4 - Doubts
Celestia’s eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness around her. Harmony was still next to her, the mare’s wing encompassing her form. The silver blue mare was panting frantically, struggling to stand up.
What had happened? Why was Harmony suddenly so exhausted? And why was it so eerily quiet? What spell had she cast? Celestia crouched forward, her muzzle peeking out from under the wing, looking onto the darkness of a forest around them. There was some glow in the distance, probably the village they just were in … or was it some other village? Or maybe even some strangely glowing monster?
Whatever had happened, Eagle Eye, Starswirl, the mob, the village, everything around them had vanished and they now stood within a forest.
“We … need to … go”, Harmony said, her legs allowing the mare to stand again. She folded her wings to her sides, in between the tattered shreds of the clothing Azure Silk had made for her. Harmony’s disguise was lost. Irreplaceable.
“W…what just happened?” Luna asked, looking around and trotting back to Harmony’s side.
Celestia trotted up to her as well, matching Harmony’s slow pace. Luna’s question was something she wanted an answer to, herself.
“Tele… por… tation. I’m not …very good … at it …” Harmony took one step after another forward, turning away from the glow. “The further … you tele… port … the more … exhausted … you… will be … especially … when… trying to… have others… tag… along.”
Celestia blinked a few times, wondering why Harmony had taken them along. She seemed so intent on protecting herself by any means necessary, that it just didn’t make sense for her to protect them as well. Maybe she had misjudged the silver blue alicorn … or maybe Harmony needed them for something else.
“C… can you teach us?” Luna’s voice stopped Celestia’s thoughts from piling more distrust onto the mare.
“If … you think … you can handle … it”, Harmony answered, while looking toward the blue filly. “B… but there … may be unicorns … that can trace … a teleportation.” Harmony took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Hiding … by teleporting … won’t work … It only gives you … a head start.”
Why then had Harmony endangered her own escape by having them tag along? She slightly shook her head. That wasn’t important right now. Their head start was diminishing fast as slowly as they trotted along. The earthen ground made things worse, enabling the other ponies to trace them even after they found the point they had teleported to. Probably the only thing protecting them right now was the darkness of the night – and that could be ended by the same ponies that were chasing them.
“We need to hurry”, Celestia said and fell behind Harmony, pushing her forward. They needed to get to some kind of river or find a path of hard ground where they left little or no hoof prints at all. Despite her efforts they couldn’t get Harmony to move any faster. If only she wasn’t that heavy …
With a sudden idea in her head Celestia grabbed Harmony in her magic and tried to levitate her. She couldn’t get her to leave the ground, but she managed to ease the weight off of harmony’s hooves, allowing her to move faster.
As Luna added her own bit of magic to it, they were able to proceed almost galloping through the forest. They had to slow down as it got darker around them. Celestia looked up. She couldn’t see the moon at all. The forest canopy had to be so thick … no. That wasn’t it. She could see the stars. But if there wasn’t a moon around anymore that could only mean …
Her fears were confirmed as everything started to bright up considerably. Through the trees she could see the sun rising on the eastern horizon.
Harmony stopped in her tracks. “It seems we are out of time. Can you two fly?”
Celestia looked back on her body and the disguise Azure Silk had fashioned for them. She said that they would be unusable if they took them off. She was reluctant to let go of this small piece of clothing that promised her a somewhat normal life, but then again, she needed to escape her pursuers and flying would allow them to purge their tracks. She looked to Harmony, wondering, if the mare would be able to fly now. She looked a bit stronger than before …
A ripping sound got her attention. Luna actually managed to rip through her own disguise with her little wings and was hovering above the ground. How …? Well, if the little filly could do it, then she should be able to as well! She stretched her wings against the fabric, holding her breath while trying to break through. She could feel her face flush as she tried to push. There was a faint ripping sound, but her wings didn’t get free. She felt exhausted and needed to catch her breath. Celestia looked onto her sides, noticing that the fabric was only a tiny bit loose.
Did Luna struggle as bad as she did? The filly’s laughter was answer enough. Why was she weaker in her wings than that little filly? Celestia closed her eyes and put all her strength into her wings, fueling their power with her mind, magic and frustration.
The fabric ripped and her wings got free. She flapped them a few times on the ground and soon enough started to fly proudly next to the blue filly.
“Good”, Harmony said, though her face was frowning slightly. The mare sighed and put a smile onto her muzzle that wasn’t mirrored in her eyes. “Go on, stay low. I’ll follow you in a minute. I just need to rest a moment, but I’ll catch up with you.”
Celestia nodded and turned. As she passed Luna, the little filly stopped looking to Harmony and followed the older filly. They flew in silence while the sun’s warm rays started to wash over them, chasing the shadows of the forest and the night away. They passed through the trees, Celestia’s ears perky and alert. There was a lone pine tree, a fallen tree, some bare apple trees, a tree that had part of its bark removed and one tree that had lost a thick branch which was now lying on the floor. Luna looked to the ground, biting her lower lip. The filly looked backwards every minute.
“Where is Harmony?” She finally asked.
Celestia slowed down, looking back herself. The filly was right. Harmony should have caught up to them already. Suddenly she had a bad feeling in her stomach. Had she really misjudged her that much? But going back was dangerous.
“Where is she?” Luna demanded, her hooves pressed against Celestia’s chest. “Where is she?”
“I …” Celestia gulped down something that was building in her throat fast. “I think she sent us on without her …”
“But why?” Luna put her hooves down again, her eyes full of tears.
“Maybe so she can lead our pursuers away from us …” Celestia avoided the filly’s gaze, looking back the way they had come. Could they make it on their own? Were there others like them? Where should they go? All those questions and she had no answers. Whatever she had thought of Harmony before, she wanted the mare back now.
“I … I want to be with her”, Luna exclaimed and flew off. Celestia nodded and followed the filly. Hopefully they were able to track their own way back. What had they all passed? She tried to remember and took the lead. There was the tree with the lost branch … and over there the tree that had lost its bark. Then there were no special marks for a while. Celestia almost thought they had lost their way when she spotted the bare apple trees. Her heart was pounding fast as she saw the fallen tree. They were almost there and every minute they could meet other ponies.
She could only hope that they had had trouble following them so far. Maybe they were lucky and the unicorns were all too exhausted from raising the sun in order to track them properly. Maybe there was even a time limit as to when they could track them. There was the lone pine tree. They were almost back. She suddenly glimpsed something in the corner of her eye. Two pegasi were flying toward them.
Celestia grabbed Luna and pulled her below the tree, folding her wings in and pressing herself and the filly deep into the shadows, motioning to her to be silent with her wing.
The pegasi passed over them. Her heart was pounding fast and she waited a few extra seconds when they were out of view before she continued to follow the rest of the way. Then she found the faint hoof-marks they had left when they parted from Harmony. The mare had gone a different way. Instead of continuing on forward, she had trotted to the left. Still away from the town, but also away from them. She started to follow those hoof-markings.
“Keep an eye on the sky”, she instructed Luna and concentrated on following the faint trail Harmony had left behind. There were patches of dirt that clearly showed her hoof prints and others that were less clear. As soon as she was sure of her general direction, she sped up, slowing down whenever she didn’t directly see another hoof print.
Without warning Luna suddenly sped past her, shouting “Harmony!” Celestia was hot on pursuit a moment later, catching up to the filly and pressing her hooves onto her muzzle.
“There are still patrols out there that could hear us”, she whispered into Luna’s ears and then looked up. Harmony stood there, the whites of her eyes big, the pupils small, her wings raised as if to fly. Slowly she folded her wings back in and trotted toward them.
“You shouldn’t have come back”, she said in a low voice, embracing both fillies with her wings.
“I don’t want to be apart form you”, Luna answered, her voice shaking while tears streamed down her eyes.
“We didn’t know where to go or what to do”, Celestia admitted.
“I do not know myself”, Harmony replied. “But we need to continue on, they are surely closing in on us.”
“They have already pegasi in the air”, Celestia nodded.
“It doesn’t matter. They will surely find us. I am still too weak to fly to conceal my tracks.” She shook her head. “You had a bigger chance on your own.”
“Not necessarily”, Celestia replied and took a step backwards. “I know how to conceal your hoof prints.”
~*~*~
Celestia had used the shreds of Luna’s and Harmony’s and her own old disguise and bound them to Harmony’s hooves, softening her steps so much that her hoof prints became all but invisible on the forest floor.
Luna and Celestia were flying next to Harmony as she trotted in yet another direction, in hope that it will make them harder to find. Still, they were all uneasy, expecting the ponies to find them at any moment. Backtracking and fashioning those hoof cuffs had cost a lot of time. Considering the amount of time they had wasted, it was a near wonder that nopony had come upon them.
They were still wary and Harmony changed her direction every so often that any pursuer would have trouble following the little indents she left behind occasionally.
Time went by as they flew further next to Harmony, trotting through the wilderness of the forest. It wasn’t long before her wings grew heavy with exhaustion, but Celestia refused to land earlier than Luna. She kept on pushing herself. She didn’t even know why she wanted to be better than the filly. Was it only because she was older than Luna?
Her thoughts were interrupted as Harmony stopped suddenly. The mare’s ears were swiveling and she looked up to the sky and behind them. Hastily she spread her wings and pulled Luna and Celestia to the side and into the shadow of a tree.
Celestia noticed the pegasi a moment later, a group of them flying overhead, their eyes scanning the ground. She held her breath, fearing that even the faintest sound of her would alert them to their presence.
“Wait”, a familiar voice shouted above them. Celestia shivered as she heard Eagle Eye’s voice. “I think I see something. Let me check for a moment.”
The red stallion soared down from the sky, breaking the through the green of the trees and landed in front of them. His eyes went huge from surprise, than narrow. He opened his muzzle and stopped in his motions.
Celestia saw Harmony’s horn glowing faintly next to her. “There is nothing … all you saw was a rabbit”, she whispered.
“What is it?” Somepony called from above.
“Go”, Harmony whispered again, her voice speaking with authority although it was only a whisper. Eagle Eye nodded, spread his wings and flew back up.
“It was only a rabbit”, she heard him say.
“Let’s go. We still have a lot to search”, another said and the pegasi continued on.
Harmony shivered next to them. She shook her head and took a deep breath.
“W… what did you just do?” Celestia demanded as soon as she was sure that the pegasi were out of earshot.
“I forced another perception onto his mind, made him forget what he saw and forced my will upon him.” She answered, shaking her head again, as if trying to lose a fly buzzing around her.
“W… we can do that?” Luna stared at her with her big eyes. “Why didn’t you cast an illusion on them as you did with the guard of Azure’s village?”
“I couldn’t because he saw us. I had no time to fashion an illusion spell”, Harmony answered.
“And we shouldn’t be casting such spells”, Celestia added, frowning. It was the one thing her mother had insisted upon: Never force another pony to do something.
“No, we shouldn’t”, Harmony agreed. “Though I didn’t know of any other way to keep us hidden”, she added. The mare closed her eyes, took another breath and exhaled deeply.
Had some black mist just left her body? Or was that only Celestia’s imagination? It made her even more wary of the mare next to her.
Harmony straightened herself and trotted forward, taking once again another route. “Come, we need to get as far as possible.”
“But why shouldn’t we?” Luna raised her voice again. “It would be so easy to stop them hunting us with that magic. So easy to stop all this fighting between ponies.”
“It is because it is wrong”, Celestia argued.
“There are many good reasons”, Harmony answered a lot calmer. “But the most important reason is, that, if we use magic with ill intentions, it will always come back upon us, changing us, until we change into …”
“A nightmare”, Celestia completed the sentence, shivering.
Luna looked a bit abashed, even the filly had heard of nightmares. Fallen alicorns that demanded worship and used their power to terrorize other ponies.
“B… but wanting to stop fighting is not an ill intention”, Luna argued.
“Forcing others to do something against their will, is”, Harmony explained. “Taking their freedom …” She sighed. “Even if we were to succeed and not succumb to our own selfishness, there are a few ponies that can resist this spell or others that see you casting such a spell. You can’t hold back an army with it. Nopony is that powerful.”
Luna let her head hang, as did Harmony. Celestia was weary of her. Although she knew the risks, she had used the spell to protect them and she was dealing with the aftermath. Had she found a way to deal with it? Or had she fallen already and it was only a matter of time until she exploded and turned into a nightmare? She couldn’t help but keep watching her.
~*~*~
They had to lie low a few more times. Several pegasi were patrolling the skies and they overheard that there were several earth pony search parties combing through the forest. Still as long as they had trees covering them, they were relatively safe.
Celestia gulped as she looked over the open fields that lay before them. They had reached the edge of the forest. From now on they had to travel beneath open skies and they would be visible for pegasi patrolling the area. They could wait for a while, but behind them, earth ponies were searching the forest and closing in on them.
“We should wait until nightfall”, Harmony murmured. “But I don’t know when that will be. I am sure Starswirl will try and persuade them to take down the sun and raise the moon anytime soon, but …”
But Eagle Eye and the others would be against it, knowing that they could search for them a lot better while the sun was up.
“Can you cast an illusion spell to make us look like rabbits from afar?” Celestia asked. Harmony shook her head. The mare looked over to Celestia and her horn glowed slightly. Suddenly she could hear the mare’s voice in her head.
“I can’t cast illusion spells. I never was able to grasp the concept behind them.” The voice in her head said something different than the mare said aloud: “I can’t fashion an illusion spell without seeing my targets.”
Celestia gulped. She didn’t want Luna to know … She used a different spell to get past the guard into Azure’s village. Propably one that forced him to forget that he saw them, maybe one that froze him. But why was she telling her?
“We probably need to run and cover as much ground as fast as we can.” Harmony looked straight ahead and sighed.
“So we should either fly or teleport … or both?” Celestia stated and looked toward Harmony again. Luna did the same, her eyes big, waiting. She really seemed eager to learn the secrets of that teleportation spell.
Harmony looked at them, and back toward the horizon. Her eyes scanned the sky and she sighed again. “Maybe we can risk waiting a bit here, hoping that Starswirl will be able to convince them to set the sun.” She shook her head, turned and trotted toward the tree with the densest leaves on it she could find. There she settled down and patted the floor next to her with her wings.
Luna followed the invitation immediately. Celestia hesitated a moment, but settled down next to her as well.
“For teleportation to work, you always need to have clear view of your target. That means you either need to see it or remember exactly how it looks like”, Harmony started to explain. Her horn glowed softly as the image of a small alicorn appeared before them, looking around.
“The tricky part is to connect yourself with your target destination through magic. It is a lot easier when you can see it, but it is possible if you can only sense it within your mind. Some also use scrying spells to first look at the location, allowing them to grasp unto it a lot easier.”
“I don’t understand how you connect to a location? That doesn’t make sense!” Luna complained.
“Look around. What do you see? What do you feel?” Harmony asked.
“Well, I see trees, leaves, grass and the ground beneath my hooves …” Celestia answered.
“And there is also the air around you”, Harmony said. “You need to grab all of those things with your magic. Grab onto them as if you were trying to levitate them with your magic. But don’t try to lift them, just grab onto everything you see or remember of your destination.”
Celestia nodded and looked forward, concentrating on the location right next to one of the trees. She tried to grab onto it like Harmony had said, but it was a lot more difficult than she thought. When she grabbed onto a tree, she lost the grip on the ground, when she gripped onto the ground she lost the tree, when she tried the air, she lost everything else.
“Good”, Harmony said, after observing them both for a while. “The next part is to let yourself be pulled toward that destination by your horn. But that alone doesn’t teleport you, it only floats you toward the target and flying or galloping would be faster and less exhausting.”
Celestia nodded, waiting for Harmony to finish her explanations.
“In order to instantly reach your destination, you need to … transform yourself into energy. Like light or lightning.”
“But you can’t teleport through walls with that spell”, Celestia observed.
Harmony nodded. “No you can’t, but I think this is a lot to try and master already for you two.” She smiled. “Besides, teleporting through walls is not that different, there is just a fourth step you need to do.”
Celestia gulped. The teleportation Harmony had tought them was already a high level spell for them and it would get even more complicated when they learned the secret of teleporting through walls.
“Nnnngh”, she heard Luna struggle. She looked to the little filly and saw how she turned into a cloud of dark blue mist. Some light seemed to be blinking within that darkness, remembering her of the night sky. It only lasted a moment. The filly reappeared, panting heavily.
“Very good”, Harmony said, smiling. “Now you only need to get the rest under control.”
Celestia gritted her teeth. At this rate teleportation would hinder them instead of helping them escape. She looked toward the blue sky again. The sun didn’t show any sign of setting anytime soon …
Celestia gritted her teeth. At this rate teleportation would hinder them instead of helping them escape. She looked toward the blue sky again. The sun didn’t show any sign of setting anytime soon.
~*~*~
Celestia had tried to teleport a few times, but the most she could do was to get her horn pull her forward to where she wanted to go. As time went by she only felt more and more nervous. Of course that didn’t help her magic at all, making even that small bit she had mastered unreliable.
“Wouldn’t it be better, if we just ran for it?” She asked after her tenth failed attempt, brushing the sweat from her muzzle with her forehoof. She hadn’t experienced practicing magic to be this exhausting before. Most of what she had done was just depending on a lot of concentration and fine control – but this demanded physical strength as well. Luna was also sweating all over and surely the filly felt as hot as she did.
“Maybe we should”, answered Harmony, looking toward the sky. The position of the sun was unchanged since it had risen and although the mare had rested all the time, there was also some sweat glistening on her fur.
Celestia saw Harmony’s ears perk up even before she heard the muffled voice. Her heart started to race. The ponies from that village were about to find them.
“You are right, we need to leave right now.” Harmony got to her hooves and started moving. Celestia fell in next to her, looking behind them into the woods. Luna followed as well, dragging her hooves forward.
After stepping out of the shadows and into the open fields, they could feel the sun heating up their coats and bodies even more. The merciless heat from the sun above threatened to cook their hides alive. Celestia opened her muzzle and breathed the air over her moist tongue. It allowed her at least some measure of cooling off. “This is madness”, she whispered while looking back toward the woods.
“It is, but we do not have any choice”, Harmony answered and her horn started to glow slightly. A cool breeze surrounded them and granted some protection from the heat. “At least they won’t be able to chase us easily now”, she muttered and looked back as well. A group of ponies had appeared on the edge of the forest, hesitating to step out into the heat.
“At least now they’ll know that they need to keep a regular cycle between day and night going.”
“But where do we go now?” Luna looked up. The filly looked tired. It wasn’t only a physical tiredness, but something that went deeper as well. She had been through hell. The same hell she had been through, but she was also younger than Celestia.
“The Everfree Forest”, Harmony said with grim determination in her voice.
“The Everfree Forest?” Celestia gulped. Her mother had told her of that forest. It was a force of nature to be reckoned with. A magical place that gave birth to magical monsters like timberwolves or Ursa Major. Celestial beasts roamed the trees and nopony dared to enter it.
“It is an Alicorn Legacy. Although it is now wild, it can provide us with the necessary protection we need to live in peace until this whole mess has settled down.”
“Alicorn Legacy?” Celestia looked up toward the mare.
“To my knowledge it was a magical experiment gone wrong. An experiment conducted by alicorns. I don’t know the details, but I know that it is used to teach us caution. Caution when wielding magic, thinking that we can do everything. Because we can not.”
Celestia gulped. It sounded like the last place she wanted to go. But then it was the last place left to them.
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
1,045 users online
1,914,150 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Good backstory of the Everfree forest. Oh! I hope Celestia and Luna could learn how to use teleportation. That would be very helpful.
I'm pretty sure you can figure out what's wrong with these two paragraphs.....