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// 50 - Refuge Departed// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

The next day, while allowing Tree to tend to her own wounds and to further assist the others, it was decided quietly that it was time to resume their journey. Fast moved for her horse. "Hello again there." The horse whickered and looked happy to see her, which brought a smile to Fast's face. "I guess I really did save you, didn't I? What a brute, running a majestic beast like you into the ground." She nuzzled gently with the horse. "I have a guest with me. She's very light, so I hope this won't be a problem."

Tree tilted her head a little. "Can she understand you?"

Fast snorted softly. "Not per se, I imagine, but she knows I'm talking to her at least, anyone can see that." She climbed up on top of her horse with the heavy shifting of equally burdensome metal. "Tabitha, come on, up here."

Compared to Fast, Tabitha was indeed light, making the beast no more burdened than it was to begin with, which wasn't to say it wasn't burdened. Tabitha wrapped her arms around Fast, holding steady. "Truth told, I never really rode horses often."

Maud and Tree mounted another together, and Paul got one to himself. Mounted, supplied, and ready, they set off. While most had their eyes set to the west, Tabitha kept sneaking peeks back towards her receding home.

Fast flicked an ear back at her. "It's alright to feel a little odd, leaving home for the first time. I had butterflies in my own belly and there's no shame in it." She looked across to Paul. "Paul! Tell us how you felt the first time you set off."

Paul rubbed behind his head, guiding the horse with the other hand. "Well, shoot. It's still a funny feelin', thinkin' about where I used to be, and where I'm goin' now, come t' think about it."

Tree nodded with a little smile, riding behind Maud. "We still hope to get home. I suppose it's different for you, you are home."

Tabitha blinked at that. "I am?"

Fast nodded as she looked around slowly. "Your new home is with us, so you can't not be home here. You want to be an adventurer? Welcome home."

"I suppose that's true..." She leaned in against Fast a moment. "Why aren't you wearing your crown?"

"It's not mine!" Fast grunted and glared back at Tabitha a moment.

"You said it was." She sheepishly shrank a little, but didn't look very sorry.

Tree called from her horse, "Hey, you never tried laying it on her brow, or Paul's, or Maud's. You really should."

Fast canted her head. "Huh... I should, at lunch, and again at night." She nodded, seemingly certain of things, and they rode on.

When lunch time came around, Fast pulled out the crown as promised, glittering in the high sun, its great sun-like orb seemed almost afire with its power. "Hmm, I don't think we ever looked at it around noon before."

"Far out." Tree gazed at it curiously. "We should all try it, just to see."

Paul nodded. "Sure, just remember it belongs to Fast."

Fast tensed at that, and Tabitha just smiled with triumph.

Perhaps in revenge, Fast placed it on Tabitha's head first, tapping it with a hoof. "There, how's that?"

Tabitha grunted softly, raising her fingers and clenching them into fists. "It feels weird... Like my insides are warming up." She put a hand over her heart. "I feel like my... Like my princess magic is going nuts." She took it off suddenly and let out a loud sigh of relief. "That's too intense, sorry."

Fast snorted softly. "Just as well. You want to be a princess, not a queen or an empress." She reached for the crown and held it gently between her forehooves. "It does make me curious, I admit."

Paul raised a brow at the whole thing. "You don't got pony in your family, do ya?"

Tabitha flushed hotly. "W-what? Can people and ponies even do that? Wouldn't they be half pony? What would that even look like?"

Fast raised a brow. "Yes. I've seen the result of such unions, as trysts or enduring marriages. They prefer to call themselves pony satyrs, though they are typically much kinder and gentler than the average randy satyr."

Tabitha waved over herself. "Well I don't think I'm one of those, nor was mum or dad."

Fast shrugged. "Who could say? If a pony did somehow reach the human lands long ago enough, perhaps most of the pony bred out."

Tabitha looked at her still warmed hands as she turned them forward and back. "I have pony in me?"

"I can't say for certain, but possibly?"

Tree Hugger grinned. "Righteous." She reached out a hoof towards Tabitha. "You really are our little sister."

Paul snorted softly. "That means someone was putting it to a full grown pony, then a half pony?"

Fast raised a brow at Paul. "Love finds a way. We're not here to criticize someone's choice in life partner."

Maud reached for the crown silently and put it on her own head. "Anything?" But nothing seemed to happen. She reported nothing, and she didn't explode into fire or fly apart. She shrugged softly and took it off before turning to Paul and setting it on him.

Tabitha burst into a fit of giggles. "Hello, my liege."

Waving it off, Paul reached up to fiddle with the crown. "Not really feelin' much besides that I'm wearin' a crown n' all." He pulled it off and turned it around in his hands. "It's really nice lookin', don't you think? Reckon it took some bloke ferever ta get it just so."

"To speak nothing of its enchantments." Fast moved towards Paul and slipped her head between his hands, popping the crown on her head. "Mmm, nothing, but it's light, so I wouldn't know if its usual properties are still..." Her gaze swept suddenly over the clearing and she scowled. "On the other hoof." She nudged her lance down, which was enough cue for Paul to pull his sword free and Maud to begin looking around for danger.

But there was no visible danger. Despite that, Fast charged out into the grass. "You won't sneak up on us!" Her lance caught something just before she was bashed aside several feet.

Bright took flight from Tree's back and circled overhead as Paul moved for where Fast had been struck. "Where is it?"

"Right here." She stepped in, her armor giving a loud ring as something struck it indirectly. She struck out with her lance, snarling. "It's invisible, about the size of a man, like an angry cloud."

Tree Hugger frowned. "I don't know the song of the wind, but maybe it can understand us anyway? Hey, dude, we don't want to fight you."

"No?" Came a soft voice from the air, not visible to most. "Then stop fighting."

Fast drew back a step, ceasing her assault. "Oh? You weren't sent to kill us?"

"I was sent to find you, and I have."

"H-hey, come back here!" Fast took several steps forward, head craned to look up into the sky. "Who sent you?!" She kicked the ground with a grunt. "Gone. Damn it all."

Paul slid his blade back on his back. "Just as well, swinging at literal air's not my style."

Tabitha wriggled her fingers. "I didn't know where to aim..."

Fast waved it off. "It's fine, and we're still moving. Hopefully whatever it is won't keep following us." She tapped the crown on her head. "I'll keep this on to see it, just in case."

Tree Hugger raised a hoof. "Hey, man, I didn't get my turn. Don't cop out on me."

Fast glanced around as if looking for something, then nodded and lowered her head. Tree lifted the crown before placing it on her own head. "Righteous... I can see your auras, I mean really strong and vibrant. I can see everything." She smiled dreamily. "It makes so much sense..." She turned to regard Tabitha and stared at her curiously. "Oh, hello pony princess."

Tabitha looked as confused as most of the others. "Um, hello? Can you actually see me? You look like you're staring through me, Tree Hugger."

"Oh yeah..." She sank a bit. When Bright came in to land on her back, she collapsed entirely, looking around with that sleepy smile. "Woah, Fast, woah... You are way freaking me out right now, girl." She suddenly burst into laughter, interrupted with a little hiccup.

Paul raised a brow at the pony. "It's like she's smoking, without the smoke."

Fast licked over her lips as she circled Tree Hugger. "That may be accurate, but I think she really is seeing things."

"Where'd you go?" Tree looked around, but stopped at Maud. "Sister of stone... Oh wow. Your aura is like slate, so strong, but those cracks..." She rose up and took staggering steps towards Maud. "Those ugly cracks. How long have you been harboring those wicked stress marks? I'm so sorry, sister. Can I--" She suddenly pitched forward. Bright took flight as Tree crashed into Maud's hooves. The crown fell to the ground.

Maud glanced left and right before she reached for Tree by the scruff with her mouth and pulled her up to her own hooves.

Tree smiled, lucidity slowly returning to her eyes. "Thanks, sister." She sat back on her haunches and shook her head slowly. "That was way trippy." She raised a forehoof to her head. "I'm crashing hard over here."

Fast snatched up the crown and tucked it away. "It certainly has an effect on you. I think you were deep in the throes of a near oracular vision. You should relax and try to process it. Everyone else, let's go. Maud, keep her upright."

Maud nodded, and soon they were all mounted back up.

Taking flight across the plains, they weren't troubled again by invisible stalkers or bandits, at least for the first several days of journey. During the night, the crown seemed to impart the ability to pierce darkness to Fast and Tabitha, but didn't quicken Tabitha's blood or flood Tree with visions. The mysteries of it only deepened. "If you can see with it, you should remember it will probably let you see invisible things, like it did for me with that stalker around," instructed Fast, looking at Tabitha. "Just in case."

Tree didn't lose interest in the crown with her flood of visions. Quite the contrary, she asked to have it back. "Lay it on me. I want to see more. There were things. I can barely remember them." She pointed at Fast. "I want to grok you, sister. I want to bathe in your aura and know you."

Tabitha glanced aside at Paul. "Is that how she propositions people she likes?"

Paul shrugged. "I wouldn't be that surprised if it was."

Fast frowned thoughtfully. "It could be harming you."

Tree snorted. "I'm an adult, sister. I can decide what's bad for me or not. Don't be a narc about it. Hook a sister up." She smiled pleadingly at Fast, though getting her to change her mind proved difficult.