Reunited in the Dark.

Chapter 12 - Hunting For A Soul.

Saber, Stello and the Dark Lord once again started traveling through the wilderness, now going back the same way they arrived. Saber whined at the amount of traveling they had ahead, but the Dark Lord reminded him of why they did all of that in the first place.

This time, Stello made sure he teleported himself and Saber through the dragon lands, without being noticed. They didn't want anymore encounters with those nasty beasts, and in reality they just wanted to be in a warm home again.

This was reinforced when about four days of travel later, snow started to fall from the white sky. Saber shivered and complained, whilst Stello used his magic to transform plants into better foods, like cheese for them to eat. That way, he made sure the colt ate enough nutritious food, rather than eating wild berries constantly.

What the two alicorns didn't realise though, was that they were now in a trap. They went through enough dark magic lessons, that it ensured the Dark Lord total control over them, whether that realised it or not. He let the two alicorns bond together happily, whilst plotting further points of his evil plan.

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Some distance up North, Targe and his pegasus soldier Cyril were just traveling further down Southeast, following the clues left behind by the captains missing unit. Just like the soldiers before him, Targe also found the mysteriously destroyed trees, signs of campfires, and moldy apple cores.

Cyril was a young Pegasus that recently traveled from Equestria, and moved into the Crystal Empire. He had a bright yellow coat, chestnut mane, and a talent for quickly making reckless, life changing decisions. Like many new soldiers, he simply wanted to prove himself by working such a dangerous job, but he knew this wasn't what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing.

Eventually, the two ponies also came across the village in which Saber caused a lot of trouble before. Targe eyed it skeptically, judging quickly whether they should approach the place or not.

Soon enough, Targe and Cyril both proudly wandered into the market, looking around at the stalls and it's inhabitants. One stall in particular caught the captains interest. It sold fresh hot croissants, and the pony behind it was a bulky stallion with a light blue coat and dark purple wavy mane. Targe quickly noticed how the stallion had crutches with wheels around his hind legs, which meant that he was unable to move them. This intrigued Targe, so he wandered towards the croissant stand followed by Cyril.

"Good day sir. I am Targe, and I would like to occupy your time for a moment to ask some questions." Targe started, trying to sound formal. He knew that small towns like this one rarely took visitors seriously, so he attempted to sound as serious as he could.

Chris frowned as he looked at Targe and Cyril with disgust, whilst eyeing their badges on their armor. "We've had too many strange visitors lately. Get out." Chris muttered, sounding very bitter.

Targe didn't let that poor attitude put him off, and tried again. "This is what I am trying to find out sir. I believe a group of five soldiers passed this place a few a couple weeks ago, did you see them?" He asked, giving the blue stallion a hard look.

Chris groaned and rolled his eyes, deciding to answer the question. "Nah not seen them, but I heard of them. I was at the time in bed tryna recover from what tha' little son of a bitch prince did to me." Chris muttered angrily, gesturing at the crutches.

Targes' ears perked up when he heard the word prince. As unlikely as it was, the stallion could've been talking about Saber. Feeling like he was overstepping privacy, Targe started to ask the questions. "Do you know who has seen this five soldiers? As for that prince, was he a young alicorn perhaps?"