"This is all your fault, you know."
Sunset repeated. Twilight regretted taking that muting spell off, because Sunset had been ranting about greediness this entire way. Once the two were out of the reach of the police, Sunset ran her mouth. Twilight's ears had been folded backwards, to show off her annoyance. Her face had shifted to match.
"You just had to have all of the glory, didn't you? The bounty, and the amulet? I thought that the next pupil of the great Celestia would be a total goodie two shoes."
Sunset continued, driving the point home again. Twilight had heard this all day. It was getting redundant at this point, and Twilight seriously could not stand it. She had argued with Sunset a bit, but she found that there was no way to pierce that thick skull that Sunset was born with. What Twilight did wonder about is how Sunset knew these things about her. The fact that she was Celestia's pupil. Not a lot of ponies knew about that, like they knew about the Elements of Harmony.
"Oh Princess Celestia, I'm back from shopping! Twilight, you did get everything I wanted, correct? Yes! Even the druggie's amulet!"
Sunset imitated Twilight and Celestia. The impressions were surprisingly good. Within the past couple minutes, Sunset had explained what the amulet's effects were. Apparently, it was supposed to enhance the effects of any drug. Sunset had also explained that the Mayor was a Crystal user.
"Sunset, please, PLEASE, shut up."
Twilight begged, as Sunset puffed with anger. Obviously, she was not going to shut up. Why Sunset still persisted and had decided to follow Twilight was beyond her. Maybe it's because she wanted the amulet back. That was a reasonable conclusion.
"You can't tell me what to do, you're dark magic scum!"
Again with that dark magic scum stuff. What was wrong with dark magic? Is it because it was powered off negative emotions? Maybe it was because it was unreliable? Perhaps it was because nopony knows exactly how to control it, or who it was created by? Well, Twilight had a good idea about that last one.
"Sunset, what is your problem? I mean, really, what is your major malfunction? All you do is spout insults! Is your life really so sad and pathetic that you need to insult other ponies to make yourself feel better?"
Twilight looked over her shoulder at the pony tailing right behind her. Twilight had no idea of what Sunset had been through to get this cold. So, Twilight was just taking a guess that Sunset had been bullied so much that she started bullying as well. How rude. It wasn't going to work here.
"You act like a highschool bully, who wants everypony to be under their control because you can make them feel bad!"
Twilight spat, not realizing what she had just said. Sunset did realize what Twilight had said, though. Her face shifted to shock, as if Twilight had just found something out about her. Sunset was quick to hide her shock, replacing it with anger.
"So please, do me a Celestia-damn favor, and SHUT THE TARTARUS UP!"
Twilight screeched, before turning back around, and continuing down the path. Sunset wallowed in frustration, while Twilight cooled off. Sunset was going to be with her until she got that amulet back, Twilight reckoned. Well, there was some bad news to be shared, sooner or later. She wasn't getting that amulet back.
The two were walking through a forest, Balitmare Woods, to be exact. They were hiding in here from the cops. Well, actually, Twilight was going to Baltimare to drop off Sunset. Maybe hoof her over to the not-as-insane authorities there. The forest was densely backed, and despite it being day time, it was decently dark. Unlike the Neverfree, with its still incredibly unoriginal name, this forest did not have invisible gas. It was just a forest. Nothing special about it.
Oh, except for the ancient eldritch forest dragon that is said to be sleeping there. But other than that, nothing special. Just a regular old forest. Twilight and Sunset were unaware of this dragon's existence, due to their lack of knowledge on the forest. So, upon entry, nothing seemed wrong.
As the two trekked through the forest, Sunset had attempted to take the amulet back multiple times over. Due to the restriction on her horn, Sunset was only prohibited to her hooves. Nevertheless to say, she was a pretty bad thief. Eventually, Twilight got annoyed by Sunset's attempts to take back the amulet and just decided to wear the stupid thing around her neck.
The two spent the entire trek silent. Why Sunset wanted this amulet so badly, Twilight really didn't care. Twilight was going to sell it. She needed the bits to build up some sort of small militia. Plus, the bounty that she had already received from the Mayor was enough to get her by with a tiny militia for now.
Twilight glanced upwards through the trees, using her magic to part the leaves. Huh. The sky was orange. It was most likely sunset at the moment. Twilight doubted she was going to get any sort of sleep with.. Sunset.. Okay, where did she go? Sunset was right behind Twilight just a couple seconds ago, now she was gone.
Twilight looked back down at her neck. No, the amulet was still there. Twilight guess Sunset just gave up and trotted back the other way, but that would require sounds of hooves and actual walking. Plus, with that restriction on Sunset's horn, Twilight doubted she would be teleporting anywhere any time soon.
"Huh."
Twilight shrugged. If Sunset decided to piss off, that was fine by Twilight. Sunset was a rather rude pony and Twilight didn't need those sort of ponies around her at the moment. Just brought her down more than it needed too. Plus, it didn't help the whole dark magic issue. Twilight didn't really know how dark magic worked (especially from that sudden dark magic she had used on that colossus), but she knew it was something she wanted to stay away from. Even if it was a rather bountiful, easily collected and powerful magic.
Twilight trotted through the forest for another five minutes before she sensed something was a bit off. She got a sudden chill up her spine as something brushed past her leg. When she turned to look at what had poked her, she was greeted with nothing. She just thought her imagination was just running a bit wild, considering whatever had passed by her didn't feel furry. Nor did it feel like it was scaly. It just felt like an object was pushed past her.
Twilight began to hum. She had nothing better to do while she walked. She needed to get her mind off her aching legs. She had been walking for a decently long time by now and she was getting pretty fatigued. It felt like she had been walking for hours. Which, she had.
Okay, something brushed past her again. She was not imagining it. Twilight jumped around to face whatever had brushed past her. What did she expect? Some sort of forest monster? An ent? No. Trees. More and more trees. The trees she had just passed a couple moments ago. Trees.
Lots of trees.
More trees.
Even more trees.
Well, what would you expect? This is a forest after all. What else would there be in here but trees? Well, there would most likely be animals. Animals were a pretty important part of an ecosystem after all. To have a forest without animals? Well, one of those just simply did not exist.
For example, there was a squirrel just up ahead on that tree branch. Twilight didn't pay the squirrel any mind as she walked towards it. It was just a squirrel. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
What was out of the ordinary was the sudden root that wrapped around the squirrel and tugged it off between the trees. Twilight heard it's squeals as it disappeared completely from view. This had shocked Twilight, as she listened into the squeals. Hopefully she wouldn't run into whatever that root belonged to. She had a feeling it was not a tree (or at least not a regular one).
That was none of her business. So, with her guard up and a slight bit of paranoia, she continued her trek. She had two minutes of pure silence. No wind, no squeals of nearby squirrels, nothing. Just herself and the noises her hooves made. The eerie silence of the forest was not helping Twilight's paranoia.
SNAP.
Twilight fired a bolt of magic at the snapping of a nearby stick. That bolt of magic flung itself into the trees, and made a loud bang when it hit a random tree. Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof. Yeah, the lack of company in this forest that was slowly growing darker was getting to her.
Twilight's ears flattened as she listened to the tree she had hit had made a loud thump onto the ground. She wasn't around the tree she had hit, but the thump was rather loud. She may have just toppled a tree on accident. She really needed to get a grip on her fear. Maybe it was the lack of companionship. Ever since this journey started, she had some form of company.
First, it was that group of ponies for the first half, then Sunset. Now, Twilight was alone. Twilight had not been alone for a decent amount of time. Well, she did feel awfully alone, but she still had companions to travel along side her. Well, except for that one time they all left her behind inside that cave.
Loneliness. What a horrible thing it was. It was a very sad fate, for one to be alone. Alone without a friend in the world. Well, no friends that were nearby, anyways. Twilight had friends, but they were a bit.. busy at the moment. Yeah, busy was one nice way to put it.
Something interrupted her thoughts. It had startled her, as it would startle anypony else. That root, much like the one from before, had started to wrap around her hind leg. Thinking on instinct, Twilight's horn burst to a start with her magenta colored magic. She summoned a laser which cut directly through the root, and even dug into the ground below it.
The root, now severed, withered quickly. A bit too quickly. The dead part around her leg dropped off and faded into the soil below. Twilight charged up her magic. That thing, whatever it was, was coming to get her and she had to be prepared for the possible onslaught it may cause.
The part of the root which had not been severed slithered back into the undergrowth of the forest. That was a bit sad (also a tad disappointing, honestly). Twilight had expected more of a fight than that. Oh well-..
Twilight's ears flicked. That sound.. It sounded a bit familiar. It sounded like trees being toppled. Yeah. That definitely sounded like trees being subjected to gravity. That actually sounded like trees being subjected to gravity in her direction. Yeah, the noise was getting closer. Twilight ran. It was instinct.
Luckily enough, thanks to her instinct, she managed to get out of the way of a falling tree that had headed her way. From the not so densely packed forest emerged a tree. A large tree, different from all other trees due to the fact it was sprinting at her. It used its roots to dash at her. It's like it was a tree with a bloodlust.
Twilight was running from the tree. She was scared of the thing, despite the fact that it was a tree. When she looked back at the monstrosity behind her, she looked at the thing's face. Oh yeah, this thing had a face. Well, a face of some sort. The eyes were on two different levels of the face. The mouth was crooked, and the tree was lacking of any other features. The eyes seemed to take on an expression of anger. The mouth was formed into that of a frown, as if the tree (if it had any vocal cords) would be yelling at her.
Twilight just kept on running from it. The tree was not scary by any means, but she knew she wasn't going to want to be caught by that tree. She didn't want to know what happened to that squirrel from before. Nope, nope she did not.
That tree was not going to give up, it seemed. Twilight was beginning to tire from her running. So, she planned some sort of attack. If this tree was out for her blood, she would have to do something about it. The most powerful arsenal in her magical library that she could easily access within a couple seconds was.. Ugh.. Dark magic.
She swore she would stay off her Dark Magic usage. It was seen as shameful, apparently. Also, it didn't really make any logical sense. She didn't even know any dark magic spells, yet, she was able to use dark magic without any problems whatsoever. Whatever. It didn't matter. Twilight slid to a halt, kicking up dust and dirt behind her as she turned to face the oncoming threat.
Her horn bubbled with the socially unaccepted magic, as she focused it. How did she do this before? She formed some sort of scythe, right? How did she do that? No matter how hard she tried, she could not conjure that scythe like before. Well, now the tree had caught up to her.
It's roots wrapped around her body as Twilight took on a look of anger. Why did this stupid magic only work sometimes? The tree threw Twilight into it's mouth, where she landed with a loud crash. The inside of the tree's mouth was hollow, and full of leaves. Though, the walls of the tree were not covered with any sort of comforting, so Twilight just ended up smashing horn first into the back wall of the tree.
Twilight groaned as she looked around her new surroundings. She rubbed her head. Her horn was hurting like hell. It felt like stubbing your toes all at once. It was terrible, it was. Twilight knew she wasn't going to be able to use magic while her horn was in the state of pain.
"Well well well. Look who joined the party."
A voice chimed off to her left. While the inside of the tree was rather dark (due to the time outside), Twilight could still look around the insides of the tree.
Sunset was over there, off to the left. Her hooves crossed and with a most unamused look upon her face. On top of Sunset's head was that squirrel from before, who wore the same sort of look.
"Yeah, well hi to you too."
Twilight replied, before standing up. She was heading towards the mouth, the only exit. As soon as she was within three feet from the mouth, the mouth slammed shut, leaving them all in pure darkness.
"You're not getting out, trust me. I've tried."
Sunset stated.
Twilight wandered around like an idiot in the dark. She eventually just picked a spot and sat down in the pile of leaves.
"Well, I have magic. I just have to wait until the backlash ends, and then I'm going to be getting out of here."
Twilight was going to get out of here once her horn stopped hurting. Sunset had that magic block on her horn, so she was not going anywhere anytime soon.
"What, you're just going to leave me here!?"
Sunset growled.
"Basically, yes. You're not exactly a nice pony to be around, Sunset. You're a bit of a.. how I say.. Female dog."
"Take that back before I come over there and go ballistic on your purple flank."
"Sunset, it's pitch black in here. You don't know where I am."
"Shut up. I can find you."
"I'd love to see you try."
"I will! Then, once I find you, you're going to wish you never called me a-"
"No swearing, Sunset."
"SHUT. UP."
The two were pretty quiet after that. Sunset was shuffling around in the leaves, snooping around for Twilight.
A couple minutes had passed..
"Do you give up yet?"
Twilight wondered out loud, as Sunset was STILL looking for Twilight. Sunset made a loud snorting noise. Obviously that was a no. Twilight decided she was going to take a nap. Sunset was obviously not going to find her anytime soon, and it had been a while since she had gotten a good night's rest.
"Whatever. I'll see you in the morning."
Twilight sighed before burying her face into the leaves. This tree was not going to let them out, and that was obvious. Also, it was keeping Sunset in here with Twilight. It was possible that she could have some sort of use, Sunset. Perhaps a traveling buddy, if she weren't so rude.
Twilight's dreams were remarkably peaceful that night. Mostly because she did not have a dream whatsoever. Really, it was just blackness. Silence. Nothing else, nothing more. It kind of just felt like Twilight had closed her eyes for a couple seconds, and awoke the next day.
Speaking of waking up, Twilight awoke within the tree. The tree's mouth was open, allowing light to flood into the hollow inside. Sunset was also asleep. She was curled up in a little nest of leaves that she had most likely made. The squirrel from before was sleeping on top of her.
Twilight yawned, before she tapped her horn with her hoof. Groggily, she allowed her horn to light up. She was going to bust out of here. A simple teleportation spell would be enough to get out of here. Well, she couldn't just leave Sunset in here. That would be a bit cruel.
Twilight sighed. Sunset was the only company Twilight had and as rude as Sunset was, she was a form of companion. A rude, forced companion, but still a form of companion. Twilight didn't want to be on her own. She really didn't. From that walk from yesterday, she got rather nervous when she was alone for a bit too long.
Twilight decided she would get Sunset out of here, but Twilight would have to force the rude pony to partner up with her. Sunset obviously didn't have any plans from here, and neither did Twilight, in all honesty. Twilight thought of just journeying on back to Ponyville, really. It was a mistake to leave in the first place.
Plus, Sunset seemed to be a rather advanced unicorn. If the two of them worked together, maybe they could.. Nah. It was preposterous, that thought. Two magically advanced unicorns wouldn't be enough to take down any empires any time soon. Well, then again.. Two magically advanced unicorn spies could be enough to sneak in and destroy the empire at it's core..
No, it still sounded ridiculous. Something needed to be changed about Twilight's plan. If she wanted Sunset on her side, she would have to gain Sunset's respect. Perhaps waiting for her to wake up would be something worth respecting. Then saying sorry for the arguments from yesterday. Yeah, maybe that would work.
Twilight just needed to go through this plan step by step. The first step was to gain Sunset's trust. That was easier said then done. To have Sunset trust her, it would take quite a bit. Perhaps a couple months. Yeah, it would be hard to befriend a mare like Sunset.
For now, Twilight would have to wait for Sunset to wake up.
It took another thirty or so minutes before Sunset woke up. Sunset did a quick stretch before smacking her lips. When she had noticed that Twilight was just sitting there, staring at her, Sunset got an expression of anger.
"I was waiting for you to get up so we can leave."
Twilight stated before Sunset could say anything. Sunset seemed slightly confused by this.
"You said that-"
"I bluffed."
Twilight interrupted. Sunset gave her an angered puff in return. Sunset held this awkward silence, so Twilight just figured that they should be getting out of here now.
"Why are you suddenly being all buddy buddy, Ms. Dark Magic Scum?"
Sunset suddenly questioned as Twilight was preparing a spell. A simple teleportation spell should be enough to get out of here.
"Well, you seemed a bit lacking in the buddy department."
Twilight replied. Sunset gave Twilight another curious / disgusted look.
"You're probably just like me. Friends off somewhere else and you're off to get them back. Anyways, I'm sorry about the argument from before. I was just a bit angry from being separated from my group."
Twilight apologized. Now that seemed to catch Sunset off guard. Not the supposed connection the two had, but rather the apology. She quickly recovered from the shock. She just pouted and grumbled as Twilight poked her in the side, and teleported the two of them out of the tree's belly.
The tree did not seem to notice their disappearance from it's hollow inside. It had planted itself back into place, and at the current moment, it's eyes were closed. Maybe even trees got sleepy. Who knows. Neverless, with a quiet (and what Twilight thought was an awestruck) Sunset by her side, the two headed away from the tree. The tree itself had just planted itself down in a random spot in the woods.
After a good couple of hours and a couple times of climbing up trees to see where they were, the two exited the woods on the other side.
Baltimare was just off in the distance now. Just maybe forty or so minutes away by hoof.
"Dark magic scum, did you really mean all those things?"
Sunset asked. Twilight didn't really like being called 'scum'. What makes dark magic such a scummy thing anyways? She felt her lip twitch slightly as she was called scum once more.
"My name is Twilight, Sunset. Please use my name if we're going to be friends."
Twilight replied with a forced calmness. Twilight needed to keep cool if she wanted Sunset's help. She had double the odds of taking down the empire if she had another unicorn by her side. Plus, as previously explained, Sunset was advanced in magic. Advanced enough for lasers, teleportation, etc.
"..Friends? What? I still don't understand why you turned so nice all of a sudden. You must want something out of me. Well, I'll tell you this, Twi-"
"All I want is your trust, Sunset. I'm on a quest to save literally of Equestria. To stop a war before too much of it engulfs all of Equestria. I needed your amulet to get weapons. I am sorry for not explaining that either. Though, if you do want to join me in my quest, that would be really great."
Twilight interrupted Sunset once more, as they continued their trip to Baltimare. Really, that was the next stop. Twilight originally planned to just hand Sunset in, but that was now slightly out of the question.
"Yeah, and what do I get out of it?"
Sunset quizzed. Twilight thought about it for a second.
"Well, just to name a few.. Glory, gold, fame, adoring fans, and a place among the Hall of Heroes. Alongside myself, of course. We would have our names in gold all over the world. Everything on this planet would know of our actions here. They would hold a grand parade, all for us. I mean, that's probably just an underestimation. Who knows what sort of things we would receive. But, y'know, if you don't want to.."
Twilight left the option up to Sunset. Twilight was currently in front of Sunset, so she had to turn her head to look back at the orange mare. Sunset had her eyes closed, with a large smile upon her face.
"Yeah, sure. How do you plan to exactly do all of that?"
Sunset scoffed at Twilight. Well, yeah, the idea was still floating up there in the air, but it was still an idea. Twilight had escaped from the empire once, she could most certainly do it once more.
"Well, I am the Princess's prized pupil. I'm pretty sure I could ask her about it."
Twilight thought about going back to Canterlot. Seeing her mentor again, it would be a bit weird, wouldn't it. The two didn't really leave off on the best note. Yeah, chances were that Princess Celestia wasn't going to be helping her out any time soon.
"What, does she have some magical teleportation mirror just hanging around in her castle that can lead to the Crystal Empire?"
Sunset questioned. Well, Princess Celestia was an alicorn and all. Perhaps she could just teleport the two of them behind the empire's defenses and just let them do the things that they needed to. Meh, or perhaps they could find another way in. Chances are that if the Princess had the power to do that, she would have already teleported her army through the defenses and would have won the war.
"Well, I'll figure that part out later. I just need some time. Lots of time and a lot of time to research the stuff I might need for the plan."
Twilight replied, thinking about where she could go to research. Well, there was one place she could go. Though, it was all the way back in Ponyville, and she had left it in pretty rough conditions. Also, it was her home. She was pretty sure that old tree library would do just the trick.
Though, then again, she could just spend her time researching in the Baltimare library. She had heard it had a lot of magic books in it. Though, it would take a lot more time to search around that large library to find the things she needed. It was infamous for it's constant unorganized state.
So, there were two choices here. She could go home by taking the train in Baltimare, or she could just stay in Baltimare and research there instead.. Huh.
While Twilight was deciding between the two options, Twilight and Sunset entered the city. Twilight had insisted that they go sit by the train station while she thought about where to go.
Her library, while quaint, had a lot of books in it. They were mostly magical books, and she had trusted those books for many a year. She had some very powerful spell tomes in there, along with some pretty interesting research on all sorts of species of animals. She thought that if she got some help from another species, she would have an easier time with having some other species helping her out.
The Baltimare library was very, very large. It had information on nearly every topic in Equestria. Ranging from dental hygiene to even the way that Alicorn Magic worked. Though, it would be very hard to find anything in there due to the vastness of it, and the fact that it was so unorganized that you could find a cat care book inside the astronomy section.
Where to go..