Lament of the Frozen North

by Gavel Coaster

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Zecora, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 42118

A snowy winter, a bloodied visitor, a deepening mystery, and a threat long silent whispers from the shadows...

The Mane Six discover an injured mare beside the Ponyville river in the dead of winter. Clinging to life, she is carted to hospital to recover. However, all is not what it seems. Nopony recognizes the mare, and more and more mysteries begin to appear as to who she is, where she came from, and why...

Published 2013-06-11 17:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-29 13:33:29 UTC

A Visitor in the Snow

“Hear me now…henceforth with the defeat of Discord at the hands of the Elements of Harmony, shall Equestria know peace from within.  Peace from without, however, will mean your eternal vigilance against what malevolent forces lurk beyond the borders…”

*

Prologue

The hooves thundered down over the hard, frozen path.  Never slowing, never stopping.  Never sounding any less frantic to any tree that cared to listen.  The smooth, unbroken drumbeat on the earth was accompanied by a shiver of ice-cold air and the thrum of dozen of enormous wings flapping overhead.

The moon was hidden behind the clouds.  It would, of course, make sense that it would disappear on a night like this - it was a wild moon, not raised by magic, and would not serve any who dwelt beneath.  There was no time to stop and remove the storm clouds either.

“We’ll never find our way in this soup,” one of them ground out, gritting his teeth against the stinging lash of half-frozen rain.

“It will slow us,” the one at the head of the column agreed. “But it will also hide us from prying eyes and ears.  We can never be sure who or what awaits us in these woods.”

“With them overhead?” the other one jerked his head up at the winged figures above, spitting tobacco. “I’d say we’re sitting ducks anyway…”

“Enough.  You are too pessimistic.”

“Well, it was you who said we need to keep away from prying eyes and ears!  And forgive me if I sound apprehensive about charging into the most dangerous region of the world, in numbers so few, with no idea if we’re even going the right way!” he snorted, the sharp puff of breath steaming in the air. “Or even if we’ll find anything but certain death at the end…”

“We’ve all been dead for years.  You know that.”

A sliver of the moon finally showed, briefly illuminating the snow-white branches of the trees.  They were unmistakably thinning out. “We are entering a clearing.  This must be it!”

They slowed to a canter.  Ahead of them, a deep, black pool of darkness began to take form.  With the lash of freezing rain, the gloom of the hidden moon, and the dark, foreboding aura of this cursed place, it was almost impossible to see ahead.  Even the flyers could barely see more than a few feet.

The village was a broken, pulverized ruin.  Bone and horn stakes had been ripped right out of the turf, the hides torn and strewn haphazardly over the snow.  Demolished fire-pits and fences dotted the landscape here and there, and evidence of a battle was plain to see from the broken snow banks and strewn debris.

And red snow.

But as they looked around, the flyers sweeping the perimeter, they found no sign of any bodies.  It was plain to see that there had been killing and dying here, but the victims were gone.

“Something must have taken them…”

“Why on earth would any…?”

“Those shapes in the trees…” one of the others interrupted, looking up at the dark silhouettes perched on top of the branches.

“Snow cats…” one of the flyers hissed in annoyance and disgust. “They usually stay in the deeper woods.  Filthy vermin must have been feeding on the dead before.  But don’t worry, they’re harmless enough to the living.  Hiding in the trees to escape danger, it looks like…”

…aaaaa….oooo…

“Hold!” the leader declared, planting his hooves into the frozen turf and pulling to a halt.

The others did not need to question his order.  They had all heard the high shriek in the distance.

“What was that?!” one of them said, swivelling his head as though trying to determine which way it came from.

The leader snorted and grimaced. “Whatever that was, it didn’t sound friendly.  We must finish here and get back before…”

…AAAAA…OOOO…

There was another high shriek, louder and much closer than the other one.

One of the flyers let out a scream and flew several paces away from the snow cat on the branch next to her.

One of them growled at her, “What?!  They’re just cats, completely…”

He trailed off, staring up at the branch.  The others followed his gaze.

The dark shape that had scared her…was not a snow cat at all.

It was something far more frightening.  Dead, but still a gruesome, terrifying sight.

“AAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOO…” another one, even closer.

For the first time in years, the leader felt a knot of fear tighten in his guts.

And then, there was an immediate scream that every one of them heard, though it was completely soundless.  A warning.

The leader stiffened. “Shin-Rei…” His eyes widened as the warning became clear.

This was a place of death.  And the danger had not passed.  It was only waiting.  And watching.

“CLOSE FORMATION NOW!”

Too late.

With an ear-splitting howl of fury, an enormous, clawed arm ripped out of the snow and wrapped around one of the flyers.  She tried to scream, but the sound was cut off in a split second by a crack.  She hung, neck flopping, for a moment before the thing howled again and tossed her away.

Amid the gasps, screams and shocked yells, the thing pulled itself free of the snowy turf and stood on clawed feet, snorting and screeching in a high, pained whine.  It was hard to say what it was, but it was big.  And clearly deadly.

“NOOOO!” One scout screamed, looking at the poor unfortunate who had her neck broken by the thing.  It was obvious he was heartbroken and, a second later, filled with boiling rage as he lowered his head and charged.

“NO!  GET DOWN!!!” the leader roared.  But the gallant idiot did not heed him, galloping horn-first at the monstrosity.

CRUNCH!

“FALL BACK!  RETREAT!!!” the leader shouted, as the thing lifted up what was left of the scout and stuffed him roughly into its fanged maw.

His companions did not need to be told twice.  Wheeling around, they charged back towards the woods.  The monster thankfully did not follow, its mind bent on its meal.

But the leader’s relief was short-lived.  With audible yells of panic, he and his host screeched to a halt before the woods they had come from…

…where before there had been only silence and gloom…

…and there were now hundreds of eyes and thousands of teeth.

*

Chapter 1: A Visitor in the Snow

Spike struggled, straining on his clawed heels, reaching for the book on the highest shelf.  He groaned inwardly at the incessant chattering he always heard whenever Twilight Sparkle whipped herself up into a studying frenzy.  He admired his boss/best friend/guardian’s dedication to her work, but did she really have to make such a racket - not to mention a big mess - with her enthusiasm?

And making matters even worse, Twilight was making a new spell.  One with the extreme and hopelessly complicated goal of increasing the Equestrian birth rate!  Spike had to groan continuously as Twilight kept flogging the dead horse (so to speak) about stallion shyness and the enormous number of stuck-up mares who refused to settle down with a decent mate.

He sighed.  It was his fault partially.  Last time Twilight had been summoned to Canterlot, Spike had picked up a magazine to read whilst she was in a private audience with Princess Celestia.  The article by Hearty Quills about the dangers of Equestria’s declining births and the hilarious conjecture about the need to ‘stop being so detached, stallions and mares of Equestria’ had made him chuckle so badly that Twilight had levitated the magazine out of his claws when she returned and read the article herself.  Naturally, Twilight had missed the fact that Hearty Quills was a loopy gossip writer, and she took his over-zealous urgings very seriously.

Spike, however, knew it wasn’t any attitude or a lack of fertility responsible for the problem.  The honest truth was: less than one-third of Equestria’s population was male, and the proportion of male births seemed to shrink with every generation.  Some said it was the long matriarchal rule that caused it, others said it was the ancient magic of Equestria itself changing foals in the womb, and others said it was simply natural change in the pony race.

Whatever the reason, the lower male population meant fewer marriages and matings, and hence, fewer births.  Marriages between mares obviously meant no foals without expensive, complicated magic or the Magic of Love, and they simply didn’t make a difference often enough.  Spike didn’t know how Twilight could fix that problem, but it most definitely wasn’t by making stallions more bold by wizardry; that might result in more facehoofs than births.

But he’d grin and bear it, since Twilight had promised him the rest of the day off if he helped her gather what she thought she needed for this new spell.  He’d already made plans to follow Rarity around…

“Spike, have you found that book yet?  I think I’ve got something here…hmm, let’s see…‘Alcohol may produce an increase in stimulation when faced with even the least desirable mate…’”

Spike quelled the rising urge to cackle like a dragon.  Was Twilight’s glorious new ‘spell’ going to involve getting all the mares in Equestria drunk?  Now that would be a sight…and no doubt the happiest day of Berry Punch’s life.

But he simply set the book down on her table. “Here you are, Twilight.  Is there anything else you need?”

She gave him a brief half-smile out of the corner of her mouth as her horn lit up to open the book. “No.  I think that’s it for now.  Go ahead and enjoy yourself, Spike.  I think I can guess what you’re going to do…”

“You bet, I’m going to go find Rarity and ask her out!”

“Like you tried to work up the guts to do last time?  And the seventy-six times before that?”  Even with her face screwed up in concentration, the purple unicorn still managed a smirk.

“Hey, it wasn’t seventy-six, Twilight,” Spike pouted, crossing his arms. “Couldn’t have been more than five…”

“I’m not exaggerating, Spike.  I counted.  Seventy-seven times you’ve tried and backed down before you got all the words out, whipping up some lame substitute instead and running off...and if you don’t believe me, check that parchment over there - I marked the tally every time.”

Spike glowered at his boss for a good long moment, before turning to leave, bracing himself for the cold, and then slamming the front door behind him.

Twilight, her eyes still on her book with horn lit, chuckled briefly to herself before deciding it probably hadn’t been nice to do that to Spike.  She’d have to apologize later, but for now…

*

The dragon cub wandered through the outskirts of Ponyville in a huff, kicking at the snow on the path with his hind claws.  It was cold and blustery, but he wasn’t in the mood for a crowded town right now.  Just who did Twilight think she was?  What did she know about love?  The only thing she loved was her precious books.  He didn’t see her caring for anyone like he cared for Rarity…

“HI SPIKEY!”

He knew what was coming and turned around just in time to get a bright pink, blue-eyed mug right in front of his face.

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in front of him, jabbering as she did so. “It’s so good to see you out and about tonight. It’s been so boring working all day at Sugarcube Corner and I really need to get out have some fun.  I was thinking we can have a party tomorrow for Gummy’s second and have a big delicious cake and lots of balloons with all of our friends!  Yum yum!  You’ll come, won’t you, Spikey?  You weren’t there for the last!  Please be there, please oh please!”

Of course, Spike was out of breath by then, and he wasn’t even the one talking.

“Uh…sure Pinkie.  I’d love to be there.  I’ll tell Twilight too, but I’m sorry - right now I have to go find Rarity.  I think I’m really gonna do it this time…”

The pink earth pony stretched her neck impossibly far towards him and gave him an over-exaggerated sideways wink. “Oooohhh, the sly dragon is finally going to confess to his secret love, eh?  Well, don’t worry, Spike!  This earth pony won’t be getting in your way.  And of course, I won’t say a word to anypony!”  She zipped her mouth closed.

‘Somehow I doubt that…’ Spike said to himself, but he smiled and, to his relief, Pinkie Pie bounced off.  He really liked Pinkie Pie, but there were times when he needed a break.

But he hadn’t gone more than a few clawsteps away before he heard an ear-splitting scream.

“SPIIIIIKE!”

Normally, Spike would have thought it was “just Pinkie being Pinkie” but the shrill note of terror in her voice made him spin on the spot and look around for her quickly.  The landscape around Ponyville was a sea of green and white, but after a moment, he spotted a flash of pink in the distance next to the river and sprinted over to her.

As he drew closer, he could see red.  Red in the snow.

Spike’s heart skipped a beat and he ran faster.

She was standing with her back to him, and as he ran up to the terrified Pinkie, he heard her breath coming in trembling gasps.

She wasn’t hurt, but she was utterly transfixed on the scene in front of her.  And Spike froze up too when he saw why.

Black.  And red.

The black mare was lying in a pool of her own blood that steamed on the snow, sending acrid wisps curling up into the air.  She was wearing thick boots and what looked like a shredded overcoat in rags, soaking wet and half-frozen, lying half-in and half-out of the river that flowed through Ponyville.  Long gashes graced her flanks and limbs.  The eyes were closed and the mouth lying open.

But there was a faint, weak puff of steam as she breathed out.

Spike dived for the body and felt its neck.  He cringed as he felt broken bones beneath his claws, but he definitely felt the tremor of a weak pulse.

“So much blood…” Pinkie whispered, her eyes wide and never wavering from the broken mare.

“Pinkie!  She’s alive,” Spike said, standing up and turning. “She’s still alive!  I…I’m going back to Ponyville for help!  Stay here, okay?”

Pinkie’s breath steamed as she continued to stare. “So…much…blood…”

He decided to take that for a ‘yes’ and ran for the library as fast as he could.  This was bad.  That pony was in bad shape, and from the looks of things, she was either bleeding out or dying of hypothermia.  Spike considered he probably should’ve tried first aid, but he didn’t know how and there hadn’t been time to think.  He only hoped Pinkie would manage to get out of her usual quirkiness and administer it herself, but his hopes weren’t high on that; she had been shocked into complete stillness…

There were only a few ponies outdoors in Ponyville during this season, walking around in warm coats, boots and earmuffs, but Spike didn’t stop to speak to any of them.  He knew it was unlikely they’d be any help.  Ponyville was a quiet town and this sort of thing probably didn’t happen often with the locals.  He needed Twilight.

He began to pant as he ran.  It seemed he had never noticed before how tiring and slow it was to run over completely flat roads as compared to the hills.  The small lump of the library in the distance seemed to be taking forever to reach, and his breath – and probably that of the dying mare – was growing shorter with every step.

Keep going…need Twilight…

The unicorn mare looked up from her spellbook in surprise as Spike banged open the front door and rushed in, drawing a gale of freezing air with him that snuffed out her horn’s light.  She looked displeased and was about to open her mouth to admonish him when Spike collapsed, out of breath.

“Spike?!  What in Celestia’s name…?!”  She trotted up to him and bent down.

“Hu-hurt,…by…the…river…”

“What?”

Spike, furious with himself and Twilight for every second’s delay, took a deep breath and shouted, “THERE’S SOMEPONY BY THE RIVER WITH PINKIE PIE!  AND SHE’S HURT!  REAL BAD!!”

She looked startled, then her eyes narrowed. “Where, Spike?”

“The…the west road out…out of town.  Twilight…I-I think she’s gonna die!”

She nodded and motioned with her hoof for him to warm up by the fire before levitating on a coat and rushing out the door.

*

As she galloped across Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle knew her first order of business was to contact the guards and the hospital.  If Pinkie was at the scene, it wouldn’t be difficult to find, but she knew she needed to be quick.  If Spike’s demeanor told her anything, she knew there wasn’t much time.

There was a flash and a splash of color and, to her great relief, Twilight saw the blue Pegasus Rainbow Dash flying behind her in the air.

“Twilight?!  Where you off to in such a hurry in this weather?”

She craned her head to answer, for some reason annoyed with Rainbow’s usual upbeat tone. “There’s an emergency!”

Rainbow Dash looked at her for a moment, before putting on a determined expression. “What’s going on, Twilight?”

“Injured mare near the west road.  Pinkie’s there.  She’s gonna die if we don’t hurry!  Get to the village guards and the pegasi!  I’m going to the hospital!”

With the weight hitting her, Rainbow Dash didn’t bother with one of her dramatic declarations of victory or even a salute.  She just set her jaw hard and zoomed away without a word in the direction of the guardhouse.

The hospital was only a few gallops away, and Twilight knew from experience she had to be blunt and hard to get Doctor Needles moving…

*

“Oh my word…”

The good doctor stared down through his whiskers at the wounded, half-frozen mare as Nurse Redheart and the town's other nurse mares worked furiously to stop her bleeding and move her into a harness.

“Her neck isn’t broken, doctor, but there are multiple fractures and haemorrhaging in major internal organs.  We’re going to have to move her very carefully…”

Doctor Needles nodded slowly, and Twilight groaned inwardly as she sensed the old sawbones was likely way out of his depth.  He was probably going to have to ask for expert help from Life Flight.

Twilight herself was no expert, but as she gazed at the horrible scene, she found she could hardly blame the doctor.  This pony nopony had named yet was a real mess.  Through the tattered rags, most of her ribs looked like they were broken.  Her long legs and flanks had been horribly gashed by something, it looked like her back had swollen up, and she had yet to regain consciousness or make a single sound.  Her blood coagulated thickly on her freezing coat and the snow she lay in.  The unicorn felt a twinge of fear that she was going to die.

“Is she going to make it?” She asked the closest nurse.

The mare looked up at her briefly before going back to fastening the harness. “We will do everything we can.  Are you the one who found the patient, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not me.  My friend Pinkie Pie did.”

The said pink party pony was sitting on a log not far away with Rainbow Dash next to her.  Pinkie’s eyes were wide and staring at nothing as a couple of town guards tried, unsuccessfully, to get answers out of her.  Twilight sighed and trotted over.

Pinkie Pie was obviously very deeply in shock.  She just opened her mouth and closed it soundlessly as the guard tried to ask questions.  Twilight didn’t blame her; finding a dying pony in such a grotesque state hadn’t been easy on her eyes either.  Twilight had never seen anything like that outside of pictures in books, and Pinkie…well, she doubted the thought of blood or death had ever even crossed Pinkie’s mind.

After a while, the frustrated guard gave up questioning the trembling Pinkie Pie and turned to look at Twilight. “You alerted the hospital, Miss Twilight Sparkle?”

She nodded. “Yes, and we got here just before you did.  Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”

The pegasus looked up from her seat next to Pinkie Pie, not sporting a smug, self-congratulating smile as she usually would.  She stopped rubbing her traumatized friend’s back and glanced over at the nurses. “Say, Twi…what happened to that mare anyway?”

The unicorn shook her head. “I don’t know, Rainbow.  Probably mauled by a wild beast or something from the looks of it.  Those scratches were pretty deep…”

Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Ouch.  If whatever did that turns up again, I’m gonna have to dish out some major flank-kicking,” she glanced at the mare’s injuries, “‘cos it sure must have a lotta flank to kick!”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t usually the one to turn to for ideas, but her musing did set off a few lights in Twilight’s brain.  Just what would there be around Ponyville that could do something like that?

A bear?  Not likely.  Thanks to Fluttershy, Twilight knew enough about bears to know they weren’t active this time of year.   Diamond dogs?  No burrows anywhere this close to Ponyville, and they wouldn’t be interested in anything that didn’t glitter anyway.  The hydra?  Probably not.  If that thing left the swamps, somepony would’ve noticed.  It was too big to miss…

She shook her head.  Whatever the cause, this somepony was obviously near death.  No-one even knew who she was – which was odd, considering Ponyville was a very close-knit community.

Even weirder, she was wearing boots – which wasn’t too unusual by itself in this weather – but these boots were made of hide, crudely, but tightly, wrapped together with cord as if for a long gallop.  Maybe this mare wasn’t from Ponyville.  She watched as she was carefully placed on a stretcher, wheels loaded and legs extended before she was carted to the hospital.

“Go tell the other pegasi to be on the lookout,” she told Rainbow Dash as the pegasus hopped back onto her hooves. “If there’s something dangerous out here, they need to see it coming.  Pinkie Pie and I will get this sorted with the guards.  And we’d better tell Mayor Mare about this when she returns from Canterlot.  Hurry, Rainbow!”

*

Doctor Needles and the nurse mares had been in the emergency room for almost two hours now, and - judging from the frequent panicked shouts and the number of frantic nurse mares galloping back and forth from the operating ward with various medical paraphernalia - they were having horseapples of a time keeping her alive.

Twilight and her friends were waiting in the outer theatre.  Pinkie Pie was still in shock, remaining quiet and detached, sitting on her haunches and staring down at her hooves.  Rainbow Dash was flying tense circles in the air, grinding her jaw and looking for all Celestia like she just wanted to zoom out the window and set the new record for laps around Ponyville just to get rid of her anxiety.  The orange earth pony Applejack had arrived a few minutes ago, startled and full of questions.  Twilight had filled her in, but the apple farmer had only repeated the same questions the rest of them were wondering about.

“Whaddya mean, Twilight?  The west road?   That don’t make no sense.  I been cleanin' snow outta the orchards by the road all day and I ain’t seen any such stranger come wanderin’ through Sweet Apple Acres…”

“We thought the river carried her down from the north, Applejack.  If you didn’t see her, then we were probably right.”

“This is mighty fishy, Twi…I know Equestria ain’t always the safest place, but…”

It was true.  Equestria could be dangerous to those that went off the beaten track.  Many of Twilight’s adventures in Ponyville revolved around the dangerous country and wildlife.  It was only the influence of Princess Celestia that kept the dangers of Equestria away and prevented the collapse of pony civilization.  Who’s to say this stranger couldn’t have been just another victim?

Still, Applejack was right.  It was unusual for any traveller to have met any mishap that big just outside Ponyville.  She sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to wait for her to wake up.” If she ever does, she added silently.

Whatever caused the mare’s state could have come from almost anywhere north of Ponyville.  Wonderful.  That was very wild country – few ponies lived there or visited the area for long, but if there was something dangerous out there…

It might have been possible it was just a spill in the river dragging her down south, with some rapids and sharp ice floes on the way – if it weren’t for the unmistakable pattern of claw marks on her.  It could possibly be that there was some kind of river-dwelling Equestrian predator with claws to the north, but…if that was the case then she would almost certainly have been dead before washing up in Ponyville…

Though she hadn’t spoken aloud, the other ponies seemed to hear her thought nevertheless. “Poor darling,” said the purple-maned unicorn sitting closest to the door, craning her head and dramatically raising a hoof to her brow at another shout of dismay from the ward, “that must have been an absolutely ghastly experience…I do hope they can save her.  Do you think Doctor Needles has ever done this before?”

“Um, h-he is a doctor, Rarity…” put in the light yellow pegasus sitting between her and Pinkie Pie. “I’m sure he knows what to do…”

Twilight groaned again, not sharing Fluttershy’s optimism.  Ponyville doctors dealt with things like indigestion and cracked hooves.  Thanks to the blessings of Princesses Celestia and Luna, serious injuries and illnesses had become increasingly rare in all civilized places in Equestria.  She wouldn’t have been surprised if this was by far the worst case Doctor Needles had ever seen in his long career.

That proved to be a reasonable guess when he poked his scrubbed and masked head out of the ward and yelled for Nurse Redheart to tell Life Flight to hurry the hay up.

That was enough for the last of Rainbow Dash’s patience to shatter.  She folded her wings and thumped loudly on the floor in front of Twilight. “We’ve gotta do something!”

“I hate to say it, Rainbow…” Twilight said, “but there’s not much we can do…here.”

The pegasus looked at her expectantly. “Rainbow…girls…maybe we can look for this pony’s family or friends.  It might not be much, but I’d say it beats sitting here and waiting.”

“I don’t know, Twilight…” Fluttershy said slowly. “If she was from Ponyville…I think somepony would have recognized her by now…”

“I’m going to keep betting she’s not…” Twilight said. “And if she was carried here by the river, somepony might come looking for her.  Let’s head out, everypony.  We’ll ask every visitor in Ponyville if we have to…” She turned and flinched as she heard another ominous shout from the ward. “…I think it might be easier than staying here right now…”

*

The purple unicorn paced a circle in the library, undeterred by the stares and sarcastic groans from her draconic assistant as she bored another ring in the floor.  What did this mean?

She, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy had galloped around town all day to the likely spots where they thought visitors might be searching for somepony they knew: town square, the hotel, and even the botanical gardens.  But almost every stranger they had asked stated they weren’t looking for anypony matching that description.  After hours that seemed to last for days, everypony (except Applejack of course) was almost too tired to stand. Rainbow Dash had spotted them in the square too and reported nothing unusual from above (except four ponies whizzing around town harassing tourists).

Twilight, coming down with a bad case of the grumps, had told her friends they’d try again tomorrow.  After all her friends’ hard, disheartening work, Twilight reasoned nopony was in any rush to go home and spend the whole evening alone.  She proposed they all had a takeout dinner at the library, and after a quick draw of straws, Rainbow zoomed off in a cloud of complaints to go get Sugarcube Corner’s finest haybacon cheesy pizzas and banana cake.

Pinkie Pie was resting on a couch nearby in the library.  After the business at the hospital, she had told Spike to take her to the library and ask the Cakes to let her off work for the day.  She had stopped shaking, but she was eerily quiet, and Twilight knew it was trouble when Pinkie Pie had been quiet for more than five seconds.

Spike had been subdued as well at first, but after a whisper or two in the ear from Twilight, he started to think, being his helpful self, he’d feel better himself if he tried to make the others feel better about it.  He’d outdone himself cleaning up and getting the library ready for an impromptu six-pony-and-baby-dragon dinner.

“Pinkie,” Twilight began slowly, “did you see anything?  Was there anything with her when you found her?”

Pinkie slowly looked up.  Her eyes were wide and her jaw clenched as though she was terrified, and she slowly shook her head.  Exactly how she’d done the first dozen times.

Twilight couldn’t help but feel sorry for Pinkie.  It must’ve been a shock to be bouncing off the ground one moment and all of a sudden land in front of the most gruesome scene of your life.  Pinkie Pie wasn’t made for it.  Parties?  Great.  Sugary snacks and sweets?  Just try to stop her.  Balloons and trombones?  Why not?  But blood and bone?  No way.

Pinkie Pie – being Pinkie Pie – was of course completely unpredictable and spontaneous as a glitterbomb, but Twilight had never imagined she would ever in a million years see the crazy pink party pony in this state.

“Pinkie…” Twilight began gently. “You’ve got to remember.  There might be something important…something you’ve just forgotten.  I’m sorry, but just what did you see when you found her?”

Pinkie shivered, opened her muzzle, and, in a quavering, quiet voice very different from her usual bubbly music, she said “Nothing, Twilight…really, I’m sorry, but it’s true.  I just turned around and…opened my eyes and…there she was…”  She looked down, her lips trembling and eyes starting to tear up.  Twilight quickly trotted up and nuzzled her soothingly to calm her down.  The last thing she needed right now was Pinkie Pie drowning the library in a flood of tears.

Any hope of quickly bringing her back on track was quickly crushed though when she wrapped her hooves around Twilight and began to breathe deeply as she calmed down.  Twilight smiled with mingled relief and exasperation, sensing she might eventually need a crowbar to pry Pinkie off.  She shook her head.  It probably didn’t matter anyway – if she really hadn’t seen anything, there was no point in asking her anymore.  Better to let her forget it.

All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door.  Spike, predictably, jumped right to his feet and dashed to answer it fast enough to leave a vacuum in the space he’d just occupied.  “Got it!”

He opened the door to reveal a concerned-looking Fluttershy, who had left briefly to close up for the night along with her other friends and to feed her animals. “H-hi Spike. Can I come in if it’s okay?” A shy smile graced the muzzle of the timid, animal-loving pegasus as Spike shuffled aside and extended an open claw to invite her in.  Rarity and Applejack followed.

Fluttershy, never one to sit around at home when her friends needed her, immediately trotted over to Pinkie Pie and nuzzled her.  Pinkie Pie was rarely ever in a sad mood, and almost never in a near-catatonic state (except for that one time when Rainbow Dash slipped rainbow paint into her cupcake mix), and any help in pulling her out of it would be welcome right now.

“Twilight dear, is Pinkie Pie feeling any better?” the fashionista asked worriedly.

Twilight shook her head, “Not really, Rarity. Finding that stranger really shook her up…”

“It’s scary, Fluttershy!” Pinkie whined, burying her muzzle into the pegasus’ mane. “I found a horse in the snow, with blood everywhere!  It looked just like raspberry juice!  I don’t think I’ll ever drink raspberry juice again, which means there won’t be any at all my parties anymore, and then nobody in Ponyville will ever drink raspberry juice because I’m the only one who ever finds any raspberries under the rocks, so there’ll be none at all, and –“

Twilight smiled slightly despite herself.  Pinkie’s rambling was slower and more subdued than usual, but still it was probably a good sign she was starting come back to herself.

Then the other horseshoe dropped. “Now that’s not a very nice thing to say, Pinkie…” Pinkie raised her head and looked at her. Twilight squared her shoulders and raised her head with mouth open and nose turned up in a perfect lecture pose. “Now I know she gave you quite a scare, but I don’t think you should really start calling her names or anything. The poor pony’s really been hurt and it’s not fair to call her a horse for that.”

Pinkie just looked at her blankly.

After a few seconds of silence, those two unwavering blue orbs began to creep Twilight out – especially considering who they belonged to.

“Twilight…she…she was a horse!”

“Pinkie, that’s really-“

“No, Twilight, she really was!  Didn’t you see?  I did!  And the doctors did. She wasn’t a pony!” Pinkie shook her head, eyes wide open.

Twilight opened her mouth to reply…

…and then promptly shut it again.

Now that she thought about it…the mare had looked rather odd.  Of course, Twilight had been looking at the injuries for the most part, but…her legs had seemed rather long.   Her back also looked disproportionate for a pony’s body, but Twilight had put that down to swelling from another injury.  Since she had been lying down, Twilight probably hadn’t gauged her height properly, and she thought the rags and blood covering the victim had hidden her cutie mark - but what if she’d never had one in the first place?

“Horseapples!” Twilight groaned with a facehoof.  It all made sense the mysterious mare was a horse.

Fluttershy gasped, Rarity gave a bemused little hum, and Applejack raised one eyebrow, “A horse? In Ponyville?!”

Here?  We’re a long, long way from Verdantine!  Why in Celestia’s name would…?  Twilight shook her head to clear it.

As Fluttershy gently pulled Pinkie Pie away, murmuring soothingly, Twilight returned to her usual pacing spot and proceeded to drill away at the poor tree trunk.  Again, just how could it be?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the all-too-familiar sound of a split-second whine from a high-speed object approaching from just out of sight, a loud crash and wooden thump on the floor, climaxing with a high shriek from Fluttershy, that heralded the arrival of a certain speedy, cyan-colored Pegasus with a sack over her shoulder. “Hey, Twilight!  Sheesh, you should put up a sign so I can see when that window’s closed or something…”

Twilight groaned and glared down at Rainbow Dash, who stared right back with a cheesy grin on her face. “Why is it that everypony else manages to get in here without…” she sighed, “you know what?  Never mind.”

“What?  Was there a problem?” Rainbow kept grinning as she got to her hooves and unceremoniously dumped the food on the floor.  Spike, every the helpful assistant, waddled forward and snatched up the sack to set dinner (with a half-serious warning glance from Twilight against any plundering).

“This is no time for that, Rainbow!  Listen, did the pegasus team find anything else when you were on the way back?”

“You mean anything that coulda hurt that pony?”

“She’s a horse.”

“Hehehe…now that’s just rude, Twilight!” Rainbow said with a light chuckle. “Naw, there wasn’t hide or hoof of any pony-eating monster anywhere…” she turned her head and grinned as she caught sight of Fluttershy.  But then she seemed to wilt slightly.  Considering the horrible sight they saw earlier, she apparently thought better of making a joke about how the big, dangerous, three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monstrosity could just be hiding out looking for a nice, juicy, low-flying pegasus for dinner.

Sadly enough, it seemed Fluttershy didn’t need any encouragement anyway. She let out a frightened squeak and started looking around nervously.

“There’s no big, dangerous, three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monster, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, before realizing with another facehoof that she had just said what she dreamed up Rainbow would say.

Fluttershy leapt to her hooves with a loud squeal, arching her back in fright, teeth chattering and her whole body seizing up as her eyes darted to every window in the library.

“Twilight!  Shame on you!” Rainbow said a faux-reproachful toss of her head and folding of her forehooves as she hovered in the air. “How could you first call that poor pony a horse, and then scare Fluttershy like that, you big bully!?” she said with a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth.

“You know what I meant, Rainbow!  And she is really a horse!  And calm down, Fluttershy!  We’re perfectly safe.”

CRASSSSH!!!

“EEEEEEEEK!”

“You were saying…?” Rainbow grinned.  It looked like poor Fluttershy had fainted dead away.

“SPIKE!!!”

“It’s not my fault, Twilight!” the dragon gritted his fangs and clutched his hind claw, hopping on one leg. “That spare table never stays up straight!”

*

Twilight groaned with relief as she lay down on her bed in the welcome darkness.

Dinner had, as many of these things so often did, turned into an enormous crash-riot - with Fluttershy boarding up every window against the pony-eating monster, Rainbow and Applejack starting a food fight, Rarity hiding behind Spike complaining she had just been to the spa that morning while the little dragon took every pizza or cake slice headed their way, and Pinkie Pie standing in the middle and taking a great deal of the crossfire while Twilight yelled and tried to calm things down, finally resorting to a massive levitation spell to hoist all the food, nails, wood and her guests into the air…and drop them again.

She loved life in Ponyville, but there was no denying these get-togethers with her friends left her with many more headaches than she ever had in Canterlot.  And even that wasn’t when they were unlucky enough to go to bed with a job unfinished.

What the princess would think if she could see me now…

Suddenly, she had a dreadful thought that she just jinxed herself.  All she needed to make this the worst day ever was to look out the window right now and see Princess Celestia hovering outside with the library in this state.

She shut her eyes, rolling over to avoid looking out the window until she just couldn’t stand the suspense anymore and peeked over her shoulder.  Fortunately, there was no sign of a white coat or sparkling mane anywhere in sight.

Lucky… she thought, settling back onto her pillow with a sigh.  I wonder if I should tell the princess about…no, we don’t even know what this is all about yet.  What happened to that mare could just have been an accident, and we don’t even know who she is or where she’s from yet…

She sighed.  We’re going to have to keep helping if we can.  My friends have work to do, and so do I…still got to try and find an answer to that sticky birth rate problem…but we’d better keep doing what we can to find that mare’s family or friends.  Somepony…or somehorse, I suppose, is bound to come searching for her sooner or later.

She felt a renewed twinge at the thought of those horrible injuries.  But I do hope she’ll be alright.  Doctor Needles should have her in expert hooves by now.  If she can be saved, Life Flight are the ponies to do it.

Spike stirred in his basket. “Twilight…” he mumbled sleepily. “How in Equestria can you think so loud?”

For what was probably the first time since the river, the unicorn felt a smile touch her lips. “Sorry, Spike.  G’night.”

“G’night.”

*

…Where am I…

…what happened…freezing…

…cold…so cold…cold fingers in me…

…what happened…to me…

…now I remember…

…dead…

…screams…silent scream…couldn’t answer…

…sunrise…green everywhere…Equestria…

…had to stop them…

…had to stop…

Mystery Upon Mystery

Chapter 2: Mystery Upon Mystery

Twilight stared at the doctor standing beside Life Flight’s mobile intensive care carriage.  The hulking, hard-faced stallion looked more like a drill sergeant than a medical professional, with his sharp eyes, persistent frown, and close-shaved mane.  But that very fact lent him an air of competence and capability for saving lives that made Twilight and her friends – and no doubt Doctor Needles – immensely grateful their injured visitor was in this unicorn’s care now.

Despite the fact that Life Flight was based in Cloudsdale and consisted primarily of pegasi, a great number of them were unicorns too.  Pegasus doctors dealt with most emergencies and non-invasive procedures very competently, but none of their six limbs could perform the tiny and very precise movements needed for invasive surgery.  For that, they needed unicorn magic, and so Life Flight had been the very first pegasus organization to throw tradition out the window and invite unicorns into their ranks.  Earth ponies too, if they had the necessary skills.  For that reason, almost every medical facility in Cloudsdale was made of thunderforged steel, and there was a good chance that any unicorn or earth pony seen living in that city was employed by either a hospital or by Life Flight itself.

“No identification, no known next of kin, and no known associates,” he grumbled, looking grimly at the clipboard he levitated before him, “will make transfer to Life Flight headquarters much more difficult.  Illegal, in fact.  Until this patient is identified, she must remain here in Ponyville.  And so will we,” From the dark bags hanging under his eyes, Twilight guessed he and the rest of the doctors had been working through the night.

Doctor Needles, standing on Twilight’s right, sighed in relief, “All our facilities are at your disposal, sir.  My crew and I will assist you for the duration of your stay.”

“That won’t be necessary, doctor,” the unicorn replied without looking up from his clipboard. “We’ve sent for an expert medical crew of our own from HQ.  They should be here within the hour.”

That seemed to make Doctor Needles a little less happy.  Twilight had a notion that while the old sawbones had swallowed enough of his pride to recognize his own limits, he wasn’t bound to take it lightly if he was cut completely out of the picture. “It was my own skills, and those of my staff, that kept this patient alive during your response from Cloudsdale – which, I might add, was none too prompt considering what we were dealing with and what I’ve seen from Life Flight in the past.  It would be a better idea to employ local assistance as well.”

“The good ponies of Ponyville no doubt still require your attention and that of your staff,” the unicorn replied shortly as he continued looking at his clipboard, seeming to deem it beneath his dignity to answer Doctor Needles’ other loaded statements. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, I have a full report on this patient’s status in case you do manage to find any friends or family…?”

Twilight replied quickly before Needles could cut in again. “Of course, doctor.”

The unicorn cleared his throat, “Patient remains in intensive care.  Condition critical but shows signs of stabilizing.  Standard magical healing presently prohibited due to widespread and internal nature of injuries.  Patient remains in anesthesia to prevent a premature return of consciousness and subsequent nervous shock.  Numerous open wounds closed and undergoing stitching.  Transfusions applied with surplus adrenalin and endocrines to compensate for blood loss. Numerous fractures and heavy bruising in muscle tissue, but central nervous system and vital organs remain mostly intact.  Lung puncture drained and knitted.  Frozen tissue removed together with sterilization and external blood heating to prevent infection.  If patient returns to stable condition, magic can be used to speed up recovery.  Surgical procedures still incomplete and at least three more surgeries required in future…death or stability expected within the next 24 hours.”

Twilight shuddered.  Even before that screeching stop line, she had studied just enough about medicine and biology to understand it was going to be very difficult to keep this mare alive.  From the doctor’s description, it was a miracle she hadn’t died already…

The doctor glanced over his clipboard at Twilight. “Also, we noted several anomalies in the patient’s physiology and clothing, some of them magical in nature…”

That got Twilight’s immediate attention. “Wha-?!  Uh…how so, doctor?”

The doctor sighed heavily. “Well, anatomically speaking…this mare appears to be a horse, but…certain characteristics are inconsistent with all known equine breeds…it’s possible she is not a native to either Equestria or the North Verdantine Protectorate.”

Twilight groaned inwardly. Great.  Just great.  If she’s from that far away, now there’s even less chance somepony might come looking for her.

She had thought Verdantine was her best bet, and had been planning to have Spike send letters to certain Equestrian officials there in the hope that one of them might get the horses’ attention long enough to find out if any of them knew their mysterious patient.  But it was a long shot and now seemed even more unlikely to work.

“Even more baffling,” the doctor furrowed his brow, “this mare has a cutie mark!”

Twilight’s head snapped up, eyes growing wide. “WHAT?!!  Th-that’s impossible!  Horses never get cutie marks!”

Which was true.  They hardly ever stood still long enough to focus on a special talent (unless it was running or flying – then they focused on it all the time).

The doctor nodded. “Well, not quite never…there have been several documented cases, Miss Twilight Sparkle, but it is extremely rare.  The cutie marks on both flanks were partly obscured by a pattern of lacerations, but they seem to resemble a gray, inverted arrowhead shape.”

Some horses have gotten cutie marks?  I’ll have to read up on that…

He cleared his throat again. “Magical anomalies determined as follows: a Silver Tongues spell had recently been cast on her to permit her to communicate magically with creatures speaking a different language, but the signature was weak and the spell had apparently worn off…”

Twilight was relieved to get back to the problems she could understand (she could already feel an early headache coming on).  Silver Tongues.  Almost everypony or everybeing in Equestria speaks Equus nowadays.  No doubt about it anymore, she’s officially a foreigner…

The unicorn frowned, “Her clothing…we removed the remains of the overdrape with no trouble but…her boots…they were made of crude leather and fastened with hemp wrappings.  Initial tests showed no injury in the forelegs, but there was a small risk of infection from ice in the soles.  Several nurses tried to remove them, but…they couldn’t be moved.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “They won’t come off?”

He shook his head grimly. “The boots have been ensorcelled with a very powerful Sticktight charm, Miss Twilight Sparkle.  We had our own specialist divine the nature of their enchantment.  The only way they can be removed is for the wearer to take them off herself…unless we shatter the spell of course, but as you know the effects of that can be quite…unpredictable.”

Twilight shuddered.  Trixie’s Sticktight enchantment on her amulet had been enough for her to learn to appreciate the dangers of that spell already.

But she knew from experience that shattering somepony’s spell could have some very distinct and often-explosive side effects, not to mention it gave the spell’s original caster quite a turn.  She still remembered what had happened after “The Incident” with Smartypants several months ago when Princess Celestia shattered her spell.  She had been too scared out of her wits to realize it at the time, but after the princess had left, Twilight was painfully aware of the ironworks in her skull and her horn throbbing with backlash.

Anyway, even with no caster in sight, this spell was still a problem.  Shattering a powerful spell without collateral damage required utmost precision by the most skilled of magicians, and even they didn’t always get it right.  Twilight knew she wouldn’t dare anyway.  She was about to advise the doctor to leave it be when he spoke again.

“Well, it’s unorthodox to leave a patient wearing hoofwear in intensive care…” the doctor continued, seeming to guess her train of thought, “but, as I said, our initial tests showed no trauma or freezing in the forelegs.  There doesn’t even seem to be much damage to the articles themselves and the risk of bacterial infection is almost negligible.  It probably isn’t worth the risk involved shattering the spell to remove them…at least not yet anyway…”

Why in Celestia’s name would anypony want to put a Sticktight spell on her boots anyway?  Would anypony try to take off another’s boots?

“Otherwise, magical anomalies end there,” the doctor concluded, dropping the leaf he’d levitated up on the clipboard as he finished the list.

Twilight sat back on her haunches as she mulled it all over.  Princess Celestia should definitely be informed now.

A horse with a cutie mark, wearing foreign clothing and Sticktight boots, with Silver Tongues cast on her.  She’s obviously from very far away.  Could there really be some land of the horsefolk we don’t know about yet?

It was possible, Twilight supposed.  Ponyfolk had spread over most of the known world, to the red wastes of the south near Appleloosa, to Griffonia in the west, the Crystal Empire in the north, and the horse lands of Verdantine to the far southeast.

The north half of Verdantine, the land of the horsefolk, was technically under Equestrian control, but it didn’t have much practical importance besides somewhere to send a rebellious Guard pony for a boring, dead-end assignment.  The horses were generally simple folk who liked nothing more than galloping or flying over the grassy plains all day.  They were smart enough to talk and reason, but they had very short attention spans and generally no ambition to do anything with their lives but enjoy running free, eating, and sleeping.  They could not effectively rule themselves or form a central government – their nature was too unsettled, and it would’ve been impractical anyway since they all lived in nomadic herds.  Ponies, on the other hoof, had a calmer and more constructive culture.  For this reason, Equestria had assumed responsibility for northern Verdantine, calling it “a protectorate state in case of war or natural disaster.” The griffons had also peacefully annexed south Verdantine and its horsefolk into their own kingdom with practically no objection.  Twilight knew some ponies wanted to absorb the Equestrian-ruled half altogether as well, but since Equestria had no direct borders with Verdantine, that would mean stealing more land from the buffaloes near Appleloosa, and Princess Celestia would not hear of it.

And if this stranger wasn’t from either the pony-ruled or griffon-ruled side of the only-known land of the horsekind…there will still some portions of the globe unexplored as well.  The eastern sea was almost a complete mystery.  Ponies weren’t made for long sea voyages, and no pegasi alive – not even the Wonderbolts – had the strength to fly across an entire ocean.  There were far borders nopony had ever crossed as well – the terrain had been either impassable or just too foreboding.

Am I overthinking it? Sure, it’s quite a conclusion to jump to…but how else could this mysterious mare be explained?

Well, if anypony can find out what all this means, it’s the princess, she thought. I’ll have Spike send a letter tonight.

“What are you going to do about her condition?” she asked, pulling herself back to the other, more pressing problem.

The doctor replied crisply and with a fully-prepared manner. “We will keep her here in Ponyville under treatment and constant supervision until her identity is either determined, or permission comes from the Life Flight petitioners we dispatched to waive the identity check by reason of life-threatening circumstances.  Afterwards, if it is deemed necessary, she will be transferred to Cloudsdale for care, or remain in Ponyville for recovery if her condition is deemed stable enough.”

“Can I see her?” Twilight wasn’t sure why she asked that question.  But she did.

He looked at her. “I’m afraid that’s not possible at this time, Miss Twilight Sparkle.  As I said, her condition is not yet stable, and anesthesia is in effect but…she shows signs of heightened consciousness because of her size and the severity of her injuries.”

Twilight shuddered again. That would be painful. “Then…if she wakes up, she’ll…couldn’t you give her more anesthetic, doctor?”

He shook his head. “Too risky.  It might result in complications if we use anything more potent.”

So there’s nothing I can do then…

She looked long at the Life Flight carriage.  I can’t help but feel I’ve got to do something about this!  I don’t know who this stranger is – hay, I don’t even know where on earth she came from or why she was here – but something tells me it’s important.

And she’s dying, and nopony or nobeing dies while I’m around. Ever.

That was a lie though.  Twilight felt a slight twinge as she remembered, faintly, that one time when she couldn’t…

She shook her head and straightened. “Thank you, doctor.  I hope you can help her.”

He nodded. “Of course we will do all we can, Miss Twilight Sparkle.  And we will be sure to notify you and your friends of any change in her condition.” He looked closely at her. “If I may make a suggestion, it would be prudent to inform your mayor and city council about this case…” For the first time, he appeared slightly unsettled, turning to look at the carriage with a frown. “Doctor Needles, would you kindly allow Miss Twilight Sparkle and I a moment?”

Ponyville’s old head doc opened his quivering mouth, looking as though he would protest that he was a medical professional, and this was still technically his patient, but Twilight turned to him and gave a tiny shake of her head, putting on an apologetic expression.  Doctor Needles glared at her indignantly, as if to tell her he thought if anyone should be excluded, it should be her.  Finally, he turned and trotted off.

The Life Flight doctor turned back to her. “Those wounds were obviously inflicted by something hostile and physically powerful.  Those were claw marks for certain, but we also discovered what looked like fang bites on her upper flanks and back, and that wasn’t the worst part…” he seemed to be talking almost to himself now, eyes dilating at the memory of what he saw in the emergency ward. “The bites weren’t just to injure or grip her.  There was massive compression on the surrounding tissue and repeated tearing of the sub-dermal layers. In laypony’s terms, it looked like whatever bit her was trying to eat her flesh.”

Eat…?

Now, ponies were hardly the top of the food chain.  They were herbivorous, had no natural weapons unless you counted hooves, and possessed an instinct not to consider any living thing as food.  But pony civilization did not stop Equestria’s numerous other dangerous inhabitants, many larger and deadlier than ponies, from feeding upon other animals.  There was a reason most ponies didn’t usually venture deep into rural areas in Equestria after all.  Carnivores preying upon ponies was one of those dangers which definitely existed, but happened rarely enough most ponies could forget it was even there…and it horrified them when they did remember it.

Twilight’s skin began to crawl and she felt her breakfast rise to her throat.  She gagged, fighting to keep control of her stomach...

Carnivore...pony...eating...can't think about it now...

She forced herself to focus on the carnivore - well, technically omnivore - in her life.  Spike could eat meat if he wanted to (though Twilight saw to it he never got a chance) and he had never bitten anypony ever in his life, not even when he was starving.

Well, actually that wasn’t completely true.  Even now, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a brief twinge of amusement at the memory of Shining Armor hopping around and yelling in pain when he tried petting Spike during his teething.  The dragon cub had clamped his jaws down on Shining Armor’s foreleg so hard he couldn’t be shaken off no matter how hard her big brother tried.  In the end, Twilight had to tempt him off with a sweet sapphire in his milk.

All thoughts of carnivorous feasting diverted in the glow of fond memories about Spike, she asked “Do you know what bit her?”

The doctor shook his head. “Not exactly.  From the size of the wounds, I wouldn’t say it was anything small, but then not anything enormous either.  Might have been a forest cat or a timber wolf or some such.  But there was no doubt the thing had sharp teeth…”

“But…she’s still…uh…”

“In one piece? Yes, Miss Twilight Sparkle, she is. Whatever bit her must have stopped for some reason. Perhaps she outran it, or maybe the creature couldn’t swim…or perhaps our patient just didn’t taste very good…”

Ugh! Twilight began to feel queasy again.

Grumpily, she let it all out in one deadpan comment, “So there really could be some kind of big, dangerous, three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monstrosity out there…”

There was an immediate high-pitched shriek from somewhere behind her and the sound of wings flapping frantically away.

Twilight groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. “Fluttershy…” It just figured she would happen to be passing at a time like this…

*

Over an hour later - after hunting down a neurotic yellow pegasus hiding in the treetops - she threw open the door and stomped back into the library, shaking slush off her boots and overcoat. “Spike, take a letter, okay?  I’ve got a lot to tell the Princess.”

Then she was aware of a gleam in the air, a familiar scent and a soothing, gentle presence falling over her.

“There’s no need, Twilight Sparkle. I’m already here,” A familiar, musical voice floated through the air, instantly sending fire shivering up Twilight’s spine and causing her face to light up in an ecstatic grin.

“Princess!” Twilight immediately fell into a bow, so happy she could dance, as it always was in the presence of her mentor. The Princess of the Day stood in the library in all her regal glory, mane as starry as ever, burnished Celestial Crown, mantle and horseshoes shining, and coat literally glowing with rays of sunshine. Twilight couldn’t resist galloping over and nuzzling Celestia’s soft, warm coat, despite the fact she was supposed to have grown out of it a long time ago.

“Affectionate as always, I see,” the beautiful alicorn replied with a warm smile and a light chuckle before returning the gesture.

“Princess, you’ve no idea how glad I am to see you! Something really strange happened here in Ponyville just yesterday!”

She nodded, pulling her head up and glancing at the door. “I know, Twilight Sparkle. Spike told me before you arrived.”

She gestured to the grinning dragon sitting dutifully on her right. She smiled slightly, “The reports I overheard Mayor Mare receiving this morning about a group of frightening young mares harassing Ponyville’s visitors gave me a feeling there might be another disaster in the making…”

Twilight felt her face grow warm and groaned under her breath.  Whatever she tried to do in Ponyville in cases like this, it always seemed to make a terrific spectacle. Guess I should’ve learned to expect it by now, but…

When she caught the look on Twilight’s face, the princess seemed to understand, and her amused smile faded into a look of worry. “It must have been terrible to find somepony so badly injured in this town. It was a lucky thing your friend Pinkie Pie found this visitor when she did, otherwise it might have been too late! What did the doctors say?”

Slightly miffed that Spike had told the princess first, and determined not to be outdone, Twilight cleared her throat and repeated everything the doctor had said as precisely as she could (minus her disastrous little summary at the end).

“Eat her?” Celestia frowned after she finished, her gaze hardening slightly. “My sister and I frequently warn every carnivore among our subjects that preying upon any of our ponies would be punishable by exile to the sun…”

“Well, that’s just it, Princess. She’s not exactly a pony, so…er, maybe…power of a loophole and all that?” Twilight suggested, cocking her head slightly.

“Twilight Sparkle…” Celestia said, smiling a smile that portrayed her power while remaining completely non-threatening, “Did you really think I would let any carnivore try to play me for a foal that way?”

Though it was obvious Celestia never believed Twilight would consider her such, her countenance was still ominous enough to make the young unicorn gulp and look away, “No, of course not, Your Highness…”

“Your continued faith is flattering, my dear student…” Even after all this time, Twilight still managed to miss the tiny gleam of laughter in the Princess’ eyes at her squirming. Celestia had never told Twilight, but it amused her to no end that the young unicorn truly imagined she’d be so terrible and harsh if Twilight put so much as a hoof out of line. But then again, it made discipline a simple matter whenever it did turn out to be necessary…

Shaking herself slightly, Twilight decided to seal a lid on the whole thing, “No carnivore would probably stop long enough to check if she were a pony or a horse anyway…not if it was that hungry…or too dumb to know any better…”

The princess shook her head, “My influence and that of my sister have kept the carnivores of Equestria aware of the law of the land for years.  Even the wolves and bears and other simple creatures know better than to disturb pony settlements, Twilight Sparkle…and if anypony stumbled into their lairs…even then I don’t doubt Mother Nature would restrain them…” Celestia smiled at the thought, obviously remembering her last meeting with her earth entity friend she had shared with Twilight.

Twilight swallowed hard. She hated to disagree with her mentor, but there was no way she was going to rely on that old spirit’s sense of compassion! Whoever said Mother Nature was a prickly mistress wasn’t kidding! Not even Granny Smith fresh from a disturbed afternoon nap ever raised so many levels of Tartarus!

Twilight breathed out through her muzzle to clear out that awful memory before asking the next thing on her mind, “Princess, I’ve got to ask, do ponies – or horses, I suppose – come from anywhere besides Equestria?”

The princess furrowed her brow slightly, “Well, there is Verdantine, my dear student…but, by that question, I assume you mean somewhere less obvious…”

“It’s strange, princess.  I studied everything I could find on the horsekind, and we’ve never found them anywhere else. I mean, sure, there are ponies who emigrated to Griffonia and the far south, but they never lost touch with Equestria.  Or the language.  Equus was the language of the horses long before the ponies, but the mare had Silver Tongues cast on her a while ago. Why would she do that if she came from Verdantine?! And the doctor mentioned she doesn’t look exactly like any kind of horse he’s ever seen. Is it possible she’s from another land? One we don’t know about yet? Or even another world?!” She felt her eyes widen at that thought.

Celestia gave that slight, unperturbed smile that Twilight had come to equate with you’ve much to learn, my dear student.

“I highly doubt she is from another world, Twilight Sparkle. Even with my power and that of my sister and every other powerful being in Equestria or even the whole continent, other worlds cannot be divined. We cannot even be sure they exist…though I personally believe they do. Even with all our magic, travel between worlds would be impossible. As for another land…” she adopted a more thoughtful pose then, looking up at the ceiling in contemplation. “It is possible, I suppose, but it would be a land of horsefolk that has gone completely unnoticed and unfound for centuries by all our neighbors. True, there are places ponies can’t go…but ponies are not the only beings who explore the world and bring back tales, my dear student. If there were such a place, I am sure some rumor would have reached us by now…”

She then looked back at Twilight, “It sounds most unlikely.  Even if she was from an unknown land, how would she have made it to the middle of Equestria without being noticed? And why would she have come alone? Did you say the doctor had never seen any kind of horse exactly like her before?”

Twilight nodded, and the princess smiled that knowing smile at her again. “There is another possibility that would explain that, Twilight Sparkle…”

What could that be? She frowned. How could she look like a mix of horse breeds unless…oh.

At Twilight’s expression of comprehension, Celestia smiled as though Twilight had just solved another great puzzle under her tutelage. “She might be a mixed breed, my dear student. Her parents or grandparents must have been different breeds. Why, if she has a cutie mark, then she might even have some pony blood in her!”

That did sound more likely, and it would explain how she could have been found in the middle of Equestria. Feeling her face go faintly warm, Twilight began to wonder if it was all just another overblown fantasy of hers. But then she remembered the doctor’s doubts as well. “But, Princess…that doesn’t explain the Silver Tongues, or the Sticktight spell…or those crude boots.”

Celestia let out a light chuckle again. “The boots must have been homemade, my dear student – probably to save a few bits - and she may have had a unicorn friend cast Sticktight on them to keep them from falling off if they were really so shoddily-made. And the Silver Tongues…well, perhaps she is friends with some non-ponies who were visiting Equestria. She might have bought the spell to be able to talk with them while they were here.”

If she’s from Equestria after all, Twilight raised her eyebrows in disbelief, she must come from one hay of a weird family to be cross-bred with a horse, speak in Silver Tongues with non-pony visitors and wear homemade boots with a Sticktight on them!

Then, Twilight remembered their other mystery. “But Princess, somehow…whatever attacked her, trying to eat her…we’ve never seen anything like that this close to Ponyville before. And for such a…well, a strange pony to be the only victim like this in years…sorry, but I don’t think that’s just a coincidence.  I get the feeling it’s not just any hungry carnivore deciding to break the law!  Like the doctor said, whatever bit her looked like it tried to murder her first…”

The princess frowned. “That…is a point I suppose.  I must-”

Suddenly, there was a bang and sound of the library door swinging open on squeaking hinges as Applejack barged in through the front door, obviously in a hurry. “Twi!! I just foun’…found…” her voice trailed off, stunned, as she recognized the library’s other visitor.

She immediately began to shiver and dropped into a low bow.  Twilight knew royalty often made Applejack nervous. “Yah Highness…”

She smiled down at the orange earth pony. “Dear Applejack! How lovely to see you again!” That greeting and the ever-present sweetness in the princess’ voice naturally brought a deep blush to Applejack’s cheeks.  Despite everything, Twilight and Spike couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at her shyness.  The unicorn had exactly the same disposition when she first became the princess’ student all those years ago, but Applejack was full-grown and must have met the princess at least a dozen times since Twilight first arrived in Ponyville.  Twilight supposed the farmer was exactly what they had in mind when they invented the word ‘humble’.

“I-it’s mighty kind o’ yah ta say that, yah Highness,” Applejack mumbled, keeping her eyes glued to the floor in front of her. “Ah’m terribly sorry, I didn’ mean ta disturb y’all…but I foun’ somethin’ strange out a’ the Acres.  Somethin’ ah thought must be part o’ wha’ happen to tha’ mare in hospital!” She nodded over her shoulder to the large saddlebag she was wearing. Something bulky and metallic was poking out of it.  It looked solid and very heavy - though for a pony as strong as Applejack, it probably wasn’t too much to carry it around.

Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed.  Wordlessly, her horn glowed and she lifted the large, twisted, metallic object from the orange pony’s saddlebag.

Applejack cautiously slid back and trotted over to stand next to Spike as they stared at the thing, “Ah ain’t never seen anythin’ like that before in these parts, Twilight…”

That wasn’t surprising. The hunk of metal was long, but burnt and twisted shapeless.  The metal was scorched, dark and smoky, and looked like it had melted in at least three places.  It was obviously hard though, and wouldn’t have melted easily.  A large lump grew from one end of the tube, making it look suspiciously like a club, but the shaft was not straight and had curled over from the heat.  It looked sharp in places too, with vicious prongs sticking out of it at irregular intervals.

“That doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen either,” Twilight frowned. “Do you know what it is, princess?  Princess?”

Celestia was staring hard at the object and her eyes were wider than usual.  When she replied, her voice was slightly throaty and slurred. “I-I’m afrrraid not, Twilight Shhparkle…” she frowned then, narrowing her eyes slightly, “bu-but, it looksh liike…” Her horn glowed more intensely, and then, suddenly, the soot flew off the object as though somepony had just dragged a giant scouring brush across it, and the blackened metal seemed to brighten and clear before their eyes.

And in moments, the whole library was bathed in a pale blue light.

Spike squinted and groaned before averting his eyes, “That makes me see spots…”

Nopony answered him – they were all too busy staring.  The large screw-shaped thing was made of some luminous pale metal that seemed to shine almost blue and let out a low, sonorous hum as it floated in mid-air.

As they stared and stared at the growing glow emanating from the object, Twilight noticed something.  There was a familiar crackle in the air.

She snapped  her head around and saw.  The princess’ eyes were wider than she had ever seen them, her mouth was open, and she seemed to be drooling slightly as she stared at the thing.  Twilight’s magical instincts kicked in and she lit up her horn, and was almost immediately aware of the terrible sucking sensation in the air and its grip on the princess.

“OH NO!!!“ Twilight screamed, realizing what was happening.  She quickly galloped over to the princess and clamped her magic down on her horn, pushing hard and trying to shatter the princess’s divining spell.  But it was no good – Celestia was immensely powerful and probably nopony in the world could ever hope to shatter her spells.

“What’s happenin’, Twi?!” Applejack sounded afraid.

“It’s the thing!” Twilight shouted over the growing hum in the air, still trying to get a grip on Celestia’s spell. “It’s mesmerized the princess! We’ve got to stop it now!!!” She grit her teeth, “It’ll drain all the magic right out of her if we don’t!”

Applejack gasped, and promptly cantered over to the glowing thing. She turned around and gave it the strongest buck she could, but all that did was make it spin in the air, still locked in place by the levitation spell.  The orange earth pony cried out in dismay and looked around wildly, before her eyes drifted to the rug on the floor.

“I’ve got it!” she shouted at precisely the same time Spike said the same words. The little dragon ran forwards at the metal thing before Twilight could stop him and took a deep breath.  Applejack pulled the rug up off the floor (upending the stand and poor flower vase perched on top of it).  Twilight saw what was about to happen and yelled.

Too late. Applejack threw the rug over the glowing thing…just as Spike belched flame all over it.  There was the rumble and hiss of every inch of rug catching fire all at once, and Applejack dropped what was left of the carpet with a yelp, stomping on the flaming mass as the library filled with the smell of burning fabric and ozone.

The unicorn groaned, redoubling her efforts to pull at the princess’ spell.  But then, as the acrid stench of burning carpet reached them, Celestia wrinkled her nose.  Her eyes refocused and she squeezed them shut, gritting her teeth and slowly forcing her head to the side as though it took a great effort.

The glow in her horn went out, and - with a dull, metallic thrummm - so did the blue glow in the metal, darkening back to a light, translucent grey. It thumped heavily down onto the floor in front of Applejack, who backed away immediately.

It looked no more impressive than before.  Despite most of the soot and detritus gone, it was still a twisted, sad-looking, oversized screw.

The Royal Princess of Equestria turned and lowered her head, breathing heavily and with her mane slightly askew.

“Princess, are you alright?!” Twilight grabbed hold of her leg.

“I’m fine, my dear student. It’s only…” Celestia closed her eyes slowly. “Spike, might I trouble you for some water?”

Spike, wide-eyed and obviously afraid, bolted for the kitchen at once while the princess took several deep breaths and smoothed her mane back into place with one hoof, taking care to avoid looking at the thing on the floor. When Spike rushed back and handed her a full glass, the princess levitated it up and drained it in one gulp before lowering her head and taking a deep, weary breath. “That…object is made of a rare metal called valaethium.  When divined or otherwise hit directly with magic, it mesmerizes the caster and prolongs the spell until the caster manages to gather enough strength of will to look away…”  She sighed heavily, “If any unicorn looks at it for too long, they’ll...eventually they won’t even have enough strength left to keep breathing.”

At that, Applejack immediately tossed the smoldering remnants of the rug over the metal, to the princess’ grateful nod. “Excuse me, I think I need some air…”

Twilight immediately ran for the door and threw it open to the cold winter afternoon, as Celestia nodded gratefully and trotted out.

Now, flashing lights, crackling noises, and even the occasional explosion from Twilight’s home/library/arcaneum/mad scientist’s lab had become enough of a regular occurrence in Ponyville that most of the locals out and about rarely paid it any real attention anymore.

But the co-Ruler of Equestria striding out the front door in the middle of a snowy afternoon…that was a surprise.

Amidst many yelps and squawks of surprise and squeals of delight from fillies and colts on their way home from school, Twilight, Applejack, Spike, and the princess all found themselves surrounded by an enormous crowd, all vying to come near them for just a moment of their beloved ruler’s time.

“Princess, you’re the greatest!” one earth pony colt declared, clambering onto her back and doing his best to hug Celestia’s neck.

“Princess, please teach me how to do magic like you do for Miss Twilight Sparkle!” begged a tearful little unicorn as her mother tried to hush her and pull her back. “I try so hard, but I can never get my horn to work!”

The princess looked at the little unicorn, and gave a short smile.  It was perhaps not much of a gesture, but no-one knew better than Twilight that nopony could promise as much through one little smile as Princess Celestia could.  The filly was simply too young for her magical ability to have manifested yet.  But somehow, Twilight guessed the young unicorn would never doubt her magic as she grew up - not if she believed she had the princess’ invisible eye watching over her.  She wouldn’t of course, but even the belief would make all the difference…and Celestia knew it.

“I’m sorry about this, princess,” Twilight muttered, embarrassed. “I should’ve warned you.”

Celestia turned to face her with a slightly weary smile. “No, it’s quite alright, Twilight Sparkle. I suppose I should have expected this with it being the end of school hours.  Only in my haste to remove myself…” she shook her head and lowered it to nuzzle a little yellow colt hugging her leg. “Perhaps it is a good thing anyway.  I should be spending more time amongst my loyal subjects in Ponyville.”

Twilight then gulped as one little pegasus filly managed to hover high enough to pluck the Celestial Crown from her head and perch it precariously on her own before the weight dragged her back to the ground. “I’m Printheth Thelesthia!” the little filly declared, striking the most adorable regal pose in Equestrian history, holding a hoof to her chest as she balanced on her hind legs, “and I declare thath all nasthy thaladths are banned from thkool and every filly getth free candy for lunch every day!” she said, much to the laughter of the ponies all around her.

That was too much for the princess, who lost her regal composure and broke down laughing at the filly’s antics, seemingly unfazed by the loss of her crown. “Do I really sound like that, little one? Now, now, be careful with your candy,” she stroked the beaming filly’s mane before levitating her crown back on. “You don’t want all your little teeth to fall out now, do you?

*

The crowd of admiring natives had taken the better part of an hour to allow the princess to leave, cheering and heaping praise on her the whole way to the hospital.  Princess Celestia had decided all she had left to do now was issue her royal authority for their mysterious mare to be taken to Cloudsdale. “After all, there is no need to panic yet, am I right?”

But the sweating and hysterical Doctor Needles had soon disabused them of that notion when they stepped inside.

And now, the Life Flight doctor was opening the entrance to the Ponyville Hospital emergency ward with his head bowed respectfully, admitting Twilight and the princess while Applejack waited outside.  Twilight flinched at the sight before them, and could have sworn Celestia had almost done the same.

Their mysterious horse-pony-whatever was attached to all kinds of wires and plastic pipes, swathed in bandages and splints. Her barrel had been splinted in two places, but, thankfully, it looked like her swollen back hadn’t been broken.

Bandages covered most of her coat, several of them beginning to spot with blood.  One of her eyes was still closed, the other hidden behind a bandage, but a mask was attached to her face, the steady inflation and deflation of the respirator matching the slight rise and fall of her ribs.  The gentle blip of an irregular heart rate echoed throughout the ward.

At least she’s still alive then.

But that was probably the best that could be said.  Half a dozen doctors were galloping back and forth screaming at each other, while another few had sunk onto their rumps, their heads in their hooves, obviously despairing.  Even Nurse Redheart was stomping frantically and yelling for a unicorn to charge the defibrillator.  The commotion faltered, but only for a moment, as the staff recognized their visitor…

Celestia’s face fell and her eyes tightened as she gazed at their patient. “How does it appear, doctor?”

He pressed his small spectacles up on his muzzle and sighed before answering. “She seems to be failing, Your Highness.  Major internal organs are starting to shut down, and survival seems unlikely.  Lung and heart failure are inevitable. By your royal authority, we could prepare to move her to Cloudsdale HQ and commence emergency magical assistance at once…though I fear we may not have that much time left…”

The princess looked closely at the patient - letting her eyes roam over the single visible eye, swollen horse-back, long legs, the still-attached boots – then at the staff – flustered, exhausted, and despairing…

…and her face flickered and hardened as though she had made a decision. “There is no need.  Stand back, my ponies!”

At the command and the sight of the princess’ horn lighting up, most of the doctors and nurses scrambled away from the operating station as the alicorn began to glow with a soft blue light.

“Princess!” Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do. “But…you just…that metal!!”

She did not reply.  Her eyes were firmly locked on the dying mare and her wings were spread, her horn alight with energy.  As the intensity of the light around her grew, Celestia’s features became obscured by the brilliance, and her pupils vanished in the glare, giving her an eerie white-eyed, angelic appearance.  A deep hum resonated in the air at the intensity of the alicorn princess’ power.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle!” the doctor had gone pale and was watching the scene with wide eyes. “That spell…if she uses too much at once, that spell will…”

Twilight knew, but she also knew there was no stopping the princess now. Princess…if anypony can do it, you can.  Right?

All at once, the blaze of light from the princess’ horn engulfed the dying mare, forcing everypony in the room to look away.

When the light faded again, Twilight opened her eyes…

For just a moment, the patient’s single visible eye fluttered open - a deep yellow orb full of confusion and pain - before the eyelid closed over it again.

The blip of a steady heartbeat began to sound again.

Celestia slowly retracted her wings as the last of her spell gave out, breathing deeply and seemingly heavy on her hooves. She stumbled slightly, and Twilight quickly cantered over to hold her up with her back. “Princess…are you alright?!”

She shook her head slightly. “I am quite tired, my dear student. But it was worth it.” She looked at their patient, breathing shallowly on the bed. The doctors were looking at her in amazement, mute respect for the princess in their eyes. One or two of the traumatized nurse mares even looked like they were about to burst into tears.

The head doctor bowed deeply, “Thank you ever so much, Your Highness.  You saved this poor mare’s life.  By your leave, we will take her to Cloudsdale HQ as soon as we can.”

Celestia nodded wearily, “See that you do. I can heal the living, doctor, but I cannot raise the dead…” Her eyes softened as she stared at the patient, “and this poor mare has suffered more than anypony here knows.”

*

“What did you mean, Princess?”

With the sky beginning to darken, Princess Celestia decided to take her leave and fly back to Canterlot.  She spread her wings as she turned to look at Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle…when I healed that mare, I felt many old injuries, blood and flesh that remembered pain and suffering.  Her body could not give details, but the spirit I held in my arms was pale and screaming in agony…”

Celestia’s eyes were full of sadness and she seemed to sag slightly - not appearing anything like her normal self and obviously exhausted.

“At first I thought perhaps this injured visitor was just that…an injured visitor who had an unfortunate meeting with a hungry predator but…” she frowned. “After Applejack’s artifact, and after seeing her for myself, here in Ponyville…I am not so sure. Please continue to watch over this poor mare, my dear student, and write what she can tell you when she awakens.  I have a notion it will be vital for me to know…”

She then straightened and adopted a more business-like tone, “Also, Applejack’s find…if you plan on studying it further…” she smiled, “…as I don’t doubt you will with your insatiable curiosity, my dear student…take care to research it first. It could be quite dangerous…”

“The metal thing…the vol-valer…uh…got it, valaethium! Of course, I’ll be careful! Do you still think it’s a coincidence, princess?”

She smiled again, “My dear student…why, I never believed it was a coincidence! I have lived long enough to stop believing in coincidence...”

And she nuzzled Twilight’s cheek tenderly before taking flight.

*

Hooves pounded repeatedly into the rock, but for every ‘thumm’ of a steel horseshoe came the answering, equally-menacing ‘thud-clack’ of the enemy’s clawed feet.

There was no doubt; they were awake – wide awake and eager.

Anger made them smart. Hunger made them smarter.

But before they could charge and start tearing into each other, the roar caught them all off guard.

As if from nowhere, the great beast appeared in their midst. Its agonized roaring seared their eardrums and shook the very earth.

What does it want here?

She opened her eye, but all she could see was a blurry wall of white.

Am I dead?

Awakening

Lament of the Frozen North

Chapter 3: Awakening

“FALL BACK!”

The leader’s voice rang out repeatedly with the steel of authority over the sound of lashing rain, not betraying a hint of the fear he must have felt. “Emergency airlift NOW!! While that thing is still busy!”

One of the pegasi sky-rangers turned, flicking the rain out of her mane, and looked closely at him. “Sir!  That thing will slaughter them!”

“Better them than us!  We have to get back and warn the others…if those things get there before we do…no, it has to be by air…”

 The pegasus gave a reluctant snort through her muzzle, staring back out over the carnage in the field below. “Sir, I know they’re our enemies…and I know they’re…disgusting…b-but even they don’t deserve to die like that!”

“We have no choice!  If we try to help them, that monster will kill us all!  And if, by some miracle, they do somehow manage to kill it first, they’ll turn on us the moment it goes down.  We must retreat!  Airlift!  Now!  It’s an order!”

The sky-ranger looked at the unicorn leader again, and then gave a short nod of acquiescence.  She rose into the air again, hefting her spear and yelling at her fellow pegasi to evacuate the groundpounders.  Many of them looked less than happy about descending to where that…thing could possibly get its claws on them…never mind flying from danger while carrying another pony.  Who knew what that thing was capable of?

But, as often, the proud nature of the pegasi won out in the end, and they descended, each of them seizing an earther or unicorn and rising again into the stormy sky. The leader knew they would not have to worry about having too many passengers – there had always been more pegasi than unicorns in the ranks, and because of all the danger on the ground, there would be far more of them left than any earther at this point…

When the sky-ranger came back and seized him by the barrel, he barked an order to make for the peaks.  He knew the rain and the weight of the others would slow the pegasi down - if they were pursued, they would need to scatter and lose their followers between the mountains.

“Whatever that thing can do…it can’t fly!” the sky-ranger said from above him, sounding relieved they were finally abandoning the field. “We should be safe now…”

The leader shook his head. “I doubt it.  They…”

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning and crack of thunder, and, almost simultaneously, there came a deep, guttural roar from the belly of the animal kingdom, echoing off the walls of the mountain valleys below.

The sky-ranger halted in mid-air, her eyes widening in terror, “It followed us?!”

But, in her grip, the leader raised one eyebrow and - unbelievably – smirked. “No, it didn’t…”

There was another louder, closer roar, too powerful to be muffled by the rain-choked air.

“CLOSE FORMATION AND RISE!!” the unicorn roared, lighting up his horn, and then he muttered quietly – almost to himself - “I think help may have arrived…”

*

“Valaethium: a rare metal found in the deepest deposits of rock, usually amongst natural iron and/or quartz. The ore is a deep grey color in its natural state, and a lighter shade of grey after refining, though some variance has been seen, producing shades of light blue, pink, or purple.  Despite its metallic properties, valaethium shows a partially absorbing structure able to carry light through the lattice, giving it a translucent appearance.  This translucence is false - the light reflected through the metal is not that absorbed upon the parallel surface of the metal, and thus, the metal cannot be “seen through”.  It may be because of this molecular anomaly that valaethium possesses unique conductive properties when in contact with magic.  It’s most notable capability is its ability to act as a veritable “magic battery” by draining and storing magic within its own molecular structure.  Valaethium must be used with care when examining it by magical means – it possesses the ability to absorb the magic of unicorns, griffons, dragons, and other beings when struck directly with raw magical energy.

Fortunately for researchers studying valaethium, alternative methods of divination exist. Although it cannot be directly struck by a spell without mesmerizing and draining the caster, it cannot obtain the inert magic attached to a medium, such as a wand, scrying glass, or cauldron. The spell will therefore work properly when using a medium such as those listed above.”

Well, that was easy, Twilight thought with an excited smile, raising her nose from between the pages. Just as I thought, a glance at a book or two and I already know what to do…

She was just about to snap the book closed and go rummage around for one of her old wands, but – as was often the case with the most studious pony in Equestria – a deeply-ingrained habit left the rest of the passage singing to her.  Well…didn’t the princess say I had to read everything I could first!?  That wouldmake sense…

Doubt then returned with a vengeance, reinforcing her nerd-instincts with all the logical reasons to keep going as she thought of what happened the previous day.  Oh, I saw that thing mesmerize Princess Celestiafor pony’s sake! It can’t just be as simple as waving a wand in the air! Who knows what’ll happen if I get this wrong?!  She really wanted to divine the valaethium.  Right away.  But…

There was more to read…quite a lot, in fact…which looked as tasty to the purple unicorn as it would to a nest of bookworms…so Twilight decided to listen to the sirens in her head and keep reading.

“It is important to note that when refining valaethium there are certain practical applications for its use, and these must be taken into consideration from the very moment any natural deposit is found. Firstly, while the metal is not especially brittle, and is malleable and ductile, using a magical force to shape it is impossible due to its magic-conductive properties.  Valaethium must be shaped by physical means, which requires enormous force thresholds and high temperature, beyond that of iron and most other common ores.  Therefore, hoofcrafting is not possible as these thresholds are too high for ponyfolk to withstand.  Therefore, refined and tooled valaethium is usually made either by dragon firecrafting, or by large, complex machinery.  However, the former is difficult to procure for obvious reasons, and the latter is a long and costly process which requires a specific inventory for each different valaethium blueprint.  It also creates an abundance of volatile and highly-toxic byproducts. For these reasons, there are currently no known valaethium refineries or forges in Equestria…”

Getting weirder and weirder, Twilight thought as she continued to skim over the description of the refinement process.  She glanced at the half-melted lump next to the book. Well, somethingmade it that way…must have been pretty hot alright if it’s like this book says…

She reached the final paragraph in the book – the uses of valaethium.

“Despite the difficulty and expense in making it, refined valaethium is very valuable for a number of reasons. As mentioned above, its magic-conductive nature means it may be charged and, with the proper apparatus, used as a battery for golems and other magic-powered constructs.  It may also be used in armor plating for the purpose of absorbing attack spells and mesmerizing spellcasters such as unicorns on the field of battle.  It may also be used as an impenetrable, re-usable insulation material whilst performing dangerous magical experiments.  For these reasons, valaethium was often sought after by magicians, and those who would protect themselves against magicians, until discoveries of natural ore in Equestria became increasingly rare in the last 200 years - which is yet another reason for the metal’s rising value.”

“There is one vital matter of caution concerning its use: regular discharge.  Its magic-conductive nature may be useful if applied properly, but, as with all forms of energy, there is a threshold where magic becomes volatile.  Samples of the metal which have been over-charged with magic may become unstable, and – when exposed to stimuli such as extreme pressure, heat, or cold - emit a powerful magical discharge that adopts the form of whatever other magical stimuli it may have come into contact with.  For example, if a valaethium helmet is repeatedly struck by divination spells and not discharged by a wand or other medium, it might spontaneously release a large burst of mesmerizing energy.  Too many fire or cold spells would cause unpredictable temperature spikes around the metal, shock spells would cause it to emit lightning, and so on.  Therefore, over-charging valaethium is extremely dangerous and care must be taken to discharge it after use.”

Twilight closed the book, frowning.  Her eyes drifted to the piece lying on the workbench.  With the sharp prongs sticking along its length, it looked more like a weapon than any sort of battery or piece of armor.  Could it have been part of some machine?  Or maybe a building?  Twilight could only guess.

She stood and walked back up the stairs to her bedroom, stopping on the midway landing. “Spike, I’m just looking for one of my old wands.  I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”

The dragon paused in dusting the bookshelves, raising his eyebrows in confusion before grinning, “Wand?  Twilight, you haven’t needed one of those for years!  Heh, getting rusty already?”

She pointedly jabbed a hoof at the screw-thing on the desk. “I’m not using my horn on that, Spike…”

“Oh…yeah,” Spike’s eyes widened slightly and he shuffled his feet, “Sorry Twi…I guess a wand would be a good idea…”

She sighed and left him.  Spike’s mouth did run ahead of his brain sometimes.  All part of being a foal, she supposed.  Ah, “cub” that is…

Twilight trotted into her room and magicked her trunk open, tossing out all the various luggage she had brought from Canterlot but had somehow never got around to using in Ponyville piece by piece.

My wand…

There it was, right at the bottom.  The old wand Princess Celestia had given her for whenever her horn might have been acting up or another source of magic was needed.  It was long and slender, made of dark brown  spruce wood.  By itself, that was all it was though – a stick…

No unicorn really knew why a so-called ‘wand’ was still so often used as a medium for magic when just about any other object would do.  Twilight supposed it was only for the sake of conforming to the earther and pegasus myths about magic…not to mention that the wand’s iconic appearance and connotation might give beginner magicians some kind of misguided reassurance…

In any case, it was as good a medium as she could try.  Twilight had used it before, and hay, why break in a new pair of horseshoes when the old ones still worked just fine?

She lit up her horn and concentrated.  The wand floated into the air and, with a sucking sound, absorbed the aura Twilight placed around it.  A moment later, it began to glow a light purple and kept floating on its own.  Twilight chuckled, closed her trunk, and went back down the stairs to her desk, her loyal wand bobbing along behind her.

The valaethium sample still sat there, looking innocent and pathetic next to her reading frame.  Careful now.  If the book was wrong…

She made sure to place herself a ways away from it, not looking directly at it for this first step.  Twilight concentrated, gripping her wand in a telekinetic grip and pointing it at the valaethium.  The wand began to hum, and after a moment, its point aimed solidly at the screw-thing.

Twilight immediately threw a sealing spell around the wand and turned so she had no view of the valaethium at all.  Can’t risk it, even if I am the third node here…

She cast a divination spell on the wand, and suddenly had a feeling of plunging deep within a deep, brown abyss with wooden walls and a horizon so narrow she could crash into the side at any moment.  It felt almost like she was trying to squeeze her whole body through the grains of her wand.  Still, having suffered far worse in her time in magic school, Twilight kept her head and continued her spell.

Eventually, the discomfort of pushing into the wand faded and Twilight was aware of a tingle in the tip of her horn, eventually running all the way down to the base of her spine.  When she opened her eyes, she saw the library, but she saw the inside of the wand as well.

Great streaks of luminescent magic floated peacefully and unbroken through the air.  Little glimmers peeked out from every corner.  And there were ambient, rich colors to every one of them: gold, deep red, light blue, and rich greens.

But the largest nexus ribbon hovered right before her, colored by the last spell that hit it.  It was a silvery color that shone like a minted bit. Beautiful…

But then a split-second later, the reality of what she was looking at hit her.  Twilight immediately went cold.  The valaethium…it’s practically overflowing!  It could discharge any second!

Twilight pushed through the wand to the valaethium sample itself, the lights around her growing larger and brighter with every hoofstep.

This sure has seen a lot of magic of all kinds, more than I’ve ever seen in one medium.  No doubt about it, this thing was over-charged recently…better discharge it myself before it goes off on its own and becomes a mesmerizing time-bomb like the book said…

Twilight focused her magic again, amplifying her senses and gripping the ribbon the wand had divined from the valaethium.  She ran her senses over it, feeling the touch of the spell, trying to work out its resonance and intensity with her magical hooves.

But no, she couldn’t seem to find where she could grip it to gently dissociate the magic.

C’mon, c’mon where are you?  She grit her teeth and probed deeper, feeling the solid rub of the magic against her senses.  The spells the valaethium absorbed had all been rock-solid, obviously cast by skilled beings.  Twilight would normally have approved of that, but it also meant shattering the spells could be difficult without making a mess of it.

Frustrated after several moments, she groaned again in aggravation and plunged her horn right into the center of the ribbon, breaking it in half.

With a crack that rang in Twilight’s ears, but did not exist in the real world at all, she cancelled the spell and pulled out of the wand.

Clack!  Her old wand hit the floor lifelessly as Twilight’s second vision faded.

She swayed on her hooves with the momentary vertigo…and was suddenly aware of Spike holding her up. “Twilight!! What happened?!  You just jumped and started stumbling around!” His eyes were wide and his claws were clenched hard in her mane.  He was obviously remembering what had happened to the princess yesterday…

Twilight shook her head, “I’m okay, Spike.  I just had to take a bit of a jolt to make sure that thing doesn’t cause any more trouble…” she nodded to Applejack’s find, still resting on the desk looking innocent.  It’s probably for the best Spike doesn’t know how dangerous that could’ve been if he’d dropped it or accidentally breathed fire on it…

“Are you sure?” That was one thing the unicorn loved about her little dragon assistant.  No matter how often you assured him you were alright, he’d always go out of his way to make sure you had everything you needed.

She nuzzled him fondly in reply. “I’m sure, Spike, but…”

Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the door.  As Spike ran to answer it, Twilight took a deep breath and straightened her legs.

Okay, it had been a good start to find out the thing had been absolutely full of magic from somewhere, but she still needed to divine it again shortly to find out more about where and how-

“TWILIGHT!!!” Spike’s voice suddenly yelled from the entryway, sounding ecstatic, panicked, and disbelieving all at the same time. “She’s AWAKE!!!”

*

“I told you to stay at the library, Spike!” she admonished him as he, huddled in his plastic orange seat, trembling as he looked around.  She knew he was deathly afraid of hospitals.

But he narrowed his eyes and scowled at her stubbornly, “I’m not missing this, Twilight! I found her, remember!”

The unicorn groaned, “Actually, Pinkie did…”

Spike looked down, slightly crestfallen. “Oh yeah…”

Pinkie Pie shuddered slightly, halting in the air mid-bounce. “Uh, please don’t remind me…”

Twilight noticed with a smile that at least Pinkie’s spring was back today.  She did seem a little happier.  And why not?  That pony she found close to death has just woken up!

“I do hope the poor darling’s alright,” Rarity said with a shudder as she paced in a circle, “she must be absolutely terrified after what happened to her!”

Rainbow Dash paused in her matching circle through the air, an unusually thoughtful expression on her face, “If she even remembers it, Rarity…”

Applejack craned her head upward, “Ah think she would remember what done got ‘er wrapped up in th’ hospital, sugarcube…”

Rainbow shook her head, sitting down in the air and looking at the ceiling, crossing her forehooves, “Actually, Applejack, ponies sometimes don’t remember the accident or whatever when they wake up in hospital.  After something shocking or traumatic happens, the memory’s usually not there after the pony wakes up…”

She hovered there for a moment before she was suddenly aware of everypony’s wide eyes on her. “What?! It says so in Daring Do and the Search for the Lost Sphinx Tribe!” she said, looking slightly embarrassed.  She closed her eyes and quoted the book perfectly from memory, “‘Daring stared, her head pounding and her mouth still full of salt, at all that was left of her boat floating onto the sand.  She couldn’t remember how her boat crashed on the shore of the Sandwash. There was only a crack of thunder, a giant wave, a splash of spray, she had pulled the tiller as hard as she could, and woke up in the morning on the sandbar with no idea how she got there!’” The pegasus did a triumphant backflip in mid-air, grinning down at them all.

Twilight groaned under her breath, beginning to regret ever having coaxed Rainbow into reading those pony-feathering adventure novels.  It was true – ponies who had sudden accidents often had no memory of it afterwards.  If they were unlucky, there was a good chance their mystery mare wouldn’t be able to tell them everything about what had happened…

Well, right now, the most important thing is…she’ll live.

The drill-sergeant unicorn doctor walked out of the recovery ward, drawing an immediate stir of attention.  He was frowning deeply, his muzzle clenched and face exasperated as Doctor Needles banged out of the ward after him.

“I tell you, sir, I am RIGHT!!!  Check it yourself!  The symptoms all match!  It is the simplest of conclusions to make!” Doctor Needles shouted shrilly.

“Indeed it is, Doctor Needles,” he growled back, “which is why it absolutely astounds me that a medical professional like yourself could make such a blatant mistake that couldn’t be expected of a five year-old foal!  That is not possible for a non-unicorn!”

“It is the only explanation that makes sense!”

The other doctor rounded on him annoyed, “It makes no sense at all!  If you truly are Ponyville’s ‘head doctor’ then I fear for the health and well-being of every one of the princess’ subjects in this town!!”

Doctor Needles flushed so dark Twilight wondered how his head didn’t explode.  He began spluttering incoherently in livid anger as the six mares watched with wide eyes.  When he noticed they were not alone and his Life Flight counterpart was moving toward Twilight and her friends, Doctor Needles deflated and shot the younger doctor a look that promised he’d hear more of this later.

Both stallions were red in the face and looked about ready to start trading bucks, and Twilight knew she had to get them on track quickly. “She’s woken up?”  The question came out a lot more urgently than Twilight intended.  Though she still sounded less annoyed than she felt.

“She is awake,” the Life Flight doctor said slowly and heavily, “thanks to our beloved Princess Celestia, her vital signs are stable and she shows signs of a safe return to consciousness.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” Fluttershy said with a wide smile, closing her eyes and rising a few feet into the air, tucking in her forehooves happily.

“But…” the doctor continued, his frown deepening, “even though kinetic and cognitive processes seem to be recovering normally, the patient has remained silent since awakening.  We informed her where she was and asked her to remain calm in the ward…but she didn’t give any sort of acknowledgment.  There have been no visible signs of distress or pain.  We believe the patient may not yet have returned fully to awareness…we considered a state of psychological trauma and catatonia, but…her vital readings are inconsistent with signs of shock…”

What? Twilight raised one eyebrow.

He looked at her uncomprehending expression, “I think it’s better if you see for yourself.  Please follow me, everypony…but please, try not to crowd our patient.  Her mental state might be volatile at the moment…”

And with that, he swiveled in a crisp movement and pushed through the swinging doors to the recovery ward.  Twilight nodded to the others and walked through.

“Not you, Doctor Needles…” the unicorn said pointedly as the old sawbones made to follow them in. “I do believe you have done more than your share for our patient at this time…” He closed the door in his snarling face.

What was that all about? Twilight wondered.

The recovery ward had become a familiar sight after Rainbow’s frequent crashes and all the times Twilight and the others had managed to drag her to hospital over her loud protests.  The sterile-but-cozy atmosphere was compounded by beds lined up against the walls, curtains hanging from racks on the ceiling to guarantee a measure of privacy, large windows glowing with sunlight at both ends of the room, and the solid reassurance of spotless medical equipment hanging from the headboards behind the beds.

This time, however, the curtains were half-drawn around a bed to leave it hidden from the other patients in the recovery ward and several nurses were standing around it.  There was a faint blip of the electrocardiograph still attached to the patient.

The black mare’s yellow eye was open – the other still hidden behind bandages - staring at the doorway.  Twilight couldn’t help but stare.  She had never seen such an eye before.  The irregular shape had been difficult to notice before with her eyes closed, but now…

The socket was abnormally long and set deeply into the skull beneath a heavy brow.  At first glance, the mare looked cross-eyed, but on closer inspection, Twilight could see her socket was rotated slightly outwards from a pony’s and looking straight ahead gave her that appearance.

She was not beautiful, Twilight noticed, catching Rarity’s grimace while the other unicorn looked her up and down.  Her muzzle and most of her neck were hidden behind bandages as well, but Twilight could see the square shape of a heavy jaw underneath the gauze, and what she could see of the neck was almost-skeletally thin, showing off the bones, cords of muscle and blood vessels beneath.

Her shaggy, uncut coat was a black - but not a very dark or thick one - managing to look only like a permanent dirty streak of soot.  Her mane was abnormally wiry and coarse, colored a deep, dull red interspersed with a few strands of black that managed to make it look dirty no matter how hard the nurses must have tried to clean it out.  Her back was swollen and wide, proportioned to a horse’s body.  However, her legs were shaped for a pony, thicker than a horse’s, and while they were longer than most, they were still not long enough to stop her back and rump from looking ridiculously bulky.  She must stomp around like an elephant when she walks, Twilight thought,maybe that’s why she wears those boots.

She was completely silent, staring straight ahead at the doorway, not acknowledging any of the new arrivals to the room with so much as a flicker in her gaze.  Pinkie Pie immediately flinched back, still not her bubbly, bouncy self, while the other ponies looked at her curiously.  Rainbow was, for once, quiet, gazing at Ponyville’s visitor.  She raised a hoof and waved it in the air.

No response.  Not even a shift in her gaze.

“These are the ponies who found you, miss,” the doctor said to the patient. “It was lucky they managed to get you here in time…”

She did not answer.

Fluttershy gave a short gasp, “I-I think she might be like one of my possums, doctor!”

He blinked. “Miss Fluttershy?”

The yellow pegasus’ eyes widened in reminiscent panic as she started speaking. “My little babies always choke! They fall down and start to die with their eyes open when some big animal scares them!  I don’t want the poor dears to be scared to death, so I pick them up and carry them on my back, sing a song, and they perk right back up!  Maybe she’s scaring to death!  Here…”

Already in half a panic, she zipped up to the mare’s side. “Put her on my back!  Maybe after I fly around and sing to her a little, she’ll wake up!”

Twilight facehoofed, “Fluttershy, your possums were just playing dead!  They were never in any danger…and neither is she...I hope…”

Fluttershy stared at Twilight, and then slowly reddened and slunk down to the floor with an embarrassed grin on her face at the looks she was getting from everypony in the room.

Thankfully, Rarity came to her rescue, “Well, she could indeed be ‘playing dead’ as you put it, Twilight.  Remember what the good doctor said about crowding her,” she put on a voice that Twilight had never heard her use before – a cooing, whiny little sing-song somepony might use to coax a newborn foal to eat. “The poor darling might not know where she is or what happened!  She might be ever so afraid…just waiting for the big, scary ponies to leave her alone…”

From the tone in Rarity’s voice and the half-sympathetic, half-disgusted look she was giving their patient, it was obvious what she was thinking.  Since the mare was cross-bred, silent and unattractive, Rarity had apparently decided she was simple and mentally-disabled too.

And she may well be for all we know.  Twilight frowned, not caring for Rarity’s false concern or her snobbish assumption, but the fact of the matter was – they couldn’t be sure.  She wasn’t responding to anything, and the only cases she’d seen like that were shock, catatonia or…

She had a sudden thought, “Do you think she might’ve been mesmerized, doctor?”

She heard Applejack gasp behind her, no doubt thinking of the incident with the princess.

At that, instead of being intrigued or startled, the doctor surprised Twilight by letting out a heavy, long-suffering sigh, “Miss Twilight Sparkle…not you too!  I just spent two hours disabusing my noble colleague ‘Doctor’ Needles of that notion, and now I hear it from a magician?!”

Twilight raised her eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Miss Twilight Sparkle…she’s not a unicorn…it’s impossible!  To be mesmerized, one must be capable of casting live magic.  And that’s not to mention somepony must counter-cast to cause it, and who would do that to an earth pony?!  It makes no sense!” he sighed, rolling his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe he was hearing something so ridiculous.

“Whoa whoa whoa!  Back up a second there!” Rainbow said, rising up and hovering a few feet over the floor like she usually did to get their attention, “what’s this maser-masma-mismur-…?”

Twilight ignored her. “She’s just staring right ahead, doctor, as though she was looking at something.  And you said she doesn’t respond to anything but her heart or brain activity doesn’t match catatonia…” Excitement began to bubble up through Twilight as the cause of their mystery mare’s condition became clearer and clearer.  Looking at her now, Twilight wondered how she hadn’t spotted it the instant she walked in.

“As I spent the last two hours repeating…” the doctor groaned with his hoof pressed to his face and eyes squeezed shut, “a creature that cannot channel magic could never be mesmerized, no matter similar the symptoms appear!”

“I’m ever so sorry Twilight dear, but that’s quite true,” put in Rarity, who, like all unicorns, had sat through safety classes as a filly and was well aware of the dangers of being mesmerized.

 “Maybe not!” Twilight was ecstatic now, jumping up and down on her hooves and grinning. “Valaethium! That’s it!  The valaethium did it!”

Rainbow facehoofed, hovering in the air with a half-annoyed, half-weary expression on her face, “Okay, I’m officially lost now…”  Even Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were staring at her in confusion.

The doctor frowned. “Valaethium?  You mean the magic-imbibing metal, Miss Twilight?” Most of the ponies were looking at her with blank incomprehension, but as a well-educated medical professional, he had apparently heard of it before.  He shook his head, “That might cause it, yes…but there is no such metal in this part of Equestria.  Anyway, even if there were, it would only react if somepony - and again, a unicorn – deliberately struck it with a live spell!  And what manner of unicorn would be that foolish?!”

Twilight stopped bouncing and looked up at the doctor through half-closed eyes. “As a matter of fact, Princess Celestia tried to divine a sample of it just yesterday after my friend Applejack found it in her fields…” she replied dryly.

For the first time, the doctor looked surprised.  Really surprised.  His eyebrows nearly rocketed right off his face - his eyes needed the extra room. “That-that’s impossible!”

While he struggled to find more words, Applejack looked at Twilight, then at the mare, “Yeah, that does sorta look like wha’ we saw, Twi, but like tha’ doc said…ya’d need to use magic to get the valley-thingamajig buckin’…”

“Can somepony please tell me what the hay they’re talking about?!!” Rainbow yelled, drawing startled looks and scowls from the nurses.  Everypony else shrugged, figuring they might as well go with the flow.

“Not always, Applejack!  Today I read a book about it and I divined the piece you found…” Twilight was really excited now, her eyes wide open, grinning, and horn sparking eagerly. “It was over-charged!  Valaethium’s like a steam engine!  Pump it up too much and it blows it off all on its own!  Somepony must have hit that valaethium with too many spells!  And when it discharged, it mesmerized her!! ” Twilight gave a self-congratulatory whoop and blasted off into a somersault in the air that would’ve made even Pinkie envious. “WOOHOO!! Mystery solved!!!”

The doctor, finally managing to compose himself, shut his mouth with an audible snap, “Miss Twilight Sparkle…let’s…not jump to conclusions here…”

“But it’s not jumping, doctor…” Twilight chattered excitedly, “It all makes sense!  You thought she wasn’t mesmerized because she’s an earther, but she has - it’s obvious!  We found a piece of melted valaethium - which hasn’t been seen for years here in Ponyville!  And we found both of them around the same area at the same time.  And it goes without saying the only way to mesmerize a non-unicorn is – valaethium discharge!”

He ground his teeth together, now starting to look faintly embarrassed, “I admit, if you found both her and a piece of valaethium…that might be possible, but…we have no way of knowing she came into contact with the metal at all…or even if it did discharge in such a manner…it could just be coincidence,” he said feebly.

Applejack snorted at that, “I ain’t no magician, doc…but just what in the hay are the chances a pony turns up in a pickle o’ magic should be impossible fer an earther…at precisely tha’ same time ah foun’ a metal that we ain’t never seen before an’ kicks back magic like that…and still be coincidence?!”

The doctor seemed to not have an answer for that, so Fluttershy very quietly put in, “I-I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all, Applejack...”

The door to the ward banged open, and Doctor Needles rushed in. “I told you!!!” he said triumphantly, pointing his hoof at his counterpart, “I told you she had been mesmerized!  But you just had to go all high and mighty and insult my intelligence, my competence as a doctor and…”

Seeing the unicorn’s face start to turn red, Twilight butted into Doctor Needles’ rant sharply. “Aaanyway, now we know what the problem is - I can bring her out of it!”

Twilight stepped forward towards the bed their mystery mare was on and gathered her magic, forgetting in all her excitement where she was and who was with her.  This is so relieving!  After all of this grasping, all this worry, we can finally wake this mare up and help her get back to normal. We’ll know who she is and what happened to her too.

She didn’t hear the alarmed shouts and cries of warning from the nurses and the two doctors as her horn glowed brightly, spilling light over the mare.

*

She heard their screams as they fought.  Leathery wings beat mercilessly at the air, deafening screams, howls and roars rang in her ears, and the ground was clogged with snow, mud, blood, and debris.  Their leader shouted orders nopony seemed to hear or care about.

Far above her, she could see the two leviathans locked in mortal combat, snapping at each other with their teeth.  Their other, smaller enemies were attacking them both, spreading their wings and landing on both combatants, digging their claws into them and hanging on like leeches as the two dragons wrestled with each other in mid-air.

She knew neither of them would be able to survive the swarm for long.  She had to end the battle between them fast.  She spotted the cannon, the gunner nowhere to be seen.  Perhaps he had abandoned it, or maybe he was gone or dead.  She ran over to the cannon and pulled the crank, aiming it skyward.

“I must hit the right one…”

She took a careful aim through the sight.  The green one, she had to hit the green one.  Right in its neck…

BANG!!!

The missile sailed high, but at the last minute, the red one darted forward and snapped at the green one’s wing.  He missed, and tumbled through the air right into the missile’s path…

“NO!”

The red dragon roared in pain as the missile hit it in the back.  It spread its wings and, with a powerful stroke, propelled itself away from its green kin, snapping at the enemies still clinging to it and roaring in rage.

A mix of horror and relief swept through her at the fortunately non-lethal mistake. She pulled the lever, lowering another missile into the cannon and taking aim. This time, there was nothing in the way, and the thing wasn’t moving.  She almost had a clear shot…just a little more…

But the green one had seen what had happened.  Completely unaware of the fangs and claws of the creatures still attached to it, it swiveled in mid-air, turned its head down…

…and looked directly at her.

She could almost see the rage in those terrible, molten eyes between the crosshairs…

Terror shot down her legs and seized them up.  But not before she hit the trigger again.

The cannon’s nozzle exploded in a blinding flash of light.

*

As the light faded, Twilight looked down into that single visible eye.

The pupil flickered, and then contracted.  A booted hoof twitched.

And Tartarus broke loose.

She sat up with a muffled yell of surprise behind the face mask.  And then, predictably, she gave an enormous, high-pitched scream of agony as broken ribs, bruised muscles, punctured organs, stitched fang bites, and dozens of bone-deep scratches made themselves known all at once.

Nurse Redheart immediately reared up and placed her hooves on the mare’s barrel, hushing her and yelling at her to lie still.  The mare took no notice, screaming and lashing out with her hooves.  One connected sharply with Redheart’s face and knocked her flat on her rump.  The other came within a hair’s breadth of Twilight’s neck.

She backed off immediately, shocked, as the mare continued to scream and flailed with her bandaged legs at the respirator mask and ECG leads attached to her chest.

She had been strapped to the bed of course, but then her eye slammed open again, and, with a howl, she began to pull herself upright, snapping the straps open, popping the IV needle right out of her leg and stretching the ECG leads as her heart rate went haywire.  The room was full of the sound of panicked yells and screaming.

“Nurse!” both doctors yelled at the same time, galloping for the patient.

Twilight, still shocked from almost taking a hoof to the face, looked around in confusion.  There are already nurse mares in the ward, she thought.

But no, the doors banged open and a couple of beefy stallions in green scrubs barged in, throwing themselves at the mare and trying to wrestle her back down into the gurney.

“Take it easy!  She’s hysterical!” the Life Flight doctor yelled from the side as he levitated a syringe into a bottle of thick orange fluid.  He turned around, “Hold her still!  This should put her out…”

But as he lowered the syringe, the mare’s boot shot out and she knocked it from his grip.  The syringe went spinning end over end to embed itself in the floor right next to the unconscious Redheart’s face.  The doctor backed off quickly, yelling at the nurse stallions to restrain her.

One black, booted hind leg shot up and smashed one of the nurse stallions in the gut.  He doubled over, wheezing, as his friend struggled to hold the flailing forehooves.  But it was no good.  The mare visibly braced herself and butted her head into the stallion’s neck.  He yelled in pain and let go.

SNAP!  The last strap around her barrel broke.

Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  Right before her eyes, the mare pulled herself up again - despite broken bones and muscles cut to ribbons - with an agonized groan.  She put both her forehooves on the respirator mask and…RRRRRIP…tore it off.

She visibly gulped down a breath of air before choking and spitting out some thick white-green fluid from her muzzle. Her face was quite long, elongated into a beak-shaped snout with thick lips and teeth that looked too small for her.  The spitting noises she was making sounded deep and heavy.

She raised a hoof to her bad eye, feeling the bandages, and staring down at herself for a moment, before ripping the ECG nodes from her chest and looking up at the doorway.  And the six ponies and one dragon in front of it.

Fluttershy immediately gave a squeak and tried to hide behind a table.  Pinkie, surprisingly, followed her lead without a single popper or welcoming balloon appearing in her hooves.  Rarity gasped and began to back away, levitating up a loudly-protesting Spike and holding him out in front of her as a shield.  Applejack flinched, but stood her ground, digging in her hooves, flicking her ears back and snorting.  Rainbow - of course – had spread her wings wide and adopted a menacing pose in mid-air.

Twilight locked eyes with the mare.  The single eye she could see was narrowed and glimmered with a mix of hot anger and sharp pain.  Twilight knew words would do no good.  She lit up her horn and shot an immobilizing spell at her.

But, incredibly, with a thump and the sickening grinding sound of bone against bone, the mare rolled off the bed and hit the floor, right on top of the stallion she had winded.  Twilight’s spell hit the wall harmlessly.

The still-gasping stallion attempting to grab the patient and pin her to the floor, but she dug in her good hoof and bucked him in the face with a smash that would have impressed even Applejack.  His muzzle exploded in a fountain of blood, and he fell over screaming.

Twilight felt her eyes go wide as, incredibly, the mare lifted up her enormous back and stood shakily on all fours, together with the hideous grating noise of pieces of bone clacking together.  Despite everything, she had to admire this mare’s pain threshold – most ponies would be on the floor screaming in agony.

“Now! Before she can move!” Rainbow yelled, before zooming at full speed at the mare.

“Rainbow! NO!!!” Twilight yelled, too late.

The mare lifted her head just in time to be tackled by the pegasus.  She did scream then, at the feeling of all that weight smashing into her injured body at once.

Rainbow tried to pin her down, but, with apparent ease, the mare tossed Rainbow off her and rose again.  Rainbow tumbled into another bed with a yell of surprise, knocking it aside and revealing Doctor Needles cowering underneath.  Whimpering in dismay, the old doctor ran for another bench, well out of the mare’s range.

Applejack lowered her head and started winding up for a charge, pawing at the floor, but Twilight shook her head, pointing with her hoof.  When Applejack looked closely, she saw what she meant.

The mare was having trouble staying upright, her eye was glazing over with pain and her thick, knobby knees looked about to buckle.  Apparently, that Rainbow Crash she had just taken had hit harder than they thought.

“Stop!” Twilight said, before she realized what she was doing, “Nopony’s going to hurt you!  You’re in a hospital!  In Ponyville!”

The horse-pony’s tattered ears twitched slightly at that, but she made no reply beyond slowly collapsing onto one of her forelegs and pushing herself back up again with a groan.

And at that moment, Doctor Needles rushed up behind her with the syringe he’d just filled from the other bench.  The mare turned her head slightly, but he had come from her blind side and she didn’t see him until he had jammed the needle in her flank.

The mare twitched, let out an indignant growl and tried to buck the doctor.  But her hind legs didn’t go more than a few centimeters before they failed her and she slumped gracelessly down onto her rump, struggling to keep even her head upright.  Her eye squeezed shut as she grimaced.

“Easy now…” Twilight said slowly, taking a nervous hoofstep closer.  That sedative should slow her down.  “We just want to help y-“

The mare snapped her head up when it was inches from Twilight’s, the single eye now wide and alert.  Her legs promptly straightened, and, with loud crackles and pops, she charged, bowling Twilight and Applejack over as the others screamed and tried to get out of her way.

She banged through the ward doors, and was gone.

“After her!” the Life Flight doctor yelled, poking his head up over the table he’d taken refuge behind. “If she tries to run away in that condition…”

“It’s alright, doctor,” Doctor Needles replied smugly. “She won’t get far once the serum I injected into her takes effect.”

Twilight didn’t doubt he was taking extreme pleasure in the look of indignant fury on his colleague’s face, but right now she had more pressing concerns.  Like getting her head out from between the unconscious Redheart’s hind legs and stopping that crazy mare before she did herself another injury.

Ow…that shoulder’s going to be sore for a while… As she got up, she heard shouts of surprise and the beat of running hooves from the hallway.  Rainbow pushed herself the right way up dizzily and flexed her slightly crooked wings, snorting “Thanks so much for your help everypony!”

“We’re sorry, Rainbow dear,” Rarity replied, poking a red face around a curtain, “But we were just so surprised…we couldn’t help ourselves…”

Applejack finished untangling herself from the curtain the mare’s charge had got her wrapped in and facehoofed, “Ah can’t believe ah’m doin’ this…” before heading for the door with Twilight and Rainbow hot on her heels.

The hallway was alive with yelling and the sound of hoofbeats as nurses and staff everywhere dropped what they were doing as the injured mare struggled by them.  She was obviously hurting, dragging each hoof along the floor towards the entrance.

As they got close, Twilight spread her hooves and stopped her friends. “Wait.  She’s in bad shape.  We’d better be gentle…”

“Gentle?” Rainbow snorted angrily, “that crazy featherer threw me into-”

She fell silent as the mare, her back to them, groaned audibly and collapsed onto her belly, dragging herself along by her forehooves.

“Wait…” Twilight whispered again, as she sensed what was happening.

She crawled like a helpless filly towards the double doors as onlookers took their cue from Twilight and stood back.  Twice more, the mare crumpled and dragged herself back up again, her breathing labored and pained.

As she reached the door, Twilight reached out with her magic and swung it open for her, much to the gasps of the ponies in the lobby.

The mare dragged herself to the doorway and raised her head shakily.  Her eye opened.

She saw the fields outside.

She saw the river.

She saw the acres.

She saw the town square of Ponyville.

Her mouth opened.

She spoke a word in a voice heavy and thick with disuse.

“…No…”

And she fell on her face unconscious.

Back In The Saddle

Chapter 4: Back In The Saddle

It took all of twenty minutes for the nurses to get her back to the operating table – there was no telling how much internal damage she had done to herself.

The Life Flight doctor injected another dose of sedative into the mare (pointedly ignoring Doctor Needles’ smirk) as they checked her over.  “As if this wasn’t bad enough already…” he groaned, “she broke three of the splints we put on her and we’ll need to set them again. She’ll need fresh bandages as well…can’t risk contamination…”

He seemed to have forgotten Twilight and her friends, who stood by the entrance to the emergency ward, watching with wide eyes.  All except Rainbow, who was giving the patient a nasty glare, apparently still stinging about being slammed in a hospital bed. “Rainbow…” Twilight muttered, “you should’ve known better than to pull a Rainbow Crash on a critically-injured pony like that…what in the hay were you thinking?!”

Rainbow twitched, apparently realizing for the first time what bad shape she had been in. “I…I…nngh, hey, she looked pretty okay to me if she was strong enough to beat up those stallions, Twilight!”

“That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt…and you could’ve killed her!”

Rainbow groaned again, “Twilight, Applejack was going to charge her too!  I saw it!”

“But ah didn’t, Rainbow!” Applejack scowled, and then looked at the doctors, “An’ now I’m glad ah didn’t…”

She was right, the mare was a bloody mess all over again.  The wounds had reopened, stitches popped by impact, and her bandages were rapidly turning brown.  She was still twitching from shock, coughing blood in her sleep, with broken ribs making deep grinding noises that were almost painful to hear.

“I’m terribly sorry…” Doctor Needles said as he trotted over, his air of confidence apparently restored after getting one over on the Life Flight doctor, “but you have to leave.  We are about to perform another surgery.  We will inform you of the results afterward.”

Twilight took a long look at their ever more mysterious visitor, and nodded, “Let’s go everypony.”

“One moment more, please,” Doctor Needles said before she could turn away. “I’m afraid I must insist…no more magic on your next visit, Miss Twilight Sparkle.  My apologies, but that spell caused an enormous catastrophe!  And next time you must come alone!  I don’t need to remind you that your pegasus friend is partially responsible for this…” he looked up at Rainbow, who crossed her forehooves in the air and glared in response.

“Hey, she seemed well enough to kick your flanks, Doc!  You should be thanking me!  She might’ve given you all a bucking over if I hadn’t done that!”

“And now she is in danger again, Miss Rainbow Dash.  Do you really want to live with the knowledge that your violent behavior caused another pony’s death?” he replied without skipping a beat.

That shut Rainbow up pretty quickly, and Twilight lowered her head, ears drooping, “You’re right, Doctor.  We should’ve made sure before we acted…I promise we won’t intervene any longer.”

Spike frowned from his seat on her back, “Hey, that’s not fair, Twilight!  Those doctors would probably have just kept arguing all week if you hadn’t snapped her out of it!”

Doctor Needles’ face darkened again, “You must leave…now!” And he shooed them all from the ward.  Rainbow was still fuming, and Rarity and Applejack also looked fairly put out.  Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy went along demure and submissively though.

“The nerve!” Rarity said with a disdainful sniff, tossing her mane over to one side primly, “I quite agree with Spikey-Wikey, Twilight.  Those stuck-up, puffy, vain old windbags would’ve argued all over their own pride for days before realizing what was wrong!”

Pot calling the kettle black, Twilight thought, as she wearily sat her rump on one of the plastic seats in the hallway (sandwiching the protesting Spike against the wall in her haste).

“I mean honestly,” Rarity went on, taking the seat next to her and drawing the battered dragon to her side with a hoof, much to his delight, “how could they not have seen she was mesmerized?!”

“You didn’t notice either at first, Rarity…” Twilight replied, deadpan.

“An’ like tha docs said, that kinda thing ain’t supposed ta happen to an earth pony, sugarcube,” Applejack said grimly to Rarity, sitting on Twilight’s other side.

Rainbow, never a particularly patient pony, lost it. “What the hay are you talking about?!” she yelled, loudly enough Twilight knew the doctors still inside would have heard her.

Twilight looked up, but it was Rarity who answered her, “Rainbow dear, please don’t be so loud!  They already threw us out of the ward!  We can’t be thrown out of the hallway too…” she cleared her throat and struck a perfect lecturing poise, “Mesmerization is what occurs when a magical creature tries to cast a spell on or near to a trap made to drain magic.  It shuts down the mind and prolongs whatever spell was used until the caster is depleted of magic…and…then,” she opened her eyes again and looked away, shuddering, “…that, darling, is a rather dangerous state for a unicorn to be in, I’m afraid.”

Twilight nodded, “That’s right, and, according to my research, it also happens if a magic metal called valaethium overloads and blows up in your face.  Not just a unicorn either - that can affect anypony…like our excitable visitor in there...”

“Apparently so,” Rarity agreed, squinting in thought at the entrance to the ward, “Though I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before…”

“It’s not surprising, Rarity…” Twilight grumped, scowling down at the floor, “I found it in one of the oldest books the library and…I doubt anypony has seen any of that metal in Ponyville for years…”

Rainbow had stopped circling in the air and looked down at them, frowning.  Fluttershy was staring at the ward door behind them, her eyes wider than usual and her mouth open.  Pinkie Pie was standing on three hooves, the remaining one stroking her chin as she looked up and around, her face screwed up in the thoughtful expression of a little filly trying to think of what to write in her Hearth’s Warming Letter to Jolly Beard.

“Why’d you open the door for her, Twilight?  Wouldn’t that have been, like…super-duper-dangerous?” she asked, “What if she got out of Ponyville?  Then we would need to look all over Equestria.  And Equestria’s a pretty big place!  We’d have to look for her left and right, and then we’d go all around Equestria from Ponyville and then right would become left and left would become right and we’d...”

Twilight decided to interrupt before Pinkie could roll the snowball into an avalanche, “I had an idea, Pinkie…”

“An idea?!” Pinkie still sounded just a little too sobered to start bouncing.

“Well, you see…” Twilight paused, “this might sound a little weird, but…”

“Yeah?” Dash hovered overhead impatiently.

Twilight sighed, “She was looking for the thing that brought her here.”

*

“I’ve got it!” Scootaloo yelled triumphantly, jumping off her hooves and grabbing for the frisbee.  It was high out of her reach, but the cunning pegasus filly knew, thanks to her trusty buzzing wings, she could get just enough of a boost to get over the heads of the blueys.

“Hey, no fair!” one of the blueys whined as she clamped her jaws down on the frisbee and landed neatly by the tree, “you can’t use your wings, Scootaloo!  Cheater!  We win if you do!”

Scootaloo ignored that and tossed the frisbee over the field back to the other redders over the raising whine of other blueys as they picked up on the “cheating”.  She chuckled, knowing it would be allowed since some other pegasus fillies had been doing it for months.  She straightened her overcoat and whizzed over the snow back to the other side of the field, flailing with her hooves to show she was open for another pass.

This is great, we’re really lucking out today, she thought, I don’t think we’ve ever thrashed the blueys so well in any game we’ve ever had before!  She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her red teammates, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle prominent among them, laughing gaily as they passed the frisbee way over the other team’s heads without any of them even getting close, leaving the poor, flailing blueys face-down in the snow. C’mon…they’d just do the same as us if they were winning…

Applebloom caught the frisbee in her jaws with a flourish, spinning on the spot and drawing cheers from their teammates.  She turned her head, noticed Scootaloo standing near the goal, and winked before drawing her head back and sending it spinning through the air.

As Scootaloo cantered to the left to catch it her red team bandanna slipped down over her eyes.  In too good a mood to think she’d miss, Scootaloo pushed it back up nonchalantly…just in time to catch a wall of light pink slamming into her face.

Scootaloo stumbled, unbalanced, and toppled over onto her rump as the frisbee went flying overhead to land neatly in Diamond Tiara’s blue-banded forehoof. “Ohhh, Scootle-doo!  Did I bump into you?  I’m so sorry, blank flank…I mean I really am sorry - your blankflanky-ness might’ve rubbed off on me!” she said in a singsong tone with a nasty smirk on her face.  She brushed her coat as if to cleanse it before she carelessly tossed the frisbee to Silver Spoon, who rose up and grasped for it with her forehooves before losing her balance and falling flat on her face.

Sadly, Scootaloo didn’t get to enjoy the sight for glaring.  That smack had really hurt, and the little pegasus could feel pain rippling through her face as the numbness wore off, along with a familiar ticklish sensation in her nose.  Before she could say anything, Applebloom ran over and stood beside her.  “You did that on purpose, Diamond Tiara!” she said loudly.

Diamond Tiara gave a dismissive wave in reply as Scootaloo stood back up, pressing a hoof to her smarting face and pulling her bandanna down off her mane.

“Hey, this is a game of frisbee!” she said breezily, the nasty smile still on her face, “I couldn’t let the loser-team keep hogging it!  It’d make us real ponies who already got their cutie marks look bad…”

“That don’ even make no sense…” Applebloom said, “You were losin’ fair an’ square!  And you know slammin’ another pony like that is against the rules!”  She gently tried to pry her friend’s hoof away to inspect the damage she was trying to cover up.

“Ha!  Well, maybe it’s Scootle-doo’s own fault for being a weak little baby so easy to knock over if she gets in your way!”

…weak little baby…

Sccotaloo felt a rapid ripple of rage pass through her.  She was ready to lunge for Diamond Tiara, but her anger was quickly staunched by pain and horror as she felt blood flowing from her nose.

Applebloom finally pushed Scootaloo’s reluctant hoof aside and gasped as she saw her face. “This what you call ‘knock over’?!” she asked, turning her friend’s head to show she was bleeding heavily from her snout.

At that, Diamond Tiara shut her mouth and looked down with a grimace, less sure of herself.  Everypony had gathered around to watch and the fillies knew there was no way Diamond Tiara wouldn’t get in trouble if Scootaloo was badly hurt.

“I swearrr I’b goig to ged you fer dis, Diamob Diara!” Scootaloo gurgled with a scowl before Sweetie Belle ran up and started wailing at the sight of blood.

“MISS CHEERILEE!  WE NEED MISS CHEERILEE!!” she screeched loudly, scaring off every critter in the trees overhead and forcing everypony to cover their ears in pain.

Their earth pony teacher had been over speaking with an observing colleague the last few moments – no doubt the only reason Diamond Tiara dared get heavy-hoofed – but at the sound of Sweetie Belle, she whipped her head round and spotted the dense huddle around the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief as Cheerilee rushed over, her red scarf flapping in the wind, the other foals parting to make way for her.  She gasped slightly at the sight of her student trying in vain to staunch the blood flow from her snout with her bandanna.  Scootaloo had her eyes tightly shut and was biting her lip to try and keep the tears from coming, but as Cheerilee gently moved her hoof away, she had to open her eyes to see what the teacher was doing.

Cheerilee cupped her muzzle and turned her head left and right to inspect the damage, “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, what happened?”

“Diamond Tiara knocked her down!” Applebloom blurted out at once.

There was an immediate gasp.  Not everypony had seen it, and they all promptly looked around for the alleged perpetrator.  The spoiled earth filly turned out to be in the back of the crowd, pulling her hood down and trying to hide behind Silver Spoon.

…weak little baby… Diamond Tiara’s mocking voice echoed back through Scootaloo’s head as the schoolponies all looked from her to the apparent culprit.

Cheerilee, however, didn’t look away from Scootaloo, still frowning at her bloody muzzle.  She said nothing at first, so Applebloom went on, “I mean, we was all just havin’ fun - playing a frisbee game like you told us, Miss Cheerilee – an’ our team was winnin’, then I threw it over ta Scootaloo.  But Diamond Tiara pretended she didn’ see her and slammed her flank into Scootaloo’s face real hard an’ stole the frisbee!”

“That’s a lie!” Diamond Tiara immediately screeched, louder than Applebloom - she must have figured that volume counted for more than how good her story was - “I really didn’t see Scootaloo there, Miss Cheerilee!  And it wasn’t me who did that to her!  That stupid Applebloom threw the stupid frisbee too hard and it hit her on the nose!” Apparently, she had decided the only way to get out of trouble was to pin the blame on somepony else.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both gasped, “Why you low-down, no-good, lyin’…” Applebloom went as red as her namesake and started forward with intentions of rearranging Diamond Tiara’s face.  Her sister Applejack always told her that there was nothing worse than a dirty liar.

At that, Cheerilee broke her silence, “Applebloom!  Stop right there!  And Diamond Tiara, come over here!”

Brought up short, Applebloom scowled and backed off.  Diamond Tiara slowly walked forward, each step more hesitant than the last as she got closer to their teacher.

Cheerilee produced a handkerchief from her saddlebag and gently held it under Scootaloo’s snout, “Your muzzle isn’t really hurt, but you might have bruise or two.  Don’t worry, the bleeding will stop soon and it won’t hurt anymore.”

Scootaloo nodded, looking gratefully at their teacher through teary eyes.

…weak little baby…

Cheerilee turned around, frowning terribly at the other filly, “Well, Diamond Tiara, what do you have to say for yourself?!”

“But-but I told you, Miss Cheerilee,” Diamond Tiara said indignantly, “it was Applebloom who did that!  She’s just trying to pin the blame on me!”

“Scootaloo,” Cheerilee said, turning her head slightly, “who did this to you?”

The sick look Scootaloo saw on Diamond Tiara’s face when she shakily raised a hoof and pointed to her somehow made her nose hurt a little less.

“B-but she’s just confused!” Diamond Tiara protested, “I was just next to her when that – when the frisbee hit her on the nose, Miss Cheerilee!  Maybe that’s why she thinks it was me!” Apparently satisfied with her own story, Diamond Tiara stood up straight and finally looked Cheerilee in the eye.

“The frisbee did this, did it?” Cheerilee asked tightly.

She nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, it did.  And that Applebloom threw it!  So you see, she should get into trouble - not me!” Diamond Tiara gave a smug smile.

“No way!” Applebloom yelled, “Miss Cheerilee, you can’t believe her!”

Without looking away, the teacher picked up the frisbee from the snow.  She held it up before Diamond Tiara’s face, and turned it over twice.  The filly went pale.

It was a foal-safe frisbee made of plastic foam.  For emphasis, Cheerilee lifted it and tapped it against her own muzzle a few times.  The foam promptly collapsed and broke in under her skin.  No matter how hard anypony threw it, it wouldn’t cause any more damage than a paper ball.  Despite the pain and the blood falling down into her mouth, Scootaloo couldn’t help but grin broadly as Diamond Tiara was caught out in her lie.

She immediately started babbling, “But Miss Cheerilee – it was an accident, I swear!  I didn’t mean to hurt Scootaloo, I just –“

“Applebloom, Sweetie Belle…” Cheerilee said, cutting her off, “take care of your friend.  If she starts to feel sick or light-headed, bring her to me at once.  Class, please head back into the schoolhouse early today.  It’s too cold to spend all of your lunchtime outside.  And Diamond Tiara, come with me!”

Diamond Tiara immediately teared up and started wailing as Cheerilee took hold of her shoulder, steering her in the direction of the small teacher’s office next to the schoolhouse.

“Feelin’ better?” Applebloom whispered with a grin as she edged over to Scootaloo.  Their classmates were all walking back to the schoolhouse, shaking slush off their boots and overcoats as they hung them up and went inside.

She opened her mouth to answer-

-and then stopped, jaw hanging open, looking over Applebloom’s head.

She’d just seen a massive, winged silhouette dive into the snowy treetops of the Everfree forest in the distance.  It was too far away to make out any detail, but it was big.

“Dib you see dat?!!” she blurted out, pointing with a hoof.

“What?  See what?!” Applebloom twisted her head around, looked back and giggled, “Good one, Scootaloo!  Ya got me alright!”

“Ndo!” Scootaloo shook her head, “A drabon!  I dink I jusht saw a drabon!”

Sweetie Belle frowned, and squinted in the direction of her pegasus friend’s hoof, “I didn’t see anything…” she looked at her worriedly, “I think maybe Diamond Tiara hit you too hard, Scootaloo…”

“A dragon?!” Applebloom snorted with mirth, “c’mon, Scootaloo, stop horsin’ us around!  Let’s get back to class!  It’s a race!” She promptly cantered off, grinning over her shoulder.

Sweetie Belle sighed and called after her, “You always start races like that without us being ready, Applebloom!  Hey, wait up!  Scootaloo’s still hurt,” and she promptly ran off.

Scootaloo, however, was too caught up in what she’d seen to care. Was that really a dragon?  What else could it be?  I’ve never seen anything that big flying before…

She squinted hard, trying to see through the snowy mists over the forest, but there was no sign of the shadow she’d seen.

A dragon…

Scootaloo knew it was dangerous, but, being the adventurous filly she was, she was still tempted to go look for it.  She had never seen a dragon up close before (except Spike, of course) - but that would mean going into the Everfree forest again, and the filly had learned her lesson about that a long time ago.

But…

…weak little baby… Diamond Tiara’s words echoed through her head again.

Scootaloo glanced down.  What would her hero Rainbow Dash do?

Before Scootaloo could ponder that any further, she heard Cheerilee calling her name from behind.  And all of a sudden, at the note of concern and motherly care in Cheerilee’s voice, she was aware of the pain in her muzzle again and the numbness of her face from cold.  She fought to keep from tears again as she turned around and trotted back to her teacher.

*

“You’ve gotta be kidding, Twilight!  The great three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monster again?” Rainbow said, pointedly ignoring Fluttershy’s answering shriek.

“No, not monster!  There is no monster!” Twilight snapped back, hoping to put an end to it before Fluttershy fainted again. “It wasn’t a monster at all!  There’s no such thing!  There’s no reason to be worried about any story like that!”

To Twilight’s relief, Fluttershy seemed to swallow it this time.  She took several deep breaths and began to stop trembling, but then Rainbow butted in again.

“Then what was it, Twilight?!” she asked, resting her head in her hooves exasperatedly.

“Well…it wasn’t a great three-eyed, sharp-toothed, deadly, pony-eating monster…”

“R-really?” Fluttershy whispered hopefully.

Twilight smiled. “No…I think it was a dragon!”

THUD!

Unfortunately, that answer didn’t seem to go over better with their soft-hearted, animal-loving pegasus friend.

“Well, we’re already at the hospital anyway…” Applejack muttered as she glanced down at their latest casualty.

Rarity groaned, raising a hoof to her forehead melodramatically. “Dear me, another one?!  Dragons, why is it always dragons?!  Last time that happened…oh, those foul, greedy, uncouth, stinking-…will there ever be a dragon that doesn’t make a horrendous mess of things?!”

During the uncomfortable silence that followed, she remembered - too late - what she was holding in her hooves, looking down to see a sad face.

“Oh…erm…hello, Spikey-Wikey!  Heh heh…er, you see, I…”

To Twilight’s relief, Spike was gracious, shrugging and smiling half-heartedly up at her, “It’s okay, Rarity…you’re right.  Every single dragon ever passed through here has been trouble in some way or other.  Even me…” his sad smile shifted into a wicked grin, “Especially me!  Hehe!”

Rarity gave what sounded like a very forced chuckle and cuddled Spike so hard Twilight doubted the red-faced cub would have minded if she said dragons were giant inbred snakes with legs.

Rainbow Dash acknowledged the spectacle with her usual level of subtlety and maturity, poking her tongue out and gagging. “Aaanyway, admiration contest aside – how did you know that thing that brought her here was a dragon, Twilight?”

“It might seem a bit thin, but…that book I read told me dragons can firecraft valaethium.  Since Equestria hasn’t refined that metal for centuries, there’s a good chance a dragon might have dropped that piece Applejack found...”

“We don’t know that, Twi…” Applejack said skeptically, “For all we know, it coulda been dropped by some fancy-pants antique collector or somethin’ on his way outta town…”

Twilight shook her head, standing up and pacing in thought. “I divined it, and it had been hit by magic a short time before you found it.  And our friend in there was mesmerized, remember…”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Yeah, we remember alright.  You’ve been saying that for the last half-hour without anypony who isn’t a unicorn having a clue what you were talking about…”

Twilight continued in a slightly annoyed tone, “…which links the two of them together.  I doubt anypony would have been careless enough to drop any valaethium they might own, Applejack - what with how valuable it is.  And it was all burned and melted by something - which means it had to be hot!  And I mean really, really hot!” She paused, seeing looks of comprehension dawning on Applejack and Rainbow’s faces.

“And what’s the hottest thing in existence?” she asked rhetorically, cocking her head and raising an eyebrow.

Spike turned his head from Rarity’s nuzzling cheek and gave a tiny belch for emphasis.  His flaming green breath instantly dissipated into the air, but it still warmed up everypony in the corridor.

Rainbow shook her head, “Oookay, so only a dragon should have one of those…whatever it was you called it…and it was full of magic and melted.  Yeah, probably a dragon could do all of those things, Twilight, but ah, one little problem...” she placed her hooves on her flanks and looked up, “I was out flying all that morning and I didn’t see a dragon anywhere!  C’mon, if a dragon flew over Ponyville and dropped a messed-up mare and a bit of magic metal, somepony woulda noticed!  Even if I was slow enough to miss a dragon flying by – whiiich I’m not I might add!” she declared, standing up proudly in the air and buffing a hoof against her barrel, “there was a whole contingent of weather ponies on duty that morning too.  And not one said they’d seen a dragon!”

Applejack nodded, “Ah hate to admit it, sugarcube, but Rainbow’s got a point.  Yeah, even if yer books are right - an’ I ain’t sayin they’re not, but - it does sound mighty far-fetched...” She sighed, “Okay, so it ain’t likely anypony would just drop a piece o’ that magic metal outside Sweet Apple Acres.  An’, yeah, the meltin’ and that mes-mah-whatchamacallit fits yer idea, but…” Applejack trailed off.

“Um…e-excuse me…” Fluttershy whispered sheepishly from the floor, opening one eye. “My animals didn’t get scared either…”

Rarity stared down at her, “Fluttershy darling, how long have you been awake?”

Fluttershy chuckled awkwardly, her face turning slightly red. “I woke up a few minutes ago but I didn’t get up because I…well, you know, I thought it might have been a little rude to make you all worry while…you - you were all still talking…” she said awkwardly, pulling herself to her hooves. “A-anyway,” she said with a gulp, “animals can sense dragons.  Last time one passed by, I had to spend hours flying around trying to convince them to come out of their hiding places.  They all get scared and hide inside their houses when they smell or hear one.  That’s how I-I knew about the dragon migration last year and why I was…” she coughed uncomfortably and hid behind her hair, “why I was hiding under the bed when you all came to find me…”

Twilight facehoofed.  Trust Fluttershy to come up with a critter-powered dragon alarm!  Still, I guess that would explain how Owlowiscious knew where to find Spike that time but…wait a minute…

Apparently, their resident dragon had the same thought she just had. “Your animals don’t ever get scared of me, Fluttershy!” Spike jabbed a claw at himself.

She looked at him with a smile, “Oh, you’re a still a baby, Spike.  And you might smell like a pony…” she walked over and sniffed at Spike, which seemed to embarrass him for some reason and made him dig deeper into Rarity’s coat.

“That wasn’t me, Fluttershy!  I swear!  Rarity did it!”

Twilight forcibly tuned out Rarity’s shocked response, trying with a grimace not to remember the biggest trial she’d faced bringing up Spike as a newborn.  Dragons might belch burning hot fire out of their jaws, but what they belched out the other end was infinitely worse.  Twilight discovered early on that you didn’t need fire to singe your eyelashes off…

“Okay everypony, focus!” she said before that train of thought could go any further, “Yeah, there might be some things that don’t make sense…but that’s still the only idea I’ve got…”

She decided to put her hoof down,  “If any of you have a better idea why anypony would find an injured, mesmerized earth pony from out of town floating in a river in the middle of nowhere, and a piece of melted, magic-charged, dragon-made valaethium just minutes away, then I for one can’t wait to hear it!”

Rarity frowned. “I couldn’t argue, Twilight dear.”  Fluttershy nodded slightly, her eyes darting around nervously.  Applejack tapped her hoof against the floor, then slowly sighed and nodded. “Guess I got nothin’,” Rainbow said reluctantly, “but why would a dragon try to kill any random pony?”

The unicorn shook her head, “It didn’t.”

“What?” Rainbow asked flatly, rolling her eyes up at the ceiling.

Twilight glanced back over her shoulder at the ward, “If it was a dragon that attacked her…well…ah, let’s just say she’d be in a few more pieces, Rainbow.  No, I think she was attacked by something else, something smaller, and a dragon snatched her up – probably to steal her or help her escape it…”

She sighed, knowing how farfetched this next part would sound, “Worst case scenario: it lost her or she escaped before it could take her to its lair to devour her.  Best case scenario: the dragon flew around looking for a pony settlement and left her in the river here in Ponyville…”

Stunned silence for a few moments.

Pinkie Pie, however, was tapping her chin while looking up and screwing up her muzzle in her trademark ‘Pinkie-Thinkie’ pose.

Suddenly, she looked down and stared wide-eyed, at Twilight. “My Pinkie sense!  Twilight, I remember now!”

Once upon a happier time, the unicorn scoffed at the thought of Pinkie’s so-called ‘Pinkie sense’ – precognitive nervous twitches that occurred in a certain order for certain outcomes.  However, she had a little more faith now since the incident in the bog… “Remember what, Pinkie?”

“That morning!  I had twitchy hind hooves, wiggling nose, and a floppy left eyelid!”

“An’ what’s that mean, Pinkie?” Applejack asked dryly, while Rainbow hung down in mid-air and groaned.

“It means I was gonna see a dragon!”

Twilight felt elated for a moment, but then she did a double take.  She sighed and facehoofed, “You did, Pinkie.  You met Spike, remember?”

She immediately reared up onto her hind hooves, waving her front legs in the air in denial and shaking her head so quickly Twilight was worried it might fall off, “Nuh-uh!!!  I never get Pinkie sense for Spike!  I never have!  Never, ever, ever!!!  I thought maybe it was just Spike too – and then I thought ‘oh, it’s the first time I got Pinkie sense for Spike so we should have a Spike’s-first-Pinkie-sense party’ and then I remembered I’d need a lot of gems to make a cake for Spike so I should see Rarity first, and then-“ Pinkie stopped suddenly, her eyes bouncing from one side of her sockets to the other like twanging rubber bands (from the sudden stop after keeping up with her running mouth, Twilight guessed).

“And then?” Twilight prompted.

Pinkie spoke the next part softly, with an almost-eerie calmness to her voice that terrified everypony in the room, “I got a twitchy tail, and…”

Then she promptly blasted off and did several somersaults in the air (reclaiming her record from Twilight – and the laws of physics could get bucked).

“I’ve got it!  I’VE GOOOOT IT!!!” she screamed in the middle of several rotations at the apex of her leap, before unfolding into a glorious full-body flourish complete with poppers and confetti. “Twitchy tail!!!  You’re right, Twilight!  The dragon dropped her in the river!  You’re right!”

And somepony gave a terse “ahem” from the ground next to her.

Pinkie, still hanging in mid-air, looked down and saw Nurse Redheart scowling at her and pointing to the ‘surgery currently in progress’ lamp over the ward door.  Pinkie grinned sheepishly, tucked in her hooves…and crashed heavily down onto her rump without changing expression.

Redheart frowned at them all, “I’m not sure you should all be here chattering away like this.  Hospital regulations permit you to stay in the hallway and wait for outcomes, not cause a huge disturbance!  Please be quiet or leave!” And she turned her back on them and trotted away, grumbling under her breath.

“Ohhh, that nurse is a big, grumpy, old meanie-pants,” Pinkie hissed, slinking down and whispering as though she thought Redheart would pounce the instant she spoke up again.

“Yeah, she is…” Applejack agreed, looking around, “She’s right though.  This prob’ly ain’t the best place to be havin’ this conversation…”

“A little late for that…” Twilight said, doing a little grumping of her own. “Okay, everypony, we’ve all probably taken too much time off from work today anyway!  Spike, I’m sending you back to the library.  I want you to mind the books for me while I stay here and wait for them to finish fixing up our mystery mare in there…”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” Spike said, straightening up and springing to a salute, “but…Pinkie sense is…I mean, are you sure it’s really a dragon?!”

Everypony looked expectantly at Twilight, who sighed.

“Well, if Pinkie’s Pinkie sense lines up with it too, and if it wasn’t just you setting it off for the first time ever…well, much as I hate to admit it, she’s usually not wrong.  Everything points to her being dragged and dropped here by a dragon, even Pinkie sense…”

She then looked up at the ceiling and narrowed her eyes in thought, “Question is, why didn’t we see it?  And where is it now?”

*

Zecora pulled her hood up tighter against the cold, hitching her bundle up on her back.

I know it is close.  I know it is there.  This creature must have made a lair somewhere.

She frowned.  This was not too good.  The Everfree forest had been her home for almost four years now, and she had woken to the songs and whispers of the animals and trees long enough to know something was wrong.

After their most recent visitor.

There was a horrible stink in the air.  No doubt a herd of some of Everfree’s wild creatures had stayed in this snowy clearing and left in a hurry.  And why wouldn’t they have left in a hurry after they saw it?

Zecora grimaced.  She had only seen it briefly, but the dragon had brought all the terrible imagery of her nightmares with it.

She wrinkled her nose against the smell and pressed on, aware she did not have much time before it came out of hiding again to hunt.

The animals hide and shiver in fear, which means the dragon must still be here.  Find it I must, before the day’s sun wanes.  A dragon emerges and then panic reigns.  Canterlot needs to know of this danger, and Princess Celestia will never waver.

Panic they will, the ponies will have a fit!  I must find out… – ugh!  I just stepped in some –

She froze in her thought, realizing the source of the stench in the air.

It wasn’t just a little free sample coating her hoof.  Next to her was at least ten years supply of fertilizer.

Dragon-made fertilizer.

Zecora backed off in disgust, gagging at the suddenly much-stronger stink, the ingredients of which she didn’t even dare try to guess.  Wiping her hoof on the grass (and making a mental note to disinfect it later), she turned away.

And crashed face-first into a tree.

She reversed yet again, blinking in confusion, scrunching up her face and working her jaw.  Zecora could’ve sworn she’d just broken her snout against that wood.

Wait a long moment!  A memory spark!  That tree wasn’t there when I came to this – hark!

She looked up again at a low, foliage-rustling growl, to see two glowing green eyes leering at her from beneath leafy, snow-speckled eyebrows.

Timber wolf!  Zecora quickly shrugged back her hood, revealing the bone charm stuck in her mane.  The wooden canine immediately let out a whine and slunk back, lowering onto its haunches.

Zecora chuckled softly, approaching the pup and patting it on its twiggy head, “You didn’t recognize your zebra mistress…” She suddenly saw the wolf was scorched and looked like it had burned away to ashes and brittle kindling in places.

“Then you must be in horrible distress!” she said, her voice lowering seriously.  The wolf had not been trying to ambush her – it had come seeking help.

She quickly dug into the bundle hanging on her back for the jar of salve she had brought along.  She cracked the seal on the jar with a hoof and began to smear it over the pup’s burned hind legs and back, hearing it whine with relief at the soothing touch of the ointment.

As Zecora worked, she was barely aware of two others of the pack emerging from the foliage and approaching gingerly on burned legs.  One of them had lost most of its smaller parts, and the other one was burned almost to a cinder, completely black and shaking off flakes of ash with every step.

The timber wolf before her was not yet fully-grown, and it was cruel that it had to suffer such painful and debilitating injuries so young.  Fire was one of the few things that could permanently destroy a timber wolf, and of course, the creatures did not possess the ability to heal.  Zecora felt a pang of sorrow for the poor pup knowing its legs and back would probably stay burned and brittle forever.  This one would never have a chance to become the alpha male…

She finished seeing to it and turned to look at the other two. “This dragon is the cruelest of beasts, to give you pain with no hope of release,” she said gloomily.  The larger one had lost its foliage, most of its teeth and all of its wooden claws.  The smaller one was nothing more than a walking pile of ashes, and the zebra knew it would not survive another day in the forest.

She knew this pack.  On nights when Zecora danced under the full moon around a blue fire, this pack had often joined her.  They had ringed her fire and howled at the moon as the zebra twisted and turned (it did not bother her that they watched her dancing naked – they were only animals – and she didn’t usually wear clothes anyway).

Several times, they had nudged Zecora along afterwards to follow them back to their den - a hollow hill under the forest’s apex - where the zebra had slept warmly in the midst of the pack.

“Turned you out of your den, did he?” she asked sadly, “Stole your home as a lair for free?”

The answering, woodwind whines from wolves’ muzzles made her sigh.  Timber wolves were actually much smarter than ponies gave them credit for.  Although they could not tell the specifics of her speech, they knew from the tone of her voice what she meant.

She dipped her hoof into what was left of her salve and went to work on the smaller one, whose agony was so palpable she could hear (and smell) it in its breathing.  She knew she could not save its life, but she could at least ease its passing.

Well, now I know where to find the green stranger… she thought, her face tightening and looking over her shoulder as she spread salve on the panting wolf’s head, but now the question is how to deal with the danger?  This is one of those dragons not likely to leave, just because a lone zebra has had cause to be grieved…

She was interrupted in her thoughts by the sound of a distant buzzing.  Zecora immediately raised her head, looking around.  She noticed the sun had reached mid-afternoon, and more of the pack’s survivors had poked their heads out of the foliage at the sound.

The dragon is coming?!  This is too soon!  The pack must scatter, hide and wait for the moon!

She snorted loudly and lifted a foreleg, turning her head to the side and barking like a wolf.

The timber wolves just looked at her, and the zebra could have sworn from the twitch of their leafy brows and widening eyes that they looked incredulous.  The charred one in front of her looked like he would have facehoofed had he been able.

The zebra groaned under her breath, feeling her face start to go warm. My timber wolfspeech is not the best I fear…she drew herself up.  Best I use the universal language right here!

She jumped in a very undignified, childish manner, squawking nonsense and shaking her hooves in all directions to shoo the timber wolves away.

They took the hint right away and scattered, yelping.  One of them carelessly plowed face-first into the pile of dragon leavings (no doubt adding a little extra fragrance to its breath) before running off, and the cindered one took just enough time to snatch up Zecora’s salve jar in its jaws before hobbling away into the undergrowth.

She sighed.  I hope their pack finds a new den soon…I hope they’ll be with me to dance for the moon...

The buzzing sound was getting louder, but, Zecora realized, it was all coming from one small place.  It was not the dragon.

As the buzzing sound grew closer, becoming interspersed with tiny, squeaky shrieks, the zebra’s eyes widened, “Unless my own ears are failing me too, I do believe that sounds like…”

CRASSSSH!!!

A small bright blue scooter blew out of the undergrowth, its driver flailing in panic and waving a hoof to shoo away the flashing, multi-colored telebugs.  In her haste, she plowed right into a rock, the scooter flipped up, and she went sailing through the air to crash into Zecora.

They both went down, the zebra instinctively wrapping her hooves around the filly to protect her as they rolled over the leaves and mud.  When they finally came to a stop with the zebra underneath, Zecora shook the stars from her head and opened her eyes to see a familiar pair of spiralling purple ones gazing right back at her.

“…Scootaloo?!”

It was the same filly, but not quite the same happy, bright little visage Zecora saw next to Applebloom almost every time the terrible trio came over.

Scootaloo was wearing a green helmet with leaves glued to it – and not too efficiently either, judging from how half of them were hanging off by strands of goo.  She had apparently tried to use watercolors for green facepaint, and a watery splitter design was flaking off her cheeks.  Even worse, small twigs and leaves had been taped to her sides and legs – so ludicrously it made her look more like a hippy chicken than a bush.  The whole fiasco was topped off by the fact that her snout was wrapped up in a thick, shiny white bandage anypony could have seen a mile away.

Despite herself, Zecora groaned inwardly – whatever special talent this filly might fit, the art of camouflage is definitely not it…

“Scootaloo!” she said again as the little pegasus shook off her halo of stars and awkwardly got to her hooves on top of her. “Are you alright?  Are you feeling any pain?!  Did those pesky telebugs bite you in the brain?!”

“Zecora!” Scootaloo’s visage was blank with shock. “Wh-whab are you ndoing here?!  Oh!  Uh, sorby!” she awkwardly clambered down off the zebra’s torso, “Thanks fbor catching mbe…”

As Zecora tried to stand, she was suddenly away of a heavy, sticky feeling in her mane.  She grimaced, oh, great shivering Poligna’s Rot, please tell me that I did not!

Scootaloo wrinkled her snout and grimaced, squeezing her eyes shut, “You smell, Zecora!  Ah, sorry mbut…hab you been mbaking dose stinky potionds again?” She opened one eye and looked sideways at Zecora as the zebra clambered to her hooves.

And if the sudden wideness of her eyes afterwards was any indication, she noticed what her crash landing had almost sent them plowing into.  Zecora groaned, not daring to run a hoof through her mane to see just how much dragon fertilizer had gotten stuck in it. I should consider myself lucky I only got that scrap, another few inches and I’d be covered in…

She forced herself back to the matter at hand. “Scootaloo, what are you doing out here in the Everfree?  And why are you wearing that ridiculous get-up I see?!”

The filly stood up on her hind hooves, clasping her forehooves behind her back, looking down and grinning sheepishly. “I was…ah…mpicking zab abbles?”

If the slight frown and twitch of her eye didn’t tell the filly she wasn’t fooling anypony, Zecora’s hoof waving around in a circle at the snowy clearing and white-capped trees definitely did.

“Scootaloo,” Zecora said, making herself smile at her, “you need not fear my reaction.  Zebras do not judge by a fraction.  But the danger here is plenty real, for a lone little filly with a broken wheel…” she pointed to Scootaloo’s crashed scooter lying on its side for emphasis.

The pegasus promptly squealed at the reminder and ran over to her damaged treasure.  The scooter had been smashed in at the front, the wheel hanging off on a broken hinge and the handle bent to the side. “It doesn’t look like it’s passed the totalling border, but sweet Scootaloo, right now it is out of order.  Come, I’ll take you back to my home, and I hope you’ll tell me why you came alone…”

She cocked her head to the side, worried.  If the dragon was where she thought it was, they were far too close for her to risk keeping a little filly in the area.  Dealing with the dragon would have to wait until Scootaloo was safely back in Ponyville.  Zecora knew it was best to pretend she hadn’t been doing anything important.  No doubt if the little pegasus knew she’d…

“I wab looking fbor da drabon…” Scootaloo mumbled sadly as she slung her damaged scooter over her back.

…panic?

Her eyes widened momentarily. Sweet grass of Zebronia, how did she know?!  Quickly, I must do some damage control so…

“Dragon?!” Zecora gave the best chuckle she could ham up, “Don’t be silly, Scootaloo.  There are no dragons here!”

A few moments passed in silence, the filly looking up at the zebra, one green-painted eyelash cocked.

Catching on, Zecora applied hoof to face.  Her friends knew the only time she didn’t rhyme was when she was upset or lying.

“Mbut I saw id, Zecora!  When we were oud playing frisbee dis mborning, I saw it…from bdown by da schoolhouse.  I told the teacher and all mby classmbates, mbut dey didn’ mbelieb mbe…so I cabe here to find ib mbyself afder school…”

“Whyever did you come looking for it, my little filly?  Don’t you know hunting dragons this way is silly?”

“I know it’s dangerous, Zecora.  Mbut I…I…” her face suddenly contorted and tightened, her eyes narrowing into a glare, “I’b not just a weak, liddle mbaby!  A liddle danger doesn’t scare mbe!  Jus’ like id wouldn’d scare a super-cool mbpony like Raibbow Mdash or Twilaid Sparkle!  I’b not a weak, liddle baby!”

Startled, Zecora closed her eyes and replayed that sound to herself.  After a few moments, it came to her. Ah, every browbeaten child’s little weakness…and reckless bravery to leave us all speechless.

“Tell me please, my dear Scootaloo…who on earth has said that to you?”

The little pegasus shuffled her hooves and looked down, nervously adjusting the weight of her scooter on her back.

Zecora took her shoulder gently, “No doubt another foal insulted you so, but walking into danger won’t help that, you know.  Bullies and fools cannot judge what you behoove - trust me my little friend, you have nothing to prove…”

Scootaloo stiffened a moment, and then promptly wilted, taking off her helmet and looking regretfully up at her, “Yeah…yeah, I guess you’re righd.  Eben if I went indo school tomorrow and tolb Diamob Diara and da odders I wen’ lookib fbor dat drabon I saw…dey prob’ly wouldn’ belieb mbe…”

Zecora really felt sorry for the poor filly before her now…and sensed she needed to do something about that swollen snout if she was ever going to understand enough of what Scootaloo was saying.  Priorities first though, she had to get Scootaloo out of danger and then send a warning to the right ponies about the dragon.

“Everfree is dangerous, Scootaloo, dragons or not.  Definitely not a place for a lone filly to trot.  Come with me to my hut, my young friend.  I’ll brew a potion and your pain will end…”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened at that – she had been on the receiving end of her potions before, and, of course, as Zecora herself had put it when she complained - ‘the more it tastes like leafy old goo, of course the better it is for you’.

She promptly gagged and looked like she was about to comment on the (un)usual taste of Zecora’s herbal medicine, but the zebra suddenly snapped her head up, raising a hoof to her lips to quiet her.

There was a distant thudding noise in the air, accompanied by the crackles and snaps of dense foliage twisting and bending to make way for a massive, pounding body.  Zecora’s eyes widened – it was getting closer.  And fast.

“What’s that?!” Scootaloo asked, looking around the clearing at the trees in alarm.  She had heard it too.

They both had the same thought at the same time – two jaws falling open in unison.

The pounding on the ground suddenly sounded much heavier, and Zecora could see the puddles of snowmelt rippling with each pound.  Close by, they heard the sharp crack of a tree being ripped off its roots.

Scootaloo looked like she was about to scream, eyes darting around wildly.  Zecora looked around – they needed to hide. Now.

She seized the little pegasus in her hooves, leaving the scooter and helmet to fall to the ground…

…and then the thicket before them was suddenly ripped apart as the monster’s head poked through.

Zecora shivered as she beheld it again.

A ten-foot long scaly neck of deep, scummy green - crusty-hard, and mottled in places by deep, flaky crevices where new scales had grown inwards over old wounds.  Some scratches were fresh and only half-healed, unmistakable by the boiling black blood seeping into the grooves between its scales.

Its cart-sized face was even more terrifying.  The deep-set, cruel eyes were closed against the scratch of the thicket, but the zebra knew there were fearsome reptilian slits betraying not a hint of compassion or wisdom beneath.   Tattered fin-like ears protruded from the sides of its skull, and the tip of its muzzle was missing - the flesh stripped away almost down to the bone, leaving a white, gristly horror of a snout.

But the mouth was the worst of all.  Dragon’s teeth were always a fearsome sight, but this one’s outer lips had been clawed away to leave it with a permanent hideous, fanged grin.

And Zecora was one of the few beings for miles who knew enough of dragon culture to know what that meant.

She pressed a hoof over Scootaloo’s mouth before she could scream, looking around for anywhere they could hide – a tree, a rock, anything!  Its eyes are still closed…

There was no time to even finish rhyming her thought.  She swept up Scootaloo and hid.

In the only place they could.

*

The dragon stretched out her neck, snapping her teeth to work her jaw out, basking her head in the sunlight.

Her wounds had almost healed.  And then it would be time for a feast.

Again, she wondered what good fortune had smiled upon her that the pesky creatures’ magic had sent her crashing right into the middle of the pony lands?  Those annoying missiles they had speckled her with had been a painful blessing apparently.

Best of all, she was here alone, and there would be meat galore in her new realm.  She could see no reason to go back just so her kin could eat all that was now hers by right.  She was not as young as she used to be, and felt she deserved a little spoiling after centuries of lean pickings.  A land of easy meat with no younger, more powerful dragons to take it away would be a life fit for a queen.  And, here, those other annoying insects could not bother her any longer either.

Smiling (though with her Outcaste jaws, no-one else could hope to tell the difference), she opened her dull, crimson eyes and looked around for the morsels she had smelled.

It was the clearing she had passed through before shortly after her arrival, while she was on her way to her new lair.  She could still see the evidence of her presence, together with two small objects she had to strain to make out with her bad eyes.  One looked faintly like a helmet, though it was crusted with something, and the other was a tiny contraption like nothing the dragon had ever seen.  A small platform with wheels it seemed.

But there was no sign of meat anywhere.

The dragon swivelled her head sideways and back, and sniffed the air.

Whatever scent she might have had was gone.

It mattered not.  Soon enough, she would be able to fly properly again, and then there would be plenty to eat in the pony settlement just outside the forest…but she could not let them see her yet.  No, not just now.  That wouldn’t do.  Meat in the first, freshest throes of terror was easier to savor…

She pulled her head back under the trees and turned away.

As she returned to her lair, her old ears failed to catch the tiny, stifled cry of disgust from the clearing behind her.

*

“I’m sorry to tell you that you must stay in this hospital for the time being,” Doctor Needles said, “your injuries are…severe…”

From the flicker in the mare’s eye, Twilight guessed that was the last thing she needed to be told.

She had been called back into the recovery ward earlier that evening after the surgery.  Their patient had awoken again, this time chained to the bed with a respirator mask attached that couldn’t be shaken off.

“We found you two days ago in the river just outside of this town, Ponyville…” Doctor Needles continued, “we managed to save you…” he glanced sideways at Twilight as he said this, no doubt thinking of whether or not he should mention the princess’ help.  But Twilight had been asked to please stay quiet this time, and she wasn’t about to let herself get kicked out again.

“…but after you regained consciousness, we discovered - as unlikely as it sounds - that you had been mesmerized…” Doctor Needles said crisply, with the air of a medical professional explaining the things patients needed to know (and omitting the things they didn’t). “This young magician here, Twilight Sparkle - one of the ponies who found you - deduced this was most likely because you had come into contact with a magic-conductive metal called valaethium…”

The mare’s eye twitched again, but she didn’t make a sound.

“…Unfortunately, when she woke you from mesmerization…well…I’m sure you must have had a panic attack.  Our visitors’ rash action –“ (this time Twilight’s eye twitched) “- meant you required another surgery after you lost consciousness again…” he cleared his throat, “Your injuries are no longer life-threatening so long as you receive proper treatment, and any disabilities you might have developed can be magically repaired, but I’m afraid you must remain here in our care for recovery for now.  Of course, we would be happy to send a message to your family or next of kin…?”

Since the mare was still wearing the respirator, Twilight had a notion the doctor was waiting for some vague, non-verbal response or reaction…but she didn’t move.

After a few seconds of a single yellow eye staring right at him, Doctor Needles coughed uncomfortably and went on, “Yes…well…perhaps when you’ve recovered and no longer need the respirator, you can tell us where to find them…”

He motioned to his left, “This is Nurse Redheart.  She will be helping you during your recovery, taking care of your needs and monitoring your progress.  I’m sure the two of you will get along splendidly…” he said with aplomb, rolling his eyes upwards at the ceiling.

Twilight might have giggled at that if things hadn’t been so serious.  The mare’s persistent silence was more than a little unnerving.  Even if she couldn’t talk with that mask on, she should still have been capable of nodding or grunting or something…

Redheart huffed, “About time, doctor!  I think you’ve gone on long enough…”

She bustled forward and leaned over the patient, “Now…I’m going to give you your daily injections, baths, and change your bandages.  Ask for me if you need something, and don’t make trouble, and we’ll do just fine…”

No reaction.

Redheart looked up irritably, “Is she deaf, doctor?  Or does she just not understand Equus?”

He opened his mouth to answer…and then paused.  He shut his mouth again and looked down in embarrassment, realizing he hadn’t checked either fact before his little awakening speech.

So Twilight decided to speak up, “No, Nurse Redheart, she’s not deaf - I’ve heard her speak.  And yes, she speaks Equus.”

At that, the mare’s eye slowly drifted over to her, showing no expression on what little of her face Twilight could see through the bandages and mask.  Twilight tried to not to show it, but she was relieved this mare was now well on the way to recovery.  Soon enough, they’d all know the full truth about the things that hurt her, the dragon, and where to send her, and then things would go back to normal…

Nurse Redheart looked at her, “Yes, I remember now.  The feathering mess she made after that little stunt you pulled snapping her out of mesmerization into a world of pain.  How could I forget?”

The unicorn stiffened, biting her tongue.  Obviously, this is the kind of nurse who’s seen so many buck-ups she’s forgotten how to be patient or subtle…I hope I never end up like that…

Twilight knew, relieved as she was, she didn’t want to stick around any longer in the same room with Redheart in this mood…and it was getting late anyway…so she turned away, “Well, I’m going to go back to the library...” she said, hoping it hadn’t come out as curtly as she felt, “I can see you have things in hoof here.  I have to test that piece of valaethium again, find out what did…”

Thunk!

Twilight turned in surprise at the sound of a booted hoof hitting a steel tabletop.  The mare was banging her chained forehoof on the steel stand next to her, staring at Twilight.

“Now now, please don’t do that!” Doctor Needles piped up, pulling the tray back out of her reach.  The mare’s eye flashed at him, she started to struggle, prompting a startled yelp from the good doctor…

…and she started to mumble.

Jerking her muzzle, trying to shake the mask off…

“Doctor…I think she wants to speak,” Twilight said slowly.  She wants to speak?  To me?  Her eyes widened, and she found herself slowly moving towards her, completely ignoring the fact she was supposed to be keeping her distance this time around…

Doctor Needles looked at her, and then at the mare, and then at Nurse Redheart…who slowly managed to stop herself from scowling and nodded.  She bent over the mare, clamped the mask’s handle in her jaws…and slowly pulled it off.

“Huuurrrrhhhh…” the mare’s sudden, sharp intake of breath, unassisted by the respirator, must have been painful for her.  Even the gasp wasn’t clear – Twilight grimaced as she heard little rustles and bubbly popping sounds that could only have meant holes and fluid in the lungs.

Nurse Redheart placed her hooves professionally on the mare’s chest cavity and rubbed, “Slowly!  Yes, nice deep breaths now…”

She coughed, her neck jerking slightly from the pain, and tried to take another breath.  It sounded, if possible, even worse than the first one.  Twilight grimaced.  How in Celestia’s name did she survive?!

The mare’s muzzle was indeed set with a long, jutting jaw that looked more akin to a cow than a pony.  It made her head and face look very long.  As she noisily gulped in air, Twilight could see her long pink tongue within, which looked very bright next to her sooty coat.  She also had thick, close-set teeth that looked vaguely unnatural – completely flat and in perfect line with each other…

“V…v…val…”

The mare’s voice was deep and husky.  Not quite Big Mac’s rumbling thunder, but rougher than Applejack’s country girl drawl.  And it was bubbly and thick with pain and broken lung.

Twilight leaned closer to listen, “Yes?  Yes?!”

With what looked like a tremendous effort, the mare drew in another breath, grimaced, sweating, and spoke.

“The val-valae…th-the metal…” she sounded fairly agitated.  Twilight couldn’t blame her - she would be too in that condition. “…where?”

“Where?!  In the library!  I found it here in Ponyville.  We guessed that dragon who brought you here must have dropped it, and…”

WHAM!

The mare’s hoof came down hard on her bed, hard enough to push through the mattress and pound on the frame below.

“NO!” she shouted, before grimacing and gurgling with pain as Twilight reared back in surprise.

“Nurse, put that respirator back on and sedate her!” Doctor Needles said immediately, “We don’t want her to keep hurting herself this way!”

“NO!”  the black mare yelled again through her pain, starting to pull at her bonds as the ward erupted into panic, “NO!  D-de-danger!  Youuu must…”

“Calm down!” Twilight shouted despite herself, backing away. “The valaethium’s harmless now!  I already discharged it!  Whatever that dragon used it for can’t hurt you anymore!”

The mare tried to shake her head, but managed only a half-turn before Redheart tried to slap the mask back on and fix the straps in place.  She turned her head in agitation, eyes wide with pain and panic.

"NO!” she said again, moving all of herself she could now. “N…not dragon’s!  Mine!  Hit her!  Got her with it!”

What?!  Twilight froze.

“She’s…here!  Dragon a killer!  It’s…danger!  She’s…nngggh…KILLER!”

The last word was choked out as Redheart finally managed to fix the mask straps to her head.  The mare struggled and pulled at her restraints as Redheart sunk another needle into her neck.

Slowly, her struggling stopped, and her eye glazed over and closed.

Twilight, rooted to the spot, stared straight ahead, “Did you hear that?  Did you hear what she said?!”

Silence.  Neither Doctor Needles nor Nurse Redheart seemed to know what to say to this revelation.

“She said she used the valaethium against that thing!  If that valaethium…was some kind of weapon…th-then…the…dragon’s…”

More silence.

A horrible feeling descended on Twilight Sparkle.

She turned and bolted for the door.

Just in time for it to be thrown open in her face.

“TWIIILIIIIGHT!!!”

The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter 5: The Calm Before The Storm

“Perfect…” the unicorn leader groaned sarcastically, his head in his hooves, “Just abso-kuthing-lutely perfect!”

“And they say lightning never strikes the same place twice…” the pegasus mare replied sullenly, looking down at the rocky floor of the cave and irritably kicking a pebble away.

“Well, it wasn’t a total loss…” the other mare said, her voice muffled behind her white face-mask, “You got back, didn’t you?  We did too.  We all could’ve ended up becoming dragon food…or worse, from what you’ve told us…”

“Yes…” the unicorn muttered, “At the cost of most of our resources and several good soldiers…and you sending an Outcaste dragon to kuth-knows-where with your sloppy control!  And one of our own with it!”

“Do I look like a unicorn to you?!” the masked mare answered with a subtle chill in her voice. “There was nothing for it…” her shoulders slumped slightly, “Believe me when I say I would’ve given anything I could to save her before they vanished!”

With what looked like an effort, the leader straightened his face and stood back up from his seat, “Yes…I understand that you…had no choice in the matter…” He sullenly unrolled the map over the table before them as he changed the subject.

“Listen carefully now…we arrived at the village as planned, but it was deserted - emptied of living or dead.  The evidence of a battle was plain to see, but…before we could determine precisely what had occurred, we were attacked by…something.  An enormous reptile creature…”

“Dragon?”

“No.  Something else.  Ground-bound, but just as fearsome as any flyer…”

“What happened?”

The unicorn snorted. “We ran of course.  Whatever that thing was, it was strong enough to kill us all!  We regrouped and tried to head back through the passes overnight, but the enemy found us first.  Then that monster caught up with us…” he sighed, “Thankfully though, it went after the enemy first, and we escaped by airlift.”

“How many survived?”

He growled, “Most of the pegasi did, but some of our earthers and unicorns bought it…”

The pegasus mare snorted and stomped a hoof, “We pegasi are trained to protect the ground-dwellers!  Our comrades’ lives are always come before our own!  How could they have been so kuthing negligent?!”

The unicorn’s eyes flickered, “They didn’t exactly have much of a choice…” he said grimly, wincing as he remembered his fatal mistake, “I sent them ahead to scout our path during a forced march, and by the time they realized we were being followed it was too late…” He looked down.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself…” the masked one cut in again, “If it was as dangerous as you say, we should count ourselves lucky any of you made it back at all.  If it hadn’t been for our mutual friend…” she left the rest ominously unspoken, but her meaning was clear enough.

And as little as the unicorn liked it, she was right.  Despite their losses, it could have turned out far worse…

Without bothering with manners or subtlety, he yanked the trunk beside the table open with his magic and levitated a cigar out.  A quick spark of his horn and the cigar lit up and floated obediently between his lips.  The unicorn took a long drag to calm down (ignoring the pegasus’ disapproving glare).

After several moments of silence, he exhaled a cloud of smoke and cleared his throat. “Well, our first order now has to be to replenish our strength.  We’ll close the passes for now until we have about a month of empty skies, and we will have to work on fortifications and gathering resources.” He pulled his cigar out with a hoof and looked up at the stone ceiling in thought.  “I have a feeling we may have some unhappy visitors pounding on our doors before long…”

The pegasus snorted, “They know better than to come wandering up here, sir.”

He didn’t reply, narrowing his eyes.  It was the masked mare who answered her.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, sister,” she said, “If whatever monsters are down there are hunting the enemy too, it’s only a matter of time before we get desperate refugees trying to make it here.”

The pegasus fell silent at that, and the unicorn nodded, “There is no time to waste.” As he turned and trotted towards to the door, the air commander spoke again.

“What about the Outcaste dragon and the…our lost comrade?” she said the last word like it was hardly her first choice.

The unicorn stopped in mid-trot, glowering thoughtfully at the wall, “They could have come out anywhere, air commander…” He shook his head, “We can’t do anything about that until we have some idea where the dragon went…especially not with our current problems.  As for the second…well, wherever she is, she’ll try to make her way back here, I have no doubt.”

The pegasus gave another low snort, “If she’s still alive.  Which I doubt…”

*

Nurse Redheart tried futilely to calm her down as she wrestled against her chains, “Hold still!  You can’t do anything!”

The earth pony nurse was snapping in a clipped, cold tone that she evidently imagined would puncture any resistance immediately.

But she knew no nurse, not even an earther, would have the strength to stop her if she could just slip out of these annoying cuffs…

Some of the pain was gone, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she could breathe properly again.

Which means there isn’t one moment to lose!  There was a bucking Outcaste loose in this pony town!  These ponies probably had no clue how to fight it and unless she could get free and find a way to stop the thing…

“Got…to get out…” Words were coming easier to her now – the magic they had been using to heal her was apparently working, “Dragon…will kill you all!”

Though Nurse Redheart tried not to show how nervous that made her, she saw the faint movements as the other mare swallowed, “I t-told you so many times!  T-Twilight Sparkle has already written a letter to Princess Celestia herself in Canterlot!  Princess Luna and the Night Militant will be here soon…”

She growled in response and redoubled her efforts to break free.  Idiot mare!  Do you really think spears and stones will stop a dragon?!  “It won’t…work.  You need me.”

“You,” Redheart said, struggling to pin her down, “are not going anywhere!  You have broken ribs, a knitted lung, and so many stitches and bruises it took me hours to get you cleaned up again after your last little stunt!  Now sit…still!”

Redheart made a hard shove to drive her last word in and stepped back, apparently tired of wrestling.  She pulled more at the chains, but it was no use.  In her weakened state, she couldn’t hope to work them loose.  Growling again, she settled down and Nurse Redheart sighed.

“We’ve all heard what you’ve said.  That zebra and the little filly too...” she grimaced and facehoofed at that, “After I managed to haul them off to get them disinfected, that is…”

She looked down with a scowl - obviously wondering what that “zebra” creature and that pegasus filly were thinking walking into a hospital covered in dragon filth - “and everything that can be done is being done!  You running around with your injuries will just make things worse!”

The mare snorted painfully, “Taken worse…than this…”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” Redheart said in a deadpan tone as she trotted to the supply bench “After all, you were only several moments from death when you arrived here…”

“You must…let me go.  I can save you,” Speaking was getting painful again, and her voice sounded strange to her own ears.  She cursed internally as she sensed her lungs must be bubbling again.

The other mare had apparently noticed that too.  She came back over to the bed with one eyebrow arched and a concerned frown on her face.

Idea.

“Mask,” she said, her voice now a pained, bubbling sputter, “I need…the mask again.”

Redheart groaned again and gave a slow, long-suffering smile, apparently taking the request as a reluctant acquiescence.  The nurse reached up to detach the respirator mask from the headboard.

Easy…

Redheart slowly brought it down to her head, lifting up the muzzle strap with her hoof…

Now!

Quick as lightning, her jaws shot forward and clamped around the steel muzzle of the mask.

“What the hay are you doing?!” Redheart screamed in surprise, trying to tug it back.

She held on fast, grinding her teeth on the tough steel set over the mask’s air inlet.  Redheart dug in her hind hooves and pulled harder…

There was a screeching noise that hurt her ears and she felt her mouth come away.  Redheart was tumbling backwards with the momentum of being released all at once.  The shattered mask fell in bits onto the floor.

She leaned back and worked her jaws in pain.  She may have had tough teeth, but that was still going to leave her mouth in agony for several hours…

Redheart pulled herself up, livid, and yelled for a nurse stallion to come hold her still.

This time, the answering stallion was smart enough to place his hooves where she could not reach him easily.  He held her forehoof down as Redheart filled a syringe.

“Maybe this will keep you quiet for a while…” the earth pony raged as she stuck the needle into her skin.

The mare did not resist, and leaned back into her pillow as the sedative took effect.

*

“Another one, Spike!”

Twilight pulled the scroll out of the bundle in her assistant’s claws, unrolling it and reading it with intense concentration, copying the bare facts to her spellbook with a magicked quill.

“Good idea, Twilight!  We’re going to need everything we can get!” Spike stood up straight with a salute, a determined expression in his eyes.

Twilight frowned at the word ‘we’.

“Remember Spike, when this all starts, I don’t want any heroics from you!” she said without taking her eyes off the page. “Find somewhere to hide and stay there, okay?”

Spike wasn’t happy about getting cut out of what was coming, and opened his mouth to argue again.  “Stop talking to me like I’m a little baby, Twilight!  You need me to fight that thing!”

Twilight let out an exasperated groan, “How many times do we have to discuss this, Spike?  Just because you’re a dragon too doesn’t mean you can wrap the whole thing up for us!”

“But I know a dragon’s limits!  Weaknesses!  I can help you, Twilight!”

“I know you can…” Twilight said, scribbling down another incantation for a Stone Scale spell, “and you can tell me all those limits and weaknesses again - right here in the library - as many times as you like!  But I’m not letting you walk into danger!”

“I’m a dragon too, Twilight!” Spike insisted again, “Dragonfire won’t hurt me!  And that thing won’t eat me!  I’m the only one who could get close to it and live!”

“We don’t know that for sure, Spike!  This is an Outcaste dragon, remember?  No decency at all - there’s no telling itwouldn’t eat another dragon!  Besides, even if dragonfire wouldn’t harm you, it still has its claws and fangs…”

“I’ve got those too!”

“And from what Scootaloo and Zecora said, that thing’s got at least four thousand pounds over you!  Give it up, Spike – I’m not arguing anymore.  Stay at home or I’ll see to it you never get another gem for the whole of next year!”

“Twiliiiight!!!”

She leaned a little closer, finally turning her head to look at him. “…It’s not just that, Spike.  You’re my number one assistant.  My best friend.  If something happened to you…I’d…”

Spike pouted, but after Twilight’s last statement, he slowly relaxed and looked down. “I just…I don’t like the idea of sitting out again when you and your friends are putting yourselves in danger, Twilight,” he groaned.

“Spike…the girls and I don’t go out into a mess like this because we enjoy getting in danger,” Twilight said softly, “we do it to make everything go back to normal again.  The girls and I don’t like it – we just want to get it over with and get everything back to good old, safe, quiet normal.  And what keeps me brave is the thought of coming back home with you safe and sound…”

That statement seemed to finally take the fight out of the dragon. “Okay…if you really think I should hide and miss this one out again…”

“Thanks, Spike.”

“But that doesn’t mean I have to like it…” he added quietly.

She grit her teeth, forcing her attention back on her studies.  If everything Scotaloo and Zecora had told her last night was true, she knew she’d need all the magic she could get for what was coming…

Scootaloo had barged into the ward, screaming her name.  Twilight had been stunned.  The little pegasus looked like she had been playing all day in the mud…

And then the stink assailed her nostrils and she suddenly had a very different idea what had happened…

Zecora had been waiting for them in the hallway, no cleaner than her little friend and busy fending off a half-dozen hospital staff trying to get her decontaminated (all of them trying to do it without touching her).  Zecora had resisted long enough to tell Twilight what had happened.

“An Outcaste dragon is a terrible beast, and reasoning with it is hopeless at least…” she said grimly.  Zecora told Twilight this particular dragon was one of those whose kin had deemed it unfit for their dragonflight and exiled it with a mark of shame clawed into its face.  Outcaste dragons could not be appealed to or reasoned with - and in their eyes, the lesser creatures were only meat.

Twilight had sent a message to Princess Celestia right away, alerting her to the danger.  But - after a worrying couple of hours’ silence - it was Princess Luna who replied, saying that Celestia had raised the alarm and was recalling all the Guard she could to Canterlot, but it would be a while before she could set out for Ponyville.  The few forces they had in the Ponyville area were already in town helping the gendarmes with evacuation, but the very soonest the bulk of the Canterlot Guard could arrive would be this midnight.

It had seemed too long at first, but Luna had also written she was gathering her own - much more localized - strength for the first time since the Lunar Rebellion, and would be in Ponyville with the newly-reformed Night Militant by sunset.

Twilight felt a stab of frustration at the thought of having to wait so long.  But then again, it wasn’t every day a dragon popped up with no warning in the middle of peaceful Equestria – let alone a bucking Outcaste, which hadn’t been seen for more than three hundred years!  She knew if Princesses Celestia and Luna could be moving any faster, they would be…

Mayor Mare, who was still in the royal palace at the time, had been informed by Princess Celestia shortly after she received Twilight’s message.  Apparently, it had taken a full squad of gendarmes to prevent her from galloping on the next train back and she had been commanded to remain in Canterlot for her own safety.  The old earth pony was no doubt scared out of her wits, but Twilight knew she would never willingly abandon her town…

Luna had also enclosed a royal decree - penned by her own horn - that Twilight, after a sleepless night, had read out in town hall that morning…

“HEAR YE!  HEAR YE!” Twilight had called (wincing), “Villagers of Ponyville, we command thee to prepare for a time of utmost urgency!  Close thine doors, hide thy young, bar thine windows and remain vigilant.  Upon my moon of night, there is a grave threat to you all!”

That had caused a lot of bewildered stares all around from the residents who had no clue what the unicorn was talking about, as well as quite a few snickers among Rainbow Dash and the younger ponies.  Skeptical mumbling started up, and Twilight, barely keeping herself from dying of embarrassment, read on (this time omitting the archaic vocabulary).

“The Princesses ride to your aid with all haste, but beware the danger!  Take everything of aught to your purposes and remain inside and safe!  The terrible, fire-breathing dragon of the Everfree forest will face the full might of my Night Militant reborn!  And even if they fall beneath the creature’s terrible fangs and claws, rent asunder, spraying blood and bone, they will give their lives protecting you…”

Twilight thought she heard something in the background somewhere,“And should anypony face being incinerated by hellishly painful dragonfire protecting Ponyville homes and carriages, they will not hesitate…”

That nagging sound was getting louder… “You may seek a safer place if you wish whilst our titanic battle rages, and though some unfortunate ponyfolk may perish in the flames, burned to a cinder, severed by claw, and devoured by the foul, murderous beast, it will be as loyal subjects of Equestria…”

Twilight had raised her eyes from the end of the speech to see what that annoying noise was…

…and found herself looking at the town hall floor, deserted except for one slowly-rocking fruit basket.

And the sound of screaming and hundreds of retreating hooves outside.

*

“Sis! Whu-what’s goin’ on?!” Applebloom asked nervously as she watched Applejack and Big Mac gallop all over the orchard in a hurry as the sun reached midday.

She had never seen them look so agitated.  Applejack was moving fast, her eyes wide open and taking in everything around her as she danced on her hind legs with her forehooves always full of something. “Never you mind, Applebloom!  Now go inside an’ stay there!  There ain’t no school today…”

Applebloom tried her best to pout, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it.  This was scary.  She could tell they were trying to hide it, but something had to be wrong.  Even Big Mac was panting and shooting worried glances over at the forest as he hauled their plow into the last open barn.

Every other barn had been shut and barred, every piece of equipment locked away, and practically their whole pantry had all been thrown hastily into the cellars.

Applejack mopped sweat from her brow with a hoof, “Is tha’ all of it?  Good.” She turned and saw her little sister still watching, “C’mon, Applebloom, get down there!” She pointed to the open apple cellar door in the ground, “Tha’ thing could be here any minute!”

She started in surprise, “Whu-!  Sis, what’s going on?  You jus’ told me ta go back inside.  Why d’ya want me to hide in the cellar?  It’s dark an’ stinky down there…”

“Jus’ move it, Applebloom!” the orange mare growled impatiently, advancing on her, “There ain’ no time fer this!  An’ I can’ tell you anyway!”

Applebloom dug in her hooves, frowning stubbornly. “Nuh-uh!  I ain’t goin’ in there ‘til you tell me what this is all abou’, sis!”

Before Applejack could answer her, the filly felt herself being hoisted up in the air from behind.  She struggled futilely against her brother’s powerful forehoof. “Big Mac!” she whined, “Lemme go!  I wanna know what’s goin’ on!”

“Thanks, Big Mac!” Applejack said, undeterred. “You take care o’ the family down there, ok?”

“Eeyup!” the stallion agreed, with just a little more enthusiasm than usual as he looked around wildly.  Applebloom kicked and scrambled with her forehooves as her brother carried her down the steps.  She tried not to gag at the smell of old apples in the dark, dingy cellar.  She hated it down there.

Applejack, meanwhile, was fumbling with the old bolt on the cellar door above, trying to wrench it out of its coat of rust.

Applebloom stopped struggling for a moment, “Wait a minnit!  Ain’t you comin’ down here too, sis?!”

Applejack shook her head shortly, still glancing around, “No, Applebloom!  Migh’ be Twilight’ll need me for…” she made a vague circular motion with her hoof over her neck, “…y’know.”

Applebloom felt her eyes widen.  She didn’t need to be a grown-up to know something big really had to be going down now!  She redoubled her efforts to break free – she definitely didn’t want her big sister going up against whatever it was.  At least not without her!  But Big Mac merely tightened his grip and gave her a quiet “eenope”.

Applejack looked briefly to the side, “Okay, Granny, it’s tha’ time again!”

“YIPPEEE!” Granny Smith whooped in delight as she happily bounced down into the cellar after them, “Story time in the cellar again, Apples!  Ain’ it funny how Applejack always remembers that ol’ family tradition when I can’t remember it mahself?!  And how it’s always story time in the cellar whenever we got all these great yahoos running all aroun’ town screamin’?!  How ‘bout ah tell ya all about the crossing o’ the Great Hoofstrider Plains?!”

“Applejack, NOOO!” the filly shouted desperately as her sister slammed the cellar door shut over them and kicked the bolt in.

*

“Come along now, Sweetie Belle!  Hurry!” Rarity was pushing her along, not hard enough for her to fall down the stairs, but still enough that she was almost shoving the little filly.

“I’m going, Rarity!” she screeched, clutching her little purple saddlebags to her sides and her red scarf to her neck, “But how come you aren’t coming too?!  Mommy and Daddy would want you to come too, you know!”

“Nonsense!” Rarity said primly, “My apologies dear, but they know how busy I am with my new line!  I’ve already written them and I told them I’ll visit another time.  But you…dear Sweetie Belle, isn’t this the opportunity of a lifetime?!  You get a nice day off school, and we find out maybe it won’t open again for a little while…well, how can you resist a nice trip with Mother and Father?!”  Rarity’s smile was so wide and strained that her little sister was almost frightened.

“I-I don’t know, Rarity…I kinda like the idea of going with Applebloom and Scootaloo to our clubhouse and…y’know…doing some crusading, too…”

Rarity’s smile remained firmly fixed in place, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she started moving and jostling Sweetie Belle along again. “Oh, but darling, you can do that anytime!  Think about how far away we are from the ocean!  You don’t usually get a chance like this to go out and enjoy it…”

“Rarity… it’s winter!” Sweetie Belle said, not believing her ears, “…and I can’t even swim!”

The older unicorn froze for a moment, seeming to wobble with leftover momentum, before she hitched her false smile back on, “Well…you need to learn someday, Sweetie Belle!  And no time like the present!  Heh heh!” she gave a strained chuckle and swung her front door open, motioning to the pegasus waiting on the slush-covered hoofpath outside. “She’ll be taking you out to meet them, Sweetie Belle.  Be polite, alright?”

Sweetie Belle looked at her sister.  Why in Equestria had she asked a pegasus to fly her to Mommy and Daddy?

Is she hiding something?

Then she looked at the pegasus mare.  She was a pale gray with a blonde mane and several bubbles for a cutie mark, dressed in a mailmare’s coat and hat.  The mare turned her head and looked at Sweetie Belle, and the filly jumped.  Her yellow eyes looked funny.  What was it – ‘floor-eyed’, ‘ceiling-eyed’?She couldn’t remember the word.

“Derpy…” Rarity said (startling Sweetie Belle – who never heard her big sister say anything so rude), “…I really can’t thank you enough for this.  I know you’re a mailmare, not a foalcare flyer but…”

“It’s no problem, Rarity!” the pegasus said in an enthusiastic, bubbly voice, “I’ve got daughters!  I know how to fly a filly...” she chuckled in embarrassment, “…and I haven’t lost one since Princess Celestia made that law that says any foal who rides me needs a saddlebelt…”

Rarity nodded (her clenched muzzle suggesting she hoped the strange pegasus had meant a law that applied to all pegasi and not just her specifically), “Anyway, this is Sweetie Belle…” she said, motioning with her hoof.

“Hi there!” the mailmare said, smiling warmly at her. “So you’re today’s ‘special delivery’!” She stuck out a hoof. “Nice to meet you, sweetheart!  The name’s Derpy - heh heh - Derpy Hooves!”

Not quite sure how to respond, Sweetie Belle took the offered hoof bashfully…and was promptly shaken up and down.

“Now, now!” Rarity said, hastily interposing herself, “I know how much you like making friends, Derpy dear, but it’s really imperative that you and Sweetie Belle leave as soon as possible!”

“Don’t you worry, Rarity!” Derpy chuckled, ruffling Sweetie Belle’s mane, “I’ll get your little sister there safe and sound!”

“Uh, Rarity?” Sweetie Belle was faintly nervous about flying off on this stranger’s back.

The older unicorn grimaced impatiently, but slowly strained her head down to look at her little sister, “Yes, Sweetie Belle?  What is it?!”

“Uh…I like Miss D-…er…Derpy and all, but why’d you get a pegasus mailmare to take me?  Can’t I just go on the foalcare carriage?”

Before Rarity could answer, Derpy chuckled again and said, “You could, kiddo, but I think you’d be stuck in that traffic jam outside town for hours!  What with everypony l-…”

“Derpy!” Rarity hissed loudly, glaring at the pegasus, who slammed her hooves over her mouth.

After a moment, Derpy lowered her hooves and grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, “Oops, my bad…”

After a moment, Sweetie Belle added it all up – flying mailmare, traffic jam, school closed, vacation to the beach in winter - “Rarity…is everypony leavingtown?”

“Of course not, dear!  I’m not going, am I?!” she hammed it on so badly the unicorn filly was almost convinced she guessed right.

After a few moments of staring, Rarity sighed and slumped slightly. “My my, aren’t I lucky to have such a clever, observant little sister?” she grumbled, “Yes Sweetie, a lot of ponies are leaving town.  But believe me darling, there’s a good reason for it, and you should go too!”

Her eyes widened, “R-R-Rarity!  Is something dangerous gonna happen to Ponyville?!”

“Now now, don’t be dramatic!” Rarity said, examining her hoof primly, frowning her disapproval.

“There is, isn’t there?!” Sweetie Belle promptly dashed out of her saddlebags and wrapped all four hooves around her sister’s foreleg. “Sis!  I wanna stay with you!  I wanna help protect you an’ Applebloom an’ Scootaloo an’ Twilight an’ all the others!”

Rarity groaned and fell back onto her hind hooves, glaring at the mailmare, who shrugged. “Well done, Derpy!  Now she’s getting all up in fillyhood heroics!” She sighed and leaned down to nuzzle her little sister’s mane. “Sweetie Belle darling, there’s not much time.  You have to go!  This really is for your own good…”

The younger unicorn tightened her grip, starting to tear up, “NO!  I’m staying!”

She sighed, “I’m sorry, darling…” and lifted her screaming sister up with her magic.  The filly scrambled and flailed in mid-air, wailing and crying.

Rarity gently kissed her horn, which made her stop and open her eyes. “I’ll be alright, Sweetie Belle.  Everypony will be alright.  This will be over soon and we can be together again!”

Sweetie tucked in her hooves, teary-eyed. “Promise?”

She smiled, with just a touch of strain in her face. “Y-yes, darling…I promise…”

She levitated Sweetie Belle over to Derpy, who placed her on her back, and hoofed her the saddlebags she’d dropped, “Better fasten your saddlebelt, kiddo!  Oh, don’t mind that parcel behind you, that’s just a special delivery for…for…” Derpy frowned and tapped her chin “…who was it for again?”

Rarity groaned, “For my mother and father, Derpy!  Just in case I…” she caught herself just in time, looking at Sweetie Belle’s suddenly wide eyes, and cleared her throat, “…in case I am a little late for my next visit to collect my dear little sister!”

Derpy gave a bubbly smile, “Oh?  Who’s that?”  At the flat look she got, she blushed and chuckled awkwardly again, “Oh right!  Sorry Rarity!  I just…heh…I don’t know your family too well and assumed you had another sister, and…well, that’s all...” She then spread her wings, “Well, we better get goin’, Sweetie Belle!”

“Sis…” the filly looked at Rarity with a positively heartbroken expression.

“I’ll be fine, darling…” Rarity said gently, feeling a few tears of her own sting to her eyes, and added almost in a whisper, “give my love to Mother and Father…”

And with two powerful strokes of her wings, Derpy rose…

…backwards.

And crashed right into the branches of a nearby tree, prompting a screech of fright from Sweetie Belle.

“Derpy!” Rarity yelled in horror.

“Sorry!” the pegasus spluttered from a muzzle dusted with snowy foliage, “I’ll never understand why they always put trees in back-up zones!”

And with a grunt, she popped right up through the canopy and rose into the air, Sweetie Belle gazing back at Rarity until they were out of sight.

*

“Come ooon!” Carrot Cake paced back and forth across the train platform, watched worriedly by his wife and children.  The station was jammed full of Ponyville locals waiting for the next ride out, standing or sitting in a strained, nervous silence.

And then a loud, familiar voice shattered it.  “Hey everypony!  While we’re waiting, let’s have fun!”

BOOM!  And the air was full of confetti, sparkles and streamers.

The Cake twins promptly squealed in delight from their stroller. But everypony else ignored it and Carrot kept muttering and pacing up and down, ignoring Pinkie Pie (as every pony wishing to retain some semblance of sanity needed to do at times).  But, of course, that didn’t stop the pink party pony from trying.

“Hey, everypony, look at me!” Pinkie yelled through a megaphone, dancing on top of an enormous ball with her hind hooves and rolling it up and down the platform.  When it didn’t get much attention, she grunted and redoubled her efforts…not realizing she was rolling the ball backwards towards the edge of the platform…

“There it is!” Cup Cake yelled, just before there was a boing and an “ooof…” from behind them.

The smoke from the train was just visible on the horizon.  Three trains had already filled up and left.  This one wasn’t the overnight Canterlot Express, but it would take them away from Ponyville at least…

As it grew closer, Pinkie hoisted herself back up on the train platform and squinted through her Handy-Dandy Pinkie Pocket Telescope, “It’s the train to Appleloosa…” she said as she saw the golden bull horns and brass ring sticking out of the engine’s fore, “…that’s pretty far away.  How long are you gonna be away?!  I’m gonna be really busy running Sugarcube Corner all by myself!” She paused, rubbing her muzzle thoughtfully as she looked at the crowd, “Although there might not be so many customers with all these other ponies on vacation…”

Carrot groaned and facehoofed, “Pinkie!  We’re all getting away from that thing!  Not going on vacation!  We’ll come back as soon as we know that dragon’s gone…”

“Okey dokie lokie!  Have a wonderful trip!” Pinkie bubbled, enveloping him in a giant, spine-cracking hug that made his eyes bulge out.

“NO!!” Cup Cake groaned with a facehoof, “Hurry up, Pinkie!  You’re coming too!”

She hitched back up most of the bags they’d brought to the station and began to hurry over to the rapidly-forming lines of ponies.

“But Mrs. Cake…”

“No other buts, Pinkie,” Carrot Cake interrupted, panting as he tried to recover his breath from being almost hugged to death.  He raised a hoof to her flank to hurry her along, pulling the twins’ stroller behind him, “Just get your ‘butt’ on that train!  Now!”

Pinkie twisted around, shaking her head and sticking her snout up in a snooty pose, “Nope!  I’m staying right here!  Twilight and the girls need me!”

“Pinkie!  We’ve been over this a hundred times!” Carrot Cake groaned in aggravation and rubbed his hooves over his temples, exasperated.

“That’s right…” Cup Cake turned and looked at their apprentice, her jaw set, “Pinkie, we’ve got to keep you out of danger!  You’ve already been through too much!”

“Do you remember every other time you went and got yourself in trouble for Twilight Sparkle and your friends?!” At Pinkie’s too-innocent smile, Carrot grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, “Well, we do, Pinkie!  And no!!  No, NO, NO!!! You’re not pulling another stunt like that this time!”

“But…the girls need me…” Pinkie said, her ears drooping.

“The Canterlot Guard will be here, Pinkie!” Carrot said, “Please, Pinkie…just…for us, just this one time!  Come with us and stay out of danger!”

“But I can’t go with you and just leave all my friends in danger!” Pinkie screeched, horrified, “Without me, they can’t use the Elements if we need to!” She waved a circle over her neck.

Cup Cake looked down, partly in shame and partly in exasperation, “We know that, Pinkie…but it’s like Carrot said – this time the Guard will take care of it.  It’s not Night Mare Moon!  It’s not that draconequus!  It’s a dragon!  A real, living, pony-eating monster!  Do you know what that means?!Please, it’s just too dangerous!”

As the train trundled to a stop, an immediate hubbub rose up as dozens of ponies tried to scramble aboard right away – much to the surprise and incredulity of the gaudily-dressed Appleloosa conductors and the few earth pony guests trying to get off.  Cup Cake hurried forwards, but Carrot Cake stepped closer to Pinkie.

“Pinkie…please do what we say!  Just this once!  Maybe Twilight and her friends need you, but we need you too...” He gestured with a hoof at his two children, who were both gazing up at their beloved foalsitter with adorable baby eyes, “Have you thought about how the twins will feel – about how Cup and I will feel – if you run off on another dangerous adventure with those ponies…and this time, you don’t come back?”

Wha-?!  This was new to Pinkie.  The idea that she might…

“Oh, but of course I’ll come back!” she said brightly, promptly jumping over to the stroller and pulling out the delighted twins for a cuddle, “how could I ever leave?!  I love my cuddly-wubbly Pound and Pumpkin!”

Carrot groaned and smacked his forehead again, “I didn’t really mean ‘not come back’, Pinkie!!!”

Confused, she looked up, “Huh?!  But you said that-“

“I meant what if you died?!” Carrot yelled, drawing strange looks from all the ponies around them, “If you died!”

Me?  Die?  Pinkie went ramrod straight as the thought hit her.

Cup slowly turned back from the train compartment door and came to stand next to her husband as he looked at Pinkie, still holding their children.  She returned their gaze without saying anything.

“Pinkie…” she began slowly, “…please just think of everypony who wants you to stay safe.  You think about the safety of Twilight and the others - and that’s all well and good - but you can’t keep putting your own life in danger for them when so many others are afraid you’ll never come back again…”

She stepped closer. “Remember the promise we made to your father, Pinkie?  Are you going to make Carrot and I liars?”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide.

She was - for the first time in her life that didn’t involve rainbow paint or baked bads - completely speechless.

Carrot sighed in relief as he gently reclaimed his children, “Well, I’m glad that’s settled.  Come on now, Pinkie – let the Guard take care of it this time!  Come with us to Appleloosa…with the ponies who love you…”

The ponies who love me… the thought was strange to Pinkie.

She felt herself being slowly herded towards the compartment door, glimpsed the conductor waving them inside, felt the narrow wooden floorboards of the Appleloosa express beneath her hooves…

The ponies who love me…

That used to mean a small number of ponies.  ‘Love’ used to be such a simple thing…

“All aboard!” the conductor dimly announced from somewhere.  She was vaguely aware of Mrs. Cake reaching up onto her hind legs to stow their bags on the racks overhead, Mr. Cake fastening the twins into foal harnesses and telling her to find a seat…

The ponies who love me…

There was the sharp, piercing sound of a whistle, and the sharp hiss of steam escaping from the train…

…chug…chug…chug…chug, chug, chug-chug-chug…

The ponies who love me…

Pinkie leapt up out of her seat, squealing, and roughly yanked one of the windows open…

“Pinkie!  NO!!” Carrot yelled, making a grab for her hind hoof as she leaped out the window.  There was an unbearable scream of dismay from the Cake twins as she vanished from their sight.

She hit the ground, rolled instinctively, and got to her hooves as the rapidly-accelerating train pulled right out of the platform.

She felt tears sting to her eyes as she saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake leaning out of the carriage window, fading fast into the distance.

The ponies who love me…

“PINKIIIIIIEEEEEEeeeee….”

*

Not a sound could be heard from a certain cottage near the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.

Which had every door, window, and even the chimney boarded up.

And every square inch of wood, stone and mortar covered in makeshift foliage.

And a pathway to the door with a crude sign planted every few meters along that warned ‘nopony or animal lived here at all, so please be a nice monster and go away’.

And a certain number of cute little animals hiding and trembling under the bed within.

One of them in the middle of the huddle not so little…

…with a long pink mane, yellow coat and wings.

And her teeth chattering on her hooves in terror.

*

 “Raindrops!  Silverspeed!  Get that thundercloud packed all nice and ready!  Lightning, rain, anything that could slow that thing down!  We’ll need it!” Rainbow Dash called, pulling Cloud Chaser free of the cloud she’d somehow managed to get herself tangled up in.

“Rainbow Dash!”  She turned to see Cloud Kicker flying over, puffing with the exertion of pushing a heavy cargo cloud in front of her.

“What’s this?” Rainbow asked impatiently as Cloud Kicker flapped to a halt and hopped on the cloud.

“Another idea, boss!  They’re old, but they might work!” The blonde pegasus leaned into the cloud and pulled out a wingfull of dark gray, baseball-sized gum-bos.  The gum-bos were sometimes used as a means of…well, of “gumming” up a cloud that had gotten overstuffed with rain or needed to be weighed down for some reason.  Inside its protective, water-proof casing, the gum was light as a feather, but when the seal was broken open, water made the stuff pop up like Pinkie’s instant cupcake mix.

Rainbow picked up a gum-bo from the cloud, frowning in confusion, “Ah…Cloud Kicker, not that I don’t enjoy playing a prank with a cloud or two from time to time but…”

Cloud Kicker shook her head and plucked up a gum-bo in her hoof.  She chomped lightly on the case and tossed it over-shoulder into a nearby cloud.  There was a soft pop, a tremble in the cloud, and it slowly descended down to the ground (crashing with a fwump onto the resting Raindrops, who poked her head up out of the mess wailing curses and shaking her hoof up at Cloud Kicker).

“The gum can get all these clouds down quickly,” she said, glancing around and pointing at some with her hoof, “When everything gets going, there won’t be a lot of time to move them, but some fog on the ground might help if the dragon goes for the earth ponies and unicorns.”

Ah, Rainbow thought,a quick cloud drop for cover, without even needing a few pegasi to move fast. “Well…it’s not a bad idea,” Rainbow conceded, “Go ahead and stash a few gum-bos for us behind that cumulus over there, but be quick about it!  We don’t have one second to waste!”

“Stash them?  For you?” Cloud Kicker frowned and her gaze hardened, “I’m going to be throwing them for you, boss...and kicking thunderclouds and giving that thing a taste of wing-blade!”

Rainbow sighed, “I told you, Cloud Kicker!  That’s all behind you now.  The most important thing is to get this done and get the weather team to safety!” She leaned close. “I know you wanna kick that thing’s flank just as much as I do, but I need somepony I can count on to get Blossomforth and all the others out of here before horseapples hits the hurricane!”

At the mention of Blossomforth, Cloud Kicker stiffened and looked worriedly over at the Ponyville hospital.  Rainbow nodded, “Exactly!  Are you gonna leave her with a busted wing getting out of town on her own with nopony else?!”

“I know that, Rainbow!” Cloud Kicker growled, “But it’s not fair to ask me to leave you and Fluttershy and all the others in danger either! I have to do something!”

Rainbow put a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “You’ve already done more than enough.  And, yeah, like I said, the most important thing is for somepony with a brain to lead the weather team out of here…and I can’t do it!” She grimaced and facehoofed as she realized exactly what she had just said, “’Cos I’m needed here, I mean!  ‘Cos of Twilight and the others.  Not that I don’t have a totally awesome brain and couldn’t lead everypony out!  But…ya know…” she waved a hoof dismissively.

Cloud Kicker nodded slowly, apparently choosing to ignore Rainbow’s gaffe under the circumstances (when normally she would’ve taken the ninny mercilessly). “No, I guess you can’t.” She shrugged, “Fair enough boss, but I’m turning back the instant I’ve got them to Cloudsdale evac zone!  No argument!” she fixed Rainbow with a glare.

Rainbow nodded to humor her, knowing it was the best she’d get out of her stubborn, impulsive but undoubtedly awesome assistant manager.  Cloud Kicker was fast enough…not as fast as Rainbow (and is anypony at all, she thought), but she knew that with a whole weather team following Cloud Kicker it would take her at least a couple of hours to get to Cloudsdale - let alone get back afterwards - and probably it would all be over by then…

As Cloud Kicker flew off into the cloud canopy with her gum-bos, Rainbow looked around.  Most of the weather ponies had finished clearing their skies of clean clouds, setting up rough banks and dark thunderclouds.  It looked appropriately ominous for a battle with dragon.  Rainbow just hoped the Guard pegasi would be savvy enough to guess it had all been left there for their benefit.

Suddenly, she heard a voice calling her name.  Rainbow looked down at the distinctive accent.  Zecora?  What does she want?

She zoomed down to the ground, taking the opportunity to try one of her new, steep pull-ups.  A mere two feet off the ground, Rainbow curled her back and snapped her body upright from a headlong plunge.

If Zecora was startled by her abrupt appearance and her stunt, she made no reaction beyond a faint twitch of her eyes, which irritated Rainbow for some reason.  She did make those stunts to impress ponies – or zebras – after all…

Zecora, from the look and smell of her, had finally gotten all that dragon crap off (though if Rainbow had any doubts she’d never willingly lay a hoof on the zebra before - well, she was sure now).  But, to her irritation, she was still wearing that annoying bone-thing in a ludicrous knot twisted into her mane.

Just what the hay is that thing foranyway?The pegasus didn’t much care for fashion and style in most ways, but, as could be testified by her proud, flawless spectrum, she’d give Rarity a run for her money when it came to treating your mane right.

“What’s up, Zecora?  Did you manage to find some awesome magic or something to help take down that dragon?!” She couldn’t resist flapping a couple of feet into the air and punching it with her hooves a few times.  She was well aware she had a tendency to show off in front of ponies she barely knew…but, what the hay, she was Rainbow Dash!  It was important they knew all about her awesomeness – especially Zecora, considering the state Rainbow had been in when they first met.

Zecora raised her eyebrows and shook her head, “It’s Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow raised her eyebrows. Okay, no rhyme - big trouble!! “Scoots?!  What about her?!”

“She is afraid now that her friends are gone.  Applebloom and Sweetie Belle must be on the run!”

Rainbow grimaced. Yeah, of course they would be.  And we couldn’t count on Scoots’ mule of a mom for anything…

“I have never seen her this way before…” Zecora said worriedly, glancing back over her shoulder, “She says your name ever more and more!”

“I get it, Zecora.  Where is she?”

“In the hospital next door to our stranger,” she frowned, “And if she stays there she might be in danger…”

“Huh?!  Danger?!  Why?  That big lizard is going to the hospital?!”

Zecora shook her head. “Not the dragon, that is not what I mean…” she frowned again, “I think Ponyville’s…other visitor is not what she seems…”

Rainbow grimaced – in all the excitement, she had almost forgotten about that messed-up, crazy mare in the hospital.  She ruffled her wings at the memory of being tossed into the air like a rag doll, “Yeah, you don’t need to tell me that!  That crazy pony is really dangerous!  I definitely don’t want Scootaloo hanging around her!” She snapped her wings and rose, nodding up at Cloud Kicker and waving with a hoof that she was going somewhere briefly.  The other pegasus nodded.

She was about to zoom off when Zecora suddenly spoke again.

“Hark!”

Huh? Rainbow hovered there, “What is it?”

The zebra had her head cocked to the side, seeming to be listening closely.  The pegasus followed suit, looking up and trying hard to listen - which wasn’t something Rainbow did much and was a bit of strain.

Then she heard it. Wings.  There was a faint flapping noise, drawing steadily closer.

The dragon!  Rainbow promptly shot up into the air and swivelled her head in all directions, looking for it, squinting in the gathering dark.

Wait…

It wasn’t just one set of wings.  Rainbow could hear irregular breaks and snaps in the rush of air.  It was many wings, coming in the same direction.

There was then the sound of a low, majestic fanfare.  Somepony in the distance was blowing a trumpet.

As she squinted, she saw the moon had risen through the clouds.

And a group of ranked and armored pegasi were descending from the face of the moon, led by a large chariot of gleaming silver.

Princess Luna had come at last.

*

Twilight galloped outside just in time to meet the royal procession in front of the town hall.  The ponies who hadn’t left town were gathering to meet the Night Militant for instructions, and the crowd was swelling fast.

Princess Luna was standing before the town hall with a grim expression on her face.

Last time they had met, Luna had still been shy and slightly awkward.  And who could blame her?  Centuries of cultural displacement and being portrayed as a children’s nightmare monster had to have made Luna a little conscious about her actions amongst her peaceful, docile subjects.

Now, however, she stood hard-faced, with her jaw set, eyes determined and driven by purpose.  She looked as Twilight had never seen her, garbed in fierce-looking, dark blue-enamelled greaves and vambraces, peytral, crupper, pauldrons, and the Luna Crown surmounted a helmet that – Twilight shivered – was faintly reminiscent of Night Mare Moon, though Luna’s face and mane were unmarked and plain to see.

Together with her armor, it was only the complete absence of that terrifying malice and evil in her eyes that stopped her from looking as fearsome as her former self had.

But if this worried Luna, she didn’t show it. She stood proudly before the crowd of nervous ponies and spoke using the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice.

“HEAR US, RESIDENTS OF PONYVILLE!  THE NIGHT MILITANT HATH ARRIVED!  KNOW THAT TOGETHER WE WILL PROTECT THEE FROM THE MONSTER OF THE EVERFREE WITH OUR VERY LIVES!”

“IF THOU HAST MADE PREPARATIONS TO LEAVE PONYVILLE FOR THE DURATION OF THIS MENACE, THEN WE URGEST THOU TO DEPART IMMEDIATELY!” the urgency in her voice was plain for Twilight to hear.

And why not? Twilight thought.She loves Ponyville too, after what happened during Nightmare Night…

“AND IF THOU WOULDST STAY, WE DIRECT THEE TO BARRICADE THYSELVES UNDERGROUND!  PONYVILLE TOWN HALL HATH A LARGE ENOUGH BASEMENT TO ACCOMMODATE THEE.  MAKE HASTE, FOR WE HATH LITTLE TIME BEFORE WE SEEK TO DRIVE THE FOUL CREATURE FROM ITS LAIR!”

There was an outbreak of activity at that, with several ponies starting to shuffle off, but then one voice spoke up.

“And what if we don’t want to run or hide, Your Highness?” asked Thunderlane loudly, “What if we want to stand and fight?!”

Well, he was born and raised in Ponyville, Twilight reflected.  It only made sense that he, being the tough and hot-headed pegasus he was, wouldn’t want to abandon it.

The princess gazed slowly at him, and a Militant pegasus snorted angrily, “Who is this who speaks without Our Mare Luna’s leave?”  He started forward, but Luna waved him off and spoke again.

“IF THOU WISHEST TO REMAIN AND ASSIST IN PONYVILLE’S DEFENSE, CITIZEN…THEN THOU AND ANY OTHER WHO WISHEST SO MAY REPORT TO MARSHALLE SILVER WING FOR THINE ASSIGNMENT.” She gestured with a hoof to the mare in gilded armor on her right.

The Night Militant resembled the guards Twilight had seen accompanying Luna the last time she had visited Ponyville.  They were mostly pegasi whose armor enchantment had darkened their coats and glamored their eyes and wings to appear reptilian - but now she could see several ranks of similarly-enchanted earth ponies and unicorns marching down off large transport chariots.  Every suit of armor gleamed pristine and unmarred, and not a single Guard bore any scar or visible injury.

A new army.  Just how well would they do against one of the greediest and most vicious monsters in the world?

There was an immediate rattle of activity.  Most of the ponies made for the town hall, but some stallions and even a few mares stepped forward to the Marshalle of the Night Militant, who nodded in turn and barked a few orders over her shoulder for them to be armored and briefed.  While Luna’s suppliers and officers hurried to obey, the princess herself trotted over to Twilight.

 “Twilight Sparkle…” Luna said with a quick nod, her voice back to normal volume, “…It is indeed pleasing to see thee again…though we wish ‘twere under better circumstances…” she glanced over at the shade of the Everfree forest. “Come.  We must speak in private…and thou shouldst bring thine friends with thee.”

*

“This Outcaste dragon’s arrival is most unanticipated,” Luna said grimly as she paced up and down the library floor, her glittering mane shimmering behind her helmet with each hoofstep, “We assure thee our sister is coming with all haste she can.”

The six ponies looked at her with not a little awe.  Luna had to have grown about a foot or so since last time they had met, and her voice had to have deepened at least half an octave – or so it seemed right now.  The sheer presence of the Princess of the Night ran over each of their coats and threatened to bowl them over.  Twilight wondered if it was this new side of her personality doing it or if Luna had simply been using an enchantment Twilight didn’t know to repress her aura of power during their last meetings.

Luna frowned at the ceiling, “We shall not lie to thee, fair ponies - this will not be easy.  Outcaste dragons are eternal predators, and the only way to end their gluttonous feasts is death.  Their size and power of flight make them difficult to combat through physical means, and mayhaps we will need a special weapon…a weapon capable of destroying a dragon…” she glanced at the chest in the corner of the library, “…and we found the smite of the Elements of Harmony most unpleasant…”

Applejack swallowed visibly, “Ah, p-princess, ah hate to interrupt, but…jus’ how big is that thing?”

Luna glanced at Twilight, who answered for her. “According to Zecora, about the size of a house.  Not counting the wings.”

Applejack groaned and pulled her hat down over her head. “Why didn’ anypony think about some way for fightin’ dragons before now?!”

Luna stared at her, and nodded slowly, “Indeed, fair Applejack!  We once possessed special weaponry in ages past for battles with winged predators…but no Outcaste hath been seen in this part of the world for centuries and the weaponry hath not survived.  Without it, we must depend on numbers and, wherever possible, the element of surprise.  Thou shalt be our first weapon, of course…”

Fluttershy gulped, trembling and looking for all the world like she wanted to run and hide under the rug (Twilight had already needed to drag her out from under her bed by the tail to get her to this impromptu meeting).

“Thou shouldst beware, however…” Luna said grimly, “The Elements of Harmony hath never been used against a dragon.  We cannot be sure of their effect.  If the Elements refuse to destroy it, then we must rely on the strength of the Night Militant.  Thou wouldst do well to abandon the field if such cometh to pass…”

“No way, Luna!” Rainbow scowled, shooting up into the air and swinging her hooves aggressively, “I’m not gonna run from that thing!  I don’t care how dangerous it is – I’m staying to fight!”

Luna’s eyes flickered briefly to her, “It warms my heart to see such courage, Rainbow Dash, but thou wouldst take care not to be brave to the point of foalishness.  Nopony in history hath ever had the strength to destroy an Outcaste dragon alone.”

Rainbow stiffened, and then, to everypony’s surprise, gave a curt nod, descending. “OK, fair enough!  That thing’s a dead-red killer dragon and I’m just a little pegasus…but I’m not running either way!  What’s the plan?!”

Subtle as always, Twilight groaned.

Luna, however, nodded approvingly, “Very good!  Thou art wise to come to action quickly!” She brushed her mane back, “Dear sister Celestia will be here shortly, and we shall seek to drive the dragon from its lair after her arrival.  In no small part thanks to the Zebronian ambassador, we know where it may be found nesting.  We plan to collapse its roof over its head.  With luck, the beast will be caught unawares and thou shalt…”

Suddenly, there was a deep tremor in the ground.  The library trembled and heaved repeatedly like somepony was ramming a giant hammer repeatedly into its trunk.  Everypony yelled in surprise and fell off their hooves.  Even Luna stumbled and grimaced with the effort of staying upright in her armor.  Everypony yelled ‘earthquake’, bookshelves rattled and spilled their contents everywhere, and almost every piece of furniture that wasn’t bolted down tipped over.

Twilight swayed, fighting to stay upright on hooves that shivered with every tremor, “Everypony, this isn’t an earthquake!  Something’s not right!”

And then, there was an enormous roar from outside, followed by the screams of dozens of ponies and the heavy beating of enormous wings.

“NO!” Luna roared, the royal voice falling back into play, “THIS IS TOO SOON!  WE MUST FACE IT AT ONCE!”

And with the deep grumble of a black hole collapsing around her, Luna was gone, teleporting outside the library and bellowing orders in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Slowly, everypony got to their hooves and looked at each other in horror.

“It’s here…” Twilight whispered, her heart hammering almost painfully against her ribcage.

Everypony looked at her with wide eyes.

Twilight turned and bolted for the Elements’ chest.

*

She glared down at the pony town, scowling.

All that secrecy and hunger for nothing.  It seemed her prey had been forewarned of her arrival after all.  Most of the soft, fat morsels she had spied from the forest were gone, and in their place ran iron-clad warrior ponies, brandishing weapons and falling into formation to meet her.  Most of the structures had been emptied or fortified too.

She snapped her fanged jaws petulantly.  It must have been the pest that entered with her - she should have finished off that annoying pony before she went into hiding – or maybe it was the interlopers she thought she smelled in the clearing last night…

Well, no matter.  There was still plenty of meat to be had.

The warrior ponies clad in their hard steel casings were an impossible meal, but even as she rose above them, she saw what looked like columns of ponies fleeing the town.  Those would do for now…and she was not yet too senile to notice - from the crude, hasty state of the ponies’ defences - that warning of her presence had come late.  Late enough for more tasty refugees to likely be only a few short miles away.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from below like the roar of one of her kin.  It was loud, clear, and authoritative – not unlike the cry of the might Helgedad himself cowing the dragonflight – but what really drew her attention was the sheer boldness in the speaker’s choice of words.

“COME TO MEET THY DOOM, MONSTER!”

After her eyes adjusted, she saw the impudent creature.  The speaker was an anomaly: an armored pony - winged, horned, and crowned - obviously a leader of some sort.  But most intriguingly, she radiated an aura of raw power that made her appear more a creature of innate magic than any pony she had ever seen.

The dragon licked her lipless muzzle.  Interesting.  At this rate, she might even face half a challenge in claiming her new kingdom…

She stretched out her jaws and bellowed mocking laughter down at the pony leader.  It would almost be worth allowing the remaining fodder on the ground their escape for the chance to show that loud-voiced insect and her cohorts their bravado…

But no…she was hungry…

Roaring, she drew back her neck, eyes fixed on the ground.  She furled her wings, flipped her tail and dived.

Her massive jaws opened, and the air before her became a living vortex of sickly green fire.

*

There was no time!  She had heard the roaring.  She had to get loose!

The mare pulled against the cuffs, inching her booted forehoof closer and closer to her muzzle.

Almost there….got it!

The steel links of the chains bit painfully into her flesh as she managed to unhook her shoulder.  The popping of the joint was not a pleasant sensation either, but she knew she could not stop.

Straining to keep her rapidly-numbing foreleg from falling back, she worked her tongue around it her mouth, trying to pry something loose.  Finally, her tongue dug around her inner jaw and pushed up the broken sliver of steel behind her teeth, which she gripped tightly in her jaws.

As she dug the pointy end into the fetter’s lock, she couldn’t help but feel a brief ripple of satisfaction at her success – she would have to remember to thank Nurse Redheart for this piece of metal…

With a click, the fetter opened obediently, the links of chain giving a dozen tiny shrieks of protest as they fell back over the bedside to the floor.

Yes!  Elated, the mare growled and leaned over, ignoring the pain spreading through her dislocated foreleg.  Time enough to tend to that when she was free.

She bit down on her pick tightly again and rammed it into the other fetter - much easier to reach now that she could move onto her shoulder – and within moments, it clicked loose and she surged up onto her rump…

…promptly banging her head on the overhanging headboard.  She yelled in pain and surprise, and her precious sliver went flying from her mouth.

NO!  The mare felt like screaming in frustration as she rose up again.  She needed that to get free!

The precious, priceless piece of torn cheap steel was now all the way across the room from her bed.  How could I have made a stupidmistake like that?!  I haveto get out of here!

There was another roar in the air.  There was not much time.  She needed to get her hind legs free.

She leaned forward slowly, wincing at the pain still in her weakened ribcage, and chomped down on the chain holding her left hind leg.  She knew she couldn’t bite through it, but maybe she could jerk it loose from the bed frame…

After about a minute of futile yanking…

Clink!

She looked up in astonishment as her pick was dropped back into the steel surgical instrument tray next to her bed…

She slowly looked up to see two tiny, light-brown forehooves resting on the tray.

And peeking out from behind them, the tiny muzzle, wide purple eyes and short mane of a pegasus filly…