Far ahead, past the valley, the rolling hills known as the Sisters loomed large. Tarnish stood taking it all in, and snapped a photo of the amazing panoramic view set before him. A little further down on the valley floor, an abandoned ghost town could be seen, and many of the dilapidated buildings had fallen over.

The air was filled with the overpowering stench of rotten eggs. Tarnish didn’t mind it so much. It was bad, sure, but he himself had smelled worse. He thought of the flying skunks and smiled.

He still felt unsettled and a bit shook up from earlier, the unknown unicorn had left behind a lingering feeling of unease. Limestone insisted that they were being watched, saying that her earth pony senses said so. Tarnish had no reason to doubt her.

Maud brushed up against his side and then leaned against him. She was warm and a bit sweaty, but Tarnish didn’t mind. He leaned back into her and thought about a nice, warm, relaxing bath in a hot spring.

“Some say this is where Equestria was truly born,” Limestone said as she sat down beside Maud. “I learned about this place in school. I had a history exam about it. The Sisters. After the First Tribes came up from the south, the survivors who fled Discord’s reign, led by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, came up this way. The two princesses saw these hills and knew that there were resources to be had here.”

Maud nodded.

“Eventually, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna settled in the Everfree, but they had an outpost here, at this place. The Sisters were filled with gems, and coal, and precious metals, and the hills were very generous.” Limestone gazed off in the direction of the rolling hills.

“Of course, Discord came and battled Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and there was still a lot of fighting. Much of the First Tribes were lost. When it was all said and done though, Princess Celestia depended upon this place to rebuild the nation. Those hills are crisscrossed through with tunnels and mines. Diamond dogs can be found there now, along with other monsters. There’s nothing left in those mines, but ponies and others keep looking, hoping to find the motherlode, some vein of wealth left unmined.” Limestone shook her head.

“Many ponies have died trying to find their fortune there. For a time, there was even a town. You can see the remains of it.” Maud pointed down at the valley floor, to the ruined ghost town. “I’ve been there and had a look at the place. It’s dangerous. We’ll be passing it.”

“So it was mined until there was nothing left,” Tarnish said as he took in the landscape all around him, “and now, it is a home for dangerous, pony eating monsters. Fantastic. We should take a scenic tour.”

“Okay.” Maud glanced over at Limestone.

“I was kidding,” Tarnish said, clarifying his position.

“I wasn’t.” Maud looked over at Tarnish and then back at the hills before them.

“The only wealth left here is the historical kind.” Limestone drew in a deep breath, reached up with her hind leg, and began to scratch behind her ear with her hoof. “I got the itchies. Stupid bugs bit me.”

“You’re going to go home with fleas.” Maud reached over and poked her sister.

Sputtering, Limestone’s muzzle scrunched up and her brows became an angry V as she glared daggers at Maud. “I only got fleas once, okay! It wasn’t my fault! For whatever reason, bugs just find me delicious.”

“That’s because you are a pony with a twist of lime.” Maud had a perfect deadpan delivery. Of course, that was Maud’s only real means of delivery. She gave her sister another poke with her hoof. “You gave all of us fleas and Mama had to flea dip all of us.”

“So? You came home from Las Pegasus with lice!” Reaching out, Limestone returned Maud’s poke with her own. She double-poked to escalate things just a little bit and leaned closer to her sister.

There was another gentle poke from Maud. “My skin is crawling at the memory. Let’s go and get the camp set up, and then we can have a bath. Sound good?”

Limestone grinned and the angry V on her forehead vanished. “Sounds great.”

The camp seemed unremarkable on first glance, there was a sign with a crown upon it, meaning this was a Crown funded campsite. There were shelters here, little huts made from shaped concrete. The tiny huts were just big enough for one pony to crawl inside, or maybe two if they desired to be very, very close to one another.

But after the initial first glance, Tarnish began feeling a sense of unease. There was far too much trash and litter around the camp, and in the trash and litter, there were the bones of small animals. Even more disturbing, there were the remains of a wagon wheel in the fire pit, along with other wagon shaped bits.

After unhitching herself, Maud began to poke through the remains of the fire, and kept glancing up at Tarnish. Limestone began to prowl around the camp as Tarnish made sure that The Egg was secured. Limestone walked with an aggressive, stiff legged gait. Buried under branches and litter, she found whole, unburnt pieces of a wagon.

“Nopony burns their own wagon,” Maud said as she lifted up a partially burned brake lever. She held it in her fetlock, eyeing it, and then after a moment, she looked over at Tarnish. “This worries me.”

“Why burn it?” Tarnish asked.

“Because,” Maud replied, “to somepony, or some thing, it wasn’t home, it wasn’t a wagon, it wasn’t anything meaningful, it was just firewood waiting to happen.” She glanced over at Limestone, who was digging through the wrecked, smashed remains. “Looks like it was smashed apart with something heavy.”

“Our long day just got longer, didn’t it?” Limestone grimaced as she spoke and she hurried back over to be close to her sister Maud once more. “I recognise that wagon. I helped to fix it up. There’s heavy claw marks on the wood.”

“Uh oh.” Maud’s flat delivery showed no outward feeling, but Limestone was showing enough worry and concern for both sisters. “I wonder how long ago this happened?”

“Not very,” Limestone replied, “the gouges made in the wood are still white and mostly fresh. The wood hasn’t had a chance to grey over from the weather.”

The two sisters glanced at one another, and then, at the same time, both looked towards the hills known as the Sisters. Then, moving as one, both looked at Tarnish. Licking his lips, Tarnish had himself a look around and reminded himself that he had one very sharp sword, which he was quite thankful to have at the moment.

“I am almost positive that we’ll find who did this over there, camped near the Sisters. We’ll also find a pony in trouble.” Maud glanced at the wagon wreckage once more, then looked Tarnish in the eye. “She’s incredibly annoying and a real pain, but I think Trixie Lulamoon is in some real trouble. Ready to be rangers, Tarnish? Time to earn our salt.”

“What makes you think she’s over there?” Tarnish asked, pointing in the direction of the hills.

“Because, it is the place that diamond dogs are most likely to go. Just like anypony else, they too think there are great riches still to be had in those hills. I’m thinking they captured Trixie. They certainly wrecked her wagon. I am certain that diamond dogs did this.” Maud’s flat voice was one of absolute finality.

“Okay then, what’s the plan?” Tarnish drew himself up to his full height and wondered how intimidating he could be. He felt his mouth going dry as he thought about the possibility of violence.

“We go over under the cover of darkness and we have ourselves a look around. We look for a campfire. We stick together. And if we spot trouble, well, then we figure out a way to deal with it. Limestone and I can throw rocks.”

Inside of his own head, Tarnish imagined that Maud’s droning monotone projected some much needed confidence, which made him feel better. Of course Maud would be confident, and why wouldn’t she be? She could throw rocks. The words were terrifying to Tarnish. He suspected that Maud throwing a rock would be like Twilight using one of her big, flash-bang-boom spells.

“What about our own wagon?” Tarnish asked.

“We lock it up and leave it here,” Maud replied without a moment of hesitation.

Limestone lifted up her head and peered off towards the Sisters. Her eyes narrowed and her ears perked up. Her right front foreleg jerked a bit, and then she pawed the ground. She drew in a deep breath, held it, and stared at the distant hills.

“Limestone?” Maud’s eyes opened a little wider. “Limestone, what is your earth pony sense telling you? What are you sensing, Limestone?”

Still pawing the ground, Limestone turned her head and looked Maud in the eye. “There’s a pony in some real trouble out that way. Sick. Sick in a bad way. There’s trouble. I wish Pinkie was here, she’d know more.”

Saying nothing, Tarnish waited. He knew that earth ponies had their own special magic and they were capable of wondrous things. Pinkie Pie had her Pinkie Sense, Limestone had her own special feeling, and Maud had her Maud Sense. He suspected that Marble had her own special way as well.

There was still the matter of the creepy unicorn lurking about. The coming night was shaping up to be interesting. Tarnish gave it some thought and wondered if moving under the cover of darkness was the best plan. He thought of traps, of pitfalls, of snares, and all of those things concerned him.

“Ladies, I’m not so sure if we should wait until nightfall.” Tarnish made his feelings known, then went on to explain his reasoning. “If we wait, we could step into a trap, or fall down into a pit with spikes down at the bottom, and if I use my horn to light things up, that defeats the purpose of attacking in the dark. They’ll see the light coming and we’ll have no element of surprise.”

“We need Pinkie… she’s the element of surprise. She can jaunt.”

“What’s jaunting?” Tarnish asked.

Limestone’s lips pressed together and the filly’s face became troubled. “It’s hard to explain… I don’t know that I can. It’s an earth pony thing. You have to be attuned.” Limestone shook her head and gave Tarnish an apologetic look. “I’ve done it once or twice by accident. Pinkie can do it at will.”

“But that tells me nothing about what it is,” Tarnish said to Limestone.

“It’s how Pinkie Pie can hide behind one tree and then pop out from behind a completely different tree.” Maud’s eyebrow elevated just a fraction of an inch and for a moment, something twinkled in her eyes. “Granny Pie could step behind a tree or a bush or even step into a closet and then reappear miles away. Sometimes, she’d save herself the walk to Rock Haven and she’d just vanish. She and Pinkie have a lot in common. They both knew the secret to a shortcut.”

“And I’m guessing that the ley lines beneath the rock farm have something to do with this… this… this inherent earth pony magic that defies reason and logic.” As he spoke, he saw Maud give him a faint nod.

“That is my theory.” Maud blinked. “We need a plan. We need a way to creep up on them without being noticed or seen. We need to take them by surprise.”

“Give them a surprise party.” Limestone’s voice took on an aggressive quality, and it had a gritty, gravel filled edge. “All those times playing dodge-rock as a foal are about pay off.”

“Dodge-rock?” Tarnished asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

“We didn’t have a ball,” Maud replied, “and if you can dodge a rock, you can dodge anything. Trust me, you become very, very motivated to get out of the way. Especially if Marble is throwing. She somehow puts a spin on her rocks—”

“And they’ll peel off your hide when they hit!” Limestone cried out as she began to rub her backside, while wincing at the painful memory. “I wanna know how she does that… her rocks curve while they fly through the air.”

With slow movements, Maud reached back and began to rub her own hindquarters, blinking several times in a row, reaching in much the same way as Limestone, but far, far slower. “Owie…”

“So… we’re gonna do this… we’re gonna go look for trouble and maybe get into a fight with diamond dogs. We’re gonna rescue a pony… we can be heroes.” Tarnish shuffled on his hooves and tried to look as commanding as possible as he adjusted his pith helmet.

Maud pulled her hoof away from her hindquarters and planted it on the ground. “Grab the binoculars, we’ll want to see if we can spot them from a distance. Grab your sword. We’re going to go in and try to do this without killing, if we can. I don’t want Limestone involved in a bloodbath. Mother and father would never forgive me.”

Tarnish nodded. “I’ll make sure the wagon is locked up…”

Author's Notes:

Next chapter... something long awaited by many.