Starlight

by PurpleFire135

Chapter Four

They had been walking for about three hours and Starlight was breathing heavily when Rainbow suddenly stopped and Starlight crashed into her and fell over.

“Are we there?” She said tiredly as she stood back up. According to her mental clock it was about midnight and she was exhausted.

“Nope. We’re only to the edge of the Ever Free and we still have a long way to go.” Rainbow responded. Starlight flopped back over with an audible, “ugh!”

“Yep! Gonna take us all night to get there, I figure.” Rainbow said jokingly as she looked at the small purple filly who was belly up on the ground. “Just leave me here!” Starlight said, equally joking. She mimed falling over dead. “I can’t go on!” She stayed as still as she could but in a few seconds she was giggling. Rainbow laughed and leaned over her.

“Tell you what. Since we’re at the edge of the dark forest, and I really don’t want to go prancing around in there, how ‘bout you hop up and I try flying. I’ve been itching to get back into the sky and we’ll get there about three times as fast if we don’t have to find our way over roots and bushes.”

“Are you sure you’re wing is okay?” Starlight asked as she sat up.

“Yep, I think so.” Rainbow said, testing her wing out. It already looked much better. “Just needed a few hours not using it. Tazers aren’t meant to damage anything. They’re just meant to stun.” Starlight hopped up onto Rainbow’s back and in seconds they were flying.

Unlike earlier, Rainbow was gliding along at a normal pace, rather than cruising at breakneck speeds. Starlight marveled at the view from so high up. She could see trees for quite a ways around them and if she turned back towards where they had come from, she could just make out the capital, sitting high on its mountain. She could even see the outlying suburbs that stretched out beneath the city on level ground.

She turned back forward and looked the moon, sitting on the horizon, just thinking. Suddenly something that she had almost forgotten about occurred to her.

“Hey Rainbow?”

“Yeah?”

“Why were the Guards after you?”

Rainbow sighed. “I can tell you later.”

“Come on, Pleease?”

“Ugh, fine, Kid. I’m not totally sure, but I would have to guess that they searched my room while I was out and found my…let’s just say it’s a magical object that, trust me, is not legal.”

Starlight nodded. Magic of any kind was forbidden. “Why would they search your rooms?” Starlight asked.

“Oh, jeez, probably because I ticked off one of them the other day when I pick- pocketed his tazer and got him in the flank with it after he harassed an old carrot seller for not giving him a suitable Guardly discount…namely, he wanted it free.” Starlight giggled.

“Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I just hate the way the Guards treat every pony. Now that they don’t have any unicorns to hunt down, they just terrorize the rest of the population. And they think they are so much better than every pony else! It’s not right.” Rainbow sighed.

“Was the magical artifact important?” Starlight asked, curious about it. She loved hearing about magic and now that hers was getting better she was even more interested.

“Seriously, Kid! This is a lot of questions!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Just this one! After that I won’t ask any more! Besides you promised!” Starlight pleaded.

“Alright, alright! And just to be clear part of that promise said we needed to be somewhere safe first. Flying above the Ever Free Forest doesn’t really count a safe it my book. Anyway, it was important. Extremely. But I just care that both of us are safe. I can go back and get it sometime, if I needed it.”

“So, what is it?” Starlight asked.

“You said no more questions if I answered that last one!”

“But--”

“Nope!”

“Come on! Plleee--”

“Not a chance, Kid!”

“Please, please, please, please!”

“No way, no how!”

“Arg! Fine!” Starlight huffed. Rainbow smiled. She rose on a warm air current and Starlight looked around.

“How close are we?”

“That was a question!” Rainbow grinned.

They flew for about another hour before Rainbow let them start sinking to the ground. They landed in a clearing. Starlight slid off and stretched. She had been sitting for way too long.

“Now, I know her cottage is around here somewhere…” Rainbow said, looking around. Starlight could see no difference in the surrounding trees and bushes. Suddenly she heard a loud, long howl that sent shivers down her spine. Rainbow tensed. “We need to find shelter soon; we do not want to be outside when that gets closer to us.”

“What was it?” Starlight asked, fearfully inching closer to Rainbow Dash.

“I would have to guess that it is a timber wolf.” That did nothing to make Starlight feel better. She had read about timber wolves and they were definitely scary.

“Come on, follow me. I am pretty sure that the cottage is this way.” Rainbow said as she went back into the forest on the side of the clearing.

Pretty sure?” Starlight asked.

Despite the sun and moon in the sky, under the shade of the trees it felt like the dead of night. Starlight could barely see where she was walking. Her saddle bag snared on a branch and she leapt into the air.

“Calm down. I would know if anything got close to us. We’ll be fine.” Rainbow reassured her, but it had little effect. She was scared, hungry and tired. She could only hope they reached their destination soon. She was jolted out of her thoughts when they both heard a scuttling noise from the bush next to them. Rainbow moved without thinking and Starlight backed away as fast as she could.

They both watched the bush in tense suspense. Fear gripped Starlight and she had a horrible sense of foreboding. Just as she thought she couldn’t take the pressure anymore, the leaves parted to reveal a pure white creature. Starlight’s thoughts raced with possibilities at what evil things the thing might do to them. She squinted to see what exactly it was… it was…it was… a bunny.

Both Rainbow and she breathed out a long sigh of relief. She wasn’t even sure she had been breathing at all.

“Oh! Look! It’s just Ang---” Rainbow started to say, but was cut off when something sticky reached out and grabbed Starlight by the tail. She let out a terrified, air-splitting screamed and was pulled back into the bushes.

“Hang on Starlight! I’m coming!” Rainbow Dash cried and raced towards the place where Starlight had disappeared. Dash raced through the forest, following closely behind what ever creature had taken Starlight. She caught a glimpse of it as it dodged a tree. It was big, black and hairy. Dash went even faster, trying to catch up. She opened her wings to try and fly, but the trees were too dense and if she tried to go above the canopy, she knew she would lose them.

Suddenly, the creature turned and Dash momentarily lost sight of it. She stopped, whirled and listened, trying to hear some indication of which way it went.

“RAINBOW!” Starlight screamed from off to Dash’s left. She took off after the sound. She came into a tiny break in the trees where a giant spider web hung between two huge trucks. An even more giant spider sat upon it, tying Starlight up in silk. Starlight struggled against the sticky confines, but the spider barely seemed to notice as it went about its work.

“Starlight! Don’t worry! I’m here!” Dash yelled, and without thinking, launched herself at the giant furry form of the spider. It turned to look at her, and just before her back hoof would have collided with its massive head, it scuttled to the side and Dash found herself tangled in the sticky web. She thrashed, trying as hard as she could to break the sticky strands.

“Stop struggling! The more you move the sticker the web gets!” Starlight called out to her. The spider, having noticed the new prey on its web was moving quickly towards Rainbow. Rainbow struggled more and wove herself in even farther.
“If you think you are going to eat me, you have another thing coming! I guarantee I will be the nastiest thing you have ever eaten and I will be kicking all the way down! I will seriously mess up your insides, you great big…” Rainbow yelled at the gianormous arachnid. It seemed to have no intention of wrapping her in silk before devouring her and was advancing towards her with its huge mouth open and fangs out.

Starlight turned away, more scared than she could ever remember being. She couldn’t watch this. Just when she thought it was all over, she heard a thump and the spider let out a disgruntled hiss and fell to the ground. Starlight whipped her head around in time to see what had knocked the spider off its web. A light yellow pegasus had dropped out of a tree just before the spider would have sunk its fangs into Rainbow’s neck.

Now; the pegasus faced the spider, a very reproachful expression on her face. She blew a lock of her pink mane out of her face and looked at the spider with such intensity that the spider itself seemed to shrink down in fear.

“You leave them alone! You have no business eating ponies! You are an insectivore and there are plenty of bugs for you to eat! If I ever catch you doing something like this again, there will be serious consequences! Do you understand?!” The pegasus mare scolded the spider, which dwarfed her in size by at least three times, like it was a naughty foal with its hoof in the cookie jar. It nodded and scampered off.

“That’s what I thought!” She called after it. She turned around to face them and her eyes opened wide. Starlight felt very nervous, sure she was gaping at her horn. However, the yellow pegasus was staring at Rainbow Dash, who smiled. “Hey Fluttershy! Been a while hasn’t it?”

---

“Sir! I have an urgent report from the south east edge of the city!” Silver Shot, a ten-year veteran Guard Pegasus rushed into the General’s office. This report was high security and the General was dealing with it personally. Despite the ‘Sir’, the General was a mare and she swiveled around in her chair behind her desk to face Silver Shot. She was not in a good mood. The last report had not been to her liking.

“Did the squad catch her?” She leaned forward menacingly and glared at Silver Shot. He did not want to be the bearer of this bad news. He wasn’t sure why this case had become so important to the General, who was, for all intents and purposes, the leader of the Guard itself. She was still glaring at him too.

“Um, well, uh…no…” He mumbled.

“What?! Speak up, solider!” The General barked.

“No, Sir! I mean, no, they were unable to apprehend Rainbow Dash. Sir!” He backed towards the door, hoping she would just let him go.

“Not so fast, Lieutenant Shot. You haven’t given you’re full report.” The General arched an eyebrow. “Well?”

“Oh, yes of course! Well, after she flew off after being spotted near her home, a private got off a lucky tazer shot and took her down. However, she somehow survived the fall. We still aren’t sure how that happened. She was then followed into the edge of the forest, where, uh, the squad lost sight of her.” Silver Shot turned to leave.

“Wait! Has any of that patrol returned yet?” She stopped him.

“Uh, yes, I believe so, Sir. I can get one of them to come up here if you want to talk to them…” Silver Shot was cut off as the door was flung open.

“Sir! I have an urgent report from the Rainbow Dash case! I was part of the patrol squad that was following her…” The young private trailed off as he caught the glare the General was giving him.

“So you’re one of the idiots who lost her!” She yelled at him, her voice rising in volume with every word. The private paled. She sat back in her chair and looked at him. “What’s you’re name private?” She said, regaining her cool.

“Private Blue Breeze…Sir!” He responded quickly.

“So what is this urgent news that you have for me? It better be good, private!”

“Oh! Yes Sir! Well, Rainbow Dash was not alone when she evaded us. She was with a young filly.” Blue Breeze exclaimed proudly. The General put her hoof up to her forehead and Silver Shot had the good sense to take the moment to slip out of her office unnoticed.

“Exactly why is this urgent?! I don’t give a buck who is with her! What I am concerned with is the fact that you lost her!” The General yelled even louder this time. Blue Breeze shrank back towards the door, but even in his fear he managed to croak out,

“I just thought you might want to know, since the filly is a unicorn!” The General’s eyes widened and she sat back at her desk, staring at Blue Breeze in absolute shock.

“A unicorn?” She muttered, more to herself than to him.

“Yes Sir.” He responded.

“I want you to go outside, find my second in command, Silver Shot; he should be lurking somewhere outside my office. I want you to tell him to put every available Guard on the task of finding them. I don’t care how you do it, I don’t care who you have to run over in the process. I want them found and I want them found now! Now get out of my office!” She delivered her whole speech in a scarily calm voice until the end at which point she opened the door, shoved Blue Breeze out into the hall, and incidentally right into Silver Shot who was waiting just outside. She slammed the door and turned around.

It was a serious problem that Rainbow Dash was loose, knew they were onto her, and was running. It was a massively serious problem that she had a unicorn with her. Things had gone from bad to worse. The General didn’t wonder how they had survived the fall, or why they had evaded the patrol so easily. Magic, it was the only answer; and if that unicorn filly had any actual talent in magic, she could ruin absolutely everything the General and the Guard had worked the last ten years for.

No, she wouldn’t let that happen. She would deal with both Rainbow Dash and this filly and then this whole mess would be over. She rubbed her temple. The whole problem was giving her a terrible headache. It had been a long day, starting when she had received the first report; concerning a highly magical object that had been found in a civilian pony’s apartment.

She had ordered it be brought to her right away and she had quickly realized exactly what it was and who it belonged to. She had wasted no time in sending out a patrol to apprehend Rainbow Dash when she returned home; which, of course, had just added to the disaster.

The only consolation in the whole day was that she had managed to get her hooves on the object and it was safely within her care. She looked down at it, memories from a time long forgotten rising unbidden into her mind. She shook her head to clear it and looked at the object, so simple and the cause of all her problems that day. It was also a source of great power.

A golden necklace with a red jewel in the shape of a lightning bolt set in the middle. She curled her hoof around it, a frown creasing her features. She sighed angrily and pressed a small button on the underside of her desk. A small, hidden drawer popped open and she placed the necklace inside, right next to another, very similar necklace.

In fact, the other one was almost identical. The only difference was that instead of a red lightning bolt, it had an orange apple set in the middle.

Comments

[Jagged Fox]

No confusion. So who's the general? I guess we'll all find out later.

[PurpleFire135]

2126893 Yep! Answers will come...eventually

[Swirls]

2130530

[pokefreak13]

Applejack! Why?