Thundershock

North would grunt as he's thrown on his back and held down. He'd take a moment, trying to collect himself and think of what to say next. "Moral doctrine? I don't think there was anything related to that... ugh... your highness."

"Oh really? Then what did she tell you?" Tempest inquired.

North would scramble for an idea, unsure if he should tell them exactly what Fantasy told him or if he should try and make something up. He didn't even know why he didn't want to tell the truth, but he wasn't currently in a position to sit and think on it. "Uhhh... I honestly don't really remember. I think it was about the sun and moon, your highnesses, but I don't recall anything that'd warrant alarm." He'd shift a bit, trying to get himself more free from Tempest's grip or at least get more comfortable on the ground.

Tempest growled. "You know lying to me like this is treason?"

"Let him go, Tempest." the Princess of Law ordered. "Give him a day to come to his senses. Perhaps he will be willing to talk once the mare has left."

Tempest growled again, but backed away, allowing North to get up. "I want you patrolling the area." she barked, wings flared, "No more of this 'sitting next to her buddy-buddy' manure! Up and down the cobblestone path, nopony else allowed in the vicinity! And no more talking to her! You are not to speak to her unless it is to give a command, and if she tries to communicate with you, hit her until she stops!" Tempest stomped over to Fantasy, who shrunk back. Tempest scowled, brought her hoof back, and SMACKED Fantasy across the face hard enough to send her flying onto the ground.

The historian Princess gasped. Princess Prosperity massaged the bridge of her muzzle with her hoof. The Princess of Law simply draped her hoof over her face and muttered, "Oh, for the love of Cerulea..."

Tempest looked back at North. "Like that! Am I understood? This is an order, blank flank."

North would slowly rise back onto his hooves, dusting himself off before returning to attention as Tempest barks at him. When she smacks Fantasy across the face and sends her to the ground he pauses for a moment, his mouth hanging open and one of his eyes twitching for a moment. He'd shake his head rapidly to snap himself back before giving Tempest a salute, speaking in a stern voice. "Understood, ma'am!"

He'd then take to the sky, his eyes glancing towards Fantasy for a few moments as he flies over towards the edge of the path. Once there he'd turn around and begin marching towards the other end, ushering any other ponies out of the way, if they were there.

Princess Tempest wore a self-satisfied smile, watching North march up and down the stretch of cobblestone and finally driving their citizens away from the toxic influence chained to the lamp post. Who she smacked back down when she tried to stand up.

"Enough, Tempest!" the Princess of Law said. "Somehow I suspect that you forgot why we put the foreigner out here in the first place."

"I didn't forget. I just think it's a dumbass idea." Princess Tempest responded, scowling as Fantasy got up again.

"So you deliberately overrode my orders?" the Law Princess asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I..." Princess Tempest's ears flattened. She turned to the Law Princess, glaring but leaning away and lifting a forehoof. "I did what I thought was best! And I think you'll find that I'm right when she-" Pointing at Fantasy. "-leaves, and he-" Pointing at North. "-is no longer under her influence!"

The Law Princess didn't budge. "We will discuss this when we get back to the castle, as well as any other grievances you have with the current arrangements, and you will not give orders that override my authority again."

Princess Tempest ducked her head. "Yes, Princess Ordinance."

"Come now, all three of you." Princess Ordinance ordered. "Back to the castle so that we may finish our day's duties before sun down." The princesses took to the air, Princess Tempest giving North one last glare before catching up with the other three.

North continues marching up and down the path. Once the Princesses were out of sight he'd pause in his current spot, his head turning to look at Fantasy. His expression would seem to be blank, his brain simply thinking. He'd sigh before returning to his marching, though he'd be moving slower and would seem to be distracted. Why do I feel like this is wrong?

Fantasy stared back, but didn't make a sound. She watched him for a bit before turning her gaze up to watch the sky turn dark, wondering many things about this Pegasopolis city-state, thinking about how glad she was that she was simply allowed to go home, and then wondering what the trip back would be like... assuming she or even the entire crew made it anywhere except to the bottom of the ocean. With no ponies passing through, and nopony to talk to, Fantasy's lazily drifting thoughts were only interrupted once by the brown earth pony, visiting once again to bring more food and take a wine bottle to presumably refill.

By moonrise, the night guard came in, signalling North's time to leave. Also a good time for Fantasy to make herself comfortable on the ground again, as with that guard around, she wouldn't have anything else to do except sleep. Not that she had anything to occupy her time with in North's presence either, but... well, there was no point in delaying sleep if there was nothing to delay it for.

---

Fantasy jerked awake at the sound of a loud clang right next to her ear. She blinked a few times, then registered the sounds of struggle, of metal scraping against metal, of grunting and heavy breathing and gagging...

Gagging? Gagging! Fantasy flipped over and looked up to see a grey-green earth pony mare hunched over an armored form (who after a second she recognized as the night guard) snarling and pressing her hooves into his neck. The guard was gagging, grimacing, beating at her wildly and violently with his hooves and wings, a few times hitting Fantasy in the face, until his thrashing grew weaker and finally stopped altogether, his limbs falling limp at his sides and his face going slack.

The earth pony got up, dusted herself off, then realized Fantasy was awake. A palpable second passed by, then she whispered, "We need to leave. You're not safe here." She swiped a knife out of the grass, reached Fantasy in one stride, and before Fantasy could react cut her collar off in one swift motion. "Come with me." she urged, then leapt over the hedge. Fantasy trotted up to the ledge and peeked out over the top, watching the earth pony gallop (remarkably silently) for a few more yards before stopping and turning around to check on Fantasy. "Wha- come on!" she whispered, urging her forward with a hoof.

Fantasy glanced at the hedge, then looked back up at the pony helplessly and apologetically.

"Oh. Right." The earth pony galloped back over to her, jumped the hedge, picked her up, then tossed her over- thud -and hopped back.

---

Northern Wind would be the first pony to discover the night guard's corpse, and the nearby knife.

North would fly over the horizon, heading towards the spot Fantasy had been.  He'd seem to be flying a bit erratically, shaking his head occasionally to try and wake himself up.  He'd land on the nearby path, yawning floudly before he notices the body.  He'd tense up, head instantly snapping upwards before quickly flying up to the body and inspecting it.  His expression would show horror upon realizing that the guard is dead.  He'd then become enraged, looking over towards where Fantasy should be, cursing quite loudly when he sees only the split collar.  The Princesses were right!  Maybe I should've told them the truth.  How did she even get out?  Why would she kill the guard?  He'd lose himself for a moment as his mind struggles to make sense of the situation.  She should've just been executed!

North would look around for a few moments before noticing the knife, having missed it during his initial shock.  He'd trot over to it, picking it up and inspecting it for a minute.  Where did this knife come from?  Unless...  He'd look around again, seeing if anypony else was nearby before sighing as he sees none.  Did some other pony help free her?  They must've killed the guard...  or freed her and then she did it?  He'd rapidly shake his head, trying to refocus himself on the bigger problem.  The outsider was gone and a guard was dead.  He might join the guard if he doesn't get her back.

North would throw the knife back to the ground, taking to the skies and trying to see if he can find any evidence of where Fantasy had gone.  He'd let out a rather loud growl in anger before looking to the sky, shouting "DAMMIT!" as he scans the entire park area. Upon noticing nothing that could give him any leads he'd take off towards the sky, flying towards the castle of the Princesses.

Fantasy was taken through winding miles of the empty streets and dark back alleys of Unicornia, after being de-muzzled in the park, avoiding the eyes of patrolling pegasus guards and night strollers. After what may have been hours, certainly long enough for the moon to have stretched the shadows two and a half pony heights, Fantasy and the grey-green earth pony reached a vast area of open farmland, broken up by huts, shacks, and the occasional two-story brick building and purely symbolic wooden fence. This was the earth pony section of Pegasopolis.

Fantasy's dodging and weaving didn't end there as she had to crawl through countless crops, hide in the shadow of any building they actually came across, and sometimes Fantasy had to duck her head and simply pray that nopony saw the silhouette of her horn. Finally, the earth pony brought her into a particular two-story building, where she was brought into the basement, and just a minute later the green earth pony came back with the brown one who'd been delivering food to her.

The brown earth pony, who Fantasy had learned was named Copper, was not happy to see her.

"You what?"Copper asked the grey-green earth pony, who Fantasy learned to be Shrubbery, in a low tone.

"I- I had no choice! He was going to slit her throat!" Shrubbery responded defensively.

Copper grunted. "And then you-... but he would've... and who knows how long it would've been until..." She shouted, then started pacing. "Great, that's just great. Well, there goes the boat! There goes the reinforcements! There goes our single greatest plan ever." She stopped. "Well, perhaps not our greatest plan, but possibly our most promising."

"That's assuming a lot of things." Shrubbery pointed out.

"Yeah... yeah. I guess." Copper's head sunk, and she plopped down on her rump. But then... it came back up. She turned to Fantasy and asked, "Would you be willing to tell us about Equestria? And... because I probably won't believe you anyway, would you be willing to... to get us there? Just a few of us, so that we can make sure you're not lying?"

Fantasy immediately nodded.

"You realize that if we find you're lying, we'll kill you without a second thought?"

Fantasy nodded again, not looking the least bit distressed by that.

"Alright then. Start talking."

---

"I KNEW SHE SHOULD'VE BEEN EXECUTED!" Tempest roared, slamming her hoof on her desk. She and North were currently in her royal office. "I TOLD ORDINANCE THAT SHE SHOULD'VE BEEN EXECUTED, BUT DID SHE BUCKING LISTEN?! NO!" She slammed her hoof again. "She just decided to go soft for a cute, weak-looking little unicorn just this once, because what harm could it do?! 'She just wants to go home'!" She said that last part in a very mocking falsetto and slammed both hooves on her desk. She was starting to damage the finish. "And now she's missing, running amok in our kingdom! Who knows what damage even one surface-born unicorn could do?"

North listens intently to what Tempest says. He'd remain at attention, though he seems a bit distraught by the situation. He'd wait for her to finish speaking. "Let me go after her. We can get a group of the guard together and scour the city for her. We'll bring her back, and anyone who helped her and you can execute them personally, your highness." North would sound stern as he says this, seeming almost as if he's giving an order, though he clearly tries not to.

"Don't insinuate to tell me what I can and can't do." Princess Tempest snapped. "And you will have nothing more to do with this mare! Your actions- your failures have made her enough of a problem already! I will send search parties out, I will offer rewards, I will turn this city inside out and upside down if I have to!"

Suddenly Tempest's eyes widened, as if a lightbulb over her head had just blinked on.

"...I'll send the Thunderbird." she whispered.

North would growl lightly before recomposing himself. "Your highness, the Thunderbird might also tear apart the city! Shouldn't we send out the parties first before sending the thunderbird? I understand this is a failure of mine, but I understand the threat now. Let me go after her, you know she'll just flee from anyone else."

"Hm." Tempest put her hoof to her chin. "I suppose if she's truly foolish enough to trust you, that's one more advantage. And don't underestimate the Thunderbird, it's smarter and better trained than most dogs, and I'll bet that filly's scent is still fresh in its memory. The search parties and you failing, as well as the Wanted posters, I'll send the Thunderbird after her. It's not ideal, bringing the Thunderbird in will probably cause upset in a majority of the city, but if this is what it takes to take this pony down..."

North nods to her in understanding. "Thank you for sending me out. I'll bring her back to you in one piece so you can finish her yourself, your highness." He'd think for a moment before a question pops into his head. "What about the other princesses?"

"Well, seeing as you've just told me about this disaster, I'm currently the only princess who knows. Rest assured, there will be a royal council by noon."

---

Come morning, Fantasy was walking in the streets of Unicornia in broad daylight. It had been concluded that, due to... recent developments, the earth pony section would be the first place the royal guard searched for Fantasy, so the three ponies had sneaked back into the urban setting and made it to their destination just as the sun started to peek over the surface horizon and lighten the Pegasopolis skies.

Fantasy had been taken into the bathroom of a dwelling set over a Unicornian mane salon and hoofed over to another earth pony that, for the first time Fantasy had seen so far, actually had a cutie mark. Fantasy had required over an hour just to get cleaned and groomed, and then another two hours for her mane to be bleached and dyed, and then another hour to dye on a different cutie mark. And that entire process quickly became a horrific game of both going behind the back of the unicorn shop owner and employees and racing against the clock as they demanded more and more forcefully to be let into the bathroom, even if it was being "cleaned", because dammit they needed to go!

Fantasy felt immense relief by the time she'd been safely and discreetly released at just under two hours before noon, though she knew her troubles were far from over. She had no idea where she was going and had no guide (she doubted the city even had a map. Why would the citizens even need one, after all?), and she'd already spotted Wanted posters of herself in places. She wished the earth ponies had given her some hint of what to do next before they'd left; though she could understand them being in a hurry, leaving her floundering wasn't exactly helpful for anypony.

North would be slowly flying over the streets in Unicornia, down the roads Fantasy and North traveled before Fantasy told him she was an outsider. He'd be alone, choosing to not be with the other search parties currently combing the city. He had a plan, but he wasn't completely sure it'd even work or how to best go about it.

She'd either be hiding out somewhere or constantly moving... She does stand out, so I'm guessing she's hiding somewhere, but where? He'd scan down alleyways and sidewalks as he flies through the small section of the sub-city. He'd float to the ground before sighing. This isn't going to work... but I don't have any better ideas. I can't join the other parties because if she sees them she'll just flee or maybe use magic to defend herself. If she sees just me... maybe she'll come up to me. He'd sigh again, realizing he's putting a bit too much trust in this flawed plan of his. He'd take to the skies again.

Having to fake navigational competence in such a visually overwhelming environment as Unicornia wasn't easy, especially if one didn't have a destination in mind. Fantasy felt that she was performing quite the balancing act, trying to look around just enough so that it seemed like she was merely checking where she was going instead of trying to figure out where she was and where she might go next. Or maybe it wasn't impressive at all and it only seemed that way to her because she was sleep-deprived and hadn't had a thing to eat or drink since yesterday, and had already expended so much of her energy going back and forth between halfway through Unicornia and halfway through Earth through the most convoluted routes to avoid detection, and then had to sneak in a four-hour beauty session in a stranger's bathroom. By now, she suspected that she was just barely managing not to stagger through the streets like a drunkard. What was she going to do if she could barely walk straight, let alone think of a plan?

Well, actually, she'd thought to search for Copper a little while ago, but that wasn't exactly a plan, was it? Well, it was better than waiting for an objective to fall into her lap, at least.

Oh, and there were pegasi all over the place. Guards. For a moment Fantasy had merely thought their presence the city's modus operandi (and through accidental eavesdropping learned that she'd been right about that to an extent), until she noticed that they were carrying the Wanted posters that were appearing on more and more streets, and half the time one of them talked to a unicorn, the unicorn would at the very least look concerned, if not terrified.

A few times a pegasus guard came up to her, showing her her portrait (that seemed to look... off, somehow... aside from it being of her after the shipwreck), and asked if she'd seen herself or had a hint of her whereabouts. Sometimes they simply warned her to be on the lookout.

The unicorns shocked Fantasy. They were the opposite of reserved and self-concerned, like she'd come to expect in Canterlot: every block at least one unicorn would ask for her opinion on something like a color palette or some wild idea or even which restaurant she'd prefer out of the given options, and a consistent topic through all the streets seemed to be of Fantasy herself and what she meant for the safety and purity of Pegasopolis. Naturally, Fantasy tried avoid conversations and talked as little as possible when forced into one, but her efforts were futile and draining her already low batteries. She was on her last legs here...

She stumbled onto a street corner and sat down clumsily, hanging her spinning head and clutching her empty stomach in pain. God, if she didn't get something to eat soon, she was going to throw up...

Unfortunately, she had no money for food, and she couldn't just say that to any of the unicorns beginning to crowd around her asking what was wrong.

North would continue scanning the street, seeming to be a bit distraught as he struggles to come up with ideas. He'd lower to the ground for a moment to rest before looking down the street and noticing the distressed mare further down it. He'd tilt his head before flying over towards the mare, landing next to her. He'd speak in a softer, concerned tone. "Excuse me, miss, are you alright? You seem to be in pain."

He obviously wouldn't recognize the mare as Fantasy.

The unicorns immediately cleared space for North, bumping into and tripping over each other in the process. Fantasy would be unrecognizable to North, because while she still had her coat and eye color, the blue streak of her mane had been dyed brown to match the rest of it, and her mane now had a descending gradient of chocolate-to-caramel; her cutie mark also now appeared to be a caramel-filled chocolate, cut in half. Fantasy looked up at North with an unfocused gaze, and it took her a second to recognize the pony in front of her.

Unsure of what to do, she said, "...hi?" and a few long, light-headed seconds later she realized that had probably been a bad decision.

North would tilt his head at Fantasy, the voice sounding familiar, but with just a 'hi' he doesn't quite pinpoint it. He'd refocus, looking the mare over, before speaking again in the same soft voice. "Uhh, hello. You seemed to be in distress. Are you okay, miss?" He'd usher any ponies nearby away to give Fantasy some space.

Fantasy took a second, standing up, before answering, trying to push her accent through her nose as she spoke, "Um, yes I- I'm fine." She swayed slightly, and had dark bags under her eyes. Her stomach suddenly growled loudly.

North doesn't seem to buy what she said.  He'd also raise an eyebrow at the slight change in voice, though he ignores it for now.  As her stomach growls he'd let out a light laugh.  "Are you sure you're fine?  Cause your body seems to be saying otherwise."

"I'm..." She very much wanted to say 'I'm hungry', in some vain hope that it'd get her food instead of arrested. She wished she could just talk to North right now, he was the closest thing she had to a friend here, the closest thing she had to something reliable. "...fine. I'll be alright." She gave a weak smile.

North seemed to be saddened a bit by this, sighing before raising his head up a bit. "Alright, miss. If you really think you're fine then I'll move along. Stay safe, thing's are getting a bit dangerous lately. He'd give her a small nod before beginning to trot away rather slowly.