The route to the Tree of Harmony was longer than I expected. I guess that's what happens when you get used to teleporting. I expected everyone to be all silent and grim on the way there, but they were all talking amongst themselves. I decided that this would be a good opportunity to apologize to the pony that was most offended by my lies, considering she's the Element of Honesty. I didn't really know what to say, though. Regardless, I found myself walking towards Applejack.
"Umm, hey, how are you feeling?" I asked, mentally scolding myself afterwards for how stupid of a question it was. She didn't seem to mind, though.
"I'm doing alright, considering the situation. How about you?" She replied, not taking her eyes off the path.
"I'm not doing so well," I said, figuring she would appreciate the truth. "I wanted to say I'm sorry about the whole 'posing as a pony' thing,"
"It's alright. I can understand why you thought you'd have to disguise yourself," She replied.
"Oh," I said, not really knowing what to say next. Then after a brief awkward silence, a thought dawned on me. "Do any of you know where Celestia and Luna are?"
"No," She said. "I thought they would be defending Canterlot,"
"Well, they aren't. My siblings and I came from there. After Blood Oath got set free, they sorta just disappeared," I said, a little worried about their well-being.
"...You should probably tell Twilight about this," Said Applejack.
"Are you kidding me? I can't tell her, she'd go crazy if she found out Celestia was missing. Also, I think she's still bitter about my deception," I said. Applejack looked at me with a hard look on her face.
"I thought you were done lying," She said coldly.
"It's not a lie. I never said Celestia WASN'T missing, did I?" I said. "Also, I don't want to talk to Twilight for other reasons,"
"And what reasons would those be?" A.J asked.
"Well, for starters, she's technically my mother," A.J stared at me with a look of shock on her face.
"I never knew she was interested in dark magic," She said thoughtfully.
"Remember the Crystal Empire incident? She got a little angry while searching for the Crystal Heart, and let loose a dark spell unintentionally," I said, clearing things up with Applejack. To be fair, there was a little more to it than her just getting mad out of the blue, but it felt unnecessary to explain.
"Okay, I understand. I'll tell her about the Princesses missing," She said. "You should think about what you're gonna do during the battle, because we're almost there,"
She then walked ahead, and I thought about what she said. What was I going to do? Would I get rid of Blood's minions, take him on head on, or just hang back casting healing spells? Not the last one, I should leave that to the medics. So that left two options, take out Blood Oath, or his guards? After a minute of thinking I decided I would do whatever it was my siblings were going to do. We had survived together this far, I wasn't gonna stop now. Not to mention, Roam would definitely have a plan in place. I don't do the planning, I just attack whatever he tells me is the most valuable target. Five minutes later, after Applejack had finished talking to Twilight, she told everyone else to come up with a plan. Everyone started talking worriedly among themselves, and right now I was just drinking some water to kill time. We were making pretty good progress to, until I noticed something odd.
"Hey, has anyone else noticed that the forest looks different than normal?" I said to everyone.
"How would I know? I've never been in here before," Someone in the crowd said. Twilight however, started looking around franticly.
"He's right. The trees are arranged differently, but that's impossible. We've been following the path perfectly..." She mused, and if everyone else looked scared before it was nothing compared to now. I guess getting lost in a monster-infested forest was their breaking point. Someone even fainted, causing the medics to have to get to work before a fight even started.
"If I may, I think Rainbow Dash and some other pegasi should fly above the treetops and see if they can find anything familiar," Roam said.
"Good idea. Who do you wanna take?" Twilight asked.
"Uh, I guess I'll take Blossomforth, Thunderlane, Vortex, and Artemis," She said.
"Okay, if things go wrong, head back here immediately. Don't try to take on a bunch of enemies at once," Twilight said. The first part was directed at all of us, but when she said the last part, Twilight looked accusingly at our air captain, Rainbow.
"Ugh, fine, I won't try to be a hero," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. "Alright, team. Let's go!" She took off, leaving us all in the dust for a second, before we took off as well.
"Hey, Rainbow! Slow down! We aren't as fast as you!" I called out, panting with the rest of the group.
"Sorry, I'll slow down a bit," She said, starting to move at a much more manageable pace.
"Hey, thanks for bringing me along," I said to her. "But why did you do it, though?"
"Uh, you can fly and use magic. Of course I'm going to bring a guy with Alicorn powers along," She said.
"I'm not that powerful. Not by a long shot. If I got in a fight with any of the Princesses, I'm sure I would lose miserably," I said.
"Aren't Shades technically living dark magic?"
"Umm... no one really knows. The fact that our magical aura is always visible through our wings has spawned some theories, but, honestly, unless someone sliced open a Shade, we won't ever be sure of anything. And no one really wants to go near a Shade to study their anatomy," I said. "So, are you still mad about what I did?"
"No. None of us are. We understand why you did it, and we trust you," Rainbow replied.
"Uh, I'm not complaining, but why do you trust me? What have I done to make me trustworthy?"
"Well, for starters, you didn't bring any harm to us while you were disguised. You didn't hurt Fluttershy earlier today. You gave us advice on where to look for Blood Oath," She said.
"My brother did the last one, but I guess I see your point," I said, before remembering what we were in the sky for and looked for anything that would help.
"Hey, you see that?" Blossomforth asked, pointing to a yellow light coming from the trees.
"Yeah. Let's check it out," Rainbow said, going into a nosedive with the rest of us following suit.