The sun shone through the window of the room where Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity had spent the night. As the beam slowly travelled across the room with the moving sun, illuminating the dust motes that floated in the air, it stirred in turn Applejack, then Rarity, who both set off after leaving a note for Rainbow to get breakfast.
Somewhere around ten in the morning, the sunbeam landed on Rainbow’s closed eyes. She shifted slight, swatting at the sunbeam in the hopes of hitting it away.
“Go ‘way.” she groaned, opening her left eye and glaring angrily at the window.
With a sigh, Rainbow sat up in the bed, glancing at the note left for her. She stared at the floor, the dream from last night still present in her mind. The black winged woman, who had asked her to find this ‘Tir Na Nog’ place.
She stood up, stretched, and headed out to find Applejack and Rarity.
--
Tir Chonaill was more active that day, with many of the humans running around. In itself, this would have concerned Rainbow, but she paid it no mind, as none of them seemed to even notice. At one point as well, a human set up some firewood, and when Rainbow drew near, offered her some berries for nothing in return but some idle chatter.
Rainbow kept the dream to herself, but did use the talk to find where Applejack and Rarity had gone. With a few other humans passing by and adding to the conversation, she found Applejack had been seen not too long ago in the Erskin Bank, while Rarity had been browsing the stores. This got a laugh from Rainbow Dash, as it was clear Rarity had already gone back to normal routines.
Deciding she wanted nothing to do with Rarity trying to spend money they didn’t have, Rainbow said goodbye to the humans and headed to the bank.
--
The interior of the Erskin bank was made from pine wood planks, with windows at the front either side of the door. Much to Rainbow’s relief, Applejack was already headed towards the door when she had arrived.
“Well it’s about time ya were awake, didcha get anything to eat?” Applejack questioned.
“Someone gave me some berries, so I’m fine. What were you doing in here AJ?” Rainbow asked back, narrowing her eyes.
“Simple ain’t it? I wanted to know what they did here. They just store any money and items you bring them.” Applejack replied, apparently now regretting she had wanted to find out how banks in Erinn worked, and learning they were identical to all banks elsewhere.
“Anyway,” Rainbow turned to follow Applejack as she left the bank, “can you go get Rarity? She’s in one of the stores, and I want to talk to that Duncan guy about something. Meet me by him in ten minutes ok?”
Applejack simply nodded and headed towards the general store, as Rainbow walked past the town square to Chief Duncan.
--
Chief Duncan seemed concerned about something, as Rainbow Dash drew closer. When she stopped before him and went to speak, he held out his hand and lowered his face towards her.
“I need to ask a favour, if its not too much trouble. A friend of mine lost an item up at Sidhe Sneachta, could you please retrieve it? Be careful of the coyotes if you do go.” he smiled.
“Uh, what kind of item are we talking about here?” Rainbow questioned.
“An earring.” Chief Duncan replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“An... earring...” Rainbow deadpanned.
“Yes, that is what I said, an earring.”
“An earring, you want me to find an earring, in an area filled with these apparently dangerous coyotes things.” Rainbow pressed.
“Indeed. Is it too much trouble?” Chief Duncan asked.
“If it was someone’s grandma, no, but... an earring... can’t they just, you know, go buy another?” Rainbow questioned, wondering why she hadn’t walked away yet.
“It was part of a set.”
Rainbow let out an audible yell, which echoed around the town.
“Fine, I’ll get the stupid earring, but say NOTHING to Rarity!” Rainbow snapped.
She took a few steps forward, then paused. Looking around the town, she noticed for the first time that there seemed to be no signposts, not visible from where she stood anyway. With a loud, exaggerated sigh, she looked backwards to Chief Duncan. With a chuckle, he pointed to the north of the town, and Rainbow followed his directions.
--
Sidhe Sneachta was cold. That was the first thing Rainbow noticed as the snow came up past her fetlocks. The second thing she noticed as she walked closer made her stand still, and stare at how creepy and weird the sight was.
Thirty snowmen. All looked identical, except for the arms. And all stood with their black stone eyes staring right at her. It felt as though they were all staring into her soul and judging her for everything she had done. As she stood still, staring at the sight of the snowmen, a glint of gold caught her eye from a snowman in the middle.
She approached this one, and found for some reason, the earring had been put on the snowman as if it had an ear to wear it. Smiling to herself, she took the earring off the snowman and tucked it under a wing. Shivering at the creepy sight of the snowmen still before her, Rainbow turned around to leave.
And came nose to nose with a coyote pack. She backed away as they growled at her, and slowly approached, hungry to feast on her. Rainbow did the only thing she thought of at that moment. She turned back around and ran.
The pack of coyotes kept up with her, one or two tried to tackle her at some points as she ran further in the area. She kept her focus on any way to get away from the coyotes and back to the town, but the more she ran, the more closed in by trees the area became.
And then she saw something that only made things worse. Ahead of her was an area marked by stone pillars, carved straight and with one or two, had an overhang piece. This wasn’t what made her feel like all hope was gone however, it was what stood among the stone pillars. And what stood there was a very large brown bear.
Rainbow came to a halt just in front of the bear, stopping just in time so her nose tapped the nose of the bear. Her eyes and the eyes of the bear locked for a moment, before it turned its attention to the coyotes running after her.
Before Rainbow could register it, the bear walked past her, and begun to fight the coyotes, each defeated one choosing wisely to run away from the bear. Rainbow could have used this distraction to get away from both threats, but to do so would mean to go past the fighting coyotes and bear. She simply decided to wait, and hope that the bear moved slowly as she ran past.
In a matter of minutes, the bear had beaten off all coyotes, and turned to face Rainbow. Lowering herself in preparation to run, Rainbow watched as the bear drew near. When it got closer, the look in its eyes threw Rainbow’s plan. It didn’t stare at her as though it intended to now maul and eat her, but it did look concerned. Slowly, it walked around her, as if to check that she had come to no harm. When it was satisfied, it drew closer, and stood almost beside her.
What it did next confused Rainbow. The bear reached a front paw to the snow before them both, and wrote in the snow.
“Tar-lach? What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked the bear aloud. Looking to her side, Rainbow was surprised to see it had gone. The bear was now returning to where it had been before.
Looking at it, she watched as the bear picked up a blue herb and ate it, no longer paying attention to the blue pegasus mare. Thankful to discover the bear was a herbivore unlike those of Equestria, Rainbow looked at the word written in the snow once more, and left.
--
When she returned to the town, Rarity and Applejack were already waiting near Chief Duncan, both of them seemed slightly concerned when they saw her, and approached as she drew near.
“What took you so long? He only asked you to get an earring.” Rarity inquired.
Rainbow opened her wing and let the earring fall, its fall to the ground only being stopped by Rarity’s magic, as she handed it over to Duncan. Rainbow herself meanwhile sat down and sighed.
“Something happened while I was out there.” she stated.
“What happened? You were too ‘cool’ to pick up the earring?” Rarity replied snidely.
“No, after I got the earring, I turned around and came nose to nose with a pack of coyotes. I got chased, and got saved by a bear.” Rainbow snapped back, glaring daggers at Rarity.
“A bear you say? They’ve not been peaceful since the arrival of the formors.” Duncan said, having been paying attention to the arguement between Rainbow and Rarity.
“Yeah, after it beat the coyotes back, it wrote a word in the snow, ‘Tarlach’. Do you know what that means?” Rainbow questioned.
Duncan thought for a moment, closing his eyes as he thought through everything he had heard. After the second minute, it became clear he would be thinking a while, and so Rainbow turned her attention to Applejack and Rarity.
“I also had a weird dream last night,” she said, waiting to see if either would say anything, which they didn’t, “in it I saw a human, with black wings on her back. She told me to come to some place named Tir Na Nog and rescue her. What do you think that means?”
Duncan cleared his throat, catching the attention of the ponies. They turned to face him and waited for him to speak.
“It would seem your dream is no coincidence. There is a tale of three warriors who went missing, one of them was called Tarlach, and they went in search of Tir Na Nog. But prehaps, it would be best for you to seek out Stewart of the Dunbarton school of magic. He knows more of the tale than I.” Duncan said, smiling at Rainbow.
“Okay, and how do we get to Dunbarton? We don’t exactly know this world yet.” Rainbow stated, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.
“Simply head down there,” Duncan pointed down past the church, “past the wheat and barley plots, and continue down the path. Tir Chonaill is connected to Dunbarton by Dugald Isle, just keep going straight on, and you’ll soon find the town. I wish you three the best of luck.” Duncan finished, standing up and turning his attention to passing birds.
Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack smiled at each other, the thought going through their heads that they may soon find one of their lost friends, and be a little closer to finding out why they had been sent to Erinn by Princess Celestia.
--
The black robed figure watched the three pastel ponies as they begun to head to Dugald Isle. Beside him, a figure covered from head to foot in plate armor watched with him. This figure turned his head as the black robed figure spoke.
“She sent the blue one a message last night, and they are on the path to fulfilling her call for help. See to it that they do not make it to their next destination.” it said, disappearing in a black cloud.
“It shall be done.” the other figure replied, as it begun to follow after the three ponies.