//------------------------------//
// Again? 
// Story: Friends to Journey's End 
// by tassadarth 
//------------------------------//

                    CHAPTER 46
Again?

Shining woke up to find an empty valley with a small pond in the middle, he remembered this from the night before, but it was missing something, or someone. He searched the whole area before he noticed that she was gone, where was she he thought. He picked himself off the ground to search in more depth, but as he took his time to walk around he noticed that there was nopony to be seen around here. “Cadence” He shouted hoping she was just in the nearby forest, he looked over to the bags that were packed, and started to search them in hope for a note saying “Gone to Canterlot, be back soon” Sort of thing, but he found nothing. He rushed through all of his own stuff, and all of her stuff, but found nothing to lead him to her. He continued his search, he was not going to lose her again. He stopped for a second to think, he needed to pull himself, and his thoughts together if he was going to make any progress. He continued to think to himself “Those damn changelings took her didn’t they? I have to do something about them. They can’t just keep doing this, and expect it to go unnoticed.” He spoke out loud to say “Where ever you are you’re not going to fool me, I’m eventually going to outsmart all of you damn things, nothing you can do about it!” He was hoping for maybe three of them to pop out so he could deal with them himself, but nothing was even in the line of sight. He saw a small speck flying across the sky, and decided to try getting it down there “HEY you! Can you come down here to help me for a second!” The speck got bigger and bigger until it took the shape of a pony, and reached the ground. “Derpy, but you’re supposed to be in Canterlot. Do you happen to know where Princess Cadence is, she was here last night, and now she is nowhere to be seen.” Derpy looked at him, and sighed. “She was taken by a caravan of changelings to the south of this position, maybe if you move now you could possibly get to them.” Shining stood up from his thinking spot, and rushed to pack the bags and leave. He moved everything as fast as he could so he could assist her as fast as possible, and said “Thank you Derpy for your help, you can have a break from guard duty when this is all over. You’re a great soldier.” He picked up every bag, and started to run in the direction in which Derpy had pointed him in. As he was running he thought to himself. What was she doing out here, where was she going, how does she know about the changelings. Is she one herself, or am I just over reacting? He stopped to see that Derpy was indeed following him, and said “I have a quick question, Who is your best friend?” Derpy looked at Shining strangely for a second, and said “Raindrops of course, everyday I give her my favorite type of muffins.”