"But what happened to the apple merchant? Did she get 'em back? What happens?" Applejack jigged in place, leaning forward anxiously. Rainbow Dash just giggled, the earth pony's hat falling off the side of her head, flipping around and landing on Fluttershy's head. She didn't even notice until Applejack picked up the hat again, such was her focus on the story through the last few minutes.
"Cool your jets, AJ. We'll find out soon enough..."
"Can you talk?" Dawn asked. Wingscale shook her head. "Well, why not?" The response was a shrug. Dawn chuckled, turning to Bolt. "And you said I was quiet." The other pegasus was dozing off next to the campfire, and responded with little more than a lazy murmur. Night had fallen, and Dawn and Spectra were being accommodated by their new friend, sleeping in the forest under the protection of her pets, as Dawn called them. Far from being the brutal "Beastmistress" of legend and rumour that Spectra spoke of, Wingscale was a gentle soul. Despite being mute, she had demonstrated a remarkable ability to communicate with the animals of the forest, and lived happily with them. She also, when times called upon it, organised them to defend the forest from intruders, which is what likely spawned her violent reputation. Dawn quickly figured out a way of conversing with her without the need for verbal response. It was simply a case of asking the right questions; those that could be answered by nodding, shaking her head, shrugging or pointing. Occasionally she turned up a surprise or two, by having a small passing creature bring something to her, or just careful positioning and timing. Wingscale's physical mannerisms were eloquent and graceful like that.
This intrinsic awareness of her surroundings also let her know immediately that something was wrong. Her ears perked up and she looked around. One ear twitched, and she got up and threw the rest of her water on to the campfire. Taking the hint, Dawn shoved Spectra awake. Pax took off into the sky, blowing the embers around in her wake, in turn making Bolt awaken to the irritant scent of ash.
"What..." she coughed. "What's going on?" Dawn replied in hushed tones.
"Something's up. I think Wingscale heard something." As if on cue, the other pegasus dropped back down from her bird's eye view. She ushered the two in an arbitrary direction, their target unclear under the moonlight. Dawn led a bleary eyed Spectra along the approximate path, continuing into the denser trees. She brought up a quick torch spell, and her horn glowed faintly. It was just to help them see where they were going; she kept it dim and low to conceal the light as much as possible. A few moments of running woke the pegasus up enough to keep pace by herself. She kept jogging on hoof - the stand was too dense to open her wings and fly ahead.
Back at the campsite, Wingscale crouched by the extinguished campfire, eyes trained on the dim distance. Second by second, a noise grew louder. It was undetectable to all but the most well-trained of ears at this range; and the serenity of the forest had trained hers pretty well. Rustling. Shouting. Clattering. And then something she had not anticipated - crackling. Through the trees there was a faint but growing glow, and smoke began to rise in the distance. The crackling of fire. The bounty hunters were trying to burn the fugitives out of the forest. She gasped - this shot a gaping hole in her plan. With the trees burning, the animals would scatter, leaving her to defend herself. Rather than give the pursuers anything else to follow, she took to the air again, gliding in the direction she sent her partners in.
Following them wasn't hard - they clearly weren't very good at this whole "on the run" thing. All she had to do was follow the rustling lamp. She picked a minor clearing to drop down into, and grabbed both by the collars of their tunics, yanking them back. When Spectra yelped in surprise, she covered her mouth. With her free hand she flicked Dawn's horn. The sharp pang caused her enough distraction to extinguish the ethereal light. Holding the two in surprise, she waited and listened. It was hard to make out the progress of the hunters over the panting of the other ponies, but fairly certain that their trail had gone cold, she began to walk. Walking, not running, to curtail the noise. The other two hesitantly followed suit. At one point Bolt began to speak, but was quickly met with a finger to the mouth. They proceeded in silence for a number of minutes, until the forest began to open out and the trees became less dense. They also became more regular in pattern, and more homogeneous in nature. It only struck Dawn after another few minutes, when an underripe apple fell from a tree and bounced off her head, that they were on a farm. She grabbed her two friends' arms to stop them and leaned in to collaborate, speaking in barely over a harsh whisper;
"We're on a farm or plantation of some kind. There's going to be a barn nearby, we could hide there!" Bolt's face was contorting into an expression of protest, but before she could voice her concerns, noises rang out over the quiet orchard. Faint for the time being, but growing in intensity; rustling. Shouting. Clattering. "Come on, we're running out of time!" The two pegasi nodded. Wingscale swiftly ascended above the canopy to get a sense of direction, dropped down again just as quickly. She started in a direction that cut across the lines of trees, tugging at her companions to follow her.
The barn door was locked, though for two pegasi, this was no issue. Spectra forced entry through the open window above the door and unlocked the barn from the inside. Dawn and Wingscale hurried inside. With just the moonlight to guide them, they frantically clambered into the loft and buried themselves in hay.
"What now?"
"We wait."
"Aww... can't we like, go fight them or something?"
"You and what army?"
"I can tak-"
"No, Bolt. No you can't."
"Hmph."
Minutes ticked by. An observant eye would notice a significant difference in the direction of the moonlight's shadows over the time they were there, anxiously waiting for a sign that their stalkers had passed them by. All three were startled by a loud smack, and the thud of the door swinging open. Its uneasy hinges creaked as the door stuttered back on the rebound. All their vision would tell them from under the hay was that whoever entered had a lamp.
"Now what in tarnation is all this racket about?" A female voice called out. There were some heavy hoofsteps. Dawn's heart leaped into her mouth. The few seconds of silence that followed felt like hours. "Hmm... nah. Nothin' in here. Maybe they're out in the or- oh, there they are!" The unicorn's relief was short-lived. She prepared for assault... but nothing came. Confused, she pushed her head up a tiny bit so her eye had a clear view of the door. The doorway was empty, but through it she could see the back of a figure. It had feminine curves, though a hat was the only readily apparent detail. There was a conversation, too distant to be clearly heard, but it was heated. Then, crunch. In a jerking movement, the figure lurched forward, and the conversation died down. Dawn could hear running, but the pony she was watching stood still. After another few moments of silence, the mare returned to the barn door. "And stay out!" she called back across the orchard. She kicked the door shut, and turned up to face the loft. "Alright, ya'll can come out now!" Wh- wait, what? You're kidding me! "Ah know you're in there, ah saw ya'll comin' in!" She just blinked and laid as still as she could. The behatted farm pony sighed and wandered under the loft. No sooner had Dawn seen her disappear from view, the rest of the barn started to slip from view to be replaced by... the ceiling? This and the sudden downward lurch confused her as much as it surprised her. She felt a strong thud on her back and saw the earth pony standing next to her. She had pulled out a cord that released all the hay from the loft, sending them all tumbling to the floor. "Ah told ya ah saw you," the farm pony standing over them smirked. It was the apple merchant from earlier.
Well, jig's up... Dawn thought to herself, laying in the big pile of hay and ponies. Seeing motion out of the corner of her eye, she winced and braced herself, only for nothing to happen. She turned and saw a gloved hand outstretched to her, offering her help to her hooves.
"Wh... what?" She boggled, reluctantly taking the hand. The stranger pulled firmly, helping the unicorn to her hooves in a single motion. She had a warm smile on her face, with a grass stalk hanging from her lip.
"Name's Rose Calvade. And ah believe..." she fumbled with her pocket, pulling out a scrunched up piece of paper. She shook it out in front of her, revealing it to be one of the "Wanted" posters she had seen earlier. "... this is you." Dawn was dumbstruck.
"I... wh... hahh-ow..." Dawn struggled to comprehend this. The earth pony chuckled, folding her arms.
"Ah saw ya'll hidin' in mah barn and figured you had a few ponies after you. So, I came to see what was up, and got to buck some loudmouthed bounty hunter in the face!"
"Wait... you're not going to turn us in?"
"Aw, hay, no!" Rose chuckled, offering her hand to Spectra, the pegasus spitting out hay and wriggling free of the pile. "Most o' the time, when they say they're lookin' for some traitor or murderer or whatever, they're just makin' it up so they can take care o' whoever they don't like. Ol' airheads wouldn't know an honest day's work if it came up and bit 'em in the tail." The unicorn chuckled in nervous relief. Bolt staggered to her feet and brushed herself off.
"Awesome, that's just the 'tude we came to Ponyville for." Bolt was alert and eager as soon as she was upright.
"Huh?" Calvade quirked a brow as she helped the other pegasus free of the hay. Dawn thumped Spectra lightly on the arm.
"Bolt, manners!"
"Hey, ah'm interested now, let the featherbrain talk!" Rose folded her arms again and leaned against the wall, with a little mischievous smile. Bolt narrowed her eyes and smirked in response, her look seeming to say, is that a challenge?
"Alright. Right now, there's this gryphon horde rampaging around up north..." The grin slid from the earth pony's face, and she rolled her eyes. Spectra's tone similarly lost cheer. "... now if you'll listen for a sec? We're not just some windbag blow-ins, okay? This horde is the worst we've ever seen. It's making a beeline for Canterlot, and completely destroying any pony towns in their way. Burned to the ground kind of destroyed. I wasn't able to talk about it much before I had to run, but if I had to guess, they mean conquest at the very least. Possibly genocide." Calvade's eyes widened. "And to make things worse, the Priestess thinks we killed one of her students, when she's really a spy! So " Rose's jaw hung open a little, the grass stalk tumbling freely to the ground. "We came here to raise an army to defend Equestria, because that's just what they're not doing in Canterlot."
"Well I'll be... that's some pickle you've gone and made for yerselves. I'll tell you what though, you gone and hid in the right barn, cos ah think ah can help ya'll get there."
"Really?" Dawn cocked her head incredulously. Calvade replaced the grass stalk before continuing.
"See, 'round Ponyville there's a few names ponies just plain ol' trust. Lucky for you, half o' this town is built on mah momma's sweat 'n toil. Ah could walk into town tomorrow, say the sky was fallin', and ponies'd start diggin'. Course ah'd never do somethin' silly like that, but if what you're tellin' me is true, I could have you a militia ready to kick some gryphon tail within a week."
"Alright!" Bolt fisted the air triumphantly.
"On one condition."
"I knew it wouldn't be that simple." Dawn chimed in.
"Ah won't be able to raise hell by mahself. I'll need something from the front lines as proof."
"We've... got nothing..." Dawn sighed.
"... yet." Spectra continued, smirking, flaring her wings out. "I can get you more than enough proof by morning."
"Ya sure?"
"Positive." The pegasus spat in her hand, holding it out to the earth pony with a confident smile. Dawn winced.
"Missy," Rose spat the grass stalk away, and responded in kind, spitting in her palm and firmly shaking Bolt's. "You got yourself a deal." Their eyes met with a stern, almost competitive fixation. While she witnessed the agreement, she couldn't help but think to herself; all the ponies in this town are CRAZY.