Twilight Velvet skittered across the room, pulling a scroll from its place on a shelf. “I sent our payment to Cloudsdale for next year’s contract. Blueblood starts his winter festival in two weeks, so you shouldn’t hear anything from him.” Leaping to her writing desk, like it might run away, she flung open several drawers and rummaged through them. “Appleoosa is sending a caravan next week, make sure there’s a good place for them to set up for trade. The eastern principality is grumbling about borders again. I don’t want them getting any closer than the ridge, but if you can trade some south east land for north east, go for it. As for-”
“Honey.” Nightlight interrupted his wife’s rambling. “You're only planning on being gone five days.” Walking across the room he laid a hoof on her withers and pulled her to him. “Shining and I will be fine while you’re gone.”
A knock on the office door interrupted the moment. “Enter,” Nightlight called.
The guard opened the door, only so far as to stick his head in. “The Warden is here Baron.”
“Send her in,” Velvet said.
The door opened the rest of the way, admitting a nervous yellow pegasus, large saddlebags hung on her back. She winced at the sound of the door closing behind her, but seemed to relax once alone with Twilight Velvet and her husband. “I’m ready to go when you are Twilight Velvet. No hurry though. I can wait...”
“No, no. Good timing Fluttershy. Velvet just finished her paperwork,” Nightlight said. Kissing his wife on the cheek, he patted her on the back and shooed her towards Fluttershy.
“Fine, fine. I get the hint,” Velvet laughed, planting a kiss on her husband’s lips before trotting over to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy laughed inwardly at the affectionate display. The Baron dropped her guard around few ponies. It was a privilege she treasured more than any other.
“I see you grinning,” Velvet said with a grin, sending the pegasus reeling into her own mane. With a nuzzle Velvet brushed the hair from Fluttershy's face and interrupted whatever apology she was about to mutter. “You have all your critters taken care of?” Velvet asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Mmm, yes. I hope so anyway.”
“Good,” Twilight Velvet declared. Walking to the door, Twilight Velvet straightened her posture before placing a hoof on the doorknob. Fluttershy always marveled at the instant transformation from Twilight Velvet to the Baron. She couldn’t call them separate personalities, but they were not the same pony ether.
Outside the Baron led her to a waiting herd, two wagons were filled to the brim with supplies and dozen ponies gathered around. Two were guards, but the rest were citizens of Ponyville, like herself. She knew most of them, not the typical lot you take on a journey into the Everfree: masons, surveyors, architects, engineers, and a doctor. The Baron did not do things in half measures. She would tame a stretch of the Everfree, and that started today.
This would be the third envoy the Baron had sent to the castle. The first being Shining’s investigation that discovered Twilight Sparkle, the second a hastily-sent team with food, medicine, and volunteers. A few couriers had come and gone since then, but this was the first organized expedition to start the process of civilizing the old castle grounds. And therein was her official reason for going on the trip. She would see what animals could be civil neighbors, and which she would have to ask to leave.
“Head out ponies!” The Baron shouted from the lead, sending the line of wagons and ponies into motion.
Fluttershy took her place beside the Baron. She hated being in the lead, but it wasn’t so bad as long as Velvet was besides her. The rhythm of hooves on hard road gave way to the muffled crunch of virgin snow being trampled. And all too soon the snow covered trees of the Everfree soon loomed above them. Everypony’s gait changed a little as the dangers of the untamed wild surrounded them. For all her timidness, Fluttershy now moved with more confidence than most. Only the Baron’s head and ears were more forward.
Fluttershy scanned the familiar territory. As warden her duties regularly took her into the fringe of the Everfree, but never as deep as they planned to go today, and even less frequently in the unforgiving winter.
“This place scares me,” Velvet breathed, just loud enough for Fluttershy to hear.
“Yea, it’s a scary place,” Fluttershy said.
“How is that cockatrice problem?”
“I umm... asked them to go deeper into the forest, so ponies wouldn’t run into them.”
“And the ponies that got petrified?” the Baron asked.
“They’re better.”
The band marched into the forest for some hours before Fluttershy again spoke. Low even for her she walked a little closer to Velvet. “Are you... nervous?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight Velvet smiled at Fluttershy. “Hmm... No, excited. But not nervous.”
“Me too. Think she’ll remember me?” Fluttershy asked.
“Shining tells me her memory was damaged pretty badly,” Velvet said staring ahead.
“Oh,” Fluttershy sighed. Her head and ears drooping.
Velvet nudged her with a motherly smile. “Don’t take it personally, if it takes her awhile to remember. Shining says she recalls ponies once she starts talking with them. It’s events that are the hardest.”
Fluttershy let her memories stretch back to her youth, before her parents had died. Sparkle had been like a big sister to her... Fluttershy’s ear twitched.
Baron Velvet froze in her tracks, only moving to signal the ponies behind her to halt as well. She watched Fluttershy’s ears track a sound she couldn’t hear. A pony possessed, Fluttershy wandered off the trail and into the snow dusted brush.
The band of ponies held silent at their Baron’s command, allowing the winter silence to consume the forest once more. Velvet’s ears rang from the extraordinary quiet as she watched Fluttershy’s pink mane vanish among the foliage. She marveled at the young mares ability to more without sound even through snow and brush. It was another gift inherited from her mother.
Stark silence hung for a long moment before being shattered by Fluttershy flying like a bolt back to Twilight Velvet. Landing besides her in a puff of snow and twigs, Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with fright. “Windagos!” she cried.
Murmurs rolled through the gathered ponies, some fidgeting, some ready to run.
“Easy,” Baron Velvet said. Her voice stilled the heard, but fear still lingered. “Where?” she asked Fluttershy.
“Circling, beyond the river,” Fluttershy said, pointing towards where she had ventured.
Velvet recalled the forest map she had studied earlier; the castle was just beyond the river. “The castle,” Velvet said “Let’s go!”
“Open those gates!” the Baron roared. The pilgrim's palisade would not slow her down. She brought forth crackling energy that would rend the gate to splinter, she would open it if they did not.
Only silence answered her as she neared. ‘the hard way it is.’
Snow and splinters flew up into the evening sky. Velvet cast a second spell as she passed through where the door had been. A bubble expanded out pushing the still-flying debris out past where it could fall on somepony. Inside the wall, she found campfire’s burning with pots still hanging above them, but no ponies. “Do you see anypony? Any windigos?” she asked.
The guard behind her took the question for the order it was, and flew past her. Flying over the castle, he had just gone out of sight, when he appeared again. “Fighting Baron, on the far side of the castle.”
“Aid them,” she yelled back.
Thunderlane nodded, and looped back towards the fighting. Flashes of magic and sounds of combat echoed from the solarium. Aiming for one of the many broken window he lined up for the dive, but faltered when orange light blinded him. Breaking midair her came to rest on top of the structure, and blinked the stars from his eyes. Below him the din of battle changed. Rubbing his eyes, he willed his vision to clear. What he saw, left him dumbstruck.
Rainbow Dash flurried an orange-plumed spear among a herd of windigos; she was outnumbered, wounded, and surrounded. Her offensive circle was strong despite her condition, and the windagos seemed unwilling to press. Her spear crackle and growled as it passed from hoof, to mouth, to wings. With a roar she lunged, driving the spear deep into one of the monsters; shattering it like glass. Several windigos spooked at the fury of the little pegasus, and turned to flee.
Thunderlane readied himself for an ambush, but a lavender bubble appeared over the battle. The frightened beast pressed against the barrier in vain, only to be dispatched by Rainbow Dash; their reward for taking their eyes off their opponent. Orange light danced among the monsters cleaving limbs from bodies, and sundering beasts to mist. Faster than he could count, she slew the windigos. The herd became a few, then none at all.
The carnage complete, the lavender bubble vanished, and Rainbow Dash scanned the room with her spear ready. A whistle from above told her a fellow guard was there. She whistled back; code for “Is it clear?”
Thunderlane looked around, flying up he scanned the area, but found no other dangers. He called back with a crisp bird sound. “All is clear,” was the message.
A moment later the call for “Help me here.” echoed up to him. Gliding down to the Lieutenant, he found her leaning against the spear. It’s angry-orange plume, now a soothing glow.
“Dash! Are you alright?” A young unicorn asked.
‘That had to be the Baron's daughter,’ he thought
Flexing her wings, Rainbow Dash winced, but smiled. “I can still fly.”
Behind them a door slammed open. Thunderlane spun to the threat, but relaxed when the Baron charged into the room. “All clear,” he yelled across the solarium, waving to the Baron.
“Sparkle?” a voice cried.
Twilight Sparkle turned around to see a cream and lavender mare cantering towards her. “Mom?” she asked; she hoped. Memories rich in emotion swelled in her mind, but refused to come to the surface.
Velvet tried to speak, but could only nod and answer. Scooping Sparkle into her hooves, she marveled how her little filly had grown. She had missed so much of her daughter’s life. But that stopped today.
Twilight Sparkle gasped at the tight embrace, then melted into it. Her mother’s smell filled her senses.This was the smell of home, of safety.
Dash smiled at the reunion. Hoofing her spear over to Thunderlane, she sat down to examine her wounds.
“Oh goodness. Dash are you ok?” a familiar voice cooed.
“Fluttershy? Why are you here?” Dash asked. Looking around she spotted her old friend. She was amidst a group of ponies that had followed the Baron.
With a meager flap, Fluttershy hopped above the herd, and glided over to her friend. Landing next to Dash, she gave her a hug the moment her hooves touched the ground. “I’m glad you’re safe,” she said quietly.
Dash winced under her hug, but laughed. “Good to see you too.”
Pulling back a bit, Fluttershy looked over her friend’s wounds. “You took a couple bad frost bites. Let’s get the Doctor to have a look at you,” Fluttershy said. Frost bites were insidious wounds. They had a venom to them that would spread if untreated, and its numbing effect lull ponies into thinking their wounds weren’t as bad as they actually were. “I’ll go get him.”
“Already here!” a tenor voice said from a the nearby crowd of ponies.
“Thanks Doctor Time,” Fluttershy said, sliding out of Dash’s hooves, making room for the doctor to examine her. Taking a step backwards she bumped into another pony. “Oops, sorry,” she squeaked.
A soft bump brought Twilight Sparkle out of her warm daze, as some pony mumbled an apology at her. Before she could turn to see the pony, her mother’s voice caught her attention.
“Sparkle, do you remember Fluttershy?,” her mother asked.
Turning in her mother’s embrace, she found a yellow and pink pegasus. The mares expression was a mix of anxiety and joy. Somewhere in the back of her mind the memory of a song stirred. The melody hung in her head, but the words refused to come.
Fluttershy waited for Sparkle to say something, anything. Her honorary big sister stared blankly at her, her head slowly tilting to one side. Sparkle blinked a few times then mumbled something too low for even her to hear. Leaning, she pointed her ears forward in hopes she repeated the words.
Again Sparkle’s lips moved, ever so quietly she mumbled again. This time Fluttershy caught the sounds. “Sunshine, Sunshine...” she said fading into a melodic hum.
Fluttershy nodded and hummed the old melody. Sparkle quickly began to follow her lead. Again Sparkle mumbled the words, “Sunshine, Sunshine.” This time Fluttershy finished the rhyme, “ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves, and do a little shake.”
Twilight Sparkle smiled ear to ear, gently pulling away from the mother, she stepped towards Fluttershy. Again she began the chant.
Velvet smiled at her the two young mares. A daughter by blood, and a daughter by love, she watched them recite their song and dance, then fall each others hooves.