38: The Effect of Loss...
Twilight looked out the window as the train hurtled back to Ponyville. The fact that Oblivion was missing weighed heavily on her. She glanced at the others and found them all to be quiet and somber. Even Pinkie was quiet. Sasa had laid down on the floor by Twilight's hooves. Spike sat on the floor of the train and ran his claws through the she-cats fur. The feline hadn’t said anything since they had left Canterlot. Despite having the sandbox that she could use to write messages to the ponies around her. Twilight looked back outside and sighed.
“So any ideas, Twi?” Applejack asked her from her seat across the aisle.
Twilight gathered her thoughts before speaking. “Well. Where does he usually go to? I know he runs in the mornings.”
Applejack was quiet for a moment. “He runs in the Everfree. Sasa.” The feline looked to her at her name. “You know the paths he uses. Can you lead us in?” Sasa nodded in response to the farm mare.
The feline said nothing as the train kept up a steady pace. She focused and reached out to her Chosen once more. But as with all her other cries to him, all she received was silence. She looked to the purple Unicorn closest to her and then laid her head back to the train floor. Reaching out to him so far had netted no results for her. As the train weaved around a corner she sighed. ‘He would have responded by now if he could. So, that means that he is unable to reply. The question is then, why?’ The she-cat though over the possibilities as the train began to slow to a halt. She rose with the mares and felt Spike jump to her back, his claws gripping her long fur. She looked back to him and purred before moving to keep up with the others.
Twilight looked back to the others and led them back to the library to discuss their next course of action. “Okay girls. We need to check around see what we can find out. Perhaps, somepony has seen him recently. While this is unlikely, it is still an avenue we should look into.”
“Why don’t we put up fliers?” Pinkie piped in, earning a grumble from the feline a foot away.
“We can’t,” Twilight responded.
“We need to keep the fact that the Element of Spirit is missing a secret Pinkie, dear.” Rarity responded.
“Oh.” The pink mare nodded and sat down at the reminder.
“What about the Element?” Applejack suddenly spoke up.
“What about it?” Rainbow looked to the orange mare. “It’s gone too…Remember?”
“Not what Ah meant, Rainbow.” The mare snapped back. “Ah mean can we use the others to find it?”
Twilight blinked at the reply and sat back on her haunches, contemplating the idea. “I am not sure if that would work but it can’t hurt to ask about the chance.” She replied and pulled a scroll and quill from the nearby table and penned out a question to her mentor. “Spike.” She gave the scroll to the baby dragon, who sent it with a quick puff of green fire.
“You think it would be that easy?” Fluttershy asked.
“It would be hardly easy. But, you would think that due to the connection between them that they would be able to sense each other. Oblivion keeps his Element with him at all times, so the idea would be to use the connection of the Elements to find him.”
Sasa suddenly nosed Twilight and sat by her. The Unicorn nodded and the sandbox appeared close to her, allowing her to speak aloud. “That will not work.”
“Why not?” Spike asked her.
“They need all the Elements to even function. Spirit is essential to the group of them. That particular Element is also very potent. While the other six are strong alone, the full power of the Elements can only be activated by the Element of Spirit. It is the main power source behind them.” She clarified through several messages.
Twilight grimaced as she finished speaking the feline’s message aloud. “Well, that answers that question. So, for now, they are useless?” She asked.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Sasa replied.
As if to emphasize the point Spike burped and a scroll dropped into his claws. The baby dragon unfurled it and read it aloud.
Twilight,
While the idea to use the Elements had not been discussed until now, I have to admit that the strength of the Elements comes from the Element of Spirit itself. So without the power that particular Element holds the others cannot fully charge. While I wish this was different my sister and I spoke of this and were reminded of the power needed to use the Elements is not currently available. Do not lose hope my faithful student.
Celestia
“Damn.” Rainbow cursed under her breath. “I have to admit Sasa, I hoped you were wrong.”
Sasa nodded. “Me too.”
The mares were silent as Spike set the letter aside and sat down. “Well, we can’t do anything right now since it’s too dark to see anything. We don’t have Oblivion’s vision to guide us through the dark. So... Meet back tomorrow morning and we can start following his running paths.”
The mares nodded and slowly got their hooves to leave. Applejack stopped and looked to Sasa before she left the library. “Ya’ll staying here, Sasa?” The sabercat nodded and Applejack smiled as she left, closing the door behind her.
Twilight waited till they were gone and groaned. Her magic pulled maps and other materials from the shelves and she motioned for Sasa to join her at the table. Sasa looked over the materials and then to the mare at her side.
“Okay, Sasa. I’m hoping that you and I can figure out a start point and then use the maps to lead all of us through the forest.” Sasa nodded and looked to the map in front of her.
Spike climbed onto the table and sat on the edge closest to Twilight. “So do you really think he is close by?” He asked the educated mare beside him.
Twilight looked away from him at his question, then back to the map. “I need to believe that he is close to us, Spike. While I can’t help but be concerned for him I need to focus on what I can do right now. Otherwise…” She paused and sat down. “Otherwise, it feels like we lost him and I won’t find him, no matter how hard I look for him.”
Sasa leaned in and nuzzled the mare and purred to her. The she-cat ran her tongue over the mare’s fur, smoothing it. Spike reached over and set a clawed hand on her shoulder and tried to smile for her.
“We’ll find him. Twilight. Right, Sasa?” Spike looked to the feline, while he tried to sound upbeat for the saddened mare.
Sasa reached back and wrote a message in the sand for the mare. “Of course. Though I can’t shake the feeling that he will simply show up and wonder why we are making such a fuss.”
Twilight giggled at the message and nodded. “That sounds like something he would do. Then he’ll brush it off and keep going.” She chuckled and a smile crossed her muzzle.
“Yeah. He will so do that.” Spike replied.
Twilight sniffled and looked back to the maps in front of her. “Okay, Sasa. So he usually starts out at the farm.” The feline nodded. “So does he use the same entrance that we used the first time we went into the Everfree?”
“No.” Sasa replied with a flick of her claws in the sands. “The one off the northern orchard.”
“That’s really far out of the way.” Twilight replied to her.
“True. Understand that he does not walk or trot this route. He actually is at a quick lope and then into a gallop the closer he gets to the forest.” She supplied.
Twilight put a mark on the back end of the map and sat back on her haunches as she went over the map. “What route does he use inside the forest? There are a few trails inside the forest that are mapped out.”
Sasa shook her head again at the mare’s inquiry. “He uses game trails mostly. He avoids the main roads.”
“Why in Equestria would he do that? It’s dangerous.” Twilight replied.
Spike looked at the mare for a moment. “Twilight. You do realize what pony you’re talking about, right?”
Twilight's eyes widened and she was silent, a flush went over her cheeks as she gave a nervous chuckle. “Good point, Spike.”
Sasa chuffed and nuzzled the mare. “The trails he uses are not on the maps. I can lead you easily enough.” Sasa wrote out and waited as the mare nodded. Clear sadness in her eyes as she looked to the maps.
“It’ll be okay, Twilight. He’ll come back. Its Oblivion, he’ll be fine.” Spike said to her, cheer in his voice as he jumped off the table to land beside the mare.
The mare smiled weakly but nodded to him. “Okay. Time for bed then. The girls will be over early so we need to get some rest. You coming up with us, Sasa?”
The feline nodded and got to her paws, following them up the stairs. She paused at the top of the stairs and looked out the window, toward the moon. “Be careful, Chosen. Please be careful and return to us.” She whispered out to him.
“What were ya out doin’ all day?” Granny Smith questioned Applejack as she came through the door.
“Ah was helpin’ Twilight and then we needed to go to Canterlot ta help out the Princess.” She replied. She had been asked to keep his disappearance quiet, so she skirted the truth as much as she could allow herself to do.
“Ah. So that’s what ya were up ta.” She nodded and sat down at the table. “So ya eatin’?”
Applejack nodded and smiled as her grandmother began to go up the stairs. Big Mac sat down at the table with her and they waited till the elder mare’s door closed.
“So what were ya really up ta?” He asked her. She was quiet and her jaw clenched as she didn’t look up at his words. “AJ?” His voice held more force than his earlier inquiry and he waited, leaning forward on the table between them.
“He’s missin.” She finally whispered.
Mac leaned back slightly at her words and his ears flicked forward, uncertain that he had heard her right. “Who’s missin’?”
She looked up to him at his question. Her eyes watered slightly at his glance. “Oblivion.” She finally whispered aloud.
Mac startled and looked at her, certain he had heard wrong. “Oblivion. Our Oblivion?” He asked her, hoping he had heard wrong. She nodded, silent. “How long he been missin’?”
Applejack inhaled and thought it over. “A few days, ah think.”
“So, he went ta help get rid o’ some monsters and that’s when he vanished? Ah thought he had others with him? What about Sasa?”
"He came back after getting rid of one of the monsters and then left again. When he left Canterlot, he left Sasa at the castle with the Princesses. Then he teleported somewhere to follow another lead.” Applejack kept quiet about some of the details she had heard in Canterlot. “They tried sendin’ a letter to him and it came back without him readin’ it. They said that there was a huge emergency, one that woulda brought him running back and there was no response.”
“Ah see.” Mac was quiet as he thought over what he had been told. “So, do ya have any idea where he is?”
“No. He didn’t tell anypony where he was going, just that he was looking into something on his own.” She responded.
“Ah’m gonna give him a talkin’ to about that.” Mac replied and leaned back on his haunches. “But we gotta find ‘im first.”
“The girls and I are going out tomorrow to see if there is any trace ah him close by. He goes for runs in the morning so we hope we can find anything on his running route.”
“He doesn’t follow the normal paths.” Mac informed her. Applejack looked at him, her eyes questioning. “He follows the game trails. He uses them when he hunts.” Mac informed her.
Applejack's eyes went wide as she realized that her elder brother was correct. “Ah fergot. Ah fergot that he hunts. How could Ah ferget?”
“Ya are a bit stressed ah think. So it’s okay.” He said to her, his voice landing on the soothing side of chiding her. “Well. Ya can tell Twilight in the morning and she can figure it out with ya.”
“Sasa is over there with her, so I’m sure she has mentioned it. Well. I mean she will mention that he follows the game trails. Not why he does.” She amended.
“That’s true. Can Sasa speak ta ‘er?”
“The Princess made a sandbox for her to use her claws to write messages in. We brought it back with us.”
“That makes it easier. Ya just focus on what ya can do, it’ll work out.” He said to her and stood up to go upstairs. “Ya need ta rest as well, Applejack.”
She nodded and got to her hooves as well, following him up the stairs. She stopped next to Apple Bloom's door and slowly pushed the door open. The filly slept quietly as Applejack approached her and sat down beside her bed. The orange mare looked up and saw the drawings Oblivion had taught her to do, as well as the ones he had done for her. The farm mare looked to her youngest sibling and closed her eyes as she tried to hold herself together. ‘Nothing in the world could stop Oblivion, he’s an Alicorn.’ She thought to herself and slowly got up from her place beside the bed and walked to the door.
She closed it gently behind her and went to her own room. She closed the door behind her, walked to her nightstand, flicked the light on and sat down next to her dresser. She pulled the tie out of her hair and set it down, brushing her mane and tail and slid into her bed, turning off the lamp at her bedside. She laid staring up at the ceiling as the fact that the black stallion seemed to have vanished began to bite at her. She inhaled and released the breath she was holding. She spun around and buried her face in the pillow, allowing herself to cry for a few minutes as she thought about the missing stallion.
Sasa awoke from her place on Twilight's floor beside the bed and looked at the baby dragon in his basket beside her. She sat up and saw his blanket had fallen off of his form. She picked the blanket up in her teeth and gently laid it over the dragon. She looked to Twilight and found the mare to be sleeping peacefully as the she-cat left the room and walked out past the kitchen and into the main floor. She looked up and saw the window above the door and sat down, allowing the moonlight to ghost over her fur. She sat in silence as the moonlight washed over her and she could feel the calm of the night coming over her. Her nerves had been on edge since the discovery that Oblivion was missing. While she had been upset that he blocked her out and left her behind, she had a pretty good sense of why he had acted as he did.
“Chosen. You could have simply told me to stay. I would have argued, but in the end, I would done as you had asked of me.” She whispered through the connection she had to him. She only received silence in reply, but it was helping her to speak to him. She laid down in the moonlight and curled herself into as tight a ball as she was able and closed her eyes. The stallion’s loss weighed heavily on her as she tried to sleep once more. She laid in silence but soon found herself looking back to the moon.
“Chosen. Please be safe. You are needed here. But most of all…” She whispered out to him, as a choked breath escaped her. “You are loved.”
Oblivion was silent as he pushed his body back against the small cave that he had found. His wings pulled from his sides and he wrapped himself in their warmth as much as he was able, without damaging them. His saddlebags sat on the ground beside him as he allowed himself to rest, having spent the majority of the day racing at a near gallop. His body had easily kept up the hard pace he set and his wings had flown him over canyons and other dangers. He had run into a few Nekkers on the way but they had fallen quickly and he continued his trek. His ears flicked, listening as he closed his eyes and sighed.
“There must be a way to get back. My place is no longer here.” He whispered to himself as he opened his eyes and looked out of the opening of the cave. “I am no longer of the Northern Realms.” He spoke aloud as his ears flicked at the sound of laughter. A couple of young humans entered his vision and he watched as they ran together and laughed, enjoying the cool night air. He raised his head and watched as they trotted from his sight. He sighed and looked back to his Alicorn form.
“I am no longer welcome here.” He whispered and lowered his head back to the dirt of the caver floor. “I am now a visitor here.”
The Alicorn went quiet as he hugged his wings around his body and let them keep him warm and comfortable as he laid in silence, his eyes closed, giving his mind to the darkness of sleep, his thoughts setting on the world he belonged to and strove to return to.
Okay, here we go. I was trying to get another chapter of Hunter ready, but got sidetracked and ended up writing this instead. 
So here we are here instead. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy the newest update.
Edit 10/7/2018
Edit 2: 12/21/2018
Edit: 11/14/2019
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*Hugs Oblivion* this is making me sad, I hope he finds Circi fast.
There’s gonna be a whole lot of people trying to capture him, isn’t there? (Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes!
9144421
Maybe...hehehe
9144421
You mean committing suicide by witcher.
10153296
Yes just yes best comment ever. Did you go to spartan come back school.