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Of Fickle Fates and Eternal Vows

by Orcus

Chapter 4: The Approaching Storm

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Twilight had gone from extremely anxious, to full-on panicked as the first rays of the newly-risen sun showed through the stained glass windows that surrounded her.

Hooves clopping with a sense of hollowness against the stone floor, she paced about the throne room of Canterlot's main castle in circles for almost an hour now with Spike nearby; standing to the side with a feather quill in one hand and a roll of paper in the other, patiently waiting to jot down her next order. Princess Celestia was currently away on one of the castle's topmost balconies performing the deed of bringing the sun into the sky, and Princess Luna, with her own duties involving the moon accomplished, was due to return soon. The rest of Twilight's friends were gone; out looking for Fluttershy and Applejack as she herself remained here, and she did so only after they begged her to stay and think of ways that could help with the situation already at hand.

"I can't think, I can't think, I can't think..." she continuously mumbled in what was beginning to sound like a quiet chant of sorts. The repeating of these three words was entering its fifth minute now when Spike, his arms growing tired with the lack of input from her, put his pen and paper down on a nearby table. He approached the alicorn and stood in her pathway, halting her.

"Twilight..." he slowly spoke as she came to a stop. "I think you need to calm down."

"Calm... down?" she responded in a tone bordering slightly on the neurotic side; a tired eye twitching as it stared at the young dragon. "Calm... down?"

"Yes, Twilight," he nodded. "Please. I know you haven't slept at all last night, so just take a deep breath an-"

"I can't 'calm down', Spike! I can't do that! Not now!" The sound of the princess' sudden shout nearly knocked her poor assistant off of his short feet. When he regained his balance a second later he could see that Twilight herself had come to the realization of her own outburst, and next walked over to a nearby, normal window, pushed it open, and stuck her head out of it to catch a breath of the fresh and cool morning air.

Spike walked up to her and poked his claws together uneasily. "Twilight, listen. I more than know how you feel. I'm worried for them too," he said. "But I know that they're okay. Trust me."

"But what if that's not the case?!" cried the princess, placing her hooves onto her head and shaking it as she balanced her body on the windowsill. "It's all my fault for letting them go out there to begin with! What if they got lost? What if they disappeared like all of the townsponies? What if they ran into a creature Fluttershy couldn't calm down, or worse?! And what's better, I'm stuck here twiddling my hooves around, hoping to find some kind of logical conclusion to all of this. How do you know that they're okay?"

"Because I trust in their abilities. And I know you do as well," he replied with a sure expression. Alas, the alicorn didn't seem to hear him.

Twilight only stared out the window with her shaking head for what seemed like forever. Her anxious face only ceased to be when the sound of her assistant clapping his hands together right next to her ears returned her to the realm known only as reality. "Twilight, snap out of it!" he shouted, her attention soon regained. "Going nuts over this situation isn't going to help. You're one of, if not the smartest pony I know. Keep trying to think of something, like Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Starlight trusted you to do."

Leaving the window, Twilight lowered her head in a defeated manner. "You're right, Spike. I need to think harder." She inhaled a few deep breaths and looked to him in a calmer way.

The dragon smiled. "Good. Now, after I get my paper, just tell me what you need me to write down so-"

Spike found himself interrupted again as the sound of the throne room's door being opened echoed throughout the area. Her horned head turning to it, Twilight could see several shapes entering the room. To her visible surprise, she noticed they were the shapes of her friends, as well as the slightly taller form of Princess Luna. And among them, standing safe and sound, was Fluttershy.

"Twiliiiight!" sang out the energy-filled voice of Pinkie Pie, who sprung up into the air for a second as she shouted. "We found Fluttershy! We did!"

Without a second thought, Twilight dashed past Spike and up to her friends, specifically to the pony in question. "Fluttershy, are you okay?" she instantly asked the pegasus. "What happened to you? Did you and Applejack run into anything bad? Did you get lost? Where is Applejack?"

"She hasn't told us what happened yet," Starlight Glimmer went on. "Some guards located us in the woods and told us of her arrival to Canterlot. We all quickly got back here just a few minutes ago, and saw Luna was just returning, too."

Taking in her student's words with a nod, Twilight turned her attention back to Fluttershy after thinking them over for a few seconds. "Well? Where's Applejack?" the Princess of Friendship questioned again next. "Do you know?"

"When... when I last saw Applejack, she was being chased by a hydra," the pegasus quietly spoke. "I... I-I thought she returned here to tell you all so you could come get me, like she said she would."

"A hydra?!" all the ponies in the room cried in unison. Rainbow dash hurriedly flew beside Fluttershy as close as she could without directly touching her and landed to the floor.

"You were attacked by a hydra and it chased after Applejack?!" she shrieked into her face, before gaining just enough sense to back off a short ways.

"Y-yes, a hydra," confirmed Fluttershy. "I tried to calm it down, but it bit me instead. It's venom made me fall asleep."

"Bit you? But you look positively unscathed!" Rarity pointed out, circling around the pegasus just to make sure what she had just stated was indeed the truth.

"And, um... that's kind of the thing," she replied. She turned next to Twilight and walked up to her, past the others. "Twilight, could I speak to you about what happened to me next in... private? I want you to know before the others."

Twilight scratched the back of her head in uncertainty, but was more than okay to oblige the odd request. "Sure, I guess."

Nodding, Fluttershy began to walk back in the direction of the hall she and others had just entered from, and Twilight started to follow. As the two left to discuss the matter without the need for prying ears and closed the doors behind them, the rest of the group began to chatter away amongst themselves in nervous tones about what may have happened to Applejack. Luna could hear the unkempt agony in their tones over their final missing friend, and instantly sought to ease their anguish.

"I implore you all not to fret. Applejack yet draws breath," she quickly interjected, causing them all to stop their worrisome conversation and turn to her. "As I was tending to my duties dealing with the dreams of my subjects, I noticed the presence of Applejack, and also Fluttershy for a short while, were both in a state of slumber. Her mind was adrift the current of calmness, and no worry plagued her mind. I assumed it was because she was somewhere, safe and sound, and it was how I last saw her. Since I was away from the castle, I hadn't the slightest idea that she had not yet come back to Canterlot."

Things were hushed for a brief few moments until Rainbow jumped back up into the air and put a hoof to her chest; her visage set in a look of determination as solid as the stone the castle's walls were built from. "I don't know about you all, but I'm not waiting around. I'm going to go find Applejack as soon as Twi and Fluttershy finish whatever it is they need to talk about. Who's with me?"

As all the ponies, Princess Luna included, let out cries of agreement, a conversation began behind the nearby closed doors.

"So, Fluttershy, what is it you need me to know?" Twilight asked with a lowered brow of curiosity.

"The others told me of the picture of a strange creature you studied just after Applejack and I left," Fluttershy spoke, shifting an eye over her shoulder just to make sure nopony was within earshot of what she was to reveal next. "I met someone in the woods. Who I met, after the hydra attacked me, matched what you all looked at. And I know where she lives."

Twilight's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "That's... that's great!" She gave off a large grin of pure relief, and the feeling of it was one she oh-so missed. "If you tell me just where this creature lives at this moment, we can question it! And, maybe, if it knows anything, we'll find Applejack!"

It was here when Fluttershy, with a silent sigh, sunk her head low. "Her name's Mipha," she went on. "And... I can't show you where she is."

In that one second, Twilight's smile vanished, and her expression of relief became one of pure surprise. She looked back to Fluttershy with nothing short of a dumbfounded visage. "Wh... why not?"

"Because I made a promise," her friend flatly replied.

Twilight paused for a few seconds, as to properly get a grasp on the situation, and soon found herself pinching her weary brow with a hoof. "Why in Equestria would you make a promise of that sort to a strange being?"

"I don't think she's strange. She's... actually sort of like me, in a few ways," lightly argued the pegasus. "She's super kindhearted. She pulled me out of the forest before another creature could get me, and even healed my wounds from the hydra. And she allowed me to come back here with the knowledge that I had of her."

"But this is bigger than some promise like that!" retorted the princess. "Applejack is missing! The townsponies are still missing! This creature, Mipha, could be a clue as to why all this is going on! Don't you understand that?"

Adamant to make her point, Fluttershy closed her eyes, raised her head a small ways, and curled her lips into a frown as she stamped one of her front hooves to the stone floor as hard as she could (which, suffice to say, wasn't any louder than a normal hoofstep). "I made a promise, Twilight!" she repeated once more. "I am deeply sorry, but that's that. She healed me, and in return I said I wouldn't tell anypony where she is. And Twilight, I do not think she's the reason behind what going on right now. She herself told me that she has no idea about what we're dealing with."

The princess was in partial silence over this sudden and unexpected hindrance after receiving such tantalizing news, and gave off a long-drawn sigh that reeked of frustration. "You're not going to tell me anything about where she might be, are you?"

Fluttershy nodded once. "She also told me that she has absolutely no idea how ponies like us act. I want to earn her trust," responded the pegasus. "Twilight, if you were there with me, you would have seen that she means us no harm, too."

The alicorn sunk her head low for a second and exhaled another stale breath of air. When she lifted it, her tired expression returned. "Did you... at least find anything else? Anything that you can tell me?"

"Well, she said she got lost from her people, which she said are called the 'Zora', and has no idea where they are now," Fluttershy replied. "I don't think she's from here, or even Equestria as a whole. It sounds way too odd. I think magic of some sort is involved."

Twilight mulled over this with a long hum; the name of the supposed species ringing no bells within her head. "For you, Fluttershy... I'll look into it," she finally agreed, causing the pegasus to smile happily. "But for now, let's go find Applejack."

"Alright then," she agreed. "Let's go find Applejack."


Gray clouds had gathered in the sky as midday was coming to an end. What was once a warm, sunny and clear day had changed into something else entirely in a short time, and not long after that transition in weather, a thick downpour of rain began to fall as well. Being a Zora, this didn't trouble Mipha in the least; only slightly irking her with the fact that it robbed her of her full view of the sun and all that glimmered under its bright rays.

As it went on, Mipha sat in her cave upon the moist soil that made up its floor, waiting it out. Her hope with what would become of everything had been rekindled with the conversation she shared with that kindly Fluttershy individual. Should this creature and her kind prove to be true, trustworthy, and actually selfless enough to help her with her plight would be a hefty boon indeed. Warm feelings flooded her very soul with much-needed positive emotion.

She turned her head a little bit, just enough to see the giant sitting far behind her. He continued to sit there on his throne, as silent as the day she first encountered him, however unwitting it was. Her fingers curling around in the soft, damp earth in a tense display, she decided to make at least an attempt to strike up a conversation with the titanic creature.

"This place is quite peculiar, but so very lively. I wonder if the other parts of it are as beautiful as my home," she softly spoke over her shoulder to the great being in a tone just loud enough for him to surely hear from where he was. "If I might inquire, are you as much a stranger to these lands as I am?"

The giant remained silent. Mipha did not honestly expect him to respond back to her, and so turned her attention on him away after a few seconds. She was looking to the area of ground that built-up rainwater was starting to seep over at the cave's fore, when the sound of thunder rang aloud throughout it like an alarm, snapping the Zora's view upward.

The noise was a deafening sensation at first, but by the time the fourth crackle of the sound went around, Mipha had gotten used to it. Getting up and moving forward a little ways, she sat down again just a scant few feet from the cave's wide and tall opening. With her arms wrapped around her lifted knees, she watched the running river laying just outside the dense curtain of rainwater that now made up the entrance of the cavern for a few minutes.

Soon following the thunder were brilliant, golden flashes of lightning that streaked across the sky every few seconds once the storm picked up in earnest; completely visible, even through the denseness of the rain. Zora were less tolerant to electricity than other creatures, and as such they had an almost natural aversion to it. But to witness it from a safe and far place, it was less a thing to be feared and more a light show to be observed with awe. Seeing such a powerful display of this aspect of nature reminded Mipha of one of her fellow champions, Urbosa; a member of the proud, strong, desert-dwelling Gerudo people. She could summon a devastating bolt of lightning from even a clear sky with but a snap of her fingers.

Thinking of her reminded Mipha of the other champions as well. It made her wonder if any of them had found themselves in the same predicament she was in now. Had they too awoken in a foreign place? And even so, was it truly life that had been given back to her, and potentially them? More hope and great confusion of equal measure filled her mind, but was soon drowned out by the sound of the storm, which the Zora returned her view to as she stewed upon her evolving situation.

Mipha spent the next hour staring at the sky from where she sat; listening to the magnificent orchestra that was the booming claps of thunder and the light pattering of rain droplets that splashed off of the surfaces of water and rock alike outside of the cave. Had she still been but a young, naïve hatchling with a slippery grasp on how the world worked at best, she would have thought the thunderous uproar going on was the fault of a ferocious battle of cataclysmic proportions that was being waged in the very heavens themselves. Luckily, she had been taught much in the realm of the sciences and beyond from childhood to adulthood, and became quite the insightful character with the accrued knowledge.

The silly thought was nothing more than exactly that - a thought. Smirking, she chided herself for allowing her imagination to run wild with an upbeat chuckle, but that wasn't to say that it wasn't an interesting one to mull over in this time of patience and semi-solitude...

Author's Notes:

Happy Easter, one and all. May your egg hunts be fruitful!

Next Chapter: Only in Dreams Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 14 Minutes
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