>Hope woke up to a glorious dawn.
>Birds chirped as they hopped among the boughs of nearby trees, and faintest babbling of a spring nearby provided comfort to Hope.
>She didn't ever want to be thirsty again.
And now she didn't have to.
>Hope sprung up with a huff, bounding out of the clearing and into the dusky forest in the direction of the delicious water.
>Within a couple minutes she had found it, the small clear stream flowing among rocks and sand and rippling gloriously.
>Hope Jumped down into the shallow clear water, splashing her face and smiling as she finally drank her fill.
>Quenched and soaking, she returned to the clearing, lying back into a bed of flattened grass to let the sun dry her.
How long could she stay here?
Certainly it was safe enough, and she had learned from anon how to set up a small camp in case of storms, and how to procure food in the forest; nuts berries mostly, but sometimes small animals as well.
But where to go next?
>Hope was certain that the ponies hadn't simply given up on finding her.
>But, similarly she couldn't give up either.
>As similar a life on the run sounds to banishment, the two were completely different things in this world.
>Outside of Celestia's domain, the Griffon empire and the Dragonlands existed, not unpleasant in their own right perhaps.
>But neither were liveable options for Hope.
>Dragons would hardly pay her any mind if she were to visit, but they were very territorial, and would chase her away the moment she started to make camp... that, or hunt her in the night.
>Alternatively, the Griffon's had a society similar in structure to that of the ponies, except perhaps in small details in leadership.
>However, the current Griffon king was very much Celestia's pet, and not only might she be unwelcome there because of that, but the king's obvious corruption had lead to recent political upheaval, including the appearance of a revolutionary named Monsieur Gray.
>While their current king was a sycophant but a harmless one, Gray wanted nothing to do with ponykind, and wanted to keep them and their controlling influence away from "his" nation.
>Such a thing might be good for the griffons; after all, their alliance with Equestria had lead to many staples of griffon society, including rough sports and eating meat, to become strongly 'discouraged' by their surrogate princess.
>What Celestia had considered civilizing, they considered unreasonable, and when the king sided with her and started enforcing her absurd suggestions... well, revolution was the only option.
>But even in the best of cases, all this meant for Hope was that she could not go there.
>The griffons wanted nothing to do with satyrs or humans, and she would be deported the instant her hooved legs stepped off the boat, or stay and risk being attacked by the anti-pony mob.
So where was she to go? Only thing for it was to keep running, keep alive.
Never get caught again.
>Luckily, now Hope had an ace up her sleeve.
 
>"I got it!"
>"I figured it out! I did it! I did it! I DID IT YESSSSSS!"
Applejack awoke with a groan to the purple jumping bean that was Twilight.
"Mornin'" she drawled slowly, blinking groggily as she stared at her energetic friend.
>"Good morning Applejack! Did you sleep well? I didn't! I stayed up all night, but I finally understand!"
"Listen, Twi. That's nahce and ahl" Applejack grumbed aloud, "but what tahm is it? Ah need to sleep, and these here"
She gestured at the stack of books in front of her, "dohn't mahk good pillows."
>Twilight wasn't listening, exclaiming to the room the details of her incredible discovery as she bounded around the table to wake Pinkie and Rainbow.
>"So then I cast a memory spell, and"
Applejack rubbed her eyes gently with her hooves, tuning the pony out with a practised ear.
Where was her hat? Ah, there it was! Wait, what?
Applejack held up the hat staring intently at it as she willed it to go back to normal.
>Instead of the sweeping tan stetson, Applejack held in her hooves a dark brown pony hat that looked remarkably like-
"Braeburn's!"
>"What?" Responded Twilight, her stream of description stopped for a moment, "No... no, Hope's. Anyways..."
>Twilight rambled on again, leaving Applejack with a funny hat and a few important questions.
She stood up to look around for an explanation for the odd hat, and as she stood her own hat toppled from her head.
>Applejack hadn't noticed it, but it had been there the whole time.
Phew! Well that was a relief. But why did she have Braeburn's hat, then?
>Applejack looked back at Twilight, as Twi herself went about the rather difficult job of waking up the Rainbow and Pink mares snoring on the library floor.
>Pinkie Pie started to stir, and Applejack sighed inwardly for a moment.
Guess ah won't be gettin' any more sleep ahfter all. Oh, well.
Applejack looked around for a window, finally seeing one at the far end of the hall, the faint orange glint of a sunrise beginning to brighten the room.
>"Okay, ponies! Let's head out" Twilight piped up in the empty library, piercing Applejack's sleep-deprived brain. "We'll catch up with the others at the train station, and Rarity ought to have a heading by now so we can plan our next move from there."
Hopefully they would be able to get some sleep on the train ride.
>After a day in Canterlot to research and rest, they were finally ready to continue the hunt.
Hopefully Twilight's new information would prove itself worth the sleep-hours it had cost.
Judging by her excitement, it would.
Perhaps this would be over soon. She ached to get back on the farm, and things were bound to be difficult without her.
But no point on banking on it, so far this mission had been nothing if not abounding with unexpected delays and encounters.
 
Okay, it's been a couple days since I've written anything, and I'm more than half asleep at the moment of writing.
So, if y'all don't like the content or direction I'm taking with this chapter, or they way I wrote it, say something and I'll rewrite it tomorrow when I'm a bit more alert.
At any rate, I felt I owed this one to you guys, especially after how long I've been making you wait for chapters. Hope you like it!
Also, I don't know how I feel about the backstory I gave the griffon kingdom. It isn't terribly important to the storyline, and it might be poorly cramming elements of chaotic human countries into the elegant world of Equestria, or perhaps it came out well. One of the two.
Finally, I've been experimenting a bit with my greenexting formatting. The 'Hope' section is my normal format, with internal thoughts the only thing not green.
The 'Ponies' section has the thoughts, speech, and actions of one of the ponies (this time Applejack) not green. Does it work?
If anybody feels like criticising, have at it.
P.S. WE WON! SATYR IS BACK! WAHOO!