My Little Refugi

by Future Wonderbolt

The Expedition

A dull pain shoots through Sylae's body as she returns to consciousness. Her eyes slowly open, and she blinks, trying to eliminate the blur in them. Where am I? she thinks to herself, unable to comprehend the dim blurry greyness. She shifts slightly, then immediately regrets it as her left side explodes in agony. Clamping her eyes shut, she groans loudly at the pain. What happened?

"Oh good, you're awake," somepony says from around her. She opens her eyes again, blinking away the tears. She tries to ask what happened and where she is but all she can manage is a moan. "You shouldn't move until you get better," the voice states. Well, no shit, Sylae thinks acidly as she hears the unknown pony stand. A blurry face appears into her field of view, a unicorn. "How are you feeling?" he asks.

Sylae tries to talk again, struggling. "...eyes...blurry...happen?" she finally manages to wheeze.

"Blurry eyes? That's not good," the head says, "Maybe you need more sleep." A green glow surrounds his horn and suddenly Sylae feels sleepier. Her eyes drift closed and she falls back under.

---

Falling! Sylae jerks awake abruptly, ignoring the pain as the rocky ground rushes up to meet her, unable to fly due to the magically-induced spasms. Her heart is pounding as she reaches out her hooves, only to stop when she sees the grey of the room. She holds a hoof against her heart, trying to will it to slow down. She looks around, observing the spare furnishings of the room. Cold and grey are the first words that come to Sylae's mind, grey walls, grey floors, grey ceiling, a greyish chair on the wall, a unicorn snoring softly on it. She peers suspiciously at the stallion, but he doesn't seem to have been disturbed by her alarm in coming to.

Suddenly, she is overcome with fatigue again, falling back on the bed. It's nothing like the clouds back home, even her modest home in Skyvale had a plush cloud for sleeping on, it seemed her current accomodations were made of some sort of spring. She lays there for a minute, trying to remember what had happened. A moron guard turning her away from the gates, her trying to reason with him, then giving up and flying over the walls... "Sylae, you're a moron," she says to herself. Of course they'd have an enchantment preventing ponies from just flying over.

The pony on the chair yawns, placing a hoof over his mouth tiredly. She freezes, watching him cautiously as his eyes dart open, scanning the room, stopping at her. He mumbles something, but it is lost through the yawn. "I didn't catch that," Sylae says.

He finishes his yawn, "I said, Are you feeling better?" the strange unicorn asks.

"Oh, um...yeah, I guess. How long have I been...here? And where is here?"

He hides a smile, "You've been here just over three days. You're in the New Canterlot Infirmary. I'm Everents, by the way."

"That long?" she blurts out, before realizing that three days wasn't too bad for being blown out of the sky by a spell, "I mean, um...Pleased to meet you, I'm Sylae." she sticks out a hoof, wincing slightly as it pulls at her side. Everents stands and lightly taps her hoof with his. "So, um...I'm not sure if the imbeciles at the gates told you, but I was sent by Skyvale, for--"

"For the Expedition, I know. They thought it was relevant to bring up after dragging you up here to get healed. And Sylae, we shoudn't talk about that unless we are somewhere more secure," Everents looks around for listeners that don't exist. "There are those who would stop this expedition before it begins."

"Oh...okay," Sylae replies dumbly, thinking of nothing to say. "Well, I'm doing nothing by laying here," she states, throwing back the covers and shakily climbing out of the uncomfortable bed. "So what did you do to get stuck waiting for me to wake up?" Her steps are unsteady as she slowly walks around, testing her legs. She notices her wings are tightly bound against her body, preventing flying for the time being.

"I..I helped out with your healing some," Everents says shyly, walking over to help steady her.

She leans against him gratefully, ignoring the warmth of his body. Shut up, Sylae, she thinks to herself, Not only is he a unicorn, he's a stallion at that. "Thanks, I guess. Care to fill me in on the Exp--the thing?"

"Uh, sure. Let's head to the library, we'll be able to talk there," he states, guiding her out of the room and into a similarly-grey hallway. At the end of the hall a pony in armor (similar to that worn by the gate morons) stands.

"Excuse me," the guard states, "You are not authorized to release the prisoner." He steps forward, blocking the hallway.

Everents clears his throat, "Um, she can barely walk so I don't think she'll be a--"

"The prisoner? What is this shit? You dumbasses send for me and nearly get me killed and now I'm the prisoner?" Sylae yells angrily. She pushes away from Everents and gets up in the guard's face, "And do I fucking look like I am going to run off and be a problem?"

"...yes..." the guard says weakly, stepping back.

"Oh," she says, somehow satisfied. She looks back at Everents, "Well I suppose I have you to thank for healing me up so well." She nods and tries to walk around the guard, and is stopped by his raised hoof. "If you do not move I will put my forehoof so far up your ass the Goddess Luna will have to pry it out with Her horn," Sylae says to the guard, staring him down. After an awkwardly long exchange of glares between Sylae and the guard, Everents pipes up, "Um, I have permission from Senior Researcher Arbu to allow her the leave of the city, so if it's all right..."

The guard looks back at Everents and nods, stepping to the side silently. "Thank you," Sylae says sarcastically as she walks past him.

As they step outside into a large courtyard, Everents stops her, "Sylae...maybe you should let me do the talking..."

"Why?" Sylae asks, "I had that situation well in hand. Another minute of glaring and he would've moved."

"Yes, but it would be easier if we just tell them Arbu has given us permission."

"Has he?"

"Well," Everents says as he leads them across the courtyard and into an imposing grey structure, "Is 'make sure that green winged thing those pegasus bastards sent doesn't get herself killed' close enough?"

---

Later, the two are sitting in the dim recesses of a large library. Sylae was having trouble with the low-hanging basement chamber, a lifetime in Skyvale tended to make a pony claustrophobic. "You haven't happened to see my saddlebags, have you?" She asks, half-assuming they'd become part of her side when she'd fallen.

"Oh, right. They're in my bedroom," Everents states as he magics several volumes off of the shelves. Noting her awkward and slightly angry-seeming silence, he turns from the books and stares at her, "It was that or have them in the guard's barracks. I haven't looked in them or anything, don't worry."

"Okay..." Sylae says, trailing off. "Need any help looking for anything?"

"Nope!" He says, setting a last volume on the table and sitting across from her. "Everything I need is right here. How much do you know about the land of Equestria?"

Sylae shrugs. "As much as everypony else, I guess." Everents magicks several volumes back to the shelves at her words.

"And what about the Councilponies?"

"Um...not much...There were three, but more before the Fall...one of them founded Skyvale?" Everents magicks another book back to the shelves, but stops at her added comment.

"Interesting," he says, magicking a quill and jotting down a note, "Do you know which Councilpony?"

"I can't say I do," Sylae says.

"Okay," Everents continues, returning to the books. "The three Councilponies, as you may know, were not the only ponies to lead groups out of the war zone that Equestria had become. Military leaders, businessponies, all sorts lead their own seperate groups, some even took their chances solo. Most of these groups were either captured by Changelings or were lost and never heard from again. That's the level of detail you'll find in most histories. The passing of time has not treated out knowledge well."

"And how does this artifact fit in?" Sylae asks, trying to get him to cut to the chase before it became a history lecture.

Everents nods and opens the remaining book, flipping it open to a page in the middle. He lifts the book and shows it to her. It's a pencil-drawn landscape of ominous-looking mountains, clouds hiding the peaks. In the foreground, a single pony stands, staring at the mountains. "The Shutterpeak Mountains," Everents states. "We've discovered an artifact, a map in fact, that leads us to a location deep within these mountains."

"So?"

"Analysis of the magic-energy decay of the map places it at just over 400 years. This map was made by someone who lived during the Fall. The goal of the expedition is to travel to the location given on the map, find anything of interest, and follow the clues until, Celestia willing, we find a way back to Equestria. Then we will act as the scouts, to see how much military force will be needed to retake Equestria"

Oh, okay. Follow an ancient map to the harshest mountains Sylae had ever seen, somehow discover a way back to a land nopony has laid eyes on since the Fall, and then travel back. Sylae opens her mouth to give this pony a piece of her mind, but before she does, he stands. "So, Sylae. Are you in?"

She paused for a minute, thinking. On one hoof, she faced near-certain death, possible starvation, and braving the fierce elements. On the other, the comfort and home of Skyvale. The Council. Her coworker, Glimpse.

"I'm in."