Secrets of the Everfree

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 65: Rescue Mission

Chapter 65
Rescue Mission

“Glitter?!” Charcoal had been stationed on Garble’s head, writing a response to Glitter’s letter until a new delivery of four ponies and two pets flared up through his hooves.

“Hi,” the purple mare panted, sagging onto Garble’s scales.

“Everyone okay up there?” the dragon called back, sensing new passengers.

“Yes,” Shift quietly responded.

“Shift! I thought you and Pound-” Charcoal paused as he spotted the tan pegasus shakily returning to his hooves.

“Char!” he exclaimed in relief, trying not to trip over Heckley and Bandit as all three scuttled over to him.

“What’re Heckley and Bandit doing here? What even happened over there?” Charcoal turned to Shift for answers.

“We were wondering the same thing,” Trixie voiced, recovering herself. “You didn’t respond to the letter.”

“I was getting there,” Charcoal assured, displaying the three huge paragraphs he’d written beneath Glitter’s first entry.

“Couldn’t you have made it shorter?” Shift grumbled. “They almost killed me!”

“I had to get us out of there before Shift was impaled,” Glitter nodded. “He told us how you sent yourselves to Garble through thestral fire. That’s a brilliant idea!”

“T-thanks,” Charcoal sheepishly stuttered, blushing deep red as the mare smiled at him. She was so beautiful...

“Charcoal?” Pound elbowed him.

“Wha-?”

“What’s going on, exactly? And what-”

“Hippogryphs.” Glitter stared wide eyed, open-mouthed at the flocks of pony-gryphon creatures around her. Trixie, Pound Cake, and even Shift stared in wonder.

“What’s all this? Where’s my family?” Pound demanded.

“Oh, uh, right. I think Shift will be able to explain that a bit better.”

“First, maybe you should blindfold me,” the changeling suggested.

“What?! Why?”

“The plan was to meet you at the location so Chrysalis could not track us. If they recognize the landmarks we pass, they will be able to pinpoint our location and track us. And I’m afraid I have already given away one of your key advantages,” he gestured to the hippogryph flock without looking up. Charcoal realized for the first time that Shift had been intently training his eyes downwards, solely staring at Garble’s scales.

“Oh, uh... okay,” he agreed.

“Here,” Trixie volunteered her cape to temporarily serve as a blindfold, and gently fixed it around his head.

“You’re really worried about giving us up, aren’t you?” Glitter kindly outstretched a wing.

“I am both a risk and an asset,” he simply stated.

“You’re also our friend,” Charcoal stressed.

“How in Equestria did you befriend a changeling?” Pound shook his head in disbelief.

“Not in Equestria- in Dragon Country,” Garble corrected.

And so, Charcoal, Spectrum, Garble, and occasionally even Shift took turns narrating their side of the story. Trixie and Glitter listened intently, but Pound seemed preoccupied.

“We were on our way to Ponyville,” Glitter recalled, now filling in the blanks with her story. “We were just passing by Cloudsdale when the pegasi came down and practically dragged us up to their city. Runestone had promised that if Cloudsdale sheltered him, he’d try to repeat Shining Armor’s shield spell. Because he wasn’t very practiced in that kind of magic, he requested that as many unicorns as possible be recruited to help. A couple pegasi found Miss Trixie and I as we were traveling and asked up to help, so we made a pit stop. I had to carry Miss Trixie until Runestone came along to cast his spell on her, but after that we were both able to spend the night without any trouble.”

“Runestone gave me a crash course in shielding magic,” Trixie agreed. “It was really quite a treat; not just anyone learns from a professor of the School for Gifted Unicorns! True, the circumstances were unusual to say the least... but it was very educational!”

“That was all yesterday, but it wasn’t until this morning that Shift came along with your message for Pound Cake,” Glitter concluded.

“I was expecting news about my family,” the pegasus solemnly admitted. The whole group went quiet. The lack of information regarding Pound’s parents, or the whereabouts of any of the missing ponies for that matter, greatly perturbed everyone, but the tan pegasus was especially bothered. He was very close to his family. Not knowing what had become of them was an agonizing thought.

“We’ll get them back,” Charcoal assured. “I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Charcoal,” the pegasus bitterly shot back.

“Pound?” Charcoal was caught off guard.

“You don’t even know what’s happened to them. How do you plan to get them back?”

“Chrysalis has them. If we get to her, then we can free her prisoners.”

“Who says they’re prisoners? For all we know, she’s killed them by now!”

“Shift says she’s just rounding them up. No one said anything about killing anypony.”

“What do you think she’s going to do? Keep them locked in cells until they rot? She’ll either kill them or put them to work. You know my parents. They’d never help scum like her, which would put them at the top of her kill list.”

“Pound...” Charcoal didn’t have a comeback. He had been so focused on collecting a rebel force that he hadn’t stopped to think of what might happen to the prisoners. The elements were far too valuable to kill off, which pretty much ensured the safety of his mother and most likely his father. But what of the others?

“While you’re gallivanting around the country looking for mythical creatures, my parents are in real danger. I mean, Tall Tale Beach? Are you going to go hunting for hippocampi next?”

“POUND!” everyone screeched.

“What?” His gaze flicked to Shift, who sat rigid, heart pounding. He could practically feel Chrysalis smirking in triumph. “Oh.”

“Chrysalis just diverted all available changelings to meet us at Tall Tale Beach,” he shakily informed.

“How close are they? Will they beat us there?”

“We have half a day’s gain on them. If we maintain this speed, we should get there first.”

“Trixie, do you think you know Runestone’s spell well enough to recreate it at Tall Tale Beach?”

“If I had help, we might be able to come up with something,” she confirmed. “But even the Great and Powerful Trixie cannot work miracles. I can’t say how long it would hold up, or how large an area we could protect.”

“Do you think you could shield one town for a short time, at least?”

“I will try.”

“I’ll go ahead and send this to Runestone, and ask him to come,” Charcoal hastily decided, retrieving the pen and unfinished letter. “If he and his unicorns can maintain the shields while traveling, then all of Cloudsdale can meet us there. If we can shield just a small portion of the coast until he gets there, then we should be able to merge the shields and form an even larger line of defense.”

“You’re still going hunting for merponies?” Pound shot him an incredulous look as Charcoal wrapped up his letter.

“We need all the help we can get, Pound.”

“We should be focusing on freeing Mom and Dad!”

“I have family back there too, Pound, but there’s nothing we can do for them yet!”

“You might not care, but I do,” Pound spat.

“Pound Cake,” Glitter gently, sweetly tried. Pound shook her off.

“I’m going to save my family, with or without your help.” Before anyone could stop him, Pound Cake took off.

“POUND!” Charcoal screamed, watching in horror as his friend plunged into the sea of technicolor feathers. He quickly vanished from view as he pushed through the densely-packed hippogryphs.

“He’s going to get himself killed!” Spectrum dumbly exclaimed.

“Here, finish this,” Charcoal practically threw the letter and quill at Glitter Shine. “Send it to someone in Cloudsdale that can deliver it to Runestone.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Trixie demanded.

“I’ve got to go after him!”

“I don’t think so,” Garble countered. “Acrylic would kill me if she knew I let you fly right into the changelings’ hooves.”

“We’re not going to find any changelings,” he assured. “I’ve just got to talk him out of it. Keep everyone on course for Tall Tale Beach. We’ll catch up.” Charcoal nudged Heckley and Bandit, both still curled around his neck, until they reluctantly moved over to Trixie, the next closest pony. Without another word, Charcoal dove off into the flock.

It was hard work, weaving through such a thickly populated airspace, especially flying against the current with his wingspan. He received a few irritated warnings to watch where he was flying, along with a few concerned requests to turn back and the sprinkled inquiry as to where he could possibly be headed. Every remark went unanswered. There was only one thing on Charcoal’s mind right now: find Pound Cake, and stop him.

He broke free of the thick swarm at last, disoriented a bit by the overwhelming world of sunlight that awaited him. Once he hit clear sky, it was easy to spot the pegasus shooting away.

“POUND!” Charcoal yelled at the top of his lungs. The pegasus didn’t stop, but luckily, Charcoal’s wings were larger, and caught enough extra air to catch up with him. That didn’t mean he didn’t end up a great distance away from the flock, however. “Pound, what are you doing?!” he panted. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“They’re my parents, Char,” Pound darkly stated, refusing to look at Charcoal with his face contorted in anger channeled both at the changelings and the stubborn thestral colt.

“This is suicide! What are you going to do against an army of changelings? You aren’t even thinking straight enough to come up with any sort of plan. Would your parents want you to get yourself killed trying to save them?” Charcoal thought to his aunt, and how she had bravely, selflessly put herself on the line to buy them time.

“No,” Pound admitted, reluctantly decreasing his speed. Charcoal likewise coasted more slowly beside him.

“Good,” Charcoal sighed, a great weight lifted from his shoulders. “So let’s go back and-”

“But I have to try.”

“WHAT?!”

“Charcoal,” Pound finally looked at his friend. For the first time, Charcoal was able to look deep into his friend’s misty eyes, already leaking a salty fluid. Pound Cake was older than him, and as such, had taken it upon himself to comfort Charcoal in times of need, and became expert at concealing his own problems. Now that their roles had been reversed, Charcoal was at a loss as to what to do. “If I don’t try... how can I ever look at them the same again?” Charcoal almost jumped. Those had been his exact thoughts when he decided to depart from Lilac and embark on this suicide mission to save their parents. The circumstances were different, yes, but the motive was the same.

“O-Okay,” Charcoal stuttered.

“You... you’re okay with this?” Pound exclaimed, wiping away the tears to clear his vision.

“I would do the same if I was in your horseshoes,” he realized. “I’m just sorry for trying to stop you.”

“Thank you, Char,” the corners of Pound’s mouth twitched up in a smile.

“But I’m going with you,” the thestral declared.

“Charcoal, you can’t-”

“You’re not going in there alone! And if things get rough, I can send us both back to Garble at the flock,” he reminded.

“My parents, too?”

“As many as I can manage,” Charcoal vowed. “But first, we’ll need a plan.”

---

“You think we’re safe down here?” Pound asked, nervously looking up through the tree canopy. There was a great forested area stretching all the way from Canterlot practically to Tall Tale Beach, in the middle of which Charcoal and Pound had lighted down to rest and devise a plan.

“Sure,” Charcoal assured, settling in a nest of leaves and moss. “The changelings will probably be following our trail through the air, and won’t bother to look down. Besides, they think we’ve returned to the flock by now. They won’t be looking for us off on our own.”

“If you say so,” Pound shrugged, ducking beneath a tree with particularly thick leaves just to be safe. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I could send us to Aunt Wild Flower,” he suggested. “That would land us right in the middle of the whole operation.”

“And likely right inside a cage,” Pound pointed out. “We won’t get much done from in there.

“Oh. Right,” Charcoal blushed.

“Well, we don’t have time to fly all the way back ourselves. We’re almost to Tall Tale Beach. The Everfree is on the other side of Equestria!”

“Not hardly,” Charcoal refrained from laughing and merely raised an eyebrow. “If we head south east, we could reach the west side of the Everfree before tomorrow.”

“You know I’m not a strong flier, Char.” Unlike Spectrum, the son of two Wonderbolts, Pound had been born into a household that focused more on sweets than athletics.

“Okay...” Charcoal wracked his brain for answers. “Well, there’s no one else I know to send us to along the way. All the mailponies have probably been captured by now.”

“Can’t you work out something with your fire?” Pound pleaded, dreading the long, manual flight to the Everfree. He was willing to make the trek before, but now with a magical thestral by his side, surely there was an easier way?

“I don’t know, Pound. I mean, when I send objects or ponies, I essentially break them down into an energy source, sustained by the fire, which travels to the recipient, also capable of sustaining the fire. Without someone to keep it going... it’s just impossible.”

“You’re a thestral! Why can’t you sustain it yourself?”

“Because I will only be an energy signature. I won’t have my body to channel the fire.”

“Could we do it with two thestrals?”

“That’s how we usually do it, yeah,” Charcoal rolled his eyes.

“Well, obviously, but I mean... is there any way for another thestral to send us to the Everfree if they stay behind?

“I... don’t know.” Charcoal rifled through the lessons his father had drilled into him about fire dancing. He did seem to recall a trick in which his father teleported a far-off object into his hoof. But could one teleport close objects- or in this case, ponies- to a far-off place?

“There’s one way to find out,” Pound set a small pebble in Charcoal’s hoof.

“What’s this?”

“Try it out on the rock first. See if it works.” Charcoal obediently focused on the rock, taking only a little energy to break it down into energy. Then, he focused his attention a distant bird’s nest. He could feel the energy traveling to where he directed, but the action was confirmed in a puff of blue fire.

“Alright!” Pound cheered, high-hoofing his friend.

“Now we just need a thestral strong enough to send us there,” Charcoal mused.

“Hello? What about Glitter Shine?”

“WHAT?! Have you lost your mind?!”

“What’s the problem? She’s a brilliant fire dancer. It is her special talent, after all.”

“She’ll, uh, she’ll never go for it,” Charcoal coughed, trying to talk him down.

“Come on, Char. Your imaginary marefriend can fend for herself,” Pound rolled his eyes.

“MAREFRIEND?!” Charcoal’s face turned a brilliant shade of red.

“Everypony knows you have a crush on her- don’t try to deny it,” Pound laughed.

“Do not!” he insisted anyway. “Besides, she’s like ten years older than me.”

“Eight,” Pound corrected.

“You’ve been counting?!”

“And remember when Spike had a crush on Rarity?”

“No.”

“Well, you were probably too young. But they were about ten years apart and that didn’t stop him from crushing on her, hard!”

“They didn’t get married, did they?” Charcoal challenged.

“That’s not the point. Anyway, it’s very noble of you to try and keep her out of danger, but she’s a big girl. She can manage herself. And it’s not like it’s a big deal... she’ll only be sending us there. It’s not a long flight back to the flock from here.”

“But-”

“Char, we’re kind of low on options here.”

“Grrrrrraaaaaapphht,” Charcoal groaned, emitting a noise somewhere between a grunt of frustration, a snort of defeat, ending on an elephant’s trumpet-like note, all topped off by a dramatic flop to the ground. Pound amusedly looked over him.

“You good?”

“No.”

“Sorry,” Pound shrugged. “But get Glitter over here anyway.”

“I swear, Pound, if you say anything,” Charcoal seethed through gritted teeth.

“My lips are sealed,” the pegasus promised with a sly twinkle in his eye.

“I don’t believe you,” Charcoal narrowed his eyes.

“Dude, would you just do it?”

“Fine.” Charcoal concentrated, trying to locate his fellow thestral. Her signature was not hard to detect, outlined by Garble’s monster of a target, though it was a bit hard to distinguish where she ended and Garble began. He took an extra minute to concentrate this time. After all, he didn’t want to teleport them both here.

“Hurry up already!”

“I’m trying!” Char snapped back, waving him off with his hoof and then placing it on his temple as though it would help him concentrate. “Got her.” In a puff of blue fire, Glitter Shine appeared before them, rather confused.

“What the...” she took a moment to consider her surroundings before honing in on the boys. “Charcoal! Pound Cake! We were getting worried about you!”

“We, uh, had a change of plans,” Charcoal gulped, the thought of Glitter worrying over him causing his face to flush.

“Ooookay...” Glitter suspiciously looked him over. “So why’d you bring me here?”

“We need somepony to send us to the changeling’s base in the Everfree,” Pound quickly put in.

“Wait, WHAT?!”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Charcoal finally broke out of his stupor. “And I know I promised to bring him back. But we both need to do this.”

“Charcoal,” Glitter patiently closed her eyes to calm herself. “I remember when I used to babysit you.” Charcoal blushed at the memory. “Your mom trusted me to watch out for you. I can’t let you go running off right to the changelings. I thought we all agreed this was a bad idea!”

“It was a bad idea until I became involved. Now that I’m going, I can send us back if we run into trouble, hopefully with the Cakes and maybe even my aunt and uncle and as many others as we can. We just need someone to send us over there. We’ll be back before you know it!” Glitter skeptically looked him over. Charcoal sighed. “Please?”

“You know Trixie’s going to kill me, right? If Garble doesn’t get to it first?”

“I have an idea!” Charcoal offered. “You’re one of the best fire dancers around. You’re good at sending things far distances, even if you can’t see them, right?”

“That’s a crucial trick for most of the shows Trixie and I put on,” she nodded. “Why?”

“I’ll send you back to Garble, and you tell them we had to head back to Cloudsdale. That’ll set Trixie and Garble at ease. And make sure Shift hears it. If Chrysalis thinks we’ve gone back, maybe she’ll send some of her drones on a wild goose chase.”

“What if the drones in Cloudsdale haven’t left yet? They’ll know you’re lying.”

“Okay, fine. Then tell them I’ve got to make sure my grandparents are okay in the White Tail Woods.”

“You can’t lure them off to a populated area. There are civilians there!”

“Hayseed Swamps?”

“Too far! They’ll never believe you.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Charcoal exasperatedly burst.

“Your parents were tracking down mythical creatures long before you, right? I’ll say they mentioned something about aponies in the Unicorn Range. Open fields of nothingness, but it’s a large enough expanse that they’ll be searching forever. And if Chrysalis gets wind of another mythical species, I’m sure she’ll go to great lengths to make sure she gets there first.”

“That’s... brilliant...” Pound stuttered.

“What happened to the rule about civilian areas?” Charcoal challenged. Glitter laughed.

“Oh, Charcoal. Everypony knows that aponies live in Neighagra Falls.” Glitter batted her eyelashes as both boys’ jaws dropped. She could keep up the act no longer, and burst out laughing. “I’m just kidding, guys,” she cackled, wiping away a tear. “I didn’t even believe in Hippogryphs until today, and hippocampi? But the looks on your faces...” she exploded into another bout of laughter. Charcoal’s expression fell and he irritably sent her back.

“You totally believed her, didn’t you?” Pound challenged.

“So did you!”

“Aponies don’t actually exist though, right?” Charcoal looked straight ahead as he felt Glitter’s fire seek them out.

“’Course not.”