What did I tell you? I told you we should have put some kind of subdermal tracking device on her for just this sort of situation, but nooo! That's apparently 'over-possessive and creepy'.

It was and is. Dash isn't property, she's an autonomous individual with the freedom to do as she pleases without me constantly spying on her. I really have no right to-

HA! That's rich. Yes, let's pontificate on the ethics of autonomy and rights to privacy while on the run for brainwashing, cause hey, at least we didn't SPY on anypony!

It's not 'brainwashing'! That's a ridiculously crude oversimplification!

Sorry, I'm sure the newspaper headlines will convey all the subtle nuances involved in a spell only you know the details of.

Twilight grumbled to herself as she trudged through the forest, on her way to the rendezvous point. With no idea where to even start looking for Rainbow Dash, the best course of action seemed to be to head to where she had told Dash to meet her, set up camp, and go about thinking up a better plan. If she was lucky (a prospect for which she didn't hold much hope given the events of the day so far), Rainbow Dash would wake up somewhere familiar enough to get her bearings, and be able to make it there herself.

That would just leave the other issue weighing on her mind. The reason why she was still unconsciously taking her time walking to her destination despite having passed within teleportation range five minutes ago. The nigh impossible task of how to explain this whole situation to Rainbow Dash. What exactly was she supposed to tell her? There was no deflecting or avoiding the issue by this point. Even if she came up with some ridiculous fiction to explain why they were now being hunted by all of Equestria, and somehow kept Dash isolated from anypony who knew the truth, what then? Live out the rest of their days in hiding, staying far away from civilization? How far beyond the borders of Equestria would they have to run before they could escape the reach of the truth?

Dash would never go for that plan anyway. Whatever half-baked story she concocted to explain their fugitive status, Dash would insist on somehow fighting back against these sinister forces and clearing their names. There was no way she could maintain such a story, and that was even assuming she could deliver it in the first place. For as much as Twilight could keep secret the details of the past, she wasn't at all sure she could lie if Dash asked her directly. There was no way she could look into those magenta eyes and lie, not to the pony she loved. Something deep inside of her just rebelled at the notion.

But what did that leave? The truth? That was even more unthinkable. Regardless, this impossible situation would have to be confronted eventually.

Unless some monster comes along and eats her before she wakes up, or she was dropped off a cliff, or into a lake, because you teleported a completely defenseless pony to who knows where!

Twilight shook her head, as if to clear the grim thought from her mind.

No. The topography in this region of Equestria is very flat. Likewise, there are few bodies of water deep enough to drown in. Not within teleportation range of where we were at least. The safety measure was still on, so she'd be kicked a few feet to the nearest empty space instead of overlapping with any solid objects.

And the fact that there's a good chance she's asleep somewhere in the Everfree?

Most of the really nasty predators don't come out until night? She'll definitely wake up by then.

You know it's plenty dangerous enough during the day.

She's probably got a good...70% chance of waking up before anything eats her?

So according to your numbers, made up almost entirely out of random guessing and wishful thinking instead of any kind of data, there's only a 30% chance we just killed her.

Unless we find her first.

Twilight's pace quickened, soon turning into a gallop, followed by a bright flash of purple light.

Celestia rubbed a hoof between her eyes, nursing a headache that had been steadily growing for the past two hours. Ever since she and Luna had been jolted from their seats by the sound of shattering glass, she had been hard at work trying to keep order in the castle.

She flipped through the initial report. Twilight had absconded with Rainbow Dash, who was currently considered a second hostile target rather than a hostage, leaving behind seven unconscious guards. Luckily, there were no major injuries, aside from one guard with a broken and mostly re-healed jaw. The physicians had been able to patch him up in twenty minutes. As of yet, there were no leads on either pony's current whereabouts, but the Golden Oaks Library was already under 24 hour surveillance. Thankfully, the window Twilight had escaped through faced away from town, and it appeared nopony outside of the guards was aware of what had happened. For now, the PR situation was contained.

That's going to change rather quickly when the guards start putting up wanted posters in every city.

Celestia sighed and rubbed at her face again. Her vain hope of handling Twilight's arrest quickly, quietly, and out of the public eye, had been smashed to pieces by Twilight's rather spectacular self-defenestration. She looked up to see Luna attempting to catch her attention from a side chamber. Dismissing her gathered guard commanders with a nod, she rose and walked over to join her sister, closing the door behind them. Luna fixed her with a disapproving look.

"Forgive us dear sister, but what is it that you think you are doing?"

"What do you mean Luna?"

"What I mean is why are you keeping the guards on hold instead of mobilizing immediately? Why isn't the sky filled with ponies combing over every inch of the land?"

Celestia shook her head. "There's no need to cause a panic when there are more discreet methods available. Now please, it's late in the morning. You should get some rest. I've got everything under control here."

Luna didn't budge. "Ignoring your condescending attempt to brush me aside like a small filly, what are these 'discreet methods' you speak of?"

Celestia shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. "Well, I have maintained a short list of certain trustworthy individuals. Individuals whose services I have had to employ from time to time while you were away. For a modest fee, they will...locate and deliver a specified target, and do so with discretion."

Luna's eyes narrowed as her look of disapproval deepened. "Bounty hunters? We don't need their scum!"

"Luna, please. I know it seems a bit unsavory, but they're very professional, and can handle this quietly, without causing any further disturbance."

"Of course. We wouldn't want to disturb any of the nobles with the messy business of enforcing the laws. Somepony might spill their tea." Luna scoffed as she turned and began to walk towards her chambers. "Be careful Celestia. I know you care deeply for Twilight Sparkle, but do not let your sentimentality weaken your resolve. Remember what happened the last time one of your faithful students went rogue."

"You mean Sunset Shimmer?"

Luna stopped, surprised. "So there was another? Interesting, but no. I don't believe you've told me about her yet. I was referring to that promising student of yours who went and conquered an entire city state before we both stepped in to stop him. Even then, we just got it back after he flung it over a thousand years into the future."

The ever present serenity in Celestia's expression faded, replace by a cold glare. "Twilight is NOT Sombra."

"Indeed. I look forward to seeing what unique destruction she'll have to wreak before you come to your senses and do what needs to be done."

Before Celestia could reply, Luna disappeared in a flash, returning to her chambers to rest for the day. Celestia returned to the throne room, fetching a quill, some ink, and some parchment. After ten minutes of work, she had finished the letters to her 'trusted individuals' describing a substantial reward for the capture, alive and unharmed, of one or both of the ponies in the enclosed picture. Giving them one last read, she decided to underline 'No Disintegrations!', and called for several of her messengers.

After adding her seal, she handed each letter to a different messenger, along with specific direction to a dead drop point. When the last messenger had taken off, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to her reports.

The air was filled with the sound of water crashing onto rocks as a small, but crystal clear waterfall poured forth into a pool filled with water lilies. Concealed behind the curtain of water, sat a cozy cave, just large enough to house two ponies in moderate comfort as long as they didn't mind sharing the single improvised bed.

Another sound echoed through the cave, intermingling with the ambient noise of the waterfall. Annoyed grunts and intermittent cursing reverberated off the walls as Twilight continued to scratch calculations into the dirt with a stick, a task she had been absorbed in for the better part of an hour.

There's got to be some way to narrow it down further! Come on!

But predicting the end point of a botched teleportation spell was far from easy. She could at least be fairly confident that the vector fell somewhere within a 180 degree arc of her intended location. Having a good grasp on her own maximum teleport range, she at least had a rough upper limit on distance. That still left a huge swath of territory to cover, and Twilight had been working furiously on a way to narrow it down.

The best she could come up with so far was to carve the area up into wedges and sub-sections based on the total variation in angle and power from that of her intended jump vector. Assuming she could model her own distraction as the perturbation of a stable system, like bumping a compass needle, those sections closer to the original target received a higher weighted value than those on the far fringes. Based on what she could remember feeling at the time, she was able to do some educated guessing (heavy on the guessing) about minimum error values, and ended up with a series of numbered, lopsided crescents, radiating out symmetrically from her target location.

Still, it was sloppy. There was already far more guesswork than she was comfortable with, and the search area was still huge. To shrink it down any further would require some truly unsubstantiated assumptions.

I don't have time for this! Every second I spend trying to refine this is another second Dash could be in danger, and the perfect is the enemy of the good, or in this case, the 'as good as I'm going to get within the next few hours'.

Throwing down her stick, Twilight turned and grabbed her saddle bags, which she promptly filled with some bare essentials, including food, water, and a first aid kit. Grabbing a notepad, she scribbled down a quick map of her search area, including her final search pattern based on her rough calculations of priority for each zone. As she was about to charge out the door, she thought better of it and paused to write a brief note.

Dash:

If you're reading this, I'm out searching for you. Please stay here and wait for me. I should be back by dark. There's food in the ice chest in the back, and some books and playing cards in one of the boxes.

Love,

Twilight

Placing the note where it would be easily seen, Twilight ran out of the cave and teleported away to begin searching the first zone.

"DASH?!" Twilight called out, sweeping her eyes from side to side in search of her lost marefriend. "DASH, ARE YOU OUT HERE?"

With a disappointed sigh, she crossed another section off of her list, and jumped to the next. Her frequent teleports had allowed her to cover quite a bit of ground already, but it was finally beginning to wear on her. She could feel the tingling of fatigue starting to kick in at the base of her horn, but ignored it. It would still be quite a while until she was truly exhausted anyway.

As she sucked in a breath to resume her calling, Twilight caught sight of something blue in the corner of her eye. Whipping her head to the side, and running over to get a closer look, she found a single blue feather sitting on the ground. Twilight's breath caught in her throat. It was definitely Dash's.

Tucking the feather into her mane, Twilight conducted a quick examination of the area. Judging by the still mostly undisturbed depression in the dirt, Dash had been resting there until recently. Twilight finally breathed a sigh of relief when she finished her inspection and didn't see any blood or signs of struggle, just a single set of hoof prints as Dash stood up and then took to the air.

Dash had woken up on her own. She was safe. She had probably flown up high enough to figure out where she was, and then made a straight line to the meeting point. She was probably waiting for her there right now.

Something nagged at the back of Twilight's mind. What had her directions been?

I told her to meet where we had our one month anniversary date. She knows where that is.

But technically, didn't we actually go to a few other locations first before we ended up in that cave?

Well, yeah. But I'm sure she knows what I meant. We're on the run, and it's the most secluded location. Those other spots are back in Ponyville, and that place is probably swarming with guards by n-

The trees around her shook as a booming noise filled the air. Twilight looked up to see a large rainbow disc expanding in the sky. It was coming from the direction of Ponyville.

Damn It!

Short chapter this time around. There was going to be a lot more, but after a pulse of writing, I realized it might be few days before I add to it again, and what I've got so far is coherent enough for a small chapter. I figure it's good to keep the momentum by publishing what I have instead of just sitting on it and risk falling into another months long gap. It's not like there's some chapter limit I have to stay under, so I can chop them up a bit finer.

So yeah, not a whole lot happening here, but there's some groundwork being laid for later while I try to sort out where I'm taking various plot threads.