The moths wings rise and lower, turning to displays it'self to the massive pair of cyan eyes the binoculars display. With a flutter it lifts off, flittering away from the eyes. With the distraction gone the binoculars turns the attention to beyond where the moth resided. They eyes blink as they watch from the deep darkness of the forest.
The wagon trundles along, still missing their leader the six skeletons look lost, occasionally doubling back, the eyes watch them, completely still, from their vantage point the eyes don't have to move for hours, just watching the aimless wandering of the skeletons. Branches and leaves cover her, flawlessly blending her into the forest.
Through the binoculars they reside, pupils so wide and dilated that the beautiful cyan Iris barely encircle them. Silently she brushes a errant strand of pink hair from her yellow furred face. Her endless patience does not waver even as the skeletons get confused for the tenth time. As she waits she thinks of how all the hours watching birds and bugs have done a great job of preparing her for this.
Movement, just on the edge of her vision, but she hold still, not letting her movements betray her position, as expected it pays off a moment later as her target enters her field of vision. The rotting wings flap again and clumsy send the unicorn mare to the ground with a thump loud enough to rustle Fluttershys leaves.
The mare stumbles from the impact, mumbling more than a little bit agitated, the yellow mare twinges with guilt feeling just a little sorry her friends had apparently ruined the mares special day. She watches as the mare carefully straps her armour on, covering her cutie mark, and covering most of her body with purple and golden steel. Once armoured up she clambers onto the wagon and curls up, looking extremely vulnerable, reminding Fluttershy of a scared animal. With their master back in control the skeletons are more certain and soon round a corner.
A few moments after they are out of sight she stand, shaking the leaves and twigs off her. She wraps the dark brown cloak around her, putting the binoculars back she check her map making sure they are heading in the direction she suspects, lifting off she softly glides over to a tree, and using her delicate wings lifts herself on top of the tree, slowly poking her head through so she can make out the wagon, giving her a clear view for the next few hours. Curling up she begins the long wait.
Opening her eyes for the seventh time Fluttershy sighs, wondering how many more days it's gonna be until they arrive wherever they grey mare is going. An owl hoots nearby and she pulls out the map, looking at it questioningly "Really, that's not towards any town, I guess if she lives in the middle of nowhere, but the mountains are that way." She hoots back at the owl, thanking it for the assistance, and packing the map away takes flight.
The skeletons proved to have unlimited stamina, enough that they never stop travelling, luckily Fluttershy has a whole spy network to keep an eye on them while she's sleeping. It turns out animals keep track of undead abominations, being able to sense them at great distance. At least they aren't flying so it only takes a couple of hours to catch up to them with her information.
This time she catches up to them as they ford a river, she hides herself in a bush on the far side, wrapping the brown cloak around her rustling the leaves into place over her as she watches the 4 skeletons clumsi...
Four... where are the other two, she risks turning her head, rustling the leaves a little more than she likes. There, apparently they forded first, and are searching this bank for enemy's, she curses mentally at her carelessness, watching as they stab their spears into the bushes nearby.
She was lucky they missed her before, but they just moved into sight, she hold perfectly still as the two of them make their way towards her. They appear quite thorough, and she shivers, not looking forwards to being in any bushes they search, those razor sharp spears slicing the foliage quite neatly.
One of the bushes explode as a few squirrels flee, dashing before the spear stabs, and the skeletons move onwards ignoring it, giving the yellow pegasi an idea.
It's not easy for a pony to speak to animals, but it is her talent after all, though methods that are undetectable push even her skills, she whistles, just a little to high for pony's to hear, hoping that the undead have a similar range. Alas all that tells her is that any dogs, deer, bears, or any other animal that could have heard her cry for help. Ok, next attempt, haven't had a lot of luck with this one but... grimacing she shifts her body, letting certain scents drift from her location, trying to emphasise the right emotions to get any bugs or snakes to help.
Nope, well it was worth a try, she has one last, but it's risky, makes just a little sound, hopefully they won't be able to hear her. She has to hurry to, the bush nearby shudders as the two spears slash through shredding a few leaves in a deadly duet. Taking advantage of the sound she clipity clops her hoofs on the ground, sending out tremors. Indeed she feels a responsive tremor, and she relaxes feeling help on the way. Relaxing is dangerous however as the first of two spears plunge down, narrowly missing her wing. Feeling the tremor just below her she rolls to the side, as the ground that was below her churns, another spear whizzing over her head and bringing a 'meep' from the ponys lips. One of the skeletons turns it's empty socket at the sound and starts pulling back the spear for another attack.
She decided then, as the massive badger erupts from the ground, that she will have to make sure that he get's a special treat. As Barry collides with one of the skeleton, he get's clipped with one of the spears, she risks another couple of hoofbeats to send him a thank you as the badger throws the skeleton out of the way and scampers off. She makes a note to bring his mate and children some extra food next winter. The two skeletons glare back at the bush, putting a few bones back, before they move on to the next one.
She relaxes again, waiting until the wagon finishes fording and the two return to it. The six skeletons continue to escort the wagon, and once they are all out of sight, especially Serene, she lets out a sigh of relief, standing she shakes the leaves off her, and goes to the river to clean up.
It's harder from that point, the skeletons start following procedures she's heard of from Dash, military procedures meant for rooting out spy's. Relying on animals is hard, but becomes very necessary in the next little while. She begins to suspect that they had planned this to trick pursuers. They double back one time, almost catching her as she stands up, only a lucky distraction keeps her from being seen.
Even animals got hard to trust, as they entered the mountains, the number of wildlife around almost much reduced, and the ones that Fluttershy actually knows... well. The last animals she is able to use are a wolf-pack that halfway up the mountain turns back, telling her to turn back from the stench. The wagon and Serene keep on up a beaten track that is missing from any of her maps, so even after the wolfs turn back Fluttershy creeps on, sticking to brush and the occasional rotten tree, flying only when she feels the risk is worth it.
The snow is sent from Celestia, the skeletons slow right down, trudging through it slows them greatly, despite her shivers Fluttershy is grateful for the snow, her own half fluttered steps keeping pace with the group.
Near the top of the mountain they pause for a few hours, day turning to almost night, and with her binoculars she sees them dumping the apples into a small building, freezing them to prevent rot, she sighs in relief as she sees this, knowing the journey is almost at it's end. They then disappear into a snowy pass, probably the front door to the mares hideaway.
She waits for a bit, shivering in the cold for about an hour before trudging into the pass, stealing an apple from the building, the flavour reminding her of home, and idly she wonders if she should have told her friends where she was going. Seeing the royal guard had made it to town made it to risky, but not for the first time on this trip she wonders...
There, at the end of the pass, through the snow she sees dark green grass protected from the cold by the mountain, stone pillars and what might be a tomb, and she wishes for a moment that she had read some of Dash's Daring Doo books, maybe then she would know what lost tomb she had just stumbled across. Hugging the walls of the icy pass she stumbles past huge creaking icicles, and deep snow, only disturbed by the wagons wheels.
Wait... Icicles aren't supposed to creak, turning she sees the icicles move, revealing themselves to be skeleton soldiers, almost frozen solid, before she can react the skeletons drop, each holding a huge boar spear. Fluttershy screams as the massive spears plung into each of her wings, pinning her to the ground, the skeletons staring at her with their eyeless sockets, ice still falling from their bones.
She definitely should have told her friends.