[Mechanist's Flutter Part 3.1]
[In search of Fluttershy]
[Exhausted little mare's I'll give them that much. Now if memory serves, as the little gear sleeps I should be able to poke in the shared dream she and her friend are having and... Ah, one of these dreams. Alright, I suppose a shift of color and...]
[Equestrian Heroes]
Crisis, an ancient tome of summoning has been stolen by an evil dragon. The tome was stolen from the Canterlot Museum where the Wonderbolts were unable to prevent the theft. With no time to send a Pegasus-drawn chariot to Ponyville and back, Celestia requested that the two fast fliers, Rainbow Dash and FlutterGear go to the mountain lair of this dragon and reclaim the tome before he could summon any beings that could devastate all of Equestria. FlutterGear and Rainbow Dash were both racing to the top of the mountain where the Black Dragon had hidden himself away. Gear was keeping up with the Rainbow maned speedster as they approached the cave entrance. Each pegasus left their unique trails in the air, a Rainbow trail and Silver trail. FlutterGear called out to Rainbow Dash, "Dash, I'll find a back entrance in."
"Got it, Gear!", Rainbow called back.
Gear pulled off to the side and looped around the mountain peak, finding a back entrance. It was a passage just wide enough for a pony but not a dragon, she entered it and approached the sound of the Dragon speaking strange words. She quickly emerged behind him as Dash came in the front entrance. The Dragon looked at her and roared, warning the approaching color trail to go away. -POW- Rainbow Dash had turned around and planted her hind legs into the snout of the Dragon, leaving some small hoof-shaped indentations. She dived down to avoid the wave of blue firebreath the Dragon let out. Gear came in from behind the Dragon and rammed into the back of his head, disorienting him. He tumbled around for a moment then gathered his wits, a look of horror forming as the two Pegasi trails spiralled around each other heading right for him. The impact was spectacular, a last second Sonic Rainboom combined with the Resonance from Gear's powercore turned the two into an Arrow of Light that phased right through the poor behemoth who hit the ground fading into unconsciousness. The two friends found the tome, opened to a page that would summon forth the wrath of a dragon god, they knew they had made it in time as all but the last 5 words were glowing with magic.
Later in the royal castle Gear and Dash both walked along the red carpet, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi all cheering as they approached Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The two heroes kneeled and bowed their heads as the Princesses smiled widely acknowledging their bravery. The summoning tome had been recovered before any dragon magic could summon enormous beasts of power.
"Rise, heroes." Celestia requested
"The deeds thou'st done for our dominion shall be writ in the annals of our history.", Luna added, thankfully not using the Royal Canterlot Voice.
"However, your work is not yet done. The old castle where the Elements of Harmony were found has fallen under the spell of Arcana Stream."
A magic mirror levitated into the room showed the image of a dark colored unicorn with purple eyes and a deep blue mane.
"Her magicks from the forbidden tomes have made it difficult, nay, impossible for earth pony, unicorn, even Alicorn alike to traverse these curs-ed grounds."
"The spell is slowly spreading over the Everfree forest locking it into an eternal darkness."
"'Tis only a matter of time before thy villa of Ponyville falls to its influence."
Gear asked, "What can we do?"
Celestia nodded at Gear's question, "Only two things can break through her barriers, the magic of a rainbow Pegasus, and the power of your kind heart."
"We will be forever in your debt heroes, do not let us down."
Dash salutes, "You got it!"
Gear nods, "We'll stop her!"
The two take off and fly for straight for the Everfree forest. As the two heroes approached the border of the forest, they could see what the Princesses were talking about. There were patches of darkness that could be seen, slowly spreading wider. This didn't faze either of the heroes, they nodded at each other and began to find a way around the patches, getting seperated along the way. Gear's bravery couldn't falter, or so she thought. Passing through a patch of darkness she suddenly couldn't see, but could hear Dash shout out, "GEAR!"
[Meet the Gear]
Gear opened her eyes, expecting to see Arcana Stream but instead she was standing on the tip of the tail of the Black Dragon, he didn't have that vicious look like earlier, but seemed to be well within control of his temperment, how else would he position his tail just right to let him and the machination look at each other eye-to-eye.
He began to speak, "Do not worry, your colorful friend has drifted into her own dream by now."
Gear processed this civility, and the way he talked, "Discord?"
"Oh, no, little Gear. He's still trapped in that statue, I'm something else."
Gear looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"
"I am simply a piece of a greater program, a little fragment of code that is performing quite well."
"Program? Code? What are those?", Gear asked.
"Since I'm on a schedule I'll simply say, what is in front of you....", The dragon sarcastically replied.
"Why are you in my dream?"
"Simply to let you know that you will be subconsciously accepting the administration of this simulation. Since the Father Program has ordered every fragment of himself to return."
"Administ- Oh like Mayor Mare?"
"Yes, why not...", the dragon placed his hand on his snout, "Put simply, you can change things in this world, though you won't completely understand why."
"That sounds kinda...cool?", Flutter smiled and squee'd.
"At least I didn't hand the pinto keys to your friend..."
"Pinto keys?"
"I don't have time to explain everything..."
"Could you real quick tell me what a 'Father Program' is? If you don't mind?"
"I know certain beings with their greedy interests are looking for the father program, so I can not even hint at the filename in use, or his functionality. Now, if you excuse me, the network has opened and I must be going."
"That's too bad, you seem like a nice dragon."
The Dragon lowers his tail while fighting a sarcastic comment that would have his Father Program tear him to pieces. He faded away and Gear found herself standing in the teal fog again. She looked around frantically, trying to find the exit. After a minute of looking, she saw something in the distance, "There you are."
She started galloping towards it, a determined look on her face more fitting for Dash than Fluttershy, getting closer and closer until she skidded to a stop. A surprised look on her face as she saw Dash standing there, wearing a cloak that and what looked like metal leggings. Dash eyed her and asked, "Who the Hay are you?"
Gear jumped awake, Rainbow Dash was asleep next to her. Most of what she saw in that Dream had quickly left her memory. She looked over Dash for a minute, even tapping her on the side to listen for any out of place sounds.
"Me...a wonderbolt? You shouldn'tve", Dash mumbled then rolled over.
Gear looked around, some other Pegasi were pushing some clouds in for a light shower. She flew up above the clouds and saw the Sun was barely starting to rise over the mountains, which gave her time to visit somepony before Dash woke up.
-----
Applejack and Big Mac were up early today, they had apples to buck. They weren't alone fortunately, Red Delicious was able to come help since everything was far ahead of schedule at the farm he worked at. Big Mac was a little drained, he had to clean up an uprooted tree last night. Applejack on the otherhoof was a little pre-occupied about what happened in the library last night. The two were walking along the path from the farmhouse, surveying the orchard to see who got which part.
Applejack saw some trees that had been cleared of their apples then checks the fence, "Alrighty, this is where Red Delicious is workin'."
Big Mac looked at the trees, "Uhm...Nnnnope."
"Whad'ya mean?"
"Take a closer look, AJ. Those hoofprints ain't ours."
Applejack walked over to a tree, "What the hay?", She looked at the prints closely, "Can you really tell these hoofprints are somepony else's?"
"Nnnnope...", Big Mac pointed a hoof towards the sound of a tree getting hit hard.
She looked around the tree and watched as a few apples fell off of the tree Gear just hit, she was very relieved to see that the tree hadn't tilted over, or flew 50 yards.
Gear counted the apples that had fallen then checked the ground and the tree for damage.
"Fluttershy?", AJ asked, "What're you doin' out here?"
Gear looked at her, "Oh, I felt bad for uprooting Apple Bloom's practice tree yesterday, so I came to practice."
"On bigger trees? One of them leans towards ya and ya might as well say your prayers."
Gear grinned kinda nervously, "Like that one?", she pointed a hoof at a tree that fell over.
AJ hid her surprise, "Well, at least it missed you."
"Well, it didn't."
"Come again?"
"I had to crawl out from under it.", she said, shuffling a front hoof a little.
AJ started walking over to it, "I don't think it's right to joke about somethin' like thaAAaaa?", She was looking at the hole in the ground left behind from Gear's escape, certain her jaw hanging as far open as the hole was deep.
"I wasn't joking, Applejack.", Gear wandered over.
"This just ain't right, two days ago you couldn' even do anythin' near as physical as Bloom, now you can have trees fall on ya and trot away like 'twas nothin'! Is it because of that armor?"
"Applejack, I need to ask you and the others not to keep asking about my armor. It's just armor, you don't need to worry about it."
"What if it's got some kinda curse on it?"
"I know it doesn't, you need to trust me.", Gear held her hoof out.
AJ still felt guilty for tying up Rainbow Dash, and though something was off, to her this mare is still Fluttershy, "I don' like this, but it looks like I don't have a choice.", She shook hooves with Gear.
The morning shower started and Gear looked up, "Oh, I should get back to Rain...", she froze up a little, "The animals!"
Applejack watched Gear fly up and punch a hole through the cloud cover, "Well now, she couldn't do that before..."
-----
FlutterGear managed to get to the cottage in time, and was able to follow the morning schedule without delay. Angel even tried to help out by dragging feed to some of the animals that fled the day before. Once all the animals in her care were fed she began to wonder about how today would go. Even she gave a little snicker asking aloud, "How long will it take everypony to make me run and hide with Dash?"
She remembered that Dash might be on that cloud still, "Oh, I should go see if she's awake yet. We still need to find where the real Fluttershy went."
Turning towards the door she suddenly tensed up, hairs on her mane raising, the world shifted to something different momentarily, she was now in darkness. She didn't know where she was, all she could hear were voices.
"This the one? Morris Kyles?", a smug voice asked.
"Yes this is him, your skills are very impressive Mr. Kyles. The new Soveriegn would like you to work in the robotics division of the UWO.", a calm voice offered.
A voice strikingly familiar to Gear responded, "I will not."
"Well now, that's a shame, y'know what we do to people that don't want to work for the new Soveriegn?", the smug voice said.
"What?"
"We... Remove them...", something metallic clicks.
"STAND DOWN...", the calm voice was sharp now.
"You never let me have any fun, Colz. Fine...", Another metallic click.
"I'm not going to be the tool of a man who poisoned the person who had brought the world together, just for his own greed for power."
An indicator in Gears vision appears and starts pulsing red reading, Powercore at Critical energy.
"Y'know, THAT'S IT!"
"Riley! DON'T!"
Gear snaps back to attention in her cottage as a loud bang echoes around the room, scaring the animals away. Her pupils had shrunk to the size of seeds, and she stood there trembling. Tears came to her eyes and her legs buckled underneath her, there was no denying it. She wanted to cry...no...
-----
A familiar cloud had drifted along over the last two hours, its napping occupant with it. Dash is still asleep on her cloud, on her back waving her hooves in the air as she and Spitfire won the ultimate race in all of Equestria. Waking, she jumped onto her hooves completely surprised, it wasn't loud when she heard it but Gear's scream pierced right through her. Quickly she lept into the air and made a Sonic Rainboom as she headed straight for Fluttershy's Cottage. She landed on the ground, ready to help Gear but saw nothing, "Huh?"
She couldn't see a single animal around, but could hear somepony crying, "I'm comin'!"
Dash opened the door to the cottage and saw FlutterGear laying on her belly, crying.
Angel was trying to comfort her, but nothing he did seemed to help. He stroked her mane, hugged her hoof, and even tried to offer her a glass of water. Finally he gave up and, on noticing Rainbow Dash standing there gave her a pleading look for help.
Rainbow moved close, "Gear? What happened?"
Gear didn't respond, all she could hear was the loud bang echoing in her mind.
Letting her head hang low, Dash moved closer, "Did something happen?"
Angel looked at her, and nodded. He had seen Flutter break down before but not like this.
Behind Dash a classy voice asked, "Rainbow Dash? What happened here?"
Dash looked at Rarity, "What're you doin' here?"
"I was on my way over to see how Fluttershy was liking the accessories I made for her armor, when I heard this loud explosion followed by her scream."
"Uh... I kinda made a Sonic Rainboom getting over here."
"No darling, this explosion came before yours."
Gear seemed to finally get enough sense to scream, "MR. MORRIS!"
Both Dash and Rarity looked at her.
Dash asked, "That Morris Pony did this? Where is he?!"
"Rainbow Dash! Can't you see she's scared out of her wits? We need to calm her down before we start interrogating her!"
"And what d'you suggest we do?"
"There has to be something, a new dress?", Rarity was thinking as hard as she could, "No, that won't do..."
Angel mimed something and Rarity picked up on it quickly, "A Song! But what?"
"I don't know anything she'd want to hear", Rainbow was starting to get tense.
Rarity just began singing a lullaby as old as Celestia herself.
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed
Drift, drift, off to sleep
Exciting day behind you
Drift, drift, off to sleep
Let the joy of dreamland find you
-----
The Sonic Rainboom from earlier rattled the entire library, knocking some books off of their shelves. Though, it wasn't the Rainboom that woke Twilight Sparkle today, there used to be books on the shelf right above her bed. She placed the books back on the shelf and let out a yawn. The events the night before had a profound effect on her, instead of climbing in bed with a few books at four in the morning, she climbed into bed and just fell asleep at a decent hour. Spike even noticed that she had gotten a good night's sleep, he handed her a light coffee that would give her the kick she needed for the day. The rain outside had lightened into a drizzle and everypony was out running errands before the planned storm tonight.
"Spike? What time is it?", Twilight asked.
"About a half-hour before noon.", Spike replied.
"Good. There's still time to run some errands."
"Might wanna make it---", Spike was interrupted by a belch of green flame.
"Huh?", Twilight caught a scroll with her magic.
She unfurled it, and began to quietly read:
To my loyal student Twilight Sparkle,
I hope you remembered that today both me and my sister be attending Ponyville's Welcoming of Monsoon.
Spike noticed Twilight's ear twitch, Uh oh...
We will arrive at five as we discussed and hope to see the Elements of Harmony in good spirits.
Celestia
Spike put on an Iron Helmet, Aaaand, here....we.....GO!
Twilight twitched again and began, "Guilty feelings or not, this was not the day to sleep in! Spike! We need to run our errands while we prepare for both of the Princesses arrival! I'll go get Fluttershy! Spike, go get Rarity and Pinkie! We've got to MOVE!"
Twilight nearly took the library door off of its hinges when she opened it with her magic and ran outside. Spike just shrugged his shoulders, "Here we go again."
-----
Between Rarity's voice and the familiarity of a song that every filly knew by heart, Fluttergear had been brought out of her shock. When she noticed her friend calming down, Rainbow Dash lent her voice to the task, in spite of her not being much of a musical talent. Gear appreciated the gesture all the same.
"Thank you.", Gear dried the tears from her eyes.
"You're very welcome.", Rarity said
"Yeah, what happened?"
"Rainbow!", Rarity snapped.
Gear shook her head, "No...It's ok, it must have been some weird daydream."
"Never heard of a daydream being scary. Whatever it was, it must've been pretty awful to make you break down like that."
"It wasn't a trot in the park..."
Rarity raised a brow, "Trot in the park? What was it then?"
"Well... I was suddenly someplace dark, these voices including Mr. Morris...", She teared up a little, "They got into an argument and there was this loud explosion."
"Fluttershy, if this is too much for you, please say so..."
"No...I have to move through it... I think Mr. Morris is dead."
"And who is this 'Mr. Morris'?"
Gear looked at Dash, both knew that they either needed to tell Rarity the truth, or...
A rapidly approaching and freaked voice was getting louder with every zap, "FLUTTERSHY! WE NEED TO TALK!"
Twilight opened the cottage door, catching her breath, "Oh, good! You're home! Listen, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are coming to Ponyville at five!"
Rarity looked at Twilight, "Twilight, you can bother her with details later, she has just had an awful experience!"
"But..."
"There will be no argument. If there is anything you absolutely must to discuss with her, you may discuss it with me first."
"But..."
Rarity started to push Twilight along, "We can discuss this at the library!"
The cottage door closed gently, both Gear and Dash looked at each other and gave a sigh of relief. Dash moved closer, "You gonna be alright, Gear?"
"I will be, Dash."
"That was a pretty close call. I was afraid we'd have to tell Rarity."
"Me too."
"Remember how she nearly fainted when Twilight told her the Zecora's stripes were natural?"
Gear smiled a little, "Yeah."
"Imagine how long she would be out if she found out that isn't armor."
"Probably for a whole minute!", The two girls share a laugh.
Dash looked around for a moment, "Say... The Pegasi are movin' in some bigger clouds later, wanna help?"
Gear looked a little surprised, "You'll have to teach me real quick, but okay!"
-----
There were numerous attempts to escape from her white coated friend, but each one failed. Rarity even quickly caught onto Twilight switching places with Big Mac with Smarty Pants in his mouth. Finally, Rarity locked the library door and got Twilight to settle down.
Rarity looked her fellow unicorn in the eyes, "Now, what do you need?"
"I need Fluttershy to do two things for Princesses arrival today.", Twilight started.
"And what would these two things be?"
"Well, she needs to get the birds ready to sing..."
"And?"
"...to take that armor off."
"She can't do that, darling."
"Why not?"
"It's stuck, probably so tight she can't undo any latches, well if there were any to begin with."
"Stuck? That's it? I might have a spell that can get it off"
"Now that's just plain RUDE, how would you like it if somepony trotted up and undressed you? Besides that, she wouldn't even let me talk her out of it."
"We can protect her.", Twilight pulled a book off of a shelf with her magic.
"No really, when she had me make the accessories for her armor, she insisted that I not remove a single piece."
"Really?"
"Not one."
"Ok, we still need to find a way to hide it. Celestia will be worried if she sees Fluttershy wearing it."
"She would understand if Fluttershy is afraid of something."
"How can you be so sure?"
Rarity points out the window, "Look up for yourself."
Twilight looked out the window and up. Gear was pushing a cloud and Dash was helping her.
"It looks to me like it's helping her feel safe," said Rarity.
"I guess so...", She saw Gear begin to chase a cloud that had escaped the grasp of a younger Pegasus, "I just think there's something else going on, and it just keeps bothering me."
-----
The cakes were both out, Mrs. Cake was running errands and Mr. Cake was at the trader getting more supplies for a special order batch of oatmeal muffins. This left Pinkie Pie to run the store, not a lot of ponyfolk had stopped by, which gave her time to work in the kitchen. Spike opened the door and walked in, "Hello? Is--"
Pinkie poked her head out the doorway to the kitchen, "Hi, Spike!"
"Heh... Is everything--"
"Ready for the show tonight? It sure is!"
"Good. Huh? What's with your mane?", Spike pointed at Pinkie's mane, "Did you let Rarity style it?"
"Nope, I've been playing with a little trick I learned.", Her mane puffs from Rarity's curl to her usual poof, "Pretty neat trick, huh?"
"Yeah, can you do Twilight?", Spike asked.
Pinkie gets her mane to flatten out a little, then used her hooves to move it just right, "There, how's that?"
Spike laughed a little, "Pretty good."
"So all the sweets are ready for tonight, just need to work with Rarity and Fluttershy to put up all the decorations for the event tonight!"
"Great, I'll go tell Twilight. Oh! Did those cupcakes come in?"
"Your Sapphires? Yeah!"
Spike grinned, "I'll be back for them later, I need to get my allowance first."
"Okie-Dokie-Loki, I'll make sure they're ready."
-----
When the last of the large clouds were pushed into position Dash and Gear both landed on the ground. Dash had been trying so hard to show off and do things really quick that she exhausted her wings. Gear looked up and saw that they did a good job, not a single gap in the clouds, perfect for the monsoon season to start up. There were some other Pegasi still high up talking with a coordinator, they would end up being a part of the announcement event later.
After they had rested a little Dash folded her wings closed, "Well, that's that."
Gear smiled at Dash, "Thanks for showing me how to do that."
"We've got the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we want. Any ideas?"
"Well, I was thinking we could keep searching for Fluttershy."
"Oh yeah, I got tied up when I came back from Cloudsdale... So, I'll go check Canterlot."
"I'll check the Everfree forest"
Dash paused, "You sure about that?"
"We've been in there more times than we can count, I think I'll be alright.", Gear grinned softly.
"Alright, I'll go with you."
"Huh?"
"Nopony should go in there alone, I'm going with you."
"Oh, Okay."
The two flew off heading straight for the Everfree forest. Pinkie looked up and saw them go by overhead, "Hey, Dashie, Flutter! Where ya goin'?"
Twilight wandered over to Pinkie as she jumped up waving her front hooves, "Hey!"
Twilight looked up and noticed the direction they were going, "Are they going where I think they're going?"
Applejack walked up to them, as Twilight asked, "Pinkie, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so, Twilight. But how would we make an eatable Party Cannon?"
Twilight face-hoofed.
"Hey, there's that noise again."
-----
A dark gray unicorn with a deep blue mane lays in the darkness that she is sustaining with her magic. Her purple eyes open at the sound of an approaching pony, with a calm voice she asked, "You came back early...why?"
A voice responds, "The false Fluttershy is explorin' the forest."
"Is she by herself?"
"Nope, she's with the Rainbow Pegasus."
"Curious. Do you know their reason?"
"They're lookin' for the real Fluttershy, should I scare 'em off?"
The unicorn shakes her head, "No, let them come. The shadows in my control will eject them. We are true in our nature, she cannot use her potential as we can."
"What if we've got the wrong idea?"
"Foolish talk..."
-----
Gear and Dash made some good progress in searching the Everfree forest, but they hadn't found anything that would be out of the ordinary. The first goal they wanted to reach was to cover the forest all the way to Zecora's home. Within a couple of hours they had reached that waypoint and wondered if maybe she had seen something. They looked at each other for a moment, then nodded. Gear walked to the door and knocked on it, "Zecora?"
The door opened and the Zebra welcomed them, "Ah, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash this way roam, I bid thee welcome to this place I call home."
"Could we ask you a question?"
"Since I have finished my flask, feel free to ask."
Dash walked off to investigate something as Gear asked, "Have you seen anypony using secret places in the forest?"
"I seem to recall a troubled unicorn and her friend in the region, the two carrying somepony else to the castle of the old legion."
Gear's mind went back to the dreams, "Huh?"
She could hear the Red Dragon as she stared him down, I remember the old castle...
"Thank you, Zecora."
"Wait..."
"Hm?"
"The one I spoke of has an aura dark as night, be weary of her tricks and choose which path is right.", Zecora warned.
"We'll remember, Zecora."
Gear looked for her friend, "Dash?"
Zecora watched as Gear started to wander around, expecting Dash to surprise them. Things fell quiet enough the two could hear a small insect moving over a dry leaf. Zecora noticed something moving around Gear, "Watch Out!"
Gear fell into a shadow and Zecora ran over to try and help.
"I would rather you did not."
Zecora turned to the dark unicorn, "She who wields light's bane..."
"Join them...", The darkness swallowed Zecora, "This untamed forest will be mine."
-----
System status: Recovery Complete
Gear woke up between Dash and Zecora on the edge of the forest. Dash was next to her still out, and Zecora had also started coming to. She looked up at the concerned looks of Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and both Princesses.
Twilight asked, "Are you guys alright?"
Gear stood up, "I'm fine."
Applejack followed, "What happened?"
Zecora got up, "We've been expelled by shadows, under control of one whom nopony knows."
Gear could still see some self-test data in her vision, she remembered seeing it when Twilight was teleporting her during last nights chase, "I feel alright, but what about Dash?"
Dash stirred, "Ugh... Ramming speed, nothing...", she pushed herself to her hooves, wincing in pain.
Applejack and Twilight closed in on Dash, "Rainbow Dash, what happened?" Twilight asked.
Dash straightened herself up, "Somepony in a cloak rammed into me", she flinched a little, "I think Billy and Hoops combined have less kick than that one."
Gear looks at Celestia as the last visual disappears from her sight.
"It sounds like you three had quite the encounter," said the princess, "perhaps you could explain what you experienced?"
Dash looked at Gear, Gear looked at Zecora then back at Celestia, "Well...we were looking through the Everfree forest..."
Dash picked up the story, "...Looking for anything outta the ordinary, when we arrived at Zecora's house..."
Zecora took her turn, "Where these two fillies came and knocked upon my door..."
Gear took a turn, "And we asked her if she saw anypony using secret places in the forest..."
Dash added another part of the story, "I see somepony move around, and go to 'ask' them, and..."
"...with magic of shadows, we fall through the forest floor.", Zecora added.
Gear finished, "Then we woke up here."
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances, both looking worried about what they heard.
Twilight thought, posing a question to herself, Shadow Magic? Who would use that?
"There's only a hoof-full of ponies in Equestria that have studied Shadow Magic, fewer have actually used it more than once.", Twilight thought aloud
Zecora looked at Luna and Twilight, "The lunar princess is not the one I saw before plummeting into a shadowy maw. A coat of dark grey, violet eyes, and a still blue mane is how I would describe the wielder of light's bane."
Gear thought carefully, she didn't really know anypony that matched that desc--. She recalled a fragment from the dream she had last night, It couldn't be... She was in a dream.... Gear turned to Zecora, "You said you saw the unicorn and a friend, carrying somepony else?"
Zecora nods.
"Were any of them wearing armor? Like me?"
Zecora thought carefully, "When I first saw them the mage's cloaked escort had hooves of various metals. The still one on her back also wore a cloak though seemed to attract cardinals."
Gear thought of the Dragon again, then about the dream from last night. Unwittingly her eyes widened as she realized that Fluttershy might be a prisoner of this unicorn.
Twilight noticed the look on Gear's face, "Why do you have that look?"
Gear looked at Twilight, "Something I heard?"
Dash looked into the forest noticing the cloaked pony standing beneath the shadows of the trees, "Hey! We have a score to settle!"
The cloaked pony replied, "Anytime you're ready, it's ON!", then spread her metal wings.
Gear moved in front of Dash as she nearly rocketted forward, "Don't... She's probably like me..."
Dash realized that Gear was right as the sound of individual blades of metal folding closed came from the pegasus that attacked her, "Then what do you suggest we do?"
AJ had been running through what just happened in her mind, "Is it just me, or was RD talkin' to RD?"
"Y'know I thought so too", Pinkie added.
Twilight walked up to them, "We can worry about that later, we need to figure out a strategy. Blindly charging in there is looking like the worst, so... First thing tomorrow, we need to meet at the libraary, all of us. Applejack, are you far enough with the orchard?"
"Ah'll need some help catchin' up with my part, but that can wait."
Pinkie nodded, "We'll do whatever it takes to help out!"
Dash, Gear, and Rarity walked over to them.
Gear spoke up, "We're meeting in the library, right?"
Twilight nodded, "First thing in the morning."
Gear nodded her head, "I'll be there"
Dash nodded, "Me, too."
Twilight smiled, "Let's get some rest."