The two of them landed on the ground with a jarring thud, at least for the mortal of the two. Time was approaching mid afternoon, the warm sun beating down on them from above. Theá released Amaretto from her magical grip, letting him drop the last few centimetres onto the ground, small indentations forming in the dry ground where he landed. They had seen hide nor hair of Scalpel as they flew, even with Theá’s unrealistically sharp senses. In fact, Amaretto had barely through of even finding him, at this point just glad to be on his way home. But he had an errand to run first. He looked ahead at Northgate still a good kilometre away, sitting snugly on a hill top. Had he not known better he would have thought the town peaceful. A happy place. The smoke circled upwards towards the sky from the chimneys, and what little he could see from so far away, the tiny pinpricks of ponies walking about before disappearing out of his sight, made it seems idyllic. The corners of his lips turned upwards in the ghost of a smile. It reminded him of home. “What will you be doing here?” The question came from beside him and, although not a surprise, did shake him out of his own thoughts. Tearing his gaze from the far-away town he met Theá’s sharp eyes. It struck him then for some reason, how beautiful and young she looked, but her eyes were as old as anything he had ever seen. Older even. He let out a small hum which turned into more of a grunt. “I have to meet someone. Call me soft hearted, but there’s someone here I want to help who’s not part of my family.” He snorted then, a small guffaw following as his gaze returned to the town “Strange, isn’t it?” Theá didn’t answer at first, instead following his eyes to the collection of wooden houses. She had an inquisitive look on her face as she stood there. Thinking. “Perhaps,” she said at length. “And perhaps not. You are compassionate towards those who have shown you kindness. I believe… I believe my sister, Silver Sweeper, might say that you have a heart to match your body.” Just as she had said it she could already feel the stallion’s eyes on her. Looking back at him she found him with eyes as wide as ever, mouth as close to gaping as it could without looking utterly stupid. “Did you just try to make a joke?” He asked, closing his mouth and reigning in his surprise although it was still very much present in his voice. “I suppose,” Theá admitted, tilting her head, thinking it over. “I don’t know.” She shrugged and repositioned her wings for better comfort. “You don’t approve?” Amaretto shook his head, although not so much as to appear insulting. He hoped. “You’re not exactly the best at jokes, no. Best leave them to your sister, I think.” He took a step towards the town, stopping to look back at the goddess. “Thank you for bringing me this far. And… good luck with whatever it is you’ll be doing.” “And you too,” she replied, giving him a nod in recognition of the luck wished upon her. She spread her wings then, about to take off, but gave the stallion a final look before she flew away. “Thank you for your help, Amaretto. While nothing much came of it this time, it was appreciated. Until next time.” A powerful flap of her wings and she was off, shooting towards the clouds at incredible speeds, only gaining more as she beat her wings again. The resulting buffet of wind from where she had taken off almost threw Amaretto off his hooves, making him stumble away several steps to avoid falling. A grumble followed as he looked up at the green shape that was his goddess, muttering something about her needing to mind those around her when she takes off. His frown, however, soon loosened up, and he made his way towards Northgate, already knowing who it was he would be visiting. [hr] Amaretto made his way into the inn little less than an hour later, pushing the door open carelessly and letting it bang against the wall. He, however, closed it properly behind him. Ignoring the stares he had garnered from his rather rude entrance he made his way up to the bar, his silver eyes locking onto the bored looking bartender, the same plain stallion he had met the last time he was here. “Yes? What can I do for you?” He asked when Amaretto had come near enough to speak to. “Food? Drink? ...something else?” “Amber.” The bartender lifted an eyebrow. “So scotch?” “No. Amber, the pegasus mare,” Amaretto pressed. A knowing smile spread across the bartender’s lips, a glint entering his eyes which, for the first time, made him look slightly less boring and plain. “Very well. That will be ten bits, then.” He held his hoof forward in what could only be called a greedy manner. Without complaint the coins were fished out of Amaretto’s saddlebags and placed in the waiting hoof. “Which room?” He asked. “You will find her in room 072. Up the stairs and to your left.” The bartender didn’t even care to make sure that Amaretto found the fight room, nor that he only ‘visited’ one of the girls. [i]Greedy fucker,[/i] he thought, making his way up. He hoped the room had a window. He walked up the stairs and turned, a long hallway with doors on either side stretching before him. The inn itself wasn’t terribly big, so how they even had enough room for more than seventy two rooms was a mystery. He figured that they had hollowed out some of the adjacent buildings and used them for additional rooms. The town was rather tightly packed, after all. He continued down the hall, watching the numbers on each door until, finally, he found a door with a large “72” emblazoned upon it. He knocked on it twice before pushing it open, finding an amber coloured pegasus mare in the process of braiding her opal blue mane. She sat on a stool in front of a desk with a mirror, her eyes having shifted to the door reflected in the polished surface in front of her. A smile spread quickly across her lips at the sight of the stallion in the doorway. She turned around, a glimmer of excitement coming into her eyes. “Hello there. Amaretto, was it?” She put the finishing touches on her bread and hopped down from the stool, walking slowly towards him. “I figured you’d be back. So… ready to be a little naughty this time?” The stallion was quick to shake his head, holding up a hoof to stall her in her advance. “Afraid not. I have another reason for coming here.” That got a curious look from the smaller mare, one ear flopping to the side, only adding to her puzzled expression. “And what would that be? Not another night-long conversation?” “You sound almost as if you don’t enjoy a good conversation,” Amaretto chuckled. “No. I want something else, but first.” He closed the door behind him and, walking further into the room, turned to face Amber. “If you could, would you leave this place?” The answer came almost immediately. “I would. It’s not that I hate my job, but I fear the war. I feel far too close to it, honestly. Why?” Her eyes narrowed, although there were no anger in her look, only scrutiny. “Do you know how I could get away? The guy downstairs wouldn’t let me, certainly, and I have nowhere to go even if I tried to leave.” “I… might know a place.” Amaretto absentmindedly scratched his chin, almost in an anxious way, as if he was far too self-conscious about what he was thinking about. Steeling himself, he let his hoof back onto the floor with an audible thud, and spoke. “I want you to come with me. I live with my family in a place far from here, and safe. We… I…” he stopped, ears turning around to spot any possible sound. When he was satisfied that there were no one nearby he resumed. “My home is hidden and protected by Theá Erimo, the wilderness goddes.” Amber didn’t seem perturbed that his home was shielded by one of the alicorn gods. Instead she just asked. “Which?” “The green one. The one reputed to move too quickly for the naked eye to see. In return for working for her whenever she needs me, she has given me and my family a home which no one can find. Only those who already know where it is can find it. I will be honest, even if I don’t know you I want you to have a life free of this war. You, and many others, don’t deserve to live in fear of hordes of undead swarming over you, or whatever pitched battle Stormwing and Earthborne decide to arrange. Call me a sentimental old fart, but I want you safe, if only because you seem like a kind person.” Amber had the decency to blush at the statement, hoof raised to cover her growing smile. “I… I would like to get away from all this, but… is it safe? Getting out I mean. The old man won’t want me to leave. I [i]am[/i] one of his most popular after all.” Her smile took on a temporary proud look. “But… Yeah. I want to get away to somewhere safer. Can you promise me that you’ll keep me safe?” Amaretto nodded. “I promise. But we will need to get out without being noticed. That—” he looked around, quickly finding the window to a back alley he was hoping for “—is what we’ll need that window for. We jump out and make a run for it. If luck has it we’ll be far away when he realises that we’ve left.” He stepped towards it, horn already lighting up and grasping the window’s latch. “I’m going to leave regardless. I’ve let my wife and daughter wait for far too long for me to return.” He looked back at her. “So now is the time to decide. Do you want to come or not?” For all of a second Amber looked as if she didn’t know what to do. But in that second thoughts swirled through her mind, each warring for the front spot and attention. They wanted to be heard, to be the one to be the deciding factor. Should she go, or should she not? On one hand it would be a good chance for her to get away from the war—provided he was telling the truth—and she would likely never get another chance. On the other hand he could be luring her into some trap or whatever. But was Amaretto really such a stallion? She had known him for only a short time, spent less than a full day with him, but what she had seen lead her to believe that he was one that could be trusted. He worked for a God, a being similar to Celestia and Luna, so they had to be good, right? The second passed, and she decided. It was risky, and she bet everything on him. She just hoped he told her the truth. “I trust you. Let’s go.” [i]Please let this not be a trap,[/i] she thought, following him as he opened the window and crawled out, holding it up for her. [i]And please let his wife not be the kind that goes ballistic when she sees another mare close to her husband.[/i] [hr] Amber stopped, panting and sweating more than she could remember having ever done before. She let out a weak cry for Amaretto to stop, which he did, and slumped down, leaning against a rock on the side of the road. They had been running for the past two hours, having not stopped for rest for a single second to get as far away from Northgate as possible. Amaretto himself was panting and sweating as well, but not as much as the younger mare. In her prime though she may be, she had done little training aside from what was necessary to give herself a healthy and slender look. “We need to hurry. We can’t risk them catching up on us,” he said. “I-I know, but I’ve never been running for this long before. I… I’m dead tired. Can’t we at least take a short break?” She tried to make her eyes as big and innocent as possible in an attempt to persuade him, and, to some extent, it worked. Amaretto grumbled something under his breath, but lit his horn and lifted the small mare off of the ground and deposited her on his back. “Rest if you want, but we have to keep going.” “O-Okay,” she breathed out, resting her head between his shoulders. “Thanks.” Unseen to her, a small smile played at the corners of the stallion’s lips. “You’re welcome.” And then he continued on, a brisk trot to keep up speed, but not burn too much energy. They had a long way to go, after all. [hr] Theá touched down on the small stone plateau, folding her wings carefully at her side. It had been little over two hours since she had delivered Amaretto at his destination near Northgate, and had set off towards her own destination. Back in the inn room she and Amaretto had share in Woodswatch she had gotten a notion, or more like a thought planted in her mind. She had often been told of a light in the south, but had always dismissed it as nothing but a campfire or a small town in the mountains being seen from a distance, but in that room a thought had struck her: Luna and Celestia couldn’t be found anywhere in Equestria and beyond as far as Theá and her followers could find. She—the tracker among trackers—had not been able to find her quarry, so could they really be on this plane? She thought it unlikely, and so, had latched onto the one clue she had so far dismissed in her arrogance, and went for it. And that was where she was now, on the very plateau where the Southern Light was said be. And it was. A score metres away was what looked like a spherical orb of light, half again the size of Theá herself, similar to Celestia in size in fact. Its light was soft but of no discernible colour. “So this is it?” She asked the empty air, brows furrowing and ears swivelling about in search of anything. “It certainly isn’t of mortal origin, that much I can guarantee. Maybe…” She lit her horn and closed her eyes, letting an aura of her magic blanket a large area around her, easily a hundred or so metres. There were insects aplenty, as well as what shrubbery could survive on the plateau, but there was no other life here. But even if it was not life, there was still the Southern Light. She refocused on the orb in front of her and felt it. It shone like a thousand beacon to her magical senses. Of all the things she had met on the mortal plane nothing came even close to exuding as much raw power and magic as this thing did. It dwarfed Theá herself with such magnitude that she doubted even Celestia and Luna combined would be even close to matching it. It was so much that it caused physical pain to run through her horn, so much so that she forcibly tore herself away from her magic, cutting it off in a gambit to get rid of the pain. She found herself panting, groaning from the last vestiges of pain surging through her horn. Now she understood what it was, and she also understood why only one of her own Verse did it. It was a portal, a tear in the fabric of creation itself. And the reason why she had not felt it until now was quite simple: It had been cloaked from magical senses so as to avoid a magical overload across the entire unicorn population. It caused this much pain when she scrutinized it, but if a mortal were to do it… the pain would be unbearable and, possibly, lethal. “Explains why whoever made this shielded it like this.” She swallowed and stepped forward. She had a pretty good idea of where it lead, and possibly even to whom. It was only a matter of trying. There was no other way, is what she thought. She had to go there herself. “And what sort of Hunter am I if not I follow my quarry wherever the tracks may lead?” She mumbled something unintelligible at her own hesitance and, steeling herself, stepped forward. The portal loomed in front of her. She breathed in and, summoning forth her conviction, stepped through it.