little weird. I won't actually be going anywhere. And because of that, I may have to try a few times before I get a good look. I don't want to try slowing the middle part down." The wince was now starting to feel familiar. "Oh. Right. I'm going to --"
"...teleporting without going anywhere?"
Twilight blinked again.
"...you've been lecturing us about magical theory for a few years," the caretaker smiled. "I think it would be sort of insulting if some of it didn't stick. That's what you're trying, right?"
Slowly, the librarian nodded.
"I can sort of see the shield," she clarified. "By looking for where the light isn't quite right. But it's hard to make out the exact dimensions. And I know we're not within the lockdown right now: I can feel that -- and the effect pretty much has to be tied into the shield. So if I get into the between, I should be able to get a better idea of how far the barrier goes. That's going to be crucial if we need to steer around it."
A little more softly, "...are you scared?"
"Yes." It was oddly easy to admit that. "I've been afraid to teleport since we got here. I could have tried line-of-sight jumps to get us past some of the harder sections, because arrival pushes plants aside if they're not too dense. Not that we've had many spots like that here, and... I've been afraid to teleport." She took a deep breath, and insufficient strength flowed. "Now I'm afraid of what might happen if I don't. You might want to look away, Fluttershy. There's going to be a lot of light."
The next step was in bringing Applejack to the top of the tepui, and that wasn't a pleasant experience for anypony.
Carrying her in flight was out of the question. Fluttershy was considerably stronger than she looked, capable of moving in the air while burdened with significant mass -- but at the same time, Applejack was the largest of the Bearers, and vertical movement still counted for distance. It would have been too long of an ascent for a pressure carry. And with Twilight -- she couldn't ignite her horn while in flight. Not on purpose. And even if she somehow had managed the feat -- maintaining a field bubble for that long while Rainbow's aspect was foremost, as the penalty associated with inevitable failure increased with every flap...
Of course, Applejack had rope. The farmer just about always had rope. There was still the question of whether she had enough of it to create an effective harness. Being carried for that long would also put a lot of pressure on her body, and any effective system relied on having two ponies on the tow ends -- which was still asking Twilight to stay in the air for a fairly long time, and to do so when there was nopony available to catch her.
She'd memorized their observation post on the tepui. Then she'd teleported back to a recently-cleared patch of rain forest, apologized to the earth pony for the fifth time, and finally brought her up the fast way.
They'd given Applejack a minute to recover from the uprooting: something she'd very badly needed. When dealing with an earth pony who'd been teleported, a minute had been reasonably expected.
The other problem was new.
"...no signs of pegasi," Fluttershy softly said as she gazed through the binoculars. (Both eyes had been freshly exposed for this, but the snout clamp lens mount was creating some visible discomfort.) "...I'm seeing some birds, but -- that's just it: birds."
"No breaks in the forest," Twilight reported. "Except for where the waterfall is coming down. I think the shield is partway into the lake." Frowned. "Which is a little weird. If they're living here, they'd want to be close to water." Because as she'd recently been reminded, you needed a certain amount to maintain life -- and somewhat more than that to snuff it out. "So it's natural to be near the falls. But with the shield --"
"-- Ah think," the farmer tightly said, "Ah'm gonna vomit."
Two mares immediately turned to look at her and, courtesy of not having quite shifted their gazes away from the lenses, were treated to close-up views of green flushing beneath orange fur.
"The teleport reaction?" Fluttershy quickly asked. "Still? You usually recover in --"
"-- Ah wasn't this high up when we went t' Cloudsdale," Applejack's rising nausea announced. "Ah am higher up than Ah've ever been in mah life, when Ah can still feel good stone under mah hooves. There's what y'might call a certain level of disconnect. An' Ah have t' keep lookin' down." She sighed. "It ain't goin' well."
Automatically, "Sorry --"
"-- better this than gettin' split up any more than we already were, Twi -- an' Ah'd like to point out the part 'bout not havin' died 'cause you got us out in time. Again. Ah'll keep lookin'. Jus' don't be surprised if Ah need t' visit the bushes for a minute."
They continued the search.
"Wouldn't mind a scroll right now, though," the earth pony added. "T' tell us what kind of sign it was supposed t' be."
"It might appear too far in front of us," Twilight sighed. "Over the edge. And then I'd have to try and catch it."
"With your field?"
"Let's hope it would be my field..."
Another portion of the forest was checked.
"...all in clothing except for her," Fluttershy eventually said. "That's very suspicious. And we know ponies are involved now." Paused. "...well, we always sort of knew that. Because something which affects marks is going to target ponies. But to have what she called a 'community', all the way out here..." Paused. "And now we know why the animals don't go near the waterfall. The shield, and that avoidance spell Spike wrote about. They wouldn't even understand why they were avoiding it..."
"It could still be a sick colony," Twilight noted. "We'll have to be careful about that. For all we know, they were just trying to get the others away from whatever causes this. Before they were affected."
"...which would mean it's not contagious," the team medic considered. "And the one mare's mark was visible..."
"An' that don't mean it's the one she started with," Applejack darkly said. "If anypony in the world knows 'bout that, it's us." With a mutter, "An' Rarity's usin' a false name. Maybe Ah can jus' pretend it's a nickname or somethin'..."
Check tree. Move to next tree. Search for anything resembling a sign. Repeat.
"...a sick colony," Fluttershy thoughtfully mused. "Maybe we can help."
"It's the best case," Twilight agreed. "Non-contagious, staying isolated while they're treated." She wanted to believe it, and told the faint hope to wait for some actual evidence.
Softly, "...and the worst?"
Weapons need extra test subjects.
We already met one pony who didn't mind experimenting on others.
"Just... try to focus on finding Spike," Twilight offered.
I wish I knew how to exoteleport. I could just bring him --
-- I'd still need to know exactly where he was, with a direct line of sight. And Trixie didn't do a lot with range...
"Maybe the palace is gonna send reinforcements," Applejack suggested.
"And maybe it's a sick colony," Twilight reminded them. "We can't attack the ill."
Or they're trying to spread it.
That stallion died. The lockdown has to be there for a reason. Maybe they go insane in the last stages. Try to escape. Then you need another test subject.
One more corpse.
When there's no guarantee that one more will be enough.
And now they've potentially got four --
-- or maybe I have to remember what the Princesses said. That they might have wished for their marks to change, and come here to try. But he was still trying to reach Canterlot. For -- what?
And if it's a community of ponies who wanted to change themselves that way -- how many are there?
What had the described 'clothing' been covering? (Spike's description, added to several years of Rarity's lectures, combined to add the quotes.) A lack of marks? Altered icons, warped to the point where anypony would find the results unnatural? A community of those who bore the Not Equal sign?
There was one sure way to find out.
"We've gotta think like Spike here," Applejack announced. "Say he's makin' a sign. One we can see from above. What would he do?"
The mares paused.
"...he can climb," Fluttershy quietly considered. "Handling claws, walking claws. He's too small to wrap a truck and shimmy up like a minotaur would, so he just gouges little supports into the wood. The only limit on how high he can go is whether there's branches which will take his weight. For some trees, that's all the way up."
"Best way t' stand out," Applejack contemplated, "is t' break up the monotony. From up here, that mostly means green. Got a little variety for the leaves, but anything which ain't a plant color is gonna show up fast." Frowning, "Which means that if they've got pegasi on patrol, he's takin' a big risk."
"...we haven't seen any yet," the caretaker noted.
"Ah'd still like t' work fast. Jus' in case." Hard hooves scraped at the rock. "Find him, get there, get down... Fire? Easy t' spot orange, yellow, an' red. Not t' mention the smoke."
"It's hard to light one tree in a forest this thick," Twilight countered. Or rather, Spike could -- but the count wouldn't stay at one for long. "And he knows it. And you know he's more careful than that."
"He's young," Applejack's sibling experience offered. "An' scared, an' -- alone."
Nopony said anything for a few seconds.
"Maybe if it was one branch," Twilight finally broke the silence. "Hold it just above the canopy. Hope we'd see the smoke. But it's still a risk, and the plume would be thin." And he would also be counting on the wind to not disperse the trail before it rose high enough to be spotted. "Still... stand out against the green..."
She had a thought.
Reality, which didn't always appreciate dramatic timing, stalled them out for another eight minutes before Fluttershy spotted the result.
A tall, concealing section of thickly-tangled plants seemed to jump a little as they came through the canopy, because that portion of the descent had been somewhat too fast and the two mares had broken some branches on the way through. Twilight's attention immediately went in that direction, found vertically-slit pupils going wide with joy, and instantly lost Rainbow's aspect.
The remainder of the drop was considerably faster.
Fluttershy wasn't quite in time to catch her, and it didn't matter. Her knees didn't bend in a way which absorbed the whole of a two-Celest plummet, and that didn't matter either. She struggled to her hooves, her legs were jolted and she was going to have fresh aches within the hour and none of that mattered because he was running towards her...
...a backpack. Not saddlebags, because he didn't have flanks: a formal little backpack, something Rarity had designed for him and updated every so often as he grew and fashions changed. And of course if Rarity was going to make a backpack, she was going to create a few things to put in it. After all, one never knew what kind of conditions one would be entering, and a certain amount of comfort was always desirable. Especially when she was using a material which could be folded thin and tight, taking up so little space. And when it came to color...
When it was properly packed, it used just about no backpack capacity at all. But when fully unfurled, the rich plum blanket could cover roughly twelve small dragons. Or, if necessary, most of a treetop.
He ran towards her, and she didn't like the way he was moving. Then his body was pressed against her forelegs, and that let her feel the way his ribs were shifting -- along with giving her a very close-up sound for his breathing. There was a wet, coarse quality to it, and that set a new group of worries ablaze.
He's sick.
I have to --
-- his body was against her forelegs. His face was tucked into the fur of her sternum, and hot tears were quickly saturating the strands.
Twilight's head dipped, as Fluttershy landed next to them. It let her chin stroke his crests.
He's sick.
I always feel so helpless when he's...
She lowered her head a little more, did her best to nuzzle him. The changed angle allowed her own tears to fall away from her face, and cooler moisture ran across the dirty scales.
He was sick.
She always felt so helpless when he was sick. Because there was almost no dragon medical lore available, and she hardly ever knew what to do.
Her little brother was ill.
He was also with her.
Found.
The caretaker had landed. But she stayed back, during those first few seconds. Giving them a little time. Precious seconds for tears.
And words.
"I'm sorry --"
They had both said it.
"-- it's not your fault..."
That too.
Siblings did that sort of thing.