Shysage and I, we knew exactly where our sanctuary was, even by the light of a full moon. We went clear around the only town near our path, and approached the trees from a much different direction. This place has always been such a refuge to us, a place of serene peace, for over a millennia. And we could see it from miles away. Now some fifty huge redwood trees, arranged in a perfect circle, with a ring of lush ferns under the trees, and a miniature meadow of amazing grass in the center. Once inside, it seemed like a world all by itself. From the air, it looked the same as the last time we were here, even in the moonlight...
I think my sister Fluttershy and our daughter Ariel were the only other ponies who even knew about this. Shyna probably knew too. Still, it had been three months and a long cold winter since we were ripped from Ponyville at spear point, stripped of, well, everything, then thrown into the dungeon of forgetting in Canterlot. And it was early morning... Well, at least we would be alone and by ourselves now. And, hopefully, we could recover enough to try to decide how best to respond, what we could even do, if anything, about this nightmare. Well, maybe it was just our nightmare, we didn't know... But hopefully we could do what we felt we should do before Equestria came here looking for us. Shysage hoped we had a few days, anyway. And just maybe, some night when the moon was still high...
We landed calmly at the edge on the far side of that circle of huge trees. We both sighed together as soon as we landed; we felt that same peace right away. At least that hadn't changed. We made our way quickly up to a break in the circle between two trees. It would be a long time before anypony fou--
Clearing the perimeter of trees, and stepping inside the circle, I heard immediately... My sister Fluttershy was crying loudly. I ran...
Fluttershy, Shyna, our Ariel... Shysage and I... We all hugged tightly, and cried loudly for an hour at least... Nopony tried to say anything. There was really nothing to say... We just cried... Three months... Not even family could... Seeing, feeling the pain around us, not just ours... I think Shysage's words for this fit...
It was clear after that hour that we all needed to talk some, so we worked on calming down. My sister Futtershy spoke first, and said timidly, quietly, sniffling "Princess Twilight told us girls we needed to tell her if we see either of you... So... I'm not opening my eyes..." She still had them tightly shut. I just moved right next to her, and hugged her tightly. Fluttershy started crying again, and I guess we all did... Another hour...
As the sky off to the east began to brighten, I guess we all realized... We needed to calm down, so we did. I had no intention of asking who or what, especially with my sensitive sister around. Fluttershy would want to tell me everything I asked, then feel terrible if she had promised not too. Or she would feel terrible, and just not say anything. We found out later that something like this was the case, so this approach worked well. I just hugged my hurting Sis...
Evidently Shyna had to make no such promises, and felt differently; she quickly voiced that. "For the record, I think some grown-up ponies are being so dumb..." She said this quietly, and I knew Fluttershy was not happy either; she just sighed. Still, this was the end of Shyna's venting, I don't know.
Ariel just said quietly "Mom... dad...." like the hurting child she was... Shysage hugged her tightly as she cried. She never really stopped.
But Shyna wasn't done talking. "Shysage, do you have a plan?"
Shysage thought briefly, then got the word "Well..." out.
I answered at the same time. "We need to use the Portal to go back in time, to see if we can clean this mess up."
Shysage said calmly "Yes, that is our plan."
Shyna was clearly thinking. Then she said "I think I can get Filia and Fiona to help us get you in there..." She thought a minute, then added quietly "Ari, I know you want to help, but ponies will just know if you..." Ariel was still crying quietly as Shysage hugged her. I guess he was too.
It was quiet a minute, then my timid sister... "Princess and all her girls are coming to my house for dinner, not tonight, but tomorrow night." Fluttershy said this quietly, and clearly to herself, or to nopony in particular... After a brief pause... "I will probably cry a lot, but then I always cry al..." I just hugged her tightly, as she cried quietly on my shoulder.
And our daughter... Ariel just kept crying quietly on Shysage's shoulder. I guessed that our Ari also cried a lot now... Still, "I want to help too..." Ari said through her tears.
But Shyna picked the information up quickly. "Ok, so I'll talk to Filia and Fiona, and we will see about getting you both to the Portal tomorrow evening during dinner at the Cottage. You probably won't have much time though. And we need to make sure nopony important (said with a slight sneer) sees you. I'll try to help with that, too."
Well, it was a plan anyway. I think Shysage and I both realized that there was a possibility, at least, that we might get stuck in the Past. We didn't mention that, but that was surely better than risking getting the ponies we love... our family, in big trouble, every second... just because we were near them. We would just have to see how that all worked out. Having help getting to the Portal would be a big plus.
Without opening her eyes, Fluttershy said quietly "I think we need to go."
Ariel had no intention of leaving just yet, and I guess Shysage realized that. "Fluttershy and Shyna, you both can go ahead. We will send Ari along in a while." Ok, so maybe Shysage wanted Ari to stay here, too. I could tell by how he said...
We all hugged together, and Shyna said quietly "We will be back tonight around midnight. That's when we usually come."
I pulled away long enough to hug just Shyna. "Shyna, thanks for helping us."
Shyna started crying again... "Summer, you gave your life to rescue... I just can't..." We all cried together some more. Then Fluttershy and Shyna pulled themselves away, and were soon flying back to Fluttershy's Cottage.
For the next hour, we cried with our hurting daughter. She only spoke once. "Mom, they made me promise... It is so dumb..."
Shysage... He loves Ariel so, and he said what she needed to hear. "Ari, it's ok, don't tell us anything. We will know what to do. It will work out."
Well, Ari knew where we were, and didn't wait any longer. We all talked to our true friend in the sky about this 'mess'. This was a family issue. This was our family. Since Ari was very young, this is what we did with problems, we talked to true friend. We did that together as the sun rose that morning, then we cried together some more.
And Ari clearly wanted to stay with us here today. Shysage and I, we didn't know. But I absolutely could not blame her. Still, her absence would seem rather conspicuous...
Shysage took a more reasoned approach. "Ari, tell us about a normal day for you now..."
This was hard for Ari, but she tried to explain. And it was clear as she did, that some things she had already promised to not say, and so could not tell us... What a twist... Of course, we did not badger her for more. We didn't need that. We didn't need to put our daughter through that...
"They won't even let me near our house..." (Ari probably meant the Canterlot Recorder's house. Well, it wasn't really ours anyway, and after what Princess Celestia had said...") "It is heavily guarded, and all that is really freaking Dawn and Camille out... And they haven't told her... Nopony has told her... or anypony... anything...
"And they are treating me like somepony's little foal... I have to stay at either the castle or Fluttershy's cottage... I guess the cottage isn't bad, at least I can be myself... And, I love my fam..."
We all hugged together a little while.
"I think Princess Twilight has been told to keep a close eye on me or something. It's like I need to ask her before..."
We all hugged and cried together a little while more. But I guess Shysage had heard enough. "Precious daughter, we will need your help as we see what we can do about this. I know it will be hard, but you absolutely have to try to act as normal as you can, even if you don't like what is going on..."
"I know dad... It just hurts so much... This is so unfair... to everypony..." Ari is such a smart mare...
We all hugged together a little more.
Then Ari tried to calm down. "At least you are both ok. I didn't even know that until last night..." Ariel started crying, but continued. "I will cry a lot today, but I guess I always cry a lot now, so that should be fine..."
We hugged a little more, then our daughter, by herself, crying, walked to the edge of the circle of trees, and was soon flying back to Fluttershy's Cottage... by herself...
After Ari was out of sight... "This is rediculous" I thought to myself...
"This is rediculous" Shysage said quietly as we were quickly hugging, crying...
I think Shysage and I are, more and more, able to sense each other arriving at the same conclusions, without even having to ask or discuss. We were quickly outside the circle of trees, then up in the morning sky, flying away from our sanctuary, away from... family...
Still, while we were flying... "Shysage, what do you think we will be able to do in the Past? Do you have any ideas?"
Shysage almost started crying, but tried to answer. "Well, I don't even know where, or even when in the Past we will arrive. The Portal Beacon has usually been our cue to... And we don't even have access... We could end up going back at the worst possible time, and be forced to go into hiding there... It just seems the best..."
Well, we were on the same page. Travelling to the Past was only slightly better than staying here, constantly on the run... as far as we could tell...
We flew west for about an hour, then looked for a lake. It was fortunately another warm day. We found a small lake soon enough, and were quickly eating, drinking... After maybe thirty minutes, I realized Shysage was no longer near me. I looked around and quickly found him. He had found a slight hill, and was sitting, looking at the lake, head down, crying softly. I knew why, sat next to him and hugged him, and quickly put his concerns to rest. Softly... "Shysage, we are reeling, our family is reeling. I know you want to take care of me, but now is just not the time. It's ok. We are both too hurt inside... We need to deal with whatever is going on right now." I paused briefly, then added softly "But I still could use a bath..."
Well, we both took a long bath, together, and were soon laying on our sides, facing each other, hugging, crying. We were both hurting. But we had each other.
After a while, we decided to find a fairly thick tree, and we spent the day on our bellies, right next to each other, under that tree. We wanted to make sure that anypony flying overhead would not be able to see us. I guess we were in hiding... Maybe we needed to get used to that...
We napped most of that day, waking up near dusk. The moon was already climbing to replace the sun, so we wandered back to the lake, ate and drank a lot, then returned to our hiding place. We spent a while rubbing noses, and this felt so nice, but was mostly just amazingly comforting. "Oh, how desperately we needed each other right now." I sighed as I thought this.
"I desperately need you, Mare..." Shysage said quietly.
As the sky faded, and the stars twinkled brightly, we made our way slowly back to our sanctuary, and were quickly inside, at the top of that small hill in the center, on our bellies together, facing the only nearby town, waiting... for family...
We talked to true friend...
We didn't have to wait long for our family. Ariel expertly landed in the grass on the inside of this ring of trees, and was quickly hugging, crying with us. Out of the corner of my eye... Shyna was walking slowly up... My sister Fluttershy had some of Shyna's tail in her mouth; Sis was following Shyna... Her eyes were shut tight...
Yes... This is rediculous...