Forgotten Magics

by Lunar Paragon

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Romance, Adventure
Length: 21613

Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie and pinkies sister Pinkamina meet four unknown Ponies who enter Ponyville and they get taken on an unexpected adventure

Seven years have passed since the land of Equestria last called upon its protectors, the elements of harmony. This has led to a life of peace for Twilight and her friends, before four mysterious ponies appear in Ponyville to interrupt a visit from Luna.

With a new adventure ahead of them, Starburst can only hope the three element bearers are up to the challenge, and that Pinkmena can keep her sister Pinkie out of trouble.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-26 19:23:38 UTC

Chapter 2: Introductions

IntroductionsBy Lunarguard12 and OneIncessantWriter

After three days Star and his friends finally came within view of the small town of Ponyville. Trees bordered a quarter of the city while a path stretched from the adjacent side. Canterlot could be seen on its perch upon the mountain to the north of Ponyville.

"Well this place isn't much to look at." Rig said, his negative attitude, defiantly not helping the others.

"It looks really nice though doesn't it Storm" Berry asked. The huge dragon/pony hybrid only nodded.

"Well either way we have two days before Princess Luna will be here, so we might as well go look for somewhere to stay for a couple of nights. Storm, we should probably change so we don't start a riot when we go in." Star said as his horn started to glow. Storm nodded. Star poured more power into his horn, casting a spell that concealed his tattoos and his eye . "Ok Storm, your turn now." Storm focused some of his natural dragon magic into his wings and muzzle. With a flap of his wings they changed into regular feathered wings, albeit very large ones, and his fangs receded as well.

"Let's go!" Berry yelled as the two dawned their magical costumes.  The group then started on their way to the little town off in the distance.

"Ok so the first thing we should do is find a place to stay. After that I want to go and meet Twilight. I've heard things about princess Celestia's protege, but I've never seen or met her I hear she's really good with magic." Star said, a slight autumn breeze causing his mane to ruffle slightly. He smiled, he had always loved the third season of the year, no matter how much other ponies hated it.

"I'm going to look for something to eat, what about you Rig?" Berry asked, his ever-present grin widened for some unknown reason. Rig nodded solemnly towards the blue ball of happiness.

"Yeah food sounds good" Rig replied, the joy drained from his voice, as usual.

"I'm just going to fly around a bit. Ya know, see the sights." Storm replied, his voice deep and rumbling like thunder from a storm cloud. This was met with a nod from Star.

"Ok, after we find where we will be staying we can go our separate ways deal?" Star reasoned, wanting very much to meat the protege of the second best princess of Eqeustria.

"Deal." Berry said. Oddly he sounded even more exited than usual, a feat that the group didn't think was possible.

"Whatever." Rig siad.  Storm only nodded and the group continued on their way.

**********

"Oooooohhhhh princess Luna will be here in two days and I'm not ready." Said Twilight. The lavender mare was running all throughout her home, trying to make it spotless. The last time one of the Princesses was here, it ended in a disaster.

"Twilight, would you stop panicking?! You know Luna told you specifically so you wouldn't panic,  right?" Spike said. The green and purple baby dragon had grown quite a bit in the years that had gone by. His wings had grown in and Twilight only reached his shoulders when he was standing straight up. "Also, wasn't this an informal visit?"

"Spike even for an informal visit, the library must look perfect." Twilight said in a condescending tone, sending a look Spikes way that suggested he didn't know the first thing about the world.

"You cleaned this place four times today, twice yesterday, and three times the day before that. I think you should just relax so you don't appear exhausted for her visit." Spike reasoned, ignoring the look she had sent him just second earlier.

"You're right Spike, but could you go and get some tea from the grocer? I could use some of that right about now to calm my nerves." Twilight said as she finally gave in and stopped cleaning, feeling relaxed for the first time in hours.

"Sure I'll be right back" Spike replied.  With that the purple dragon left to get the tea twilight asked for.  'Ok Twilight, calm down, no need to panic, Spike's right, it's just an informal visit. Luna just wants to stop by to say hello to one of her friends.' Twilight steadied herself then went to get her pot ready for the tea Spike went to get.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

'I wonder who that could be.' Twilight thought. She went to the door and opened it to find an almost blood red pony looking back. Twilight paused for a second as she felt something in her chest, but dismissed it. 'Probably not important.' She thought

"Hello, is Twilight Sparkle here?" The pony asked in a curious tone. He looked left and right, as if looking for somepony. Twilight had to pause for a second to process that he had just said something.

"Oh, yes, sorry, I'm Twilight. Who might you be?" Twilight said. The sensation in her chest was distracting now, and she couldn't tell what it was.

"I'm sorry; I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Crimson Starburst, but my friends call me Star. I was hoping to meet you, are you busy right now?" Twilight blinked a few times before replying.

"Sure I don't have much to do." She said.  'Except make sure the place is ready for Princess Luna.' She thought to herself, but for some reason even that could step down for a second so she could talk to this pony. Star entered and looked around, taking in the whole library.

"Wow you have quite the selection of books here." He said, quickly noticing a few things. First, this pony was a lot more interesting that he thought she would be and second, he was crushing on her, hard.

"Well it's nothing compared to the royal archives though." Twilight said, still smiling from the earlier complement.

"True, but then again, the archives are the collective knowledge of all of Equstria, so it's an unfair comparison." Star replied, turning back to face the mare.

"Starburst." Twilight started.

"Please call me Star, I don't like being on a formal name base, unless it's required." Star said, wincing when he noticed he had interrupted her.

"Ok ,Star, what is it you came here to ask me?" Twilight asked. Strangely fine with the way he had interrupted her earlier.

"Oh, right,  you know a lot of magic, correct?" Star asked. Twilight beamed, always happy to talk to somepony about magic of any kind, especially when the pony actually understood what she was saying.

"Yes, I know a lot about magic." She told him in a proud, almost foalish fashion. This drew a small chuckle from Star and Twilight turned to the side to hide her blush.

"Well what kinds of magic can you do?" Star asked, wanting to know just how advanced this mare's magic was.  Several hours, and many a long winded lectures later, and Star discovered that Twilight was skilled in three magical fields in particular elemental, transfiguration, and spatial. While Twilight found out Star was exceptional at many foreign magics. 'Wow she may be bookish, but she does sure know her magic' Star thought. Twilight was thinking much of the same thing, though it was hard to focus with the feeling that currently resided in her chest.

"Where did you learn about all of this magic?" Twilight asked.

"Oh I've been to the places they originated." Star stated nonchalantly. Twilight's jaw dropped

"You've been to the Zebracan Isles?"Twilight asked in shock, having never been there herself, she was curious.

"Yep and the Griffon Mountains, the Minotaurian Plains, AND the Slithen Nation too." Star said with a smirk. Twilight just stared at him.

"The Slithen Nation!? How? It's so far across the sea; how could you have gotten there?" Twilight asked. Star looked at the clock and knew he had to leave right then, or he would face getting an earful from Rig.

"Sorry Twilight, that story will have to wait. I should be getting back to the inn so my friends don't get annoyed with me."  Star said.  Twilight looked at him pleadingly, a gesture that both sent chills down his spine and made him wish he could stay for just one more moment.

"You can't stay a little longer?" Twilight pleaded.

"Sorry, but I promise the next time I can I'll come by and tell you about it. Deal?"  Star said as he stood up.

"Deal." Twilight responded. Star nodded, and then started through the front door, all the time wondering. 'I wonder how the others are doing?'

**********

"Damn it Berry, I'm hungry, when the hell are we going to get there?" Rig asked, annoyed.  They had been walking in circles for nearly a half hour now, and they had already passed at least three good cafes.

"It should be just around here." Berry responded, looking around for where they were going.

"What was the name of this place again?" Asked Rig. His brows furrowing in suspicion. There was a very large chance that this was just another one of Berry's pranks, and that they would be walking around for quite a while longer.

"Sugarcube Corner." Berry replied, bouncing forward in defiance of conventional physics.

"Ugh, sounds too sweet for my taste." Rig said, his expression still showing some suspicion.

"Oh that's because it specializes in sweets, but it is a catering service so they serve normal food as well. Kinda like a cafe, but with more sugar!" Berry exclaimed. Rig only shrugged.

"Whatever." He said, looking around at the smiling ponies around him. He was itching for a fight but couldn't and wouldn't not against these ponies 'Damn everypony here looks so soft I could probably fight this entire town and come out unscathed.' Rig thought to himself 'Maybe I'll find an old building that I can blow up that would brighten my day.' Rig thought with a smirk on his face.

The two walked for another few minutes before they came upon a large shop that seemed to be made of gingerbread. Rig shook his head, 'Wow this place is just. Too damn soft.' and that put Rig in a much fouler mood than normal.

"Well this ought to be interesting." Rig said glumly. The two entered to find an oddly familiar pony bouncing behind the counter. Her bright pink mane bobbing in time with the bouncing. As they entered her blue eyes locked on to them eerily quickly.

"Hi, welcome to Sugarcube Corner." The pink pony said, moving so quickly that Rig nearly screamed. The next thing he knew she was right in front of him, asking rapid fire questions in the way Berry often would.  "Hi my names Pinkie Pie what's your name? What's your favorite kind of sweet? Have you had a party here yet? I don't think so because I haven't met you yet, so how could I have thrown you a party yet." Rig couldn't keep up with what she was saying, but apparently Berry could.

"My name is Blueberry and my friends call me Berry. My favorite sweet is ice cream and no we haven't had a party here yet." At the last answer the pink party pony started to get really hyper and saying

"Oh well that's a problem you need a party right now and I mean now there is no way we can let any new ponies in Ponyville leave without having a party I mean who doesn't like a party and I mean duh everypony loves a party now lets start to get one ready do you like red streamers or blue streamers oh how 'bout the confetti what color do you want that to be or how 'bout-" At this point in the pink pony's rant, Rig's brain had threatened to turn to mush at least three times, and he was close to just curling up on the floor and dying.

"PINKIE, TAKE A DAMN BREATH!" A voice yelled from the other room. The source of the voice was revealed a second later when another mare walked into the room, this one sharing the pink on pink of Pinkie. Her colors, however, were just a bit darker."What the in the name of Tartarus has you so worked up?" The dull pink earth pony asked, turning and looking to the two new arrivals to the shop. "You two new here?" She asked, an air of contempt in her voice.

"Yeah, so what?" asked Rig, glaring at the dull pink pony.

"Oh nothing, just wondering who I should be pissed at for causing my headache of the day." She replied, glaring back at Rig. Rig shrugged off the glare like it was nothing.

"So is this place a restaurant or not?" He asked, becoming agitated at the mare.

"Yeah but, assholes like you aren't welcome." The pony replied.

"Mina, that is not way to treat a friend." Pinkie said, earning her a stare from her sister.

"I'm not this assholes friend, Pinkie, and stop calling me Mina." Stated the dull pink pony, before leaving the room.

"Sorry about Mina, she's not the nicest pony, but she's not really mean either." Pinkie apologized. Rig rolled his eyes, he hadn't heard such a blatant lie in a long time.

"Yeah she seems like a ray of sunshine." Rig said sarcastically, just ready to eat and meet up with the others.

"Anyway, we came here as customers, and we both are really hungry." Berry said.

"Well that won't be a problem, just take a seat at on of the tables and I'll be right with you." Pinkie said pointing at the seating area.

"We will, thanks Pinkie." Berry said. Berry and Rig walked over to the nearest open table and sat down.

"Well that was an interesting encounter." Berry said, trying to start a conversation.

"Shut up Berry, I just want to get my food and leave." Rig retorted, effectively ending any and all communication for the rest of the time they were there. Once they finished eating, and they had payed, they started out of the shop. Rig was lost in deep thought as they walked the cheery streets of Ponyville. 'That mare Mina, I hate her guts, but she's one of three ponies I know that can stare at my eyes like that and not flinch.'

"Hmm" Berry said, pulling Rig out of his thoughts. "I wonder how the others are doing?"

"Who cares," Rig said. "You know they can take care of themselves." Berry nodded and the two continued towards the inn they were staying at, the sun starting on its downward fall towards the horizon.

**********

Back at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie was smiling, and thinking to herself. 'I can't wait to see Twilight later,  so I can tell her about the new ponies in town.'

"Pinkie get over here I need your help with something" Pinkamina said from the other room.

"Coming Mina." Pinkie responded in a sing song voice.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

**********

High in the sky on a lone cloud, Storm looked out over the plains that surrounded the small town he and his friends were staying at. He liked this little town, it was quiet and, he liked it that way. Storm closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of autumn. The flowers from the stands below, the smell of the bakery, and the grass from the plains. As he opened his eyes again he saw in the distance a rainbow trail, soaring through the sky. Curious, he took his exceptionally large wings, still in their feathered form, and propelled himself towards the  trail, dispelling the cloud he was on with the force of his wing beat.

As he got closer he could see that, as he thought, the trail had originated from a pegasus. Storm hovered in place, watching the pegasus as she preformed various tricks and stunts. He watched for a good half hour, noticing that who ever it was had great speed, but did not have the proper control. The other pegasus stopped, finally taking notice of the large black pegasus watching her. She considered flying away for a second, but decided instead to fly towards, and talk to the pony.

"Liked the show?" She asked, a smirk spreading across her face..

"Your speed is great, but, unfortunately, your control could use work." Storm stated, taking in her appearance. She had a cyan coat and a prismatic mane. Her rose colored eyes glinted as she heard the second part of the sentence.

"Who are you to say I have no control! I'm Rainbow Dash, the best flier in all of Equestria!" She exclaimed. Storm just raised an eyebrow, ticking her off even more. "Ok, you. Me. Race. Now." She said, making a cloud for them to start on. Storm just shrugged.

"If you insist, what's the course then?" Storm asked. Rainbow Dash looked to the horizon, scanning it for a good track.

"From here to the school house," She responded, pointing at the school house Storm had seen earlier. ",back to town," She moved her hoof to point in the opposite direction, into town. ",and then back here." Storm looked at the path she had chosen, paused for a second, and then simply nodded.  The cyan mare set herself up for a quick take off while Storm just stood wings still folded.

"You going to get ready?" She asked.

"I am." Storm said. Rainbow took a deep breath, then yelled "GO!" The mare took off, sending a wave of air out from where she had previously been standing, leaving Storm behind. Storm slowly raised his wings and counted.

"Five." His wings were half way up.

"Four." His wings were three quarters of the way up.

"Three." His wings were at the highest point they could be.

"Two." He set himself and Rainbow was already passed the school house and was looping back around.

"One."He whispered and his wings snapped down, propelling him forward faster than sound, creating a sonicboom. He passed Rainbow as she headed toward the town, and Storm could see wore a smug smile at how far behind he was. Rainbow looked behind her at the huge black pegasus speeding in the opposite direction. 'Wow he's fast,' she smiled 'but he shouldn't have waited.' She thought, turning back forward. If she were to have watched a little longer, she would have seen Storm spread his wings and flap them once in the opposite direction, stalling him directly over the school house. A second flap sent him in the opposite direction after her. He caught up to her easily and passed her.

Rainbow watched as he soared pass her and thought, 'No way I am not losing.'  pushing herself harder to get by him. Storm slowed himself down slightly, and Rainbow shot by him, thinking she has him beat, but Storm once again spread his wings right over the town and pulled off the same maneuver; giving him a huge lead, since Rainbow once again had to loop around. Storm took his time getting back to the cloud confident he had won, while Rainbow pushed herself to try and beat him. Storm, however, beat her there by a mile and Rainbow landed on the cloud she had made for them, before slumping down onto it and panting hard.

"You *pant* cheated." Rainbow said

"No, you let yourself be led into a trap, and also you were much too confident for your own good." Storm said as he spread his wings "Now I must go, my friends will be waiting for me."

"Wait." Rainbow said, Storm looked over his shoulder

"Yes?" he asked

"What is your name?" Rainbow asked. Storm thought about it for a second before responding

"Firestorm. My name is Firestorm." He said, and then he took off, heading for the small town. Rainbow watched as he left and thought to herself 'I have to tell someone about this, and then I need to find him, and beat him.' She took off towards the library.

**********

Later that day Twilight was in the library, reading a book on her bed, just enjoying the quiet of the night. Spike was downstairs enjoying his evening, too, having taken a liking to reading several years ago. Twilight placed a bookmark on the page she was reading and rolled off her bed , stretching her legs. She walked towards her door and as she opened it

"Hiya Twilight."

"AHHHHHH!!!" Twilight screamed as she jumped back into her room. "Pinkie What are you doing here?" She asked as Spike came running up the steps

"Twilight whats wrong?" Spike said, taking up a defensive stance, but upon seeing Pinkie he relaxed.  "Pinkie how did you get in here without me knowing? I was in the main room of the library." He asked, to which Pinkie only smiled.

"It's a secret~~." She sang in response. Spike looked at Twilight, who looked back and shrugged deciding it was just Pinkie being Pinkie. A knock was heard at the door down stairs, and the three of them went to go answer it. Pinkamina stood at the door, her trademark frown adorning her face.

"Hey Pinkamina, what's up?" Spike asked

"Hey is my sis here?" Pinkamina asked, not bothering to answer Spike's question. Spike moved to the side to reveal Pinkie, who waved back at Pinkamina. "I should have guessed; I don't know how she does it. Every time I blink she disappears." Pinkamina said as she entered the house.

"Not to be rude, but what are you two doing here?" Twilight asked

"I don't know, sis wanted to see you." Pinkamina said. Twilight looked at Pinkie.

"Wait, before I tell you, we need everyone to be here first." Pinkie said.

"Who else could be coming?" Twilight asked. In response Pinkie moved to a window, opening it and placing some pillows at the other end of the room. Moving the others out of the way as she did so. Not a second after Pinkie had finished, a cyan blur came speeding through the window, and crashed into the pillows; leaving only a rainbow tail sticking out of the pile of pillows in its wake. Shortly afterwards, Rainbow Dash burst from the pillow mound and looked around. She then turned to Twilight.

"You'll never guess what happened to me today." She said. Pinkie jumped into her field of view

"You met a strange pony today didn't you." Pinkie exclaimed, causing Rainbow to blink.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Dash asked, true curiosity tinting her voice.

"Because me and Mina did too." Pinkie announced happily, Pinkamina facehoofing in the background at being called that nickname yet again.

"I happened to meet someone today as well." Twilight said. The four friends told one another about their encounters, and after all of them were finished, Rainbow voiced all of their thoughts.

"I wonder what they're here for?"

Chapter 3: The Reveal

The RevealBy Lunarguard12

Star and his friends took the next day to see more of the town while they waited for night to come around to meet Luna at Twilight's home. 'I hope Twilight won't be too angry with me dropping in on her meeting with Luna.'

"What are you thinking about Star?" Berry asks the blue earth pony trotting up next to Star.

"Just about later tonight where we have to meet Luna. I'm hoping that Twilight won't be mad at me for bringing you guys with me to her place."

"Why should you care Luna told you to come." Rig stated

"But since I met her she seemed nice enough. Also she's really well versed in magic too." Star said 'Not to mention she's not hard on the eyes either' he thought to himself.

"Well we have time till later so what should we do?" asked Berry

"I don't know this place isn't exactly huge on tourist coming in."

"Whatever I just want time to fly by a little faster." Rig said and immediately after a clock flew into his face hitting him in the head. "What the fuck who threw that?" Rig said looking around. Shortly Pinkie came running from the direction the clock came from asking the group "Did you see a clock fly through here?" Star and Berry both pointed at the clock somehow unbroken on the ground. Upon inspection Star could see wings moving on the side of it.

"Ah ha there it is." Pinkie said putting it in her bags. "Now to get this back to where it belongs." and with that Pinkie bounced away going down a random street.

"What the fuck just happened?"

"I have no idea but no one threw a clock at you there were wings on that clock."

Storm chuckled to himself "What's so funny Storm." Rig snapped.

"You got your wish."

"What?" Rig asked confused

"Time flew." Storm chuckled a little more "Right into your face that is." Berry and Star laughed along with Storm as Rig simmered in his anger.

**********

The day pasted uneventfully for the group of friends and the time for Luna's meeting was approaching fast. But while they were enjoying their day a certain purple unicorn was once again panicking. "Oh no oh no the library needs to be spotless  for Luna." Twilight said as she ran around the library finalizing for the arrival of Luna.

"Twilight you have been doing that for the last half hour and Luna will be here in five minutes I don't think the library can be destroyed in five minutes so you can stop." Spike said trying to get Twilight to calm down.

Twilight stopped dusting a shelf that had no dust on it since that morning "Your right spike I guess it's just my way of dealing with stress."

"But why would you be stressed. You know Luna likes talking to you and this isn't the first time she's come to meet you."

"I don't know. Her being one of the princesses is the cause of the stress I guess and I just don't want to leave a bad impression on either of them."

"You could never leave a bad impression with me or my sister." A calm smooth voice said from behind Twilight. Twilight turned around to see Luna standing in her home. Twilight went into a bow so fast she hit her horn on the ground and Luna gave hearty laugh "Oh Twilight even after I've told you time and again that you don't need to stand on formalities when it is only you me and Spike." at the mention of the dragons name he waved his arms at Luna. "Oh sorry Spike." Luna's horn glowed for a moment and then motioned for Spike to speak.

"Did you have to use a silence spell on me?" Spike asked

"Sorry but I could tell that you were about to say my name and I so love surprising Twilight." Luna said smiling. Twilight picked herself back up and rubbed her aching horn. "Princess Luna can I ask you never do that again." Twilight asked

"You can ask but it doesn't mean I'll stop." Luna replied still smiling.

Twilight just sighed knowing Luna liked to pull pranks and such on her guards and her own sister sometimes too and she would likely get her again too. Twilight put a sincere smile on and looked at Luna and asked "So what brings you to Ponyville?"

"Oh I just wanted to talk to you I enjoy it. But today I did ask someone to stop by sometime." Twilight blinked a few times before asking "Who did you invite?"

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"That's probably them. Spike could you get the door?" Luna asked

"Sure." the purple dragon said as he went to the front door. Spike opened the door to see a pair of orange eyes like fire staring back. Spike took a step back to get a better look at what was at the door and found it to be a large pony only slightly shorter than him "Can I help you?" Spike asked

"We were invited." The large pony said.

"By who?"

"That would be me." Luna said coming to the door. "Storm it's good to see you again."

"Good evening Luna the night is beautiful as always." Storm said as he entered.

"Why thank you Storm."

"Hi Luna." Berry said coming into the library and giving Luna a hug. Twilight could not believe what she was seeing, a pony just coming up and hugging the princess it was unthinkable. "Berry it's wonderful to see you again." Luna said giggling.

Another pony came in and Twilight thought his coat was black but upon closer inspection she noticed it was a extremely dark blue and not black. This one didn't even acknowledge Luna and sat on a nearby couch his strange white eyes looking around the room stopping on Twilight "You gonna stare at me all night?" he asked sharply. Twilight quickly averted her gaze.

"Rig no need to be rude this is Twilight's home and she does have the right to throw you out." Luna said.

"Not like anypony has the balls to do that around here." Rig said back. Once again Twilight couldn't believe what just happened, a pony just spoke back to a princess.

"Rig just because they don't doesn't mean I won't." Twilight knew that voice. She heard it only two days ago. Twilight looked to the door way and saw "Star what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"I'm here by invitation of princess Luna." Star stated

"Ah Starburst it's good to finally see you again." Luna said

"I have what you wanted right here Princess." Star said as he opened his personal void and pulled out the jade orb he retrieved several days ago. "You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get that one."

"Wait a second." Twilight said confused "You know Princess Luna?" she asked Star

"I would hope so she taught me much of what I know about unicorn magic."

"Oh come now Starburst you know all I did was guide you in the right direction." Luna said. Luna looked over star again and asked "Why do you have an vanity spell over you?"

"Oh right. I put it there so I didn't scare anypony when I came into town."

"Well you can take it off now."

"Are you sure? Twilight hasn't seen me without it yet." Star asked

"I wouldn't do that yet." Storm said

"And why not?" Luna asked

"We are being watched." and looked over to one of the windows on the upper level.

Twilight went over to the window and opened it and looked out and immediately found Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie on the branches outside the window "Raaainbow, Piiinkie what are you two doing in my tree?"

"Can we come in first? It's kinda uncomfortable on these branches." Rainbow asked. After Twilight helped the two in  Rainbow started to explain "Well two days ago I met Firestorm over there" motioning towards the large black pegasus "And challenged him to a race and lost. I wanted a rematch the next day but couldn't find him and then about fifteen minutes ago I was flying and I saw him but I wanted to know a little more about him before I challenged him. So I followed him and they all stopped here so I went to that window to see what was going on. then Pinkie showed up." Twilight looked to Pinkie "That explains Rainbow but what were you doing Pinkie?"

"Oh my Pinkie sense told me to be here."

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"That would be Mina."

Twilight went to the door and opened it to find, like Pinkie said, her sister at the door "Pinkamina what are you here for?"

"Sis told me to come here around this time. Something about her Pinkie sense again." Pinkamina looked inside to find it full of ponies and one Princess Luna all looking at her. "I'm guessing she had me come at a bad time."

Luna was the one who spoke up "This wasn't anything important, so no you're not interrupting anything."

Twilight sighed and invited Pinkamina in. after getting everypony in and settled she looked at Star and asked "What sort of vanity spell is on you?" Star sighed guessing she would have found out some time.

"The vanity spell is to cover up tattoos and a eye so ponies don't see how they really look."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"Well the tattoos are around my horn, around one eye, across my withers, and down my front legs. My eye on the other hoof is slightly disturbing."

"Oh."

Luna came over and looked at Twilight "You know I have read your friendship reports and wasn't one of them don't judge a book by it's cover?"

"Yes there was and I wouldn't mind seeing Star as he really is."

Star smiled "That's great I can finally drop the concentration to hold it up." and closed his eyes. After that he let go of the spell holding the vanity spell dispelling it and revealing the tattoos along his body. opening his eyes he looked at Twilight who had a look of shock on her face.

"Yeah most ponies think I look like a freak." Star said his head drooping

"Those tattoos are runes of expulsion right?" Twilight asked

Star looked back at her and noticed she wasn't shying away but rather taking a closer look at his tattoos. "Yeah they are. I do a lot with rouge magics for Luna and also some of what I look into for magic can invade my body so I got the tattoos to prevent that. They don't stop physical harm though like burns and cuts though." Twilight looked up at Star and saw his eyes. Twilight took in his left eye which to her looked like a sapphire then she saw his right eye the golden one surrounded by the tattoos seemed to look into her she saw it was like a reptiles with the pupil a vertical slit.

"Wow you're the first one who was able to look into my right eye without flinching."

"I'm guessing it was from an accident."

"How did you know?" Star asked surprised

"Luna's guards have those eyes and I asked her about them one time she came over and she said it was a spell of her's to help them intimidate ponies." Star nodded.

A silence fell over the two and Twilight looked around the room to see how they were doing. Pinkamina was lounging on he steps away Twilight assumed to be away from everypony but Luna seemed to want to talk to her. Pinkie and Berry were talking so fast Twilight only caught a few words of what they were saying something about cake Pinkie must have started the conversation. Rainbow Dash was talking with the large pegasus, named Storm she thought, or rather she was talking and he was listening. The one named Rig was still on the couch, Twilight thought he could see him sneaking glances at Pinkamina. While Twilight was looking around the room Star was having a conversation with Luna using a little mental magic so Twilight couldn't hear.

You know Twilight is actually really nice and polite. Star thought to Luna

Star you do know I can see you like her. Luna replied back.

I thought you said you wouldn't look into my head?

One doesn't have to look in your head to see you like her.

It would be nice if she could come with us on our adventures she is really good at magic and wonderful company too.

So why don't you invite her. Star looked across the room to Luna and gave her a flat look.

You know I can't do that.

Why not? Luna asked back chuckling on the other side of the room.

Mainly because it is dangerous.

When was the last time you had problems?

How about the last errand I did for you.

Ok how about the last time you had a problem that you didn't have to cause?

Star was quiet for a moment I see your point but how could I ask?

Here let me help you with that. Luna excused herself from talking to Pinkamina.

Luna please no. Luna moved towards Star and Twilight's position Luna I'm begging you don't! She continued her advance PLEASE LUNA NO!!!

"Excuse me Twilight." Twilight looked to Luna "Yes Princess?"

"Have you ever wanted to see more of Equestria?"

Twilight's face lit up "Oh yes one thing I've always to see was the magic museum in Baltimare. I heard they got a new summoning magic exhibit there."

"Why haven't you gone yet then?" Luna asked

"Well I would like to go but Princess Celestia said I shouldn't without an escort."

"What if I could supply an escort." Luna asked taking a quick look at Star who was fully aware of what Luna was about to do.

"That would be wonderful."

"Give me a moment then." Luna said closing her eyes and her horn giving off a azure glow. Shortly after she opened her eyes again "Celestia approves of my idea."

"So who's my escort?" Twilight asked almost bouncing in place.

"You're sitting next to him." Luna said smiling, looking to Star

Twilight froze then looked to her left and saw Star smiling sheepishly. Twilight looked back to Luna who was still smiling. Twilight finally comprehended what Luna said then smiled and said "That would be wonderful. It is definitely better than having a guard who probably wouldn't even talk to me." Star released the breath he didn't realize he was holding and looked to Luna with and evil stare while Twilight wasn't looking and sent one telepathic message to Luna.

You're EVIL!

Luna just smiled wider at the comment. Twilight looked over to her friends and gave a sad little smile "I wish they could come too." Luna seeing another chance to cause some trouble for her student immediately responded "Why don't you ask them if they want to? There are four of you and four of them so there shouldn't be a problem." Twilight looked to the Princess then said "I don't know if they could." Luna Stood up then addressed Twilight's friends "Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Pinkamina who among you would like to go with these stallions to Baltimare as your escorts?"

Pinkie was the first to respond "YAY ROAD TRIP!"

"Ugh, if I don't go now Pinkie is likely to hurt herself or, more likely, the others." Pinkamina said

"I would have to have somepony cover for me but I could use a vacation." was Rainbow Dash's response

"Well Twilight it seems you will be having a few of your friends along with you after all."

"Thank you Princess thank you."

Star went over to storm and said "Well it seems we have some mares to escort now."

"It does seem that way-" storm replied "-For better or worse we won't know till it happens."

"I sure as hell hope it's for better." Star said as he watched Twilight as she was already getting ready to depart.

Chapter 4: Travels

TravelsBy Lunarguard12 and OneIncessantWriter

The following morning Star got up early and got his things ready. He looked around the room. He was going to be leaving today, and while the room certainly not a Canterlot luxury suite, not even close, but it had that feeling of home the Canterlot inns had lost for years.  Star rolled out of his bed and stretched, his back cracking several times in response. 'Ahhh, much better.' He thought. He looked to Storm, who he was sharing a room with this time, and found that the pegasus was so big he almost couldn't fit on the bed. Star opened his stash portal to see what he would need to acquire before the group departed for Baltimare. He listed off what he had while silently pulling them out of his stash. 'Ok, got food for a couple days, but that was for me and the guys, so we will have to get some more beforehoof. Got some rope, a couple tents, might need to get a few more of those too.' He frowned at that last part, but shook his head and went on with his morning routine.

Star reached in and pulled out a golden locket; he stared at it for a little while before depositing it back into his stash portal with a sigh, and then continued to check his supplies. Ten minutes later he finished, and found he would need to get at least some more food and a couple of tents just in case the weather didn't hold in their travels. Shortly after his assessment Storm stirred, got up, and stretched much like Star, the only exception being Storm's cracks were much louder.

"Morning." Storm said while stretching.

"Morning.” Star said in kind. “I went over our supplies, we’re going to need some food, and possibly some tents before we leave; did you see anything while flying a couple days ago?"

"Food will be easy. A market opens up around ten to eleven. The tents though, I'm not sure." Storm replied, walking in a few circles to warm up his muscles.

"Well, it's not a big loss if we don't get the tents, I could just magic shelters up if the need arises. Do you mind getting Rig and Berry up?  I want an early start, and you know Rig would sleep all day if he could." Star said, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

Storm nodded, leaving the room. A few minutes later Star looked in a mirror, and saw that his tattoos were still visible. 'Oh, better put that vanity spell back on.' He quickly cast his spell and left the room, heading downstairs to get some breakfast. Then he heard a thump, followed by muffled cursing, come from Rig and Berry’s room. 'Rig must not have gotten up when he was asked.' Star thought.  Then he heard a muffled argument from behind the door.  'Yep, Definitely didn't want to get up.'

Upon reaching the ground floor, Star could smell breakfast and tried to guess what it was. After a few sniffs he determined. 'Oatmeal, along with toast and pancakes. Sounds like we'll be eating well. ‘Star entered the dining area to see all the food he had thought he would see, plus a little more.

"Morning." A soft pink pegasus mare said to Star as he entered. Star nodded a bit in response.

"Good morning; did you make all this food?" Star asked the mare.

"Not alone, and you're welcome to start eating if you want, more can be brought out." The mare replied, blushing for a reason that Star couldn't possibly understand.

"Don't mind if I do." Star said as he levitated a plate to himself and picked out some strawberry pancakes, along with a few pieces of buttered toast, walking to a table to start eating. Not long after Rig came down, his white mane a complete mess. Berry was a few paces behind, already full of energy, walking along with Storm next to him. Rig looked at the food set out for guests, got a coffee, and sat down. While Rig only got a coffee Berry piled so much food on his plate it was almost overflowing. Storm picked out two pancakes and a glass of fruit juice. Rig was the first to make it to Star's table, and he gave Star an icy stare. Star didn't flinch.

"You're an ass, you know that right." Rig said.

"Would you have gotten up on your own?" Star responded, completely serious.

"....."

"I didn't think so."

Berry and Storm got to the table shortly after Rig, and the four of them talked about their travel plans over breakfast. After they all finished breakfast it was decided that they should get the supplies they needed before they get Twilight and her friends. With that, they set out to get the supplies.

**********

Several hours later Star had everything they needed, including the tents that they got from a store named Tents and Such, which all four of them found really strange, but none of them complained. 'Now all we need to do is get Twilight and her friends, then we can go.' Star thought to himself as they headed for the library. Upon arrival the four of them heard a commotion from inside the library. Star approached the door and could hear what sounded like a struggle from inside. Star knocked on the door and Twilight answered "Oh, hi Star; What did you come here for?"

"We came to get you. We can leave whenever you're ready we got our stuff together." Star replied.

"Oh, I was trying to figure out what books I should bring with me." Twilight said as she opened up her door more. Star looked in to see several stacks of books all throughout the library main floor.

"Wow. Um, maybe I can help with that a little." Star said as he levitated some of the books over to himself.

"They are all categorized, if you need to find anything.” Twilight stated. Star skimmed over several books at once, looking for anything that could be helpful, most of the books being useless. After several minutes of skimming Star had set aside six books that could possibly be a help.

"Ok, these six are the only ones that could possibly help us." Star said, levitating them over to Twilight, who read the covers.

"Herb lore 101, Medical Magic volumes one through three, The Almanac of Wildlife, and Advanced Foreign Language Guide?" At the last one Twilight looked to Star.

"What? I could use a brush up on my linguistics." Star said, smiling. Twilight shrugged and put the books in her bag, which she was about to put on when Star commented, "That won't be necessary, we have a better way of transporting things."

"How so?" Twilight asked.

"Do you remember when I pulled out that jade orb for Luna?" He replied, a smirk evident on his face.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask how you did that." Twilight said.

“I, well, created a space that I can store all my things in." Star said.

"How do you just make space; that doesn't seem possible?" Twilight asked skeptically.

"Can we not get into the details? We would be leaving three days from now if I tried explaining it right this second." Star said, to exhausted to explain the magic involved.

"Can you promise that none of the books will get damaged?" Twilight asked.

"In the many years I have been using it, nothing has come out worse than it went in." Star replied. Twilight nodded and looked to her bags, again unsure of the magical storage, but she trusted Star. Star opened his Stash portal and tossed her bags into them. "Don't worry about your bags getting crushed, technically there is no bottom or gravity in there."

"Then how do you pick the things back out?" Twilight asked, cocking her eyebrow at him.

"They kinda just come to me. I may have made the space, but I don't understand all the rules of it yet. Now, shall we get the others?"

"Yeah, let's head to Sugarcube Corner first. Rainbow probably isn't up yet."

**********

The five of them made it to Sugarcube Corner to find the twins waiting at the front door. Pinkie's bags were filled to the brim with party supplies, while Pinkamina didn't tell them what she had. Star had offered to them to store their things in his stash portal. Pinkie gladly accepted, while Pinkamina said she would prefer to keep her things on her person. After picking up the sisters, the group headed for Rainbow's cloud home. Storm had to fly up and get Rainbow, who was still asleep, like Twilight said. After Rainbow had gotten her things together they made their way to the road they would take them to Baltimare.

"Ok, the trip is going to be about a week long since we will be traveling by hoof. Everypony ready?" Star asked, glancing at each pony.

"I'm ready to go." Twilight said.

"Yep I'm totally ready too." Pinkie chirped.

"Me three." Berry said right after Pinkie.

Rig grunted, and Pinkamina shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Storm nodded and Rainbow flapped her wings a few times, and then exclaimed "This is going to be so awesome!"

**********

"UUUUGH, I'M SO BORED!" Rainbow groaned. Four days of travel had gone by uneventfully and Rainbow had burned through the adrenaline from the excitement of a new journey on the third day. She had then started to complain on and off.

"Go do some tricks then, but stay in sight and be careful. If you crash, it would take some time to get to you." Twilight said.

"Yeah, yeah." Rainbow said dismissively as she took off, leaving a prismatic trail in her wake. Twilight sighed as she watched Rainbow Dash do her tricks at a less than reasonable distance from the group. Twilight and Star were leading the group along the road, and the trip had started off a little bumpy with Pinkamina and Rig almost trading blows over an argument that Twilight couldn't remember. Storm, even though he had the wings to fly, walked along with the group. Pinkie and Berry were talking among one another, and Twilight wasn’t really listening. The last time those two talked all she heard was them talking about sweets.

"She doesn't know how lucky we are." Star said, suddenly very serious.

Twilight looked to Star, who had made the comment. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well the weathers been holding for starters, and we also haven't run into anypony else." Star said, his eyes downcast.

"I can understand the weather since it is allowed to act on its own in between cities, but why would running into somepony else be a problem?" Twilight asked in a tone approaching morbid curiosity. She wanted to know why Star was so serious about the topic.

"Because sometimes, ponies don't have the nicest intentions." Star replied, speeding up a bit to avoid the others gazes.

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight said. Trying, and failing, to catch up to Star.

"Well mostly bandits, and I can tell that you don't quite believe that there are bandits." Star said, keeping up his pace.

"No, I don't, and why would there be bandits?" Twilight asked in exasperation. She was getting tired of him dodging her questions.

"Ponyville is too small to attract attention to it, so bandits wouldn't bother you, and since you were born and raised in Canterlot, were crime is nonexistent due to the princesses, you’ve probably never met any criminals." Twilight's face grew serious as she absorbed that information. After a few minutes of though she commented on the statement.

"Have you ever fought anypony?"

"Yes actually, when you travel like I do you definitely have your share of fights."  Twilight took that information in, but before she could ask her next question Rainbow had come back.

"Thanks for letting me fly a little. My wings were starting to get stiff." Rainbow said. Twilight only nodded, still thinking about what Star had said.

"Did I interrupt something?" Rainbow asked, looking from Twilight to Star.

"Nothing important at least. Did you see anything while you were up there?" Star said, his serious tone masked by a smile.

"Not really. Some forest on the horizon, and a river to the north, but not anything a map couldn't tell you."

"Ok, well we should be there in three days if the weather holds out." Star responded with a nod, turning back towards the road.

"Sweet, let’s keep this pace up then." Rainbow said.  With that, they continued on their way.

**********

That night the group of eight ponies decided to sleep under the stars, since the weather looked like it would be clear for their entire trip. Well after they were all asleep, ten ponies covered in black cloth to hide their features were slowly crawling towards the camp. Cobalt motioned for the others to take their positions. 'This has to go off without a hitch, or I'm a dead pony.' He thought to himself, as the ponies that came with him went to where they were told. Cobalt motioned for them to proceed. Four of the ponies moved closer, drawing out specialized blades fashioned to fit along the top foreleg and to extend and retract so earth ponies and unicorns could walk with it on. The four got into position, and then extended their blades, ready to strike. Just before they struck, Rig jumped up and bashed the one over him with a resounding crack to the head shouting

"Surprise Motherfucker!"  With that shout Star got up, and the one that was over him stood motionless "Nothing like a good temporary paralysis glyph to get the job done." He said. The one standing over Storm had his blade ready and swung for Storm's head, only for the blade to be stopped by a wing. Storm opened his eyes and easily tossed the offending pony to his side as he got up. By this time Twilight and the girls were up and backing away from the fighting, watching as three of the four took on their adversaries with practiced ease. The one cloaked pony that had not been dealt with sunk his blade into Berry's bedroll, and Twilight gasped. The cloaked pony, however, could not pull his blade out and Berry appeared from the shadows and knocked the stuck pony out.

Cobalt knew right away that stealth was out of the question now. "Attack!" He yelled as he and the other five who didn't sneak into the camp charged the group. Cobalt immediately went for Star, charging his horn on the way. 'I can't win in a straight up fight, so I'll have to stall until one of the others can help. The five that charged with Cobalt split to go after separate targets, three went for Storm, finding him to be the biggest threat and hoping to overpower him with numbers, while one went to Rig and the other went to Berry.

Star looked out among the attacking ponies and quickly took stock of the situation. 'Ten enemies, four neutralized, three of them pegsai, one unicorn, I'm his target, all others earth ponies, three on Storm, one for Berry, and one for Rig. Probability of any injury in group, minimal.' After Star surveyed the scene before him he moved to intercept the unicorn. 'Just need to repel them, no need to kill anyone.' Star and Cobalt headed straight for one another, and Star was the first one to fire a spell. A clear orb of energy sped toward Cobalt and he quickly put up a shield to block. The orb did not shatter or dissipate when it struck, rather it ricocheted off, and sped back towards Star, who caught the orb and absorbed the magic, immediately firing another projectile that tapered into a point. Cobalt kept his shield up, assuming it would block this attack too. He was wrong. The projectile passed right through with almost no resistance and hit Cobalt in the head.

'He was lucky I wasn't trying to kill him.' Star thought to himself as he looked to his other friends. Rig was messing with the pony he was fighting, without knocking him out, even though he had several chances in the short amount of time Star had been watching him. Berry was sitting on top of the one he was fighting, watching Storm fight his three. While Star was watching Storm, ready to help just in case, the pony Berry had initially knocked out shakily came to, and removed his stuck blade from himself, leaving it in the ground and moved towards the pony that was stuck on the glyph. Quickly rubbing out a section of the glyph, releasing the paralyzed pony.

"Get the others, I'm going to try and kill the big one before we go. Don't forget Cobalt, he can't be left here under any circumstances." With that he crept his way towards where Storm was fighting, pulling out a concealed knife. Star was watching as Storm blocked another one of the retractable blades with his wings. 'He's lucky his skeleton is stronger than steel.' He thought to himself, then Star caught a glint of silver from behind Storm 'Oh shit!'

"Storm, behind you!" Star yelled, hoping that his friend would be fast enough to move out of the way. The creeping pony was a pegasus however, and used his wings to get a little more speed. 'I can't make it, and I don't have enough time to cast anything.' The cloaked pegasus was closing, knife gleaming, but before he could attack, a cyan blur intercepted him.

"No, you don't." Rainbow said as she knocked the other pegasus away. He landed hard, then got up and decided to help get the others. Storm still had three ponies in front of him, and he was having trouble getting an upper hand. Star was about to help when Pinkamina jumped in with the one of the retractable blades attached to her foreleg, and parried one of the attackers blades from Storm "Need a little help?" She asked with a wicked grin on her face. Storm nodded and the two fought off the cloaked ponies

The pony that the cloaked pegasus had released had two other ponies draped across his back. He lifted his head and shouted, "We got the others, and then we're pulling out! Move!" He quickly retreated with the three fighting Storm and Pinkamina, who had disengaged and retreated as well. The one Rig was fighting retreated in turn causing Rig to yell.

"Come on! Fight me, you almost had me!" Star shook his head at Rig's comment, and then watched as the group faded into the dark of the night. Twilight and Pinkie moved back into the camp after the fighting had stopped. Twilight looked around the camp and found Pinkamina, who was looking over the blade she had picked up while the others were fixing up the camp. Twilight walked over to Star, who was taking to Storm. "They saw what I really look like I don't think they'll really care." She heard Star say.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked as she got closer. When she stopped walking she could see that Storms wings were slightly bloodied. She guessed that was from blocking the blades. which she still had no idea how he was doing that.

"Hey Twilight! I'm trying to tell Storm to fix his wings, but he doesn't want to scare anypony, so he won't do it."

Twilight looked to Storm "Why would we be scared of you? You're the one who told us about those ponies following us."

Storm stood quiet for a moment before saying "Bring the others, they should see this at the same time so there is no confusion." Twilight nodded and called over Pinkamina, Rainbow, and Pinkie. Storm sighed as he focused and raised his wings; in a quick flap they changed back to his leathery draconic wings again, and grew his fangs back as well. He opened his eyes to find all of the mares besides Pinkamina looking at him with looks of wonder.

“That. Is. So. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash said, moving to get a closer look at Storm's wings, Pinkie following her; the two poked and prodded his wings while asking Storm questions faster than he could answer. Twilight, seeing as Storm probably wasn't going to be answering her questions with Rainbow and Pinkie bombarding him with theirs she looked to Star and asked "Is he a kirin?"

"A what?" Star stated.

"A kirin. You know, half pony, half dragon." Twilight said.

“I guess that would be a yes.” Star replied.

“Wow, I've never met one.” Twilight didn't know what else to say at the time, and left it at that, listening to the conversation between Storm, Rainbow, and Pinkie to see what she could find out about Storm. After Rainbow and Pinkie stopped their questions Twilight had found out Storm could eat gems, but only did so once in a while, his skeleton was significantly stronger than a normal ponies due to his dragon heritage, he could breathe fire, though it was unpleasant to do so and he didn't like to unless he had to, and that he could manipulate a little magic, also a trait of his draconic heritage.

"Ok, you all should get some sleep. I'll keep first watch." Star said to everyone. Twilight stayed put while the rest of them went to bed. Twilight walked over to Star.

"Want some company for a little while?" She asked, her tone almost seeming to plead him. He visibly tensed at the request.

"Of course, but make sure you get some sleep. I'm pretty sure Rainbow wouldn't be happy with you if you slowed us down." Star said, still a little tense from the request. Twilight just sat in companionable silence with Star for a few minutes, before going to bed. As Star watched Twilight leave, he thought to himself. 'It's been months. Why are ponies coming after us now?' He sat there with his unspoken and unanswered question for what seemed like years, until he one of his friends to take the watch for him.

**********

Cobalt woke to a table and a plate of food in front of him. 'What the?' As he got up he realized where he was, when he did he nearly fell back down in fright. He was in his lord’s mansion. "Calm down, and eat Cobalt." Cobalt snapped his head around. He instantly wished he didn't. His lord was at the other end of the table, covered in shadows, again looking at him with those cold, light less eyes. Those eyes. "Come now Cobalt; eat your food before it gets cold." Cobalt took in what was on the plate in front of him, and finally started to calm down. As he did he took in the wonderful smell of roasted cauliflower, drizzled with a sauce that smelled of pineapple. Cobalt looked to His lord again and he nodded. Cobalt started to eat, picking up a fork and a sharp serrated knife in his telekinesis to cut into the tough roasted cauliflower. Part way through the meal, Cobalt heard his lord speak. His words chilled Cobalt to the bone.

"Enjoying your food?" Cobalt looked to his lord, who hadn't even touched his food. Cobalt swallowed what he was chewing and nodded.

"Good, now to get to the matter at hoof." Cobalt's stomach felt like it had turned to lead. "You failed me again Cobalt." With those words several ghostly green ethereal chains looped around Cobalt, restricting his every movement.

"Please milord; forgive me." Cobalt screamed, tears welling up in his eyes.

"It's too late for forgiveness Cobalt." With the finishing of that statement the knife that Cobalt was using was wrapped in a ghostly green glow. It raised slowly to Cobalt's eye level. Cobalt started to struggle against the chains as the knife moved sluggishly towards his eye. "Don't struggle Cobalt-" Another chain whipped around Cobalt's throat and his horn, keeping his head still "- that will only make it more painful to you." The knife continued its slow advance. Cobalt fought even harder, but couldn't move his head an inch. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't see the knife moving towards him, but his eye lids were forced open to look at the knife. The knife stopped less than a quarter of an inch away from Cobalt's eye. "Ah, I almost forgot the music." Cobalt stared at his lord as he moved to a record player, and started it up. A soft classical piece began to play. "Now; where were we?"

Out in the hallway screams could be heard for several minutes before everything went silent. The door opened and the maids waiting outside moved in the clear the room of the mess. After they had left Shadow Stalker entered and asked the unicorn sitting at the end of the table. "Why did you use your magic this time Pyrrhic? Usually you like making them hurt themselves."

"I felt like causing the pain this time Shadow, no other reason than that." Pyrrhic replied, coming out of the shadows to reveal his ivory coat and golden mane. His omnipresent green eyes once again scanned the room. "Not that I didn't think about it. I felt if I tried to force him, he would break free. Unicorns are much harder to control than pegasi or earth ponies."

Shadow walked over to him, and brushed up along Pyrrhic's flank, "Now, since that is over, how about we move to the bedroom?"

Pyrrhic shook with anticipation. "Yes, why don't we." He replied, already feeling the adrenaline run through him as the two walked out of the room, heading for Pyrrhic's chambers.

Chapter 5: Arrival

Chapter 5: Arrival

By LunarGuard12

The following days were uneventful and Pinkamina had decided that she would hold on to the blade she acquired from the fight. When the group finally got within sight of the city Star convinced Pinkamina that she should probably let him store the blade in his stash portal for safe keeping. Upon reaching the outskirts of the city Twilight took in the similarities of this city compared to Canterlot. "Wow this place almost feels like Canterlot."

"Well a lot of the architecture around here is directly connected to Canterlot. Most of the ponies moved here from Canterlot and brought the style of the buildings with them and it kind just went from there." Twilight Continued to look around taking in all the sights she could and after they all made it into the city Star suggested they look for a place to say. "I know of a place around here we could stay. It should be around here somewhere." he told Twilight. The group wandered around the city for a good forty minutes before Star found what he was looking for. "Ah ha there it is." Star said as he pointed towards a small hotel with the name "Spice's Bed and Breakfast" nestled in between two larger hotels. Twilight looked over the hotel there wasn't anything that made this one stand out over the other two larger ones on either side. As they entered a bell above the door jingled cheerfully and heard a "Cooooming~~" from somewhere in the back. The voice belonged to a mint green middle aged mare with a bright pink and yellow mane that flowed to her withers and once she got a look at the group she got a huge smile.

"Star it's good to see you." she came over and gave Star a hug.

"It's good to see you too Lemongrass. How's Cinnamon?"

"Cinnamon is doing great. I see you have a few more ponies with you this time are you going to introduce me?" Lemongrass said.

"Oh yeah. This is-"

"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie and do I smell cupcakes baking?" Pinkie chirped jumping in front of Star.

"Yes it is and they should be done in a few minutes." Lemongrass said smiling and looking to Star and motioning him to continue.

"As I was saying. That's Pinkie Pie, this is Pinkamina Pinkie's sister, Rainbow Dash, And Twilight Sparkle." he said motioning to the other three in turn. "I was escorting these girls over the plains from Ponyville and we need a place to stay while we're in Baltimare and no place is better than the Spice's Bed and Breakfast."

"True enough and how many rooms will you need?"

"Well there's eight of us so four rooms two to each room." Lemongrass moved next to Star and subtlety whispered to him "I take it you and Twilight will be sharing a room?" Star was lucky he had a red coat otherwise he wouldn't have been the color his coat was. Lemongrass walked away and then a little light red colt with a light brown mane entered the room and when he saw Star he yelled his name and ran over to him. "Star! Star!" Star looked to the little colt running towards him and smiled.

"Hey Cinnamon how's it going."

"Guess what!"

"What!" Star replied with an equal amount of energy playing along with Cinnamon.

"I got my emblem."

"Really! Let's see." Cinnamon turned to show his flank and the emblem he supported. It was two cinnamon sticks crossed with what looked like a room number over top of them. "How'd you get that Cinnamon?"

"I was helping my mom bake one day and a customer came in and my mom was busy so I went and helped them and then I had it." Cinnamon said with a huge grin on his face.

"Well since it's from helping your mom with her work how 'bout you show us to our rooms then?" Star said to Cinnamon who  looked to Lemongrass and she said with a smile "Their room numbers are four-oh-two through four-oh-five. You know where that is?"

"Yep follow me." and Cinnamon led the group up four flights of stairs and showed them to their rooms two of them on one side of the hall with two on the opposite side as well. "Here we are. Rooms four-oh-two through five. If you need help with anything just call me or my mom."

"His mom?" Pinkamina asked looking to Star.

"Yeah his mom is Lemongrass. This place is a family business. It doesn't get the best business around here because of the two bigger hotels right next to it but this is by far the best place to stay. Now lets pick our rooms and get settled." Star took a room with Rig and Storm was with Berry while Twilight was going to share a room with Rainbow while the pink twins would share a room. Later that night after the group had settled into their rooms they decided to talk about what they would do tomorrow.

"Well the museum is a definite yes that's what we came here for." Star said

"But how could that be fun?" Rainbow complained "That's a place for unicorns not earth ponies and pegasi."

"There are a few exhibits that feature earth pony and pegasi magic as well. You could check those out." Star said to Rainbow

"But what about the other places in this city? what is there for pegasi?"

"Unfortunately there's not much here besides a few sightseeing spots and the museum." Star looked around and found Twilight who looked to be deep in thought.

"Hey Twilight whats on your mind?" Twilight snapped out of her thoughts and looked to Star.

"Oh nothing much just thinking about the others we left at Ponyville."

"And who would they be?" Star said honestly curious.

"Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. Rarity has her business, Applejack has the farm to think about, and Fluttershy has her animals to look after. So most of them probably couldn't have come even is they wanted to." Twilight said with a sad smile "Doesn't mean I don't wish they could have." Star didn't know what to say to that since he and his friends have been traveling together since meeting. The silence lasted a few minutes before Twilight said "Cinnamon got me thinking and I realized I don't know what your cutie mark is."

"I prefer emblem but anyway it's a magic circle." Star said showing his emblem. A magic circle with an intricate pattern along and inside it "Not quite sure as to where it's from but I got it after I managed to do some zebra magic but even through quite a bit of research I haven't found what it is exactly."

"Ooooooo what's going on over here? Oh cool cutie mark Star." Pinkie said appearing besides Twilight seemingly from nowhere and startling her.

"I prefer calling it an emblem but thanks anyway."

"What are you doing over here sis?" Pinkamina said sitting next to Pinkie.

"Just saying how Star's cutie mark, oops emblem, looks cool." Pinkamina looked to Star's mark but made no comment.

"What's everyone doing over here?" Rainbow said after taking notice of the increasing group.

"Star was showing Twilight his emblem." Rainbow looked at Star's emblem and then said "That's cool." She looked to where Storm and Rig then asked "What are your guy's emblems?

Storm approached and reveled his showing a white flame with a blue outline. Rig showed his as well it was a three different colored gears locked together. Rainbow looked at both before asking "How'd you get them?"

"Go mine the first time I blew fire." Storm said.

"Made a bomb then blew something up." Rig stated.

"Heh your mark isn't all that special." Pinkamina said to Rig.

"What's your's then and how'd you get it?" Rig snapped.

Pinkamina turned to show her mark. It was a pair of knifes crossed with a chocolate cupcake over top. "Got it after finding out I'm a pretty good cook."

"Can you cook on a fire?" Star asked interested now.

"Yeah. Why?"

Rig looked at Pinkamina with a steely gaze "You could cook. On an open flame. And you made us eat uncooked food during our trip. Why the fuck didn't you bring this up sooner!" Pinkamina gave a grin and said "No one asked." Rig stood there with a blank look and an open mouth and Pinkamina was rolling on the ground laughing "You should see the look on your dumb face. Ah ha ha!" all the others joined in on Pinkamina's laughter and after everyone had settled down Rig looked to Pinkamina and said " I WILL get you back for that."

"You're welcome to try I'm the best pranker in Ponyville. I love a new target." Pinkamina said with a wide grin

"Ok but not tonight we should get some sleep for tomorrow." Star said. the group started to separate and Twilight moved to Star and said "I hope Rig knows what he's getting himself into."

"I hope Pinkamina know's she just stepped on a mine." the two looked to each other and laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

**********

The next morning after the group had eaten breakfast they had decided to split up to look around Storm and Rainbow would go together since the two of them could fly. Rig, Berry, and the twins would look around together and Twilight and star would go to the museum as they had planned.

Twilight and Star made it to the museum without any incident. As the two were looking around and talking about the exhibits Star found a familiar striped face.

"Is that Zepher I see? The zebra I know, it couldn't be."

The zebra turned to Star smiled then replied in kind "Is that Star in my sight. last time I saw you, you had to take flight."

"There was a problem if you must have an explanation. Surely you wouldn't have wanted to be part of that confrontation."

"Surely there is more, otherwise that explanation is a bore."

"That is for another time so let it rest. Allow me to introduce Twilight Sparkle in magic she is the best." Twilight blushed at the compliment. Twilight listened to the two talk in rhyme for several minutes amazed with how Star was able to rhyme like Zepher. Then after a few more exchanges Star asked.

"You do remember my other allies." Zepher nodded "But do you remember the color of Storms eyes."

Zepher gave a chuckle "Of course I could never forget those eyes of orange." Zepher paused realizing the trap he had fallen into and looked to Star to see a triumphant smile on his face. "That was cheap Star. That was really cheap."

"In case you haven't noticed Twilight has been sitting there for about five minutes waiting for us to include her and we both know we could have went on for about an hour before I screwed up so I cut it a little early. Plus it's not my fault you didn't think about your words."

"Actually it was kinda interesting to see you two talking in rhyme. Though I could have jumped in at anytime." Twilight said with a smile and continued "I know a zebra named Zecora. She lives in the everfree and knows much about its flora."

Star and Zepher both had dumbfounded looks on their faces before both laughed. After the laughter had subsided the three of them walked around the museum talking about various things before Zepher let something slip.

"Yeah Star has also been on his own for longer than I've known him."

"What?" Twilight asked looking to Star. Star gave Zepher a glare to which Zepher, with a sheepish smile, replied "Oops." Star gave a heavy sigh and said.

"This was bound to be found out sooner or later. I'm an orphan. Never knew my parents. Raised myself to what I am now before Luna found me and asked me to be her student."

Twilight didn't know what to say. she may have been a little distant from her parents but she knew who her's were at least and she couldn't imagine living on her own as a filly. "I'm sorry" she finally said.

"Why are you apologizing? Not like it's your fault." Star said not looking at Twilight then sighed and said "I better say this now. You shouldn't travel with us anymore."

Twilight was shocked at this statement "What? Why? You fought off that group of bandits we ran into on the road so why shouldn't we travel with you?"

"Because those were simple bandits you saw how we fought them. Well coordinated, efficient, and definitely in practice. Trouble tends to follow us and we don't always come out unharmed."

"But what if we still want to go with you?" Star looked to Twilight and saw a glimmer in her eyes. "What if we can help, three element bearers could be a huge help to you."

"Heh that's kinda a bad argument since the elements only work when all six are together. Besides it's not my vote alone that matters I have to ask the others on their opinions if you want to help."

"But what if I wanted to stay? What would your vote be?" Twilight asked sheepishly.

Star was once again saved by his coat as he answered "You would have my vote." Twilight had to hide her own face to hide the slight blush she was getting. "But anyway lets continue on our way we still have some time to kill." And with that the two unicorns continued with their day.

**********

Pinkamina, Pinkie, Rig, and Berry all carrying their own bags were walking around the city for some time and while Berry and Pinkie were talking to each other Pinkamina was looking around and Rig was in thought. 'How to get Pinkamina into one of my pranks. Probably don't have enough time, Star will probably have them go back to Ponyville after that attack.'

"Not much to do around here is there?" Pinkamina said bringing Rig out of his thoughts. Pinkamina looked around bored "I thought cities were supposed to have tourist traps all over them."

"Yeah in places like Las Pegasus. This is more of a philosophical city, ponies come here to learn mostly. It's a great place to pick up information."

"Wow that almost sounded smart Rig." Pinkamina said mockingly

Rig turned angerly on her "Make a comment like that again and see what happens." the two locked eyes and Rig couldn't help but notice that her eyes didn't even twitch. "Whoa whoa whoa no fights right now" Berry said getting between the two before they could start "I know a place where we could kill some time how 'bout we head that way?"

"Sure." Pinkamina shrugged Rig didn't say anything still looking at Pinkamina.

"Unfortunately it would take awhile to get there unless we cut through some alleys." Berry said

"That shouldn't be a problem." PInkamina said

"Then lets go!" Pinkie chirped from next to Rig which surprised him "How? How did you get next to me? You were just over there."

"I walked, duh." Pinkie said. Rig watched her walk away from him then heard Pinkamina snicker "You scared Rig? it's just my little sister." Rig just simmered in his anger and followed.

Berry led the group through several alleys supposedly leading to the place Berry was talking about. The alleys were so close only two ponies could walk next to each other at a time and there was garbage all over the place as well stacked as tall as a pony in some places. Berry was leading with Pinkie with Pinkamina and Rig following and once again Rig was in thought before Pinkamina asked "So what's your story?" Rig didn't respond, not realizing that Pinkamina was talking to him. Pinkamina thinking that Rig was ignoring her then slugged him on the shoulder. Hard.

"OW! What the hell! Why did you hit me?"

"You were ignoring me asshole."

"How can I ignore you when you weren't talking to me?" Rig snapped

"I was, and I asked what your story was." Pinkamina snapped right back

Rig was actually caught off guard. 'Why is she even talking to me?' Pinkamina just waited for an answer which confused Rig even more. a few seconds went by before he counter asked "Why do you care?"

"What a mare can't be curious about a pony who actually has some guts for a change?" Pinkamina asked calming down.

"Wait what?" Rig asked dumbfounded

"You're not afraid of a fight. Most ponies are soft, you're not and I'm curious as to why."

'I can't believe what I'm about to do.' Rig though to himself. "I was born in a small town near the Equestria border. In that town there is no place for you if you can't hold your own. That's my story." Pinkamina only nodded. The group wandered around the alleys with Berry trying to get his bearings to find out where they should head which ended up with the group at a dead end. "Damn it why did I let Berry lead. He can't walk in a straight line." Rig said.

"Still not as bad as Pinkie." Pinkamina said

"Really? I have an erratic pony who can't seem to stand still or shut up for five minutes as a partner."

"Pinkie can't sit still for one minute and she can seemingly disappear when you blink. Don't know how she does it but she does and she's my sister so yeah it's worse."

"Whatever."

Berry finally found his bearings and continued to lead them through the alleys. "I told you mine so what's yours." Rig asked.

"Me and my three sisters, Pinkie included, were raised on a rock farm." Rig couldn't stop a snicker. "Watch it rock farming is hard work and I did most of Pinkie's work since she was the weakest of the four of us. Inky and Blinky helped but I could do more so I did. Pinkie was out working one day and I had to help with something else around the farm, I can't remember what but that doesn't matter. Pinkie apparently saw this rainbow 'flow' across the sky and she threw a party for everyone on the farm, it was the most fun our family had ever had." Pinkamina said with a small smile "Shortly after Pinkie was offered a position at Sugarcube Corner and mom and dad thought it would be good if I went with her. I did and we lived there for quite awhile helping the Cakes and I found out I'm good at cooking there too." Rig took that information in but then asked "How are you good with that blade you got from those ponies from the road though you said you were a cook?"

"Used a lot of knives in the kitchen and on more than one occasion I would start to throw them in frustration. I had to set up a target to prevent damage to the walls." Pinkamina said with a mischievous smile.

'Note to self watch out for PInkamina when she has knives' Rig thought to himself.

"We're here." Berry finally said. Pinkamina looked over the small club that was in front of her. "Finally here should probably get in while we still have time." and she entered with Pinkie right behind her. Rig didn't enter and only looked at the door that the mares went through.

"Whats on your mind Rig." Berry asked. Rig was thinking about Pinkamina's story but couldn't say anything to Berry or he wouldn't shut up about it "Nothing let's just get our asses in there before one of them come out looking for us." Berry knew Rig was deflecting his question but thought nothing of it and entered right behind Rig.

**********

Rainbow and Storm flew around the city taking what sights they could taking the occasional break on a roof top but Rainbow's impatience was starting to get the better of her again "Geez why did I come if all I'm going to do is be bored." Rainbow said flopping face up on a cloud. "There's nothing to do." Storm just lightly landed on the cloud next to Rainbow not saying anything. Rainbow looked to him "So what's it like being a Kirin?" Storm looked to her with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean being part dragon has to be awesome right?" Storm inhaled deeply and let a small gout of white flame escape his snout. "It's more of a mixed blessing. Dragon vitality and strength has helped me and my friends more than once and the fire breath is more uncomfortable than painful." He was quiet for a second before asking cautiously "Do you know how old I am?"

Rainbow looked him over. "You look to be about my age why?"

"And how old are you?"

"Twenty three."

"I'm seventy eight." Rainbow's jaw dropped "No way you're seventy five I don't believe it." Storm just shrugged "You don't have to believe it for it to be true. The past five years have been the best of that time though. That's the time I've been running with Star, Rig, and Berry. Of course I hid my nature from them for awhile but then one day I just showed them and to my surprise they didn't care, Been following them since." Rainbow looked at Storm again and took in his appearance his eyes that seemed to look beyond what was there, his large black feathered wings which she knew could change into his leathery draconic wings with a simple wave, and Rainbow couldn't help but notice how his body was well toned too.

"See something you like?" Storm asked jokingly. Rainbow caught herself checking him out and she looked away and said "I don't see anything spectacular." with a light blush on her face. Storm chuckled "Come on there's more to this city than we've seen so far." and with that he took off Rainbow looked after him and thought to herself 'seventy eight that's a long time, and most of it was before he met his friends. Wonder what it was like.'

"Come on Rainbow I'm leaving you in the dust." Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and saw Storm off in the distance hovering and waiting for her. Rainbow smirked and took off catching up with him.

**********

"I'm coming." Rainbow said. After all the ponies made it back to the hotel Twilight told everyone about how she planed on traveling with Star and there was no objections from them. "Me too it sounds so fun. Doesn't it Mina?"

"Not really but if you go mom and dad would want me to go with you so I guess I'm in too."

"Well that depends on the others." Star said "I don't get the final call on adding ponies to the group they do."

"You know me my vote is yes." Berry said immediately.

"I see no problems with that." Storm said.

"Whatever." was Rig's vote.

"Seems like you can come with us then." Star said "Now one warning before you all come along if you come with us your safety is not assured and you could possibly be injured." Star looked away got a distant look in his eyes "or worse."

Rainbow and Pinkie considered that for a moment, Pinkamina didn't flinch, as usual, and Twilight had already heard this and made up her mind and was just waiting for Rainbow and Pinkie to make up their minds. Rainbow got a determined look on her face Twilight knew well "Like I said I'm in." and Pinkie was nodding furiously in agreement off to the side her head looking as if it was about to fall off any second.

"Ok with that out of the way. I can tell you where we're going and Twilight can help me plan a course."  Star said pulling out a map "We're going to be heading to the griffon mountain border so we have a lot of ground to cover."

"Nothing we can't handle." Rainbow said in her normal cocky tone.

"Whee! This is going to be so much fun!" Pinkie and Berry shouted at the same time causing everyone but Pinkamina and Rig to chuckle. Star and Twilight planned their course while the others talked among themselves for the rest of the night.

**********

"It seems your student can't resist the call of adventure just like mine." Luna said looking into her mirror and seeing Twilight, Star, and their friends. "She probably would have been one of my students if I wasn't trapped in the moon for all those years that I don't blame you for. You know I wasn't myself during those times."

"It still hurts Luna. To know that I was the cause for your banishment and all those years alone. I could not imagine what it was like." Celestia said entering Luna's room knowing she was once again looking over her student.

"Lucky for me the years blur together during that time. The thousand years I was trapped only felt as two hundred years since my mind was occupied with its thoughts. But back to the subject at hoof. Your student is about to see places outside Equestria what do you think of that?"

"You know how I feel about Twilight she is like a daughter to me." Celestia said with a smile

"And you know me and Star are like mother and son." Luna was quiet for a moment before chuckling to herself.

"What's so funny Luna?"

"Nothing. Looks like they are planning on heading to the griffon mountains, good a very familiar place for my student plenty of good friends of his there a slow start for your student."

"Yes and just I hope that my student can learn something from this adventure." Celestia said

"She probably will." Luna said with a smile as she watched Star and Twilight plan their course.

Chapter 6: New Enemies

Chapter 6: New EnemiesBy LunarGuard12

Pyrrhic sat in his study waiting for the ponies he had invited to his manor. 'Where are they. My grunts obviously are too incompetent to handle this group.' Pyrrhic moved to his window to looked out upon the ocean and down to the  private port that was close to his manor. there was a knock at his door and his maid Crystal, a simple grey pegasus with a draker grey mane, called in "Master the ponies you called have arrived."

"Good send them up."

"As you wish." and with that she left to go bring them up. 'Finally they are here.' After a few minutes the door opened again to once again reveal Crystal with two unicorns accompanying her, one stallion and one mare. The stallion had a black coat and a red mane with a blue stripe and clear amber eyes while the mare had a white coat and a blue mane with a red stripe and bright violet eyes.

"Ah the Stretto twins it's good to finally meet you. You must be Requiem the shield" Pyrrhic said looking at the black stallion. "And you must be Aria the sword." He said looking to the mare. Neither of them would give him any response "Fine I'll get down to business I need you to kill somepony."

"Who?" Aria asked simply her voice light and delicate.

"A unicorn named Crimson Starburst."

"Where can we find him?" asked Requiem his voice low and smooth.

"He was heading to Baltimare the last we saw of him."

"Then we will start there." The twins said in unison and turned and left.

"I hate mercenaries." Pyrrhic said and Shadow Stalker once again entered after everyone besides Pyrrhic left again. "Shadow I know you're there what's on your mind?"

"It's those two. You hate mercenaries but you hired them why?"

"Because my help is helpless." Pyrrhic said with a sneer "And those two came from a reliable source that they can get any job done." Pyrrhic said unconvincingly.

"Would you like me to send my pet to watch them?" Shadow asked draping herself across Pyrrhic's back.

"Yes that would be a good idea."

Shadow pulled out a silver necklace with a black opal at the end and whispered "Tenebra come." When Shadow uttered those words the room darkened and shadows peeled themselves of the wall and came together in front of Shadow forming a beautiful unicorn mare mare with a dark grey coat, a black mane that was braided down the back and covered one of her dark brown eyes, and a black curved horn adorned her head.

"Yes mistress?" Tenebra asked her voice airy and sounding uninterested.

"Follow those two mercenaries and report back to us in one week." Shadow ordered.

"As you wish mistress." Tenebra said breaking back apart into shadows.

"Are you sure that demon will not be a problem Shadow?" Pyrrhic asked looking to where Tenebra broke apart.

"She is bound fully Pyrrhic. She cannot break her bonds. She is mine to control." Shadow said flipping her mane for no reason. "And you can't deny she has been useful."

"I can't deny that. But that doesn't mean I like using her." Pyrrhic said with a frown. 'And most of the time Demon's hold grudges when they are bound and that does not end well for the ones who bound them.'

**********

"Stupid fool." Tenebra sneered as she followed the mercenaries "She thinks she has complete control but she only does as long as she holds that necklace and even then." Tenebra gave a grin that revealed sharp teeth "She keeps forgetting to word her commands right. She said only to report back. Not report on the mercenaries and I so love giving her a hard time." and she continued to watch the mercenaries from their own shadows the twins completely unaware they were being watched.

**********

"So where are we heading now?" Rainbow asked hovering above Twilight.

"We make one stop before the border and one right next to it then move into griffon lands." Twilight said looking up at Rainbow.

"So whats the first stop?"

"A town called New Coltson." Star said "It's a little town with nothing really around but we need to make the stop to resupply or we could end up running out of food along the way."

"Well that would be bad." Rainbow said. the group had left Balitmare a few days ago and started their long trek towards the griffon border. Rainbow looked to Rig who had all of his packs with him, all three of them one across his back two along his sides. "Hey Rig what's up with the packs?"

Rig looked disdainfully at Rainbow. "What does it matter." He said harshly.

"Geez don't blow a gasket."

"It's his tools." Berry chirped. "He is basically the techy of our group and can make anything."

"Sure he can." Pinkamina said sarcastically rolling her eyes. Rig turned on her and snapped " You can dis me but DO NOT dis my mechanical ability."

"Make me." Pinkamina said staring him down. Rig opened one of the packs and pulled out a steel limb that tappered into a point. "What the hell is that?" Pinkamina asked looking at the strange metal object.

"This is a mechanical arm I made so I can do fine manipulation like a unicorn using their horn." Rig said as he put on the one arm and it split in half part way down and then pulled out a second new limb and put that one on too. "These things are linked to me so only me or somepony who I give permission to can use them."

"How did you manage that?" Twilight asked.

"Me that's how." Star said smiling "A simple ID check spell bound to the activation point did the trick."

"How did you prevent tampering of the spell though?" Twilight asked her curiosity peaked.

"Well the spell has a counter ward over it so any attempt of modification not from me or Rig is voided."

"Well what's stopping someone from removing the spell completely and replacing it with one of their own?"

"Oh that's easy I just-"

"HEY! Trying to shut Pinkamina up do you mind?" Rig interrupted.

"Sorry Rig go ahead." Star said sighing at his friend.

"Thank you now as I was saying I can modify all forms of tech from simple machines to magical devices nothing is to complicated for me to mess with."

"Prove it." Pinkamina challenged with a glare.

"Fine bring me something then and I'll make it better." Rig said glaring back. Pinkamina pulled out the retractable blade she acquired and said "Make this better then." Rig knew how he was going to get Pinkamina back for making him look like an idiot

"If I make this better in less than thirty seconds you have to do what ever I tell you for the next four days and if I can't I listen to you " Rig said.

"Make it twenty seconds and you have yourself a deal." Pinkamina said with a smile.

"Accepted." Rig said with a grin and grabbed the blade out of Pinkamina's grip and immediately went to work the steel arms splitting into ten appendages each and blazing over the blade pulling it apart in five seconds and quickly putting it back together in ten. "Done." Rig stated as the steel limbs fused back together and put themselves at his side. Pinkamina looked over the blade and couldn't see anything changed "Looks like you lose."

"Put it on." Rig said and pinkamina did as she was told "Now point it away from anypony and flick your hoof forwards." Pinkamina again did what she was told and the blade flew off and landed a good distance away from the group obviously improved.

"How?"

"I adjusted the spring and frame so when you flick your hoof while the blade is sheathed, it will be able to fly out a good distance and still be lethal. But if you just move your hoof forwards and don't flick it, it will extend normally"

"Wow that was impressive Rig you out did yourself." Star said.

"Wow that was really cool." Rainbow said looking to Storm who was looking into the distance. "Storm you there?" she said poking him.

"Hm?" Storm hummed.

"What's up Storm you seem a little distracted."

"It's nothing." Storm looked back out on the horizon 'Though he'll be joining us tonight."

**********

Later that night after all of the ponies had set up their camp Storm looked out into the darkness almost as if he was expecting someone. Rainbow moved to his side and asked "Storm you have been staring in that direction for almost an hour now what are you looking for?"

"Not looking for. Waiting for." Storm replied not even looking at Rainbow.

"Well what are you waiting for?"

"Him." Storm said pointing to a yellow dragon that was walking on all fours and stood taller than Celestia.

"Oh my Celestia. Dragon!" Rainbow yelled and took off. The others bolted to where Rainbow yelled then the stallions relaxed as they saw who it was and the girls slowly relaxed as well.

"Hello Ra'toroc." Storm said to the dragon.

"Greetings Za'taheil. I take it you were expecting me?" Ra'toroc asked Storm.

"Yes I thought I saw you in the distance earlier today."

"Ra'toroc what are you doing in this area?" Star asked seeming to know the large dragon.

"Traveling. Like I normally am." Ra'toroc looked at the mares now Rainbow back from her takeoff. "I see you have more ponies traveling with you than normal. Allow me to introduce myself I am Ra'toroc."

"His name means the traveler" Storm said with a smile " and one of the few dragons I can call friend."

"Za'taheil you may not have many friends of dragon blood but you have more friends than most dragons."

"I keep hearing you call Storm Za'taheil. Why do you keep calling him that?" Twilight asked. Rainbow was curious as well and listened in closely.

"That is his name." Ra'toroc simply said.

"Wait I thought his name was Firestorm?" Rainbow said.

"Both are my name." Storm answered "Firestorm is from my father who was a pegasus while Za'taheil was given to me from my mother."

"What does it mean?" Rainbow asked missing the uncharacteristic flinch Storm made.

"It means shifter or one who lives between two." Storm answered flinching again as he said it. Rainbow unable to miss this one because she was looking right at him. Ra'toroc watched both rainbow and Storm watching as Storms face took on a solemn quality 'Unfortunately young one you are wrong. But I cannot tell you the correct meaning. Not yet.' Twilight caught the look Ra'toroc gave Storm but did not question it. The yellow dragon talked witht the group for an hour and a half before looking to the night sky and saying "I should continue on my way." Ra'toroc stood up and looked to Rainbow who had been giving him a look most of the time while he was talking with the group. "Miss Dash I would like to speak with you for a moment." Rainbow slowly stood up and followed Ra'toroc out of earshot of the camp.

"I noticed you could not seem to break your attention from me most of the night. What is on your mind?"

Rainbow kicked a hoof of the ground before asking "Is that what Storm's name really means?" Ra'toroc watched Rainbow as he said "No." and saw how she visibly relaxed "Then what does it really mean and why don't you tell him?" she asked now angry at the large yellow dragon.

"His mother asked me not to."

"What?"

"A dragon's name tells one who they are. My name was given to me after I started to travel the world. His was given at birth because his mother already knew what he would be able to do that no one else can."

"And that is?" Rainbow asked hoping the yellow dragon would slip up and tell her.

"Good attempt but I am bound. He will figure it out if he looked a little closer at what his skin would allow him to do." Rainbow looked back to the camp and saw Storm sitting and smiling with the others. "Can i at least tell him his name doesn't mean what he thinks it is?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes and I encourage that. He won't figure out what it means if he thinks he already knows." Ra'toroc said with a smile 'Tell the others I said farewell." and with that Ra'toroc walked out into the darkness continuing his travels. Rainbow walked back into the camp and sat next to Twilight.

"So what did Ra'toroc want?" she asked.

Rainbow looked to Storm and said "Nothing really but he wanted me to tell everyone goodbye." Twilight knew Her friend was hiding something but didn't want to pry so she left it alone and a few minutes later everyone went to sleep.

**********

The Stretto twins looked to the last known location of the one they were hunting and it looked like a nice little hotel. "This is the last place Starburst was seen and our only lead hopefully we can gather some information here." Requiem said to Aria.

"No other way than to enter and see for ourselves and we might as well stay a night too." Aria replied.

"I see no problem with that since our prey is not on the run." Requiem agreed. The two entered and took in the hotels surroundings. Aria and Requiem like the way the place felt comfortable and at ease. Their line of work didn't allow many points of comfort so they took them when they came and this was one of the places they felt they could relax.

"Oh how can I help you two?" Lemongrass asked with a smile when she noticed the twins.

"We would like to rent a room." Aria said happily.

"Yeah we don't see many places like these anymore. It almost feels like a home." Requiem said honestly.

"Oh mom can I help these ponies?" Cinnamon asked running into the room and almost tripping as he tried to stop.

"I don't know. Do you think you can do it?" Lemongrass asked jokingly knowing he was better at the front desk than she was.

"I can do it." Cinnamon said getting behind the counter and looking over the book for a room. "Found one." He said after only a few seconds of looking. "Room four-oh-two is open." Cinnamon got out from behind the counter "I'll take them to their room." he said.

"Ok. make sure to get their luggage." Lemongrass said from the kitchen.

"Don't worry kid we don't have anything other than our packs and those can stay on us." Aria said smiling to Cinnamon "Just show us to our room and we can take it from there."

"Ok." Cinnamon said and he led them to their room. On the way there he asked the two "Are you two brother and sister?"

"Yep twins actually." Requiem answered "Not many ponies can tell. How did you figure it out?"

"I have a pair of friends who are twins as well and they just fall into step with each other all the time. It's kinda cool seeing them walk at the exact same time matching each other, and you two do it too."

The twins looked at one another and found Cinnamon's statement to be true they were walking in time and they didn't even notice. Requiem looked to Aria and she looked to him and the two laughed. "We're here." Cinnamon cheered to them. The two entered and looked over the comfy room with Cinnamon asking "Do you like it?"

The twins turned to him and at the same time said "Yes." and Cinnamon's smile stretched from ear to ear. After Cinnamon left the twins got themselves settled and started talking about their next move.

"This was the last place Star was but we can't find a lead." Aria said

"Seems that way. We have to pick up the trial tomorrow or we may have one long hunt ahead of us." Requiem replied.

"Why can't anything be easy for us?" Aria sighed.

Tenebra sat in the shadows of the bed and listened to the twins. 'Interesting. These two are not like most mercenaries. I think I can pull a few strings on this one.' she thought before she melted into the shadows of the bed completely unnoticed.

**********

The next day as the Twins were walking along a path they had planed out to look for Star with little luck. After several hours Aria finally spoke something that was on her mind.

"Hey Requiem when will we be able to stop the mercenary and bounty hunter business?"

Requiem sighed "I don't know Aria. Maybe never."

"Do you think we can find somewhere safe to settle down?"

"I don't know."

"Do you-"

"I DON"T KNOW ARIA!" Requiem shouted. Aria looked at Requiem hurt. "I'm sorry Aria. I didn't mean to shout but I'm plagued by the same thoughts as you. I may not voice them like you do but they are there." Aria moved to Requiem and she hugged him. the two held each other like that for several minutes before they heard a voice.

"You two done?"

They both turned their heads to see a black coated pony and three others behind him. Requiem and Aria were ready to kill these ponies for ruining their moment and hoping they gave them a reason. "You two the Stretto twins?" they both nodded. "Good means we found our paycheck." Requiem and Aria both smiled their hopes were answered. After a quick skirmish the four ponies that came after the twins were bleeding out on the ground while the twins walked away.

After the sun had set the twins made a fire and sat around it. "Another group of hunters." Requiem said "Ever since that job in Bittsburg hunters have been coming after us. Must have killed someone important in the underworld there,"

"Yeah but none of them seem to understand we far outclass them." Aria said.

"That you do do you're almost at our level." A third voice said. The twins looked to the voice and found a dark grey mare with a black mane and her curved black horn. "Demon!" They shouted in unison and started to cast spells before Tenebra melted back into the shadows and appeared inbetween the two. "If I wanted to kill you, you never would have noticed me. I come to help you."

"Why would a demon help us?" Requiem asked his horn giving off a harsh amber glow "Demons care for none but themselves."

"Though that is true I came because I have been instructed to follow you but I get bored easily and you would wander for far longer than I am willing to wait so I'll help you." Tenebra said condescendingly.

"So how have you come to help us?" Aria asked her horn glowing a fierce violet.

"I come to tell you where your pray is heading. I had to pull a few strings but I found out he is heading towards the griffon mountains with seven other ponies in his company. I suggest you challenge him and see if he will accept before you try and kill him if you don't you might be outnumbered." and with those final words Tenebra faded into the night sky as if she were smoke.

"Should we trust her?" Aria asked looking to her brother.

"No not trust. But maybe listen to at the least. We have no other leads." Requiem said still looking to where Tenebra faded away. "Get some sleep. We're heading to the griffon mountains tomorrow."

"I'm not going to sleep when a demon just visited us we can walk through the night and sleep in the morning if we have to but your not staying up alone tonight." Aria said with a grin.

Requiem mirrored the grin and replied "I guess we better start walking then."

**********

A few days after Ra'toroc's surprise visit the group had stopped at New Coltston and resupplied and left the next day and after a few days of travel Twilight noticed Rainbow was not flying above the group that day but walking with the group instead. Twilight slowed down and matched Rainbows stride "What's wrong Rainbow? You haven't flown at all today and that's not normal." Rainbow was too far lost in her thoughts to notice Twilight had asked her a question. Twilight poke her in the side and Rainbow's head snapped to the side Twilight was on. "Oh hey Twilight what's up?" Rainbow asked.

"I should be asking you that. You haven't flown all day and that usually means somethings on your mind." Rainbow looked at her hooves. "Remember when that dragon talked to me?"

"Ra'toroc?"

"Yeah him. Well he told me Storm was wrong about his dragon name and that a dragon's name symbolizes who they are."

"Yeah like how Ra'toroc's name meant the traveler and he has been traveling his whole life. So what does Storm's name really mean?"

"I don't know he didn't tell me."

"So why are you worrying about it that's usually me." Twilight said trying to lighten the mood and unfortunately failing.

"Did you see the way he flinched when he said his own name?" Twilight nodded since she noticed the reaction to Storm hearing his name. "He's hurting himself over a name he doesn't even know and I can't help him." Rainbow looked back to her hooves and decided to get off that train of thought for now "So what's Star like? Besides from the fact he's kinda awesome with the tattoos."

Twilight got  light blush thinking about Star and then answered "He's smart, worries about his friends, know more about magic than any other unicorn I know and hans-" Twilight snapped her mouth shut hoping Rainbow didn't catch that last part but the damage was done and Rainbow looked to Twilight with a smile and said "You like him don't you?" Twilight had a light blush and Rainbow snickered which made Twilight snap back "Well you like Storm don't you?" It was Rainbow's turn to blush and the two of them looked to each other and knew what the other was thinking "You don't say anything I don't say anything?" Twilight asked Rainbow who nodded and simply said "Yep."

Meanwhile

"Wonder what those two are taking about?" Star asked Storm.

"Nothing important." Storm said with a smirk.

"You can hear them can't you?" Storm nodded. "Anything I should know?"

"Nope." Storm said making a good impression of a certain red farmpony.

After a few minutes had gone by Storm asked "So what do you think of the girls?"

"Well for starters Pinkamina scares me a little." Star said with a chuckle "Kinda reminds me of the first time I met Rig. Rainbow's cool. She's a great flyer. Pinkie....you know I'm going to pull a Twilight and say she's Pinkie. As for Twilight." Star said his eyes gazing in the distance "She is the kindest, smartest, and most amazing mare I have ever met." Star then realized what he said "Don't tell Rig I said that. He would use that to get what he wants AND make me look stupid."

"Don't worry I kinda like Rainbow." Star looked to Storm surprised that he would flat out say it like that.

"Sooo I'll take that as you won't tell Rig."

"Tell me what?" Rig said coming up to the pair. Star looked to Storm who didn't make eye contact and then looked to Rig and said "Nothing what did you want?"

"I was wondering what the next stop is."

"Oh it's Gallopton." Star said.

Rig froze mid stride then put the hoof he had up on the ground before yelling "WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"

Chapter 1: Breakout

BreakoutStory by: Lunarguard12 and OneIncessantWriter

"He's around here somewhere." Said a unicorn, his sea blue coat the only thing between him and the incessant cold that had settled in the area.

"Really? No shit.  I guessed he just phased through the walls instead of taking the door." Replied the unicorns parter, his face a mask of mocking incredulity. Looking around the green pony once again noted that there was no way out for the unicorn the two were chasing. As it turns out that didn't matter considering the unicorn they were looking for was really good with illusion magic. This was further reinforced by the fact that he was literally hiding right under their muzzles, a veil of illusion magic falling from his head to his hooves. 'Glad I'm good at illusion magic.' The hiding unicorn  thought to himself.  'Now I just wait for Rig, Berry, and Storm and we're home free.'

Unfortunately he was not that lucky and the blue unicorn chose that exact moment to start charging a spell and running right towards him, full speed. Only one thought crossed the unicorn's mind before the magic released.

'Shit.'

The wave of magic that hit the invisible unicorn shattered his veil, revealing a coat so red that it could've been mistaken for blood. It also revealed the elaborate tattoos that looped around his horn and spread out from there, one strand going to loop around his right eye while two strands formed circles on his withers and proceeded to spiral down his forelegs. His eyes were also revealed, showing the right eye to be golden and slitted like a reptiles while his left eye was a deep blue. His short, messy black mane seemed to further accent the look.

"Well Celestia damn it, I was hoping you wouldn't think about that." The unicorn said, more in hope of buying time than anything else. He had to think a way out of here as quickly as possible.

"Too bad for you Star, I did. You have been causing us problems and creating loose ends that I need to tie up, and now we can finally cut out the source of the problem" Said the unicorn, trying, and failing, to keep a giddy smile from spreading across his face.

"Well good luck, you wouldn't be the first to try, and obviously not the first to fail." Star said with a smile, his horn starting to glow.  The glow from his horn seemed to spread to the circle portions of tattoos along his withers.  Two pairs of glowing red ethereal wings sprouted from them.

"Impressive but inconsequential, we can still bring you in."  The unicorn pointed our, his once wide grin starting to wane into a frown.

"How so? I'm obviously much more skilled in magic than you are, the evidence to that could be seen in the cell I broke out of and the wings I conjured. So how could you and one earth pony beat me?" Star asked, completely confident that he could deflect, dodge, or counter anything they could throw at him. Then the blue unicorn blew a long loud whistle. No more than thirty seconds later did four more unicorns, five earth ponies, and three pegasi come into the room. Star's smile left his face as he looked at the reinforcements 'Oh, that's how he'll beat me. That should be considered cheating.' Star glanced nervously around the room.  'Where are you Rig, you should be ready by now and I could really use the help.'

"So what are you going to do now?" Asked the blue unicorn, his smile returning in full force. "You're trapped, you can't possibly fight your way out against five unicorns and six earth ponies, and you can't fly away anymore because of the pegasi. So I ask again; what are you going to do?"  Star's ear twitched as he heard a tick from the wall behind him and smiled. 'Rig you sly bastard'

"Oh I'm not going to have to do much to beat you." He said as he flapped his double wings once, propelling  him off the ground just as the ticking he heard stopped.  The blue unicorn only stared at Star in confusion for a moment before the wall behind Star erupted in fire. The blue unicorn, along with the every other pony in the room, excluding Star, had to cover their eyes to prevent being blinded by pieces of the flaming wall.  After the rubble settled the blue unicorn looked to the wall that was no longer there and spotted a smiling blood red unicorn before him

"You're not the only one with friends." Star announced with a smile as his friends walked  into the room. The first thing the blue unicorn saw as this happened was a black dragon, or at least he thought it was a dragon. It had the leathery wings of a dragon and fangs jutted out of its muzzle. It was also big enough to be one, but after a second look, it was definitely equine. He, the unicorn could tell it was a stallion from the muzzle, stood about a head taller than the largest non-alicorn he had ever seen, which was a farmhand he had seen on his vacation to Ponyville. However, what scared the unicorn the most about this dragon/pony hybrid were the eyes. The thing had eyes that seemed to glow orange like hot embers in a fire. Eyes that looked like they could see your every intention and promised destruction should those intentions be hostile.  A deep blue earth pony  jumped off the dragon/pony hybrid, his light blue mane bouncing as he walked over to Star.

"So Star we know the explosion wasn't planned but how do you think it did I just got a feeling that if we blew our way in we could be more helpful that way and wasn't it cool I saw it from the back of Storm and it looked awesome and we wanted to be able to help you the best we could and mmfffppphh." Star put a hoof to the blue pony's mouth to stop the endless flow of words. The sea foam green eyes of the pony glinted with short lived disappointment as his speech was temporarily cut off.

"Berry shush, you're rambling again." Star intoned before slowly taking his hoof away from the pony's mouth.

"Sorry but the explosion was cool; wasn't it Storm?" Berry asked the dragon/pony hybrid out of the blue. The dragon/pony hybrid that the blue unicorn thought must be Storm just shrugged and didn't say anything.

"It was awesome Berry, and your feelings were correct as usual. That explosion was quite helpful." Star said. As he did another earth pony entered, this one was a blue so dark that it could've been mistaken for black. He entered through the opening by pulling himself up with some sort of hook mechanism. He turned towards Star, showing packs along his sides and back.

"Eh, could have been a little bigger, but what the heck it got the job done." This pony's mane and eyes were both a bright, pure white. His eyes also seemed to look straight through anypony he glance at, their pupils surrounded by what looked like a corona of white with a black outlining.

"Rig, you should know by now the biggest explosion is not always the best answer." Star said, to which Rig responded only with a flat stare and grumbling what sounded vaguely like. 'Kill joy.'

"Anyway we should be going, you know, things to do and places to be, see ya!" Star said as he propelled out of the opening with Berry, who jumped back onto Storm to be carried away. Meanwhile Rig pressed a button on his packs and a set of bronze mechanical wings sprouted from them. Right before Rig followed his friends he turned around and tossed a small package at the blue unicorn's hooves. A quick wave later and he jumped.

The unicorn looked down and saw a timer on the package, a big red three on it. The  unicorn could only look as the timer ticked away to zero. As the package hit zero it burst into red and black pony skull shaped confetti with a loud pop, leaving a note that read "GOT YA". After the unicorn read the note his muzzle hit the ground and he passed out.

**********

"What went wrong?" Asked Star as they all flew away from the sight of the explosion.

"Well when we went to get inside Rig got into a fight with one of the guards and that got all of us kicked out" Responded Berry cheerily.

"Ah that would explain it. Rig why do you always start fights?" Star questioned.

"Those ponies pissed me off." Star looked at Rig flatly, earning him no more than a shrug.

"I'm lucky I wasn't underground. I would have been in a bad position if I was." Star said, trying to change the subject.

"But you weren't, so no harm done." Rig responded in a carefree voice. Star looked to Storm who came up and smacked the back of Rig's head. Berry was trying very hard not to laugh. "Damn it Storm I hate it when you hit me, I can't fight you; you're too damn big and nothing I do can hurt you in the slightest" Rig grumbled. The rest of the group laughed, and they flew for another thirty minutes before Star spoke up.

"Ok time to contact the princess" Star said. The others expressed their agreement and they all landed.  Star dug a hole about a foot across and summoned water from the ground to rest in the hole. After the pool settled out Star started to chant "Accul tao fre ias dua talwe Luna" and the pool glowed faintly for a moment before a figure with a mane of stars and an indigo coat appeared.

"Ah Crimson Starburst my pupil, how can I help you?" Luna asked. A warm, almost motherly smile spreading across her face.

"I got what you asked for Princess," Star said as he pulled out a small jade orb from his stash portal he had made earlier that day. "This one was a little tricky to get, but we got it."

"Thank you Crimson Starburst, now it only needs to be brought to me. Where are you?" asked Luna.

"We are just outside the east city limits of Hoofsburg." Star responded, a small air of pride entering his voice.

"Ah that puts you rather close to a little town called Ponyville, and I have an appointment there in five days to meet someone.  It should only take you three from where you are and you could drop off the orb as well." Luna said. This caused Star to blink in confusion.

"You have an appointment? When do you have to make an appointment to go anywhere or to meet anyone?" Star asked, suddenly very excited. Surely whoever this pony was, they were very important.

"Oh it's not that I have to, it's more like I wanted to so she doesn't panic more than she should." Luna responded in an amused tone. Amused both at her students reaction, and at the memories of Twilight Sparkle freaking out.

"And who is this pony you are going to meet?" Star asked

"Twilight Sparkle, my sisters pupil."

**********

"So Cobalt, you failed me again?" Asked a unicorn his face covered by the shadows.

"Yes milord." The blue unicorn named Cobalt answered,  scared out of his mind, his face down to avoid eye contact.

"Look at me Cobalt. I'm not mad at you." Cobalt looked up but still didn't make eye contact. "In the eyes Cobalt!" Cobalt's eyes snapped to his lord's eyes and it sent shivers down his spine. Those eyes. Those empty green eyes that had no light in them. "Cobalt you have one more chance, don't fail me again. See Crystal for your assignment. Dismissed."

Cobalt made a hasty exit, knowing that staying would only lead to worse things. After the door shut, a voice seemed to come from nowhere in particular.

"You know he will fail with the assignment you gave him correct?" It asked.

"Oh most definitely, the ones he will be going with were instructed that they would fail and would not be held against them, but also to cause as many problems as they can with minimal losses." The shaded unicorn responded, his hollow green eyes sweeping the room. "Come on out, I want to see you."  A matte black earth pony mare with a flowing dark blue mane seemed to form from the shadows that lined the walls.

"I'm guessing you wanted something to play with and that is why you sent Cobalt on one last mission." The mare said with a sadistic smile on her face.

"Oh you know me so well Shadow Stalker. Yes he will likely be panicking the whole way there, and if he is still alive after, restrained and brought back. One does not work for me and leave. One must be made sure not to spread secrets after their employment has ended." They unicorn responded, a grin spreading across his face as well.

"Oh I do love the way you think." Shadow Stalker said, moving next to the shaded unicorn "You know how to cause pain-" She put her head right next to his ear, her warm breath caressing the side of his face. "-and I like that."

"Now now Shadow, later I will indulge you but right now I have other things to attend to." The unicorn responded, secretly wishing he didn't have other things to do. Shadow gave a pout.

"Fine, but be quick about it." She said, and with that she left the same way she came, seeming to walk directly into the shadows. The shaded unicorn looked to the files that have been in front of him since they began the debriefing of Cobalt. Shifting through the file he found what he was looking for, a sketch of the one who had been a nuisance in his affairs.

"You have been giving me trouble. Soon you won't be able to lift a hoof against me, literally." He muttered as he tossed the sketch into his fire place, sending a small ball of blue fire that on impact turned into an inferno of blue flames, not even leaving a single ash in the fireplace.