Rarity concentrated as she sensed the dozens of gems in the earth. They were all around her - in the earthen walls protecting the trio, in the ground underneath their hooves, in the ceilings and in the walls. She did as she was instructed by Spark's teacher: her horn was aglow with a solid blue hue, her natural magic. She usually used it for simple things like grasping thread, cutting with scissors, and operating a sewing machine. While her magical abilities allowed her to find gems easily, she'd never used it for this purpose: to grasp gems from a faraway location and relocate them.
In the space of five minutes, Rarity had formed in her mind a spiderweb pattern and laid it up on the ceiling, blueprints for what needed to happen. The fashionista had formed no more than half of that pattern with gems, chained together with her magic. It was a completely new experience, something she was sure she could've learned to enjoy if she'd had time to.
There was no time, though. Turbid told her there was only five minutes before the entire cave structure would begin to collapse, and Rarity, having taught herself to be very aware of time and deadlines, knew that the five minutes were up. She could feel it as the earth pressed down against the gems encased in her magic that struggled to hold the structure together. She could see it in her mind's eye, and her web was still incomplete. She had to work faster, but..."Ms. Turbid, I-I don't know if I can complete this in time," she said through a strained voice.
Beside her, Spark's mentor merely smiled, her eyes closed as she concentrated. Her own horn was lit up with a fierce hue of magic as she, too struggled to keep the ceiling from caving in. "Keep working. I have faith in you, Rarity."
Rarity frowned. The older unicorn barely knew her, how could she possibly have faith in her? Turbid answered this question, almost as if she'd heard Rarity's thoughts. "Spark Storm has nothing but faith and respect for you, Rarity. His report from the White Tail Woods incident held nothing but glowing remarks for your bravery and ferocity in battle. You come highly recommended."
Recommended? Rarity thought, a new feeling of apprehension entering her already frazzled system. "Recommended? You don't mean..."
"I do," Turbid said, her face still calm and passive as her magic worked to manipulate the earth above them. "Spark Storm recommended you to join the Fighters earlier this year."
For a moment, Rarity forgot what she was doing. She couldn't see the danger that loomed over her head. Her head was immersed with visions of adventure, of living up to Spark Storm's standards, of being lifted high in his eyes and earning that faith and respect he had for her. But no matter what way she looked at it, all she saw at the end was the inevitable moment that she let him down, that she proved he was wrong about her.
"Rarity!" Russet's voice broke through the fashionista's thoughts and brought her back to the situation. Rarity immediately put her attention back on to the ceiling, a frustrated frown plastered across her face. Fine, she thought, her magic pouring out of her like a small geyser. For now, I'll prove him right. For now, I'll be the unicorn he needs me to be.
Russet and Turbid both had to stare at Rarity as she worked her magic like the master she was training to be. She closed her eyes and concentrated as dozens more gems erupted from the floor and from the walls, all meeting together to link into a long, evolving chain that slowly shaped itself into the remaining web needed to complete the structure she'd began.
I will live through this, Rarity thought, her magic straining but continuing to pour out in a solid, strong flow. I will live to give Spark Storm my answer!
Spark Storm and Fluttershy ran on ahead, the angry buzzing of changelings right behind them, as well as Ampelus and Fire Lotus, who laid strapped to the nymph's back. "Can't you move any faster?!" Fire Lotus hissed in Ampelus' ear.
"In case you haven't noticed," Ampelus said as she whipped her vines out at any changeling that managed to get close, "I'm kind of running on three legs here. We wouldn't be in this situation if wasn't for you and your insane alicorn buddy, so maybe you can shut up and let me concentrate!"
The two continued to bicker as Spark Storm and Fluttershy arrived at the vertical tube that lead up to the central chamber. "Fluttershy, get to the top, wait for me there. If you-"
"No!" Fluttershy interrupted, reaching up to place her hooves on either side of Spark's face. "We go together or not at all. Please!"
Spark Storm had no time to argue. Spark pushed Fluttershy ahead of him and quickly followed. "Go, Fluttershy! I'm right behind you!" he called, even as Fluttershy began to fly up the tube, her eyes on him as he leapt up and began kicking off the walls, his wings carrying him high. The two quickly made it up with Fluttershy actually following him by the time they reached the top.
Fluttershy let out a shriek as a group of seven or eight changelings charged them in the central chamber. She quickly hid under Spark, her eyes shut and her hooves over her head. The sound of thunder rang out and echoed in the chamber as seven or eight changelings fell to the ground. Fluttershy gasped as she looked at the motionless bodies, tears of remorse and anger forming in her eyes.
She actually jumped a little when Spark Storm touched her back, having stepped out from over her. "Come on, Fluttershy, we've got to move, they won't be down for long." The mare looked up and noticed that Spark had indeed only stunned them. She leapt up and hugged his neck happily.
"Oh, Spark, you-"
"Later, Fluttershy!" Spark gave her the lightest of hugs before tugging her gently towards the door where he'd seen Shimmering Oasis first appear from, the last logical path to take. The two ran to the doorway, when Spark came to a stop and looked back. Ampelus and Fire Lotus hadn't made it up yet.
The buzzing of changelings in the room was getting louder. Suddenly Ampelus and Fire Lotus emerged, followed much too closely by a thick cloud of angry changelings. Fire Lotus had several cuts on her back where she'd been attacked, and she'd had enough. The tall nymph had been moving too slow. The earth pony brought down one of her hooves onto one of the vines strapping her down, having grabbed a sharp rock on the way up.
Ampelus' vine snapped easily, prompting a grunt of pain from the nymph. In the next instant, Fire Lotus was free. With adrenaline and a strong will to live, Fire Lotus ran up Ampelus' back, and then placed a hoof on the nymph's face before launching herself across the room and towards the doorway. The kick-off, meant to push Ampelus backwards, did just that. The nymph grunted in pain as she lost her footing and fell into the cloud of changelings, which converged on her like a cloud of wasps on a wayward honeybee.
"The way out is just beyond here!" Fire Lotus called as she hobbled past Spark Storm and Fluttershy, both too shocked at what the earth pony had done to respond. As they stared, the perfect spheroid shape of the changelings attacking Ampelus began to ripple, then finally burst as the nymph appeared, wildly fighting off the furious creatures. She'd lost another back leg and her beautiful tail had been halfway torn off.
"Get out!" she screamed. It took Spark Storm a moment to realize that Ampelus was telling them to go and get out, to save themselves. A small sob escaped Fluttershy as she watched Ampelus, fighting like an animal, yet still possessing the sense and selflessness to tell her comrades to save themselves.
However, something seemed to snap in Spark Storm. He'd never felt this way, so helpless, yet so determined to make things right. He turned to Fluttershy, every last hair on his body standing up straight. Fluttershy gasped and cowed away from him, the look in his eyes was downright terrifying. "You go and get out of here, Fluttershy, and don't you dare look back at me!"
Fluttershy's tears began to flow. She didn't move as Spark Storm approached her, lifted her into the air, and turned her around. "One day you're going to have to accept that sometimes it's them or our friends, Fluttershy." The mare closed her eyes and tried to close her ears as she ran forward, Spark's voice ringing in her ears.
Amepelus whipped the vines on her body furiously. The thorns she kept hidden in the sinewy appendages had been unsheathed, but as she'd whipped them around, cutting dozens of changelings to the ground, the thorns were quickly sanded down to the bare tips, and she was quickly running out of fight as a few of the furious monsters had gotten through her defenses and grabbed onto her, sinking their teeth into her, weighing her down.
As pain and black bodies began suffocating her, she closed her eyes. Despite the pain, despite the fear of coming death, Ampelus took solace in the fact that for once in her seven hundred years of life, she had finally done right by her mother. She'd been selfless. She could rest easy knowing that she'd done something worth remembering. Maybe Spark Storm would tell her tale to her niece.
Just then, a bright light appeared above her, and Ampelus drew in her last breath. And another one. And another one. And...what? The changelings around her lifted into the air, not from their own will, but from a bright light that drove them away from the prone nymph. As more changelings were seemingly driven from her, she saw the source of the light: bright white streaks of electricity striking her attackers.
Ampelus was too weak to move as another form came into her view, a dark, strong body. The bright streaks of light flew from the top of the body, beyond her line of sight. She could do nothing more than stare up at the mortal. He was angry, he was furious, and his body language spoke volumes. His fury at the creatures that dared try to take the nymph before her time, and he spared none. Not even the ones that he had previously stunned. She felt she was truly at the hooves of an almighty god who had no more purpose than to keep her alive.
The lights and sounds continued for what seemed like hours to Ampelus, as she found herself quietly slipping away. She fell into darkness, and it felt like she was falling. It was so quiet. Suddenly she felt the dark silence invaded by blinding light. Just once, a bright, violent jolt. The uninvited light shook her once more. This was getting annoying. It happened once more, and she felt herself falling once more, but this time up. One more jolt and she landed on something hard, something unpleasant.
Ampelus opened her eyes blearily and glared up at Spark Storm, his wings raised. His whole body was smoking, and he looked like he'd been exerting himself, his breath falling on Ampelus like he'd ran a marathon. Besides the sound of his hard breathing, it was quiet. Too quiet. Ampelus groaned with pain as she realized that something was very wrong. She couldn't move, and...suddenly it all came back to her.
She looked around the room and noticed the black markings around the walls and on the ground. Changelings. All gone, all dead. All mounds of ash. It was the price that Spark Storm decided they would pay for removing the back half of Ampelus' body. She stared up at the pegasus, who stared back at her, a mix of relief and shame in his eyes.
Ampelus glared up at Spark Storm. Hadn't she told him to get out while he could? She'd had everything under control, then he had to jump in like some idiot and risk his life for her. He'd only known her for...what had it been? Half a week? Seven hundred years old, and she'd been saved by a pesky mortal who'd had less than a week to get to know her.
The nymph grunted with effort to right herself, but she soon found why she couldn't sit up. Her hind legs were gone, as was her tail. The entire back half of her body had been ripped off. Even Spark Storm looked down at her with some sense of horror as Ampelus tried to sit up further, her head lowered. After a moment she sighed and looked up at Spark Storm, an embarrassed look on her face.
"You know those bonding moments you have with your friends, where you touch foreheads? I'm...trying to have a moment here."
Spark Storm felt an embarrassed blush rise up his face. He'd been too busy pitying the poor nymph, thinking she'd be in terrible pain, and maybe she was. Yet here she was, trying to show her appreciation for him and some semblance of affection. This was too weird to be coming from the nymph. He sighed quietly and stepped closer, trying to avoid the nymph's gaze as he pressed his forehead to hers.
Spark Storm let out a gasp and flinched as he felt thin little vines spreading from Ampelus' mane wrapping around his head. "Look at me, Storm," the nymph demanded. Spark, slightly panicked, looked down into Ampelus' eyes as she stared at him intensely. "You did what you felt you had to do. You acted on instinct to save the life of a comrade. I heard you; 'it's them or your friends'. What you did was not cold blooded murder. You saved me, so...thank you."
Spark stared at Ampelus. Ampelus stared at Spark. In that moment, it was clear to both of them that their relationship had changed. In some part of Spark Storm's mind, he knew he wouldn't have anything to worry about from the sadistic nymph again. He had earned her trust and respect, as she had done for him. They were finally on equal terms.
Suddenly, a loud sound made the both of them flinch, a popping sound originating from one of the walls. Spark and Ampelus both turned, the nymph's vines pulling, hooves wrapping around Spark's neck as she pulled herself up and over him to secure herself to his back. Spark's wings raised as a figure started crawling out from a tube that had revealed itself with the loud sound.
It wasn't just one figure, but two, and Spark realized it was Anorax, pulling a tired Madalah out with him. Tired and injured, her back glistening with dried blood and missing wings. "Geez! What happened to you two?!" Spark exclaimed, running over to help the two.
Anorax jumped a little at the voice, a look of tired relief coming over his face as he saw it was just Spark Storm and half of Ampelus strapped to his back. He stared at her for a moment, wondering if perhaps she was still alive. He swallowed hard as he helped Madalah to her hooves, tired and weak from a loss of blood. "It's...whoa." Anorax said, noticing the charred remains of a large group of changelings. "...it's a long story, but I guess if we've got the time to-"
Anorax was cut off as a deafening sound rang out in the chamber. Spark Storm made a gurgling sound as Ampelus tightened her hold on him. "Ow! I think it's time to get out of here!" Spark looked down in panic as the floor of the chamber started to cave in on itself, the rocks crumbling down into the depression. "Anorax! The caves are collapsing! Shimmering Oasis got the changelings to keep digging till this place came down. Pick Madalah up, and run!"
Anorax didn't need any more prodding. He got under Madalah and picked her up on his back. She clung to him quietly, but now awake and alert as the two stallions ran side by side around the big hole forming in the center of the chamber. The ceiling began to collapse as well. The entire cave system felt like it was shaking and crumbling.
Spark and Anorax ran through the darkness of the tunnel that lead down. The caves were now collapsing much too quickly, and Spark Storm had a moment of doubt as he ran full tilt towards the light he saw just ahead. ...What about Rarity, Russet and Turbid? Was this according to the plan? Would he ever see them again? Spark just kept running, his lungs just starting to burn when he hit a slope moving upwards and then...light. Light everywhere.
Spark Storm came to a halt, skidding on loose dirt as he felt something moving against his face. Was that air? After his eyes adjusted, he could make out mountains and trees. The thundering sound behind him regained his attention. He looked down into the hole in the darkness, then backed away from it as tons of dust poured out of the hole, then all was still and quiet. The caves had fallen.
"Spark Storm! You made it, thank Celestia!" Spark turned back around, the bright light of sunlight still hampering his vision a bit. He could make out what must've been Emerald Skies, Kecnic, Shadow Heart and Gunslinger. Spark started to worry when he couldn't see Laser Reflex, but a moment later he spotted the pegasus laying down in the grass beside Gunslinger.
Spark turned to watch Anorax take Madalah a bit away from the group. Spark's stomach turned as he thought about poor Madalah, her wings clipped and her flight taken from her. He turned away from the terrible sight and strode towards the group of ponies waiting for him. "It's good to see you guys made it out," Spark told them, a light smirk on his face as he saw their reactions to seeing half of Ampelus wrapped around his back.
Spark looked around the area for Fluttershy. He frowned; had she not come this way? A sinking feeling of panic started to rise in Spark's chest as he turned this way and that, hoping that maybe she was just being really quiet. Gunslinger stood up and approached Spark, reaching to rest a hoof on his shoulder and casting Ampelus a wayward glance. "Spark, if you're looking for your yellow mare friend, she took off all a-sobbin'. Headed back for Ponyville."
The pegasus sighed and closed his eyes. Fluttershy was never one to take life lightly, and she'd gone from the caves knowing that Spark was going to take life away from the changelings, even after Turbid had told them that they had to try. Spark closed his eyes tightly, that familiar feeling of shame creeping up his body again. A brief nuzzle at the back of his neck brought Spark back from the edge of self-pity, and he nodded his thanks to Gunslinger, then made his way to the others.
Spark Storm looked down at Shadow Heart, who still looked angry. The unicorn was sulking, having had his chance at revenge taken from him. Spark stepped a little closer, prompting Shadow Heart to look up at him, then stand. The two stared at each other in silence until Spark reached up to touch the younger pony's shoulder.
Before Spark could say anything, a familiar scream rang out from the depths of the dusty entrance to the caves. A crashing could be heard, and much more dust billowed from the hole in the ground. The entire group turned to face the rising column of dust, but Spark Storm was the only one whose heart was singing.
From the cloud of dust walked out the two figures Spark Storm had the most faith in. When Sohl had flown out of the central chamber, he'd figured it was because she could sense something happening with Orea. He'd been worried for but a moment. Sohl and Orea took care of each other. If there were any two creatures that could take care of themselves and each other, it was those two.
"Daddy!" Orea shrieked, launching herself through the air and into Spark Storm's waiting arms. Spark leaned back and fell onto his rump, hugging Orea for all he was worth. "Daddy, I was so scared. I was so worried about you..." she whispered. She'd felt Spark's anger during his fight was Fire Lotus, something that Gunslinger had failed to mention. He could only assume that the earth pony had slipped by unnoticed, something that he couldn't blame him for.
Orea glanced up and smiled at her surrogate father, then over his shoulder, a sweet smile spreading across her face as she locked eyes with her aunt. Ampelus huffed and looked away. She had nowhere to go, so she leaned against Spark's back and closed her eyes, hoping her niece wouldn't make a big deal out of the situation.
Spark Storm looked up in surprise as Sohl sat down in front of him and pulled Orea into her arms, a distant look in her eyes. "Sohl..." Spark said. The harpy looked down at him and into his eyes. Something was off, he could tell. Something had upset her. The last time he'd tried to talk to her, she'd snapped at him for seemingly no reason. "...Thanks for looking after Orea. I knew she'd be safe with you."
Sohl frowned, and glanced down at Orea, who returned the look. Please don't tell him, please, Orea's eyes seemed to say. After a moment, Sohl reached down and ran her clawed fingertips through Orea's mane, then looked up at Spark Storm and managed a small smile. "Of course, Spark. Orea means the world to me. I'd never let her come to any harm."
Spark smiled with relief. He knew he could count on Sohl. The harpy sighed and glanced back at the dark, still dusty hole. "Can't say I could say the same for the two of them, though."
Spark made a face and stood, then stepped around Sohl and approached the dusty hole in the ground. Two figures were indeed sitting there, apparently trying to sit as still as possible, trying to remain hidden. The figures were much too familiar to him, and Spark Storm felt himself getting angry. He started flapping his wings until the dust cleared a bit, revealing what he'd feared: Lyra and his little brother, who he'd told Lyra to babysit and stay away from this mission.
"Oh! Hey, bro!" Chrome said and stood, flapping his wings to clear them of dust, a confident, hopeful smile on his face. "This was some wild ride, huh? Do you guys do stuff like this often?"
Spark's eyes were wide and angry. He gave his little brother no answer. Instead, he looked down at Lyra. She was supposed to have made sure that Chrome didn't follow the others here. She smiled sheepishly and lifted a hoof conversationally. "No words." Lyra looked at Spark, confused by his statement. She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant by that, but he repeated "No words!"
Chrome tensed fearfully at his older brother, then shot Lyra a worried look. "Uh, bro, what-"
"There are no words to describe how much trouble you two are in!"
As Spark continued to yell at his brother and friend, Gunslinger couldn't help but give a little chuckle at the light-hearted scene. Still, he couldn't help but feel worried. Turbid, Russet and Rarity had yet to surface. Turbid had been through some tough situations, but this...this was something else.
Turbid's ears popped painfully. The air in the chamber was being compressed as the compacted earth of the caves fell around her and her temporary students. She finally opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings, seeing little more than the light from the other unicorn's horns. "It's time!" she announced.
"There's nothing more we can do. We head back to the surface now, but it's not going to be easy with the shifting earth. Stand by me, you two, and concentrate. I'm going to need you two to concentrate your powers just over our heads as we move. We can't get back up in a vertical line; we have to move diagonally, up and out. Now follow me, and do not fall behind!"
Russet let out a breath of relief. Finally, they'd be on their way. Of the three unicorns, Russet had the least control. His root growth had been excellent, but he lacked the fine control that Rarity had displayed. His roots had gone everywhere but where they needed to go, and he also lacked what Rarity called a 'mind's eye' to see where he was placing the roots, and had to depend on Rarity and Turbid for cues.
As Turbid and Rarity took off at a run, Russet hurried to follow, nearly losing his footing as he realized how weak his body was. He'd never exhausted his magic before, he had no idea that doing so made his body weak as well. At this point, he didn't know how much more magic he could use before he needed to rest.
Russet stared in slight panic as Turbid ran straight into the wall of the collapsing cavern. Her powers turned the packed dirt to mud, her powers of earth and water combining. The stallion gasped as he felt the dark ceiling falling in thick plops on his body when he entered the magically formed tunnel behind Rarity, and panic quickly set in. It was so dark in this tunnel, the only light coming from the horns ahead of him and his own.
The ground he ran on was wet and slippery, and he could hear his own breath in the closing walls around him. He dared to look behind him, and immediately wished he hadn't; the space behind him was closing, the large, open cavern they'd recently been in closed off. Russet was reminded why this whole situation scared him; he was claustrophobic.
Russet's magic flared as he tried focusing on moving the roots over the top of Turbid's mud tunnel. It was getting exceedingly difficult; pulling roots overhead and positioning them was one thing, doing the same while moving was another, and the stallion's panic wasn't helping. He felt himself begin to hyperventilate. "Faster...faster! We've gotta move faster!" he yelled at the two in front of him.
"Calm down, Russet," he heard Turbid calling back. "Relax, we're almost to the top."
Russet didn't believe a word she said. It felt like they'd been running in a perfect horizontal line the whole time. What if they were just moving deeper into the earth? What if the tunnel collapsed? He could feel the pressure from the collapsing earth all around, and he decided to push his magic, tried to rearrange the roots so they would push from underneath and take them to the surface.
"Russet? What are you doing?!" Turbid called back, right before Russet lost control. A thick root pulled out of the earth and into the open tunnel, smacking Turbid hard in the side of her head. One of three lights in the tunnel went out as the lead unicorn was struck unconscious. Rarity let out a cry of panic as Turbid slowly slid down the tunnel towards the back. Both Rarity and Russet looked around in sheer terror as the tunnel seemed to melt without Turbid's magical support.
"Oh Celestia, I've killed us! Oh, help me!" Russet shrieked, taking great gulps of panicked air. Rarity, despite the terror ripping through her chest, slid down to Russet and soundly slapped him.
"Russet! Focus!" she said as calmly as she could. "Focus your magic, gather the roots, give us some structure." Rarity's softer tone brought Russet's panic down to tolerable levels as he closed his eyes to concentrate. Trying to move the roots one way hadn't done him any good, and now that they'd stopped moving he could get his bearings. As Rarity grabbed Turbid to keep her from sliding too close to the slowly collapsing far end of the tunnel, Russet slowly worked his magic.
The tunnel slowly stopped collapsing as dozens of roots began to form an oval, with the unicorns inside. Mud dripped through the cracks, but Russet finally managed to create a mostly water-tight container. The stallion sat down, finally calm, though just barely. The fact still remained that they were buried, and would run out of air if something didn't happen soon.
"Good job, Russet, you saved us..." Rarity said with a smile, then turned to look down at Turbid. The older unicorn had suffered a harsh blow to the right side of her temple, and was bleeding heavily. "Oh, dear. This is bad," she whispered to herself as she pulled Turbid into her arms. "Turbid? Oh, please, wake up..."
Turbid managed to open her eyes and groan quietly, then closed her eyes again. "I'm getting too old for this..." she whimpered, tears of pain forming and spilling from her tightly closed eyes. Rarity frowned and looked down at the sizable scar on her chest from where she'd been impaled from her battle in White Tail Woods. The older unicorn certainly had been through the wringer.
"And you shall retire an older age yet, Ms Turbid, I promise you, but you must help us reach the surface. Please. We cannot move forward without you," Rarity coaxed gently. Slowly, the teal unicorn got to her hooves, a grimace of pain on her face from the pounding pain in her right temple.
As she approached Russet, the stallion looked down in shame. "Turbid, I'm so sorry, I-"
"Tell you what, Russet," Turbid said gently, placing a hoof on the Russet's shoulder. "Let's make it out of here alive, and we'll call it even." Russet managed to smile and nod, eager to keep moving. "Then let's move. We'll move a little slower, if that'll make it easier."
The stallion thought about it a moment. Rushing to get out certainly hadn't been a good idea, so..."Yes. Let's get to the top now, please!"
Spark Storm paced back and forth, a frown plastered on his face. This had to be most harrowing wait of his life, waiting for Rarity, Russet and Turbid to make it back to the surface. He was starting to make an indent in the ground. "Will you please stop?" Ampelus whined from his back. "You're making me dizzy."
"Nopony told you you had to sit there all day, you know," Spark retorted.
"...I don't trust anyone else not to drop me, and I'm not going to crawl around on the ground like a two-legged bug."
Spark snorted with amusement. Ampelus had become much more pleasant to be around now that she'd been torn in half. He wisely kept that thought to himself. He turned around once more, away from the rest of the group, who were mostly resting, some asleep. Spark sighed heavily, and looked out along the rolling hills that lead away from Ponyville. For a while, he wasn't sure he'd ever see them again.
He was about to turn around when something caught his eye. There was movement a good ways away, maybe a mile away, maybe two. Something bright, something that reflected sunlight. Something shiny...like a silver crown.
At the opposite end of the group, Sohl and Orea both looked up as they felt the rising emotions coming from Spark Storm. Mainly blind, furious anger. It was an instant later that Spark Storm took off running, with no word or warning to the others. Gunslinger, noticing Spark's sudden departure, ran after him and stopped at the edge where the pegasus had been standing a second before.
"Now what the hell are you doin', Spark?" the unicorn murmured as he raised his scope and looked out over the hills for a possible reason for Spark to take off like he'd done. Gunslinger paled as he spotted the reason. There, about a mile and a half away, was the princess Shimmering Oasis, slowly making her way into the wilderness, and Spark Storm was headed right for her.