Harmony appeared back on the barge nearly jumping because Twilight was nearly standing right on top of him with her horn glowing. At this she tripped somersaulting backwards slamming into Rainbow.
"What are you doing?" Harmony asked raising a brow.
Twilight pulled herself off of Rainbow "You disappeared along with Discord and Spike."
"Nothing to worry about. Spike is sleeping in a corner of the engine house. As for Discord..." He put a hoof to his chin in thought " Your guess is a good as mine."
"Are you alright?" Harmony looked hard at Fluttershy his coat suddenly deathly still. " That is I... I mean we..."
"... Need not worry." Harmony ended the conversation by walking away then taking flight.
"Well, that stubborn... " Rainbow snorted stomping her hoof. The other girls rolled their eyes stifling giggles.
After a few hours Harmony returned. This time, though, no one dared to talk to him unsure of his possible reaction to questioning. Seeing Applejack at the controls he called out "Bearer of Honesty this is good enough we need to to walk the rest of the way."
Nodding Applejack spun the wheel and the barge turned leaving the river current and headed towards the shore. It soon ran aground near a large oak. Harmony got the rope and tied the barge to the oak tree then threw a very large stone into the river. Before anyone could ask he simply stated "The rock is to let River Guardian know that we have left the barge for him to retrieve at his convenience."
Testing the waters Rarity walked up still a bit nervous. "Please tell me we are not going to be running for our lives again. I don't want my mane messed up again."
"I don't think we will be in full flight this time, Bearer of Generosity. We only have a few hours walk until the edge of the forest and then we will be at the border of Equestria and the Badlands."
"Wait. What. Badlands?! We are in the wrong direction for the badlands around Appleloosa which means that you really mean the Desert of Chaos of which Tirek and Scorpan came though when they first visited Equestria. The one that magic is untamed and chaotic." Twilight bit her lip.
"The very one.. my element!" Discord squealed in delight.
"Is anyone else worried that Discord is happy? "Rainbow muttered under her breath to the rest of the girls with a slight nod of agreement from most of them.
Harmony laughed heartily making Rainbow jump a bit, blushing sheepishly. "Actually Discord is only happy to be in a place that is more conductive to his magic. The Badlands are dangerous even to the likes of him. Let's get moving I would like to reach the border before nightfall."
With that Harmony began to lead them along a trail. This part of the forest seem much brighter and friendlier than the other parts of the Everfree. The pace was slow and steady almost carefree as the girls decided to tell stories to pass the time while Harmony and Discord hardly said anything. Spike grew tired after a while and Twilight put him on her back so he could rest.
It was late afternoon by the time they had cleared the trees. They walked through grassland for another hour before the grass dried out and the land became dry. Soon they could see a line of large stones.
"That must be the border." Twilight commented noticing the textbook way of marking a border with boulders.
"Yes that is. Let's stop here a moment as I need to go over some things." Everyone attention turned to Harmony as he continued, "The land can be disorientating so here are some are the ground rules. For magic users it can do some strange things to your magic so Twilight and Rarity refrain from using magic for a couple days until you can get used the effects of the untamed magic," sliding some horseshoes that Discord produced to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. "This should help you keep your footing. And Rainbow and Fluttershy... well more Rainbow then Fluttershy, under no circumstances are you to fly."
"Fine by me." Fluttershy softly agreed.
"It doesn't look that dangerous. It looks just like the land around Appleloosa." Rainbow commented looking through one of the larger gaps in the boulders.
Harmony turned back to face her then stepped out of the way in an invitation. Rainbow took off in a flash. Twilight suddenly could feel what Harmony was saying. "Rainbow! Wait!" She called out hoof raised.
But it was too late. Rainbow had crossed the boundary into the Badlands. Suddenly her flying went wild. The only thing Rainbow could think was It's Poison Joke all over again! Losing control and heading straight back at the group she yelled a warning "Watch out below!" She crashed upside down muzzle first tearing a trench in the soft earth.
"This is going into my scrapbook." Discord laughed slapping his knees.
"Believe me now?" Harmony eyed Rainbow for a bit before helping her up, "I warned you about the turbulent magic in the Badlands."
"How would that affect my flying?"
"Really?!? Rainbow all ponies use innate magic how else do you think pegasi walk on clouds." Twilight facehoofed.
Rainbow only shrugged.
"Okay one last thing" Harmony stopping the coming arguing by turning to Spike holding out a hoof, "cough it up."
"Cough what up?" Spike asked innocently.
"The anchor that allows you to send letters to Celestia and vise versa"
"I..." Spike blushed heavily.
Harmony leaned down and whispered "Don't worry I wont tell or let anyone see it."
Spike cupped his hands together and puffed a small flame into it. Concealing the object he handed it over to Harmony who promptly grasped it with his magic then flung it at near mach speed towards the sun.
"Hey!" Spike cried out trying in vain to grasp at the already disappeared object.
"What is the meaning of doing that?" Twilight snapped holding Spike a bit with her magic. She hoped that Spike would not do anything too rash though she herself was thinking of doing something rash.
"Not. Now." Was all Harmony said still staring off at sky.
"Not Now!? I think now is the perfect time..." Twilight argued moving between Harmony and Spike.
Discord interjected repeating Harmony "Not. Now."
"Don't you start." Twilight pulled Discord down to bring his head so she could glare straight into his eyes. Discord squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze. Even with the seriousness of the situation Rainbow and Pinkie Pie both had their hoofs in their mouth to stop from laughing out loud at Discord.
Pulling them apart Harmony admonished, "Enough!" Turning to address Twilight, "Do you trust Celestia?"
"What kind of a question is that!" she gritted, angry at the insinuation of lack of trust of her admittingly former teacher and mentor.
He only repeated, "Do you trust Celestia?"
Rubbing her head in exasperation she finally answered, "Yes, of course."
"Celestia trusts your care to me. Do you think she would do that if she didn't completely trust me? Especially after having the numerous changeling invasions over the past decade? If you trust Celestia then you should have no trouble with me."
Applejack had had enough and decided now was the time to speak up. "Why? You seem to be hiding a lot of things from us."
"Bearer of Honesty what makes you think that you deserve to know everything? What makes you think you can handle it?"
"An’ why not?"
"Because its not your burden to have... but I think I can finally get around to the question you asked several days ago. I..." Harmony trailed off at the sight of Discord tapping his wrist.
"What? The one about what exactly a Keeper of Harmony is? How is that an excuse for not explaining to us what is going on?"
"Questions, questions." Harmony sighed. Noticing Discord tapping his wrist again more frantically, "Just move. NOW!"
They had barely crossed the border when a loud sonic boom echoed across the landscape. Everyone turned around to look to see a dissipating band of purple along the border in the sky. Suddenly a second sonic boom could be heard and this time a green band of light flew across the sky also stopping at the border. After a second or two both bands disappeared.
"What was that?" Applejack and Rarity asked in unison.
"Celestia."
"Why would she do that?" Rarity mused admiring the colors it reminding her of a certain dragon.
Rainbow added "It looked almost like a sonic rainboom..."
"She is responding back to what I sent her. Long message short 'Good luck.'"
"Why was it in the colors of my scales?" Spike pipped up interested in why the sonic booms were in the colors of his scales.
"Probably because the message was for you Spike."
"We had better find a place to set up camp night is coming." Discord commented pointing towards the sun low in the sky.
After a moments looking back everyone but Harmony turned to face the desert with Discord leading and urging them on. Harmony only stood for a few moments more, a single tear running down his muzzle. Turning around he nearly tripped over backwards. Twilight was standing right in front of him glaring with anger that could melt iron.
"That was no message. It was a modified memory spell." Twilight coldly stated.