“Crimson, you are telling me right now why you did what you did to me, or I promise I will pick you and fly so high that you will be falling for an hour when I drop you.” Frost threatened Crimson, as she looked him directly in his eyes.
“I guess you didn’t found amusing my little spell yesterday”
“Oh, really!” She yelled.
“Ok, ok! Just let me stand up, please!” Crimson said. She stared at him for a few seconds, breathing deeply. Then, she released her grasp, allowing Crimson to stand up.
“Thanks…Now, I’m telling you why, but not here. Let’s head to the forest. I need to arrive to Zecora’s house before Copper does, and the expedition is almost going to depart.”
Crimson dusted himself and they silently started to walk to the Everfree forest.
“Well, I guess you want to know what I’m planning, because I think you are smart enough to guess why I tried to avoid you getting involved into this.”
“Yes, you told me it was dangerous and many other things. I’m not letting you go alone. It’s also dangerous for you.”
“This is something personal, Frost, that’s why I didn’t want you to get involved. And if we get caught, we will be banned, or something worse. As you are here, and I guess you will ignore me if I tell you to leave, I want to be sure you understand this.” Crimson said as he stopped. This was his last chance to convince her, so he tried to be as assertive as possible. But then he saw the look in her eyes. Crimson realised she wasn’t leaving; it was the look she put every time they had an adventure on sight, and it meant she was eager.
“That look… It has been a long time since the last time I saw it.”
“Then you know what my answer is.”
“I guess so. I hope you brought a backpack, and some food. I got all that I could buy and carry by myself here, but it will not be enough to feed us both during all the expedition.” Crimson said, pointing my backpack.
“I’ve got one with some supplies at the hotel.” She answered. Crimson wondered how she was able to find a bucking free room in Ponyville.
At that moment they arrived to one of the entrances to Everfree forest. The path continued inside the shades of the forest, covered by a smooth mist. The sight was a bit creepy, with twisted branches creating terrifying shadows. When he looked into the forest, Crimson only could remember that pony, that kill. He felt his face turning white under his coat…
“Anything wrong Crimson?” Frost said as soon as she noticed that Crimson was worried.
“Nothing at all. Just go to the hotel as fast as you can and get the backpack, I’ll wait you here.” As fast as he said this she dashed out and flew to the hotel.
Crimson stood still, thinking. Frost still trusted him enough to leave him alone, even after the trick of the soporific spell. He could have run into the forest, leaving her there, instead of dragging her into an adventure Crimson knew he hadn’t planned at all, with all the chances to go wrong by his side. He played around with the idea for some minutes. If he left her here, he would never recover her friendship. She came from Manehattan, following him, because she was worried, because she was his friend… He couldn’t leave her behind.
She arrived a bit later, carrying a backpack that seemed to be designed specially for pegasi. Its shape allowed Frost to fly comfortably, still being big enough for being used in long trips. It had an auxiliary belt that went just behind the wings, to make the bag stable.
“I thought I would have to search for you inside the forest…” She said as she landed.
“I can’t deny that the idea of leaving you back crossed my mind, but I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Thanks… now lets hurry up. As I came here I saw the expedition making preparations. I guess that after a short speech of the Ponyville’s mayor they will leave.”
Crimson wondered if Zecora would give him the invisibility brew or the herbs. If he wanted to keep up with his almost nonexistent plan he would need them.
They walked for some minutes until they found the main path that lead to Zecora’s house. Perhaps they could find a way to do this without the invisibility brew, but the herbs were something Crimson would need to get into the library, and the only place he knew for sure he would find them was at Zecora’s.
The sound of some birds singing and the branches slowly dancing at the rhythm of the wind was the only thing that broke the silence of the forest. Crimson, annoyed by the silent atmosphere, started to think about his argument with Opal. Perhaps Frost could tell him something…
“Frost, I’ve got to know… Did Opal tell you anything about our argument at Manehattan?”
“She did. She was truly angry and didn’t stop repeating that if you wanted to go alone you should have just asked it instead of being such a…”
“Stop, I think I don’t want to hear that.”
“Well, as a summary, I just tried to convince her to come with me. But she was really mad at you…”
They arrived to the hut. It was surrounded by a light green fog, probably produced by the great amount of brews Zecora had to make for the expedition. Crimson knocked the door and heard some hoofsteps inside.
“Hi Zecora. I have returned, as promised. Sorry for the delay.”
“Don’t worry, my friend. Come in, hurry, and tell me what happened” She said with that peculiar and poetic tone she used with every phrase.
They went inside. The atmosphere was heavy with the vapours that the cauldron sent out. Everything was exactly the same as last time Crimson visited. The same masks, all the herbs hanging from the ceiling… everything was the same. And it still crept him out.
“Zecora, this is my friend Frost Cloud. She will come with me to the sister’s palace.” Crimson said as Frost Cloud shook Zecora’s hoof energetically.
“I must ask you a favour.”
“Tell me first why your visit was delayed and why you came back with a scar across your face” She told me. Crimson could guess why she asked, as the scar wasn’t precisely small.
“Zecora, I understand you want to know, but we haven’t got much time before Copper’s expedition arrives, and I need enough invisibility brew for us two to cross manticore’s territory at least one time and more of the herbs that you gave me last time we met.” He said. She looked at him doubtful. “I promise to tell you everything when we meet again. I swear it.”
Zecora nooded and headed to a larder full of different herbs. Extracting some little bags, she threw them to Frost.
“Here you have the herbs and some tobacco as well. And this time take care, as yours is one story I would like to hear. As for the brew, I’m afraid there is nothing left for you.”
“Don’t worry Zecora, I understand it. Thank you for the herbs anyway, they shall be useful. Now we must leave, Copper will arrive at any moment, and we should not be here when that happens. By the way, please, don’t mention our visit. It’s important that he doesn’t know that we are following his expedition.” He said.
Crimson risked everything trusting on Zecora, but he decided to go straight forward with the truth this time. He had the feeling that Zecora would understand.
“Take care, my friend. I’d like to chat with you again …” she said as they got outside.
Frost and Crimson hid inside some nearby bushes. As they waited for Copper’s expedition to arrive, Crimson started to mentally review his plan. They would follow them until they arrived to the boundary of the manticore’s territory. At that point would come the difficulties. As Zecora was unable to give them invisibility brew, they would have to follow the expedition without it. Frost Cloud could still fly over the territory, but Crimson would have to surround it. Crimson gulped as he realised that, if Copper chose to follow the manticores route, surely was because surrounding it and going through the forest was even more dangerous…
They heard some hoofsteps approaching. It was Copper Compass, with five of Celestia’s guards. He was a tall light brown coated unicorn with a blond mane. He was the official cartographer of the Academy, as well as one of the most powerful unicorns Crimson had ever met. His domain on magic was pretty impressive, and he hadn’t developed it just because he found no interest on doing it. He found much more interesting travelling and charting all the places he visited. Crimson met him during the expedition he did to zebra where he truly met him and where he became his friend. But something changed during this last years. He forgot about his friends and focused on his career completely. At that point they started to get distanced, until they finally lost touch.
“I guess the other members of the expedition followed directly another path” Frost said, waking Crimson up from his reverie.
“Perhaps. But trust me, just follow Copper. I know him well enough to know that he will not allow the other members of the expedition to keep moving without him.” His ego grew a lot these last years. His successes at several missions for the academy granted him promotions, and as he was promoted to more relevant posts, he grew big headed. He became a conceited idiot, and that made him predictable.
They waited for an hour hidden inside the bush. Crimson could distinguish Copper’s voice while he spoke with Zecora. The guards remained completely silent. Meanwhile, outside they could hear the wind moving the leaves of the trees around us, creating a creepier atmosphere. Crimson shivered. He hated Everfree forest. Suddenly, a thunder sounded just above their heads.
“Nice, a storm is approaching.” Frost said. “Better pick something to cover yourself; this sounds like a big one”.
Crimson had always wondered about the bond that pegasi had with the weather and how they were able to understand it and control it.
“One question Frost… Why pegasi are unable to control the weather over the Everfree forest?” He asked while he opened his backpack to get the cloak out
“Well, I must say I don’t know it for certain, you know that weather control was something that never interested me… But it’s true that somepony I asked about it told me that the magic this forest had was too strong, so if pegasi wanted to control the weather here they had to be aware of the new clouds appearing from nowhere, the old ones disappearing, the ones that start raining alone…It’s almost an impossible task.”
“That explains why Copper hadn’t used the weather patrol to clear this storm… But still they could have avoided that a big storm like this appeared for a while, no?”
“They could, but the cloud that has formed seems too big for a single squad, so I guess it would have been useless anyway, as Ponyville has only got one.”
As she finished saying this, both covered their heads with their cloaks, expecting the rainfall soon. They turned around as they heard Zecora’s door open. Copper trotted outside first, followed by the palace guards ,that carried several bags each. Copper waited until all the guards were out and turned around to say something Crimson was unable to hear. After that, all the guards flew away leaving him alone.
“Why would he send all the guards in advance? It doesn’t make much sense to bring protection if you make it fly away.” Frost said. She was right, it didn’t make any sense. Unless…
“Frost, fly and follow the guards as fast as you can! Copper’s going to teleport!” Crimson remembered he was able to use that spell, but he didn’t took it into account. This changed his plan completely.
“But that means that you will have to go by feet alone!”
“I don’t care, if we lose the track of the expedition this is over!” He said, as a bright light flash indicated that Copper had already teleported. “Hurry, I’ll handle myself!”
Frost disliked the idea, but she couldn’t deny that Crimson was right. As he lost all the maps to the Royal Sister’s palace during the attack, they relied completely on his memory. Even though he could remember almost all the path he followed, the day the fog surrounded them Crimson had to rely completely on those maps, so he couldn’t remember the last part of the trip. She started to flip her wings, rising from the floor. She turned around and stared at him.
“Please, be careful.”
“Don’t worry, just go! At dusk pay attention, I’ll use a flare to show you my location.” Crimson said. Then she nodded and dashed away. He was on his own again.
He knew the path to follow; he could remember it perfectly from the last time, he walked it, but… Every moving shadow reminded him of the manticores, ripping apart the ponies of his party. He stared the path for some time, trying to overcome the terror that wandering alone into the Everfree forest provoked him. Suddenly a felt a slight touch at his back woke him of his reverie.
“You must go again, or you will not know the truth that lies at the end.”
Zecora…
“At the end of what?” Crimson asked without turning around. The raindrops started to fall from the sky followed by a thunder.
“Life is a path, my dear, and you must walk it to know what will appear.”
Taking all the courage he had, Crimson started to walk inside the forest. He had to do it; he couldn’t allow Copper nor the Academy to keep their lie. He had to protect that library and find a way to tell the truth to everypony, but to do it first he had to walk.
The day was almost over and Crimson was exhausted. He stopped at the edge of a clearing, lying down under a tree. The heavy rain was slowly substituted by a light drizzle, as the clouds started to clear up in the sky. The sight was wonderful. The dark blue sky was covered with fire red clouds, ignited by the sun that hid in the horizon, hidden from his sight.
He had spent several hours walking alone with the only company of the sounds of the forest and his thoughts. Trying to find and follow the track of the expedition, almost erased by the heavy rain that falled during all the evening, was a hard task. The raindrops hit his hood almost rhythmically. They were just like drums beating in his ears.
At the beginning, as he walked deeper in the forest, the trees grew taller and twisted, and the amount of rain that got through the thick layer of leaves that the trees formed got smaller. Anyway, it was enough to almost erase the track of the expedition. Crimson had to be fast, and the muddy soil of the forest didn’t made it easy. Finally, after an hour, the rain erased the track and he had to follow the path by myself, using his memories about his own expedition to do it.
When he arrived to a clearing, he decided that it was the moment. Concentrating himself, he accumulated all the possible magic on his horn, generating a plasma ball. This kind of sorceries always left him exhausted, but it was the only idea he had to make a flare. With a final effort he sent the ball high into the sky, hoping that Frost saw it. Now he just had to wait…
Staring at his backpack, he remembered the logbook. He could use his horn to get some light and read a bit. He needed something else to think about rather than the image of the forest getting darker in front of his eyes.
The next few years were of great progress. The princess herself collaborated at the investigations carried at the New Academy for Magic Development, inaugurated soon after her arrival. Her vast experience on the use of magic was truly helpful, and her will to help and to integrate with the ponies that surrounded her only grew with time. She was indeed really wise, and even thought she wasn’t allowed to have any political or administrative position, her word was heard in the parliament and respected, and her advice was usually sought. I didn’t saw her ever again as happy as she was during these days, seeking for knowledge, teaching and learning. But that was long ago.
While everypony collaborated, everything worked well. But the arrival of new ponies, attracted by the success of democracy, impaired our capability to generate enough food. Hunger started to spread through the country. The soil of the old pony lands couldn’t compete with the fertile terrains of Equestria, and that was something that many ponies knew, and that the parliament debated thoroughly. Some ideas arose from the parliament sessions; ideas such as expelling the last ones to arrive back to Equestria, using magic to improve the productivity of crops, or even invading Equestria. Princess Luna was present that day at the parliament, remaining silent during all the delirious session, in which crazy ideas arose due to the hysteria of ponies. When the night arrived, she stood up, remaining in silience. After a few seconds, all the parliaments were silent, awaiting for the words of the princess. Her speech was long. She spoke about all the ideas she heard during the session, arriving to the conclusion that magical investigations should be carried to obtain the food. She rejected any other ideas, as she considered them uncharacteristic of a developed nation as ours. She was horrified at the idea of invading Equestria. What she wanted the less was a war between ponies. At the end of her speech, the parliament voted, being chosen the idea chosen by the princess.
We were aware of the presence of spies from Equestria among our parliaments, but what we didn’t expect was the chain of events that came next. Celestia started to distrust our jet little country. The mention of the possibility of war during our parliament session was disturbing enough for her and she started making invasion plans. We knew this through a contact we had in the palace, and our counter-planning was carried with the greatest secretism. Even though Luna was informed of the situation, she refused to contribute in anyway to war plans. She was outraged by the idea that her own sister planned an attack to a nation created freely by ponies, after all the efforts they made to defeat Discord and restore peace. It was something she condemned and she defended diplomatic dialog as the only solution. Though many ponies disliked war, the idea of living again under the yoke of Celestia’s reign was worse for them. But anyway the advice of princess Luna was followed and a diplomatic mission was sent. After a couple of weeks, only one diplomat returned, bringing a message from Celestia “My reign will ensure long term peace, and to do that, your nation shall disappear”. It was a threat that we couldn’t ignore, we had to react.
This was the first true battle of the war. It happened at the northern frontier of Equestria. The plan was simple, to stop the advance of Celestia’s army before she reached our territory. For that we positioned a limited group, formed by the few volunteers that offered to accomplish the mission. I was among those volunteer ponies. As I said before, I have fought for democracy since the very first day of the war, and I will fight for it until my very last one… Everypony that volunteered for the mission had never seen a war or the effects of brute unleashed violence. Though we lived the period of conflict between the pony tribes, we didn’t saw anything like what we witnessed that day. The army Celestia summoned for the battle was colossal. Ponies of all races, equipped with armours golden as the sun charged against our position and our little battle force was overwhelmed easily by the numbers. The images of the massacre were something that shocked me at that moment. Now that many years have passed and many blood has been spilt, the coldness with which I remember it only convinces me more of the horrors of war. We retreated as fast as we could to Philopolis, where we intended to organise our last stand against Celestia. No other city in the Republic was as fortified as Philopolis was, and there was where…
“Crimson!”
Crimson raised his head from the logbook. Frost Cloud approached him slowly, flying with great effort. He put the logbook away inside the backpack and stood up.
“Are you alright?” Frost asked, as she landed difficultly.
“Yeah, I guess. How was the flight?”
“Exhausting. I never flew so much distance at once…”
Frost approached the tree where Crimson laid a few moments ago and sat under. Her breathing was laboured. Her blue mane was filled up of green leafs and little branches and her white wings where pretty dirty. Crimson stared at her and then he observed himself, almost fully covered in mud. They were awful.
“I thought that I was going to be the only one that got dirty this time.”
“You don’t know how difficult is to fly low, near the top of the trees. It was the only way to follow the expedition without being noticed. Copper had a couple of guards on the air all the time, and sometimes I had to…”
Crimson started to laugh. He could guess what truly happened.
“It’s not funny, Crimson!”
“Of course it is! You crashed!”
Crimson kept laughing for a while. When they where foals, Frost wasn’t a strong flyer, what supposed that in some of their adventures she had some catastrophic landings. Because of her lack of ability in flight, she was expelled from the flight academy, so she invested time in her true passion, machine creation. Slowly Crimson stopped laughing.
“Have you got enough?” She asked, annoyed.
“Yes, yes…” He said, trying to get his breath back. “What took you so long? I sent the flare like an hour ago”
“Copper sent some flying patrols to search for the origin of the flare. It seems that it wasn’t such a good idea after all... If I had tried to search you at that moment, I would have been discovered for sure. You were really lucky that, once grounded, no pony could see the origin of the flare… We can camp here, Coppers camp is a mile away, so we can catch them tomorrow”
“Yeah, good idea… I don’t think I would be able to walk more anyway”
Crimson got the mat that hanged from his bag and laid it on the floor. It wasn’t as comfortable as a sleeping bag, but it was lighter, and with the cloak as a blanket it would be a nice bed.
As he laid on the mat, Crimson looked at the stars. The sky was naked, and the moon was bright. It was a beautiful night.