new breed

by Lunafan1k

Rating: everyone
Tags:
Length: 292214

personal use only

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-25 15:57:16 UTC

prologue

Prologue

“Something wicked this way comes…”

    “Are these it?”

    The stocky zebra stallion gave a curt nod, but his pride was unmistakable. With clear blue eyes, he tracked the other stallion with him. Celestia’s Sun beat down on the tent the pair conferred in, turning drab canvas into a golden orange and negating the need for any artificial light.

    “There should be one more,” the unicorn said with a frown, and shined his flashlight into each of the crystals, heedless of the fiery light filling the tent. The dull yellow glow of his horn was nearly lost in the sunlight as he repositioned the flashlight with his magic.

    The zebra frowned. “We found no more,” he said defensively.

    The pony sighed and shook out his silver streaked mane. His yellow coat was almost the same color as the sand beneath his hooves, making it easy to lose sight of the aging unicorn amidst the desert dunes they were camped upon.

    “Which one is missing, Professor?” the zebra asked in a much more gentle tone.

    “Would you believe I don’t know?” The pony gave a sardonic smile. “I swear to you, it’s like Luna herself cursed this expedition.”

    The zebra couldn’t help but laugh. “I would wager that Princess Celestia would curse this excursion before her sister,” he pointed out, dragging a hoof over his short trimmed mane. “Is it not her law that makes the very act of looking for these treasonous to her crown?”

    The pony answered with a grimace, “Yes, it is. She purged every written account from all public records. Worse, I had to be careful to ensure not a single mare or government agent was amongst the workers. Do you have any idea--”

    “I know as well as you do,” the zebra interrupted, nudging his friend with an easy smile. “I was with you for every step along this path. Let us not forget who had to face the current Caesar for permission to dig here.”

    The unicorn clapped a hoof over the zebra’s shoulder. “Indeed, my friend. Were it not for your years of service in his Guard, I doubt he’d even let you present my request. I can only credit our good fortune, and your smooth tongue, that we were allowed this opportunity.”

    “You give me too much credit, Professor,” the zebra nickered. “After all, your reputation for honoring zebra-kind’s traditions, even as you sift through our past, cleared much of the way. I dare say you should have been a zebra yourself. I’m sure I could find the appropriate dyes…”

    The unicorn laughed and gave the zebra a one legged hug before wandering back over to the table. A sigh parted his lips, “Still, to have come this close and come up short by one…”

    “Professor!!” a cry came from in camp. The zebra and unicorn met each other’s eyes with knowing fear.

    “She couldn’t--”

    “Let us not jump to conclusions, Professor. We do not yet know if there is cause for alarm,” the zebra answered, but worry darkened his features.

    The sandy colored unicorn pushed his way out of the tent, squinting against the blinding light that seemed to assault him from above and below at once. His eyes adjusted and the glowing sand of the Samaren Desert came into focus, followed shortly by the cloudless expanse of washed out blue that that served as the sky over this desolate land.

    “What is it?” the unicorn called to the young zebra that had raised the cry.

    “There, on the horizon!” he answered and pointed a hoof. The Professor felt his chest tighten as he turned to look, shielding his eyes with a foreleg against the early-afternoon sun. It took him but a moment to make out the chariot winging its way towards them. Upon it he could just make out the silhouette of a large regal pony, flanked by pegasi…

    “The Princess comes,” the zebra said softly from behind the Professor.

    “We need to hide the orbs,” the unicorn answered, panic seeping into his tone.

    “Neigh,” the zebra sighed. “If she is coming, then it is far too late for such subterfuge. We must shield the other workers from the consequences of our actions.”

    The Professor looked at his friend long and hard. He wanted to argue, but was met by the zebra’s unwavering gaze. Finally, he let out a long sigh and lowered his head. “You’re right. Let’s go meet Princess Celestia.”

    The chariot and its escort arrived in due time. The procession circled the encampment once before landing on a dune just outside the small collection of tents and overawed workers. When the chariot came to a halt, the two pegasi drawing it slipped out of their harnesses and joined their compatriots, who had flanked the chariot during the flight.

    The moment the Princess’ golden shod hooves touched the sand, everypony in camp bowed low. The quartet of royal guard fell into place around her with a ritualistic precision, their golden armour glinting dangerously in the blazing sunlight, as she strode forward to greet her subjects.

    “You may rise,” Celestia said. Her voice was filled with warmth… warmth different from that the workers had endured those past months in the desert. Every eye in the camp came to rest on the pure white coat of the Princess, her multi-hued mane fluttering in a breeze that ran counter to the wind that swept across the dunes. Golden shoes and tiara glinted brightly in the sun, as well as the heavy gold necklace/chest-piece adorned tastefully with gems. All of her accoutrements seemed horribly out of place in the scorching desert, but the Princess did not show even a hint of discomfort at the oppressive heat.

    “P-princess Celestia…” the Professor stammered and stepped forward to present himself, “I apologize for the lack of accommodations. We were not expecting somepony of your… stature to visit our little dig.”

    The Princess smiled gently as she looked down to the unicorn. “Professor… Relic was it?”

    The stallion’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why… yes! I’m surprised you remember me.”

    “I do my best not to forget my little ponies,” she noted with an almost mischievous grin. “I am, however, unfamiliar with your companion.”

    “Quagga, my Princess,” the zebra answered formally.

    “Well met, Quagga,” the Princess responded. “I do believe you both know why I am here.”

    The Professor swallowed visibly, and seemed on the verge of losing his nerve when the zebra braced him from the side. “Yes Princess, we suspect we know what the purpose of your visit is,” the zebra answered for his friend.

    “Then let us adjourn to your tent,” she ordered, her expression growing stern, “we have much to discuss.”

    “I-I want to be clear t-that these were purely my actions…  P-princess,” the Professor stammered, “the other workers here are innocent of breaking any… any laws.”

    The expression on the Princess’ face darkened. “We will discuss this away from prying eyes and ears,” she stated firmly. The Professor wisely kept his mouth shut as Celestia took the lead. The group headed towards the large tent the orbs were stored within, pausing just outside as the Princess issued commands to the pegasi following in her wake. “Commander Ironfeather? Secure this tent. Nopony is to enter or leave until I give my say so.”

    “Yes, Princess,” the lead guard answered with a salute. He immediately positioned two guards to the side of the tent flaps, while he and the remaining guard patrolled the perimeter of the tent. The unicorn glanced nervously to his companion, who in turn only nudged him towards the tent. Professor Relic followed behind the nearly glowing form of Princess Celestia, his head bowed with an air of certain doom.

    A gasp from the Princess brought his head back up, and he watched her eyes search over their find. “I suspected you might have found one…” she whispered breathlessly, “…but four? I am impressed, Professor.”

    The unicorn smiled weakly at the compliment, but pride was corrupted by the simple fact he would very much likely land in the royal dungeons for this discovery. Quagga paused a moment to close the tent flaps behind them, sealing the trio in the stuffy tent. Princess Celestia’s brief moment of surprise passed and her horn began to glow, a glow that the tent reflected.

    “We can speak in peace now,” the Princess said simply. “My spell will prevent any sound from leaving this tent.”

    “D-dare I ask why?” the Professor stammered.

    “So that I may pronounce judgment over you and your friend.”

    “He’s innocent!” the Professor cried suddenly, drawing a surprised look from the zebra. “He didn’t--!”

    “Spare me your hysterics, Professor,” Celestia’s voice dipped dangerously.

    “The Princess is correct, my friend,” Quagga inserted, “it does no good to hide my hoof in these events. Were it not obvious before, a simple inquiry to the Caesar would cement my role in this.”

    “But… but…” the unicorn stammered, looking back and forth between Goddess and zebra.

    “Professor… whatever shall I do with you,” Celestia sighed, sounding all the world like a long suffering mother contemplating a misbehaving foal.

    “I suspect that I will end up in the dungeons,” he answered pitifully.

    “Why did you do this?” she asked, reaching out to roll one of the orbs along the table with her hoof.

    “Balance,” he said softly, “there is no balance in Equestria. We are ruled by feminine powers. By you and your sister…”

    “You believe that we are a problem?” she asked, her tone inscrutable.

    “No Princess!” the unicorn cried. He paused to take a steadying breath, and carefully chose his next words. “There is a preponderance of the feminine in Equestria. I would surmise that the ‘Elements of Harmony’ are a predominantly feminine influence upon this land. The fact that the only historic examples of ponies to ever wield this power were exclusively mares seems to confirm this hypothesis. The current team, the team previous to them… and they were not the first wielders of this power, but every one of those is or was a mare. I found references to the elements as far back as the first written records, indicating that their influence has changed and evolved over the years. I found references to a ‘rainbow of power’ for instance, which I surmise to be an earlier incarnation of these elements. The events of Hearth’s Warming could possibly be related to the Elements. I even found references to them amidst ancient legends.

    “But buried amidst this research, I found references to indicate a second set of Elements existed at one time: The Elements of Justice. They represent a purely masculine influence, possibly one that could bring balance to Equestria and beyond.”

    Celestia considered these words solemnly for several moments before turning to the zebra. “And you? Why are you here?”

    “The Professor is my friend,” he answered simply. “I also believe he may be on to something. Among my kind, we have long held rumors similar to the elements the Professor has now found. There are whispered stories of an ancient magic, and of the six stallions that once wielded it. But among these legends lies the story of the destroyer, ‘he who must not be named’. With a body most profane, he was the very embodiment of the evils of this world. Our tales say that he was created through the corruption of these ancient powers. The Elements my friend has sought are most likely the artifacts of this ancient power, if not the source of power themselves. Thusly, these are items that must be protected. They may be as powerful as my friend hopes, but they are also dangerous. Care must be taken; if my friend can find them, then so can less upstanding stallions.”

    Celestia turned to look at the Professor again. “What did you make of this legend?”

    “Simply put, Princess, terrifying,” the unicorn sighed. “But research indicated some surprising results. During the time of this… villain’s existence, the data I’ve been able to unearth indicates that birth rates pony-wide equalized. For the only time in the existence of Equestria, the birth rates of male and female foals were roughly equal. Despite the horrors this Demon-stallion represented, Equestria saw a golden age of prosperity. This is not a defense of this monstrosity, and ending his reign was not just a good thing, but a victory for all that is right and good in the world. But I cannot ignore the fact that for a brief period of time, the masculine was equal to the feminine. I will admit concern that there may be an inherent conflict between the two, one that cannot be resolved. If so, then these elements will need to be destroyed, not just hidden. But if there is a chance, even a small one, that reintroducing these elements could be a positive influence upon Equestria…  then I have to try.”

    The Princess eyes carefully swept from unicorn to zebra and back. She watched each of them closely, weighing their words and their hearts. They had both been earnest and honest with her, of that she was sure. Finally, she allowed herself to relax, her magic softening from the harsh possibility of needing to… She shook her head and drove the thought from her mind. She would have done what was necessary, but they had proven to her it would not be required.

    “I have made my decision,” she stated, fixing them both under her harsh gaze. “You will both be accompanying me to Canterlot.”

    The unicorn sighed and nudged the zebra. “I hope the dungeons are more comfortable then this damnable desert…” he joked weakly.

    “At least it should not be as hot,” Quagga answered, but his gaze remained on Celestia. “However, I suspect we are not going to the dungeon.”

    The unicorn looked stricken. “Surely they wouldn’t go straight to an execution?!? There hasn’t been one of those for…!”

    Celestia couldn’t help herself, and covered her mouth to stifle a soft giggle. “No, you are not to be executed. You will both be placed in a very special sort of prison. From there, you will continue your research, with access to materials that no other pony has had access to for well over three millennia.”

    “See, a…” the unicorn moaned, then blinked owlishly as the news soaked in. “Wait, what?”

    The zebra raised an eyebrow. “We are not to be punished?”

    “You both will be… in a manner of speaking,” said Celestia, an impish smile crossing her features. “You both have done much, and succeeded fantastically. I seeded those very clues you both have found, and placed the laws to prevent those of weak moral conviction from pursuing. Individually, you only had half a picture, but together, you were able to piece those clues together to form a whole. As such, you will both be placed in a very special position. You will be privy to the truth, the real truth, behind the Elements of Justice and their creation.”

    “They do just ‘appear’ in the legends,” Quagga stated, then gave a slight grin at his friend’s wide eyes. It was slowly sinking into Professor Relic’s mind what the Princess had just said, and he was either on the verge of tears, a whirlwind celebration, or just collapsing in relief.

    “There is a reason for that,” she answered. She smiled down at the Professor and gave him a gentle nudge. “Are you alright, Professor?”

    “I…  I…” he stammered, “…I’m not being arrested?”

    “Officially you both are,” she stated simply, “but it will be a ruse, for now. Once back in Canterlot, you will both have access to the records to tell you everything about what you have been searching for. Records I have kept out of the public dissemination.”

    “B-but… why?” the unicorn cried.

    “They are a danger,” Quagga answered for the Princess.

    “Precisely,” Celestia sighed. “It is my belief that this world was created by the Elements of Harmony, thus their feminine influence is and integral part of Equestria. But in time I realized that there would be a severe population problem. I made a concerted effort to balance Equestria in the distant past. Eventually I realized that the magic needed for this undertaking was beyond my abilities, even as a Goddess. I set about a ritual in an attempt to create a magic so divine it would outshine even me. Those efforts lead me to create the elements you have found here, the Elements of Justice. I created six elements, only five of which have physical shells, with an unnamed element mirroring the same from the Elements of Harmony.”

    “If I may, Princess,” the unicorn interjected. “What were… are these new elements? I couldn’t find them by name.”

    Celestia smiled as she answered, “I created them as a reflection of the Elements of Harmony. Those elements, as you know, are: Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness. As such, I mirrored those elements into more masculine influences, with some assistance from a very ancient dragon and friend at the time. Thus they were: Courage, Discipline, Sacrifice, Wit, and Mercy. I invested much of my magic into their creation, and my friend eventually sacrificed himself in their final days. Styrex was a very powerful and ancient dragon, and he saw that my efforts would result in sacrificing my own life and divinity. To prevent this, he stepped in and sacrificed himself, giving all his life energy to the creation of the final element. Only the spark, just as one is required to activate the Elements of Harmony, would activate these Elements. Fortunately, they quickly found worthy stallions to wield them, and Equestria experienced a long period of peace and prosperity.

    “Then ‘It’ happened.”

    “It?” Quagga asked carefully.

    “Yes, it,” Celestia sighed. “These new Elements were created by me, not the power that had created the Elements of Harmony, but invested of my own divine influence and the essence of an old and wise dragon. The effort of their creation sent me into torpor for centuries, leaving many a pony to believe I had perished, and eventually I was forgotten as an old ponytale. Unfortunately, this group included my sister Luna, who went into hiding for the duration in her grief. The weakness of my elements was discovered during this time; they are relatively easy to corrupt. Do not misunderstand me, the Elements of Harmony can be corrupted as well, their bearers are only ponies after all. But my creations were more prone to such a fall...”

    “Do you know why that is?” the Professor asked breathlessly, in awe at the flood of information the Princess was giving them.

    “Yes,” she said softly, and drew a slow breath, “because I created them.

    “The Elements of Harmony were created by a divine force well beyond my comprehension, beyond even Discord’s comprehension, though he was wise to fear them. A Goddess, or perhaps even a God, that stands well above the sphere of my influence created these Elements. Or perhaps the Elements themselves are that power, I cannot know; it is beyond my ability to know. But I created the Elements of Justice, and I am not nearly as strong as that divine power. As such, my creations are more flawed, more susceptible to corruption. Thus, with the corrupted element of Sacrifice, the self proclaimed demon-God took possession of the remaining elements, and corrupted them as well. As I know from experience, even a God or Goddess cannot embody all the elements all the time, and that eventually led to his downfall. From these events I discovered my elements were dangerous and, upon recovering from my torpor, I hid them.

    But I knew they would still be needed sometime in the future. More, I found I was incapable of destroying them, so I could only surmise that they had some purpose I could not yet fathom. Thus I seeded a hoof-full of carefully crafted clues, some with the help of my sister, and watched and waited. This would allow me to test those stallions who sought out my elements. I would see who chased them, who desired power, and who had a pure heart and clear mind to resist the corruption that would tempt them the remainder of their lives.

    “Thus, here we are,” Celestia finished with a smile. “That is why I queried your reasons. My spell allowed me to know if you were speaking truth or not. If you were not, I was prepared to take action.”

    “If we had been…” the unicorn gasped, a hoof touching his throat.

    “Neither of you would have left this tent.”

    “One moment Princess,” the zebra gently interrupted, even as the Professor seemed about ready to faint from the revelation. “You said there were five elements with physical shells. The diggers were only able to find these four.”

    “I did intend to ask you about that,” Celestia said softly. “You are missing an element. They should have all been together… are you sure it was not missed?”

    “Positive,” the zebra answered, “I inspected the site personally. These were the only four amidst the ruins, and they were on the lowest floor of the crypt.”

    “Which one is missing?” Professor Relic recovered enough to ask.

    “Sacrifice,” Celestia answered, a shadow of worry crossing her face, “you are missing ‘his’ element, the Element of Sacrifice.”

chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Happily Ever After”

    Surreal.

    Yes, that was the word she was looking for: surreal.

    It was surreal to find herself in the market, picking out groceries. It was surreal to look at the ponies about her, to see the multiple colors of their coats blurring together in a rainbow hued smear. It was surreal to be standing under the bright, if hardly warming, sky of an early spring still struggling to shrug off the last vestiges of winter. It was surreal to see ponies going about their business without so much as a glance at each other, as though they were intentionally ignoring one another. It was surreal to listen to the venders hawk their wares, arguing and haggling with their customers for every last bit as if it mattered more than life itself. It was surreal to hear the occasional cry of a foal before being placated by a quick thinking parent. It was surreal to see this avenue so full of life when less than a year ago she remembered the smoldering ruins of this city while the imps ran rampant.

    “You gonna buy that tomater, or you gonna squeeze the juice out of it?”

    The mare’s attention snapped back to the tomato she’d been rolling between her hooves. With a blush she handed over her bits to the graying sales-stallion, too lost in her thoughts to bother haggling down the price. Instead, she simply scooped the last of the groceries into her saddle bags and worked her way through the crowd of ponies. They moved with such purpose and intent that they were oblivious to the small khaki mare as she paused in the center of the thoroughfare, her head tipped back to look at a stray cloud drifting overhead. Her eyes clouded as she became lost in thought once more, where it conjured shadows of the things that had been dubbed imps.

    She remembered them clearly, even now. They bore a passing resemblance to a gryphon, but only distantly so. They stood on two legs, with lanky, wiry bodies covered in lean muscles. Their flesh, coated in an almost living darkness borne of the stars, clung so tightly to them they appeared to be perpetually starving. Their torso and hips were so emaciated they bordered on skeletal, barely seeming powerful enough to support their massive bat-like wings. Their legs ended with a trio of clawed toes reminiscent of some sort of bird, every bit as prehensile as their hands, and the talons honed to razor sharpness. But that discounted their beaks, long and broad, ending with a terrible downward hook that she herself had witnessed rending into…

    She paused and shook her head, sending her short indigo mane flying as she dispelled the horrific image from her mind’s eye even before it could fully form. Other thoughts leapt forward to fill the void, and clung stubbornly as she tried to shake them loose as well. The feel of armour closed about her, helm sites filling her vision with targeting and system information. The thrill of the engines and wings propelling her normally Equestria-locked form aloft at dizzying speeds. The distinctive whine as she threw her hooves forward, launching blue-white plasma bolts at the Imps. The desperate weaving about the buildings, diving in and out of narrow streets designed poorly for even a casual flying pegasus, much less power armour tearing along a just below the speed of sound with a hoard of screeching imps following in her wake.

    “Move it kid!”

    The mare was jostled as a larger pony pushed past her, and she mumbled a barely heard apology of some sort. She stared at the startlingly azure stallion strut past, his nose so far in the air that his neck had to hurt. But that wasn’t why she stared. She stared at him because, quite simply, he didn’t know who she was. He didn’t remember the nervous mare in the green suit that the Sister Princesses introduced to the whole of Canterlot in the wake of that terrible battle.

    That struck her. She wasn’t sure why, but it struck something deep inside her. Perhaps it was a small sliver of naiveté falling away, never to be recovered. She could walk to the park where her name, Clockwork Key, code named Dragonfly, resided with five others. She could put her hoof on a statue that bore her likeness proudly, and yet no pony would connect them together. It had been nearly a year since the events that brought about those statues and recognition, and every pony had forgotten and moved on with life.

    A sudden breeze made the pony shiver visibly and she turned towards the place she called home, feeling not entirely “there” at the moment. With a lowered head she trudged down the lane, finding the road home unexpectedly empty after the crowded market.

    It was surreal.

    There was no pony to greet her when she got home.

    Clockwork kicked the door closed behind her, but the heavy wooden door glided shut so smoothly it hardly reflected her sour mood. Rather than brood on it she shrugged out of the saddlebags, still brimming with purchased food, and set them on the rich wooden floor of the manor’s foyer.

    “I remember arguing against getting this place,” she sighed and patted a hoof fondly on the rich wooden table by the door, its simple vase and singular lily soothing against the tempest swirling in her mind.

    “I’m back!” she called into the house, nosing past the foyer and into the richly appointed sitting room. Soft cream upholstered couches and multi-colored pillows were artfully scattered upon a woven red and gold carpet that Rainbow Star had brought home as a gift from the Diamond Dog delegates. A handful of books were scattered about as well, all in the process of being read before the massive fireplace, which somehow always had a comforting blaze crackling within. The small mare could feel the lure of its gentle heat, ready to work warm trails through her still chilled coat. Only the arrival of another pony prevented her from following through on that temptation.

    “You’re back!” the gray unicorn cried, appearing behind Clockwork in an explosion of pink smoke. Her pink and purple striped mane bounced as she ducked forward to greet the other pony.

    “I got the food Skillet asked for,” the small khaki mare said with a thin smile. “And you were right; I should’ve worn a scarf. It’s a lot chillier than I expected out there.”

    The other mare grinned broadly. “I toldja so,” she chuckled, “I’ve lived in Canterlot all my life.”

    “It’s after Winter Wrap-up,” Clockwork complained, “it should be warmer.”

    “I always figured it was part of the higher altitude, it just stays colder longer,” the gray unicorn answered with a shrug as she opened up the saddlebags. “Oooh, chocolate! Score!”

    “Flourish!” Clockwork protested as the gray mare, along with the saddlebags of food, vanished in a puff of pink smoke. The short mare stomped a hoof in frustration before chiding herself. It was just Flourish after all, and getting angry would do her no good.

    For a moment Clockwork considered strongly wandering over to that pillow by the fireplace, plopping down, and letting the soothing warmth strip away the chill that still clung to her. Her eyes lidded from the siren call of lazing before the fire, but she shook it off. Her mood would only darken further if she were left alone with her thoughts.

    Having made her decision, she left the sitting room behind and slipped through the dining room. She moved past the rich wooden dining table that could easily seat twenty… which seemed vastly overkill to her when there were only seven of them. Eight or nine at the most if one or both of the Princesses decided to swing by in order to hide from whatever official function that demanded their attention.

    Clockwork was just about to push through the swinging door to the kitchen when a loud crash beyond it made her jump, and her ears flattened as steel cookware clattered against the tiled kitchen floor. Given the name shouted by two voices in the room beyond, and the sudden silence that followed, Clockwork was sure who the source of that disruption was. With a smirk, she pushed the door open and slipped into the kitchen.

    The kitchen was the domain of their cook, friend, advisor, and coordinator, and had been built to his exacting specifications. He was very particular about “HIS” kitchen, with its steel appliances that operated off plasma heating elements Clockwork designed for him, large countertop areas for working and cutting and preparing, plenty of places to sit while working in deference to his ongoing leg problems, and lowered racks of cookware within easy reach of an Earth pony. In short, he had ensured he was the master of his kitchen, and it showed… except when Flourish got in the way. Which, given the state of the room and the number of pots and pans lying on the floor, there was ample evidence that she had indeed gotten in the way and gotten away.

    “Ah, there you are, Little Key!” the master of his domain cried, a large steel gray stallion with a broad jaw and slicked black mane. “When you see Flourish, tell her she is on dishwashing duty tonight, ya?”

    “Sure thing, Skillet. I didn’t forget anything, did I?” Clockwork asked as she moved towards the mess of pots and pans littering the floor, leaning down to pick one up with her mouth to place it in the sink.

    A muscular gryphoness with tawny fur was picking up more of the pots and pans as she answered for the stallion, “Flourish had her muzzle in the bags before Skillet could take them from her. You know how she is…”

    “It’s a wonder she’s not two-hundred pounds and so big she can’t even move, given all she eats,” Clockwork grumbled, and helped pick up the last of the cookware. She then leaned against one of the counters while the gryphoness washed her claws and moved to a nearby preparation counter.

    “She is spared such fate by fast metabolism.” Skillet chuckled as he dumped out the contents of the saddlebags onto the counter. “I do not see anything you forgot, Little Key. Only chocolate is gone.”

    “Blame Flourish for that,” Clockwork complained, only to blink at the broad smile from the stallion.

    “Then it work, ya?” he asked as he separated the tomatoes onto the cutting board.

    “It… did?”

    “Ya, I always get chocolate whenever shopping for food,” Skillet answered as he quickly gripped a knife and began slicing the freshest of the tomatoes. “It keep her from rest of my ingredients.”

    Clockwork blinked, and then gave a weak chuckle. “I see.”

    Skillet offered the mare a broad grin about the handle of the knife, which served to make him look far creepier than he intended, before going back to his preparations. Clockwork just shook her head, and turned just in time to catch the gryphon as she snapped a carrot slice out of the air with her beak and begin chewing on it experimentally.

    “I thought you only ate meat?” Clockwork asked.

    “I do…” she answered, then looked at the celery and carrots she was slicing, “I did. Skillet is most… convincing in getting me to try other dishes. After all, it is difficult to get fresh meat here in the city, and I still need to eat.”

    Clockwork swiped a carrot slice and chewed on it thoughtfully. “The carrots are still a touch bitter. They’ll sweeten up later in the spring.”

    The gryphon nodded and went back to her cutting. “Something is bothering you.”

    “Am I that easy to read, Filigree?” Clockwork asked sheepishly, rubbing a foreleg across her nose.

    “We seven have lived together for nearly a year,” Filigree noted, “and it is hard not to pick up on the cues we each have. It is good we have private rooms to get away from one another, or we would have been at each other’s throats within the second month.”

    “Was that the music volume argument, or the chore rotation argument?”

    “Does it matter?” the gryphoness asked with a grin, popping a slice of celery into her mouth.

    “No, I suppose it doesn’t,” she sighed. “If I could define what was wrong, I would.”

    “Then try. Cutting is boring; I can give you enough of my attention to listen.”

    Clockwork grinned. “Don’t let Skillet hear you say that.”

    “Hear her say what?” Skillet asked.

    “I said doing the cutting is boring,” Filigree answered.

    “Ya,” Skillet answered with a shrug, “but has to be done.”

    “HAY!” Clockwork cried. “You always read me the riot act when I complained about it!”

    “That is because, Little Key, you were little filly prone to whining,” he answered with a grin. “Besides, I try those old tricks with gryphon, she look at me like I grow second tail.”

    Filigree snorted, “I am not willing to make a game of it.”

    “See what I mean?” Skillet chuckled, and went back to his tomato slicing. “How can I work with that?”

    “Well that didn’t work,” Clockwork grumbled.

    “I understand necessity. It makes no sense to me to add frivolity to a necessary, if boring, chore,” Filigree answered with a smirk. “You have not yet said what is bothering you, I notice.”

    “I don’t know,” Clockwork reiterated. “It’s strange. I walked through town to do the groceries, and my mind starts conjuring up images of the imps we fought. The memories, the thrill of the fight, the adrenaline pounding in my ears…”

    “…the fearing for our lives…” Skillet interjected, causing Clockwork to smile crookedly.

    “Fearing for our lives too,” she amended, “but after all that, we still won. We beat the Nightmare and drove her imps back. We were awarded titles and medals in front of everypony. Yet when I was in town, I got pressured by sales-ponies, jostled by idiots, and generally ignored by everypony. It’s not that I’m an attention horse, but it’s like everything we did was forgotten.”

    “The ponies want to return to their normal lives,” Filigree said simply as she scooped the sliced remains into a bowl before taking out another carrot and celery stalk to begin the slicing process anew. “We were the heroes of the day, but that day has passed.”

    “That’s just it. It all feels so… surreal,” she sighed and rested her head on her folded forelegs. “We went from heroes to just being one of the crowds. No book or story I’ve ever read talks about what happens after ‘the end’. How does someone who experienced so much go back to being ‘normal’ again?”

    “If I knew the answer, I would tell you,” Filigree said. “I have come from much different circumstances than yours; my normal was the receiving end of a lash after all. I started as a servant and a bodyguard, and now am a titled lady fit to have her own servants, should I choose to.”

    Clockwork sat up and looked slightly pained. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t thinking about how it affected --“

     “You express legitimate concerns, Clockwork Key,” Filigree interrupted, “I assure you I am not simply wiping them away with a sweep of my wing. I am trying to say that I understand. You are correct, it does feel unreal. I continually expect to wake up and find this was all a fever created dream, that the families Rainbow Star introduced me to are nothing more than a figment of my imagination, that friends who consider me as an equal among them are just some desperate delusion from deep in my mind. As such, I am thankful for the reminders that all this is real. The rain that catches you unawares, the bad luck of stubbing a claw in the night, the pony who turns their music up too loud when you’re trying to sleep. The little uncertainties and problems remind me that this is real, not some perfect delusion my mind created because I could no longer stand the strain of my life.

    “In short, we are living what happens after ‘The End’. We defeated the Nightmare and have seen the Imp attacks fall off to almost nothing in the past year. We have seen the Agency almost completely disbanded, with those that are left turned into teachers to help new Specials learn to control and use their powers responsibly. We have seen Princess Luna admit fault in her forced enrollment of Specials into the Agency, and the grievances of nearly two generations of unregistered laid to rest. All of this over the course of a year.”

    “But that’s not the question, Filigree,” Clockwork complained. “The question isn’t about the rest of the world and what happens to them, it’s not about reminding ourselves that this is real, it is about what happens to us next. That’s still in the air, isn’t it? We have titles now, practically royalty ourselves… do you have no idea how wrong that feels to me? Me? In all those stuffy affairs and events? Are you kidding me?! I’d rather power up the Dragonfly armour and face a Destroyer Imp alone than face a crowd full of those stuck up ponies.”

    “I assume you are referring to the tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala we received this year?”

    “Not specifically, but that’s a good example,” Clockwork sighed, “and it doesn’t help that I keep having this restless feeling all down my mane. It’s like… it’s like when I miss something in an invention; it’s lurking just out of my sight, waiting to be found. If anything, it’s TOO peaceful. That sounds stupid, doesn’t it? Too peaceful. We were fighting for peace, to live without the constant invasions of Imps and the Nightmare. Now that they’re gone, I’m complaining about the lack of excitement. All the threats these days are so low level they might as well not bother to call us up at all. Hell, the Royal Guard was able to put down the last half-dozen attempts from rogue Imps without us. What do we do now? Do they even NEED us anymore? Do they need Dragonfly? Do they need Steelwing? Spectrum? Galaxi? Tome? Flourish? Do they truly need any of us anymore?”

    “The Princesses think so,” Filigree stated as she pointed a claw at Clockwork, before noticing the carrot slice impaled upon it. She tugged it off and started again, “The Princesses think so. Otherwise we would not be here on retainer for our work. We’d not be getting paid to stay in Canterlot, provided a home that links to an emergency briefing room beneath the Castle. Your lab would not continue to exist, with the slow progression of your inventions that find their way to the Palace Guard. Our duties as delegates to various factions would not exist, your work with the Unregistered, or mine with the Gryphon clans. The Princesses believe we still have a purpose here, even if only as role models.”

    “Role models?” the mare grumped as she stole another slice of carrot. “I’m not sure we’re really the best of role models.”

    “Since when has that stopped any pony from emulating another?” Filigree asked with a smile. She scooped another batch of sliced vegetables into a nearby bowl before she set the knife aside. “The New Ponyville Trio, The Avenging Hammer, The Upstarts, The League,” she counted off on her claws, “and many others. All of those groups were inspired, in one way or another, by us. Project Moonbeam exists now as a role model for any group of Specials on how to band together to protect those ponies who cannot.”

    “Great, so they get to do the fighting, while we’re sitting on our flanks.”

    “I do not think the enemies they face would be of much challenge to us. However, these groups are learning, and learning from those who used to battle the forces of the Nightmare across the land.”

    “It’s starting to sound like the comics I read as a filly,” Clockwork chuckled, “they aren’t Specials; they’re Super-Heroes.”

    Filigree nodded. “That’s precisely it, Clockwork Key; they are Super-Heroes. They are what pony specials can and will become in a post Agency Equestria. The Princesses were smart enough to see it coming, and realized that there would be Specials who were not good ponies. As such, we have been placed on a pedestal and a spotlight shone upon as an ideal. We are not perfect; we are, to a one, only ponies. But we stood up when things were at their bleakest and fought back. We forged a path we didn’t even realize we were creating, and now others wish to follow us down it.”

    “Meanwhile, we’re stuck cooling our fetlocks,” Clockwork pointed out.

    “We’re the reserves,” Filigree noted as she stretched, “we are the penultimate heroes in Equestria right now. Personally I am glad we are not busy all the time, for I cannot see the Princesses mobilizing us without another threat that could potentially destroy large swaths of Equestria.”

    “Says you,” Clockwork grumbled. “How is it going with the Gryphons anyway?”

    The gryphoness looked mildly pained. “They are stubborn, which I expected. What I did not expect was the level of personal hostility towards me. Were it not for the guards with me, I suspect I would have been forced to defend myself multiple times.”

    “It’s that bad?” Clockwork asked, shocked.

    “Politicians are politicians,” Filigree growled softly. “They only think of their own power. It does not help that they consider me worse than a slave or servant now. I am Caste-less, a betrayer. In their eyes, I abandoned my race and its traditions. Were it not politically harmful for them to turn away the Princess’ chosen representative, I would have assuredly been ignored completely.”

    “Wow, I didn’t expect them to be that rough on you.”

    “Nor did I, honestly,” Filigree sighed. “I still have the worst one yet to come; my home clan. I opted to leave them until last as an attempted show of humility. Unfortunately they have chosen to take it as a direct snub of them, so I can only wonder what sort of welcome I shall receive there next week. It does not help that my attention has been distracted here at home.”

    “The brothers?”

    “Yes,” the gryphon answered. “Alto has gone missing. He has been missing for the past several weeks, and his family is in fits trying to find him. Needless to say that made my last visit far more tense than I had hoped it would be.”

    “Why didn’t you tell us?” Clockwork blurted out, surprised. “At the least Rainbow Star and I could have mobilized our resources to help find him.”

    “Because they asked me not to,” she said softly. “There is a possibility he has decided to strike out and find his own way, which is not to be discouraged but commended. Trying to hunt him down in that manner would be the cause of much unnecessary embarrassment. There is also the possibility he believes his brother was winning over my affections, and chosen this as a method to try and win my attention back from him.”

    Clockwork frowned. “That makes you sound like the prize in a competition.”

    “You are not incorrect,” she answered. “Chase realized that I would make up my own mind, and could not be ‘won’, early on. Thus we have grown close. But Alto never quite figured that out.”

    “So he was spurned, which they suspect might have driven him to even higher competitive heights?”

    “That is precisely correct,” Filigree answered.

    “Is it wrong that I’m jealous of all that attention you’re getting?” Clockwork teased.

    “Then you are not paying enough attention to those around you,” Filigree noted back with a smile.

    Clockwork snorted, “Yeah right…  I haven’t had a buckfriend since before this whole thing started. It doesn’t help that all those dates Trixie keeps trying to fix me up with end in disaster...”

    “I’m afraid I’m the wrong one to speak to about romance,” Filigree noted. “Gryphon mating and romantic ideals are vastly different from ponies. You might have better luck speaking with the others, or perhaps that trio up north; two of them had successful relationships, if I remember correctly, thus more experience on the subject.”

    “You mean the Crusaders?”

    “Aye, them,” Filigree confirmed.

    “Not sure how much help they’d be right now,” Clockwork grumbled, “the damned unregistered territories are halfway to a war with themselves.”

    “Oh? I had not heard this.”

    “I’ve been keeping the Princesses apprised of it, but they don’t want the story getting around yet. The short version is that the current politicians in charge of the colonies aren’t very eager to give up power and be re-integrated back under Celestia’s rule. But with Princess Luna’s apology for the forced recruitment, and the discontinuation of the Agency, many of the Unregistered are heading back to the homes they once knew. Meanwhile there’s a flow the OTHER way of ponies worried that since the Princesses forced service once, they could do it again.”

    “In short,” Filigree summarized, “there is a contingent of ponies who don’t believe the Princesses can learn from their mistakes.”

    “That’s it in a nutshell,” Clockwork agreed. “They also refuse to believe Luna’s apology. They think it’s just words, and that the Princesses would happily do it again when it suits them.”

    “Then the colonies are becoming the home of the power mad and the paranoid?”

    “What’s worse is I can see it being a self fulfilling prophecy,” Clockwork sighed. “The paranoid ponies force the government to lean more and more away from the Princesses until they are seeing attacks where there are none.”

    “Where does the internal war come in?” Filigree asked curiously.

    “With those who want the colonies to become part of the Ponylands,” Clockwork answered softly. “The Crusaders are at the forefront of that one, especially Apple Bloom. They want to reunite with the Ponylands under Celestia, but they’ve spent most of their lives in the Unregistered Colonies, and do not wish to move away from them. They’ve settled down, put down roots, raised families, and built homes and businesses… you get the idea.”

    “I can see the division, and no easy solutions.”

    “That’s what I’m looking at up north,” she sighed. “I’m also concerned that the Crusaders are getting up there in years. I have no idea how much longer they will… live, and they’re spearheading the pro-Princess movement, for lack of a better name. If they die, and it would only take one to dispirit the others, then the movement will likely fall with them.”

    “You, nor I, are politicians,” Filigree stated. “We can only report our findings back, and hope the professionals can defuse it.”

     “That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”

    “How goes the research?”

    The pale yellow unicorn looked up from his book, smiling nervously at the approach of the silvery-white alicorn. Instinctively he bowed, but a sweep of her wing dismissed the gesture as unnecessary. With a sigh, the graying unicorn settled back on his cushion and waved a foreleg at the book. “As well as can be expected, Princess,” he answered softly.

    “Is something the matter?” she asked and looked around the quarters she had assigned to the Professor. The room struck her as if someone had taken a slice of a library and combined it with a museum. One entire wall was lined with bookshelves stuffed with books, many of which she herself had removed from circulation. Opposite that was a shelf with a heavy crimson pillow on it, upon which rested the four orbs the Professor had recovered from the Samaren desert.

    “I… I don’t mean to be rude, Princess, but it would help if I knew exactly what I was looking for,” the stallion answered, shifting nervously.

    The Princess glanced at the short spiral staircase that lead up to the sleeping chamber before answering. “Your friend is asleep?”

    “Hum? Oh, yes,” the Professor answered, “he has not been handling the time-zone change well.”

    Celestia nodded slowly before answering, “There are several points of import to your research, Professor.”

    “What are they?” the stallion asked in a tired voice. “You know more about these elements more than I ever did.”

    “That’s where you’re wrong, Professor,” she answered softly, a painful tone in her voice drawing the stallion to meet her gaze.

    “I… don’t understand, Princess,” he answered carefully. “You were able to tell us the entire story of their creation while sitting in a tent in the middle of the desert. Neither myself or my friend had any guesses on how such artifacts came to be.”

    “Ah, Professor… I apologize. I fear I may not have been as forthcoming as I should have.”

    “It is not the history she remembers that is the cause for research,” answered a familiar voice from the stairway. Quagga slowly picked his way down them as he spoke, “It is the history of what occurred when she was in her torpor after creating them that she is concerned with.”

    “Precisely,” Celestia responded with a smile, “my sister withdrew from Equestria during that time, thinking I had passed on. Equestria was completely unprotected by a Princess for centuries. Unfortunately, the Demon-god destroyed much of the material written on the Elements during that time, which makes finding details difficult.”

    “Wait…” the unicorn said softly as he rubbed his chin with a hoof, “…are you saying you wish us to research not the Elements, but the bearers of the Elements of Justice?”

    “That is correct.”

    “If I had to guess…” the zebra started.

    “…you’re also interested in discovering the root cause of the corruption that led to the creation he-who-must-not-be-named,” Professor Relic finished. He looked to Celestia for confirmation.

    Celestia smiled brightly, silently answering the question. “I see now why you both tend to work together so much. You make an excellent team. However, there is one additional thing I wish you discover,” she added.

    “Princess?”

    “You must discover what spark brings those elements together.”

    “What?!?” the Professor cried, his jaw falling slack.

    “You do not know?” the zebra asked more reasonably. “Are they not your creations?”

    Celestia nodded to the four orbs the stallions had found. “They are mostly my creations,” she answered after a moment, “but the addition of Styrex, the ancient dragon I mentioned before, to the mix was not part of my plans. I intended for the spark of friendship to be their trigger, but I have cause to believe that these Elements are triggered in a different way.”

    “But the dearth of information makes it difficult, if not impossible, to know what,” the zebra concluded. The Princess confirmed the statement with a nod of her head.

    “That will pose a unique problem,” Relic said, rubbing his chin for a moment before pushing his way to his hooves. His magic tugged free a book from its brethren and flipped open the pages, riffling through them for a moment before he continued, “Even these ancient tomes do not outline the spark required for the Elements of Harmony, and they have seen far more use than the Elements of Justice.”

    “I have faith in you, my little ponies,” Celestia answered, “you will have all the resources I can make available to you.”

    “Speaking of resources, how did the Caesar handle the sudden closing of the dig?” Quagga asked.

    “Fortunately the Caesar accepted the reasons I gave him, and sent staff to oversee the restoration of the grave to its original condition,” she noted with a smile. “That I felt the post of Caesar was of such importance that I personally stepped in to stop even the most minor of desecration, regardless of intent, made him all that much more supportive of my rule. That particular gravesite will be off limits to all in the future, I fear, since the Caesar now believes it to be sacred ground. Some additional support from the Camel tribes north of the site, and their knowledge of sand, will have it wrapped up and reburied in only a few weeks.”

    The unicorn groaned, “Three months to dig it out, and reburied in three weeks. I told you that excavation was cursed.”

    The zebra laughed, “Yes, by Princess Celestia herself.”

    “It is nice to cook for a full house again!”

    “Uh, Skillet?” The khaki mare couldn’t help but point out, “We’re short two ponies for that.”

    The stallion was undeterred as he settled himself at the head of the table, grinning to the mares (and gryphoness) sitting upon the cushions that surrounded the dinner table. Rainbow Star, a sleek white pegasus with a rainbow mane, settled the final dish onto the center of the table. At a satisfied nod from Skillet, she flitted over to an empty seat at the table.

    “Maybe, but Princess Luna promise that both Galaxi and Tome would be back in time for dinner,” he countered.

    “That will be nice,” Rainbow Star said. “It seems lately we don’t have the time to do much together as a team. Everypony is being pulled in different directions…”

    “It would get pretty boring if the Princesses just left us to sit on our flanks all day,” Flourish put in.

    Filigree snorted, “Like you wouldn’t find plenty of trouble to get into.”

    “I’m serious,” the pegasus interrupted. “Clockwork is working with the Unregistered. You, Filigree, are working with the gryphons. I’m acting as a liaison to the Diamond Dog factions. Of course Galaxi and Tome are working with the Princesses as their apprentices, and spending almost all their free time face down in books on magic. Skillet is managing the house here in our absence…  I think the only one without an actual job is Flourish.”

    “Hay!!” the gray unicorn cried, glaring at Rainbow Star.

    “I have to admit, liaison to the Buffalo Tribes seems like a gimmie to me,” Clockwork put in softly. “Chief Thunderhooves was part of the original team, and is a genuinely likable Bison.”

    “I am sure he is not put out about you taking his spot,” Skillet teased.

    Flourish grumbled, “Yeah, like it’s a picnic having to rough it like that. I’m a city girl! Those Bison shun all form of advanced technology!”

    “How terrible for you,” the gryphon snarked, “you have to go without your radio for a few days.”

    “And the stuff they call food!” Flourish continued unabated. “If it weren’t for their apple pie fetish I’d starve out there!”

    “Poor little pony,” Skillet teased, earning him a withering glare from Flourish.

    “That’s hardly roughing it,” Rainbow Star put in. “Roughing it is living in a cave with the Diamond Dogs. All those gems, and they only want to hoard them like dragons. You’d think they would drop a few bits for a bed instead of sleeping right on the rocks.”

    “You should see the clans,” Filigree interjected, “They still use servants up there.”

    “What’s so bad about that?” Flourish asked. “The Princesses use servants too.”

    “Unlike palace servants here, who are well paid, most gryphon servants are in shackles and under threat of the lash. It’s a caste system there, and unlike the rest of you, I am HARDLY an honored guest,” she pointed out, getting some murmurs from the ponies present, before it lapsed into silence.

    Clockwork suddenly became aware of all eyes on her and she blinked, “W-what?”

    “Aw come on, Clock, you gotta keep up! I mean you’re with the Unregistered, right? You gotta hate roughing it up there,” Flourish teased.

    “Not really,” Clockwork answered softly, “if anything I find it peaceful. No constant whine of lights or the hum of electricity all around me. I can listen; I mean really listen, to everything I’ve been missing. The sigh of the breeze, the chirp of the crickets, the songs from the birds…”

    “Little Key is going native on us,” Skillet joked, followed by a round of genial laughter. Clockwork offered a wan smile, but it never moved past her lips.

    “Tome has… arrived!” a cyan unicorn with a silvery mane announced, sparing Clockwork Key further teasing by virtue of her “dramatic” entrance. She paused to take a long sniff at the air and smiled broadly. “My my, Skillet, I believe you have outdone yourself, this meal looks and smells wonderful!”

    “Wait ‘til you taste it, ya?” the gray stallion responded with a smile.

    “We’re not late, are we?” asked a white filly, flicking the curl of her unruly sea-green mane from her pupil-less eyes.

    “Nyet! You are right on time, Galaxi!”

    “Good, I wouldn’t want to miss out,” a third voice added, and the group quickly started to get up from their cushions…

    “Oh stop it,” the midnight blue alicorn with a silver crown and adornments chuckled, smiling lopsidedly as she looked over the assembled group.

    “No offense, Princess, but you left your aura on…” Rainbow Star pointed out.

    “Huh?” the alicorn answered intelligently, and glanced at her star field-like mane that flowed in the solar winds. She just gave a slight shrug. “I’m starting to see why Celestia leaves hers on all the time, it’s just too much of a bother to keep turning it on and off for public appearances.”

    “Makes no difference, ya?” Skillet interrupted. “Join us, I made plenty of everypony! If Filigree would do honors of serving, we can start dinner, ya? I cook up some carrot and celery infused lasagna, fettuccini alfredo topped with mixture of flower petals, my famous chilled seven bean salad, and for dessert I have fresh made baklava.”

    “My goodness,” the Princesses breathed.

    “You really went all out! Tome is impressed,” the azure unicorn stated as found herself a spot at the table.

    “I bet it will taste better than anything those stuffy chefs in castle would make,” Skillet said with a grin.

    “Sucker bet,” Flourish joked, “those ponies wouldn’t know good food if it bit them on the Cutie Mark!”

    “Now now, Flourish,” Princess Luna chided with a smile. She settled into an empty spot at the table and gave a nod to the gryphoness as she ladled some of the lasagna on her plate. “They simply make the high couture dishes they were taught. While good in their own way, I will confess that I am glad Skillet is nearby to occasionally get some good home-cooked meals.”

    “Ah Princess, you flatter Skillet!”

    “There’s a reason Celestia and I won’t announce where we’re eating ahead of time when we travel,” Luna chuckled softly. “Ponies tend to get all frou-frou with their food offerings when expecting royalty. If they aren’t expecting us, we can usually get a more proper feel for the sort of meals they make and eat normally. Honestly it’s more enjoyable, as palace and ‘high class’ dishes tend to be more about the artistry than the taste. However, I seem to recall that Celestia does have a weakness for Cloud Cake.”

    “That’s a Cloudsdale specialty isn’t it?” Galaxi asked softly.

    “Yes, it is. A pegasus invention, and truly delicious, if a bit on the sweet side for me,” she said with a shrug. “But then, we all have our own tastes. I know Celestia doesn’t care for the heavier foods I tend to favor.”

    “If not prying, Princess, like what?” Skillet asked eagerly.

    “Let’s just say I wouldn’t miss your dessert for all Equestria,” the Princess answered with a wink that made the stallion blush.

    The laughter all seemed to wash past Clockwork, who spent more time staring at her plate than eating anything on it. Sure, Skillet was a good cook, perhaps the best she knew, but for some reason the food just did not look palatable tonight. In the end, she only ended up eating a few bites of her fettuccini and half of her seven bean salad before just pushing the plate aside, steadfastly ignoring the conversation. She started to wonder if it would be rude of her to try and slip away.

    “Skillet thinks he must be luckiest stallion in all of Canterlot, if not Equestria,” he announced halfway through the meal.

    “What makes you say that?” Luna asked as she wiped fettuccini sauce from her lips.

    “Because Skillet is only stallion he knows to treat seven lovely ladies to dinner at once,” he answered with a broad grin. A loud throat clearing caused him to duck his head and look sheepishly at Flourish, who was gracing him with a dark glare. “Of course, I am not being greedy sort and will happily stick to one lovely mare,” he amended quickly.

    Flourish seemed satisfied and leaned over the table, stage whispering to the others, “See, stallions CAN be taught.”

    The gray filly let out a sudden squeal, and vanished in a pink cloud. Those at the table couldn’t help but laugh as said stallion waggled his bushy eyebrows and flexed the hoof he’d just goosed Flourish with. That expression lasted all of two seconds before Flourish pounced and knocked the heavy stallion onto the floor, where the pair began to laugh and wrestle and tickle each other.

    “I’d suggest they get a room,” Filigree said with a shake of her head, “but they technically already have one. Would you like more salad, Princess?”

    Almost no pony noticed the empty place near the foot of the table where Clockwork had been sitting.

    “I wondered where you got to.”

    Clockwork YELPED at the voice behind her, and snapped her head around. The screwdriver she had been holding went flying towards the intruder, hurtling end over end like a knife… until the purple glow of telekinesis plucked it from the air and levitated it back to the work table the short mare had been working at.

    “S-sorry…” the khaki mare stammered, her heart hammering in her ears. The room was only half lit, with most of the light focused on the “table” she had been working at. The rest of the starkly empty room was dark, hiding the white tiled ceiling and floor amidst the shadows. Her guest stepped around the only console in the room to move closer to the small mare.

    “You okay?” she asked gently, her white coat coming into view as she stepped into the pool of light.

    “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”

    “Did you forget I’m psychic?” the mare asked with a half-smile, her empty eyes flashing purple.

    “No, Galaxi, I didn’t forget you’re psychic,” Clockwork answered irritably, looking away from her. Her eyes instinctively fell on the shadow of her greatest invention, the Dragonfly Armour Mark III. The enameled green and gold plated armour in the shape of a pony caught the slightest light and reflected it back. In an odd way, it almost looked as if the armour was watching the pony back…

    “Then why would you try to lie to me?” Galaxi asked, sounding slightly hurt.

    “Because it’s easier than admitting it to myself,” she answered softly.

    “Clockwork?”

    “Galaxi, I don’t KNOW what’s wrong,” she admitted softly. “I’m jumpy and on edge all the time. I figure it’s best to distance myself a little, rather than risk saying something hurtful or stupid and sticking my hoof in my mouth.”

    Galaxi accepted that with a frown and, for the moment, didn’t push the issue. Instead she looked over at what the other mare was working on. For a brief moment she marveled at exactly how flexible the robotic panels of Clockwork Key’s lab was, for they had formed a sort of work-table to allow the mare to work on her current project. She looked closer at the mess of copper springs and gears that made up this project, unable to properly identify it.

    “Clockwork? I know it’s your name, but isn’t that a bit old fashioned for you?”

    The khaki mare frowned slightly and lifted the screwdriver she just hurled, carefully setting the tension of a spring before answering, “It’s a gift. I want to try and get it done before I have to head back north again.”

    “What is it supposed to be?”

    “A wind up frog,” Clockwork answered softly, and used her hooves to pinch a spring between them, carefully maneuvering it into the device she was working on. “Echo’s little grandson was fascinated by the frogs we saw around the lake they have up there. Part of his fascination was, of course, how muddy he could get chasing them around, but he just seemed so… happy. Since I missed Hearth’s Warming and his Birthday, I figured I’d build this and give it to him when I get up there. At the least maybe he won’t get so muddy next time.”

    “I doubt that’d stop him. You know how little colts are with mud,” Galaxi answered with a weak smile.

    “Yeah, I know,” she answered softly, and set the screwdriver to work again at tightening another bolt.

    “Clockwork--”

    “Galaxi, I know you mean well,” the khaki mare interrupted, not looking up from her work, “but this really isn’t the time.”

    Galaxi blinked at the curt statement, then sighed and turned away, pausing by the door to look back over her shoulder. “Skillet saved you a piece of baklava,” she informed the other mare with thinly disguised hurt, then slipped away.

    Galaxi barely saw the dim metal corridor as she plodded along it, not really having a destination in mind. Clockwork’s curt dismissal pained her in a way she never anticipated. The khaki mare had been her first close friend, and now she was pushing her away…

    “How is she?” the Princess asked softly, all but materializing from the darkness by Galaxi to interrupt her thoughts.

    “Something’s wrong,” she answered softly, “but she’s shutting me out. I… I don’t know what I can say or do.” Galaxi looked at her hooves, and the steel corridor under them. They were only twenty floors below the manor they were staying at, deep in the tunnels under Canterlot Castle.

    “I fear some of it is my fault,” Luna said softly, walking along with her apprentice. “You six have all but headed your own directions after the fall of the Nightmare. It’s only been a year, and yet you each have your own duties separate from each other.”

    “You think our team is falling apart?” Galaxi asked worriedly.

    “Friendship can drift apart; it takes work to maintain,” Luna answered simply. “But I do not think that is the only problem. I spoke to Filigree while you were attempting to speak with Clockwork. It seems that the little mare is having an additional problem as well, one that both the gryphon and Tome have had to deal with, but were more successful in combating.”

    “Princess?”

    “I do not know how to define it, Galaxi,” she answered, a note of pain touching her voice. “It’s a sense of disconnection, of unreality. She is not handling the transition to this more relaxed life well. I had hoped by keeping you mares busy it would dull the impact of this shift back to a ‘normal’ existence.”

    “But…  I don’t understand, Princess,” Galaxi said softly. “During the… project, she was supportive. Sure, she wasn’t the most social, but she always made an effort to be friendly with me. She’s never pushed me away like that before.”

    “Think of this a different way,” Luna gently answered, leading Galaxi into the lift she had installed, “she is seeing all of you adjust to this new life. Yet she’s still back in the mindset that the Imps could come at any time. Being told that they are gone isn’t sinking in on some level. She’s still ready for the fight, and we aren’t. She sees us all adjusting reasonably well, and she’s getting steadily more frustrated that she cannot. This isn’t anger directed at you, Galaxi. This is anger directed at herself, with nowhere to go. Everypony is managing, and she isn’t, and she doesn’t understand why. That is steadily making her more and more frustrated.”

    “But... she was the one who told ME that when it was all over we would learn to adjust! Hell, she was the one who told me we’d just adapt if we lost our powers at the end of all this!”

    “Which is perhaps an even more aggravating thing for her,” Luna answered softly. “You are learning to adjust and adapt, and she can’t figure it out.”

    “She’s supposed to be the smart one,” Galaxi complained.

    Luna sighed, “Intelligence is not without its disadvantages.”

2

Chapter2

“To err is pony…”

    “I’m sorry.”

    The khaki mare looked up at the statue looming over her. She kept coming back here, drawn like a moth to a flame. She remembered to dress in a warm scarf this time, but she barely noticed anything beyond the statue before her. Not the whistling wind as it swept through the open eaves of the window-like ceiling, not the occasional snippet of sound from the city beyond the arched marble walls, and certainly not the biting cold that nipped at her coat.

    The hall at once felt eerily empty and incredibly full. Most ponies won’t bother to come there until warmer weather, and yet the statues of fallen agents haunted the hall like silent ghosts, standing their eternal vigil with nary a complaint. In the center of the wide and spacious hall stood a slab of onyx easily two ponies tall, the infamous “Obelisk”. Into this imposing monument were chiseled the names of every agent who had died in the various battles against the Imp invasion. Names completely covered one side and over half of the other of the lifeless slab. Surrounding the Obelisk, beyond a circle of benches, the battalion of statues of various sizes stood at the ready in carved repose. Some were only pony tall, while others towered three times over a pony, all representations of the ponies that had gone above and beyond the call of duty and died honorably. They were the agents who had served honorably and been posthumously awarded for their valor.

    One of them was her brother.

    “I’m sorry, Widget,” Clockwork Key told the towering statue again, scrubbing a foreleg futilely at the tears that clouded her eyes. It stood tall amongst the other statues, a pony in a powerful suit of armour, bulbous and heavy. It molded to the pony who wore it, enhancing his already impressive physique, and the statue reflecting the mechanical nature of this suit with surprising detail. The plate below on the pedestal labeled him as Widget, Code Named Warpony, and briefly covered his self-sacrifice in the face of an overwhelming force, preventing the Imps from stealing the memories of the late Lady Sparkle.

    “I don’t know what I’m doing,” the mare told the statue. “I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’m so on edge I’m not sleeping right. What am I doing wrong?!? I keep thinking it’s too quiet. I keep waiting for the next attack, the next problem, the next call to action… and when nothing comes I get more flustered. I can’t walk through the city without flinching at shadows. And then Galaxi... she didn’t realize it, and I thank Celestia she didn’t, but I THREW that screwdriver at her. I thought she was an Imp, a spy coming to kill me while I worked. She thought she just startled me but…”

    “I’m scared big brother. I know you can’t answer me, but I’m scared. What is happening to me? I’m the smart one. I’m the one with the gifted intelligence. So why can’t I solve this? I can’t hear the solution; I can’t even see the problem properly. It’s not math or science, the parameters keep changing, and I just keep going around in circles in my head. I know there’s something wrong. I know they want to help but… the more they try the angrier I get.” Clockwork Key sniffled softly, struggling to keep her riotous emotions under control.

    “I’m lost, Widget,” she managed after several minutes. “I know we won against the Nightmare but… but I feel like I lost. It’s as if that dream she trapped me in never ended. Like I’m still trapped inside it, only dreaming we won. I remember how the dream would waver and shudder with every sob I heard from Galaxi. Some days the entire world looks like that, and other times it just feels like it’s me. Sometimes I think if I step too hard, or sneeze at the wrong moment, everything will fall over like so many dominoes. And other days it feels like I’m barely tethered to reality and everypony can see right through me… like a stiff breeze could just carry me away.

    “I feel like a stranger, even in my own skin. Like I got up and walked away, and I didn’t notice.” Clockwork sighed, “I’m not making sense, not even to myself. I’m sorry big brother… I wish you were still here. Even Skillet isn’t any help with this; all he does is try to cheer me up. I don’t dare… I cannot tell him how badly I want to put my hoof right through that grin of his. But I’m fighting a losing battle against myself, Widget, and I don’t know how to fix it. Give me a screwdriver, and I can fix any machine. But this?

    “This is beyond me, Widget,” she sighed again, and turned her back on the silent statue.

    “I’m sorry…”

    Clockwork blinked as she heard the voice, deep and masculine. For a brief, fleeting, moment, she let herself hope that her brother had responded to her! But logic persisted, and the thought was crushed under the harsh hoof of her own knowledge, leaving her struggling to wipe the tears away from her muzzle again. Somepony else must be here…

    Curiosity got the better of her, and she slowly made her way about the perimeter of the Monument Hall, ducking under the occasional stray hoof or stylized bit of a statue that reached out from the gallery of fallen heroes.

    “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I should have been home. I should have been there… I should have done something!” the voice growled in frustration. Clockwork spotted the other pony as she rounded the Obelisk, a stallion with a deep plum coat and a mint green mane. He was wearing a heavy looking jacket against the cold, and had a quartet of oddly heavy rubber boots that reminded Clockwork of galoshes or snow boots.

    There was a pause, the stallion momentarily rendered speechless from overpowering emotions, before he straightened up and looked into the Obelisk. For a brief moment, purely by chance, she could see his reddened eyes in the reflection of the monument, interrupted only by the lines of some unfortunate agent. Slowly he turned to face her.

    “I’m sorry,” he said and wiped his face on the sleeve of his jacket, “are you lost young lady?”

    Clockwork bit her lip. “No. I was visiting my brother.”

    He nodded and looked sadly to the wall. “I was doing much the same.”

    “Relatives?”

    “Wife…” he answered softly, then drew in a steadying breath, “…and my daughter.”

    “How…?” she started.

    “The Princess allowed them on the wall. All the ponies that died in the third invasion of Canterlot were placed on the wall. All those innocents who died in the final battle…” he said softly.

    “I’m sorry…” she said, turning away, unable to meet his eyes, “I’m sorry we weren’t fast enough.”

    He looked at her confused for a moment, then his eyes narrowed as he looked, really looked, at her. Only then did a look of recognition cross his expression.

    “You’re… Wait, I know… you!”

    She nodded once, still unable to meet his gaze.

    “You’re one of the heroes of that saved Canterlot.”

    Clockwork blinked and looked up at him. Rather than the accusatory glare she had anticipated, his expression was kindly, almost reverent. Inwardly she relaxed; she had half expected him to assault her. She wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t have deserved it, or that she would have raised a hoof to stop him.

    “I’m… surprised to hear you say that,” she said softly, “given what you were saying about your family… to your family...”

    “To hold you responsible for every life lost when you struggled to save so many others would be silly,” he answered. “It would make me no better than those we fought.”

    “What happened?” she found herself asking before she even thought about it. “What kept you out of the city?”

    “My team was two days out of Canterlot when they invasion happened,” he said, his eyes growing unfocused. “We were infiltrating some abandoned Diamond Dog warrens that were suspected to be harboring a hidden base for the Imps.”

    “Was there?”

    “Yes, there was a portal of some sort, but it collapsed during the battle for reasons we were uncertain of. If I had to guess, it probably coincided with the defeat of the Nightmare,” he answered. “We cleaned up the remaining Imps easily enough, but on extraction we ran into another squadron, who had support from a Destroyer. Have you ever seen one of those monsters?”

    “Yes,” Clockwork whispered as painful memories flitted past her mind’s eye, “I’ve seen a teammate nearly killed by one, I’ve been crushed by another one, and I barely escaped a third.”

    The stallion’s eyebrows rose. “And you’re still alive? You must be pretty powerful, or lucky.”

    “No,” she answered in a pained voice, “not nearly as powerful as everpony believes.”

    There was an awkward pause in the conversation before the stallion stepped forward. “I apologize, I’m being rude. My name is Bottle Rocket, code named Impact.”

    “Clockwork Key, code named Dragonfly.”

    “I thought so,” he said softly. “You were the one with the armour, yes?”

    She nodded. “I was… I am. It’s my greatest invention, to date anyway.”

    “Then it is you I have to thank for the peace we are gifted with now.”

    “I’m not sure I’m worth much thanks,” she answered, looking to the wall and the names engraved on it. Why did they mean more now that she had story to connect to them, even if just a few?

    “I disagree. I would shake your hoof but… my power has become unstable since the war,” he admitted.

    “What do you do?”

    “I explode.”

    Clockwork boggled. “What?!?”

    He laughed at the reaction. “I explode.”

    “Unless you can explode twice, I imagine that would be of limited effectiveness.”

    He smiled and seemed to relax as he explained, “It’s a bit more nuanced than that. Any surface I hit with my hoof, body, whatever, causes a chemical reaction with my coat, which in turn causes an explosion. The harder I buck, the more powerful the explosion.”

    “Thus the name code name Impact,” Clockwork guessed.

    “Precisely,” he answered with a nod, “but it is a double edged sword. I had to wear braces on my legs because of it. The explosions caused backlash, and I was hit by the same explosive force my target was. I was immune to the fire and such of the explosion, but the recoil still hurt like heck. Fortunately I used to be able to choose when I exploded and when I didn’t…”

    “That’s changed?”

    “Yes. Now… if I take a good trip I stand the chance of blowing up. That’s why the heavy rubber boots. If I put my hoof down too hard while walking, I stand a good chance of causing an explosion that could shatter every bone in my leg,” he sighed.

    “Wait,” Clockwork gasped, her mind starting to whirl, “that would mean your explosive potential is increasing exponentially instead of linearly. Previously it took X force to receive Y force back, and now it’s increasing multiplicatively, requiring X force to receive Y to the square of Z, where Z is variable determined by X?”

    “Ma’am, what you just said went well over this old buck’s head,” he answered, “How about you lay off the fancy mathematics and simplify it for me?”

    Clockwork blushed. “Sorry. Basically the power of your explosions is increasing, while the force required to generate them is decreasing. Did I understand you correctly?”

    He nodded. “That’s the long and the short of it, yes.”

    “Any idea what is causing this loss of control?” she asked carefully.

    He shrugged before answering, “I’d guess stress. The doctors say it’s all in my head but…”

    “But?” she prompted gently.

    “But this old agent just can’t seem to adjust properly to life. I keep jumping at shadows and getting irritable and… and I miss them. I find it hard to think about anything else at times,” he answered softly. “Lately, and I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but lately I’ve been considering just giving up and letting go.”

    “Letting go?”

    “Eyup. Stop struggling, stop trying… just let go of the railing and just let myself drop. The explosion would take care of any clean-up,” he sighed.

    Clockwork’s blood ran cold. “Y-you’re talking suicide…”

    “That I am,” he agreed, “maybe then I can be with my wife and kids again, if they let an old goat like me into the Summerlands.”

    “C-certainly your old squad could help…” she tried, but the expression on his face told her that was a dead end.

    He lifted a hoof and pointed to a group of names on the Obelisk. “You mean them?”

    “T-they all…?”

    “The destroyer Imp ended their run,” he said softly. “Sergeant Buttons, code named Bullhorn. Minuet. Drop Shot, code named Lucky. Bull’s-eye, code named Longbow. Lord Ascot the Third, code named Tantrum.”

    “Y-you’re the only one who survived?” Clockwork squeaked, already knowing the answer.

    “Bullhorn was dying, but he covered me to the bitter end,” he answered, his gaze never leaving the group of names. “We’d been losing the battle the entire way. Minuet was taken down right off, her agile combat style useless against such a massive enemy, and all it took was one lucky hit. Lucky wasn’t as lucky as he hoped, and got crushed. Longbow couldn’t keep enough distance, and Tantrum wasn’t strong enough to tackle the blasted thing alone. In the end I had to explode. I lured it into hitting me, and the thing walloped me as hard as it could. I woke up in the hospital two weeks later after they finally healed my ribcage and all four of my legs. They said I was damned lucky that it didn’t shatter my spine as well, and I spent the next six months recovering. I found out later that the force of my explosion decimated not only the Imp, but my teammates as well. The Agency wouldn’t have even known what happened if I hadn’t told them; there wasn’t even enough left to bury ‘em.”

    “Your power has been going haywire ever since?” she asked carefully.

    “Eyup, that’s about the size of it,” he sighed softly. “I suppose it was inevitable. Everypony who would have been able to help me, who would have cared, died, and now my power is threatening to consume me. It might as well make a complete run on my squad, and I figure it would keep me from hurting anypony else.”

    “Please tell me it didn’t--”

    “It did,” the old agent interrupted. “It was a friendly gesture, and the foal meant no harm by it. If anything she was trying to cheer me up, but it blew the poor filly right off her hooves. Lost one of her legs from the concussive force, and I had bruises all along my side for a week. It was one hell of a scandal for a few weeks, every paper and news outlet claiming how I maliciously attacked this girl. Ever since then, I’ve been careful when I go into public to wear as much padding as possible. I don’t know how effective it is, but I can’t just sit around growing old and crazy. Well… crazier.”

    “Why suicide?” she asked softly. “It’s hardly the answer to anything.”

    The stallion shrugged. “It’s not like anypony would miss me.”

    “I would.”

    The stallion gave a short bitter laugh. “No offense ma’am, but we just met. You barely know my name. You wouldn’t miss me in the least…”

    “I would,” she answered firmly. “You’re the first pony I’ve come across who gets it.”

    “I’m afraid you’ll need to clarify…”

    “I don’t understand what’s happened to me since this war ended,” she blurted out. “Everypony I know is adjusting, going on with life, putting everything behind them. But somehow I just keep waiting for the next attack! I know the Imps aren’t coming, they’re finished. Most of them dispersed, and those that are still hostile can be handled by the Guard. Meanwhile I’m flinching at shadows, ready to jump and fight. I’m on edge, snapping at everpony I know, driving my friends away, and pissing them off at the same time.”

    “The war is still in here,” the stallion said and tapped his chest, his heart. “No matter how much our head tells it that the fighting is over, the heart refuses to believe it and is waiting for the next battle.”

    Clockwork Key nodded slowly and stared at her hooves like a filly. “I’ve talked to counselors, Princesses, experts, idiots, friends… anypony I could think of who could help. I never get any answers, and everypony tells me I just need to just relax, but I can’t seem to do that!”

    “Not sure how much help I’d be,” the stallion said softly. “You have friends and teammates trying to help. I’ve got nothing.”

    “That’s where you’re wrong,” Clockwork sniffled, “you found somepony. I know it’s not as bad for me as it is for you, but it’s still the same thing. I can hear the pain in your voice, the edginess… the war still rages for us both. The difference is you lost more than I did. I can understand at least some of what you went through, what you’re going through, because I’m in the same chariot.”

    The stallion arched an eyebrow. “Exactly what are you recommending?”

    “I’m saying that fate put us in each other’s paths,” she answered with a tentative smile. “We each need help, and we ‘accidentally’ found each other. We could just turn our backs and leave but… I’d never be able to live with myself, especially knowing you were contemplating suicide. I’d like to think maybe that’s why you told me about it, hoping for that last second reprieve. I know it’s not much hope to cling to, but I have to at least try.”

    “You’re hopin’ that by helping me you might help yourself as well?”

    Clockwork nodded. “One can hope.”

    Bottle Rocket chuckled ruefully and shook his head. “You need to work on your sales pitch,” he teased. He turned to look at the Obelisk again and rested his booted hoof on a pair of names before giving a soft sigh. “I won’t make any promises, but I can at least make an attempt. Who knows, maybe you’re right and I’ll be able to find a reason to keep on going.

    “She would never forgive me if I didn’t at least try.”

    “There you are, Clockwork Key.”

    Clockwork blinked and looked up from where she was sitting, her legs curled under her on the bench where she sat with Bottle Rocket. The rustling of the trees about her was to soothing, and the long conversation with her new comrade helped as well. Once he started talking, it reminded her so much of her father she found it easy to relax and open up.

    “Friend ‘o yers?” he asked and warily eyed the cyan unicorn as she approached.

    “Tome,” Clockwork asked as she climbed to her hooves, “is something wrong?”

    “Tome does hope she is not intruding?” she asked with a hint of a smile. Inwardly Clockwork groaned; she recognized that gleam in Tome’s eyes.

    “Bottle Rocket, this is Trixie, code named Tome,” she said, side-stepping the issue by introducing them. “Tome, this is Bottle Rocket, code named Impact. He’s a former agency member too.”

    “Ma’am,” the stallion said, his eyes piercing the unicorn as he inclined his head.

    “Tome is always pleased to meet a friend of my friend,” the unicorn responded cordially, seemingly oblivious to his stare. “I do so hate to interrupt, however, Princess Celestia herself is asking for little Clockwork here.”

    The stallion looked mildly surprised, and Clockwork blushed. “With the war over,” she explained, “the Princesses put us to work as liaisons to some of the disparate groups around Equestria. She’s trying to mend bridges and fortify alliances in the wake of the invasion.”

    “I see,” he answered simply.

    “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, alright?” Clockwork tried to confirm. “I don’t want to keep the Princess waiting.”

    “Let me know how it goes then,” he answered, but his gaze was far beyond them both, “it’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

    Clockwork started to reach for him, to comfort him somehow, but stopped herself and let her hoof fall short. “No fireworks?”

    He barked a laugh. “No fireworks, I promise.”

    Clockwork nodded, satisfied, and followed Tome as the pair left the little park in favor of the bustle of Canterlot’s streets. Clockwork knew it was coming, she could almost see it in the sparkle in Tome’s eyes and the spring in her step. The unicorn had tried many times, unsuccessfully, to fix Clockwork up with eligible stallions. Most of them Clockwork found to be insufferable, but she ended up chasing away even the nicest of them.

    Tome managed to wait three blocks, right as they were passing into the residential area of the “Royal” district, where the mansions of the Lords and Ladies of the court resided. It was a broad district crisscrossed by cobblestone roads that wove between looming mansions locked in a perpetual state of one-upponyship. The central lane they travelled would terminate at the royal palace of the Sister Princesses.

    “Tome didn’t know you were into older stallions,” the unicorn teased.

    “I’d roll my eyes, but that seems like too much effort,” Clockwork shot back.

    “Don’t worry, Tome won’t tell the others about your liaison…” Tome offered, “…if you promise to share all the juicy details.”

    Clockwork groaned audibly. “What juicy details? Seriously, all we did was talk.”

    “All day? Tome finds that hard to believe.”

    “Huh?” Clockwork asked, surprised.

    “Clockwork, you left before light this morning,” Tome pointed out, “and it is nearly dinnertime now. You have literally been gone all day.”

    “Wow…” Clockwork gasped. “I really lost track of time.”

    “You CANNOT tell Tome that you were talking that entire time,” the unicorn said, nudging her hip conspiratorially.

    “Knock it off Trixie,” Clockwork growled, “he’s twice my age for Celestia’s sake.”

    “Trixie is easily three times your age,” Tome reminded her, “and she sees little to object to. Given the problems you gave all those stallions I tried to match you with, she had started to think maybe you preferred mares--”

    “Dammit Trixie,” she finally snapped, “I stumbled over him mourning for his dead wife and daughter!! Do you really think the Agency Memorial is an appropriate place to pick up stallions?!? For Celestia’s sake, how desperate do you think I am? What kind of pony would even suggest such a thing?!”

    Tome’s eyes widened and she recoiled back from the short khaki mare as if she’d been physically struck. A number of other ponies, startled by the outburst, stared on in confusion. Clockwork seethed, her breath hissing through clenched teeth and her body trembling from the sudden wave of fury that washed over her. Then, without a word, she turned on a hoof and stormed off towards the castle alone, leaving Tome to stare after her friend, an attempted apology dying on her lips.

    “You may rise.”

    Clockwork lifted herself from her kneel to look up at the gleaming form of Princess Celestia. The Princess was a radiant white from the tip of her horn to the ends of her hooves. In contrast to the single color of her coat, her mane rippled with multiple colors as it floated on solar winds only she felt. She was traditionally adorned with a golden crown, a gold crest across her chest, and golden horseshoes that almost reached her knees.

    The room she’d chosen to receive Clockwork in was one of the more formal ones. It was a meeting room for official dignitaries, done in a soothing eggshell white with frosted windows that reduced the glare of the sun without diminishing its brightness, even this late in the day. A round table dominated the center of the room, a large heavy oak that was bolted to the floor and bearing innumerable gouges and scars marking where it vexed overemotional delegates that had tried to tear it from its mounting. The fact it remained unseated was a testament to the resiliency and craftponyship of the table.

    Clockwork frowned slightly, momentarily studying the Princess. Celestia was usually one for easy smiles and gentle words; however the Princess’ current expression was one of dire seriousness.

    “You requested my presence, Princess?” Clockwork finally asked.

    “One moment,” she stated directly, “there is another coming.”

    Clockwork considered asking who, but the Princess’ expression was dour and brokered no discussion. It was rare she had seen Celestia this serious, and she couldn’t help but think she was one of the few ponies to see this side of her without having to risk the fury of the Reagent of the Sun. The last time she could recall witnessing this side of the Princess, the ruler was standing hoof to claw with the Nightmare in a desperate struggle to preserve the safety of all ponies.

    The large wooden door behind Clockwork creaked, causing the mare to jump and whirl about to face it. When she saw the tip of a beak entering the room, panic flooded her, adrenaline pounding in her ears. It was an Imp coming to attack the Princess!

    The surge of panic left her as suddenly as it overtook her, leaving her feeling oddly exhausted and foalish, as the owner of the beak pressed into the room. Silently she chided her own silliness as she could easily see the shape was far too short for an imp, instead properly suited for the gryphoness owner.

    “You asked to see me, Princess?” Filigree asked as she prostrated herself. A guard behind her closed the door, though Clockwork could have sworn he was eyeing the gryphon’s flank as he did so.

    “You may rise, Filigree,” the Princess stated, then regarded both with an unreadable expression. “I have bad news for you both.”

    “Princess?” Clockwork asked.

    “It seems the end of the winter snows have uncovered some unfortunate things in the lands beyond those under my rule,” she stated simply. “Clockwork, I have a letter in my hooves delivered from the Northern Reaches. It seems that, three days ago, one of the Crusaders fell seriously ill.”

    “W-which one, Princess?” Clockwork asked in a small voice, the horrible suspicion that the gentle Echo had preceded her friends and teammates from the mortal coil.

    “Scootaloo, known also as Firefly,” Celestia answered, surprising the mare. “It seems she suffered some sort of stroke in her home, and is currently in a coma at their community medical center. Her rather large family has arrived from nearby settlements to see and support her, but the letter from Apple Bloom requests you come as soon as possible. I know you made plans to travel out via standard connections, Clockwork, but I would appreciate it if you would gather your resources and make this journey as soon as possible.”

    “Give me one day, Princess, and I will be ready to go,” Clockwork said softly.

    “That will do,” Celestia answered. “Filigree, I have received an odd request from Arch-Duke Silverwing. He is asking you come to the Aerie of your old clan as soon as possible. There are hints in this letter of some sort of difficulty regarding your family, an accident of some sort.”

    “My family is here, Princess,” Filigree said, her voice dangerously soft.

    “Be that as it may, Filigree, I am arranging for you to leave first thing in the morning. You will be using my royal chariot, as well as two pegasus guards whom I would trust with my life.”

    “You suspect something, Princess?” Filigree more stated than asked. Usually she flew on her own, accompanied by a pair of the Royal Guard.

    “I would be a fool not to. The Arch-Duke’s tone has become steadily more strident since you rose to such prominence among my ponies here. Becoming the bearer of the Element of Honesty was the final straw for him. I know you were due to leave for your home clan next week, but with as poorly as Gryphon/Pony relations have been in the wake of the war, I feel this is too important to ignore.”

    “As you wish,” Filigree answered simply.

    “Return to the palace here as close to dawn as you can,” Celestia instructed, “once I have finished my duty of raising the sun, I will personally escort you to the chariot for any last minute instructions. If you can think of any contingencies, we will discuss them for the morning. Clockwork, I presume you plan to travel to the north in your armour?”

    Clockwork squeaked, caught off-guard by the sudden change of topics, and stammered, “Y-yes Princess, as well as my team chariot invention, since it is better suited to travel the longer distance more quickly.”

    “It has back-up supplies if you need them?”

    “Yes Princess.” Clockwork frowned. “You suspect something is amiss in the reaches as well?”

    “I have lived far too long not to have more suspicions than could ever exist,” she answered with a ghost of a smile before she turned away, “it is a wonder I have not gone insane from paranoia.”

    Filigree and Clockwork exchanged a silent glance.

    “You are both dismissed,” Celestia ordered, “make preparations for your departures on the morrow.”

    “Yes Princess,” the pair answered simultaneously.

    “Dear Princess Celestia,”

    “Today I learned…” the voice stalled, before the sound of tearing paper could be heard. “I learned I can be a real flank-hole without even trying.”

    The white mare raised an eyebrow, sightless eyes watching the door before her. It was large, made of solid oak, and thick enough to prevent all but the loudest of sounds to carry through it. But the white mare didn’t need to listen with her ears to hear the pained words from the individual beyond that door. She heard the words in her mind, psychically plucking them from the ether, accompanied by the emotional turmoil that fueled them.

    With a hesitant hoof, the blind mare knocked on the door.

    “Dear Princess Celestia,” the voice started again, “somepony is knocking at my door...  wait, why did Tome write that? Oh! The door!”

    After what sounded like a miniature stampede the door vanished, replaced by the silhouette of a cyan unicorn with a silvery mane. The two ponies looked at each other for a long moment, before Tome stepped aside to allow the other entrance. The white mare slipped into the brightly lit room like a ghost, drifting past the threshold and allowing Tome to shut the door behind her.

    “Tome hopes she wasn’t so loud that she woke you,” she said, sitting on a cushion by the desk she’d been working at. It was a sturdy wooden thing with an old lantern resting at the edge, an anachronism considering the electrical overhead lights that blazed away. Tome’s bed next to it was turned down, but looked as if any attempt to sleep in it failed miserably, which resulted in the covers and sheets ending up scattered in all directions. Littered amongst the sheets and across the floor were the remnants of paper that had been ripped apart, then crumpled and thrown in seemingly random directions. A large window against the far wall was partially open to allow a cool breeze to stir the musky odor of the bedroom.

    Rather than answer, the white mare’s eyes glowed as she lifted one of the crumbled sheets of paper. Her telekinesis carefully unfolded and spread it out so she could read the very words she had been hearing in her head for the past hour.

    “Tome has been having… difficulty composing her letter to the Princess,” the azure unicorn said softly.

    The mare let the paper drop and moved over to the unicorn, sitting face to face with her for a long moment before she leaned close to hug her. “I know,” she finally said, “I could hear your thoughts. What happened?”

    “What do you mean?” Tome asked. Her eyes widened as she tried to bluff the blind mare, but the sightless gaze quickly broke down her resistance. “Am I that transparent, Galaxi?”

    “I’m psychic, I could feel the pain in your thoughts,” Galaxi answered softly. “I try not to intrude on you and the Princess, but… there was more to this than just a friendship report, yes?”

    “Tome has been out of sorts today, that is all,” she insisted.

    “Trixie…”

    “Tome just… I just…” the azure unicorn stammered before lowering her head, “e-ever since Clockwork…”

    “What happened?” Galaxi asked gently, and steered the unicorn towards her bed.

    Trixie settled on the edge and sighed, “The Princess asked me to run and get Clockwork late this afternoon. Some sort of urgent message had arrived, so I headed off. She wasn’t at the manor so I used a tracking spell…”

    “Thank you for your help learning that spell, by the way.”

    “Think nothing of it,” she answered before continuing. “Anyway, I tracked Clockwork down to that park at the north side of the business district. You know, the one nestled by that lovely overhang from the royal district? Pretty little place, if a bit boxed in for my tastes. Still, Clockwork was there with an older stallion chatting away like they were old friends. He was an older gentlepony, a bit haggard looking, but not unattractive.”

    “Clockwork made a friend?” Galaxi asked, steadfastly ignoring a pang of jealousy.

    “With as solitary as she has been lately, I was just thrilled for her, and felt guilty having to break up such a meeting,” Trixie said. “She introduced him as a former agent himself, and while he seemed polite, he struck me as a bit distant. A bit like Clockwork herself has been lately, come to think of it. Regardless, I fetched Clockwork, and… and…”

    “And?” Galaxi urged gently.

    “And I promptly stuck all four hooves in my mouth,” the unicorn sighed. “I couldn’t resist teasing her about her little meeting. I thought it was innocent, teasing her about her new buckfriend. I mean… I know I miss some things and go a little too far sometimes, and I knew there was nothing between them, she couldn’t even bring herself to touch his shoulder, but I couldn’t resist teasing her about it.”

    “It didn’t end well?”

    “No,” the mare replied and lowered her head dejectedly, “she denied it normally, as any mare would, but after a few more times she suddenly snapped at me. Asked me what kind of pony I was to even suggest they were off clopping somewhere when she met him grieving at the memorial over his deceased wife and child.” Galaxi winced and leaned closer to the other mare as she continued. “She didn’t even let me apologize. Just trotted away before I could voice it… she absolutely stunned me with the accusation, left me standing there trying to find my tongue while a small crowd looked at me with… with eyes I hadn’t seen since my old ‘Great and Powerful’ days. Accusing, disdainful…”

    Galaxi hugged the unicorn again as she shivered. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known where she found the stallion… or known she’d snap that bad.”

    “Then why does it feel like my fault?” she sniffled.

    “Because… because you feel guilty for your role in the misunderstanding.”

    “But she was like her old self, even for just a minute!” Trixie fumed, but the anger had no staying power and collapsed. “And I messed it up my treating her like she was back to her old self.”

    Galaxi hugged the unicorn a little more tightly, the pair resting in silence for several minutes.

    “Tome misses her.”

    “I do too,” Galaxi answered softly. “She hasn’t been herself for months, not since she returned from the Northern Reaches.”

    “Tome keeps wondering what happened up there, what did they do to her?!?” the unicorn demanded.

    “Tome…” Galaxi started to answer, but uncertainty gripped her. She couldn’t say they didn’t do anything to Clockwork, since she didn’t know. “I doubt they did anything there,” she finally answered, trying to shelve her own concerns for the moment, “and Princess Luna seems to think it’s something else entirely. Something about not adjusting properly…”

    “Tome finds that difficult to believe,” the unicorn said archly, reclaiming some of her composure, “Clockwork was always the most mentally agile amongst us. She was also one of the most supportive, quickly coming to aid you as well as myself whenever we found it necessary. I still remember the shy thing you were before meeting her…”

    Galaxi blushed. “I probably would have retreated back into my shell had it not been for her, you, and Princess Luna encouraging me.”

    “Tome notices you’re managing just fine without your bodysuit anymore.”

    “Yes well…” Galaxi coughed and quickly changed the subject. “Helping you with the nightmares means I listen for your emotions in the evenings, when I can. That’s how I knew something was wrong…”

    “I… Tome still finds it difficult to sleep alone at times,” she replied with a frown.

    Galaxi hugged the unicorn a little closer. “Princess Celestia hasn’t had a problem with you staying in her chambers with her when I’m busy?”

    Tome sighed softly, “No, she hasn’t. The Princess tries not to show it, but Tome thinks she enjoys the company. She gets… motherly when I’m there.”

    “That doesn’t surprise me,” Galaxi giggled softly, ignoring the glare from her friend.

    Tome’s expression softened as she looked at her desk. “What did Luna say about Clockwork?”

    Galaxi sighed, “She said that Clockwork was having trouble adjusting to peace. I… I don’t understand it, honestly. If I could just read her thoughts I might be able to… but Clockwork’s mind has been unreadable since she returned.”

    “The ‘music’, as you called it?”

    “Sort of.” Galaxi bit her lip, trying to sort out how to explain it. “When Key’s mind works, when her inspiration and imagination start ticking away, I ‘hear’ it from her as music. But ever since she returned, all I hear from her thoughts is a sort of soured version. It’s like one of those Nightmare Night songs they play, when they take a filly-hood song and make it weird and unsettling. I don’t know how else to explain it, just that the music has soured, and it’s constant. It never stops, unless she’s sleeping, which she hasn’t been doing very regularly. The more aggravated or angry she gets, the louder I hear it…”

    “That has not stopped her from inventing, I noticed,” Tome pointed out.

    “Not entirely… But exactly what inventions have we seen since she returned?”

    Tome opened her mouth to answer, but then slowly shut it. “Only one I can think of.”

    “Two, if you count the toy she was making for a foal up north.”

    “That’s it?!” Galaxi nodded in response. The unicorn frowned deeply as she spoke, “That’s wrong. Clockwork is one of those ponies who must constantly create! How many times did you both stay with Tome, only to wake up in the middle of the night with her hunched over Tome’s desk, pencil flying across the paper as she jotted down an idea that struck her while she was sleeping?”

    “Too many times,” Galaxi answered with a nostalgic smile, “she was always there for you though. She was so frequent around here a few guards thought this was her room.”

    “Tome remembers that,” she answered haughtily, “and Tome was quick to disabuse those foalish guards of that notion.” The unicorn’s expression softened as she continued, “She would show up before I did, would have your favorite tea already ordered, a platter of those little sandwiches I love, and be lost in some magazine or toy when we finally did get here. I still have a stain in the corner from when she dragged that one piece of equipment in here to work on while waiting for us, simply because she didn’t want to be late.”

    “Then she went up north, and it all stopped,” Galaxi said softly, staring at the indicated corner. The stain was barely noticeable, it had been scrubbed so many times it was just a discolored spot of yellowed carpet now.

    “Yes,” Tome sighed, “she didn’t even try to resume when she came back. She… just got so distant.”

    “She was always so supportive before…” Galaxi mused, when a thought struck her, “what if that was the problem?”

    “Clockwork being supportive was a problem?”

    “No, not that she was supportive but,” Galaxi said haltingly, unsure how to phrase it. “What if we weren’t supportive when she needed it?

    Tome raised an eyebrow. “But we are being supportive! Well… we’re trying to be, anyway.”

    “What if it’s too late now?”

    “There wasn’t much we could do when… oh!” Tome’s eyes widened as the proverbial light-bulb went off in her mind. “She was sent away to the Northern Reaches! If that was when she needed the support, it would explain why she came back in such a state. She needed support then… and the Princess sent her up north to handle the Unregistered, and away from anypony who could help her!”

    “That… you just verbalized it better than I was thinking it,” Galaxi admitted. “I just thought that maybe, unknowingly, she was supporting us in part because she knew she’d need our support.”

    Trixie considered the blind mare thoughtfully. “A support network, as I have personally discovered, is important to get past certain difficulties.”

    “Princess Luna did say her problem was… similar to yours.”

    “My ‘problem’…” Tome said with a thoughtful frown, “it took both you and Clockwork being around constantly for months to finally get a handle on the worst of the nightmares. Even now I still get them from time to time but… but without your support, and the support of the Princesses, I never would have found my way through. Do you really think that has happened to our Clockwork?”

    “I... I don’t know,” Galaxi answered softly, “but it’s possible.”

    “But how can we help if she continually pushes us away?!”

    “I don’t know,” Galaxi answered again, closing her eyes. “But, you can ask somepony.”

    “Who would Tome ask?” the unicorn asked softly, only to be confronted with a strip of paper held aloft by the purple glow of telekinesis. Her eyes widened, and she looked around the paper to Galaxi.

    “It’s just a thought,” the mare said sheepishly, “we may not know how to help, but she might.”

    “Tome thinks you are brilliant, Galaxi!” the unicorn cried, hugging the other mare tightly, forcing a small squeak from her. “But Tome will only write her on one condition: You must assist her.”

    “Me?!” Galaxi choked, “Is that even allowed?”

    “The Princess told Tome that Lady Sparkle once had a problem with her reports,” Tome answered, smiling broadly, “and from that difficulty, the Princess extended her command for ‘friendship reports’ to include what her friends learned as well. I can think of no more perfect a solution than to have you help Tome craft this letter.”

    “Um… okay?” Galaxi more asked than said. “But, how do we start?”

    “That is the easy part,” Tome answered with a grin, and with her magic levitated a parchment onto the desk. A quill pen swirled into the air and dipped itself into the nearby inkwell, coming to rest in the air over the parchment, poised to begin writing.

    “Dear Princess Celestia…”

    “Punctual as always, Filigree.”

    The gryphoness swooped in for a landing, set down the small travel bag she had brought, and then bowed down before the Princess. Celestia didn’t take her eyes off the horizon so many miles away, her horn glowing softly, but waved a wing to dismiss the bow. The silvery white alicorn then closed her eyes to let slip the awesome power that was part of her trusted position, and reached out for the mass of the sun. Carefully, as she had done for more millennia than she could count, she nudged the glowing sphere upwards into the sky. It hardly took any effort these days, but she still took pride in her work. Her eyes opened to watch the sky as it was painted in the reds and oranges of the dawn.

    A warm smile crept across her lips as she heard the awed gasps from the guards that accompanied her this morning. They’d seen the dawn before, but the wonder it held for them never seemed to fade. A sliver of naiveté she hoped her ponies would never loose. With a slow breath, Celestia released her hold on the sun, certain the celestial wheel was turning once again, and she faced the gryphon.

    Filigree’s gaze was, like her guards, focused on the rising sun. She hadn’t gasped, and nor would Celestia have expected such. Filigree was nothing if not master of herself, something Princess feared would be challenged in the near future. Still, to see that even a jaded gryphon like her could stare in wonderment at her dawn filled her with hope.

    “Seeing the sun actually risen gives it a new significance, Princess,” Filigree stated, her gaze still upon the orb. Celestia smiled and looked upon it herself, watching the rays pierce the smattering of clouds that formed over the night. She’d seen the light wash over these lands for so long that she no longer gained enjoyment from the spectacle itself…

    Instead, she took her joy from the reactions it garnered.

    “I am glad you enjoyed it, Filigree,” she said, and arched a wing. “Come, walk with me.”

    The gryphoness nodded her head quickly, and fell immediately in step with the Princess as she guided them into the palace garden. The garden was laid out in multiple sections, some of which were set aside specifically for unique animals and flowers. However Celestia chose to walk along the outside of the hedge maze she had constructed so many years ago, and the statues that rested along the perimeter. Filigree was a silent, if agreeable, partner for the walk, simply letting the warmth of the newly risen sun chase away some of the chill from the air.

    “What are your thoughts on the task ahead of you, Filigree?” Celestia asked, rounding a statue that was long familiar to her. The Draconequus stood in a panicked pose, a chimaerical creature that seemed to be composed of a serpentine body, a pony-like head, and mismatched legs, arms, wings, and even horns. While not positioned in the most attractive pose, Celestia found it comforting for him to be there; Discord had been one of the greatest threats to Equestria as she knew it.

    Filigree cocked an eye at the statue, but otherwise paid it no heed, “It’s assuredly a trap of some sort.” Filigree clicked her beak, an annoying habit she picked up from somewhere, before continuing, “If I have to guess, they are going to attempt to use my family to ensure my cooperation with something.”

    “Do you have any plans if that occurs?”

    “That would depend on the situation, Princess,” the gryphon answered smoothly, “I cannot say until the trap has been sprung. They would not be successful in attempting to take me individually; I am far stronger than any of their warriors. If they attempt to overwhelm me with numbers, then I will delay them as long as possible for one of your guard to escape and report back so a rescue can be planned. Since the clans enslave their specials, they will be completely unprepared for a coordinated team of them.”

    Celestia nodded and continued past the statue, on towards a mare with a banner. She smiled sadly as she regarded the mare. She had been turned to stone in order to save her life, and the lives of countless others. She volunteered herself for this, to prevent what had infected her from spreading any further. Fortunately the disease had long since been cured, but only if treated in the first month. The filly had it for three, and was still incurable, but Celestia kept a small but dedicated medical team to continue the search for a cure.

    “And what do you make of the threat to your family?” Celestia asked as the passed the statue.

    “I would hardly consider them family,” she answered curtly. “Disowning them would be the most potent move available to me. That would prevent them from being used against me, and assure their place in the clans without my name dragging them down.”

    “That assumes you would be allowed to perform such a move.”

    “Regardless, Princess, I would hardly consider them family.”

    Celestia nodded and continued to walk. She passed another statue, another of a mare, with strange eyes. She was a unicorn mage of some repute, but who delved too much into the black arts and pierced a veil that would have plunged the world into a pit of despair. Under that stone layer the witch was very much dead, but her body had been sealed by her younger sister as an example to all who would follow the dark arts. Princess Luna took great personal offense to those who would practice the demonological arts.

    “Did you have any other concerns, Filigree?”

    “Only that the timing seems… wrong to me.”

    “Please elaborate?” Celestia asked and looked to the gryphoness.

    “They knew I was coming in under a week anyway, so why the rush? That makes no sense to me. They want me there now for some reason. What is so special about this point in time that it could not wait four days? Something must be occurring within this week, but I cannot put my claw upon it. There are no holidays, no special celebrations, the gladiatorial combat season will not begin for several months yet. The only event I know of would be the start of the birthing season, but that makes little sense…” Filigree outlined.

    “Birthing season?”

    “Most gryphon mating happens in the fall,” she answered. “Given a six month gestation period means most cubs are born in the spring.”

    Celestia digested that for a long moment, and a worry began to niggle at the back of her mind. “Filigree, when is your Birthday?”

    The gryphoness blinked. “Princess? I don’t see-“

    “Answer the question, please.”

    The gryphoness looked at her for a long moment, and then turned away. “Tomorrow.”

    “Why did you not tell us?” the Princess asked, “we could have had a lovely party--”

    “Because my birthday is nothing to celebrate,” she interrupted sharply, “it’s just another day, and one I would rather forget.”

    Celestia paused for a moment, letting the gryphon’s anger cool, before continuing. “Please think for a moment before answering this next question, Filigree. Are there any age related milestones you would reach this year?”

    Filigree frowned and rubbed a claw along her beak. “I can only think of one Princess, and it would not apply to me.”

    “What is it?”

    “This year I would be the proper age to be assigned or choose a mate with which to raise cubs with, ‘promised’ to use the gryphon term,” she answered, “but ‘servants’ are immune to that. We are… they are just chattel. More-so since the gryphons do not want special abilities to propagate through the clans.”

    “Your ‘curse’, if I correctly remember their thoughts on it,” Celestia noted softly.

    “Correct, Princess.”

    Celestia was silent for several long moments. She was unable to meet Filigree’s eyes when she spoke, “This is almost certainly a trap.”

    “Yes, Princess,” the gryphon agreed.

    “Yet I am asking you to go anyway,” Celestia continued in a soft voice, “I won’t force you to do this, despite my words yesterday. But I need to know what game the gryphon clans are playing, I need them to tip their hand. Closing this trap willfully will expose this, but only at great personal risk to you.”

    Filigree nodded briefly before looking momentarily towards the rising sun. “No other pony could do this, and the chances for their return would be even less. I will do this, Princess, and you will have your answer one way or another.”

    A sad smile crept across the features of the Princess, and she nodded.

    The alicorn led the gryphon out of the garden and towards the place where her chariot was waiting. It was technically one of four, but they were often chosen by purpose and need. She had a formal one for visits, a casual chariot for travel, a “fancy” chariot for visits with foreign dignitaries or parades… and then this chariot.

    The sleek lines of the golden chariot were readily apparent at a glance. The entire chariot curved from a point at its fore and swept gracefully back to cradle the currently empty place for the rider. Golden filigree chased along the surface, cutting additional channels for the wind to sweep along the surface with the least amount of drag possible. It was almost certainly magicked as well, which only seemed to enhance the sense that this chariot was speeding along even as it stood completely still.

    “This is my fastest chariot,” Celestia said softly, and led Filigree to the front of it. A pair of pegasus guards in gold armour stood at the ready, already in the puller harnesses, and saluted with their wings as Celestia moved before them. “This is Commander Lighthoof, and that is Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive. They are among the fastest of my guards, short of the Wonderbolts themselves, and both have volunteered for this duty. Commanders, this is Filigree, code named Steelwing.”

    “Ma’am,” the stallion Lightfoot stated primly.

    “A pleasure, Ma’am,” Swan Dive, a mare, nodded politely.

    “Commanders, I am placing you under the command of Special Liaison Steelwing,” Celestia stated, and both pegasi saluted again. “You have your standing orders; please do your best to return unharmed.”

    “I’ll bring them both back,” Filigree said, “even if I have to carry them myself.”

    The mare blushed at the thought, but the stallion only smirked. “We’re ready to leave when you are, Special Liaison,” he stated.

    “Let me get my bag, and we’ll be off,” the gryphoness stated, and lifted off to reclaim her possessions. Once out of earshot, Celestia turned to the pegasi, her expression severe.

    “You both know what you’re getting into, and I thank you for volunteering,” she said softly. “Make sure you come back. If you must flee, then flee. Do not attempt to engage the gryphons in their homeland if you can help it. Understood, Commander?”

    “Understood, Princess.”

    “I’m sorry.”

    The stallion barked a laugh, “Why are you sorry?”

    “For having to leave so soon after meeting you,” she answered, shifting on the bench. The morning was still cool, but the bright sun was trying hard to stave off some of the chill. The bench they sat was the same from the day before, near the twenty foot or so wall that marked the edge of the Royal District, where it caught the morning sun. A light crosswind made the trees shush softly and the grass ripple underhoof.

    “We both are former Agents,” he said simply, shrugging from his own place on the bench, “I understand all too well the need to follow orders, and how they don’t always correspond with what we want.”

    “I know but--“

    “But nothing,” he cut her off, “you’re one of the top agents around.”

    “I’m one of the only agents around,” Clockwork Key pointed out, “and technically I’m not even an agent anymore. The agency only exists now to train the new specials how to control their powers, and help family and friends come to terms with it. Well, that and a PR division…”

    “Yeah, I met them after my accident,” Bottle Rocket mentioned softly. His head leaned back as he looked up into the sky, eyes tracking a rogue cloud in the otherwise clear sky, and the pair of pegasi trying to chase it down.

    “Not surprised. They’re trying to improve our image with the general public. The third Canterlot invasion did a lot to help, but general opinion is still relatively negative.”

    “Ultrapony vanishing might have helped with that,” the stallion said sourly.

    Clockwork’s stomach dropped. “You’re one of his supporters?”

    The stallion snorted, “Hardly. He was a glory hound. Sure he had all the power, but he also had the ego to match.” Clockwork released the breath she didn’t realize she had held as Bottle Rocket continued, “I couldn’t have been happier to see him go, but he did have one good point: He was good publicity. He knew how to play the crowds, and he was a positive face on the Agency. Considering the Agency was basically a second Royal Guard, made entirely of specials, I suppose I can’t fault folks for havin’ a negative opinion of us.”

    “If he’s our best face, then we need a transplant,” Clockwork added sourly.

    “Given the newspaper reports on your brawl with him, I’m not surprised you feel that way,” he noted with a shrug. “How long were you put up from that fight anyway?”

    “I’m surprised you heard of that,” she chuckled, “I spent a week in a magically assisted coma, and a month in the hospital recovering. My left foreleg will never truly be completely healed.”

    “One of the joints?”

    Clockwork nodded. “My shoulder, specifically the rotator cuff, was hit hard. So many little bone fragments that they did the best they could but…”

    “I thought I saw a slight limp this morning,” the stallion said softly.

    “That happens sometimes,” she mumbled, rubbing at the formerly injured shoulder with her hoof self-consciously, “some days it just aches more than others.”

    “I’d shake your hoof if I could,” he said with a smile. “I met the bastard once, immediately hated him. My entire squad did. Well… that’s not true. Minuet was making googly eyes at him at first. But once he showed off how much of a mare’s stallion he was, she lost interest. Tantrum was the only one who didn’t want to abandon him somewhere, and he said that was only because he had worse blow-hards in his family. He kept muttering about somepony named ‘Uncle Blueblood’ the entire time.”

    “Ultrapony might still be out there somewhere,” Clockwork said softly, “he just up and vanished. Nopony knows where he went or what he is doing. Only that he fell so completely off the radar that he seems to have ceased to exist.”

    “Why would that matter?”

    “Our team leader, Spectrum, is his daughter,” she answered softly, gaining a curious look from the veteran. “She won’t say it, but she worries about him. She always said that she knew how to calm him down and make him see reason. Not sure I believe it, but if anypony can...”

    “If she could reign him in, then I could see how she could lead a team,” he chuckled softly, “Bullhorn always compared leading us to herding cats.”

    “Really?” Clockwork asked with a teasing grin. “Somehow I can’t envision you with kitty ears and whiskers.”

    “Meow,” the stallion deadpanned, and Clockwork devolved into giggles.

    “I need to go,” she said finally after recovering, “I have a long flight ahead of me. Even at Sonic Rainboom speed, it’ll take me all day. I want to try and get there before dark.”

    “I understand.”

    Clockwork pushed up to her hooves and sighed, “You’re not going to promise to hold off on any fireworks this time, are you?

    “Nope,” he answered, “you won’t be here. Much as you seem to think fate placed you there to help me, and maybe yourself, I’m thinkin’ this might be fate pulling you aside.”

    “Screw fate,” Clockwork growled and reached into her small saddlebag, plopping a scroll into the stallion’s lap.

    “What’s this?”

    “This is how you can reach me,” she stated simply. “It includes who to talk to at that address to ensure prompt delivery. It’ll take roughly three days, one way, for a letter to reach me.”

    “You’re expecting me to write?”

    “Damn straight I am,” she growled at him. “I am NOT about to let you blow yourself up!”

    The stallion looked at her, eyes focusing on hers for a brief moment. “No offense, but that’s not your choice to make. If it happens, you can’t blame yourself for it.”

    “That’s an easy thing to say,” she countered, “but that wouldn’t change the reality of how I would feel.”

    “Don’t try to guilt trip me, young lady,” he answered evenly.

    “I’m not. I’m telling you the truth,” she answered softly. “I’ll meet you here when I get back, and you better be here, alright?”

    The stallion gave a noncommittal grunt as Clockwork turned to leave. She was not assured, but didn’t have a choice in the matter. She couldn’t just take him with her, much as she’d like to, and she couldn’t just do something drastic to keep him safe from himself. She just had to trust that one long and one short conversation was enough to convince him that there was more to live for.

    It was a long shot, but she had to take it. His life was in the balance, and she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t at least try.

3

Chapter 3

“Holding out for a hero…”

    “I’m just saying, Commander...”

    The white coated guard smirked at his fellow puller. “It’s not our job to know why, Lieutenant.”

    “Lieutenant Commander,” the mare corrected grumpily, “and I suppose you’re right, Sir. Still, if we’re winging our way into the gryphon’s territory and right into a suspected trap, wouldn’t it make sense to have an entire wing with us for backup?”

    “Would they be able to keep up?” The other guard offered a cocky grin to his partner. “We’d have outdistanced any force the Princess would have sent with us.”

    Filigree couldn’t help but smile from her position inside the chariot. It was rare for her to ride in one; she usually preferred to fly herself rather than be carried. But these were special circumstances and, despite their banter and the Commander Fleethoof’s cocky attitude, they were every bit as fast as Celestia had advertised. They tore across the skies almost effortlessly at speeds the gryphon herself couldn’t have come close to. More than once she’d spotted the telltale streamers clinging to their hooves as they neared Rainboom speed, but the pair always shied away from trying to push the barrier.

    The mare snorted, “You know what I mean Commander. It’s not like we couldn’t have gone slower to accommodate a larger force.”

    “The reason is simple, Lieutenant Commander,” Filigree finally added to the discussion.

    “M-ma’am?”

    “It’s the same reason we are heading into what the Princess believes is a trap,” Filigree answered. “She has hope.”

    “No offense, Special Liaison,” the stallion said with a frown, “but I don’t follow.”

    “Princess Celestia hopes that she is wrong. She knows this is likely a trap, yet she asked me to come anyway. Why? Because she hopes she is misjudging the situation and the gryphons truly do want peace. She didn’t send an entire wing of pegasi for the same reason,” Filigree answered, folding her claws on the rail of the chariot. “My kind would see that as an invasion force. If they are truly interested in peace, it would have died the moment they spotted us.”

    “And if it’s truly a trap,” the mare said, chewing thoughtfully on her lip, “then they would use it as an excuse to blame hostilities on the ponies.”

    “Precisely,” Filigree agreed with a nod.

    “Then why bother to issue us wingblades?” the Commander asked with a frown.

    “Simply because we come in peace does not mean we are defenseless,” the gryphon stated.

    The chariot pullers met each other’s eyes nervously for several long moments. The remainder of the flight was mostly done in silence, if an oddly companionable one. Filigree simply watched as the pullers worked in tandem to draw the chariot along. Both wore the traditional colors of Celestia’s Royal Guard with white coats and blue manes and tails, and they wore golden armour that covered most of their bodies. They each additionally bore a helmet with a crest that Filigree felt was far too flashy to be practical.

    The chariot broke through the clouds and into a breathtaking mountain range that seemed to spread out in all directions beneath them. The “Dragon’s Teeth Mountains” were appropriately named, with spires capped in snow arching up towards the clouds, while valleys between the tightly packed mountains seemed to vanish into darkness below. Filigree knew from experience that somewhere down there, almost hidden completely in those shadows, ran the icy river that provided water for the aeries above.

    It was a cold shock through her heart when the aerie itself came into view, the mountain peak towered over all its neighbors to frame itself majestically against the cold blue sky above, snow glistening in the late day sun. The clouds all but vanished within miles of the aerie, and Filigree was able to pick out watcher stations in the caves that riddled the mountaintops nearby. It was not the comforting sight the gryphon had hoped for.

    “Too quiet,” she muttered softly.

    “Ma’am?” the pegasus mare asked and perked an ear towards her.

    “It’s too quiet,” Filigree repeated, “there’s no gryphons out and flying around. We should see almost a cloud of my brethren flying about in training, rituals, enjoyment, or whatever. The fact that there are no gryphons out and about…”

    “We’ll stay alert,” the Commander answered softly.

    “Company,” the mare chimed in, nodding forward. A foursome of gryphons, each wearing silver scaled armour and carrying a spear in their fore-claws, launched themselves from the uppermost cave of a nearby spire and were winging their way towards the ponies and their chariot.

    “Let the games begin,” Filigree said to herself and adopted as neutral a posture as she could. She clenched the “muscle” that controlled and removed the metal coating to her wings, rendering them normal to all appearances. The pegasi slowed as the gryphons approached, and finally came to a hovering stop when hailed.

    “Halt and identify!” demanded one of the gryphons.

    “I am Special Liaison Filigree, here by request of both the clans and the Princess Celestia to act as a diplomatic bridge between the Pony and Gryphon nations,” Filigree called back.

    “Ah, the liaison,” the gryphon answered, his voice too neutral for Filigree’s tastes, “we feared you might not make it. We will escort you to the Arch-Duke’s nesting chambers.”

     The foursome of gryphons formed a protective ring about the chariot and began to fly towards the aerie. The two pegasi were quiet, watching their escorts with the studious disinterest that came professionally from those who expected trouble. They were watching everything, and nothing, all at once. Filigree remembered the lessons from her own training all too well. One must assess the danger posed by every individual in the near vicinity, but to focus too closely on one potential danger was to miss hundreds of other potential threats, not to mention those you could not anticipate or immediately recognize.

    The group was lead to a large cave roughly two-thirds the way up the slope of the central mountain. The space was empty, with more than enough room for the chariot to set down. The gryphoness added another oddity to her growing list; this cave should be filled with traders importing and exporting goods. The fact it was completely empty, save for their chariot, made the chamber seem grossly oversized and hollow.

    “Thank you,” Filigree told the two pullers, and left her bag with the chariot for now. “You’ll want to give yourselves a chance to stretch and get out of those harnesses.”

    “Our orders are to remain with you, Special Liaison,” Commander Fleethoof answered. The mare was already out of her harness and tugged a strap on his to help him slip free.

    Filigree just nodded and, when the pair was ready, turned to face the gryphon guards waiting on them. “Lead on.”

    For a brief moment, Filigree thought she noticed hesitation and confusion on the face of the guard, but it vanished almost instantly and he turned his back on her. The guards were all large, even for gryphons, and towered over the delegation. Filigree further noted that the armour they were wearing wasn’t ceremonial, but practical. What she had taken for silver in the light of the sun was polished steel in reality.

    From the entry chamber, the delegation was lead further into the mountain aerie. To the ponies, who had never been inside one, it was a strange place. To the gryphoness, who once lived within these halls, it granted an odd sense of déjà-vu. She knew these passages like the back of her claws, and yet they felt alien and dark. Chiseled tunnels into the core of the mountain now reminded her of the tunnels an ant might make in the ground. For the most part gryphons nested in small caves they carved off the main pathways, out of sight of the central congregation chamber. Filigree knew that only the higher castes, who lived in the upper caves of the aerie, would have their own access to the sky about the mountain. The rest would be cut off from the open air they were meant to live in, and the lower their caste, the less able they would be to make the time to slip out of one of the lower entrances and stretch their wings.

    The large central congregation chamber made Swan Dive gasp in surprise when they entered it, earning her a sharp glare from her Commander. To an outsider the true face of the Aerie would seem strange and incredible to them, the hollowed out the center of the mountain that served as the central meeting chamber was truly awe inspiring. With everything carved out of solid rock, the internal space of the mountain formed a towering latticework of homes, shops, and perches. It seemed to alternate from delicate to sturdy, with slender stalactites and stalagmites supporting entire clusters of roosts suspended in mid-air, while others were carved directly out of ancient rock formations. Glowing crystals of a myriad of colors offset the drab color of the stonework, lighting the chamber and keeping it in a state of perpetual twilight. To Filigree it felt like a shell of what it should be. What should be filled with voices hawking wares and animated discussions and cubs playing was completely empty, save for the occasional patrolling guard, which gave the aerie a strangely hollow feel.

    The guards took to their wings, forcing the small delegation to do likewise. Filigree barely watched their escort, instead her eyes flicking about the massive chamber they passed through. Something was definitely wrong; the aerie should be swarming with activity this time of day. There hadn’t been any major sicknesses or mass deaths she was aware of, especially not that would account for this emptiness.

    “Why are they hiding?” the Lieutenant Commander whispered to herself. Filigree carefully maintained her neutral expression, but realized the ponies had come to the same conclusion she had. The gryphons of the aerie were in hiding, scared of something… or someone.

    The escort led the trio into an entrance near the apex of the chamber, where the group was forced to land and walk in order to traverse through yet another tunnel. This tunnel appeared to be more carefully chiseled, smooth and far more spacious than the ones they had previously travelled through, decorated with banners and weapon displays to hide the dull brown rocks. Side passages held many a door and, in most cases, one or more gryphons in full armour guarding them. Filigree heard the Commander ruffle his wings, and wingblades, nervously at the sight of more gryphons armed with spears. Belatedly she realized that those spears would give the gryphons a reach advantage over non-unicorns, but the unique head design drew her attention. The spears were broad headed, but with three prongs instead of one. They looked almost like three leaves overlapping at the stem, but spread so that the tip of each arched a different direction. The central tip was the longest, with the additional two sprouting outwards at an angle that looked as if they were designed to catch and turn blades. Filigree found herself wondering if they were designed intentionally to handle wingblades.

    The escorting gryphons turned a dog-legged passage before entering the wide chamber that was very obviously the ruling hall of the Arch-Duke. To call it a “nest” or “roost” would have been an insult, even if those were the traditional names for the chamber. The chiseled room arched upwards to nearly the cap of the mountain, and the cold from the snow still resting there was palpable. One half of the chamber was ringed with open archways that lead directly out into the sky, as tradition indicated the higher one’s station, the more access to the sky they would be allowed. Only the King of the clans was allowed more access to the sky than the clan heads, the Arch-dukes. A wide strip of rich purple carpet, which looked out of place to Filigree, extended from the centermost of those arches and all the way across the chamber to a dais set near the opposite wall. The raised dais held a stonework throne, decorated with silver chasing and gems gathered from when the mountain was first hollowed out.

    For as large as the chamber was, Filigree couldn’t help but feel slightly crowded. Only the two ponies were close enough to touch as their escort faded back, but the gryphon could see guards around the perimeter of the room, eight of them standing imposingly by each entrance and near the archways. They were all doing their best impressions of a statue, their eyes at once keenly aware and unfocused.

    “Where is--?” Swan Dive began, before a hiss from her Commander silenced her.

    “The Arch-duke will make his entrance when he is ready,” Filigree answered, her eyes casting about, half looking for a strategic advantage of any sort, and half in nostalgia. She’d been in this chamber many times… always in the accompaniment of Prince Silverthorn, the Arch-duke’s son.

    “It feels strange being here,” Filigree sighed softly. The Commander looked to her worriedly as she waved a claw. “I’m fine. I just have many a memory of attending to Prince Silverthorn as his servant and bodyguard here. It feels strange to be here once more, this time without being commanded.”

    “Ah, but you were commanded,” a new voice answered, and drew the gaze of Filigree and the ponies accompanying her. The voice’s owner was a stately, if aged, gryphon coated with graying fur and feathers. He had obviously seen better days, and his body was starting to show the frailties of his advanced age. He wore a patch over his left eye, along with the scar that made the necessity of it apparent, and a grizzled expression that seemed more suited to a younger gryphon. Behind him, clumsily attempting to remain in his shadow, stood the gray feathered Prince that was his son. Unfortunately for him, he was far too large to truly hide behind his father, and even his carefully coiffed and styled feathers could hardly hide the voluminous weight of the adult prince.

    “Arch-duke Silverwing,” Filigree said with a polite incline of her head. It was a motion she didn’t repeat for the prince. “Prince Silverthorn.”

    The prince’s stare bore into her even as the Arch-duke settled himself on the carpeting, sitting not on the throne, but beside the throne. “Welcome home, Filigree,” the arch-duke said with a half smile.

    “My home is elsewhere,” she answered softly, “and that is not why I am here.”

    “No, no it’s not,” the elder gryphon sighed. “However, this is not my play, I fear.”

    Filigree raised an eye-ridge. “Oh? Has the Prince finally gathered his courage to force you to step down?”

    The elder gryphon gave a rasping laugh, “This lug? I love my boy, but he doesn’t have the stones. He’s a politician, all soft and flabby, not a warrior. Not a leader.” The Prince looked at his father crossly, but didn’t open his beak to refute his words.

    “Am I not here to act as a politician as well?” she asked softly.

    “You’re not stupid, Filigree,” the elder gryphon answered, his good eye narrowing. “My son, and his trainers, told you otherwise, but I know you’re not stupid. You may lack cunning, but you were always as sharp as a talon.”

    “Maybe, maybe not,” Filigree said noncommittally.

    “You must know this is a trap.”

    “I did… I do.” Filigree sighed softly, “I hoped that I misread the situation.”

    Silverwing snorted, “The soft-hearted Princess is wearing off on you.”

    “Plus, I wanted you to confirm it for me,” Filigree stated, a slight smile quirking her beak.

    The Arch-duke frowned at Filigree for a long moment. “You cannot tell me that you came all this way just to have me tell you if this was a trap or not.”

    “I came to confirm if you and the gryphon clans were serious about the desire for peace between themselves and the pony lands,” Filigree answered. “I voluntarily chose to place myself on the line to learn that answer, which I now have.”

    “The question is,” someone asked from behind her, “what do you think you can do with that information?”

    Silverwing and his son at once straightened themselves up visibly, and Filigree’s heart sank. She turned slowly, raking her gaze over the newcomers to this scene, only to have her fears confirmed. Had he been alone, the gryphoness would have been far more respectful of the leader of the procession. He cut a handsome figure, downright noble in fact, as he stalked across the chamber. His fur had a golden glow to it, offset by the snow-white feathers of his crest. Perfectly sharpened talons clicked along the stone, even through the carpeting, as he reached the throne and settled himself down on it.

    Unfortunately, the gryphon had not entered alone. A group of others had entered with him, lead by a heavy set gryphon with a half hood hiding his features. In one of his fore-claws he held a heavy chain, which he pulled on mercilessly, forcibly leading a procession of five gryphons by the harsh iron collars locked about their necks.

    “I trust you recognize your family?” the golden gryphon asked needlessly. “I did so want them along for a nice little reunion.”

    Filigree took a careful breath, and then looked directly to the gryphon on the throne, “Yes, I suspected as much. I will admit, however, that I did not expect the King bother with the likes of me. Given that you are too young to be the venerable King Goldbeak, I presume that you are his only son?”

    The gryphon on the throne gave a mock bow. “You would be correct. My father passed away late last fall, and now I am now the King of the Clans, King Goldtalon.”

    “If memory serves, you are the middle of three cubs,” Filigree noted. “I do wonder what happened to your elder sister, and intended Queen, Goldshrike.”

    “She had a horrible training accident,” the king answered in an oddly distracted voice, “she nearly killed herself in a fall, and maimed one of her wings beyond the healers’ abilities to repair. Father was lucky to marry her off to some high class merchant family, given her infirmity.”

    “Yes, losing the ability to fly is almost as bad as being declared ‘cursed’,” she stated evenly, her eyes never wavering from his golden-brown ones.

    The king smiled and spread his claws. “Well well, Silverwing was accurate for once; you are smarter than the average servant. Brains, brawn… and I must confess you’re also quite a beauty too. If you weren’t so dangerous, I’d have claw picked you to be in my harem.”

    “You have a reason for drawing me here now,” Filigree said, ignoring the leer from the king. “This trap is larger than I anticipated, I must confess, but so far you have yet to surprise me. You bring before me a family that once abandoned me in chains, now wearing chains of their own, as if that would lure me here. Additionally, you sued for peace, knowing that it would attract the Princesses’ attentions. In short, you wanted me here for something.”

    The king frowned. “You don’t have much of a flare for the dramatic, do you?” he asked sardonically.

    “You can ask the Prince how ‘dramatic’ I could get,” she noted simply, and the Prince in question ruffled his feathers irritably and scowled.

    “Very well then, to the point,” the King said, and hopped off the throne. “Your family is here because, quite frankly, you aren’t being given a choice. You will rejoin the gryphon clans.”

    “Why?”

    The King blinked. “Did you just ask me ‘why’?”

    “Yes, I did,” Filigree answered.

    “Are you questioning royalty?” the king asked incredulously.  “Are you serious?”

    Filigree smiled thinly. “Did you forget that I represent another of equal rank? One who, might I remind the king, I was sold to and now owe my allegiance to?”

    “Yes, I’ve had a few words with Silverwing about that,” the king growled softly. The Prince shrunk back, but the Arch-Duke braced himself, as if anticipating a blow. It never came, the king instead smiled in a way that made Filigree’s confidence wane.

    “Ah well, I’m not going to reveal all my reasons,” the king chuckled, “but here are three reasons I’m willing to reveal, simply because I’m sure you’ve guessed some of them already, and the other will be revealed to you shortly. First and foremost, you’re part of the greatest weapon in the world, the ‘Elements of Harmony’. I will not allow my enemies to possess a weapon of that caliber.”

    “Since when are we ponies your enemy?” Swan Dive blurted out. Commander Fleethoof hissed at her, and the King spared her a sharp glance, but Filigree looked thoughtful before returning her gaze to the king.

    “That is a good question, when did the ponies become your enemy?” Filigree echoed.

    “You should leash your pets,” the King growled. The mare’s wings ruffled, but any retort was cut off by the swat of Fleethoof’s wing.

    “They are my compatriots, not my pets,” Filigree stated, her voice dipping dangerously as she locked eyes with the King.

    The king couldn’t help but smile. “You have a backbone of steel, I see. The tamers that worked you over should be flogged for failing to break your spirit. Regardless, the answer to the question is ‘always’. The Ponies have always been our enemies; some are just too foolish to see it.”

    Filigree raised en eye-ridge, but said nothing.

    “The second reason,” Goldtalon continued, “is that you will be an example of our traditions being far superior to the ways of Pony-kind. Even with the respect you’ve earned amongst the ponies, returning to gryphon society would be a rejection of everything they stand for.”

    “A pyrrhic victory at best, as your intention is to remove my choice in the matter.”

    “Only between you, myself, and the choice few within this room,” the King answered with a smile. “To the rest of the clans, they will only know you turned your back on the ponies, thus affirming our superiority in their eyes.”

    “And the final reason?” Filigree asked, keeping her expression carefully neutral even as she tried to ignore the cluster of gryphons nearby. The presence of those she knew as “family” was like a burning presence in the room, a source of heat that threatened to burn her if she stumbled too close.

    “That is the simplest, and also the most important, given the time of year,” he noted with a smile, “I’ve agreed to give you as a mate to another gryphon.”

    Filigree’s mask slipped for a moment, her own astonishment at the revelation causing her jaw to work for a moment before her composure reasserted itself. “W-what?! Who?” she demanded.

    The King laughed, “Surprised? I’m sure you are, being a lowly servant and all, but I’ll not reveal who this lucky lad is until I’m ready. Suffice it to know that, come tomorrow morning, you will be given to your future mate and preparations for your marriage will be made. You won’t be leaving us.”

    “That’s why you needed to be sure of the timing,” Filigree mused. “If I had already promised myself to another before I arrived here next week, tradition would have forced you to honor that.”

    “Quite right,” the King responded with a cold smile, “but since tomorrow is your hatching day, you will have no chance to give yourself to another before I may make the promise on your behalf.”

    “You’re assuming your trap will keep me here.”

    “Ah, now that’s the trick, isn’t it?” he asked, his smile far too wide for Filigree’s comfort. “After all, we have your family here. The longer you resist, the more they will suffer. I had my personal torturer accompany me, just for this little show. He will probably start with basic whipping, then move on to those brands he brought and are already warming on the coals over there, and some cutters for removing their claws….”

    Filigree forced herself not to shiver, but she could hear the gasp from the pegasus to her left. The other’s jaw clenched and his teeth were grinding so loudly that she suspected he’d need a dentist in the near future. Worse were the gasps and growls from the captive gryphons that were of her blood. She struggled against herself, but was unable to overcome some unspeakable need, and turned to face those she would have to throw to the wolves in order to rescue them. The simple act of meeting their eyes made her a lot less confident about her plan.

    The first in line of the bedraggled quintet of shackled gryphons was her father, Shale. Her memories of him clashed with the visage before her. She remembered him as a tawny furred gryphon with mottled brown feathers and far too much pride. He was the sort who would anger over the merest misstep, and lash out with his claws at any of his children to step out of line. Quick to punish and slow to forgive, his harsh gray eyes locked onto hers with a combination of hatred and fear. He would happily lash out at her again were it not for the fact she was stronger than he was. Of course, in chains and his tawny fur matted with filth, he hardly looked prepared to give any sort of struggle. Her mind remembered him when she was young, and how he had towered over her. Now, she was surprised to notice she was a full inch taller than he. Oddly, she felt nothing but pity for the gryphon that once terrorized her cub-hood.

    Next was her mother, Patina, who looked almost exactly as she remembered her. Certainly she was dirtier, with her tawny fur matted and filthy, but the soft white crest Filigree had inherited was still easily notable. Blue eyes looked back at her fearfully. Mother was still terrified of her, as she had been since her “curse” surfaced. But then, Mother was terrified of everyone, and for once she had a reason to be. Father dominated her every day of her life, threatening her with his claws…  Now it seemed as if she finally had something proper to fear, and that something far larger than her mate. Filigree wanted to feel sorry for her, but felt nothing, only an emptiness that refused to acknowledge the pitiful gryphoness’ fear. It was that fear, after all, that forced Filigree away from her and into servitude. Filigree quickly looked away, feeling hollow and brittle.

    Her elder sister, Pyrite, was two years her senior and next in line. She was, in no uncertain terms, a spoiled brat. She wooed any male who could support her lavish tastes, and when he ran out of money she would abandon him. Filigree heard she was technically mated, though her current reduction in caste would have nullified that mating, but she cheated on the poor gryphon with such regularity that she had broken his spirit as surely as her father had broken her mother’s. The eyes of her sister glared back at her, angry, fierce, and surely blaming every stroke of the whip on her. Filigree couldn’t even summon pity for her sister, just a great empty void where a sister should have been.

    The fourth in the line was her nest-sibling, Fracture, which was a fancy way of saying he came from the same clutch of eggs she did. Identical in age he may be, but his personality was as interesting as a pet rock. He was a simple, thoughtless brute. He was a bully and a soldier, who never had the guile to improve his station or the motivation to improve himself. He was a follower, not a leader, and he despised it. Because of that, he despised everyone else and pushed around anyone smaller than himself. Much like their elder sister, he blamed everyone but himself for his failure. His eyes were dull gray orbs that returned her gaze flatly, but the sneer across his beak told her that he was not worth her pity either. Yet she pitied him anyway, for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom.

    Filigree’s expression darkened when her gaze fell upon the final figure in the coffle. She had to step closer to see the small shape half hidden behind her lump of a brother, but a push from the gryphon holding the chains forced her stumbling form into the open. Unlike the rest of the family, Filigree didn’t know this gryphon. Filigree guessed that the little gryphoness was roughly half her age, and must have hatched after she was given into servitude. Immediately Filigree felt a surge of protectiveness over the slender, almost pitiful, figure of the young gryphon. She had similar markings to Filigree’s own, with some mottling of the white crest along the sides of her head and face. Only after a moment did the young girl lift her head to look back at Filigree with bright and intelligent green eyes, and Filigree felt her heart clutch in her chest. There was no anger there. There was fear, but not of Filigree. But mostly there was a hollow desperation. The sense that she desperately wanted to be free from this situation, but knew no one would come for her, that no one would save her. It was the same desperation Filigree had felt all those years ago when she had been first placed in chains.

    Echoes of the past, and the torments she endured, drew Filigree’s attention to something wrong with the young gryphon’s wing. Maybe it was the awkward way she held it tight to her side, or the fact the feathers seemed out of place, but something noticeable was wrong. A glance confirmed the others of Filigree’s family were afflicted with the same problem, and she reached out a claw. The young gryphon shied away slightly, but the King barked a laugh.

    “You see it? Good, good. Show her…” he commanded the small gryphon. She ducked her head and whimpered, and he gave a dangerous growl.

    “I won’t hurt you,” Filigree told her, interposing herself between the King and her previously unknown sister, and the small gryphon’s eyes snapped up to hers. “I only want to see what they did to your wing.”

    The gryphoness, trembling physically, gave a quick nod and closed her eyes. With a slow, deliberate, motion she unfurled one wing towards Filigree. The gasp from the ponies behind her was more reaction than she allowed herself as she examined the wing. Several key feathers had been intentionally plucked out, a painful procedure that she remembered quite clearly. The feathers would grow back in time, but it would be months before she, or any of the captive gryphons, would fly again.

    “You’ve clipped their wings.”

    “Well, we couldn’t have them flying away before you got here,” the King answered with a dark smile.

    Filigree sighed softly. The small gryphoness tried bravely not to break down into tears as she folded her wing tightly to her side. It was all Filigree could do not to rush to comfort the small figure, but she needed to seem cold and distant for her plan to succeed, and then pray to Celestia it would actually work.

    “Your plan is a failure,” she told the king, meeting his gaze. One of his eye-ridges rose as she continued, “You failed to take into account one simple thing. My family is no longer here, but amongst those ponies in Canterlot.”

    Unfortunately, the king’s smile only widened. “What, exactly, are you saying?”

    “I am saying that I renounce these gryphons who claim to be my family,” she stated evenly. Unfortunately, Goldtalon’s smile didn’t waver, and a sense of dread crept through her. “I am officially separating myself and my deeds from those who hatched me. As much as they would wish to disown me, I will disown myself.”

    “Well… I suppose that answers that question.” The king just made an overdramatic sigh and motioned to the torturer holding the chains of Filigree’s family. “Torture them.”

    “Right here, Milord?” the hooded gryphon asked thickly.

    “Certainly, we can make them clean out their own blood later,” he stated with a shrug.

    “What purpose would that serve?” Filigree asked, careful to make sure her voice didn’t crack.

    “To call your bluff,” the king answered, that smile never wavering as Filigree’s heart sank. “If you can manage for an hour without coming to the rescue of your rather pitiful family, then I will accept your disownment of them. However, if you so much as move a muscle to protect any them, I will refuse your request.”

    “That bastard…” Swan Dive breathed under her breath.

    “Torturer…” the golden furred king said, “begin with the little one. Say, Filigree, weren’t you about that age when you were sold by your family?”

    The hiss of leather as the whip uncoiled, a leather serpent preparing to strike.

    The rattle of chains as they were pulled tight, spreading the figure helplessly.

    The whimper from the small gryphon ripped a hole through Filigree’s memories, tearing down her façade like tissue paper. The memory of her own induction forced its way into her mind. When she was shackled, humiliated, and whipped to break her will. The memories of her father’s smug face watching, the fear and tears in her mother’s eyes, and her cries to both of them, pleading to them and losing hope at the same time. Please forgive her, she had cried to them. She didn’t mean to lose control like that! Please help her! It wouldn’t happen again! Please, please help her! Please save her! Please, she’d do anything! Please don’t do this!

    An audible grunt from the whip-master…

    Please!

    The whistle of the whip filled the air…

    Please…?

    Muscles tightened and her wing flared. Metal spread along the length, metal she had kept retracted in respect to their fears of what she was. Now, it didn’t matter. Only one thing mattered as she heard the snap-pop from the tip of the whip…

    She almost couldn’t look, but forced herself. She stared down the length of her metal wing, jutting almost straight towards the King’s torturer. He stared back at her, his expression inscrutable. And between them, on the chromed length of her wing, the smudge mark made by his whip.

    Relief flooded Filigree, and she saw the green eyes of the gryphoness huddled under the arched wing staring at her with wonder. She hadn’t expected the rescue; she had been hopeless and terrified. Now… now she’d been given the single most powerful thing anyone could have ever given her.

    Hope.

    Filigree stared back at her, meeting her eyes even as she heard the whistling of the whip again. She didn’t flinch or look away when it landed across her own back. It was an ancient rite, a sacrifice for someone else, to take their “punishment” for them. But the torturer forgot something; Filigree wasn’t in chains.

    She felt the blood from where the whip had landed, dribbling down where her metal wing turned back to flesh. Pain lanced outward along the wing as she moved it, but she’d endured worse. Her wing arced again, tracing a deadly path that glittered in the evening sun, catching the down-stroke of the whip in mid-flight. She didn’t make a sound as another spot of pain flared along her hip. Instead she folded her chromed wing, satisfied.

    The large gryphon torturer stared dumbly at the stub of what was left of his whip after Filigree’s wing bisected it. The voices of the pegasi reached her ears as she swam back from the grip of her instincts and memories, and she turned to face them. The mare fluttered in place, wingblades brandished as if she had been prepared to attack the torturer herself. Fleethoof was facing the other way, his own wings spread defensively, eyeing the guards warily. Filigree couldn’t help but notice that the guards had adopted more aggressive stances, spears angled towards them threateningly. Obviously the King would only tolerate so much interference.

    A clapping from the King brought all attention back to him. “Bravo, Filigree. I knew you didn’t have the stones to go through with it. You are part of the Elements of Harmony, which to activate requires embracing our weakest nature.”

    Filigree considered those words for a moment, then looked back at the two ponies that had accompanied her, “Commander Fleethoof, Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive, this is where we part company. You have the evidence we need.”

    “Understood,” Fleethoof answered.

    “What about you, Liaison?” Swan Dive asked.

    “I cannot abandon them,” Filigree answered simply. The mare gave a silent nod.

    “Do you think they will be able to escape?” Goldtalon asked tauntingly, and gave a half smile as the guards widened their stances. Filigree smiled as she glanced back, seeing the four guards between themselves and the open arches to the sky had tightened their grouping. It was time for Plan B…

    “I don’t plan to give you a choice.” Filigree reached down and gripped the purple carpet with her claws, and with a fierce yank, pulled it out from under the guards directly behind her. The wide carpet had been secured well, but wasn’t prepared for the incredible strength of the gryphoness, and a foursome of guards found the rug literally yanked out from under them.

    “Good luck!” Swan Dive called, and the two pegasi revealed why the Princess had chosen them. It was as if they had been shot from a cannon, and they rocketed through the exit far faster than the gryphons could recover.

    “Stop them!” the king bellowed, and two pair of gryphons launched themselves across the chamber.

    Filigree smiled grimly, and turned to face them. A flex of her muscles, and her wings flared suddenly, the flat of her metal wings striking the lead pair on the side of their heads to send them crashing into their brethren. Rearing up on her back legs, she caught the second pair about the necks with her fore-claws. Each made an awkward squawk when caught, and struggled futilely against her iron grip.

    She slammed them both down to the stone floor with enough force to make cracks radiate in the solid rock. The gryphons she held were knocked unconscious, and she took a turning step, sweeping first one, and then the other, into the air as she hurled them at the recovering gryphons by the exit the pegasi had fled through.

    Filigree turned to face the throne with a mildly smug expression as the gryphons squawked behind her, now pinned under their unconscious compatriots. They would be free in short order, but she wasn’t trying to stop them permanently. She only needed to give the ponies time to flee. They were faster than any gryphon she knew of, so they should only need a proper head start.

    The King glowered at her, his noble and confident mask slipped into a seething rage. His snow white feathers were almost red with the flush of his face under them. Filigree couldn’t help but watch, even as the Prince and Arch-Duke back-pedaled away from him. In a way, she almost felt sorry for them, since they would bear the brunt of his anger. Almost.

    “Word will reach the Princesses,” Filigree stated.

    “Yet you didn’t flee,” the King noted, and his eyes flicked over her family, specifically the small gryphon at the end of the line who was watching Filigree with open admiration.

    “Some things are more important. Besides, speed is not one of my assets.”

    “Still, you seem to have made short work of the guard. But don’t worry; your friends won’t make it back.” He sneered at her. “Once you arrived, I had patrols sent out to strip away any cloud cover, and ordered them to chase down and kill anything even resembling a pony.”

    “Then you underestimate Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard,” Filigree answered. “She loaned them to me specifically for this purpose. She, too, suspected a trap. As such, back-up plans were made.”

    “Regardless, you aren’t leaving here.”

    “And how do you plan to stop me?” she asked simply.

    “Champion, to me!” the king called. A rumbling from a nearby doorway, leading to the arch-duke’s personal chambers if Filigree remembered correctly, filled the room as the largest gryphon Filigree could ever recall seeing forced his way past the door.

    It was a tight squeeze for the monster of a gryphon. With talons almost as long as her arm, the gryphon towered almost three times her size, and every inch another brick in a wall of muscle. His fur was sooty black, with a reddish-brown tint to his crest and fierce steel-gray eyes that immediately locked onto hers.

    “In the aerie I personally oversee,” the King explained with a dark smile, “we use cursed like you in the arena. The best of the best are chosen to become part of my personal entourage. Champion here has the longest winning streak of any competitor. I’m sure you can guess what his ability is.”

    “Yes, I think I can,” Filigree said, her stomach sinking a little as she looked at the monster before her. He was easily larger than a Manticore, and obviously much more intelligent. Worse, he was far more familiar with one on one combat than she was.

    “Champion? I need her alive, so you may not kill her. Just hurt her… badly.”

    “Yes, my liege,” the massive gryphon answered in a voice that sounded like the mountain itself just spoke.

    Filigree flapped her wings, gaining some altitude on the monster gryphon. He was obviously stronger than she was, so she had to hope she was faster while she looked for a specific weakness. “Champion” was built like a rockslide, with bulges everywhere and every one of them as hard as a boulder. But he had small wings, sized normally for an adult gryphon but not scaled to his increased size. A flare of hope surged through her… she highly doubted he’d be able to fly on those wings.

    Then he leapt at her.

    “Of course…” she muttered, and arched her wings forward to protect against the incoming claw. It wasn’t enough, and the heavy claws battered against her metal wings and drove her into the rocky ground.

    Only pure instinct saved her from the follow up, her body rolling away from the impact even before she had collected her wits about her. She may have hated those who trained her, but she had to admit they trained her well. Her wings swooped forward, their serrated edge skittering along his massive foreleg even as he drew it back. Both combatants stared in surprise as blood gushed from the wound.

    Filigree looked up at Champion and met his eyes. There was a calculating look in that steely gaze, but Filigree also saw a surprising measure of respect.

    “First blood,” he rumbled, then wiped a claw across the wound. He collected the blood on his claw-tip and raised it to his beak, tracing a line across the bridge of it like war-paint. Then, with an eerie silence, he leapt at Filigree.

    Filigree rarely felt like she was in danger of being overpowered, being the strongest on her team, but against this monster she was being gryphon-handled. His fore-legs were like pistons from some well oiled machine, lashing out at her with practiced precision. Worse, the defense she’d come to rely on was utterly worthless, and only got her battered and pushed with every impact. And pushed she was, slowly but surely, as Filigree realized he was trying to back her into a corner where she couldn’t get to the air again or have any room to maneuver.

    “I need to change tactics…” she told herself, grasping for ideas. A mad inspiration rushed forward, and she clutched to it desperately.

    His fist barreled towards her again, and her wings met it once more. This time she turned her metal wings, allowing the fist to continue over her back and giving her room to surge forward. Her talons sunk into his forearm as he started to draw it back, having realized what happened, and drew her up with it. Her stomach lurched with the sudden motion, and her body swung around like a ragdoll before her back claws joined her talons in embedding themselves in his forearm. Only when his arm reached eye level did she spring forward, her wings catching the air as she punched him square in the jaw.

    It was far FAR less successful than she hoped. He didn’t so much as flinch and Filigree wondered if she hurt her claw more than his beak. Then she was swatted away. She tumbled end over end before finally coming to a stop before her family, right at the feet of the smallest gryphon in the coffle, who looked down at her with wide, worried eyes.

    “What are--?” Filigree started, but the ground erupted and interrupted her thought. She was sent tumbling again, but she grasped at the small gryphon, the chains shattering with the explosion, and wrapped her wings around the little gryphon to protect her from the impact. She screamed, of course she did, but that was good, right? Screaming meant she was still alive.

    Filigree shook herself out and let the smaller gryphon out of her fore-legs. She was busy trying to stand up when she was met by a ham-fist slamming into her unprotected form. Then another punch… and another… and another… Then she was falling… no, that isn’t accurate, but she lacked another word for the sensation that preceded her crashing into the floor again, and rolled awkwardly onto her side. She was hurt, she realized... possibly severely, but she couldn’t tell. Her talons dug into the floor as she forced herself up, one wing hanging limply while pain flared along her left foreleg at the elbow. One of her eyes was swollen, but she stared defiantly at the approaching monster of a gryphon.

    No quarter was asked, and none was given. His claw grabbed her, massive and powerful, and wrapped about her neck and forelegs and chest. She squawked as he began to squeeze, the pressure on her neck and chest was immense, and black spots began to dance before her eyes. Her mouth gaped as she struggled for breath, but he was crushing it from her, her hind legs kicking futilely at the air as she struggled.

    Darkness started to creep in along the edges of her vision, and she grew more desperate, thrashing against his grip. His answer was a punch to her midsection, driving what remained of her breath from her. She was left gaping and gasping as the world swam around her.

    Wings… her wings! She was just on the verge of unconsciousness when the desperate idea struck her, and her muscles flexed. There was power behind them even as the left wing flared with pain, enough for one desperate stroke. She swept them both forward…

    …

    Filigree didn’t remember landing on the floor. Had she lost consciousness? She couldn’t be sure. Her eyes slowly parted, and she cried out in surprise. About her upper body was the limp claw of the monster gryphon, lying across her as blood pooled slowly from the stump. She looked up and saw Champion staring down at her in shock, his good claw clutching at the stump where she severed his other.

    “C-cauterize… it…” she managed to choke out through the pain that flared inside her chest. The gryphon looked at her in shock for a moment, and then nodded. His eyes tracked around the room and found the only fire available, the hot coals that the torturer had planned to use on her family. Without a second thought he shoved his stump into the coals. Filigree closed her eyes, not wanting to see, but she wouldn’t forget his scream anytime in the near future. Instead, she focused on weakly kicking off the severed claw that laid over her.

    “Well now, that was an unexpected result,” the King crowed from the throne, “it looks like the Champion has been dethroned!”

    Filigree didn’t answer, instead fighting her own body to stand up. She hurt, she wanted to find a soft nest and pass out, but somehow she made it to her claws, wobbling unsteadily as she looked briefly to her family. The youngest had been corralled and re-connected to the coffle, but she was safe. That was the important thing, even as the little gryphon’s awed expression warmed a part of her that she wasn’t aware she possessed.

    “Come here, Champion,” the King ordered. The mountain of a gryphon, now looking much smaller after his defeat, the loss of a claw, and the pain he endured cauterizing it, stumbled to the king on three legs. “Do you recall what I do when one of you lose?”

    The monstrous gryphon’s face looked stricken for a moment, his beak working silently to try and answer. He never got the chance. Filigree looked away. There could have been only one answer the King’s question, and the heavy thump of the Champion’s body confirmed it. Filigree glanced back to the King again, who was looking sourly down at the now dead gladiator and his own blood stained claw.

    “So, what now?” Filigree managed to rasp. “Your champion fell, and I still stand.”

    “You assume I only have one?” he asked, that damnable grin returning.

    The little gryphon screamed as something slammed into Filigree from behind, sending her limp form rolling into the center of the mostly destroyed throne room. Her body didn’t respond properly, but she forced herself up anyway, a foreleg curled under her body protectively as she scanned the room again.

    Nine pairs of new eyes stared back at her.

    “Meet the rest of my personal entourage,” the king laughed, “champions, every single one of them. And they’re oh-so-eager to avenge their fallen comrade.”

    “I presume that surrendering is not an option,” Filigree stated.

    “I’ll accept it,” he chuckled darkly, “once they’ve beaten it out of you.”

    The stallion regarded himself in the mirror.

    Slowly he turned his head, slit turquoise eyes regarding himself in the dim light, carefully examining every inch of his majestic frame. His midnight blue coat, so dark it melted into the night about him, shimmered in the weak moonlight to reveal the muscular contours of his body. With a quick turn of his head, his mane, a mass of mystic energy that appeared like a living star-field, flared about him. He was amused by the small tuft that protruded from his chin, hanging down only a few inches in a way that resembled a beard.

    His horn shone with a silvery color as he shifted the large mirror to look more closely over his body, flaring one of his large wings to examine the last of the scars on his left side. They displeased him, but they would not fade any more. It had taken many months, and he was sure of his recovery, but that reminder would never go away; a souvenir of his inglorious moment of defeat.

    He stomped a black hoof on the stone floor, almost lost amidst his unshorn fetlocks, and watched with satisfaction at the web-work of cracks emanating from the point of impact. Yes, he was recovered physically, but despite the year it took, he was no closer to a plan to handle the Princesses or their upstart pet mares. Worse, the Princess now commanded a new group of mares who could wield the Elements of Harmony against him. His side twinged at the memory of the burning wave of rainbow energy that had almost ended his existence for a second time.

    “I suppose I will need a new name,” he told his reflection with a grim smile, “Nightmare Moon somehow doesn’t seem appropriate.”

    He regarded his reflection in silence for several long moments, turning his head back and forth before glancing at his flank, and the new cutie-mark that had come with the new form; a sun partially hidden by a full moon, a perverse combination of both the Princesses’ marks. He frowned at it. It was something that had not been seen since he controlled Luna and took on Celestia, what later became known as the Lunar War. Celestia had attempted to raise the sun despite the moon left in the sky, and in a flash of inspiration, Nightmare Moon had imposed the moon before it, darkening the sky in a way no pony had ever seen before. He smiled at the memory, remembering their terror this event caused…

    A sudden impact on the mirror drew his attention, and his wings flared as the strange Alicorn braced for an attack. His stance relaxed considerably when he saw what had impacted the mirror, or more precisely, what he imagined had impacted the mirror.

    “Bastard!!” the reflection shouted at him in a voice the stallion knew only he could hear. Technically, no one else would be able to see the pony in the mirror’s reflection, even if they had looked. Only he could see and hear him, since this figure was only a fragment of his mind now, the pitiful creature he absorbed.

    “I don’t seem to recall you objecting before,” the stallion taunted the reflection, a white coated pegasus that was barely half his size. As if to contrast the dark stallion, this reflection had a mane of multiple colors and hues, unkempt as they flew every which way as it struggled to break through.

    “You lying--” the reflected pony seethed.

    “I see your banter hasn’t improved since you last pushed through enough to try and converse with me,” the stallion yawned, regarding the small pony with boredom. “Seriously, did you really think your foalish plan would work?”

    “Of course! It should have worked!” the reflected pony shouted, his mane bristling. “I am the strongest stallion in all of Equestria!”

    “Were, foal, were,” the stallion corrected with cruel smile, “but your power was easily dwarfed by your ego. You truly thought you would have the strength of will to do what Princess Luna herself could not? That takes a special kind of arrogance.”

    “Then we share one thing in common,” the reflection hissed, eyes wandering to the nearly invisible scarring on the stallion’s left side.

    The stallion’s eyes narrowed for a moment as he regarded the reflected image. “I would suggest you save your quips, Sunset Sparkle.”

    “Or what?” Sunset Sparkle asked back. “You can’t DO anything to me in here.”

    “Technically, I can do a lot to you ‘in there’. There is a reason I choose a host to possess.” The stallion smiled darkly. “They make such wonderful sacrifices when I must flee. A contingency plan, if you will.”

    “That didn’t work so well the last time, did it?”

    “Actually, it worked almost exactly as planned,” the stallion answered, “the imp I had possessed to assume that form was sacrificed to spare my own life. As such, I am here… admittedly hurt, but I still live.”

    “Oh? And here I thought you were just naturally ugly…” Sunset Sparkle quipped. “It must have been a real downgrade after Princess Luna.”

    “I won’t argue that. Princess Luna was… one of the finest meals I ever had. She sustained me for centuries, for over a millennium. Never had I such a meal, and she still had so much left to give before she would have finally been completely consumed. But, that said, one cannot expect to be able to subvert a Princess every time.”

    “So why the imp?” Sunset Sparkle asked curiously.

    “Simple,” the stallion answered in a low rumbling voice, “it possessed a skill I desired. I learn and absorb abilities from my ‘meals’. I learned magic, oh so much magic, from Luna. I learned to absorb magic from the Imp, which I knew would be needed to challenge Celestia’s rule again.”

    “And what about me?” the pony reflection asked, almost frightened of the answer.

    “Not a great deal, I fear,” the stallion mocked, “all your power was in your body. But it is an interesting change of pace to be a male this time. Luna was, of course, a mare. The Imps are technically sexless, all of them lay eggs when it is their time. Most of my catches, prior to finding this morsel of a planet, were female as well. This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of being a stallion.”

    The reflection made a grunt, but opted to stay silent.

    “That doesn’t mean I haven’t learned anything.” The stallion grinned, looking directly at the reflected pony, their eyes locking. “The power of the body takes some control, so this saves me many tedious hours of training and practice. And let us not forget to mention the lovely little trinket I found within you…”

    “N-no…” Sunset Sparkle whispered, for the first time looking scared.

    “Oh yes. You thought that would give you some power over me. I know that’s where you disappeared to after escaping Canterlot. To hunt up this relic… and Equestria yielded its treasure to you so easily that you simply took it. Your arrogance never let you consider how or why it might be there; you simply took it for yourself. Now it’s in ME, and unlike a foal like you, I know how to use it. I know how to corrupt it.”

    The reflected pony threw himself against the glass of the mirror once more, his cursing filling the stallion’s mind. He couldn’t help himself, and let out a cackling laugh at the sight of Sunset Sparkle’s panic and anger. The laugh, combined with his deeper voice, sounded pleasantly ominous to him; like rolling thunder before a downpour.

    “Face the facts, Ultrapony,” the stallion taunted. “You lost. Your ego, thinking you’d be able to control me once we merged and then you could somehow present yourself as the conquering hero to the Princesses, took you to the obscene height of arrogance. Now you’ve brought me everything I need for a return!”

    “Except a plan,” Sunset Sparkle countered, his breath fogging the mirror where he leaned against it, tired from his exertions. The grip of the stallion’s miasma would drag him back under soon, his strength waned. He fought it, not knowing when he would be able to exert any sort of self will again, but it was a losing struggle.

    “I have all the time in the world.” The stallion grinned, as the wisps of black energy started to coalesce about the pony in the mirror, pulling the struggling pony down and into the quicksand of the alicorn’s mind. “You, however, have far less. Until then, you might as well enjoy the view.”

    Silence once again filled the old halls, and the stallion took a slow breath, spreading his wings lazily to feel the flow of air through the ancient castle. The ancient castle, with its crumbling stone architecture overrun by moss and ivy, seemed to breathe in the late night air. The stallion knew that this was home to an ancient and powerful magic. It was the magic that fed the entirety of Everfree Forest, making it so wild no pony could control it, and evolving creatures that were truly terrifying to behold. He had absorbed that magic, used it to heal his wounds, and to strengthen his resolve. Now it was time to gather his resources to strike back while they still thought he was dead.

    “An eclipse,” the stallion muttered as the memory from before Ultrapony’s interruption flashed into his mind, “the ponies called it an eclipse. I always liked the sound of that word; perhaps I should use that name for this form? Yes… I like that. Eclipse.”

    Eclipse frowned. To his chagrin, that fool Ultrapony was correct on one point: He had no plan.

    Yet…

4

Chapter 4

“Pausing for Breath”

    “Good afternoon, Princess.”

    “You may rise,” Celestia answered with a wave of her wing.

    “Are you alright?” the cyan unicorn asked as she stood from the bow, her head cocking to one side. “You look a bit pale, even for you. If you wish to put off my lessons for this afternoon…”

    “That will not be necessary, Trixie, I am fine,” she lied and turned to face her pupil with a smile she didn’t truly feel. She hated to admit it, but she dearly missed her “Faithful Student”, and found herself increasingly compelled to draw comparisons between her new pupil and the late Twilight Sparkle.

    Trixie nodded, but a nervous expression touched her features. Something was obviously on her mind, and Celestia had a good guess as to what…

    “Your latest friendship report was enlightening, Trixie,” she said softly, hovering an open scroll off the table. “I will admit to some surprise that you had Galaxi co-author it.”

    The unicorn’s expression was at once hopeful and conflicted as she looked to Celestia, “Trixie remembered --“

    “We do not refer to ourselves in third person when speaking to the Princess.”

    “Er…  I mean…” Trixie stammered, “…I remembered the story you told me about a problem Lady Sparkle once had with her friendship reports, and how you extended her reports to include her friends and what they had learned.”

    “Yes, I do recall telling you that story,” Celestia answered with an inscrutable smile.

    “And… well…” Trixie faltered, “…after what happened with Clockwork the other day, Galaxi helped me sort out my thoughts on how to approach it, as well as brainstorm what might be wrong. Luna hasn’t been able to ascertain what the problem is, according to Galaxi, so I hoped that maybe you might…”

    “Trixie, I want you to go to the shelves and find the book entitled ‘The Aftermath of the Lunar War’,” Celestia instructed when the unicorn’s words drifted off. Trixie blinked and, for a moment, seemed about to question the Princess before acquiescing. With two walls of the cozy sitting room lined with bookshelves, every book hoof picked by Celestia herself for teaching her pupil, the Princess anticipated a bit of a search. She couldn’t help but remember testing Twilight Sparkle in much the same manner so many years ago.

    It took Trixie several minutes to find and return with the book held in her magic. Celestia gently took it with her own magic and set it down on the heavy table before motioning to the cushion across from her own. Trixie nodded and settled herself in place, sitting upright upon the soft pillow as she looked expectantly to the Princess.

    “I was not able to speak with Clockwork Key about your concerns before she left for the Unregistered territories,” Celestia informed the unicorn, who frowned deeply with worry. “That said, I understand completely why my sister would not recognize the symptoms that Lady Key is suffering through. Unfortunately, given my limited interactions with her, I was not aware of this problem.”

    Trixie’s head snapped up. “Then you know what is wrong?” she asked, trying hard not to sound too hopeful.

    Celestia motioned to the book. “Page two-hundred and fourteen.”

    Trixie frowned again, but her magic quickly opened and riffled through the pages of the book in question. After a moment or two of searching the unicorn found the page in question in the closing chapters.

    “Read the passage aloud,” Celestia instructed, “starting from the second paragraph.”

    “For the majority of this dissertation, I have focused predominantly on the changes to our way of life the infamous Lunar War and the ‘Week of Night’ caused,” Trixie read. “However, there is a less publicized and even less understood mark the war left upon us ponies. As a result of the conflict, many returned home with psychological disorders the likes of which had never been seen before by pony kind.

    “The most recognizable of these came from ponies who were victimized by sudden violence during the conflict, which came to be thought of as a type of shock. Named ‘Aftershock Disorder’ by the medical community, it is believed that the mind of the victim refuses to accept that they are safe, and brace for any sort of assault or attack at all times. This was usually punctuated by extreme bouts of paranoia and isolationism, and the pony in question would go out of their way to make sure he or she was ‘safe’. Fortunately this faded in most ponies relatively quickly after the war, but there were a hoof-full of unfortunate cases that either sealed themselves away so completely that they passed away with no pony realizing for weeks, or they lashed out violently at a society that they were no longer capable of understanding. I would be remiss as a historian if I failed to mention that the extreme paranoia shown by the perpetrator of the infamous ‘Hoofington Murders’, a former soldier in the Lunar Army, was quite possibly an extreme example of this disorder. However, the legal system of the day was ill equipped for handling someone so mentally disturbed, and any confirmation or denial of her mental status is lost to history.”

    “I… don’t see what this has to do with--?” Trixie paused in the reading long enough to ask.

    “Keep reading, my pupil,” interrupted Celestia. Trixie looked annoyed but, after a brief pause to lick her lips, continued to read.

    “While the aforementioned problem was widespread but lead only to the rare incident, there was a less prevalent disorder that was far more harmful to those afflicted. Due to the rarity of reported incidents, it was only discovered upon researching medical and service records years later. Unfortunately, this means a vast majority of these ponies suffered in the shadows. Many of them became solitary, pushing away any and all attempts by family and friends to be close to them. Known later as ‘Acclimation Disorder’, a majority of these individuals fought in the front lines of the war before returning home.

    “Most doctors agree that the disorder comes from the pony becoming too acclimated with the state of war, hence the name. The more immersed in the conflict an individual pony was, the more likely they were to become acclimated to the constant stresses of war. Unfortunately, these stressors create an imprint upon the mind, which the lowered stress of ‘normal’ life after the war simply did not coincide with. Thus, unable to acclimate to a life of peace, they would become steadily more lost in their own mind. A sufferer would often pick fights, respond out of proportion to perceived threats or stressors, and frequently succumb to the unfortunate lure of suicide.

    “Please do not misunderstand; a majority of Equestria’s most valorous soldiers were perfectly healthy. But a number of ponies from both sides suffered these poorly understood disorders, and there are still very few answers about them.”

    “That is enough, Trixie,” Celestia said when the unicorn paused in comprehension.

    “Why… why wouldn’t Princess Luna know about this?” she asked in a small voice.

    “Where was Luna after the Lunar War?” the Princess asked simply, nodding to a servant who had nosed in to check on the Princess. The maid dipped her head and slipped back out.

    “She was… the mare in the moon,” Trixie answered.

    Celestia nodded. “Precisely, she could not know about this because it was only rarely seen outside of the years immediately after the war. We spent much of the next millennia at peace with ourselves and our neighbors. By the time my sister was returned to me, these disorders had long since faded from our land. Of course the Imp Invasion began shortly after her return and was constant for two generations of ponies. It pains me that some ponies have spent their entire foal-hood without ever knowing peace. But now… at long last, we have achieved it. Tell me, my pupil, who were the frontline soldiers of this past war?”

    “The Agency and the Guard… we were the frontline soldiers of this war. The imps were too strong; they would destroy almost anypony who didn’t have special abilities or training. Only the Royal Guard and the specials working under The Agency were able to combat them effectively.”

    “Correct again,” Celestia confirmed, and smiled as the maid returned with pitcher of tea and a glass for each of them. Celestia thanked the maid and waited until she had slipped back out before magically pouring each of them some of the cook’s special Iced Tea (with just a twist of lime). “Now tell me, Trixie, who among your team would be the most vulnerable to this, knowing that the longer one has been on the front lines of the war would increase the risk?”

    Trixie frowned darkly at that, “Myself… Skillet… maybe Filigree given her unusual history in the gryphon clans.”

    “Have any of those you mentioned been afflicted with these disorders?”

    “Filigree,” Trixie answered immediately. “My problem could be an extension of it, but is more likely a result of my… torment at The Nightmare’s hooves. Skillet never showed any outward signs of a problem; he remains just as cheerful as ever.”

    “What does that tell you?” Celestia asked, and took a sip of her tea.

    Trixie frowned as she pondered that, and finally shook her head.

    “It means I was watching the three ponies amongst your group whom I felt would be the most vulnerable to this disorder,” she answered for the unicorn, and smiled sadly when she saw realization wash over Trixie’s features. “This means I was not watching the rest of the group as carefully as I should have been.”

    “So you… missed it?”

    “Until you sent me this letter, yes,” she admitted with a pained look. “Clockwork was part of the Agency for a long time, but only joined the frontline fighting with my sister’s Project Moonbeam. In hindsight, I should have understood that her role as a coordinator for so long would have had the level of immersion in the mindset many frontline ponies encountered. It is also possible that the conclusions drawn in this book are mistaken; I confess that I have done my utmost not to give doctors an abundance of patients to diagnose.”

    Trixie stared at the Princess for several long minutes, uncertain how to respond. She watched as the Princess took another sip of her drink, and then watched her in return. It seemed like forever before Trixie found her voice. “Why? Why would it take so long for any of us to notice?”

    “What was happening right after the Nightmare was defeated and the Imps freed of her influence?”

    “Personally or politically?”

    Celestia smiled sadly. “That is exactly the issue, my pupil. Politically, with the Nightmare felled, I was forced to mend a lot of fences and re-establish ties with species and lands that the Imps had subjugated or threatened. With the loss of the dragons, one of our staunchest allies, we have been left in a position of weakness which the specials only partially cover. No offense to you and your friends, but not even the strongest of you would have been a match to a dragon, a majority of whom had lived for centuries and studied a great deal of magic in addition to their natural gifts. If not for their isolationist tendencies, they could have easily ruled this world. Only my sister and I, to my knowledge, could have stood up to one them. It was a master stroke, if truly an abhorrent one, that led the Nightmare to eliminate them one by one. Thus, having lost one of our largest allies, if you will pardon my pun, we are forced into a protectionist stance. Fortunately, most lands we have spoken to are in agreement; after the long invasion from the Imps, we all need a break from the fighting.

    “This means I was not as focused at home as I would have wished. I watched you mares initially, and only noted problems with Filigree and yourself. You had Clockwork and Galaxi to lean on, and Filigree had Rainbow Star and the gryphons she knew for support, and thus I turned my attention elsewhere. You both came through your individual ordeals admirably, I might add. Additionally, I must point out, that Clockwork did not exhibit any signs of difficulty when she was with you and Galaxi.”

    “Are you saying my conclusion was incorrect?” Trixie asked.

    “Only in part,” Celestia answered. “Clockwork did not show any symptoms for a simple reason: she had the support of two close friends. You and Galaxi were her constant companions, but she only saw herself as helping you. Because she was focused on assisting you, she ignored her own growing problem.”

    “So when she was sent away, she was without the support of her friends and no longer had any distractions from the disorder.” Trixie chewed her lip thoughtfully before continuing, “She was no longer able to ignore it, and it had gotten worse because she had just shoved it into a closet and ignored it.”

    Celestia nodded. “That seems the most likely conclusion.”

    “But, what do we do now? Now that we know what the problem is, how do we fix it?”

    “Did they ‘fix’ you, Trixie?” asked Celestia, her eyes meeting the unicorn’s.

    “N-no,” Trixie stammered, “I still have nightmares.”

    “Clockwork cannot be ‘fixed’ or simply repaired like one of her machines, no more than you could be. She will need somepony with her constantly, she will need support, and somepony there for her. This will go against her desire to withdraw from those around her, and cause her to respond to things disproportionately.” Celestia paused to lean forward, nuzzling just under Trixie’s horn. “You, of all ponies, should understand this necessity.”

    Trixie took in a slow breath and gave a short nod. “I understand. I’m just not sure how--”

    “Friendship cannot exist if it is untested,” Celestia interrupted gently, “more wisdom to consider from your predecessor.”

    “I… I’ll do what I can, Princess.”

    “That is all I shall ever ask of you, my pupil.” Celestia nodded towards the book on the table. “If you wish, you may show the passage to Galaxi and my sister, so that they may understand what it is we face.”

    “I don’t want to embarrass--“

    Celestia made a dismissive noise. “My pride is unimportant in the face of another’s pain. It is more important that you make efforts to help your friend when she returns. If an excuse presents itself, I will send you and Galaxi up to the Northern Reaches to join her. For now we must assume you will see her next when she returns.”

    Trixie nodded and blushed. “Thank you, Princess.”

    “Don’t thank me, my pupil,” Celestia answered, her eyes gazing far into the distance, “it is my failure that this was not noticed earlier. “

    Trixie seemed momentarily at a loss how to respond, and Celestia wasn’t helping as she continued to stare off into space. A creeping sense of dread trickled down the unicorn’s spine, her eyes widening as seemingly disparate thoughts began to coalesce into a rather disturbing picture before her. A powerful hurt accompanied the thoughts, but she carefully reigned it in; she needed to broach this topic carefully.

    “Princess, has there been any word yet from Filigree or Clockwork?”

    Celestia blinked, and stirred from her reverie. “Nothing yet, from either of them, and I will admit to some growing concern. Clockwork is understandable, she likely won’t arrive yet until later this evening, but Filigree should have easily been there and sent word back.”

    Trixie carefully kept her expression neutral as she spoke, “You suspect trouble, then?”

    “I do,” the Princess sighed. “I may just be getting paranoid in my old age, but I fear for both of them. The gryphons have made their dislike of Filigree, and their distaste for my ponies general, well known. But the entire call for Filigree to come a week early feels very wrong to me.”

    “And the Unregistered?”

    “The timing of Scootaloo’s stroke is a bit too convenient for my tastes. I fear we may be witnessing the early stages of a political coup,” she answered with a frown. She turned to gaze at her pupil, only to find her gaze steadily returned.

    Trixie took a slow breath and plowed ahead, praying she didn’t make a fool of herself. “I think, Princess, that there may be another who is suffering this illness, other than those we’ve already identified,” she stated softly.

    Celestia shook her head before answering, “I was careful to observe my younger sister for any such problems. Admittedly, I would be a thousand years too late to assist her if it had happened as a result of the Lunar War, but --“

    “I’m not referring to Princess Luna,” Trixie interrupted, “another pony found them-selves suddenly on the front line in this war. The Imps attacked her home, threatened those she cared about, and even succeeded in killing one who was very dear to her heart.”

    Celestia paused and looked to her student for several long minutes. Finally she gave a sad smile before answering, “You are more observant than I have given you credit for.”

    Trixie blinked in surprise. “Then you --“

    “Yes, Trixie, I know,” she interrupted gently. “I have known for over a millennium. It is one of the reasons I know the passage I had you read like the back of my hoof, and know the exact extent to which my ponies have come to understand those disorders.”

    “But, how…?” Trixie tried to ask, a million questions surfacing in her mind.

    “I became what you see now,” the alicorn said with a gentle smile. “I became the gentle ruler that took every pony in Equestria under her wing. Every pony became my little pony, my responsibility… my family. In short, I did the one thing I am unable to do biologically; I had children. It also marked the first time I took on a personal protégé or student, a practice I would repeat every few generations. Never close enough together for them to be in direct competition with each other, but not so far apart that the precedent was forgotten.”

    “So I’m over a thousand years too late,” Trixie said sourly.

    “Not at all,” Celestia answered, and took a sip from her iced tea before continuing, “I had to learn how to handle those intervening years after the Lunar war. It was a struggle to find my way through the crushing loneliness that pervaded after losing my sister, and I spent almost a decade lost in guilt and self-pity. Finally, I found a way to cope, and the aloof ruler-ship that Luna and I had founded when we overthrew Discord was abandoned for the closer and more personal style you are familiar with. But I suffered new losses in this war with the Imps, and I am finding it more difficult than I expected to move on.”

    “Twilight Sparkle.”

    “In a word, yes,” Celestia sighed and looked into the unicorn’s eyes. “I do hope you can forgive me, Trixie. It is not my intent to hurt you, and it never was, but her loss has affected me far more than I could have ever anticipated. Couple that with the near loss of my sister, twice, to the same monster who took her from me once before and…”

    Celestia’s voice hitched and, for the first time Trixie could remember, she saw the hints of tears in the Princess’ eyes. The alicorn turned her head and tried to quell the emotions raging within, but the brief crack in her façade was all the unicorn needed to see. She rose from her place without a word, and leaned close to the Princess. Celestia was caught off-guard, but leaned down and nuzzled the unicorn, who had wrapped her forelegs about the base of the alicorn’s broad neck in a hug.

    “Your Element was fairly earned,” Celestia said in an uncharacteristically husky voice. “I know you find my affections unsettling, but thank you. I needed that.”

    “Yes… well,” Trixie stammered, “I tend find them a little strange and unexpected. Until a year ago, you were the instructor of my greatest rival. You had every reason to dislike me. To be shown affection by you is taking some getting used to. You are one of the living Goddesses after all.”

    “No, Trixie,” the Princess corrected gently, “I am not some fragile piece of living divinity. I am merely a pony with an abnormal connection to the necessary workings of our world. There is not a single thing I do that could not be done by a cabal of powerful unicorns. I dare say that Twilight, had she wished to, could have taken my job from me, especially after she earned the Element of Magic. If the elements had been unable to save my sister, as I had gambled, I was prepared to attempt an apotheosis upon her so that she might stand in Luna’s place by my side. While I am thankful that my sister was returned to me, there are times I regret not imposing that upon her anyway.”

    Trixie winced at the revelations. “Is that why I am your student, Princess? Is it because that, unlike Twilight, I cannot die? Am I just a stand in for her?”

    The alicorn sighed and nuzzled Trixie gently. “Rest assured, Trixie, that you are here by your own merits. I admit that I handle the worst of my pain by taking on students, by finding a pony whom I could take under my wing and care for, and becoming almost another parent to them. Twilight and I may have been separated by the war, but I always held out hope that she would be able to come home… Is it odd that, despite the fact she made her home in Ponyville, I still considered Canterlot and the Palace her home? Regardless, I still held out hope that I would be able to see her off in the end; that I would be able to shepherd my student into the Summerlands as I had done with every student I had taken prior to her. Every student holds a special place in my heart, but Twilight was the first to be torn from me by the ravages of war, and I would be foalish to think that means nothing. I did not even get to see her soul off in the manner I wished… the Elements took that from me, preventing me from saying any more than a brief goodbye.

    “To answer your question, no you are not here to take Twilight Sparkle’s place. I would be lying if I did not say that I did take you on in hopes to fill a hole… a painful void in my very long life. My solution to my disorder, as I said earlier, is to take on a student and to draw my little ponies closer about me so that I might subtly lean on them even while they rely on me. You are the first to pierce into the why of it, but then you are also much older than my usual student, and your potential is so much greater. I feel it is, now that you have discovered your virtue, your destiny to ascend. The elements have chosen you twice now, and I would be a foal to ignore that.”

    “Wait… twice?” Trixie asked, confused.

    “The Elements granted you immortality as your power, an ability that was always the exclusive province of my sister and myself,” Celestia pointed out. “Consider it a blessing or a curse, and after a few centuries I assure you that it will feel like a curse, it is your ability. The Elements chose you a second time to bear the Element of Generosity, which you have proven worthy of time and time again. Much like your predecessor, Lady Rarity, you struggle with your own innate selfishness at times, but your age and wisdom has given you an advantage, the ability to grasp the true nature of your Element. It is not about the commonly understood generosity of giving bits and things, but about the giving of your self to others; your time, your being, your presence, your love… yourself. I know the fact that your struggle against the shadow of Twilight Sparkle still burns you, and I know it pains you to think that you might be here as a replacement for her. Yet you still hugged me, giving of yourself, because you saw my pain.”

    “Yes… well…” the unicorn stammered, flushing.

    Celestia smiled and nuzzled the unicorn before tucking a wing over her. “You are chosen by powers far greater than even myself, Trixie. Had I found you when you were younger, perhaps much of this discomfort you feel could have been alleviated. Perhaps I might have had two students. Perhaps parasprites might turn into apples, for that is as much use as wishing for such things would be. Part of why I took you on was to help me with my own disorder, a disorder which has been renewed thanks to the Nightmare.”

    “And to help you get over the death of Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie pointed out softly.

    “I will not have you think you are standing in her shadow….”

    “You’re a bit late for that, Princess,” Trixie noted with a smile. Despite the words, that smile spoke volumes to the Princess, far more than she could have hoped for. “I take it I’ll be spending more time with you in the future then?”

    Celestia’s answering smile was as relieved as it was overjoyed. “Yes, my insightful pupil, I would have you at my side as much as possible in the days to come.”

    “Glad ya’ll got here so quick.”

    Clockwork took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air as she trotted beside her companion, an elder pony who defied the natural order of things by refusing to slow down as she got older. Her fire red mane was streaked with gray where it fell out from under the old cowpony hat she wore at a jaunty angle.

    “When the Princess got your letter, she was understandably concerned,” Clockwork answered. “I was too, when I heard Scootaloo was in the hospital.”

    “Yeah, that’s a bad bushel o’ apples no matter how ya figure it,” she sighed. “Accordin’ ta the doctor, she’s stabilized an’ the main danger has passed… but…”

    “But?”

    “She’s inna coma. Doc don’ know when, or even if, she’s gonna… she’s gonna wake up,” the elder pony managed to spit out, the words distasteful to her.

    “I’m sorry, Apple Bloom,” Clockwork said, and gave the pale yellow pony a one legged hug, “if there’s anything I can do…”

    “That’s why I sent that there mail to Celestia,” Apple Bloom answered, tugging the hat further down on her brow. “Y’see, the council don’ think too highly of us Crusaders right now. Now I ain’t got any proof, but I got a gut feelin’ that Scoot’s ‘stroke’ wasn’ as natural as them doctahs keep tryin’ ta’ tell us.”

    Clockwork frowned and started turning things over in her head. “Aside from the obvious tensions, what makes you think that?”

    “Ya’ll remember Councilpony Marmalade?”

    “How could I forget her?” Clockwork made a sour face. “As I recall, she tried to have me arrested as a spy. When that fell through, she filed false reports that I had threatened and accosted her. Oh, and let’s not forget the fact she hired those thugs to try and rough us up… Correction, we suspect but have no proof that she hired those thugs.”

    “Eyup, that’s the one,” Apple Bloom spat. “Well she up and shows the day after Scoots is admitted inta’ the hospital, an’ starts actin’ all friendly like. She starts sayin’ how sorry she is that Scoots fell ill, and then talkin’ ‘bout how she figures we’ll have to stop pushin’ for reunification. Horseapples, I tells her, we ain’t stopping jus’ cause Scoots got sick. If… when she recovers, she’d kick our flanks if we backed down now! Well Marmalade dun like tha’ much, gets this dark look in ‘er eyes, an’ storms off. It’s like she was expectin’ us ta’ just fold ‘cause one o’ us is in trouble.”

    Clockwork frowned and shook her head, and recalled voicing that very same belief only a few days ago. She barely paid the homes they passed any attention as they followed the dirt path that served as the main “road” there in the territory. It was like stepping back in time, and a reminder of the home that was once abandoned much farther to the south in a little town named Ponyville.

    “It sounds ghoulish, if you ask me,” Clockwork finally answered, “but it’s not proof that she’s doing something shady.”

    Apple Bloom seemed to deflate. “Well, shoot--“

    “But,” Clockwork interrupted, “I see no harm in doing a bit of independent investigation.”

    Clockwork was swept off her hooves by the energetic elder hugging her. “Ah knew I could count on ya!!”

    Clockwork laughed and managed to extract herself from the hug after a few moments. “My chariot has some of the best sensors I’ve been able to build, and I’ve got a set of goggles I can use so I don’t have to break out the Dragonfly armour just to scan a few areas. It’s something I was working on before my last visit. If I can grab the goggles tomorrow morning, we should be able to get right to work.”

    “You mean that flyin’ doohickey that you came in with? I gotta admit, I wasn’ expectin’ anythin’ that big when I sent word.”

    “My custom chariot was designed to carry the entire team, but I used it to expand on the sensor arrays I had in the armour,” Clockwork noted. “I just hope it’s safe in the barn…”

    “My nieces and nephews won’ mess with it. Well, the young ’uns might try, but their folks’ll scold ‘em right good for tryin’ ta’ get inta it,” assured Bloom.

    “So long as it all stays locked up,” Clockwork commented, “I have my armour in there. It’s my baby, you know?”

    “Don’ fret none about it Clockwork, mah kin will take right good care of it.”

    “Speaking of kin, where’s Sweetie Belle?” Clockwork asked curiously. “She’s usually right out here with you….”

    “Well, I know yer last time up here ya stayed with her, but right now she’s got a house fulla Scoot’s family an’ she’s runnin’ her tail off,” Apple Bloom noted. “This means ya’ll be stayin’ with me this time.”

    “You sure? I mean, I’m pretty sure I’d just get in the way on your farm…”

    Apple Bloom couldn’t help but laugh. “I ain’t no farmer myself, sugah. My brother, before he passed, an’ his family run the orchard out there. Me? I useta’ do home repair an’ buildin’ an’ such, but I’m a bit old fer construction these days, so I just leave it to my ‘prentices and jes’ approve the blueprints. That, an’ my mate owns the local candy store, which together earns us enough to live in the cozy little place right above it.”

    “I wondered where we were heading,” Clockwork admitted.

    “Yeah. I didn’ introduce you two last time, an’ she ain’t let me live it down yet,” Bloom added sheepishly, but something caught Clockwork’s attention about that statement.

    “She didn’t?”

    Apple Bloom nodded, oblivious to the sudden discomfort from the younger pony. “Ayup.”

    Clockwork didn’t question further, not wanting to offend Apple Bloom, but the thought of two mares living together hadn’t even occurred to her. Sort of like the thought of two stallions, it’s just not something that she ever really considered. She remained quiet the rest of the walk, ignoring the picturesque town as it was painted by the hues of twilight, as she tried to figure out how to not look like an idiot in front of Apple Bloom’s “mate”.

    The pair quickly found themselves confronted by a brightly colored building, much of which was painted to look like a gingerbread house with columns of peppermint as the main supports at each corner. Clockwork frowned at it, but Apple Bloom couldn’t help but laugh.

    “When I tried to recreate Ponyville up here,” Apple Bloom noted, “I couldn’ forget Sugarcube Corner. I never quite got it ta look the same as the Cakes and Pinkie Pie managed, but I’d like to think I got close.”

    “It’s… something,” Clockwork managed.

    Apple Bloom poked her with a hoof. “It’s silly an’ ugly an’ gaudy. It’s supposed ta’ look that way, that’s what ponies want when they think of candy an’ cakes an’ sweets. They think nostalgia, like I did when I tried ta’ recreate my home up here…”

    Clockwork glanced over at the elder pony, and thought she saw the glint of a tear before the pony wiped it away and offered a broad smile. Taking the lead, the elder pony led them into the explosion of garish colors and into a more relaxed, but still brightly colored, interior. Clockwork couldn’t help but notice how large the main room was, with an entire section set aside to display the massive amounts of confectionary, while a smattering of tables and chairs were set before a large bay window. One entire side of the shop seemed devoted to fresh pastries, cakes, and muffins. The other side was set up for more classic staples of candy and sweets, with dispensers for everything from candied fish to rock candy to jawbreakers. Even Clockwork couldn’t help but grin as she looked over the display, noticing a few of her favorites from when she was but a filly.

    “How the hay do you manage to stay skinny?” Clockwork finally had to ask. “If I lived here, I’d weigh a thousand pounds!”

    Apple Bloom laughed, “Ya’ll’d be amazed how much exercise I get as one ‘o them Crusaders.”

    “Bloom? Ith that you?” called a voice from the back, and a pony pushed her way through a wide swinging door, followed by a sweet smelling cloud of fresh baked pastries.

    “Hey there Sugar-cube.” Bloom smiled and trotted about the display counter to nuzzle the newcomer’s unkempt red mane. Her mane was frizzy to the point of uncontrollable, and yet she had wrangled the wild curls into a sort of ponytail, which in turn made the streaks of grey through her mane twist around in a way that resembled a candy cane. Bright eyes peered at Clockwork through a pair of heavy glasses even as she nuzzled Apple Bloom in return.

    “Thith ith the infamouth friend you didn’ wan’ to introduth me to?” she lisped heavily.

    “Uh… Sugah? Ya’ll forgot yer dentures again,” Apple Bloom teased gently.

    “Huh?” the other pony asked intelligently, then grumbled something that Clockwork couldn’t make out, but made Apple Bloom laugh as she vanished back into the kitchen. She returned moments later, clacking her “teeth” as she set them in place.

    “Try two,” she said peevishly, and poked Bloom when she giggled. “So you’re the infamous character my mate didn’t want to introduce me to?”

    Clockwork looked sheepish for a moment before stepping forward. “Clockwork Key, ma’am. Pleasure to meet you…”

    The elder pony seemed to study her with a critical eye for several minutes, making Clockwork steadily less confident, before finally breaking into a broad smile and offering a hoof. “I’m Twist, nice to meet you Clockwork. Bloom said you’ll be stayin’ with us for a little while, so I set up the guest bedroom, just down the hall from us upstairs.”

    Clockwork relaxed visibly and shook the hoof of the elder pony, only to have the wind knocked out of her from a slap on the back from Apple Bloom. “T-thank you for putting me up,” she managed to squeak out.

    “I’ll let Bloom show you where to set up,” Twist answered with a smile. “I gotta get this batch of cupcakes done for little Candlewick’s Cutecenara tomorrow.”

    Bloom looked worried for a moment, “Oh hay, that’s this week?!”

    Twist nodded with a smirk. “Yes. Fortunately they’re holding it at home instead of here, so we won’t have to dodge foals tomorrow… at least no more foals than normal,” she nickered, and nodded to a unicorn foal running through the store with a dripping cone of ice cream. “And don’t worry; I’ve got Strawberry Swirl coming by tomorrow morning to help with the delivery.”

    Apple Bloom looked relieved, “Oh good. I didn’ wanna leave ya in the lurch like that.”

    Twist laughed and waved it off, “At least I get to meet the ‘other girl’ now.” She laughed only harder when Bloom began to blush and Clockwork fidgeted uncomfortably. “I better get back in the kitchen. Nice meeting you Clockwork.” With that, she vanished back through the swinging door.

    Apple Bloom nudged Clockwork with a grin. “She liked ya. I’d say that there’s a good sign. C’mon, lemme show ya where you can bunk, and I’ll rustle us up some dinner. After all them sweets, Twist’ll need something hearty in her belly tonight…”

    Clockwork nodded, and followed Apple Bloom past a counter towards a partially hidden staircase in the back. She couldn’t help but look back at the doorway that Twist had vanished through, her brows knitting in thought. Finally she just shook her head and trotted up the stairs to catch up to the elder pony.

    “Did we lose them?”

    “Only for the moment,” he answered with a pant. The pair had managed to take refuge in a low, natural, cave that probably once belonged to a young dragon. It was rough hewn, with loose rocks that occasionally crumbled down from the “roof” with loud clacking sounds that made the ponies jump.

    “We should ditch the armour,” the mare said softly, shaking off the helmet and scratching at her helmet mane irritably.

    “I’m not so sure, Lieutenant...”

    “Lieutenant Commander,” she corrected, trying hard to sound cross.

    The stallion scoffed with a half-hearted smirk. “I still outrank you, Swan Dive.”

    She smiled weakly at the attempted humor. “We knew we might have to flee from the Clans, but that was way more patrols than we saw on the flight in.”

    “I agree,” he answered softly, “which means that this was a far larger trap than the Princess anticipated.”

    “I think we realized that the moment the King showed up, Fleethoof” she grumbled in reply.

    “Yes, we did,” he agreed, and hunched down to peer cautiously out of the cave entrance. “Any reason you think shedding the armour would be a good idea?”

    “In the moonlight, and Princess Luna has blessed us with a full moon tonight, the glint of light off the armour will give our position away. More, it’s slowing us down; the added weight is enough to prevent us from hitting our best speeds.”

    “But if the gryphons catch up to us, we might need the added defense,” he argued, and ducked back in as the shadow of patrol passed overhead.

    Swan Dive paused, waiting for several breathless moments to ensure the patrol had truly passed them by. Her voice was barely above a whisper when she continued, “The armour won’t protect against those spears they’re carrying. I’m not even sure wingblades would be all that effective in combat against them.”

    “Noticed that too, did you?” he asked with a grim smile. “They’re prepared to fight ponies. Those spears will give them the edge in reach, and the design would work well to counter and pin a wing. I suspect King Goldtalon has been working on these plans for a long time, long before his father passed away.”

    “The only advantages we ponies have over the gryphons are unicorn magic,” she said softly, “and the fact they are slower and heavier. I got a good look at their armour when they escorted us; it’s a heavy scale design. It’s weighty and will slow them down, no matter how well made it is or how strong the individual gryphon is. If we ditch our armour, we have a chance to use our speed over their power.”

    “I’m not sold that we’d be better without it, Dive,” the stallion said softly, “but you’ve made a strong case.”

    “It’s your call, sir,” she said softly, causing him to look worriedly at her.

    “Don’t you dare start deferring to me now,” he said with a heartfelt smile, “we’re in this together.”

    “So what’s your take then?” she asked.

    “My take is that we’re in for a lot of turbulence,” he sighed softly, shrugged off his own helmet, and ran a hoof through his blue mane. “Even if we survive intact, the Princess will have to send a force to rescue Liaison Filigree from the gryphons, and that will cause an incident no matter how you cut it. It seems intentionally designed to be a no win situation to me.”

    “No matter what, the Gryphon Clans are going to war with us, aren’t they?” she asked in a tiny voice. “Just when it was finally over with the Imps…”

    “I hear you, Dive,” he sighed. “The Imps are finally gone, and now we find out the gryphon clans are preparing for war. What I don’t get is how they were able to build all this up without somepony noticing…”

    “Commander?”

    “Well, look at it this way,” he explained, “the gryphons spent the Imp invasion cowed after the destruction of a few clan aeries. What we saw on display in that throne room was the culmination of plans for a war against the ponies that began long before the Imps were gone. Why would that be?”

    Swan Dive frowned darkly. “Do you think it’s possible that they were cooperating with the Nightmare?”

    “I don’t think King Goldbeak was. I met him once; he was a hard but honorable gryphon. But Goldtalon? I wouldn’t put anything past him,” he answered. “Just seeing the way he delighted in pushing the Liaison’s buttons makes me think he’d sell his own mother if it gave him an edge.”

    “Yeah, he ruffled my feathers the wrong way too,” she grumbled. After a moment she stuck her head forward, squinting in the moonlight as she looked about carefully. “I think we’re clear for the moment.”

    “Good,” the Commander answered, followed by a soft clank as his armour was dropped to the stone floor. “Keep your wingblades, in case we have to fight, but you’re right; we’ll stand a better chance if we go for speed.”

    Swan Dive nodded and bit at the straps holding the armour tight to her. After a moment’s worth of work, she had it loose enough to squirm out of, where it made a few soft clanks on the stone as it fell. After a minute to stretch, she grabbed the armour and dragged it further back into the cave, well out of sight of the entrance.

    “Good idea,” said the Commander, and pulled his own armour to join hers.

    “The longer they think we’re reflective targets in the moonlight, the better our chance to sneak through those valleys.”

    “Right. We’ll stay in the valley going South-East, parallel to the river. It’s a bit slower, but it should provide more cover, which means less chance of being spotted. Come the morning’s light, we should be far enough south to make a dash over the hills towards the borders,” he outlined, drawing it in the air with a hoof. “With luck, we’ll be able to find one of the border towers. I don’t think the gryphons will pursue past the border, but we’ll need additional support if they try.”

    Swan Dive nodded and ducked her head to check the set of her wingblades. Once certain they were in place, she flexed her wings and nodded to her partner. He returned the nod and the pair edged up to the cave entrance, scanning the night sky for gryphon patrols. Seeing none, they launched silently into the air and dropped down into the valley between the mountains surrounding them, quickly becoming lost in the deep shadows.

    Unlike the flight out, which had been relatively quick thanks to the magicked chariot and been done mostly above the cloud level, the flight back was a tense and quiet affair. The ponies could not fly at their top speeds, no matter how much they wanted to, within the winding valley. Following the course of the river seemed like a good idea when viewed from overhead from a map, but at the ground level it twisted and turned all over the place. At times the path seemed to literally go the wrong way, badly confusing the pegasi. This was, of course, aside from the gryphon patrols. Every time one passed, the pair would drop down into the valley and hide in the shadows, where they would wait until the patrol moved on.

    They had not made nearly the distance they had hoped to when the first rays of the dawn streaked across the open sky, and with it went their nighttime advantage. They were coated in sweat as they pushed tired bodies and wings onward, trying to use the fading shadows to their advantage. Their only hope was that they had travelled far enough that the patrols would be diminished to nearly nothing.

    It was, by their estimation, two hours after the dawn that a cry told them they had been discovered. A trio of gryphons descended from a remote mountain top, diving towards the escaping pegasi.

    “Jig’s up!” the stallion cried, and all efforts of subterfuge were immediately dropped. Pushing her exhausted body, Swan Dive followed her partner out of the valley and into the open air roughly level with the mountain tops. Horror washed over her as she realized exactly how far away they still were from the northern border, and it felt as if her wings had been dipped in ice water. They flapped leadenly at her sides as she struggled to keep up with Fleethoof.

    “Don’t you dare give up on me now, Lieutenant!” he called back to her.

    “Lieutenant COMMANDER!” she answered angrily.

    “By order of King Goldtalon, you are trespassing in gryphon territory!” the leader of the gryphon wing called to them. “Surrender or you will be killed!”

    Swan Dive responded in a way that made her partner blush and the gryphon gawp in shock. Swan Dive was surprised to find within herself the capacity for such profanity, but at least the gryphon didn’t bother asking for their surrender again.

    Gritting her teeth, Swan Dive wove about the mountain-tops as the pair headed almost due south. With the warmth of Celestia’s Sun washing over them, she found herself reinvigorated… or maybe that was the fear of the enemy nipping at her tail. Adrenalin throbbed with her heartbeat as she forced herself faster and faster, and only when she noticed Fleethoof was beginning to fall behind did she flag her speed to stay abreast of him. He huffed angrily in a show of pride, but she was not about to abandon her friend, just as he hadn’t left her behind.

    The wing of gryphons slowly fell further and further behind the longer the chase lasted. The combination of using the mountains as obstacles and their lighter weight allowed the pegasi to outpace the larger gryphons.

    Unfortunately, so focused were they on the pursuit that they missed the outpost ahead of them until it was too late.

    A screech ripped through the sky above them, startling the ponies. Only long hours of training caused them to split apart in mid air, and a wing of gryphons dropped straight through the new opening, claws and spears tearing into the air mere inches away from each of the pegasi. Two additional, fully rested, wings of gryphons dropped from the mountain-top and dove their way. More wary than the first group, one wing chose to focus on each pegasi. Swan Dive managed to avoid their approach by cutting her body under their dive and going vertical past them, a spear missing her by millimeters.

    She barely had time to check on her partner as she circled the mountain, who had swung into a spiraling bank too tight for the gryphons to follow before pulling a sharp reversal that left the less maneuverable gryphons struggling to close the gap. The pair wordlessly closed ranks again as the gryphon wings renewed the chase of the tired pegasi.

    A horn sounded from the outpost, loud and echoing. It was answered by other horns from surrounding mountain tops.

    “We’re bucked,” Fleethoof panted.

    “I… figured out… that part,” Swan Dive managed to answer between gulps of air. She flinched reflexively as small rock hurtled past her head. “Crap, slings!”

    “Any ideas?” he asked, and twisted to avoid a pair of rocks flung at him. The sling-using gryphons would force them to spend so much time dodging that they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of their higher speed, which would allow the gryphons to close the distance.

    “S-sorry… I’m tapped--” she started, yelping when a stone bounced off her flank. Pain lanced down through her rear leg, but she did her best to ignore it.

    “Climb. It’ll keep the slingers at a disadvantage,” he ordered. Swan Dive swallowed a whimper and began to climb with her Commander. The clouds had been shredded for as far as the eye could see, leaving the pair no cover at all, which left Swan Dive wondering what Fleethoof had planned.

    “A-aren’t we playing to their strength?” she managed to gasp between pumps of her wings, her eyes watering and straining joints complained loudly. The climb may have forced the slingers to stop, but the upward angle was better suited for the stronger gryphons.

    “Trust me, Lieutenant Commander” he growled, and Swan Dive got a sick feeling in her stomach…

    Wing muscles screamed in complaint at her efforts, straining as she pushed herself higher and higher. The level the clouds would normally gather at came and went, and still the pair climbed. Swan Dive dared not to look back at the pursuing gryphons for fear they would be all but on top of her, and focused just on each wing beat. She concentrated on each beat of her heart, as it pounded in her ears and drowned out the calls from the gryphons behind them, now assured of their victory.

    “DIVE!” he cried, breaking her reverie.

    “What?!”

    “That’s an order, Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive!”

    “B-but… what about you?!” she cried, suddenly realizing what he planned, and hoped to Celestia she was wrong.

    “I’m going to stall them,” he answered with uncharacteristic tenderness.

    “Commander… Fleethoof… please don’t…”

    “It was a pleasure serving with you, Dive,” he called, “but one of us must make it back, and you’re faster than I am. Now DIVE!!”

    Swan Dive turned to look over her shoulder, and saw him bank into place. Muscles along his lean body flexed, pinioning his wings forward as he brought wingblades to bear. With an acrobatic twist, he met the first gryphon by spiraling out of the way of his spear, and brought down a hoof sharply on its haft to shatter it. She then lost sight of him amidst the swarm of angry gryphons.

    She clenched her eyes shut, folded her ears back, and adjusted her flight path. With a pump of her wings she began a controlled plummet straight down. She didn’t see the approaching mountains and their resemblance to the teeth of a dragon that earned them their name. She ignored the screeches of gryphons that dove in pursuit of her. She ignored the screaming desire to go back for her partner, her friend, and forced herself to follow his last order.

    She felt the pressure begin to build at the tip of her outstretched hooves. Telltale streamers arced from them, forming a cone of air before her as she pumped her wings faster and faster. She knew the trick… but she’d never done it successfully. She’d seen the Wonderbolts perform it before, who gained permission from its creator, the late Lady Dash, to use it in their performances. She’d tried multiple times to join the Wonderbolts, and to complete this move, but she always came up short.

    Tears filled her eyes as she heard a cry from above. A stallion screamed out in pain, then fell silent, and a gryphon roared in victory. Her body felt like ice, their failure was a certainty that froze her heart. There was nothing more she could do… nothing…

    NO!

    His sacrifice would not be in vain! Her teeth ground as she shook her wings to dislodge the wingblades, not even sparing them a glance as they fell away from her. She screamed at the air before her, just as her body screamed at her for the renewed effort. She pumped her wings faster and faster. She would not give up! She would not let him die in vain!

    Like a teardrop striking the surface of a still pool, the sky exploded with color.

    She hurt.

    She hurt a lot, but the fact she hurt meant she was still alive. A grim sense of amusement struck her as she realized that pain was the first of her senses to wake. Her sense of smell woke next, and she could smell the salty tinge of blood, the sharp tang of disinfectant, the slight hint of ozone that signified magic, the earthy smell of hay, and the fresh scent of mountain air mingling through it all. Her hearing came alive to the hushed motions of another in the room with her, the clicking of claws across stone and the subtle drag of chain. A more refined sense of touch woke next, and she realized that despite the aches and pains that lanced her, she hurt far less than she had any right to. She felt a tingling wherever she recalled an open wound, a slight stinging and itching of flesh knit by magic. It was then that she felt the weight of the shackles and collar, at once horrifying and familiar, securing her.

    Only then did she try to open her eyes. She wanted to be silent, to try and get a feel for things before new aches and pains could be added. Only one eye opened properly, the other was swollen nearly shut. Not that there was much to see, as she had suspected. She was laid out on her side upon a thin nest of straw, facing towards a door carved out of a small plain chamber. It wasn’t the dungeon, but she was no less a prisoner. One of her forelegs extended out before her, and she could see the harsh iron band just above her claw, with chains extending from it to the dais she was placed upon.  There was an additional chain that lead to the door, lose and scraping along the stones around her prone body. It took a moment for her to realize that it wasn’t attached to her, which reminded her…

    With a groan, she attempted to look over her shoulder, and her neck flared in pain.

    “Y-you shouldn’t do that!” a small voice cried, and she felt a body press to her side and gently push her head back down. She didn’t fight it; she had seen what she wanted. A glimpse of a young gryphoness with tawny fur and a white crest with some mottling along the sides of her neck and face told her exactly who was in the cell with her.

    “Why…” she rasped, “why are you in here with me?”

    “T-they told me to be,” she answered, fear lacing her voice.

    “You’re… the little gryphon from the throne room, yes?”

    “Y-yes,” the small gryphon answered.

    “You got a name, cub?”

    “V-verdigris.”

    “Nice to meet you Verdigris, I’m Filigree,” the older gryphoness said softly, “I wish we’d met under better circumstances, little sister.”

    That seemed to surprise the small gryphon. “Little sister?!”

    Filigree groaned. “They never told you? I was sure Father would have spoken about ‘that freak’ at least a few times.”

    “I… I only heard a little about it when the… the guard arrested us all,” she whimpered softly.

    Filigree knew she shouldn’t, her body told her she couldn’t, but she did anyway. The cub gasped as the larger gryphon unsteadily made her way to her claws, body swaying before she sat down hard, and her rear legs refused to listen when she told them to stand. Filigree ignored them and turned to face Verdigris, looking into face the small gryphoness, to her obvious surprise. Carefully, with a shaking foreleg, she reached out towards her.

    Verdigris ducked, shying away from her claw, but did not pull back out of reach. With focused care, Filigree opened the claw widely, and slowly lowered it, stroking down the side of her cheek to rest it on her shoulder. The young gryphon blinked at the tender touch, her eyes wide as she looked down at the claw for a long moment.

     “I promise I’ll protect you,” Filigree rasped softly.

    “W-why?”

    Filigree blinked. “Why?”

    “Why would you help me? Why did you help me?” she asked again, her body trembling with barely contained emotions. “All they did was hurt you worse. Why…?”

    “Because, long ago, I was in your claws,” Filigree answered, “and there was no one there to rescue me. I desperately begged and cried and prayed and wished for someone to save me, but no one did. Mother and Father sold me when I was your age, and I was put in shackles just like you have been, and was beaten and bruised and abused, just as you have been. All the while I pleaded for rescue, and everyone turned their backs on me because it was my ‘place’. I couldn’t let them do that to you…”

    “Would you have really let them torture Mommy and Daddy?” Verdigris asked, her voice almost lost amidst the struggle not to break down in tears.

    “No,” Filigree answered honestly. “I might have lasted longer; a part of me will never truly forgive them for selling me, but I know now that I couldn’t have done it. The King called my bluff.”

    Verdigris seemed to be on the edge of saying something else, but all that came from her beak were hiccupping sobs. Gently, the older gryphon tugged her close, wrapping her good foreleg about Verdigris’ trembling form and hugged her. The younger sister answered in kind a moment later, hugging her tightly as fear and pain and hopelessness poured from her in the form of tears and snotty sobs.

    “T-thank you,” Verdigris managed after almost ten minutes of crying, “for… from the… whip, thank you.”

    “I promise I will get you out of this,” Filigree answered softly. “You deserve to be free. You deserve to play with ponies and gryphons your own age.”

    “You’re not in much condition to do much of anything, right now,” the younger answered, offering a weak smile. It was as if the sun peaked through the clouds to the elder of the two.

    “Speaking of which, I really should lie back down,” Filigree admitted weakly, “before I--“

    Filigree only half heard the young gryphon’s cry as she fell over on her side, sliding from the embrace and half pulling the smaller gryphon with her. Pain flared through her side and her eyes drifted closed. The younger gryphon was yelling… something.

    She forced her eyes open again, sure she’d only just fallen over, but the room was darker now. Verdigris was standing over her with a damp rag and a bucket, washing her off.

    “H-how long was I out?” Filigree croaked, badly startling the younger gryphon.

    “A f-few hours,” she answered, clutching her breast as if to hold in her wildly beating heart.

    “Anything happen while I was out?”

    Verdigris gave a weak smile. “No, nothing this time.”

    “This time?”

    “Before you woke up the first time that… the King was here with some gryphon I didn’t recognize,” Verdigris answered as she went back to washing the elder gryphon’s side with the damp rag.

    “Can you describe him?”

    “Um…” Verdigris stammered and thought, “He had white fur, matching crest, amber eyes. I didn’t hear his name, but he was mad at the King. I kinda… hid behind you. I didn’t want them to see me…” The little gryphon looked at her claws and shuffled them cutely with the admission.

    “Interesting,” Filigree said with a frown. Why did that description sound familiar to her? She shook her head to clear it, but was only rewarded with a renewed pounding between her ears. “Did you hear what they were arguing about?”

    “Something about how you got so hurt,” she answered, “the white one was yelling because you were hurt, and the King kept saying you wouldn’t surrender. The white one demanded medical attention for you… I guess he won that one. There were healers in here a little while after that, before you woke up.”

    Filigree snorted and closed her eyes for just a moment, but when she opened them again, it was dark. She could make out Verdigris sleeping a few feet away, curled up in a cold and miserable little ball. She sighed softly, looked at the foreleg she could move properly, and checked length of chain shackled to it. At one time, this sort of chain would have easily restrained her, but she’d grown since then. She came to understand exactly how much of it was in her head; she had believed she couldn’t break the chains, so she couldn’t. Now, she knew she could but didn’t want to. Not yet. It was too soon to start destroying things. She was still physically hurt, she had no way to prevent the beat-down from recurring, and she had no way to protect a family she shouldn’t care about.

    She put the claw to the ground, and with a quiet grunt, forced herself up. She knew she couldn’t do much in her injured state, and was certain that the chains were supposed to keep her on the dais, but she was strong enough to close the distance between herself and the bundle of fur and feathers that was her younger sister.

    More than anything else, she desperately wanted to protect Verdigris. She hadn’t even been able to stand the thought of a whip harming the little gryphon. Was it wrong to worry about protecting her while the same thing happens to hundreds of other gryphons the same age? A bitter taste filled her beak as she contemplated that, and lowered herself to lie down by the small gryphon. Instinctively the younger gryphon snuggled closer, seeking her body-heat even as Filigree draped her wing over her. Her very feathered and un-metal wing, she noticed. But then, it had been a pretty sure bet that they were going to use a collar that was magicked against her powers. It wasn’t as elegant as the Nightmare’s cages had been during their “visit” to the moon, which had forced all of her powers to “turn off”. The gryphon method just made it painful to activate her abilities, and the pain would escalate the longer she struggled against it. She must have shut her power off reflexively in her sleep the moment the collar was locked in place. Unlike the Nightmare’s cages, however, it did little to limit her strength. It was an advantage she would have to wield carefully.

    Gently, Filigree stroked a claw over her younger sister, almost petting her. As much as she wanted to tell the little gryphon that they would be rescued and that everything would be fine, nothing was certain right now. Would the Princess send a force to reclaim them? Doubtful, more likely she’d send the team, at the least Spectrum. She’d have to rescue her family as well, get them out of this hell and into the ponylands. At least Verdigris would be happy there, but how would Father and Mother take it? She doubted Fracture or Pyrite would like it. There wouldn’t be enough gryphons to seduce and toy with for Pyrite’s tastes, and Fracture was too dim to realize the possibilities he would have open to him.

    Filigree groaned at herself. She’d do better to just leave them here. She should hate them enough to abandon them. But her heart wouldn’t let her even consider the thought, and the small figure huddled against her sealed the deal. For all her bravado with the Princess, she was unable to truly carry through when it counted. At the least she could keep Verdigris safe with her…

    As if responding to her thought, the chain out the doorway pulled tight, yanking Verdigris awake by the collar with a choking start. Filigree frowned, and with far more force than she intended, slammed the claws of her good foreleg down on the chain, pinning it to the floor with a grip that refused to be moved.

    “Must be caught on something,” a tired voice came from the doorway, and Filigree looked to see who owned it. The form of another gryphon, a guard she assumed, looked in. His eyes widened in shock when Filigree’s blue eyes met his.

    “What. Do. You. Want?” she asked in a dark growl.

    “The little one’s got duties elsewhere,” he answered, quickly regaining his composure in the face of another chained gryphon. “Be thankful we can’t put you to work too.”

    “She stays with me,” Filigree said, her tone brokering no argument.

    “Say what now?” the gryphon asked in shock. Filigree’s eyes never left his, but her talons caught in the chain, lifting it from where she had pinned it to the floor. She carefully unwound her injured foreleg from about Verdigris and wrapped the chain once about that claw. With a sharp yank of her claws, the chain fell apart; a short chain still hung from Verdigris’ collar, while the rest fell before the wide eyed guard.

    “Find another gryphon to do it,” she stated bluntly and laid back down, her good foreleg looped protectively over the small gryphon. Verdigris’ bright green eyes watched the guard stare at the end of the chain before lowering her head into the crook of Filigree’s chest.

    For the first time since winter, Verdigris felt safe.

    She couldn’t stop.

    Her body complained, aches and pains hounded her every motion, but somehow she continued to pump her wings. She dared not look back, terrified she would see a wing of gryphons gaining on her. She was spent, exhausted, completely played out; easy prey if they caught up to her now. She could barely see where she was going, her eyes watered so badly…

    No, that wasn’t accurate; she was crying. She actually had to think for a moment to remember why she was crying, and the memory of her partner’s sacrifice swam to the forefront of her mind. Her heart clutched in her chest, tightening until it all but drove the breath from her. He was the closest friend she had; she had known him since basic training, gone to flight school with him, stood by him as they each were given officer’s stripes, dragged him along to cheer for her at every Wonderbolts try-out, and was even the “best mare” at his wedding.

    “Oh… oh Goddess… I have to tell… tell Cloudy that he… he…” she choked. A new wave of despair washed over her. Why? Why was she doing this to herself?

    No, she knew why. He had sacrificed himself to make sure she made it. He gave himself as bait to the gryphons to make sure that she could get free, and he trusted her to get away. She would not forget that. But why? Why had he sacrificed himself for her? He had a family! He had a foal on the way! He was on the fast track to his own command! All she was…

    She was just a screw-up. She was an aspirant to the Wonderbolts who never made the cut. She was a perpetual bachelorette who never quite found the right stallion. She was the big mouth with a habit of shooting off at exactly the wrong times. She was no hero…

    The sudden dip of her flight path brought her attention back to flying. She forced each flap of her wings as she looked out over the growing dusk of the land. Where had the pursuit gone? Did they give up when she hit the Sonic Rainboom? Were they waiting ahead, in the tall hills that signified the shared border of pony and gryphon lands? No, no place to hide there…

    Her bloodshot eyes searched in the rising moonlight for something, for any sign of hope. She dare not stop, but she couldn’t keep going either. Sooner or later, her body would just give out and she would fall from the air like a stone. She shivered and struggled to regain some altitude. A pegasus that fell to her death, that would be ironic. One more way she could screw up, one last legendary failure.

    A glint of something caught her eye, and she tried to focus on it. She wiped her eyes with her foreleg, and stared in shock. Was that… a town? Way out here? Was that… a guard tower! Yes, finally!

    It was still in the distance, but she felt a surge of energy help buoy her towards it. But it was a long way, and the energy didn’t last, leaving her sagging in the air. She started to count the flaps of her wings, but shook herself when she realized she had almost fallen asleep in mid-air. How long had it been since she slept? The realization that she’d now been awake almost two full days sent a cold realization through her; if she didn’t pass out from physical exhaustion, she’d pass out from mental exhaustion!

    Her eyes strained as she saw the tower… suddenly it felt so far away. Her wings felt like lead and her stomach weak. Her entire body began to tremble as her eyes watered once more. She couldn’t make it!

    She had to make it!

    But it’s so far away!

    Swan Dive hoof-slapped herself. She just travelled deep into the gryphon lands, and now back out; a few dozen miles was nothing compared to that!

    “One flap at a time,” she told herself, recalling the old endurance drills from training, how Fleethoof had always been right by her side chanting that. Speed was her forte, as endurance had been his. The stallion could fly for hours without showing any fatigue. She grit her teeth and lowered her head…

    One flap at a time…

    One flap at a time…

    One… flap… at… a… time…

    She growled at herself, the pain in her wings were like nails driven through the joints. What she didn’t expect was the cry of surprise in response. She lifted her head and forced her eyes to focus, which revealed the tower almost directly in front of her, the startled guard staring at her with wide eyes. Relief flooded her; she made it!

    She barely noticed anything beyond the green jacket of the border guard, and set down on the platform. Her wings refused to fold and hung limply to each side while a white hot pain flared up her hind leg, and she lifted it off the ground. A glance showed her of the ugly bruise the gryphon slingers had left from their assault, and lifted her bloodshot gaze to meet the guard’s, a meek looking stallion with a dark blue coat and silvery mane.

    “W-who goes--?!?” he managed to stammer.

    “I’m Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive,” she rasped, “under special assignment. I need an immediate message sent to Princess Celestia, top priority.”

    “I-I don’t have… authority to do that,” the buck managed.

    “Then find somepony who does,” she ordered. The stallion started to stammer, but she didn’t catch what he said. Her body was done, and she was done. The stonework floor looked nice, and she decided that a nap would do her some good. She heard him scream and call for help as her body gave out and she dropped onto her side. What was the big deal?

    It was just a nap…

5

Chapter 5

“Blunt Force Trauma”

    Peaceful.

    The Everfree Forest was more than just quiet tonight, it was peaceful. Only the gentle buzzing of insects and occasional lazy hoot of an owl filled the air. The full moon that hung overhead bathed the forest in a serene silver light, which only added to the pervading sense of peace that seemed to wash over the land like a gentle stream.

    Even the monsters slept, and one leonine manticore yawned widely and stretched in place, bat-like wings flaring and scorpion tail trembling over its back. The beast shook out its thick mane, one green eye lazily scanning the clearing, but when it saw nothing of interest it curled back up in its nest of foliage. Light snores slipped cutely from between fanged lips as sleep reclaimed it.

    A shadow detached from a nearby tree, skulking past the lair of the creature and towards a nearby lake. The tall, pony-like figure glanced over its shoulder towards the beast and snorted in derision.

    “Awww, what’s the matter,” asked a voice that made the shadowy stallion jump. His head quickly scanned each way before looking down into the water, where his mismatched reflection glared back.

    “You are a persistent meal, Sunset Sparkle,” the dark alicorn grumbled, and began to skirt the edge of the lake towards the nearby river it fed into.

    His reflection trotted along quickly to keep pace, a white pegasus stallion with a multi-colored mane that watched the stallion with barely hidden contempt. “Yeah, you’re not so easily rid of me as all that,” he answered with a smirk.

    “Really now?” The dark stallion asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

    “Besides, it gives me an excuse to needle the great ‘Eclipse’ about how he still can’t figure out how to beat a handful of mares, one of whom who barely managed to defeat me, to get at the Princesses who continue to defy him,” the pegasus nickered, flicking his wings.

    Eclipse glowered at the reflection. “You are trying my patience.”

    “I have to do something with all this time on my hooves, don’t I?” the reflected stallion persisted, the faster and choppier water of the river interfering with his image, distorting it. “It’s not like you’ve got the first clue how to proceed, do you? You had a millennium to plan how to defeat one Princess. Then two generations, roughly, to defeat both of them. Both times you failed. Now, you’re reduced to wandering around the Everfree Forest while dodging moonbeams.”

    “I’m not wandering,” Eclipse stated, and delicately cantered about a clearing lit by the moon. “I sensed some stirrings of ancient magic on the air, which I only noticed now that I’ve become acclimated to the chaotic natural magic of this forest. I am tracking it back to its source.”

    The white reflection frowned. “So you’re looking for leverage,” he stated.

    “Your ‘gift’ is not enough, Sunset Sparkle,” the alicorn teased, and then laughed when the white pegasus threw himself against the surface of the water. “Haven’t you figured it out yet that you cannot break that barrier?”

    “Yeah yeah,” Sunset Sparkle answered peevishly, “it’s a representation of a psychic barrier, and reflections allow those who still possess the willpower to make themselves visible and known to the host. You’ve explained it several times in the dullest and most condescending manner possible.”

    “Then why do you persist in wasting your energy by throwing yourself against that barrier?”

    “Because if I can see, and talk, to you through it, there is a chance I might be able to marshal enough strength to break it,” he grumbled.

    “You do not have the appropriate type of strength to do that,” Eclipse stated dismissively, turning to downriver at a steady roar of a sound that reached his ears. He missed the thoughtful expression from his reflection.

    “Yes, this way I believe…” Eclipse muttered to himself, and followed the river further to where it edged against a deep ravine. He glanced down at the flowing water, now choppy and uneven, to see if his reflection had followed. He had not, the uneven water surface apparently too much interference for him to push through. It was no matter; Eclipse had little use for such distractions.

    Many forget that the Everfree Forest houses a ravine that runs much of the length of it, the final result of the magic battle between the Sister Princesses. It was into this gorge that the water fell in a truly impressive arc. Even in the moonlight, the spray occasionally formed a rainbow before vanishing into the depths. The magic he sensed was somewhere down there, in the darkness. He hesitated for a moment, stories of the many powerful and chaotic creatures rumored to make their home deep within flitted across his mind, sending an irrational spike of fear through him.

    Eclipse stomped a hoof and banished the cowardly thoughts from his mind, his great wings spreading as he let himself waft slowly downward on the air currents, the spray damping his coat. The magic was close, he could sense that he was nearly atop it, and he stayed near the thunderous waterfall as it plummeted into the darkness. His turquoise eyes grew brighter the darker the shadows deepened, allowing him to see clearly in the nearly pitch black depths of the gorge he glided down into. He circled once about the falling pillar of water, searching along the smoothed stone cliff for the source of the magic he felt.

    He was almost on top of it when he noticed the irregularity in the air, and he moved towards what seemed to be a well hidden cave entrance. With a pump of his wings he landed upon the edge of what he expected to be a narrow passage, no more than a crack in well worn stone. What he found was far larger than that, a wide entry with the sides scraped away in massive gouges, almost as if…

    “A dragon!” he hissed, struggling to keep his voice down. “This was carved out by a dragon!”

    Immediately her wrapped a defensive spell about himself and assumed mist form, rendering himself no more than a slash of night amidst the darkness. It was less magically conservative than he wished to be, but a mature dragon could easily rip him apart were he caught unaware, and if it were an ancient dragon, his (or her) magic could easily destroy him. There was a reason he made sure that the Dragons were the first species eradicated by the Imps; a single dragon could destroy an alicorn. The Sister Princesses had been on good terms with most dragons, and that had helped to keep their civilization safe from even the largest of predators. Hunting their solitary numbers down and eliminating them in their sleep with the absorption abilities the Imps had naturally, which was oddly effective and extremely deadly to dragons, was one of his greatest triumphs. To find a lair this well hidden would indicate an extremely powerful dragon indeed…

    His mist form crept forward steadily, and the magic he had sensed coalesced about him as he “looked”. The spells were woven so finely together that they resembled spiderwebs, each thread supporting the next, yet so well supported that you could cut a majority of those threads and the spells would still hold together. And what a spell, or series of spells, it was! An illusion to hide the passage, phantom sounds to scare off predators, darkness to hide everything from the senses, and of course the subtlety to hide the entire thing from even the most intense magical scrutiny. Only by feeling the passive background flow of magic in the forest could one ever notice the slightest whiff of this spell.

    A realization struck him like a splash of cold water to the face. This wasn’t the work of one dragon, but dozens working together. Dragons, the single most solitary species in the world, who generally only came together to mate and migrate, had somehow managed to work together to weave this incredibly complex spell in total secrecy. Why?

    Curiosity drove him forward, and his mist form slithered amongst the barren rocks that formed this dragon created entry. The cave passage angled downwards in a steady descent, changing directions suddenly and seemingly at random, before it finally ended at a massive natural cave. The heat within the cave was stifling, and he noticed the sulfuric haze filling the room indicative of a volcanic vent of some sort. But there was something else within the cave that drew Eclipse’s attention, causing him to abandon his mist form and rise to his full height.

    “Eggs,” he said in a voice that was filled with accusation and surprise, “the dragons hid a clutch… no, multiple clutches of eggs, right under my nose here in the Everfree Forest! Why haven’t they hatched? It’s warm enough….” His horn glowed, and he started to analyze the spell again, before a smile crept across his face.

    “Interesting, the eggs are in a sort of stasis,” he mused and strode amongst them, careful not to brush against any of them, lest he destroy or disturb the spell that was keeping them dormant. “They won’t hatch until a dragon alters or triggers the spell. But all the dragons have perished, so these little ones have continued to sleep in seclusion. They must have been mating like crazy to get all these fertilized eggs, there’s almost enough to repopulate Equestria with… dragons…”

    A dark smile washed over the alicorn’s face, and his horn began to glow. He would need to understand every facet and nuance of the spell.

    Eclipse now had a plan…

    “I’m sorry, Princess.”

    Celestia shook her head. “You have nothing to apologize for, Professor. I did not expect this to be an easy task for you.”

    “If it were easy, I imagine the Princess would have done it herself,” the zebra nearby pointed out. The sandy colored unicorn shook his head.

    “That’s not it,” Professor Relic answered simply, “I expected this to be difficult. But I expected at least to have a few leads, to be making progress somehow. I feel like I’m spinning in place, like a foal looking for his cutie-mark. I am just not finding any leads--”

    “Princess!” a sharp call from the door interrupted the sandy unicorn, and the three ponies turned to face the guard as he burst into the secluded library. “Princess, I apologize for disturbing you, but we have news on the liaison’s company to the gryphon lands.”

    Celestia looked pensive. “Judging by your excited tone, it is not good news.”

    “I… I apologize, Princess,” the guard answered, lowering his voice. “We have word that Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive has reached the border town of Flankfort, and is currently suffering from extreme exhaustion and muscle strain. Reports indicate she reached the guard on duty, stated she had an urgent message for you, and collapsed. She has not woken since, but the doctor from town has indicated that she is in stable condition.”

    “Can she be moved?” Celestia asked softly.

    “I believe so, Princess.”

    “Alert my sister to meet me in my study, my pupil as well. I would discuss with them what I plan to do before we move.”

    “Should I arrange for a chariot to retrieve the Lieutenant Commander?” the guard asked.

    “Yes. Send the fastest you can,” she commanded, “and if you cannot have her in Canterlot by noon, I or my sister will teleport there and deliver her personally.”

    “I’ll speak to the Commander, Princess,” he answered simply, “I will have the answer for you in minutes.”

    “Have the Commander report directly to my study; it will minimize all this galloping around.”

    The white stallion saluted with a wing and barked, “Yes, Princess!” With that he was out the door.

    “I apologize, Professor, I need to take my leave,” the Princess said with a delicate bow of her head towards the sandy unicorn and zebra.

    “Certainly, Princess,” the stallion answered with a bow of his own. “That sounds far more important than my non-report.”

    Celestia turned to leave, trotting out of the room with a quick gait that belied her own concern. Once the door closed behind her, the Professor let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

    “Well, she took that better than I expected…” he sighed, and then blinked at his zebra friend, who was staring intently into the four crystals that comprised part of the Elements of Justice. “Quagga? Are you alright?”

    “There was a reaction in the Elements,” the zebra stated, his gaze never wavering from them. “It was subtle, and I barely noticed it, but deep within each crystal there was a glint of light when the trooper entered and gave his report, and again when he saluted and left.”

    “What… what in the world?” Relic asked breathlessly, his brow furrowing as he scrambled over to his friend. “If it were one of them, it would have possibly told us that the guard was a potential element bearer, but to have all of them react?”

    “I do not know, my friend,” the zebra answered evenly, “perhaps chance has given us the clue your research could not.”

    “Yes, but… what does it mean?”

    “Ya’ll find it?”

    Clockwork smiled as she slid out of the barn, nudging the goggles resting on her brow that pushed her short unruly mane back and away from her face. “Eyup,” she answered smoothly, “I knew I’d brought them along.”

    Apple Bloom nodded and locked the barn again, then led Clockwork away from the red painted structure, the smell of fresh hay and apples filling the air about them. Bright sunshine of the early afternoon dappled the grass, while beyond the fence-line ponies both of Apple Bloom’s kin and hired on for the job worked steadily at planting this coming season’s crops.

    “I figger we’ll head on out to Scoot’s place an’ get what we can,” the elder mare said as she stepped around the white painted fence that signified the edge of farm’s land. “Antythin’ incriminatin’ is prolly long gone, but ya’ll never know.”

    “We have to start somewhere anyway,” Clockwork answered with a shrug, “and, no offense, but you aren’t quite as hi-tech as the rest of the Ponylands up here either. There’s a good chance that they missed something simply because they aren’t expecting somepony to be able to look for it, or even just ignorant it can be looked for.”

    “That there sounds like a-- uh oh,” Apple Bloom interrupted herself, and motioned forward with a hoof. Ahead of them, on the dirt “road” that linked the town to the farm and orchard, trotted a trio of ponies that the pair knew all too well. They consisted of a spindly stallion with a muted gray coat and a flat green mane that covered his eyes, a unicorn mare trying desperately to offset her pink coat and lavender mane with as much studded leather as she could possibly wear, and a large sea-green mare that bulged with muscles and possessed red eyes that all but gleamed with hatred and barely contained rage.

    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Clockwork groaned, and covered her face with her foreleg, “those three shouldn’t even be on the streets after what happened last time!”

    “Oh, they were out pretty danged quick,” Bloom answered, frowning as the trio continued to trot their way, “Marmalade done made sure they got off with just a slap o’ th’ tail.”

    “So… you think Marmalade hired them again?”

    “Nah,” Bloom answered with a shake of her head, “I think they want revenge for gettin’ the best of ‘em last time.”

    “Well well,” the group’s leader growled as they approached, “lookie who’s back in town.”

    “Are we seriously dealing with a schoolyard gang?” Clockwork groaned. “Didn’t you three outgrow that phase?”

    “You cost us a payday, you tramp!” the leather clad unicorn shouted at them.

    “Yeah,” the stallion sneered, “Lily Pad and I had to suffer Bittercup’s whining all winter.”

    “I wasn’t whining,” the unicorn growled angrily, “if you want whining, I can show you whining!”

    “Knock it off, you two,” Lily Pad ordered the pair, before she turned to look at her intended victims. “See, this ain’t about gettin’ paid no more. We gotta reputation to maintain. We were paid to rough up some foals who wasn’ playin’ along, but you two didn’ get roughed up. That means more than losing bits, it means losing respect. Ponies start thinkin’ we can’t hold up our end of the contract, and that’s bad for business.”

    “Oh, so ya’ll are gangsters, that there makes it all better,” Apple Bloom spat. She never saw the skinny stallion move before he slammed into her, sending her tumbling back head over hooves.

    “Y’see, we don’ like to let on that we’ve got powers,” Lily Pad grinned darkly, ignoring Clockwork’s cry to the elder pony. “But I found out you two are specials… somethin’ the mare who hired us didn’ mention last time. So this time, we ain’t gonna hold back. You’re going into the hospital… or the grave, if you struggle too much.”

    Clockwork only half heard the large mare’s statements as she rushed to help Apple Bloom up, who was uninjured save for a growing bruise on her cheek. “I’m fine,” she protested, but glowered darkly at the trio over Clockwork’s shoulder.

    “Snakeskin,” Lily Pad growled. “Soften ‘em up a little bit.” The skinny stallion grinned toothily, and his figure blurred as he dashed forward at the pair.

    Clockwork pushed Apple Bloom away, knocking her back onto the grass just before the stallion plowed into her. The world spun as Clockwork tumbled head over hooves across the lawn, sprawled out in a most ungainly manner as she tried to recover her bearings. When she struggled to stand, Snakeskin plowed into her again, eliciting a cry as she went down hard.

    Clockwork stayed prone for a moment, trying not only to clear her head, but to come up with a way to outsmart this super-speeding stallion. It was then she noticed the sound, a hissing sound not unlike a snake. It was new… and as it got louder she rolled away from it. Snakeskin missed her by millimeters, but Clockwork now knew for sure where the sound was originating from.

    Unsteadily, the mare got to her hooves, but kept her eyes downcast. She didn’t bother trying to look for the stallion, instead her ears twitched as she listened for his approach. He made a long turn, hinting to her that he had to conserve momentum, before making another approach. Clockwork rolled to her side and thrust a hoof out at his churning legs. She was rewarded with a cry from the stallion as he went crashing into the ground, skidding along the green grass until he bumped to a halt against a nearby tree. Clockwork looked up and frowned at the gray stallion as he rose. His coat seemed darker, almost like the night sky… his face longer, leaner, almost…

    Her ears twitched and she sidestepped, barely avoiding him, but he was now trying to approach now from an odd angles. Unfortunately for him, Clockwork not only understood said angles, but the math behind them. A single hoof sent him sprawling once more onto the grass. Clockwork watched again as he lifted himself up, the light all but gone from his coat, his face lengthened into a bird-like hooked bill. Talons flashed and wings darkened the sky as he screeched a babble of non-sense words at her, which she promptly ignored. Then he was moving again…

    Clockwork squawked as the Imp’s next assault sent her tumbling across the carpet of grass, a bruise forming on her side from where it impacted her. She stayed down and rolled under the follow-up as she struggled to find an answer to its renewed onslaught. He was looping about in wide arcs to maintain his momentum, his speed growing with each pass. Clockwork smiled grimly when the idea struck her and rolled to her hooves, but made no attempt to dodge when he came at her. Instead, with nearly supernatural timing borne of precise calculations, she reared back and planted both fore-hooves right into his face. The collision sent her rolling over backwards until she hit the fence, her forelegs numb from the force of the impact. She shook the stars from her eyes, but smiled grimly when she spotted the imp, who lay unmoving on the grass some distance away, either out cold… or dead.

    Clockwork heard the high pitched whine as she struggled to her hooves, and hobbled behind a nearby tree as the blast of energy struck it. A beam Imp, she immediately concluded. She realized after a second blast there was only one of them; the final Imp was simply more muscular than its allies had been. She ducked back as another blast hit the tree, shaking some feeling back into her forelegs as she formulated a plan… then heard a screeching cry. A glance about the tree showed her that Apple Bloom hadn’t been so out of the fight as she thought, and while the imps had focused on Clockwork, Bloom had gone invisible and circled around. Now she was tackling the beam Imp in hoof to hoof combat, the elder mare’s specialty. That left one Imp still unchecked.

    Clockwork barely heard the whistling sound of an incoming claw before she dove aside, and the tree she’d taken shelter behind exploded in shower of splinters. Clockwork frowned, the strong one had chosen to target her, and she rolled to the side and scrambled to her hooves. The Imp roared and dove after, forcing Clockwork to circle about the newly created stump as she tried to get a few extra inches of maneuverability and breathing room. But the Imp refused to back off, screaming in a constant stream of nonsense pony words her mind refused to try and sort.

    Sometimes being smaller than the average pony has its advantages, and Clockwork chose to use that “advantage” as she dove between the crossbars of the fence-line. The Imp was momentarily trapped on the wood bars she proved too large to fit through, but its strength shattered the wood as easily as the tree before it. Still, it gave Clockwork a few extra steps of leeway. She couldn’t count on Apple Bloom to rescue her; she had to do this herself!

    For a moment she desperately wished she had her armour with her… wait! She had the goggles! She yanked them down over her eyes and snapped on the remote connection. The world was bathed in green as it powered up, and she continued to plow ahead as fast as she could, the babbling Imp nipping at her tail. She smiled when her sight cleared of the monotone color and flooded with information, mimicking the display readouts of her helmet. Targeting display, altimeter, condition, and more… everything she needed. Her imagination momentarily added the comforting weight of the Dragonfly armour as she slammed her hooves into the turf, skidding to a halt and facing the pursuing imp.

    The Imp roared in victory, even as the alerts and information poured across Clockwork’s vision. She reflexively ignored the ones she didn’t need, and found the exact approach vector information, complete with speed and force estimations. The khaki mare let out a grunt as she twisted her body under the approaching claw, rolling onto her back and kicking all four of her legs upwards and into the Imp’s elbow joint.

    Her ear flicked as she was rewarded with a loud “crack” that was followed shortly by a howl of pain. Immediately the imp clutched at its injured arm, but Clockwork wasn’t finished. She rolled back to her hooves and launched herself at the Imp, slamming her hooves into its chest and knocking it onto its back, where its wings would be useless. She didn’t give the Imp a chance to recover, and slammed her hooves into its face over and over again, watching with some satisfaction as its beak and face began to distort, blood opening from where her hooves cut its skin, bruises swelling where she’d slammed her hooves at its eyes or mouth. It was almost beginning to resemble a pony…

    “CLOCKWORK!!” shouted the voice in her ear, and a pair of forelegs grabbed her and yanked her back and off the imp. She flailed and struggled, sure it was another imp.

    “What th’ hell is wrong with you girl?!?” the voice cried again, and Clockwork belatedly recognized the accent, the voice… and she stopped flailing and began to relax.

    “Y-you’re okay,” she managed to stammer weakly to the mare who grabbed her.

    “I ain’t so sure you are,” Apple Bloom answered, her voice grim. Clockwork blinked owlishly over her shoulder. Certainly she could see the imps…

    Apple Bloom pointed at one of the “imps”, and Clockwork felt her bowels turn to ice. On the grass, only feet away from her, was Lily Pad. She clutched her broken fore-leg desperately, shuddering and whimpering from a combination of fear, pain, and shock, her face reduced to a barely recognizable mess.

    Clockwork looked down at her hooves, eyes wide with horror when she saw the blood on them.

    “I am strongly against this, Princess.”

    “So you’ve reminded us,” Luna pointed out, “every five steps.”

    The doctor, a startlingly pink earth-pony with a silvery mane, huffed at the Princess of the Night before turning to block their passage down the pristine white hospital corridor. Trixie frowned and shared a concerned look with her mentor, Celestia.

    “Doctor,” Celestia interceded, before he could renew his objection, “the mare has information that cannot be gained any other way, and it is possible that the lives of at least two others may rely on what news she carries. We must know what she has learned.”

    “Princess, despite what my contemporary to the north judged as stable condition, I can state with certainty that she nearly killed herself from exhaustion and dehydration. If my guess is correct, she had been flying constantly for at least a day and a half, if not longer. During this time she had not eaten, drank any water, or slept. It’s a bucking miracle she’s alive at all, given what she put herself through. Her condition may be stable, but she pushed herself to the brink of death, so unless you plan to ask her for the information in the Summerlands--”

    “Doctor,” Trixie cut in sharply, surprising the Princesses with her harsh tone, “you know not of what you speak. I would recommend you not continue that statement, lest your loose tongue digs a hole you cannot climb back out of.”

    “How dare you!” the doctor cried. “I’ll have you know--”

    “She dared because she’s my sister’s student,” Luna answered evenly, “and while I think she was more harsh than was necessary, she is not incorrect. The mare in question was sent to the Gryphon Lands with liaison Filigree, a friend of ours and bearer of the Element of Honesty, and another pegasus guard. Now Commander Fleethoof and the Liaison are missing, and the only clue as to why lies on your bed in a drugged dreamless sleep. Were it not for that last fact, I would have gone into her dreams myself and spoken to her there, but the dream state of a pony in a drugged stupor is inaccessible, even to me. It is not the healing sleep she needs, Doctor.”

    “Her body needs rest before she can do anything else,” he answered, running a hoof through his mane. “She’s hooked up to intravenous feeds to rehydrate and give her desperately needed nutrients on top of the severe exhaustion she is suffering from. Once her body has recovered we can worry about the ‘proper’ type of sleep she needs mentally.”

    “And all that will be for naught,” Celestia slid in smoothly, “unless we know exactly what message she is carrying.”

    The doctor looked pained for a moment, running his hoof through his mane yet again, pulling at it as he tried to find another reason to stall or turn away the Princesses and their mouthy little unicorn.

    “Doctor,” Trixie spoke, surprising the Doctor with her gentle tone, “we’re not asking for her to get up and dance around the room, we merely need to speak to her and find out what happened. This could save the lives of two others and, depending on what she has discovered, there may be repercussions far beyond that. Please, we need to speak to the Lieutenant --”

    “Lieutenant Commander,” Luna corrected.

    “Actually, I think a promotion Commander is in order,” Celestia said, “if for nothing else than in recognition for her efforts to deliver this information. Should her information be helpful, I will see about pulling a few strings; I could always use a good courier for sensitive and official mail.”

    “Regardless,” Trixie pushed on, a hint of irritation touching her voice, “it is imperative we know what she learned.”

    “It’s not just about her body moving, it’s about the rest of her as well,” the stallion argued. “It’s about keeping her heart rate down, which won’t happen if she becomes emotional or excited in any way. We need to keep her calm, relaxed, and as passive as possible so that her body may recover. She strained so many muscles it will be weeks before she’s walking again, and another month before she’ll be able to fly any distance without pain. In short, Princess, her body can’t handle the strain.”

    “Then, Doctor, it is a good thing you will be there with us,” Luna stated in her most reasonable tone. “I would recommend that you keep a tranquilizer handy if she gets too over-emotional, and drop her back to sleep if she begins to tax herself.”

    The Doctor chewed on his lip and ran a hoof through his mane one last time before bowing his head in defeat. “Alright,” he sighed, “but if her heart rate even thinks about climbing, I’m tranquilizing her and sending her straight back into la-la land!”

    “We understand, Doctor,” Celestia answered softly, and the trio of mares fell in behind the brightly colored doctor. Nurses and doctors stopped to bow as the Sister Princesses passed on their way, but Celestia was oblivious to them, lost within her own thoughts and concerns. Luna, instead, acknowledged them so they could continue on their duties. Word spread like wildfire through the hospital about the Princesses’ visit, and any patient who was mobile and every doctor or nurse not otherwise occupied followed along the door lined hallway like a morbid parade. Much whispering about the purpose of the visit was made, but almost all focused around the guarded room the procession approached, and who or what might lie within it.

    The guard outside the door snapped to attention and quickly offered a salute with his hoof, a dusky gray stallion representing the Royal Guard’s ground force. Celestia nodded to him, and the trio followed the doctor through a large wooden door and into the dim hospital room. Trixie closed the door behind them as the Doctor raised the light just enough to see by via a slider switch near the door. He then made his way to the side of the prostrate mare on the bed, patting her shoulder apologetically through the starched sheet. The blue mane of the unconscious pony spilled out over the pillow like a pool of water, and her coat looked listless and gray under the dim light. The doctor used a hoof to check the temperature of her brow, inspected the machine that kept track of her heart-rate and blood pressure, before finally taking a needle and injecting the medicine into the line of her intravenous drip.

    The first change took several minutes to occur, and the machine beeping nearby began to track the increase in her heart rate, earning a dark look from the Doctor. He looked sharply at the Princesses once more before moving to unconscious mare’s bedside. Moments later her bleary eyes fluttered, and then finally opened, taking several moments to focus on the garishly colored pony hovering above her.

    “P-princess…” the mare croaked before the doctor could even speak, “H-have to… report…”

    “I am here, my little pony,” Celestia said in a gentle voice, moving to stand opposite the doctor at the bedside. “You made it to Flankfort before collapsing, Princess Luna teleported you directly to the hospital here in Canterlot. You’ve been unconscious the entire time.”

    “H-how… long?”

    “Early afternoon of the following day,” Celestia answered smoothly. “You have my ear, Lieutenant Commander Swan Dive; please tell me what you know.”

    “It… it was a trap,” she answered weakly, licking her lips, “T-the…  King Goldtalon set her…  Filigree up.”

    Celestia frowned deeply, but it was Luna who asked, “Goldtalon? He was second in line, after Goldshrike, wasn’t he? And what happened to King Goldbeak and Princess Goldshrike?”

    “Not important right now,” Celestia answered quickly, and returned her attention to the mare on the bed, “Filigree was captured then?”

    The mare nodded so shallowly it was almost missed. “She… couldn’t… Goldtalon was going to… torture her family if she… she couldn’t abandon them….”

    Celestia nodded to her sister, who answered with a relieved looking smile, before turning back to the mare, “You’ve done well. You need your rest --“

    “The… gryphons are… preparing for war,” the mare interrupted, but the stunned silence that followed made her every word clear as a bell. “They were… equipped specifically to… fight ponies. King… King Goldtalon said… we are the enemy. He… isn’t interested in negotiation and… he’s far better equipped than… than he should be.”

    There was a very long pause as nopony seemed able to respond to those words, only the beeping of the heart monitor and the mare’s rasping breath filled the room for several long minutes. “What happened to Commander Fleethoof?” Celestia asked softly. The heart monitor immediately began to spike and flutter, telling the Princess what she needed to know.

    “He… he gave his life to… to stop a gryphon patrol…” she managed, her teeth clenching as tears filled her eyes. The Doctor immediately shot a worried look to the Princess, who answered with a quick nod. “He… said one of us… had to survive… to warn you…” she choked off with a sob, and the doctor stabbed the injector into the intravenous drip, emptying the tranquilizer into her system. “I… had to… survive… to… make his sacrifice… worth… while…” she managed to finish before the drug took hold and dragged her back under for the sleep she desperately needed.

    The room once again fell into complete silence as the foursome looked at the incapacitated mare on the bed. Then, with the suddenness of breaking glass, Celestia turned sharply. “Luna, Trixie, you’re with me,” she ordered, her hoofsteps already sounding on the tiled floor as she trotted for the door. “Thank you for your time, Doctor, this may save a lot of lives. Please be sure that she gets your finest care, and notify me the moment she is healthy enough to talk at length about what happened. Also, do be sure that not a word of what was said leaves this room.”

    “Y-yes Princess,” the stallion stammered as the mares left. The door closed with finality behind them, leaving the brightly colored doctor to shudder at what he had heard.

    “Ya’ll alright in there?”

    Apple Bloom already knew the answer was a resounding “no”, but the small khaki mare had been denying that there was a problem. Clockwork had spent the last twenty minutes in the bathroom trying to scrub off bloodstains only she could see, along with the flesh of her forelegs and hooves it seemed to the elder mare. Of course when Apple Bloom looked in on her, she was casually drying her hooves on a floral print towel and doing her best to look nonchalant.

    “Sure… sure thing. I’m fine!” Clockwork answered in a brittle voice.

    “Ya’ll gonna tell me what happened?” Apple Bloom tried again.

    Clockwork ignored the question as she moved past Apple Bloom and into the living room. The elder mare had repeated that question four times… that she remembered, since the “fight”. Once on the road before the sheriff arrived, once on the road after the sheriff left, once when they arrived at Scootaloo’s home, and a fourth time here in the pegasi’s home (thankfully on the ground) as they recovered from the incident. Instead of answering, Clockwork snapped her goggles on, not entirely trusting her own sight after what happened, and did a quick tour of the home.

    It was a lovely home, obviously custom built, with more bedrooms than Clockwork had ever seen crammed into one two story home. Many of those bedrooms stood as guest rooms now, with one turned into a study, all richly decorated in warm earth tones with occasional glimpses of blue and white. There was an odd sort of game of “find the rainbow” in each room as well. Her goggles found each one within seconds, but they were in a different place in every room, making Clockwork wonder purpose they served.

    The living room and foyer were both welcoming and comfortable, obviously designed for a great number of ponies to sit and talk. Couches and chairs were set in a loose circle, at the head of which a large stuffed chair that sat near a curio cabinet, where rested a collection of memorabilia from the Wonderbolts and Lady Rainbow Dash. It was sad, in a way, to see the photograph of a very young looking Rainbow Dash smiling from one of the photos, with a signature and some writing. The goggles translated the chicken-scratch writing almost immediately as “Don’t worry squirt, I promise we’ll get you to flying next summer!” There was no date on it. Clockwork turned away…

    …and found herself face to face with an unhappy looking Apple Bloom. The bruise on her cheek was covered by a small bag of ice from Scootaloo’s freezer to hold the swelling down. “Ya’ll almost killed that filly, Clockwork! Sure, she bucking deserved to get her flank thumped hard, but you... you… you ain’t gonna to tell me, are ya’?” she asked, her voice was as tight as a piano string.

    “I’m not sure what happened,” Clockwork answered softly and looked away. Something about Apple Bloom’s gaze made her uncomfortable.

    Apple Bloom made a sound halfway between a sigh and a grunt and looked away herself. It was several moments before she spoke again, “The Sheriff said we’re in th’ clear. Enough of mah cousins were in th’ field to see ‘em throw the first hoof. But he ain’t gonna arrest ‘em after gettin’ beat that bad.”

    “They won’t bother us again,” Clockwork said with certainty.

    “No, they won’t,” Apple Bloom agreed, and looked and the khaki mare’s now clean hooves. “But--”

    “I started seeing them as imps,” Clockwork interrupted, and pushed the goggles up. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she were on the verge of tears as she spoke, “All I could see was the enemy. When they attacked us, they ceased being ponies. I couldn’t even understand what they were saying, it was just a jumble of meaningless words and… and…”

    Clockwork shuddered as the elder mare’s forelegs wrapped about her, holding her closely for several long moments. Apple Bloom expected the small mare to crack, to sob, to cry… but she did none of those things. Instead she shuddered once more and pulled the goggles back down over her eyes.

    “We should get to work.”

    Apple Bloom watched as the smaller mare made her way into the kitchen, her head swaying side to side to make up for the loss of peripheral vision. For the first time, Apple Bloom wondered if maybe asking the Princess to send Clockwork Key was a mistake…

    “You’re not supposed to be up!”

    Filigree smirked at her sister. “Oh hush,” she growled playfully at the smaller gryphoness, “I’m not so helpless that I can’t preen my wings.”

    Verdigris blinked widely, “But, with as hurt as you were and…”

    “They used magic to heal the worst of the injuries,” Filigree stated simply, “and most specials heal more quickly than normal. Even then, I’m not the sort to sit around waiting to feel better. No, I’m waiting, but not for that.”

    “W-waiting for what?”

    “Rescue, little one, rescue,” she sighed softly. “No matter what happens, I have friends who will come for me. I have to believe that. I have to believe they won’t abandon me.”

    Verdigris seemed about to say something further, but all that came from her was a squeak as she quickly pushed herself to Filigree’s side, hiding behind her. The larger gryphon’s expression darkened as she turned her head to regard the doorway, and the pair of gryphons that entered through it. She knew both of them, but only one did she expect to see here.

    “You are a marvel,” King Goldtalon offered with a broad smile, “only two days after one of the most dramatic beatings I have ever personally witnessed, and you’re already up on your claws, if a bit unsteadily.”

    Filigree’s blue eyes looked past the king and to the white gryphon by his side. “Hello, Alto.”

    “Hello, Filigree,” the white gryphon said with a thin smile, his yellow eyes looking back with a mix of concern and apprehension. “I’ll admit this wasn’t the most ideal of methods to…”

    “Oh no, you don’t get to squawk like a fledgling now!” the king laughed, earning a sour look from Alto. “You were losing the battle for your chosen mate, and allied with her family! Well, technically Duke Silverwing and his son, since they held her leash last.”

    Filigree frowned, and looked to Alto again, “You expect this to change my mind?”

    “I said it wasn’t ideal,” Alto answered, then puffed his chest out a bit, “but I was not about to lose you to my brother!”

    Filigree frowned but didn’t answer, instead turning her attention to the King. “I can see what he gets out of this, but what do you get out of it?”

    “Isn’t that obvious?” King Goldtalon smiled before continuing, “Information. Maps, fort locations, approximate troop sizes, even anticipated resistance points and preferred armaments. Plus, as a naturalized ‘pony’, he can slip in and out of pony territory to scout out defenses and suitable targets once we begin our invasion.”

    “The Gryphon Clans are still heavily outnumbered,” Filigree pointed out, “and you would still have to contend with the Princesses themselves.”

    “The Princesses will not enter into battle, no pampered and spoiled pony royalty would dare scuff their hooves in a real fight,” Goldtalon scoffed.

    “I have witnessed both in battle,” she stated simply, “and their power individually is far more than any special… sorry, any cursed could handle.”

    “Oh dear, whatever shall I do?” the king mocked, and Alto looked startled at the king. Filigree watched on keenly. “I suppose we’ll just have to give up! Oh wait… I have ‘Godkiller’ on my side…”

    “Godkiller?” Alto asked, “What in the world is--”

    “It’s a special,” Filigree answered.

    “Your talents were so wasted on that idiot son of the duke’s,” the King chortled. “You are correct; ‘Godkiller’ is a very special accursed gryphon. She is completely immune to any and all magic. We have even tested her with ancient artifacts ensorcelled by the Princess in ages past for my ancestors, and beyond, and found her abilities completely capable and viable against the very magic of the Goddesses! In fact, the only magic we believe she can be affected by is the Elements of Harmony.”

    “Thus, you did everything you could to remove that ‘weapon’ from play. Even if your secret weapon were as capable as you say,” Filigree noted, “how would you get her past the few hundred non-magical ponies who will defend the Sister Princesses… not to mention those specials who, like me, would stand against you?”

    “I have an army prepared to handle that obstacle,” he noted with a broad smile. “Now then, enough stalling, I have a pronouncement to make.”

    Filigree frowned sourly. “You are promising me to Alto.”

    “That’s the plan,” he grinned, “the price for his acquiescence was your promise. Since he was unable to acquire the promise from parents who refused to acknowledge your existence, he came to the Duke, and in turn came to me when the Duke was unable to help.”

    “While it hardly absolves him of guilt, knowing that he followed tradition softens the blow…”

    Alto puffed his feathers, “I hoped you would see it my way.”

    “…much in the same way a kick is softened by the presence of a boot,” Filigree concluded coolly. Alto’s face dropped and the King laughed.

    Goldtalon’s laughter died on his beak when his gaze lit upon Verdigris, who in turn squeaked and pressed herself tighter to Filigree’s side. The elder sister curled a wing protectively about her as she regarded the king evenly. The king’s dark expression and cold glare seemed to lower the temperature of the room by several degrees.

    “Oh, I suppose you can keep her,” he said finally, dismissing the tension suddenly, “assuming that you don’t give us any trouble. She’ll be good leverage if you act up. Anyway, it’s a day late but, Filigree? You’re promised to Alto now. Good? Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got things to do, places to be, and invasions to plan.” He waved a claw at the air and strutted from the room as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

    Alto looked uneasily at his “promised” and cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll have to plan the ceremony. I hope you don’t mind a simple one, I don’t exactly have a lot of bits…”

    “Losing to your brother meant that much to you?” Filigree asked softly.

    “He’s always won!” the white gryphon shouted, startling Verdigris into burrowing further under her sister’s wing. Alto surged forward until he was beak to beak with Filigree, her expression remaining neutral even as his contorted with rage. “He always got the best! He was always the ‘perfect’ son! He was always the favorite! He was always the better hunter, the more handsome one, the easiest to get along with… the best at everything!!”

    “So that gives you the right to take my freedom?”

    He stopped cold at the statement. It wasn’t an accusation or incrimination, it was a simple question spoken so evenly that it threw the gryphon. For a moment his beak worked, his amber eyes staring into her unreadable blue ones. Finally he just shut his beak and turned away.

    “In two days it will be official,” he said over his shoulder in an oddly flat voice, “then it won’t matter anymore.”

    Filigree’s eyes never left his retreating form until it was gone from sight. Only when the white gryphon was gone from sight did the little gryphon relax and poke her head out from under the wing. Filigree silently braced herself, expecting a deluge of curious little questions about what she had just heard. Instead, she got the one question she hadn’t anticipated…

    “What’s a boot?”

    “Sorry I’m late, Princess.”

    “Take your position, Rainbow Star,” Luna answered smoothly and looked to the ponies assembled about her in the dimly lit meeting room. Two of the seats were empty, and Luna’s eyes lingered over the place that belonged to Filigree, the Element of Honesty, and the orange wings engraved on the dark wooden table just before the orange colored cushion. Only one other cushion remained empty, a green one resting right before an engraving of an emerald winder key, reserved for the element of Loyalty, Clockwork Key. The rest of the places were filled around the large table.

    Luna looked briefly to each pony, letting her eyes wander over the team that had saved Equestria from the terror that was The Nightmare. Celestia sat directly to her right, and beyond her sat Flourish, the Element of Laughter, a grey unicorn with a pink and lavender swirled mane who lounged on her red cushion before the ruby engraving of a rapier. Next was the open place for Filigree, known also as Steelwing. Rainbow Star slipped into the space between the two empty seats, the white pegasus with a rainbow hued mane known additionally as Spectrum or the “Element of Kindness”, and she settled on a yellow cushion before an amber engraving of a five-pointed star. On Spectrum’s other side was the spot for Clockwork Key, known also as Dragonfly. Beyond the gap sat the cyan unicorn known as Tome, Trixie to her closest friends and the Element of Generosity, who rested comfortably on a blue cushion before a sapphire engraving of a star tipped magic wand. Trixie was trying not to look apprehensive, but frequent and furtive glances to the empty spot to her left belied her feelings. By Trixie’s side sat Galaxi, the Element of Magic, who watched the room with her empty, blind eyes. She was a white earth pony with a sea-green mane, and she rested on a purple cushion before an amethyst engraving of an oddly shaped six-pointed star, and shared concerned looks with the mare beside her frequently. Finally, completing the circuit about the table, sat the only stallion in the group upon a large pillow, the large gray pony with an ever-present smile known as Skillet.

    “Good, everypony is present that can be,” Luna said, her voice filling the room. “We have a crisis on our hooves. It seems that over the winter, King Goldbeak passed away and was replaced by his ambitious and war-like son, Goldtalon. As you all know, Filigree was sent two days ago to the Aerie of her home Clan in a final attempt to negotiate peace with the gryphon clans. This has fallen through. One of her escorts barely made it to the town of Flankfort, and nearly died from exhaustion.

    “We were able to interview the pony in question and get a basic report of what has happened. Filigree has been taken prisoner, and the gryphon clans are preparing for war… against us.”

    Murmurs rolled around the table, and even Flourish sat up and took notice, her brow furrowing. Luna pressed onward, raising her voice only slightly to quiet them, “We spent the better part of this afternoon independently verifying reports that the clans had begun to distribute new armor and weapons amongst their soldier and elite classes. These weapons seem specifically designed to counter any advantage a pegasus might have in combat, and the armor is designed to withstand heavy blows. What source these weapons and arms have, we do not yet know. Our seers are doing their best, but are running into a great deal of interference, which perhaps indicates that the gryphons have strengthened their mystic and mage castes.

    “My sister and I believe that this capture of Filigree was to intentionally deprive us of the Elements of Harmony as a potential weapon. This indicates a basic misunderstanding of the Element’s capabilities, but it may be useful as a method of creating a stalemate and preventing an all out war if they believe we have the Elements of Harmony prepared to counter an invasion.”

    “Question,” Flourish spoke up, and continued before Luna acknowledged her, “isn’t that exactly what the Elements are? I mean, we used ‘em to blast the heck out of The Nightmare… twice!”

    “No,” Celestia answered for her sister, “they are not. First and foremost, the Elements of Harmony are a defensive magic, and cannot be used in any offensive manner. Further, the Elements of harmony focus on the emotions of the individual targeted. The Elements are for purification, not elimination. They attempt to purify or neutralize threats, stripping away harmful spells or possession of their mind, but unless their nature is directly opposed to what the Elements represent they are not destroyed. My sister was the target of the Elements twice, yet she still stands here today.”

    “However, maintaining the illusion that it is a weapon will help keep the peace in the short term,” Luna said, before resuming a more commanding tone. “This said, we must mount a rescue of Filigree, and deliver her back to us. I would like to send two of you in as a covert mission to try and extract Filigree with a minimum of fuss, if possible. You will have full discretion to act, but withdraw if you cannot accomplish your mission. We will attempt a new approach if this fails, and in all likelihood it will entail recalling Clockwork and sending your entire team with a few wings of pegasi in a show of force.”

    “I volunteer,” Spectrum called, jumping to her hooves.

    “Noted,” Luna said simply, and waited until the pegasus sat down before continuing. “There will be a secondary objective while in the Gryphon lands. Reconnaissance and scouting of enemy positions and forces will be imperative in order to plan where to fortify and what towns might be in immediate danger. Find out what you can, disrupt what you are able, and come back in one piece. Do not overextend yourselves, your safety is top priority.

    “Spectrum has already volunteered, but I would ask for another to join her.”

    “I’m in,” Flourish answered, lazily raising a hoof. “As much as I love hanging out in Canterlot, I could really use some excitement, and stealth missions are just my cup of tea.”

    “Very well,” Luna answered with a nod, “Prepare for departure in one hour. You will be using the cover of twilight. I cannot alter the phase of the moon, but I can adjust its trajectory to provide you as much cover as possible. Still, be prepared for anything. Skillet? You have a long night ahead of you; you’ll be coordinating and keeping them in contact with us here.”

    “I expected as much, Princess,” the burly stallion answered. “I will warm gear up, ya?”

    “The rest of you are dismissed until further notice,” Luna commanded, “but everypony is on call and may be summoned at any hour.”

    “Does that include me, little sister?” Celestia asked, feigning shock.

    “You especially,” Luna teased, “who else is going to make my tea?”

    “Any luck?”

    “Not yet,” Clockwork answered, slowly panning her vision over yet another corner of the kitchen. The room was fastidiously clean, or would have been had it not been the scene of Scootaloo’s sudden emergency. The usually pristine tiled floor was muddied by a multitude of hoofprints, most of them belonging to the early medical response. Clockwork was completely certain that other hoofprints belonged to the sheriff and his assistants, as well as the tell-tale fashion shoe prints that belonged to Marmalade. To Clockwork, it was starting to look like everypony in town had come through this kitchen since the incident.

    “I’m startin’ ta think ya’ll are wastin’ yer time,” Apple Bloom said, “there don’t seem to be nuthin’ here. I’m sorry fer draggin’ yer tail all this way for a wild goose chase…”

    “Apple Bloom,” Clockwork interjected, “you’re putting the cart before the pony. I warned you hours ago that this was a time consuming process, but I am slowly eliminating possibilities. For instance, we can be sure it wasn’t Marmalade who did this, or her hoof-prints wouldn’t be everywhere here.”

    “How c’n you say that?”

    “Simple, she had those fancy fashion-plate shoes on when she visited. I can see the H.T. initials in the imprint. If she was sneaking in for any reason, she wouldn’t have worn such easily identifiable shoes, which even the sheriff could have seen even without my sensors,” Clockwork answered.

    “Durn, here I was hopin’ we’d have th’ goods ta hang her,” Apple Bloom grumbled.

    “She’s smarter than that,” Clockwork answered, “but we also only have a day or two worth of data. Unless I miss my guess, Scootaloo ran a mop over the tiles a day or so before she had her attack. I can see some older imprints, but they’re so smeared that I can’t make out more than that.” Clockwork sighed and stretched her back a little.

    “So, it’s a wash?”

    “Not yet, but I’m just not getting any data… from…” Clockwork trailed off. Her goggles didn’t note anything wrong, but her eyes saw it. She pushed the goggles up to her forehead and peered at the cabinet across from her, the door for it just slightly ajar.

    “Clockwork?” the elder mare asked, watching as the smaller pony picked her way across the kitchen like she was in a trance. Her gaze was locked on a cabinet, which she reached up a hoof and nudged lightly. “Ya’ll okay there?”

    Clockwork didn’t answer. Instead she bumped the door closed, only to have it fall oven by about half an inch, the catch inside either too worn, or too broken, to hold the door shut. “How long has this been broken?” she asked suddenly.

    “Ah… what?” Apple Bloom responded intelligently.

    Clockwork nudged the cabinet door open and set her hooves on the counter below. She paused for a moment, casting about for… something. Finally she grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and pushed it under the cabinet, climbed onto it, and then onto the counter, where she could lean close enough to examine the catch for the cabinet. “This is broken. Do you know how long it was broken?”

    “Ah’m sorry Sugah, I don’t rightly keep track ‘o such things,” Apple Bloom answered. “Why? Is it really all that important?”

    “This was intentionally adjusted not to latch properly,” Clockwork answered, leaning her face so close to the catch it looked as if her head were lost inside the cabinet. “A simple turn of the screw loosened the catch enough that it wouldn’t hold the door shut. There’s no wear on any of the parts. If I had my tools here, I could fix it …” Clockwork suddenly yanked the goggles back over her eyes and began to tap the side of the goggles, her eyes squinting at the various readouts. Finally she seemed to get what she wanted. “There’s scratch marks, recent by the looks of them, on this screw…”

    “Wait, why go through all ‘o that trouble ta just make a cabinet door loose?” Apple Bloom asked reasonably, “I mean, what good is getting in there with all her glasses and… teacups.”

    Clockwork and Apple Bloom shot each other a look across the room and the elder pony dashed over to the sink, immediately rooting about the still soiled dishes with her hooves. The sink was half filled with soapy water that dripped off the offending teacup as it was lifted.

    Clockwork frowned. “Somepony cleaned up after themselves,” she noted softly, and turned to face the orderly stack display of teacups in the cabinet. She noticed a large scorched spot on the lowest shelf, and frowned. “How often did Scootaloo drink tea? She doesn’t strike me as the type… coffee maybe, but tea?”

    “Daily,” Apple Bloom answered, pointing to an electric powered kettle on a nearby counter, “she was unda’ orders from the Doc ta’ drink some sorta herbal remedy daily. Zecora taught me a bit about alchemy way back when I was a filly, so I figgered out how ta’ mix ‘em with some tea leaves to make ‘em a lil’ less bitter.”

    “You’re full of surprises,” Clockwork teased as she turned back to the cabinet, “but that means she would go through a lot of teacups. How would they know which one she’d use…?”

    “Mebbe they didn’?” Apple Bloom offered. “They rig up one, an’ wait until she done used it?”

    “Too random,” Clockwork mused, “if there was any sort of timetable involved on when Scootaloo needed to be out of the way, that sort of rigging could take months, if not years to work, depending on how good Scootaloo’s luck was. No, they’d need something more… reliable.”

    Clockwork hopped down from the counter and made her way to the electric teakettle, tipping the top open to peer inside. Her goggles changed the ambient light filters so that she could see inside clearly, and she spotted a layer of leaves at the base of it, where the water had simply boiled off. She tapped the side of her goggles, hoofing through a few displays before settling on one.

    “Let’s see… that’s medicine… tealeaf… more medicine… tealeaf… more tealeaves…” she read from the display, and leaned back, shaking her head. For a moment she simply tapped her hoof to her chin, until her eyes lit on the spout of the teakettle. She leaned forward and looked into the spout itself…

    “We have a winner…” Clockwork said grimly.

    “Are you sure?” Apple Bloom asked, trotting over to her.

    “Unknown chemical composition, dried granulation over the inside and tip of the spout,” Clockwork answered. “We’ll need to take it to an expert, but I think we have our culprit. Placed in the spout, where nopony would spot it, it would guarantee a poisoned cup of tea every time. If it was slow acting enough, Scootaloo would have just enough time to start the dishes and clean away the evidence before it took effect. It looks like she was just starting that process when it happened, thus why the dishes are only partially cleaned. There’s a scorch mark on the shelves, so she must have stored this in the cabinet as well as the teacups, putting it away when it’s still cooling off, which accounts for the scorch mark in the cabinet and why someone would tamper with the latch. Somepony felt that latch would make too much noise when they wanted to apply the poison…”

    “Yer one regular Sheerluck Hooves there,” Apple Bloom whistled.

    “Don’t congratulate me yet,” Clockwork answered, “we still have to figure out who did this, and why they went through the trouble of adjusting the latch. That last part would suggest to me either a two pony operation, or someone who had been here multiple times.”

    Apple Bloom nodded as she picked up the tea kettle and peered into the spout for a long moment. “I figger we oughtta let Belle know about this. If somepony is after us Crusader’s, then--“

    The words died on the elder pony’s lips as she turned, finding herself face to face with an earth pony clad head to hoof in a white bodysuit. There was no hint of a mane or tail, only wide coal black eyes with no trace of a pupil, and a large number zero where her cutie-mark should have been. The pair stared at each other in stunned silence.

    “Who the hay are you? How the buck did you get in here?!” Clockwork demanded, shattering the moment of shock between the two ponies. With a fluid motion, the unknown pony twisted and lashed out a forehoof to knock the tea-kettle away from Apple Bloom.

    “Whoah theah!” the elder mare shouted, and chased after the kettle as it bounced and skittered across the floor, the unknown pony keeping step with her. The pair glanced at each other, and the white suited mare threw out a leg to trip the other mare. Apple Bloom responded with a stiff-legged shove, pushing the other pony back away from her.

    “Oh no you don’t!” Clockwork cried, and attempt to ram into the suited mare. The mare simply leapt up and over the attempt, striking out with a rear hoof that sent Clockwork crashing to the floor. Apple Bloom answered with a sweeping leg when the mare tried to land, flipping the unknown mare over. The mare rolled to her hooves in a smooth motion, leaning back on her rear hooves with a smooth and easy grace.

    Apple Bloom grinned and tugged at her cowpony hat. “Well now,” she drawled, “yer usin’ a zebra style, Fallen Caesar if I remembah correctly.” The elder mare circled slowly, cantering sideways as she lifted the nearest leg to the strange suited mare. “Pretty good style, fer a ninja, but I always preferred the Neighponese forms mah-self. Lemme show ya some o’ my Risin’ Phoenix Style.”

    The strange pony’s eyes widened as Apple Bloom ducked forward, planting her lifted hoof and arching her body up and over with it, whipping a rear hoof down in a dangerous arc. The suited mare sidestepped and countered with a twisting fore-hoof strike, which Apple Bloom blocked with a crooked foreleg, only to clamp her leg over the hoof and drag the unknown mare forward. For a brief moment the pair exchanged a series of fore-hoof strikes that seemed to literally blur in the air before the suited mare found an opening and shoved her shoulder inward, followed by the hoof strike to the elder mare’s chest.

    Apple Bloom tumbled over backwards, knocked free and sporting a new bruise. A last second twist of her torso prevented the strike from breaking a rib, and she quickly rolled to her hooves, ducking her head low and under the attempted buck from the other mare. The mare planted her hooves and threw herself upright still facing away from Apple Bloom, which the elder mare tried to take advantage of, striking out with her fore-hooves at the middle of her opponent’s spine. The suited mare flowed with the motion, twisting upwards as she used the momentum to flip herself in mid-air. Apple Bloom yelped in surprise and rolled to the side, barely avoiding a four-hoof strike to her back. The pair eyed each other warily and began to circle one another, Apple Bloom keeping her nearest foreleg raised while the strange mare continually reared back on her rear hooves.

    “Well now, ya’ll ain’ much fer banter, are ya?” Apple Bloom joked. The unknown mare answered by ducking in at Apple Bloom, swinging her hoof upwards at her chin. The elder pony dipped her head to the side and stepped inside the arc as it passed, thrusting out her lifted foreleg before pivoting to sweep with her rear leg. The other pony hopped over the sweep easily enough, and attempted to drop a hoof on Apple Bloom’s leg, which the elder pony responded by shoving her shoulder forward, lowering her head and catching the leg just behind the joint with an upward swing of her head, throwing the unknown pony back. The suited mare rolled easily to her hooves and flexed a hoof, showing the cowpony hat she’d swiped from Apple Bloom, and pulled it down on her own head.

    “Oh, now yer just tryin’ to make me mad…” Apple Bloom growled, and watched the unknown pony tug the brim of the hat down over her eyes. Clockwork, of course, chose that moment to try and pounce. She had the force and velocity worked out, and had leapt from the kitchen table to try and catch the suited mare unawares, but the strange mare belied every statistical model and easily caught Clockwork and tossed her towards Apple Bloom.

    “Sorry sugah!” Apple Bloom cried, and ducked under the smaller mare, seeing her chance to strike at the momentarily unbalanced position to catch a rear hoof under the suited mare’s shoulder. The blow momentarily staggered the mare, which Apple Bloom took advantage of, pressuring the unknown pony’s block before sweeping low. The mare hopped, just as she had before, but was met mid-air by Apple Bloom bucking with her other hind leg, literally knocking the unknown mare out from under the cowpony hat. Apple Bloom just grinned as it fell on her head, and tugged it lightly into place.

    “Ya dun’ mess with mah hat,” Apple Bloom chortled, but her face fell when she realized the unknown pony had not only rolled easily to her hooves, but also had managed to grab the tea-kettle in the process. The suited mare gave a broad wink, and took off the other way, dashing up the stairs of the two storied home. Apple Bloom tore after her, but slowed by age she was only able to spot the unknown mare as she leapt from a window on the top floor. Dashing to the open window, Apple Bloom looked out onto the street below but saw no sign of the intruder…

    “Did you get her?” Clockwork asked, and rubbed her head as Apple Bloom trudged back down the stairs.

    “No,” Apple Bloom growled, “she done pulled a ninja and vanished out a buckin’ window.”

    “She took the kettle, didn’t she?”

    “Eyup.”

    “What are the odds she was a special, in addition to being the assassin?” Clockwork asked softly.

    “I’d reckon danged near one-hunnerd percent,” Apple Bloom answered, wincing as she touched the bruise on her chest.

    Clockwork nodded. “We need to go back to my chariot then.”

    “Why d’ya wanna do that?” Apple Bloom asked.

    “I want to be ready for the second round.”

6

Chapter 6

“We attack at dawn!”

    “Hold still…”

    Clockwork Key complained under her breath, but didn’t move. The elder pony looped about her, prodding the ugly bruise on Clockwork’s side with a gentle hoof, before taking a dollop of cream and spreading it over the injury. Clockwork hissed in pain for a moment before starting to relax, allowing the cream colored mare to rub the balm in.

    “Well, it looks like none of your ribs were broken,” the elder mare declared as she finished. “The cream should keep any swelling from that bruise down.”

    “Thank you, Twist,” Clockwork answered with a smile as she got to her hooves. “I didn’t expect you to know much about medicine.”

    The elder mare snorted, “How could I not?! Seriously, Bloom comes back with so many new bruises and scrapes after every excursion she and the Crusaders make…”

    “If it’s not prying, how did you and Apple Bloom get… er… together?” Clockwork asked, her voice wavering with trepidation.

    “Would you believe from playing nurse for her and the Crusaders?” Twist answered with a grin, and put the salve back on the shelf by a hoof-full of other medicinal balms and bandages.

    “You’re kidding…” Clockwork deadpanned, not finding it hard to believe at all. This particular spare bedroom had been designed with a severe style reminiscent of a doctor’s office, complete with a hospital style bed in one corner. A number of cabinets, and even a mid-sized freezer, all filled to the brim with common over-the-counter medical supplies and home brewed potions, only added to the minimalist décor of the room.

    Twist smirked and sat down on the bare wood floor. “The Crusaders had it out with a group of Imps that holed up near here in an old abandoned gryphon aerie, and Bloom took a bad spill. Martial Arts and slippery mountain tops aren’t exactly the best combination it seems, and at the time we didn’t have a clinic in town. So when Scootaloo carried her into town looking for help, there wasn’t as much as she’d hoped. Fortunately I knew first aid, so I was able to set her leg and keep her from going into shock until a doctor from the next settlement over could get here. After that, I put her up for the next few weeks while she healed. Heck, she stayed right here in this very room, which is what prompted me to convert it. I guess you could say that while I took care of her, we got… closer. For a while after that, I was the go-to mare for medical problems here in town, and I ended up reading up on all sorts of medical procedures so I could handle everything from a split hoof to a broken leg. I saw a lot of the Crusaders, not always medically in Bloom’s case, before the clinic finally was established in town. I volunteered there for a while, but I felt so out of place amongst all those stuffy professionals… so I came back to my candy shop and left the medical stuff to them.”

    “Except when Apple Bloom needs it,” Clockwork teased.

    Twist got a twinkle in her eye as she answered, “Oh yes, whenever she needs it.”

    “Was that the first time you met?” Clockwork asked curiously.

    “Oh hay no,” Twist laughed and idly checked the thermostat on the freezer. “I’ve known Apple Bloom since we were fillies way back in Ponyville.”

    “Oh?” Clockwork considered that for a moment. “Were you two childhood sweethearts or something?”

    “Hardly,” the elder mare said, her expression souring. “We were… friends as foals. I was a geeky one with frizzy hair, a mouthful of braces so heavy they gave me a lisp, and supernaturally thick glasses, but she never cared. We used to play and have fun, and I even got to stay at Sweet Apple Acres every once in a while for a sleepover. We were the last pair in our class to get our cutie marks, at least before… “

    “Twist?” Clockwork asked gently, surprised by the pain in the elder mare’s voice.

    “I got my cutie mark first,” she answered hollowly, turning away from the younger mare. “We’d been picked on just the day before by the class bullies, I forget their names, and we were both feeling pretty low. I went home and made some peppermint sticks with my parents to try and cheer up, and I got my cutie-mark that night.”

    “You say that like it’s a bad thing…” Clockwork said softly, hooves clopping on the wood floor as she approached.

    “It wasn’t, at first…” the mare sighed, and gave a thin smile to Clockwork. “Apple Bloom… I don’t know. I guess she felt betrayed or something, because she stopped hanging out with me. She found new friends and they formed a little club exclusively for themselves. Did you know the Crusaders’ original name was the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’? Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom were late bloomers when it came to earning their cutie-marks, but their parents dragged them all to the cutecenara for one of those bullies I mentioned earlier. I was there too, but the bullies started picking on poor Bloom. I was trying to get up my courage to say something when Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle jumped out and stuck up for her. It was… years after that before we got together again.

    “I lost my childhood friend, my best friend, because I got my cutie-mark. For the longest time I hated the blasted thing…” Twist concluded with an unreadable glance back at her flank, at her cutie mark, a pair of hooked candy-canes arranged to form a heart.

    “I’m… sorry?” Clockwork said softly, putting a hoof on the elder mare’s shoulder. “But it worked out in the end, right?”

    Twist gave a small nod and forced a smile. “Yeah, it did… eventually. I mean, I ended up hanging out with Snips and Snails for a little while in school, they were a pair of dim unicorns that looked up to me as the smart one, and I liked the attention. But I was bitter about it for a long time, until the invasion started anyway. We were a bit older when that happened, but my folks decided to move way up north here to the territories, which didn’t even have a name back then. They never outright told me why, but I think it was because momma was a little panicky… okay, a lot panicky, and wanted to be as far away from Ponyville as possible after the Imps wrecked our home. We were among the first up here, when the colonies were just starting out, but momma was a medical mare, that’s where I get it from by the way, and acted like a nurse for anypony that got hurt. Eventually the Crusaders founded a nearby colony, based on Ponyville, and founded the core of the Unregistered movement and the Colonies. Me? I was just looking to strike off on my own and away from my parents, so I made my way here from my home.

    “I never even knew Apple Bloom was here until almost two years after I settled in. Call me an idiot, but I never connected the old Cutie Mark Crusaders with ‘The Crusaders’. It wasn’t until I tried getting my shop built that we ran into each other again. I was trying to get this place custom built, but somepony kept altering my plans, so I finally got myself together and stormed down to the planner’s office to find out who kept altering my blue-prints.”

    Clockwork stifled a giggle.

    “Yeah yeah, laugh it up,” Twist grumbled good naturedly, “but it was a shock to us both. All those bad feelings I had started to boil up, and just as I was about to let her have it, when Apple Bloom literally jumped over her desk and hugged me. She spent the next fifteen minutes in tears, telling me how she thought my family and I had died after the invasion struck Ponyville, and all she found was an abandoned and partially destroyed home afterwards. Seems my folks didn’t do a very good job at telling everypony we were leaving, and we cleared out so quickly that for years ponies thought we had died in the invasion. I cleared that up, and we spent the next few hours just catching up. She even showed off that she had become a Special…”

    “Which, of course, made you feel even more alienated,” Clockwork said softly.

    “Yeah,” Twist agreed. “I left that meeting feeling even more confused. I wanted to be angry, to be bitter, but I just couldn’t do it. I just… couldn’t stay mad at her. Working with her made getting my shop built easier, especially when I understood why she kept making the changes to my plans, but otherwise she was always off with the Crusaders. At least until that injury…”

    “My ears are ringin’… are ya’ll tellin’ stories about me in here?” Apple Bloom asked as she leaned against the doorframe.

    “Maybe,” Twist answered with a smirk, “I keep hoping it’ll deflate that ego of yours.”

    Apple Bloom nickered and shook her head, “Yer never gonna let me live that down, are ya?”

    “Nope.”

    “Live what down?” Clockwork asked.

    “Bloom gets first dibs on the cider from the farm,” Twist noted with a smirk, “and she decided to try some of the hard cider they make.”

    “I wanted ta try it!” Apple Bloom protested. “I ain’t never got any as a filly, an’ I helped make the blasted stuff!”

    “Being the lightweight drinker she is,” Twist continued, undaunted, “she was soused by the time she was into the second tankard, and she wandered around the town telling ponies how thankful they should be the Crusaders are here to save their flanks.”

    “Ah only remember tellin’ a few ponies…” Apple Bloom mumbled, tugging her hat down over her eyes.

    “You told every pony in the line to buy cider,” Twist answered with a smirk, ignoring Apple Bloom’s groan, “and everypony in the restaurant, and then climbed the bell tower and announced it as loudly as you could. Oh, and after that you got into an argument with a tree, turned invisible and attempted to convince ponies that you were a ghost, and finally passed out sprawled over the fountain right in the middle of town where everypony could see.”

    “I can see why you wouldn’t live that down anytime soon,” Clockwork tittered, covering her muzzle with a hoof.

    “Yeah yeah…” Apple Bloom grumbled.

    “After that, the farm refused to sell her Hard Cider ever again. Bloom can have the normal stuff, but the alcoholic stuff is off limits,” Twist concluded, moving to the window to tug the shades down.

    “Ya’ll done sharin’ my embarrassin’ exploits?”

    “Not… even… close.”

    “Don’ make me retaliate,” Apple Bloom countered, “I still remember the problem ya’ll had with them crows from th’ Zap Apple harvest that one year…”

    “You wouldn’t dare!” Twist cried, whirling to face her mate.

    “I most certainly would,” she answered with a wicked grin.

    “Okay, I’ve got to hear this,” Clockwork added, much to Apple Bloom’s delight and Twist’s consternation.

    Apple Bloom smiled broadly and settled her flank down. “It all done started the year before we was ta’ be mated…”

    “You really should lie down.”

    “You just want to use my wing as a blanket,” Filigree teased the younger gryphon, but curled up and laid her wing over the smaller form.

    “Mnmm hmm,” the younger gryphoness answered drowsily as she snuggled closer. She was snoring within moments, occasionally nuzzling into her sister’s chest.

    Filigree sighed and looked to a barred window, the silvery moonlight casting her “prison” in sharp relief. Sitting still she could do, but sleep was beyond her tonight. She simply had too much on her mind, and her time was almost up. Alto would be there come the morning to act upon the King’s promise, and she would be mated to the gryphon, whether she wanted to or not. Tradition stated he would have that claim over her, even if her friends came and freed her, until he chose to renounce it. But she didn’t trust making the escape by herself, especially not after the beat-down the king’s gladiator specials had given her. The king himself may have left the aerie, but it would be foolish to assume he hadn’t left someone behind to keep her in line. Without any sort of help, she doubted she would have a chance. Not to mention what would happen to Verdigris…

    A sound disturbed her thinking; a sharp exhalation of air that combined with a sudden sweet scent and barely seen pink smoke in the darkened room. Filigree couldn’t help but smile.

    “You’re late,” she rumbled, stifling the urge to dash forward and hug the pony.

    “Traffic was murder,” a soft voice replied from the shadows. “Is it safe?”

    “They check on me every now and again, but you’ll have plenty of warning.”

    “What about your shadow there?”

    “You talkin’ to someone?” the little gryphon asked, blinking tiredly.

    “Yes, I am,” Filigree answered. “Flourish, this is Verdigris, my younger sister. Verdigris, this is my friend and teammate, Flourish.”

    “Hey there, kid,” the shadow said, and the gray pony stepped forward. A sliver of moonlight fell over her form, and the little gryphon gasped.

    “Wow… a pony!” she cried, then clamped both claws over her beak and looked worriedly to the doorway. Filigree frowned and watched with her sister as Flourish vanished once more into the shadows. Only when no gryphons came to investigate after several minutes did they relax.

    “Careful about that kid,” Flourish admonished gently, “you don’t want to give the rescuers away before we’ve had time to rescue anypony.”

    “I… I’m sorry,” the little gryphon squeaked, “I’ve just never seen a pony before! You’re nothing like the rumors say…”

    “Give me time, kid,” Flourish answered with a lopsided grin, before looking to Filigree. “What’s the situation?”

    Filigree deadpanned, “I’m chained up, been beaten to within an inch of my life, can’t bring myself to abandon a family that I should hate, and about to be forcibly mated to another gryphon.”

    “Well darn, we didn’t pick up any wedding presents,” Flourish teased.

    “Ha ha.”

    “Things were going too smoothly anyway,” Flourish chuckled, “let me guess, you want us to bust out your family too?”

    “Yes,” Filigree confirmed, “is the rest of the team with you?”

    “No, just Spectrum. The Princess thought a covert op might have a better chance…  Oh, you might want this, too.” Flourish’s horn glowed, lifting a small earpiece designed to fit the gryphoness. Filigree caught it with a claw and tugged it into place, slipping it under her feathers to hide it from sight.

    “Testing…”

    “Filigree?” the heavily accented voice asked over the headset’s earpiece. “You are on the network then, ya? I am coordinating your rescue with Princess Luna on my end. Spectrum and Flourish are there on yours. Can you give us a report?”

    Filigree smiled. “Affirmative, just give me one moment, Skillet,” she answered before looking to Flourish, then down at Verdigris. “I need you to go with my friend here.”

    “No!” she gasped. “I can’t leave you now!!”

    “You need to,” Filigree answered. “My friends need to get you, and the rest of our family, to a safe place. Only once you are all safe and I don’t have to worry about you can I focus on escaping.”

    “Don’t worry, kid,” Flourish added, “I promise you’ll be safe.”

    “You and Spectrum found a good spot?” Filigree asked.

    “For the moment, yes,” the pony answered, “but I’m not sure how we’ll be able to transfer so many gryphons. How big is your family anyway?”

    “Two… three siblings, and two parents,” Filigree noted, “if you can find the chariot we came in, however, I’m sure Rainbow Star and I can pull it far enough to get us out of the gryphon territories.”

    “Alrighty then, one chariot and one family, coming right up… would you like fries with that?” Flourish grinned cheekily before asking Verdigris, “Have you ever been teleported before kid?”

    “T-teleported?” the little gryphon asked, shakily moving to stand with a nudge from her elder sister.

    Flourish grinned and looped a foreleg over the younger gryphon’s shoulder companionably. “Sure, like this--“

    Filigree grinned as the pair vanished in another sweet smelling cloud, and used a claw to disperse it as much as she could before touching her ear. “Alright Skillet, I’m clear here. I’ll be keeping my voice down though; I don’t feel like attracting any more attention than I may already have.”

    “This is Princess Luna,” a voice much different than she expected answered, “I’m sorry it took us this long to get a rescue organized, Filigree.”

    “Did the guard-ponies make it? I tried to give them a head start…”

    “Fleethoof didn’t,” Luna answered, and Filigree lowered her head. “I don’t have the full details, but Swan Dive completely exhausted herself reaching Flankfort.”

    “That’s rather far out of the way,” the gryphon noted with a frown. “It would have been faster to cut south and west to Spurlin, or further west to Stalliongrad.”

    “My sister and I think they were trying to follow the valley river,” Luna answered. “Regardless, she made it there in such a terrible shape that the doctors have had her in a magically assisted sleep since she arrived. They’re saying she wore herself out so completely that it will be weeks before she is flying again.”

    “I’m sorry, Princess,” Filigree said softly. “I promised to bring them back…”

    “There was nothing you could do,” Luna answered. “We’ll worry about regrets later; right now we need to get you out of there. Can you lay out what we’re looking at and why you have Spectrum and Flourish hunting for a group of unknown gryphons?”

    “Certainly, Princess,” the gryphon whispered, and lowered herself to the floor so she could conserve her strength for later.

    She doubted she would get any sleep tonight …

    A primal scream pierced the smoky sky.

    The mare carefully poked her nose out from amidst the rubble, trying to find the source of the cry, but the haze of smoke and clouds prevented her. The land seemed locked in a perpetual state of twilight, heavy clouds dimming the sky while the sun hovered just off the horizon like a perpetual explosion.

    “This… this isn’t possible,” the mare stammered to herself. “C’mon Clockwork, it’s just a--“

    Another screech interrupted the mare, sending her skittering back into the debris. It was minutes before she managed to shakily push herself free of the rubble again, her curiosity finally getting the better of common sense. Green eyes swept over the desolate cityscape surrounding her, the hazy sky and unmoving sun cast everything in a perpetual state of twilight. Almost every building found chunks of their walls, if not the entire wall, scattered over cracked roadways. Light posts were twisted and bent like blades of grass, and power barely flickered through a hazard sign that helpfully read “warning” in weakly flashing letters.

    Her gaze cast out over the wreckage, searching for anything identifiable in the twisted remains of civilization… something that might tell her where she was, what happened, or even give her something to protect herself with. Her efforts proved futile as the screeching sound came again, this time from behind her. Startled, the khaki mare whirled about and cantered backwards into the nearest intersection. She continued to backpedal until her hoof caught on the uneven roadway, forcing her to sit down hard.

    That’s when she saw it.

    “No… it can’t be…” she stammered hoarsely, her eyes wide as they stared up the imposing hill, past layers of wreckage and refuse, to the remains of a once stately, now barely identifiable, Canterlot Castle. Spires that once arched regally into the clouds now listed drunkenly, desperately clinging to their brethren in a futile attempt not to tumble down the cliff side to their demise. White marble walls were permanently adorned with scorch marks and dirt, rendering them a dirty gray color that almost matched the roiling clouds above. Magical fires of unearthly colors sputtered amidst the wreckage, refusing to fizzle out, and adding to the smoke and haze that blotted out the sky.

    The mare slowly picked her way towards the castle, moving as if in a trance. Her wide green eyes never left the palace as she wove unsteadily around fallen chariots, piles of refuse, and other wreckage. She barely saw the hazard sign, still flashing its ancient warning, as she pushed past it. She only stopped when something crunched disconcertingly under her hoof, and slowly lowered her eyes.

    Clockwork Key screamed.

    Skeletons, countless thousands of them, littered the road between her and the castle. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, zebra, gryphons, diamond dogs, minotaur, goats, cows, donkeys… every sentient species known to Equestria, their skulls grinning up at her. She cantered back, shying away from the road of bones ahead of her, piles of them, bleached white and layered so thickly that they hid any sign of the roadway beneath. Their lifeless hollow eyes stared at her accusingly…

    A screech ripped through the air again, and she tore her eyes away from the glares of the deceased to the baleful red eyes of something very much alive. An imp the likes of which she’d never before witnessed, far larger and more imposing than those she once fought, landed with a crash in the street behind her. Its glowing red eyes fixed her with a stare of pure malice and hatred, and let out a shriek that sent Clockwork tumbling back into the bone pile with a cry of her own.

    She struggled to free herself from the skeletal refuse, her hooves trembling as she pushed brittle bones away from her in horror, but skeletal hooves and claws clung stubbornly. The Imp slowly approached, its stomping foot-claws crushing those skeletons unlucky enough to be caught beneath them. Never once did its eyes leave the mare.

    The Imp roared its victory as it stood over her, and lifted one claw to the cloudy sky in preparation to smite her. Clockwork gave up struggling and covered her head like a scared filly, anticipating a blow that would crush the life from her… that would add her to the bone-pile...

    “Clockwork!!” a voice cried, and she heard the wet sound of hoof meeting flesh. The imp cried out in pain, driven back even as teeth gripped her mane and yanked the mare from the midst of all those bones. Her eyes fixed on the pony who had rescued her, unbelieving. The blue coat, the golden mane, the twin gears that made his cutie-mark…

    “Widget?!?” the mare cried, but the stallion ignored it.

    “We’re too exposed out here. C’mon, sis, follow me!” the older stallion instructed, and leapt down the road with supernatural speed.

    “B-but you’re… you’re dead…” the mare choked, but was reminded of the immediacy of her situation when the Imp let out a bone-rattling shriek behind her. Wasting no more time, Clockwork Key galloped down the same street she’d seen her brother haul tail down. But that was all she could see of him now, his tail. She rarely saw much more than that, just the occasional flick of his blonde tail, a hint of his deep blue coat… and the sound of his hooves.

    The roar of the Imp kept her plowing ahead, hooves churning across the broken ground. She felt clumsy and slow, especially compared to the rabbit-like speed her brother seemed to possess, enough that he would have to pause from time to time at a turn to make sure she knew which way to go. Yet she still careened into walls and slid on loose gravel, bouncing through the alley like a loose ping-pong ball, forelegs steadily getting more and more bruised and battered from the rubble that seemed intent on trying to trip her.

    “Widget?!” she cried out when she finally lost sight of him.

    “Down here!” his voice called… sort of. It sounded distorted, but she thought she could tell where it came from. She didn’t dwell on the momentary doubt that licked at her, not with the Imp all but biting her fetlocks, and bolted down the narrow alleyway. Dirty brick and concrete walls encased her in a tall, narrow valley that grew steadily more steeped in shadows as she ran. She turned another corner, slamming her shoulder into the wall as she galloped forward.

    Clockwork brought herself up short and pressed her hooves to the façade before her… a dead-end. She turned to backtrack, but the Imp crashed around the corner with enough force to knock bricks loose from the walls. It grinned predatorily at her as it began to stalk down the narrow alley, its shoulders brushing the sides of the narrow alley. Clockwork pushed herself back against the wall, whimpering in the back of her throat.

    “Widget… p-please…” she pleaded, turning her head away as the Imp leaned close, the stink of its breath washing over her face.

    What answered was at once familiar and welcome; the metallic sound caused by the discharge of plasma ejectors. A cry of relief escaped her lips as the Imp staggered back several feet, raising its arms over its head as blue-white energy blasts rained down on it from above. The mare looked up to her savior, expecting to see the bulbous cobalt and bronze armour she made for her brother…

    Instead it was sleek emerald and gold armour that landed, standing protectively before her as it launched more attacks at the Imp. A quartet of blue-white wings flared over its back, fluttering occasionally to maintain its balance as it continued to pepper the Imp before her. Finally, a squeal of metal indicated the revelation of its ultimate weapon, and from the draconic “mouth” of the helm fired a beam so intensely bright that Clockwork had to shield her eyes.

    When the mare lowered her hooves all that remained of the Imp was a scorch mark on the far wall. The mechanical mare closed its jaw and turned to regard Clockwork, a small bit of smoke wafting from its now closed mouth. The draconic shaped helm mounted atop the light angular suit of power armour regarded her evenly with glowing blue-white eyes… the Dragonfly Mark III, her armour.

    “You’re safe,” the suit told her, its voice oddly sounding like her brother’s. “I will always keep you safe…”

    “But… But…I created…”

    “You created me for a purpose,” the suit answered her, “now let me fulfill the purpose you created me for…

    “Let me protect you.”

    Clockwork jerked awake, her eyes flashing open in the darkness of the night, and her heart pounding in her ears. She took a moment to remind herself where she was, that she was in the guest bedroom of Twist & Apple Bloom’s home, and not some weird post-apocalyptic version of Canterlot.

    Slowly she turned her head, her eyes searching and finding the item she insisted Apple Bloom allow her to retrieve. Externally it looked like a metal slab, but Clockwork knew better. It was the deployment sled for remote assembly of her Dragonfly armour.

    Its single blue-white sensor stared back at her like an ever-watchful eye.

    Filigree started at the voice over the comm.

    “Repeat, please?” she asked in a low voice. “I must have dozed off.”

    “Is okay, ya?” Skillet answered over the headset. “The good news is that Flourish was able to find and recover a majority of your family. Spectrum is on the edge of killing them herself, she say, but they are safe. They also recover Princess’ chariot, only slightly dinged up.”

    “What’s the bad news?”

    “According to a special gryphon that Flourish managed to… question before he escape, he say your older sister was pulled aside.” The stallion sighed, “apparently she catch eye of some Prince, ya?”

    “Understood,” Filigree answered, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “I know where the Prince will be. Tell Flourish to meet me where she left me when she’s ready. It’s time to leave.”

    “Give her a few moments,” Spectrum interrupted, “the fight with that special gryphon took more out of her than she’ll admit.”

    “Understood. How is my family?” Filigree asked.

    “I’d like to think that I’m a patient mare, Filigree, but they’re really pushing me. Between your father trying to order everypony around, your mother’s hysterics, and youngest constantly barraging me with questions… I’m nearing my wit’s end. Is it any wonder I jumped at the chance to get out of here to recover the chariot when Flourish finally found it?” the mare answered. “You have no idea how much I want to dump them on Flourish and come help you out.”

    “If they’re taxing you that much, think of how well Flourish would handle it,” Filigree deadpanned.

    “HAY!!” Flourish cried indignantly.

    “Good point,” Spectrum groaned.

    Filigree paused as she heard someone approaching. “Company’s coming. If it’s who I think it is, the party is about to start. Flourish, get your flank here as soon as you can, or you’ll miss all the action.”

    Filigree ignored the acknowledgements as she turned to face the doorway. She could see the morning sun casting a small arc of sunlight on her cell floor, undeniable proof of the day. The day her promise was to be acted upon.

    “It’s time, Filigree!” the gryphon called in an excited voice, almost sing-song like as he strutted through the doorway.

    “I didn’t know you were part songbird, Alto,” Filigree replied flatly as she looked at the snow white gryphon.

    “Yes well, I’m sure by tonight we will both be singing,” he offered with a lecherous smile. The smile suddenly froze on his face, and his eyes flicked over the room as they searched for…

    “Where’s Verdigris?” he asked softly, his amber eyes lifting to meet her blue ones. They widened in shock when the supposedly helpless gryphoness reached up and gripped her collar with a claw, and with a metallic ping that echoed about the room, she pulled it free of her neck.

    “I’m done playing possum, Alto,” she said, her eyes never leaving his, even as she jerked her left foreleg. The chains gave a musical series of pings as they snapped free, followed by another ping as she tore the shackle off her wrist. “The King gave me no choice about what he would do with me. But there is one thing the ponies have taught me…” Another series of pings echoed about the chamber as she tore her other foreleg loose and stripped off the cuff. “…there are always other choices, if you’re willing to make them.”

    Alto’s face warred between fury and fear as he watched the gryphon he fought to possess simply break free from her imprisonment like so much tissue paper. Her wings turned metallic with a thought, and she used them to sever the chains on her rear legs before cutting free the final shackles.

    “You’re not going to abandon me… you’re promised!” he cried.

    “I am not the King’s vassal,” she answered calmly. “He has no authority to promise me to any pony or gryphon.”

    “You are not going to abandon me!” he shouted again, his voice trembling with an odd strength.

    Filigree ignored the statement and strode towards the snow white gryphon. “I recommend you move, or I will move you. Given my frame of mind right now, I highly recommend taking the former, because I will take far too much enjoyment in the latter.”

    “I said…” Alto growled, and a strange reverberation filled the room that caught Filigree’s attention, “NO!!”

    The last word echoed with power and slammed into Filigree like a runaway chariot, sending her cart-wheeling back into the room with a squawk. Her claws caught the dais, tearing a furrow through it, as she stopped and righted herself. Her eyes narrowed at Alto.

    “So, you’re a special too,” she stated, watching his chest heave with exaggerated breaths.

    “Damn you…  I was going to tell you my secret!” he shouted, the stones of the room rumbled warningly in response. “But no, you had to push me! We could have been so much together…”

    “You were trying to force me into a mating I did not want,” the gryphoness answered evenly. “And now, I’m going to tell you a second time. Move or be moved…”

    Alto frowned at his “beloved” and gritted his beak. He could hear the guards clambering up the stairs behind him, his secret would be at risk if he unleashed on her now! But he could not let her get away, not after coming so close! He could not let his brother win! He took another deep breath, and gave a wordless shout.

    Filigree sidestepped, her wings arcing before her protectively. Very little of the shockwave struck her, but instead it slammed into and through the wall beside her. She smiled knowingly and dove forward, ducking down as she heard him shout again, feeling the powerful vibrations pass harmlessly over her back. She then swooped up with a claw, striking him from below like a snake to force his head upwards toward the ceiling. Her claws dug into his neck, instincts and training screaming at her to close her talons and remove him from this mortal coil…

    “I am my own gryphon,” she told herself as much as Alto, who gasped and struggled against her grasp, his claws scrabbling at her foreleg in desperation. She tightened her grip on his windpipe, not wanting him to shout and bring the ceiling down on her head. “That means, when I say no, I mean no. You’ve lost far more than my promise today, Alto. You’ve lost my respect, my trust… and your rights as a gryphon in these lands. These guards have witnessed your ability. I only spare your life out of love for your family… I will not be so lenient the next time we meet.”

    With a growl, she hurled the gryphon over her shoulder and back into the room. She heard him tumble onto the dais she’d spent the last few days upon, but couldn’t be bothered to spare him a second glance. He was beaten. Instead she fixed the guards on the stairs with a glare from her blazing blue eyes…

    The guards turned and fled for their lives.

    “Mornin’ Sugah!”

    Clockwork mumbled something that might have been mistaken for “good morning” had her mouth been filled with marbles, and staggered to the table.

    “Didn’ sleep well?”

    “Kept havin’ weird dreams,” the khaki mare managed to say before yawning widely. “I gotta lay off those sci-fi novels I think, I really don’t think it’d be as much fun to live in the Equestrian Wastleand as it is to read about other ponies doing it.”

    “Yeah, I know the feeling. I don’t think I’d have the guts to survive in an Equestria without Celestia’s Sun,” Twist agreed as she trotted in, pausing to give Apple Bloom a kiss before settling down at the kitchen table. Apple Bloom, for her part, was behind a freestanding countertop stove, where she was making up a stack of pancakes.

    “Oh? You read the series?” Clockwork asked, sitting up a bit.

    “Oh sure,” Twist answered with a wave of her hoof. “But the spin-offs have gotten so numerous I can’t keep up. I’m just sticking to the main storyline and a couple of the better reviewed side stories.”

    Clockwork nodded and gave a slight chuckle, “Yeah, some of those spin-offs are just a little off the rails, aren’t they? I actually considered trying to write my own fan-fiction but… well, all this happened.”

    “Don’ fret none about it Sugah,” Apple Bloom teased, putting a stack of pancakes before each of the mares, “we won’ think any less of ya’ for it.”

    Clockwork gave the elder mare a playful glare before drowning her pancakes in syrup. “Yeah yeah, you don’t tease me about my nerdy pastimes and I won’t tease you about your ratty old cowpony hat…”

    “What’s wrong with my hat?!” Apple Bloom cried, yanking it off her head to examine it…

    Twist groaned and pointed a fork accusingly at Clockwork, “You had to get her started!”

    “This here hat is an heirloom!” Apple Bloom insisted, waving her forelegs insistently…

    Clockwork grumbled something and stuffed a forkful of pancakes into her mouth. Her face lit up and she managed between bites, “Holy wow, these are good! You’ve got share this recipe with Skillet!”

    “’T’was my sisters, and her momma’s before her, and Granny Smith’s, and her momma’s…” Apple Bloom continued, cupping her chin thoughtfully as she tried to remember all the relatives the hat once belonged to…

    “Give it up, you’ve lost her,” Twist sighed, “she’ll be ranting for hours.”

    “Ya’ll c’n even see where a manticore done nicked in when…” Apple Bloom ranted, showing off a sewn-up tear on the hat…

    Clockwork chuckled, “Heck of a way to start the day, breakfast and a show. Still, at least the food is good.”

    “I’ll have you know that this here hat survived the attack of Ponyville!” Apple Bloom cried, standing on her rear legs. She never saw the white suited mare behind her…

    “Well yes,” Twist answered, “Bloom does all the real cooking.”

    “An’ you can’t forget th--” Apple Bloom started, but found her argument interrupted by a foreleg tightening about her neck….

    “Why is that anyway? You seem to be the one more inclined for cooking and the like, no offense,” Clockwork asked curiously, before stuffing another fork full of pancakes in her mouth.

    “… ack!” Apple Bloom tried, flailing her forelegs as she struggled to find purchase, but the suited mare had the element of surprise, and used her other foreleg to pin one of Apple Bloom’s behind her…

    “Because I spend all my time baking sweets,” Twist shrugged, “so by the time I‘m off work I am sick to death of standing in front of an oven. I love my job, don’t get me wrong, but even I need a break.”

    Apple Bloom made a soft choking sound as she twisted her head, gasping for a small measure of breath, her free foreleg swinging wildly back at the unknown mare…

    “I suppose that makes sense,” Clockwork considered.

    Apple Bloom twisted again, wrenching the white suited mare about, trying to twist herself free, but the unknown mare braced herself against the cabinets to force her back…

    “That and I mostly know how to bake sweets, not ‘real’ food. I don’t care how much the old mail-mare loved them when I was a foal, muffins do not make good breakfast,” Twist said, smiling warmly as she took bite.

    The unknown mare tried to yank Apple Bloom down to the floor and out of sight, but Apple Bloom braced herself and refused to be dropped, even as her face turned red from lack of air…

    “So she makes the hearty breakfasts and dinners, and you handle the sugary sweets in between?” Clockwork asked.

    A buck of her foreleg back into the unknown mare’s midsection allowed Apple Bloom an all too brief gasp of air, but the suited mare caught her neck again before the elder pony could call out...

    “Yup,” Twist answered with a smile, “and I tend to be sick of sweet stuff by the time dinner rolls around. I just want something hearty and filling.”

    “Yeah, I could see where--” the small mare started to say, only to drop her fork in shock as the silent struggle between Apple Bloom and the unknown mare came to her awareness. The suited mare eyed them defiantly…

    Had this been any other household, there might have been some screaming. But Twist, who was mated to Apple Bloom, who herself was arguably the leader of the Crusaders, reacted by twisting out of her chair and hurling it at the strange mare. The unknown mare dropped out of the way, and Apple Bloom collapsed, leaving the chair to crash through the second story window and down to the street below.

    Clockwork dashed forward, and the white mare braced to meet her. But rather than attack, she reached out and slammed a hoof on the handle of the skillet Apple Bloom had been cooking with, flinging the contents and hot pan at her. The mare ducked out of the way as Clockwork pushed past to help Apple Bloom recover.

    “Buckin’ ninja,” Apple Bloom croaked, rubbing at her neck, “I went easy on ya last time!”

    The suited mare cantered to the side, but Clockwork could only duck as Apple Bloom used the counter to launch herself over the short mare, lashing out in mid-air with one of her rear hooves. With far less room to maneuver than there had been at Scootaloo’s home, the strange mare opted for pulling open a cabinet door to block the strike.

    Clockwork dashed about the other end of the counter, heading for her room. “I’m getting the heavy artillery!” she called to Twist as she dashed past, earning a brief glance from the unknown mare. The tight quarters forced the combatants into a strange back and forth that used everything at hoof to block, strike, and counter with. Twist shrieked from time to time about the fine china, but Clockwork barely noticed as she leapt onto her deployment sled.

    “Come on…” Clockwork fussed as the plates started to fit about her, the familiar scent of rubberized covers and oiled machinery touching her nose. Another cry reached her, this time she was sure it was Apple Bloom, and she fidgeted while her armour was assembled about her.

    A thrum of power ran through the armour, and it disconnected from the sled. Clockwork turned and, with a gait that shook the floor, hurtled back into the kitchen. The situation had hardly changed since she left, save that Twist seemed to be adding the occasional flung plate at the unknown assailant. Apple Bloom was limping, but the unknown mare seemed completely unharmed.

    “Round two!” Clockwork bellowed, and the suited mare’s head jerked up. There was a brief moment of surprise on her face, and then she twisted, pulling Apple Bloom before her. She bucked the off balanced Apple Bloom right back into Clockwork, who used the armour to catch her friend, while the suited mare leapt out the broken window.

    Clockwork activated her wings and dove out of the broken window, but saw… nothing. Just a normal street full of ponies, some of which had been investigating the fallen chair in the middle of the lane, all of whom now turned to regard the metallic pony hovering in mid-air. Clockwork ignored them, turning her sensors up to maximum, trying to find her target…

    She hovered back into the window moments later, trying not to damage their floor as she landed.

    “No luck?” Twist asked. She steadied Apple Bloom, who was favoring one of her rear legs.

    “Nothing,” she answered, “it’s like she just vanished into thin air.”

    “Only a ninja would innerrupt breakfast!”Apple Bloom spat.

    Wham!

    The gryphons standing guard outside the double doors frowned at the sound. It sounded so close this time, just beyond the locked doors they were guarding. A nervous glance passed between them, and one shifted his grip on the haft of his spear.

    WHAM!

    The door buckled with the sound, and the pair jumped. Both turned to face the door, and backed slowly away, leveling their spears at it.

    WHAM!

    The doors were flung open so hard they slammed into the wall on each side, and through the opening flew a gryphon. It took a moment for the pair of guards to recognize one of their fellow guards, even as he crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop at the pair’s claws. He was unconscious…

    The pair gulped and steadied their spears to point at the doorway again, and the gryphoness approaching them through it. Her blue eyes pierced the dim light to stare at each of them in turn. One of the guards tried to jab her with his spear, but the gryphoness flicked her wing and the front half of the spear was severed and landed on the ground at his claws.

    “I would recommend running,” her gravelly voice told them, and she slowly flexed a pair of metallic wings. The guards immediately recognized her, realized she must have escaped, and reconsidered their chances of taking her. Throwing their spears down, they did as instructed, fleeing as fast as their wings could carry them.

    “Impressive,” a gray unicorn noted from behind the gryphoness, “you’re getting really good at the whole intimidation schtick.”

    Filigree grunted a response as she strode forward, pausing to break the haft of the still intact spear, before striding into the Archduke’s Roost. As she expected, the Archduke was already present, flanked by four gryphons that formed his personal guard. The remnants of her battle only a few days ago had mostly been cleared away, leaving the chamber open between them.

    “You would dare to attack me?” Archduke Silverwing demanded.

    “I am relieving you of the responsibility of caring for my family,” Filigree answered, keeping her voice even. “The Prince is holding my sister. If she is returned, I will leave with no further incident.”

    “You are in no position to make demands,” he hissed, and the quartet of gryphons protecting him widened their stances. Unlike the majority of gryphons they had met, these were wearing a style of armour that consisted of solid metal arcs and plates, which included more protection over the forelegs and upper chest. Further, they were each equipped with the Archduke’s preferred weapon, a slender and quick sword.

    “Do you think your elite guard can stop me?” Filigree asked simply.

    “Let’s find out.”

    The words were barely out of the Archduke’s beak when the quartet surged forward, acting as one. An explosion of pink between two of them interrupted their lunge, especially when she braced herself between them. With two distracted, the remainder drew and slashed at Filigree in one smooth motion. The gryphoness blocked with her metal wings, letting the blades skitter harmlessly across their surface.

    “So be it,” Filigree answered, and pushed forward to get inside one gryphon’s sword range. She brought the leading edge of her wing up under his foreleg with enough force to knock the blade from his grip and dent the foreleg guard designed to prevent exactly such an attack.

    Flourish whooped and bounced between the two gryphons she was distracting. “All right, some action!” the mare cried, and she thumped one of the gryphons over his head. The other was certain of his strike, and thrust at his compatriot’s new “hat”… only to stare in surprise as the mare blocked it with a sword of her own, a glowing blade that emanated from her horn. “En garde, flyboy…”

    Filigree hefted the disarmed guard and flung it at his partner, who wisely ducked under his hurled compatriot to make a lunging strike at Filigree, only to find his blade deflected by the gryphon’s metal wing again. She stepped in on him, grasping his foreleg with both of her claws, and pulled sharply. A loud crackling sound accompanied his impact with the floor.

    Flourish laughed as she twirled, deflecting both the guard’s swords with her own, before she flicked her head to throw their blades high. The pair sliced their swords in a downward arc where she had been, but only succeeded in slicing through a pink cloud. One of the duo suddenly let out a squawk and fell unconscious to the floor, a pair of hoof-prints now adorning the back of his head. Flourish grinned at the remaining gryphon, crossing her forelegs and seemingly relaxed as the guard leapt forward to attack. The gryphon launched into a series of thrusts and feints to press his attack, which Flourish deflected with an air of detached boredom. A boredom that lasted right up until a claw wrapped about his throat from behind and a pair of steel wings slammed into the sides of his head, knocking him out cold.

    “Awwww, I was having fun…” Flourish complained as the gryphoness dropped the senseless guard. Rather than answer, Filigree turned to face the Arch-duke.

    “I see,” Silverwing intoned, and stood up from the throne. With a single smooth motion, the sword he carried was free of the scabbard, the tip pointed towards Filigree. His frailty seemed to melt away as he slipped into a comfortable battle stance.

    “Flourish, find my sister,” Filigree ordered the mare.

     “But I wanted to see how good the geezer was!” Flourish complained.

    Silverwing puffed his chest feathers and boasted, “I will still be standing when you return,”

    “Flourish…” Filigree warned.

    “Right, I’m on it…” the mare answered, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

    “You fought my apprentices, now face the Master!” the elder gryphon cried, and lunged forward…

    The sound of steel on steel rang through the halls of the Archduke’s roost, as Silverwing’s sword was deflected time and again by Filigree’s steel wings. The gryphoness didn’t give any ground, even though the elder pressed her, her body shifting smoothly and naturally to counter his every thrust. She leaned into one strike, forcing it to go high, and struck out with her claws, staggering the Archduke. She spun and fanned her wings in anticipation of his riposte, which was pushed wide from the motion.

    She stepped inside his next blow, catching his foreleg with a claw and forcing him off balance, twisting to the side to throw him to the floor. He rolled quickly with the motion, but Filigree kept up the pressure, refusing to give him the range his sword required, using her wings and claws to batter his forelegs, continually knocking his blade out of position.

    With a frustrated cry, the Archduke flapped his wings and pushed himself away from Filigree, gaining enough distance for a deadly lunge… which Filigree sidestepped and caught the Archduke by his throat. She pulled him up and over herself, forcing his body to curl, before slamming him harshly to the ground, knocking the wind from him. Both her wings arched forward, slamming down into his chest to pin him, the upper edges cupping up under his beak as she disarmed him.

    “You… you…” Silverwing stammered, gawking at the gryphoness. Finally he composed himself and growled, “End it already, you’ve won.”

    “That was too easy,” Filigree stated softly.

    “You seek to insult me?!”

    “No, I speak simply,” the gryphoness answered, frowning. “That was far easier than it should have been. You are a Master of the light blade, and the only known Master still living. You should have been able to at least press me, put me on the defensive. I intended to simply defend until Flourish could return with my sister and we could withdraw. Instead, I was able to read your every move…”

    “Who trained you?” the Archduke demanded.

    “I don’t know,” she responded, “the Prince handed my training…”

    “That I did,” a new voice crowed, drawing the attention of Filigree and the Archduke. From their position, the pair could see Flourish backing up warily, ahead of the corpulent figure of the Prince as he stalked forward. His claw held a gleaming bronze dagger to the throat of Filigree’s elder sister. “Well? What are you waiting for, slave? Finish him!”

    Filigree looked down at the Archduke for a moment. She pulled back, lifting her wings off his chest and allowing him to stand. She kept his sword though…

    “I’m disappointed, slave,” Prince Silverthorn mocked, his usually conciliatory expression lost amidst a sneer of hate and rage.

    “If you want it done, you can do it yourself,” Filigree stated simply.

    “That’s not part of the deal,” the Prince answered with a dark grin. “As you can see, I have someone here who only gets to live if my father dies.”

    “You would stoop to such cowardice--?!” the Archduke roared.

    Silverthorn rolled his eyes. “Oh shut it, you senile old buzzard. You always said one must play to their strengths, and my strength is making every gryphon underestimates me. You think I don’t hear what you and others say? I’m just the fat worthless son of the Archduke. I won’t ever have the stones to challenge my father. I’m not smart enough to take my father’s place. Meanwhile, I hired Thorn behind your back to train every last guard I have… Oh yes, Father, I see you recognize of THAT name.”

    The Archduke’s beak fell slack as he stared at his son. “Y-you… hired that… that outcast to…”

    “An outcast who knows how to best you, Father,” the Prince answered with a less than friendly grin. “And he trained every last guard I have so that they would know every weakness of your much vaunted style. The light blade is worthless, and even the King has agreed. You see less students every year… did you ever wonder why? Because the ‘tradition’ you cling to is nothing but a weakness! A single slave was able to defeat you with barely any effort. And now… she is going to kill you, else her sister dies at my claw.”

    “You would bloody my claws to do your deed?” Filigree asked simply.

    “Better your claws than mine,” the Prince chuckled. “Besides, once my father is dead, the King will have another reason for war with your precious kingdom. Princess Celestia will be harboring a fugitive, and her refusal to extradite the villain will incite even the most common gryphon into a furor.”

    “You… coward!” the Archduke screamed, and launched himself at his son. The next seconds seemed to happen in slow motion as the Prince turned, holding the helpless gryphoness as a shield, and stabbed outwards with his dagger. The shield in question froze in place, shrieking in fear. Filigree reached for the Archduke, but the elder gryphon’s speed and reflexes were remarkable, and she was left with empty claws. Flourish started, but hesitated that fatal split second before leaping forward.

    And then, it was over. The Prince’s dagger was impaled in his father’s heart. Blood poured out over the blade, the claw holding it, and across the terrified gryphoness. Flourish quickly pulled the Archduke free and laid him on the floor, dagger still impaled in his chest. The Prince blinked in shock, then began to laugh in the seconds before Flourish bucked him upside the head and pulled the helpless gryphoness free.

    “Filigree?” Flourish asked softly, the sobbing gryphoness standing at her side somewhere between shock and horror.

    Filigree looked up from her position by the Archduke before answering, “Take her to the rest of my family and tell Spectrum it’s time to leave. Come back for me…” The mare nodded, and with an explosion of pink smoke, vanished with the gryphoness that was Filigree’s elder sister.

    “G-guess my time’s up,” the old gryphon rasped, drawing Filigree’s gaze back to him.

    “Can your healers be summoned in time?” she asked softly, clasping his claw within her own.

    “Far too late… late for that,” he rasped. “My boy, is he…?”

    “Unconscious. He’ll have a hell of a headache, but he still lives.”

    “Drat, was hopin’… no matter, I know you aren’t the type to… to…”

    Filigree shook her head. “No, I won’t kill him, especially not while he lies helpless.”

    “Th’ boy wasted… wasted your talents…. F-fer what its worth… tell Celestia I… I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop him… he’s power mad.”

    “You mean the king?”

    He nodded weakly. “He’s… mad. High on… power. He’ll do… anything…”

    “I’ll tell her. I’m sorry you won’t get the chance yourself.”

    “I... I doubt she’d come… for…”

    The old gryphon’s breath rattled through his beak for the last time. Filigree slowly released her grip on his claw, folding it across his chest before reaching up to close his eyes. She lifted herself from her crouch by his side, her gaze resting on the prostrate form for one last time.

    “You… you killed him!” a gryphon cried, and she looked up and into the eyes of one of the elite guard she had disabled earlier. She watched him calmly as he unsteadily attempted to stand and find a sword to brandish against her.

    An explosion of air behind her announced the arrival of her teammate.

    “Did he…?” Flourish asked softly.

    “He did,” Filigree answered softly. “Let us depart before the guard tries for another round.”

    The pair vanished in an explosion of pink.

    “You summoned me, my Prince?”

    “Yes, I did,” the voice rumbled about the mostly darkened room. “The wheels are in motion, my boy. It’s time to collect the stragglers.”

    The zebra wrinkled his nose slightly, but didn’t show any other sign of his annoyance at the cryptic information. Instead he smoothed his black mane into place, straightened his tie, and tugged on the lapels of his suit jacket. “What must I do?” he asked.

    “That’s the question, isn’t it?” the voice responded. “Chaos is such a fascinating thing, but no matter how hard one tries, there must always be a small bit of order to it or it devolves into complete anarchy and self destructs.”

    “Conversely, pure order must be infused with a small bit of chaos, else it will only result in stagnation,” the zebra added.

    “Excellent, you have been listening to my ramblings,” the voice chuckled from amidst the shadows. “A pattern amidst the chaos is revealing itself to me, my boy. Far to the north, you will find a mare making life difficult in the Unregistered Colonies for the Cursaders. She wears a white suit with a zero imprinted on her flank. You will recruit her for the team.”

    “This may cause a problem with the virulent anti-mare views of another recruit…”

    “You will find the evidence you need to handle that argument while you’re up north,” the voice chuckled, causing the zebra to shake his head. “Do not go there the ‘easy’ way.”

    The zebra frowned. “You wish me to walk?”

    “Yes,” the answer came all too quickly for the zebra’s tastes. “No, you may not ask why, because I’m going to tell you. There’s a good chance that you’ll meet a gryphon along the route. He’ll be desperate, scared, and probably hungry. He will be easy to recruit, simply reference Princess Celestia’s team of mares, and bring him here. He will be a powerful asset to the team.”

    “We seem to be recruiting a great deal of opposition to them, my Prince.”

    “It cannot be helped,” the voice answered from the darkened room. “The argument is a useful tool, and I expect you to make full use of it. Once you have recruited the gryphon and brought him back here, you may use your powers to meet Zilch in the northern reaches.”

    “Zilch would be the suited mare?”

    “That’s correct,” the voice answered.

    “I would like to voice a word of concern about the Professor…” the zebra noted.

    “Relax, Kaos,” the voice chided gently, “he will fulfill his role when the time comes.”

    The zebra frowned, but gave a curt nod. “Very well then...”

    “The ball is in play, my student,” the voice continued, “and events are picking up speed. The puzzle pieces are lining up, but we must make the puzzle fit the pieces, not the other way around. I know you cannot fathom everything I am doing, but I promise that all will be revealed in time. We must not fail.”

    “As you wish.”

    “Oh, and Kaos?”

    “Yes, my Prince?”

    “Do try to relax some,” the voice teased.

    The zebra gave a lopsided smile and said, “As you wish, my Prince.” With that, he turned sharply on a hoof and trotted out of the darkened room, closing the heavy door behind him. The lock settled into place as it shut, locking the Prince in, as per his instructions, before he continued into the rather empty base of operations. It would fill soon, the Prince had assured him, but right now the abandoned gryphon aerie felt dead and hollow to him. He paused in his musings, looking up one hallway, lit by a number of lights in stark contrast to the rest of the caves. A number of cables and lamps had been hung along it, the red and yellow cords sharply contrasting with the drab gray stones. The zebra followed them, knowing where they would lead, but curious despite himself.

    The large chamber they led to had once been a series of smaller chambers, but Professor Bunsen Burner had taken one of his machines and destroyed all the intermediate walls, opening a large room suitable for his purposes. Lights were hung haphazardly about the stone chamber, with the brightest focused like a spotlight over the centerpiece of the Professor’s work, which was connected to a dozen computers via heavy cables and wires.

    And what a centerpiece it was; a massive pile of robotic armour that would act as a power suit for the unicorn. It was easily thrice the size of a pony, with heavy ablative plating and pistons forming much of the forward structure. It was obviously designed for strength and power, with a barrel like torso and almost comically oversized forelegs than ended in massive feline paws. The latter half of the torso was more slender, making it harder to target in a fight, and also served as an anchor for the scorpion-like tail that arched over its back, the tip of which was outfitted with a weapon of sorts the zebra was unable to identify at a glance. A leonine helm completed the suit for the golden and burnt orange colored armour, cementing the image of a wingless manticore.

    “It iz a beauty, iz it not?” the Professor asked from the side, drawing the zebra’s gaze to the warm orange unicorn with a streaked white mane and tail.

    The zebra looked back to the powersuit again before giving a short nod, “Most impressive, Professor.”

    “I’ve outfitted ze tail and ze helm with flamthrowerz,” the orange unicorn continued in a heavily accented voice, “and ze wings, zey are retractable az well. Combined with ze jet-pack, zhe is faster zen zhe looks.”

    “Does it do what you wish it to?” the zebra asked simply, and the unicorn’s smile vanished.

    “Not yet,” he answered truthfully, “it iz not ready for ze Dragonfly. Zoon, but not yet.”

    “I am sure you will be ready when we need you, Professor,” the zebra answered, and turned away.

    “How much longer do I have?” the unicorn asked worriedly.

    “You still have time, but events are speeding up. We must be ready soon,” Kaos answered as he left.

    “I will be ready.”

7

Chapter 7

“Silent but deadly”

    “Well, the good news is nothing is broken.”

    Clockwork and Twist both looked up at the clinic doctor from their less than comfortable and threadbare seats. The berry colored doctor smiled as she led the limping form of Apple Bloom into the brightly lit waiting room, who was promptly knocked off her hooves by Twist rushing up to hug her.

    “And the bad news?” Clockwork asked, looking to the doctor.

    “She’s going to be limping for a few weeks,” the doctor stated, fluttering her wings to quickly retrieve a nearby clipboard. “There’s a large amount of swelling around her knee. It’s possibly a sprain, but that doesn’t seem likely to me given the nature of the bruising. Unfortunately, until the swelling goes down, we can’t be certain. I’d like her come around for a few tests over the next few weeks so I can make sure there isn’t any nerve damage. For now, here’s a prescription for a painkiller and another for an anti-inflammatory, and keep her off her hooves as much as possible.”

    “I knew something was wrong,” Twist sighed as she took the slip of paper from the pegasus. “I could only find a bruise that didn’t seem consistent with all that swelling, and our salves weren’t working.”

    “Buckin’ ninja…” Apple Bloom grumbled.

    “I mean it, Miss Bloom,” the pegasus noted, pointing a hoof at the elder pony, “Stay off your hooves. It’ll heal that much faster if you can keep from stressing it any more than you already have.”

    “That assumes our new friend gives us a chance to rest,” Clockwork noted.

    “Y’know, if you two hadn’t corroborated her story, I would have advised some senility tests,” the pegasus doctor confided in Clockwork as she watched Twist fussing over her mate. “The whole ninja thing is a bit difficult to swallow…”

    “We don’t know she was actually a ninja,” the smaller mare admitted, “but whoever the pony was, she was skilled in martial arts and has a habit of getting into places she shouldn’t be, which is suitably ninja-like to fit the description.”

    The doctor sighed, “If it were any other pony… but she is a Crusader, so I suppose she tends to find trouble.”

    “Or the trouble finds her,” Clockwork joked with a weak smile.

    “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Doctor Blackberry,” Twist said as she braced Apple Bloom to help her walk.

    “No worries, Twist,” the pegasus answered with a smile. “Just keep your mate off her hooves as much as possible; she needs to rest that leg.”

    “I will, doctor, thank you.” Twist gently began steering the grumbling Apple Bloom towards the door.

    Doctor Blackberry snorted softly. “I give ten to one odds against her actually keeping that mare in bed…” she muttered under her breath before fluttering away, leaving Clockwork alone to regard the slow progression the elder mares made towards the exit. She trotted after, catching up in time to hold open the door for them.

    Crisp cool air rushed to greet them, a far cry from the dry recycled air inside the clinic. Clockwork may not have cared for the antiseptic smell and polished white tiles of the Canterlot hospital, but it seemed far more comforting to her than that clinic, with its yellowing tiles, ratty chairs, and wooden counters gouged from years of use. If Twist thought they were professional there, she could only imagine what the elder mare would have thought of the Canterlot Memorial Hospital. Still, the town there was a fair bit smaller than Canterlot, so it hardly needed a huge multi-story state-of-the-art hospital. The ugly squat two story building served its purpose, she supposed…

    “We done missed that Cutecenara today,” Apple Bloom sighed apologetically. “I reckon’ little Candlewick was mighty disappointed.”

    “Not at all,” Twist answered with a smile. “I had Clockwork stay with you at the clinic while I ducked out to wrangle our helpers and get the delivery made with time to spare. I had to pay them a little extra, since I wouldn’t be there to oversee it personally, but I’m sure Strawberry Swirl could handle it just fine.”

    Apple Bloom sighed and looked relieved. “Well that’s good. I was right worried I ruined some poor little colt’s special day.”

    “I think a medical emergency usually counts as an understandable delay,” Clockwork put in.

    “Still, we have to pay the bills somehow,” Twist noted with a lopsided grin. “Besides, it’s not Candlewick’s fault we got into a losing fight with a strange mare.”

    Clockwork considered that, but was interrupted when her stomach rumbled. “Are you girls hungry? It’s after lunch and we haven’t eaten since our interrupted breakfast…”

    “I ain’t sure I trust anywhere,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “The fact that there ninja filly done showed up in our house, pretty as you please, an’ attacked while we was eatin’ breakfast is makin’ me a little paranoid. We done saw what she c’n do in Scoot’s home, what if she done somethin’ like that at a restaurant? What about at home? I may not drink tea, but what if’n she accidentally gets Twist here by mistake?”

    “Oh no, I know what I signed on for,” Twist spoke up. “You do not get to pull the ‘she might hurt my mate’ card with me!”

    “I’m serious here, Twist,” Apple Bloom protested. “What if’n she gets it inta her fool head ta use ya’ll ta get at me?”

    “You are not going to send me away like some common servant!” Twist almost shouted. “You run and get your friends every time there’s even a whisper of trouble…”

    “Twist, they got powahs--” Apple Bloom said softly.

    “That sure helped Scootaloo, didn’t it?” Twist answered pointedly, making Apple Bloom wince.

    “I think we should keep Twist close,” Clockwork spoke up finally, ignoring the glare from Apple Bloom. “Even if I sat in my armour twenty-four seven, which is so very tempting right now, my sensors can only pick up so much. An extra pair of eyes would help immensely, especially with as sneaky as our mystery mare is proving to be.”

    “Maybe she turns invisible?” Twist considered.

    “While that would explain some things,” Clockwork answered, “it wouldn’t explain everything. I have heartbeat and audio sensors in the Dragonfly, not to mention heat sensors and infrared spotlights that I designed to handle a pony with Apple Bloom’s powers, and she didn’t register on any of them. She’s either that damned good, or there’s something else going on. Regardless, that means we need all the eyes we can.”

    “’Cause that worked so well this mornin’” Apple Bloom grumbled.

    “Out of curiosity, what was she doing in Scootaloo’s place, anyway?” Twist asked.

    “I thought you told her?” Clockwork asked Apple Bloom, who looked sheepish.

    “I plum fergot,” the elder pony admitted, “We found one ‘o Scoot’s teapots.”

    “What’s so special about that?” Twist pressed.

    “What was so special was that my sensors picked up a granulated substance of unknown type on and in the spout of the teapot. My scanner couldn’t identify it, and I think it might have been a poison of some sort,” Clockwork answered.

    “Clockwork went on this Sheerluck Hooves deduction rant right outta one o’ them books, I swear,” Apple Bloom giggled. “Then we turn around an’ boom. The ninja is jus’ standin’ there, every bit as surprised ta’ see us as we were her.”

    “Wait, so where’s the teapot?” Twist asked.

    “That was the problem,” Clockwork sighed. “She made me look like a foal; I couldn’t even touch her and got tossed clear across the room for my trouble. Bloom did better but… well, she got baited by the mare.”

    “With what?”

    “My hat,” Apple Bloom growled. “That danged filly done took my hat while we was fightin’!”

    “Y’know, given your rant at breakfast, I think I understand why you got so angry when she did that,” Clockwork considered.

    “No pony messes with my hat!” Apple Bloom crowed proudly, then grew more melancholy. “It’s the last thing I have left of my family, of Applejack an’ mom an’ dad an’ Granny Smith an’ Big Macintosh...” She didn’t even notice her support had stopped walking until she slid off her side and fell into the grass.

    “You did WHAT?!” Twist cried.

    “What?” Clockwork squeaked, startled.

    “What what?” Apple Bloom echoed from her position on the ground.

    “You fought over a hat, and lost the potential cure for Scootaloo?” Twist demanded… loudly.

    “Er… oops?” Apple Bloom answered tepidly as she climbed to her hooves. Her mate marched forward and shoved her nose into Apple Bloom’s, forcing the mare back on her haunches.

    “Did I miss something?” Clockwork interjected. “I mean, I get that we might have been able to find the poison from a proper in depth scan of the granules. A good doctor could design a life saving regimen from that knowledge, but isn’t it a bit of a leap to say you could cure her from it?”

    “You don’t know alchemy, dear,” Twist said sweetly to Clockwork, then her voice dipped dangerously as she pushed a hoof at Apple Bloom’s chest. “My mate, however, does. She could have used it to make a cure from the poison. It’s not like she doesn’t have the equipment or hasn’t done it before.”

    “Ah heh… that Zecora was a danged good teacher,” Apple Bloom gulped.

    “Well…” Clockwork tried, pausing as she tried to think of something to say, only to come up empty. “…buck.”

    “You said it, Sugah.”

    “As you command, Princess.”

    Luna ducked the militaristic pegasus as he swooped out from the room she was entering, leaving the meeting chamber an empty husk of what it was mere hours ago. The “Emergency Briefing Room” hadn’t seen much use since the abolishment of “The Nightmare”, but it served its purpose today. Tables designed for the high ranking members of the Guard, senior senators, and “lords of the realm” ringed a flattened circular map of Equestria at the lowest point of the room. The circle of tables were interrupted only by a regal podium at the east end of the room, and upon which slumped the exhausted figure of Celestia, her head resting on the rich wood as if she intended to use it as a pillow.

    “The last time you fell asleep like that,” Luna chuckled as she trotted up, “you had a crick in your neck that took weeks to get out.”

    Celestia snorted and closed her eyes. “Seventeen hours of briefings and debriefings will do that to even a Princess,” the elder sister answered in a tired voice. “I trust you didn’t have any trouble handling the sunrise this morning?”

    Luna lowered a steaming mug of tea onto the podium near Celestia’s nose before answering, “No problem at all. It helps that Filigree dozed off, so I was able to put my full concentration into it. I trust you got my late update?”

    The elder sister nodded slowly and sniffed at the air, smelling the tea. The Princess cracked an eye and smiled when she saw the steaming mug. She gripped the cup with her magic and, with a groan, forced herself to sit up. “Your report on the Arch-duke’s death? Yes.”

    “Did you…?”

    “See him off to the afterlife?” Celestia asked before taking a sip of tea. “Ooh, thank you, Luna. That hits the spot.”

    “I still remember your favorite blends,” Luna answered with a tepid smile.

    “Yes, I did see his soul off,” Celestia answered after another sip. “I did not have to, and he did not expect me to come, but still… he was an old friend and I remember him as he once was. He was such a dashing gryphon when he was younger…”

    “Why sister, I do believe you’re blushing,” Luna teased.

    Celestia smiled and splayed her ears. “Even I have my weaknesses and occasional dalliances, little sister. But he was a gentle-gryphon, and we became fast friends until later in his life. We lost touch when he took the Arch-duke position from his father. So it was nice to spend a few moments together before I escorted him to the entrance of the Sunrise Aerie for his final departure.”

    “Ah, so he still earned passage into the gryphon’s version of the Summerlands, did he? I wasn’t sure, given what we heard about him from Filigree,” Luna said softly. “Speaking of the late Arch-duke, has the King responded to his death yet?”

    Celestia nodded. “We got the courier from the clans some hours later, demanding Filigree be returned to them to stand trial for her crimes.”

    “I do hope you told them to sit on your horn…”

    Celestia waved a hoof. “Not in so many words, but yes. I was, of course, politic about it. I told them we would launch our own investigation, and if we found proof of wrongdoing, we would consider extradition.”

    “Which, of course, is so much hot air,” the younger Princess snorted. “I am sure that is exactly what Goldtalon believes too.”

    “He is going through the motions,” Celestia agreed, taking another long sip of tea. “This was simply so he could make it look like a peaceful attempt was made, should it be scrutinized by an outside eye.”

    Luna frowned. “Who would care anymore? It’s not like there are dragon lawyers going over such things and playing mediator anymore these days.”

    “You never know,” Celestia sighed softly. “Last I heard the Minotaurs are sending emissaries to various nations in an attempt to fill that role. As one of the strongest and most imposing races still active in the world, they would make good mediators. I do worry that, being a shorter lived species, they will not have the time to truly understand the complex system that the more intellectually inclined dragons created.”

    “I still remember the time I tried to figure it out…”

    Celestia smiled and wing-hugged her sister, “I do as well, little sister. I also remember having to coax you out of your room and even then it took nearly three hours trying to calm you down.”

    Luna smiled sheepishly. “I can’t remember ever being more frustrated in my long life….”

    Celestia chuckled softly and hugged her sister again. She took a final sip of her tea as the companionable silence stretched for several moments. “I suppose I should get to--”

    “I already cancelled court for today,” Luna interrupted. “You only need some time off your hooves to relax. You’re in a frightful state right now, and you could really use some time to rest.”

    “How bad am I?” Celestia asked softly. Luna answered by reaching around with a hoof to Celestia’s mane, pulling a naturally pink clump of mane about to show her. The elder Princess made a face. “When a glamour that I long ago lost control of fades, it is safe to say my reserves are running low.”

    “I can field any major concerns for today,” Luna said. “Get some rest, if you can, and I’ll disturb you if anything major happens.”

    Celestia nodded. “That, indeed, sounds like a plan. To bring you up to speed, the generals are going to fortify our border, especially at the towns. There is some talk about trying to relocate the civilians, but when Filigree returns we can attempt to force a stalemate. I dislike the idea of pulling ponies from their homes on merely a suspicion, so right now any evacuation is voluntary. The Nobles are happy to bury their heads in the sand, and believe that we ponies are somehow perfectly safe from the gryphons. The Senate is, as always, deadlocked and undecided as they quibble amongst themselves pointlessly. Sometimes I don’t know why we bother with them; one of us always has to break their stalemates.”

    “That whole pony run government was your idea, Celestia,” Luna reminded her sister teasingly.

    “And some days I truly regret it,” she admitted with a weak smile. “The guard is already moving, so any new information you come across should be forwarded to the ranking officers. My big concern right now is the Northern Reaches, specifically the unregistered colonies there. We don’t have the pony-power to protect them as well, not that they would accept it, and they are in a contentious area right now.”

    “Are the gryphons still claiming that’s disputed territory?” Luna asked worriedly.

    “It always was, but the previous King was willing to ignore it so long as the settlers were no threat. Goldtalon, however, seems far more likely to renew old conflicts of that nature. Fortunately his focus is elsewhere… for now,” Celestia answered. “We will need to encourage Clockwork to resolve her business there as quickly as possible. If the gryphons were to discover another Element Bearer within easy reach…”

    “It could encourage them to either assault the Ponylands now, or move on the territories to take them and Clockwork.” Luna frowned. “Maybe we should pull her out…”

    “No,” the elder sister answered. “Her work is important right now, especially with Scootaloo in a coma. There are suspicions of foul play, and Clockwork is as close to an expert on such things as we have, at least that they would trust. However, I do think we need her in communication more frequently now. She’s getting used to being rather autonomous, but with this threat looming, we need to keep closer tabs on her.”

    “I can’t see that going over well, given her disorder,” Luna said softly, then moved quickly to hug her sister when she winced. “I’m sorry, Celly, that was not meant as a stab at--”

    “I did not take it as an indictment, little sister,” Celestia interrupted. “But it was a failure on my part, and I missed the symptoms in Lady Key. I trust that Trixie and Galaxi shared the book with you, then? How much did Trixie tell you…?”

    Guilt washed over the face of the Lunar Princess. “She didn’t tell me, but when I read the passage…” Luna managed in a strangled little voice, and clenched her eyes shut on the tears that threatened to force their way through. The younger sister moved to hug Celestia tightly, whispering softly, “I’m so, so sorry….”

    “That is why I did not tell you,” Celestia said soothingly, petting a hoof lovingly over her sister’s head, smoothing her ethereal mane. “I knew you would blame yourself. It is the Nightmare who was at fault, little sister, not you.”

    “No…” Luna choked softly. “No, it’s not just her fault. Nightmare Moon was both of us merged together. You have to… I let it in. I let the Nightmare possess me. It feeds on negative emotions until… until it completely devours you. A normal pony, maybe even an imp, could only last a year or two. A strong willed one, maybe longer. Because I was eternal, it had an eternal feast… and towards the end, I lost track of where I ended and it began. My jealousy was so… so overpowering that we targeted your weaknesses mercilessly.”

    Celestia sighed softly and hugged her sister tightly. “War is an ugly thing, little sister. The Nightmare has visited it upon us twice, and twice you have been returned to me afterwards. I would say that we have won.”

    “At what cost?” Luna demanded, clutching to her sister. “Is the cost worth it? Look at the pain it’s caused our ponies… hell, look at what it cost you!”

    “The Nightmare surely rots in Tartarus now,” Celestia comforted, “and the cost was worth it. I would have given anything to have my sister back. Now please, let us not dwell on what is past. Know you are forgiven of any transgressions, little sister. For now, we must focus on the present and future.”

    “Here I came to take some of the pressure off you, and I end up the one needing to be comforted. I’m starting to feel this relationship might be a bit one sided,” the younger alicorn joked weakly, sniffling slightly.

    Celestia smiled warmly. “Just having you here at all buoys my spirits, Luna. I spent a millennium without you by my side, and I missed you for every second of it. I know it’s been decades since you returned, but a thousand years are not so easily forgotten.”

    “Have you ever wondered, even for a moment, what would have happened if the Nightmare had targeted you?” Luna asked softly as she wiped her eyes with a foreleg.

    “Unfortunately, yes,” Celestia answered in a distant voice. “I do not know if I could have returned as gracefully as you did. You were the protector to my teacher, the warrior to my scholar. My magic was greater than yours, but your skill in combat and tactics were superior to my own. You were a shrewd opponent, building your powerbase as you expanded across Equestria. I would have been far less patient or subtle than you, and likely would have worked my way across Equestria by brute force. ‘Submit or burn’… I could easily see a Nightmare fueled version of myself saying those words, and it terrifies me.”

    “It scares me too,” Luna said softly, “but mostly because I don’t think I would have been as lenient as you were.”

    “I wasn’t,” Celestia answered honestly. “I genuinely didn’t know what the Elements would do, or even if I could use them by myself. I was desperate, and had no idea what else to do, but I had to stop you and your army before you reached the heart of the Ponylands. Had you won that battle, the war would have been yours, of that I have no doubt. In the end, the Elements chose your fate, not I.”

    Luna considered that for a moment, and gave a short nod. “That would explain where some of your theories about them being self-determining originate from.”

    Celestia smiled gently. “Hopefully, in a few more generations, our little ponies will trust you enough to take command of the military again. I can deal with Politicians and Lords and Ladies… but the Guard is like talking to another species sometimes. Their minds just don’t seem to work the same way as everypony else’s.”

    Luna shook her head. “After the Nightmare, I’m not sure I’d trust myself to be in charge of the Guard and Military wings again. But we will see what the future holds. For now, I’ll just keep steering what’s left of the Agency and Project Moonbeam, and steering you towards your bedroom…”

    “Maybe a stop by the kitchen for some food…” Celestia considered as her sister nudged.

    “Oh no, you can send a maid to get some food for you,” Luna said firmly. “For now, you need rest.”

    Celestia couldn’t help but giggle. “Yes ma’am.”

    “So what now?”

    “That’s the question of the hour, isn’t it?” Twist answered and took another bite of her alfalfa sandwich, wiping at an escaping dribble of blue cheese dressing on her chin. Clockwork glanced to Apple Bloom, who was hunched over and attempting to determine if her sandwich was poisoned or not by alternately poking at and nibbling along the edge. Clockwork shook her head, turning her attention to her own meal, and paused to put a bit more dressing on her daisy and dandelion sub. The mares had stopped at a small outdoor café, hunger winning out over Apple Bloom’s concerns, and were presently seated at a circular table with a flower shaped umbrella seeming to sprout from it, protecting them from the afternoon sun. A hoof-full of other ponies lounged at their tables while slowly devouring their late lunches, and a pair of waitresses worked their way around to make sure everypony was happy and fed.

    “Aside from getting into my armour and sitting in it until our ‘friend’ makes another attempt at Apple Bloom, I’m at a loss,” the small khaki mare admitted before taking a large bite of her sub. She opened it up and put even more dressing on it, still finding it still far too dry for her tastes.

    “That’d really tear up my hardwood floor,” Twist pointed out before using a hoof to wipe a dribble of sauce from the corner of her mouth. “Bloom, will you please stop doing that? You look like a little filly!”

    The normally vocal Apple Bloom just grunted at the accusation and sat up, mumbling something under her breath that sounded like “I’mma big pony” to Clockwork. She glared at the sandwich before lifting it between her hooves and taking a tentative bite, and had to quickly lean over her plate as red barbeque sauce spilled out the back, accompanied by chopped onions, green peppers, and tomatoes… all of which the elder mare eyed suspiciously.

    “You weren’t kidding when you said the grill was a trifle messy here,” Clockwork teased as Apple Bloom took another careful bite.

    “You get used to it,” Twist chuckled. “She’s developed a taste for grilled peppers and barbeque sauce, heavy on the onions. I make her spend some time brushing her teeth before she’s allowed to kiss me again after that, though. I really don’t care for her dragon breath.”

    “Ya’ll done pickin’ on what I like ta’ eat?” Apple Bloom complained as she took another bite, apparently satisfied it wasn’t poison… for now.

    “No, love, but you knew that already.” Twist grinned and patted Apple Bloom’s hip affectionately.

    “Y’know, I can’t help but think we’re forgetting something,” Clockwork said out of the blue, rubbing her chin as she chewed thoughtfully on another bite of her sub. “It’s on the tip of my tongue, but…”

    “Oh! That reminds me...” Twist said, and dug into her saddlebag. A moment later she plopped a scroll in front of Clockwork. “The mailmare stopped by while I was at home organizing our assistants for the Cutecenara. She dropped this off for you, along with our usual mail.”

    “We get anythin’ interestin’?” Apple Bloom asked Twist, though curiously eyed the scroll as Clockwork snatched it up and quickly unrolled it. Her eyes were almost frantic as they skimmed the letter before she seemed to relax, tension bleeding from diminutive mare.

    “No, just the usual bills and ads really, nothing that would get that sort of reaction from either of us,” Twist giggled, motioning to Clockwork.

    With a squeak, Clockwork sat up again and rolled the scroll with her hooves. “Sorry, a bit of private correspondence. A stallion I met at the agency memorial was having some real trouble adjusting after the war. His family died in the fighting in Canterlot while he was elsewhere on a mission. I’ve been helping him through some of the grief…” she said, glossing over some of the details.

    “Yeah, I c’n see that bein’ important,” Apple Bloom agreed, and finished off her burger. She licked the sauce off her hooves, to which Twist made a face that she tried to hide behind her sandwich.

    “I was kinda worried about leaving him alone to make the trip up here,” Clockwork noted as she tucked the scroll into her bag.

    “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Apple Bloom confided before turning to munch on some of her hay-fries.

    “Still eating junk food, even at her age,” Twist sighed and looked at her own unsweetened iced tea. Clockwork could half imagine the elder mare wishing it were some sort of heavy milkshake like Apple Bloom had ordered.

    “Well, she can obviously handle it,” Clockwork chuckled. “All that fighting probably keeps her trim and in shape. I know if I ate like that I’d never fit into my power armour.”

    “Some ponies like a little bit more curves on a gal,” Apple Bloom chuckled and slapped Clockwork’s shoulder companionably.

    “More curves should not include a second chin,” Clockwork responded, much to Twist’s amusement.

    “Ya know, now that ya mentioned it, sugah, I can’ shake th’ feelin’ of forgettin’ somethin’ myself,” Apple Bloom grumbled as she crossed her forelegs across her chest.

    “Well, let’s handle this logically,” Twist inserted as she finished off her sandwich.

    Clockwork snorted, “There’s no real logical way to remember something that has been forgotten. That’s like trying to notice something by the lack of its inclusion.”

    “…Lack of…?” Apple Bloom mumbled to herself.

    “You can sort things into groups, however,” Twist countered. “Once you have the group it’s supposed to belong to, it can usually trigger a reminder.”

    “…group? ...lack of…?” the elder mare continued to mumble.

    “Not really. That’s like trying to remember a team of ponies when it’s the name of one member you keep forgetting,” Clockwork countered.

    “…team?  …group?  …lack of?” Apple Bloom mumbled, then her eyes widened.

    “I’m sure if you--”Twist began.

    “Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom cried and grabbed Clockwork by her shoulders, “We done forgot to warn Sweetie Belle!”

    Bits were all but thrown onto the table as the trio ran off as fast as Apple Bloom’s injured leg would allow.

    “I thaid, go ‘way!”

    The ground thrummed with energy as the small foal stood amidst the chaos. He was barely old enough to be in school, with a white coat and grape purple mane that threatened to fall into his eyes. A stub of a horn poked through the fall of his mane as yellow eyes tracked his opponent slowly moving about the room, forcing the colt to shift to keep between her and the mare he was protecting.

    “T-tempo… run… leave me…” A voice choked from behind him, an elderly white unicorn mare with pink, purple, and white streaking her mane as it fell in curls about her head and neck. She held one hoof to her neck, her voice lost amidst a renewed fit of coughing.

    The white suited pony with a large zero on her flank circled predatorily. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to skirt to the colt’s left, but the moment she closed more than a step the ground rumbled and the earth seemed to churn itself apart in a line from the young pony. The colt gasped and gulped down air as best he could, his small form trembling with the effort. He was exhausted, near to giving out, and she knew it. With renewed confidence, she began to move in for the kill…

    “Don’t you dare take another step,” a mechanized voice growled from behind. Slowly the suited mare turned, and her pale eyes met glowing blue ones staring back at her from the helm of power armour. In the muted light, the green and gold of the power armor was almost lost, but the glowing blue eyes and wings easily made up for it, and the glowing hollows in her armour’s forehooves pointed towards the “guest” made her intentions clear

    “M-mith Key?” the colt lisped uncertainly as an additional pair of ponies, one yellow and one cream colored, piled into the room. “Aunt Bloom! Aunt Twitht!” the young colt cried, “The’th tryin’ to hurt Granny!”

    “Twist, get Tempo and Echo out of here,” Clockwork ordered. “Bloom, if you can help with your injury, do so. As for you, Miss Zero, you’ve got one chance to explain yourself before I turn you into a smear on the wall.”

    Apple Bloom frowned and did a quick survey of the room. It was a storage garage built into an old barn that Sweetie Belle’s late husband used for personal projects. After he lost the ability to fly, he started working on some motorized flying machines, which he used to keep stored there. They never really worked, but he used them to supplement his failing wing-power in order to fly again. But he passed away many years ago, and his projects and tools were sold to interested parties ages ago. Instead Sweetie Belle turned it into a sort of practice room for little Tempo, who had shown early signs of being a Special himself, and kept it relatively clean aside from a scattering of straw mannequins for target practice. This, of course, ignored the churned up ground that would make footing unstable, a left over from Tempo’s attempts to protect his grandmother. Being built into a barn meant it was spacious… for normal ponies. For armour like Clockwork’s, it was too enclosed and would hamper her maneuverability.

    The suited mare seemed almost amused by Clockwork’s ultimatum, and lifted a hoof to draw it in a sharp line across her neck. Clockwork growled, taking it for a threat, but Apple Bloom…

    “Yer not gonna git anythin’ from ‘er,” Apple Bloom interjected. “I dun’ think she c’n talk.” To confirm Apple Bloom’s statement, the suited pony nodded and motioned towards the elder pony.

    “So much for getting an explanation why she’s been attacking the Crusaders,” Clockwork grumbled. All eyes were suddenly drawn to the colt when he cried out and stumbled. Twist rushed to his side and continued to shepherd him and his grandmare out of the old barn. Clockwork shifted her battle stance to lock the suited mare more fully in her sites even as the unknown mare took a step towards the group. Clockwork let out a hissed breath as she prepared to fire…

    What happened next was too fast for her eye to track, but the Dragonfly’s sensors recorded the strike even as it impacted upon her shields. The suited mare feinted towards the foal, then dashed forward under Clockwork’s line of fire to pummel at her shields before the first shot was even fired. Plasma bolts launched from her hooves, her shots going wide as she was knocked off balance by the unknown mare. Her wings flared and she rose up, her sensors tracking the suited mare as she fired a series of shots after her. Unfortunately she was simply too fast for the Dragonfly’s software. Adding predictive multipliers and multi-pathing proved useless; the suited mare managed to escape every attack unscathed.

    Then, suddenly, she was right up on the Dragonfly and inside her firing range once more. Clockwork would never admit that her reflexes were not the best in Equestria but the unknown mare made her response time look downright glacial as she slammed hooves into the armour again and again, the shields flaring desperately to keep up with the assault. Clockwork flailed, trying futilely to repel the assailant, but her moves were so easily dodged by the other mare that she might as well not have bothered.

    “Back off, ya buckin’ ninja!” Apple Bloom cried, and with a hard hoof drove the suited mare away. The two began their familiar dance again, with hooves and legs striking out at one another, but the suited mare had an obvious advantage thanks to Apple Bloom’s injury. Clockwork frowned behind the helm and a sudden idea flitted past her mind, and she quickly went to work on the math…

    With a flick of her hoof, Clockwork changed the firing mode of her plasma ejector to a constant beam, and hovered higher in the room to line up her shot. As she predicted, the “ninja” rolled away in the direction that was most obviously beneficial when she opened fire. Clockwork didn’t chase her with the beam, instead looping it about in a wider circle as she triggered a second beam, moving it the opposite way. When the suited mare moved to dodge that one when she added a third from her rear hoof, and almost immediately a fourth with her other rear hoof. Her energy reserves were screaming, but it was working, the four beams had the “ninja” trapped and were converging on her…

    A flash of light in the shape of a ring surrounded the suited mare, and she dropped through it, vanishing from sight.

    Apple Bloom’s jaw fell open. “No… buckin’… way,” she whispered.

    “We suspected she was a special,” Clockwork grumbled, shaking off her own shock to deactivate her ejectors, “now we know how she kept escaping us.”

    “She done been toyin’ with us this entire--”

    Apple Bloom never finished the thought as a hoof caught her across the jaw, and pulled back through a small floating portal. Another portal appeared behind Apple Bloom, and a bucking hoof caught her square in the back. Apple Bloom turned to defend, only to be caught from behind by another hoof.

    And just like that, the fight became a rout. The unknown mare used her portals with supernatural precision, ducking in and out of view, attacking the elderly mare with little to no risk of retaliation. Her hooves blurred in the air as she struck at Apple Bloom from every angle, often from multiple directions at once, sending the elderly mare reeling… usually right into another attack.

    Clockwork now regretted the power consumption of the trap, and fired off a volley of plasma bolts to interrupt the mare, sending her teleporting across the garage and away from the collapsing Apple Bloom.

    When the unknown assailant renewed her attack, Clockwork knew she would be the target. With the Dragonfly already running low on power, she ignored the warning light for her failing shields and pumped all available power into her propulsion. She clenched her jaw as she heard metal protest under the far too effective attacks. Dents formed on the armour, even as she powered across the “garage”, using her forelegs to scoop up Apple Bloom and crash through the barn doors and out into the open air. Her wings flared, gathering up the sunlight to recharge her reserves as she dumped Apple Bloom on the grass near Twist and the others. She opened her scanners wide, desperate to find a sign of the unknown mare. If she was lucky she might be able to lock onto an energy signature before…

    Clockwork’s spotted the mare standing atop the garage/barn. She seemed to be smiling, almost amusedly, as she stared down at the collection of defeated mares. But instead of finishing them off, she vanished from sight once more.

    “Buckin’ ninja,” Apple Bloom growled as Twist fretted over the multitude of new bruises. Clockwork set down nearby, looking concerned at Sweetie Belle, who was hoarsely comforting young Tempo.

    “She’s a teleporter,” Clockwork answered. “That’s much worse than a ninja.”

    “You were right, I needed this.”

    Luna smiled at her elder sister’s admission, who was nibbling on a small bit of cake while lying in repose on her massive plush bed. Celestia was already starting to look a little better; spending the afternoon off helped her immensely. Luna was pleased enough to abandon the “I told you so” speech she had prepared over the course of the day while she fielded the generals and captains and politicians, and instead settled on a cream colored divan before the roaring fireplace. A beam of late day sunlight played over her coat, slipping through the diaphanous curtains before one of Celestia’s many bay windows. Leave it to the Princess of the sun to make a room designed to catch every last second of sunlight possible.

    “P-princess?” a maid asked as she stuck her nose in around a heavy wooden door. “I know you aren’t to be disturbed, but I can’t find Princess… Luna? Oh! Princess Luna, there you are. I have a message for you from Lord Skillet.”

    “Does he need me?” Luna asked, climbing to her hooves and trotting over to the nervous maid.

    “Not as such, Princess,” she hedged slightly. “He simply asked that you contact him via something he called ‘the network’ as soon as possible, regarding Lady Key?”

    Luna frowned and looked to her sister before nodding, “I know what he means. Thank you.” The maid looked relieved and slipped back out of the room with a bow. Luna quickly moved to the computer on Celestia’s nearby desk and tapped a button or two. She felt more than heard her sister sidle up behind her.

    “Skillet?” Luna asked into the microphone mounted by the computer.

    “Ya! I am hearink’ you Princess,” Skillet’s voice called out over the speakers. “Am glad message finally reach you.”

    “What’s the problem, Skillet?” Luna asked, “You’ve interrupted a very important meeting.” Celestia rolled her eyes at her sister, who just grinned in response.

    “Am puttink’ her on now, Princess. You will want to hear this for yourself, ya?” Skillet answered.

    “Am I on Skillet?” Clockwork’s familiar voice came across the line.

    “Indeed you are,” Luna answered, tweaking the audio settings slightly to make up for some minor static on the line. “I’m sorry it took so long to respond.”

    “As long as I got through,” Clockwork answered, her tone oddly strained. “I’ve got a problem, a big one. Apple Bloom was right, the Crusaders are being targeted. The problem is this is no ordinary thug or assassin. We just discovered the hard way that she is not only a very skilled martial artist, but a skilled teleporter. We thought she was just a clever spy or ninja at first, but it turns out she’s spent the past few days toying with us. When I managed to corner her just a few hours ago, she opened up on us and really let us have it.”

    “I take it that didn’t go so well?” Luna asked, frowning hard.

    “Princess, she took both of us without breaking a sweat. I don’t know who this mare is, but she’s beyond skilled. She can create portals and redirect them in any way she wants. I watched her just punch her hooves into the same two portals, while the ‘out’ portals kept appearing all over the place around me. She took down Apple Bloom, took out my shields, and walked away without so much as a scratch.”

    “You need back-up then?”

    “Flourish, if at all possible. I figure our best bet is to fight fire with fire,” Clockwork answered

    “Unfortunately she’s unavailable. Filigree’s mission went poorly,” Luna explained. “Spectrum and Flourish were sent on the rescue mission. We almost recalled you, and now it sounds like that was a good thing we did not.”

    “I’m not sure if Trixie or Galaxi could handle this one,” Clockwork answered honestly, “but I’m in no position to turn down assistance. She used what we believe was a poison to quietly take down Scootaloo, and seemed set to cover her tracks when Apple Bloom and I stumbled across her. Now, in just two days, she’s abandoned all pretense of subtlety and struck at Bloom twice and Sweetie Belle once. Echo is unhurt thanks to her grandson holding this unknown mare off until we could arrive, and Apple Bloom took a bad leg injury and a hell of a beating.”

    “I will brief Trixie and Galaxi now, and have them on their way as soon as possible. They should be there shortly after sundown, or tomorrow morning at the latest,” Luna answered.

    “10-4.”

    Luna looked to her sister as the link closed, who in turn sighed softly.

    “My paranoia sometimes is not so paranoid,” Celestia said softly. “At least Galaxi and Trixie will have their promised chance to try and help Clockwork Key.”

    “Too bad the situation is so dire,” Luna answered, “but she is right. A trio of ranged specialists against a powerful melee opponent like that won’t go well.”

    “Give them a chance first. If it doesn’t work, we can recall one of them, probably Trixie since she knows a teleportation spell now, and send Flourish out to them,” Celestia counseled. “Give them a chance, however. They may surprise you.”

    “I hope so, but considering your concerns about how close they are to gryphon territory…” Luna hedged, biting her lip.

    “I know, sending additional element bearers seems like a foolish idea, but would you leave the Crusaders to face this threat alone?” Celestia asked softly.

    Luna sighed and shook her head. “No. Even though everything I know tells me this is a bad idea, I can’t just abandon our allies. Not when they’re turning to us for help.”

    Celestia nodded and gave her sister a wing hug, “Then go tell Trixie and Galaxi the good news.”

    “Good news?! You’re kidding, right?” Luna snorted.

    “They wanted to help their friend,” Celestia said softly, “now is their chance.”

    “AIR!”

    Filigree watched bemusedly as Flourish dove from the chariot the moment the wheels touched the ground, gulping down the sweet smelling air of the grotto as if she could literally drink it.

    “What’s your problem?!?” one of the gryphons demanded. Filigree didn’t even have to look to identify the reedy and demanding voice as her father’s.

    “Put simply, you stink!!” Flourish cried. “All of you! I’ve been in better smelling barns!”

    “Slavery does that to a gryphon,” Filigree pointed out, cutting off any indignant responses from her family. Verdigris sniffed under a wing self-consciously…

    “There’s a river nearby we can use to wash off,” Spectrum commented as she freed herself from the chariot’s harness. “I know I could use a dip myself, and a chance to rest my wings. This is as good a place as any to take a break.”

    “Where are we, Spectrum?” Filigree asked.

    “Near a gryphon settlement Scarlet told me about,” Spectrum said, trotting towards the river in question. It was a beautiful streak of blue amidst the verdant green of the forest edge. A few wild fruit trees grew nearby, along with a soft bed of flowers that splashed the countryside with varied colors. Flourish was quick to take advantage of the fruit trees, picking a few wild apples and tossing one to Verdigris, who tried it tentatively. She got all of two bites into it before Shale, her father, swatted it away.

    “She did mention hailing from a northern gryphon settlement, didn’t she?” Filigree considered, rubbing her beak. Verdigris looked forlornly at where the apple had fallen when Flourish hissed at her from behind a few bushes, and motioned her over. Hidden from the sight of her father the unicorn gave her another apple, which the little gryphon dug into with abandon. Flourish grinned as she munched on her own fruit.

    “I can’t think of a better place to leave them,” Spectrum added.

    “I’m not so sure,” Filigree answered with a frown. “This far North… what’s to stop the King from sending a force across the border to kidnap them again?”

    “It’s a town of gryphons, and I’m sure that if we let the Princesses know, they can add a contingent of guard to help keep the town secure,” Spectrum said softly.

    “I’d rather keep them close by--” Filigree started.

    “How well do you think that would work?” Spectrum asked.

    “What do you mean?”

    Spectrum sighed and rolled a hoof at the gaggle of gryphons, “Could you imagine them, any of them, doing well in Canterlot?”

    “No,” Filigree said after a moment of thought, “I can’t see that going well at all.”

    “It would be even worse if the Princesses kept them in the Palace,” Spectrum pointed out.

    Filigree snorted, “She’d have them in the dungeon by the end of the week. Maybe she’d try to hook Pyrite up with that ‘Blueblood’ character she talks about from time to time, they seem molted from the same wing…”

    “I think he’s an old stallion now,” the pegasus added with a sigh. “It’s your call, Filigree. But honestly, I can’t think of a better place for them to be. It’s relatively distant from the central ponylands, so they would have minimal interaction with us ponies, but it’s close enough to protect them from the King. It even borders the northern edge of the Everfree Forest, so there’s a legal hunting ground for the more carnivorous palette. That is, assuming they were brought up like you to eat only meat.”

    “They were,” Filigree noted. She watched as her mother, Patina, scrubbed down her elder sister with shaking claws, trying desperately to get the dried blood out of her feathers. “It was part of clan culture, and is considered a sign of abject poverty and an inability to hunt for yourself to eat anything other than meat. I didn’t even know we were omnivorous until Skillet convinced me to try a few dishes.”

    “I don’t think your kid sister got the memo,” Spectrum teased gently, motioning with her head to the small gryphoness as she devoured a second apple.

    “She’s the main reason I’m doing all of this, Rainbow,” Filigree confided, heading for the river. “I couldn’t leave her there. I may have no real love for my family, but she was innocent of every sin they may have committed. And to see done to her what once happened to me? I just couldn’t handle that…”

    The pony lightly hugged her larger friend, “It’s alright. Even though I want to throttle them myself, I couldn’t have left them there either, and I’ve only heard the few times you’ve been willing to talk about… er… you know.”

    The gryphoness smiled sadly to her friend, “It’s not something I wish to remember, much less relive. I want to leave it where it belongs, buried in the past.”

    Rainbow Star nodded as her gryphoness friend slipped into the water, and moved to follow. She reached the deepest portion and dunked her head, letting the gentle flow wash away the sweat that she worked up from pulling the chariot and now clung stubbornly to her coat and mane. Being a special with greater than average endurance meant she could hold her breath longer than the average pony, so she opted to remain submerged. The burbling of the creek filled her ears and washed away her fears, finally loosening that tense knot of worry that had nestled itself between her wings. She flapped her wings in the current as she would in a calm updraft, the simple motion and cool rush of water filling her with a sense of serene peace and calm.

    Unfortunately, that serenity was shattered when she resurfaced. The gryphons were arrayed behind the “alpha male” of the family, the tawny and brown feathered Shale, as he poked at Filigree with a claw. It would have been amusing in any other circumstance; Filigree towered over her father and possessed a commanding presence the male lacked. But she stood passively, her eyes locked on his as he repeatedly poked her with his claw.

    “When were you planning on telling me you were going to abandon us here?!?” he demanded.

    “There’s no civilization around for miles!” the golden colored gryphoness behind him whined… Pyrite if Spectrum recalled properly, Filigree’s elder sister.

    “I-I’m sure there’s an e-explanation…” an older gryphoness wheedled, still scrubbing Pyrite’s feathers to get the blood out.

    “Shut up, Patina,” Shale growled, and then wheeled on Filigree. He flared his wings in a laughable attempt to make himself threatening. “Well?!?”

    “There’s a settlement of gryphons that have fled the clans just north of here,” Filigree stated with immeasurable patience. “They are familiar with refugees from the clans, and should welcome you.”

    “I want to stay with you!” Verdigris cried, splashing into the water towards her sister. Filigree didn’t look away from her father, but she folded a metallic wing protectively over her younger sister.

    “V-Verdigris!!” Patina cried, horrified.

    “Get your tail over here right now, cub!” the father ordered. Verdigris seemed unwilling to let go of her sister, until Filigree gently nudged her towards them.

    “But… but…” Verdigris stammered in a hurt little voice.

    Filigree’s eyes shifted to meet her sister’s. “They’re our parents. I may not agree with them, I won’t claim to like them, but I had to make sure you could live free. I live a dangerous life, and couldn’t be there to take care of you. I wouldn’t be there for you when you would need me. I wasn’t there when you needed me for an entire winter…. I just hope that mother can give you the same attention and love she gave me before these,” she paused to flex her metallic wings, “made her frightened of me. You deserve a family, Verdigris, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I cannot be it. I promise, however, to visit as often as I can.”

    “Like HELL will I allow you to visit my daughter, you freak!” Shale bellowed.

    “You’ll find that Filigree has a lot of leeway here in the Ponylands,” Spectrum put in, drawing the gryphons ire as she inserted herself into the conversation. “She is, after all, a noble here. She earned the rank of ‘Lady of the Court’ from Princess Celestia as thanks for her role in the defeat of The Nightmare. Ponies may view us Specials with trepidation, but we are not second class citizens. We ponies tend to be a rather accepting lot…”

    “Even if a bit superstitious,” Flourish joked from the side, tossing another apple to Verdigris. The little gryphon frowned as it was batted out of the air by her father.

    “I won’t have you corrupting my daughter!” he growled angrily pointing first at Flourish, then at Filigree. “She will be brought up as a proper gryphon!”

    “You would rather see her in chains than free?” Filigree asked flatly.

    “You ask me to betray my king!”

    “Your king betrayed you first.”

    “All to get at you!” Shale screamed at her, beak to beak as if he expected her to back down. Filigree stood rock steady as she met her father’s muddy brown eyes, never swaying even as he beat the air with his wings in a futile attempt intimidate her. “If you hadn’t gone against the will of the clan--!”

    “I was sold,” Filigree interrupted. “The Archduke sold me to Princess Celestia, who in turn granted me freedom in exchange for my oath to defend her sovereign lands from invaders. At the time, that was from the Nightmare and her Imp forces. Now the Gryphon clans are proving to be a threat. I fail to see how I have broken a single ‘rule’. If anything, I’ve been rewarded for following the rules and been given to a society that finds the very act of slavery repugnant.”

    “You abandoned you heritage!”

    “And you abandoned your daughter,” Spectrum interjected and forced her way between the gryphons this time, using a hoof to push the elder gryphon back away from his daughter. “Tell me, how did that feel? Did you regret doing it? Did you cry at night because your daughter had been ripped from your nest? Did you hatch half-baked plans to rescue her from the very enslavement you just tasted? …Did you even care?”

    “She was cursed,” Shale growled, pushing against the pegasus’ hoof. He found himself held at foreleg’s length as Spectrum’s amber eyes bored into his brown ones.

    “So that answers everything,” she responded dryly. “Don’t try to help, don’t look for a cure, don’t bother trying to find a solution, just toss her away like so much refuse and forget about her.”

    “I-it’s what we had to do,” Patina sniffled from nearby, “w-we were already suffering in a low caste. A… a cursed gryphon in our bloodline would doom us even further. If we fell anymore…”

    “If you fell anymore, you’d be in chains,” Filigree noted softly.

    An uncomfortable silence stretched for several moments before Shale’s beak opened wide. Spectrum gave him a hard stare, meeting his eyes, and for once the elder gryphon took the hint and shut his beak. He growled wordlessly instead and turned his back on the pair. Filigree shook her head and headed for one of the river’s banks, followed closely by Spectrum.

    “You alright?” the pegasus asked gently.

    “As well as can be expected,” the gryphon answered. “I can’t say I expected them to see reason, but I didn’t expect quite so much hostility after rescuing them from...”

    “They can’t change overnight.”

    “Maybe not, but Verdigris said they had been enslaved for months. I thought that would change something,” the gryphon sighed as she watched her family, pretending not to notice the angry and sullen glares from them.

    “Are you sure about leaving your little sister with them?” Spectrum asked in a soft voice as she sat by her friend, not wanting to be overheard.

    “No,” Filigree admitted, “but I can’t be the sister she needs.”

    “You’d be better than that lot,” Flourish snorted from over their heads and magically tugged a fruit off the tree. “Apple?”

    Filigree held out a claw and caught the fruit, taking a bite before answering, “I’ll visit frequently and discuss it with the Princesses. I don’t think we can, or even should, take her away from them. But if he so much as lays a claw on her….”

    “She’s smart enough to duck,” Flourish said. “In fact, she’s got more smarts then all of them put together. A little naïve, perhaps, but she seems eager to learn.”

    “Besides, they’re so easy to trick,” a new voice added, and the trio turned to look at the young gryphoness behind them. Filigree sighed while Spectrum gave an amused grin. Flourish just tossed another apple down to the young gryphon, who caught it and sat herself back to back with her elder sister, all but hiding between Filigree’s metallic wings as she started to munch the fruit.

    “How long were you listening?” Filigree asked.

    “About the time you said you can’t be the sister I need,” Verdigris answered softly, “but you’re wrong. You can be the sister I need. You already are…”

    “Verdigris….”

    “You stood up and saved me when no one else would. You protected me, talked and listened to me, and in just a few days acted more like a sister than she ever did,” she insisted, emphasizing her point with a barely seen jerk of her claw at Pyrite, who was whining about how she could still see blood on her feathers. “I understand your reasons, Filigree… I honestly do. But understanding them in my head isn’t making accepting them any easier. I just… don’t want you to go…”

    Filigree sighed softly, “I don’t want to go, honestly. I don’t trust them, but…”

    “But you live the life of intrigue and adventure,” the little gryphon teased around a sniffle.

    “I prefer to leave the intrigue to the Princesses,” Filigree answered with a sad smile.

    “I think, perhaps, I should go find the welcoming committee. It’s nearly sundown, and these gryphons aren’t going to want to sleep in the wild, especially not this close to the Everfree,” Spectrum put in, and climbed to her hooves. “It should only take me an hour or so.”

    “Rainbow? Thank you…” Filigree said softly.

    The pegasus blinked. “For what?”

    “For sticking up for me,” the gryphoness answered. Spectrum just smiled.

    “That’s what friends do.”

8

Chapter 8

“Three’s Company”

    “Thank you for coming.”

    Two ponies and a gryphon bowed low before the sister Princesses, whom were each settled on comfortable cushions behind a large wooden table, their eyes washing over the trio appraisingly. Only Flourish stole a glance back to the door through which they had just traversed, noticing one of the armoured guards pulling them shut. Palace security had increased dramatically since they had departed, and they had required an escort while traversing the palace, something that never happened to them before even in the midst of the Nightmare’s invasion. Given the nervous looks that Filigree kept garnering when they had made the long walk to this meeting room, the mare had a good guess to the reason.

    “Please rise,” Celestia said in a surprisingly tired voice and waved to the cushions at the other side of the table. She paused to allow the trio sit before continuing, “I don’t think I need to tell you three how the failed diplomatic mission has changed the tone here in Canterlot. While I understand you only returned just a few short hours ago, it is imperative that we get your first hoof accounts of what occurred in the Clan Territories.”

    “We’d have seen you sooner,” Luna added with a sigh, “but with all the details of coordinating our defenses and... let’s just say we’ve been extremely busy.”

    “I understand fully, Princess,” Filigree stated. “I will abide by any judgement you would levy against me for my failure in my mission.”

    The Princesses faces twisted with shock and surprise at the slavish response. Celestia sighed and shook her head sadly, while Luna looked downright angry for several moments.

    “What did they do to you?” the Lunar Princess demanded.

    “They beat the crap out of her,” Flourish answered, cutting Filigree off. “Seriously, after a few days of healing she still looks like hell. Just look at her! She’s covered in bruises, has a shiner that’s only barely healed, and I am pretty sure that tendency to favor her front left leg is the result of magic improperly healing a break.”

    The Princesses, and even Spectrum, looked shocked at the brash little unicorn. Their eyes then slid to the gryphoness, appraising the very injuries that had been pointed out. Luna seethed, her breath coming in hisses forced through clenched teeth.

    “Have you seen a healer?” Celestia asked worriedly.

    “Not yet, Princess,” Filigree answered.

    “Why not?”

    “My duty is to report everything that happened while I was in the clan territories,” Filigree stated simply. “This was more important.”

    “Horsefeathers!” Luna all but shouted as she leapt to her hooves, her expression fierce and her body trembling with barely contained rage.

    “Sister…” Celestia said soothingly.

    “But--!”

    “Getting angry at Filigree will achieve nothing,” the elder sister counseled. “No amount of yelling at the gryphoness will change the evils the king has visited upon her. Your anger may be righteous, but it is aimed at the wrong gryphon.”

    “I… I…” Luna stammered, and then took a slow breath. “I’m sorry, Filigree. However, you should have sought out medical attention immediately! Your safety is paramount in all this. You are one of our ponies, regardless of where you were born, and your health is of utmost concern.”

    Filigree blinked widely, before dipping her head, “I will do as you say in the future, Princess.”

    “You do not understand, Filigree” Celestia said sadly, and met the gryphoness’ eyes. “I understand that you consider your duty of paramount importance, especially in a situation such as this, but to ignore your own health is a failure of not only to yourself, but of your duty to the rest of Equestria. You bear one of the Elements of Harmony, and that requires seeing after yourself as well as others. Even were that not the case, I would not allow any one of my little ponies to suffer, and I will never force you to suffer. Once we have concluded here I will have the palace physician summoned to examine your injuries and, if necessary, you will transferred to the hospital.”

    “Hey, we tried to get her to see a healer,” Flourish grumped, “but little miss stubborn there wasn’t having it.”

    “Filigree, how much of what Flourish said of your injuries are true?” Luna asked, then cut the gryphoness off when she opened her beak with a stomp of her hoof. “I want the whole truth, Filigree. Do not hold anything back.”

    “I was seen to by gryphon healers,” the gryphoness answered after a moment’s consideration. “I believe that, in the least, I suffered from a broken leg, several fractured ribs, a cracked beak, a number of internal injuries I could not even begin to guess at, more bruises than I could count, and one of my eyes was swollen completely shut when I first woke.”

    Luna listened to each injury, her body trembling with impotent rage. In response to her anger, magic coalesced into a near physical presence about her, darkening the younger Princess to a shadow in the brightly lit room. Only a touch from her sister caused the younger Princess’ focus to shatter, the magic dissipating suddenly in a rush from the room as if a giant dragon had exhaled, blowing doors and windows wide open. The ponies were forced to brace against the sudden hurricane; only the Princesses remained impassive at the center of the fierce but mercifully brief maelstrom. Luna took several deep and unsteady breaths before nodding to her sister.

    “Princess!!” a guard pony cried, the Commander rushing in with a squad of well armed and trained guardponies, weapons held at the ready for an attack.

    “At ease, Commander, we are fine,” Celestia told the guard. “It was merely the release of some improperly gathered magic.”

    “Are you sure, Princess?” the Commander asked, unconvinced.

    “Yes, Commander Brighthorn,” Celestia said serenely, “you and your men may return to your posts.”

    “As you command, Princess,” the stallion bowed and turned to leave. He was followed by the guard, and closed the doors behind him. Celestia reached out with her magic and gently tugged the windows shut again, leaving Luna to calm herself after her outburst.

    “I… apologize,” Luna finally said after a number of long minutes. “That display was unseemly for a Princess.”

    “Do not apologize,” Celestia offered soothingly, “Your anger is completely justifiable, but you must not let it consume you so.” Luna gave a slow nod, and all attention turned back to the gryphoness. “Tell me, Filigree,” Celestia queried, “what could cause such harm to you? I did not believe even King Goldtalon’s most elite guard could even hope to hurt you so severely.”

    “Were his guard comprised of normal gryphons, they couldn’t have,” Filigree agreed. “However, Goldtalon has been cherry-picking champions from the gladiatorial pits.”

    Luna frowned for a moment. “Don’t the gryphons often send many of their specials to fight in the slave pits as gladiators?”

    “That is correct, Princess,” Filigree said softly. “He was attended by ten of these gladiators, nine as of now, each of whom was a champion in the arena. He pitted his most celebrated champion against me in an attempt to beat me into submission, and I handed that Champion his first and last defeat. The king eliminated him for that failure. Unfortunately, the remainder of his guard opted to avenge their fallen comrade, and proceeded to attack me until I could no longer remain conscious.”

    “Why did you not surrender when you realized the odds were against you?” Celestia asked softly, dreading the answer.

    “The king’s own words were that he would accept my surrender… but only after his guard had beaten it from me,” the gryphon said.

    “He said WHAT!?” Luna cried, stamping the floor hard enough to crack stone. Celestia shuddered visibly and looked away, unable to bring herself to chide her sister for an outburst she barely prevented herself from. Flourish glowered angrily, and Spectrum looked green momentarily before moving forward to brace the larger gryphon from the side. Filigree may not have needed the support, but leaned slightly on her friend, a grateful smile touching her beak.

    “I think we can be sure of the nature of our opponent,” Celestia stated in an attempt to bleed away some of the brittle tension that filled the room. “King Goldbeak was an honorable, if stubborn, gryphon. We may not have seen eye to eye, but he always negotiated fairly and knew the definition of mercy. His son, King Goldtalon, apparently does not share those traits.”

    “I still want to know what happened to his elder sister,” Luna growled. “I rather liked her. Goldshrike was a shrewd negotiator, and I could respect that.”

    “If I understood the king properly,” Filigree interjected, “he arranged for an ‘accident’ during her combat training that cost the use of her wings. She was married off to a prominent trading family to put her out of the way, which placed him in the direct line of ascension. I do not know what happened to his younger sibling, but I would not be surprised if a ‘terrible accident’ has likewise befallen her.”

    “This is a truly reprehensible individual,” Celestia replied tersely. “Tell me, what were his words regarding my ponies?”

    “He stated, in no uncertain terms, that you are the enemy,” Filigree said, drawing a soft gasp from Spectrum by her. “The Lieutenant Commander you sent with me demanded to know when the ponies became the enemy, a question I echoed shortly thereafter. The King stated you and yours were always the enemy, and said outright that those gryphons who failed to see this were fools.”

    “I see.”

    “There is one additional thing, Princess,” the gryphon interrupted. “King Goldtalon’s final goal is the death of you and your sister.”

    “This is hardly a surprise,” Celestia stated flatly.

    “He believes he has found a weapon capable of doing it.”

    Luna scoffed, “What sort of magical contraption would stand up to us?”

    “She has been named ‘Godkiller’,” Filigree said softly. “She is, if King Goldtalon’s words are to be believed, a cursed gryphon whom is completely immune to all forms of magic, including divine magicks.”

    “He knows this how?” Celestia asked softly, ignoring the shocked expression of her sister.

    “He has tested her against relics you and your sister ensorcelled for the clans in the past,” Filigree answered.

    “I see,” Celestia sighed, “and what were his designs for you?”

    “He said there were reasons he would not reveal, but I was able to draw three from him,” Filigree said, and held up a claw to tick the reasons off on her talons, “first, to prevent the use of the Elements of Harmony as a weapon. He fears this is the only magic that ‘Godkiller’ would be vulnerable to.”

    Luna chuckled wryly, “Your suspicion was accurate, sister.” Celestia nodded, but showed no satisfaction in being proven correct.

    “Two,” Filigree continued, “to use me as an example of gryphon superiority.”

    “I’m afraid I don’t understand that reason,” Luna interrupted.

    “I do,” Celestia answered softly. “If it were to be announced to the clans that Filigree had abandoned the ponies for the clans, even after earning accolades from us, then it would give credibility to a belief that gryphon society is superior to the ways we have nurtured amongst out little ponies.”

    “That is correct, Princess,” Filigree said before ticking off her final talon. “The last reason was more personal. He had a gryphon he wished to mate me to, as you had guessed, Princess Celestia. My promise, my mating, to this gryphon was the price of his acquiescence as a spy.”

    “Wait, you didn’t mention this spy thing before…” Flourish said, sitting upright.

    “No, I did not,” Filigree answered, “I wished to spare his family as much of the humiliation as possible, and my family is not known for their… discretion.”

    “Oh no… Please don’t tell me…” Spectrum whispered, her eyes widening in horror.

    “I’m sorry, Rainbow Star,” Filigree said softly, curling a wing gently over her friend. “The spy in question was Alto. In an attempt to win my affection from Chase, his brother, he sought out my family in search of my promise.”

    “One moment, Filigree,” Luna interrupted. “What is this ‘promise’?”

    “A promise of marriage,” Spectrum answered shakily. “Gryphons used arranged marriages in the past. Parents of the male would seek the ‘promise’ of the daughter from another family, usually as a way to improve the caste of their family. Much of that has been abandoned, but it is still tradition for a male gryphon who wishes to be wed to seek the ‘promise’ of his beloved from her family. Traditionally, a promise is considered binding, so strong that even the King himself could not countermand it.”

    “Which explains the timing,” Celestia added sourly, “he needed to ensure you were not promised before he could do so himself.”

    “Then this Alto sought out Filigree’s family in search of this promise?” Luna asked.

    “Correct,” Filigree said solemnly. “My parents, of course, directed him to the Arch-duke, who technically owned me last. The Duke, who was under scrutiny from the King due to my sale to you, informed the King. The King made an arrangement with Alto; my promise in exchange for his services as a naturalized pony and spy.”

    Rainbow Star growled softly and clenched her eyes shut. “I am going to buck his flank into next week…” she hissed.

    “There is no need,” Filigree answered, “he has sunk himself. He was a special, a ‘screamer’. When I made my escape he attempted to stop me with his power, in full view of the guards. He will not be welcome amongst the gryphon clans again.”

    “Nor will he be welcome in the Ponylands,” Celestia stated darkly. “I will alert the guard to arrest him on sight.”

    “What about his family?” Luna asked. “I know it is unkind to those gryphons Spectrum and Filigree have befriended, but should we not at least place them into custody until their motives are known?”

    “I believe that would overstep the trust placed in us,” Celestia answered, much to Spectrum’s obvious relief.

    “It may behoove you to place them in some sort of protective custody, however,” Filigree said evenly. “We do not know if Alto would come to take revenge on his brother or family.”

    “I can’t see him hurting them--” Rainbow Star started.

    “I could, unfortunately,” Filigree cut in, drawing a worried frown from the pegasus. “Alto’s primary influence in trying to mate me was to beat out his brother, who he sees as a gryphon that has always won and is favored by their parents. Part of his argument, in reference to forcing me to mate him, was to beat out his brother and ‘win’. He is consumed by anger towards his sibling, and should Chase not be present when Alto comes for revenge, I can easily see him taking it out on his parents or family. He is that blinded by rage.”

    Celestia nodded slowly. “I believe this s all the information we need for now. I agree to your suggestion for protective custody, but we do not have the pony power to act on it. Spectrum, I would ask you, instead, to extend an invitation to them to relocate temporarily to Canterlot for the duration of this crisis. Let me know if they accept, and I will prepare a place for them to stay until their son can be found. You will need to leave right after we are finished here to give them as much time as possible to make their decision.”

    Spectrum nodded. “Yes, Princess.”

    “As for you, Filigree, should we have any additional questions one of us will contact you. For now, it’s time to call for that healer,” Luna said simply.

    “Flourish, would you please ask one of the guards by the door to fetch my personal physician?” Celestia requested.

    “Sure thing, Princess.”

    “G’mornin’!”

    “Good morning,” the white mare answered, her blank eyes scanning the cozy little kitchen, interrupted only by the boarded over window behind the cooking mare. The elder mare at the stove was hard at work, building a large stack of pancakes on a nearby serving plate.

    “Sleep well?” Apple Bloom asked with a smile, pausing to add a few more flapjacks to the pile. “Ya’ll got in purdy late last night…”

    “Yes and no,” the blind mare admitted softly as she circled the kitchen table, pausing only to eye a few unfamiliar bottles of syrup and honey.

    “Lemme guess,” the elder mare said with a chuckle, and gripped the nearby pitcher in her mouth to pour more batter onto her griddle. “It’s about Clockwork, ain’t it?”

    Galaxi nodded. “I’m worried about her,” she answered and took the plate full of pancakes with her telekinesis and placed them on the table.

    “Is there somethin’ my mate an’ I c’n help ya with?” Apple Bloom asked. “I mean, she’s my frien’ too.”

    “I’m not sure how much I should say,” Galaxi admitted. “I don’t want to reveal something private….”

    “I c’n respect that,” Apple Bloom said as she poured more batter onto the griddle, starting work on a second stack. Galaxi moved closer and settled down on the floor.

    “Has she been--?”

    “Actin’ weird?” Apple Bloom interrupted, finishing the mare’s thought, and Galaxi nodded sheepishly. “Ayup, couple a’ times now. If’n I keep her distracted an’ busy, she seems fine. But th’ moment she gets a chance to sit an’ think, or somethin’ big happens, she gets a little funny.”

    Galaxi sighed, “Anything specific, or just in general?”

    “Mostly in general,” Apple Bloom said, “but there was a few times… like when we got inta that there scrap with them thugs. She up and whooped their flanks, but then went way ova’ the top, pummelin’ one mare until her face was…”

    Galaxi winced. “She’s badly overreacting then?”

    “Oh that ain’t the half of it,” Apple Bloom sighed. “I finally got her ta’ talk about what happened, an’ she up an’ said that they done turned into imps right before her eyes. They didn’, by the by, it was jus’ in ‘er head. Worse, she was in a right state aftahwards, tryin’ to wash the blood offa her hooves f’r somethin’ like twenny minutes.”

    “I see,” Galaxi said softly as she looked away, hovering over a new plate for Apple Bloom to stack pancakes on.

    “Also, an’ I dunno if this is important,” the elder mare continued, “but she got some sorta scroll yesterday.”

    “A scroll?”

    “Yup, said it was from stallion back home in Cannerlot,” Apple Bloom continued, missing the pained expression that washed across Galaxi’s features before the younger filly could will it away. “Normally I wouldn’ think much o’ it, she’s a bright an’ pretty young filly after all, I’d be surprised if she ain’t got dozens o’ stallions sniffin’ after her tail.”

    “Tome keeps trying to set her up with eligible stallions,” Galaxi said in a carefully neutral voice, “but Clockwork somehow manages to chase them all away.”

    “None o’ my business, I reckon’. But she was downright frantic about readin’ that scroll, an’ afterwards she said that there stallion what wrote her had some sorta problem adjustin’ after his family died in th’ war,” Apple Bloom said, her voice dipping slightly. “I couldn’ help but think that sounded jes’ like her. I seem ta’ recall that she done lost her brother…”

    “You’re thinking she is suffering the same way he was?”

    Apple Bloom nodded. “Ayup, that’s what I reckon.”

    “And I think you’re reading too much into it,” Twist said from the doorway as she ambled in. She paused to give Apple Bloom a kiss before wandering to the fridge to pour herself some juice.

    “No,” Galaxi said softly, “I don’t think she is.”

    “I don’t know… Galaxi was it? Apple Bloom may be perceptive, but she tends to jump to conclusions,” Twist said with a teasing smile as she settled at the table, juice in hoof.

    “Yer still mad at me fer yesterday,” Apple Bloom snorted.

    “Just pointing out your flaws to the newcomer, dear,” Twist answered smoothly.

    “Breakfast smells wonderful!” the cyan unicorn cried as she made her way into the kitchen. “Trixie must thank you for putting us up on such short notice.”

    Twist waved a hoof. “Don’t sweat it. So long as you girls don’t mind sharing the room there...”

    “It’s as good excuse as any for… er…” Trixie stammered, catching herself.

    “Is there somethin’ wrong?” Apple Bloom asked, quirking an eyebrow.

    “W-where is Clockwork Key, anyway?” Trixie asked quickly.

    “She left before I got up,” Galaxi said softly, “she hasn’t been back yet. I think she took her armour, but I don’t know… I can’t tell from that sled thing if it’s been deployed or not.”

    The unicorn sighed, “I suppose it’s for the best. We can sort out how to approach our little Clockwork Key together, before she comes back.”

    “Looks like you win this time,” Twist called back to her mate.

    “I done toldja she was actin’ a lil’ off,” Apple Bloom answered, limping to the table and setting down a second plate of pancakes before taking a seat.

    The cyan unicorn looked at each figure seated about the table and frowned, “Trixie supposes she will have to trust each of you with a secret.”

    “Trixie…” Galaxi started, but the unicorn held up a hoof.

    “Trixie has been given permission, by Princess Celestia herself, to reveal something that is top secret in order to help our little Clockwork Key,” Trixie said, her expression severe.

    “Well, that done got my attention,” Apple Bloom said, and Twist nodded in agreement.

    “There has been a spread of certain psychological ‘conditions’ related to the war, specifically ‘aftershock’ and ‘acclimation’ disorders, and that has many in the Palace believing that they may have been intentionally caused by the Nightmare,” Trixie said softly as she sat down. “In short, it is believed that this is a final ‘revenge’ of the Nightmare… a curse, if you will.”

    “You mean what we read in the book…?” Galaxi asked in an uncertain voice.

    Trixie nodded. “Correct. There’s no sign of a pattern, yet, but predominantly those ponies who fought on the front lines seem to have been afflicted. It alters their perceptions after the war, making it difficult for them to detach themselves from it mentally and rejoin society. This can cause many problems, such as an overreaction to stresses, envisioning attacks from overpowering enemies when the threat is actually minimal, a certain level of discomfort in public settings, and in general an inability to relax properly.”

    “The same sort of things that are eating Clockwork Key,” Twist said softly.

    “Well shoot, I never done figgered it mighta been some sorta spell!” Apple Bloom added.

    “That’s the diabolical part,” Trixie continued, tapping her hoof on the kitchen table, “there is no certainty that it is a spell. No pony is certain of how this has been spread, or how it affected so many ponies in so many different areas. The only factor seems to be that the end of the war was the trigger for it to begin.”

    “Well, ain’t that ominous…” Apple Bloom sighed.

    “It gets worse, I fear,” Trixie said to a chorus of groans. Using her magic, she summoned forth a scroll, letting it unfurl before her. “This is from the horn of Princess Celestia herself. Miss Twist, would you be so kind to read it?”

    Twist carefully took the scroll in her hooves from the unicorn’s magic, and began to read aloud, “To my Insightful Pupil, Trixie Lulamoon…”

    “Yer last name is Lulamoon?!” Apple Bloom cried, and laughed so hard she fell off her chair. Twist rolled her eyes and raised her voice to continue.

    “I fear the news is far more dire than I first predicted,” Twist read. “Far more of my little ponies have been suffering from this condition than was anticipated, making it more wide-spread than I would have ever suspected. This belies the idea that this is simply a psychological condition, as I had surmised, and makes it far more likely that it is a spell or curse. A curse the likes of which I have not witnessed since the Lunar War, which makes the similarities all the more troubling.

    “The timing of this curse is unfortunate, given the situation growing with the gryphon clans, but we have taken to calling it the ‘Nightmare’s Revenge’ for now. At this time, the curse is to be considered a state secret, so only pass this information to those you absolutely must and who you deem trustworthy. However, with so many ponies suffering from it, a solution must be found quickly. Do not forget what you have learned thus far, and remember that the magic of friendship is far more powerful than any curse. The love you and your friends have for each other will see you through this darkness, and allow you to help Clockwork Key through her struggle.

    “You are encouraged to experiment as you attempt to find a solution. I do not delude myself into thinking there will be a cure-all for this, but there should be a method to at least control this curse. However, please remember that time is critical. Furthermore, you must not spend any more time in the Northern Reaches than you have to; my sister and I would have you mares close should events spiral out of our control. I am proud that you‘re taking a leading hoof in the attempt to resolve this issue, and hope to see you home soon.

    “I eagerly await your updates.

    “Princess Celestia.”

    “Whoah, now that there’s some ominous stuff,” Apple Bloom said softly, having recovered her composure and her chair. Twist passed the scroll back to Trixie, who whisked it away with her magic.

    “There is one final detail, one which must remain an absolute secret,” Trixie said softly, “one which I tell you only because I wish to confide in Clockwork Key, and you may hear it from her.”

    “You’re just full of good news today, aren’t you?” Twist sighed.

    “Please, you all must swear to me you will keep this absolutely confidential!” Trixie insisted, and looked each mare in the eyes, each one nodding in a sort of shocked surprise. Only Galaxi looked mildly suspicious of what Trixie might claim next, this was all getting too much for her to believe.

    “No pony outside this room must know what I am about to say,” Trixie hissed and leaned closer to the ponies sitting at the table, as if still suspicious somepony still might overhear. “The reason there is so much concern about this ‘curse’ is because a very prominent pony is affected as well. She was one of the last ponies to face off against the Nightmare…”

    “Ya’ll don’t mean…?” Apple Bloom gasped.

    “I do. Princess Celestia herself has been afflicted, and is doing her best to stave off the symptoms as remedies are sought for,” Trixie said solemnly. “A solution must be found, and quickly, else the Princess herself could fall victim to it.”

    “Well don’ that just beat all,” Apple Bloom fussed, pulling her hat off to twist the brim nervously.

    “You’ll have to talk to Clockwork when she returns,” Twist said. “She needs to know as soon as possible.”

    “That is what Trixie planned to do,” the unicorn agreed, “but Clockwork has been here for the past few days, and Trixie… and I am uncertain how to broach this subject with her. It seems an even greater hurdle due the fact that Clockwork has been distancing herself from myself and Galaxi since our time in Canterlot.”

    “I say jus’ take the bull by th’ horns and tell ‘er straight away,” Apple Bloom said simply with a shrug.

    “Wait, didn’t the letter say something about Gryphons?” Twist asked. “What’s going on there?”

    “The gryphons are on the verge of declaring war against the ponylands,” Galaxi answered, drawing a gasp from the elder mares. “Filigree, the gryphon from our team, went on a diplomatic mission into the Clan’s territories, and the new gryphon king slapped her in chains. We didn’t hear the full story, we left before our teammates returned from the rescue mission. I only know that the gryphons are taking an aggressive stance towards us ponies.”

    “Today jus’ gets worse an’ worse, don’ it?” Apple Bloom sighed. “Are th’ gryphons still claimin’ we’re squattin’ on their land?”

    “That was one of the concerns the Princesses had,” Galaxi answered. “There’s also a belief that they may move on the colonies if they find out any of us Elements Bearers are here. The gryphon King, for the moment, seems to focused on what damage the Elements of Harmony could do to his plans.”

    “I bet the council still has its head in the sand,” Twist stated, shaking her head. “Or worse, they hope that by distancing themselves from Celestia that the gryphons will ignore them.”

    “That seems highly unlikely to work,” Galaxi answered softly.

    “Maybe, but I wouldn’ put it past some of the council ponies… like Marmalade,” Apple Bloom stated, then seemed to think on what she just said. “Wait, I wonder… what iffn’ that’s why she was tryin’ to stop us Crusader’s makin’ noise about re-joinin’ Celestia an’ th’ Ponylands?”

    “I don’t know, but it sounds too noble for her,” Twist considered.

    “Princess Celestia has already admitted she doesn’t have the pony power to protect the colonies,” Galaxi said softly.

    “Not that th’ council would accept it anyway,” Apple Bloom snorted.

    “Clockwork’s back,” Galaxi said suddenly, her blank eyes flashing. A clomp of hooves followed her revelation, and a series of mechanical sounds from one of the back bedrooms. The ponies waited in silence as they heard Clockwork trot off to bathroom, and then down the hall towards them.

    “Showtime,” Trixie whispered as she turned to face the doorway.

    “Did you find anything, my friend?”

    The sandy colored stallion looked up from his book, “Actually, yes. It’s nothing definitive, but in perusing some of these books Princess Celestia had sealed away, I stumbled across an interesting one from only a generation or two ago.”

    The zebra raised an eyebrow and looked away from his careful watch of the orbs, “And what, pray tell, did you find?”

    Professor Relic smiled broadly and used a hoof to point at an etched picture in the book he hovered before him. “Are you familiar with Queen Chrysalis, Quagga?”

    “The shape-shifting queen,” the zebra answered, “she who feeds from the emotions of her victims, and guides her horde of changelings to devour all love and leave behind only emotionless husks to rot and become new changelings under her rule.”

    “That’s the one,” the unicorn said with a broad smile. “I ran across the story of her expulsion from Canterlot.”

    “I presume that would have happened many more generations in the past than you referenced,” Quagga stated matter-of-factly.

    “Given that I’ve found no less than five entries in these books where Chrysalis and Celestia have crossed horns before, I don’t doubt that,” the professor chuckled. “But this instance was after Luna’s return, and it was not either Princess who drove her off.”

    “Given that time frame…” the zebra considered, pacing as he thought, “…that would put it in the lifetimes of The Six; possibly after the time the Elements chose them to be the first Specials.”

    “This account was from before they became Specials, actually. It seems that Chrysalis impersonated an alicorn named Cadance, and infiltrated the Palace that way. There was to be a wedding between Cadance and one of the captains of the guard, named here as Shining Armor, and the Six were invited to take part in it. It seems only Twilight Sparkle suspected there was anything wrong, but her attempts to reveal the false Princess fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t until she discovered the real Princess Cadance that she was successful in exposing the fraud.”

    “I fail to see how this story relates to anything,” Quagga snorted. “If anything, it sounds rather… dull.”

    Professor Relic grinned broadly. “When Queen Chrysalis was exposed, she used her control over Shining Armor to lower the shield about Canterlot, and her changelings invaded. The Six were actually prevented from reaching the Elements in time to stop her and were captured.”

    “I suppose that Princess Celestia stopped her then,” Quagga noted.

    “No, she defeated me,” Celestia answered, startling the stallions, who recovered quickly and bowed. “You may rise. However I am curious what that story has to do with your current project, or are you just getting a chuckle out of one of my more… ignominious defeats?” she asked teasingly.

    “Actually, Princess,” Relic said as he recovered, “I think I have a partial solution to the trigger of your elements, thanks to this story.”

    Celestia raised a surprised eyebrow, and levitated a bright blue cushion over to settle her flank on, “By all means then, please continue.”

    Relic smiled and waved a hoof towards Celestia, “The Princess was defeated, but it’s the words of Queen Chrysalis stood out to me, as they are written here. To paraphrase, she fed on the love Shining Armor had for Cadance and used it to amplify her powers, allowing her to overpower the Princess. To further this analogy, Twilight Sparkle was able to free Cadance, who in turn was able to free Shining Armor from the Changeling Queen’s control. She used love, pure and simple love, to amplify his power and activate the Canterlot shield with such power it flung the Queen and her minions from Canterlot.”

    “Love is an incredibly potent magic,” Princess Celestia confirmed. “It is one that, if properly harnessed, even I cannot stand against.”

    “That’s just it, Princess, that’s the key we’ve been looking for,” the Professor stated, snapping the book closed with his magic. “Love is the key. Friendship, which triggers the Elements of Harmony, is a type of love. It’s the love for a friend, and one of its many MANY forms. Love of family, love of friends, love of a mare or stallion, etcetera.”

    Quagga shook his head before speaking, “But that would not explain the reaction in the elements when the guard reported to the Princess.”

    The Professor’s smile widened. “I think it does. There are types of love that fit the criteria. Love for your ruler, your Princess. Love of your state, your homeland. The list is endless…”

    A smile split Celestia’s face. “I must commend you, Professor. That is a most astute observation.”

    “The work isn’t finished, Princess,” the stallion said, holding up a hoof, “but we have our starting point. I may yet be wrong, and this is just a theory, but…”

    “But it is a credible one,” Quagga finished.

    The Princess beamed with pride and made her way to her hooves. “I knew you would be able to puzzle it out, Professor Relic. Tell me what you need, and I will allow you to begin testing.”

    “Once I have some things narrowed down, Princess, I will,” Relic answered.

    “Very good, Professor.”

    Clockwork sat alone.

    Her green eyes were fixed into the distance, staring at the loose smattering of clouds highlighted by the evening sun. The air was still relatively chill, with an occasional gust of wind to send her short indigo mane fluttering before she straightened it with a stroke of her hoof. A threadbare cushion protected her flank from the gnarled floor beneath her. The Library was encased within the naturally grown, and still living, tree that had formed a symbiotic relationship with the quantity of intelligence stored within. Many of its balconies were decorated with telescopes and other paraphernalia to further one’s self education, and scattered with cushions and nooks to encourage one to settle in and read the day away. Clockwork had chosen her perch on the highest balcony, seeking nothing more than privacy with her thoughts and to allow the rustling noise of wind through the leaves to calm her frayed nerves, not that it was working. Her mind was a confused maelstrom of conflicting thoughts, none of which were willing to come into focus long enough to consider closely.

    “So this is where you ran off to,” came a soft voice from behind her, and the short mare bristled.

    “Go away, Galaxi,” the khaki mare responded tersely.

    The blind mare ignored the instruction and settled her flank down on a nearby cushion, shifting a little to get comfortable before speaking again, “Why did you run away from us?”

    “What was I supposed to do?” Clockwork snapped bitterly. “I’ve been struggling with this for months now, then Trixie rolls in with some sort of edict from Celestia and I’m just supposed to fall in line like a toy soldier? It just doesn’t add up…”

    “You think she was lying to you?” Galaxi asked softly.

    “She has to be!” Clockwork yelled, her expression an almost unreadable mix of emotions warring for prominence. The mare turned away, hiding her face behind her mane before continuing, “Her ‘explanation’ really doesn’t explain much at all. It doesn’t explain Bottle Rocket. It doesn’t explain why it took months before it showed in me. It doesn’t explain how Celestia could have gotten it…”

    “Trixie isn’t here,” Galaxi answered evenly, “so I don’t know what Celestia may have told her. But I know that whatever this is, it’s eating you from the inside. You keep pushing me… us away every time we try to find out what’s wrong. I know you found somepony to talk to about it, but I’ve never even met this Bottle Rocket, so the only information I have is what you and Trixie have told me about him.”

    The khaki mare snorted softly and looked away. “I shouldn’t have yelled at Trixie at the park,” Clockwork said a few moments later, “she was only teasing me. But I couldn’t see past what she was saying, and it made me so… so angry. I couldn’t… I can’t stop it.  I keep losing my temper, losing control over my emotions, loosing parts of myself to this emotional… thing! I feel like I’m cracking, that every time I lose it a new crack appears, and it’s threatening to rip me apart. I don’t like what I’m becoming… it scares me. But I don’t know how to stop it, and I don’t want to hurt anypony when it does happen. It’s better… it’s safer… if you all just left me alone… you won’t get hurt that way.”

    “Is that how you think you’re embodying your element?” Galaxi asked pointedly. The other mare didn’t answer, and the blind mare sighed softly and shook her head. “I can answer one of your earlier accusations about Trixie with a question. What were you doing right after the Nightmare was defeated and the war ended?”

    “We had an awards ceremony.”

    “And after that?” Galaxi pressed.

    Clockwork frowned, but still refused to look at the other pony, her head lowering for a moment in thought. “We cleaned up the leftover Imp forces. I also worked hoof in hoof with the guard in an attempt to track down Ultrapony,” she answered finally.

    Galaxi nodded. “You worked most days analyzing data and occasionally visiting suspect locations. A majority of the time you were in the palace. Do you remember what you were doing there?”

    “Galaxi, what does this have to do with--?” Clockwork demanded irritably.

    “Try to remember,” Galaxi pleaded, “please.”

    Clockwork frowned and looked back up into the sky, green eyes following a wispy cloud for several minutes. Galaxi was just about to give up when the mare responded, “It’s a blur for me, mostly. I remember feeling… safe. Is that odd? Like a warm blanket or a heavy comforter on a cold rainy day, listening to the pattering against the window, a hot cocoa in one hoof and a good book in the other. Curled up lazily with… with friends…”

    “Do you remember Trixie’s nightmares?” Galaxi asked softly, daring to approach the other mare.

    Clockwork nodded. “I remember them. I never forgot about them, but… it all seemed so much less important lately. I…” she finished in a whimper.

    “That’s why this ‘curse’ took so long to occur in you,” Galaxi answered, her voice gentle. “You had support, even if you yourself didn’t realize it. You were leaning on Trixie, on me, even as you and I were there to support Trixie. Do you remember how worried you would get when our lessons ran over? You’d keep pestering the guards to check on us…”

    Clockwork stifled a chortle. “I bothered the one stallion so badly he threatened to throw me into the dungeon to ‘cool off’. And that poor maid, I ran her ragged those first few weeks making sure everything was exactly how you and Trixie liked it, especially the snacks and tea…”

    “Do you remember that stain you left on her carpet?”

    Clockwork winced. “I was a wreck when that happened,” the short mare admitted, to Galaxi’s surprise. “I had that poor maid kept running back and forth with cleaners and brushes for me, and I was mixing them together haphazardly and scrubbing my hooves raw, so desperate to get that stain out. I think the maid finally took pity on me, and got me away from it and calmed down. Didn’t help I’d mixed a few cleaners together I shouldn’t have, and nearly gassed myself. If I’d been paying attention, that wouldn’t have happened. All because I had to be there, but that repair needed to be done for the Guard as soon as possible.”

    Galaxi frowned, that was an early sign that she and Trixie had never seen, and the guard and maid would never have realized was out of character for the short mare. “Shortly after that, the search for Rainbow Star’s father, Ultrapony, was called off, and you were sent up here to the Northern Reaches,” Galaxi said softly. “You were sent away from us, and you lost the ponies you were leaning on.”

    Clockwork frowned, continuing to look into the sky as the first streamers of orange touched the clouds, sunset slowly approaching. She took in a slow breath, “That’s… when I remember first noticing it. That weird feeling, like I wasn’t all there. When I was around Echo and her grandson, or the rest of the Crusaders, it would fade, but it never went away.”

    “And then you came home for the winter,” Galaxi said gently, reaching a hoof to touch Clockwork’s shoulder. The smaller mare flinched, but didn’t draw away. “You became so distant. You stopped coming around the Palace, you hid in your lab where nopony would see you for days. Everypony could see something was wrong, but none of us knew how to approach you. Skillet kept trying to talk to you, asking you to do things to get out of the house, but it wasn’t helping. You kept chasing me out of your lab, despite the fact I could tell something was wrong…”

    Clockwork snorted, “Read my mind?”

    “Not exactly,” Galaxi answered softly, “the music wasn’t… isn’t right.”

    The small mare looked at Galaxi confused for a moment, her eyes red and bloodshot as she met the blind mare’s gaze. Galaxi couldn’t help but smile slightly, Clockwork was the only pony who didn’t care that she was blind, and was always willing to look her in the eyes. Galaxi paused for a moment, the comfortable familiarity of the simple gesture warming her, before she explained. “You remember the music, don’t you? When your mind would go full creative and you’d start working on ideas or on new inventions, your thoughts would ‘sing’ to me. Ever since you returned for the winter, your mind is singing, but not the right way. It’s sour and off key. It’s like your mind is spinning in place and going nowhere, or the way you always described how you heard the broken pieces of gear.”

    “The discordant tone,” Clockwork said softly, her gaze flicking about almost nervously. “My mind has been caught in a loop trying to sort this problem out. I… I didn’t know it was audible.”

    “Only to me, I would wager,” Galaxi said softly. “It’s made your mind impenetrable to me. You’re literally immune to any attempts to any of my attempts to link psychically with you. I can’t even send telepathic messages to you.”

    Clockwork frowned. “That sounds… serious.”

    “Regardless of anything that Trixie has in that letter, I know from speaking to Princess Luna that the elder goddess is berating herself for not noticing that you were struggling,” she said softly. “There was an old book she gave Trixie to show us from the Lunar War, where they went over a pair of disorders caused by the war itself, one of which sounded identical to how you’ve been behaving.”

    “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Clockwork asked in a small voice, “but did it say if there is a fix?”

    “No,” Galaxi answered softly, and the other mare’s ears wilted, “this cannot be ‘cured’, as such. It can be mitigated and one can learn to cope with it, but like Trixie’s nightmares, you will never wake up one day to find it gone.”

    “Then if Trixie is telling the truth…” Clockwork considered aloud, “…the Princess would be looking to ponies like us to come up with methods for that coping, so that she might incorporate it into her own life.”

    Galaxi blinked, but quickly hid her surprise as a piece of the puzzle clicked into place. She carefully filed it away; she would have time to speak with Trixie about it later. Clockwork was her concern right now. “I would personally suggest that the best place to start is where we ended before.”

    Clockwork frowned. “I don’t remember…”

    Galaxi moved to sit by Clockwork, their sides touching as she looked up at the sunset, even though she was unable to enjoy it in the same way those born gifted with “normal” sight could. “I do,” she told the pony next to her, “it means being here for you, and not leaving you alone to stew and fret and stress. You’re our friend, Clockwork, and you can’t just push us away without expecting us to wonder what’s wrong. You didn’t abandon us when we needed you… and you didn’t abandon me when things were at their worst. We are not going to abandon you… I am not going to abandon you.”

    Clockwork lowered her head, her face hidden in her mane as she leaned against the blind mare. A slight shudder rolled through her body for several moments before Galaxi realized she was crying. The psychic mare gently reached out and hugged the smaller mare close, letting her get it out of her system. It wasn’t a cure, no, but Galaxi was encouraged none the less.

    It was, after all, a step in the right direction.

    “Boy, do I feel outta place.”

    The gryphon who vocalized that sentiment looked about uncomfortably, traveling with a varied band of gryphons ranging from very young to middle aged, as they received a guarded tour of the Canterlot Palace. There were suspicious glances thrown their way, but their own gawking balanced it out somehow as they were led through the marbled halls.

    “Relax,” a sleek gryphoness soothed, her fire red crest and reddish-brown of her fur standing out even in the dimming light. “Little Star said it would be alright, and that this was for our protection. We’ll just have to trust her…”

    “I’m not so sure, Auntie Scarlett,” a large gryphon answered, his rust red crest standing out in contrast to his nearly black fur, “there’s been some strange rumors going around…”

    “We’ll find out soon enough, son,” the first gryphon said, smoothing back the feathers of his white crest, “I think we’re here.”

    The soldiers escorting the group paused before a duo of unicorn guards flanking a large wooden double door. The unicorns magically gripped the door and tugged it open, and the escorting pegasus stepped aside, motioning with a wing for the gryphons to enter. The gryphons looked nervously amongst themselves for a moment, only to notice the youngest pair of the group, barely old enough to walk, quite happily bumbled their way in. This sent their mother chasing after, followed by the rest of the ensemble.

    The dark furred gryphoness easily found her cubs on the other side of the door and quickly scooped them up, only pausing to look in the direction their little awed faces were turned when she had them fully in claw. A gasp slipped from her throat and her blue eyes widened as she looked upon the resplendent form of the Princess of the Sun, whose coat seemed to shimmer with light even in the growing darkness of the land. The lamps seemed almost needless in the face of the Solar Matron, and the mother’s eyes locked in place, staring in awe at the alicorn before her. The remainder of the group followed, running into each other in an almost comical manner as each took in the form in front of them. Princess Celestia, in turn, graced the group with a serene smile.

    “Welcome to Canterlot,” she told them, and wandered away from the window to settle herself on a comfortable cushion. The room was one of the larger meeting rooms, having taken into account the size of the visiting group. There were chairs and cushions scattered about, but the tables had been cleared out, giving the room an oddly open feel that felt more formal and empty than the Princess had intended or desired.

    “You win, they didn’t even notice us,” a nearby pegasus chuckled, tossing her rainbow mane as she looked in askance to her gryphon friend.

    Filigree smiled. “The Princess had the same effect upon me when we first met, Rainbow Star,” she chuckled. The gryphoness was wrapped in a number of bandages, and a sling for her left foreleg, but she was obviously feeling much better since the doctor had seen her earlier.

    The new voices broke the gryphon’s overawed trance. “Filigree? Little Star?” asked a jumble of voices, and all protocol was immediately forgotten as the pair were swarmed by the group of gryphons. Young cubs looped around the pair impatiently for attention while the older gryphons closed in for various forms of hugs. The large rust crested gryphon practically hovered protectively by Filigree, his eyes widening in concern at the multitude of bandages she wore. It was several minutes before the groups parted and some semblance of calm was restored.

    Celestia couldn’t help but watch with a light smile on her face, sipping from a cup of tea she wisely procured before these proceedings. When things finally calmed down, the Princess raised her voice, “I apologize for disturbing your day, but I wished to meet and explain the situation before anything happened. I do not know how much Rainbow Star told you, but I would ask for your cooperation in this most serious of situations. But before that… it is a pleasure to meet all of you. I have not had cause to come to your small plot of land, but I have heard you have done well supplementing my pegasi weather teams and selling your woodcraft furniture to the nearby towns. Gristle, Ferris, it is a pleasure to finally meet you and your families.”

    The two paternal figures within the grouping paused, looking surprised at the Princess’ acknowledgement not only of their trade, but her knowledge of their names. Before they could respond, however, the red crested gryphoness stepped forward.

    “My apologies, Princess, but as much as my husband may be overawed by the fact you know his name, I do wish to know why you felt it important to pull us out of our home,” she stated.

    Celestia couldn’t help but smile, impressed by the gryphoness’ spirit. “Scarlett, if I recall correctly?” Celestia asked, pausing to allow the gryphon to affirm her name. “Unfortunately, what will be revealed here today will be difficult for you to hear, and is one of the reasons I asked Rainbow Star and Filigree to attend as well. Rainbow Star because of her relationship with your family, Filigree because she bore witness to these unfortunate events. Normally, I would have only asked the family of Ferris and Bracket to come, but given that you share a household between brother and sister, Gristle and Bracket, I would rather err on the side of caution.”

    “I can appreciate that,” the dark furred gryphoness stated, trying hard to prevent the pair of cubs from wriggling free. As mothers often are, she was unsuccessful, and the pair managed to escape and crawl their way towards the Princess. Their little eyes upturned in awe, drinking in her visage even as their mother attempted to wrangle them again. “Sorry, Princess, they’re a little--”

    “Children of that age, regardless of their species, are a hoof-full,” she answered with a smile, and leaned down close to the children. She whispered something only the cubs could hear, and their eyes brightened and they each nodded enthusiastically, crawling back to their mother with occasional glances back to the Princess. “Now then, Bracket, was it not? You are the mother of Alto and Chase, correct?” she asked, motioning to the gryphon hovering near Filigree with the latter name.

    The rust-red crested gryphon by Filigree stood straighter at the mention of his name as his mother nodded quickly, “Yes. They were Ferris’ and my first. Then Glint and Alda…” and she motioned to a pair of teenaged gryphon boys trying hard to look bored, “and of course these rambunctious little ones, our first girls.” She added with a smile… a smile that faded at the serious expression of the Princess. “Oh no… something happened to Alto, didn’t it?”

    “In a sense,” Celestia hedged slightly, before a claw touched her shoulder. The Princess nodded to the gryphoness, Filigree, as she limped forward on her three good legs. Chase shadowed Filigree, but hung back several steps, unsure what she was about to reveal.

    “Alto lives, but has turned against the ponies,” Filigree said evenly. “What I can tell you is that I was sent to the clans to attempt to negotiate peace, and instead found myself placed in irons by King Goldtalon himself. One of the reasons he did this was so he could give my ‘promise’ to a gryphon in repayment for their work as a spy for him. The next day I met who this spy was to be.”

    “Alto?” Ferris asked in a small voice, clutching the shoulders of his mate. Both looked small, eyes wide as Filigree nodded slowly.

    “Why? Why would my brother do such a thing?!” Chase demanded from behind Filigree. His voice had an edge to it that set Spectrum’s teeth on edge, and he approached the gryphoness imposingly…

    “Because of you,” Filigree said softly, “and because of us.”

    Chase stopped, his wings halfway spread, and his anger drained into horror. Filigree used the moment of silence to move closer to him, and her voice dipping with uncharacteristic emotion, “Your brother felt he was trapped in your shadow and that your parents were favoring you over him. This is hard to hear, I know, but these are the things he told me himself.”

    “H-he…?” the gryphon squeaked, eyes wide as he met Filigree’s gaze. The gryphoness, who was usually so hard and fierce, tentatively placed her good claw on his foreleg apologetically.

    “I’m sorry,” she said softly, “but you all need to know this. You also need to know that Alto is a Special, like myself. He has the ability to project his voice in a destructive manner, or as the Agency has come to label them, a ‘screamer’.”

    “You’re worried he’s going to take revenge, aren’t you?” Scarlett asked, placing a claw on the shoulder of her sister-in-law.

    “That is correct,” Celestia answered, glancing at Filigree. The gryphoness looked oddly lost and small in this gathering. She was always so brave and stalwart, a steadfast powerhouse against even the most powerful of enemies. Right now, she looked so vulnerable, her claw resting hopefully on the foreleg of the gryphon whose own brother she had to accuse… an accusation that she knew full well might cost her the love of that same gryphon. Celestia barely prevented herself from groaning when Chase pushed away from Filigree and staggered to his parents, who enfolded him in their wings. Filigree’s head drooped, and she quickly turned her head so no one, gryphon or pony, would see her watery eyes.

    “That explains a lot,” Scarlett said softly, and took a deep breath. Her mate placed a claw on her shoulder and she patted it lightly before turning to the Princess, her voice gaining an undercurrent of strength, “Right then, what’s the plan?”

    “The first step is to place your families into the protective custody of my guard here in Canterlot,” Celestia answered, watching Rainbow Star brace her gryphoness friend out of the corner of her eye. “The next step is, for now, to observe. We hope to be able to catch him with a small force and a handful of teams, special and otherwise, on standby in the vicinity.” Celestia paused to meet the worried eyes of his parents. “We will bring him in alive if at all possible, of this I swear.” The parents only answered with a short nod, otherwise huddling together in a miserable little grouping of feathers and claws that grew with the addition of their children.

    “Y’know, I gotta question,” one of a trio of silent gryphons spoke up from where they were sitting to the side. It was difficult at a glance to tell the trio of gryphonesses apart, and one might mistake them for triplets with their matching white crests and tawny fur, with only their eye colors differentiating them from one another. “You told us what Alto did, but it was also mentioned that the King slapped Filigree into chains. Further, the King made the deal with Cousin Alto to be a spy. Why?”

    “Because King Goldtalon wishes to invade the ponylands,” Celestia answered softly, her eyes washing over the group as they reacted. The parents gasped while the younger children just seemed confused. Only Chase seemed unaffected by the news, disconsolate over the news of his brother.

    “Yeah, we sorta thought that might be it,” another of the trio said. “So… are you plannin’ on rounding up ALL the gryphons out there?”

    Celestia sighed at the question and shook her head sadly. She expected this question eventually, but not from ones so young. “Those gryphons who live in the ponylands are outcasts who have fled from the clans. I see no reason to round them up and put them in some sort of internment camp; it would be pointless and alienate those who have sought my protection. I will not round you or your sisters up, Syndle.”

    The trio actually seemed to relax with the news, and Celestia returned her attention to the group as a whole, “I have arranged for you all to stay here at the Palace for the next day or so. Once we have a suitable apartment in the city for you to stay in, we will move you there for the duration. Your expenses will be covered during this time, so long as you don’t go overboard. Filigree and Rainbow Star will be assigned to assist you in settling in, as well as Flourish, who is not present at the moment. For now, I must beg your forgiveness, other duties require my attention.”

    Celestia slowly made it to her hooves, waving a wing to dismiss any bowing. Given the news the family had just been given, their grief and worry was perfectly understandable, and they should focus on consoling those who needed it. Instead she wandered close to Filigree and leaned down to whisper to her.

    “He is not lost to you,” she told the gryphoness, “but he will need time to come to terms with what you have told him. Have hope.”

    Filigree gave a barely seen nod as the Princess departed.

    “I know you’re awake.”

    Trixie smiled at the psychic statement. The cyan unicorn was long used to telepathic communications from Galaxi, but instead of answering immediately, she yawned. Really, things had worked out surprisingly well once Galaxi had found and collected Clockwork Key. She was still a touch fragile, but whatever Galaxi had said convinced the little mare to at least try to accept their attempts to help. The end result was a rather comfortable pile of ponies and pillows on the bed in Apple Bloom’s guest bedroom. Clockwork was sandwiched between herself and Galaxi, her head resting on Trixie’s back, and Galaxi resting her head on Clockwork’s side.

    “Shush now, we don’t want to wake Clockwork,” Trixie whispered in response.

    “Then think your replies to me,” Galaxi instructed telepathically, her eyes closed in the dark, “but I want to know why you lied.”

    Trixie sighed mentally, “Really, Galaxi? Why would I lie?”

    “Because then you could use Clockwork’s loyalty as leverage against her,” Galaxi sent back.

    “Trixie did not lie,” the former showpony answered, then grinned slyly, “but she will confess to exaggerating the truth just a little bit.”

    Galaxi frowned. “Did you forge that letter from Celestia…?”

    Trixie shook her head and sent back, “Trixie did not, and nor did she have to. She discussed her plan with Princess Celestia before we left, and thus the Princess penned it herself.”

    “Celestia knows?!” Galaxi almost cried out, and tasted the bitter tang of disappointment. The thought of Trixie doing this herself was bad enough, but the Princess had condoned it?!

    “Yes, Galaxi, the Princess gave her blessing to attempt my solution and even offered to assist,” Trixie thought proudly, misreading Galaxi’s shock. “Trixie does wonder where she slipped and tipped her hoof…”

    “I recognized the mental ‘feel’ from when you tell your stories,” Galaxi answered carefully, “from when you would fall into your old show-pony ways. Also, when Clockwork complained about how she thought you were lying, I listened to her reasons. It clicked that you had to have concocted the story about the Princess to push her buttons, her loyalty, to get her working with us.”

    “Trixie must remember to be a little less obvious about it in the future,” the unicorn thought as she sighed slightly. “You are mostly correct, however. Princess Celestia and I felt this would be the most likely way to convince our little Clockwork to come around.”

    Galaxi shook her head and mentally shot back, “I don’t like it, and I’m disappointed in both you and the Princess. This is underhanded and cheap. Worse, if she figures all this out, she’ll be hurt far worse than if we approached her without a fancy plan.”

    “Then Trixie will take the blame,” Trixie answered, pain bubbling along the length of the thought. “If Clockwork can be healed, then Trixie will be happy. Trixie will take the blame for any failure…”

    “That’s a rather twisted take on your element.”

    Trixie smiled ruefully as she answered smoothly, “Perhaps, but Trixie will still take the fall if it is necessary. Clockwork’s happiness is more important. Trixie is immortal… she can find other friends if she must, but Clockwork only has this one lifetime.”

    “You’re taking an awful risk, one you shouldn’t need to take…” Galaxi answered, “…and worse, you should not risk your friendship for something that could backfire so easily.”

    “I already have, dear…” Trixie answered softly, and rubbed a hoof over her nose to wipe at her watery eyes. This wasn’t about her, this was about Clockwork, she reminded herself. Trixie started slightly when she felt the hoof on her shoulder, and smiled weakly to the psychic mare.

    “I’ll catch her if it fails,” Galaxi answered softly.

    “Sometimes I think it would be easier to just have you crack her head open and find out exactly what is wrong and fix it while she sleep,” Trixie sighed.

    “I couldn’t do that! That violates every--“

    “Oh shush you,” Trixie teased, “I know you’ve thought about this as well. Sure, it’s not ethical, and I know you wouldn’t do it, but the temptation is still there.”

    “Well… I… Maybe?” Galaxi squeaked, squirming until Clockwork grumbled something tiredly and snuggled in tighter, snoring lightly again after a few moments.

    “Trixie knows,” the unicorn answered smugly, before her tone softened, “If only it were that easy.”

    “Life is never that easy,” Galaxi sighed softly.

    “Trixie knows that too.”

9

Chapter 9

“Upsetting the Status Quo”

    “Mornin’ Little Star.”

    The pegasus turned her head and smiled to the red crested gryphoness. A shaft of the early morning sun streamed in from the nearby bay window to play over the pony’s rainbow hued mane, giving a bright splash of color to the otherwise uniform white marble of the palace hallway.

    “Good morning, Scarlett,” she answered, “how was your first night in the Palace?”

    The gryphoness made a face and waved a claw at the spotless hallway. “I feel like I’m underdressed,” she complained, “like I should have been wearing a formal gown just to go to breakfast. And then the Princess showed up…”

    “Which one?” Spectrum asked with a grin.

    “The night Princess,” the gryphoness clarified. “The entire family sitting there around the table, stuffing our beaks, and she just trots right on in! We weren’t sure if we should keep eating, bow, wave, or wink knowingly… We just sort of froze, watching her, but I don’t think she even noticed us. She stumbled in, got herself a huge mug of coffee, and wandered out looking so exhausted I half thought she was sleep walking. I almost told her to go to bed, before I reminded myself that she’s probably a few centuries older than I am.”

    “Once a mother, eh?” the pegasus teased. “Princess Luna is working with her elder sister to coordinate defenses. Both of them have been working day and night, and are in need of some time off… time I highly doubt Goldtalon will give them.”

    Scarlett nodded and sidestepped as a maid bustled by. The gryphoness watched the hurrying pony for a moment before sighing again, “I still feel out of place here. Anyway, how is Filigree? She looked pretty rough last night.”

    “She’s having her foreleg recast and healed at the hospital this morning,” the pony answered and continued strolling down the hallway, Scarlett falling into step beside her. “She will probably be out this evening or tomorrow morning, assuming the break is as clean as the doctor believes.”

    “The healers are that good?” the gryphoness asked.

    “Canterlot Memorial Hospital is the best in Equestria,” the pegasus answered, nodding to a guard as they passed him. “They can usually have a clean break mostly healed in a day, and fully healed if you stay off it for a week. Hell, when Clockwork Key was almost killed by my… by Ultrapony, she was out of the hospital in a little over a month.” The gryphon whistled softly, impressed. “Admittedly, we specials heal a little faster than the normal pony, but the doctors there are the best in all of Equestria. They have to be in order to see to the Princesses in an emergency.”

    “I didn’t think of that. I imagine that would set the bar pretty high…” Scarlett considered

    “Unfortunately, I don’t think what’s hurting Filigree is something a doctor or healer can fix.”

    The gryphoness looked distracted for a moment, frowning. “My girls will want to visit once they find out she’s in the hospital, if you’re worried about her feeling alone...”

    “It’s not that. I’m really not sure I should tell Chase,” Rainbow Star admitted.

    “I’m sure once he comes to terms with what his brother did --” Scarlett started.

    “That’s not why,” the pegasus interrupted. Scarlett blinked and slowed to a stop, the expression on the pony’s face giving her pause.

    “Little Star?”

    She turned away from the gryphon and moved slowly to one of the windows, the sunlight hardly warming against her stony expression. The silence stretched for several uncomfortable moments before she spoke, and her voice sounded almost foreign, her anger barely contained. “I shouldn’t be this way,” she said in a voice barely audible, forcing the gryphoness to approach a step to hear. “I’m the element of Kindness, but… but I have my limits.”

    “What happened?” the gryphoness asked hesitantly.

    “He was threatening her!” the pegasus growled with such ferocity the gryphoness backpedaled. “He flared his wings, ruffled his crest, and was about to lay into Filigree when she accused his brother. She was able to calm him… hell, I don’t know if she even realized what almost happened. But I saw his beak clench, his muscles tense, and he was getting ready to strike her! I’ve been around you gryphons long enough to know…”

    “H-he was just overreacting,” Scarlett tried to soothe, replaying the scene in her head. She couldn’t recall the specifics of the incident; her attention had been on his parents. “It was a shock, to find out his brother --”

    “That is not an excuse,” the pegasus stated firmly with a stamp of her hoof, and she turned to face the gryphoness. Her expression was dark, hardened in a way the gryphon wasn’t sure she liked, and the light from the window behind her cast dark shadows across her face. “Maybe if I hadn’t met Filigree’s family just the day before I would have thought different, written it off as the heat of the moment, but I watched her father do everything short of lash out and strike her for daring to defy him. As a cub, Filigree was the victim of that same overbearing and abusive father who sold her into slavery to attempt to boost themselves out of the lower castes, something he flat out admitted to us on the trip back! She spent every day of her life in a struggle to preserve her spirit from repeated attempts to break it. She was finally freed by the Princesses and had the chance to return home with a hope for peace, and was beaten to within inches of her life before being placed once more in chains. And yet she refused to leave her family behind to suffer in the chains most of them deserved, and they still condemned every bucking thing she did for them! Then, when she finally comes home to the gryphons we know, to a gryphon she is getting close to, and that happens?!”

    Scarlett winced and placed a claw on the shoulder of the pegasus. Spectrum returned her gaze, and her eyes wavered for a moment before the gryphon gently pulled her close, wrapping forelegs and wings about her tightly in a close hug. The pegasus shuddered and leaned close, the tension slowly bleeding from her.

    “How is Filigree taking it?” Scarlett finally asked.

    “I don’t think it’s registered yet,” the pegasus sighed. “As abusive as her past is, I don’t think she even recognized it. Chase may be bigger than she is physically, but she’s far and away stronger and tougher than he is. She is a special and one of the strongest currently on record with the Agency. Chase is strong and capable for a gryphon, but he’s no special.”

    Scarlett nodded. “Basically, he’s no threat to her, so she doesn’t recognize him as one.”

    “And, whether she admits it or not, I think she’s smitten enough that she’d look past faults like that too,” Rainbow Star answered softly.

    “I won’t argue that,” the gryphoness chuckled weakly. “I’ll talk to Chase. I don’t think things were quite like you saw it, but I’ll discuss it with him. I think… I hope that if this is pointed out to him he’ll be mortified. I really don’t think it was intentional.”

    “I hope you’re right,” Spectrum sighed softly, then a bit of steel crept into her voice, “but if I find out he even thought about hurting her I will buck his feathered flank all the way to the Gryphon clan border and back again.”

    Scarlet smirked knowingly.

    Under normal circumstances, it was another beautiful day.

    But these were not normal circumstances. The bright sunshine, mostly cloudless skies, and cool breeze were ignored by the small group of guards watching the nearby house. They had shed the usual regalia that the Guard was known for, allowing them to blend in with the thin woods nearby the home below.

    “Any sign?” the unicorn asked, tossing her emerald mane as she joined the pegasus at the edge.

    “Not sure,” the pegasus answered honestly, “I thought I saw a shadow in the pre-dawn twilight, but it came up on the far side of the house. I suppose it could have been a large bird, but…”

    The unicorn frowned as she levitated up a pair of binoculars before her so she could examine the home below. It was a nice three story house nestled in a little natural depression surrounded by a large and well tended garden. It showed the signs of recent habitation which, considering the gryphon residents only abandoned it yesterday, was only natural. To the mare, it felt unnaturally still. She could almost imagine the sounds of the gryphon’s morning routine, the smell of food sizzling on the stove, the sight of the youngsters tumbling about before being shipped off to school at the nearby town, maybe even one of them picking some of those ripe tomatoes they were growing. Right now it was just silent… eerily so.

    “It seems calm right now,” she said to the stallion, magically tossing the binoculars back to the pegasus. “Keep your eyes peeled though, Lieutenant. Once she’s up and around, I’ll send Overcast to do a quick reconnaissance and see if she can spot anything before relieving you.”

    “You got it, Captain,” the stallion saluted with a wing, and turned to face the serene looking home below. He paused for a moment, giving a wistful sigh at the rather cozy home below. “I think that, if I ever find a mare to settle down with, I’d want a home like that.”

    “On our pay?” another unicorn joked as he wandered up, shaking out his graying mane. “You’d be lucky to own a cornerstone.”

    “Well, they managed somehow,” the pegasus guard answered his peer with a smirk. “So what’s for breakfast?”

    “Huh… oh, right. Buck, I plum forgot I drew the short straw,” the stallion grumbled, rubbing a hoof through his mane, “what’ve we got in the supply tent?”

    “We should have enough batter for a few batches of pancakes or waffles,” the Captain answered distractedly, “and I think we have enough oatmeal to last for weeks.”

    “Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!”

    “What? I like oatmeal…” the mare responded with a frown.

    Any further response was lost when the home exploded.

    The trio of ponies was quickly joined by a fourth, a pegasus hastily wiping the sleep from her eyes, as they lined up behind some brush to look down into the depression. The emerald maned unicorn levitated the binoculars over her eyes and frowned at the sight. The side of the home had been literally blown off, the lower floor of the home now exposed to her eyes. She could see a few framed photographs hanging on the wall, colorful faces she could barely make out stared back at her, right before they shook and the glass covering them shattered in the instant before that portion of the wall was obliterated. The mare frowned darkly and tried to spot the culprit, but was unable to see any ponies or gryphons through the smoke and dust.

    “Overcast,” the mare instructed in a low tone, leaning over to the pegasus mare by her side, “Fly to town. We have a contact with the New Ponyville Trio there by the name of Jade Sky. Find her, have her mobilize the trio, and get them here ASAP.”

    “You think that’s our target?” the pegasus asked, fluttering her wings nervously.

    Another explosion interrupted the mare’s response, showering the bushes they were taking cover behind with splinters. “I don’t think it matters,” the unicorn responded bluntly. “Stay low, head back down the hill, then go. With luck they’ll arrive before we’re forced to engage.” The pegasus nodded, and crept back down the far side of the hill on her stomach, fully aware that her silvery coat could give her away, before she reached the foot of the hill and flared her wings, taking off as quickly as she could.

    “Are we going to engage, Captain?” the gray maned stallion asked softly.

    “Not yet,” the unicorn mare answered, lifting the binoculars again. “If it’s our target, he’s a gryphon special. I don’t relish throwing ourselves at a special, not matter how well we’re trained. As far as he knows, he’s alone in there, and can thrash about all he wants. Let him exhaust himself, then we’ll move in and engage. With luck the Trio will be here by then, and we’ll be able to fight fire with fire.”

    The words of the pony commander hung in the air, heard only by her compatriots, the bushes they took shelter behind, and the tree next to which they had set camp. None of the ponies, their eyes riveted on the scene below, noticed the strange horn-like shape on the trunk of the tree. They couldn’t have known, even had they seen it, that it was linked to another tree at the far side of the depression, and that their every word had been transmitted to the ear of an eager observer.

    “So that’s the plan…” the zebra mused, rubbing his chin with a hoof before touching the tree by his side, causing it to revert back to normal. He doubted that he would have the chance to revert the other tree, but at least now the purpose of his modifications would remain unknown.

    Kaos cast his eyes down into the valley, his eyes picking over the details of the now destroyed side of the home, through the haze of splinters and smoke to gaze upon the gryphon causing all the destruction. His white feathers were smudged, his flank bore a number of bruises and cuts that indicated a few rough days, but his eyes… his amber eyes burned like twin suns of hate and fury as he clawed his way through a table full of pictures and photographs.

    “So much anger,” the zebra sighed. “He will be difficult to reign in. I hope you know what you’re doing, my Prince.”

    The Zebra touched the tree beside him, and the surface rippled like a pool of water. The Zebra stepped into the ripple, closing his eyes to avoid the disorientation that came with travelling this way. When he opened them again he could hear the raging gryphon below, and nodded to himself. His eyes barely glanced about the bedroom he’d appeared in, and instead trotted past the brightly colored quilts and toys and cribs, and into the hallway. He didn’t care if he was heard, and highly doubted the gryphon was paying enough attention to even realize he had company. He quickly trotted down the flight of stairs and he found himself a spot to sit on the bend of the stairs, looking down into the nearly destroyed main room. He straightened his tie, smoothed down his suit jacket, and adopted his most winning smile.

    “I must admit,” the zebra said aloud, and the gryphon jumped visibly at his voice, “this is a most impressive piece of property damage you are committing.” The zebra’s eyes slipped closed the moment he saw the gryphon turn to face him and suck in a breath, and that brief moment of disorientation washed over him even as the scream from the gryphon decimated the wall he’d been sitting before. He opened his eyes to the kitchen this time, and he trotted through the entryway and sat down to the side of the gryphon.

    “You have quite the set of lungs on you,” Kaos said, smiling at the snowy gryphon. The gryphon wheeled on him, spread his wings slightly, and brandished his claws at the zebra. “I’m sure you’ll need to catch your breath before you can shout like that again. You can save it. I’m not here to fight you. In fact, I came here to warn you and, if you’ll allow me, help you.”

    “W-who are you?” the gryphon demanded between gasps for air.

    “My name is unimportant right now,” the zebra answered, “what’s important is the trio of guards on the nearby hill overlooking this serene little house, and the pegasus they sent to summon the ‘New Ponyville Trio’, all in an attempt to capture you. Given normal flight times and some circumstantial evidence from the local paper, I would guess their response time at roughly ten minutes. If I assume a five minute flight to New Ponyville, and the time since I overheard the Guard send the pegasus runner to fetch them, I would say you have approximately nine minutes before they arrive and attempt to capture you.”

    “Let them try,” the gryphon growled.

    “Under normal circumstances, I would be inclined to let you make the attempt,” the zebra said as he straightened his tie. “However, in this instance you would lose. You are injured, exhausted, and look like you haven’t had a decent meal in over twenty-four hours. The Trio would arrive fresh, coordinated as a team, and with support from a quartet of rested and prepared Guard ponies. You are outnumbered and outgunned; they would win.”

    The amber eyed gryphon blinked at the rather dismal prognosis and looked around quickly, his expression slowly shifting from rage and fury to worry and fear. “First she abandons me, then the clans attack and abandon me, then my family abandons me… now Equestria is abandoning me? What’s next, the entire world?!” the white gryphon shouted at the walls, and his voice became shrill enough that his last words blew out one section entirely.

    “Seven minutes,” the zebra noted evenly, and the gryphon whirled on him angrily.

    “What do you want then?” he growled, stalking slowly around Kaos. “Are you here to rub this abandonment in my face? Laugh at me? Tell me the zebra are abandoning me preemptively now?”

    “Nothing of the sort,” the zebra answered, carefully maintaining his neutral and relaxed expression. “In fact, I represent an individual who would be willing to offer you an escape, in exchange for your service on a team they are forming.”

    “Do you think me a fool?!” the gryphon roared.

    “No, I do not,” the zebra answered, straightening his tie once more. “But you only have five more minutes to decide, assuming the ponies are not early.”

    The snowy gryphon glowered at the zebra, who sat there impassively watching him. Kaos realized that the Prince had been correct, but if he could avoid stoking the gryphon’s anger further about this “abandonment”, he would. Better to make him feel desperate and thankful for the rescue, assuming he was able to calm down enough to realize that staying to fight would only lead to the royal dungeon.

    “I suppose I should leave then,” the gryphon growled. “Guess I’ll miss your little party.”

    “And run where?” the zebra asked simply.

    “It doesn’t matter… anywhere but here.” The gryphon said in an oddly hollow voice, then launched himself into the air … only to be slammed back down to the ground by an emerald beam.

    “Got him!” a pony cried from overhead.

    “It looks like they’re early,” Kaos noted, “by roughly two minutes. I’ll have to remember to adjust my estimates in the future.”

    Kaos watched as the gryphon forced himself up, only to be slammed back down into the floorboards again but a blast from above. He recognized the creaking and crackling sound from the floorboards, and the zebra closed his eyes and fell into the rippling floor at his hooves. He opened his eyes in time to watch the floor cave in from a safe corner of the basement, and watched as the white gryphon almost literally bounced off the floor before landing in a heap.

    “Skyfire! Set up a perimeter!” a mare called from outside. “Brick, you’re with me! Let’s get this guy before he can bolt!”

    “I think your time is up, Mister Gryphon,” Kaos said, “and since I have no plans to be captured myself, I will depart and leave you to your fate.”

    “Wait…” the gryphon coughed painfully, barely managing to stand after the blasts, “…I’m in…  I j-just… get me… out of here…”

    The zebra smiled and stepped out of the corner of the basement, skirting past the washing machine to rest a hoof on the snowy gryphon’s shoulder. “A wise choice, my friend.”

    “There he is…” a rumbling voice came, and the pair looked up at the brick red wall of an earth pony looking down the hole at them.

    “We have a civilian!” a mare cried, her limbs stretching almost comically as she moved to the side of the hole. “Hold on, we’ll get you out of there,” the mare said in what she believed was a comforting voice before ordering her companion, “Brick, on the Gryphon!”

    “I’m no civilian, ma’am” Kaos noted with a smile, his eyes flashing in the dim light. Both hero ponies yelped as the floor that just collapsed reformed itself with a vengeance, bucking the pair back and onto their flanks.

    “Whoah…” the gryphon said softly.

    “Localized reality manipulation,” the zebra said simply, brushing some stray splinters off his shoulder. “It will not hold them very long, however. We must take our leave. Do yourself a favor and close your eyes for a moment, if you would please.”

    “It’s already dark down here, what could I possibly see?” the gryphon asked.

    “It’s not what you will see, it’s what you will feel,” the zebra answered, his eyes glowing in the darkness, and disorientation overtook them.

    The floor above was reduced to splinters only a second later, thanks to a belly-flop from the massive red pony so creatively named Brick, but the heroic ponies found the basement empty. The elastic mare frowned, stretching her neck to peer down into the hole her teammate just made.

    “They’ve pulled a runner, Elasta,” Brick rumbled from below.

    “Check the basement then, I’ll cover this floor” the stretching mare ordered, then called up to the circling pegasus, “Skyfire! Has anypony gotten past you?”

    A pegasus mare with a glowing green mane flew lower, “Nope! The guard set up a perimeter with me, two fliers, two unicorns. No sign of anything larger than a sparrow going in or out.”

    “They can’t have just vanished, check the upper floors!” the mare ordered, stomping a comically oversized hoof.

    “Calm down, you’re starting to lose control again,” Skyfire pointed out, looking worriedly at her teammate. The mare in question frowned as she looked at her distorted body and sighed. She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a slow calming breath, letting the tension ease from her flexible lavender body. Once her form stabilized back to a more proper looking pony, the pegasus gave a short nod of approval.

    “Get going Skyfire…” the mare ordered, brushing her straw yellow mane from her face, ‘I’ll check this floor. Brick’s scouring the basement.”

    “You got it,” Skyfire answered, and flew out to zip around the upper floor of the home.

    The search was short but sweet. Within fifteen minutes they were sure they had scoured the entire structure, even swapping floors between them to ensure nothing was missed. The New Ponyville Trio even stood aside to allow the guard time to conduct their own search, but in the end, there was only one possible conclusion…

    The gryphon had somehow escaped.

    “What do you mean ‘they’re not here’?”

    “There is no pony within this structure, save us, Clockwork,” Galaxi stated, glancing to the short khaki mare as the glow in her blind eyes faded. “I cannot tell when they may have left.”

    “Trixie thinks she can,” the cyan unicorn said, entering from the pair’s bedroom, a small crumbled sheet of paper held delicately in her magic.

    “You found something?” Clockwork asked quickly, rushing up to her friend with Galaxi following close behind.

    “Nothing good,” Trixie said softly, her magic pressing the wrinkles flat. “We need to suit up.”

    “What does it say?” Galaxi asked softly.

    “It says somepony has Twist, and is demanding Apple Bloom meet them… alone,” Trixie said softly. “It’s signed with a number zero.”

    “Crap, it’s the teleporting ninja mare,” Clockwork growled, and dashed from the room.

    “Ninja mare?” Galaxi asked, her ears splayed in confusion.

    “Teleporting ninja mare!” the little khaki mare called from the bedroom as the metal slab she stood on came to life, fitting steel plates over her hooves and legs, working up over her body with a mechanical precision.

    “Is this the pony Princess Luna told us was threatening the Crusaders?” Galaxi asked as she followed Clockwork into the bedroom, and drew out her own costume, a bodysuit of purple and white streaks with a full facial hood.

    “Yes,” Clockwork answered simply, closing her eyes and stretching her neck a bit as the metal closed over her chest. “She’s a royal pain in the flank really. She can teleport and is really skilled in martial arts, and hits hard enough that I had to spend hours hammering out dents in my armour,” she added as the back half of the mask was fitted into place and flattened her mane, then the draconic helm secured into place.

    Galaxi frowned as she stepped into her suit. Despite starting after her friend, the psychic mare was finished by the time the power cycled up in Clockwork’s power armour. “That explains what Celestia told us, and why you requested Flourish first.”

    Clockwork shrugged slightly as the deployment sled released her hooves and she was able to step free. “I hoped to fight fire with fire,” Clockwork admitted, “this blasted mare is simply too good. She’s already beaten out Apple Bloom and Echo and myself, all at once. We needed somepony who could keep up with her, and Flourish is easily the most agile of our little group.”

    Galaxi nodded and looked to Trixie as she came down the hall. Of the trio, she had the simplest outfit, a star-field cape that draped over her shoulders and a conical mage’s hat from ages past. The mares glanced at each other, nodding in silent approval.

    “Do we know where?” Clockwork asked as the group made for the back exit, a simple door and stairway out the back of the candy shop. The moment they were into the open air, Clockwork activated the wings of her armour and hovered about the rest.

    “The note instructs Apple  Bloom to meet her at…” Trixie said, pausing as she looked over the note, “… a cave west of ‘Applebuck Acres’, wherever that is.”

    “Applebuck Acres is where I stashed my chariot,” Clockwork noted. “It’s where a lot of Apple Bloom’s relatives live, which makes me wonder exactly how far west it is. I can’t see this suited mare wanting any interruptions.”

    “I can search for psychic signatures once we’re closer, “Galaxi said.

    “I don’t think I could teleport Galaxi and myself the multiple times necessary for that trip,” Trixie said, frowning deeply, “after just a few teleports, I’d need time to recover my magic to be of any use in a fight.”

    “I’ve got an idea,” Clockwork answered, and pressed her forehooves together below her, “Galaxi, grab my forelegs and hooves with your telekinesis, then form a bubble about yourself and Trixie. If you link the two together with some sort of tether, I should be able to carry you both.”

    Galaxi frowned slightly, then began to focus. A purple globe began to take shape about herself and Trixie, with a thin lead up to Clockwork’s hooves, where it bubbled again around her forelegs. Clockwork nodded wordlessly and fired her jets, slowly lifting the other ponies upwards, before angling her rear hooves and wings to propel them forward. It was far slower than the Dragonfly Armour’s best speeds, but it was still far faster than they could have managed on hoof.

    “So what do we know about this mare?” Trixie called up to Clockwork.

    “All we know is that she’s a teleporting martial artist and mute,” the armoured mare answered. “She’s incredibly skilled, easily a match for Apple Bloom, and uses her teleportation to augment it.”

    “How does she teleport?” Trixie asked, only giving a quick glance at the ponies below staring in awe at their passing.

    “What do you mean?”

    Trixie shook her head and explained, “Does she just wink out, like my teleportation spell? Does she vanish in an explosion, like Flourish does? Do we know what her range limit is?”

    “She uses portals,” Clockwork said, navigating past one of the taller buildings in town. “She summons them up, and puts part or all of her body through it. No clue what her range is, but I assume it’s greater than her line of sight. My suspicion is she has to see where she’s teleporting too, unless she knows it well enough to teleport to it blindly.”

    “So she’s slower, but more versatile, than Flourish?” Trixie pondered.

    “That sounds like a good way to put it.”

    “How’d you know it was her from the note?” Galaxi asked curiously.

    “The note was signed with a zero,” Clockwork answered. “She has the same thing on the flank of her suit, almost as if it’s her cutie mark, a big number zero. Otherwise, her suit is uniformly white with jet black eyes, and no mouth hole that I could see. Come to think of it, I don’t recall her having a mane or tail either.”

    “Well, that is certainly unique,” Trixie considered, “I wonder if that means she is in to Zentai?”

    “Zen-tie? What’s that?” Galaxi asked curiously.

    Trixie patted her friend’s shoulder and said, “Trust Trixie on this, you’d rather not know.”

    “There’s Applebuck Acres…” Clockwork called down to her ‘passengers’. Trixie and Galaxi nodded as the armoured mare began to alter her flight path, ignoring the stares from the workers in the field, heading due west over the orchard and fields. She banked wide about a stately three story home bustling with ponies of all ages, and past a bunkhouse for the fieldworkers behind the main house. Wheat, corn, and even a few gardens lay beyond the orchard, all of which held at least a few ponies working hard to plant the year’s crop.

    “This place is a lot bigger than Trixie expected!” the unicorn called up, and the blind mare nodded her agreement.

    “No sign of any caves yet, though” Clockwork intoned, her sensors already searching for any likely rock formation.

    “You don’t think this could be an intentional misdirection, do you?” Galaxi asked.

    “Dear Celestia, I hope not,” the armoured mare answered, but couldn’t dismiss the thought fully as she increased the power to her engines.

    “Clockwork,” Trixie called up, “try angling north just slightly towards those hills, they might conceal a cave or something.”

    Clockwork nodded, altering her path as requested. The land beyond the cultured and cared for farmland of Applebuck Acres quickly turned into overgrown wilds. The valley that the town nestled in was well protected, surrounded only by gentle grassy hills that steadily grew in height before transitioning back into the mountain range that surrounded them from all directions. Her jets scared up a few wild animals as she flew over them, but she opted to stay relatively low in case she had to drop Trixie and Galaxi off in a hurry. She didn’t want them to get hurt, though she doubted the scraggly trees and thorny looking bushes would make for the most pleasant of landings.

    “I’m sensing somepony close by… a pair,” Galaxi input, hooves held to the sides of her head to help maintain her concentration.

    “Direction?” Clockwork called down, but didn’t get a response. She was about to call a second time when Galaxi spoke up.

    “False alarm,” the blind mare called with a blush, “just a couple being… er… intimate. Steer further south or you’ll interrupt them, Clockwork.” Trixie let out a braying laugh at Galaxi’s shyness as Clockwork angled away from the unseen lovers, giving them their room for fun. Oddly, Clockwork found herself wondering if it was a stallion and mare, or a different combination. She flushed weakly behind the helm and shook her head, clearing her head of the random thoughts.

    “We need to come up on something soon,” Clockwork called down, “Even with all this sun, my reserves are getting depleted. I’m nearly down to fifty percent.”

    “We can set down and hoof it, if needed,” Trixie responded.

    “At this rate, we’re going to have to--”Clockwork started, only to be interrupted by Galaxi.

    “Contact!” the blind mare cried. “One of them is definitely Apple Bloom, and I can sense the Twist as well, though I think she’s been drugged. I can’t sense anypony else, but Apple Bloom seems to be losing some sort of fight!”

    “Where?” Clockwork demanded.

    “Angle northwards again,” Galaxi said, frowning as she pushed her hooves to her temples again to try and focus, “Foot of the mountains over there.”

    “I don’t…” Clockwork started, then shook her head, “Nevermind, I see it now. Looks like there’s been a rock-fall in the recent past, but sensors indicate an open area behind it. Galaxi, I need you to shift your anchor to one hoof.”

    “Which one?”

    “Doesn’t matter,” Clockwork answered, “I just need a hoof free to blast that rubble.”

    Galaxi frowned and focused on her tether, shifting it to her left foreleg, which caused Clockwork to list sharply for a moment, but she steadied herself as she lifted her right foreleg ahead of her. Hills were just starting to give way to more jagged rocks as they crossed some sort of threshold, as if they mountains were forcing their way through the soft loamy ground with hard jagged teeth. Clockwork had to navigate the armour through a gauntlet of rocky spires, her target vanishing in and out of sight through the various formations.

    Trixie jumped, despite knowing the sound was coming, when Clockwork fired. The cool blue/white bolt streaked out ahead of them, and then out of sight as Clockwork swooped about another rocky spire to protect them from the backwash, rubble spraying like shrapnel. Without so much as a pause, Clockwork lowered her other forehoof, which Galaxi grabbed with her telekinesis, and rocketed for the opening in the side the approaching rock face. Boulders smoldered as Clockwork pushed past them, her wings flaring as the group entered the crack in the rock face, a vertical slash only barely wide enough to accommodate the armoured mare. She throttled back and lowered closer to the rocky floor, forcing Galaxi to shorten lead to Clockwork’s hooves.

    “Are you sure about this, Galaxi?” Trixie asked nervously, eying the close stone walls with trepidation. Her eyes seemed drawn to every gleam of light that reflected off the rocky walls now surrounding them, suddenly making the unicorn feel rather claustrophobic.

    “Positive,” Galaxi answered softly. “We’re nearly there…”

    Clockwork turned a bend in the path and was astounded to find a large open area before her, a cave that was surprisingly well lit thanks to a generator run floodlight sitting in the middle. Near that light, the bound form of Twist could be seen, ropes wrapped tightly about her in such a way that her hooves seemed to be turning red.

    “Buckin’ ninja!” somepony shouted, and all eyes were drawn to a nearby arch of stone, almost forming a natural bridge over thin air. Upon it, Apple Bloom was struggling against the unknown suited mare, who seemed to almost casually fend off the elder pony.

    “Galaxi, let go of my hooves,” Clockwork said softly, “but leave the lead. I have an idea.”

    “I’m not so sure…” Galaxi started as the changes were made, allowing Clockwork to grip the telekinetic construct between her hooves.

    “Come along, Galaxi,” the unicorn said with a knowing smile, “let us check on Twist.” With that, the unicorn teleported the pair out of the bubble and appeared beside the bound elder pony.

    “Keep it up as long as you can, Galaxi!” The armoured mare turned slowly, spinning several times in place with the shield and lead held tightly in her hooves. It wasn’t until the armoured mare let go that Galaxi realized what she planned, and she pushed her hooves to her temples and struggled to maintain her focus on the impromptu projectile.

    The unknown mare vanished just before the shield would have hit her, but found herself slammed into by a very VERY heavy object when she reappeared, Clockwork ramming headlong into her where she reappeared, then launched her off with a blast of her forehooves. Clockwork turned and bucked outwards with her rear hooves, catching the unknown mare in mid air once more before she could teleport clear.

    “Oh Celestia, that was a strain…” Galaxi groaned, massaging her temples.

    “Sorry Galaxi,” the armoured mare called back, launching a blast at the unknown mare, who teleported away at the last second. “GAH! She got her bearings!”

    “Oh ho, Trixie thinks she sees your plan,” the unicorn grinned, and looked around, “Clockwork, do keep me appraised of her location, please?”

    “Roger that…” Clockwork answered, hovering over her friend.

    “What the buck are ya’ll doin’ here?!?” Apple Bloom cried, glaring down at them.

    “Five o’clock,” Clockwork called, ignoring the elder pony, and Trixie turned her head.

    “I see you,” the unicorn called in a sing-song voice, and her horn began to glow. The suited mare seemed unimpressed for a moment, preparing to strike at range until a globe appeared about her. Within the globe colors began to whirl and run, twisting about in ways that would require either heavy drugs or a very strong constitution to endure. Despite the unknown mare’s strengths, she seemed unable to stomach it, and staggered drunkenly.

    “Hey, I asked ya’ll a… Well I’ll be,” Apple Bloom said, starting to climb down from her perch. Unfortunately that didn’t hold the strange mare for long, and she vanished through a portal.

    “Drat…” Trixie grumbled.

    “Nine o’clock, two o’clock high,” Clockwork stated, and the unicorn whirled, spotted the recovering mare on a shelf along the wall, and recast her illusion. The suited mare vanished almost as soon as it landed…

    “Seven… no, nine… twelve… GAH! She’s moving too fast to track!” Clockwork called out in the bare seconds before a series of hooves lashed out at her through a number of small portals. Trixie grinned at an idea, and instead of finding the mare, she cast the spell back through the portal the mare’s hoof struck through. The attacks paused for a moment, the unknown mare stumbling from behind a rock to escape the effect before teleporting again.

    “She’s learning to counter us,” Galaxi stated from nearby.

    “Trixie noticed…” the cyan unicorn answered, before suddenly being caught across the jaw by a hoof from the unknown assailant. Only a lavender shield from the psychic mare saved her from additional attacks, and Trixie wiped a small bit of blood from her lip.

    “Everypony, do close your eyes,” the unicorn ordered, her expression hardening. “Trixie thinks it is time to teach this filly a lesson about bucking with The Great and Powerful TRIXIE!” She then closed her eyes and her horn glowed brightly with her spell. The entire cave seemed to bulge and swirl, running like a watercolor left in the rain, or boiling away like film exposed too long to the sun. The entire effect was unsettling, nauseating, and disorienting to every pony who dared still watch the display… except for Galaxi. Galaxi’s blind eyes, even with her magic sight, either didn’t see the effects or could see the reality the illusion hid.

    The blind mare looked around the ponies assembled for a moment before spotting the unknown mare in question, her eyes clenched shut as she wobbled unsteadily. Galaxi trotted closer, her voice low as she eyed the known mare, “I don’t know who you are, but I would rather not fight you unless I have to. Surrender now or we will be forced to hurt you.”

    Galaxi’s eyes narrowed as she watched the suited mare canter to the side before rearing back on her rear hooves, and her ears flicked before she took an unsteady step forward and struck out at Galaxi. Despite being blinded, she almost connected, and would have if the psychic mare hadn’t erected a telekinetic barrier between them, a glowing purple barrier that pulsed with the effort Galaxi used to force the unknown pony back. The unknown pony frowned under her mask, and withdrew several steps. She cracked her eyes a bit to try and see, only to stagger as she was overwhelmed by Trixie’s illusion.

    “Please, I’m asking you to surrender,” Galaxi tried again, “if you continue to fight, we will be forced to hurt you.”

    “I really wouldn’t take all that much convincing,” Clockwork growled, her powersuit hovering closer. She kept a wary eye on the readouts in her helmet, her visual input completely shut off to spare herself the illusory display, relying instead entirely on her sensors.

    The suited mare’s ears flicked, and for a moment she seemed to laugh in a strange, silent way. Galaxi frowned, bracing for a renewed attack, but a portal opened beneath the mare, and she vanished from sight. The mares remained, looking carefully around for where she might pop out next, but after five tense minutes of waiting and listening to nothing save the slow dripping of water from somewhere in the cave…

    “I think she’s cleared out,” Clockwork said softly, “I’m not seeing hide nor hair of her on my scanners.”

    “Trixie is lowering the spell then,” the unicorn said softly, “everypony be ready…”

    The swirling of the world, the nauseating pulsing, and psychedelic twisting of the colors faded away like a bad dream. Normalcy returned to the cave, and the mares opened their eyes to find that even the minimal light of the cave seemed overly bright, forcing their eyes to re-adjust. Each mare stood ready, their muscles quivering as they waited for the unknown mare to return, only to be left waiting.

    “I don’t think she’s coming back,” Galaxi finally said, and the mares released a collective sigh.

    Trixie pulled loose the tape plastered over Twist’s mouth before loosening the ropes binding her, finally freeing the drugged elder mare. Apple Bloom rushed to meet her, hugging the barely coherent Twist tightly in her forelegs, cooing in her mate’s ear and sobbing brokenly in relief.

    “The stakes have been raised,” Clockwork said softly to her teammates, who nodded in agreement.

    “But daaaaaaaad!”

    “Stop whining,” Shale answered gruffly, swinging his claw errantly at his eldest daughter, who simply ducked out of range.

    “Mom!” Pyrite tried as she ducked under an errant tree branch.

    “L-listen to your father,” the tepid gryphoness instructed as she picked her way along behind her mate. It was all Verdigris could do to keep from rolling her eyes. If they hadn’t corralled her, forced her to come along, and promptly gotten lost, she’d have gone back to that town by herself by now. Let her family wander the forest, at night, by themselves. But no, father had to leave as soon as possible, treating every gryphon in town as if they were somehow beneath him. He had ostracized himself within hours… which unfortunately made it highly unlikely that any search parties would be sent to find their lost tails.

    Her train of thought was interrupted by a whip-thin branch catching her across the face. The little gryphon growled, her own temper frayed after hours upon hours of wandering the dense forest, and glared up at her elder brother grinning back at her. She sighed… if she called him on it, Fracture would just claim it was either an accident or a prank. It just wasn’t worth the effort. She grumbled and made a show of preening her wing slightly, only to be reminded of her clipped wings, something her entire family shared and what was forcing them to walk. She mnmmphed and folded her wing tightly before she broke down into tears again. She’d only just started flight training and they went and clipped her wings!

    The little gryphon sighed gustily, shaking her head. “It could be worse, you could still be in chains,” she reminded herself to try and buoy her spirits, but one glance at her family sent it crashing back down. “I’m not sure this is much better though.”

    “Hurry up, cub! Fracture, get some firewood,” her father ordered, and she sighed, trotting forward to the clearing her father had found while her elder brother lumbered off. “Patina? Do we have any of that jerky left from town?”

    “N-no,” she stammered, ducking her head as if her mate were going to strike her, “Y-you ate the last of it a few hours ago.”

    Shale growled and seemed about to lash out at her, but just grunted instead. Verdigris sighed softly and rubbed her own stomach, she hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. She would have snuck a few pieces of jerky herself if she’d known her father was planning this ill conceived journey. But he didn’t even bring anything along with him! No planning at all, just an idiotic tromp into the forest…

    Fracture returned with a load of firewood, and he tossed it into a rather rude circle on the ground. Shale grunted, and pulled up two rocks from the ground, and started smacking them together to make a spark.

    “That’s not going to work,” Verdigris muttered, then blinked when she realized her voice carried enough for her father to hear.

    “What? You think you know better?!” her father all but shouted.

    “Well, neither one of those rocks have the right make-up to create a spark. Didn’t you grab a flint and steel or a lighter or something before we left?” she countered, backing up a step to stay out of his leg’s reach.

    “Don’t question me, cub,” he growled, his wings flaring.

    “Yes, father,” she forced out through a clenched beak, mollifying him as he set back to work. She faded back a few extra steps, letting the darkness of the night consume her as she slumped against a tree. She leaned her head back and thumped her head against the trunk, looking upwards into the leaves. “We’re doomed…”

    She sighed and tuned out her family, instead listening to the rest of the forest about her. A small screeching sound caught her attention, and she focused her eyes. For a long moment she was unable to see anything, but just as she was about to give up she caught a glimpse of a form landing in the tree above her. It sat there for a moment, oblivious to her, as it worked along the branches of the tree.

    “Whoah…” she whispered, leaning upwards, “is that a fruit bat? Wait, if there’s a fruit bat, maybe the tree has fruit in it!” She swallowed nervously and looked over at her parents for a moment, before ducking around the trunk of the tree. She paused for a moment to make sure she wasn’t seen, and proceeded to check her claws before carefully sinking them into the tree. The bat above skittered along the branch, finally noticing her as she climbed up the tree towards it, and it moved further up the tree nervously. She smiled as comfortingly as she could to it. “Don’t worry, I won’t eat you,” she tried to tell it, “but some fruit might help…” The small rodent kept out of reach regardless as Verdigris managed to climb higher.

    She finally reached the first branches and pulled herself up on one thick enough to support her weight, puffing from the effort. “That’s harder than it looks,” she panted, wiping her brow. Only then did she start trying to look for any fruit that might be growing.

    “C’mon… come on… dammit!” her father screamed, hurling the rocks he was trying to start a fire with into the woods. Verdigris couldn’t help but snort, but she didn’t say anything to draw attention to herself. Besides, saying “I told you so” would only result in getting smacked for mouthing off. At this rate, her idiot family was going to starve, and she was determined not to be dragged down with them. She genuinely couldn’t figure out why Filigree left her with the, but she’d have to puzzle that out later. Using an overhead branch for balance, Verdigris slowly worked her way out along the branch, her little “friend” keeping ahead of her and well out of reach.

    “Scree!” the bat cried, and swooped off the branch, fluttering up to the branch over her head before looping away. Verdigris couldn’t help but smile at the antics as she silently thanked it for leading her there as she spied the fruit in question. With a careful claw she reached up and plucked the fruit down, a strange yellowish fruit with an odd shape that reminded her of her pot-bellied father. It was slender at the top, only to widen out near the base as it curved around. It sure didn’t look an apple…

    “I wonder what this is?” she muttered curiously, but without a second thought the little gryphon took a large bite of the fruit. A sweet flavor filled her beak; this fruit was most definitely NOT an apple. It wasn’t even close to an apple… but it was good. Verdigris devoured it on the spot.

    The young gryphon was about to reach for another when something below moved and caught her eye. Was it her imagination, or was that shadow… walking? She shifted nervously, unable to bring herself to call out a warning yet, even as the figure stalked towards the clearing her family was currently huddled in.

    “Well well,” the stranger’s voice came, a deep and rumbling bass that would carry even if he whispered, “you gryphons really don’t belong here in the Everfree Forest, especially at night.”

    “Says who?!” Shale demanded, and Verdigris couldn’t help but groan, covering her face with a claw. Her father was going to antagonize this stranger too, wasn’t he?

    The shadow smiled, his beak splitting in a way that made Verdigris uncomfortable, “I am known as… Eclipse.” The shadow that Verdigris would have been hard pressed to identify as a gryphon more than a few seconds ago, extended a fore-claw and pointed at the attempted campfire. He uttered a word, and fire erupted from amidst the dead branches, suddenly illuminating all the gryphons surrounding it. Only the stranger seemed still lost in shadow, even standing in the full light of the fire.

    “A-a magus!” Patina stammered in awe.

    “Thank you Magus! I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize your eminence in the darkness!” Shale all but fell over his own claws to kiss up. Verdigris sighed softly from her perch, straight from demanding to conciliatory, that’s her dad.

    Eclipse waved a claw as he sat, “I could not help but notice you were without rations or gear of any sort? This forest is not a place for the unprepared.”

    “Yes… well… we planned to hunt but…” Slate stammered.

    “No matter, you are here now,” Eclipse continued. “Interestingly, I have need of some... assistance. Perhaps it is fate that we cross paths. If you and yours are looking for employment, I might be able to offer you an opportunity.”

    “What kind of opportunity?” Fracture asked dumbly.

    “That depends,” he said dismissively, then suddenly leaned close to the fire. Verdigris’ family did the same, and even she found herself leaning closer from the branch she’d perched on as if this stranger were about to whisper some great secret. “Very few gryphons in this land are loyal to the King of the Clans. I stand at the precipice of recovering an ancient power that will make him nigh unbeatable, even by the Princesses. But I need gryphons whom I can trust, ones who can watch, and learn.”

    “And… what do we--??” Slate started.

    “What do you get out of it?” Eclipse interrupted with a smile. “You get a guarantee of becoming one of the elite amongst the Gryphon Clans.”

    The family’s eyes widened, each one envisioning their own fantasies. Even Verdigris found her imagination running away with her, dreaming of lording her new caste over that stuck-up Indigo and her cadre before she shook her head, clearing it. Her family was still gawping at him eagerly, wallowing in their own greed.

    “And what would we be doing?” Verdigris wondered, and to her surprise, Eclipse turned to face her. His eyes locked onto hers and bored into her, and she froze in place, as if a giant claw had gripped her tightly about the chest.

    “Protecting some very special eggs,” he stated. His slit turquoise eyes seemed to gaze deeply into her, rooting her until she could see nothing but the glowing orbs, her every thought pushed aside.

    “When do we start?” Slate asked.

    “Well, the good news is she’s unhurt.”

    The quartet of ponies let out their collectively held breath, and the brittle tension in the room immediately relaxed. The ponies had been there for hours, fretting and worrying over the fate of the frizzy maned elder currently nestled within the starched white sheets of the hospital bed. Her glasses were resting on a nearby table that was placed between her bed and the bed of her roommate and mate, Apple Bloom. Not that Apple Bloom’s admission to the clinic for the wide variety of bruises and cuts had kept her away from her mate’s side. The rest of those assembled were even more colorful, with one pony in green and gold armour, another in a purple and white bodysuit, and the final twisting her star covered purple cape between her hooves. They each seemed out of place in the hospital-like room with its yellowing paint, ancient radio, rusting metal window-frame, and beeping hardware to track the patient’s vital signs.

    “That there’s a relief, Doctah,” Apple Bloom sighed. “But when is she gonna wake up?”

    “Probably not until morning,” the pegasus doctor admitted, “she was drugged rather heavily. While we think she’s in no danger from the overdose, I would rather err on the side of caution in case there are any allergic or unforeseen reactions. We’ll keep her overnight for observation, and with luck she should be awake come the morning to fill in more details about what happened.”

    “Thank you, Doctor Blackberry,” the armoured mare said softly.

    The mare waved a hoof. “I’m just doing my job,” she answered with a sigh, “I’ll be back with some disinfectant and bandages for Apple Bloom’s cuts and scrapes. Dare I ask if all of this was your ‘ninja’ again?”

    “Buckin’ ninja,” Apple Bloom growled.

    “I’ll take that as a yes,” the doctor answered impishly as she trotted for the door.

    “Despite winning that battle, that was a lot closer than Trixie was comfortable with,” the unicorn sighed, smoothing out her cape self-consciously. “Perhaps Clockwork was right; perhaps we do need Flourish for this.”

    “I’m not so sure we really won in the end,” Galaxi said in a low voice, “she was laughing at me when she slipped away the final time. You’d almost think she was enjoying herself.”

    “That don’ exactly instill much confidence,” Apple Bloom grumbled.

    “No, it doesn’t,” Galaxi answered, “And I don’t think--”

    A hoof slapped across Galaxi’s face hard enough to spin the unprepared psychic mare around, her eyes widening in shock. The room devolved into shouts as another hoof, then another, caught the psychic mare, staggering her before a pair of hoofs bucked her in the stomach, driving the breath from her and crumpling her on the floor.

    “What the buck?!” Clockwork cried before she realized what was happening, her mind painting in the portals she barely saw before her friend was struck. She extended a hoof, the glowing tip aiming uncertainly towards the others as she tried to find another portal, intending to fire into it. What she didn’t expect was a portal appearing almost directly before her, and a hoof from the unknown mare reaching through to grab hers.

    Clockwork struggled for a moment, the suited mare’s leverage versus the enhanced strength of her suit. It was, surprisingly, a losing fight for Clockwork as part of her foreleg was pulled through the portal before suddenly released. A new portal opened at her midsection and slammed into her gut, sending the armoured mare tumbling head over hooves…

    “Trixie thinks this neigh-sayer needs another lesson!!” the unicorn cried and began to focus her magic… only to have her horn caught by a pair of hooves and yanked back, landing Trixie flat on her back with a painful crash. The unicorn only saw stars for a moment, realizing a moment later that she was seeing them through the nearby window.

    “NO!” a cry came from Galaxi, still struggling for breath, as her telekinesis grasped at a hoof mere inches away from the mystic unicorn, slowing it, but unable to gather enough focus stop it. Apple Bloom, however, was quick enough on her hooves to pull the still stunned unicorn away, leaving the attack to only shatter a few of the cheap floor tiles before withdrawing.

    Apple Bloom let out a cry as the suited mare hit her, then Galaxi, then Trixie, then Clockwork, in a round of attacks. She finally appeared on the scene, striking through portals and rarely all in one place to strike back at. The mares valiantly, but futilely, attempted to fight back, but the strange suited mare seemed always a step ahead of them. Clockwork attempted to try and track the mare, her teeth clenched as her shields absorbed the incoming blows. She followed the randomly teleporting mare about the room the best she could, waiting for her shot.

    There was flash of white and Clockwork flicked her hoof, firing…

    “Clockwork, NO!” Trixie cried from her side, but it was too late.

    Clockwork’s eyes widened as she saw her target, the plasma bolt locked on perfectly…

    A flare of purple formed a wall between Clockwork and her target, but the plasma bolt shattered it, too concentrated for Galaxi to form a telekinetic shield strong enough to stop the attack that quickly…

    A white hoof from the side of the doorway reached out and gripped the white-clad mare, yanking her out of the way as the bolt ionized the air where she had just stood, crashing into the wall opposite with enough force to blow a large hole in it.

    The mares sat in silence, Clockwork’s hoof dropping numbly as she looked at the mare she nearly shot, and the white clad nurse gulped visibly at the destruction the plasma bolt had caused.

    “Looks like I chose to visit at just the right moment,” the elder unicorn said in a slightly gravelly voice from the side of the doorway, her foreleg still holding the nurse.

    “Sweetie Belle?!” Apple Bloom cried, and then sighed in relief. “You always did have an’ impeccable sense o’ timin’!”

    “Yes well,” the elder unicorn responded with a grin, running a hoof through her lavender, pink, and graying mane, “when I heard you and Twist had been admitted, I trotted down for a visit the moment I could get away from Scoot’s family.”

    Clockwork barely heard what was said between the two mares, her body trembling at what almost happened, the tragedy only barely averted. Galaxi moved to brace Clockwork’s side and carefully loosed the catches of her helmet to pull it off, revealing the wide green eyes of the mare within staring at the doorway, and the mare she nearly killed.

    “Trixie, Apple Bloom… I need to get Clockwork out of her armour,” Galaxi told the rest of the mares.

    “Trixie thinks that’s a good idea,” the unicorn said softly when she noticed the khaki mare’s horrified expression.

    “Jus’ let yerself in,” Apple Bloom called as the pair retreated. “We’ll catch up with ya in the mornin’!”

    “Poor Clockwork,” Sweetie Belle said after the pair left.

    “Poor Clockwork? Poor Clockwork?!” the nurse demanded. “What about poor me?!”

    “Yer safe, so stop yer bellyachin’” Apple Bloom snorted, “but she’s gonna have to live with th’ guilt o’ nearly shootin’ ya.”

    “Yeah, she’ll be second guessing herself for a while,” Sweetie Belle agreed.

    “Trixie thinks it was lucky that Miss Belle was nearby to lend a hoof,” the unicorn stated. “Thank you. Clockwork is fragile enough as it is; she does not need more on her head.”

    Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. “Is something going on with her?”

    “If you are willing to listen,” the cyan unicorn offered, “Trixie is willing to tell you. But much of what I tell you must stay secret!”

    “I don’t have any problem with that,” Sweetie Belle shrugged, and then nudged her friend. “It’s not like we’re doing ‘Gabby Gums’ anymore.”

    “Aw shoot, don’ bring up that fool idea again’,” Apple Bloom groaned, pulling her hat down over her eyes. “Las’ thin’ I need is fer Twist ta’ hear about that one!”

    “You assume we haven’t already told her,” the elder unicorn responded smugly and swished her tail a little.

    The nurse, all but forgotten now, scowled at the assembled mares.

    “You’ve returned.”

    “Yes, my Prince,” the zebra answered as he stood in a pool of light cast by the still open door in the otherwise darkened chamber.

    “And the gryphon, Alto I believe his name was?”

    “He’s eating right now,” Kaos answered, smoothing his black mane back along his head. “He was wounded as well, so I let Burner take a look at him. He’s no medical type, but it’s better than nothing.”

    “Quite,” the Prince intoned. “You defied my instructions, and relied on his desperation rather than his hatred.”

    “He was too uncontrolled,” Kaos answered matter of factly, hiding the sinking feeling in his stomach. “His anger was a blind rage that would have made him impossible to control on the team.”

    “You still belied my orders,” the Prince stated, his voice growing dark.

    “Yes sir,” Kaos answered with a gulp.

    “Good.”

    Kaos’ jaw fell slack. “Sir?”

    “I said ‘good’. I know I didn’t stutter and that you heard me plainly. Certainly you aren’t questioning me, are you?”

    “N-no… well… yes, I think I am. I don’t understand.” Kaos responded uncertainly.

    “Simply put, Kaos, you followed your instincts. You were the one there in the field, and had to make the decision on the fly,” the Prince said almost casually. “I may be your superior, and don’t you forget it, but you are the field commander when I am not there. You have to be able to make your own decisions, and act independently. You cannot blindly follow what I tell you, for that would surely lead to the demise of this team, my plans, and your life. I believe the old saying is ‘No plan of attack ever survives first contact with the enemy’… or something like that. Regardless, you need to be capable of making your own decisions as well as following my orders. You chose to convince him to be thankful for the rescue and what we can offer him, rather than focusing on his anger. From what you said, it was a wise decision. I won’t punish you for that… though I would have if you had backed down.”

    “I… I see,” Kaos responded, straightening his tie nervously.

    “That said, we have no time to rest on our laurels,” the deep rich voice of the Prince continued from the darkness. “I’m afraid that the time it took to track down and recruit Alto gave Zilch too much time to act. She has overextended herself, and the Princesses’ mares are beginning to put the pieces together. If they move first, if they take her down, she will be lost to us. Worse, the elder sister knows her true nature. She does not yet remember Zilch, but that will change shortly. You will need to activate two of our waiting agents and send them on a mission purely for the sake of distraction.”

    “The only agents I contacted and not yet brought in are Crosswind and Junkyard,” Kaos noted.

    “That would be the agents I was thinking of,” the Prince confirmed. “Have the Pegasus and Diamond Dog strike at… oh, let’s say Las Pegasus. The city has a pair of home-brewed teams that they should be able to beat down easily enough, and draw the attention of the Princesses.”

    “You mean the ‘High Rollers’ and ‘The Upstarts’?” the zebra asked with a frown, “I must object to taking down foals.”

    “Technically the Upstarts consist of teenagers, but I understand your reservation. Still, we need to make a lot of noise and make a scene, and the Upstarts are far and away the most well known team of the southern border,” the Prince noted. “Have the pair use discretion; we don’t want any permanent injuries. This is a distraction only; we need to draw Project Moonbeam’s focus away from Zilch before you can extract her. Once you’ve activated and transported the pair to Las Pegasus, make your way to the unregistered territories. You’ll be heading for the Crusader’s home turf, right in the thick of things. You should be able to pick up Zilch’s scent fairly easily, and extract her before the Princesses’ pet team can bring her in.”

    “Are there any arguments I should use for her?” Kaos asked simply.

    “Follow your instincts,” the Prince responded. “I cannot give you an in with her, she is not a pony of that ilk. Her motivations are completely her own, but her continued survival should be a very strong incentive. Leave the evidence of her current contract there for those mares to find, however. That will end her threat to the Crusaders, and bring that part of the puzzle to a neat close.”

    “Wouldn’t we want the mares split up?” Kaos asked curiously, pacing the small amount of light the doorway to the Prince’s chamber allowed. “Keeping them divided would allow… well, whatever it is you’re planning and not telling me.”

    The Prince laughed throatily, “No, my dear Kaos, not in the least. I have a plan, you are correct, and in time we will be ready to face the mares. But for now, we should allow them to reunite as a team. Other events will cause a split of a different sort, one far more effective than this silliness with the Northern Reaches. Plus, as Alto would tell you if you asked the right questions, the gryphons are on the march. The Princesses will want the Element bearers home and close to them in Canterlot, thus even should the threat remain, the mares would be recalled. No, allow them to come home naturally. I have foreseen that they will suffer a split of a different sort, and it will weaken them considerably.”

    “As you wish, my Prince.”

    “Good. Now get moving, time is not on our side.”

    “Is everything alright, Galaxi?”

    “Not entirely, Princess,” the blind mare responded, a hoof on the earpiece that allowed her to speak to her mentor.

    “Is Clockwork alright?” Luna asked worriedly.

    “She’s recovering,” Galaxi sighed and settled into a chair of Apple Bloom’s kitchen. “She’s in the shower right now, though she’s over-scrubbing her hooves as if she could wash away the guilt.”

    “Guilt?” Luna asked, her voice hitching slightly. “What happened?”

    “She almost shot an innocent. If not for the timely intervention from Sweetie Belle, the nurse would have been…” Galaxi responded, drifting off.

    “I get the idea,” Luna said softly, “an accident like that would have been hard on her.”

    “And another scroll from that stallion of hers back home was waiting for her when we returned from the clinic,” she continued. “I didn’t pry, but she was a bit out of sorts from it.”

    “Bottle Rocket, yes?”

    “That was the name she gave me,” Galaxi answered, forcing down the jealousy that tried to seep into her voice.

    “I looked up the name in our database, and before you ask, yes we keep tabs on all the specials we can,” Luna noted, tapping a few keys audibly over the link. “Let me pull up his record… here we go. Valorous service, earned some of the highest accolades we give to Agents, honorably discharged from the Agency when it was disbanded. He’s a widower… his wife and daughter died in the second invasion of Canterlot. He was on assignment at the time, and his entire team was decimated in the battle due to a surprise attack from a Destroyer Imp. Since then, he’s had a string of medical problems, his powers have gone almost completely out of control, and even an incident of accidentally harming a child. That took a lot of work from the Agency to smooth out. His file indicates he’s over twice Clockwork’s age, and some counseling reports indicate severe depression and suffering from… suffering from Acclimation Disorder. We were keeping him under heavy observation in a specialized research clinic in Canterlot, but he voluntarily left that and all assistance programs. Just checked himself out.”

    “If he’s a threat to himself, why is he out there wandering around?”

    Luna sighed, “Unfortunately, while he’s a threat to himself, he was off the hook legally for the incident with the filly, it was just an accident. We have no legal grounds to hold him. Depression isn’t a legally viable reason to hold a pony.”

    “So Clockwork is trying to help him through his issues as she claimed?” Galaxi considered, tapping a hoof on the kitchen table.

    “Probably connected over the fact they are suffering from the same disorder, though if these records are correct, he has it a great deal worse than she does,” Luna said softly.

    “She didn’t seem all that happy about whatever he wrote this time,” Galaxi noted. “She dashed off a return scroll and had it into the mail before I had even realized she’d done it.”

    “I’ll send out some eyes to see what’s going on with him here,” Luna said softly, “but I can’t make any guarantees. With all the ramping up for the gryphons, I don’t have a lot of ponies to spare. King Goldtalon is no longer trying to be discreet about his intentions and is visibly ramping up his army.”

    “Speaking of forces, Clockwork was right. We need Flourish up here, this teleporting mare is well beyond us. I swear, she can teleport four or five different ways at once,” Galaxi sighed.

    “Four or… wait, I wonder…”

    Galaxi blinked and sat upright. “Princess?”

    “There’s an old project that was discontinued some years ago… here it is. The Zero project,” Luna answered. “Most of the file was sealed by my sister, so I only have some basic info. The project was an attempt to understand the magic that created Specials, started soon after the first specials began to appear in Equestria and across the world, and she put a cabal of unicorn mages specializing in theoretical spellcasting on the project. I handled the Agency to sort out those suddenly gaining these powers, and she went about trying to figure out what it was in and of itself. It is how we eventually learned that it was coming from the Elements themselves, via the Element Bearers.”

    “The Six, you mean?” Galaxi asked curiously.

    “Exactly. As each of “The Six” passed, there was a concern that this would vanish entirely and leave us exposed and vulnerable to the threat of the Imps and the Nightmare. Attempts to isolate the specific band of magic and separate it out had a strange result, creating a literally sentient magical being that took the shape of a pony. I don’t have any details of the description, or what it might have looked like, but apparently this being was a walking tesseract--”

    “A walking what?” the blind pony asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

    Luna chuckled, “Tesseract. Don’t ask me to explain it, Galaxi, the mathematics behind it is well over even my head. The short version is it would allow this… whatever, to bend the rules of space and physics. It’s quite literally not bound by the same rules that we are. I believe it was named ‘Zilch’ before the project was brought to a rather sudden conclusion. I’ll talk to my sister about getting this file unlocked, and get you fillies as much information as I can. I doubt Celestia even thought of this when Clockwork talked about the strange mare… It’s odd though. Why would a being like this be acting as an assassin? Is there something more going on? Maybe it’s being blackmailed into doing it?”

    “How would you blackmail a creature like this?” Galaxi asked incredulously.

    “Simple,” Luna answered, “you threaten to reveal it to the Princesses. Zilch is on a list of ‘capture and detain at all costs’ with the Royal Guard, another thing I will need to ask my sister about. We reserve that for only the highest of threats.”

    “Great, so if she were being threatened, she would… urgh. Why can’t we just face a bad pony?” Galaxi groaned and thumped her head on the table.

    Luna couldn’t help but laugh, “Because that would be too easy.”

    “Of course.”

    “I’ll talk to Flourish as soon as I can. Keep in touch, if anything happens I might have to ask Trixie to come back,” Luna stated.

    “Understood, Princess,” Galaxi answered, and her ear flicked as she heard the water shut off in the next room. “I should go; Clockwork is finally done in the shower.”

    “Stay safe, Galaxi.”

10

Chapter 10

“Setting the Stage”

    “Well, that was fun.”

    The diamond dog only grunted at his partner, his steady gaze watching the retreat of the Upstarts. Slowly he flexed his left arm, the rocky gray pelt hiding the bruise he could feel starting to form. It wouldn’t impede his performance, but he would have to favor his other arm, at least until his connection with the earth could heal him. Brown eyes looked upwards to his companion, a sky blue pegasus with red streaking his fiery orange mane. Crosswind seemed hardly affected by the fight, which meant the diamond dog had to tune out the constant litany of insults the pegasus hurled at the retreating heroes.

    For teenagers, they had proven surprisingly capable; he couldn’t help but respect them.

    “Hah, did you see them run off like that, Junkyard?” the pegasus crowed to him, causing the diamond dog to merely raise an eyebrow at his vocal companion. “Of course you did, you were there! We stomped them but good, kicked their flanks all the way back to their mommas!”

    Junkyard merely shook his head disapprovingly.

    The pegasus blew a raspberry at his partner and looked the direction the “heroes” had fled in, “Aw, yer no fun, big guy. We whooped their flanks an’ sent them runnin’! They won’t be back!”

    Junkyard slowly scanned the area about him, still wary. Before the pair had caused as much destruction to it as possible, this had been a construction site for the ever expanding Las Pegasus, right where the city bordered the desert. What had started life as a simple pegasus settlement at the border of the bison occupied desert had grown exponentially since somepony figured out that there was a lot of bits to be made from gambling. The pegasi living here created a double tiered city, with a massive settlement on the ground that consisted of the gaudiest and brightest casinos, shops, and hotels imaginable. Meanwhile the cloud settlement above held a majority of the native pegasi and their homes, in addition to supporting a multitude of signs that hung below it for even more advertisement space and city spotlights. It resulted in a non-stop stream of bright lights that could drown out the moon at night and rivaled the sun in the day, all in an artificial city that made the canine itch to be away from.

    The same couldn’t be said for his companion. “Man, I swear if it weren’t for this assignment, I would be in the clubs mixing it up!” Crosswind cried and swooped down low for a moment, “I mean, did you SEE the fine flank on that one mare we passed when we got to town? And she was giving me the eye! Man, I could have gotten some --”

    Junkyard made a sudden sign with his hand, and Crosswind stopped mid-sentence. The wind stirred, ruffling the canine’s fur as he stared into the distance. He placed one hand flat on the ground, and for a moment he sniffed the air with an odd snuffling sound, his eyes glazing over as he sorted the scents. He could sense the ground trembling through his hand, something heavy was approaching, but the breeze was wrong to properly identify the scent. With a motion, he pointed not towards the city, but the desert.

    “Oh? More guests? How many?” the pegasus inquired, already grinning with anticipation. The diamond dog held up one finger, and then motioned with his hand a specific direction.

    “Hrm, where are… ah, I see ‘em now.” His wings flicked, and the pegasus zipped forward a few dozen feet then hovered in place like an impatient humming bird. “Looks like a… bison? What would he be doing here?”

    “We called in a favor,” a familiar voice answered, and from the darkness of a nearby rock, three of the Upstarts seemed to step from the shadows. A yellow filly with a thin black mask, a bright orange pegasus with a frizzy mane, and a midnight blue unicorn with an overdramatic cloak took shape.

    “You’ll need more friends than that,” Crosswind answered, wind whipping at his mane counter to the stiff breeze of the desert.

    “We’ll see about that,” the mare answered, crossing her hooves before throwing something towards the pair. “Upstarts, g--”

    An explosion of rock interrupted the call, and Junkyard smirked from where he stood, having called the sudden spire that forced away the pair of colts trying to sneak up on him. One cobalt blue with a silver mane and the other a green colt with glowing amber eyes found themselves tossed away. The remaining three separated in anticipation of a further attack…

    “You really, REALLY need to be more subtle,” teased Crosswind as he used a sudden wind to force the unknown object thrown by the leader of the Upstarts away. “We were just gonna chase you away, tell you to go fetch some real heroes, or at least some adults, but now I think you foals really need a lesson in respecting your elders…”

    Junkyard rolled his eyes again, but eyed the approaching bison warily. Something about the newcomer bothered him.

    “Thanks for coming on such short notice, Chief Thunderhooves,” the yellow mare told the bison as she tumbled to a stop by him.

    “I think I see your problem, Sparrow,” the bison intoned in a rumbling voice as his horns started to glow. “The flyer has a mouth bigger than he is.”

    “Oh, hey, a comeback!” Crosswind crowed happily. “And here I thought witty one-liners were out of fashion this year.”

    With a sudden motion, the bison threw his head and stomped his forehooves, and the ground before him shredded itself apart as it arrowed towards the diamond dog. Junkyard yanked his hand up from the ground in a sweeping motion, and a sudden column of rock intercepted the approaching crevasse, which split as it absorbed the intense shockwaves. The dark brown eyes of the diamond dog squarely met that of the bison’s as the rocks fell away. With a motion of his other arm, a line of rocks arced outwards from Junkyard, crashing towards the bison…

    The bison stomped his hooves a second time, horns glowing as his power crashed into the approaching wave of rock, scattering it to nothing more than a few pebbles bumping into his hooves. The massive bison stared back at the diamond dog evenly. “It is rare to find another warrior among those who would do harm,” the bison said in a booming voice. “Let the battle be joined!!”

    “Hey now, don’t be forgettin’ about me,” the pegasus grinned. “Don’t think you’ll get away with ignoring me!”

    “Nightweaver, Plasma, on the flyer!” the Upstart’s leader ordered, and the dark mare surged forward, seemingly flinging bits of darkness as a weapon. The orange pegasus hurtled towards the pegasus stallion, weaving effortlessly about his teammate’s attacks as he tried to close in.

    “You really REALLY should have called for more help,” Crosswind taunted as the wind about him seemed to solidify for a moment, deflecting the shadowbolt attacks before he focused on the orange colt. A mini-twister formed about him, spinning the pegasus around and around. The stallion laughed at the disoriented colt before he heard the incantations of the unicorn, and answered by directing the twister into her, dropping both ponies into a heap.

    “You can’t win against us all!” the large cobalt pony shouted as he attempted to strike Junkyard, only to find his hoof caught by the canine. Rocks swept upwards, gripping the colt’s foreleg and pinning him in place… just in time to be bowled over by a redirected strike from Thunderhooves.

    “I think we can!” Crosswind answered for his nearly silent partner as he swooped down, intercepting the green phoenix before it could connect with the diamond dog, knocking him from the air and out of the assumed shape. The shape changing colt struggled to adapt, but was unable to reclaim the form before he was caught by his big blue friend.

    “Yo, Sparrow!” the blue colt called as he lifted his friend onto his back, who promptly turned into an oversized green bat. “We need a plan here!”

    “Focus on grounding the flyer, Cobalt!” the mare yelled back, hurling some strange disks from her saddlebags at the diamond dog. Junkyard responded with a simple gesture of his hand, and a rock thrust up from the ground to intercept them, the disks embedding themselves in it. They gave a beep and promptly exploded, shattering the rock and forcing the canine to shield his face.

    “You got it!” Cobalt answered, and looked at the shifted colt on his back, holding up a hoof for him. “Ready to try out that move we practiced, Bestial?” he asked, and the bat grinned and nodded before hopping onto his hoof and shifting into a startlingly green turtle. The big blue pony reared up on his back hooves and cocked his foreleg, then hurled his teammate as hard as he could at the pegasus.

    Junkyard let out a grunt as Thunderhooves slammed into him while he was partially blinded, but much to the Bison’s surprise, the Diamond Dog didn’t fall, or even move. Instead, the ground seemed to reach up and grip his feet to hold him in place. He grabbed the bison’s horns and steadily began to push back against the powerful bison, the pair struggling against each other. Sparrow, however, didn’t wait for them to finish wrestling for dominance and leapt up onto Thunderhooves’ back, lashing out with a hoof at Junkyard’s face. To her surprise, he only turned his head to take the attack on his cheekbone, and she yelped and fell back, her hoof flaring in pain.

    “Sparrow! You okay?” Cobalt immediately shouted.

    “I’m fine,” she called back, shaking her injured hoof, “but his skin is tough, that was like hitting a girder.”

    “I can break those,” the big blue pony growled, and reared up to slam his hooves into the back of the Diamond Dog… only to find a sudden wall of stone between him and his target. It crumbled under the assault, but it gave the diamond dog the necessary seconds he needed to twist his body, shifting Thunderhooves to the side and pushing him past, letting the bison collide with the pony once more. Junkyard smirked as the pair went down in a heap, wiping sweat from his hands before he looked to Sparrow.

    The mare was quick enough to roll aside as the first spire of rock tried to catch her. She ignored the pain flaring through her hoof as she dodged around a second and third column of rock that came rocketing upwards at her from the ground, and proceeded to use those pillars to get herself up off the ground, leaping between them even as the canine attempted to catch her with shelves and posts of rock sprouting from the side of the towering spires. He seemed to get steadily closer to catching on to her timing, and one rock jutted out from the side of another to catch her in mid-tumble, but Cobalt and Thunderhooves slamming into him from the side stopped him from finishing her off and forced his attention back to them.

    The green shape shifting colt hurtled towards Crosswind, who was unaware of his approach, the small turtle shell almost completely lost in the late afternoon sky. Of course the fact that Plasma had rejoined the fight and was proceeding to get knocked around by the pegasus and his ability to control the wind made his job easier.

    A sudden barrage of rocks hurtled at the flyer, each larger than the pony himself and forcing him to dodge out of the way and refocus on the dark unicorn below, who was  surrounded by almost a dozen rocks held in her magic.

    “Junkyard! You need to clean up your messes!” the pegasus laughed, and used the wind to split one approaching rock down the middle. “I swear, that dog is like a big puppy, just leaves his toys lying around everywhere…”

    Bestial was close enough by his judgment, and his form exploded as the turtle seemed to increase in size exponentially. The tortoise yanked his head into the shell, using himself as a living projectile. What he didn’t expect was to crash into a rock his teammate had hurled, and Crosswind redirected.

    “HAH! Thought you were sneaking up on me or something?” the pegasus demanded as Bestial changed forms again, catching himself with newly formed wings as he looked up over the long spear-like beak of the green crane form he adopted. For once, he really wished he could talk in these animal forms.

    “You should be paying attention to yourself!” Plasma cried, his oddly ethereal voice almost lost as his hooves glowed, causing an odd power trail in the sky as he once more tried to strike at Crosswind, only to find a hard sheet of wind there to deflect him… again.

    “You kids are getting predictable,” the pegasus yawned.

    “I am far older than you are,” Nightweaver intoned from below in her scratchy voice, which then took on an odd sense of power as she began to cast a spell. Plasma and Bestial both arrowed towards Crosswind from opposite sides in that moment, trying to cover for their teammate as she prepared her spell. Unfortunately, the pegasus was ready for them, and a sudden gust of wind caught his wings and propelled him out of trouble. Bestial was quick enough to turn into something harmless, in this case a flying squirrel, to minimize the impact with Plasma, but that didn’t save the pair when the wind caught and forced them downwards towards the casting unicorn. The dark unicorn’s glowing eyes widened as she saw her friends coming right at her, barely noticing Bestial leap free, and she covered her head as Plasma collided with her. Both ponies lay out on the ground, dazed from the impact.

    Bestial spread the flaps of his squirrel form to glide over Junkyard as an idea struck him. He shifted suddenly to his pony form and cried out, “CANNONBALL!!” His form shifted fluidly to that of an mammoth and dropped like a rock.

    “Thunderhooves, Cobalt… get clear!” Sparrow cried, and tossed a smoke bomb as the pair retreated as quickly as they could away from the Diamond Dog.

    Junkyard frowned, waving his hands to try and clear away the smoke when his eyes fell upon the growing shadow beneath him. He snapped his head up and looked right at the plummeting form of Bestial’s elephantine backside. Rather than trying to get clear, the canine spread his legs, shifted his feet, and braced himself for impact as he tried to catch the falling green pachyderm.

    Bestial slammed into the diamond dog with far more force than even he expected, and the ground radiated cracks and sent rocks flying in all directions from the newly formed crater, forcing everypony present to shield themselves from the debris. Silence reigned for several moments, and even Bestial seemed uncertain, trying to look down past his inflated backside. Crosswind watched worriedly, his wings flicking as he momentarily consider fleeing.

    A low, rumbling growl filled the night air as Bestial’s form shifted upwards slightly. Slowly the green mammoth that was Bestial rose higher, Junkyard steadily lifting him.

    “You need more mass… go heavier!” Cobalt cried, and the elephant nodded, turning suddenly into a jade four headed hydra. Junkyard seemed to wane as his momentum was momentarily stymied, but then slowly forced the shape shifter higher.

    “HAH! Do your worst!” Crosswind taunted. “You can’t stop Junkyard!”

    Bestial scowled at the pegasus with one of his heads, but Sparrow narrowed her eyes and watched carefully. Her eyes picked out the little things, like the fact that cracks radiated away from the point of impact, but under the Diamond Dog’s feet it was not only unscarred, but the rocks seemed to be crawling up his legs. A suspicion flitted across her mind, and she quickly dashed over to Nightweaver to whisper to her. The dark unicorn frowned, but gave a quick nod in response.

    “Bestial, reverse direction!” Sparrow called suddenly, and the hydra’s expression was briefly one of comical confusion before one of the heads seemed to get it. The multiple heads yanked inwards and a pair of wings extended from the body, massive claws grabbing the dog’s arms as the green Roc pulled the Diamond Dog upwards. Junkyard was caught by surprise. He had been so invested in not being crushed that he was completely unprepared for the sudden yank upwards. Only a few quick braces of stone on his ankles prevented him from being pulled immediately upwards, and a slash of darkness through those rocks remedied that. Dark magic coated the ground beneath him, and the canine found himself pulled skyward.

    “Sparrow?” Thunderhooves asked uncertainly.

    “I think he’s drawing strength from the ground itself…” the mare answered simply.

    “Everypony forgot about me again, didn’t they?” Crosswind asked, and Bestial let out a pained squawk as the pegasus slammed into one of his wings, forcing him to drop the Diamond Dog as he fell from the sky himself. Junkyard stood slowly from the crater, his eyes blazing.

    The diamond dog made a sudden clapping motion, and pair of rocks snapped shut like a trap about Thunderhooves, destroying themselves and leaving the bison in an unconscious heap amidst the rubble. Sparrow was ready with more exploding disks, hurling them at the canine, only to have them collide with another rock that was hurtling towards her. She tried to dive clear, but the explosion still caught her, sending her tumbling painfully across the yard.

    The rocks about Junkyard began to vibrate, then lift into the air, surrounded by the dark aura of Nightweaver’s magic. There was a momentary pause, and the Diamond Dog and Pony’s eyes met. Neither said a word as the stones slammed inward at the canine, entombing him. The rocks compressed, crushing themselves into pebbles, but there was no sign of the diamond dog… An explosion of earth from underneath the unicorn sent her tumbling head over hooves along the ground, followed by the angry Junkyard, who sent her into unconscious with a single swipe of his hand.

    “Don’t touch my friends!” Cobalt screamed, charging Junkyard. The large pony never reached him, however, as the air itself forced him flat to the ground.

    “Gotta love how they keep focusing on one of us at a time,” Crosswind teased as he directed the air away from Cobalt’s nose and mouth, starving him of air until he passed out. Only Bestial and Plasma were left, the former standing by some loose rocks with wide eyes, and the latter so angry one might think his hair was on fire.

    “Never surrender!!” Plasma cried, diving at the pair. Crosswind smirked, sending wind against the other pegasus until he seemed to not be moving forward at all. Plasma poured on the effort until, as suddenly as he had summoned the wind, Crosswind reversed the flow to accelerate Plasma far past what he intended.  Plasma couldn’t stop… until the rock Junkyard helpfully erected cracked with the pegasus’ impact. He slid down the rock to the ground, unconscious like his other teammates. Bestial was nowhere to be found in the wake, leaving the pair alone in the decimated construction lot.

    Junkyard frowned, looking around for the final member of the Upstarts before Crosswind clapped a hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about the last one,” he counseled, ignoring the fierce look from his partner, “we’ll have a second chance at them still. Come on, let’s hit the town and find a nice place to hole up for the night. We can slap them around some more tomorrow.” Junkyard nodded, and the pair turned to leave the wrecked construction site and the unconscious “heroes” behind.

    The pair were followed only by the eyes of a bright green mouse.

    “Sister, do you have a moment?”

    Celestia looked up from behind the desk, her eyes brightening as she caught sight of the dark form pushing into her room. For once, Princess Celestia’s study wasn’t the relaxed chamber she preferred, and she seemed almost buried in paperwork behind the heavily used desk. Celestia sighed and set her head on one of the larger stacks of paper, the late day sun streaming in through the bay window behind her cascaded over her mane as she smiled weakly at Luna.

    “I am here,” the elder sister answered, “exhausted, but here.”

    “I’m afraid I won’t alleviate much of that with what I need to ask,” Luna said pensively, getting the elder Princess’ attention.

    “That sounds ominous,” Celestia admitted, and then turned to her assistant, a mousey brown mare with large glasses. “Go ahead and take a break, Quill. We will pick back up after dinner.”

    The mare simply nodded and gave a quick curtsey before slipping out of the Princess’ chambers, leaving the sisters alone. Celestia rounded from behind the desk to give her younger sister a brief wing-hug and led her to a nearby table, using her magic to clear it off so they could settle down at it.

    “Something to drink?” Celestia offered, and at Luna’s nod, poured them each a cup of tea from a nearby carafe. “I had to reheat it, but it should still be good. So tell me, what is on your mind, Luna?”

    “Two things,” Luna sighed softly, “and both of them originate from speaking to Galaxi a short while ago.”

    “I take it things are not going well in the northern reaches?” Celestia asked, taking a sip of her tea. She promptly made a face and set it aside.

    “No. The group faced their mystery mare,” Luna answered, “and it seemed as if they scored a victory, until the mystery mare showed up and promptly humiliated them shortly thereafter. She learned their strategy damnably fast, it seems. They’re requesting Flourish, once again, to try and handle this mare hoof to horn, as it were.”

    “A shame, I truly thought they would be able to adapt,” Celestia admitted with a frown.

    “I’ll give them points for creativity,” Luna said quickly, “but with who they are up against, I’m not sure Flourish can win either, or even the entire team.”

    Celestia frowned darkly. “This mare is that powerful?”

    “If she is who I think she is, then yes,” Luna responded too quickly for her sister’s comfort.

    “You think she is a former agent?” Celestia asked carefully.

    “No,” Luna said softly. “I think she’s somepony far more dangerous.”

    “For once, you are being more cryptic than I,” Celestia teased, and Luna shrugged slightly.

    “Does the name ‘Zilch’ ring any bells?” Luna asked, and watched Celestia’s eyes widen. For a brief moment, Luna wished her sister had been drinking her tea then, if only to see her staid and professional sister do a spit take.

    “That… that is not a name I have heard for almost several years,” Celestia answered slowly. “Is there a specific reason you suspect her as the assassin the Crusaders face?”

    “Galaxi described her use of teleportation in more detail,” the younger sister said softly, considering the tea before deciding to push her cup aside. “She stated that this mare could teleport parts of herself, sometimes able to split herself up four and five different ways at once via her portals. It reminded me of some of the tests you spoke about with your research project on the source of the Special’s magic. I tried to pull the data up myself, but you sealed the record.”

    “For good reason,” Celestia answered softly. “It was a mistake to meddle as we… as I did. We inadvertently created an innocent life gifted with incredible powers… and the intelligence of a child. Zilch would be what… six? Seven years old at most? She would still be very young, a foal still by our standards, with powers that could rival even the most powerful mage…”

    “What happened?” Luna asked softly. “You have a ‘capture and detain’ order on her of the highest level. That’s just shy of a kill on sight order.”

    “Because she is capable of using her powers for murder,” Celestia sighed, and pushed her teacup about distractedly about for a moment. “One mare on the research team was a cruel thing, something I wish I had seen before things came to a head. However, she hid that side of herself well from myself and the rest of her team, and all the while she was conducting her own experiments behind everypony’s back. If not for an alert security pony, some newly placed security cameras, and a tragic series of circumstances, we never would have known what she was doing. Even so, she paid the ultimate price for her cruelty. Zilch lashed out and used her powers lethally, closing one of her portals like a blade to… sever the mage from the mortal coil. I do not wish to get into too much detail, but suffice it to say the deceased is spending her afterlife in the depths of Tartarus. But Zilch fled after the incident… and has not been seen since. I actually suspected that she dissipated back into the magic that created her, so it is a surprise to hear that she still lives. It saddens me to hear she may be working as an assassin, however.”

    “What did this mare do that was--”

    “Sister, I beg of you, do not pry into that,” the Princess pleaded, her eyes looking earnestly on her sister. Luna was taken aback for a moment, but gave a short nod.

    “Is that why you sealed the record?” Luna asked softly.

    “Yes,” Celestia answered quickly. “Information of what this mare did could corrupt other minds, and encourage them to attempt much the same thing. Sometimes, ignorance is the best weapon to prevent atrocities. If a pony does not know such a concept exists, he or she is less likely to stumble across it themselves. Maybe it is naive of me to assume the best of my little ponies, but I have such hope for them. I do not think I could bring myself to… to love them as I should if something like this entered the common sphere of influence.”

    Luna bowed her head. “I will respect your wishes in this regard, sister.”

    Celestia smiled gently. “You need not be so formal, Luna, but thank you for understanding.”

    “Unfortunately,” Luna continued, placing a hoof on the table, “I still need access to her records. I cannot send my team in blind; we need more information about this strange mare. Now that we know her name, and potentially her powers, we stand a chance to fight back against her.”

    Celestia shook her head. “I am not convinced it is the same mare, to be honest. Now that I think upon in, Lady Key described her as extremely proficient in hoof to hoof combat. That is not something a pony learns in only a few short years. For many ponies, it takes a lifetime of learning to reach such competency as was described to us.”

    “That’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to get a good look,” Luna said simply, “that doesn’t add up to me either. However, if Zilch had some sort of method of skill copying--”

    Celestia blinked, “I… I do not recall ever having her tested in that regard. She was kept in a mostly sterile research environment, away from other Specials. If she could somehow copy those skills of those she has encountered…”

    “That still wouldn’t explain everything,” Luna finished. “Apple Bloom’s special ability is her stealth, her ability to turn invisible. Her martial arts is studied and learned over a lifetime.”

    “You assume it was the Crusader whom she copied the ability from,” Celestia answered softly, running a hoof through her mane in such a way that it caught the sun’s light like a prism. “There are a number of Specials in the Northern Reaches, and there is no saying she is not drawing from another pony to learn this talent from.”

    Luna stared at her sister a moment, before giving a groan and thumping her head on the table. “That makes a scary amount of sense. If she is made of the magic that creates Specials, it stands to reason she could attune to those specials who are nearby and mimic their abilities.”

    “Furthermore,” Celestia noted, “given her known abilities of teleportation and the lack of adherence to the physics we understand, means she would have a hoof-full of permanent abilities she could learn and improve continually. She could potentially be a teleporting mirror for any special pony to fight.”

    “Only a pony who is truly unpredictable would have a chance,” Luna agreed. “Lady Pie would have been an ideal choice, were she were still alive.”

    “I think we have a pony who is close enough to count,” Celestia countered with a smile. “But remember, this is all conjecture. It is possible we are completely wrong.”

    “Without being able to put her into a research environment to find out…”

    “Something I doubt she would agree to, even if she were inclined to forgive me,” Celestia slipped in sadly.

    “…we will simply have to work with this as an operational theory,” Luna finished. “When I mobilize Flourish, I’ll give her what data I can to hand off to Galaxi and Clockwork. Clockwork, especially, has the intelligence to try and sort this out.”

    “There is an interesting consideration,” Celestia mused. “Clockwork Key has advanced intelligence among her listed abilities. Would mimicking her cognitive functions improve Zilch’s own cognitive abilities? That would be a fascinating thing to know.”

    “It could also make her a more dangerous, smarter foe,” Luna pointed out. “Regardless, this is all interesting conjecture, but in the end I still must ask for access to her files, if only so we know what she is. I can understand completely sealing off the… incident, and I will leave that portion sealed, as per your request, but I need as much data as I can for the team.”

    “I will unlock it for you, Luna,” Celestia answered with a weary smile. “But please, if you can, have them bring her back alive.”

    “So you can continue to study her?” Luna asked, a note of suspicion creeping into her voice.

    “No,” Celestia said sincerely, “I learned from that mistake, little sister. But she needs to be taught right from wrong; she is still only a child, no matter how she appears physically. Plus, I will admit a small bit of selfishness. I would wish to make amends for what she endured.”

    “I will ask them to make every attempt,” Luna answered simply and climbed to her hooves. “I should get--”

    “Princess!” a guard cried as he crashed through the closed door, nearly striking the younger Princess with it. Princess Luna scowled darkly at the guard, who shrank away from the reagent of the night.

    “No rest for the weary,” Celestia sighed. “What is it, Sergeant?”

    “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia, but I have an urgent message for Princess Luna,” the guard answered nervously.

    “For me?” Luna asked, surprised. “What is the message?”

    “An emergency missive from the bison chieftain, Chief Thunderhooves, addressed directly to you,” the guard stated, offering the scroll in question.

    Luna gripped it with her magic and hovered it before her, unrolling it even as Celestia wandered closer, curiously looking over her sister’s shoulder. Luna’s expression darkened as she read.

    “I see the chief is as verbose as ever,” Celestia put in as her sister let the scroll roll back up.

    “Looks like we will need every member of the team we can get,” Luna said, stamping a hoof. “If the Upstarts are in trouble, and they’re one of the more promising teams I’ve been tracking, then this threat is going to need some special attention.”

    “The Upstarts?” the guard asked wonderingly, then flushed as the Princesses turned to look at him. “S-sorry, your eminences, my colt is a fan. He keeps hoping he’ll develop powers so he can join them.”

    “It is the classic foal-hood dream, to be a hero, is it not?” Celestia slipped in with a knowing wink before turning back to her sister. “How does this involve Thunderhooves?”

    “It seems the Upstarts asked for Thunderhooves’ help in dealing with a pair of trouble makers,” Luna frowned, pacing her sister’s office as she thought, “a pegasus who can control wind and a diamond dog who can control earth”

    “They sound like a case of opposites attracting,” Celestia noted.

    “What worries me is that Thunderhooves very specifically mentioned their teamwork,” Luna answered with a scowl. “According to him, they are perfectly coordinated and actively covering each other’s weaknesses. I probably have the pegasus in my files but… I’ve never heard of a diamond dog special.”

    “They exist, and Spectrum has met a number of them before,” Celestia inserted, “but they don’t tend to go in for things like the agency. The Diamond Dogs tend to work as large family units, and those with powers simply use them to assist their kin as best they can. Their entire society is like that, really, and they often have a very powerful sense of duty to their ‘pack’, which is a sort of family of families.”

    “So we get an example of the rare offshoot,” Luna noted, then sighed.

    “There is a black sheep in every family,” the guard muttered, then jumped when he found both Princesses looked at him again. “S-sorry ma’am… ma’ams!”

    Luna dipped her head to the guard. “You may return to your post, and thank you,” She told him, and then turned to her sister. “It looks like further research on this mystery mare will have to wait while I handle this crisis.”

    “I understand, little sister,” Celestia answered reassuringly, and watched as the Princess of the Night vanished through the door before the guard had even managed to leave her chambers. The guard bowed again and slipped out, leaving her alone. The Princess of the Sun turned to regard the late evening sun through her window.

    Celestia smiled tiredly at the glowing orb and closed her eyes, letting the light play over her features in the scant moments before she used her magic to put away the sun for the evening, raising the moon in her little sister’s stead.

    And the celestial wheel makes another turn.

    “Hey! Is anypony home?! Hellooooo?”

    “What in the… Flourish, is that you yelling?” the cyan unicorn demanded as she staggered from the bedroom, followed by a bleary eyed Galaxi and a barely conscious Clockwork. “It’s not even dawn yet, what are you doing here?”

    Flourish grinned broadly as the trio came into view. “You girls look like hell,” the gray unicorn pointed out, and yanked a folder from her bags and dropped it with a slap on the kitchen table. “Sorry about porting in without knocking, but we got new orders from Princess Luna.”

    “Probably being recalled over that gryphon thing,” Clockwork grumped. “I ain’t goin’ if it means abandoning --”

    “Nope, nothing of the sort,” Flourish interrupted. “She’s just recalling Trixie, and I’m to take her place. Seems there’s a pair of specials whooping things up in Las Pegasus, and they’ve managed to take down the local teams, including the Upstarts, and Chief Thunderhooves when he was called in to help.”

    “Aren’t you their usual liaison?” Galaxi asked as she rubbed sleep from her eyes.

    Flourish nodded as she answered cheerfully, “Yup. Even met the Upstarts a few times, they’re fun to hang out with. They help out Thunderhooves and his tribe when they run into trouble, and I think he even made them honorary members of his herd. Anyway, a couple of bad-flanks are stirring up trouble down there, and Thunderhooves called in a favor to get who we can spare down there to help him and the Upstarts out,” Flourish finished.

    “I remember Thunderhooves, he was a really nice bull,” Clockwork noted with a smile. “He helped me out a lot in the early days of the team.”

    “Trixie remembers him having a good rapport with everypony, except Ultrapony and… well and myself,” the cyan unicorn admitted. “Admittedly, at the time Trixie was being a foal and trying to get into Ultrapony’s good graces before she realized what an utter ass he was, but that is hardly an excuse for my behavior.”

    “I’m sure if you show him you’ve changed, he won’t have any problems with you, Trixie,” Galaxi soothed, patting her friend’s shoulder.

    “Trixie is not so much worried about that, as she is about other things,” she stated, her eyes flicking to Clockwork nervously.

    “I’ll stay with her,” Galaxi sent to the unicorn psychically with a reassuring smile.

    “Well, no matter what you’re worried about, Luna said to get your flank moving and your earpiece in,” Flourish said, looking curiously at the boarded over window. “Make sure you teleport to her in Canterlot to synch up and get the info she’s got on the perps.”

    “Perps?” Galaxi asked.

    “Perpetrators,” the other mares all said at once. A few chuckles later, and Clockwork explained, “Its common guard speak for a perpetrator, or someone who they believe is breaking the law.”

    Galaxi nodded, blushing that all three mares were able to answer the question at once. Flourish ignored her, content to root through Apple Bloom and Twist’s refrigerator for something to eat. Trixie had vanished into the bedroom to collect her things. Only Clockwork seemed curious about the envelope that Flourish left on the table, tugging it towards her with a hoof.

    “Dumb question, why send you to us if you’re the liaison to the bison?” Galaxi asked softly.

    “’Cause you girls keep askin’ for my help,” Flourish answered from somewhere inside the fridge, “something about a teleporting mare and wanting to fight fire with fire.”

    Clockwork chuckled, then tapped the folder that Flourish had tossed down. “So what’s this?”

    “Hrm?” the gray unicorn responded around a mouthful of bagel before answering. “Oh yeah, that. Princess Luna said that’s some research on the mare who they believe is acting as an assassin up here. She also asked us to do our best to try and bring the mare in alive.”

    “Alive?!” Clockwork cried incredulously. “After all she’s done…?”

    Flourish shrugged and stuffed her head back into the fridge to find more to eat, leaving Clockwork to hoof open the rather plain manila folder.

    “Top Secret,” Galaxi read from the bright red letters on the folder as she settled down by Clockwork. “For authorized ponies only.”

    The khaki mare chuckled, “I guess we’ve gotten a higher security rating...”

    Galaxi made a face. “I think we technically always had the clearance.”

    “Let’s see then,” Clockwork said, plowing ahead, “Project Zero. Objective: to research, isolate, and successfully copy the magical properties that have caused special powers to develop in ponies and other intelligent races. Project status: terminated.”

    “Well, that sounds ominous,” Galaxi sighed softly. “I guess the last information I gave Princess Luna bore some fruit.”

    Clockwork nodded and flipped the page over, her eyes widening. “Whoah,” she whispered, staring at the list of equations and datum. “This is… deep stuff. Theoretical magic on a level I’ve never seen before!”

    “What’s this here?” Galaxi asked, pointing to a box outlined in red.

    Clockwork narrowed her eyes, completely ignoring Flourish as she wandered past them to explore the rest of the home. “It says here that the equations yielded an unexpected result when they attempted to test their theory, and to see page four for details of the anomaly.” Galaxi and Clockwork looked to each other for a moment, and turned the page, their eyes falling on an incredible photograph. Their jaws fell slack as they stared at the photo of swirling energy, star like points of light cascading along swirls and  pearlescent strands as if it were constantly turning and churning. Even as a photo, the energy looked like it was pulsing and swirling in place. Only after staring wordlessly for minutes did something else register to the pair…

    “I-it’s in the shape of a pony,” Galaxi stammered.

    Clockwork shifted the photograph to the side and began to read hurriedly. “Unexpected results, unknown cause. Somehow the magic has coalesced into a sentient living being! We have taken to calling it ‘Zilch’ for now, a joking reference to the project name. We are working on some sort of attire for it, which would allow it to perchance be less conspicuous and attention grabbing, as well as dampen the low amount of magical radiation it is putting off. All seven of us are eager to run our own tests on this anomaly as well, but I worry exactly what we may have unleashed here. This was, in no way, the intended result.”

    “There’s more,” Clockwork noted, “but the dates are pretty spread out. I guess we got the condensed version.”

    “Probably,” Galaxi agreed. “If Princess Luna was pressed by that other crisis, she would have just gotten as much information as possible to us, probably with little editing.”

    “We’ll be here for a few hours…” Clockwork frowned.

    “We can read all this after we see Trixie off and get to the clinic,” Galaxi stated and got up from the table. “We will need to meet up with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and let them know what happened. Also we need to check on Twist too.”

    Clockwork closed the folder and slid it back into the envelope, “Alright then, it’ll have to wait. I just hope this ‘Zilch’ is willing to wait too.”

    “Oh. My. GODDESS!” came a cry from below, startling both the mares. “I’ve died and gone to the Summerlands!”

    Galaxi and Clockwork looked at each other, horror washing over their expressions. “The candy shop!” they cried in unison. They dashed from the kitchen, rushing to prevent Flourish from eating the elder mare’s entire stock…

    “So lemme get this straight…”

    Apple Bloom paced back and forth in the hospital room, blatantly ignoring her doctor’s orders to stay off her hooves. Behind her, reclining on the bed, Twist hoofed through the folder once more, Clockwork by her side as they did their best to sort the scattershot information into a coherent series of theories. Large chunks of data was missing, mostly the specifics of a number of experiments, but photographs that were eerily similar to what they had witnessed the strange mare do made it clear they had found who they were combating.

    “…this buckin’ ninja is really some sorta secret gov’mnt project?” Apple Bloom finished.

    “Abandoned,” Clockwork corrected. “Apparently creating a being of magical energy was not exactly on the to-do list, and the Princess shut them down. The reasons aren’t explained here, but considering this mare, this ‘Zilch’, ran away, I think it’s safe to assume that it was a less than positive experience for her.”

    “If these dates are right,” Twist noted, running a hoof over one of the pages, “the project was started only two years after the Specials first appeared, it went through dozens of iterations and ranking mages and scientists, and was bearing fruit… until something happened and their attempt to wrangle the magic somehow formed this ‘Zilch’ approximately six years ago.”

    “Now y’see, that’s something I dun’ get,” Apple Bloom said, punctuating it with a thump of her hoof on Twist’s bed. Twist gently tugged a sheet of paper free from under her mate’s hoof as she continued. “She’s usin’ a zebra style o’ martial arts, Fallen Caesar form, an she’s buckin’ good enough ta take me on. I been doin’ this mah whole life, an’ I know exactly how much trainin’ that’d take! So how th’ buck does a filly know so much!”

    “That’s part of Luna’s notes at the end,” Galaxi answered from the far side of the bed. “She did mention a working theory that this Zilch can mimic the powers of other specials.”

    “It’s a good point,” Clockwork agreed, “and there are plenty of Specials up here in the Unregistered Territories. Do you know of any whose ability might focus around hoof to hoof combat?”

    “Hrm… I dunno,” Apple Bloom frowned.

    “What about that bodyguard Marmalade had a few years back?” Twist asked, and her mate’s eyes went wide.

    “You don’ mean tha’ idiot, Jett? That boy couldn’ find his flank with a lantern an’ a map!”

    “Jett?” Clockwork and Galaxi asked simultaneously.

    Apple Bloom sighed, “Jett Storm. A buck with an ego bigga’ than alla Equestria, and this weird ability tha’ let ‘im learn any combat style he watched constantly fer like an hour or somethin’. It was permanent too, so he’d go sit an’ watch advanced classes o’ martial arts schools ‘round Equestria. Then, when he done thought he learned enough, he sold his ‘services’ ta’ anypony who could pay. Mostly did bodyguard work, but I ain’t seen him for ova’ a year now, not since I beat ‘im in that fight.”

    “Let’s make a few assumptions here…” Clockwork said, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “Ya’ll know what assumin’ does, don’tcha?” Bloom slid in with a smirk.

    Clockwork waved the elder mare off and continued, “Let’s hypothesize that Marmalade is behind the attacks, for whatever reason. Twist just said that this Jett Storm worked for her as a bodyguard at one time. Now assuming she knew how his power worked, probably because he bragged about it, and she somehow learned that Zilch could copy another pony’s powers, she hired him on for a different project. Assuming Zilch can learn abilities as Princess Luna theorized, her time near him would allow her to pick up on his learning power, and if he learns the styles permanently, he would literally be able to show her the styles she needs. Hell, he’d even be able to spar with her for a level of training just watching wouldn’t be able to give. If we assume she’s either hired or forced to do this, and he’s hired or forced to do this all by Marmalade, we have a perfect storm that would give us a teleporting ninja mare capable of kicking all our flanks.”

    “I dunno,” Apple Bloom frowned, “that’s a whole mess of ‘ifs’ and assumptions there.”

    “I know,” Clockwork admitted, frowning. “Far more leaping to conclusions than I care for.”

    “It does give us a place to start,” Galaxi put in, slipping around the hospital bed and past the snoozing Flourish, who only gave a cute little snore in response. “I would rather assume she’s more powerful, than to assume she’s less powerful and be surprised when she kicks our flanks.”

    “It also raises an interesting question,” Twist noted thoughtfully. “We don’t know how long an exposure she might need to copy a pony’s power. Could she pick up a power just by being around you girls, or does she need a larger exposure? Does she gain the power permanently too?”

    “It done feels like all them answers are just givin’ us more questions,” Apple Bloom noted sourly.

    Clockwork shrugged and gave a soft chuckle, “Rarely are things all neat and tidy.”

    “If’n things were neat an’ tidy, she’d be standin’ right over theah, ready ta’ give us th’ answers herself!” Apple Bloom complained, pointing a hoof across the room to a random corner. Suddenly the room went deathly quiet, and every eye was locked onto the corner the elder mare had just motioned to. Apple Bloom groaned, “She’s standin’ right there, ain’t she?”

    A pair of hooves grabbed her outstretched foreleg and pulled suddenly, tossing her over the white-clad mare’s body to slam her to the floor in a classic throw. The momentary silence was broken by shouting, and Galaxi’s psychic shield protecting the elder mare from the follow up attack. Zilch only glanced at them, and made a darting motion towards the hospital bed, only to find another pony in the way. Clockwork, however, was hardly an imposing obstacle without her armour, and Zilch vaulted over her, only to be repelled by a second purple shield.

    “Dangit!” Apple Bloom shouted as she got to her hooves. “Ain’t this why you brought along that sleeping lump of… hey, where’d that unicorn go?”

    Zilch paid no heed, and lashed out a hoof through a portal, catching Galaxi in the gut to drive the air from her. A quick sidestep to draw Clockwork out of position and Zilch was able to knock the short mare away with a simple back-hoof strike. She turned to strike at Twist, knowing it would bring Apple Bloom, her true target, to her instead of trying to chase the elder down. However, she found herself eye to eye with a newcomer, a gray unicorn mare who stood protectively over the elder mare.

    “It’s about TIME you got here!” Flourish cried happily, causing Zilch to recoil. The unicorn looked about ready to hug her, which was oddly disconcerting. “Do you have any idea how boring it is to listen to these eggheads?!”

    “Hay!” Apple Bloom protested, “I ain’t no egghead!”

    “No dear, you’re a dictionary,” Twist countered reflexively, her voice wavering.

    Zilch cantered back from the newcomer, eying her warily. Flourish followed with her head, leaning so far off the bed that she overbalanced herself. Zilch narrowed her eyes and struck forward with a simple hoof jab, not entirely sure what to expect from this newcomer. She was prepared for a lot of things, but watching her explode into a pink cloud was not one of them. She was equally surprised when a foreleg draped companionably over her shoulders and the unicorn grinned at her, as if they were the oldest of friends.

    The mares seemed to leap back and away from each other at a signal nopony else could see, and each vanished via their own version of teleportation. Zilch leapt through a portal behind her, and Flourish vanished in an explosion of pink. The suited mare reappeared by the door, glancing down the hall as she considered retreating, only to come face to face with the newcomer again.

    “Oh, this promises to be so much fun!” she cried, and Zilch backed up into the room again. “I don’t get to match wits with another teleporter very often. It’s not a very common power, after all, but not just a teleporter, but a different TYPE of teleporter. Those portals are kinda cool, by the way, though they’re too obvious. I can see where you’re going through them.”

    Zilch frowned and struck out with her hooves at the obviously unprepared (and far too chatty) unicorn, only to find she’d sidestepped the strike completely. The suited mare shook her head and swept a leg low, only to watch as the unicorn bounced over it casually, like a foal skipping rope. Her pink and lavender mane and tail flared slightly with the fall, and Zilch lashed out again. Impossibly, the unicorn shifted around it, and ducked down under the sweeping attack from her hoof.

    “Flourish, don’t get cocky…” Clockwork warned, just as Zilch struck forward with a hoof, anticipating the mare’s dodge to strike through a portal into the unicorn’s blind side, only to miss? Zilch frowned as Flourish stuck her tongue out at her teammate like a filly.

    “You just don’t like to see me having fun,” Flourish answered, and ducked her head as Zilch attempted to buck at her. “I mean seriously, her tells might as well be billboard signs from Las Pegasus or something, they’re bucking impossible to miss! That’s what I love about Martial Arts, they’re all so bucking rigid!”

    Zilch frowned and considered that for a moment, then put her weight into another strike, but instead of expecting it to land, she flowed through with it, letting it cartwheel her past the unicorn as she attempted another strike at the elder Apple Bloom. Zilch was only mildly surprised when the unicorn hip checked her off balance and sent her towards the bed. Zilch smiled, reaching her hoof out to strike…

    A sharp motion struck her from the side, driving her away from the bed even before she reached the psychic shield that suddenly flared up. The gray unicorn was protecting her friends and Twist, which meant she had some potential leverage against this frustrating unicorn. Zilch struck forward into a pair of portals, intent on striking at the annoying khaki mare beyond the shield… only to get thumped in the chest and finding herself driven back out of her own portals! Zilch frowned and looked at the unicorn, growing irritated.

    “Oh, you’re done warming up?” Flourish asked casually in a voice that would have angered even the Princesses. “Good. Let’s do this for real now…”

    The gray unicorn’s foreleg blurred as she struck at Zilch, who instinctively blocked with martial precision. The suited being known as Zilch fell quickly into the Fallen Caesar style, blocking and counter attacking with precision. Flourish did exactly the opposite, her body loose and fluid as she ignored every rule of hoof to hoof combat, and seemed to flow like water around the strikes to pressure Zilch’s blocks and counter attacks. Zilch looked for patterns, signs, or tells, but saw nothing. It was as if the unicorn were making everything up on the fly! That wasn’t possible… was it?

    Zilch frowned as she realized that she’d been tricked. This mare must be some sort of martial expert herself, and fighting purely by the rote teachings was playing right into her strengths. A portal replaced her next hoof-strike, redirecting her strike at an unusual angle and, for the first time, she connected with solid flesh. Nothing harmful, just a strike at the mare’s flank, but she could be hit. Zilch pushed forward a step, striking outwards with her hooves as she was taught, but used her portals to redirect them every which way, catching the gray pony from below, above, behind, and into wherever she thought the unicorn would move to. She had literally forgotten that the mare could disappear into a pink cloud of smoke until Flourish did exactly that, leaving a pair of hoof strikes nearly intersecting where she once stood.

    “Got that out of your system now?” Flourish asked tauntingly, drawing another frown from the suited mare. Motion caught her eye as she noticed Apple Bloom hunkered behind one of the hospital bed with the rest of the trio… trio? One of them was missing… the little one she thought. Maybe she went to get her armour again? If so, that meant she now was on the clock. The gray unicorn answered Zilch’s annoyance with a smug grin, and she quickly realized that she couldn’t allow her target to distract her from the fight right before her nose.

    “Good. Cause now… it’s my turn,” Flourish stated in an oddly harsh tone, and her horn began to glow. Zilch braced herself, uncertain what sort of spells this little unicorn may know, but was surprised when she saw the glowing grow slender and narrow, forming a scything curved blade of neon pink that extended from her horn. Suddenly Zilch realized why she hadn’t recognized the style of combat the unicorn was using… she had been looking for hoof to hoof styles, and this pony was a fencer!

    “En garde!” Flourish cried, and leapt into the air… and promptly vanished. Zilch twisted herself into a portal herself, dodging the incoming pony handily. The battle was truly joined as Flourish pitted her incredible reflexes and mystic blade against the flashing hooves of Zilch. But Zilch was sure she still had the advantage, and portals spread for her use, separating torso in two to allow the magic blade to pass harmlessly. Portals appeared about the unicorn, allowing Zilch’s hooves to strike two and three at a time. It was a strain, but Zilch continued to attack and use four and five portals at once, keeping herself dispersed to present the smallest target possible.

    To her surprise and astonishment, Flourish kept pace with seemingly little effort. Her form blinked and flickered in and out of sight like a skipping film reel, the pink smoke and sudden exhalation sound that accompanied her teleportations were almost ubiquitous now, making it nearly impossible to see where the pony had gone to. And yet the two continued to fight, and a layer of pink smog almost literally blocked all sight of the combatants. It was only the opening of the nearby window to allow the entry of an armoured Clockwork that swept the smoke away, revealing the mares.

    Each stood on the floor, facing one another. Flourish’s chest heaved with heavy pants, and her coat was slicked with sweat, but aside from a few bruises, she seemed unhurt. Zilch seemed unhurt as well, but even without the need to draw breath as a pony, she conveyed a sense of growing exhaustion as well. The pair seemed almost perfectly matched...

    Flourish surged forward with a suddenness that belied her exhausted state, and Zilch attempted to counter, her hooves lashing out and her body vanishing into a portal that twisted erratically. But Flourish ducked around one of the hooves, grabbed the other to allow herself to be pulled through the portal before bouncing literally off the wall, teleporting away from the hooves bucking for her head, bouncing off the abandoned hospital bed, vanishing again as a white suited hoof cracked the wall, to appear almost eye to eye with Zilch.

    The pair struck seemingly at once. Only one of them connected, and Flourish cantered back a step, her eyes wide.

    Zilch’s suit was torn from where her opponent’s “blade” cut into her neck just below the left shoulder and continued upward along her side. On a normal pony, it would be a life threatening injury that would require a large number of stitches at the least. On Zilch, it peeled the suit away from the “body” beneath it, a swirling vortex of stars in a coalesced darkness that made up her body. The lights pulsed with energy, hypnotic and entrancing even as the suited figure tried to gather up the loose fold of heavy fabric to try and cover herself, as if she had been suddenly caught in the shower.

    “Whoah,” was all Apple Bloom managed to say before a large portal appeared behind Zilch and she dived through.

    “Flourish, did you see where she was going?” Clockwork called as she lipped a few switches in her helm, activating the tracking sensors on her chariot.

    “Sure, I got a decent look at it,” Flourish shrugged.

    “I have the signal for your earpiece loaded into my systems,” Clockwork instructed. “Teleport there and lay low, and I’ll track you. With luck, she ran back to her hide-out and we can end this for good.” Flourish faux-saluted and vanished in a puff of pink smoke. “Ready to go Galaxi?”

    “You fillies ain’t leavin’ without me!” Apple Bloom cried as she trotted close. She quickly shed the hospital gown and tugged her hat firmly down on her head.

    Clockwork sighed, “Alright. What about you, Twist?”

    “I’ll stay put and handle the nurses,” Twist answered, much to Clockwork’s relief, “but you better tell me the story when you return!”

    “Deal.”

    “Girl, you gotta calm down!”

    The white suited entity known as Zilch ignored the stallion entirely, rushing about the cave that she called home for the past few years. With one hoof she held the torn fabric up over her shoulder, and with the other three she rushed about, tearing open crates and drawers in the search for something. So frantic was her search that neither she nor the stallion with her noticed the explosion of pink in one corner, or saw where Flourish settled herself down to watch and wait for the rest of her team.

    “Zilch, please… you’ve got to calm down!” the stallion tried again. He was handsome, in a way, with strong broad features and a lean muscular body with a well groomed olive green coat. His short black mane was slicked back and shined with oil, making him look like a used chariot salesman. But he had a certainty to his step, a confidant swagger that belied his size, and that put Flourish on her guard. He deftly dodged out of the way of the rushing mare as she barreled past again, and he threw his hooves up in frustration.

    Zilch was ill inclined to explain the situation, and the stallion seemed to know better than to ask, and he finally gave up on his pleas and found an out of the way spot to wait out the maelstrom. He settled on a ratty couch, one of a number of mismatched chairs and couches that seemed as if they were “rescued” from various wastebins. Add in a few flickering magic lights that barely managed to keep the cavern lit, a rattling fridge that sounded like it could die any moment, and a handful of well worn tables and dressers, resulted in a place that looked more like a flea market than a home. Of course, it was by no stretch of the imagination large, or even spacious, but there was a certain cluttered comfort that suited Zilch’s needs. Unfortunately the fact she had a “guest” living with her had put some obvious stress on the environs, and many things were left lying around and in a general state of disarray. Flourish cast a jaundiced eye about the room and suspected the stallion of being a bit of a slob, even as she flicked away a nearby candy wrapper. That’s when Flourish noticed that the crates scattered all about the cavern were supplies from town, most of them unpacked, and many of them with labels denoting them as various types of preserved food. Since Zilch didn’t have a mouth with that suit, the unicorn assumed they were for the stallion, but didn’t discount completely the idea that Zilch might have to feed solid matter into that energy vortex that comprised her body.

    Finally Zilch seemed to be winding down. She was almost literally spinning in place like a top before sitting down hard, pushing her free hoof to her face almost like she were crying. Only then did the stallion approach her again, his voice supposedly gentle, but it sounded practiced and flat to Flourish, lacking any of the emotions he was trying to convey.

    “It’s alright,” he told her, sitting by her and hugging the suited mare mechanically. Flourish watched curiously as the energy mare shuddered, even pounding a week hoof against his chest in frustration before finally slumping, her hooves cradling the torn fabric against her, only partially covering the hole. “We’ll find some needle and thread and get your suit fixed up.”

    Zilch looked up at the stallion in an almost heartbreaking way, like a foal might look at an older brother. The stallion smiled, but to Flourish it looked forced, faked. She frowned, was this stallion using Zilch’s affection to get her to do a job? Maybe Clockwork’s crazy theory wasn’t so crazy.

    “We’re five minutes out,” a voice whispered over Flourish’s earpiece. They didn’t have support from Skillet because, while technically not out of range, the rest of the team was busy in Las Pegasus. Instead Clockwork rigged a local network through her armour to keep them connected and coordinated. Flourish tapped the commlink twice, letting them know she received the message without speaking. She wasn’t willing to give herself away… yet.

    “Jett? Jett! Where the buck are you?” a demanding voice, which reminded Flourish of a hoof scraping across the chalkboard, echoed about the cave. Flourish receded further into the shadow she’d found. The crates made for good cover, but someone from the entrance of the cave might see her if they looked the wrong way. Thankfully the well groomed mare who rushed in seemed more intent on the stallion and the mare with him than looking around. Flourish smiled slightly, opened the link, keying the microphone to pick up the conversation, and hoped that Clockwork was ready to record this.

    “Over here Marmalade,” the stallion sighed, and the mulberry pony stormed up to him.

    “What the hell is this?!” she demanded, and her coiffed and curled mane bouncing as she pointed a hoof angrily at Zilch. The energy mare shrunk back behind the stallion as the newcomer’s bright blue eyes stared piercingly at her. “Why is she here? Why is that damned crusader still alive? I should have gotten a report of her demise by now! I have a speech prepared, dammit, and it’s going to waste!”

    “Something happened,” Jett answered in a more than slightly annoyed voice, “I haven’t gotten what yet. Most likely, I’d say she met better fighter.”

    “I thought you said no pony was a better fighter than you?” Marmalade seethed, circling the stallion like a snake looking to strike.

    “As far as I know, there isn’t,” he said, though a twitch of his eye told Flourish he was lying.

    “Really? So your bout with Apple Bloom was just a fluke?” the mulberry pony demanded, ignoring his grimace as she flipped her well trimmed mane and turned to face Zilch. “And you, this is the fifth time you’ve failed to eliminate either Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle! I don’t know why I bothered trying anything with you; you can’t even talk... maybe I should just turn you over to the Princesses.” The mare’s tone of voice struck Flourish as odd, like it was a rehearsed line that had been delivered dozens of times in the past. And, like a well practiced play, the suited mare shook her head desperately and slipped into her role without even realizing it. She looked desperately between the stallion, who was studiously looking elsewhere, and the mare, who was looming over her with a fierce scowl.

    “Well you can’t seem to follow directions, so why shouldn’t I turn you over?” Marmalade demanded.

    Flourish had enough of this charade; it was time to end it. She was just about to make her move when something caught her eye, a shimmering to her left… and blinked when a zebra in a suit jacket and a tie literally walked out of the wall! He paused, cocking his head slightly as he looked right at Flourish’s position, then moved on. The unicorn was certain he knew she was there, but he kept trotting, making sure his hooves echoed on the floor.

    “What a lovely little performance, I must say,” the zebra intoned, his voice having a smooth and rich quality that reminded Flourish oddly of hot chocolate. “Of course, you won’t do that, will you, Councilpony Marmalade? No, you’re more of the type who just likes to manipulate other ponies to do your dirty deeds for you, heedless of what the cost might be.”

    “How DARE you?!” she demanded. “Wait, how did you get in here? Jett…?”

    The stallion surged forward, muscles standing out in relief as he thrust his hoof out in a perfect martial strike, but the zebra just smiled at him as the air between them suddenly turned to glass, which cracked and finally shattered under the strike.

    “W-where did that come from?” Jett asked, falling back a step nervously.

    “It looks like I arrived just in time, too,” he said, ignoring the stallion and wandering closer to a wide eyed Zilch. “That’s a nasty cut there in your suit, but I don’t think it’ll be too hard to fix. A friend of mine is good with materials like this, and I’m sure he could repair it. If not, I have a few favors I can call in. Regardless, I think we can get this fixed up, good as new.”

    “Who the buck do you think you are?” Marmalade demanded, bodily pushing the Zebra back and away from Zilch. Jett moved closer, pulling Zilch back, but the mare looked curiously at the newcomer about the pair trying to separate them.

    “Me? Trust me Councilpony, I’m not one of your constituents,” the zebra noted with a smile, and adjusted his tie. “No, I represent somepony who has taken great interest in Miss Zilch’s talents, and wishes to invite her to work with a team of like minded ponies with powers much like her own.”

    “She’s not interested,” the mulberry pony growled.

    “You don’t get a say in this, Councilpony,” the zebra noted with a smug grin. “In fact, the only pony here who I will accept such a rejection from is Zilch herself. If she chooses to work for a mare who blackmails her into taking out her political rivals for her own gain…”

    “It is not my own gain!” Marmalade screeched, her voice cracking with fury. “It’s for the protection of the entire Northern Reaches! King Goldtalon sent emissaries over the winter to the Council and threatened to invade unless we renounced all ties to the Ponylands and the Princesses! Those bucking Crusaders were fighting me every step of the way! I tried to convince them of the necessity, but no, they had to go to the streets and undermine my authority…”

    “So that makes it right to murder them?” the zebra asked in a reasonable tone.

    “Y’know, boss, he does have a point…” Jett added sheepishly before withering under the councilpony’s glare.

    “And then of course there’s Jett Storm,” the zebra continued, “what a family you two make. A father who remains emotionally detached and a mother who wields emotions like a sword. Between the two of you, you cut her off every time she shows a small ounce of individuality or being her own pony. You treat her like a servant, I dare say.”

    Jett scoffed, “I’m no father. I’m just the babysitter.” The stallion never noticed the hurt expression on Zilch’s face.

    “We’re almost there,” a voice on Flourish’s headpiece informed her.

    “I’m going in, things are getting out of control here…” Flourish stated, and ignored the responses as she teleported herself from her hiding spot to a high visibility spot she’d noticed on a nearby table. Of course she had an ulterior motive as well, those documents looked important to her.

    “Hi there,” Flourish added casually as she sat squarely down on the table and said documents. “Y’know, I hate to agree with a pony I never met before, but I gotta agree with him. I mean seriously, what sort of parent would send their kid against us?”

    “Actually, that is a very good point,” the zebra admitted as the stallion and mare gawped at Flourish… and Zilch actively tried to hide from her.

    “Who the buck are you?! Is this Canterlot Central Station or something? Did somepony put a big sign out front saying ‘Open House, please inquire within?!’” the mare screeched hysterically.

    “I’m Flourish,” the unicorn answered simply, “one of the Elements of Harmony, specifically the Element of Laughter, and member of Project Moonbeam, one of the saviors of the ponylands and vanquisher of The Nightmare. You know, only one of the most well known and powerful specials in all of Equestria.”

    “Shit…” was all Jett had to say.

    “You see, in your attempts to take out the Crusaders, Apple Bloom called in help from a friend of hers. A little khaki mare known as Clockwork Key… Element of Loyalty and also known as Dragonfly,” Flourish continued, stalling now for the rest of the team. “And you pissed her off. I mean seriously, you knew she was all that and a bag of chips, the Princess only sent her specifically to be liaison to the Unregistered Colonies after all… and you know she’s friends with the Crusaders. What in the hell were you thinking?”

    “Actually, I imagine she thought that handing it off to the extremely capable mare she believed she could control would end Miss Key without ever bringing attention back upon herself,” the zebra noted simply. “Plausable deniability and all that. After all, it’s not like Zilch could implicate her if the rest of you came after her for killing their friend.”

    Flourish frowned and tapped a hoof on the table. “That is exactly what we would have done if Clockwork had been killed. Two, possibly three, of the Crusaders dead… and the councilpony offers to ‘help’ us track down the culprit, seeding the clues that eventually lead us right to…” Flourish looked meaningfully at Zilch, who recoiled as she realized the possible truth of their words.

    “That said, if the Princesses own forces are here, Zilch, then Marmalade failed to protect you as she promised,” the zebra slid in smoothly.

    Flourish cursed herself inwardly for not seeing that coming, and sighed, “He’s right kid. Princess Celestia herself asked us to bring you back, unharmed, to Canterlot. I may not know who this stallion is,” she noted, jerking her hoof to the zebra, “but he’s a damn side better than those two. Once the recording that Clockwork is making via my little headset gets out, I can pretty much guarantee a long stay in a nice small cell for both of them.”

    “Screw that, I ain’t going to jail! You’re on your own, Marmalade, I’m outta here!” Jett cried, and bolted for the cave’s exit… only to come flying back in on his flank as three more mares made their entrance. One in green and gold power armour, one in a purple and white bodysuit, and the last an elderly yellow mare with white streaking her once fiery red mane. The cowpony hat fell from her head as she charged for the councilpony, only barely restrained by the lavender glow of Galaxi’s telekinesis.

    “I believe that is our cue, dear Zilch,” the zebra noted, offering a hoof out for the suited mare. Marmalade screeched at him, rushing him with her hooves, but Zilch interceded, using a stiff foreleg to her chest that drove her back several steps.

    “Z-zilch?” the mulberry pony asked. “C-come on, I promised I’d p-protect you…” she stammered, her eyes wide.

    “And you used her instead,” the zebra pointed out, his expression briefly touched with anger, which vanished a moment later as he placed a hoof on Zilch’s shoulder. “It’s time we left. Did you wish to express any goodbyes?”

    The suited mare looked between the zebra and the desperate councilpony. For a moment, her will seemed to waver, and Marmalade’s nervous smile widened confidently, only to wane when Zilch turned her back on her.

    “No!” Marmalade shrieked, leaping at the pair again, only to run face first into another clear glass wall that cracked with her impact. “She’s MINE!!”

    Clockwork shouted to the zebra, ignoring the hysterics of the councilpony as she attacked the glass with her hooves, “Who are you?”

    “Me?” the zebra replied with an enigmatic smile. “My name is Kaos. You will become familiar with it in the weeks to come. For now, consider this a gift. On the table your compatriot smartly settled her flank upon should have all the evidence you need against the Councilpony and her pet bodyguard, and you have my personal guarantee that Zilch will no longer bother the Crusaders.”

    “What about the poison?” Apple Bloom managed to cry out.

    “You’ll find packets of it here in Zilch’s home… I’m sorry, her former home,” Kaos stated. “I’m sure Jett will know where, and he will probably squeal like a pig if you offer him a chance to turn against Marmalade. With that said, I must bid you ladies adieu. I have a suit to repair, and more work to do before the day is out.”

    The zebra flashed a smile to those assembled, and reached out to touch a nearby wall. It rippled, like the surface of a pond, and he escorted the suited mare through it. Zilch cast one final look back at those assembled, her expression unreadable, before vanishing through the wall with the zebra. Only when they vanished did Flourish teleport forward, pressing her hooves against the stone the pair just passed through.

    “Just like I figured… solid rock,” she muttered.

    “Buck this, they ain’t comin’!”

    Junkyard raised an eyebrow from where he sat, legs crossed, in the center of the now smoking rubble. He and Crosswind had attacked another construction site at mid morning, driving off the work-ponies that were trying to build some fancy new hotel or casino or club or something. Junkyard didn’t care; he simply sat down in the middle of it all, his hands resting on his thighs, as he worked to undermine the site’s stability. Crosswind took great pleasure in toppling the multi-storied scaffoldings and unfinished construction, but had been growing bored the last half an hour. Using the wind to propel girders into a nearby billboard like oversized lawn darts had long since lost the pegasus’ interest.

    Junkyard glanced upwards at his irritated friend, who fluttered only a few scant feet off the ground, about as close to touching it as Junkyard could ever remember him doing willingly. “Seriously dog, I think we might’ve thumped ‘em too good last night,” the pegasus continued, and Junkyard frowned. It had been a rare show of temper for him to do what he had done. Thankfully none of the ponies were hurt, but the diamond dog was leery of his temper… of losing control.

    “Let’s give it one more try an’ see if the Upstarts will come play, then we’ll give it up,” Crosswind sighed. “I hate reporting back a failure.”

    “Report back to who? I want to know who’s pulling your strings,” a new voice added, one both pony and canine were familiar with. From behind a partially destroyed wall the yellow mare known as Sparrow stepped into view wearing a cocky half smile.

    “You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?” Crosswind answered dismissively, even as Junkyard put his hands flat on the ground, but frowned and shook his head.

    “You won’t sense them coming that way, not this time,” Sparrow told them, nodding to Junkyard. “I hotwired some of the construction equipment and set them up to make a lot of vibrations, which should disturb your ability to sense ground vibrations.” Junkyard’s eyebrows rose slightly, and he chuffed. He was impressed, this pony was the first one to figure out he could do that. Still, it was only one trick in his arsenal.

    “So what?” Crosswind was already saying, “That doesn’t do you much good if we can still kick your flanks all over Las Pegasus. I told you last night, you’re going to need more help…”

    “I got it,” the mare answered evenly. A pony slammed into the girder frame over Sparrow’s head, and a pure white pegasus with a rainbow mane stood up in place. Behind them, on some ruined scaffolding, Nightweaver stepped from a shadow to glare down at them. Above them, Plasma landed lightly on a bent crossbeam. A green gorilla formed from seemingly nothing at the billboard asking ponies to stop by Donut Joe’s, and he pulled a girder that had been used as a dart and slung it casually over a shoulder. A blue pony stepped over the edge of the small rise behind them, glaring down at the pair. From the side, Thunderhooves lined himself up, hooves spread widely from where he stood atop an overturned crane.

    “Looks like we only rated one of them,” Crosswind shook his head, noting the white pegasus, “he’ll be disappointed.” Junkyard shook his head and pointed upwards to the tortured second floor of the construction, where a cyan unicorn stood just out of sight.

    “Fine, ruin Tome’s entrance!” the unicorn grumped, and stomped forward now that she’d been noticed.

    “I’ll do more than ruin your entrance,” the pegasus leered, “a pair of fine fillies like you two, I could ruin a lot of other things…”

    “Crosswind, real name Gusty Breeze,” the white pegasus stated, her voice carrying an undertone of authority. “Junkyard, real name unknown. You both are under arrest. You have one chance to surrender…”

    Crosswind seethed. “How do you know my real name?!” he demanded.

    The pegasus smiled, “The agency keeps files on all former members. For instance, I know your powers are all wind based. I also know that your primary weakness is being grounded, as you lose all control over the air currents about you.”

    “And who the buck are you?” the pegasus demanded.

    “Rainbow Star,” the pegasus answered evenly, “code named: Spectrum.”

    “Well well, we hooked us their leader,” Crosswind noted.

    Sparrow hissed, “They’re stalling us.”

    “I know,” the pegasus answered, “what I want to know is, why?”

    “You’ll find out soon enough sweet-cheeks,” Crosswind leered. “But I think that’s enough talk for now.”

    “Tome could not agree more!” the cyan unicorn cried, and her horn began to glow. Crosswind immediately dipped his wing, dodging a hurled girder from the transformed pony as he dashed upwards at the casting unicorn.

    “Oh no you don’t!” he cried, using the wind to deflect Plasma before filling his wings with a sudden gust of wind, pushing him past another thrown girder, and up to where the unicorn was casting. He flared his wings and dove at her, expecting to cold-cock her when she wasn’t prepared… and went right through her! He yelped in surprise as he passed through the illusory pony, just in time for a tarp to yank down over him, telekinesis wrapping the ropes quickly and tossing it out over the edge. Cobalt was there immediately to catch it, even as the improvised bag shredded itself from sudden bursts of air. Cobalt was able to shrug off the attack and shoved the stallion into the ground with all his might, taking some satisfaction at the splash of mud that dirtied Crosswind’s coat and mane. Immediately the wind died down.

    “You’re grounded,” Cobalt growled.

    A roar shattered the scene as Thunderhooves made his move, his horns glowing as he charged the diamond dog. Sparrow followed in his wake as she flung explosive disks every time the canine tried to make a barrier to stop the bison’s advance.  Junkyard spread his legs and prepared for impact, his hands clutching the bison’s horns to stop him dead. But Sparrow was there again, throwing some new items that stuck to the diamond dog. As one the small explosives went off, and Thunderhooves unleashed his shockwave, shredding the ground beneath the canine and flinging him back and away.

    A dark glow enveloped the nearby girders as they bent oddly, like a waiting hand to catch the diamond dog. Junkyard slammed into it and the trap closed, wrapping about him even as Plasma quickly caught the girder cage before it hit the ground and used a cable from the felled crane to hang it suspended a good twenty or thirty feet in the air. Junkyard only grunted as he looked at the cage with a frown.

    “Boyah!” Cobalt shouted, dragging Crosswind along the ground under where the diamond dog rested. “Now that’s the way to do it!”

    “I dunno…” Sparrow frowned, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “Tome thinks that was far too easy,” the cyan unicorn said flatly as she trotted up. “After all that you described yesterday….”

    “Aw come on, we can’t come out on top this time?” the green colt asked in a reedy voice as he trotted up.

    “It’s not that,” Sparrow answered simply. “It’s more like they wanted to be caught.”

    “Is… something wrong with him?” Nightweaver asked in a scratchy voice, nudging Crosswind’s prone form. He was shaking violently in short, almost rhythmic motions.

    “No, he’s… laughing?” Thunderhooves rumbled. A different rumbling warned them only a split second before the ground gave way under the entire group, leaving only the three pegasi hovering in the air as the rest fell into the dark pit. Plasma, Spectrum… and Crosswind, freed himself from the tarp and ropes with a few well placed slashes of air.

    “You aren’t the only ones who can set a trap,” he laughed, and made a sudden motion with a hoof. There was a sudden creak of metal, and Spectrum frowned up at Junkyard, who peeled open the metal girders to make enough room for him to leap from the suspended cage.

    Spectrum met him halfway, plowing into him and forcing him back upwards. The diamond dog cracked her over the head with both fists, but it didn’t seem to faze her. She clung tenaciously until a sheet of wind slammed into her from behind, knocking her askew and into the mud at the side of the pit. Junkyard quickly grabbed her, and with a sudden surge of strength the pegasus was suddenly fighting for breath against the powerful grip.

    Beep… beep… beep…

    Junkyard yelped as the explosions went off on his back, stumbling forward and releasing Spectrum, who in turn twisted and tripped the large canine. Unfortunately this dropped him into the hole he originally was targeting, and Spectrum watched with a frown as he vanished into the darkness.

    “Thanks,” she told Sparrow, who came up beside her.

    “We need to get down there…” the yellow mare answered, and Spectrum grabbed her by the hooves, before diving down into the pit.

    The rumbling below warned them that this wasn’t a good idea. They weren’t sure what to expect, but what they saw was the “perfect” playground for the diamond dog and pegasus duo to exercise their respective powers. The pit was lined in rocks of various formations, a natural cave with a large domed ceiling even before the hole crashed through it. That gave the pegasus plenty of open air to work with, and the diamond dog had rock on every side. Spectrum frowned at what she saw.

    “Tome, set up an exit!” Spectrum called.

    “Where to?” the unicorn called back, cantering around a spire of rock that tried to flatten her.

    “I don’t care,” Spectrum answered, her amber eyes all but glowing in the dim light of the hole, “But this gives them too much control over the environs. We need to change the rules…”

    “Change the rules…” Trixie considered, then grinned. “Tome has an idea… Nightweaver!”

    “This better not be about my cloak again,” the dark unicorn rasped.

    “I need your help on a spell…” the cyan unicorn said as she dashed forward.

    “Cobalt, Bestial, Plasma, we need to mix it up!” Sparrow called as she dashed forward herself.

    “Focus their attention,” Spectrum stated, and twisted about an overly aggressive stalactite as she dived for the wall. She used a hoof to tear out a gouge of rock to hurl at the diamond dog. She wasn’t surprised when he simply deflected it with an errant swipe of his hand, but she needed to keep his attention and… Spectrum stopped, looking for where the flyer got to.

    “Peek-a-boo!” Crosswind called, as he slammed into Spectrum physically. The force momentarily knocked the wind from her, something the blue pegasus seemed to delight in, since he redirected the wind to keep her unable to breathe in. Spectrum frowned and looked at Crosswind, whose eyes widened in surprise as she slammed her forehooves into his chest. She took a deep breath as he fell away from her and dove after him… only to be intercepted by a column of rock. Not that it stopped her, and she crashed straight through it.

    Spectrum shook some pebbles from her mane and flew around another column of rock, and watched as Cobalt and Sparrow renewed their pressure on the diamond dog to refocus him away from helping Crosswind. Bestial was playing between them both, but where was Plasma? That question as answered in a hurry as the colt got slammed backwards through a rocky column, forcing Spectrum to dive after him, only realizing too late her mistake. Crosswind had the air pushing her down too!

    “Trixie, if you’re going to do it…!” Spectrum growled, and caught the orange colt, bracing herself for the impact below, half expecting Junkyard to change it under her hooves.

    A bright light suddenly flared from behind one of the spires of rock, a spire that removed itself almost immediately. However the pair were floating in mid air, Nightweaver maintaining a darkly glowing bubble of energy as a shield while Tome hovered within, her eyes turned completely white with the energy of the spell and her horn wrapping itself first with one, then two overlayers in a nearly blinding light. For a moment it seemed as if she were doing nothing, until Spectrum noticed the ground was becoming reflective, and her hooves made a rather odd crunching sound when she impacted it. It was warm to the touch, but steadily grew thicker… a deep layer of glass covering every rock and stone in the chamber.

    Junkyard frowned and looked beneath his feet as the glass coated the rocks he was tapping into. He looked confused, as if expecting to still be able to work the stone despite the layer of glass, but the rocks refused to answer him. His strength waned with the loss of his connection to the earth, and Cobalt promptly bull-rushed him to knock him flat. Tome almost collapsed with the spell’s completion, and only Nightweaver’s shield kept her from falling prone on the ground.

    “What… the… hell?” Crosswind asked, looking closely at a spire of glass. He shook his head, before he noticed all those ponies staring back at him and turned around to face the Upstarts and their friends.

    “There’s only one way you’re coming out of this without getting your flank handed to you,” Plasma said, fluttering his wings as he scowled at the pegasus.

    “I’m afraid you are wrong there,” a new voice echoed about the chamber, and the newly arrived zebra straightened his tie. “I must say, I’m impressed, however. Was this your doing, Trixie?”

    “Y-who are…” the cyan unicorn started, but then her eyes widened in surprise as she pointed past the zebra to his companion. “You?! How are you here? You’re in the Northern Reaches!”

    The zebra smiled and placed a hoof on the shoulder of Zilch, who currently had a wrap covering the hole made in her suit. “Oh, you know my new friend here? I’m not surprised, really, but I’m here to reclaim our wayward teammates.”

    “Kaos?” the pegasus stallion asked, and hovered closer. “You really didn’t need to extract us, we had these ponies on the ropes.”

    “Yes, I see that,” the zebra responded sarcastically. “Allowing them to neutralize Junkyard’s powers was a masterful stroke of your tactical genius.”

    “It was a bit unorthodox, but hey, the big guy can handle it,” Crosswind answered confidently. Junkyard just shook his head ruefully.

    “Regardless, it’s time we were leaving,” Kaos answered simply.

    “What makes you think we’ll let you leave?” Sparrow demanded, and the rest of her team shifted to back her up. Spectrum, Tome, and Thunderhooves further added support to the formation.

    “Because, you don’t have a choice in the matter,” the zebra answered with a smile. “Whenever you’re ready, Zilch, take us back to where I showed you.” The suited pony gave a quick nod, and even before the ponies could charge them, a glowing portal opened above them and swept downward before vanishing completely, taking the zebra and his compatriots with it.

    “Hey! Where’d they go?” Bestial demanded as Cobalt stomped on the ground where the portal vanished.

    “Forget it,” Tome sighed, “they teleported. I don’t know what she was doing here, but the mare can create portals and teleport with them… and apparently others with her.”

    “I do not think they will be back,” the bison intoned with a sigh.

    “No, I don’t think so either,” Sparrow agreed. “But I’m also thinking they were a distraction, and not for us.”

    Spectrum nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid you might be right.”

11

Chapter 11

“Chaos Theory”

    “Kaos?”

    “That’s the name his allies called him by,” Trixie answered in a subdued tone. Princess Luna’s expression had been dark since the unicorn had returned and given her report. The younger Princess paced her office, her silver shod hooves barely making a sound on the thick midnight blue carpeting. The bay window behind the Princess was partly open, capturing the afternoon sun in such a way that it rendered the Lunar Regent as no more than a silhouette as she paced. The thick mahogany desk gave off a reddish sheen in the sunlight, and a pair of silvery cushions were set facing it from the office itself. Luna herself had a far more plush cushion for herself, facing her currently inactive computer. She stepped around her desk and made a slow circuit of her office, behind Trixie to the bookshelves filled with heavy tomes, past the closed door to her office, and back around the other side. Luna paused for a moment at a decorative table, her hoof lightly nudging a silver tchotchke resting upon it as she chewed this information over.

    “Are you positive the individual you saw with him was Zilch?” Luna asked after several minutes.

    “Positive,” the cyan unicorn immediately replied. “He even asked her, by name, to teleport them away.”

    “And he took the diamond dog and pegasus with him?”

    “Yes, ma’am,” Trixie confirmed, “it was the opinion of myself, Spectrum, Thunderhooves, and Sparrow that the pair were acting as a distraction, to take away our full attention away from… something.”

    “Do you have any suspicions?” Luna asked, still facing away from the unicorn, the small item on the table clicking repetitively.

    “Trixie does… er… I do, Princess,” the unicorn noted, correcting herself. “I cannot confirm it, but it seems to me that the zebra was intentionally splitting up the team to prevent us from capturing Zilch. That would indicate this ‘Kaos’ has need of her.”

    Luna sighed and shook out her ethereal mane. “That is the only conclusion I’m coming to as well, and that does not bode well for us, especially since he must have somehow known of Zilch’s presence in the Northern Reaches before we did.”

    “Flourish was successful, then?” Trixie asked hopefully.

    “In a manner of speaking,” Luna said, her voice thoughtful. “I received her report just ahead of your arrival, and the correlation bothers me. Zilch attacked the Crusaders in the hospital, and Flourish was successful in driving her back. Clockwork’s knack for coordination and Flourish’s talent for teleportation allowed them to track her to her lair. Due to your activities in the south otherwise occupying Skillet, Clockwork set up a localized network for them to utilize, and Flourish was quick witted enough to record a conversation between Councilpony Marmalade and another pony. It seems that she was using the threat to turning Zilch over to my sister to ensure the suited mare stayed loyal and did what she was told.”

    “But that’s… blackmail!” Trixie cried, smacking her hoof on the desk.

    “Yes, it is,” Luna agreed, and wandered away from the table and back to her desk. She almost casually drew out a rag from one of the drawers and wiped away the smudge Trixie made. “Clockwork forwarded the entire recording to me. The other pony implicated, a Special named ‘Jett Storm’, is happily turning on Marmalade. Additionally there are all sorts of evidence to the Councipony’s underhanded dealings within the hideout they found, and even additional doses of the poison that was used on Scootaloo. But that’s not what is bothering me about this situation. A portion of the recording indicated that the Gryphons went to the Unregistered Colonial Council over the winter to give them an ultimatum: cut all ties with the Ponylands or be invaded. Councilpony Marmalade may have been horribly evil in how she did it, but her motives are surprisingly earnest.”

    “I assume she will be brought up on charges?” Trixie asked, unable to hide the disgust in her voice.

    “I don’t know,” Luna sighed, “I just don’t know. The Council has the final word of the policies in the Colonies, and Celestia and I have both agreed we would allow them to handle such things on their own. Marmalade is… a long time member of the council with a lot of powerful allies among them. I do not know if their rule of law is strong enough to overcome that sort of cronyism.”

    Trixie frowned darkly and looked away, taking a slow breath to try and release the spike of anger that surged through her. Luna didn’t interrupt, understanding fully, and allowed the unicorn to take a deep, cleansing breath before looking back to the Princess. “I understand,” Trixie said, her voice tight. “I do not like it, but I understand. What is our next move?”

    Luna answered with a frown, “Right now, we must inform my sister. She was the one who wished Zilch be recovered unharmed, and she will need to know of this. I fear it will sadden her greatly.”

    “And of Kaos?” Trixie pressed gently.

    “I don’t know,” the Princess answered truthfully. “What little of his powers Flourish witnessed and reported seeing seemed to defy the laws of physics. A level of mystic manipulation that we know of only one creature capable of, and I hazard to say that Celestia will be far less happy than I to consider he may have somehow escaped his prison.”

    “I… see,” Trixie said slowly.

    “No, you don’t,” Luna said knowingly as she headed for the door, “but you will shortly. We will need to bring the entire team up to speed if he is truly escaped. Even if he hasn’t, the others will still need to be informed what to expect, or what not to expect. For now, Trixie, we will see my sister. Come.”

    Trixie climbed to her hooves at the order and trotted quickly to keep up with the Princess’ longer stride. She only barely noticed the pair of royal guard who fell in step with them as they left Luna’s office and trotted briskly through the cavernous halls of the castle. Trixie caught glimpses of palace staff quickly skittering out of the way, the Princess’ purposeful stride and eyes never straying side to side to them. It was rare for the Princesses not to acknowledge the staff when they rushed past, but in this instance the ponies were left bowing, with no release to rise and continue their business again. They simply watched worriedly as Luna brusquely moved through the hallways from the “night” wing of the palace to the “day” wing her sister frequently resided in, and made a bee-line towards the office her sister had been occupying of late.

    The unicorn kept pace as best she could, but paused when she caught one of the scullery maids and whispered a quick instruction for her. If things were as bad as all this, Celestia herself would likely need something to soothe her frazzled nerves, and Trixie knew just the remedy. She may not have been the Solar Regent’s apprentice for long, but she knew enough to piece this one together. With the maid nodding her understanding, Trixie galloped off to catch up to the rest of the procession. The guard glanced at her as she rejoined them, which she acknowledged with a nod, just as Luna rapped a hoof on a large and stately door.

    “Come in,” came a weary voice from inside the study, and Luna pushed the heavy wooden door open, ignoring the usual protocols and niceties. The room inside was a whirlwind of paper and plans, most of them from the military, and many of them budgetary in nature. A single glance from the unicorn made her realize the figures were well beyond what she could even envision in even her wildest fantasies! A greedy little part of her couldn’t help but rub its hooves together as it wondered exactly how many bits the Princesses had in the royal treasury…

    “Sister, it’s me,” Luna announced, stepping around a stack of paper nearly as tall as she was. The younger sister only glanced at it before looking to the bedraggled Celestia behind the usually stately wooden desk, which was presently covered with stacks of papers.

    Celestia smiled wearily and rested her head on one of those stacks as if they were a pillow. “You have no idea how glad I am for this intrusion, Luna. I am starting to see numbers whenever I close my eyes.”

    “Do we not have the budget?” Luna asked worriedly.

    “We have it,” Celestia sighed, and groaned as she sat up, popping her back in a few places, “but it will be a near thing, assuming my numbers are correct. It will be worse if there is any significant damage or prolonged fighting, and you know how our little ponies will scream bloody murder if we have to raise taxes.”

    Luna snorted, “Such is the price of freedom.”

    “You know better than to assume they’ll see it that way, Luna,” Celestia answered with a sad smile. It was then she noticed the unicorn with her sister, “Oh! I didn’t realize you had returned already, my pupil. I trust things went well? Did the both of you make it back safely?”

    “Spectrum opted to stay there for a little while to assist with the clean up,” the unicorn answered, giving her mentor a brief bow. “That said, things were a bit… strange. We suspect that the action in Las Pegasus was purely a distraction, something designed to split up the team in different directions.”

    Celestia groaned softly, “Just went you think things cannot get worse. Bring me up to speed, my pupil.”

    “The pair was quite a formidable team. Junkyard, the diamond dog, and Crosswind were everything that Thunderhooves claimed they were, and their teamwork was nearly flawless. Together with the Upstarts we managed to fashion a plan that seemed to work initially, only for them to turn the tables on us. We prevailed in the end, but they escaped,” Trixie explained.

    “I see,” Celestia sighed, “we will hear from them again, I suspect.”

    “That’s the catch, Princess. They were extracted, quite literally, by a zebra in a rather sharp suit and… and Zilch,” Trixie finished, watching Celestia’s eyes widen.

    “Zilch?! But I thought she was in the Northern Reaches? Luna, was the assassin another pony?” Celestia demanded from her sister.

    Luna shook her head and said, “No. It was the same. I have the report from Flourish, and this zebra came for Zilch to remove her from the reaches and to take her… somewhere. According to Flourish, he offered her a spot on a team he was creating.”

    Celestia chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment. “Do we know who this zebra is? Is he registered at all?”

    “No,” Luna answered, “I’ve already searched the database. We have no record of a zebra with his name or abilities on file.”

    “Name?” Celestia asked, blinking. “You know his name? How?”

    “He told Clockwork when she challenged him,” Luna responded.

    “His allies also called him by name,” Trixie added.

    “And…?” Celestia asked expectantly. Luna and Trixie looked to each other for a moment. Luna steeled herself and answered….

    “Kaos.”

    The reaction in the elder sister was immediate. Her body went rigid and her eyes became pinpricks as she stared at an unknown point well beyond the confines of the room. For several moments she sat like that, unmoving, until Trixie was about ready to call for the Palace doctor.

    The alicorn then became a whirlwind of motion, clambering to her hooves and rushing past them, knocking over stacks of paper as she careened out the door and galloped down the hallway as fast as she could. Luna frowned and bolted after her, leaving Trixie struggling to even keep them in sight as she chased after in the company of a pair of shouting and confused guard ponies. It was only a few twists and turns before Trixie was brought up short at an open window overlooking the palace gardens, and the sight of the alicorn sisters winging their way down towards it… very specifically towards the statue garden. One of the guards, a pegasus, launched himself from the window after them.

    “I don’t know what’s going on,” Trixie told the remaining guard between pants, “but have a squad ready to go. I’m going down there…”

    The guard gave a sharp nod and dashed away, but Trixie wasn’t paying any attention. Instead she closed her eyes and let the magic surge through her, “winking out” and teleporting as close to the statues as she was willing to risk. Fatigue made her stumble, she was still drained from returning from Las Pegasus, but she forced herself past the exhaustion. Worry etched her features as she rushed to catch up with the Princesses, even though only Luna noticed her. Celestia’s pace had hardly slowed, and she rushed towards the tall statue of a chimerical creature that Trixie had never paid much attention to in the past. The creature was mismatched in every way, with a goat head, a long serpentine body, a gryphon-like arm, and a feline arm opposite that. Legs were similarly mismatched, as were its horns, ears, and even eyes. It was as if a sculptor decided to take elements from every race in the world and mix them together in one single statue.

    Celestia launched herself at the statue, knocking it from the pedestal to the lush grass below. The elder Princess towered over the statue, as if she had somehow defeated it, her expression fierce as she glared down at it. “What did you do?” she demanded from it in her most commanding tone. “What did you do before they captured you? Did you take an apprentice? Did you let them capture a simulacrum? Are you just playing possum?”

    “Sister--” Luna tried to insert, only to be drowned out by her sister.

    “What did you do?!” Celestia shrieked at the statue, slamming her hooves down on it with enough force to shake the ground and make Trixie stagger, and yet the statue didn’t even crack. The white alicorn reared back for do it again, her wings flared and her expression a mask of uncontrolled rage when she was suddenly tackled by a dark blue form.

    “Celly!” Luna cried at her sister, pinning her writhing sister down to the ground. “Celly, please! If this is his doing, you’re only giving him what he wants! You’re feeding him!”

    The elder sister attempted to toss the other off her, wrestling with the smaller but more physical Princess before she finally went limp. Celestia’s body shuddered as she looked up at her sister with wide eyes. “Y-you… you are correct,” she managed in a strangled voice, her self control beginning to reassert herself.

    Luna relaxed visibly and stepped back, letting her sister climb back to her hooves. Celestia spent the next few moments meticulously brushing the grass from her coat and mane, studiously ignoring everything around her as she ordered her thoughts.

    “Princess!” cried a stallion, and nearly two dozen guards galloped or flew towards them. The lead guard was about to call out again when Luna flared a wing, cutting him off. Silently she moved and gently braced her sister, who seemed to almost melt into the support with relief.

    “This is a private matter, Sergeant. Insure my sister and I are not disturbed,” Luna instructed the guard, who snapped a salute. He immediately directed the guard away from the Princesses, setting up a respectful perimeter and instructing the pegasi to cover the sky above.

    “What… is this?” Trixie finally asked, poking the statue with a hoof.

    “That is Discord,” Luna answered softly. Trixie’s eyes widened in comprehension and she skittered back a pace, as if expecting it to bite. “He is perhaps the one thing that could threaten Equestria that is far more dangerous than even The Nightmare.”

    Trixie blinked widely at the statue before answering, “I… only heard of him. I was in Baltimare when he was reported to have escaped, and we only saw the fringe of his sphere of influence right near the end.”

    “It was slowly growing from Ponyville, where he had placed his seat of power,” Luna responded. “His sphere of influence steadily began expanded from that point after be believed he won against the Elements of Harmony.”

    “Wait, I thought Twilight and her friends just swooped in and bombarded him into nothing with the Elements of Harmony?” Trixie asked, confused. She poked the statue again with a hoof. “How did he end up…?”

    “The true story is more convoluted than that, my pupil,” Celestia answered in a thinly controlled voice. “Discord nearly won the day, working his foul magic to corrupt each of the Element Bearers in turn. We… had the unfortunate knowledge of when each of those bonds were broken via a magic resonance my sister and I could both feel, thanks to our own connection to the Elements. In the end, only Twilight was hanging on by the barest of threads, and I acted. All those friendship reports I have you write may seem silly, but on that day the reports Twilight Sparkle wrote saved Equestria. I sent them back to her, and they allowed Twilight to reconnect to her element, even after the thread was broken. She then moved and reconnected her friends to their elements, reversing the corruption Discord placed upon them each. But, as I’ve said before, the Elements of Harmony are not a weapon, but a tool of purification.”

    “So… they didn’t kill him?” Trixie asked, looking at the statue with a newfound respect.

    “No, they imprisoned him,” Celestia answered.

    “Just as they had when we used the elements against him,” Luna added.

    “I do wish Twilight and her friends managed a more attractive pose though,” Celestia joked weakly, wrinkling her nose.

    Luna sighed in relief and used a wing to hug her sister. “I will agree with you, but then I doubt he was quite so dismissive of the Elements that second time. The first time he thought the rainbow was funny, and acted like he was singing in the shower…”

    The elder sister snorted softly, trying not to laugh. “I still remember that horrid song of his…”

    Luna smirked and used her magic to lift the statue back into its place on the pedestal, its horrified expression and outstretched arms taking on a new meaning to the cyan unicorn. With a sigh, the sisters stood side by side before the statue, looking up at it even as Trixie joined them, standing at Celestia’s other side.

    “We should check on him,” Luna said softly.

    “We should, and check to make sure that our failsafe is still functioning properly,” Celestia agreed. The sister Princesses’ horns began to glow as the pair wove their magic together. Leaving Trixie to watch as a flare of magic formed at a point between their two horns. It glowed for several moments, the pair almost as still as the statue they were facing before the elder Princess flinched visibly, her eyes flashing open. Celestia stamped a hoof on the ground in annoyance as the spell fell away.

    “He always did know how to get under your skin,” Luna noted, trying to hide her smirk. “However, we can be sure that he’s still there now.”

    Celestia frowned and nodded. “You are correct, sister. But I think perhaps he is growing mad… well, more mad.”

    “Possibly,” Luna admitted, “he grows more angry and more bitter with each meeting, and steadily more violent. It is almost as if he were becoming less intelligent and more animalistic.”

    “All the more reason for keeping him locked away,” Celestia answered. “However, ‘Kaos’ is far too large a call out to ignore. It is as if he were trying to get our attention, slapping us in the face.”

    Luna clucked her tongue as her horn continued to glow. After several moments she seemed satisfied and turned to them. “The spell leeching his power away is still working perfectly. Even if he can somehow manage to get free, we would see nothing at the level of chaos he caused last time.”

    “Wouldn’t he just be able to take the gem if he wakes?” Trixie asked, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “No,” Luna noted with a smile, “the gem is only leeching it away; it’s not storing the magic.”

    “Wait… according to the laws of magic/energy conservation, magic cannot simply be destroyed, it has to go somewhere,” Trixie thought aloud. “But if that’s the case, where is the magic going?”

    “Very good, my pupil,” Celestia said, beaming proudly. “You are correct, the magic, even as chaotic as Discord’s magic is, needs to go somewhere. And given how powerful Discord is… was, that is a great deal of magic to leech away.”

    “The solution was to feed it into the planet itself,” Luna added, tapping the pedestal beneath the statue. “Housed inside this pedestal is a gem we both ensorcelled, which draws his magic down and into the land itself, where it can be dispersed harmlessly over the entirety of Equestria, and beyond. This has lead to some unexpected occurrences, but to date they have been minor in all ways, and in some cases they were even beneficial.”

    Celestia snorted, “Chaos is still chaos.”

    “This is a subject of many discussions and arguments between Celestia and myself,” Luna stage whispered to the unicorn with a chuckle before answering. “Order without any variance is stagnation. There simply must be some chaos for the world to survive.”

    “We did perfectly fine for a millennium,” Celestia noted simply, her eyes never leaving the statue. “We had peace the likes of which ponykind never knew before. With the exception of the Lunar War, we were at peace…”

    “We were stagnating,” Luna retorted, “with only minimal advances magically, scientifically, or socially. Aside from some culture shock when I returned after a millennium, the world was very much like the one I left when I was banished. New inventions and ideas were few and far between, and the ponies simply lived the same way they always had for thousands of years, never looking for more.”

    Celestia shook her head. “What you call ‘stagnation’ I call ‘idyllic’. The world was as it should have been; why should it have sought to change?”

    “Not to interrupt,” Trixie slipped in before Luna could answer, even if she really was trying to end the argument before it could truly gain any momentum, “but is it possible that this Kaos might be inspired by Discord instead of actually being of or from Discord?”

    Both sisters looked at the cyan unicorn with mildly confused and thoughtful expressions. “Please elaborate, my pupil,” Celestia prompted.

    Trixie motioned to the statue as she spoke, “What if this zebra is really a Special, but with a special attunement to Discord’s type of magic? In dispersing it as you have, it’s possible it affected him in some way, and he adopted the name in a sort of homage to the source of his powers, and potentially his inspiration?”

    The sisters seemed to consider that, their faces growing thoughtful for a moment. “I can see that, Trixie,” Luna answered. “More, it would explain the similarities to his style of magic, even when he does not have a horn to cast with... not that Galaxi hasn’t already proven that is possible.”

    “It could also be possible that the magic is seeking a new host, turning this zebra into an inheritor of Discord’s powers,” Celestia added softly, “But, as you once said about Zilch, this is all just theory and speculation. Until we have more to go on, this is all just conjecture.”

    “I agree,” Trixie stated. “For now, however, we should probably get back inside before we give your Royal Guard a heart attack from you both being out in the open like this. I’ve already asked the kitchen to send up a nice kettle of your favorite tea to your office, Princess, and it should be waiting for us when we get back.”

    “Then we should get going, before the tea gets cold,” Luna chuckled, and lead the trio back towards the castle.

    Celestia cast a harsh glare at the statue before following.

    “Is it finished, Professor?”

    The orange unicorn looked up from his workbench and nodded. “Ya, it iz. It waz… interezting to work with zis material. Thank Zilch for allowing me to ztudy and repair it,” the Professor said as he held out the white suit to the zebra, the large gash now mended. The new seam was almost completely invisible to the eye, differentiated only by a slight thickness in the material and a few small discolored spots.

    “This is perfect, thank you,” Kaos answered with a smile. “I think, perhaps, that thanking her in person would be a wise idea. However, she refuses to come out of her quarters until the suit has been replaced.”

    “I zuppoze zere is a good enough reazon for zis modezty,” the unicorn said as he levitated his tools into their storage box. “I notized zhe putz out a zmall amount of radiation az zhe iz. Ze zuit iz lined, holding zat radiation back.”

    “Is the radiation harmful?” the zebra asked.

    “Neigh,” the unicorn answered dismissively, then reconsidered. “Well… maybe if you were exposzd to it conztantly for a month or zo, zen you might develop a zmall tumor. But ze amount zhe expelz iz minimal at bezt. Ztill, I wizh zhe waz not zo reziztant about being ztudied, zhe iz a fazcinating zpecimen.”

    “She has her reasons, Professor,” Kaos stated, letting the subject drop with that. “You had best head for the central meeting chamber. Now that everypony is present, we can begin phase two of this operation. I trust your power armour is ready?”

    Professor Burner frowned and looked across the open cave that served as home for the past six months or so to the manticore-like suit he had been building. Computers littered the floor about it, each plugged into a separate area of the hulking mechanism, the scorpion tail arching up over the back threateningly. “Honeztly, I am not zure. I replazed ze flame thrower on ze tail with a lazer cannon for additional range but… vithout field tezting, I am juzt guezzing now.”

    The zebra smiled enigmatically, “Some of your teammates won’t like it, but I planned to do that anyway. Your suit needs testing, and the entire team needs to practice working with each other. I doubt we will ever reach the level of coordination that Crosswind and Junkyard possess between the two of them, but it is my hope that we might come close. Regardless, for now, go ahead and meet your new teammates. I will deliver this to Zilch and get her suited up.”

    The orange unicorn watched the zebra leave the cave, and lifted a hoof to brush a bit of his silvery streaked mane from his eyes with a sigh. The Professor turned to his creation, the Mechanized Attack, Neutralization, Targeting, and Infiltration CORE Mk I, or the Manticore Mk I for short, and shook his head. He lightly stroked a hoof over the fierce feline mask of the helmet, the eyes glowing baleful amber with a pulse of energy in a way that seemed to regard him in return. In his mind, it was almost questioning, as if to ask “Is this it? Is this what I was created for?” Burner shook his head to clear it, checked a few of the diagnostic terminals, and, satisfied that all the readings were within tolerable ranges, slipped out of the cave he adopted as his own.

    The empty stone halls echoed his hoof-steps as he trotted along, following the cables that he had strung up. They connected to the generator he spent the first month or so installing to provide power for the entire aerie, even abandoned as it is. Admittedly, a majority of it he himself used with the work on the Manticore armour, but that was as much due to the fact only he and the zebra were the only residents for many a month, as well as the unseen and enigmatic “Prince” that seemed to be in charge, as anything else.

    Professor Burner turned a corner and trotted along another in a seemingly identical maze of corridors. Unlike most gryphon aeries, this one was mostly exclusively a spiderweb of interconnecting tunnels. The start of a central meeting ground existed, but it was only the size of a large hall and lacked the usual worked stone inherent in gryphon architecture. Burner couldn’t help but wonder why it was abandoned at that point of construction, but the zebra had given no answer.

    “Who’s the featherhead?” The unicorn winced at the first words his new “teammates” drifted down the corridor to him.

    “Back off,” somepony answered with a throaty growl.

    “Now that’s no way to introduce yourself,” the first voice taunted. “I know, we’ll call you… Dingus.”

    “What?!” the voice asked incredulously. Burner couldn’t have agreed more as he stepped into the central hall, which was lined with a handful of monitors linked to the camera and security system he installed, and a large circular table that seemed far too massive for the small team the zebra gathered. Overhead a series of lights had been anchored into the ceiling, and the long cables caused them to sway slightly in a strange breeze. For a moment, the unicorn was struck by how much it looked like a villainous lair from some comic book.

    “I said… oh hey, another pony,” the voice said, and with a sudden flurry of motion, the orange unicorn found himself confronted by a pegasus grabbing his hoof and shaking it energetically. “I was beginning to think I was the only pony on this operation, no offense Junkyard. Nice ta’ meetchya, I’m Crosswind! That there is Junkyard and Dingus….”

    Professor Bunsen Burner was momentarily knocked off balance by the pale blue pegasus, his cropped red-streaked mane fluttering with his energetic motions. Burner noticed that the breeze he felt seemed to emanate from this pony. Staggering from the “energetic” greeting, the unicorn managed to reach the edge of the table to steady himself. Across from him a rocky gray diamond dog chuffed, his black nose quivering amidst the loose folds of his bulldog-like muzzle and features. But his chocolate brown eyes were keenly aware, betraying a sharp mind hiding under the relatively dull exterior decorated only by a simple vest.

    “My name is not Dingus!” the other voice Burner had heard shouted, an oddly powerful undertone accenting his words, and the unicorn was able to put a face to the voice. While they had met briefly before, Alto was looking much healthier after a night’s sleep, some decent food in his stomach, and the Professor’s own inexpert medical treatment. The gryphon wore nothing but his own feathers and fur, all of which were colored a lovely silver-white, and punctuated by a pair of piercing amber eyes.

    “You are looking better, Alto,” the professor put in, trying to defuse the situation before the pair came to blows. Alto reminded him of a moody teenaged colt, while this “Crosswind” immediately put him in mind of a high school bully or clown. He suddenly felt very old next to these… foals.

    The gryphon grudgingly accepted the change of subject and gave Crosswind a parting glare. “Thanks Doc. I appreciate the patch job you did… I didn’t realize that scrape was getting infected.”

    “I am no doctor,” Burner answered with a wave of his hoof, “but I keep zome of ze bazicz around. You would be zurprized how many lacerationz and contuzionz a pony can get while working on complex equipment.”

    “Still, I appreciate it,” Alto said with a wan smile, “I hadn’t gotten--”

    Further conversation was interrupted by hysterical laughter from above them, where the pegasus barely managed to keep himself airborne from the fits of laughter wracking his body. “A-are you serious?!” he cried incredulously. “Come on, that accent has to be fake!”

    The diamond dog rolled his eyes even as the orange unicorn drew himself upright, “I will have you know zat my accent has lezzened and zmoothed out over the yearz!”

    The flying pony laughed even harder for a moment before drawing himself up in the best pretentious pose he could manage. “Zat iz vhat zey all zay…” Crosswind teased before devolving into laughter again.

    Alto shook his head at the pegasus’ antics. “Ignore him, Doctor. I will admit, however, that your accent is rather thick. Where do you hail from?”

    The unicorn glared at the pegasus before straightening himself, “I am from ze northern zity of Zpurlin, eazt of Stalliongrad, juzt pazt ze mountain range zat I believe iz home to one of ze more zouthern gryphon clanz.”

    “I think that’s the old Cliffracer clan home,” Alto noted, studiously ignoring Crosswind, who was laughing so hard now he was crying and hanging off the stone faced diamond dog.

    “Dare I azk if ze zilent one there iz Junkyard?” the unicorn asked, warily eying the diamond dog. The canine answered only with a nod as he pushed Crosswind off him and straightened his vest.

    “I don’t think he can talk,” Alto said to the unicorn, “at least, I haven’t heard him say a word since we met.”

    “He c-can talk…” Crosswind answered, gasping for breath after his laughing fit. “He jus’ don’t like to.”

    “Iz zere a medical reazon?” the Professor asked worriedly.

    “Nah,” Crosswind answered with a dismissive wave of a hoof, “he just don’t say nothin’ unless it’s important. He’s just a dog of few words and all that, ain’t that right Junkyard?”

    The diamond dog looked at the pegasus for a moment, crossed his arms across his barrel chest, opened his mouth, and answered with a solemn nod. Crosswind looked at his partner for a moment, then began to laugh again. “Aw man, every time I think you’re gonna actually say something…!”

    “Given the laughter, is it safe to say that introductions are going well?” the zebra asked, his hooves echoing as he entered the hall, followed by the eerily silent Zilch. The Zebra was a startlingly average sized member of his specie, if a bit on the handsome side. Of course, that might be influenced by his preference for wearing a navy blue suit-coat, white silk shirt, and burgundy tie, all of which seemed custom tailored to fit him perfectly. Even so, the Zebra paused to reflexively adjust his tie as he sidled up to the table. Zilch filled in the final spot at the table, seemingly the only mare present, but Professor Burner knew better now that he had glimpsed what lie under that white suit of hers. She had no mane or tail, just a body of white fabric that even covered her mouth and nose, open only at her glowing white eyes. The only change in the uniformly white suit was the large “O” with a diagonal slash through it, a number zero, placed directly where a cutie-mark should be.

    “Given this is the first time you have all met each other as a group,” the zebra pressed onward, not giving the others a chance to answer, “I feel we should get to know each other. We will need to know what your powers are, in addition to your preferred name. Since Zilch cannot speak, I will begin for her. She is known as Zilch, as you may have already guessed, and she is capable of teleporting via portals. Most of you have already experienced this, and she will serve as our method of conveyance and melee support. Despite the fact her knowledge of martial arts is fading with the separation from her previous… ‘teacher’, she is quite capable of fighting and using her unique teleportation in unusual and unexpected ways.

    “Junkyard? Why don’t you go next.”

    The diamond dog seemed to consider the instruction, and slowly stood up. With one broad hand he held it above the stone floor at about waist level. To the rest present, save Crosswind, it was a surprise to see a short column of rock rush up to meet his hand. The canine smiled and looked over those present before speaking in a low, rumbling voice that seemed barely above a whisper, yet echoed clearly about the hall, “I control rocks. My density and strength increase when I am in contact with the ground.”

    “Whoah, big guy,” Crosswind crowed, “that’s the most you’ve said in a week!”

    Junkyard shrugged and moved to sit back down in his chair, the thin column vanishing back into the stone floor.

    “Have you had any luck correcting the fractures in the foundation that you found?” the zebra asked.

    The diamond dog answered with a nod, and seemed content to leave it at that.

    “Excellent. Now then--”

    “I’m up!” Crosswind interrupted, swooping out over the center of the table. “I’m Crosswind, Junkyard’s my partner, and I can control the very air you breathe!” The air began to whip around the table in a mini-cyclone as the pegasus spread his forelegs, cackling as he spun about. “Fear me!!”

    Junkyard rolled his eyes and reached a big hand out to grasp the pegasus’ tail and, with a quick yank, pulled him to the ground. The wind immediately died off as the diamond dog leaned on his partner, pinning him down.

    “Let us not forget,” the Zebra added with a crooked smile, his suit and mane not even ruffled from the mini-hurricane, “that you also lose all your powers if you are forced to the ground, much as your partner loses his if he ever loses direct contact with the earth beneath him.”

    Crosswind made a face and pushed at the stronger canine to try and get up off the ground. “Huh? Well yeah, if you want to make us sound lame…” he grumbled and tried gnawing on Junkyard’s arm, which earned him a swat from the diamond dog.

    “I guess I’m next then,” the gryphon said. “I don’t have any sort of fancy name or some such, I’m just Alto, and…  I guess I’m a special too.”

    “Hi Dingus!” Crosswind piped up, followed by an “OW!” as Junkyard swatted him again.

    “Zis iz not a zupport group, Alto,” Professor Burner spoke up, knocking his hoof on the heavy table. “Being a zpecial is nothing to apologize for.”

    The gryphon blushed a little, “I’m… sorry. I’ve been hanging around the gryphon clans too much lately, and had to keep it a secret for the past few months. Anyway, I can project my voice in a wave of force. I’m sure there is more but… well, I’m still new at this.”

    “You will get the hang of it, with practice,” the zebra put in reassuringly. “How about you, Professor?”

    The orange unicorn frowned, but he was to the last one left, save the zebra himself. “I am ze infamouz Profezzor Bunzen Burner. I am not a special like ze--.”

    “Wait, if he ain’t a special, why the buck is he here?!” Crosswind demanded, having finally wriggled free of his friend’s grip.

    “If you would allow me to--” Burner started.

    “Seriously, what the hell do you expect him to bring to a squad like this?” Crosswind demanded, poking the orange unicorn with his hoof as he faced the zebra. Burner took a slow breath, trying to calm down when he was poked again. “What, are we just going to throw him at the Guard and hope they’ll be so distracted in arresting him that--”

    “Zat iz enough!” the unicorn bellowed angrily. Crosswind frowned at him, but Burner met his eyes evenly. “You want to know what I bring? Azide from zome much needed maturity, I bring a power armour zat I have been dezigning for ze past six months, zpecifically dezigned to take on Clockwork Key and her Dragonfly armour! Your little wind tricks might zlow her down, but her armour iz capable of breaking ze rainboom barrier. Zhe could easily turn you into zo much glue, and her airborne ztate would make her a hard target for your partner az well! Alto might have a chanze, but without help, thiz team would not ztand a chance without my Manticore armour. I will neutralize ze Dragonfly.”

    “Well said, Professor,” the zebra slid in, cutting off Crosswind before he could make another cutting remark. “Now then, as for myself, most of you know my name is Kaos, and I am the appointed leader of this team. My powers are unusual, as I possess an ability to alter reality in without about a twenty foot sphere of myself. Localized reality manipulation I believe the Professor called it.”

    “Wait, wait… appointed leader by who?” Crosswind demanded. “I don’t remember votin’ for anypony!”

    “I muzt confezz zat I am curiouz az well,” Burner added.

    “Yeah, and who is this mysterious ‘Prince’ I’ve heard you mention?” Alto added to the mix. Even Junkyard and Zilch looked on curiously.

    The zebra stallion held up his forehooves and smiled, “Please, the Prince has asked to remain anonymous, for now. However, I have arranged for him to speak to you briefly via the monitors.” He spread a hoof wide to one of the larger monitors mounded behind him, where the silhouette of a pony appeared as a static image, the chosen “avatar” of the Prince. Next came the sharp, reedy voice of the Prince himself oozing from the monitor’s speakers.

    “It seems my little ponies aren’t so patient, are they Kaos?” he asked sardonically.

    “Hey, what’s with the whole anonymous crap?!” Crosswind demanded.

    “Simply put,” the Prince answered, “I have my own secrets to protect. Further, if this fails, this means the Princesses cannot find out who was guiding you, and that is far more important to me than you might realize. For now, suffice it to say that you are my agents. Your eventual goal will be to challenge the very team that stands at the heart of Equestria and the Ponylands…”

    “Project Moonbeam… ze element bearerz,” Burner put in.

    “Correct! Score one for the Professor,” the voice joked. “Quite simply, you six have the tools needed to defeat the Princesses’ little team of mares. To that end, you are going to need some time to practice as a team. You have the powers, now you need to learn how to use them.”

    “Junkyard and I are just fine--” Crosswind started.

    “And yet you almost lost to only two of the six members of Project Moonbeam,” the Prince cut in. “Oh certainly, your teamwork with Junkyard is impeccable, but even you can be beaten, my overconfident little friend. You can not handle all six of them. Steelwing, Dragonfly, Flourish, Galaxi, Tome, and Spectrum… these mares are your targets. But for now, you need to train, learn how to coordinate with each other, and learn about your targets. Yes Crosswind, I said learn, because you will need to know every one of those ladies inside and out. Their capabilities, their weaknesses, what they had for breakfast. By the time we’re done, I want you all but crawling into their skins and… wait, that’s kinda creepy. I think that analogy got away from me.…

    “Regardless, I want you each to know who you are on the team to neutralize. Burner is here to face Dragonfly. Junkyard will be handling Steelwing, while Crosswind keeps Flourish at bay. Zilch, you’re here to make Galaxi’s life miserable, and Alto, you will keep Tome from casting her spells. Kaos, that leaves Spectrum to you. But any plan is due to change thanks to screw ups, problems, and unforeseen circumstances. That means you each need to be ready to handle any of those ladies, even you Alto, though I would strongly recommend against facing off with Steelwing again. No offense, but you just don’t have what it takes to handle her.” Alto scowled at the monitor, but didn’t argue the point.

    “My role during these training sessions will be to act as your coordinator,” the Prince continued. “This means that when you’re given the headsets that Professor Burner is in the process of thoughtfully creating for each of you, I’ll be one of the voices at the other end. Kaos is my field commander, and he takes his orders directly from me. In the field, what he says takes precedence, however. He’s the one in the field, not me, and despite the fact we’re gunning for Princess Luna’s precious little team, your safety and health are paramount. Withdraw rather than die, hell, withdraw if you think you’re going to be captured! While we can break you out of the dungeons, it’s not that easy a feat, and I would prefer that the Princesses not get the opportunity to pump any of you for information. With luck, we won’t have to cross paths with them until you’re good and ready.”

    “Now then, Kaos? Set everyone up and get into the field for a test run. Time to see what these foals can do,” the Prince stated before the monitor flickered and went dead. The zebra looked to the rest of the team.

    “Let’s go see what you can really do.”

     She wiped a foreleg across her brow.

    There was just nowhere in this infernal cave to escape the stuffy heat, or the sulfuric stink that accompanied it. It didn’t help that the little gryphoness couldn’t clearly remember how she got there, or why she felt compelled to continue cleaning up after the abhorrent little beasts that had been hatched from the eggs. While her father and mother seemed to be the ones training them, she got stuck cleaning up their… offal. Dragon dung was hardly pleasant to collect or dispose of.

    It didn’t help that the rest of her family seemed completely content with the change of scenery of the last few days. Father took immediate charge to act as a sort of second-in-command to the strange Eclipse, and Mother took naturally to seeing to the dragons after they were hatched. Verdigris got stuck cleaning up after them, while Pyrite and Fracture traded shifts guarding the cave entrance… not that there was much of an entrance there, just more tunnels. And then, of course, there was Eclipse himself.

    The dark gryphon bothered her in a way she couldn’t put her claw on, aside from the weird menace those glowing eyes of his held. Those eyes bothered her, because every time they met hers, the gryphon lost hours of time and only vaguely remembered doing whatever he told her to do. It was like thinking through a fog or a haze, as if her mind was so overwhelmed by him that she couldn’t remember anything more than the most basic of events. It seemed worse for her family; it was almost like they completely accepted whatever it was Eclipse was doing to them.

    Verdigris was scared, and had no idea what to do about it. Sure, she was treated alright for the moment, but that seemed to hinge on something she couldn’t quite grasp. Instead, the caves seemed primarily designed to store the massive quantity of large speckled eggs of a large variety of colors. She considered trying to sort them by color once, but vaguely remembered being told that moving them around too much would be bad for them. Still, they were the most colorful things in this dismal cave. The walls and ceiling of it were coated in black soot over the jagged rocks. The “floor” had been worn smooth by use, but was uneven in the most unexpected places, and she had stubbed her claws and even fallen over multiple times from it. The series of interconnected caves were lit by the glow of lava from the volcanic vents, casting everything in an infernal red glow that did little to improve her dark mood.

    She tossed the most recent bag of offal down the deepest of these vents, then  backed up and covered her beak with her other claw to avoid the monumental stench as the lava melted it down to nothing. Thankfully the stench was only momentary, but she made the mistake of watching it the first time… the smell of burning dragon dung had been so overpowering that she lost her lunch.

    With that done, she paused to find something to wash her claws with. Water was in short supply in the cave, and was generally saved for drinking, but the other gryphons didn’t have to dispose of dragon poop. She squeezed one of the waterskins and ran the warm water over her hands to clean them as best she could. She found herself wishing she were back at the river with her sister, able to take a dunk and splash about in the cool water without caring about--

    “Don’t waste the water,” a rumbling voice interrupted her thoughts.

    “I won’t, sir,” she answered, shaking her claws off, but refusing to turn and face the dark gryphon who spoke. She wasn’t sure why, but whenever she glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large pony, not a gryphon. She was at a loss to understand it, but she had another reason for not wanting to look at Eclipse… she didn’t want to risk meeting his eyes again.

    “I suppose it’s near time for you to take a break anyway,” Eclipse continued, his gaze boring in on the back of her head like a physical pressure.

    “Yes, sir,” she answered simply, and took a pull from the waterskin to slake her thirst. It amazed her how she never noticed how thirsty she was down here until she took a drink. Normally, she’d attribute that to some sort of heat exhaustion, but she hadn’t seen any other symptoms. If anything, she and her entire family seemed abnormally resilient to the heat, and she guessed this was due to some sort of magic from the magus protecting them.

    “Fresh meat is in the storage locker,” he said simply. “Do remember a majority of it is for the growing dragons.”

    “I remember,” she answered flatly.

    “Good.”

    Verdigris didn’t turn to look as she heard his claws clicking away as he left, and she felt some of the tension bleed from her. She hung up the waterskin and contemplated the meat locker with a grimace. As usual, the meat was just thrown in haphazardly, the freshest resting on top, but the lowest now charred from the ever present heat and starting to smell of rot and decay. She took a claw-sized hunk and choked down the heavily salted raw meat. It made her miss the sweet taste of the fruit she had the pleasure of trying just a few days ago.

    It was hard to believe all that happened so recently… it felt so very far away.

    With a sigh, the gryphoness considered trying to find a hiding spot to get a few hours sleep, about all she could ever manage in this damnable heat, when she heard voices. One was the deep rumble of Eclipse’s voice, the other sounded like the thinner, reedier tones of her father. For a moment she considered dismissing it, and even began to turn away, when a niggling curiosity pushed its way forward in her mind. Common sense told her to ignore it, but…

    Careful not to let her claws click along the surface of the rock, she moved to the edge of the cave entrance to try and listen in, her head tilting slightly as the odd acoustics of the caves worked in her favor, for once.

    “…problem. We’ll handle everything!” her father, Shale, was saying.

    “I’m not overly concerned with that,” Eclipse responded in that rumbling voice of his. “I simply want to make sure that you follow my instructions while I am away. Do not hatch any additional eggs, stick to the half-dozen you are raising right now. The magic I am using on them will render them as no more than beasts, but it is possible they may grow quite a bit while I am away.”

    “Not to question you…” her father wheedled, “but I don’t know how much bigger they can get before we run out of room entirely. They’re already the size of large dogs, and the largest is bigger than my daughter… they might start crowding the other eggs, potentially even breaking them.”

    “I wondered when you would notice that,” Eclipse chuckled. “I’ve handled it. There is a magic portal in the back of the chambers, which I finished only recently. It will transfer you and the dragons to a large cave with an opening off of a Cliffside. Since the dragons seem adept at learning to fly on their own, they will need to learn to hunt. I expect you to teach them.”

    “H-hunt?!” her father stammered, sounding oddly excited.

    “Yes, hunt,” Eclipse stated firmly, and she heard her father gasp. She could almost envision the magus meeting his eyes, and her father’s expression going slack as he mesmerized him. “The dragons are becoming old enough that continuing to hunt for them would be impossible. They will need to learn to hunt on their own. They need to bloody their claws.”

    “Yes, sir,” Shale answered, his voice sounding flat and drained.

    “Good boy,” Eclipse answered, “now get to work.”

    Verdigris slipped away and into one of the room’s shadows as she tried to think of where Eclipse might have placed this portal he mentioned. She tapped her beak for a moment, and it occurred to her Eclipse was a control freak, perhaps even more-so than her father. It would be only natural he would put the portal where he could control it, in his chambers. With a destination in mind, she made her way towards the smaller side caves that Eclipse had claimed for his own.

    To say it was smaller was still to ignore the fact it was large enough to fit a claw-full of tap dancing elephants with room to spare for the grand finale. Still, Eclipse had chosen it as his place to set up shop, and the lines he’d carved into the ground in a large number of mystic symbols made it easy to recognize, as did the now midnight blue glowing portal at the back of the chamber. The young gryphon slowly closed on the glowing portal, unsure exactly what to make of it as she approached, and hesitantly reached out a claw towards it. Cold bit at her claw-tips and she withdrew her foreleg quickly, eyeing the swirling energies warily.

    Behind her she heard voices, Eclipse and… Pyrite she thought. It was hard to tell, but there was one thing that wasn’t difficult to identify, they were headed this way! Verdigris frowned and considered bolting from the chamber, but was sure she’d be spotted. Trying to hide was out; if Eclipse stuck around for any length of time he would easily find any hiding spot she came across. Swallowing sharply, she realized she only had one option left, and clenched her beak as she dove through the portal.

    Cold. Her first realization was how cold it was. What she had taken for the magic of the portal was actually the air on the other side, which felt positively frigid! After wrapping forelegs and wings about herself to contain her body heat, she cast her eyes about the large and dimly lit cave. There were plenty of shadowy spots to hide in, and she immediately dashed towards one of them, just in case Eclipse came through the portal behind her.

    She was halfway to her chosen hiding spot when her eyes saw it, something she felt like she hadn’t seen in ages, even if in reality it had only been a few days. Almost in a trance her dash came to a stumbling halt as she made her way towards it, her head arching upwards to stare in awe at what lie over her head.

    The moon hung in the sky like a pearl dangled amidst a sea of stars. Her eyes swam over the surface of the world below, and she could see hints of a deep ravine just before her claws, a roaring waterfall nearby that managed to cast tiny little rainbows with the moonlight. Trees rest serenely along the edges of the valley, and the night-time breeze ruffled their leaves like a mother might ruffle the feathers of a child.

    “That’s why I’m cold,” she whispered huskily, “he really did do something to make is easier to handle the heat.”

    “Figured that out, did you?” Eclipse asked from behind her, and the gryphon ducked her head guiltily. “Not thinking about trying to fly away, are we?”

    “Couldn’t,” she answered simply, and flared a wing. “Our wings are clipped… with luck the feathers will grow back sometime in mid summer, early fall at the latest.”

    “Look at me, little one,” he ordered.

    “I’d rather not.”

    “Oh? And why is that?” the magus asked in a bemused tone. She could hear his claws clicking along the stone behind her as he approached.

    “Your eyes are… weird,” she answered softly. “They make it hard to think, I barely remember what happened after and… it feels like I’m losing a little piece of myself every time you do it.”

    “You’re overthinking it,” Eclipse snorted dismissively. “Now look at me.”

    “No.”

    “That was not a request,” Eclipse growled, and Verdigris fought the urge to run away from that dark voice. If her wings would have supported her she’d have taken to them, fly free from this nightmare. With luck they were still in the Everfree Forest somewhere, and she’d be able to fly to the settlement and call to her sister for help.

    “Don’t care,” she answered shakily. “I don’t know what you did to momma and the rest of my family, but I know once my sister finds out…”

    “You mean the one who keeps trying to flirt with me?” Eclipse asked amusedly. “She can’t do--”

    “No, not her, she’s a sister in name only. My real sister… Filigree.”

    Eclipse paused for a moment, the sound of his approach pausing as if he was caught offguard. “Filigree?”

    She nodded and felt a surge of confidence. “Yes, Filigree. She freed us from enslavement in the gryphon clan, and she’ll come for us again!”

    A large claw closed about her neck and yanked her back suddenly, sweeping the smaller gryphon from her claws and into the air with a surprised squawk. She flailed reflexively, but Eclipse’s foreleg was far too long for her to reach him. She shuddered as he tightening his grip about her throat, clawing at his forelegs futilely, trying to loosen the grip as it stole her breath.

    “Never, ever, speak that name here!” Eclipse roared at her, causing her to recoil even as she struggled to breathe.

    “Don’t kill her,” a voice said in the back of his head, one Eclipse recognized. “You’ll wake up the rest of her family if you do, and then you’ll be back to square one.”

    Eclipse frowned, but loosened his grip enough to let the small gryphon gasp for breath. He considered ignoring it, that annoying voice of Sunset Sparkle, but he had a point. An emotional shock would potentially wake “them” up. Instead he yanked the cub forward until she was beak to beak with him.

    “Look at me,” he commanded, and she answered with a weak shake of her head and clenched her eyes shut. He growled in annoyance and in three quick strides and he had her at the edge of the cliff, holding her aloft and over the open air. “Your wings are clipped, and you can’t fly. You have a choice: I drop your feathered ass to the bottom of this ravine, or you open your eyes.”

    The gryphoness writhed in his rock steady grip, and pried open her eyes, looking anywhere but at him. She quickly verified her position, her wings fluttering uselessly as she panicked, her eyes going wide…

    It was foal’s play to capture her gaze after that, and he forced his will upon hers. Blue eyes were lost amidst the glow of his turquoise ones, overwhelming her will until she was another vessel to command. Her struggles slowed, growing less energetic, until they finally ceased entirely. He carefully set her down inside the cave again and patted her hip. “There we go, isn’t that much better?”

    “Yes, sir,” she answered mechanically.

    “Now get back to work,” he ordered, and watched her disappear back through the portal. “She woke up again… the rest of her family hasn’t yet, but this is becoming monotonous. I might have to remove her before she comes to her senses completely,” he grumbled to himself, pacing across the now empty cave. “Maybe I’ll kill her when I return, and tell her family that she ran away…”

    Eclipse waved an errant claw of his shape-shifted form. “I’ll handle that when I get back… maybe sooner if they turn out to be a disappointment. Still, they might be a useful, Filigree’s family, and right under my hoof too…” he considered. He took to the sky out the opening to the cave, only to transition to a mist before ever clearing the valley.

    “Aww man, I missed all that?!”

    “Eeyup, ya’ll sure did,” the elderly Apple Bloom assured the other pony. The mood of the hospital room had vastly improved over the past few days as Scootaloo recovered from her poisoning. Only her metabolism issues, those beyond being a “Special”, had kept her alive in the face of the nearly untraceable poison. But the moment the samples had been recovered in Zilch’s “lair”, the doctors immediately went to work on a treatment, and Apple Bloom turned to her alchemy to craft a cure of her own. In the end, it led to the orange pegasus with the white streaked purple mane slowly recovering in the clinic hospital bed. Of course, that made her a captive audience for Apple Bloom’s retelling of the entire chain of events that led up to that moment. Not that it seemed to bother her, other than the fact she hadn’t been able to participate in all the excitement.

    Sweetie Belle hovered close by, almost as if afraid to leave her two friends alone, even after the bulk of Scootaloo’s family had spent the previous night celebrating their matriarch’s return from the brink of death. While they recovered it gave the Crusaders some rare time where they weren’t inundated by their pegasus friend’s massive family. If the sheer number of cards and flowers still littering the room were any sign, she’d be digging out from family well wishing for months.

    “Man, the most exciting things happen when I’m sleepin’,” Scootaloo joked wanly and hoof-punched Apple Bloom’s shoulder.

    “Well, if it weren’t for Clockwork an’ ‘er friends, I dun’ think we coulda’ done it at all,” Apple Bloom noted, motioning to the trio of ponies that were keeping to themselves. Clockwork raised her head at the sound of her name, and Galaxi nudged her lightly. The little khaki mare got to her hooves and wandered over to hospital bed Scootaloo was still laid up in, only to get caught unexpectedly by a hug from the elder pegasus. For a still sick mare, Clockwork was impressed by how strong she still was.

    “Hey, thanks,” Scootaloo said, then stopped Clockwork from responding to continue. “No, I’m serious, this is a big deal. You and your friends saved my life here, saved all of our lives if what Bloom is saying is right. I know I doubted you in the past, thought maybe you were just dancin’ on the Princesses’ strings, but you really came through for us.”

    Clockwork answered with a smile, “I’m glad I was able to help. I wasn’t so sure how much good I would be when I first arrived up here, but I’m glad it worked out in the end.”

    “Mostly, anyway,” Sweetie Belle added softly.

    “Yeah, mostly,” Clockwork answered, her gaze slipping away and expression souring.

    “Now hold on right there you two, don’t ya’ll dare ruin th’ mood!” Apple Bloom cried, pointing first at Sweetie Belle, then at Clockwork Key. “Ya’ll done a great thing here. Regardless that it ain’t worked out perfectly, ya’ll did somethin’ great an’ saved Scootaloo’s life. Don’t sweat that Zilch stuff, I’m sure ya’ll will have plenny o’ time ta’ deal with her later. Fer now, jes’ relax an’ enjoy yer victory.”

    “You’re right, of course,” Clockwork answered with a forced smile. She didn’t feel ready to relax, there were still far too many questions hanging over things. Who was that zebra who called himself “Kaos”, and why did he want Zilch so badly to even set up a secondary distraction to prevent all of them from capturing her? Worse, what about Councilpony Marmalade? So far, the council was showing very little desire to punish her for her crimes, despite the public outcry over the attacks on the Crusaders.

    “Unfortunately, we can’t rest much either,” Sweetie Belle told her teammates as she leaned on the foot of the hospital bed. “We still have to find a way to contend with the gryphon’s threats. We’re the largest proponents of reunification with the Ponylands, and the Clans have outright threatened to attack if we continue down that vein. How in the hay do we respond to that?”

    “You’re talkin’ about Marmalade’s ‘motivation’ for tryin’ to kill us?” Scootaloo asked, then made a dismissive noise. “As if I’m going to let a bunch of featherbrains scare me into chickening out.”

    “I hear ya Scoots,” Apple Bloom chuckled, “but we ain’t the rest o’ the colonies. I hate ta’ say it, but we might haveta’ back off a bit. There’s just too many danged many innocents an’ non-specials who might get hurt in the crossfire.”

    “And the Princesses don’t have the pony-power to cover the colonies,” Clockwork added. “Princess Celestia already confirmed that for us. They’re struggling to reinforce the northern border as it is, it’s just too broad. Worse, we’ve lived peacefully with the gryphons for generations, since long before the Nightmare and the Imps invaded. It’s a bit of a shock to find out they’d been plotting this for so long against us, and how heavily equipped they were.”

    “You know, there’s somethin’ that’s bugging me,” Scootaloo said, pointing a hoof at the smaller mare. “How did the Gryphons get alla that gear?”

    Clockwork shook her head. “We don’t know,” she answered truthfully, “the Princess said she was looking into it, but…”

    “I wonder…”

    “Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked and shifted her cowpony hat back. “Ya’ll got somethin’ there?”

    “A sneaking suspicion,” the pegasus answered and rubbed her chin. “Do you girls remember that special unicorn ironsmith in the colony way out to the east?”

    “The one who could heat metal with his hooves while working it with his telekinesis?” Sweetie Belle asked.

    “That’s the one,” Scootaloo confirmed. “I seem to remember he had an adopted gryphon kid there when we last met him.”

    “Ya’ll are thinkin’ that he’s behind some o’ their new gear?” Apple Bloom asked, leaning against the bed thoughtfully.

    “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinkin’.”

    “It couldn’t hurt to check…” Sweetie Belle added.

    “Let us know if you find anything, okay?” Clockwork slipped in.

    “Not gonna stick around?” Scootaloo asked with a knowing smile.

    Clockwork sighed, “I might want to, but with the gryphon thing going on, and a potential invasion looming, the Princesses want us back in Canterlot as soon as possible. I begged off for a few days to make sure everything was okay here, I didn’t want to just up and bolt the moment we got everything wrapped up, but they’re starting to get antsy with three of us up here so close to the gryphon’s territory. We need to get going.”

    Apple Bloom nodded and adjusted her hat, “I’ll see ya’ll off then.”

    “I’ll need to stop and pick up the deployment sled and our luggage as well,” Clockwork noted. “Wouldn’t do me much good to have the chariot without the Dragonfly Armour, it’s how I fly the thing, after all.”

    The unicorn member of the Cursaders got to her hooves and lightly hugged Clockwork. “Don’t be a stranger, okay? If you have the chance, come back up for Hearthwarming Eve, we’d love to have you.”

    “Oh! That reminds me…  Um, Flourish?” Clockwork stammered, surprising the ponies present.

    “You want me to get something, don’t you?” the gray unicorn snarked from where she was dozing on the empty hospital bed. Clockwork nodded sheepishly and Flourish uncurled herself, making a big show of stretching out, and heaved an overdramatic sigh. “What do you need?”

    “Just… my saddlebags, back at Apple Bloom and Twist’s,” Clockwork said, feeling guilty about asking now. “I mean…”

    Flourish was gone before Clockwork could say more. The gray unicorn was gone for only a few moments before she reappeared in a flash of pink smoke, the leather saddlebags held in her telekinesis. “Flourish’s delivery service… where you get it in less than 20 seconds or it’s free!”

    Clockwork smiled and thanked the unicorn, who yawned in response, and sorted through the bag before pulling out a small package and handed it to Sweetie Belle. “I didn’t get the chance to give this to little Tempo, but I hope he’ll enjoy this little invention of mine.”

    The elder unicorn looked confusedly at the wrapped gift as she took it. “Do I want to know what’s in it?”

    Clockwork smiled. “It’s nothing bad. Just let me know how he likes it.”

    Sweetie Belle sighed and nodded. “I’ll let you know, whenever his mother lets him continue his lessons.”

    “Is that worry wart daughter of yours at it again?” Scootaloo groaned.

    “I c’n see that, aftah that there attack from Zilch,” Apple Bloom added.

    “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle sighed, “Tempo is still her little colt, and it doesn’t matter that he saved my life. As far as she’s concerned he should’ve run away.”

    Apple Bloom winced. “I unnerstan’ what she’s tryin’ to say but… that there is mighty cold.”

    “I know,” the unicorn answered, her expression unreadable.

    Clockwork hugged the unicorn this time. “I wish I could stick around to help you work it out.”

    Sweetie Belle laughed weakly and shook her head. “You wouldn’t be any help. My daughter isn’t a special, unlike her son, so she doesn’t really get it. I’ll get her to calm down, but…”

    “..but that there is gonna be tough ta’ overlook,” Apple Bloom answered for her. “I ain’t sure how fast I’d be ta’ forgive a statement like that either. If ya want, I could go have a talk with that there filly.”

    “That would only make it worse, and you know it,” Sweetie Belle retorted with a wan smile. “Thanks for offering though.”

    “Clockwork,” Galaxi said softly to her teammate, “we really should get going.”

    “Yeah, unless you’re plannin’ to spend another night with Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo put in, looping a foreleg over Clockwork’s shoulders amiably as she moved past, pulling her in for another quick hug, “you girls should get going.”

    Clockwork nodded and smiled a bit as she pulled back. “I’m just glad it all worked out.”

    “So am I, believe me!”

    The trip back through town towards Applebuck Orchards was a fair bit more relaxed than it had been when Clockwork first arrived.

    She was actually able to admire the almost storybook-like town the colony had made for themselves. It really was reminiscent of ages past, when ponies weren’t quite so high tech and relied mostly on their own abilities to get by. Houses were made by those in town, the food was all grown in town; almost everything the town needed was done in town. There were exceptions, of course, products that no amount of local talent could recreate, or even the need to occasionally look for experts outside of the city limits. But overall, ponies here were simpler, and more removed technologically from the high tech city that Canterlot was becoming.

    Of course the entourage of Clockwork Key, Galaxi, Flourish, and Apple Bloom garnered a number of looks themselves. Followed by the hovering deployment sled like some sort of futuristic luggage carrier, which the girls had put all their bags on to use it exactly as such, they drew plenty of stares. Apple Bloom drew her own fair share of attention as well, as ponies dashed up to her to tell her how sorry they were to hear about what Councilpony Marmalade did, and commiserated about how she might get off unpunished. It wasn’t until the entourage cleared the outskirts of town and were lazily trotting down the dirt path that connected it to the Orchards that they were finally left alone.

    Or so they thought.

    “Two ponies to the left,” Galaxi said softly to the others with her, “I don’t recognize either one, but they seem to have strong hostile feelings towards us… specifically you, Clockwork.”

    The mare in question sighed and looked around a moment. “Where?”

    “Further to your left,” Galaxi directed, “on the hill.”

    Clockwork Key, along with Flourish and Apple Bloom, craned their necks to look. Galaxi didn’t have to; her special “sight” allowed her to see them clearly. Still, Clockwork groaned softly as the pair, when seen, started to head their way.

    “Ya’ll’d think they’d have done learned by now,” Apple Bloom sighed, adjusting her hat.

    “Who are they?” Galaxi asked simply.

    “Local toughs,” Clockwork answered. “Snakeskin is the skinny colt, looks like the broken nose I gave him is healing. The unicorn with the leather fetish is Bittercup.”

    The pair had seen better days, that was for sure. Snakeskin, a skinny gray stallion with a limp green mane that hung over his eyes, had most of his lower face still bandaged and his jaw wired shut after his collision with Clockwork’s hooves. While she only suffered numb legs and some shoulder pain, the impact had shattered the bones of his lower face, and reconstructing his nose and jaw had been an arduous task to say the least. Clockwork was surprised to see him out of the clinic, to be honest.

    Bittercup got off the easiest of the trio thanks to being tackled by Apple Bloom, and managed to walk away with a shiner that nearly swelled her left eye shut. The pink unicorn with the lavender mane was still struggling to make herself as un-cute as possible with as much black leather as she could layer on herself. In an odd way, it made her look like some sort of fetish model in one of those “exclusive” Canterlot stores to Clockwork.

    “You bitch!” Bittercup screamed at her from a good twenty or thirty feet away. In a way, Clockwork was glad she kept her distance, but likely they hung back to stay well out of range of her hooves. “Do you have any idea what you did to us?!”

    “I reckon’ she done handed ya’ll a whuppin’,” Apple Bloom answered with a lazy drawl. “As I recall, I done whupped yer tail myself, Bittercup.”

    “Do you realize what you DID?! How the buck are we supposed to--” the mare began to scream when an explosion of pink happened just in front of her.

    “Hi there,” Flourish chirped, appearing nose to nose with the other unicorn, who in turn backpedaled furiously. Snakeskin watched with an odd calmness that bordered on supernatural as Flourish continued, “You must be the locals that Clockwork ‘whupped’. I gotta admit, you got guts trying to face Clockwork down… she’s mean when you piss her off.”

    “Who the buck are you?” Bittercup screamed at her. “You weren’t there, you don’t know what happened?!”

    “What makes her so special?” Snakeskin asked through his wired jaw, ignoring the hysterics of his “friend”.

    Flourish grinned, “She was one of the mares who took down the Nightmare. I should know, I was there too, and so was Galaxi there, the blind one with the green mane. Wave hello Galaxi!” Galaxi answered with a tepid wave of her hoof, perplexed at what Flourish might be doing.

    “Oh spare me! That’s just a bucking myth, created by the Princesses to…” Bittercup shouted before getting a mouthful of her partner’s hoof.

    “Be that as it may, she did a lot of damage to our friend,” Snakeskin said softly. “Full facial reconstruction, her skull was fractured in multiple places, permanently blind in one eye…”

    “And the point of telling us this is…?”

    “The point is that the Sheriff may not be pressing charges, but we’re willing to get some representation and find a court that would allow us to sue on our behalf for damages…” Snakeskin hissed.

    “Yeah,” Bittercup mumbled about the hoof shoved in her mouth before pulling free. “My daddy will--”

    “Lose,” Flourish interrupted simply. “Your father would lose, Buttercup, yes I know that’s your real name. You see, I’m a former palace guard, and I’ve seen and heard enough of what went on to know that you and your group were at fault. While my friends were helping out the Crusaders, I went and looked over the records the Sheriff had on our friend’s time here…”

    “You did what now?” Clockwork asked from behind her.

    Flourish grinned, “I looked into the records. I saw what was reported, and from what Galaxi told me, you might have really bucked someone up out here. However, Snakeskin was it? A lawsuit would be a waste of money for you. Want to know why? Because Clockwork Key is on the payroll of one Princess Celestia and one Princess Luna, which means she has access to the best lawyers in all of Equestria. No offense, but you two don’t seem quite up to snuff on the bits, which I’d wager is the entire point of you coming out here and making your ‘I’m going to sue you’ speech.”

    Snakeskin hissed softly through the wired jaw and lowered his hoof. Bittercup was seething, but said nothing for several moments. “It’s the last card we had to play,” Snakeskin admitted. “We’re broke, and the medical bills are piling up. Bittercup can only wheedle so much of her daddy’s money before…”

    “So you thought you’d put Clockwork on the hot-seat for the costs,” Flourish finished, and the gray stallion nodded. Flourish wandered back to the group, dug through her bag, and pulled out a scroll. She turned and hovered it over to them until Bittercup took it in her magic. “I’ll warn the Agency you’ll be writing. Make sure you include copies of the medical reports and the bills. I can’t promise we’ll cover everything, but I think we can come to some sort of settlement… on one condition.”

    “Dare I ask what?” Snakeskin hissed.

    “You find legitimate employment,” Flourish answered. “I’m serious here; you need to give up this bullshit about being some sort of enforcer for the money. At the least try to help ponies with those powers of yours. You’ve got the Crusaders right here in town, and I’m pretty sure they would leap at the chance to expand with some fresh blood… They can’t live forever, no matter how much we want ‘em too. A new generation is going to have to stand up and take their place eventually.”

    “You cannot be serious!” Bittercup cried, but Snakeskin looked more thoughtful.

    “I don’t think Lily Pad will be up for this,” he hissed. “She’s just doesn’t like to play by the rules. But maybe I’ll… I’ll need to think this over.”

    “Lemme know if’n ya do,” Apple Bloom put in from the side, “’cause th’ filly is dead on the money. We ain’t getting’ no younger, an’ there ain’t no pony done stepped up yet to take our place.”

    “We’ll be in touch, one way or another,” Snakeskin hissed and used a hoof to steer the excitable unicorn away from the group, leaving Clockwork to stare on in surprise.

    “Holy Celestia, how did you--” Clockwork started once the pair were out of sight.

    “Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Flourish stated darkly, pointing a hoof at Clockwork. “I was going to wait until we were back in Canterlot to bring this up, but I will be reporting this to the Princesses. Despite what I told those two, I can’t see Princess Celestia or Luna turning down the medical costs for damages you caused. You overstepped your bounds, Clockwork, and you’re going to have to take responsibility for that. We can deal with it when we get home, however.”

    Clockwork watched Flourish with a slack jaw as the mare trotted away before gulping visibly, feeling oddly like a filly who was just told by her parents that they would deal with her when they got home.  It took Clockwork almost a full minute to shake it off and start travelling again.

    “It’s so easy to forget she used to be a guard,” Galaxi said softly, bracing Clockwork from the side, which the smaller mare leaned into. “She’s so light hearted much of the time that it’s always a shock when her serious side shows.”

    “She done defused that there situation in a hurry,” Apple Bloom whistled softly as they followed Flourish’s lead and headed towards the barn. “That coulda gotten real ugly, real fast.”

    “Clockwork!” a cry came from behind them, and the khaki mare’s ears drooped.

    “Great, what else is going to go wrong?” she growled softly.

    “I dun’ think that’s the case this time, sugah’,” Apple Bloom noted, turning to face the direction of the call. “That there looks like Twist. Ya’ll done remembered to say yer so-long’s to her, right?”

    Clockwork nodded. “Before we left for the hospital, remember? I also said a quick one when we picked up the deployment sled.”

    Twist managed to trot up to the group, gasping and panting for breath. “I ain’t… the filly… I used to be…” she managed get out.

    “Now sugah, if ya’ll wanted to see Clockwork an’ them off…” Apple Bloom started.

    “Not that,” Twist answered as she gulped down a few more breaths. “I got a… a scroll for Clockwork… in the mail. I was hoping that, if I hurried, I could catch up to you girls before you left.” Twist reached into a small saddlebag and gave Clockwork the scroll before leaning against the nearby fence to recover.

    Clockwork sat on the dusty path and carefully pulled open the scroll, noting briefly who it was from. Her eyes widened as she read, and read it again in shock. Her expression became wild, almost uncontrolled as she threw the scroll down and tipped the deployment sled, dropping all the bags onto the grass. She ignored the frantic questions and cries from the mares present, as she leapt onto the deployment sled, the suit beginning to form about her even as Galaxi rounded up the tossed luggage.

    The moment it was done, Clockwork launched off the sled at top speed, forcing the ponies to brace themselves against her backwash. She raced for the barn and slammed the doors open without even pausing, diving inside a split second later.

    “I hope the doors were unlocked…” Galaxi noted worriedly. Then she heard the whine of engines and her eyes widened in realization. “Flourish! We need to get aboard, now!”

    Flourish appeared in a burst of smoke. “What’s the rush?” she asked.

    “Because if we don’t, she’s going to leave us here!” Galaxi cried, and Flourish’s expression darkened. A look of concentration crossed her face as she tried to grab all of the luggage and her friend, and after a moment they all managed to vanish in another explosion of sweet smelling pink smoke. In the next second, Clockwork’s Chariot burst from the other end of the barn, hurtling off towards the south.

    “What in tarnation was that all about?” Apple Bloom fussed, trotting up to inspect the damage on the barn.

    “I don’t know, love,” Twist answered honestly, before pausing to collect the discarded scroll. She trotted up to her mate, who was tsking over some scorch marks and a damaged hinge. Still, given the mare’s panic, the damage was minimal. Twist sighed and sat down, looking over the scroll in her hooves.

    “Anythin’ interestin’ in that there letter?” Apple Bloom asked after a few minutes.

    “Looks like it’s from that ‘Bottle Rocket’ stallion she mentioned, but… the message doesn’t make sense to me,” she admitted. “Is the barn okay?”

    Apple Bloom sighed, “It’s seen better days, but most o’ th’ damage ain’t Clockwork’s fault. The hinge was loose before she banged it, she was just th’ last straw. She bucked open the otha’ side first, so there ain’t no real damage there. Aside from a lil’ scorched paint there ain’t much to complain about.” The elder pony sat down by her mate and looked curiously at the letter in her hooves. Twist hoofed over the letter so she could read, and Apple Bloom scrunched her face, confused by what was written there.

    “What in th’ hay does ‘Tonight’s the night. All of Canterlot will see my fireworks’ mean?”

12

Chapter 12

“Hell Ride”

    “I’m not so sure this was a good idea!”

    Galaxi was about to respond to Flourish when a red light flickered on, flashing steadily with a small chirping beep. A shuddering sensation rushed through the chariot, followed by an intense push that shoved both mares towards the back of the cabin, and forcefully into the couches they barely managed to scramble onto.

    From the outside, the “chariot” was only such in name only, instead resembling a thickened boomerang with a pair of heavy engines mounted about two-thirds of the way out from the center. The center was high and broad with plenty of room for the passengers within and painted in complimentary colors to Clockwork’s own Dragonfly armour. To control the chariot, she created a sort of bubble-like canopy at the leading edge of the chariot. This served to isolate her from the main “cabin” inside the chariot, and also allowed it to link to her armour via a pair of specialized ports on each side, giving Clockwork full control over it via her power armour.

    Inside, it was a comfortable space with warm leather couches and plenty of room, surrounded by armoured walls and a large variety of cabinets within which things could be stowed for the trip or emergency supplies could be stored. In one such “closet” Galaxi had barely managed to stash the luggage she and Flourish grabbed. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot, only a hoof-full of bags, or the chariot’s steadily increasing acceleration would have made it impossible to stow.

    “Warning: Safe acceleration limits exceeded,” a chirpy voice said from a small speaker along the roof of the chariot. “Excessive gravitational force detected.”

    “Flourish, can you teleport us out of here?” Galaxi asked, ducking her as she heard an explosion from outside, followed immediately by the chariot shuddering violently for a moment. Both mares looked forward, startled, through the bubble canopy that enclosed Clockwork and her armour to the sudden explosion of colors scattering every which way.

    “We just broke the Rainboom barrier, and I retain momentum,” Flourish answered, shaking her head.

    “I can shield us both--” Galaxi answered, only to be interrupted by the unicorn.

    “You can’t fly,” she deadpanned. “More, you couldn’t handle an impact with the ground at this speed, to say nothing of an impact with a cliff side, tree, or even perhaps a town or city. Even you’re not that good G.”

    Galaxi’s face fell with the realization. Even with her psychic shield at full power, she couldn’t hope to handle that, to say nothing of what it might do to any innocent souls she might have the misfortune to collide with. She grit her teeth and tried for the umpteenth time to reach out and contact Clockwork mentally, only to be rebuffed by that horridly distorted music coming from the mare.

    “Warning: Approaching maximum safe parameters. Fail-safes initiated,” that pleasant, computerized, chirpy voice informed them.

    “Thank the Goddesses,” Galaxi breathed.

    “Override confirmed; fail-safes disabled.”

    “What?!” Galaxi and Flourish both cried simultaneously. Galaxi whimpered in the back of her throat as another shudder ran through the chariot, followed by a groaning sound. Flourish tried a more direct approach and charged the enclosure that shielded Clockwork and her armour.

    “Clockwork! Stand down for Goddess’ sake!” she cried at the back of the green and gold armour. Clockwork didn’t even glance at them, her gaze fixed rigidly ahead. Flourish tried again, slamming her hooves into the shield separating them, “Clockwork!”

    “I don’t think you can get through,” Galaxi said softly, “her mind is so focused it’s literally screaming that music at me right now.”

    “I’ll show her focused!” Flourish answered angrily, and the blade ignited from her horn. A quick swipe of her head across the shielding and… nothing happened. Aside from a rather large scratch, the attack didn’t seem to weaken it in the least.

    “Flourish…” Galaxi tried, as the unicorn lined herself up for another strike. However a sudden sickening lurch interrupted her attempt, sending her tumbling head over hooves for a moment until Galaxi caught her telekinetically.

    “Warning: Speed limiters have been disabled. Safety limiters have been disabled. Approaching maximum safe speed,” that chirpy voice told them.

    “Skillet!” Flourish cried into her earpiece as Galaxi set her down on the couch by her.

    “Ya?” the stallion asked after a few agonizing seconds.

    “Something’s wrong with Clockwork,” she answered. “She’s going full out with her chariot. I think she’s headed back to Canterlot, but she’s going to kill herself, and us, in the process!”

    “Buck… Alright, I contact… she is not answering comm. Am notifying the Princesses and the rest of the team, ya?” Skillet answered quickly. “Do we know what is wrong?”

    “No,” Flourish answered simply.

    “She got a scroll right before we left,” Galaxi answered, drawing the unicorn’s gaze. “I think it was from that Bottle Rocket character… and said something about ‘fireworks over Canterlot’ or the like. I didn’t get a clear look at it.”

    “Wait, you said it was from Bottle Rocket?” a new voice asked, Princess Luna’s.

    “Yes, ma’am,” Galaxi confirmed.

    “Have overridden and patched in to Clockwork’s comlink,” Skillet cut in, his voice strangely soft. “You will be wanting to hear this…”

    Clockwork’s voice came over the comlink, a hissed whisper repeating over and over again like a mantra dripping with fear, guilt, and worry. “…don’t die… don’t die… don’t die… don’t die… don’t die…” No pony dared interrupt the litany for several long moments, letting the flow of words wash over them.

    “I’ve instructed the guard to find Bottle Rocket,” Luna said softly, “but I don’t place their chances very high.” The mantra continued unabated in the background, heedless of the words.

    “Pegasi have been notified to clear the flight lanes, and emergency landing teams are being mobilized,” Skillet said. “Once we have her on radar, we will clear out landing zone.”

    “Sweet Celestia, I didn’t think that was possible…” Flourish noted with a strangely awed voice. Galaxi looked at her for a moment before following her gaze forward. She looked past Clockwork and her armour again, swallowing as she could see the streamers of a second Rainboom barrier beginning to build across the front of the chariot.

    “Wait, she isn’t…” Galaxi stammered.

    “Well, if we’re going to go out,” Flourish answered with a cocky grin, “we’ll go out with a bang.”

    “That was a horrible pun, even for you,” Galaxi groaned, then ducked her head as one of the overhead lights popped like a firecracker, her telekinetic shield reflexively springing to life to protect them.

    “Eh, I was rushed,” Flourish answered, tucking herself closer to Galaxi to settle behind her shield as another shudder rolled over the chariot, followed by a creaking groan.

    “What is it?” Luna asked softly.

    “She’s going to try for a second Rainboom,” Flourish said softly, “and I don’t think her chariot can handle it.”

    Galaxi went to say something further, but it was lost as a sudden crash startled both mares, the telekinetic shield flaring brighter as Galaxi pumped more energy into it. The lights flickered randomly, and another popped, followed by a series of odd sounding “pings” as rivet after rivet burst loose. One of them bounced off Galaxi’s shield as an armoured plate ripped free, revealing a slice of clear blue sky over their head. The roar of the wind screamed at them, almost sounding alive, as the armour surrounding the hole began to vibrate and tear apart.

    “Warning: cabin pressure is falling below recommended safe levels, catastrophic decompression imminent,” the alarm told them, the chirpy voice sounding out of place against the now strident sounding alarm and the roar of the wind trying to claw its way past the hole at them. Galaxi clenched her eyes shut for a moment, then focused her telekinesis at the hole, forcing it into place to plug it. Flourish quickly used her blade to cut apart of the couch they had been sitting on, allowing Galaxi to use the parts to stuff into the hole as a makeshift barrier.

    “That… won’t last…” Galaxi said, her breath coming in short, quick pants. She was feeling light headed, unable to quite catch her breath.

    Flourish quickly moved up to support the psychic mare, bracing her from the side. “Skillet, is there anything we can do to slow her down?”

    “Nyet,” he answered worriedly, “she is overriding every safety override we have for chariot. She put them in place for emergency, then overrides them in emergency… is just like Little Key.”

    Flourish only spared a brief glance over it to Clockwork and the growing corona of the second rainboom barrier against the shielded bubble she was in. She was surprised to see the clear bubble Clockwork was piloting from was covered in a webwork of fractures and looked about ready to shatter any second.

    “She’s going to kill herself,” Galaxi noted softly, a soft note of worry in her voice.

    Flourish opened her mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by a squealing sound, followed by a roar that sent the entire chariot lurching drunkenly to one side. Galaxi was knocked to her flank, and Flourish had to struggle not to teleport reflexively away.

    “Warning: Explosion detected in number two engine; heat levels in number one engine reaching critical; system failure imminent,” the chirpy voice told them in an all too pleasant tone.

    “Clockwork!” Galaxi cried desperately. “You’re going to kill us, you have to stop!” The armoured pony didn’t so much as look over her shoulder as a new sense of vertigo washed over Galaxi. A sense of falling…

    “Skillet! The chariot is coming in hot!” Flourish cried.

    “Ya! We have on radar and cleared field,” Skillet answered. “Emergency crews on standby, Princess Luna and Spectrum will meet you on ground.”

    “Assuming we survive,” Galaxi whimpered.

    A new screeching sound filled their ears, and Galaxi stuffed her hooves into hers, clenching her eyes tightly shut as it sounded like the entire thing was about to fall apart, or tear away. She was only dimly aware of Flourish grabbing her and tearing one of those hooves away.

    “Get your shield up!” the unicorn managed to shout over the noise. Galaxi nodded, and the pair were surrounded by a glowing ball of lavender energy. Metal continued to scream, heedless of its passengers as a sudden shock rocked through the chariot, sending the pair tumbling about the cabin inside the ball-like shield. Galaxi barely had the awareness to realize the shape might have been a bad idea before all her focus was absorbed in simply keeping it intact about them.

    A jolt rushed through the entire chariot, sending the pair tumbling forward, crashing into the protective shielding where Clockwork was housed. Galaxi tossed a desperate look through the port at her, only to realize they were on the ground… wait, on the ground!? The entire chariot was sliding, but slowing, tearing furrows into the dirt and stone. Clockwork herself thrashed, yanking and breaking the connectors linking her armour to the chariot. Galaxi could only watch as the Dragonfly Armour’s wings flared into existence, and a single plasma shot from its hoof shattered the weakened bubble that somehow managed to remain intact. The high speed port on the back of the armour opened, and with no pretense, fired its bright blue-white plasma at Galaxi. The psychic mare looked away from the glare, the still intact side of the bubble protecting her from any wash of the engine. When she returned her gaze, Clockwork was gone… only the fading blue-white streak of her engines in the sky remained.

    “Well… that was fun,” Flourish managed sarcastically from beside her. Galaxi nodded numbly and lowered her shield, slumping visibly. Unfortunately she wasn’t the only one slumping, and in the next moment the entire structure of the chariot collapsed in on itself, and on top of the mares still inside. Galaxi only barely had enough presence of mind to scream…

    Galaxi was still screaming when she stumbled from the sudden disorientation, her head spinning as Flourish stabilized her on the landing pad. The unicorn teleported them away just before they were both about to be crushed, leaving them to stare in awe at the smoking wreck that had once served as a chariot for the entire team. Across the landing field, the approaching forms of Spectrum and Luna could be seen winging their way towards them.

    “I wonder if our luggage survived…” Flourish mused with an impish grin. Galaxi decided that was a good moment to pass out.

    “…don’t die…”

    Those words were all she could think, all she could say. The armour listed to the side as she forced the engines into the red, powering away from the less than graceful landing. The connections where she’d been attached to the chariot were still connected to her left side, sparks flying from the disconnected arm as it continued to try and communicate with something that was no longer there. But then, Clockwork was ignoring a lot of problems.

    Her armour had been an integral part of the chariot when they were connected, and the damage her “trip” did to the chariot caused a feedback loop in her armour, filling her vision with a constant field of red error readouts, some true and others phantom from the now discarded chariot. Still, there was massive damage to the armour thanks to how harsh the trip was, not to mention the “technique” she utilized to extract herself from the pilot’s cockpit.

    “…don’t die…”

    Her engine sputtered and she plunged several feet before it fired again, nearly crashing her into the side of a tall building. Clockwork careened about it, glancing off its side and powdering a number of bricks from the impact. A new warning light snapped on, and the armour yawed drunkenly before she could compensate, and nearly crashed into another office building as she hurtled along.

    She ignored it all, her viewfinder snapping up and starting to enhance the range of her sight. There, between the buildings before her, was the park she knew, the park she’d found Bottle Rocket in that first time. She didn’t know, she couldn’t know, how long ago he’d sent the scroll. The usual delivery time was three days, but if he’d put any sort of rush on it, or even she just got lucky…

    “…don’t die…”

    Almost instantly her view shifted as she wove around another office building, her engine sputtering and almost dropping her from the air like a stone. She barely heard a pegasus shout after her as she roared past, her attention entirely on her rangefinder. On what she hoped was the right place.

    New warning lights appeared, but she ignored them in favor of the targeting data, locking on to the ponies in the park. They consisted of the usual park frequenters; parents lollygagging with their foals, elderly couples enjoying their retirement, and the like. Fortunately the grouping was sparse, and all seemed away from the area she suspected she would find him at. Where she hoped she would find him at.

    “…don’t die…”

    A new targeting reticule popped up, and she zoomed in, expecting another old pony. Instead the broad jaw and wispy beard of a stallion who hadn’t shaved in days came into view, but the plum coat and mint green mane, reminding her of an eggplant, sent a jolt through her. That was him! He hadn’t done it yet! She could still stop him!

    Bottle Rocket either didn’t notice, or ignored, her as he approached the ledge overlooking the park. A cold chill ran through Clockwork as he slipped around the protective railing, looking down the sheer twenty foot drop.

    “No!”

    Clockwork hit the afterburners on the armour, planning to ram him, to stop him from jumping even if it injured them both! Unfortunately, instead of the acceleration she needed, she was met with a new warning as a system wide failure struck the armour. Clockwork screamed as she fell, slowed only by the fact she somehow hadn’t lost the flight surfaces.

    “NO!! Dammit no!” she screamed at her armour, tossing her head as she frantically triggered the switches she could reach in the helm with her mouth, forcing an emergency reboot of the primary systems. The arm from the chariot still attached to her side sparked brightly, before electricity discharged along it and over half the armour. Clockwork screamed less about the pain that bloomed on her left side than in frustration when the reboot crashed halfway through!

    Clockwork’s shouted incoherently as she struggled with her armour, her eyes never leaving Bottle Rocket as he released the railing held in his hooves, his form tipping over the empty portion of the park. Clockwork slammed her hooves into the helm of her suit, and for a moment it seemed to work as systems popped online. But the moment she triggered the jet, she got only a few weak sputters.

    Everything seemed to happen in slow motion after that. She could see his form falling through the air, forelegs spread widely as if he intended to hug the ground, not only accepting, but welcoming, his fate. His eyes were closed, expression serene as plummeted downwards. Clockwork struggled to trigger the jets one last time, but her armour fell like a stone, hitting the ground at roughly the same moment he did.

    The mare couldn’t hear anything, her mind numb as she was forced only to observe. Everything she did, the entire struggle to make it back to Canterlot, was moot. The damage to the Dragonfly armour from the ride made it impossible to rescue him… she could do nothing but watch, the only true witness to his final act.

    Clockwork barely noticed the impact of her crashing into the ground, her shield flaring and dying with a final gasp to save her from harm, her entire attention fixed on the other pony’s impact. A few windows were rattled, an alarm or two tripped, and nearby pets were suitably spooked, but nothing else marked the final moments of one “Bottle Rocket” and his exit from ponykind. Only one pony witnessed it…

    …and her wail was lost amidst the life of the city.

    “Zat could have gone better…”

    “What the hay was that?!” Crosswind demanded from no-pony in particular. Even Junkyard shook his head slowly, letting a frustrated growl slip through his fangs.

    “That is why the Prince wanted us to practice,” Kaos put in, the only one present currently smiling. Honestly, he anticipated this hurdle, as did the Prince. Teamwork from a group only used to functioning as individuals is never an easy thing, but the fact the team now realized it was an important step was the goal for now.

    “Yeah, er… sorry?” Alto said sheepishly.

    “Sorry? Sorry?! You’re lucky I don’t --” Crosswind started, but was interrupted by a sharp tug on his tail from Junkyard.

    “You were not ze only one,” Burner confided, flexing the suit slightly. The large Manticore armour had performed alright, but he had a lot of work to do. It was far too slow, for starters. Power was fine, it made him one of the team’s “heavies”, but it was so slow he couldn’t effectively act. This cost him response time, and opportunities to assist that he could see passing him by before he could get into position, much to his own frustration as well as his teammate’s. “We all have thingz to work on, and I will need to tweak ze armour. I overeztimated ze rezponze timez, and will need to tweak the systemz.”

    “That’s your problem, chuckles,” Crosswind growled, “Junkyard and I did just fine!” Junkyard shook his head and face-palmed at the claim.

    “Is that why you attacked Zilch?” Alto asked pointedly, drawing a glare from the pegasus.

    “Arguing will get us nowhere,” Kaos interrupted, “instead, we should split up to try and find where Zilch has hidden herself.”

    “What, you don’t know?” Corsswind demanded.

    “I would prefer not to resort to tracking chips on my teammates to keep tabs on them,” the zebra answered, then spread a foreleg out towards the ghost town that served for their practice area. “I am sure she’s still in town, I simply do not know where.”

    “C’mon, Junkyard, we’ll check the perimeter. Between your tremor-sense and my eyes, we should spot her,” Crosswind ordered, and winged off in a seemingly random directly. Junkyard sighed, looked back and the rest apologetically, then set off in a loping run to catch up with his friend and partner.

    “We can begin zearching ze buildingz,” Burner said from inside his armour, nodding his leonine helm to Alto. “I would like to zpeak to you in private, anyway.”

    Kaos nodded, “I’ll stay put then, in case she comes looking for us.”

    Alto nodded to Burner and began to follow the hulking armour, taking a calm and easy pace as they crossed the dusty street and towards one of the largest buildings still standing. Burner couldn’t help but wonder if this desert was near where they had their base of operations, especially since there were no external passages from the old aerie, making verification of their location vexingly difficult. There were mountains in the near distance beyond the scrub of a town they had used for practice, and Burner wondered how it still stood after their disastrous practice session. The town, if you could call it that, was falling apart and abandoned even before they arrived. With the center being a several story clock tower mounted on what he suspected was the mayor’s office at one time, the town spread out from that central point along two roads in an “X” formation. The area by the mayor’s office seemed to consist of old hotels and residences, as well as protecting the edge of what looked to be a long rotted orchard that had gone wild. The other end of town seemed to consist primarily of businesses as well as a large three story tavern.

    “What’s up, doc?” Alto asked as they headed for said saloon, ignoring the sign that offered half priced Sarsaparilla during happy hour.

    “Firztly, you did fine out zere for your first time,” Burner answered through the speaker in his helm. “Do not let Crozzwind get to you.”

    Alto waved a claw dismissively, but sighed. “I’m trying, but that… pony is relentless with his teasing.”

    “Zecondly, I have a something I am curious about.”

    Alto raised an eye ridge as he picked his way around half collapsed tables and chairs towards the stairway to the second floor. Burner moved the larger armour around towards the bar, the ancient and cracked mirror reflecting the Manticore’s glowing eyes a hundred times over, like a giant spider or insect staring back at him. “What’s that, Doctor?”

    “Are you able to adjuzt your pitch? When you zcream, I mean,” Burner asked, craning his head over the bar to look behind it for their wayward member.

    “I… don’t know,” Alto answered after a moment. “I mean, I can pretty much scream anything I can say, it just comes out with a weird resonance. Usually when I shout, I just use a simple word or yell wordlessly.”

    “Zat I notized,” the professor noted, coming down off the bar and turning to face the gryphon. “Zat iz alzo why I azked. One of ze Princezzez’ team haz a zpecific weaknezz to a particular pitch of zound, and I wondered if you could emulate it.”

    Alto perked up slightly. “I assume you don’t mean Filigree.”

    “Nien…” Burner answered with a chuckle as he approached the gryphon. “I am zpeaking of Clockwork Key, ze Dragonfly. Zhe haz a weaknezz I have exploited in ze pazt. Your zonic criez would make you a valuable azzet, at leazt to me, if you were capable of doing zis.”

    Alto hrmed softly to herself and turned to face Professor Burner. “I’d have to hear the sound.”

    “Zat I can do,” Burner noted and ran his hooves over a few switches inside the armour. A pair of panels opened at the shoulder, just shy of the foreleg joint, and a pair of speakers pressed forward to fill the gap. “I vill try to modulate ze volume. I made zese with Clockwork Key in mind, thuz are zet very loud prezently.”

    Alto nodded as he waited, and within moments a humming sound came from each of the speakers. It was high pitched buzzing sound that set his beak on edge, but it seemed harmless enough. It was annoying, but hardly dangerous. Alto frowned at the note, and started slowly trying to mimic it, coughing a few times from the effort. It took him a few minutes of effort and straining his voice, but he managed a rough equivalent of the sound.

    “Zat iz cloze enough for right now,” Burner said, shutting off his speakers, the armour folding them away neatly. “However, zat anzwerz my queztion.”

    “I’ll have to practice it more to get it right,” Alto croaked, touching his throat.

    “Zurprized you could reach zat note?” Burner asked, testing the lowest step of a rotting stairway carefully, not sure he could trust it to support the massive weight of the Manticore armour.

    “A bit, yeah.”

    “I notized during practize zat you had a very flexible range,” Burner noted with a shrug. “I thought it would be worth tezting further.”

    Alto considered that and spread his wings, flying up to the second floor. “I’ll check upstairs, I don’t think these old floors could support your weight. We’ll have to experiment with that more later, Doc.”

    Professor Burner smiled predatorily behind the helm; Clockwork Key stood no chance if his plans worked out.

    “How long have you been here?”

    Clockwork didn’t answer. She felt hollow, brittle, and ready to lash out at any pony. She barely prevented herself from lashing out at this one, and that’s only because she happened to be the elder Princess and ruler of the Ponylands. So Clockwork sat in her damaged armour, as close to the impact site as the emergency responders and guard would allow her to, fixedly staring at the point of impact with bloodshot eyes. Her helm rested on the ground by her side, a thin stream of smoke coming from one of the burned out eyes of the helmet, the receptors fried from the sheer glare and brilliance of the explosion. In an odd way, it had been beautiful to behold, like a bright orange and yellow flower that was there in one moment and gone the next. Clockwork didn’t think she’d ever be able to forget it.

    The park stood empty save for a few members of the Royal Guard as well as the few remaining emergency responders. The press had shown up to get their scoops, but most of them left in short order, finding little of interest since the explosion hurt no ponies outside of the victim. The suicide of one pony was simply not news, regardless of the method, and apparently was not worthy of anything more than a footnote in the obituary column. The jagged scar from the impact reduced the grass into an expanse of blackened dirt and rock melted into ugly cracked glass. At the edge of the crater, a single park bench rested at the edge of the explosion, one side of it melted… an ironic gesture since it was the same bench Clockwork Key and Bottle Rocket had spent the day talking before she left for the Northern Reaches. Perhaps more-so since only the side Bottle Rocket had sat on was damaged, something Celestia only knew because Bottle Rocket’s spirit told her so.

    “You did everything you could, my little pony” Celestia tried to comfort, but Clockwork only gave a soft grunt, her eyes locked on the crater. The Princess glanced worriedly to the small mare before she turned to look herself. She had been here in spirit moments after the impact, drawn by her duty to escort the spirits of the fallen from the mortal coil. Suicide is frowned upon, but his heroism in life easily made up for his failing, and she had escorted him to the Summerlands. She spoke with him briefly about Clockwork, about how this would devastate her, and he asked her to pass on his apologies. He simply didn’t see the damage he would cause with his act, and no amount of pressing from the elder Princess made his vision any clearer. He simply had not developed the same connection to the mare that Clockwork had formed with him. Clockwork couldn’t have saved him, Celestia realized, but the Princess doubted that knowledge would help right now.

    “No one will remember him,” Clockwork said softly after a number of minutes.

    “His name will be added to the Obelisk,” Celestia noted. “His suffering was from the war, as you know personally, and he deserves to be remembered for that.”

    “That’s hardly enough,” the mare retorted in a brittle voice.

    “You are correct,” Celestia agreed, “it is never enough.”

    Clockwork was silent for a long minute, enough that the Princess thought she might not speak further on it, before pointing a hoof. “He’s left his mark on Canterlot, and in a few weeks it will be covered over and forgotten, just another soulless structure in a city that doesn’t even care.”

    Celestia frowned a moment, closing her eyes. An idea flickered across her mind, and she looked at the crater in a new light, nodding to herself as she began to outline the plans in her head. “Then we shall fill it a different way,” the Princess stated. “We will fill it with water, and turn it into a small reflecting pool. Make the park into a memorial…”

    Clockwork reached down for her helmet and pulled it on once more. The burned out eye only flickered slightly when Clockwork turned to face the Princess, her voice sounding oddly distant through the mechanization of the helm. “One more monument for ponies to forget,” she answered bitterly and, with a fitful start, her jets and wings sprung to life. The armour sputtered and hitched as Clockwork slowly flew away. Celestia frowned at the retreating figure, then looked to the crater herself.

    “Not every pony forgets, Lady Key… some of us never will.”

    “Thank you, Flourish. Now go see my physician and get checked out yourself…”

    The unicorn nodded and gave a flashy bow before vanishing in a puff of pink smoke, leaving the Lunar Reagent alone in her office once more. For a moment she just stared at the far wall, her mind sorting through everything she had just heard, the reports from Flourish about what happened in the Northern Reaches, about the “conflict” Clockwork had with some local toughs, and of course the ride home. Galaxi was being seen to by medical personnel and was under observation, though it seemed a simple case of oxygen deprivation and high stress that caused her to pass out rather than anything truly dire. Still, none of this was good news.

    The midnight coated alicorn stomped a hoof in irritation, the plush carpeting robbing it of any real satisfying impact. This left her with the distasteful possibility of needing to discipline Clockwork, a sick member of the team, but one who went way out of her bounds. Luna sighed and shook her head, thumping it down on the desk and closing her eyes, frowning as she tried to sort her thoughts out.

    “That looks bad,” a soft voice told her, one that the Princess recognized easily. Despite the turmoil in her mind, she managed a smile for her sister.

    “I just got the report from Flourish,” she noted, leaving her eyes closed for the moment.

    “I suspect it is more than just the information you already passed along to me?” Celestia asked, settling herself on one of the cushions facing her sister’s desk.

    “Have a look for yourself,” Luna answered, and pushed at a folder on the desk with her hoof. Celestia took it in her magic and carefully levitated it before her, opening it and scanning over the material within. “I cannot not reprimand her for that incident, nor can I ignore this one. She put Galaxi and Flourish’s lives at risk with that… that stunt with her chariot. Quite simply, she has to be told this is not permissible behavior.”

    “Did she really do this much damage?” Celestia asked softly, looking over one of the x-rays included in the folder.

    “The claims were made over the course of the day, using good magic post to send them to us. Claims from a pony known as Snakeskin, and additional claims from a pony named Lily Pad, who seems to be in far worse shape,” Luna sighed.

    “You should have the doctors in the hospital look these over, just to be sure,” Celestia noted, then looked to the filed reports, skimming them over with ancient eyes.

    “Apple Bloom verified the incident to Flourish and Galaxi already,” Luna said, rolling her head slightly to one side to crack an eye and look up at her sister. “According to Clockwork’s own words, she saw them turn into Imps right in front of her.”

    “Her disorder runs deep,” Celestia sighed, putting the folder down, “and I fear the events of this afternoon will only make it worse.”

    Luna blinked and sat up fully, “Did something…?”

    “The guard will not find Bottle Rocket,” Celestia said softly. “He committed suicide in the park, in full view of exactly one witness.”

    “Oh no…”

    “Precisely,” Celestia answered in a soft voice. “Clockwork Key. The only pony who knew he was going to commit this act, and who nearly destroyed herself and her friends in an attempt to save him. She fell short only by a dozen or so meters, her armour giving out on her in a critical moment. I visited the site, and Clockwork, after I escorted his soul to the Summerlands.”

    “How is she?” Luna asked in a worried voice.

    “Bad,” Celestia said immediately, “and not in the conventional way. We’ve seen this before from her, with her brother. She internalized her feelings, her pain, of his passing until months later. This will be worse, I fear. She did not blame herself for her Brother’s death, she blamed the Imps. She focused that anger into becoming one of the core members of your team, returning even after an infraction ejected her from the group.”

    “Something you counseled me against, as I recall,” Luna added ruefully.

    Celestia sighed and shook her head, “This will be much worse, I fear. She did not weep, nor did she cry… her inability to save him will eat at her constantly. She will blame herself for his death. She will constantly question herself and her actions. She will see his death as her fault as certainly as if she were the one who dealt the final blow with her own hooves.”

    Luna set her head back down on the desk and groaned, covering her head like a little filly, “If she weren’t already an element bearer, I’d suggest sending her somewhere for mental evaluation.”

    Celestia smirked slightly, “She is no less sane than I am, Little Sister.”

    Luna peeked out from under her hooves at the pristine white alicorn. “That is not an encouraging thought,” she teased.

    Silence reigned in the office for several minutes as Luna shook her head and slowly sat up. This was a lot of information, and none of it was good. Simply knowing “why” one of her prized team had stepped so far out of line wasn’t enough. She needed to fix this problem, and yet she knew you couldn’t “fix” something this bad… this dramatic. Celestia impassively watched her sister as she slowly gathered herself together, sorting herself out.

    “Okay,” Luna sighed as she considered her options, “if I tackle this head on, we’re likely to end up with a very pissed off Clockwork Key. She might leave the group and potentially break up the element bearers, not that I’m confident she could even use her element in her present state anyway. If I don’t take it up, it will set a bad precedent as word of what she did gets around and spawns more and more rumors. Catch twenty-two… Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

    “I would suggest waiting a few days,” Celestia noted softly. “Clockwork will immediately take to work on her armour, and that will be her sole focus for at least several days. It will also give Galaxi and Trixie time to try and soften her a bit. I doubt that will work, but I have to hope they can make some progress with her.”

    “Galaxi noted they had made a few breakthroughs with her up North, but…” Luna trailed off with a sigh.

    “But this could be a set-back that would not only undo any progress made, but would push her even deeper into the claws of her disorder,” Celestia finished. “Unfortunately, there is no easy fix.”

    “Tell me something I don’t know, sister,” Luna said softly, and stepped around the desk. “I will give her a few days, it will give us time to have the doctors go over this paperwork and make sure everything is consistent.”

    “And hope, Sister, we must have hope,” Celestia added softly.

    “I’m not sure I have much of that right now,” Luna grumbled softly.

    The smoke coalesced to the form of an alicorn stallion in the darkened clearing.

    “That went well,” he said, a satisfied note in his voice as he flexed a wing. The forest around him croaked and chirped with its own teeming life, but steered clear of the monstrosity known as Eclipse. Even the bravest of manticore had begun to give him a wide berth, so long as he didn’t provoke them. Of course, putting down a small pack that dared to think he would make a good dinner had earned him some measure of respect from the beasts. It was almost too bad they were part cat, they would have made wonderful trained centurions and guards, but the feline portion of their physiology refused to take to such regimented training and made them as difficult to control as… well, cats.

    Still, the Everfree Forest had its share of surprises, ones even Eclipse were wary of. Fortunately none seemed inclined to show up presently, even as his form darkened again, vanishing in the shadows of a nearby tree as he watched the diving form of a nearly adult dragon streak towards some out of sight prey, with Shale riding on its back with a makeshift saddle. Hypnotizing and brainwashing the family of gryphons to assist in his project had allowed him to increase the timetable exponentially and conduct additional experiments on the dragons with his magic. The end result was that he could now accelerate their growth so that they could go from egg to young adult in roughly a week, and suppress all that pesky free will and intelligence that would make them a threat. Essentially they became the perfect mounts and attack dogs, which was perfect for his needs…

    Eclipse flexed his wings and gave a soft sigh, his form blurring as it reduced down to that of a gryphon again. The disguise was suitable for his needs, but it chafed to be locked in such an inferior form, especially when compared to the glory of an alicorn. But then, there was always the Imp form, which was far worse. Each form had their advantages, and this one would be needed for some time yet to come.

    He flexed his wings and smiled, pointing his beak towards the north. His form blurred in the air, turning smoky as he used the trees for cover, flying away from his well hidden base of operations. He had plans to enact…

    “Oh, so you’re actually making a trip now?” a voice in his head snarked. Eclipse couldn’t help but smile to himself and steer closer to a nearby lake. A glance down into it showed only his reflection, and a few streamers of color trying to follow it.

    “No more attempts to break through?” Eclipse taunted as he steered away from the lake again, feeling his distance suitable to life above the tree-line, but keeping his eyes alert for any signs of the hunting dragons. Sunrise Sparkle didn’t answer the accusation, and Eclipse smiled knowingly. “You’re weakening. Seems your ego didn’t translate into much willpower. You’ll be absorbed in record time.”

    “Yeah, and you’ll rub my nose in it every step,” the pony once known as Ultrapony grumbled. “So where are we going?”

    “The Gryphon Clan aeries,” Eclipse answered without missing a beat. “I have an old contact there from my attempted invasion with the imps, and I think they could use something to even the odds with the ponies. The enemy of my enemy, and the like.”

    “Why would they trust you?” Sunset Sparkle demanded, and Eclipse couldn’t help but laugh.

    “You’ll see,” he answered cryptically, “assuming you survive that long. Besides, the gryphons I corralled for my project were very… eager to fill me in on the situation between the ponies and gryphons. It seems King Goldtalon has declared war on the Ponylands. I suspect he seeks to reclaim the ancestral hunting grounds.”

    “What’s this now?”

    “Ah yes, that would be long before your time, wouldn’t it? It’s an ancient story, as told by the gryphon clans. The ponies were not the dominant species of Equestria at some point in the past, or so the gryphons believe,” Eclipse explained, not minding the distraction for what promised to be a long trip. “Many ages past, the gryphons believe they dominated the sky, and the minotaurs dominated the ground. They were at constant conflict over their chosen hunting grounds, which were primarily focused on the lands now known as Equestria. I’m sure you can guess what they ate, since both species were described as voraciously carnivorous in these legends.”

    “They… ate ponies?” Sunset Sparkle asked, his voice hitching.

    “Correct,” the transformed alicorn answered with a chuckle. “The Gryphons claim that, at the time, ponies were restricted to only the earth type and were hunted for food. Minotaurs would corral them in herds and fence them in, slaughtering them at leisure in terrible abattoirs, while gryphons preferred to actively chase down and hunt their prey. That is why hunting is so important to them, and it is a point of honor for them to eat meat exclusively. I imagine most gryphons don’t even remember they are omnivorous in this day and age.”

    “So, what happened?” the voice within the alicorn asked.

    “The Sister Princesses happened,” he noted with a growl. “Luna attacked those who would dare hunt the ponies, driving the predators off day and night. The tales say that, at first, the Minotaurs and Gryphons scoffed. They were sure no pony was capable of besting them, but when they met an alicorn in combat, they found out exactly how unprepared they were.” Eclipse glanced down, passing the edge of the Everfree forest and his form dimmed again, and he increased his altitude to look almost like a rogue cloud as a settlement passed below them. It was a simple place, but predominantly filled with gryphons it seemed. “Luna drove them back with force of arms, but her elder sister, Celestia, realized they could not remain safe unless they could protect themselves, and she blessed the ponies with aspects of herself. Earth ponies gained a new connection to the earth beneath them, becoming sturdier and more powerful than even some minotaurs. Pegasi were born, with speed and agility given to them from the Goddess herself. Unicorns grew from the spell, gifted with the capacity for magic. All ponies were gifted with near limitless potential, as represented by the appearance of the first ‘cutie marks’.”

    “That doesn’t sound like any story I’ve heard…” Sunset Sparkle countered, his voice thoughtful.

    “It wouldn’t. This is the gryphon’s mythology; it’s bound to have its differences and biases from what you were taught as a foal. The gryphons want to believe they ruled the world before the Sister Princesses stopped them, thus they created a mythology that did that. Only Celestia and Luna themselves know the truth and could refute it, and they never have,” Eclipse noted with a snort. The terrain below opened up, growing slightly more hilly as he started pouring on a bit of speed.

    “It seems almost designed to make them angry with the ponies…” Ultrapony noted.

    “You’re a bit slow today,” Eclipse teased. “Yes, that is its very intent. Every few centuries Celestia or Luna has to remind the gryphons that it is a bad idea to hunt their ponies, however. The Minotaurs are mostly peaceable and are content with their grain farms, which calls into question that they were ever carnivorous, like the Gryphon’s tales say. Even the Minotaur’s legends don’t have any references to ponies or gryphons in that nature, calling the gryphon’s tales into even more question. The gryphons, however, constantly chafe with the denial of what they believe is their ‘right’ to hunt, and force the Princesses to ‘remind’ them every so often why it’s a bad idea to hunt and kill ponies. I believe the last time was roughly a hundred years ago, not too many years before my return as ‘Nightmare Moon’.”

    “That timing would explain some of the stories surrounding the Outcast,” Sparkle noted.

    “Ah, so you’re not as ignorant as I thought…” the dark gryphon complimented backhandedly. The pony within was silent, allowing Eclipse to focus on the flight. He had just begun to think Sunset Sparkle had given up this time when he heard him ask a small question.

    “Why did you save her?” he asked softly. “I mean, I know I wanted to stop you but… why did you listen to me?”

    “Because you made a good point, her parents WOULD wake up if I just eliminated Verdigris. More, extra claws will be needed to make everything work for another few days,” Eclipse noted with a smile, spotting the first mountains amidst the hills. The transition had been quicker than he expected, but then he wasn’t entirely corporeal for the trip, and a cloud can travel much faster than a pony or gryphon.

    “Is that why you just hid for three days, watching them?”

    “I had to make sure I could trust them. I wasn’t willing to just leave that band of idiots with my greatest find at random. I had to make sure they could follow my instructions without being there to watch over their wing all day. Shale has proven surprisingly capable, but his wife is far better. I like her, she knows her place, already has her will broken, and is a competent caretaker. Were it not for her simpering cowardice, she would be perfect for the job,” Eclipse said, flicking his cloud-like wings to propel himself along the darkening sky.

    “And the others?” Sparkle asked curiously.

    “Pyrite keeps trying to flirt, which is good when I want information and bad when I just wish to be left alone. Her constant attention and attempts at affection prevented me from letting my disguise slip even once the entire duration. I could never be sure when she would pop up,” he noted with a shudder of disgust. “Fracture is reliable, but dim. Hell, he makes dim look like a spotlight, he’s dumb as a rock, but he’s reliable. And then there’s the little one. In exact opposition to her brother, she is smart. Smarter than her entire family, that is certain. I wonder if she hasn’t been touched by the elements…” the transformed alicorn considered.

    Sunset Sparkle was caught by surprise, “A special?!”

    “It’s possible,” Eclipse noted thoughtfully. “I cannot tell yet, if she is so blessed it is not an obvious blessing. For her, it is subtle, and I want to be sure first. If I am accurate, she will either be a great asset, or a horrible liability. For now, I simply will watch her closely as I can. The fact she keeps snapping out of my hypnosis, however, concerns me. None of her family seems able to do the same, even though I reinforce it from time to time. But Verdigris has snapped out of it a number of times so far, and the last time… I will cross that ravine when I reach it. Once I am able to secure additional ‘assistance’ from the King, I will no longer need her services. I’ll have to be subtle, but I can eliminate her then and tell her family that she ran away in the confusion.”

    “Maybe you’d be better served to leave her behind when you move…”

    “No,” Eclipse answered firmly. “No pony or gryphon will be left behind in that cave. That is final.”

    “What if Filigree comes looking for her sister?” Sunset Sparkle asked, ignoring the immediate growl it elicited from his possessor.

    “All the more reason to leave her for dead,” he snapped the answer.

    Sunset Sparkle chuckled weakly as his voice faded, “So you wish to anger her so that she grows more powerful…”

    Eclipse frowned darkly at the implication, but the damned fool had a point. Not only would killing the cub risk her family breaking free of his control, not that it would matter then, but would also give her sister power to fight back against him. There’s no rule saying that simply because she was angry and seeking vengeance she could not activate her element. Worse, she could potentially become far more powerful from the anger.

    “One hoof at a time,” he reminded himself, pausing to make sure that Sunset Sparkle had truly faded again. He sighed when no voice made its presence known, and instead he focused on his magic, speeding along even faster. Thankfully, in the cloud-like form, he offered no resistance to the air with which to trigger a rainboom, else he would have alerted every pony and gryphon on the border when he passed it. For now, focus on the task at hand...

    He had a gryphon to talk to.

    “So how is she?”

    “I should be asking you that question,” Spectrum answered softly, “but to be honest, I don’t know. Something happened with Clockwork, and she all but killed herself trying to get back to Canterlot over it… and that’s to say nothing of Flourish and Galaxi.”

    The gryphoness hobbled forward on her three good legs, her left foreleg still in a sling hanging about her chest, to look out the nearby window. Only a small trail of smoke from the landing field could be seen from where she was in the palace, the approaching evening reducing it to no more than a wisp against the darkening sky. “And what of Flourish and Galaxi?”

    “Galaxi’s on her hooves, but the doctors want to keep her over the night for observation. She passed out right on the landing pad. Flourish seems okay, but Princess Luna has the medical types giving her the once over as well,” Spectrum sighed and looked out the window herself. “Is it wrong that the thought that keeps striking me is how limited our deployment capacity will be thanks to this stunt? Clockwork’s chariot was the fastest way to get the entire team around the Ponylands, and all of Equestria. Now…”

    “You’re the team’s leader,” Filigree stated simply, “it’s your job to worry about such things.”

    “To say nothing at being angry that Clockwork would put her teammates at risk for this stunt! I mean seriously, that was the point?” Spectrum demanded.

    “Bottle Rocket,” a soft voice from behind answered, and the mare and gryphon turned to see Trixie in the hallway. “His name was Bottle Rocket.”

    Spectrum snorted, “That’s even worse, she did it for some…”

    “There’s more to it than just some buck…” Trixie said softly. “From what I understand, he was suicidal. He sent her a letter, a scroll, telling her his intent. She was rushing back to try and save him.”

    The white pegasus found her flank dropping to the cool marble floor as she regarded the cyan unicorn. Only Filigree had the courage to ask the next logical question, “Was she successful?”

    “No,” Trixie noted softly. “She fell short, ironically making her the only witness. She was the only one who cared enough to try and save him… and she had to witness him end it.”

    “I doubt she’s handling that well,” Filigree said softly.

    “I don’t know. I’m going to try and visit her, but she’s locked herself in the lab since she returned to the palace a few hours ago,” Trixie answered honestly. “Galaxi seems better at getting through to her, but with her in the hospital and… honestly I don’t know how angry Galaxi is with her over this yet. That stunt could’ve killed her.”

    “It just goes from bad to worse, doesn’t it?” Spectrum asked softly, scuffing a hoof on the floor.

    “Yes, it does. If you’ll excuse me…” the cyan unicorn offered, and slipped away down the hall and leaving the pair alone once more.

    “This is another fine mess…” Filigree joked weakly, much to Spectrum’s surprise. The gryphoness nudged her friend with a wing. “Come on; let’s get out of this hallway.”

    Spectrum nodded and followed her friend down the hallway, her hooves clopping lightly on the pristine marble white floor as she kept her pace slow to stay abreast of the injured gryphoness. She couldn’t help but marvel at how fast she was healing. All specials heal faster than normal, but the gryphoness was healing surprisingly fast still. Almost all the bandages were gone, the swollen eye fully healed, and only the doctor’s insistence that she stay off the healing leg kept her from being at full capacity.

    “Where we headed?” the pegasus asked.

    “I figured we could spend the evening with the families. At least then we wouldn’t be sitting around stewing,” Filigree answered with a half smile.

    “Filigree, I’m not so sure…”

    “I appreciate your concern, Rainbow Star, really,” Filigree cut in, “but I have to fight my own battles.”

    “He was threatening you,” Spectrum growled.

    “Yes, he was,” Filigree confirmed, much to the surprise of the pegasus. “He was displaying dominance, a hazard of our instincts I fear, which powerful emotions bring to the surface.”

    “But Scarlett--”

    “Was raised in the Ponylands,” Filigree stated simply. “Ironically, so was Chase, so he should know better, but given the strong emotions of the moment... Unlike you ponies, we gryphons can get very physical. That does not forgive him, but it does explain some of his reaction.”

    Spectrum flushed and looked away, “I’ll keep my nose out of it then.” A tawny feathered wing folded over her comfortingly.

    “No, you’re only looking out for me. I appreciate that more than you can know, Rainbow Star,” Filigree said softly. “You, and this team, are the closest thing to a family I have anymore. My own family would be happier if I crawled under a rock somewhere and died…”

    “Verdigris wouldn’t,” Spectrum stated softly.

    “I hope you’re right about that. But regardless, you and the rest of the team I see almost like sisters to me,” Filigree said, a smile touching her beak. “So thank you. I understand full well your intent to protect me, and appreciate it. Goddess knows that my hatching mother lacks such a desire.”

    “Your father broke her spirit somewhere along the line,” the pegasus noted. “I could see it, she was scared to act without his say-so and put his values above even her own needs. The worst thing about it is that I don’t see where she would even understand what to do with any freedom she was given.”

    “You are correct, I fear,” she sighed with a flutter of her wings.

    “Have you sent word to the town about Verdigris yet?” Spectrum asked.

    “My first day in the hospital I penned a scroll,” the gryphoness answered. “I’m starting to worry, however, since I have yet to receive a response. I don’t dare travel up there until the doctors give me the all clear, but I’ll admit the silence bothers me. All sorts of scary possibilities keep running through my mind.”

    “Surely they’re smart enough to stay put in town…”

    Filigree stopped at the door, as white and pristine as the rest of the castle, to look at her friend. “Do you really think my father would truly be smart enough not to stab himself in the claw?”

    Spectrum tried to smile for a moment before her face fell. “Not in the slightest. They were the some of the most abrasive individuals, gryphon or no, that I have ever met.”

    “Exactly,” the gryphoness said. “My father leading that mob of idiotic claws and feathers anywhere is a recipe for disaster. I can only hope that the mayor received my scroll, with Celestia’s royal seal, to ensure that at least Verdigris is kept in town even if the rest decide to leave. At least then I’d know my sister was safe.”

    “Tell you what,” Spectrum said softly and reached a hoof for the polished gold door handle, “if the doctors don’t clear you tomorrow, I’ll fly there myself and check up on things. At the least we know Verdigris will recognize me, and she can bring me up to speed.”

    “Thank you,” Filigree answered. “I’ve been trying not to worry but…”

    “But it’s eating away at you, I understand,” Spectrum answered, and nudged the door open.

    The scene beyond was one of controlled chaos. Gryphons of all sizes and ages were milling about, taking things off the walls, emptying dressers, stuffing steamer trunks full of belongings, all overseen by a rather formidable looking pony with a graying moustache so large the entire lower half of his face seemed to vanish behind it.

    “What’s going on?” Spectrum asked.

    “Ah, Lady Star,” the pony noted in a stuffy upper class accent, “I was just directing these guests that the Princesses have allotted accommodations in town for them, thus I was overseeing their packing so they might move in this evening.”

    “Alto was found then?” Filigree asked softly, and Spectrum winced.

    “I’m sorry, I thought they told you,” Spectrum noted. “He was found, but literally destroyed their home in the process.”

    “I visited it yesterday with Scarlett,” Ferris answered, looking stricken for a moment. “It’s bad… really bad. Walls blown out, massive holes everywhere… At least the pegasi have been nice enough to keep the rain out. There wasn’t much left that we could recover, though. We can rebuild but… it’ll take months.”

    “So then he was brought in?” Filigree asked in a carefully controlled voice.

    “No,” Spectrum answered. “No pony is sure how, but he got away…”

    “I heard one of the guards say he had some sort of help,” a red crested gryphoness noted as she stepped up. “Hello Little Star, how’s the leg Filigree?”

    “Better,” Filigree answered evenly. “I feel fine, but the doctors insist that I stay off the leg for another day or so.”

    “I know we’ll feel better with you back at one hundred percent,” Scarlett noted with a smile, “then maybe you can figure out who that zebra was with Alto.”

    Filigree and Spectrum both froze at that, looking momentarily to each other before back to Scarlett. Filigree was the first to break the momentary silence, “What zebra?”

    Scarlett shrugged. “One of the guards said that the specials they called in reported the gryphon was accompanied by a zebra in a rather nice suit. They initially took him as an innocent, right until he cut them off from getting to Alto. After that, they were just ‘gone’. That was their words, like the pair just vanished into the ether. The guard I spoke to seemed to think those special ponies were seeing things, but we did see evidence of a pony in some of the other rooms, so it’s possible…”

    Filigree sighed, “We’ll have to let the Princesses know.”     Spectrum nodded in agreement.

    “Before you go,” Scarlett interrupted, “There really is someone who wants to speak with you, Filigree.”

    “Is this who we discussed before?” Spectrum asked, her voice tightening slightly. Scarlett simply nodded.

    “Where?” is all Filigree asked, and the red crested gryphoness motioned towards one of the bedrooms. Filigree took a few steps, then paused to look back to the pegasus. “Coming?”

    Spectrum nodded sharply and trotted quickly to follow in the gryphoness’ wake, even as she pushed through the slightly ajar door and into the bedroom. It had obviously been cleared out of the gryphon’s personal effects already, leaving it in near pristine condition. At the least there would be little to complain about from the maids, the sheets had been changed on the four beds, the dressers and closets were left open from the removal of their private effects, and only a pair of steamer trunks were left in the room, tucked neatly aside. There was only one resident of the room, that being the tawny crested and black furred form of Chase, who currently had his back to the door.

    Spectrum and Filigree glanced to each other for a moment, and the pegasus took to her wings, skirting one of the beds to move to a clear area off to the side where she could observe, and intervene if necessary. Filigree then pushed the door behind her, letting it bang shut, her eyes level on the lone gryphon in the room. The gryphon was so lost in his own thoughts that it took the slam of the door to make him start and realize he wasn’t alone. He swept his head one way, seeing Spectrum with only a mild surprise, then over his shoulder entirely to Filigree. His eyes widened for a moment, then his expression set, resolve crossing his features for a moment as he turned to face the gryphoness and take several steps towards her.

    “Hello, Chase,” Filigree said. Chase didn’t answer, instead stopping when he was almost in foreleg’s reach of her, only to then lower himself down onto the floor, lowering his head in what Filigree recognized as a sign of submission from the clans.

    “I…  I was wrong,” he stated simply. “We… we both know what I almost did was wrong. I’m sorry. I reacted out of… without thinking.”

    Spectrum relaxed visibly even as Filigree stepped forward, sat down on the wooden floor, and rested her good claw on his head. The Gryphoness knew this gesture as well, and many times assumed this same position while being trained, only to have the claw harshly yank her head up and toss her away, rejecting her apology. But she chose the better option, and instead answered simply.

    “I am willing to forgive you...”

    Chase gave a soft sigh and relaxed slightly.

    “…under the condition that if you even think about doing it again, I’ll let Spectrum do what she wanted to do to you this time,” Filigree finished. Spectrum couldn’t help but pop the joint at her hoof and give her best menacing glare. “And that’s before I ever lay a claw on you,” she finished sweetly.

    Chase gave a slight nod. “I would deserve it,” he said softly, “but… that does raise another issue, one I’ve been wrestling with ever since Aunt Scarlett spoke to me…”

    Filigree raised an eyebrow, and even Spectrum leaned close curiously as the dark furred gryphon continued, “Did you ever think about what would have happened if I had struck you? I’d have hurt myself more than you, maybe even broken my claw, and that’s assuming you didn’t block with your wing. And what if you’d turned around and hit me in return? I’d… they’d be picking my feathers out of their manes for weeks all over Canterlot. Don’t get me wrong, you deserve to take the shot at me but… there wouldn’t be anything of me left.”

    “I’d like to think I’ve a bit more self control than that,” Filigree noted with a frown, but was sure there was more to this than a comparison than just how strong she was compared to him.

    “That’s just it, you do,” he answered softly, “and your self control is one of the things I love about you. But… what do you need me for?”

    “I’m afraid that I don’t understand…”

    Chase sucked in a breath before continuing, “You don’t need me for anything. You’re stronger, you’re faster, and you’re more enduring than I could ever hope to be. I was always raised that it’s a gryphon’s job to provide for his mate but… how would I provide anything for you? You don’t need me to hunt. You don’t need me to protect you. What DO you need me for? I love you, but what good am I to you? A bedwarmer? A confidant? I feel like I have no purpose. I…  I’m really nothing in comparison to you, a nobody. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”

    Filigree took a slow breath before answering, “Yes, I do. It’s called being a slave.”

    Chase winced. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up a bad past but… you see my point here, right? I need a purpose here, I need to be needed. I need to provide… to do something for the ones I love, and Goddess help me, I do love you. But I can’t just do nothing! I need to be needed… please. I don’t know how else to put it. It was my family who needed me before, my brother and…”

    “And I took that away from you,” Filigree said softly, starting to get the picture.

    Spectrum shook her head. “From what I understand, he saw it less as him ‘needing’ you, and you more overbearing him. Why else would he go to such lengths to get back at you?”

    Chase shook his head slightly and looked up at Filigree from under her claw, still resting on his head, “Please, I…  I don’t know how else to put it. I love you, but I…  I need to be needed in some way. There must be something I can do…”

    “I… don’t…” Filigree stammered, uncertain.

    “Filigree,” Spectrum interrupted, “what about what we were discussing before coming in?”

    Filigree frowned for a moment, and Spectrum feared she’d have to spell it out before realization dawned in her eyes, “Yes. You’re right, Spectrum. There IS something you can do… first thing in the morning even.”

    Chase blinked as the gryphoness moved her claw, letting him sit up. “There is?”

    “Yes. You’ve visited your Aunt Scarlett’s old home town, right?” Filigree asked.

    “Well sure,” he answered, “it’s been a few years, but I used to stay there over the summer for years.”

    “Good, because I need someone to go there and find out what happened to my younger sister,” Filigree stated evenly.

    “I thought you and your family…?”

    “We don’t, and they’d be happier if I were found dead in a ditch somewhere,” Filigree noted sourly, “and that’s after Spectrum, Flourish, and I put our necks on the line to get them out of slavery. But somehow, they managed to raise another gryphon that isn’t a complete ass, and I don’t mean a mule. Verdigris, my little sister, I left in that town with my idiot family. I couldn’t be there to take care of her, but I planned to visit as often as I could, but this medical procedure has had me laid up for the week and unable to make the trip. I sent a scroll, but I’ve not heard word one back. I need someone to find out what’s going on and send word back.”

    Chase blinked, and rubbed a foreleg over his beak, “I can do that. It’s not exactly what I meant but…”

    Filigree rested her good foreclaw on his foreleg gently, “I know it’s not what you meant. But it’s a start, and will allow us to start working in the right direction.”

    Chase smiled, dipping his head slightly, “I guess I did sound a bit whiny there, didn’t I?”

    “It needed to be said…” Filigree answered, rubbing her beak along the side of his.

    Spectrum sidled towards the door. “I’m going to let you two ‘talk’. Call me if you need anything!” the pegasus called, and didn’t even hear the answer before she was out the door.

    “So… do I need a new nephew?” Scarlett joked. The pony’s ears splayed and she blushed as she heard an “interesting” sound from beyond the door. She swallowed and managed a chuckle through her embarrassment.

    “No, but if they keep ‘making up’, you’ll get some new cousins out of it…”

13

Chapter 13

“Tumbling Down”

    “Thank you, Commander; that’s all I need for now.”

    The armoured unicorn gave a sharp salute, and promptly trotted out of the small interview room that the Princess had set up for this purpose. It was a small room dominated entirely by a sturdy wooden table with a comfortable pair of cushions sitting opposite each other, and a single door allowing entry to the small room. At one end of the table, still sitting on his cushion, a mature unicorn stallion sat staring down at his hastily scrawled notes despairingly. He didn’t even look up when the door clicked open and allowed a stocky zebra access to the room in the wake of the royal guard.

    “Please tell me you got something, Quagga,” the sandy unicorn pleaded, but he only had to look at his friend’s expression to know the truth. Professor Relic thumped his head on the table. “Who knew it would be this hard?”

    “It has only been a week,” Quagga counseled, adjusting his laden saddlebags.

    “I know, I know,” Relic sighed. “Still, I hoped to see something, a hint that we’re on the right path at least. “

    Quagga shook his head and put a hoof on his friend’s shoulder, “Do not be so hard on yourself, my friend, you have gotten us this far. For now, let us retire to our chambers. There are no more interviews for the day, and we can cancel future interviews while we reassess our approach.”

    Relic nodded and allowed himself to be led by the zebra out of the small interview room and into the richly appointed hallway of the palace. Even as utilitarian as the under-passages of the castle were, the air of royalty still was felt. Sure, they traded the usual marble halls with golden fixtures for painted steel walls that could double as an emergency shelter should it prove necessary, but there was still something intangible he couldn’t quite put a hoof on…

    “You know,” Relic mused softly, causing Quagga to quirk an ear, “before staying here, I had no idea the palace extended as far into the mountain as it does.”

    “It makes sense, if you look at it,” a gruff voice answered, and both unicorn and zebra turned to regard the steely gray pegasus as he ambled up, his golden armour glittering in the ubiquitous light of the hallway.

    “Good evening, Clean Slate,” Relic said, greeting him, as the zebra nodded to the familiar guard. “What do you mean?”

    “Think about it,” the guard noted, falling into step with the pair. Officially he was “escorting” them back to their chambers, but really he had little cause for concern from them. It was more just a routine position for the elder pegasus to work out his remaining days before retiring from the guard. “The castle is perched rather precariously on the edge of a cliff. Something has to hold it there, right?”

    Professor Relic chuckled, “I always just assumed it was magic.”

    “Most ponies do,” Slate answered with a gravelly chuckle, “and that’s exactly what we want our enemies to think. Down here are the aspects of the castle we don’t wish to advertise to everypony, things like the dungeons and the treasury. It’s one of the reasons we use these as a staging and training ground for the Guard, these are two areas that are extremely sensitive to the security of Canterlot. We also have safe rooms for the Princesses should we come under attack.”

    “Given their natures, I imagine that would not be an easy task to get them into,” Quagga noted with a smirk. “From what I have heard, both Princesses prefer to be on the front line over hiding in safety while ponies place their lives on the line.”

    The guard nodded. “You’re correct, of course, but you don’t think that we wouldn’t have somewhere to protect the two most precious things to all of ponykind, do you?” The guard then nodded to a heavy door as he came abreast of it. “Home, gents, such as it is. I’ll let Thyme know you’re back so she can fetch you two some dinner.”

    “Back to the gilded cage,” Relic sighed, earning a sympathetic look from his guard.

    “Could be worse, eh?” Slate tried to joke. “You could be like the hoof-full of poor bastards we keep in the dungeon…”

    Relic did his best to smile, but didn’t truly feel it as he tugged the door open to the chambers he and Quagga had been sharing since that fateful day in the desert. He let his eyes wander the familiar room as he entered, sighing as the door closed and the lock clicked behind him. The room was spacious, long and narrow like a museum hall or town home, and yet somehow managed to feel felt cramped all the same. The right side of the room was dominated by bookshelves of rich mahogany that extended from floor to ceiling, stuffed full of books of varying color and size, and every one a book that Celestia had removed from print for one reason or another. It was depressing to think the Princess felt she had to suppress so much information from the ponies, and the world at large. The wall opposite was mostly empty, done in rich wood paneling, with a mid-sized table-like shelf about halfway along it, adorned with a quintet of red velvet pillows. Relic watched as Quagga put the content of his saddlebags, four crystal orbs of very special magic properties, on their pillows.

    Relic sighed and made his way to one of the cushions littered about the room, plopping his flank disconsolately upon it as Quagga climbed up the spiral staircase in the back of the main room, heading up to the shared loft and bedroom the pair shared. Relic really had nothing he could complain about with the accommodations, the beds were huge and turned down daily by one of a number of the cute filly maids the Princesses employed to care for the castle. But as much as he enjoyed the occasional moment staring at their flanks like a lecherous old stallion, he was really starting to feel hemmed in…

    “Not a single reaction?” the unicorn asked his friend as he came back downstairs, saddlebags now stashed away.

    “You already know the answer to this question,” Quagga responded and turned to face the unicorn. “Perhaps simple interviews cannot do what we intend?”

    “That’s about all we can do, though!” Relic responded, his voice tightening with frustration. “The only other answer is one we literally cannot test.”

    Quagga raised an eyebrow as he turned to regard his friend. “Are you thinking that the elements will not respond to words, but only to actions?”

    “Not precisely, but close enough,” the unicorn noted, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “The more I think about it, the more I am reminded that the elements, both sets, only would spring into action during a time of great stress and crisis. Of the elements we have empirical evidence of, the Elements of Harmony, both times in the recent past they became active when potential wielders were placed under an imminent, and probably lethal, threat by an enemy.”

    “It was a version of the Nightmare both times, as I recall,” Quagga noted.

    Relic thunked his hoof on a nearby table to punctuate his words, “Exactly, my friend! Each time they were under extreme duress, when all hope had been lost. Hell, if you want to be specific, according to accounts from the current bearers and Lady Sparkle’s memoirs, the Elements were literally shattered, their physical shells destroyed!”

    “I would not recommend shattering the Elements we have to verify this theory,” the zebra counseled with a sardonic grin.

    Relic managed a weak smile in return. “No, I don’t plan on shattering the elements to prove a point, but do you see where I’m going with this? None of the elements were more than a lump of crystal until the proper stresses were applied. Only when under the full pressure and danger of an overwhelming evil did the elements respond.”

    “Perhaps…” Quagga mused, “…perhaps the elements must search for the true essence of a pony, and only under extreme conditions can that essence be truly known. A pony may be considered honest by his peers, but when under enough pressure he might lie to save his own tail…”

    Relic blinked, his eyes going wide and leaping to his hooves as the comment sunk in. “Quagga, you’re a genius! That’s what we’re doing wrong!” The pony’s face fell in the next moment, and his flank dropped back to the cushion. “And why we can’t test it this way, or any way really. How can we know the true essence of any pony? A stallion may seem brave and strong, but… we can never be sure how many of his answers will be false to his true nature.”

    “I am not sure I would trust either of us to apply such a test,” Quagga noted.

    “And the only known quantities, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, are the wrong gender to properly utilize in order to test the theory with these elements…” Relic continued.

    “Assuming they would respond at all,” the zebra slid in. “It is highly doubtful that a pony could wield more than one element, even if they did qualify.”

    A light knock on the door interrupted the discussion. The key in the lock thunked, and the door creaked open to allow access to an attractive middle-aged mare with a mint green coat and a large covered platter balanced on her back.

    “Dinner’s served, gents!” she called with a light accent. “I made ye’ some nice cream o’ celery soup with rice and just a hint of brandy; a nice fresh cucumber salad, heavy on the oil as ye’ like, Professor; and a carafe of some of my famous sweet iced tea. And iff’n ye’ have any room f’r dessert, I have some fresh lemon meringue pie waitin’ upstairs with plenty o’ whipped cream for the askin’.”

    Quagga was on his hooves and quickly moving to relieve the mare of the large tray. “Allow me, ma’am.”

    It was all Relic could do to keep from laughing when she batted those big lavender eyes at him. “Such a big strong buck ye’ are, thankya.” Quagga’s chest puffed with the flattery as he carried it to one of the larger tables and settled it down.

    “Thank you, Miss Thyme,” the Professor slipped in as Quagga “escorted” her back to the door. He chuckled at the brief glances they shared, only able to compare them to a pair of love-sick foals with the way they were acting.

    “I swear,” Relic commented when Quagga returned, “we must be the worst kept secret in the palace.”

    “I am not one to complain about it,” Quagga answered evenly, “after all, it got us some cream of celery soup. After the stale rations we had in the desert, I am not one to pass up such fine cuisine.”

    The Professor grinned as he used his magic to levitate the heavy cover off the tray of steaming food, the sweet aroma of freshly cooked food filling their chambers quite nicely. “To say nothing of the lovely Miss Thyme, eh…?”

    Quagga scowled at his friend, which only made the unicorn burst out into laughter.

    The room was like a cave.

    The curtains were pulled, the shades were drawn, and barely any of the light from outside managed to seep its way into the dusky apartment. Not that the resident within needed the light to see anything within it. Her blind eyes, magically attuned thanks to her own special powers and the gifts from the element she bore, were able to pick out the form, shape, and even color of everything that surrounded her. She could “see” the violet covers and drapes of the princess-style bed she resided on, the sheets and comforter a tangled mess, pulled from the edges and wound about her like a nest or cocoon. Beyond, her eyes could pick out the dressers and closets that surrounded her, all filled with a wide variety of clothing provided to her by her mentor and friend, Princess Luna. In a way, she regretted that she wore so little of it, but she had infrequent cause to wear the regal dresses and formal gowns that the Princess usually had tailored for her. She had worn maybe a hoof-full of them a few times, but she always felt so out of place at those sorts of events. She just ended up standing in Luna’s shadow, much as Luna sometimes complained about residing in Celestia’s shadow…

    Galaxi’s attention slid along the closet she found herself focused on, and the frilled edge of some lace petticoat that was trapped between the doors caught her attention. Silently she wondered if it were part of that ludicrous maid uniform Luna convinced her to wear for Nightmare Night last year…

    “So this is where you’re hiding,” a soft voice came from the darkness, interrupting the thought. Galaxi closed her eyes; there was only one pony that could have entered without knocking or being noticed by her psychic/magic sight.

    “Yeah, something like that,” she answered simply, lowering her head to rest on a pillow. She wasn’t tired, but felt emotionally drained all the same.

    “Trixie told me she was worried about you,” the voice continued as a form materialized from the darkness itself, winding together and into the body and regalia of the Lunar Princess, Luna. “You barely spoke to her when you left the hospital this morning, and ever since returning, you’ve been shut up in your room here.”

    “I… I just wanted to be alone,” the blind mare answered softly, hugging the pillow tightly to her chest.

    Luna sighed and leaned forward to part the curtains around the bed, leaning her forelegs on it so she could nuzzle at Galaxi’s ears. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

    “I’d have thought that was apparent,” Galaxi snorted bitterly, her ears splaying under the Princess’ affections. “My friend… excuse me, somepony I thought was my friend, nearly killed me.”

    “And herself,” Luna amended softly.

    “And Flourish,” Galaxi shouted with a sudden burst of anger, causing Luna to recoil from the ferocity, “which in no way forgives any of it!” Her anger evaporated almost as quickly as it appeared, and the pony slumped on the bed, hugging the pillow to her chest even tighter, as though it were a stuffed animal or another pony. “She was my first friend, the closest pony to me outside of… well, of you, Princess. She was closer than any friend I ever remember having before, and I let her into parts of my life that I found hard to open even to you. She stood by my side in the worst of times, shared the best with me, and… and she threw it all away for a pony she barely knew!”

    Luna blinked slightly for a moment, then couldn’t help but smile as a realization brushed through her mind. “You sound jealous of the stallion…”

    “No!” Galaxi objected, her head shooting up. Her expression grew more conflicted a moment later, and she chewed on her lip. “Maybe…? I don’t know. I don’t really understand why I feel this way. I mean, she was trying to help him, and that should count for something, right? But all I could think when she spoke about him is ‘why won’t she talk to me like that?’ Why was she willing to open up to this… this stranger when I’m standing right there begging for her to talk to me?! I know I shouldn’t think it, but I kept feeling like maybe she doesn’t trust me, like maybe she’s tired of me hanging around. Maybe… maybe she doesn’t want me around anymore. She started to feel like a stranger. And then I finally, FINALLY get through to her in the Northern Reaches, and…”

    “…and he steals her back away from you?” Luna asked softly.

    Galaxi lowered her head and bit the pillow for a moment, clenching her eyes shut before answering in a barely audible voice, “Yes. I’m a horrible, horrible pony for feeling that way, but I can’t help it. I know he committed suicide, and it’s horrible but… I can’t stop thinking that he took her away from me! That he stole our friendship…”

    “I’m sorry--”

    “You’re not the pony who needs to apologize!” Galaxi shouted at the Princess, then buried herself in the covers and sheets…

    Luna sighed and lifted herself onto the bed, moving to partially curl about her apprentice, who instinctively leaned into the Princess. Luna gently pet a hoof over the trembling and huddled form under the cocoon of sheets and blankets. “Galaxi…? Galaxi please, listen to me. You are not a horrible pony. I know how wrong it is that you feel this way, but it’s perfectly understandable.”

    “It is?” Galaxi’s muffled voice asked, a small bit of the cover falling away from her face to reveal one of her watery eyes to the Princess.

    “Yes, it is. You’re just too close to the situation, you’re not letting yourself step back and understand why you’re feeling this way,” Luna pointed out as she gently coaxed the cover off her student’s head. “You’re only seeing the horrible, and none of the context that goes with it, what is fueling your own emotions.”

    Galaxi blinked and looked up at her mentor. “I don’t think --”

    “Galaxi,” the Princess interrupted gently, “have you truly looked at your own feelings into this matter? Yes, you have a cause to be angry with Clockwork, but your reactions to it are out of proportion to what actually happened. Flourish has already been in my office to file her report, and then asked if Clockwork was alright. She’s not holding a grudge, and understands that something is wrong…”

    “Good for her,” the mare grumbled.

    Luna sighed softly and pet a hoof over Galaxi’s mane, “Think about how you are reacting to Bottle Rocket. What would you think if Skillet acted this way about a stallion that Flourish met?”

    Galaxi frowned slightly and said, “I’d think he was jealous of the guy, thinking he might try and take Flourish away from him…”

    “Exactly. Now think of how you are reacting towards Clockwork over Bottle Rocket…”

    Galaxi shrugged and looked away and into the darkened room. “Okay, so maybe I am jealous. She’s my… my best friend, why wouldn’t I get jealous? It sounds a bit childish, I guess, but I don’t see what you’re trying to get at, Princess.”

    Luna smiled reassuringly and stroked over her pupil’s mane lightly. “I’m saying that there seems to be more between you and Clockwork than just a friendship.”

    Galaxi turned to look at Luna for a moment, her eyes wide. The Princess of the Night, for a brief shining moment, thought she’d gotten through to her star pupil, only to have her illusion shattered when the mare burst out laughing. Luna’s return smile grew strained as Galaxi flumped over, holding her ribs as she shook from laughter, tears almost literally streaming from her eyes before she managed to answer. “Th-that was a good one, Princess. For a moment I thought you were serious. I-I’m sorry but…” she managed to squeak out, before falling into another round of laughter.

    Luna shook off her surprise and patiently waited for the gale of laughter to subside before asking, “Is it really such a strange thing to consider, Galaxi?”

    “No, ma’am,” Galaxi answered, hiccupping slightly with the leftover giggles, “but Clockwork Key is hardly the stallion of my dreams!”

    “Don’t rule out any possibilities, my apprentice; you never know what the future may hold,” Luna noted softly.

    Galaxi snorted and stifled another laugh, “If you say so…”

    “Regardless, that seems to have cheered you up a bit,” the Princess noted.

    The mare nodded. “Yes, ma’am, thank you.”

    “Good, now why don’t you go out for a walk or something, get out of this stuffy room. I know you still have much on your mind, but brooding here in the dark like a Diamond Dog won’t do you any good.”

    Galaxi nodded and crawled out of the nested cocoon she’d made for herself, then made a face at her matted tail and mane. “Maybe I should clean up first…”

    “You go do that,” Luna said with a smile, climbing to her hooves, “I’ll summon a maid to change your sheets.”

    “Thank you, Princess!” Galaxi called and trotted into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Luna stared at the door for several long minutes, before shaking her head slowly and donning a familiar knowing smile, one she’d seen on the lips of her sister many times.

    “The truth will find you soon enough, my apprentice.”

    The room was dark, even for a cave…

    Darkness spread in the center like a pool of ink, thickening and gaining mass. It ignored the chiseled rock walls as it slowly formed, the pool of shadow started to gain shape. First the claws, foreclaws with long and sharp and deadly talons, feline rear claws clicking on the rocky floor. Then the haunches and broad shoulders, followed by a thick barrel chest and long flared wings, all in an ebon black. Finally the head formed, the long beak made of the same black as his feathers and fur, so that the darkness was only interrupted by the glow of his slit turquoise eyes. After he paused for a moment to double-check that the chamber was truly empty and there were no witnesses, a broad grin crossing his beak as he stepped out of the tiny side chamber and into the aerie.

    His claws clicked as he walked, and he ignored the curious gazes from the gryphons he passed… upper caste birds, the lot of them; ignorant and selfish and ruthless all at once. Their gazes were appraising as he slid past them, where he paused to regard a half lit candelabra. He flexed a talon on his claw, and the final candles sprung to life. He glanced over his shoulder at the gasps, the tip of his claw still burning with a small flame, and he rakishly blew out. He smiled at the self-serving crows that thought themselves the true base of power for the gryphon clans, and they quickly found somewhere else to look. The dark gryphon chuckled to himself and continued onward.

    The halls he passed were far and away better decorated than the passages below in the aerie, but that is what happens when you stalk the halls of the upper caste of King Goldtalon’s aerie. Gold furnishings were everywhere, either plated or colored, it didn’t matter, the King liked to flaunt his status. And if that didn’t remind a gryphon, the bevy of heavily armed gryphons in suits of shiny mail and carrying heavy polearms would. Of course, the trio of said guards that made their way towards him seemed less enamored with his sudden appearance than the other gryphons had.

    “State your name,” one of the guards said in a gravelly voice.

    “Eclipse,” the black gryphon answered self-importantly. The charade and airs were just as important as actual rank.

    “Never heard of you,” the guard answered flatly. “You will be removed from the premises.”

    “And if I refuse?” Eclipse asked simply. The guards immediately leveled their spears at him.

    “That was not a request.”

    “Good, then I won’t feel bad about what I’m going to do to you…” he answered, a grin spreading across his beak. Fire leapt to life in his claw as he turned to face the trio of guards, who backed up a step.

    “What is the meaning of this outburst?!” a nearby gryphon demanded. He was well dressed, preened, and portly, but held himself with such a supreme air of self importance that it almost boggled Eclipse.

    “We’re removing a trespasser, Duke Silverthorn,” the guard answered, but Eclipse couldn’t help but notice the hint of disdain in his voice.

    “I don’t know, if he is the magus he appears to be, then he was about to turn the three of you into ashes,” the Duke noted.

    Eclipse smiled and dismissed the fire in his claws. “Oh, I could have done that, but I was thinking it would be more fun to melt the weapons in their claws… and while they’re desperately struggling to remove molten metal from their foreclaws, I’d melt the armour right to their flesh,” he stated in a voice that refused to belie any of the malice his words carried. Still, one of the guards balked and backed up another step.

    “Well, before we resort to that, why don’t you tell us why you’re here,” the Duke said, shifting his tremendous bulk as he stepped closer. Eclipse took an immediate dislike to this corpulent windbag, but at least he was asking, and might prove to be a useful pawn. He had assumed he would be able to petition for a bit of the King’s time, but gaining an ally might do just as well.

    “Well then, Duke Silverthorn was it?” Eclipse confirmed. “I was hoping I could borrow a few moments of the King’s time for a proposition I think he would enjoy.”

    “The king is busy,” the guard stated with ironclad certainty.

    “Yes, preparing how to attack the ponies when one of his trump cards slipped her cage,” Eclipse stated with a knowing smile. The guard frowned darkly.

    “Ah, we have been doing our best to keep that information under wraps, I fear,” the duke noted and paused to take a draw from the glass in his claw. Alcohol of some sort, Eclipse suspected, though the corpulent gryphon hardly seemed inebriated.

    “I had an inside source,” Eclipse noted with a broad smile, “but I would rather discuss this with the king himself. One trump card may have slipped from his claws, but I can offer an entire winning hand.”

    The duke seemed to consider this for a long moment, then turned to the guard, “I think this might be worth disturbing the King’s planning sessions with his generals, don’t you?”

    “No,” the guard stated flatly, his eyes never leaving Eclipse.

    “Well, I do,” the duke answered, “so send a runner to see if he’s willing to entertain this magus and his offer. Who should I say is calling again?”

    “Eclipse,” he answered with a magnanimous smile.

    “Eclipse then,” the duke noted, and took a long pull to empty his glass. “Well, don’t just stand there you featherbrained tinplated soldiers, get going!”

    The guard gave a low rumbling growl as he looked hard at Silvertalon, then at Eclipse himself, before turning on his claws and stalking away, taking the pair of guards with him down the hall. Eclipse followed them with his eyes, watching as they passed by the sconces on the wall and down a far plainer hallway than the one he was standing in. He was so focused on watching the guards leave that he was caught completely by surprise when the Duke slapped his shoulder companionably.

    “They’ll be back,” Silverthorn noted in a surprisingly sober tone, “but I hope your offer is worth it. Otherwise you, my friend, will learn how sharp those weapons are when they use them to impale you for wasting his Highness’ time, and I fear I’ll get a right earful as well.”

    “Oh, don’t worry,” Eclipse answered smoothly, “what I have to offer could win the war for him. Plus, once he recognizes me, he’ll remember who I am. We are old… allies.”

    “Well, here’s hoping!” the duke cried, and grabbed a drink for himself and his ‘new friend’ from a passing servant.

    For Eclipse, the wait was an interminable thing. The Duke was a font of information, especially while drunk, but Eclipse had to be extremely careful with what he said. The Duke had a habit of asking leading questions, pressing him to reveal more than he was ready to. Even drunk, Eclipse was forced to reassess the gryphon several times, each time realizing the Duke was far more savvy than he let on. Even his drunken antics were overplayed, revealing an almost disturbing capacity for holding his liqueur, as he pressed for more and more information in the most subtle ways he could.

    Eclipse, of course, was able to avoid these traps. He had spent a millennia in the body and mind of a Princess of Canterlot, thus he was familiar with these sorts of games and how to play them. Instead, he focused the conversation to other topics, which the duke was surprisingly forthcoming about. The King was all but molting after Filigree escaped, which Eclipse decided was a disgusting way to express rage, and was looking for every advantage he could. The Princesses had politely told him to take a flying leap with his wings tied when he demanded Filigree be extradited back to the clans, as expected. The “fact” that she killed the arch-duke (ironically his new “friend’s” late father) wasn’t having the motivational effect for the gryphon populace as was hoped. They viewed the death of the arch-duke with a rather blasé acceptance, rather than the bloodlust and fervor that had been expected and hoped for. All in all, the King’s intent to invade the Ponylands was starting to fray at the edges. Worse, the loss of Filigree apparently cost him one of his greatest potential spies in the field, despite having a claw-full of other spies already in place.

    When the Duke began going over the same information twice, just more slurred and less specific, Eclipse lost interest. The open hall where most of the upper caste gryphons tended to reside had mostly emptied out as the evening progressed, leaving them alone in the richly appointed hall. Even the Duke succumbed to the alcohol eventually, leaving Eclipse to wonder if his desire to be seen had been forgotten, either intentionally or accidentally. He was just resigning himself to having to wait until morning in the filthy, gaudy, meeting hall surrounded by servants so low in caste that they weren’t even worthy of his notice, when...

    “The king will see you now,” a gravelly voice rumbled behind him, and Eclipse turned with a half smile.

    “Ah, good, good. I was starting to think it would have to wait for morning,” he noted, climbing to his claws.

    “He wanted someone to take his frustration out on,” the guard rumbled with a dark smile.

    Eclipse chuckled softly to himself. “Yes, that does sound like him,” he answered, and fell in step behind the surly guard. Only one guard this time, who led him through that same stonework passage he noted from the hall, the decorations becoming far more sparse and businesslike in a hurry. There was light only because there needed to be. There were guards only because they were necessary. Everything had a purpose, and even the weapons on display were sharpened and ready to be drawn and used at a moment’s notice.

    Then, all at once, the room opened and spread out into the King’s chamber. It was at once regal and simple. The entire mountain-cap had been drilled out in a ring of archways that were easily double the height of any alicorn. While all they showed was the night sky and the crescent moon hovering above, the view of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountain Range must have been truly astounding by the light of day. Several candelabras rested at intervals about the perimeter of the chamber, and a large chandelier dangled overhead made of steel plated in gold. Eclipse couldn’t help but notice the chain attached to it and the marks on the floor beneath it… an indication that it could be dropped on a visitor at any time.

    Finally, at the only point not surrounded by an open archway, resided the singular throne of the King. Much like the rest of these chambers, it was a simple thing of heavy wood with an embedded crown resting on the top of it. Not every gryphon chose to wear their crown constantly, and it seemed that Goldtalon was one such individual, and left it mounted on the familial throne.

    “Well well, what do we have here?” the King asked as the guard faded into the shadows of the room. “A gryphon we’ve never seen or heard of strolls into my aerie and requests an audience with me. You’re damned lucky that I’m in a tolerant mood.”

    “What I heard is you’re looking for an excuse to string me up,” Eclipse rumbled in response, flexing a claw as he regarded him. “Of course, if you do that, you’d never know why I came all this way.”

    “You assume I care about the bleating of another damned sheep…”

    “Oh Prince, I thought you’d remember me,” Eclipse answered with a broader smile. “Admittedly, I’ve changed a bit since the invasion, but who else was able to provide the designs you now use with your guards? Who else gave you the plans for those leaf-tipped spears designed to redirect pegasus wings? Who else would be able to sneak in and ensure that your sister’s gear was sabotaged to give out at the most inopportune time? Who else would come now and offer you a weapon that could easily make up the difference in this little war you want to wage?”

    The king’s expression darkened, “Were you that individual, you wouldn’t need us to use that weapon; you have your own army…”

    “Had, Prince, had,” Eclipse sighed. “Much as you did, I underestimated the Princesses’ new pets. Now the imps are no longer mine to control, and I had to abandon my ‘Nightmare’ days in the face of needing to recover from yet another encounter with those damnable Elements of Harmony.”

    “You know much… too much.”

    “The question is, dear Prince, what do you plan to do about it?” Eclipse asked simply.

    Goldtalon frowned deeply and then snapped a claw. From the shadow behind him, a waif of a gryphoness, barely old enough to be an adult, stepped forward. Her eyes were blank, almost vacant, which told Eclipse she’d been broken of all free will in a way that bordered on complete magical wiping of her mind. She wore only a collar, a heavy golden one that indicated her owner was none other than the king, and had an oddly inverse color scheme to her, a tawny colored crest with a pure white body of fur and feathers.

    “Slave,” the king said flatly, “power up.”

    Eclipse raised an eye ridge as he saw the gryphoness’ eyes begin to glow a pure white, and felt more than saw the bubble of magic cross past him. It caused a powerful sense of disorientation that made the gryphon stumble drunkenly, clutching one claw to his head as he had to struggle to remain standing, his form flickering and wavering as the disguise spell was stripped away, his claw vanishing before his eyes as it turned into a hoof. He half turned, able to see the guard approaching from behind, but fell as another disorienting wave washed over him, his hooves tripping on the floor clumsily and crashing him down onto his side, chest heaving with the effort to simply focus his mind.

    “A pony spy,” one of the guards spat, and he surged forward.

    “Stop.”

    The guard barely stopped himself, the tip of the spear only millimeters away from the alicorn’s throat, the would-be victim’s head swimming so badly he couldn’t even lift it. “But sire…!”

    “Stand down,” Goldtalon stated, and waved a claw to dismiss the guard. “Slave, you may relax.”

    Eclipse gasped when the border of the anti-magic field retracted past him, and shook his head violently. He forced his way to his hooves, glowering darkly at the blank eyed gryphoness, pondering all the ways he could kill her. He barely tore his eyes away from her to look over himself, confirming the return of his “native” form. “Satisfied?” he demanded of Goldtalon.

    “Actually, yes, I am,” the gryphon responded cheerily. “I’ve wondered for a long time if Godkiller there could affect you, given your unique origin. I suppose we now know, and I have verification of your identity, Nightmare.”

    Eclipse forced himself to take a slow breath, pushing down the urge to kill the gryphon whom he hoped to use. “That name, as you can see, is rather inappropriate,” the stallion said simply, “instead I’ve chosen to go by Eclipse now.”

    “Eclipse…  Eclipse… I like it, it’s vague and mystic and still speaks of your desire to ‘eclipse’ Celestia,” Goldtalon answered with a smirk. “Too bad about the change though, you had such a fine flank in your previous form, especially when disguised as a gryphoness. Ah well… So tell me, Eclipse, what could you possibly offer me that would assist in doing what you have tried, and failed, to do?”

    Eclipse carefully ignored the jibe and answered, “Dragons.”

    “You wiped them out --”

    “I thought I had wiped them out,” the stallion interrupted. “It turns out they hid a clutch deep in a ravine in the Everfree Forest and protected it with a subtle web-work of spells. Only by chance did I notice the threads of this spell, and was able to track it to its source.”

    “Even so, why would these dragons help us?” Goldtalon asked dismissively.

    “That part is simple. Dragons suffer from a genetic defect that can cause them to react strangely to certain types of magic when they are young. By manipulating that, I can force them to grow, while at the same time stripping away their intelligence. They become no more than easily trainable beasts, already entering adulthood after but a week. I have a claw-full of gryphon exiles working with a small group right now, teaching them to hunt and how to obey orders,” Eclipse answered.

    “Gryphon exiles, huh? Dare I ask who?” the king asked, raising an eyeridge as he leaned forward on his throne, resting one claw on the arm of it. His grip was tight, he was trying hard not to show his excitement at the prospect, but it did not go unnoticed by the alicorn.

    “Ironically a small group you know quite well,” the dark stallion chuckled, “after all, the ponies ‘rescued’ them from you only recently.”

    “You can’t mean…”

    “Filigree’s parents and siblings,” Eclipse answered with a dark grin. Goldtalon couldn’t help but clap his claws together and laugh at that. “In exchange for caste rank, they would have sold each other back into slavery. They are so very easy to manipulate…”

    “A masterful stroke, I must admit. Alright, Eclipse, let us assume I take you up on this offer,” Goldtalon stated, getting off his throne and pacing slowly across the chamber, “what do you get out of it?”

    “If we destroy Celestia and Luna, I can simply take over the Ponylands. That leaves you with a friendly ruler in place over them, one allied with you and supportive of your goals. No need to expend your forces further to quell the inevitable insurgencies and attempts to fight back; I would simply force the ponies under my hoof, and you could reclaim your ancestral hunting grounds.”

    “You assume that’s what this is about?” the gryphon asked curiously.

    “It seemed the most likely possibility,” Eclipse answered with a shrug. “Admittedly, my own goal is far less nuanced than even that. I merely wish the destruction of the Sister Princesses.”

    Goldtalon paced slowly about the chamber, lost in thought for several moments. He paused when he stood before Godkiller once more, his claw forcing her head up until her blank gaze met his own. “I think we might have an arrangement. How long will we need to get a full force up and running?”

    “That depends on how many other trainers I can get to assist. The more trainers, the more dragons we can raise at once. The more dragons we can raise at once, the sooner we reach a suitable number to properly move against the ponies. I would personally predict approximately one month, assuming all goes smoothly and we can get enough gryphon trainers up and running,” Eclipse answered simply.

    The king nodded. “That sounds reasonable to me. I’ll start recruiting first thing in the morning. How long will it take to transfer everything over?”

    “Only a few days,” the stallion said with a grin, “I’ve been working with portal spells for just such a rapid transfer. So long as I can replicate the stasis spell on the eggs, everything should be fine.”

    “Then, I believe we have a deal,” the king grinned, “and I’ll even uphold your promise to give those idiot gryphons caste rank for their work. What better way to keep them in line than to gild the cage?”

    Eclipse glanced at “Godkiller”. “I couldn’t agree more…”

    “Clockwork, please…”

    The mare in question shushed the cyan unicorn sharply, her bloodshot green eyes refocusing on the glowing “eyes” of the helm before her. Its left eye fluttered slightly, winking out for just a moment before coming back up. The helm itself rested in the hooves of its creator, Clockwork Key, as she held it nose to nose with herself. Perfect square tiles blanketed the room’s floor, walls, and even the ceiling, making them the only things within the otherwise empty room. The layer of tile was interrupted only by a large door at the center of one wall, and a cylindrical charging station on the wall directly opposite it. Not that the room was empty, by any means, as the tiles over Clockwork’s head revealed, where they had shifted to one side to allow an array of flexible robotic arms ending in a variety of tools to hang down within easy reach of the mare. Many of those hanging arms presently supported the rest of her armour with parts of it suspended, like a three-dimensional model of the damaged sections.

    The khaki mare reached out and spun a hoof in mid-air, a move that anywhere else would have resulted in some funny looks, but in this room it served to activate a series of holographic displays that responded to her every beck and call, glowing a neon blue even as she swiped her hoof through a number of images that exploded outwards in all directions. Clockwork was nearly buried in them when she let out a triumphant cry, and the images were suddenly banished, replaced by a life sized cross-section of the armour, showing every relevant system in highlighted sections.

    “Clockwork, you’ve been going all day, you need to eat,” the unicorn pleaded, her silvery mane twisted and frayed with worry and concern as she watched the smaller mare pace about the image, the helmet riding on her back like a twisted trophy or pet.

    “Not until I’ve found it,” the mare answered resolutely.

    “Found what?!” Trixie cried in frustration, then paused for a moment to cover her face with her hooves and focus herself. “Clockwork,” she tried again, “you’ve been searching for ‘it’ all day, you need a break or you’ll work yourself to death!”

    “I have more stamina than that… besides, Mai will interrupt me when it’s time for a break,” Clockwork answered, looping about the image again.

    “Mai is dead, remember?” Trixie said softly.

    “She is?” Clockwork asked, pausing her pacing for a moment. “Oh, right, the chariot factory. Oh well, guess Widget will have to do it himself.” With a shrug, Clockwork resumed studying the details of the image, a touch of the hoof exploding a portion of the cross section outward.

    “Your brother is dead too,” the unicorn cried, “and unless you plan on meeting him in the Summerlands, you need to take a break!”

    “I’ll take a break when I find it…” Clockwork answered.

    “Find what?!”

    “What went wrong,” Clockwork answered softly, poking at the holographic image again to fold back up the section and expanding another one. “The armour wasn’t good enough, wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t able to handle the stresses, and a pony died because of it…”

    “Clockwork, you did all you could--” Trixie started, taking a step towards the other mare, only to fall on her flank when Clockwork whirled on her.

    “It’s not enough! Something went wrong, and that needs to be fixed, repaired, or replaced! Bottle Rocket died because I wasn’t strong enough or fast enough! My armour gave out at the very moment it was most needed, and a stallion died because of it!” Clockwork shouted at the unicorn, stomping forward and forcing the unicorn to backpedal frantically. Then, just as suddenly as the anger appeared, it vanished, and Clockwork spun back to her work, leaving Trixie to watch her back with wide eyes.

    “I-it wasn’t your fault,” Trixie managed after several moments.

    “Yes, it was,” the answer came with such rock solid certainty that Trixie doubted she would change her friend’s mind any time soon. “I failed to save him. That makes it my fault, and now it’s my responsibility to find out what went wrong and fix it…”

    “Or replace it, you said,” Trixie finished for her. “Except all the systems are the best you’ve been able to create. You’ve gone over the causes of the damage with a fine toothed comb…”

    Clockwork snorted and looked to the armour standing in the charging station, the left side disassembled and exploded outward like a detonation frozen in time. “For all the good that’s done me. Aside from a few minor tweaks here and there, there’s nothing I’ve found that could be pinpointed as the root problem. The stresses on the chariot, which I’ll have to rebuild and reinforce to handle another ride like that, caused numerous feedback loops in the software. Most of them wouldn’t have caused a problem, but it did cause a feedback loop that caused an error in the internal power routing, pulling power away from the engines at a critical juncture.”

    “If you hadn’t pushed it so hard…” Trixie started lamely.

    “A simple reinforcement of the systems and compartmentalization of the software routines will fix that,” Clockwork answered with a shrug. “But it did what it needed to do, it got me here in time, thus it isn’t the primary problem.”

    “After you overrode all the safeties and limiters you installed,” Trixie sighed.

    “Yes, I had to push it beyond my design specifications, but I had theorized it might be capable of breaking the second Rainboom Barrier… apparently the engines couldn’t quite handle that, however.” Clockwork considered. “Not that it would have given me more than about 15 seconds extra time, the distance between the Northern Reaches and Canterlot is too short to truly hit those sorts of speeds and maintain it.”

    “Then why did you try to do it?” Trixie asked incredulously.

    “Every second mattered,” Clockwork stated softly. She poked another system on the holographic image, then glanced back to the helm as if seeking some sort of approval. Clockwork frowned, and promptly closed that system as well. Her hoof hovered over another as she closed her eyes, momentarily lost in thought.

    “Clockwork, you have to remain safe too! If you kill yourself, or your teammates, how can you rescue anypony?” Trixie asked. The khaki mare froze and suddenly looked to Trixie, her eyes widening. Trixie backpedaled a step, a shiver rushing down her spine from the look on her friend’s face.

    “If I kill myself… how can I save anypony?” the mare asked slowly.

    “Uh… Clockwork?” Trixie said worriedly. “That’s just an expression…”

    Clockwork shushed the unicorn again as she rolled the statement around on her tongue, emphasizing different words as she paced, her hooves making an eerie clopping sound across the floor as she did. Trixie watched carefully, at once wanting to say something and terrified of what the mare might say. She took a step carefully forward, one foreleg cocked uncertainly as she watched the other mare pace, her steps growing faster, almost excited.

    “How can I save any…? EUREAKA, that’s it!” Clockwork cried, clapping her forehooves together, “I can’t save anyone if I’m dead… that’s the faulty system!”

    Trixie gave the other mare a blank look, and intelligently asked, “Huh?”

    Clockwork rushed up to the unicorn, grasping her shoulders, “Don’t you get it? That’s the flawed component! It’s not the armour… it’s ME! I’m the broken part! I mean… sure I knew I wasn’t functioning at optimal levels, and this ‘condition’ you and Galaxi brought to my attention is the likely culprit, but that means I’ve been looking at this backwards! It’s not the armour that needs to be fixed, it’s me!”

    Trixie felt ice creep down her spine and carefully asked, “And that means… what, exactly?”

    Clockwork released the unicorn and spun about, laughing giddily, “That means I have to find a way to replace my part in the Armour. There’s a broken part, and it needs to be replaced!”

    “I’m not so sure we could just get one of the royal guards to pilot your armour…”

    “You’re approaching this from the wrong angle,” Clockwork said, grinning broadly, perhaps a bit too broadly for the unicorn’s tastes. “For one, I wouldn’t trust anypony else to pilot my masterpiece. And secondly, I need to replace my part, not create new problems. A new pilot would simply bring a new batch of new problems with them. Different reaction times, different tolerances, different issues and habits, and who is to say they would be any more stable than I? No, the part needs to be upgraded, improved…”

    “I… I’m sure the Princesses would help you practice,” Trixie said softly, but already certain that’s not what Clockwork meant.

    “It’s not ‘practice’ that’s necessary, Trixie,” the little mare answered with a positively wolfish grin, “it’s repair!”

    “Galaxi… well, we were trying to help you…”

    Clockwork stomped a hoof on the tile beneath her, causing all the floor tiles to ripple ominously, “You both admitted that I cannot be fixed, that I would be dealing with this my entire life. That’s part of what makes me broken!”

    “But you aren’t broken! You just need time to heal…”

    The khaki mare snorted, “Time isn’t a luxury I have.”

    Trixie blanched. “B-but if not that, then…?”

    “Repair it! Or perhaps replace it! Or both….” Clockwork rambled as she wandered back to the holographic image. A swipe of her hoof pushed it out of the way as she began to draw with her hoof-tip in mid-air. After several moments, it resembled a poorly drawn pony, which her computer cleaned up to the silhouette of a mare hovering before her. Clockwork immediately began to poke and sketch with her hoof on it, additions blossoming down the length of its back from the base of the skull on down, following the curve of the spine.

    “W-what are those?” Trixie asked softly, already dreading the answer.

    “Neural implants,” Clockwork answered simply. “Direct neural interface to the armour, removing the pesky feedback and internal switches, allowing me to plug directly into the armour and control it as easily as if it were a second coat.”

    Trixie cried out in horror, “They’re what?!”

    “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as it were,” Clockwork continued, completely ignoring the panicked expression on the unicorn. A swipe of her hoof separated the silhouette’s head from its neck, which she promptly started drawing in requisite parts at the base of the skull and to the neck, as well as into the head where the brain resided. “Add some mental stabilizers and thought interpreters, and you remove that fallible pony element, all decisions are made purely on the information and logic known at that moment. Maybe I should replace part of this with a cybernetic computer… it would be more resistant to impact and the gravitational forces from high acceleration…”

    “Clockwork, please, listen to yourself!” Trixie shouted, rushing forward to grasp the smaller mare’s shoulders. Clockwork turned to look, bloodshot eyes reduced to pinpricks as she met the unicorn’s gaze. He smile was a parody, a rictus grin with the jaw clenched too tight and teeth grinding against one another. Trixie wanted to recoil in horror from it, from the other mare, but held on tightly. “You’re talking about replacing the parts of you that make you Clockwork and ripping out part of your own brain! You’ll kill yourself! You’ll kill everything that makes you worthy of bearing one of the elements!”

    Clockwork only somehow managed to grin broader as she answered in an eerily calm voice, “I’m already not worthy to bear my element, and a pony died because of it. Exactly how ‘loyal’ was I to him if I let him die?”

    “You didn’t ‘let’ him die, Clockwork, you did all you could to get here…”

    “And I failed,” Clockwork emphasized as she pushed herself away from the unicorn. “I failed the very task for which I was responsible for, and a pony died because of it… because of me. Don’t you get it? It’s my fault, and now I have to do everything possible to ensure it never happens again…”

    Trixie swallowed thickly. “B-but…”

    “…no matter the cost.”

    Going for a walk was far less relaxing than she anticipated.

    Maybe it was just the cool air, but the warm laughter she shared with the Princess seemed but a faint memory. The night had crept up on her as she walked, dropping the temperature even further as she let her hooves take her where they might, wandering without a goal in mind. She only barely saw and registered the roads she trod, or the ponies she passed. She occasionally stopped to allow a coach or chariot pass her by, but for the most part she was left alone with her thoughts and the night. She literally didn’t even notice as she passed through the glow of a neon light, or a pair of ponies trying to get to know each other better in an alley, or even the slurred proposition from some drunken pony stumbling his way home.

    Galaxi just stopped paying attention to the world around her, her hooves carrying her through the city she once sought to protect. Her mind was a million miles away, and her thoughts sour once more. Sure, she wasn’t cooped up in her room anymore, but she felt as alone right now in public as she did when holed up in her chambers in the palace. She considered briefly walking to the house they lived in as a team, but decided against it, she didn’t want to face any of her teammates right now. She just wanted to be another faceless pony in the crowd.

    Galaxi was not so unaware that she didn’t notice the pony slip in behind her, shadowing her steps. He was skinny, with long and lanky limbs, clad in a pullover hoodie with the hood pulled up to mask his features. Not that it bothered Galaxi in the least, she was even able to pick out the small stub of a horn with her special sight, but she opted not to confront him unless it became necessary.

    Fortunately, her concerns didn’t prove valid. The stallion peeled off at a popular club and slipped into it, completely unnoticed by even the bouncer at the door. Either he was a regular, or he was good at avoiding notice. For a moment, Galaxi considered tracking the colt down and asking how he did it, but decided against it and continued her nighttime journey, once more alone.

    The part that kept running through her mind, the part she couldn’t quite avoid, was what Luna so rightfully pointed out: Galaxi was jealous. That stuck in her craw in a way she couldn’t quite define, like a bit of lettuce stuck in your teeth. She couldn’t escape the fact she had been jealous, and acted jealous, about Clockwork and Bottle Rocket. And why not? It’s not like she wasn’t there first! She let Clockwork into her life, and Clockwork had proven up to the task. Despite some early missteps, where she stuck a hoof in her mouth by dismissing one of Galaxi’s concerns too brusquely, they had become fast friends. But now…

    Now she wasn’t willing to even try to come to the blind mare. Galaxi let Clockwork into her life, why wouldn’t Clockwork do the same damned thing? Clockwork shut her out instead, closing the door in her face no matter how many times she tried to nudge it open… locking her out. Then, to add insult to injury, she lets some stallion nopony ever met into the same door Galaxi had been pounding at for months!

    “It’s not fair,” Galaxi mumbled at no one in particular, lifting her head slightly. It took a moment to realize she had been slowly making her way back towards the castle, having apparently run out of places to wander, and had stopped abreast a park. A rather cozy little park wedged in between the business districts and the “diamond” district of upper crust ponies and their smug little mansions. For some reason, Galaxi looked into the park, the darkness in no way impeding her eyes as they searched over the nearby paths and grass, to an oddly flat lake with irregular edges. Irregular burnt edges.

    “So this is where you fell,” Galaxi whispered, taking a tentative step into the park as she let the realization wash over her. Her eyes fixed on the small pond, the water smooth as glass and easily revealing the blackened glass the explosion had created and now served as the bottom of the reflecting pool. In good light, it would be downright mirror-like, but to Galaxi it was just an oddly shaped pond with an ugly cracked black bottom. This is where it happened. This is where he took his dive and ended his life, dragging another pony down into the pit of despair with him. This is where the door she finally managed to work open was slammed closed and locked in her face. Right here.

    “You selfish bastard,” Galaxi growled, her eyes clenching shut. “You stole her, you stole her hope, and you stole the only chance we had to bring her back to us. You ended your life, but you also dragged another soul down into the pit of Tartarus with you, and you’re not going to let her go, are you? You’re going to hold on to her until she ends up like you, searching for a way to end herself, and you made sure there wasn’t a damned thing we could do about it…”

    “This is… this is all your FAULT!” Galaxi screamed, the lavender shade of her telekinesis flaring brightly at the star upon her forehead as she grabbed whatever was at hoof and flung it at the pool… then something else... and then another thing. She couldn’t even see straight when she telekinetically yanked up yet another item and hurled it with as much strength as she could muster.

    “Whoa!” a voice cried, and Galaxi’s eyes popped open. The silvery glow of telekinesis surrounded the object she had just hurled at the water, a sizable chunk of the brick wall that served as the entry fence for the park, and slowly lowered to the ground. “You could have seriously hurt somepony!” the voice accused angrily. Galaxi’s eyes glanced at the pool, realizing sheepishly that she’d hurled a good sized rock, a lamppost, and a bench into the pool even before grabbing the bricks.

    “S-sorry,” Galaxi stammered, when she belatedly recognized the voice. “Wait, Trixie? Is that you?”

    The cyan unicorn appeared from the darkness at the far side of the pool like a wraith, her horn glowing as she carefully drew the bench out of the pool, one side of it distorted. “It… it’s nice to see you out and about, Galaxi,” she answered in a tightly controlled voice, “even if throwing things into the local reflecting pool is hardly how I expected to run across you.”

    Galaxi blushed sheepishly and ducked her head. “I… sorry, I lost my temper.”

    Trixie sighed and fished the lamppost out of the water next and laid it gently on the side of the pool. “Trixie guessed as much,” the unicorn sighed as she slowly circled the pool towards her friend, “not that it does either of us much good to come here. He’s gone, and whatever Clockwork saw in him is tearing her apart.”

    “I know,” Galaxi answered with an uncharacteristic growl, grasping the rock she’d hurled in her telekinesis and yanking it out of the pool. She almost hurled it back into the water before she forced herself to take a calming breath and lower it gently to the ground. She realized it was one of the large stones used to mark the path almost belatedly; she must have ripped it up from the ground without thinking.

    “Well, you might as well join Trixie,” the unicorn said softly, “she’s all but ripping her mane out trying to figure out what to do about Clockwork Key anyway.”

    Galaxi snorted, “Clockwork can handle herself.”

    “Trixie is not so sure,” she answered and poked her hoof at the pool, watching the water ripple from it. “She’s… Trixie thinks she has really lost it this time. Not some little thing like we saw up north, but completely lost it.”

    Galaxi frowned, noticing a waver in her friend’s voice that disturbed her, even as she set the stone back where it should be on the path. Parts of her warred against each other, but much as she may be furious with Clockwork right now, her curiosity won out. “What is she doing?” she asked with a resigned sigh.

    “She… she’s trying to replace herself,” Trixie said in an oddly hollow voice.

    “What, like finding a new bearer?” the blind mare asked. “That might not be a bad idea…”

    “No!” Trixie cried, her eyes wild for a moment. “S-she’s talking about replacing parts of her body… mechanizing herself. She… she said she found the faulty part of her armour, where the failure came from, and she’s pinpointed herself! She was on about things I don’t understand in the least, but she was raving about ripping part of her own brain out and stuffing a computer into her head! She wouldn’t listen to anything I was saying, either. I tried to talk her out of it, to point out that it’s crazy; no-pony should do that to themselves... But she insisted that the broken part must be replaced ‘at all costs’!”

    Galaxi felt an icy chill run down her spine, but twisted a hoof in the dirt and grass to keep from letting it show, almost hissing under her breath as she forced herself to look away. “It doesn’t matter,” she said coldly, “she can handle it herself. She’s made it very obvious how she feels about me.”

    Trixie gasped, “G-galaxi? Come on, this, Trixie isn’t… I’m not kidding. I spent all day with her. She’s shut up in her lab, refusing to eat and fixated on replacing whatever broke when --”

    “When she tried to kill me!” Galaxi interrupted, shouting at the unicorn. “She ignored the fact that Flourish and I were almost killed when she drove that damned chariot right into the ground! She didn’t care about us; she was so fixated on some damned pony she only just met that she didn’t give a damn about her friends! Well maybe we should just be her former friends, and stop caring, because she’s obviously already done with us!”

    Trixie recoiled, her eyes wide as she stared at the usually mild tempered psychic pony. “B-but…!” she stammered.

    “But nothing,” Galaxi answered, turning away from the unicorn to stare across the pond, unable to truly see the reflected moon upon its surface. She pointed a hoof at it accusingly and said, “There’s your answer, right there in blackened glass and water. That’s what she cared about more than her friends, more than who tried to help her. I begged her for months to talk to me about her problem, to open up to me, and instead she goes and finds some stranger to open up to.”

    “But in the Northern Reaches…” the unicorn tried hopefully.

    “Yeah, the door opened just a crack and let me see in, get a glimpse of all the crap she’s been hiding from us. And then…” and she waved a hoof at the pond. “Boom, the door is closed again, and the pony I thought was my closest friend all but… all but tries to kill me just to get at some… to rescue some idiot who didn’t even want saving! He did this to himself! He didn’t want help!”

    “But…”

    “And now, now Clockwork Key doesn’t want help either,” Galaxi sniffled. “Well if she doesn’t want help, I’m done trying to force her to take it. She can do whatever the hell she wants…”

    “Galaxi!” Trixie cried, trotting forward to stand in front of the other mare, her hoof sounding on the stone the other mare just replaced. “You don’t mean that… you can’t mean that! You’re Clockwork’s closest friend…!”

    “Apparently not,” Galaxi answered, refusing to meet the unicorn’s eyes, “or else she wouldn’t have tried to kill me.”

    “You’re going to keep coming back to that, aren’t you?” Trixie asked softly.

    “Shouldn’t I?”

     “You weren’t the only one on board, Galaxi,” Trixie stated with a frown, pacing on the cool grass.  “Flourish was with you as well. And then there’s Clockwork herself… she nearly killed herself trying to get back.”

    “And your point is…?” Galaxi demanded in a hollow voice, staring at the pond with blank eyes.

    “Trixie’s point…” she answered, trotting up to Galaxi and using a hoof to force the other mare to look into her eyes, “…my point is that you’re fixating on one thing and using it as an excuse! Seriously, look at yourself! You complain about how she almost killed you, but she placed the same faith in her creation to keep you alive as she did in its ability to keep her alive. It’s not like she pointed one of those things on her hoof at you…”

    “So what? That doesn’t mean she didn’t try to…”

    “No, it means exactly that!” the unicorn insisted, pushing a hoof into Galaxi’s chest. “You are complaining about how she almost killed you, when that is not what is bothering you. I know you better than that. She trusted in her creation, once more, to keep you safe. Do you know why her armour was in such terrible condition, why it failed her when she needed it? I can tell you it wasn’t just because of her idiotic decision to break her way out of the canopy. The shield protecting her was cracking and starting to break, showering her with more and more debris the more she pushed. That front canopy was seconds away from shattering, which would have exposed her suit directly to the insane speeds she was travelling at. Now we both know she can barely handle a rainboom in that suit, and the first time she attempted it the armour burned out. Her suit could not even hope handle the stresses of nearly hitting a second rainboom, and the canopy protecting her was almost ready to give. The speeds at which she was travelling made even the smallest of fragments from that glass hit like a high powered shell, they were literally shredding her suit and causing massive amounts of damage before she even made it here to Canterlot. That’s why her suit couldn’t save him; because she pushed herself so hard she nearly killed herself! You and Flourish were safe as could be compared to that…”

    “Now tell me what the real reason is,” Trixie demanded.

    Galaxi’s jaw worked for a moment, pushing back against the hoof on her chest before the energy just seemed to drain from her, landing the mare’s flank on the grass, her eyes clenched shut. “I don’t know!” she cried back at Trixie, covering her face with her hooves. “I feel hurt and betrayed and angry and… and… and…”

    The blind mare shuddered, trembling in place as she sat upon the slightly damp grass, her head spinning. She wanted to scream and cry and hit something all at once, so it was a surprise when she felt the forelegs of the other mare circle about her, pulling her tightly into a hug. Galaxi struggled against Trixie for a moment, but her emotions overwhelmed her and she almost collapsed into it, the dam of emotions shattering into a torrent over Trixie’s shoulder.

    “It’s okay… shhh, it’s okay,” Trixie soothed softly, petting a hoof over Galaxi’s head.

    “I’m such a horrible pony…” Galaxi hiccupped a few moments later.

    “Why do you say that?”

    Galaxi waved a hoof at the pony-made pond they sat by once more with a whimper, “I keep getting mad at somepony who committed suicide. He took her from us… and she let him in for some reason.” Galaxi rubbed at her nose with a sniffle.

    “I won’t argue that part,” Trixie said softly, looking away. “Trixie came down here in the hopes she might get some inspiration, maybe from any leftover energies this Bottle Rocket had. Trixie is no ghost hunter or specialist, but I remember reading that suicides sometimes leave a ghost…”

    Galaxi hiccupped a laugh, and Trixie smiled gently to her friend. “Neither Celestia or Luna would allow any ghosts in Canterlot… you’d have to wander much farther from the seat of their power for a deceased pony to escape their notice.”

    Trixie made a dismissive sound and looked over the reflecting pool, “Like that would stop a good urban legend from getting started?”

    “I suppose…”

    “Look, Galaxi, I understand. This Bottle Rocket character did… something. I don’t understand it, but I think Clockwork saw a kindred spirit who needed help. With you around, she didn’t see me as needing help, and as gentle a soul as you are, you can protect yourself,” Trixie said, lifting the bricks with her magic and setting them back at the fence-line where they belonged. “I think Clockwork needed someone who was as vulnerable as she felt to open up to, and that’s why she never opened up to us.”

    “I… that makes an odd amount of sense,” Galaxi admitted, telekinetically grasping the bench to set it back where she vaguely remembered taking it from.

    “The problem is, now she’s lost him. She placed part of her identity, part of herself, into healing him. I don’t know if she ever could have truly healed him, but she wasn’t able to do it, and now she’s all but killing herself because she failed,” Trixie sighed, and contemplated the bent lamppost.

    “Is she… really looking to try and replace part of her brain?”

    “Oh Goddess, don’t get me started,” the unicorn groaned and stomped a hoof on the walkway. “She was talking about some sort of interface that would link herself directly to the suit, and then cutting out and replacing part of her brain so she can only make ‘logical’ decisions. I… I’ll admit I was so aghast that I couldn’t manage a coherent argument when she kicked me out of her lab.”

    Galaxi frowned darkly and leaned against her friend, eyes casting out over the newly created pool, the bright moon reflecting off her blank eyes, “I think, maybe, it’s time.”

    Trixie blinked. “Time for what?”

    “An intervention.”

14

Chapter 14

“High Stakes”

    “It won’t work.”

    Clockwork snorted and lifted her head only slightly to look out over the impromptu work bench for her critic, bloodshot green eyes scanning the dim room warily before returning to her current project. It was a smooth half bubble of dull metal, but the number of heavy black cords plugged into recessed ports along the surface hinted at a complexity lying just beneath the surface.

    “Of course it’ll work,” she muttered to the unseen naysayer and pushed another cord into place with her hoof. She checked to make sure the connection was secure before flicking her hoof into the air, summoning a holographic monitor which displayed a series of waveforms for her scrutiny. She frowned at it studiously, trying to track down the source of--

    “No it won’t,” the rather deep voice responded, a metallic tone echoing through it.

    “Stop telling me what I can and can’t do, Widget,” the mare growled, “I’m not a filly anymore!”

    “You do remember that he died, don’t you?”

    Clockwork whirled, her tools clattering on the floor as she searched frantically for the source of the voice. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned her laboratory, but the muted darkness revealed nothing to her. The only spots of light in the otherwise dimly lit workroom focused on her work bench and the Dragonfly armour, the latter standing in partial repair. A small fizzle came from the helm, drawing her eye to it. The light on one of the eyes flickered off, and then back on, as though it were winking at her. Snorting at her own silliness, she turned away from it...

    “Who’s there?!” she demanded of the empty room.

    “It’s just us,” the voice answered from behind her. Clockwork went stock still and slowly turned to look over her shoulder… and right at the armour she built.

    “I… I think maybe I need a break,” Clockwork said after several moments.

    “I think you’re already having one,” the armour answered in her brother’s voice, making her jump back from it and hide behind her workbench like a filly.

    “W-what the hay?!” she demanded, grabbing an errant screwdriver with her hoof and preparing to wield it like a dagger.

    “I said, that won’t work,” the armour answered, lifting its still functioning foreleg to point it at the table she was working on. Clockwork frowned and craned her neck to look at the unit she was building.

    “Why the hay not?” she demanded.

    “You’re talking about cutting your own head open, scooping out part of your brain, which I might add is a field of study you know absolutely nothing about, and shoving that thing into your head,” the armour retorted stomping it’s raised hoof for emphasis. “Even if you somehow managed to survive the surgery, not to mention somehow managed to stay conscious during the procedure on your own brain, and by some miracle managed to figure out the proper brain to computer connections, you wouldn’t be capable of outwitting a glass of water. You’d just render yourself useless to everypony, including yourself.”

    Clockwork growled and stamped a hoof on her workbench, “What do you know? I built you when nopony thought I could, I can do this too!”

    “Yes, you did build me. But you also didn’t stuff me inside your head,” the armour retorted. “And let us not forget your proposed neural interface. Do you have any idea how painful that would be for you? Even assuming you don’t botch the wire to nerve links, you’d feel it every time I took a hit. You do realize that I’ve been shredded and rendered barely functional multiple times in the line of duty? You’ve been severely hurt while wearing me in several cases, could you imagine if you had felt the damage I absorbed for you too? You’d have been screaming in pain long before the Nightmare ever put the squeeze on you, and possibly died from the feedback to your brain simply overwhelming you.”

    Clockwork frowned, looking at the lump of metal on the table for a moment, her gaze boring in on it before she swatted it away in frustration, the cords pulling tight as it skittered across the floor. “I have to do something! A pony died because I… because you gave out!” she screamed at the armour, stomping across the lab towards it. “You failed me! My greatest invention failed!”

    “I didn’t fail.”

    “What?!” Clockwork shrieked incredulously.

    “Do you remember what my primary function is?” the mechanized pony asked in a soft voice.

    “I built you, you sorry waste of scrap iron--” Clockwork growled at her creation.

    “My function is to protect you,” it stated, bringing the mare up short as she was nearly nose to nose with the draconic helm.

    “What?”

    “My purpose is to protect you,” it said again. “I protected you from your panicked flight, even as glass shredded me apart. I protected you when you tore yourself from the cockpit and hurled yourself across Canterlot on half working thrusters. I protected you when my engine gave out, and again from Bottle Rocket’s explosion. And now I’m protecting you again, Clockwork Key, from yourself.”

    Clockwork’s eyes grew wide as she turned away from the armour, momentarily searching the darkness. “What good is protecting me if it costs another pony their life?” she asked in a tiny voice. “You protect me, but I use you to protect others.”

    “You cannot save others if you yourself cannot be protected,” the Dragonfly answered reasonably.

    “NO!” Clockwork shouted as she spun to face it. “There must be more! What good is being protected if I can’t protect another? What good is being safe if no pony else is? Sitting cozy in my little armour while the rest of Equestria burns… I will not do that!”

    “You cannot save every pony.”

    Clockwork clenched her eyes shut for a moment and surged forwards. “No! I have to… I have to save… I just… I have…” the mare tried, her statement loosing focus the closer she got to the armour. She may have intended to strike it, to hit it with her hoof, but somehow she ended up slumped against it with her foreleg draped over its neck for support. “It’s not enough… I have to… gotta fix…”

    “You cannot save every pony,” the Dragonfly restated, “and not every pony can be saved, or even wants to be saved. Bottle Rocket leapt of his own accord; he made his choice.”

    “I could… could have saved… saved him,” Clockwork sobbed.

    “If you had, do you think it would have stopped him from trying again?” the armour asked patiently, and the mare’s head snapped up to look at it, eyes wide. “You both would have ended up in the hospital when he exploded on impact. I could have spared you some of the pain, but you’d have been in the hospital for a long time, another brush with death on your record. It might have even been worse than what Ultrapony did to us... did to you. But what would have stopped him from climbing out of the hospital window and taking another dive? Heck, maybe just falling out of the hospital bed might have been enough to do it. Would you have been able to bind him leg and hoof to the hospital bed just to stop him? How many innocent ponies would that put in danger?”

    “H-he… I could have… I…”

    The mechanical pony’s foreleg curled protectively over the mare, “We could have done nothing. He wanted to exit the stage called life, to take his final curtain call, and you could not have stopped him.”

    “I still could have… saved him,” Clockwork sniffled.

    “Maybe,” it said softly, “but it’s not like you can bring him back by slicing into your own head.”

    “I… I have to do something!” she insisted, pounding a hoof against her creation. “I can… can’t sit by and… and pretend that you… that I didn’t fail.”

    “Failure is part of learning,” the armour offered.

    “That’s… morbid,” Clockwork sniffled. “B-but what would happen if it was somepony really important? What if it was Trixie, or Spectrum, or Filigree, or… hell, what if it was Celestia or Luna? What if it was Galaxi? I can’t get that out of my head! It could have been anypony, and I couldn’t save him. Just falling as I fail…”

    “Then we get better. You repair me and you learn your own limits. You can’t replace yourself, I wouldn’t be protecting you if you are not the one piloting me, or worse, you made yourself a machine. I am your armour; I shield you and protect you. That’s my job. That is what you designed me to do. You then use me to protect others, that is your job. Neither of us can do everything.”

    “I have to try… I have to do more… I have to do better…” Clockwork whimpered.

    Clockwork only distantly recognized the pounding on the door to her lab, her body trembling where she clung to the armour with her forelegs. She only turned her head when she heard the lock give way, and with a sickening crunch the metal door bent and fell away from its hinges. Through the smoking hole entered a pair of mares, their expressions fierce and eyes blazing. One was a cyan unicorn, her horn already glowing, while the other was a white earth pony with blind eyes, which were glowing bright lavender.

    “Clockwork Key, we cannot allow you to go through with this insanity!” Trixie called out. Galaxi followed the brash unicorn in, only to skitter to a stop when she nearly stepped on the metal construct that’d been knocked to the floor, and lifted it with her telekinesis.

    “Is this what you planned on shoving into your skull?” the psychic mare asked incredulously.

    Clockwork offered only the barest of nods. “It is.” She shuddered and closed her eyes as Galaxi crushed it with her power, the cables sparking and falling free before the emergency cut-offs shut down their power. She tossed the now flattened semi-sphere on the ground between them, and the khaki mare forced herself to look at it.

    “We came to stop you from making a decision you will regret,” Galaxi stated, doing her best to mimic the commanding tone Trixie was using.

    “Thank you…”

    “Do not argue with Galaxi, or Trixie will be forced to… wait, what?” The unicorn blinked owlishly at the mare.

    “Thank you,” Clockwork answered, her voice trembling. “It… it would have been a mistake. I was just starting to realize it myself that putting that computer into my head isn’t the way to do this. Not like I have the medical know-how anyway; there’s a very good reason that cybernetics are so rare…”

    Trixie had to pick her jaw up off the floor as Galaxi quickly trotted past her to the smaller mare’s side. With a gentle hoof she carefully unfolded the armoured foreleg from around the khaki mare, setting it back down onto the floor, and nudged Clockwork to her hooves. She let Clockwork lean on her and took slow steps, leading her away as if she were a foal just learning to trot…

    The unicorn shook her head in disbelief, sending her silvery mane bouncing as she glanced back at the armour, frowning at it for a long moment. The power flickered in the one eye of the helm again.

    She could have sworn it winked at her, but that’d be silly…

    “What a perfect day for flying…”

    Chase smiled and flared his wings, finding another thermal draft to ride. It had been a long time since he’d flown this sort of distance, so his wings were slightly sore. In a way he found it comforting, that sense of exertion that comes from pushing yourself. The bright sun overhead warmed his dark coat against the still chill air of the early spring, a smile playing over his beak as he drifted out of the thermal and resumed the measured pumping of his wings. He barely looked down, only needing the occasional glance to ensure he was still on his chosen route, skirting the edge of the Everfree Forest as he headed further north. He knew where he was going, despite it having been years since he’d last visited the gryphon village.

    He was hardly in a rush, so he took his time on this flight. If he had truly been in a hurry, he could have made it in a few hours, but he would have shown up exhausted, covered in sweat, and damned near ready to pass out. Instead, after a slightly extended goodbye with Filigree before she was off to the hospital, and some last minute instructions from Rainbow Star, he was off by mid-morning. The pegasus almost insisted on coming along, but he managed to talk her out of it, as did one of the Princesses asking for her attendance for something or other. Chase didn’t stick around to find out the details. With his pack filled with travel necessities and some sandwiches to eat on the way, he set off to the unnamed gryphon village. Silently he couldn’t help but wonder if they ever did pick out a name for themselves, other than “gryphon village”. He hoped to Celestia that they didn’t opt to go the pun route so many ponies seemed to delight in when it came to naming their cities.

    Chase paused slightly and found a small, errant cloud drifting in the general direction he was going. It would hardly be good conveyance, but he decided it would be perfect for a brief respite and break. With a swoop of his wings, he landed evenly in the center of the cloud and sighed. He clicked his beak and preened his wings for a moment, digging out a feather that was just starting to come loose and bother him, before tugging off his pack and pulling out his last sandwich. He barely noticed what kind of sandwich it was, his mind instead focusing ahead to the final leg of his trip. It was mid afternoon now, he’d been travelling for almost five or six hours now, and with luck he should make the town within the next hour or so. He checked once more into his pack for the letter he was carrying, and flicked some crumbs from it.

    He had to admit, carrying a scroll with the royal seal on it made him feel important. It meant he was technically an official courier of the Princesses, even though the seal was only from Princess Luna, whom he never even spoke with, and only seen in passing. Rainbow Star had gotten the scroll, which she wrote, and had the Princess validate it with her seal. He supposed it would be an easy feat given that she knows the Princess on a casual basis. Come to think of it, so did Filigree… maybe he could ask for an audience, if only to meet her?

    He shook his head, chuckling at his own silliness, “I’d just waste their time. I’m the Princesses have more important things to worry about than silly cub fantasies.” He grinned a bit at his childishness before finishing off the sandwich and closing his pack back up, tucking it onto his back between his wings. He paused for a moment, stretching his wings before he noticed the little cloud had drifted slightly further to the east than he wanted. He sighed and shook his head, stifled the urge to rake a claw through the little cloud, and dropped off to let the cool air catch his wings and lift him back into the air.

    While it’s true that there is no feeling better than flying, especially to a creature born with wings, there is something to be said for landing on solid ground too. After flying for over an hour since he paused for lunch, Chase was more than happy to put his claws on the ground and give his wings a break, flaring them a moment near the edge of town before preening and carefully folding them. His landing drew only a few eyes, and little attention, despite being a “stranger”. The gryphons in town were a touch more colorful than he remembered, almost as if they were being influenced somehow by the ponies they chose to live around. Sure they were still a mostly gryphon village, Chase heard of only a claw-full of ponies who lived here or stayed at the inn to cater to the seasonal trade, but it was oddly refreshing to see a gryphoness with a soft pink crest complimenting her tawny fur, or the blue tint to the one cub’s fur and wings. Maybe it was the simple fact they were so colorful that it put him at ease, but then he’d grown up within a stone’s throw of New Ponyville, so ponies and their riot of colors were rather familiar to him.

    Slowly he took in the town itself, finding it oddly like a relative who had grown a little older: it was familiar but had new wrinkles and looked more aged. The buildings and layout had changed very little; the general store was still right there on the edge of town to make trading easier, which looked like it had absorbed the shop next to it and grown to something far larger than he remembered. Yet old Nickel still stood outside, eying every gryphon who so much as glanced at the store, his smile warm but eyes hard and appraising. Then there was the sweets shop Chase used to hang out with his cub-hood friends all the time, occasionally sneaking a sweet from under Honeydew’s ever watchful eye, though she never called him on it. The shop looked a bit rough around the edges, and there was a gryphon he didn’t know at the till, but there were still a half dozen young gryphons hanging around in hopes of swiping a sweet surreptitiously. There were more stores, some new and some of which he remembered, lining the main thoroughfare into town, which would eventually lead to the town hall itself. He could already see the belltower from here…

    “Hey there, stranger,” a lilting voice interrupted.

    Chase turned to look, but his greeting died on his beak as he did a double-take, his wings flaring with surprise, “Cloudchaser?! My Goddess, it’s been… years! Damn…”

    The gryphoness laughed lightly, covering her beak with a claw. “Long time no see, Chase,” she giggled, and grabbed the larger gryphon in a quick hug. “What are you doing here?”

    Chase shrugged a little, “Delivering a scroll and helping a friend out.”

    “Where’s the letter going?” she asked, turning to start walking with Chase along the main lane of the town.

    “Right now, the mayor. After that, we’ll see,” he shrugged. “I’m helping a close friend find out what happened to her little sister.”

    “Her?” the femme asked teasingly, and swept a claw through her white crest, pushing a claw-full of loose feathers out of her eyes and giving Chase a moment to look over her blue- gray fur and startlingly violet eyes. “Don’t tell me Chase found himself a little pony to settle him down.”

    “Pony?” Chase asked, frowning. “Why would you think I’d hook up with a pony?”

    “Psh… You live down near New Ponyville, if I recall,” she answered, leading him down the side of the lane to skirt around a cart, “hard to meet a gryphon down there.”

    He blushed a little, “Actually, I did meet a gryphoness. She was a friend of Rainbow Star…”

    “Oh?” Cloudchaser asked, her eyes filling with mischief.

    Chase waved a claw and stepped lightly about a pair of rushing cubs, pausing only to glance back with a nostalgic smile as they ducked into the candy shop. “Sure. It’s her sister who she asked me to look into. It seems that her family just recently arrived here after they escaped the Clans up north.”

    “Escaped the clans?” the gryphoness asked, raising an eyeridge. “So I guess the rumors are true.”

    “Probably,” Chase sighed, and quickly changed the subject. “So what are you doing out here at the edge of town?”

    “Oh! I almost forgot! Can you wait a moment? I have to run into the store…” Chase nodded and the gryphoness gave her best smile, and half ran, half flew, to Nickel’s shop. Chase smiled and settled at the side of the lane, leaning against the railing outside of a shop selling candles and lanterns and simply watching the gryphons go about their business. It took her about ten minutes to return, panting slightly as she carried a bag with her. Chase could see some seasoning and some sort of packaged meat, and the two fell in step and continued walking down the lane.

    “Still hunting?” Chase asked, nodding to the bag.

    Cloudchaser smiled broadly and nodded. “Yup, I’m one of the best trackers in town, if I do say so myself. After that, a simple trap if I don’t feel like getting my claws dirty, and I have meat to sell to Nickel. He gives me roughly a third of it back in butchered meat, and pays for the rest, and we generally have enough for another week or so, depending on how big the kill was.”

    Chase chuckled softly, “That hardly looks like a third of anything.”

    “This? It’s just a plump rabbit I found and got him to set up for me,” she noted with a smile before changing the subject. “I’m guessing you got big enough to help out your family instead of sending you up here during the summers to stay with your aunt…”

    Chase nodded. “Yeah. Dad felt that… that Alto and I were old enough to apprentice with him to pick up woodworking and crafting. Alto picked it up faster than I did, he always did learn fast, but I was better at collecting new wood. That and I was a strong enough flyer that the weather teams nearby wanted to start my training early. Of course Auntie passing away didn’t help.”

     “Yeah, I was sorry to hear about that. But you then went and forgot all about us up here in this stupid village…” she accused with a smile. “Blackfeather and my brother Windy will be happy to know you’re back. Just try not to get jealous…”

    Chase blinked widely. “Jealous? Why would I… Wait, Windy and Blackfeather?!”

    The gryphoness grinned as Chase devolved into laughter. She finally answered when he calmed down, “Yeah, my idiot lug of a brother asked her family’s permission over the winter. Now Blackfeather is promised to Windchaser, to use the old term, and the entire village is in a buzz about the upcoming wedding. My parents want to make it a town-wide production.”

    “How are the folks anyway?” Chase asked, suddenly feeling a bit out of place in the small town, very much aware how long it had been since he’d been there.

    “About the same, really. Dad finally got that clinic built, and is one of its senior doctors. Mom is fretting over the upcoming wedding really, and won’t leave me alone about when I’m going to settle down and have a clutch of my own. Only one boy has even tried to ask my folks, and Dad was smart enough to send him packing,” she answered, waving a claw errantly.

    “I’m surprised, Cloudy,” Chase answered, “I’d have figured you’d have a dozen guys looking for your promise. I mean seriously, you used to turn every head back when we hung out as cubs, and you’ve only gotten… er… wait, finishing that thought would probably be inappropriate.”

    Cloudchaser laughed at her companion’s sudden bashfulness and shook her head, “No, nothing like that. I just keep hoping the right one will ask…”

    Chase blanched and fell behind a step, clamping his beak shut and hoping to Celestia that she wasn’t referring to Alto. He remembered their group as a cub, the five of them spending their summers out of school getting into trouble. Back then, he had a crush on Blackfeather, but Cloudchaser had it even worse for his brother. Sure, she always rather direct about showing it in the way that cubs have, but Alto never seemed to notice.

    “Hey, you should stop by for dinner tonight!” Cloudy announced, derailing his train of thought.

    “Um, huh?” Chase squawked and shook his head to clear it.

    “Y’know, dinner? That big evening meal?” the gryphoness teased with a smirk. “I’m sure my folks would love to see you again. Oh! And you’ll get to meet the new cubs! They’re only a few seasons old, barely old enough to start talking!”

    Chase blinked and side stepped around a street vendor. “Your folks had another clutch, huh? Mom hatched a pair of girls last year herself, so I understand completely. They’re still learning to walk, but they’re crawling all over the place, with Mom usually chasing after them.”

    “That’s, what, her third or fourth clutch? Your mom and dad must be real animals in the nest,” she teased, and then nodded to the town hall building as they came abreast of the town square. “Here’s your stop. Tell ya what, I’ll drop this off with Mom, and I’ll come back and drag your feathery butt back for dinner. I’ll even see if I can corral the old crew and so you only have to give us the lowdown on why you’re back one time, alright?”

    “Sounds fair to me,” Chase answered with a nod. “Hopefully this won’t take too long; I just need to check on how well some newcomers have settled in.”

    “I really hope you don’t mean those crass gryphons that showed up last week,” she answered, making a face. “They went out of their way to piss off everyone they came across.”

    He sighed softly, “Given what Filigree told me, I’d actually suspect it is them. Why, do you know… where…?” Chase’s voice fell off as he saw her dark expression, and swallowed nervously. “Okay, what’s with the look?”

     “You don’t understand, they went well out of their way to insult everyone. Whoever the father was called Dad names I never heard before, and sure as hell won’t repeat, when he tried to give them a medical exam. Last we heard, the entire lot of them vanished into the Everfree. Good riddance,” she snorted. “I dunno who they all were, but the one gryphon kept making lewd remarks at Blackfeather and me when we were out running some errands.”

    Chase covered his eyes with a claw. “I’m hoping the under-aged gryphon with them managed to sneak away or stay in town or something.”

    “Doubtful,” Cloudchaser answered, doing little to aid the sinking feeling in Chase’s gut, “they kept her on a short leash. Kept claiming they were ‘protecting’ her from our corruption… corruption my feathered--”

    “Damn,” Chase interrupted, letting out a slow breath. “That was Filigree’s family, alright.”

    “You need better taste in girls,” she growled.

    “No!” he said a little too fast, startling Cloudchaser. He continued after a moment in a calmer tone, “Sorry, but no. She’s not like them, thankfully. They’re from the clans, on the run, literally. But Filigree, she’s special…”

    “Every guy thinks that about his girl,” she slipped in derisively.

    “…she’s a special,” he amended, “and they sold her into servitude, literally. I don’t know the full story, Filigree doesn’t like to talk about it, but she rescued them when she was in the clans and found out she had a younger sister who was… well innocent. She left her with them, and is now second guessing herself… apparently with good cause.”

    The gryphoness sighed, “Alright, I’m not saying I believe you about what your new squeeze might be like, but I’ll take your word for it… for now. I’ll get the group together, it sounds like you’ll need a search party. No one else is going to look for them…”

    Chase nodded. “I’ll meet you back here once I’m done in there. I’m suddenly doubtful the mayor will be much help, royal seal or not.”

    “She ain’t here.”

    “Keep looking,” the Commander growled. “The Captain will have our heads if she isn’t found!”

    The first gryphon guard snapped a salute with his wing, steadying the spear in his claws as he watched the commander wander away. He sighed softly and wiped away sweat from under the helm, wishing he could take it off. The caves were sweltering, with a sulfuric stink that made him want to retch. It was enough to make the gryphon seriously doubt the wisdom of taking this high profile job.

    At first, everything went exactly as planned. A quartet of friendly, if annoying, gryphons met them when they arrived through the portal the King’s new Magus provided. They then heralded half a dozen nearly full grown dragons back through the portal. Then the servants were led in and instructed to carry the eggs back out. Only one had to be whipped for dropping his egg, but the shell didn’t so much as crack so he was let off with that warning. If it had broken, they probably would have had to kill him. Still, after what seemed like hundreds of eggs were taken from the cave and put in an old weapon forge deep in the aerie, they were all set to leave…

    But no, it seems one of the gryphons who was supposed to leave with the foursome was missing. It was supposed to be a quintet, not a quartet, waiting for them, and now they were stuck searching for this last idiot. He couldn’t help but wonder who would want to stay in a place like this, as miserable as it was. Nothing but volcanic rock, volcanic vents, and stifling heat… what possible reason would any gryphon have to stay?!

    The gryphon shook his head at the lunacy of the idea and sighed, wiping his brow of sweat again. He never saw the small shadow behind him, the form ducking into another crack in the wall to watch carefully. She’d been living here for a while now, she knew the layout like the back of her claw… and Verdigris intended to use every ounce of that knowledge to avoid this idiot brigade. She couldn’t rely on Filigree to save her if she didn’t even know she was here! She had to escape on her own this time…

    “Come on, she ain’t here,” the Commander snarled as he returned, followed by the rest of the squad. “She probably already went through.”

    “Didn’t you just say that --” the guard started, only to be interrupted by an errant spear butt into his gut.

    “We’re moving out, if she missed the boat then she can rot in here,” the commander stated, ignoring the wheezing of his subordinate. The rest of the guards nodded, and one pushed at the wheezing guard, as they headed for the portal in the main chamber. Verdigris’ green eyes followed the guards as the moved past, not a one even glancing at her hiding place, instead marching past in their silvery scaled armour. She suddenly realized they must be scalding in those, since the metal would only convey the heat right to their coats, possibly even causing uncomfortable burns.

    The little gryphon shook her head, clearing it of considerations of metal armour and oppressive heat, and looked towards the entrance to Eclipse’s chambers. She couldn’t be certain, but she hoped the portal to those other chambers still remained open. She had to hope, since her only other opportunity to leave would be the winding exit she’d never been allowed down, and her brother told her stories about the horrid monsters beyond. She was pretty sure he was making them up… but not enough to want to risk it unless she absolutely had to.

    She moved carefully from hiding place to hiding place, just in case the guards were playing a ruse to try and lure her out. Their sudden eagerness to leave only played in her favor, since that meant they wouldn’t be around for any inevitable slip ups she might make. Eventually she reached the jagged entrance to the cave chambers Eclipse had claimed for himself and, to her relief, the swirling portal remained fully in place. She didn’t think, she rushed for the portal, closing her eyes and lowering her head in expectation of the cold shock once more from passing through it. Maybe if she was lucky, she’d be able to see the stars again!

    A moment later she saw stars, alright. The painful lump atop her head told her the story, the portal was no more than an illusion, and she’d run head first into the wall behind it. She groaned softly and put her claw against the wall to steady herself as she rose to her claws. She looked long at hard at the illusion, then swallowed nervously. There could be only one purpose for an illusion like this…

    “I knew you would come,” a low voice growled from behind, and Verdigris’ blood ran cold, even as her conclusion was verified. “You have been a pain in my flank since this whole ordeal started, and now… well, let’s just say that it’s only you and I now. I sent the guard back so we could talk.”

    “We have nothing to talk about,” The gryphoness said evasively.

    Eclipse snorted, the dark gryphon shaking his head. “I found you and your family, starving in the wilderness, unprepared and lost. I took you in, gave you everything, and yet you seem determined to throw it all back in my face.”

    “The only things you’ve given me are headaches,” the little gryphon responded with far more confidence that she felt.

    “You also talk far too much,” Eclipse stated darkly and began to pace about her. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re trapped here, and I’m not about to just let you walk out. You will either accompany me to the Aerie or you will perish here, trapped miles underground to suffocate and starve. You have no other choice in the matter. Personally, I’d rather end your miserable existence. You have become a nuisance, little Verdigris, unlike the rest of your family.”

    Verdigris gritted her beak, mentally preparing a retort when she noticed something. It was simple, a clopping sound, like a hoof hitting stone. The gryphon’s eyes flashed open and she whirled to face the dark gryphon, her beak agape. Eclipse hardly paused in his pacing, and she heard the sound again, and again, when his rear left claw hit the stone… “That’s it!” she cried. “I kept hearing that sound and thought it was just my imagination! It’s why when I saw you out of the corner of my eye you didn’t look right! You’re not a gryphon at all, it’s an illusion!”

    The “gryphon” paused, mildly surprised by the revelation, but smiled darkly. He stepped forward, the shadows all but embracing his form as it swelled and grew before her eyes, until a massive dark alicorn stood before her. Verdigris’ eyes were as large as saucers as she witnessed the transformation, but she somehow maintained enough sense to avoid meeting his gaze, and instead watched the rest of his body. “You’re smarter than you look,” Eclipse said with a dark smile, advancing on the small gryphon, “but then, you and I both knew that. After all, you broke free of my mind control how many times? Your family never woke once, but it would take something even more unique than just being a smart little cub to manage that feat, wouldn’t it?”

    Verdigris backpedaled as the alicorn approached, but found herself backed against the hard cave wall. With nowhere else to go, she flattened herself against it even as Eclipse leaned close, almost expectantly. “I-I don’t know what you… you’re…” she stammered, then froze, her eyes lighting up.

    “Ahhh, there it is…”

    Verdigris actually forgot herself and looked directly at the inky black form before her. “I’m a… no, I can’t...”

    “Yes, dear, you are one of the cursed,” Eclipse noted with a wicked grin and stood his full height, “which means when you return with me, you’ll be in chains. Unless….”

    “Unless?” the gryphon squeaked.

    “Unless you swear loyalty to me,” Eclipse purred, playing his card and readying the spell in his head. “You are far too dangerous to allow my enemies to use against me, but your intelligence could be put to good use in my service, and is subtle enough that no gryphon ever need know about your gift. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to reveal your abilities not only to the clans, but to your family as well.”

    “Filigree wouldn’t care,” Verdigris answered in a weak voice.

    “Oh, I’m sure she wouldn’t,” Eclipse mocked, turning his back on her, “but didn’t she abandon you for being ‘normal’? She left you with these gryphons who are loyal to --“

    “No!” Verdigris screamed at the alicorn. “I don’t care what you say! I won’t work with you! You’ve done nothing but screw with my mind since we met you and… Just GO AWAY! I’ll get out on my own!”

    Eclipse whirled and leaned down, face to face as his eyes locking onto the young gryphon’s. “You will listen to --”

    Verdigris acted before she thought, and she raked a claw at those swirling eyes. She felt herself connect, and the alicorn scream out in rage and pain. She didn’t know what she hit, but panic gripped her and she threw herself towards the entry, just trying to get as far away from Eclipse as possible. Unfortunately something clutched her about the neck, yanking her legs from under her and up into the air. The dark glowing magic suspended her, and the little gryphon struggled, flailing her legs and wings futilely.

    “Do you think you can hurt me?!” Eclipse roared at the gryphon, who managed to cringe even though she was choking. He swung his head dramatically, and the magic slammed her painfully into the wall, forcing the air from her lungs before the magic tightened about her throat, leaving her unable to draw a desperately needed breath in. Her claws scrabbled at the magic futilely, her form writhing in pain and panic. “It would be so easy to kill you…” Eclipse growled, pushing his face to hers, the gash her talon left behind reduced his left eye to an ugly pool of blood, which somehow made him even more terrifying. “…but that would be too easy. You must suffer.”

    The magic loosened about her neck, and Verdigris took in a choking gasp, hacking and coughing helplessly as the alicorn considered her. His horn glowed brighter, and the gryphon gasped as the full heat of the room immediately made her sweat and the sulfur made her choke in a different way. The alicorn grinned balefully down at her as a portal opened behind him.

    “Goodbye, Verdigris. I can’t risk you staying here and figuring out where you are, so you’ll spend the last days suffering in the high desert, starving to death,” he stated, “assuming the snakes and scorpions and vultures don’t get you first. Have fun cursing Celestia’s sun as you wither away from dehydration…” With a sudden flick of his head he magically hurled Verdigris towards the portal, releasing her only at the last second. She was left to flail her legs and wings uselessly as she passed through, and landed hard in the sand on the other side, still warm from the late day sun.

    Verdigris looked weakly back at the portal, and watched it snap shut with a dreadful sense of finality and the lingering hint of Eclipse’s dark laughter.

    “I feel like I’m asking this a lot lately, but how is she?”

    The cyan unicorn smiled ruefully and dipped her head to the Princess of the night in an informal bow. She then turned to look back at the chamber door she’d just stepped out from. “Honestly, I don’t know,” Trixie answered in a low voice. “Clockwork had some sort of psychotic break I think. She claims she hallucinated that her armour talked her out of the terrible idea for stuffing that computer in her head before we arrived. It’s been a day now, but she’s so… distant. She’s not letting either of us in, just says she knows what’s wrong, thanks us for stopping her from making a mistake, but insists she needs to get back to work on her armour.”

    “Even a minor improvement is an improvement, I suppose,” Luna sighed softly. “Unfortunately, I fear I must ruin some of that achievement. The rumors are starting to get out of control, and she must be reprimanded for her actions with the chariot. The wreckage is finally clear of the landing pad, and workers are starting the repairs. But while they repair the physical damage, I need to repair other damage, starting with this reprimand.”

    “I am just… worried,” the unicorn answered softly.

    “I understand, and I will do what I can to soften the blow. In the end, however, it is in Lady Key’s hooves,” the Princess said softly before turning to leave.

    With a sigh, the unicorn turned away herself, pushing back through the heavy wooden door to the room Clockwork currently occupied. Technically, it was a guest room. Unofficially, however, this room was like a hoof-full of other rooms that the staff kept set aside for them when the team stayed in the Palace. Each of the group had added their own personal touches to “their” room, and Clockwork was no exception. A large bed dominated the room, covered in a deep emerald comforter and crisp white sheets. She opted out of the fancy princess style cover, instead choosing to keep the room open and airy feeling. Aside from some rich mahogany dressers, there was a matching wooden desk that was dominated by an extremely high tech looking computer with a glowing blue interface. Trixie knew from experience that the little mare could access that computer from anywhere in the room and increase the display to fill the entire ceiling.

    Right now, however, the computer sat quietly in standby mode, sleeping contently in the dim room. It’s pale glow outlined the pair resting in the center of the large bed, one with her head lowered onto the bed and breathing slowly, the other her head resting on her back, her blind eyes watching over the other mare protectively.

    “Galaxi…” Trixie whispered into the hushed room.

    “I heard,” the blind mare answered. “I hoped Princess Luna could put it off a little longer, but…”

    “Not likely, especially if the rumor mill is going full tilt. Do you think she can handle it?”

    Galaxi sighed, “I genuinely don’t know. She’s calm, seemingly collected, but it’s still unlike her. She’s too calm, if that makes sense.”

    “Trixie understands,” the unicorn answered, “that is more something we’d expect from Spectrum or Filigree… not Clockwork Key.”

    Silence filled the room for a few moments, the mares unsure how to wake their friend, when Galaxi just sighed and nudged the sleeping mare. “Clockwork… wake up, Clockwork.”

    Clockwork grumbled under her breath, then yawned widely for several long moments. She flicked her tail lazily and opened her eyes, “Morning.”

    “Evening, technically,” Galaxi corrected.

    “Clockwork, Princess Luna wanted to see you,” Trixie said softly, casting a silverly light from her horn until she found the switch to flick on the ceiling mounted lights.

    The khaki pony nodded and paused to stretch on the bed, slipping away from Galaxi to hop down and frown at herself. She wandered to the bathroom and, after several moments to attend to personal affairs and brush out her mane and tail, meandered back out in an almost casual manner. “I suppose it’s about the way I ‘landed’.”

    “More likely the entirety of the trip itself,” Galaxi noted softly, and Clockwork sighed.

    “Not to mention those ponies you hurt up north…” Trixie slipped in, though that seemed far less important since their return.

    “That makes sense. I should have explained myself better…” the khaki mare grumbled, and stomped a hoof, “and I put some of the team at risk for what must seem like a foolish reason.”

    Galaxi and Trixie glanced at each other, and the unicorn subtly shook her head before looking to Clockwork Key. “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out,” the unicorn said as Clockwork moved past her.

    “How do you apologize for something like that?” Clockwork asked softly, glancing at Trixie over her shoulder. Both of them looked to Galaxi expectantly, and the blind pony shuffled her hooves self-consciously on the bed.

    “Trixie thinks ‘I’m sorry’ would be a good start,” the mare prompted gently.

    Clockwork opened her mouth, then closed it again, scuffing her hoof a little on the carpet before screwing up her face and courage. She trod over to the edge of the bed, and used her forehooves on the edge to look eye to eye with the blind mare. “I’m sorry, Galaxi,” she said softly. “I was so… wrapped up in trying to help one pony that I didn’t think about the others I could have hurt. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I don’t think I could if the roles were reversed, but I hope I…  I hope you can be a bigger mare than I am… someday.”

    Clockwork turned away and left the room in a deceptively smooth motion, leaving the pair to watch her exit, Galaxi’s eyes wide as she watched the retreating mare. Silence permeated the room for several long minutes before the unicorn spoke softly, “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

    Galaxi nodded dumbly. “The music…” she whispered, “…for a moment, it was gone. I could feel her mind, see the honesty of her words. It was… it was…”

    Trixie chuckled softly.

    “You may enter.”

    The Clockwork Key slowly pushed her way into the Lunar Princess’ office, her hooves barely marking the lush midnight blue carpeting beneath her as she strode up to the large desk. Luna studiously kept her attention on the computer, not yet acknowledging the pony as of yet, partly in uncertainty about her mood, and partly in self restraint. She had to remind herself that she overreacted the last time she had to reprimand Clockwork for her part in the tussle with Ultrapony, and was determined not to make the same mistake again.

    “You asked to see me, Princess?” the mare asked, her tone oddly neutral, almost deflated. Quite frankly she sounded exhausted to Luna.

    “Yes, Lady Key, I did,” Luna answered simply, tapping a few more times at the computer’s keyboard before turning to face the other mare. “Do you know why I called you here?”

    “I suspect it has something to do with my rather unhealthy ride back from the Northern Reaches.”

    “You would suspect correctly,” Luna said, her eyes boring in on the small mare. Luna all but towered over Clockwork Key, the mare’s own small stature making Luna’s impressive height seem even more dramatic. And yet Clockwork didn’t seem cowed in the least, if anything her posture seemed so neutral and relaxed that the Princess might have worried she was either asleep, drugged, or a statue. However she knew better, and forced herself not to make any assumptions of her mental state. “You made an ill conceived trip from the Northern Reaches, at speeds you knew, and were told by your passengers, would do damage not only to your machine, but place all three of you in great danger. You placed the lives of Galaxi and Flourish at risk with your rush home, to say nothing of the threat to your own life. Further, you have caused thousands upon thousands of bits worth of damage to an important landing strip and damaged the combat readiness of your team by destroying the conveyance you yourself created for them. I simply cannot ignore this, especially as we approach a possible war with the gryphons. The immediate and speedy deployment of your team may become necessary as tensions mount, and you sabotaged that. Why?”

    “He was going to commit suicide…” Clockwork answered, her voice wavering slightly.

    “Did you know when? Did you know where?” Luna demanded, then sighed, forcing the anger from her voice as she rounded the desk. “You could not have known how long his scroll took to reach you. You could not have known exactly where he would be. You could not have known you would even have arrived on time. You were extremely lucky that the timing lined up as it did, that you were able to be there, even if that luck did not hold out to the actual rescue. Why, Clockwork?”

    “I… had to save him,” she stammered, and lowered her head.

    “If you truly wished to save him, you would have notified Skillet,” Luna said, her voice low but strong. “He would have alerted myself or my sister, and we would have mobilized the guard and other emergency services in an attempt to stop him. He was relatively untouchable by my staff, despite concerns for his safety, but a credible suicide threat would have been enough to at least hold him temporarily. I ask again, Clockwork, why?”

    “Because I had to save him!” Clockwork shouted, her hoof thumping her own chest in emphasis. “I had to do it! Because if I could save him… then… then I….” the mare managed before devolving into broken sobs.

    Luna leaned down and gently draped her wing over the shuddering mare, drawing her close. She cooed softly, trying to soothe the emotional mare, even as inwardly she cringed. She just had to go there, had to push that button…

    “I… I’m sorry, P-princess,” the mare stammered softly. “I seem to be making a lot of dumb choices lately.”

    Luna sighed and brushed a hoof over the other mare’s face, wiping away some of her tears. “Clockwork, I understand. You have a condition--”

    “I thought Trixie said it was a spell?” Clockwork interrupted, “‘Nightmare’s Revenge’ and all of that?”

    The Princess blinked, caught off-guard. “I… er… I suppose that… ah…”

    Clockwork snorted slightly, then wiped her nose, “I knew Trixie was full of manure.”

    “She only had your best interests at heart,” Luna said quickly… far too quickly.

    “Yeah, my best interests,” the other mare responded, her voice hollow.

    “Clockwork, you are not the only mare who makes foolish decisions,” Luna counseled. “I cannot defend what Trixie may or may not have done, simply because I am unaware of it. But you and I both know you have a condition…”

    “I only have your word on that,” Clockwork mumbled, “for all I know, that’s made up too”. She completely missed the book that Luna drew over with her magic until it was placed on the floor at the short mare’s hooves. Clockwork frowned at it and ran her hoof under the words as she read, “’The Aftermath of the Lunar War’, by Professor Lineage. What does this have to do with--”

    “Celestia showed this to Trixie, who in turn shared it with Galaxi and myself,” Luna interrupted. “Whatever else might be said, this book holds the bulk of what our doctors and healers know of the condition you seem to be stricken with, what little that is. The bookmark I left in it,” she noted, touching the silver tassle with a hoof, “is at page two hundred and fourteen, where the author discusses what is known about ‘Aftershock Disorder’ and ‘Acclimation Disorder’, the latter of which you seem to be afflicted by.”

    Luna held her tongue as the small mare, still in the shelter of her wing, immediately flipped open the book and began to read. She paused only to wipe away her tears, bloodshot green eyes scanning the page at an almost ridiculous speed before she slowly closed the book… then lightly butted her head into it.

    “You need to trust us, Clockwork,” Luna prodded gently. “It’s possible he could have been saved, but only if you had reached out to us, to your teammates, and allowed us to act when you could not.”

    “It wouldn’t have mattered,” Clockwork sighed, “he wanted to die. Unless we planned on keeping him bound leg and hoof until the day he died of natural causes, he would have found a way. My own subconscious pointed that out to me. He could have jumped from anywhere, or hell, he might have been able to do it just falling out of bed wrong. But he chose a spot that no pony else would have been hurt. I… I put everything into trying to save him, that’s why it had to… had to be me! Saving him… meant I could be saved myself. He was worse off than I was, he was in worse shape. But it meant that if he could heal, so could I. If I could bring him back from the edge then… then…”

    “…then someone could bring you back if you found yourself on that same edge?” Luna finished, her voice gentle, almost motherly. Clockwork closed her eyes tightly, trembling with fear for a moment, but nodded shallowly. “Do you know what you have that he lacked?”

    “No.”

    “Friends,” Luna finished. “Friends who care about you, who want to help you. Who want to see that you get better and never find yourself on that edge yourself…”

    “He had a friend… and I failed him,” Clockwork answered in a despondent voice, and stepped out from under the comfort of the Princess’ wing. Luna frowned, but allowed her to do so, folding her wing calmly as she watched the short pony. “What’s my punishment?”

    Luna frowned at the phrasing, but sighed, “Grounded from flying chariots for at least three months, and you will have to pay for the damages to the airfield, which will be taken from your personal pay, not your laboratory expenses. Also, once your armour is repaired, you are directed to create a new chariot for the team, post haste. As for the incident up north… we’ll be taking the bits for their medical procedures from your pay as well. We did not get into that, but your transgression with your chariot was far more pressing.”

    “Are you dropping me from the team?” the mare asked pointedly.

    “I had no plans on it,” Luna answered defensively.

    Clockwork nodded simply before looking the Princess in the eye. “I have a history here, with you, with this team. It’s hard to trust when I’ve been abandoned once… and now find out I’ve been lied to,” she stated in a tightly controlled voice, then turned her back on the Princess and left her office.

    Luna only stared at the open door for several long minutes.

    “Too slow!”

    The orange plated manticore-like armour pivoted in place to follow the pegasus as he wove in and out of the dilapidated buildings. Another blast from the MANTI-core armour tore a hole in the roof of one of those buildings, but missed by at least a few feet.

    “C’mon, Doc, I ain’t even winded yet!” Crosswind taunted. The tail of the armour turned and fired, a laser beam cutting through the early morning sky, the red almost lost in the hues of the sunrise sky, and yet the pegasus nimbly avoided the beam as well, even as it cut a path through the bell tower of a partly collapsed chapel, sending the debris crashing down in a cloud of dust and mortar.

    “Ztand ztill, blazt you!” Professor Burner cursed, the speakers in the suit giving his voice an oddly metallic air.

    “Uh…” Crosswind said, pausing as he put a hoof to his chin. Sensing his opportunity, Burner took his shot, and proceeded to miss horribly as the pegasus simply darted out of the way with a single flap of his wings. “…Nah!”

    “I… vill… get… you!” Burner growled and unleashed the laser on the tail again, almost literally slicing through the center of one building, one side listing dangerously before the structure collapsed in on itself.

    “At this rate you’ll damage the town more than me!” the cocky pegasus called as he darted away from the plume of smoke the crashing building kicked up. Professor Burner let out a wordless cry of rage, stomping his forehooves in frustration.

    Kaos sighed from where he sat and watched the sparring between the pair. He had chosen the duo to go first because they were seemingly the most opposite of each other, but it was like watching a pair of colts trying to one up each other. Crosswind, despite his bragging, had been subtly trying to use the wind to steal the Professors breath, or even push the massive armour around, all of which had failed. The armour was too strong, and apparently had an air filtration system that negated the need for constant fresh air, their abilities so opposed to each other they were effectively immune to one another.

    The reds and oranges and pinks of the fading dawn easily painted the town before him, making the small town look almost alive to the zebra, or at least how it may have looked in years gone by. Splashes of color in the otherwise dreary browns and tans of the desert, only interrupted by the occasional white of a bleached bone or peeling paint. Kaos silently wondered what this town may have been like in its heyday…

    To the zebra’s side Alto sat like a restless teenager watching a good fight, only barely refraining calling out suggestions to the Professor, whom he had latched on to lately. Junkyard watched impassively from where he sat behind Kaos, arms folded across his barrel chest and legs crossed under him. He barely seemed to move, but his large brown eyes keenly followed every motion his partner was making, almost as if trying to anticipate where he would be and what he would do next. To his right hoof, Zilch watched carefully as well, but unlike the Diamond Dog, her eyes held no clues as to what her focus was, and only the occasional twitch of her suited ear hinted she was more than some mannequin sitting under the eaves of what used to be the general store. Oddly, that gave him an idea…

    “I think the Doc is about to lose it,” Alto said in a low voice, derailing Kaos train of thought and dragging it back to the fight. Kaos had planned to stop it before they could truly hurt each other, but his stomach dropped with the realization that he overestimated Burner’s self-restraint.

    “I am done being humiliated by you!” Burner all but screamed, and he reared up on his back hooves.

    “What’re you gonna do about it, tough guy?” Crosswind taunted, not sensing the danger.

    “Zis,” the Professor hissed, and the chest of the suit seemed to peel back and away on a trio of hinges, revealing a number of small ports. In each one resided the tiniest little missiles that anypony present had seen before, and they launched with a great scream of their miniscule engines, rocketing off in a dozen different directions from the armour, only to arc around and home in on the pegasus.

    Crosswind only grinned as the missiles all angled at him, the wind whipping at his mane before vanished inside a twister of air. The missiles were yanked into the one pony maelstrom, before being sent hurtling away in different directions. The missiles attempted to re-orient on their target, only to meet with disastrous results as their efforts led them straight into one building or another… or they ran out of fuel trying to reach the pegasus a second time.

    Kaos and the others were forced to run as a missile slammed into the building they were watching from, raining rotted wood and fire over them before Junkyard created a protective barrier from the ground itself. Explosions shook the ground and fire surged through the old and dry wood of the buildings, surrounding the armoured unicorn in an inferno. Professor Burner stood with his jaw hanging slack, his eyes a wide as saucers at the destruction. Crosswind remained untouched by even a splinter, the fire being caught by his whirlwind and shunted away.

    “Not bad, not bad,” Crosswind chuckled, “but, uh, FYI… you missed.”

    “Crosswind!” Kaos shouted when the Diamond Dog felt it was safe enough to lower the barrier. “Starve the fire of air, or we won’t have a town at all. Junkyard, see what you can do about reinforcing the buildings that are still standing and set up fire breaks where you can! Zilch, get Junkyard wherever he needs to go. Alto, take to the air and set up a fire-line, the last thing we need is for this blaze to get out of control!”

    “We’re in the middle of the desert,” Alto protested, “what difference would it make?”

    “Fire brings unwanted attention,” Junkyard intoned.

    Alto nodded quickly. “Take Burner with you,” Kaos instructed as the gryphon took wing, “some distance from Crosswind should help him calm down.”

    The armoured stallion was just coming out of his stupor when the gryphon reached him. Very little was said, but the pair took off to start setting down fire lines to limit the spread.

    Despite Kaos’ less than stellar expectations, the team worked surprisingly well in containing the fire, leaving only some smoldering and barely standing remains in the quarter of town they had been training in. Once Crosswind had the fire smothered, he focused on rerouting the smoke away from them, dissipating it as much as possible. Burner and Alto used their respective weapons and abilities to destroy some key buildings to keep the fire from spreading to the center of town. Junkyard, conveyed by Zilch, worked quickly to set up ground level barriers and reinforce those buildings that were left undamaged by the fire. In fact, it was only as the group was finishing up that they realized one pony was missing.

    “Where did Kaos get to?” Crosswind asked when the team regrouped.

    “Over here!” Kaos called, just inside one of the buildings that Junkyard managed to brace the side of. The other side had collapsed from where one missile’s impact had brought down two floors of what used to be a home in years past. Kaos vanished into the doorway like a ghost as the group arrived, frowning as they filed in. “Doctor Burner…” the zebra said in an oddly hushed voice and motioned to where the upper floor had crashed down. There, lying on the floor, was the purple coat of a filly, her silver streaked mane caked with filth and splinters from the collapse.

    Burner only managed a croak, his voice refusing to come out. “She was crushed,” Kaos said softly, “dead when I found her.” The zebra stallion looked down at the filly for a moment, then back up to Burner. “Congratulations, Professor, you’ve scored the team’s first kill. It’s not who you aimed at, but then, you weren’t supposed to try and kill your teammate anyway. I’m only sorry that an innocent had to pay for it.”

    Burner’s jaw worked numbly, but he couldn’t make his voice work. It had been easier to stare at the destruction his missiles had caused to the town, and that left him feeling less like a pony, and more like the monster his armour represented. This… this was infinitely worse. The armoured stallion didn’t even notice the rest of the team leaving until Junkyard clapped a large hand on his shoulder. Burner ripped his gaze away from the filly, eyes wide as he met the Diamond Dog’s, which he was surprised to see were filled with a deep sadness and understanding. And then, he too was gone, leaving Burner alone with his “kill”.

    The Professor’s mind spun like a runaway chariot without any brakes. He wanted to blame Crosswind, but hadn’t he only been protecting himself? Burner was the one who launched the missiles. Why? Because he lost his temper, and, like it or not, he truly wanted to kill Crosswind in that moment. He’d wanted to kill before, attempted to kill an entire town when he damn near lost his mind over Clockwork Key. But he didn’t succeed. Every pony had been rescued safely. This was the first pony he’d killed, even if it was an accident. “Accident”. He snorted at the word. Was it an accident that he fired off his entire payload of custom built mini-missiles? That left a bitter taste in his mouth and his emotions roiling. He’d have make more missiles, he thought, trying to focus on the annoyance that should cause. But instead, he only found a great emptiness, a void where his emotions were. He could only see the grape purple coat and the now vacant fuchsia eyes staring at nothing. Shakily hoof he reached an armoured hoof out and slowly closed those eyes before they bore a hole through him…

    It had been almost ten minutes of awkward silence between the rest of the team when a great tearing sound was heard outside the old home. The listing wall caved in completely, and the dust settled with more crashes as the armoured stallion carefully walked out of the home, carrying the dead foal cradled in his forelegs. The armour allowed him to balance carefully on his hind hooves as he slowly walked down the lane, placing one hoof before the other in a slow march. Junkyard fell in step behind the armoured stallion, followed by a concerned Alto. Zilch wiped at her face, wiping away tears she couldn’t shed, and followed along next to Kaos at a respectful distance. Crosswind gave a derisive snort and rolled his eyes, finding the sentimentality annoying, but after a moment he flared his wings and rushed to catch up, bringing up the rear of the procession as they made their way out of the town to a nearby hillock.

    Kaos had spotted the graveyard when they first arrived, and had carefully steered the team away in respect for those the final resting place of those left there. Junkyard, thankfully, was equally respectful as he opened a new plot in the ground. Burner carefully lowered the filly into it and backed away, taking one final look before Junkyard closed the plot of earth back over. The first new grave this small graveyard had seen for many, many decades.

    “We should look for others,” Alto said softly, interrupting the somber mood after almost a full fifteen minutes. “If there was one, there may have been more.”

    “Did I mention how much I hate rugrats?” Crosswind grumped. Junkyard’s response was to grab the pegasus by the tail and head off into town, the grumpy pegasus in tow. Zilch gave a nod and teleported herself away. Professor Burner paused to look back at the grave for a moment, then rocketed off himself to search the dilapidated town, especially the areas he destroyed, for survivors.

    Within minutes, Kaos was alone. With a shake of his head he ruefully placed a hoof on the newly dug plot, the dirt parting to reveal the filly within after a moment. “Well, that took an unexpected turn, didn’t it my dear?” he asked her, and caressed a hoof under her chin. Her purple coat began to fade, her mane almost literally vanishing as the stiff “filly” reverted back to what she was when Kaos put her in the wreckage, a child’s mannequin. Only when it was reverted did Kaos close the grave once more. “I hope the rest of you don’t mind the imposter,” Kaos said to the rest of the residents of the graveyard, “I assure you, there was a good reason, but my homeland teaches us respect for those who have passed before us.” The zebra then paused to utter a few words in his native tongue, at once guttural and musical, before he started back towards the town.

    He was only just entering town when a portal opened in front of him and a pair of white hooves grasped and yanked him through.

    “Well, that was sudden,” Kaos intoned, wobbling slightly. He was the last to arrive, it seemed, and he straightened his tie as he took in the scene before him. Professor Burner was hunched over the small form, one eye of his helm glowing as he scanned the figure on the floor. She was a young gryphoness, apparently alive, but in bad shape. She looked half starved, covered with a number of scratches and bruises, and was barely breathing. She was also very much unconscious, and the partially collapsed wall beside her told him the likely reason why. He frowned; this wasn’t a mannequin, this was the real thing.

    “It can’t be her… it CAN’T!” Alto all but screamed, his voice edging on hysterical when the diamond dog clasped a powerful hand on his shoulder. Alto gulped visibly at the implied threat, and held his tongue.

    “What happened?” Kaos asked, wandering closer.

    “Zilch found her,” Burner intoned, his voice strangely distant. “Zhe’s… zhe’s hurt. Zome of it from ze collapzing wall, zat knocked her out but... zome of zese injuriez are dayz old. Zhe’z been choked, hurt, I think zhe has a zprain in her leg, and… I’m zorry, but zis iz well beyond my meager medical zkillz. We need a profezzional.”

    Kaos stepped closer and placed a hoof on the small gryphon girl’s forehead when Alto blurted out again, “But… you don’t understand, she CAN’T be here!” Zilch scowled at him, but Kaos couldn’t help himself.

    “Why can’t she be here?” he asked simply.

    “That’s Filigree’s little sister!” Alto cried, “Last I saw or heard, Filigree was busting her out of the clans and taking her to somewhere safe in the Ponylands… so how the hell is she here in the desert?!”

    “That’s a good question. We will have to ask her when she wakes up,” Kaos answered.

    “Hold up, nuh uh,” the pegasus of the group said, shaking his head. “I didn’t join this group to babysit no kid!”

    Junkyard frowned and crossed his arms, scowling at his friend. Crosswind seemed only mildly surprised. “You turnin’ on me, big guy? I don’ care, I ain’t babysitting!”

    “W-we can’t take her in,” Alto stammered, “her sister will come looking for her. We aren’t ready for Filigree…”

    “I think you mean to say that you aren’t ready for Filigree,” Kaos noted pointedly, then looked to Zilch. “And your vote?” The suited mare frowned, her eyes narrowing at Alto, then bent down to cradle the small form protectively in her forelegs.

    “Well then, that only leaves… you, Professor Bunsen Burner,” Kaos said evenly. “What’s your vote?”

    The armoured stallion paused for a long time, as all eyes rested on him. No one could see the conflict behind his eyes, hidden by the helm. They only heard his voice when he finally responded, “I’m rezponzible for one death today; I won’t make it a zecond. However, zhe needs more medical treatment zan I can provide.”

    “I already have a plan to handle that,” the zebra said with an errant wave of his hoof. “I have a discrete doctor on standby in case one of you were hurt during our practices, somepony who will ask no questions. For now, we need to get her back to base. Zilch? Get her settled in a comfortable room and bed, and I will fetch the physician. I only hope she doesn’t mind a pediatric case.”

    Zilch nodded quickly, and gathered the small gryphoness to her, and beckoned the others close. Alto shied away from the unconscious form, and Crosswind scowled at her, but neither said a word under Junkyards withering gaze. A portal opened above the group and lowered itself quickly, leaving Kaos alone in the desert.

    And then, even he was gone, leaving the only residents in the small graveyard on the hill.

15

Chapter 15

“Guardian Angels”

    “Ugh… where... where am I?”

    Zilch visibly jumped at the question, which came from a most unexpected source, the small gryphoness who had been sleeping ever since the team had returned with her. She was covered in bandages, barely hidden beneath the crisp white sheets, and her head rested on a thick down pillow. But the femme’s inquisitive green eyes were watching Zilch, surprisingly clear given the bumps and bruises she endured. Her voice, though slightly raspy, had a childish clarity to it that the mare instantly found appealing.

    The pair watched each other for several moments before Zilch gathered her courage to approach closer. It had been easier when the cub was out cold, and Zilch harbored many a fantasy about how she might be able to interact with her, how they might be friends, and what games they would play. But now that she was awake…

    The gryphoness broke eye contact first to study the simple room she found herself in. The cave was about the size of a modest bedroom, and only contained the bed she found herself in and a nightstand with a single lamp upon it. The gryphoness frowned at the carved walls about her, and a fear rushed down her spine and settled like a lump of coal in her gut. “Caves. Oh Goddess, I’m back in the aerie,” she said weakly and shuddered. Zilch moved closer and placed a hoof on the girl’s shoulder, trying to comfort the cub. All it did was draw the little gryphon’s attention back to her.

    “You’re… interesting,” she said after studying her for a moment. “Are you alright? I mean, all wrapped up like that, they must’ve hurt you pretty badly.”

    Zilch blinked in surprise, then shook her head quickly.

    “You’re not hurt?” Zilch shook her head. “Are you alright then?” The suited mare nodded. “Can you tell me your name?” Another shake of the head. “Why?”

    Zilch paused to consider this question, then leaned her head back, tapped her neck, and drew a small “X” over it with her hoof. The gryphoness frowned, her beak creasing in thought before one could almost see the light go off in her eyes.

    “You can’t talk?” A nod. “Mute?” Zilch nodded again. “Did they do that to you?” Zilch blinked, surprised by the question, and quickly shook her head. “Well, I dunno who you are then, but it’s nice to meet you… I hope. I’m Verdigris.”

    “Zo ve have been told,” a voice came from the doorway, and an orange coated unicorn strode through, shoulder to shoulder with a dark red unicorn mare with a silver streaked mane and a cross for a cutie-mark. The stallion spoke while this new mare quietly began examining the gryphon’s bandages, “Vun of our teammatez iz familiar with you.”

    “And who are --ow! Hey, that hurt!” Verdigris started, before the unicorn prodded a sore spot on her leg.

    “I’m Profezzor Bunzen Burner, and zis here iz Zilch,” he answered, stepping back as the medical mare pulled the sheet back and prodded Verdigris’ leg with a hoof again, making the gryphon flinch. “Ze doctor here haz azked to remain anonymouz, zo zhe will remain unnamed.”

    The red mare grunted as she shook her head, “You’ll be fine kid, but you’re lucky they found you when you did. You were in the early stages of severe dehydration. Another day and you’d have been dead.”

    “That’s what he was trying to do,” Verdigris answered darkly. Zilch all but rushed forward to hug and comfort the gryphoness, while Burner raised an eyebrow.

    “Don’t want to know,” the medical mare stated flatly. “Stay off your hooves, or whatever you call them as gryphons, for a few days. You have a sprain at the hip of your back left. The bruises will heal, and I’ve cleaned all the scrapes and cuts, but I’ll leave some antibiotics to help keep them from getting infected. Your voice will probably rasp a bit from now on; you suffered some throat damage from whoever tried to choke you out. It’s not too bad, but it injured your vocal chords slightly. If it gets too sore, give me a call, there might be an infection. Doctor’s orders: stay off your hooves, er… you know what I mean, drink lots of fluids, eat plenty of soft foods until your throat feels better, and stay out of the desert.” With that, the medical mare turned on a hoof and stalked away, muttering to herself as she exited the room.

    “Her bedside manner leaves something to be desired,” Verdigris rasped flatly, which made Burner choke down a laugh.

    “I could not have zaid zat better,” he chuckled. “I vill fetch Kaoz, he wizhed to know how you ended up in ze dezert, ezpecially in zuch a terrible ztate.” The burnt orange stallion then followed the mare and left the small room. Verdigris watched, her eyes slightly narrowed for a moment, a niggling concern worming its way into her mind. How did they know who she was? Who was this “teammate” who knew her?

    Zilch, the suited mare, patted Verdigris’ head and distracted her from her suspicions, grinning under the strange mask as she held up a hoof. Then, just like that, she vanished, seemingly falling right through the floor! The gryphoness blinked, trying to process what she just saw, when Zilch reappeared through a glowing portal. She literally stepped through it, carrying a tray that she set on the table by Verdigris’ side. The cub blinked and looked to the tray curiously. Her stomach immediately woke with a massive roar that refused to be ignored as she eyed the steaming bowl of oatmeal and large pitcher of cool water it carried.

    “Is this for… me?” Verdigris asked carefully, and the mare nodded enthusiastically, already pouring water into a glass. That was all Verdigris needed, and she grabbed the bowl in her claws and wolfed down the oatmeal hungrily. It was plain, bland even, but to the young gryphoness it was the best thing she’d tasted in months… well, short of an apple and whatever that not-apple was. Idly she imagined the oatmeal would only taste better with slices of fruit in it. Regardless, it was far better than near rancid raw meat.

    Verdigris managed to get most of the way through the large bowl before her pace slowed. She paused to take a long draw of the water, the mare happily refilling the glass the moment she set it down. It made the little gryphon feel a bit self conscious, being waited on like this.

    “I see you’re awake, and managed to get something to eat. Good job, Zilch,” the zebra said as he strode in, moving to sit beside the bed and idly straightening his tie. “I am sure this must all seem quite strange to you, but I assure you that you are in no danger here.”

    “Well…” the gryphoness hedged, “I don’t know about no danger, but it’s a fair bit better than what I’ve been through to date.”

    “Yes, there is that, Miss Verdigris,” the zebra answered with a smile, only to be met by the cub’s suspicious gaze.

    “And then there’s how you all know my name.”

    The zebra couldn’t help but chuckle, “You are well within your right to be concerned, but that is something that will be revealed in time, when he is ready to make his presence known. Suffice it to say that you are safe from the clans here in this old abandoned aerie. We have… repurposed it for our needs”

    “And who are ‘we’?” Verdigris asked pointedly.

    “We are a group of specials whom have gathered in secret for a cause,” the zebra stallion said simply. “No, I do not plan to tell you what that cause is, at least not yet. No offense, Miss Verdigris, but we do not yet know how far you can be trusted. However, I see that as no reason to be rude to a guest. I am known as Kaos, the leader of our little band. You have already met Zilch and Professor Bunsen Burner. You have Zilch to thank for finding you in the wreckage.”

    The gryphon’s eyes moved to the suited mare, and her expression softened, “I suppose I am being a bit of a bad guest. Thank you for rescuing me.”

    Zilch almost seemed to beam with happiness and barely restrained herself from rushing forward to hug the gryphon, even as Kaos chuckled. “Given what you’ve been through, I’d say your suspicion is warranted. I hired the medical mare you saw earlier to see to your wounds. She discovered and number of injuries that could not have occurred when the wall collapsed upon you, injuries I was hoping you might shed some light upon. Such as burns to your coat, the bruising along your back and flank, the carefully cut feathers in your wings, and, the elephant in the room, the bruising about your neck.”

    Verdigris looked down at her claws for a moment. “The clans clipped my wings when they… when they threw us in shackles. They enslaved my entire family to use as leverage against Filigree.”

    “Your sister, am I correct?”

    Verdigris nodded and took a ragged breath before continuing, “She came to rescue us, and… and I got to know her. She got captured because of me, because she protected me, and she kept me safe with her until her friends rescued us. She… she left me with my folks in a gryphon town just outside of the Everfree and… My father was an idiot! He dragged us all into the forest, completely unprepared. We ran out of food, got us lost, and couldn’t even get a fire going.”

    “That must have been quite the ordeal...” Kaos said sympathetically.

    The gryphoness snorted, “That’s just the start! Some gryphon, who totally isn’t a gryphon, calling himself ‘Eclipse’ came across us and… and he did some weird swirly thing with his eyes. I couldn’t… think clearly after that. He had us working in some cave for what felt like weeks, raising these dragon eggs he found. I kept… I kept waking up from the swirly eye thing, which apparently pissed him off. I know at least once he grabbed me with his claws about the neck and forced me to look into his eyes. I… I don’t know how many times he made me do… do that. I lost track, but somehow I kept waking up. I’d keep realizing something was wrong, wondering why we were doing all this work and… and then he brought clan soldiers in to take the eggs away.”

    Kaos froze for a moment, his comforting smile turning to a rictus grin as horror trickled down his spine. “The gryphon clans have dragon eggs?” he forced himself to ask.

    “And Eclipse, but he’s not a gryphon. He’s some sort of pony, with a horn an’ wings and all sorts of magic!” Verdigris blurted, her body trembling as if on the verge of tears. “He was using his magic to forcibly raise the eggs to full adults, but they’re stupid, like animals.”

    “And he turned those over to the Clans?” the zebra asked carefully.

    “I think so. My… my family went with them happily. They think they’re going to be in a high caste, raising dragons for the gryphons so they can… do something. I only know King Goldtalon wants to destroy the ponylands and the Princesses, beyond that…” she noted with a shrug, heedless of the zebra’s worried expression. “He told my sister that much while we were standing right there, and again later when it was just my sister and I… when he tried to forcibly promise my sister to that white gryphon.”

    “Interesting,” the zebra said softly, then shook himself. “I apologize, but you’ve told me a great deal, much of which I believe to be of great importance. I will stop by later to see how you’re recovering. Zilch? Stay with her, please, and make sure she’s comfortable.” The suited mare nodded and dashed off to fetch something, leaving the zebra and gryphon to look at each other for a moment. “I think she likes you,” Kaos confided.

    “Not sure why… she nice, but a little weird,” Verdigris said softly.

    “You’ll find that everypony is a little weird,” the zebra grinned. Verdigris smiled back less certainly.

    “I wondered how long it would take you, Kaos.”

    The zebra paced in the small light shed from the doorway, his hooves clopping on the stone in an erratic rhythm, concern etched across his features. “This is big, my Prince, huge! This is far larger than we could have anticipated!”

    “Stop being such a worry-wart,” the Prince chided, “our new friend has given us the last pieces we needed to solve the puzzle. Now we simply have to finish assembling them.”

    “But… my Prince!”

    “Kaos,” the Prince’s voice admonished, “fretting about it will achieve nothing. You really need to relax. Some of what your new guest has said is a surprise, granted, but none of it was outside of the realm of possibility. I had hoped some of it was a worst case scenario or my imagination running away with me. I will admit that the dragon eggs are an unexpected wrinkle on top of everything else, but they neatly fill in a spot of the puzzle I had not been able to before. Then there is that ‘Eclipse’ fellow, who by little Verdigris’ description is an alicorn, which makes me suspect that he may be the Nightmare reborn, or at least an inheritor of her power. If so, then that completes yet another portion of the puzzle I’d been unable to sort out. In short, my dear Kaos, we now have a very good idea what is going on.”

    “But… we’re not ready! I know the plan is to take down the Princesses’ element bearers, but I question the team’s ability to stand against an onslaught of dragons,” Kaos stated poignantly.

    “Kaos…”

    “And then there’s gryphons guiding dragons like attack animals!” Kaos continued, his pacing getting a touch more frantic.

    “Kaos!”

    “This is an all out war! With what happened in the town, I’m beginning to doubt I can--”

    “KAOS!”

    “Yes, my Prince?” the Zebra asked in a small, startled voice

    “Sit down. Your pacing is getting on my nerves, and you’re only agitating yourself further.”

    The zebra blinked, and found a place in the center of the lighted section from the door to sit his flank down upon. He habitually straightened his suit and tie, trying hard not to let his annoyance and worry show.

    “Much better,” the Prince sighed. “Now then, you are correct that the team is not prepared yet. But you missed one fact. The gryphons took a lot of eggs, and those will take some time to grow. I suspect that we shall see any plans for invasion delayed until such time that they were able to raise enough dragons to reinforce the front line of an invasion. Furthermore, if they plan to keep the Princesses in the dark about it, they will need to be subtle and train these dragons deep within the Gryphon territories and away from prying eyes and spells. I suspect it’ll be roughly a month before they attempt to launch any sort of surprise attack, maybe slightly less, depending on how impatient the King is.”

    “Which means I have less than a month to whip this team into shape,” Kaos groaned, trying hard to remain calm.

    The Prince chuckled softly, “You knew the job was tough when you took it. Do you have any lingering concerns about them?”

    “Too many to count, my Prince,” Kaos sighed and scuffed a hoof on the stone floor as he organized his thoughts. “Most of them stem from the fact they are still learning to interact with each other. Crosswind is like a colt, pestering everypony for attention and dead set on trying to convince them he is better than they are. Burner is focused, very much the opposite of Crosswind, but plagued with an explosive temper and a tenuous grasp on his own sanity. Alto just had his worst fears show up at our doorstep in the shape of Filigree’s younger sister. Junkyard is slowly finding his own hooves… sorry, feet to stand on. Crosswind and he are still connected at the hip, but he’s starting to make his own decisions and no longer following his partner blindly in all things. Zilch is… an unknown. She prefers to keep to herself. I will note that she is very eager to make the gryphon cub happy.”

    “Probably hopes she’ll have a new playmate,” the Prince joked, “they aren’t too dissimilar in age.”

    “I think Verdigris is a few years the elder, actually,” he noted softly. “I did notice that she didn’t even flinch when Zilch used her powers. She was surprisingly accepting of it…”

    “Why would she have cause to reject her own kind?”

    “My Prince?” Kaos asked, carefully rising to his hooves.

    “Her gift is subtle, but I could feel it when you brought her here,” the voice answered. “I am unable to tell you what her abilities are, not without her flexing them more, but it seems to be always active, for lack of a better term. However, I wouldn’t suggest pushing her on the point, at least not yet. As we know from Alto, gryphons can be a bit defensive about being ‘cursed’. With that said, I would encourage Miss Zilch to stay by her.”

    The zebra frowned for a moment, tapping a hoof errantly on the stone floor, “You think Zilch will be able to mimic whatever gift she has?”

    “I would hope so, yes. You yourself said that the rest of the powers this group possesses would do her little good,” the Prince noted. “Crosswind’s power only works if airborne, which without wings limits her severely. Junkyard would be reasonable, but without his experience she would find his powers extremely difficult to control. She has no voice, so Alto’s ability is right out. Burner has no gift to begin with, and you are unique in how your abilities were acquired, thus she would be incapable of mimicking you. Allowing her to learn the power the gryphon has would give us a potentially powerful latent ability she could use to aid us. At the least, Zilch will be able to make us aware what this unknown power is.”

    “Until Verdigris figures out we’re standing against her big sister,” Kaos noted sourly. “Once she meets Alto again, that cat will be out of the bag.”

    “One crisis at a time, Kaos,” the Prince chuckled, “for now, she needs time to heal, and the team needs time to train. Politely instruct Alto to keep his distance from Verdigris, something I doubt he’ll need much convincing to do, and return to training. It’s not like Verdigris can escape us, though I would loathe imprisoning her here. If your report from the doctor is accurate, she has seen enough hardship these past months. I would only wish to help her, honestly, and remaining here would be the safest option for her.”

    “Maybe…” Kaos considered, frowning for a moment as an idea percolated past his mind, “…maybe she should meet you as I have, My Prince. If she is to be an asset, then perhaps she needs to know the truth.”

    “A fascinating proposition, Kaos, I will take it under advisement,” the Prince noted in a bemused tone. “For now, prepare to step things up. Tell the team that if they plan to get to the mares first, and potentially save the Ponylands from itself, then they need to train harder than ever. In one month we make our move...”

    “…whether they are ready or not.”

    The sun was an unwelcome intruder.

    Unfortunately, it also told him he needed to get himself out of bed, and slowly he forced his way to consciousness. He cracked an eye at the annoying tendency for the sunlight to seep through the shades, then yawned widely and crawled out of the warm nest of comforters and bedding to stretch wings and legs alike.

    The room was a cozy, if slightly cramped, guest room in a house just outside of town on the east side. Aside from the bedding, there were a few wooden dressers (store bought, he noticed, recognizing the brand name) and a dim lamp that barely lit the room adequately at night. The entire thing was done in soothing earth tones, tans and browns that he found oddly relaxing. The gryphon paused to straighten out the bed, unfolding the comforter from how he had it curled up in, before he slipped into the small connected washroom to clean up. He could only muse groggily about how much he loved indoor plumbing as he took a quick shower, luxuriating in the hot water and using it to loosen sore and stiff flight muscles before shaking himself out and using a towel to dry off his feathers.

    He was thankful Cloudfeather’s parents had insisted on putting him up in their guest bedroom. Sure, he objected when they offered, but he didn’t exactly put up too much of a fight, and was thankful for their kindness. Especially after the news he had to send back to Filigree.

    “You up, Chase?” someone asked at his door, followed by a light creak as the old wooden door pushed open. Windchaser, Cloudchaser’s twin brother, poked his head in. Like his sister, he had a white crest and blue-gray fur, but unlike his sister he had a lean and muscular body, toned from many hours of flight. Turned out he was assistant lead for the local weather team, and head of the morning shift, so he was used to flying a lot. Chase smiled as the leaner and shorter gryphon entered the room. “Guess so.”

    “I don’t know how you do this ‘crack of dawn’ thing regularly, Windy,” Chase joked with a yawn. “I feel almost as tired as when I went to bed last night.”

    “Yeah, well, you get used to it,” Winchaser chuckled. “Breakfast is on the stove. Cloudy is stirring herself, and Blackfeather should be over in about an hour. We should be ready to go once we have the morning clouds cleared away.”

    Chase nodded and yawned again, shaking his head. “Is that how you two got together?” Chase asked, curiously.

    The other gryphon nodded, looking away self-consciously as he answered, “Yeah. Blackfeather just swapped into my team from the evening shift. Initially we just fought and feuded like we did as kids, constantly trying to one up each other. It didn’t help that Cloudy kept egging us on. Then one day…”

    Chase chuckled softly, “Someone told you two to get a nest?”

    Windchaser blushed brightly, but nodded. “We were going round and round about something, I don’t even remember anymore. We damned near came to blows… and… well. I don’t know, something gave and I… I kissed her. It’s silly, I know, like something out of a stupid romance novel, but I guess it worked. After that…”

    The larger gryphon clapped his claw on his friend’s shoulder, “Well, congratulations on the impending wedding, none the less. I only hope I’m as lucky with Filigree as you are with her. Goddess knows I pined after Blackfeather when I was younger, she’s a looker…”

    The other gryphon poked his friend with a claw-tip and grinned. “She’s my looker now.”

    The pair laughed good naturedly, and Windchaser led Chase down the old staircase and into the main room of the house. It was well lived in and cluttered, with stained wood paneling around the perimeter. Chase had to admit it was a nice home, if slightly smaller than the one his parents had… a thought he intentionally cut off. He didn’t have time to get depressed about the loss of his family home, or his brother’s betrayal. He had to stay focused.

    Windchaser skirted the heavy kitchen table as they entered and took hold of the skillet an older gryphoness was watching over, kissing his mother on the cheek as he did. “Thanks, ma,” he said, taking over the cooking duties.

    The elder gryphoness patted off her claws and ambled away, slightly heavy in her advancing age as she brushed away the loose feathers of her blue-gray crest. “I’m too old to get up this early,” she complained good naturedly. “I’m going back to bed after I check on the little ones. Will you be nearby to wake me in a few hours, or are you kids still looking for that collection of fools?”

    Chase frowned at the comment from the elder gryphon, but her son was faster than he with a reply, “Sorry. Even if I wasn’t working with Chase to coordinate the claw-full of volunteers we have to search for them, I have to set up the northern fields for a light shower today. Some of the farmers are hoping for an early start for the grain season.”

    She snorted, “They hope that every year.” The family matron ambled off, leaving Chase to frown at her vanishing flank. Only a new voice entering the kitchen prevented him from expressing a less than positive response about the family matron…

    “Whatever you’re about to say, Chase, don’t,” Cloudchaser counseled as she wandered into the kitchen, “you’ll just get yourself kicked out of that nice cushy room upstairs.” The gryphoness yawned widely and brushed by the larger gryphon to settle at the table… and slump down with her head resting on the table, starting to doze off.

    “She’s even worse about mornings than I am,” Chase joked.

    “You try having Mister ‘bright and early’ morning gryphon as a twin brother, see how long you last,” she shot back as Chase found himself a seat, Windchaser still working with the cast iron stove even as he set out more pancakes for the pair to eat.

    “Oh spare me, featherbrain,” Windchaser teased his sister, “you’re the one who insists on staying out late at night.”

    “I haff an excuse thiss time,” she slurred, curling a foreleg under her head. Her brother answered by waving the plate of pancakes he just finished making under her beak until she cracked an eye and snatched it from his claw. He laughed as she grudgingly sat up and began pouring syrup over it.

    “I really do appreciate you two helping me search,” Chase said earnestly, taking a bite of his own breakfast as Windchaser paused his cooking to hand them each a glass of orange-juice. “I mean, after being away so long, I… I just really appreciate it. I was worried how I was going to handle this…”

    Cloudchaser waved it off, her beak stuffed with food. He brother smiled, “You’re an old friend, Chase. Just because it’s been a few years doesn’t mean we’re just going to up and forget you. Sure, we’ve grown distant, and we still have a lot of catching up to do, but this is a legit concern too. I know Dad didn’t like these guys, but that’s no reason for letting them starve out there in the Everfree.”

        “Besides,” his sister cut in, “you’d have gone out and searched for ‘em all by yourself. You never were big on thinking ahead, and the Everfree ain’t safe, even for a big lug like you. An’ while I wanna look at this girl of yours, see if she’s really worth all this trouble, it wouldn’t be right to leave her family out there, possibly in trouble.”

    “Speaking of which,” Windchaser noted as he shut the stove off, bringing a plate to the table for himself, “did you send word back?”

    “Two days ago,” Chase answered. “We should hear something back in the near--“

    A sudden explosion of green erupted about a foot over the table, fire spiraling around as it formed a ball roughly a foot in diameter. Windchaser immediately reeled back, reflexively checking the stove he was just using to make sure he’d shut off the gas. His sister, Cloudchaser, yelped and was on her claws in a flash, her wings flared uncertainly. Chase was so startled by it he tipped over backwards, to land hard on the floor, dazedly staring up at the ceiling and the weird shadows the fireball caused there.

    The spiral of flame seemed to uncurl from itself, almost snakelike as it slowly dissipated, revealing a curled parchment within the orb of flame. When the green flame finally vanished, the scroll fell onto the center of the table.

    “What. The. Buck?” Cloudchaser demanded, and her brother shook his head, as confused as his twin sister. Chase finally managed to sit up, getting one claw on the edge of the table and rubbing his head with the other, when he saw the scroll… and the seal upon it. He quickly reached for it.

    “Wait!” Windchaser yelped, and his sister caught Chase’s leg before he could reach it. “You don’t know what that is!”

    “That’s the royal seal,” Chase said reasonably, still in shock over its sudden appearance, but not willing to panic like his friends had, “which means it’s probably to me, or it’s to someone important via me. I am, technically, a courier of the Princesses thanks to that letter I delivered to town hall.” With that said, he peeled the gryphoness’ claws from his foreleg. With care he plucked up the letter with his clawtips, worried it might be hot. It wasn’t, he found, and in fact it was pleasantly cool to the touch. Heedless of the worried expressions of his friends, he flicked open the ribbon about it and began to read.

    “Chase, son of Ferris and Bracket,

    “We apologize for sending this missive via ancient dragonflame magic, but it was imperative this information reach you with all due haste. Filigree received your previous letter yesterday, and has been beside herself with worry. I fear she is berating herself quite heavily for leaving her sister behind as she did, and your news is most dire indeed. She is presently making plans to join you, and should be leaving within the hour. She will be bringing Rainbow Star with her, so I recommend you seek out lodging that can accommodate the pair of them prior to their arrival. Bill any costs of this back to us here in Canterlot.

    “Unfortunately they cannot stay there for more than a week. With tensions between the Ponylands and the Gryphon Clans escalating, we need them here in Canterlot. However, if the family cannot be located before that time, I will extend to you all necessary resources so that you may continue the hunt in her stead. You will be provided with a hoof-full of scrolls that can communicate with myself instantly, should you find anything of import. I do ask you use normal post whenever possible, but we do wish to be appraised of your progress, or lack there-of.

    “This is a concern of national security as well, for if King Goldtalon has reclaimed these gryphons, especially Verdigris, then he would have the ability to hold sway over Filigree at a most inopportune time. We thank you for carrying this deed out in the stead of an official liaison or security force, and you will be given full sanction to act in our interest once Filigree and Rainbow Star have left. They will be carrying the appropriate seals and letters for you.

    “Thank you again,

    “Princess Celestia, Solar Regent. Princess Luna, Lunar Regent.”

    Chase paused to catch his breath, his eyes scanning the letter once more to make sure he read that correctly. It wasn’t until Cloudchaser chuckled that he realized he’d read that letter aloud.

    “Looks like our boy here is official,” she teased, slapping his shoulder. Chase smiled weakly to her, carefully setting down the suddenly heavy feeling scroll.

    “Let’s finish breakfast first,” he said softly, “it will be a little while before they arrive.”

    “Worried she won’t think you’re doing enough to find them?” Windchaser asked softly.

    Chase went to answer, but couldn’t find his voice, and just nodded instead.

    It was exactly two hours and twelve minutes later when they arrived.

    The mare with the rainbow mane lead the way, creating a slipstream that her steel winged friend could follow, lowering the air resistance and allowing her to fly at near rainboom levels, far faster than she could have achieved on her own. The duo arrowed towards the town hall, the pegasus pulling up and back as the heavier gryphon landed dead in the town square with enough force to stagger the gryphons nearby. Her expression was fierce, blue eyes blazing, as she stalked towards city hall. The mare lightly settled down beside her in a far less dramatic manner, and trotted to keep up with the gryphoness. Neither said a word, or even acknowledged the crowd around them, ignoring the combination of awe and fear on their faces.

    Gryphons carefully shuffled back from the entrance of the hall as the duo approached. One squawked as he came through door and found himself face to face with the imposing form of Filigree staring intensely back at him. He meekly shuffled to the side to allow the pair entrance wordlessly.

    The interior of city hall was a well organized mess. A trio of gryphons, one male and two femmes, were struggling with files, ancient computers, and their own workload. They acted both as public liaisons as well as keeping the filing system for the local government, everything from licenses to permits to disagreements with the local constabulary. If it needed to be done, it was done here. Unfortunately the interior of the building hardly denoted such importance, with three desks lined up with little space between them, a small standing army of filing cabinets behind them, and any semblance of order seemingly long since escaped out the partly open windows.

    “Can I help ya?” one of the gryphonesses asked, eyes fixed on the paperwork she was filling out. She only looked up when the Official Seal of the Sister Princesses was thunked down on her desk by the steel winged gryphoness, a heavy octagon with the ancient imprint of the Princesses upon it. The gryphoness at the desk paused to look up over her pink horn rimmed glasses at Filigree, who glowered down at the much smaller femme.

    Nothing was said between them… nothing needed to be said. The gryphoness secretary keyed a small box on her desk and spoke nervously into it. “Uh… Mayor, you have some… visitors.”

    “Tell them I’m busy,” the individual at the other end answered huffily.

    “They’ve got the seal of the Princesses…”

    “Another one?! What, are they giving them out to any blasted pony now?” the other gryphon demanded, then heaved a weary sigh. “Fine… send them in.”

    “H-he’ll see you… now…” she told them, but Filigree had already moved past her, her claws clicking along the marble flooring as the place fell silent, the local gryphons staring at the powerful stranger as she walked up to the double doors of the mayor’s office, and with a thrust of her foreleg, sent them slamming open.

    “Hey now!” the mayor retorted, spinning about on his lush office chair. He’d had his entire “busy mayor” schtick down pat to send these fools away, but that was ruined the moment the gryphoness flung the doors wide. It scattered the papers on his desk to the four winds, leaving only the richly shined mahogany exposed. Filigree strode across the slightly faded carpet with purpose, saying nothing until she reached the desk. With more force than necessary she slammed a parchment down in the center of it, a crack forming in the wood under her claw as she stared into the eyes of the mayor.

    “Wh-what’s this all about young lady?” the mayor demanded, trying to take control of the situation before he could look weak with everyone watching. But the heavy-set and slowly graying gryphon couldn’t stack up to the powerful and muscular femme standing across from him.

    “I want to know,” she hissed in a voice that seemed to carry to every corner without her ever raising it, “why you refused to answer a missive directly from the Princesses about a group of gryphons sent here under your care.”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about young lady --” he started, only to be interrupted as the gryphoness pushed harder on the desk, causing the crack to explode violently, crashing the desk down into two halves on the floor.

    “What my teammate is trying to say,” Rainbow Star interjected before the gryphoness could move to trying to break the mayor, “is that we know you received the letter. The band was magically coded so that it would only respond to your claw, and the Princesses were made aware the moment it was opened. You were charged with caring for and protection of one family of gryphons by the names of Slate, Patina, Pyrite, Fracture, and Verdigris.”

    “Yesterday, I received a letter that informed me you not only failed to protect them, but failed to report their disappearance,” Filigree hissed dangerously.

    “Young mare, I have no idea of whom you --”

    “Um…M-mayor?” one of the secretaries spoke up, a pretty thing with an ebon crest and a slightly pinkish tint to her fur.

    “Not now, Rose, I’m a bit busy,” the mayor noted, even as the mare turned to face her.

    “I-I think those were the gryphons who… who managed to offend everyone,” she said meekly, “and then vanished.”

    “Surely they cannot be… related… to… this…?” the mayor faded out uncertainly.

    “Where is my family?” Filigree hissed as she closed on the mayor. “They were placed here to protect them, especially the youngest among them. Where. Are. They?”

    “Now... now young lady…” he squeaked, backed against the wall by the approaching gryphoness.

    “I’d recommend answering her truthfully,” Rainbow Star slipped in, “she’s in a very bad mood right now.”

    “Who the hell are you, either of you, to demand anything of my time?!” the mayor demanded, finding his claws, only to find himself face to face with the seal.

    “My name is Filigree, code named Steelwing. I am part of Project Moonbeam, and answer directly to the Princesses,” she answered darkly.

    “Rainbow Star, code named Spectrum,” the mare said pointedly. “We are members of the team that stopped the Nightmare from taking over Canterlot. We have the ear of the Princesses, and they are less than happy with this development. So yes, even once we’re done with you, the scroll there is a sternly worded letter from Princess Celestia directly to you, and which will require an immediate response. We’re here to find out what happened, and move on. Princess Celestia will handle the ‘why’ of it. However, I wouldn’t expect to win re-election next term, if I were you.”

    “M-ma’ams?” the secretary they first encountered spoke up, “before ya, ah… break my boss… I tried to register them inta the town register after they arrived. They refused.”

    Rainbow Star flicked her wings and flew over to the gryphoness. “What happened?” she asked, trying hard not to sound accusatory or angry.

    The secretary sighed, “They went out of their way to antagonize everyone. The doctor tried to check ‘em out, and the noisy one told him off in so many ways it’d make even a hardened politician blush. And that little gryphon they had with ‘em. You could see she wanted ta slip away, but they was keepin’ her on a tight leash, wouldn’ let her wander off or nothin’.”

    “Do you know where they went?” Rainbow Star tried hopefully.

    “They don’t, but we have some leads,” a new voice inserted from a sleekly built gryphoness as she entered the offices. Her blue-black fur and feathers shone under the light as she paused to catch her breath. “Chase asked me to come see you ladies to the campsite we discovered just an hour ago. We think it might be where they camped.”

    “Where?” Filigree demanded.

    “The Everfree Forest.”

    “Anything Cloudy?”

    Cloudchaser frowned at the other gryphon, then went back to inspecting the ground. “Not since you asked five minutes ago,” she grumbled in response. Her beak was only a few inches off the ground, and to most others she just looked silly, but Chase knew better. She was an expert hunter, and always had been. She hunts meat, sells it to the store, and then later gets a cut of the trimmed and seasoned final product, as well as a decent fee. Tracking prey was something she was always quite talented in, and the fact she could scour the ground without setting claw on it helped. She hovered in place and sighed, “Okay, all told I’ve got five gryphons, and… a something.”

    Chase frowned and pushed off the tree he’d taken to leaning on, and an errant pear fell and bounced off his head. He rubbed his head and looked up at the tall tree for a moment, more in annoyance then any actual pain. The clearing had been well hidden, thanks to the claw-full of wild pear trees that sheltered it, blocking it nicely from the morning sun. Only by chance had Windy spotted it on a fly-over and investigated. Aside from an old and burned out fire, over a week cold by Cloudfeather’s “expert” opinion, they’d found a number of tracks. Once the gryphoness had been able to identify gryphon tracks, the foursome pulled together and Blackfeather, the fastest flyer of the group, was sent into town to fetch Filigree and Rainbow Star when they arrived. The rest of them were doing their best to get whatever they could from it. “A ‘something’? That’s not very descriptive of you, Cloudy.”

    The gryphoness snorted, “I know, but the tracks are conflicting. Some of them are hooves, like a large pony, and some of them are claws, like a gryphon.”

    “Could it be a hippogryph?” her brother asked, flying overhead to keep an eye out for his future mate’s return.

    “A what?” Chase asked.

    “Hippogryph, they’re a lot like us gryphons. According to this one book I read, they’re supposed to be part bird of prey and part horse. Everfree is full of weird critters never seen elsewhere… and maybe…” he faded off, looking less certain as his sister shook her head.

    “Even if your little fantasy critters existed, they couldn’t make tracks like this,” she stated certainly, “the tracks are too perfectly aligned. Your back claws and front claws rarely land in exactly the same place, because our hips are wider than our shoulders. So unless your hippogryph could put a hoof in the dead center of every claw step, it would be impossible.”

    “So what do you think it is?” Chase asked, if only to spare Windchaser more embarrassment.

    “Dunno,” she shrugged, “I’m guessing some sort of magic, maybe an illusion spell, but it would have to be insanely powerful to make an illusion physical enough to leave tracks. We’d need someone who actually knows and understands magic to figure it out.”

    Chase snorted, “Too bad Filigree didn’t bring the team’s resident mage.”

    “Blackfeather is returning,” Windchaser called down, “looks like she has a pegasus and another gryphon with her. Damn, that gryphon looks big! Almost as big as you, Chase!”

    “I’m taller, but only by a few inches,” Chase chuckled and looked up himself. For some reason his eye was drawn to the pear tree he’d been sitting under. He frowned at it, wondering why, when he spotted a low branch with some of the bark scraped off. “Cloudy… have you checked the trees?”

    “Why?” the gryphoness asked. “I thought you said they had their wings clipped?”

    Chase pointed at the tree and branch, “Just because they couldn’t fly doesn’t mean they couldn’t climb.”

    Cloudhchaser frowned as she followed the line of Chase’s claw, only to blink when she saw the worn area. A flick of her wings carried her to the branch, her head lowering. “AH! The little gryphon climbed up here, I think. The claws are spaced a lot closer together and…” she paused and looked up, “…it looks like she picked some fruit.”

    “That sounds like her,” a new voice answered as the trio, two gryphons and a pegasus, landed off to the side of the clearing. “She really liked the fruit that Flourish picked and handed off to her.”

    “Hello again, Rainbow Star,” Chase noted, and looked at Filigree, whose eyes were locked on the tree. He sighed and clapped his claws together, “Okay, introductions, quick style. The black gryphoness, she’s the fastest among us, that’s Blackfeather. The pair of gryphons with white crests and blue-grey fur are the twins, Windchaser and Cloudchaser. Guys, the pony here is Rainbow Star, a friend of my family, and the gryphoness with her, with the shiny metal wings, is Filigree.”

    “Oooh, so we get to finally meet your mysterious girlfriend,” Cloudchaser cooed.

    “What do we know about my family?” Filigree asked simply.

    “Not a lot, I’m afraid,” Chase sighed and stepped closer to Filigree. “We’ve been searching for a few days now, and this is the first thing we’ve been able to find. The trail is over a week old, according to Cloudchaser, but the animals and weather have been kind and she’s found some tracks. We believe they camped here, you can see the remains of the campfire there, and we were able to count all five, as well as an unknown. We’re not sure if they are a pony, gryphon, or something else. Cloudy is getting some conflicting information. We haven’t started tracking from there…” He trailed off and placed a claw on Filigree’s shoulder. Her head snapped up, expression fierce for a moment, but Chase could see it. She may have been stronger than he, but he easily pulled her close, hugging her tightly. It took a moment for the gryphoness to clutch at him back, burying her face in his shoulder.

    “It’s okay, you couldn’t have known,” he told her in a softer voice.

    “I should have…” she whispered, clutching at him tighter, momentarily driving the air from him. “I shouldn’t have left her with them. I shouldn’t have left them here. I shouldn’t have…” she choked.

    “Shhh, it’s alright. You didn’t know. You can’t know everything,” he tried to soothe, petting a claw over her head gently. “Your little sister is smart, if what you told me is true. She might have found a way to slip away from them. And even if you can’t find her, we’ll keep looking, even if we have to scour all of Everfree Forest to do it.”

    The gryphoness took a ragged breath and nodded slightly, squeezing Chase again, causing him to wheeze for a moment. “You’re right,” she sighed, “and me sitting here like this is getting us nowhere. Let’s get going…”

    “Right, Cloudy? You’re the tracker, what’ve you got?”

    “A welcome for Filigree,” she grinned, “I still have to grill her later, though.”

    “Cloudy, this is serious…” Blackfeather chimed in.

    “So is this,” Cloudchaser countered with a cheeky grin, “I have to know how she managed to wrap Chase around her claw like that.”

    There was something soothing about the night.

    It didn’t matter that she couldn’t feel it while nestled snugly in her climate controlled armour, the cool blues and blacks were soothing to her jumbled mind. It allowed her to let the thoughts that hammered at her skull like so many digging Diamond Dogs to still and fade into the background. Clockwork could only imagine that it would have been even more soothing if she’d been able to still control the Dragonfly armour without the helm. Something about letting the wind whip through her mane just sounded right to her.

    Her jets left a neon blue trail behind her, the quartet of wings creating a rather unique sight against the darkened sky. Still, she went unnoticed save for a few of the night-shift weather pegasi who paused to stare. This left Clockwork alone with her thoughts, and the rare sense of stillness in thought and body. Sure, the Dragonfly armour was hardly up to full, this was the first test flight since she started the repairs. Most of the weapon systems weren’t even connected as of yet, leaving her only the basic hoof ejectors. She’d also deactivated the high speed flight mode for the time being, until she got the chance to really knuckle down and give the jet a good working over.

    But right now, those concerns felt far away. Just the serenity of flight as the air currents carried her away.

    From above, Clockwork could look down at the Jewel of Equestria, the center of the Ponylands, the City of Canterlot. The lights glittered in the city, focused around the palace itself as it clung to the Cliffside with a seemingly precarious grip. Spotlights cast the white marble in shades of pink and blue, highlighting the regal towers for all ponies to see for many miles away. Clockwork heard you could see it all the way from Cloudsdale and even as far as the abandoned town of Ponyville.

    If she looked closely, she could see the ring of the old city, where the wall had once protected it in ages past. A small ceremonial guard still walked those walls that extended all the way from the palace itself. It was a prestigious position, from what Clockwork had heard, but it just struck her as a waste of pony-power. Inside the walls the city was mostly residential, and while some manors tried to emulate the majesty of the palace, they just came off looking like gaudy imitations. Beyond the wall, however, the feel of the city changed completely, going from old and stately to new and energetic. The buildings become boxy, focused more on practicality and what might be inside it rather than trying to emulate the ancient majesty of the older construction. Shops lined the streets closest to the wall, creating a large square that she herself visited only weeks ago. Beyond that, the city turned to other aspects, noisy clubs lining the streets, as well as less savory businesses. No pony bothered to look up at her, too lost in their own worlds to notice her, the glow of her wings drowned out by the neon lights along the lane.

    “Hard to believe all this is within miles of the Palace,” Clockwork muttered softly, and selected an out of the way roof to land on. Her hooves flared with energy before setting down, leaving the mare to ponder a few readouts. The power routing seemed alright, but there was an unexplained power loss along the left leg, the one she repaired. Mentally she went over the connections in her head, trying to see if she could remember noticing any corrosion or broken connections that might explain it…

    The glare of a nearby sign burrowed its way into her eyes, the ugly pink and blue flashing neon advertising its “Sexxxy Dancing Mares”. Clockwork snorted, “The Plowed Field… right down the street from a bar named ‘Whiskey Trough’. You chose one hell of a neighborhood to touch down in, Clockwork.” She turned her head away from the sign, returning her attention to the readouts and power signals.

    So focused was she that she almost didn’t hear the scream. Almost.

    Clockwork immediately launched herself into the air, the Dragonfly’s wings flaring brightly against the night sky. Her sensors came online, limited severely now that the chariot was so much scrap metal, but she used the sound enhancer on her audio sensors and scanned around as quickly as she dared…

    “…up you little….” “P-please don’t…” “I’ll cut you if you don’t…”

    That was the sort of noise she was looking for, and set about tracking its source. All the buildings made for some odd echoes, but with a little bit of height she was able to get above most of the noise. Her sensors flared, desperate to find the source of the sound now. They had to be close, but…

    “Where’s the rest of it?” “T-that’s all I have!” “Bullshit! Now give me the rest before I cut you! I’ll do it!” “Please! No… please… I-I’ll give you anything I have!”

    Clockwork growled and tried to mentally wish her sensors to lock on more quickly. It would be over before she even had a bearing! Finally her systems gave a soft ping as they locked onto the source, and she hit her engines. She almost triggered her jet, despite how close it was, but remembered at the last second that it was offline…

    Her visual sensors saw them before they saw her. It was an open area in a back alley about a block down from the “Plowed Field”. Despite the fact that Clockwork couldn’t remember there being any rain today, the ground seemed slick and wet, glistening in the partial light of those few security lights that actually worked. The stallion stood imperiously over his victim, a mare that was pressed tightly against the side of a large utilitarian looking dumpster, not that whoever was using it always managed to get the trash into it.

    The stallion had his back to her, and had a scruffy brown coat with a blonde mane streaked with lavender so dirty it looked almost black. A dirty brown glow encompassed his horn, and the knife he held against the mare’s throat. She looked cleaner than he did, but only in the sense of filth. The golden colored filly had clothing on, but that hardly seemed to cover anything. If anything it seemed designed to flatter her form and be flashy and gaudy. Her face was heavily painted, exaggerating her already wide blue eyes, and making her lips seem almost comically large. However, there was little doubt how she was feeling right that moment, fear was etched across her face for all to see.

    The filly saw the descending mare first, her eyes widening even further (somehow) to stare at the descending form, who looked all the world like a neon angel. The stallion said something that was lost in the moment, most likely a demand, before shooting a look over his shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice the descending figure at first, and he turned back to his victim, only to suddenly turn and look dead at Clockwork as her armour slammed all four hooves into the ground.

    “Let’s even the odds here,” Clockwork growled through the helm, the mechanized timbre of the helm making her voice sound almost demonic to the stallion.

    “This ain’t none of your business!” the stallion shouted at her.

    “Help…” the mare managed to squeak, before the knife pushed more tightly against her throat, drawing a small bead of blood along the rusty edge.

    “Just turn around and leave, you freak.”

    Clockwork was caught up short for a moment, then asked, “Freak?”

    “Yes, freak!” he spat at her. “The Princess can call you ‘special’ all she wants, but them gryphons got the right idea, you’re all touched in the head. You ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of freaks!”

    Clockwork blinked in confusion at that response, but pushed it aside. “I’m not the one holding a knife to a girl’s throat.”

    The stallion growled, “You don’t know a damned thing.”

    “I think I know one thing,” Clockwork answered, and the eyes of the helm glowed slightly, “I know what you’re doing is wrong.”

    “Screw you!” he shouted at her. “You don’t know a damned thing. Stallion’s gotta eat!”

    “I-I have a little girl to feed…” the mare whimpered.

    “Shut up!” the stallion screamed at her, the knife pulling back as he hit her across the face with his hoof. He went to put the knife back up to her neck… only to find a few loose scraps of metal held in his magic, the rest of the knife incinerated.

    Clockwork lowered her hoof, still smoking from the shot, and approached the stallion. She moved until the tip of her helm’s “beak” touched his nose, her glowing eyes locking onto his dirty brown ones.

    “Run.”

    Clockwork had never seen a stallion piss himself before, but this one did as he scrambled away from her, and she followed him with her sensors until he was out of the ally and running down the block like his tail was on fire.

    “T-thank you,” the mare said in a trembling little voice.

    “You’re lucky,” Clockwork answered through the helm, “I’m not usually in this area of Canterlot.”

    “I guess so…” the scantily dressed mare sniffled.

    “What are you doing out here, anyway?”

    “I gotta to work… I gotta feed my little girl,” the mare restated, and Clockwork turned to face her more fully.

    “Are you sure that’s the way to do it?” she asked simply, motioning with a hoof to her attire.

    “I make more in one night than I did with an entire two week paycheck working as a waitress,” she answered with a shrug, and straightened one slightly torn stocking.

    “Assuming you don’t get your neck slit,” Clockwork answered softly.

    “I’d run that risk regardless in this neighborhood,” she sighed and pulled a cigarette out from somewhere in that skimpy outfit and telekinetically popped it into her mouth. Clockwork had to look closer, the girl’s horn well hidden amongst waves of shocking pink mane. Her magic wavered heavily, shaking the lighter as she tried to light the cigarette, before it fell to the ground. The mare cursed and scooped it up with her hoof. “Sorry, still a little…”

    “It’s alright, “Clockwork answered softly. “Give the adrenaline a few minutes to wear off, and you’ll be fine.”

    She chuckled, “I suppose so. Though a smoke usually helps calm me… what are you doing?”

    Clockwork smacked the side of the helmet again with her hoof, making a ringing sound like a bell. “Dammit, I thought I fixed this!” she swore, and worked at her neck slightly. The helmet made a hissing sound, and with a pull from her hooves, the helm popped off and revealed the khaki mare beneath. She turned the helm around and frowned, the “eye” that burned out from the explosion was flickering again. “Damn, it must be in worse shape than I thought,” she grumbled.

    “Holy Celestia, you’re just a filly!” the other mare said in astonishment, the cigarette hanging loose on her lips.

    “I’m just short,” Clockwork grumbled and looked away. She looked at the helm in her hooves and sighed, “I need to fix this before I can head back…”

    “Can’t you just… I dunno, fly away?”

    “I can’t,” Clockwork sighed, “the helm is integral to the core systems. I can’t even lift off without it in place.”

    “I live just a few blocks from here, so long as you don’t mind the strange looks,” the mare offered. “You’ll want to stay to the alleys though, they really don’t care for your kind down here.”

    “My kind?” Clockwork asked carefully.

    “Specials,” the mare said and motioned with her hoof for Clockwork to follow. To her surprise, the scantily dressed mare was easily able to lead her through a handful of alleys, each one seemingly dirtier than the last. Clockwork managed to only knock over a few trashcans, much to her escort’s chagrin. Worse, Clockwork never truly anticipated the eternally slick and slimy alleyways when she designed the hooves of her suit, and they lacked the proper traction, which made a few sharp turns at any appreciable speed a practical impossibility. Fortunately they didn’t run the whole way, even if they took a slightly longer route when the other mare spotted someone she knew would be bad news.

    Finally they reached a squat gray building that seemed all of three stories and barely large enough to house a family. Of course, that meant that it was split into apartments once inside. Clockwork was careful not to crack any more of the tiles beneath her hooves, the grunge and age showing in both the cracked flooring and the yellowing paint along the walls. Once on the third floor the mare pulled a key from somewhere in the folds of her nearly non-existent clothing to unlock one of the doors.

    “It ain’t much, but its home,” she said, and let Clockwork in before locking the door behind them. The armoured mare clamped down on her tongue, lest she insult the mare who led her here. The apartment was small, tiny even, far smaller than even her first lab, and that was just the family garage! It seemed to be roughly two rooms, the larger of the two was barely a half dozen lengths across, and shorter lengthwise, thanks to the small kitchen area and the cheap plastic table that served as the main table for the apartment. The back room was dark, so Clockwork couldn’t get a feel for it, even as the cheap overhead light threw the main room into stark relief. The golden blonde mare immediately stuck her nose into the back room, gave a wistful smile, and tugged the door partially shut before returning and pulling another cigarette off the table and lighting it just fine this time.

    “So long as you don’t wake little Indigo, you should be fine,” the mare stated. “Oh, I’m Honey by the way… What? Don’t give me that look, that’s my real name. My folks were bee-keepers before they moved to Canterlot when I was still a filly. The Imps chased us out, so I ain’t sorry to see ‘em gone.”

    “Sorry to hear that,” Clockwork stated, feeling uncertain exactly how to proceed.

    “Sorry don’t pay the bills,” the mare groused and looked over at her. “You can shuck that tin can if you want.”

    Clockwork blushed slightly. “It requires a lot of special tools to do that,” she admitted, “I designed it to be as simple as possible in order to minimize what could go wrong with it. Unfortunately that doesn’t exactly include getting in and out of it easily.”

    “Really? What do you do when you gotta take a leak, miss… er…?”

    “Clockwork Key,” she answered with a shrug, “I have a filtration and collection system in case of an emergency but… I’ll admit it’s not something I’ve had to use before. If you have a window you can open, however, I can summon something that will let me strip it off.”

    The mare raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. She reached over with a hoof and flicked open one of the windows. “I needed to open it anyway. Doc keeps telling me I need to reduce the amount of second hand smoke Indigo gets --”

    A roar of an engine cut off the rest of her sentence as Honey nearly dropped her cigarette in shock. A large metal slab carefully lined itself up to the window, hovering just outside it, before maneuvering itself through and settling on the floor. Clockwork only smiled as she moved to the sled and…

    “Keep it down up there!!” somepony shouted from below them, followed by a pounding from below.

    “Keep it down yourself, you old coot!” Honey replied, banging her hoof on the aged carpet to pound back. Clockwork could imagine this going on for a while, and opted to let the sled strip the armour off her and fold it away for now. She tried hard to ignore the increasing profanity from the neighbors as she checked to make sure she still had the specialized tools within the sled so she could get to work on the helm.

    “Momma, are you home?” a small voice asked, and instantly the golden mare went from cursing at her neighbor to sweeping forward to scoop up the dark purple filly in her forelegs, nuzzling her lovingly.

    “Yes, yes, Momma is home early tonight,” she cooed warmly.

    “You have someone else here,” the little girl noted sagely, nodding to Clockwork, “but you didn’t seem to be wrestling, so I thought it was safe…” Honey just nuzzled the little filly again as Clockwork blushed, paying attention to anything but the pair. She imagined it was rare, but it was possible she conducted… business here.

    “No, no wrestling tonight,” Honey chuckled at the euphemism. “And this filly helped me out of a tight spot earlier, so I’m returning the favor.”

    “Hi Miss…” the filly offered with a shy wave of her hoof.

    She couldn’t help but smile and return the little hoof wave before she answered, “Clockwork Key. And just who might you be?”

    “Indigo!” the little filly chirped proudly.

    “Well it’s nice to meet you, Indigo,” Clockwork answered with a smile. “I just need to do some repairs to my machine here, and then I’ll be out of your momma’s mane.”

    “I hope not like Mister Hawk does,” the filly answered, oblivious to the rather dark look from her mother. Clockwork put that name aside to ask about later.

    “Well, I don’t know who that is, so probably not,” she noted and lifted the helmet, the flickering eye held towards the filly. “See that? That’s what I need to fix…”

    The filly giggled, “It looks like it’s winkin’ at me!”

    Clockwork craned her head a little to look. “Huh, it does, doesn’t it?”

    “You’re good with foals.”

    Clockwork looked up at the other mare, the golden mare offering her a cup of… something. Clockwork stopped caring after the first bitter drink. Ostensibly it was coffee in a cheap stained mug, but it was more like a bitter, gritty drink that only bore a barely passable resemblance to the beverage it supposedly was. Still, Clockwork hardly felt the desire to complain about the hospitality, and the filly leaning against her and snoring cutely kept her mostly still. She didn’t want to wake Indigo.

    “Thanks,” Clockwork answered softly, setting down the helmet and switching it off to save what little power it had left.

    “You have any yourself?” Honey asked as she curled up on a pillow across from her. To Clockwork, she looked far better without the heavy make-up and “sexy” attire. She had a lovely golden coat, almost literally the color of Honey. Her pink mane and tail were obviously dyed that horrid neon pink, and she could see some of the dark brown roots showing. She could also see her cutie-mark, a single honeycomb with honey dripping from it,

    The khaki mare shook her head and sighed, “Someday… maybe, but things have been far too busy to even think about it right now.”

    “I’m sure some handsome stallion will find you, you’re too cute to stay single for long,” Honey teased before taking another sip of her coffee, “but there’s something sad about you that I can’t put my hoof on. Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna ask you to tell me. It’s none of my business what you special types get up to, but it would drive away a lot of clients in my line of work.”

    “Why is that?” the other mare asked, curiously.

    “Clients don’t want somepony with more problems than they have,” Honey answered, staring at her coffee as she swirled it about the cup. “They want a pony to take their mind off their own problems, not one with baggage of her own.”

    Clockwork chuckled softly, “Guess it’s a good thing I never plan to get into that line of work.”

    “Ain’t none of us ‘plan’ to,” the golden mare answered in a far-away voice, “it just happens when there are no other choices. That’s where you’re lucky; you can always fall back on the Agency… Well, unless you turn into some evil bitch and try to take out the Princesses, anyway.”

    “What about you?” Clockwork asked softly. “I know there are public assistance programs but… don’t you have someone to take care of you… both of you?”

    “You mean, like, her father?” Honey asked, her face unreadable.

    “Well…”

    “Her father was a drunk who liked to beat mares,” Honey said flatly. “I made the mistake of not standing up to him sooner, and when I did, I was already pregnant with her. That bastard almost cost me Indigo, and she’s a frail little thing thanks to what he did.”

    “And this ‘Mister Hawk’?” Clockwork pressed gently.

    “He runs the girls under him… and occasionally likes to partake himself,” she answered softly.

    Clockwork blinked. “You mean… a pimp?”

    Honey nodded with a frown. “Yeah, that’s the common word for them, though he never liked it. He likes to see himself as being above the petty crap, but all that means is he’s meaner when he thinks he’s getting ripped off.”

    “I take it you two aren’t on the best of terms.”

    “You could say that,” the golden mare answered as she took a sip of her coffee, “the mugger got my money before you got there, so he technically got away with what he wanted. He got the bits.”

    Clockwork blinked, and then face-hoofed. “Dammit, I thought I was quick enough to stop him! I didn’t even think to --“

    Honey shut the shorter mare up with a hoof on her mouth, reducing her speech into a cute string of little muffled sounds. The golden mare answered simply when the other mare finally stopped, “You stepped in at all. Honestly, around here, that’s more than anypony else would have done. He’d have killed me if you hadn’t, and I can’t bear to think what would happen to little Indigo if I never came home.”

    Clockwork took a slow breath and waited until the other girl removed her hoof before asking the next logical question, “So what about Hawk? Won’t he want the bits?”

    “I’ll have to work a bit harder tomorrow…” and she paused to look out the window at the sunrise, “…excuse me, tonight, to make up the difference. I’m more worried what he might do to Indigo if he gets impatient.”

    “If I’m around, I won’t let anything happen to her…”

    “Nice thought, but you have your own life to get back to,” Honey pointed out gently, “and your own friends waiting for you.” Clockwork didn’t answer, but the other mare’s face fell as she watched. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that was a sensitive issue. I promised I wouldn’t pry.”

    “Thank you,” Clockwork answered softly, “but I think some distance from my ‘friends’ might be exactly what I need.”

    “No, I’m sure that’s the one thing you don’t need,” the other mare answered, smirking at confused look the statement earned her. “If anything, I’d say you need them more than ever.”

    “You can’t --”

    “In my job, you have to be able to read people very well,” Honey interrupted. “That’s how I could see you were sad about something. But there’s more than that, you were hurt by something, by someone. You’ve been hurt badly, broken and shattered like a mirror after an all night bender.”

    “That’s… graphic,” Clockwork slipped in, making a face.

    “But accurate,” the golden mare noted, and tipped her head back to finish her drink. “Now I don’t know what happened, or why, and it’s none of my business. But I’ll tell you like I tell every other girl I’ve seen with that same haunted look in her eyes. Find something or somepony to love, and cling to them with every ounce of strength you have. Once you find that one thing, make sure that not even Celestia herself can pull you away from it.”

    Clockwork looked down at her own hooves for a moment before turning her head, eyeing the sleeping foal resting against her side. She’d been so curious about the helmet, and Clockwork even let the filly try it on with enough juice to see some of the internal readouts. The realization crossed her mind then, and she voiced it softly, “Indigo is that special thing to you, isn’t she?”

    “You’re cute when you’re perceptive,” the mare giggled and climbed to her hooves. Clockwork watched the filly, not even noticing the other mare collect her mug until she felt her kiss the top of her head. The khaki mare’s ears splayed as she blushed, much to the other mare’s amusement as she wandered towards the back bedroom.

    “I need some sleep,” Honey called, “feel free to let yourself out!”

16

Chapter 16

“Good Intentions”

    Honey had been woken up in the past by a great number of things; headaches, sickness, the slap of a stallion, and far worse. But this time she woke up to a sound she couldn’t remember hearing for a long time.

    Laughter.

    The curvy unicorn mare spent a moment to stretch languidly on the bed, smiling to herself as she heard Indigo giggling happily, and the low voice of someone talking to her. She couldn’t help but sigh happily to herself at the sound, so rare these days… before panic suddenly gripped her. Some pony was in her apartment! She ripped back the sheet and threw herself at the bedroom door, wrenching it open with her magic before she even reached it.

    She immediately felt sheepish and foolish when she witnessed the events in her own living room. In fact, she couldn’t help but start giggling herself as she bore witness to the scene before her. Her daughter, armed with ribbons and bows and a large number of simple plastic accessories, had begun a childish make-over on the short mare from the night before. Clockwork Key, for her part, looked patently embarrassed and silly. Her head was lowered, but she just didn’t seem able to tell the little filly “no” as Indigo wove another grossly oversized bow into her short mane.

    “Well, I’ll admit this isn’t at all what I expected,” Honey joked.

    “Momma!” Indigo cried, and rushed over to hug her mother.

    Clockwork flushed deeply and pleaded with a small voice, “Help?”

    “Not until we trim your mane!” Indigo insisted, making Clockwork groan and Honey burst out laughing.

    “Yeah yeah, laugh it up…” the short mare grumbled.

    “I’m sorry but… I didn’t expect you to still be here,” she answered with a smile, “besides, Indigo is right. Your mane could use a trim.”

    “Not you too…” Clockwork groaned.

    “Oh hush you,” Honey teased, “I’m sure we could give you a nice make-over while you’re still here.”

    “Yay! Momma does the best make-overs!” Indigo cried happily, as Clockwork hid under her hooves.

    Clockwork moaned, “I’m doomed… doomed I say!”

    “Indigo, get her into the bedroom while I get washed up, and then find my make-up kit,” Honey ordered, and the foal jumped up to start head-butting the other mare’s flank. Honey ignored the indignant muttering from the short mare, mixed intermittently with complaints about Indigo’s stubby little horn poking her side, as her daughter steered the uncertain femme into the bedroom. She herself wandered into the tiny closet-like bathroom and quickly washed herself off, enjoying the few moments of hot water she could get. After running a towel over herself, she checked the progress of her daughter, who managed to nudge the nervous looking Clockwork onto the bed. With a chuckle, she fished out what looked to be a tackle-box from under the bed and settled it by her side. With a practiced hoof, she flicked open the catch and began to unfold it, revealing the layers of make-up of all types within it. From the lowest drawer, she pulled out a heavy brush and tossed to her daughter. “Start on her tail,” she instructed, and used a hoof to tug out some of the gaudy ribbons and bows her daughter had decorated Clockwork’s mane with.

    The following hour seemed to last forever for the small mare, who found herself unable to extract herself from the pair now that she was “caught”. Honey simply brushed off any objection, while Indigo leveled puppy dog eyes of weapons grade cuteness at her every time she even hinted that she might not want to go through this. Finally, Clockwork resigned that, no matter what she said, this was going to happen.

    And happen it did. Honey was no slouch when it came to making a femme beautiful, and in an odd way, considered it repayment for saving her life the previous night. With brush in hoof, she and her daughter worked out every kink and knot from Clockwork’s mane and tail, laying it as flat as the mare could manage before taking a pair of scissors and shaping the indigo mane and tail into something more than an unkempt mess. Clockwork’s tail was already rather short, so it only took some shaping made it look stylish. But her mane was a mess, seemingly hacked short by a butcher instead of a barber.

    “How do you know how to do this?” Clockwork asked curiously, even as Honey went to work on shaping her bangs.

    “Simple,” Honey answered, “I attended a vocational school here in Canterlot. Cosmetology is always a big choice for fillies who don’t know what they want to do with their lives, so I ended up taking it. That was before I found out that as a ‘career path’ it was oversaturated. Sure, you can find a job trimming manes, but it paid minimum wage and there was next to no chance for advancement. Not that I ever got that far…” The golden mare closed her eyes for a moment and looked away, forcing away the momentary spike of pain that memory brought with it.

    “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” the short mare said apologetically, lowering her head, which Honey forced back up so she could keep trimming. The golden unicorn didn’t immediately answer, instead focusing on trimming Clockwork’s bangs.

    “It’s alright,” she finally answered when she put the scissors down, “you didn’t know. It’s just… I’d just rather not talk about it.” And with that, she reached for the make-up.

     Clockwork had never been one to wear make-up, having always forgone it in favor of the occasional grease smear on her coat. As such, she never really put much thought how much actual work has to go into applying it; having always thought of it was just a bit of lipstick and maybe a touch of mascara. Honey, however, quickly disabused her of that notion, and for the next fifteen minutes worked over her face. Liner was dawn about her eyes, followed by a careful mix of color gently applied to her eyelids. A pair of tweezers made short work of a few loose hairs from her eyebrows, and then an eyebrow pencil to darken and thin them out somewhat. Add a light dusting of color to her cheeks, a careful application of gloss to her lips by what felt like a miniature paintbrush, and even more pencils to line along her lips. All the while, Honey kept the same careful approach, applying it with an attention to detail Clockwork would only normally apply herself when dealing with her gear or equipment.

    The golden mare finally pulled back and looked over her work with a critical eye. Clockwork felt awkward as the mare leaned close, studying small aspects of her face and touching up here or there with a small brush or pencil until she was satisfied with her work and leaned back. “What do you think, kiddo?” she asked her daughter.

    The filly hopped up onto the bed beside her mother and pressed her lips tightly over her tongue as she studied Clockwork closely, making her feel even more nervous somehow. “Somethin’s missing… I know! Jewelry!”

    “Good call,” Honey chuckled, and pulled out another box, starting to dig through it. “This is all costume jewelry, so don’t worry if it gets lost or anything,” she told the shorter mare as she checked her ears and, noting the lack of any sort of piercing, adorned her ears with a clip on ring at the base of each, and a second ring partway up her left ear.

    “Now some clothin’!” Indigo cried out and was halfway into the closet before her mother was even on her hooves. Clockwork frowned as they seemed to completely ignore her while they sifted through a number of rather lewd outfits. She wasn’t sure she would feel comfortable wearing anything this mare had to offer, especially given her line of work, but could see no good way of begging off. It was obvious little Indigo was delighting in helping her mother give this make-over too. With a sigh, Clockwork forced herself to relax. It’s not like ay pony she knew would bear witness to this, right?

    Clockwork glanced over, smiling slightly as the pair argued materials, when a slight reflection of light caught her eye. Turning her head, looking past the small utilitarian bed the mother and daughter shared, was a small desk with a lamp and a mirror. From her current angle she the mirror only showed her the wall, but if she moved…

    “Sit down,” Indigo ordered, her eyes flaring with mischief. “You’ll get a chance to look when we’re finished, and not a moment before.” She stared at Clockwork with her amber eyes until the mare nodded dumbly and sat her flank back down, only to realize Honey had turned the mirror further away from her. Clockwork sighed and mumbled something about fairness as she waited.

    “Have you ever worn heels?” Honey asked as she finally came back, bearing the first of a number of items she obviously planned for Clockwork to wear.

    “Um… no?”

    “Well, you’ll have that chance now,” Honey teased and passed to Clockwork a quartet of stockings. They were black nylon with long seams up the backs and a reinforced cover over the bottom of each hoof. To Clockwork they were obviously designed to be worn with a boot or shoe to protect them, even as Honey helped her tug them on. She was only mildly surprised when Honey fitted a corset-like saddle over her waist and tightened it, causing her to wheeze momentarily from the constriction of the butter colored satin with black lace trim. She almost missed that it had short elastic straps with clips on the ends until Honey began to attach them to the stockings. A pair of straps pulled over her hips and flank, while the others cut just behind her forelegs at the forward edge of the saddle to hold the front stockings up.

    “This should fit,” the golden mare stated as Indigo trotted up with it draped over her back, a green satin dress that seemed to almost shimmer in the afternoon light. Clockwork could only remain still as the mother/daughter team pulled it over her. The corset was obviously needed, since the dress fit quite snugly about her waist, but it was surprisingly loose elsewhere as the gown was settled into place. The khaki mare fidgeted nervously as they pinned a spot or two before helping her into the matching shoes, a modest height that still made Clockwork feel as if she were going to fall forward onto her face.

    “Momma?” Indigo asked, rubbing her chin with her hoof, studying Clockwork critically.

    “Here, put this in her tail,” she answered, and floated to her daughter a deep emerald green ribbon, which the little filly grabbed happily and began to tie into Clockwork’s indigo tail. “I think that’s about it. Once Indigo is done, we’ll let you get a good look at yourself.”

    “W-where did you get this dress?” Clockwork asked softly, eyes wide as she looked it over.

    “It belonged to one of my Bridlemaids,” she answered with a sad smile, “back when I married and had Indigo. It’s just been sitting in my closet after Petunia returned it, and I kept it for some reason. She was about your size, as you noticed, maybe a little lankier.”

    “I…  Thank you,” Clockwork answered with a smile.

    “I figured you wouldn’t go in for my usual work clothing,” Honey teased, if only to watch the other mare blush.

    The filly interrupted them as just the right moment for Clockwork, “Finished!”

    “Good work,” Honey smiled and nuzzled her daughter lightly before trotting over to the mirror she turned away.

    Clockwork expected the change to be dramatic, perhaps even a little bit astonishing. What she hadn’t expected was to literally not recognize herself. The mare in the mirror had beautiful green eyes, almost glowing emeralds that peered out from a cloud of smoky purple eye shadow and dark mascara. Heavy lashes and deep lines from the eyeliner made her eyes appear slightly angled, almost almandine, and suggestively half lidded. A dark shimmering red, almost maroon, painted her lips, rendering them tantalizing shadows that hinted at further mysteries, and her indigo mane nearly hung down over her left eye, threatening to hide it in shadows. If anything, it seemed like every touch of makeup on her face was designed purely to bring out her eyes and lend an air of mystique. And then there was the dress… a beautiful green satin with gold and silver thread chasing along its seams and decorative edge. Sure, the petticoats sewn inside it were scratchy and annoying, but the flared skirt gave a lovely sway to the entire ensemble as Clockwork took a few tentative steps. The heels seemed to match the gown perfectly, and the stockings only further emphasized the dress by de-emphasizing how different in tone her coat was from the material of the gown.

    Indigo watched expectantly, but her mother could only give a slowly widening smile. “She isn’ sayin’ anything, Momma… is something wrong?” Indigo asked tentatively, “I KNEW we should have gone with the red sequins…”

    “No, everything is perfect,” Honey said softly as she watched Clockwork step daintily forward to touch her own reflection in awe, “she’s just a little overwhelmed.”

    The little filly nodded sagely for a moment, only to have her face scrunch up with thought. “Well she needs to stop being so whelmed!”

    “It’s… I’m… Wow…” Clockwork finally managed to stammer, lowering her hoof from the reflection she didn’t recognize. It almost reminded her of what the Princesses had excitedly suggested to the team for the Grand Galloping Gala, and that she’d gone out of her way to avoid.

    “See, kiddo? She’s starting to come out of it,” Honey joked and tickled the foal’s side.

    “You like it?” Indigo cried, bouncing on the bed excitedly.

    “I… Y-yes, I do. I never thought… I never even….” Clockwork stammered, unable to rip her eyes away from the reflection staring back at her.

    The golden mare lightly looped an arm over Clockwork’s shoulder and leaned close. “Now if you really want to try on those other outfits, I’m sure we could find the time…” she offered suggestively, and couldn’t help but giggle as the khaki mare’s ears folded back tightly, her blush so bright you could practically use it as a nightlight. Only a knock at the front door spared Clockwork further teasing, and with a sigh she separated herself from the other mare, “Indigo, go see who it is. And remember, use the peephole first!”

    “Yes ma’am!” Indigo called and trotted off, and shortly followed by the sound of a kitchen chair being drug along the floor. Honey made a face and shook her head slightly.

    “She’ll figure out magic soon enough,” she told Clockwork, though seemingly more to herself. She started to put up the massive box filled with make-up, getting it closed as Clockwork returned to staring at her reflection, when they both heard a yelp from the other room, and a masculine voice call out.

    “Oh Honey, I’m here for my money…”

    “Hawk,” the pony all but spat as she brushed past Clockwork and headed for the main room. Clockwork shadowed her more slowly, unsteady in the heeled shoes. From the doorway she could see Honey stalking towards a pegasus easily a head taller than any she could remember seeing in a long time. She doubted he was a special, but there was something about the way he stood that made her sure he was used to getting his own way. Despite his size, the white stallion cut a rather handsome figure, the problem was, he obviously knew it. His blonde mane and deep blue eyes reminded Clockwork of some pony she heard in a story somewhere, but she couldn’t place where. He watched Honey approach with an almost casual disinterest.

    “Well well, there she is. I told you boys she would be at home,” he stated to the pair of muscular ponies with him. They looked about as dim as a two watt bulb to Clockwork, but she highly doubted they were hired for their brains. One was a muddy brown, while the other was a slate gray, both with broad chins and powerful builds only partially concealed by the loose floor length coats they were wearing. One of them was holding onto a squirming and indignant Indigo.

    “Tell your thugs to get their hooves off my daughter,” Honey all but growled. The lead pony seemed unimpressed but made a motion with a hoof, and the gray stallion let the filly loose, who immediately charged over to her mother.

    “Well, isn’t that touching,” the white stallion snarked.

    “What do you want, Hawk?” Honey demanded, pushing her daughter behind her. Clockwork took that moment to hiss at Indigo and motion her over, but the filly just shook her head stubbornly. “Let me guess, you need help getting all that white dye out of your fur? Seriously, your coat has been every color of the rainbow so far…”

    “Except for pink,” one of the thugs noted, oblivious to the harsh glare that earned him from his employer.

    “No, no my dear,” the stallion said, recovering smoothly. “I’m here for your take. You were supposed to bring it by last night --”

    “I got robbed,” Honey interrupted flatly, “but you knew that already. You also already know I will work extra tonight to earn the money back.”

    “I’ll admit, I’m curious how you are still standing after a robbery,” the stallion said simply. “After all, this is a rough part of town, and most mugging victims wind up in the morgue...”

    Clockwork spoke without thinking, or even considering the image she must have put forward with how she was dressed, “I chased him off.”

    “Ah, I wondered who was hiding back there,” he noted with a bemused smile, “and I see that Honey was kind enough to get you all tarted up for me as well. She always was good at finding new talent. But this is a private conversation, and your ears aren’t welcome. Honey, let’s continue this in your bedroom…”

    “Do you think I’m about to let you --” Clockwork started, taking a step forward. She realized too late her mistake and stumbled on one of the heels.

    “Boys?” The order barely left his lips when the two thugs closed in on her, one on each side, and gripped her about the middle with their forelegs. She was lifted bodily up and to the side, pinned between them. Hawk strode over to her, using a hoof to cup her chin and force her to look at him. “Honey did a nice job on you, and it’d be a shame to waste her talents, or yours. Boys, break her in. She’ll make a nice addition to the dancers down at the ‘Plowed Field’, once she’s been tamed.”

    Honey looked back apologetically as Hawk steered her towards the bedroom. Clockwork tried to push forward, but the combined muscle of the two stallions prevented her from going anywhere. Indigo, of course, ran after her mother. The door slammed shut behind them, leaving the khaki mare pinned between two very large and dim thugs…

    “This is gonna be fun,” one of the stallions said in a dull voice, nuzzling behind her ear.

    Correction, she was pinned between two very large and dim thugs who had a very specific idea of what “breaking her in” meant. Clockwork’s mind screamed in panic for a moment before she stomped on it with all four heeled horseshoes. Despite the twisting revulsion in her gut, an idea percolated up from the dark depths of her mind…

    “You’re right, this is going to be fun,” she purred, giving them her best smile.

    “I do hope I am not intruding.”

    Professor Relic yelped and all but fell off the couch he was reclining on, his book sent fluttering to the floor as he bowed low to the Princess. Quagga handled her entrance more reasonably, and simply finished coming down the stairs before bowing as well. Celestia nodded her acknowledgement to them both and wandered over to examine the jacket of the book the Professor dropped.

    “The Life and Times of a Celestial Body,” Celestia read from the cover with a teasing smile as Relic lifted it with his magic. “Reading my unofficial biography, I see. I do hope you understand why I removed that particular bit of nonsense from circulation.”

    “Admittedly, at first I thought it was because it was so negative a portrayal of yourself, Princess,” Relic said after a moment, “but I decided to read more. While most of it seems focused on pure character assault upon you, Princess, his supposed science doesn’t add up to me.”

    The Princess smiled and gave a short nod before finding a nearby cushion to settle down on. “That, indeed, is why I removed it from print. I am a big enough pony to withstand assaults on my character, and being the long-time co-ruler of Equestria means I am a large target for dissidents of all stripes, no pun intended Quagga. But the falsehoods he claimed and perpetrated in the name of science were downright inexcusable, especially when all one has to do is ask me.”

    “So far, he has claimed in the book to have asked you,” Relic pointed out, “but then discounted your assertions as propaganda and flat out lies. I will confess that the idea of the sun and moon rising on their own is a difficult thing for me to imagine.”

    Celestia offered a weary smile and sighed, “If only that were true some days, then I could sleep in. Technically they could rise on their own but, like a wound clock, would lose momentum over time. While I freely admit that it is not overly difficult to raise the sun and the moon in this day and age, it does require a level of punctuality that my sister and I feel inherently. This is also why a cabal of unicorns could, and has in the past, done my current job; we only need to nudge it along at this point. If we did not maintain the cycle, it would begin to slow… I believe the math worked out that, in roughly seventeen hundred years, the system would inherently lose enough momentum that my little ponies would be dealing with a day twice as long as we currently allow. Eventually, the spring would wind out, and the sun and moon would simply stop, burning one side of the planet and freezing the other. To start it from that stopped position would take a great feat of mystic power, one that would drain my sister and me almost completely.”

    “Which goes against the writer’s claims that the system was working fine until you broke it, or are taking credit for a natural cycle, into doubt,” Relic said softly. “No offense, Princess, but that still seems primarily a suppression of an idea that stands against you.”

    “None taken, Professor,” Celestia offered with a warm smile, “I do not expect you to agree with all my decisions. I removed it under the fear that if more and more ponies believed that, they would let other systems fall to the wayside. Like the sun and moon, this world simply cannot work properly without some form of continual maintenance. The pegasi have a more direct contact with that aspect of our planet than most ponies, managing the weather as they do, but every pony affects it in some way. Be it caring for animals that cannot fend for themselves, attending to the growth patterns of various types of plants, or even just cleaning up winter, every pony has a responsibility to this land that cannot be shirked without consequence. Should a large contingent of ponies have fallen sway to the writer’s ideal, we could end up with an incredibly dangerous situation, and places as wild as the Everfree Forest could start popping up all over Equestria as they let the world ‘take care of itself’.”

    “It would lead to a certain malaise and laziness that has been seen only in ancient days long past,” Quagga inserted as he found himself a cushion to settle on. “My friend’s dubious taste in reading material aside, what can we do for you, Princess?”

    Celestia chuckled softly behind a hoof and looked over to where the Elements of Justice were resting comfortably on their cushions. “I would have thought it obvious, gentlestallions. You gave me one very hopeful report and began interviewing some of my guard, and yet, just over a week later, I find you’ve abandoned that avenue of approach. Given that I was not apprised of any changes or updates to your knowledge base, am I to assume you have either on the verge of solving this riddle or run afoul of a hurdle you cannot overcome?”

    The pair of stallions looked to each other for a moment, then sighed as Relic placed a bookmark within the book and set it aside. “We’ve run into a hurdle, Princess, one we do not think can be overcome.”

    “Yes, that indeed sounds like you,” Celestia noted softly, “you do not express yourself well when you have hit a dead end in your research.”

    Relic scowled as his zebra friend began to laugh. “She knows you well, my friend,” he chortled.

    “Perhaps you’re right, Princess,” Relic admitted with a gusty sigh, “but I fail to see how even you could overcome this situation.”

    “Until you explain it, I will not know,” she offered impishly.

    “Very well,” Relic said, and climbed off the couch to wander over to the Elements in question. “The thesis for our interviews centered on the ideal that the elements would react to the inherent capacity within a pony for the qualities they represent, and that the crystals would resonate in some recordable manner when the proper emotion or quality was present. The problem we encountered was that the elements would not react at all to the interviews we began conducting. Nothing, not even the slightest flicker, despite pulling from your own guard, and even the same individual whom caused the reaction Quagga noticed in the first place.”

    “The Professor began to question our testing method at this point,” the zebra slipped in from where he was sitting. “The question became: how can you test the true nature of a pony, the capacity of a pony to access the core and uniting value of the Elements, or the element’s value specifically?”

    “Which we concluded that, after a prolonged discussion, you can’t,” Relic continued, turning away from the element he was gazing into and back to the Princess. “There is no way to know what lies below the surface, to know how truly honest a pony might be about themselves. And it’s more than just intentionally lying to us, but it includes dozens of possibilities. Ponies who literally don’t know…”

    “…ponies who lie to themselves…” Quagga added.

    “…ponies who exaggerate their nature…”

    “…ponies who are psychopathically dishonest…”

    “…ponies who have been told all their lives the wrong thing…”

    “…ponies who simply overestimate their abilities…”

    “…ponies who --”

    “I see the problem,” Celestia interrupted, “there are too many uncontrollable factors.”

    “And that’s just the beginning,” Relic noted, wandering back to the couch and leaning against it, “There’s also the fact that every recorded ‘activation’ of the Elements of Harmony required a great deal of danger before they selected a bearer. Literally, they wouldn’t go active until the last possible second, almost as if they were giving us ponies every opportunity to resolve the situation without their assistance. Heck, in the two instances we have empirical evidence regarding, the Element’s physical shells were completely destroyed before they went active.”

    “The instances you are referring to… I presume you mean Twilight Sparkle and her friends,” Celestia interjected, “and the current element bearers?”

    “That’s correct, Princess,” Relic said, then blinked at the odd, almost knowing, smile on the elder Princess’ lips. “Is everything alright, ma’am?”

    “Representing one of the elements, becoming a bearer, is akin to a rebirth,” she noted as she climbed to her hooves. “There is a longstanding theory that that the element must be destroyed in preparation for a new bearer. The Element often takes the shape and the mark of the one who held it last, thus to prepare itself to be held by a new owner requires it eliminate the last connections to the old bearer. If left dormant for a long duration, they revert back to their natural shape, the crystal orbs as you see here, in preparation for an egg-like burst of magic to assume a new form. This is why representations of the Elements prior to Twilight Sparkle and her friends taking possession of them are so erratic. When my sister and I had to use them to imprison Discord, they adopted the six colored gems in a golden holder that was so frequently drawn in old books,” Celestia paused to look over the bookshelves, searching for a moment before murmuring, “Ah, here it is.” With a deft swipe of her magic, she withdrew a book from very high on the shelves and placed it on a table nearby. While Relic and Quagga approached it curiously, Celestia sat back down.

    “Elemental Nature,” the Professor read aloud, “no author credited.”

    “This book is exceptionally old,” Quagga inserted, studying the spine, “this was bound before even the first rudimentary presses were created. Long before, I would wager.”

    The dusty colored unicorn used his magic to slowly open the book, his eyes widening as he looked at the writing, “This is… ancient! This writing, Quagga, look at this writing! I haven’t seen ancient Braytish like this since… since…”

    “Since the tomb of the Ponytifex, the last of the great ‘demon’ hunters, and who took to his grave all the accumulated data he had accrued about the ‘shape-shifting demons’ he fought his entire life,” Quagga noted with a nostalgic smile.

    “That was a fascinating discovery, wasn’t it?” Relic asked with a smile. “Those were some of the first recorded instances of the Changelings, and how ponies thought they were shape-shifting demons and devils straight from the depths of Tartarus at first.”

    “Given their native appearance, that is not too much of an intellectual leap. Still, he had a surprising amount of information and research,” Quagga noted, “but came to the wrong conclusions in the end. He completely missed the hive-like nature of their social structure.”

    “My etchings from that dig still rest proudly in the Canterlot Museum, right along with other evidence about the Changelings and the mystery surrounding their origins.” Relic shook off the clinging memories and re-examining the book the Princess provided them. “The problem with this text is that the language here is too old for this binding. Books of this nature didn’t come into existence until several centuries later, and the sharp angles of the writing indicate this is the first iteration of the Braytish language… perhaps this is copied?”

    “Those are the originals,” Celestia slipped in from where she sat, watching the pair with a bemused grin.

    “Look at the unique size of the volume, Professor;” Quagga pointed out, “it’s possible these were scrolls that were collected into a single volume at a later date.”

    “That might explain the cover page. Here, listen to this: ‘Within these covers lie a private collection of all information I have collected about the mystic items known as the Elements,” Professor Relic read, his eyes scanning the page almost hungrily, “If one discovers this volume unattended, please leave it where the shining sun may gaze upon it, and I shall reclaim it.’ It’s easy to forget how poetic some of the ancient Braytish were.”

    “I do not think that was meant to be poetic, Professor,” the zebra noted, and looked over at the solar regent, who watched back. Relic took a moment to glance up at his partner, then over to where Celestia was sitting calmly with a knowing smile. His mouth went dry for a moment, and he swallowed as he looked at the odd book once more.

    “These are… your notes?” he asked carefully.

    Celestia nodded. “Yes, Professor, those are my notes, volume one of four, to be precise. All four volumes may be found here, in this library.”

    “You… self censored?” Relic asked, confused. “Why?”

    “What you hold in your hoof is a repository of all my knowledge on the Elements of Harmony,” Celestia answered simply, tapping her hoof on the floor. “Even after four volumes, I only just scratched the surface of what the Elements represent. Further, included in these volumes are my research and techniques on how I created my own elements, the Elements of Justice. In short, you are holding more than three millennia of research into the nature of the Elements, why they did what they did, how they do what they do, and how they choose their bearers. Anything and everything I could discover about them, I placed in those books. Every theory and belief I could find, including my personal belief that they are the very essence of power that created Equestria and this planet. And then, I buried it away from all pony eyes for a simple reason: the Elements must be able to work with minimal foreknowledge of them.”

    “I… don’t understand,” Relic said simply.

    “The more you know about the Elements, the less capable you are of wielding one. There is one thing to the elements that is nearly impossible to pin down, but is also required,” Celestia said softly, “innocence.”

    “You’re saying that any bearer, or potential bearer, must be completely in the dark about the true nature of the Elements?” Quagga asked in lieu of the Professor, who was looking at the Princess in a near state of shock.

    “Yes,” Celestia answered. “It’s a conundrum, I know. You need to know of the Elements to find them, but part of their test for potential bearers is if they can discover the true nature of the element, if they can embody that element within their heart.”

    “We’re safe then,” Relic grumbled as he set Celestia’s book back down on the table, “we barely know a damned thing about these Elements.”

    Celestia chuckled lightly, “I do believe that these volumes will assist in you in your research. That said, I do ask that you not to give up on your interviews, Professor.”

    “But we’ve proven they are a waste of time for every pony involved…” the elder unicorn started, but Celestia held up a hoof.

    “You have proven that your current method is a waste of time,” the solar regent stated simply, “but I believe that you may not be asking the right ponies.”

    Quagga spoke up before his friend could protest, “You have some pony specific in mind, Princess?”

    Celestia smiled enigmatically. “Yes, Quagga, I do indeed.”

    “Now Honey, it didn’t have to be this way…”

    Hawk stood once more before the mare, who stood protectively before her daughter, the snarl on her face an almost a permanent fixture since the door closed and the noise from the living room began. Hawk ignored it, but Honey could only imagine the… things they must be doing to Clockwork. An old saying ran unbidden through her mind: “no good deed goes unpunished”.

    “I said I would get your blasted money!” Honey said again, trying hard to hide the tremble in her voice.

    “You misunderstand,” he noted with a cold smile, “this isn’t about the money. I know you will get it. This is about discipline. You were to deliver the money last night, just like every other pony who works for me. Once a week, you know that, and yet you didn’t show up. You made me look foalish, and when you make me look foalish, other ponies get the idea they can make me look foalish too. This means I have to make an example of you, stop the foalishness before it can even get started.” With an almost casual gesture, he shoved the bed out of the way and sent it crashing into the nearby desk and mirror, the latter of which shattered noisily.

    “Seven years bad luck!” Indigo cried at the stallion, who seemed unfazed by the sound.

    “Maybe for you,” Hawk answered, smiling darkly, “but I don’t believe in silly superstitions.”

    “Indigo…” Honey started, trying to shush her daughter.

    “Ah, the precociousness of youth,” the stallion added, pausing in his advance to crook an ear towards the main room of the apartment. An odd silence came from there and he shook his head, smiling at the horror washing over Honey’s expression. “I guess she didn’t live up to our standards. Too bad, you dolled her up nicely. Now then, Honey, it’s your turn.”

    “S-screw you, Hawk! You know why I wasn’t there!” Honey insisted, pushing her filly behind her. Unfortunately she wasn’t standing long, as a back-hoof from the stallion sent her crumbling to the floor.

    “And that’s your second mistake, Honey,” he sneered, “you tried to stand up for yourself. I thought you’d learned that lesson already. I suppose I’ll have to break one of your legs to remind you. A pity, I was just going to give you a few bruises, but now I’ll have to --“

    “You leave my Momma alone!” the little filly shrieked and rushed the larger stallion. She barely came up to his stomach, but she latched on to one of his forelegs as if trying to wrestle him down. Hawk simply looked down at her bemusedly.

    “Well well, we have a volunteer,” he sneered, and with his other forehoof, pried the little filly off his leg, “maybe if I take it out of her hide, you’ll listen to reason.”

    “You bastard, let go of my daughter!” Honey shouted, and charged him, only to get knocked painfully away by another back-hoof. Hawk sneered and pinned the filly’s head to the floor under his hoof.

    “Say goodbye to mommy!”

    “Goodbye,” a new voice chimed in from the doorway, mechanical and dark. Hawk only caught the barest of glimpses of this figure before it slammed into him, crashing him through the window across the room, momentarily stunning The Hawk.

    The large pegasus quickly recovered from the surprise attack and flared his wings, saving himself from a three story fall. The mid-afternoon sun glared down at him as he craned his neck to find whoever dared to attack him. He only just heard the roar before something/some pony grabbed him about the waist, pinning his wings down and yanking him upwards, towards the sky.

    Honey and her daughter rushed to the window, staring up in wonder as the unexpected savior yanked Hawk upwards, momentarily lost in the sun, before sending him crashing down into the roof right across the street! Hawk shook off the impact with a growl, rising to his hooves.

    “Alright, flank-hole, you’re asking for it now!” Hawk shouted, and out came his trusty switchblade knife. He’d had the thing ever since he was a colt in school, when he used it to threaten other colts for their lunch money. It never failed him…

    Something slammed into the rooftop behind him and he turned, lashing out with the blade in the same motion. The knife made a horrible sound, halfway between a screech and a clang, before the pin gave and the blade broke off from the handle. Hawk stared dumbly at the handle in his hoof when the strange figure rushed him, crashing into him a second time. He was driven back, his hooves unable to find a purchase to stop this creature, forcing him onto his rear legs before he slammed painfully into the lip of the roof, his back crackling dangerously even as the bricks he struck did much the same.

    “What are you?!” he demanded, and struck out with a hoof, causing another clang as he impacted the heavy armour. For a moment he thought it was a guard, but gold wasn’t the primary color of this armour, it was green.

    “It doesn’t matter,” the armoured pony growled, the speaker making her voice sound downright demonic, “but I’m going to break you in now. Let’s see how you like it.”

    Comprehension dawned in his eyes as the armour forced his back further into the bricks with a foreleg, pinning him off balance as the other forehoof lifted, a glowing blue port shining brightly. She pointed that open nozzle at him, only inches away from his face, and it whined with increasing power. “Don’t kill me!” he pleaded, “I’ll give you whatever you want! Money, mares, drugs… anything!”

    She didn’t answer, the port simply glowing brighter, and the stallion let out an anguished cry. He threw his hooves over his head, desperately trying to bat the forelegs away, anything! But the armour was steadfast, immobile despite his efforts. But that was the problem, after almost a full minute, it wasn’t moving at all…

    “R-reconsidering?” he tried tentatively.

    “No, she isn’t,” a new voice chimed in from behind him. He had to crane his head, and witnessed something he never thought he would see.

    “P-princess Luna?!” he cried hoarsely.

    The Princess set down lightly on the rooftop, and a white mare clambered off the Princess’ back, her eyes glowing bright lavender as she stared at the armoured mare before her. Luna simply ignored the stallion to ask Galaxi, “You have her restrained?”

    “Yes ma’am, though it’s a struggle. She wants this buck dead in a bad way, and it would only take a flick of her hoof to do it,” she answered. The stallion broke out in a cold sweat when he realized how close his death was in that moment, literally staring him in the face.

    “Skillet has the guard on its way,” Luna said simply, “but I will confess that I am disappointed in you, Clockwork Key. We just had a talk about how you must not overreact, I find you about to kill a stallion. Tell me, what was his crime?”

    “Um… ma’am? P-princess?” a tentative voice called, drawing the Princess’ attention. Honey waved from the nearby window. “I can explain --”

    “OHMYGODDESS!!” a filly cried shrilly, drowning out her mother, “It’s Princess LOONA!!”

    Luna gave a bemused smile and nodded to the small filly. “Yes, little one, that is indeed who I am.”

    “Momma, Momma, It’s Princess Loona!!” the filly squealed before bouncing away into the apartment. Honey watched her bounce around the room like a super-ball thrown by an excitable colt on a sugar high before turning back to look at the Princess again.

    “Sorry about my daughter,” Honey said with a thin smile, “but I can explain why Clockwork was about to kill that stallion.”

    “And what reason would she have for such an act?”

    “Because he was going to kill my daughter,” she answered evenly. Luna and Galaxi looked briefly to each other, before Luna looked back to the golden mare.

    “We will be there momentarily. I would hear the entire story.”

    “Well, that victory was short lived.”

    The quintet of gryphons and one prismatic maned pegasus stared down into the ravine before them. The deepest and darkest part of the Everfree Forest, a place even they wouldn’t stay after dark, was where the tracks led them. Cloudchaser was scouring the area around the ravine, on both sides, for a good mile each direction, but so far had come up empty clawed. Blackfeather and Windchaser took turns running up the length and simply calling for Verdigris, in case she simply fell in and was somehow still alive, but the evidence was worrisome.

    With the strange claw/hoofed creature in the lead, the family of gryphons had walked off and into the ravine. Even in the midday sun, the depth of the ravine was darkened by shadows, and rumors of creatures that made manticores look like kittens and hydras look like garter snakes kept them from going too deeply. Not that it stopped one gryphoness from checking...

    “Nothing,” Filigree rasped as she clawed her way back and over the edge, fluttering her metallic wings slightly to shake them out. “I stirred up a hive of something I don’t want wish to run afoul of again. I don’t even know what they were, but there was no sign of my family. Of course, if they went straight down, there wouldn’t…” the powerful gryphon faded off, pain lancing her expression.

    “Weren’t their wings clipped?” Cloudchaser asked with a frown, her beak just inches off the edge of the gorge where they seemed to vanish.

    “Yes,” Spectrum answered for her friend. “The gryphon king clipped their wings as part of their enslavement.”

    “Then this makes no sense,” Cloudy sighed softly and rubbed her crest with a claw. “There’s no sign of a struggle, and nor is there any sign they even attempted to take off and fly. If they were just led into the ravine…”

    “Would any sort of brainwashing or hypnotism have overridden that instinct?” Chase asked, keeping a worried eye on the steel winged gryphoness.

    “Maybe, I’m no expert on that,” Cloudchaser admitted, “so I can’t say.”

    “Then let’s get an expert,” Spectrum stated, and tapped her earpiece, “Skillet?”

    “Ya?” the voice answered in her ear.

    Spectrum smiled thinly. “Good, you’re there. Can you get Trixie on the line? I need some of her expertise on mind control magicks.”

    “Give me few minutes, ya?” the stallion requested, and the line went dead.

    “We should be able to get our teammate on the line soon enough,” Spectrum noted as she picked up a burr out of her coat. “Still, it’s hard to imagine that they had to be forced. They weren’t in chains…”

    “Yeah, I would have seen that dragging along the ground,” Cloudchaser chipped in.

    “…they weren’t at spear or weapon-point…”

    “The… whatever was leading them. You would have to be behind them if he was forcing them along, assuming it is a male,” Chase noted, glancing to his side as Blackfeather came swooping up for a landing. As she stalled her flight to drop to the ground, Chase smiled inwardly and watched the dappled light play over her shimmering blue-black feathers, remembering the crush he had as a youth. The raven-feathered gryphoness had only become more beautiful in the intervening years… Windchaser was a lucky, lucky gryphon. Unfortunately, when she met his eye, she only shook her head slightly, and the mood was ruined. No luck…

    “…they made no attempt to fly, even though their wings were clipped…”

    “The impressions from their claws would have been sharper if they had tried to push off or take win g,” Cloudchaser chimed in.

    “…so where does that leave us?” Spectrum finally finished. “What is it that old detective character used to say?”

    “I think it is ‘once we eliminate all the possibilities, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth’,” Windchaser answered, swooping in for his own landing. “Sheerluck Hooves, as I recall.”

    “You used to read those instead of paying attention in class,” Blackfeather noted with a giggle, nuzzling her fiancée.

    “Yeah, I did,” he admitted with a blush.

    “Any luck?” Filigree asked, oblivious to their affections with one another.

    “No,” Windchaser answered with a sigh, his future mate scooting closer. “No luck on your end either?”

    “If they went to the bottom, they would have been eaten by what I found there,” she answered in a tightly controlled voice. Chase moved closer to her, placing a claw on her shoulder. He could feel her muscles jumping under the surface of her feathers and fur, a testament to her strict self-control.

    “You called for the Great and Powerful Trixie?” a voice purred over Spectrum’s earpiece.

    Spectrum chuckled, “Not so sure about ‘great’, but we could definitely use ‘powerful’ and hopefully knowledgeable right now.” She then motioned to the others, “I got Trixie on the line, we should be able to try and sort some of this out.”

    “Alright, fill Trixie in on the situation.”

    “Short version, we found the tracks of Filigree’s family, but they appear to have literally been led off a cliff,” Spectrum quickly covered, “All tracks point to them just walking off, no attempts to fly. They were led this way by an unknown entity…”

    “So the entity was in front of them?” inquired the unicorn on the other end of the line.

    “Yes.”

    “Do you know if it was walking backwards or forwards?” Trixie asked, and Spectrum frowned. She quickly posed the question to the resident tracker, who paused and lowered down to check the tracks again before picking up a nearby stick.

    “Here’s what I’m seeing,” the gryphoness said, using the stick to draw it out as all of them came closer, and Spectrum keyed the microphone to pick up the explanation. “We have our unknown here, leading the five gryphons. He/she/it reaches the edge of the ravine and steps aside, and it appears that he turns to face them at this point. There’s a small delay about here,” she notes, pointing the stick at the ground a few feet away before returning to her diagram, “and then they head forward and right over the side.”

    “If Trixie must guess, she would say it is most likely some form of hypnotism,” she said, which Spectrum relayed nearly word for word, “whoever this entity is turned about to reinforce the hypnosis, which would explain the pause. Trixie might also note that this entity simply could have convinced them to follow him, her, or it with no foul play. Without knowing more of the situation, we cannot say.”

    “They wouldn’t plummet to their deaths over the side of a cliff willingly,” Filigree cut in, almost angrily.

    “Trixie did not say they did,” Spectrum relayed. “Trixie recommends checking the edge of the cliff for an odd, fluttery pattern in the dirt. It would be very subtle, but a sign of magic none the less.”

    “These tracks are over a week old,” Cloudchaser sighed and flicked her wings, hovering close to the edge of the cliff as she examined it as closely as she could. “If it was here, it’s most likely been destroyed, especially if it’s as delicate as your ‘expert’ says.”

    “It’s worth a shot,” Trixie sighed, and Spectrum relayed, “using a spell to try and track residual magic would be just as difficult. Did the gryphons go single file, or all at once?”

    “Why would that matter?” Blackfeather asked, but Chase snapped his claws.

    “Because if they were going to jump to their death, they’d all have to go at once,” he said with a dawning smile, “if they were single file, even if they were tricked, the others behind would have realized something was wrong.”

    “Would that overcome a spell?” Spectrum asked, looking at Cloudchaser’s efforts to find the effect noted.

    “Absolutely. Hypnotism is inherently weak, even at the most powerful levels,” Trixie said over the headset, and Spectrum relayed for the rest, “if the caster orders an individual to go against their nature or interest, the hypnotism starts to unravel. Survival instinct will override hypnotism every time. You could forcibly mind control one individual, but it’s a time consuming spell and prone to weaken quickly without continual control. True mind control is very difficult to maintain for any length of time, and is extremely difficult to cast on multiple targets at once.”

    “Is it do-able?” Filigree asked softly.

    “With enough power, anything is doable,” Trixie answered, and Spectrum continued to relay. “It would be a colossal waste of energy, though.”

    “I couldn’t find the fluttering effect you mentioned,” Cloudchaser answered as she returned to the group, “but I can confirm they did go single file in the end.”

    “Given that data, Trixie thinks there’s a more practical explanation,” Trixie answered, and Spectrum yawned as she continued to relay. “My suspicion is that there may have been a portal of some kind there, and they went single file through it.”

    “But why do that here?” Chase asked frowning as he looked over at the gorge. “There were plenty of places we passed, including some pretty isolated groves, which would have been better for casting something like a portal. Why walk this far?”

    “Trixie cannot answer that for certain,” Spectrum said for the team’s resident mage, “however she will note that there are a number of possibilities. The one that makes the most sense to Trixie is the distinct possibility of range. Teleportation spells take a lot out of a unicorn, and a portal spell even more-so. The less distance travelled, the easier it is to cast. Furthermore, there is the possibility this entity was testing them, to see if your family was suited for their needs. It’s quite possible this being needed something specific from them, most likely a skill or personality trait. Regardless, that would make their death highly unlikely, and more likely they may be imprisoned somewhere nearby.”

    Chase frowned as he looked at the ravine they stood by. “That still leaves a lot of territory to cover, much of it considered the most dangerous region in Equestria. Do we have any idea of the range?”

    “Honestly, no,” Trixie answered, and Spectrum relayed for her. “However it is most likely that a good five mile radius would be a good place to start. Very few mages would be powerful enough to sustain further for very long.”

    “Got it,” Chase noted with a frown.

    “Thank you, Trixie,” Spectrum told the unicorn and disconnected with her before turning to the others. “I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. If he is keeping them we want safe spots within the ravine. They wouldn’t be in open danger, but it’s quite possible that they are in a place where the inherent danger keeps them captive. They can’t just fly out…”

    “That doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture there,” Cloudchaser noted with a sigh. “My tracking skills will be useless for this leg; I can’t track magic...”

    “You got us this far,” Chase offered with a reassuring smile. “Windy, Blackfeather, you’re on point for this one. Rather than looking straight down into the ravine, try scoping the walls for caves and the like, no matter how high up they are. If you can spot what’s in them, let us know, if not, we’ll investigate them later.” The pair of gryphons nodded and took off in a burst of motion, launching themselves along one wall of the ravine as they headed north east first, back towards the town. With them gone, Chase looked back to the remaining figures with a sigh. “We’ll find them, Filigree. This just complicates things a bit, but we’ll find them.”

    The gryphoness didn’t bother lifting her head to respond, “I hope so.”

    Luna couldn’t help but smile.

    It wasn’t often the Princess of the Moon got to truly see a slice of life from the less pristine side of her little ponies (My Little Ponies? Luna inwardly made a face, she must have picked that up from her sister), and this was perhaps as un-pristine as it came.

    The apartment was small, tiny even. The four of them, five if you counted Indigo, barely fit in the main room. Honey had to shove the flimsy table she used back against a wall to make enough room, and the constant flow of the Royal Guard in and out of the apartment only made things seem even more cramped. Thankfully Skillet had been clever enough to request an entire wing to come out to her location. With only two guards needed to apprehend “The Hawk”, the rest quickly set up a perimeter and were able to keep back the small mob of curious faces. Unless they lived in the building, the guard kept them out. Still, she opted to sit near the broken window so that those pegasi and clever ponies on the building across the street could snap away with their cameras. It allowed her to use her body to shield those with her, and she kept her mane flowing in an unseen celestial wind to hide the identities of those she was with. It would work until the Guard had the chance to chase them away.

    Luna lightly lifted the dirty mug to her lips with her magic, smiling as she tasted the burnt and thin coffee within. The golden mare, who identified herself as “Honey”, was making every effort to be a gracious host. Despite not having the tools needed to truly host a Princess, she wasn’t letting that fluster her. Instead she simply apologized that it wasn’t up to the high quality of the Palace, and offered her something to drink anyway. That was far sweeter than any amount of sugar cubes in her coffee.

    Of course, that ignored the child unicorn as she bounced in an excitable circle about her. In an odd way, it reminded Luna of the late Lady Pie; her excitement was so intense it was nearly palpable. From the moment Luna stepped hoof into the apartment, the young filly had been as close as she could, watching her with wide adoring eyes. Even her giddy cries of “Loona” only warmed her heart, though the worried looks from her mother greatly concerned her.

    Galaxi and Clockwork were off to the side, near the “slab” that served as Clockwork’s remote armour deployment sled. Galaxi was trying hard to convince Clockwork to shed her armour, who in turn was being oddly stubborn and refusing to do so for unspecified reasons. Honey’s almost mischievous expression when looking that way made Luna wonder what exactly had happened between them.

    “Princess,” a guard’s voice interrupted her musings, “you might want a look at this.”

    Luna paused to glance at the unicorn guard, a light slate grey with his mane hidden by the helm he wore. The gold armour complimented his form nicely, and his piercing blue eyes met hers evenly. She glanced to the scroll he held in his magic and took it with her own. Taking another sip of the gritty coffee as she unrolled it, her eyes widening only slightly in surprise before a smile spread across her lips.

    “Thank you Sergeant. Well now, it seems --“

    “It’s Loonaaaaa!!” Indigo cried again, as she had excitedly and repeatedly since the Princess stepped over the threshold.

    “Indigo, you have to calm down,” Honey tried, but the little filly was far too worked up to listen to reason.

    “Little one…” Luna tried, addressing the filly directly. If her smile could have gotten wider without splitting her head open, it would have. “…sit with me.” Indigo’s eyes got wide and she rushed to the Princess’ side. Luna saw it coming even before the filly realized she was going to do it, and Indigo all but threw herself into a hug against the Princess. Luna answered with a good natured laugh and nuzzled the little unicorn's brow lightly. “Now you sit here with me while we talk, alright? That means you have to stop squealing though…”

    Indigo nodded hard and pantomimed buttoning her lips shut, and a sigh came from Honey. “Thank you, Princess,” the golden mare said softly, relieved.

    “You’re welcome,” the Princess answered and took another sip of her coffee and settled back down, folding a wing over the thrilled little unicorn, “but I confess I am not sure why you are thanking me. I assume it is far more than just the fact she was quite… vocal.”

    Honey smiled sadly. “She’s frail, Princess,” she said, “Indigo was hurt while still in the womb and… her heart could give out if she gets too excited. From the moment she saw you, she… well, you saw. I’ve never seen her that worked up before. No wait, I have, once, and that’s when we saw you and your sister at a ceremony. She’s been fascinated by both of you ever since, especially you, ma’am.”

     “I’m flattered to have inspired so much… love in our subjects,” Luna said uncertainly, then quickly changed the subject, “That said, I have some interesting news about ‘The Hawk’ here. Clockwork, you might wish to hear this as well.”

    “Ma’am?” Clockwork’s mechanized voice asked through the helm, happy for the distraction from Galaxi trying to pry her out of the armour. Galaxi frowned, but turned her attention to the Princess as well.

    “According to this scroll that the Sergeant brought me, ‘The Hawk’ was simply an alias in a long string of aliases,” she noted. “The most famous of which was Bubble Trouble --“

    “Wait,” Clockwork said softly, “I know that name…”

    “Wasn’t he wanted in connection to the Hearts and Hooves Day Massacre?” Galaxi asked, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “I remember hearing that he was some sort of organized crime kingpin up in Fillydelphia, but went underground when the Guard finally busted the head of the Family.”

    “One and the same,” Luna answered softly. “At one time he oversaw one of the largest prostitution rings in all of Equestria. If I had to guess, he was looking to begin again fresh, while covering his old identity. He was going so far as to dye his coat to hide it, which was discovered upon processing him. A simple spell and his naturally pink coat was exposed for all to see.”

    Honey face-hoofed and groaned, “So that’s why he was always dying his coat!”

    “I would say so,” Luna answered, finishing the coffee and setting the mug aside. With light stroke of her hoof over Indigo’s head, she looked to Clockwork. “Congratulations are in order; he was a wanted pony, with a price on his head of three hundred thousand bits. Since we have confirmed proof that you captured him, the bits are yours, Clockwork.”

    The armoured mare shook her head, “No.”

    “Are you sure?” Luna asked.

    “I’m sure… I don’t need the bits,” she answered simply, “but I know some pony that does.”

    “Oh?”

    Clockwork pointed an armoured hoof towards the golden mare, “Yes, she deserves it more.”

    “Hold on a moment!” Honey cried in surprise. “I didn’t catch the bastard!”

    “What’s the exact wording of the wanted poster, Princess?” Clockwork asked, and Luna couldn’t help but smile. Even with her “problem”, Lady Key was as sharp as ever.

    “It says there is a reward of three-hundred thousand bits for any pony who captures, or has information that leads to the capture, of Thorny Rose, aka Bubble Trouble,” Luna answered simply.

    “There we go,” Clockwork said simply. “I’m a government agent, so I couldn’t claim the reward anyway. But it was due to the actions of Honey that lead me to him, and thus lead to his capture.”

    “I don’t want your charity!” Honey insisted, stomping her hoof.

    “This isn’t charity,” Clockwork answered simply. “This is a reward. You just helped to capture a wanted felon, and you deserve to be acknowledged for it.”

    “I must agree,” Luna said with a proud smile. “Due to the actions of Honey, and her daughter Indigo, this felon has been captured after being a fugitive for nearly a decade. Clockwork Key is correct in that she is an agent of the crown, answering directly to me, so I appreciate the reminder that she is ineligible for the reward. Sergeant, please make a note of this, and my approval of the expense from the treasury.”

    The guard grinned lopsidedly at what he witnessed, and snapped a salute, “Right away, Princess.” He then turned on a hoof and marched out of the room.

    “You aren’t going to let me turn this down, are you?” Honey demanded.

    “No,” Luna and Clockwork both answered at once, much to Indigo’s amusement.

    Honey heaved a sigh and shook her head. “Thank you,” she answered softly.

    “You are welcome, Honey,” Luna answered, then turned to look at Clockwork. “You, however, need to get out of that armour.”

    “B-but… Princess I--” the armoured mare stammered.

    “No discussion,” she added firmly, “you are ruining our host’s floor.”

    “T-then I’ll stand still,” Clockwork answered stubbornly.

    “Galaxi, if you would please?” Luna asked, and the psychic mare grinned. Clockwork managed to make a small “gleep” sound as the lavender aura from Galaxi’s telekinesis surrounded and gripped her physically and lifted her into the air. Clockwork tried to flail and struggle, but the psychic’s grip didn’t allow her to move an inch as she was placed on her deployment sled. Galaxi’s telekinesis forced her legs onto the proper spots, much to the amusement of those watching, until the sled recognized the armour and the plates began to unfold, robotic arms reaching for the armoured panels.

    The sight that greeted them as the armour was peeled away surprised all but Honey, who burst out laughing, and Indigo, who looked downright indignant. Luna’s eyebrows rose as she looked over the short mare, eyes drinking in the satin corset and black lace trim, as well as the garters and stockings on all four legs. Add to it the painted face, which looked surprisingly good on the small mare, and the light trim to her mane, and she looked far more like a Lady than the Princess could ever remember her being in the past. Still, she couldn’t help herself. “Ah, I see, you’re looking to expand your horizons, Lady Key. I’m sure you’ll do fine in your new profession,” she teased. The khaki mare didn’t answer, instead blushing even darker crimson than she already was.

    “I’m sure she’d go over great,” Honey joined in, “fresh meat always sells the best.”

    “Where is your dress?!” Indigo finally blurted, unable to contain her anger anymore. “You looked beeyoootifull with it!”

    “I’ll admit, I’m kinda wondering what happened myself,” Honey chipped in, “I found where you left the heels and put them aside…”

    “Heels too?” Luna interjected. “My my, I never knew you had it in you, Lady Key.”

    “…but I’ll admit that I thought you were in real trouble when Hawk told his thugs to… to break you in…” Honey concluded more hesitantly.

    Clockwork looked down and scuffed a hoof on the floor. “I tricked them,” she answered after a moment, “I made them think I was… willing, but that I needed to take off the dress. I stepped out of the heels, tugged the dress off, and promptly dropped it on their heads. The skirt was large enough to catch one of them, and shoved him into the other one. I had to get creative after that, and used the deployment sled to ram them out of the window. I think there’s a dumpster down there, but my feelings wouldn’t be hurt if they hit the pavement and broke a leg… or three. After that, I got the armour on and... and I was just in time.”

    Honey stepped forward and lightly hugged the blushing mare, “Thank you. I was worried sick they’d killed you or something when we didn’t hear anything after a few minutes.”

    “I got lucky, I think,” Clockwork sighed, “the bastard with you didn’t hear the window shatter.”

    Honey nodded, but it was Indigo who piped up, “I told him that breaking our mirror was seven years bad luck!”

    “Yes, little one, very bad luck for him,” Luna answered, watching Galaxi out of the corner of her eye. She couldn’t help but notice that her apprentice had said nothing since the armour came off, and now she realized why. Galaxi’s jaw was hanging loose, almost down to her chest, her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at Clockwork, as if seeing her for the first time. The Princess couldn’t help but smile, recalling their conversation just days ago. “Honey, do you have anything else Clockwork can wear? She seems a bit… uneasy about her current nudity.”

    “But we’re ponies,” Honey countered teasingly, “we don’t normally wear clothes.”

    Luna noted, “I would have her head back to the Palace the normal way, instead of flying in her armour, and unless you want to remove what she is currently wearing…”

    “NO! She can’t!!” Indigo cried. Luna couldn’t help but smile, the filly was right on cue.

    “Sounds like we’ve got to find something for you to wear over that corset,” Honey noted with a smile, and lead the thoroughly embarrassed Clockwork into the bedroom. Only when Clockwork was out of sight did Galaxi manage to shake her head, snapping back to her senses.

    “Did you help get her all dressed up, Indigo?” Luna asked the filly, who beamed up at her.

    “Yup! Though Momma did a better job than I did,” she answered with a broad smile.

    “Really? I’m surprised; I thought maybe you showed her how to do it.”

    Indigo giggled, “No. Momma went to cosmat… cosymat… cozzmito… make-up and haircutting school when she was a filly.”

    “Cosmetology?” Luna asked the filly.

    “That’s it, yes!” Indigo said happily, and looked to the doorway to the bedroom when the pair returned. “Oh! That was the sequins I suggested!”

    “That’s right, kiddo,” Honey answered as she stepped aside. Clockwork was blushing again, but was clad in a slinky gown of deep red that clung to her hips and flank. The sequins in question caused the dress to shimmer as the mare moved unsteadily on the matching heels. The corset was obviously necessary, given the snug fit of the dress, and the short sleeves offset the stockings on her forelegs perfectly. The skirt pooled around her rear hooves, giving a sleek look to the entire ensemble.

    “She reminds me of a torch singer I once knew,” Luna mused with a nostalgic smile.

    “I wore this a few times when I tried my hoof at singing,” Honey agreed with a nod. “I had to pin up some of the skirt, it’s a little long on Clockwork there, but it fits her better than it fits me anymore. I’m not as slender as I used to be.”

    Luna chuckled softly and glanced to Galaxi again, who was staring at the short mare anew. With a glint of mischief, she interrupted Galaxi by reaching over to close her jaw. “Galaxi,” Luna said when her apprentice shook off the stupor, “Do me a favor and walk Clockwork back to the Palace? I wish to discuss something further with Honey and Indigo here.”

    Clockwork meeped softly, “Y-you mean… out there…?” she squeaked nervously.

    “Yes, Clockwork, out there, dressed like that,” Luna said with a smile. “You are a Lady of Canterlot, after all, and I see no reason you cannot dress the part once in a while.”

    “I don’t see you doing this to Filigree,” the mare countered weakly.

    “She also didn’t try to avoid going to the Grand Galloping Gala, either,” Luna stated simply. “I fully expect you to attend the next one, by the way, even if I have to hire Indigo to convince you to do it.”

    “You’re doomed,” Honey giggled as Indigo leveled her biggest puppy-dog eyes at Clockwork. The short mare sighed dramatically and moved to the deployment sled, and slipped off one shoe so she could tap at a panel. When finished, she stepped back, oblivious to Galaxi staring at the sway of her hips, as the sled lifted off and maneuvered itself out the open window.

    “Alright, I’m ready now… Galaxi? I’m going to need to lean on you a bit, I’m really not used to these heels and it’s a long trot,” Clockwork said, trying hard to hide her own embarrassment. Galaxi nodded numbly and, after a nudge from Luna, managed to climb to her hooves and sidle up next to her friend. The psychic mare almost blushed as deeply as Clockwork when the shorter mare leaned against her with a sigh, and the pair slowly left together.

    “That was a pretty slick move, Princess,” Honey said after several minutes of silence.

    “I just hope it works,” Luna answered with a sigh, “They really have so much affection for each other, and I think they’re truly meant for each other, but haven’t realized it yet. Well, one of them hasn’t, anyway. I think dressing up Clockwork might have pierced the veil for Galaxi.”

    Honey laughed and took the Princess’ empty mug. She seemed about to say something when a horrible screeching came from the hallway outside her door. Luna looked momentarily worried, but Honey just sighed as she trotted to the door and opened it. The screeching seemed even louder, but it resolved into words now.

    “…your damned friends and hold some wild party! Don’t you know what time it is?! It’s time for my dinner!” the old stallion shrieked at her. He was a mottled brown, covered in wrinkles and with eyes that vanished under the weight of his bushy eyebrows. “And don’t try to feed me some stupid line about the Princess being here, like your tin-foil wearing friends out there! I’ve seen the Princesses, even touched one of them once, so don’t try telling me that floozy you have dressed up over there is supposed to be some sort of Princess!”

    “Floozy?” Luna asked indignantly.

    “Mister Froster…” Honey tried, only to get the old stallion’s cane poking her in the nose.

    “Don’t you start with me, young lady!” he shouted. “You’re the worst of them all, you’re lucky I don’t throw you out on your flank! And you… hrm… that’s actually a pretty good imitation of the Princess…”

    “Imitation?” Luna asked, at once bemused and insulted.

    “…but you’d never stack up next to the real Princess Luna. Now hold it down up here, or I’ll call the guard!”

    “You called sir?” one of the palace guard stuck his head around the doorframe.

    “Don’t try to fool an old stallion!” Froster shrieked. “You should be embarrassed to wear such a cheap knock-off of that fine uniform!” And with that the old stallion stormed out… slowly… on his cane.

    “Would it be wrong to laugh?”Luna asked the filly clinging to her leg, who shrugged in response.

    “Sorry about that, Princess,” Honey offered apologetically, magically closing the door with a sigh. “Ever since he lost most of his sight, he’s gotten more and more cranky.

    “I heard that!” the stallion shouted from somewhere down the hall.

    “When one sense goes, the others usually grow stronger to compensate,” Luna noted with a half-smile as she climbed to her hooves. She bent down to nuzzle between Indigo’s ears once more, and gently pried her from her leg. “I am afraid I do have duties to attend to, however…”

    “Oh! Okay, Princess,” the golden mare said as she hopped to her hooves and sketched out a sloppy bow, “it was truly a pleasure to meet you. I can guarantee little Indigo will never forget this.”

    “I got ta meet Loona!!” Indigo confirmed giddily.

    “…however, I have one final thing to discuss before I leave. Think of it as a request, but if I have to, I will send a member of the guard to enforce it,” Luna said, her expression darkening. Honey gulped audibly and fell back a step, pinned by the Princess’ gaze. “Tomorrow morning, at exactly nine o’clock, you will arrive at the Palace. You will seek out a pony named Feather Down. She is the head of the palace staff, and she has an open position I feel you would be a perfect fit for.”

    “P-princess?” Honey asked softly, confused.

    “I’m sure a maid uniform would be a change from what you’re used to wearing, and the work will be hard,” Luna continued, “but I imagine the benefits will outweigh the negatives in your case.”

    “Y-you’re giving me a job?” Honey asked, shaking off her stupor.

    “No, I’m arranging for an interview,” Luna said simply, and gave the mare an almost mischievous look, “how you do in that interview, and how you prepare for it, is completely up to you.”

    Honey blinked, and couldn’t help herself, and rushed forward to hug the Princess herself, her eyes filled with sudden tears. “T-thank you.”

    Luna gently returned the hug with one of her forelegs, “It is the least I can do, unfortunately. As much as I may wish to, I cannot save every pony, so I must help those who have a good heart and have proven themselves worthy of the chance. I wish I could do more sometimes, but I am not omnipotent.”

    “Yay! Group hug!!” Indigo cried, and to no one’s surprise, rushed to hug both her mother and the Princess as best her short little legs could.

    “Hold it down up there!” Mister Froster yelled from downstairs, and was promptly ignored.

17

Chapter 17

“Ripples”

    She clenched her beak and whimpered at the pain flaring up her leg.

    “The doctor wasn’t kidding,” she hissed softly as she stumbled forward another step, “I must have hurt it worse than I thought.” The young gryphoness forced herself to take another step, hobbling along as she gingerly put her weight on her left hind leg. Her gait was slow, but constant, as she moved in a circuit about the mostly empty room she’d been staying in since that “group” found her. Not that she really knew anything about them. Aside from the one visit from Kaos, Professor Burner had been her only real visitor, and he always seemed a bit preoccupied. Then, of course, there was Zilch.

    The gryphoness smiled slightly before a flare of pain turned it into a grimace. Zilch had become a constant in her life since she arrived here, refusing to leave Verdigris alone for any extended period. Almost every moment one of them wasn’t asleep, or Zilch was out training with the “group”, was spent together. In a way, it was a good thing; it prevented Verdigris from getting moody and depressed thinking about what she’s endured… and what she may have yet to face. Besides, it was nice to have someone, even if it was a mute pony, to play with. Verdigris had to take it easy on her though, especially in some of the board games, but honestly she was just happy to have company. Still, she could only throw so many matches of Cloudburst before Zilch started to get suspicious.

    With a yelp, Verdigris slipped on a loose pebble and was sent sprawling out on the cold stone floor, wings splayed uselessly to each side. She let out a frustrated growl and shook her head, carefully beginning to pick herself up by planting her claws and shifting the weight off her injured leg. Her focus was such that she didn’t even notice the extended foreleg until she literally bumped into it.

    “Huh? Oh… Thank you,” the gryphon stammered in surprise and took the leg and the help to pull herself back to her claws. She held her back leg off the floor, not willing to risk putting any weight on it for a few moments, or at least until it stopped throbbing from her spill. Zilch sat down across from her, forelegs crossed over her chest, looking mildly cross at her.

    “I know, I know, the doctor said bed rest,” Verdigris answered with a gusty sigh, which caused the pony’s expression to turn to one of concern and worry, “but I’m getting so… I gotta get up and move around. I know it’s silly, but I keep expecting Eclipse or the King to show up again and force me back down… or for Kaos to confirm my worst suspicions about him and this group of his.” Zilch’s posture slumped, her ears drooping. Verdigris frowned at the obvious signs but… the suspicion was rooted deeply in her mind, and she couldn’t ignore it forever. After all, Zilch had been a nearly constant companion since her arrival; how did she know that the strange mare wasn’t trying to manipulate her for Kaos, or even herself?

    “I’m sorry,” Verdigris said softly, and turned away from the mare, “but so much has been going on that… I don’t know who I can trust.” The gryphon expected the pony to turn and leave her in that moment; it’s what any gryphon she’d ever known would have done… She was instead was surprised when Zilch hugged her from behind tightly. Verdigris blinked and managed a startled squawk as she was almost drawn off her claws by the larger pony. With as young as she acted, it was easy to forget that Zilch had the body of a full grown mare! It wasn’t until she was set down that Verdigris noticed the sad expression Zilch wore, and how hard she struggled to force a tepid smile through.

    Zilch’s brow furrowed and she tapped her chin with a hoof, as if she were thinking hard, before her eyes widened and she held up her hoof. With a grin she reached out and grabbed Verdigris’ foreleg and started to pull. The gryphon frowned, and hobbled a step forward before Zilch recognized the issue. With an apologetic smile, the suited mare moved to brace the gryphon from the side and encouraged Verdigris to lean against her, leading her in a slow circle about the room.

    Verdigris frowned.“Where are we going?” she asked, and Zilch tapped her hoof to her chest. More pantomime, the gryphoness sighed in resignation, but at least Zilch was damned good at it. The suited mare tapped the stone with a hoof tip, then the bed as they passed it, and then thumped it to her chest with a smile. Verdigris frowned for a moment, puzzling it out, “Yours… your… wait. This is YOUR room?!”

    Zilch nodded quickly and embraced her. But rather than pull back after the hug, she kept one leg looped over the gryphon’s shoulders, and tapped her own chest, then Verdigris’ chest, then the floor and bed again. “You’re… sharing it with me?” the gryphon guessed, and Zilch nodded again, smiling broadly.

    “I... uh… thank you. You have a place to stay though, right?” the gryphon asked sheepishly, but Zilch seemed to silently chuckle. With an almost comically exaggerated motion, she looked over Verdigris’ clipped wings at the door, before putting a hoof to her lips, or at least what the gryphon thought were her lips under the mask. Verdigris frowned as she tried to figure it out. “You have a secret?”

    Her guess was answered with the suited mare clapping her hooves together happily, and then smiled as she put her hoof to Verdigris’ beak, her eyes taking an oddly pleading expression. “I’ll keep it a secret, but I think they know you’re letting me stay here…” Zilch shook her head and answered with a sly grin, spreading a leg towards a portal.

    Verdigris gulped when she looked at the glowing portal before her. Memories of Eclipse rushed through her mind, where used magical portals for transport, trickery, and finally to hurl her into the desert without any supplies. She just got done thinking she didn’t trust the suited mare, and now she was essentially being asked to trust her. She could see the mare’s expression under the mask, and despite Zilch’s brave front, she was nervous, hopeful, and perhaps a bit scared. Verdigris almost balked, but something about her eyes, about the hope she saw there. Zilch wasn’t trying to brainwash her, she wasn’t trying to force her. Even if it was a trick, she was obviously worried the offer might be turned down. Of course, that could indicate it was a trick, and Zilch was worried what the repercussions might be if the gryphoness turned her down. On the other claw…

    Verdigris almost slapped herself, if only to stop her runaway thoughts. The longer she stood there, the more troubled Zilch’s expression became. “I can keep a secret,” the gryphoness said resolutely, and without giving herself time to second guess the decision, stepped through the portal.

    Stars.

    That was the first thing Verdigris saw, hundreds of stars. Her flank fell to the floor, her beak hanging open in shock as she stared up at them, those beautiful pinpricks of light in the darkness. Without thinking, she reached a claw up towards one of them, her talons flexing as she felt that same surge of hope she felt when she saw them before, when still a “guest” of Eclipse.

    A shock passed through her as she saw her claw pass behind the star, and she curled it around to lightly cup the glowing orb. Not a star, no, a light. A small light like would be used to celebrate a holiday. As her eyes adjusted further she could just make out the strings supporting the white lights strung haphazardly from the “ceiling” of the cave she was in. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed as she released the light to look back at Zilch, who followed her through. The mare stepped to one side and turned a small hanging dial, and the lights brightened enough that they could see around the room. It was another cave, hardly a surprise really, but what caught Verdigris’ attention was that there was no exit to it. It was cut off, save for a thin crack along the far wall, from the rest of the aerie. Curious, Verdigris looked through the crack in question. She could just barely see the room they were in before, the perspective slightly below eye level and, to her surprise, under the bed. She looked back at the mare and smirked. “You were spying on me,” she noted, and Zilch dipped her head and lowered her ears guiltily. The gryphon looked back at the crack and shook her head, new suspicions bubbling up in her mind that she struggled to dismiss. “This is a good spot to keep watch from. Is the cord running through that crack how you get electricity in here?”

    The suited mare nodded as the gryphoness stepped away to take in the rest of the room. The multiple little lights cast a sort of uniform haze of light that at once felt as if it chased the shadows away, and that no one light was too bright. Verdigris carefully refused to criticize the pink sheets and mint green comforter on the modestly sized bed, or the fact it was in disarray from obvious frequent use. Other furniture was sparse, consisting of a beat up wooden desk that had seen many better days, and toy chest with fading and peeling paint. Of course, the gryphon couldn’t help but notice the dozen or so toys strewn about the room glittering in the reflected light, most of them in less than perfect states of repair. With a claw she picked up a wind-up turtle with her claw, the back half of its shell rusting and the rear legs missing.

    “Where did you find all this?” she finally asked, setting the turtle down on the desk. Zilch considered the question, then began to pantomime again. First she pointed to herself, the put a hoof above her eyes and looked around, as if searching. Her face then lit up and she pointed with her hoof, and trotted in place for a moment before picking up another toy on the floor, this time spring operated frog whose spring had long since sprung. “You found them?” Verdigris asked, and Zilch nodded enthusiastically. “But… where?”

    The mare looked slightly bashful about the answer, looking down and away for a moment before pantomiming again. This time she pointed at Verdigris, and made the same hoof over her eyes as if searching again. The gryphoness didn’t let her finish the progression before solving that one. “In the same town you found me in,” she stated softly, and Zilch nodded.

    “Some of these are in pretty bad shape,” Verdigris noted softly as she plucked a toy off the bed, a cast iron version of a gryphon dressed with a ludicrous black hat and a bandanna style mask. Rust had claimed one of its back legs and chewed a small hole in his flank…

    Zilch shrugged apologetically and looked self conscious. She moved over to the toy box and opened the lid, drawing out a large stuffed bear. Verdigris could see it had been meticulously repaired, its seams re-stitched and even a new button eye sewn into place, obvious by the fact it was larger than the original one. The pony hugged the honey brown bear lightly with her forelegs and smiled sadly at Verdigris. “Did… did you fix that?” the gryphon asked, and Zilch blinked, nodding proudly. “Wow. You did a really good job with it… are you hiding a thread and needle cutie mark under that suit?”

    Zilch’s eyes widened at her guest and splayed her ears, before burying her face into the stuffed animal and shaking her head. She didn’t seem to want to “say” more, so Verdigris let it drop, figuring some ponies were probably sensitive about their marks. “Where did you find it?” she asked, changing the subject. Zilch looked thankful, and motioned to the toy chest. “It was inside the chest?” Zilch nodded and hugged the bear tightly for a moment before setting it down on the bed, motioning to a small tag hanging from a seam near the back. Verdigris leaned close, squinting as she tried to read the washed out writing on it, “To my darling… something… something else… happy birthday. May… something… into a beautiful and… something more… mare.”

    Verdigris leaned back as the mare reclaimed the toy, hugging it tightly for a moment. “She didn’t make it, did she?” the gryphon asked in a small voice, and the mare wiped a non-existent tear as she shook her head. Both of them sat in silence for a long moment, unable to think of anything else to say…

    “Excuze me, Verdigris, have you zeen…?” came a voice through the crack. “Huh. It zeems our rezident cub haz wandered off. Zo much for finding Zilch zat way…”

    Zilch blinked, tossed the bear to Verdigris, and quickly dropped through a portal. The gryphoness fumbled the bear before finally getting her claws on it. It was surprisingly soft considering its age, and carefully tucked it under her wing as she moved to the crack to listen in.

    “Ah! Zilch, zere you are,” Burner said, and Verdigris could see the orange unicorn’s hooves through the crack, “Ve have another practize. Kaoz haz azked uz to azzemble in the main chamber. I zink ze Prinze wantz a word with uz.” With that message relayed, Burner trotted out of the room, leaving only the white legs of Zilch still to be seen from the crack. Then, she was gone, and Verdigris turned to see her exit the portal behind her.

    “I’ll be fine here,” Verdigris said softly with a light smile, “I won’t break anything, promise!” Zilch eyed her for a moment, as if uncertain, but finally nodded. With a final pat to the bear’s head, the suited pony vanished, leaving Verdigris alone in the small room. Maybe it was odd, but while the gryphon should have felt trapped, perhaps even claustrophobic, but in that small room she couldn’t hope to escape on her own, she felt safe for the first time in a long while. No pony, gryphon, or anything could reach her there. Verdigris smiled and looked to the bear in her claws and caressed a claw over the bear’s face, its earnest expression somehow comforting. There was no pretense, no hidden agenda… no desire to lie or harm her. It was an expression she could trust, even if it could do nothing but stare back at her.

    The first tears didn’t even register to the gryphoness. That simple look from the bear, perhaps the first thing she could trust unconditionally since the horror that had been her life in the past months drew from her something she didn’t realize she had. It gently removed the first brick in the wall she had constructed against her own pain and terror since the gryphons slapped her in chains, the horror of having her mind controlled against her will by Eclipse, the sense of betrayal after her sister left her with her family, and the despair when she was left to die in an unknown desert. Even now, she didn’t know if she was safe or a tool to leverage against her sister at a later date. But for a moment, even if it was fleeting, she was safe…

    Verdigris clutched the stuffed bear to her chest… which was quite content to give her the release she’d been denying herself.

    The mirror hurtled into the corner with a crash.

    “Why?” the dark gryphon demanded as he yanked the mirror from the claw of his cowering servant, then threw it at the wall over her head. “Why?” he demanded of the cowering femme with a shriek before turning and using a claw to smash a wall mounted mirror.

    The black figure wheeled about and snatched another mirror off the wall, holding the plate before him. The gryphon that regarded him back seethed with fury and anger, his black fur and feathers bristling and puffed out. His face was a contorted with rage and frustration, beak clenched tightly, and crest mussed and out of place. But, most of all, the very core and focus of his unanswered query: the dark scar that marred his left eye. It started roughly at his brow, an imprecise talon scratch that slashed downward through the eye and partway into his cheek. The scar looked long-since healed, but his left eye was destroyed utterly, relegated it to a dark pit on his face.

    The gryphon slammed the plate-glass mirror on the floor, shattering it to a million pieces. With a roar his form began to shift, shadows embracing it as he swelled into that of an alicorn as black as the night sky. With strikes that seemed to shake the very rock beneath him, he stomped the shards of glass and mirror into dust with his forehooves. Finally, he stilled, panting for breath as he closed his good eye and sought some measure of calm…

    “Well, that was quite a display,” a lightheartedly sarcastic voice came from the doorway, and the alicorn had to carefully reign in the urge to rip the speaker’s throat out. “So then, what was this all about?”

    “It’s been a week! Why haven’t your healers been able to remove this accursed scar?” the dark form demanded imperiously. The golden gryphon who slid from the doorway and into the sanctum he set up for his “guest” didn’t immediately answer.

    “You’ve tried changing forms?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

    “Of course I have,” the alicorn growled. “Pony, alicorn, imp, gryphon… they ALL now sport this… this scar!”

    The golden gryphon nodded in apparent thought, and he allowed his eyes to sweep over the chamber. It had been once a nice bedroom, but the alicorn’s rage had reduced it to a mere shell of its former self. The bed was in tatters, its canopy shredded. He tsked as he swept eyes over the expensive rug that was partly ripped up and shredded like a giant cat had used it for a new scratching post. Every mirror that his guest could lay claws on had been hurled in a random direction, shattered with or without their frames. The only other gryphon present, a trembling servant who had failed to recognize the mood of her current master, was cowering in a corner and covering her head, her crest and feathers littered with glass from the mirror that impacted the wall just above her head. Her claws were trembling too much to even try to wipe it away. The gryphon sighed and looked back to the alicorn, finally. “Who did you say gave you this scar?” he asked curiously.

    The alicorn growled, but took several moments before answering. “The cub, Verdigris,” he hissed, “I was all set to drag her back with me, and she caught me with her claw.”

    “And in revenge, you threw her flank into the desert,” the king noted, turning lightly on a clawed foot, “fitting end for a problem child like that.”

    “No, it was foalish,” the alicorn stated simply, “but I was too angry at the time to see it. In the desert she has a chance to survive, albeit slim. I should have dropped her flank into one of those volcanic vents, and then I could be sure I’d never hear from her again. Now? She could show up at the most inopportune of moments.”

    “She’s a child, a cub,” the gryphon interrupted, waving a claw errantly, “we have little to fear from her.”

    “She’s a special.”

    The gryphon raised an eye-ridge. “Just because she wounded you, the great Eclipse, does not mean she had powers…”

    “That wasn’t her power,” Eclipse stated darkly, ignoring the gryphon’s sarcasm, “her power was subtle. She was smart, smarter than she should be. She noticed things, could work out problems faster than anyone I’d ever seen. I believe she has a bit of a mechanical leaning to her, but overall I’d say she’s probably one of the smartest beings currently alive. It allowed her to constantly break free from my mental control.”

    “Well now, that’s an interesting development…” the gryphon mused, lifting a long shard of mirror up in his clawtips, “have you told her parents yet?”

    “Shortly, Goldtalon,” Eclipse stated, and his horn began to glow, “I sent a guard to fetch the father and mother up from your hidden breeding chamber for the dragons.” The glow spread to encompass the glass shards on the floor and lift them slowly into the air, before pulling them together to make a good sized ball of trash and glass.

    The gryphon nodded and ruffled his wings slightly, “Then you better shift back to your gryphon form, else you’ll reveal more than we intend to when they arrive.” He then turned to the servant and growled, “What are you doing? Get your flank up, fetch a trash receptacle, and start cleaning this place up. Have you no pride? Letting my guest do your job for you… I ought to have you whipped.” The gryphoness squeaked and scrabbled around for a bag to slip the trash into.

    “You still didn’t answer the question I’ve been bellowing for the past hour,” Eclipse noted wryly.

    “Of course not,” the gryphon answered as the servant rushed back with a sturdy sack for Eclipse to place the glass shards in. She then began scrabbling about with a broom, and Goldtalon went back to ignoring her as he turned to the dark alicorn. “I don’t know, thus it would be foolish of me to answer, wouldn’t it? If you want to get silly, maybe the little gryphon was so pure and innocent or some garbage like that, and you’re so evil that she permanently wounded you.”

    Eclipse snorted and shook out his head, his features melting back down to the gryphon form. “You don’t believe that drivel, do you? It sounds like something the ponies would come up with…”

    “Not a word of it, “Goldtalon chuckled, “but I don’t have a better explanation myself. Personally, I say work with it. Make yourself look cruel and harsh, which you do well, and play it up. It’ll give every gryphon and pony something to focus on. It does, however, mean no more changeling tricks for you.”

    Eclipse smirked. “I never could manage to track one down to possess anyway,” he noted as he smoothed down his feathers, “I always wanted to, but they’re notoriously hard to find. Even Queen Chrysalis, when not on some bender or going on the offensive, is like chasing a phantom when she doesn’t want to be found. Entire hives, hives you know were full of changelings only minutes before, suddenly empty the moment you break in. Even the hatcheries, poof, completely cleaned out in an instant.”

    “You sound like you actually went looking for them,” Goldtalon said, casting a sidelong glance at the dark gryphon.

    “I did,” Eclipse admitted, “in the end I had to settle on the imps instead. Even then I could never get any of my spy imps into their hives. I figure that, once we’ve eliminated the ponies as a threat, it might be worthwhile to raze all the Changeling hives in Equestria. Clean them all out.”

    Goldtalon picked his way around the servant girl before glancing back over his shoulder to his guest, “You couldn’t manage that with the dragons… what makes you think you could do it to the changelings?” He vanished out of the doorway, leaving Eclipse to growl in his wake.

    “Sir!” a guard snapped from the doorway only moments later.

    “What is it?”

    “Slate and Patina, as requested,” the guard stated, snapping the spear in a salute again before turning aside from the door. A pair of gryphons slipped into the mostly destroyed chamber, Slate looking dumbly happy while Patina looked nervously at the claw marks and destruction. Eclipse quickly made sure the wounded side of his face was away from the pair, and found himself partially facing a window overlooking the mountain range that was presently his home. The late day sky gave enough shadow to see the barest of reflections within it...

    “Good evening,” he intoned in a warm voice. “I trust you both are settling into your new routines as Dragon Trainers? I hear tell that you both gained quite a bit of social standing from your new position.”

    “Absolutely sir!” Slate gushed. “This is everything we could have hoped for, and we have you to thank for it!”

    “Yes, you do, don’t you?” Eclipse asked thoughtfully, as if he hadn’t thought of that before. A worried glance passed between the husband and wife before Eclipse shook his head. “I apologize, I’m easily distracted today. Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you.”

    “You weren’t able to find Verdigris?” Patina whimpered, clutching her claws together in worry.

    “Worse, actually,” Eclipse noted, and turned his head. The effect was everything he hoped for. Shale stepped back, gaping visibly, and Patina gawped for a moment and clutched her claws together even harder, looking faint.

    “D-did she…?” Shale asked worriedly.

    “Yes, this is her handiwork,” Eclipse stated simply. “I underestimated her, it seems. I thought she was just lost, but it seems she was actively trying to run away. Unfortunately for my eye, I found out the reason why she was running the hard way. She didn’t want to come back here and risk that her secret would be uncovered.”

    “Secret?” Shale asked softly, conflicting emotions warring across his face.

    “Yes, a secret she has been harboring for quite a while,” Eclipse stated and turned away from them to face the window again. “It turns out that she takes after her elder sister, Filigree. She is cursed.”

    “What?!” Shale thundered, and Patina made a weird fluttery sound in her throat and passed out. “But that… but she… that little… she deserved to be in chains! This is…  I can’t… rrrrrhg!” Shale raged, ignoring his collapsed wife.

    Eclipse couldn’t help but grin at his reflection in the glass.

    Zilch was distracted.

    There was no better way to say it, her mind was simply somewhere else, and everypony else recognized it as well. Kaos discreetly asked if something was wrong, which she denied with a shake of her head, but he obviously suspected their new “guest” might have something to do with the mare’s problem.

    Finally, at approximately sundown, he declared the practice over. Zilch did her thing and teleported the team, hot and sweaty as they were, back to their base of operations. Zilch was then quick to teleport herself away and to the chamber she truly called home. No one in the group knew about it, she’d kept it a secret so she could hide away from every pony and be alone with her thoughts. And now, she’d let someone in! If she could breathe, she’d have been hyperventilating…

    Her overblown worries about finding everything destroyed, shredded, ripped, or even just thrown around proved to be baseless. Verdigris was sitting calmly at the desk, facing away from Zilch’s panicked entry. But the mare’s ability to calm herself was stymied by what she saw the gryphoness doing. She was disassembling the toys! The mare had an entire drawer full of toys she had tried to repair herself, along with a few tools she’d “borrowed” from Professor Burner, but the gryphon was wrecking her toys!

    A chattering sound then caught her attention, and the gryphon set down the toy she was working on. The little key on the back was spinning, and the little turtle was valiantly trying to swim its way across the desk, all four legs going. Wait… four legs? Zilch had to think for a moment, wasn’t the turtle missing its back legs and mechanism when she found it? With a nudge of her hoof, she poked the turtle, which chattered along as it valiantly tried to swim across the desk.

    “Welcome back,” Verdigris said with a smile and leaned away from the desk and wiped her forehead with a claw. A hoof full of toys had been repaired… their mechanisms all working perfectly now. The frog with the sprung spring would now jump when pushed down. The butterfly would flutter its wings, and the turtle would swim, and the weird crawly thing would actually crawl! Zilch’s wide eyes flicked form one to the other in rapid succession, the smile under her mask getting wider and wider until she felt it might burst. She couldn’t help herself, she all but pounced the gryphon with a fierce hug, the little cub falling over from the larger mare and laughing until she accidentally smacked her bad leg against the desk.

    “Ow ow…” Verdigris complained as she climbed stiffly back to her claws, but smiled at Zilch. “I’m glad you liked it. When I found the drawer where you stashed the springs and gears and stuff from when you tried to fix some of them, I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try myself...”

    Zilch couldn’t help but push down on the frog until he clicked, then released and watched as it leapt almost halfway to the ceiling, barely avoiding the strings of lights and forcing the mare to dive and catch it before it could crack its head on the stone floor. She was all smiles as she played with it, letting Verdigris put down the tools she found and wander to the bed, where she picked up and hugged the teddy bear from earlier. The mute mare had done more than she realized with the stuffed animal, letting Verdigris release some long stored fears and tensions, and she wanted to pay her back. It was all she could do to salvage a few toys when most of them were wrecked or rusted. Between rotten wooden blocks that had long since turned to mulch, the rusted toys that were falling apart, and the rare plastic item that had melted under the hot sun, she had been hard pressed to find the proper parts. The town was old when it was abandoned, Verdigris knew that from her brief stay there, and these toys had to be at least a century old, if not longer! The fact Zilch found even this much functioning at some level was a coup for the suited mare. The desert must not have a lot of salt or humidity to break down the metals at a “normal” speed.

    It also served as proof to herself. Verdigris had never seen the inside of these toys before, but when she opened them she could puzzle out their function and how they worked within seconds. It was actually harder to make some of the springs and gears fit where she knew they should than it was to figure out what they were supposed to do. She clutched the teddy bear a little tighter, resting her head atop it. There was no avoiding it now. Even if it had been talent, she shouldn’t have been able to make that turtle work at all. She scavenged parts from three different toys to piece the mechanism together from scratch and make it work. That’s not just talent, that’s something ponies or gryphons would have to study for years to know how to do….

    A light hoof on her foreleg stirred her from her reverie, and Zilch looked at her with worried eyes. Should she lie? “S-sorry. I just… I’m starting to realize something about myself,” she apologized. Zilch considered her for a moment, then lightly hugged her again before falling onto her back on the bed. She frowned a bit and reached a hoof through a portal she created, and the intensity of the hanging lights dimmed to the level Verdigris saw them when she came in. Zilch looked at her expectantly in the faux twilight, waiting for something.

    Verdigris held out for a moment, then sighed with a smile. She fluttered her wings slightly and laid back on the bed herself to stare up at the little lights overhead, laying the stuffed bear between them. It was very easy to see them as stars like that, enough that she reached up to them. Fortunately they were too high up, and the illusion was maintained this time. She was so intent on the “stars” that didn’t even notice Zilch shift closer, at least until the suited mare poked her side expectantly.

    “Ow… what?” the gryphon asked sharply, then frowned at the expectant look back at her. “What?” she demanded, the pony just grinning back at her. “You want to know what I was thinking, don’t you?” Zilch nodded, and Verdigris sighed. “I’m… I’m not sure I should say,” she answered softly. Zilch cocked her head curiously, and the gryphon felt compelled to explain. “It’s not a good thing among us gryphons. It would get me… it would get me forced back into servitude if they found out, not that they weren’t already going to do it if I went home. My parents would flat out disown me if they knew… I’d be just like my sister, Filigree, in their eyes.” Zilch leaned up slightly, looking down at Verdigris. The gryphon’s eyes were fixed overhead on the “stars”, one claw held up and swatting at a hanging string of lights just out of her reach.

    “I guess I should just come out and say it,” she sighed softly, “but I thought maybe Eclipse was lying to me, trying to trick me again. But he might be right, I think I might be a freak… cursed.” A light swat from Zilch made the cub jump and rub at her foreleg, rolling her eyes as she amended herself. “Fine, ‘special’… better?” Zilch smiled broadly and nodded. Verdigris sighed softly and looked back up at the faux stars over her head. “It’s nothing so dramatic as your teleportation, and probably not like the rest of your teammates. I’m just… smart, I guess. Eclipse made me first realize it, said it made me a threat to him. I don’t know how, I’m just a cub, but…” she finally just shrugged. “But, I was able to understand all the little gears in those toys at just a glance. It was like they were so simple, I could take them apart and repair them. So I tried to do it, and it worked… for the most part. Sometimes I couldn’t find the parts, but when I did, everything clicked.”

    Zilch leaned over and lightly hugged the gryphoness, which she returned after a moment. “Thank you. I’m not sure I… I’m not sure I want to be lumped in the same group as her. My sister, I mean. She abandoned me with my family, even though she tried to tell me it was for my own good. Maybe she was trying to convince herself too. I don’t know. I mean, I barely know her, so it’s kinda hard to be really mad, even if I feel like… I’m rambling, aren’t I?” Zilch nodded in agreement, which made the young gryphon sigh. “Sorry. But all this means something… something big and scary. Something I’m not sure I’m ready to admit…

    “I can never go home.”

    Zilch hugged her again, but oddly the gryphon didn’t feel the sorrow she had expected with those words. She felt adrift, lost, but that was no different than it had been since her sister rescued her. No, if anything, she was relieved. She’d never have to deal with those gryphons again. They’d never welcome her there, and her parents would never take her back either. They’d never try to corral her again, force her to do anything. She’d never have to listen to her thick brother laugh when he hit her, or her sister put her down and insult her ever again. Maybe Filigree would take her in now… but admittedly she wasn’t sure she wanted that.

    No, she knew what she wanted right now. “I wish these were real stars,” she said softly, reaching out a claw towards the twinkling lights overhead again. Suddenly they seemed to get further away, the cool disorienting sensation of teleportation via a portal washed over her as it opened beneath her.

    Verdigris’ scream was cut short when the portal snapped closed.

    “Look out!”

    Spectrum leapt into the air and over the manticore that slammed through the spot she vacated before crashing into the bushes beyond. The pegasus dropped back down to the ground, and with her fore-hooves grasped the red chitinous tail and gave it a yank. The pony heard the feline-hybrid scrabble at the trees and ground even as she hauled it back and swung it around in an arc, tossing it back into the woods, yowling angrily the entire way.

    “Thanks,” Spectrum called and took to her wings, crashing into the side of another manticore to drive it away from the agile Cloudchaser. Filigree grunted in response, and swung her metallic wing again to block another attempt to pierce her by the armoured tail sweeping down at her. She smirked at the manticore that seemed to think she was a good target, and grasped the tail with a claw. The beast struggled to pull its tail back, but to no avail against the gryphon’s iron grip. After moments of struggle, she suddenly let go, and the manticore went tumbling head over paws with a roar.

    “Next time, some warning might be nice, Cloudy!” her twin brother called down, diving around another of the feline beasts with his future mate in what they hoped was a confusing pattern. Counter-directional loops and banks seemed to drive the leonine forms into distraction trying to track them. Bright eyes tracked them from under tawny shaggy manes, the lion heritage easily seen. But often the rest of their dangerous aspects would be missed until too late, like the massive armoured tail and bat-like wings sprouting from their backs. Large, strong, and prone to short tempers, they were among the most common of the monstrous denizens of the Everfree Forest. Usually, they were prone to hunting alone, but when one stumbles onto their nesting ground…

    “Hey, I wasn’t the one doing the scouting!” the gryphoness called back grumpily.

    “Save it!” Chase all but commanded, slamming his claw into the side of a manticore’s muzzle. He may have lacked the pure strength of the specials with them, but it was enough to knock to feline back on its haunches before it tried to swipe at him with an oversized paw. Chase grunted and countered it at the foreleg instead, and shoved the feline down on its side before it could bring its tail into play. The manticore rolled away with a growl, but seemed content to back off for a moment as it reassessed its prey. “Right now we need to withdraw. There’s too many of them to take down…”

    Cloudchaser snorted, “Doesn’t help that Mister and Missus lovey-dovey over there led us right into their nest!”

    “That means you too, Cloudy,” Chase amended with frustrated growl.

    “Set up an escape route,” Spectrum instructed, “Steelwing and I will cover you.”

    “Not many places to go right now,” Blackfeather chimed in, then yelped as she darted to one side, the manticore deciding it was tired of watching the pair swirl about it and diving for one of them. Unfortunately it wasn’t her that it dove at, and it caught Windchaser and pinned him down to the ground, its tail hovering dangerously over his exposed side. The others barely had a moment to shout when Blackfeather launched herself at it, weaving around and along its tail, her claws catching it along the side of its muzzle and driving it back a step or risk losing an eye to her talons. This gave her fiancée the seconds he needed to scrabble out from under its claws and get clear.

    “This way,” Cloudchaser called, though looked uncertainly back at the rest of them.

    “Spectrum,” Chase called, and swept forward in the direction indicated, “we’re falling back.”

    “Understood,” she answered with a grunt, her crossed forelegs fending off an attempt to stab her with a poison stinger. She may have been a tough pony, but she was hardly willing to test out how resistant she might be to the poison the beasts seemed so eager to share. She blocked a second time as the manticore shifted and thrust again. A clang sounded from her left, and she spotted Filigree’s metal wing blocking another stinger from landing in her flank. Without a word, they each grabbed the manticore they faced with claws/hooves and threw them headfirst into each other. They then quickly faded back a number of steps under the continual assault. Filigree stayed in the forefront to guard against the stingers with her wings while Spectrum kept them from flanking them. When the mare’s eyes lit on an old fallen tree, an idea flickered through her mind.

    “On my signal, duck,” Spectrum instructed, and quickly flew to the far side of the small clearing.

    “Make it fast…” the gryphoness grunted.

    “And... mark!” the pony shouted and turned, bucking a fallen tree as hard as she could. Filigree lowered her head almost to the ground as the massive tree just barely cleared her and crashed into the line of manticores trying their best to take a swipe at her.

    “That won’t hold them long,” Filigree noted as she wiped her brow with a claw.

    Spectrum panted, “I know. We need to go.” The gryphoness answered with only the barest of nods and the pair took to their wings to follow where the quartet of gryphons had gotten themselves to. Night in the Everfree Forest is generally a gloomy affair with twisted trees blocking one from seeing any real distance in any direction. This generally makes finding an individual lost amongst its branches extremely difficult. Fortunately for the duo, the other gryphons were easy to find; they just had to follow the angry voices.

    “…supposed to watch out for things like that!”

    “You were the one in the lead!” another voice countered. “If any of us is to blame, it’s you!”

    “Did you forget that we were both up there?” a third voice said as Spectrum and Filigree entered the clearing. Windchaser and his sister, Cloudchaser, were all but beak to beak, with Blackfeather obviously supporting her future mate.

    “So?” Cloudchaser countered, poking her brother’s chest with her claw. “That just means it’s both of your faults!”

    “Hey! Don’t blame my fiancée!” Windchaser countered, pushing his sister back a step.

    “What, you have to protect her now?” she countered, knocking his foreleg aside to step back up to him, beak to beak. “Last I saw, she could thump your flank…”

    “Enough,” Chase commanded and stepped forward, placing a foreleg on both of their chests and forced them apart. “This arguing is getting us nowhere.”

    “Tell that to --!” Windchaser started, but was cut off as Chase stared him in the eyes and uttered a low growl. Then, as if anticipating a response from his sister, he turned his head to fix her with the same stare. She backed up a step, her beak clacking shut on whatever snide remark she’d been about unleash.

    “We’re all tired and frustrated,” Chase said in a more reasonable voice, looking to both siblings, then to Blackfeather as well. “We’re making mistakes, all of us, that we’d not if we were rested.”

    “I was just thinking the same thing,” Spectrum added softly, silently appreciative that he was able to wrangle the gryphons. She wasn’t sure they would have listened to her.

    “You go, then,” Filigree said softly from behind her, “I’ll keep looking.”

    “No, you won’t,” Spectrum said evenly, “you’re making as many mistakes as the rest of us. I know you better than that, and you’re about to fall over from exhaustion. You’ve been pushing yourself far beyond your limits.”

    “It doesn’t matter. She’s still out here, somewhere, and I have to find her,” the gryphoness answered.

    Spectrum looked at her teammate for a moment, and then turned to Cloudchaser. “Didn’t you say there were worse creatures here in the forest than Manticores?”

    The gryphoness blinked, and then nodded. “Not counting Hydras near the rivers and lakes, there are giant serpents, crocolisks, parasprite swarms, cockatrices, giant insects, and far far worse things that have been only identified by the remains of gryphons and ponies they left behind.”

    “In short,” Spectrum sighed, turning back to Filigree, “you wouldn’t stand a chance against some of those, and I would be a fool to let you. I’m sorry Filigree, but you need a rest, we all need a rest.”

    “You don’t understand,” the gryphoness insisted in a soft voice, her face hidden by shadows, “it’s my fault this happened. I have to find her.”

    “Wait, how is it your fault that she ended up here in the forest?” Chase asked, not entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.

    “I left her, I left Verdigris, with my family,” she said in a pained voice. “I left her with… with them. I knew they were idiots, but I argued that it was the right thing to do. That it would give my family a second chance, a chance to grow up away from the clans, that they would change now that they’d seen the true horrors of what the Clans held. Verdigris was innocent, and she all but begged me to take her with me to Canterlot. I talked her out of it, and she agreed to go with them, but told me that she didn’t understand my decision. Rainbow Star told me she didn’t think it was a good idea, but abided by my decision. And now…” Filigree paused to take a pained breath. Chase was sure that she was in tears, a rare thing for the stalwart gryphoness, and moved closer. “I abandoned her, and now she’s lost somewhere in all this. I cannot leave while she’s still out here, somewhere, in all this! I just…  I…”

    Chase stepped forward and placed a claw on her shoulder, and only felt the shuddering of the gryphoness under the touch. Without a second thought he drew her into a hug, wrapping forelegs and wings about her almost protectively as she trembled with barely controlled emotions.

    “Let’s pack it up for the night,” Spectrum said to the others. “Filigree and I are under orders from the Princesses, and have to leave first thing tomorrow. We’ve gone on as long as we can.”

    “Yeah, but we can start again in the morning,” Windchaser said reasonably, his sister nodding in agreement.

    Filigree looked up from where she was, taking a deep breath as Chase smiled comfortingly to her. “Just because you have to go back, doesn’t mean you have to give up on finding her,” he said soothingly, petting a claw over her crest. “If she’s here to be found, we’ll find her.”

    “I… thank you.” Filigree managed after a moment, hugging her beau tightly… perhaps a bit too tightly given the popping noises his back made.

    “Now I wish we had brought some marshmallows.”

    Zilch shook her head and laughed silently, and the gryphon waved it off with a smile. The small fire between them was more for warmth than it was for any light. If it weren’t staving off the chill wind across the desert, they’d douse the weak light it put out and simply watch the stars overhead. The desert cliff Zilch brought her to was the perfect place for stargazing.

    “Next time,” the gryphoness noted, and swatted the suited mare’s leg, “warn me before you teleport me around like that.” Zilch just grinned mischievously under her mask as the pair laid back to look upwards. Aside from a few embers thrown skyward from their fire, the night was owned completely by the stars glittering overhead. Hundreds of them, millions of them, more than Verdigris could ever hope to count. She only knew a claw-full of the constellations above her, but was content to lie on her back and reach her claw up towards them as if she could pluck one from the sky.

    “I’ve missed this,” she said softly, her companion’s ear flicking to listen even as her gaze remained fixed on the panoramic view overhead, the large gibbous moon low on the horizon where it provided some light but didn’t ruin their view. “I’d sneak out at night and stare at the stars from the upper caves of the aerie, where I wasn’t supposed to be, of course. I’d just lie there, sometimes with an old book on constellations I found, and just watch them all night. Sometimes I wonder if there was some sort of life out there on one of those little lights we see, or what the moon must have been like while Princess Luna was stuck on it. “

    Zilch playfully pantomimed choking, both her hooves crossed over her neck in a way that made Verdigris giggle. “Good point, probably not a lot of air out there. But you know what I mean. I’d just lay back and stare at the stars and wonder. Miss Stern, my old teacher, always used to tell me that I thought too much, that I was ‘acting above my station’. When I finally learned to fly, I tried to fly up to them, the stars I mean. I got caught, the night patrol snagged me and took home, and Poppa grounded me and whupped my flank. But still… something about the stars always called to me, helped me relax…”

    Zilch interrupted the other girl’s musings with a series of quick taps, then pointed to the sky. For a moment Verdigris didn’t see what caused the fuss, but a motion caught her eye and she sat up and watched the streak of light cross the sky. A falling star.

    “Didja make a wish?” she asked the suited mare, who nodded eagerly. Zilch pointed at the gryphon, cocking her head curiously. “Did I? No. Too much going on lately has seen me wishing for things to change, and then regretting it when they did. I think, for once, I’m going to stick with what I’ve got.”

    Zilch looked curiously at the gryphon, who only smiled enigmatically in return. She didn’t say it, she didn’t feel the need. But for the first time in a long time, she felt she’d truly gained something from everything that happened…

    She gained a friend.

19

Chapter 19

“Convergence”

    “Ponyfeathers!”

    Galaxi carefully peeked around the entry of the door, put on her guard by the shouted obscenity from a voice she knew all too well. It hadn’t taken her very long to find the old building, partially because she had been there before, and partially because it was the only functioning facility along the old “factory row” in Canterlot. Most manufacturing had long since moved to other cities with better access to raw materials, and that lead to the hoof-full of abandoned plants along the eastern edge of Canterlot, away from the palace and cliffs that ponies normally see. The buildings themselves weren’t in terrible shape, but given the high premium Canterlot put on their limited space, she was surprised they hadn’t been demolished years ago.

    The particular factory that Galaxi found herself peering into had once been painted a bright cheery red, which the sun had faded to a splotchy pink, and caked filth had rendered the rest a dingy brown. Still, it was in better repair than most, with no broken windows and doors that actually looked like they could actually prevent some pony from breaking in. Inside the building, a number of machines that once created automated high-speed chariots sat dormant in rows. Too big to move, but too clunky to sell, they sat there slowly rusting. At least they had been, before Clockwork Key refurbished and turned the whole thing into a production facility for her custom chariot.

    Most of the old machines had found new life, repurposed for whatever the mechanically inclined mare needed. Some sort of connection that Clockwork once tried to explain, but went right over Galaxi’s head, linked the computers here with the ones in her laboratory. This allowed her to control the mechanisms with a precision their original creators could have only dreamed of, and kept Clockwork’s design constant regardless of where she worked from.  The high end holographic interface she used in her lab was missing, but a number of glowing holographic panels allowed her to keep track and program the machines, and made it even more clear that she’d retrofitted the old building for her own purpose.

    Of course the centerpiece was suspended in mid air just over the center of the floor. Unlike the original team chariot, which reminded Galaxi of a boomerang caught in mid-flight, this one was longer and looked more dart-like. The central “chariot” was stretched and longer than the original version, with a cylindrical shape that tapered on each side, as if a pony had bit on the sides and pulled, giving an eye-like shape to it. The taper along each side lead into the initial super-structure for the wings, making it all look very smooth and sleek, or would if construction had progressed beyond the metallic grid-like supports that formed the base structure. Right now it was just a framework, which allowed Galaxi to see that the main structure came to a sharper point at front and, interestingly, the cockpit of the chariot seemed to be easily accessible by the passengers. It still lacked any sort of bench for a pony, but Galaxi supposed that would come later, or Clockwork would stand in that section with her power armour.

    The entire assembly was suspended by a number of robotic arms and winches from the ceiling, holding it over any number of additional machines and computers. Almost directly under it all, Clockwork stood facing a large fan-like piece of equipment. It was easily twice as long as the pony facing it, and almost as tall, but Clockwork was less than happy with it. She went so far as to buck it with her hind legs, which landed her flat on her face. Rubbing a clothed leg over her nose, which brought Galaxi’s attention to the fact the small mare was wearing ugly olive green overalls stained with any number of fluids and grease while she worked, Clockwork muttered something less than couth and approached the gear more as if she were going to fight with it than work on it.

    Galaxi stifled a giggle, trying hard not to think how cute the frustrated mare looked as she threw her wrench to the cement floor. But despite the apparent anger from the other pony, Galaxi could hear it; her mind was singing again. It wasn’t pure, there was still plenty of discordant noise and distortion, but there were pure notes amidst the fouled tones struggling to get through. Hope surged through the psychic pony…

    “You okay there?” Galaxi asked as she rounded the corner. The other pony looked surprised and a bit embarrassed, but relaxed when she recognized her.

    “Yeah, I’m okay,” she answered, then thumped the oversized fan with her hoof, “but I’m having a bear of a time with this stupid thing. I want to set it in the superstructure so we can eliminate the need for long landing zones. It should increase our flexibility if I can add some rudimentary vertical landing and take-off methods to the chariot.”

    “So that’s not the main engine?” Galaxi asked, garnering a strange look from the other mare.

    “Nah, it’s got too much surface area,” Clockwork answered, and pointed towards the back of the building, “I’m still building the main engines back there. They’re the reason I changed the shape and elongated the chariot; these new turbines will be longer and thinner, which unfortunately makes them less flexible, but adds to their speed a great deal. While they could, potentially, break that second rainboom barrier, I’m less worried about that then I am about stability and safety. The fact the previous engines were so far out along the wing meant that the vibrations gave them hell, especially at high speeds. After studying the wreck, it turns out the catalyst for the crash is as simple as a bolt getting sheared off from the strain, which in turn gave the turbine spin an unhealthy wobble. A longer turbine would make it more stable, since there are more places to stabilize it if something similar were to happen again.”

    Galaxi frowned and furrowed her brow. “A wobble caused it to explode? What did it do, strike something sensitive?”

    “Something like that. The turbine fan started scraping the walls of its containment area, throwing sparks everywhere,” Clockwork sighed, “and then it ripped a furrow right out of the edge and exposed a fuel line.” Galaxi winced at the implication, and the other mare nodded. “Exactly. Ka-Boom. Thankfully the fuel line safeties were working, and they kept the explosion localized in the engine. But with one engine down, it put too much strain on the other, and caused it to burn out. Without engines, and extensive damage to the wing thanks to the explosion, crashing was a certainty.”

    “Well, look on the bright side,” the blind mare offered, drawing a skeptical look from Clockwork, “it gives you a chance to work out the kinks from the first version.”

    The short mare considered that for a moment before looking up at the incomplete frame. “You’ve got a point there.”

    Galaxi smiled and looked up at the suspended frame over their heads. “So that’s the new ride, eh? I notice the cockpit isn’t separate this time.”

    “That was Princess Luna’s suggestion,” Clockwork admitted sheepishly, “but I’ll admit that it does simplify things. Plus, it makes good sense, now that I’ve had time to think about it. It struck me when I looked over the wreckage that if I’d passed out any time during that trip back… we would have crashed a lot worse than we did. No pony could have reached the controls, and even if they could, no pony could have interfaced with them. So I’m going to try and put in a back-up station right there in the front.”

    “Wait, where will you sit then?”

    “Towards the back, ahead of the main engine housing. It’ll be easier to wire up the harness and hard-point connections for the suit,” she answered, pointing a hoof to what looked about the midpoint of the chariot to Galaxi. “The main turbines will be just behind me, so I’ll have quick access if something goes wrong as well. And, in the case of catastrophic failure, I should be able to disconnect and jettison the engines from the rest of the frame.”

    “So what’s the big fan there for?” Galaxi asked, motioning with her head. “You already said it’s not part of the engines...”

    “That is going to fit into the wing assembly. The longer shape necessitated longer wings, though I can make the entire thing a bit narrower than before. As such, I want to mount this fan into one of the wings with some rotational adjusters for fine steering. With a pair of these mounted, the chariot should be able to hover for short periods. It’ll make landing in rough terrain easier, and with luck it’ll negate the need for a runway and allow for pinpoint landing. I’m not so sure it’ll have the power for that, though, but early tests look good.”

    “So why were you swearing?” Galaxi asked. Clockwork motioned to an opening on one side just slightly smaller than a pony’s head and slightly longer than a pony’s leg that extended out between the blades towards the center of the turbine.

    “That’s one of the rotating mounting brackets,” Clockwork noted simply, “but in order to get it in place, I need to a turn a bolt all the way in there, just out of my hoof’s reach, while it’s being held in mid-air with the frame. As if all that isn’t problematic enough… I dropped the bolt when I tried to set it and can’t reach it.”

    Galaxi paused and looked into the hole herself, frowning a little as she put a hoof against the side. “I can’t see it.”

    “It got caught in the shielding for the center of the unit,” Clockwork noted and leaned slightly against it. She yipped slightly when the entire assembly began to lift off the floor, backing away a step as Galaxi’s telekinesis lifted it. It hovered just over her head when Clockwork called to her, “Hold it right there!” She quickly reached up with a hoof and proceeded to try and scoop out the underside of the shield… then sighed. “It’s gotten further under the cover than I thought; I’ll have to take it off.”

    “Maybe not,” Galaxi interjected, and slowly tipped the large fan to one side. Clockwork realized quickly what she had in mind and slipped around to where the bolt was most likely to go and scooped at it with her hoof, pulling out a heavy two inch long securing bolt. She quickly slipped out from under the fan, which Galaxi gently set down on the floor once more.

    “Well, that works too,” Clockwork laughed and held up the bolt.

    “That… little bolt is going to hold that entire thing?” Galaxi asked incredulously.

    “Hardly,” Clockwork noted with a smile, “this, and a dozen or so like it, holds the outer ring in place. I would weld it, but I like being able to remove and replace it quickly if something goes wrong.”

    “So why make such a big production about that one?”

    “Because if it was just left in place, it could do untold damage to the turbine itself,” Clockwork noted seriously. “That wobble from the old chariot would be just a minor hiccup compared to what would happen. Thanks, Galaxi, I appreciate the helping hoof.”

    “Sure thing,” she answered, smiling warmly. “Y’know, I don’t have anything planned for today; I could stick around and help out if you want…”

    “Really?” Clockwork asked in surprise, setting the hard-won bolt on the counter. “You always preferred just to stand by and watch…”

    “Really,” she answered.

    “Well, if you’re sure. Just grab a jumpsuit from the lockers over there,” the short mare said, motioning to some old lockers with her hoof. “They might be a bit snug for you, they’re all my coveralls, but they should fit well enough.”

    “Sure thing! Just give me a moment to suit up…”

    Clockwork didn’t know exactly what to expect from Galaxi and her “help”, but put her friend to work none the less. To the small mare’s surprise, the psychic threw herself into the work as best she could. Sure, she needed help from time to time, and her lack of experience with this sort of work was obvious, but Clockwork couldn’t fault her enthusiasm to help. Besides, there was something about seeing the mare hunched over some piece of gear…

    The khaki mare shook her head to clear it, yet over the next few hours found her eyes lingering over the other mare’s form. The sway of a hip here, the arch of a leg there, and that cute little scrunchy thing she did with her face when trying to be careful with delicate bits. It all left the short mare feeling oddly short of breath and a little warm under the collar. More-so when Galaxi looked her way, and she would find herself making some excuse or another to look away and at her readouts and gear.

    “This is silly,” she told herself and sighed, glancing at her friend. “We’ve been friends for over a year now. Why would I suddenly start feeling this awkward around her?” She chuckled at her own silliness and set herself back to work, gripping a wrench in her teeth to winch it down on the engine housing. They’d been working on it for the past hour or so, and it passed the initial tests with flying colors. She borrowed some tech from her own armour for its design, incorporating an air-scoop into it that would further act to accelerate the craft, even tweaking the aerodynamics so that even at rainboom speeds it wouldn’t be air starved. Still, assuming the airless environ that a potentially second rainboom might cause, she made sure to have back-up fuel-lines. Air sensors could detect the amount coming in, and could adjust the fuel consumption as the chariot flew along… or would it be more correct to compare it to an airship now? Zeppelin? Balloon?

    “Clockwork?” a voice came from behind her, startling the short pony badly enough that she dropped the wrench she held in her teeth. Galaxi couldn’t help but giggle, “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. You just looked so far away for a moment… I thought maybe you had something on your mind.”

    “I… er…” the small mare stammered, suddenly finding herself fumbling for words, “I was just… wondering if the chariot really counted as a chariot anymore. I mean, it might be closer to an airship or zeppelin now…”

    Galaxi hummed a little and put a hoof to her chin, looking up at the suspended framework. With the light shining in through the dirty windows, Clockwork found her eyes drawn across the tight denim clothing her form. Clockwork almost instinctively looked closer, her mind whirling as she started breaking down proportions and figures. Length from neck to tail, circumference of the chest, breadth of the hips, and the smooth curve along each thigh…

    “Maybe you just need to invent a new word for it,” Galaxi offered with a shrug.

    …the graceful curve of the neck, the delicate arch of her foreleg, the inquisitive angle of her head…

    “Clockwork?” Galaxi asked quizzically at the other mare and took a step forward, only to bump into something that clinked softly on the cement floor. She paused to look, and noticed she’d stepped on a wrench. “Oh, you dropped this,” she said, and lifted it in her telekinesis, facing Clockwork again.

    …the circumference of the eyes, the seductive curve of the eyelid, the height/width of the muzzle tip, the fullness of her lips…

    A sensation swept through Clockwork, like a foreign invader in her body, and she was helpless to resist. She didn’t know, she couldn’t understand, but that alien warmth flowed through her body and pushed her forward in a sudden motion. It was like touching an exposed electrical wire when their lips met. It was sloppy, it was awkward, it was overwhelming…

    The clang of the wrench that dropped to the floor when the telekinetic grip holding it aloft vanished brought Clockwork back to her senses. In that instant the moment was over, and Clockwork pulled back with wide eyes, horror flooding through her. “OhmygoddessI’msosorryIdon’tknowwhatcameoverme!” the small mare cried in a single breath, oblivious to the rather pleasantly befuddled expression on her friend’s face. Fortunately, Galaxi was able to shake off the stupor at roughly the same time Clockwork turned on a hoof and bolted for the door, her coat more red than khaki.

    It took Clockwork almost a full minute before she realized that she hadn’t reached the door yet, her legs flailing a few inches off the floor where she was suspended in mid-air. She managed only a squeak when and folded her forelegs over her face, blushing furiously even as Galaxi set her down and smiled down at her friend. Clockwork wanted to apologize, to explain herself, but she found herself unable to do more than give a strained croak. Galaxi smiled gently and brushed a hoof through her friend’s mane.

    “It’s okay,” Galaxi said after a moment, “but let’s skip the whole ‘running away’ part this time.” Clockwork’s eyes widened, only barely grasping what was said when the other pony leaned close, their lips touching once more…

    From the doorway, Princess Luna smiled knowingly and turned to leave.

    Waiting.

    Waiting was something Verdigris could do, though it was far from her favorite. She’d much rather be sleeping, playing with one of Zilch’s toys, or even working out the overheat figures for Professor Burner. In a way, she was already doing the last one in her head, but it all rested on the melting point of the material he was using, so she couldn’t do anything more there. Idly she wished she had thought to sneak out a toy when Zilch opened the portal this morning, at least then she wouldn’t be so bored while waiting.

    Why was she waiting? She wondered that for the umpteenth time, but the Prince had suggested that this would be the best way to reintroduce herself to the team. He called her “support” for them, but in reality she figured she’d spend a majority of her time helping sort out Professor Burner’s armour and playing with Zilch. Not much different than before.

    So why the big deal? She could guess, and much of it had to do with one name: Alto. When the Prince told her about him, she lost her temper. The Prince didn’t say a word as she shrilly explained every slight, both real and perceived, he had ever committed against her. He waited patiently until her fury had dulled to a simmering rage, and then laid out his reasons. She hated to admit it, but they were good reasons. She didn’t agree with all of his choices, but…

    The sound was faint, but in the silent meeting hall, it was a clarion call. Verdigris sat up a little straighter, trying to ignore the ache in her leg, as a pinprick of silvery white appeared in midair near the far wall of the chamber, and then expanded to a large portal easily three times her height and equally as wide. A dusty breeze pushed through, warm against the cool air within the aerie, and the young gryphon fluffed her wings nervously.

    “Hah! Didja see me?” Crosswind crowed as he broke the threshold first, the pegasus fluttering near the ceiling as he struck a pose. Junkyard followed shortly behind, and looked like he was struggling to keep from rolling his eyes. His expression shifted to one of guarded curiosity when his eyes landed on the young gryphoness. Professor Burner was next, filling almost the entire portal with his massive Manticore armour, followed shortly by a snow white gryphon.

    “How could ve not zee you,” Burner asked sarcastically, “you only ztopped for applauze every twenty zecondz.”

    “Grandstanding aside,” Kaos noted as he came through the portal with Zilch, the latter of whom allowed the portal to snap shut behind her as the pair skirted the heavy armour, “you all did far better this outing than you have done in the past. We are actually starting to look like a team. Every one held their position, coordinated with one another, and fought well. Professor, the latest batch of tweaks seemed to really improve your performance.”

    “I cannot take all ze credit,” the unicorn noted as he tugged the helm off and shook out his mane, “Verdigris found ze zolution zat vas eluding me and azzizted me in ze implementation.”

    “Then it worked alright?” Verdigris asked suddenly, blurting it out. All eyes fell upon her in surprise and she suddenly felt sheepish, and rubbed her foreleg with a claw. “I… er… wasn’t sure about some of the heat distribution. I thought there might have been a build-up in the lower torso that we might have overlooked…”

    “Nein, it vorked perfectly,” Burner answered with a broad smile. “Did you have time to look over ze --“

    A shrill scream interrupted the professor as a white winged blur dove under the cover of a nearby table. Several loud thumps later, and the group could hear a shaky voice ask, “Did she see me?”

    “Uh, if she didn’t, she’s both blind and deaf,” Crosswind snarked, ignoring the tug on his tail from Junkyard.

    “Zat vas… unexpected,” Burner added, flattening his ears.

    Verdigris bent over, using a foreclaw on the table for support, to look under it at the other gryphon, his amber eyes meeting her green ones for a brief moment. “Yes, I saw you,” she said flatly before sitting back up.

    “What’s this about, anyway?” Crosswind demanded, flitting his wings irritably. “You’re supposed to be tucked away, and out of our way!”

    “I vill admit to zome curiozity az to vhy you are here az vell,” the Professor chimed in. Zilch trotted worriedly towards the other youngster, placing a hoof tentatively on her shoulder. Only Kaos seemed unfazed by her appearance.

    “You spoke with the Prince, didn’t you?” the zebra asked with a knowing grin.

    “Yes,” Verdigris answered softly, “he asked me to help the team as repayment.”

    “And you agreed?”

    She glanced at Zilch with a thin smile and nodded. “I don’t agree with everything he’s done, or plans to do, but… but it is important enough to help. Plus, you all did save my life, and you haven’t asked me for anything in return. I kinda feel… I feel like I should at least help out where I can.”

    “B-But what about…?” a trembling voice asked, the white gryphon barely peering over the edge of the table to stare at her with wide and fearful eyes.

    Verdigris closed her eyes before answering, “The Prince convinced me that what he was doing was important. I understand it pits you against my sister, and I think he chose poorly in that regard, but…” Her voice hitched, finding it difficult to continue, when a gentle warmth touched her shoulder. She glanced to her side, and was able to see the glow of the Prince’s magic from the corner of her eye.

    “…but despite her reservations, she has agreed to act in support of the team,” the Prince’s voice smoothly continued from the monitors around the room, making most of them jump in surprise. “She won’t actively move against her own sister, or the Princesses and their team, of course. However, she has agreed that there is madness to my method… err, excuse me, a method to my madness.”

    “It’s far too late in the game to change pieces,” she noted softly.

    “That said, Alto should still do his best to avoid young Verdigris,” the Prince continued. “She may have agreed to help, but she also has not forgotten what happened to her and her sister. It took me a good hour to calm her down when your name came up.”

    “Vait, vat vas done to Verdigris?” Burner interrupted.

    Verdigris answered in a wavering voice, “He came to the clans to seek my sister’s promise from her old owner, the Duke Silverthorn. It was passed to King Goldtalon, who in turn took my entire family into chains to force my sister to come to the aerie and be forced back into shackles. We… I was just a pawn to get at my sister, so he could spy on the Ponies for the King!”

    “I-it wasn’t like that!” Alto stammered.

    “Like hell it wasn’t!” Verdigris shouted in return, shuddering as she leaned forward, only to find a pair of forelegs hugging her. Her anger evaporated as she fell against them, Zilch holding her gently, even if her eyes continued to bore into the other gryphon. “It’s why my wings are clipped. It’s how I met Filigree, and why she rescued all of us, only to end up in the Everfree Forest thanks to my idiot father. That isn’t your fault… you were just the catalyst, the first domino in a chain of events…”

    “B-but…!”

    “None of us, save perhaps Verdigris, are without sin here,” the Prince interrupted, “nor does it change our purpose. You all know your roles, and for the time being, Verdigris has agreed to assist. I do trust that her presence will not be disruptive to any of you?”

    “She ain’t buggin’ me, so long as she stays out of my stuff,” Crosswind answered simply. Junkyard chuffed softly and gave a thumbs up. Zilch simply nodded from where she held the sniffling gryphoness.

    “Her azzizztance has been invaluable,” Professor Burner spoke up, “I look forward to vorking vith her in ze future.”

    “I… I dunno…” Alto stammered.

    “I would suggest you figure it out soon, Alto,” Kaos said, “time is a luxury we have little of.”

    Zilch opened a portal and shepherded Verdigris through it, and the others filtered out of the room, leaving Alto alone in the chamber with the still suited Burner.

    “I vas zure you had a hiztory vith her,” Professor Bunsen Burner said softly to the gryphon, “given how you reacted vhen ve found her. But after vhat happened zat day, I have no right to criticize. Vhen you are ready to zpeak about it, come zee me…”

    The stallion paused only long enough to witness a small nod from the white gryphon before carefully patting his shoulder, an act that inadvertently knocked Alto back to the ground, before reclaiming his helm and stomping the heavy suit from the chamber. Alto started to pick himself back up off the floor…

    “Are you going to quit?” the Prince asked from a nearby monitor, causing Alto to jump in shock.

    “I th-thought you…” he stammered, then took a steadying breath, “I don’t know.”

    “None of us are without sin,” the Prince reiterated, “you’re just fortunate enough that yours is willing to face you so quickly.”

    “Fortunate?!” Alto all but cried. “How in Celestia’s beard is this fortunate??”

    “That saying is still in use? Wow, I thought it had been retired years ago,” the unseen stallion mused. “It is fortunate because you have the chance to face this fear, to try and overcome it. Many never have that chance, and many more do not seek it out, and it eats away at them until they are but a shell of themselves. Junkyard, for instance, is guilty of murder, as is Zilch. Professor Burner almost wiped an entire city off the map for revenge. They may never have that chance. Yet Verdigris is here, now, and staring you in the face. You just have to work up the courage to do what must be done…”

    “You mean, like, kill her or something?”

    “Would that bring the sort of closure you desire?” the Prince asked. “Think on it, Alto, but make your decision soon; you cannot avoid her forever.”

    Alto swallowed visibly, alone in the room filled with ever watching monitors…

    Clockwork felt… content.

    She wasn’t sure how else to describe it. She was happy, but it was hardly an overwhelming joy or giddy laughter, even if the latter had come up many times in the hours since… The small mare shook her head, unsure how to categorize the event. It felt like a culmination, a fated occurrence, a destined moment in time and space... it just defied normal categorization in her mind. It was just “there”, a singular point in time that she could look back and see every sign pointing towards, but before it happened she never saw it coming.

    How could she? Discounting all those stallions Trixie tried to fix her up with, her only real romantic liaison ended in complete disaster. Her teenaged crush on the media produced image of Ultrapony had blown up in her face in a horrid way. Perhaps that was an aspect of fate, a fate which brought her there, lying in another mare’s legs and musing about the strangeness of it all in a darkened room. Before recent events, she’d never even considered feeling like this. When she was young, her obsession with him and the events that followed all but killed the drive to find some pony special. She had to admit that she still found stallions attractive, but always kept a respectable distance. You never knew if one of them might try and hurt you, like the last one did.

    Clockwork made a face at that thought. That made her sound like the victim of something far worse than a simple back-hoof, didn’t it? She hated to think of herself as a “victim”. That implied helplessness, an inability to fight back, and she was not helpless. She’d proven that time and time again. Every time a pony thought she was down for the count, she got back up. She pushed herself beyond any and all reasonable limits, and when her body couldn’t handle it, she built something that could. What her body couldn’t do, the Dragonfly armour could. She fought Ultrapony to a standstill, landing him in the hospital. She felt a surge of pride at that small fact. Ultrapony, the invincible stallion, sent to the hospital by a powerless mare who he once tried to victimize. Sure, she landed in the hospital right alongside him, and for far longer, but an achievement is still an achievement. It was the only recorded occurrence of Ultrapony ever needing medical assistance, and she couldn’t help but feel proud of that.

    With a sigh she realized that psychologists would have a field day with her. She was victimized, so she fought back. That was the cycle of her life, it seemed. Every time a challenge stood up and beat her down, she picked herself up and found a way to fight back. A meteorite nearly killed her family and forced them to abandon their home, so she created armour for her brother. Ultrapony landed her in the hospital, so she made noise until the agency itself told her to stick a cork in it. Her brother died, so she created power armour to take his place in the war against the Imps, at the invitation of Princess Luna. Ultrapony tried to push her around, and even struck her, so she put him in the hospital. The Nightmare took her friend, so she led a team to the moon itself to bring her back. The Nightmare almost crushed her to death, so she stood point with the other element bearers to wipe the Nightmare off the map. In a way, that might explain much of the problem with the “condition” she acquired. She was constantly looking for the next thing to try and beat her down, the next challenge to overcome… and when nothing came, she felt lost. Wasn’t that the very definition of the disorder she’d come down with? The constant expectation of an attack, and when it doesn’t come it makes one feel less a pony?

    She closed her eyes for a moment and forced herself to relax. She could feel that old tension curling in her gut, the anticipation, the twitchy sensation of expecting the floor to drop out from under her. She forced herself to focus on her breathing, on their breathing, the slow in and out of breath. She could feel Galaxi’s breath across the back of her neck, where her head was nestled, its gentle warmth spreading over her neck and shoulder, and the almost possessive grip of her forelegs. They exhausted themselves pretty thoroughly after “finding” each other. Clockwork couldn’t help but imagine she was late to the party, given how Galaxi took charge. The shorter mare always was seen as just “one of the boys” when it came to the Agency, but Galaxi somehow made her feel all girly and giddy inside. And now, in the aftermath and the warmth that followed, she couldn’t help but feel content.

    There was that word again….

    “You’re awake?” the groggy question came from the blind mare. Clockwork flushed, she should have expected that Galaxi would instinctively know when her mind was spinning away in the darkness.

    “Yeah,” Clockwork answered and shifted a bit, clumsily rolling onto her side. “Just thinking…”

    Galaxi nuzzled her cheek. “What about?”

    “Just a bit of everything, I suppose,” she answered softly. “I mean, I never even saw this coming. I don’t know why… looking back it all makes perfect sense.”

    The blind mare chuckled softly, “That’s the way things seem to work out sometimes, isn’t it? The most obvious stuff sneaks up and ambushes you.”

    “Could also be a case of me missing the forest for the trees,” Clockwork answered with a smirk.

    “That’s not the only thing on your mind…” Galaxi said softly, only to laugh when the other mare poked her.

    “No fair! You’re not supposed to use your psychic powers in bed!” Clockwork turned bright red the next moment and covered her mouth with both forehooves. “W-wait! I-I didn’t mean it like that!”

    The other mare laughed again and kissed the blushing mare on the nose, “I know what you meant, though if you remember, I can’t read your mind right now. Relaxed as you are, I can get a few impressions, but the music is still off…”

    “O-oh…” Clockwork stammered, “t-then how…?”

    “You were frowning and thinking really hard,” Galaxi answered with a shrug, “that hardly looked like you were going over how we ended up in bed together. You looked like you were really chewing something over. So what’s on your mind?”

    “I… I was thinking. It really was about how I got here, but in a more nebulous way,” Clockwork said thoughtfully. “Not just being here with you, but how I got from point A to point B in my life.”

    “Figure anything out?”

    “I… I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not sure what to call it,” she sighed softly. “I hate to think of myself as the victim of anything, but really, we’re all victims at one time or another to things beyond our control. When I was a foal, so young I barely remember, the Ladies Sparkle and Applejack saved me and my brother and father. Because more imps were falling, we were forced to abandon the town. In a way, they victimized everyone in town, and years later I fought back the only way I could, I built. In that case, the Warpony mk. 1 went online using my brother’s abilities as a focus. He could link with any machine he was in contact with and control it, thus I made the armour to capitalize on that. I wasn’t even out of school, and here I was creating power armour! How absurd is that?”

    “Every bit as absurd as the fact it actually worked?” Galaxi asked teasingly.

    Clockwork smirked and rested her head on the other mare’s chest. “Precisely. It worked. I fought back. The imps victimized my entire family, and I found a way to fight back. Since Dad passed away, it wasn’t a complete win, but it was as close as I could do. Of course, then I met Ultrapony…”

    Galaxi frowned as she saw the first links of the chain. “…and, if I remember your telling properly, he tried to force himself on you, then slapped you away when you refused.”

    Clockwork nodded. “I made so much noise about that the Agency told me to shut up. Then Widget died, and Luna invited me to take his place on the team…”

    “I remember that, “Galaxi said softly, “and I think I see what you’re getting at. You’re looking at each of these as pivotal moments, aren’t you? Moments where something seemed so big that it was impossible to overcome and it knocked you down, and in almost every case, you figured out a way to fight back. If you couldn’t yourself, you found a way to do it with help, mechanical or otherwise.”

    “That’s exactly where I was going,” the short mare said and closed her eyes, “and I also think that’s part of my problem.”

    “I’m not sure I follow…”

    “I’ve spent my life looking for crises,” Clockwork noted softly, “and then finding a way to overcome. Imps destroy my town? I invent armour to fight back. Brother dies? I invent armour for myself and continue on. Nightmare kicks our flanks? Take point in the formation to fight back. Some unregistered mare tries to kick my flank while I’m armourless? Find a way to beat her anyway… even if I did overdo it.”

    “I think I see your point,” the blind mare said softly, and stroked a hoof over the other pony’s mane, “and where you’re going with it. You spent so much time looking for things to overcome that when the challenge wasn’t there, you found yourself jumping at shadows. Wait… you’re talking about your condition, aren’t you?”

    “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s almost a perfect definition of Acclimation Disorder, don’t you think?” Clockwork asked simply.

    Galaxi blinked owlishly in the dark. “It… it does, doesn’t it? I’m not sure that it’s as cut and dried as that, but… it does give an interesting background for at least a vulnerability to it, especially as it accelerated up to the defeat of the Nightmare. Initially there were years between the events, but once you joined the Princess’ team, everything accelerated. Within two months you were put in the line of fire multiple times, including a near death experience with Ultrapony.”

    “An increased pace means that when it just suddenly falls off, I’m left looking for crises that aren’t coming,” Clockwork finished.

    Galaxi frowned and, in a sudden surge of protectiveness, clutched the other pony a bit tighter to her. It made sense, too much sense, to her. It also made her want to hold on tight and keep the other mare safe at all costs. It wasn’t until Clockwork began to squirm a little that Galaxi loosened her grip, and the “victim” of the bear hug took a deep breath.

    “Where’d that come from?” Clockwork wheezed for a moment, and Galaxi blushed hotly.

    “Sorry about that,” Galaxi offered, “still getting used to…”

    “To all of this?” Clockwork finished with a smile, and her friend nodded sheepishly. Clockwork hugged her lightly in return and sighed, “Me too. I have no idea what I should and shouldn’t be doing or saying.”

    Galaxi giggled behind a hoof, “I doubt you’re thinking the same exact thing I am, because I’m not so sure how you’d handle being called --“

    “No!” Clockwork interrupted. “No pet names, please. Goddess, I hate the one I already have.”

    “What? What’s wrong with ‘Little Key’? It’s cute,” the blind mare asked, cocking her head to one side. “Skillet calls you that all the time…”

    Clockwork made a face. “Because it makes me feel like I’m a foal again. Skillet gets away with it because he’s known me since… for at least ten years now. He knew me as an awkward teen filly, right about the time Widget got into the agency and started using the armour I made for him. Skillet only got into it because my brother teased me with it once in a while… and he got it from Dad. To Dad I was always Little Key, right up until he died and Widget started taking care of me. That was a rough time for both of us, and Skillet was there to help when we needed it.”

    “You don’t talk about your father much,” Galaxi said softly, nuzzling the other mare’s ears lightly.

    “I try not to,” she sighed in response, “there are still a lot of painful memories there… memories I try to put behind me but haunt me at the oddest times. I wonder sometimes what Dad would think of me… of my life.”

    “You saved the ponylands, Equestria, and potentially the world,” the blind mare reminded her, “I’m sure he’d be proud of you.”

    Clockwork smiled sadly. “Thanks.,” she murmured, and then stretched a little and started to crawl out of the bed. Galaxi frowned, but let her go. “I really should get out there…”

    “Out where?”

    “As much as I want to lie down again and just snuggle, we both have things to do,” she answered and spent a moment to stretch, her back popping in a few places. “I promised Mare-Do-Well that I would give her a helping hoof tonight. I’d wager Luna will be looking for you, and if not, Trixie might still need your help. It’s only a few hours after moonrise, if the clock is correct, so there’s still plenty of night to go.”

    Galaxi struck a pose on the bed. “You can’t put it off?” she purred, right up until Clockwork began to giggle.

    “S-sorry…” she managed, as Galaxi’s face fell a bit, “I’m sorry, just… I think Lady Rarity’s legacy is safe.”

    “What?!” Galaxi cried from the bed, and rolled to her hooves. “Why you little...”

    Clockwork squealed with laughter when the other mare pounced…

    “You’re late.”

    “Hello to you too,” Clockwork answered, and flared the hooves of her power armour as she came in for a landing. It hadn’t been hard to find the place she was supposed to meet with Mare-Do-Well, it was exactly where the masked mare had said it would be, atop the warehouses on the west side of the city near the train yard. Said warehouses were all appropriately dingy from years of exposure to the sun and smoke the engines put out. The specially charged gemstones that drove the newer trains left glittering gray soot everywhere that combined with the even darker soot from those engines that still burned coal. The warehouses themselves were squat buildings that barely stood two stories tall, and lined the rail yard on almost every side.

    At this hour, the rail yard was completely abandoned, save for a security pony or two wandering among the spider web of tracks. Outside of their flashlights, the darkness was almost an entity unto itself; heavy and oppressive. If it weren’t for sensors that allowed her to see in even the darkest of nights, Clockwork would have been completely blind. She had no idea how Mare-Do-Well managed in the darkness, but she seemed little concerned by it.

    “We need to get into the warehouse over there,” the masked mare noted, pointing a hoof towards the southern edge of the rail yard.

    “Sounds simple enough…” Clockwork started.

     “It would be, if we had the Princess’ sanction, which we do not. So we’re going in covertly, and we need those guards not to even know we were ever here,” Mare-Do-Well stated simply.

    “I’m not exactly built for stealth.”

    “No, you’re not. That’s why you’re going to wait here until you see my signal,” the masked heroine stated with a cocky smile under her mask. “Then you’ll join me and we’ll go from there.”

    “What did you even need me for then?” Clockwork asked, perplexed.

    “Your scanners,” came the answer, “You have the tech that should make hunting for our objective a lot easier.”

    “What are we looking for, anyway?” the armoured mare fired back.

    “I’ll explain once we’re in,” the mare answered, and flicked her cape back with a pair of dusky violet wings. She launched herself into the air, almost immediately becoming lost in the darkness as she glided silently over one of the guards to light quietly atop the warehouse in question. Clockwork didn’t see where it was any different than the other warehouses, one in a line of squat ugly buildings with a normal sized door and a large rolling door that a disconnected train car could be wheeled into for unloading. The buildings, despite being covered in soot, were in good repair with sturdy locks and heavy thick glass windows smeared with grime. Clockwork wasn’t sure how the other would gain access to the building in question, but with a flick of her cape, the wings vanished beneath it.

    Mare-Do-Well settled herself in a small hidden spot between two buildings to watch the guards, who paused near the middle to commiserate about how miserable the night was. Clockwork’s armour was easily able to pick up the conversation, which started about the cold, one asking if there was any coffee left, and then moved on to the latest hoofball game and a series of names she didn’t know. Idly she pondered if she were really so disconnected from everything that she had never even seen a professional hoofball game before, and only had the vague knowledge that it involved kicking around a ball towards an opposing team’s goal thanks to some experiences as a filly in school. She might have continued further down that line of thought, had she not seen a muted flare of light, well hidden by a heavy purple hat, as her compatriot began to magically pick the lock on the side window of the warehouse in question.

    The silent mare jumped up, bounced off the opposing wall, and through the now open window like a gymnast, and leaving Clockwork to wonder if that had been her “signal”. Clockwork was really beginning to wonder if she was suited for this job, with her shiny armour and bright glowing wings. It was a miracle, and a sign of how oppressively dark the night was, that none of the guards had thought to look up.

    A sudden cry caught her attention, and smoke billowed out of an empty railcar north of her position. The white smoke poured from the railcar as if it were a living thing, and the pair of guards scrambled towards it, followed by a third from an office she hadn’t known was occupied. She frowned, momentarily wondering if she should intervene, when she caught sight of motion from the edge of her scanners. Mare-Do Well had pushed open the main door of the warehouse just a bit and was waving to her. Clockwork glanced once at the guards, then jetted her way towards the other mare, keeping as quiet as her nice shiny armour and roaring engines would allow. At least the smoke and shouting seemed to cover her intrusion, and the door was flung wide as she got close, then slammed shut and bolted in place by the masked mare behind her.

    “You set fire to the rail car!?” Clockwork asked incredulously.

    “Delayed fire rune on a piece of refuse I added to the trash in there,” Mare-Do Well answered simply. “Their fire-extinguishers are up to date, the fire department checked them just a week ago, and they’ll be busy for hours with the paperwork and the fire department. With luck, we’ll be left completely to ourselves, with little to no chance of interruption.”

    Clockwork nodded slowly and looked out at the ponies in the yard through the small and grimy window in the door. “That makes sense, I suppose. So long as no pony is actually in danger…”

    “Assuming they were trained up to required standards, this will just be an exciting evening for them. Guard work is boring…” the masked mare confided. “That said, we’ll probably be a few hours ourselves, even with your sensors.”

    “What, exactly, are we looking for anyway?”

    “Not sure,” the masked mare shrugged, “but we’ll know when we find it.”

    “Are you bucking kidding me?” Clockwork demanded, and Mare-Do-Well turned to face her with a lopsided smile.

    “The local crime boss is receiving a package from his boss out in Manehatten,” she said, “I want to know what’s in it. The Falcon family, originally out of Cloudsdayle, now centered out of Manehatten, is trying to make its move on Canterlot. They’ve been held at bay by the guard prior to now, but they found their ‘in’ within the seedier part of town via an establishment called ‘The Plowed Field’. That’s a front for a prostitution ring, and a frequent bit-laundering location. Now the Family wants to expand their influence while the guard is distracted with the gryphons, and they’ve sent word to their boy here in town, Coldstone. If I can circumvent this here and now, I can prevent them from sinking their teeth even further into Canterlot, and might even give me some information I can use against them… though organized crime is notoriously difficult to root out.”

    There was a pause as all that filtered through Clockwork’s mind. “Did you just say the ‘Plowed Field’?”

    “That’s correct,” the other confirmed.

    “Wouldn’t that have been shut down by the guard?”

    “Why would it be?”

    “Because it was just a week or so ago that I had a hoof in getting a pegasus known as Hawk arrested, which turned out to be an alias for Bubble Trouble, a known criminal,” Clockwork said softly. “He tried to threaten me with being turned, forcibly, into a ‘worker’ there.”

    “I’m guessing he caught you without your armour on,” Mare-Do-Well teased. “His arrest had no affect on the establishment. He may have run the prostitution side of the business, but there were plenty of ponies ready to take his place. And, given the clout his bosses have, he’d never give up any names. Bubble Trouble will claim from here to the moon that he was working all on his own; he’ll never admit to working for the Falcon Family.”

    “I’m starting to think they had an influence on the name he chose to hide behind,” Clockwork considered in a subdued tone.

    “I thought as much myself,” Mare-Do-Well noted.

    “So… what do you need me to do?”

    “Rather than break open every crate here, something that would have us here for days, we need to simplify the search,” Mare-Do Well answered simply. “I’m going to go through a list of aliases and known fronts with the delivery forms over there on the wall. I want you to start scanning the boxes for anything unusual. Heat signatures, strange sounds, if you can do explosive or drug sniffing it would be a big help too, but I imagine that might be a little beyond your present capabilities.”

    “Actually, I added a chemical analyzer some months ago,” Clockwork answered proudly. “However, with the main sensor suite from my old chariot is destroyed, and the replacement not online yet, I won’t be able to identify anything specific. But it still might lead us where we need to go.”

    “Can it do airborne particulates?”

    “Only if there’s a large enough quantity,” Clockwork admitted, “the sensitivity isn’t as high as I’d like, but it was the best I could do. It just picks particulates up from the air filters and scans them…”

    “I figured as much, just do what you can,” Mare-Do-Well noted with a smile. “Well then, let’s get started.”

    Clockwork scanned the room, looking about the warehouse with her mechanically enhanced vision. The darkness draped over everything like a heavy wool blanket, with dust-motes dancing in the thin moonbeams that shined through dirty windows. To one side of the large room was the unloaded freight car. The armoured mare poked her head into the rather plain box-shaped car and found it empty of anything but some loose trash in the corners. Outside of the freight car, a majority of the crates were piled up in loose rows that extended from front to back in no particular order she could pick out. Smaller boxes were usually sat near the top of the piles, while larger crates towards the bottom, with some awkwardly shaped crates off to one corner like misshapen outcasts. Towards the front of the building, and the door she entered from, was a wooden porch of sorts, which was kept relatively clean and seemed the most likely vantage an overseer would guide the unloading from. Hanging from the wall were clipboards covered in the charts that Mare-Do-Well had already begin to focus on, using a directed light spell from a mint green horn down at the tablets so that she could scan them without drawing undue attention to them both.

    With a sigh, Clockwork turned the sensors on the armour up to the maximum, but didn’t hold out much hope for a “general search”. It seemed to her a ridiculous effort and a colossal waste of time, one which was steadily draining the energy reserves in the armour. Fortunately the drain wasn’t too bad, but if the search continued for too long she would have to bring it to the other mare’s attention, or she wouldn’t have enough power to fly home until after sunrise, and she really didn’t want to be here that long. That thought soured her mood considerably, especially given the bed, and the mare in said bed, that she had to pry herself away from in order to honor her promise tonight. And for what? This was no more than a search for a needle in a haystack! Clockwork barely managed to keep herself from vocalizing the rather rude words that leapt to mind.

    “No luck?” the masked mare asked, interrupting Clockwork’s silent brooding.

    “None,” she answered a little more sharply than she intended, “not that I really expect to find anything.”

    “It is, admittedly, a bit of a long shot,” Mare-Do-Well sighed.

    “Then why drag me all the way out here?” Clockwork demanded, turning sharply to face the suited mare.

    “Two reasons,” the masked mare answered in an even tone. “One, because you deserve the chance to finish what you started.”

    Clockwork was brought up short. “Come again?”

    “You deserve the chance to finish what you started,” she reiterated. “Your hoof in arresting ‘Mister Hawk’ was the first step to closing down the Plowed Field. Now you have the chance to finish what you began; to take it all the way.”

    “And your second reason?” Clockwork asked in a more subdued tone.

    “To talk,” Mare-Do-Well admitted. “Aside from that first time, we haven’t spoken much since about our shared ‘problem’, and while I am quick to try and push it onto the back burner, I do realize it’s important to you. You don’t quite have a handle on how to deal with it yet, and this is a long and boring task that lends itself well to such a discussion.”

    Clockwork was momentarily speechless.

    “Besides, I figured I better speak up before you take my head off,” the masked mare joked as she ran a hoof over one of the papers, following a line across.

    “How did you…?”

    “Your stance,” Mare-Do-Well noted simply. “When you don’t have your own face, like me, you have to craft your identity through behavior and posture. That tends to make you more observant of other pony’s postures and mannerisms. Your posture when you arrived was relaxed, content, and dare I say, happy. It lacked the nervousness, that edginess I’ve seen in you since the beginning. Honestly, I’d be inclined to say that you got laid.” Clockwork was suddenly glad for the helm and armour to hide behind, as she blushed furiously. “The longer we were searching, the lower and wider your stance got, like you were bracing for a fight. You were starting to realize exactly how futile it was for you to be brought in for the search, and you’d be right. I want you here for when I find it, because you have access to disposal methods I do not. For example, if it’s an explosive, you can get it out of city limits and destroy it far faster and more safely than I could. If it’s drugs, the guard would believe you if you told them you found it while following a tip, whereas I’d be arrested and have to deal with a lot of uncomfortable questions. In short, I wanted you here to back me up.”

    “Just… tell me next time,” Clockwork said softly, “I don’t like it when ponies lie to me.”

    The other mare paused to look at Clockwork closely for a moment, frowning darkly. She nudged her hat with a hoof and asked, “You’ve been lied to before?”

    “Yes.”

    “About?”

    Clockwork scowled at the other mare, and considered not answering… but caved under the continued gaze of her current companion. “Recently? Some pony I considered a good friend lied to me about the source of my affliction. She tried to pretend it was a spell, cast in the dying throes of the Nightmare, and then proceeded to tell me that Princess Celestia was suffering from it.”

    “Given how long Celestia’s been alive,” Mare-Do-Well mused, “it would make sense if she was suffering from a whole host of issues, mental and otherwise…”

    “That’s not the point!” Clockwork shouted suddenly, surprising even herself with the surge of anger.

    The other mare turned to face her. “Then what is the point?”

    “The point is that she lied to me! She tried to manipulate my strongest instinct, my very nature; that which earned me the element I supposedly embody! She tried to use my loyalty, to her and to the Princess, to try and forced my hoof to… to…” Clockwork sputtered.

    “To force you to do what? To try and trick you into accepting assistance so they could help you overcome your issue?” the masked mare asked evenly. When she didn’t receive an answer she moved closer. “Tell me, is your friend the bearer of the element of honesty?”

    “W-what?” Clockwork stammered, caught off guard by the odd question. “No, it wasn’t Filigree.”

    “Then why would you expect that she would always be honest?” Mare-Do-Well asked simply. “No pony is perfect, even the most honest ponies lie over the silliest stuff. It’s often harmless, or an attempt to help the other pony. In this case, it sounds like the latter; she lied to help you when you wouldn’t help yourself.”

    “But she lied….”

    “Yes, she did,” the other pony interrupted. “It’s wrong, but is it such an unforgivable sin? She was trying to help you in perhaps the only way she knew how.”

    “B-but…”

    “I’ll ask again, is it an unforgivable sin?” When Clockwork didn’t answer, the masked mare turned back to the paperwork. “Think about it. Your problem is like mine, but you have friends willing to help you. I had to face mine alone. And just as you have made missteps, they too will make mistakes. If you’ve never been manipulated before, either you’re too naïve to have seen it, too gullible to even know it happened, or too self delusional to admit it. We all get manipulated from time to time. Sometimes it’s little things, like a foal giving those big puppy dog eyes until you cave in to what they want. Sometimes they’re big, like some villain tricking you into doing their dirty work for them. It happens to all of us. The fact that the manipulation you’re reacting so strongly to was purely an effort to help you just makes me think this is being blown out of proportion, or there’s more there.”

    “I… I want to say there’s more there…” Clockwork said, her voice straining to force the words past her raw throat. Only the armour hid the internal conflict from the other mare. “…but that’s not true. I can’t lay the rest on her. I just… I can’t… trust…”

    “You can’t trust her?” Mare-Do Well asked, and the other mare nodded mutely. “That’s understandable, lying is a breach of trust. But it is not the end of the world, and trust can be rebuilt. You’ve never screwed up? You’ve never had to earn the trust of another again after you dropped the ball? If I remember the papers, you were briefly kicked off your team. Did you not have to re-earn your way back onto it?”

    “No, I didn’t,” she answered softly, sitting her armoured flank unceremoniously down on the floor. “The Princess needed members in an emergency and reactivated me.”

    “Really? Huh, guess that was a swing and a miss. But my point still stands,” she noted with a chuckle, using a hoof to adjust her hat. “Besides, wouldn’t you want a second chance if it were you who screwed up? Wouldn’t you want another chance?”

    “I… uh… yes.”

    “Then maybe she deserves one too,” Mare-Do Well noted and trotted away from the clipboards, placing a hoof on Clockwork’s armoured shoulder, “she’s only a pony. She will make mistakes, just as you will.”

    “I…” Clockwork sniffled softly, “…I’ll think about it.”

    “All that, and we haven’t even gotten to our condition yet,” the other mare teased. “I should’ve been a counselor or something, bound to pay more and have better hours than this gig.” Clockwork managed a snotty laugh as Mare-Do Well went to a different chart hanging on the wall, and started to read it.

    “I… I think I might have found a bit of an angle on my own condition,” Clockwork said after a few moments, moving up onto the porch as she did a quick sweep of the crates with her sensors, but came up with nothing worth following up, unless one counted the rat munching in the corner worth pursuing.

    “Oh? Do tell…”

    “I… I never thought about it before,” the armoured mare began, “but my friend, Galaxi, and I were talking about my past. She pointed out that I spent most of my life going from crisis to crisis, always finding a way to overcome something that knocked me down. As events sped up heading to the confrontation with the Nightmare…”

    “And then, bam, she’s dead and gone, and you’re left with no more crises to face.” Mare-Do Well nodded sagely. “That sounds like a pretty solid possibility to me.”

    “I’ll admit I wondered what sort of wisdom you’d have about that,” Clockwork added sheepishly.

    The other mare chuckled and shook her head, “Like what? Stop bracing for crises? There’s no magic pill here, Clockwork. I think you’re on the right path, but there’s little else I can say about it. You’ve learned something about yourself, and your friend is probably accurate. If I had to guess, this friend was probably who you were in bed with before dragging your flank out here to banter with me. I can imagine that was a tough decision to make.” She paused and looked to the other mare.

    “You have no idea…” Clockwork sighed, and then squeaked when she realized how loudly she had said it. Mare-Do-Well just laughed and took a clip-board off the wall.

    “C’mon, I think I found it,” the masked mare said, and led Clockwork down one row of boxes, who was relieved for the change of topic.

    Peace.

    The mare sighed and closed her blind eyes, just absorbing the sounds around her. The palace garden was a perfect and serene place to allow her to center her thoughts, and perhaps indulge that giddy little part of her that was hoof pumping like mad over finally getting the mare she had her eye on. The night had been wonderful, in a clumsy and awkward way. It was nothing like the stories she had heard, or the books she’d read. They had both been all hooves, poking at all the wrong spots in a quest to find the right ones. She’d never seen herself in such a role before, always envisioning herself as the demure and shy one in any relationship, but with Clockwork… something clicked. She just wanted her so badly, it was almost physical. And now…

    She took a slow breath that somehow turned into a giggle halfway through. She couldn’t help it! She was so bubbling over with emotions and feelings and desires that she couldn’t keep her mind still. That’s why she was here, trying to calm herself down. Pushing this too hard would be a bad idea. She might want to clutch her newfound special some pony to her chest and never let her go, but Clockwork was a strong and capable mare in her own right. More amusingly, she imagined the silly little mare would probably have half the palace library checked out in the next few weeks as she researched what she could about pleasures of this sort. Idly she wondered if maybe there was a hidden kinky streak in her…

    Galaxi shook her head, if only to prevent half formed fantasies from taking root in her mind. There was no proof that the other mare had any inclination in those directions, for starters, and she had no clue how to broach such a topic anyway. They were both new at this, and the desire to get in over their heads was almost overwhelming.

    “I thought I might find you out here,” a soft voice said from behind her, and Galaxi opened her blind eyes, letting her “sight” wash over the newcomer.

    “Filigree?” she asked after a moment. “I didn’t expect to see you out here…”

    The gryphoness smirked lopsidedly and sidled up alongside the pony. “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t, but lately I’ve been coming out here a lot. I overheard Flourish talking about some of the advice she gave you, and put it together with a few rumours about how you and Clockwork vanished into your bedroom for many hours today. I’m guessing you two finally got your acts together and stopped being ‘just’ friends.”

    “I… er…” Galaxi stammered, blushing brightly before a thought hit her. “Wait, why would you expect me to be out here then?”

    “Cooldown,” Filigree answered smoothly and settled herself down on the lush green grass. “Too much at once can be a bad thing, and both you and Clockwork needed a break eventually. Also, I saw Clockwork fly off a few hours ago with her armour. With as quiet as the garden gets at night, save some of the more exotic animals populating it, it’s good for just thinking.”

    “Gee, thanks. I didn’t realize it was all over the castle already,” Galaxi fumed, prompting a chuckle from the gryphoness.

    “As if anything can stay secret here,” the gryphoness answered with a smile.

    Galaxi frowned at her current companion and kicked a hoof through the tended grass. She didn’t have to be a psychic to realize there was something wrong. “So what’re you doing out here, Filigree?”

    “I just needed… to think,” she answered in a subdued tone.”There’s just always so much hustle and bustle in the palace and… it puts me on edge sometimes, especially with…”

    “Especially with your little sister missing,” Galaxi concluded. Filigree answered with the barest of nods. “I’m sorry.” She put a hoof on the gryphoness’ shoulder, which Filigree responded to with a sad smile.

    “Not your fault,” she said softly, “the only one to blame is me. Even Spectrum tried to talk me out of it, and I didn’t listen. I sent my little sister off because…” Galaxi frowned when the gryphoness trailed off and cocked her head. She didn’t push, because it seemed like it pained the other femme, but after a moment of clenching her beak and creating a furrow in the ground with her claw, Filigree forced herself to say it, “…because I was scared, because I was terrified of the idea of having to care for her myself.”

    “Filigree…”

    The gryphoness lowered her head. “I was a servant… practically a slave for so long that I don’t know how to take care of another. The only discipline I knew was at the end of a lash, how would I have handled her? I… I just don’t know. I wanted to take her in, but I just kept seeing the first time she acted up and… and turning into my father. Given my strength, that would have been fatal. I couldn’t have lived with myself if that --”

    “Okay, stop for a moment,” Galaxi interrupted. Filigree looked at her quizzically, frowning at the almost stern expression on the pony’s face. “You’re beating yourself up over the ‘what might have beens’. Your worry might have been legitimate, if you were some recluse living somewhere in the wilds with no friends. You live here, in Canterlot, within a stone’s throw of both Princesses and a team of friends who have handled the Nightmare herself, and are on call to help stop an invasion of your kin. Do you really think we wouldn’t have helped? Do you think the Princesses wouldn’t have bent over backwards to make sure you had the best nannies on call at all times, if not ready to teach you what you needed to know? Do you really think any one of us, especially your good friend Spectrum, would have let you go over that edge? And what about Chase? And…” Galaxi ground to a halt, realizing that Filigree was sniffling, barely holding back tears. “Filigree?” she asked in a gentle tone.

    “It seems obvious to you, doesn’t it?” she asked in return, her voice husky with the struggle. “It is that obvious, everything you just said is painfully obvious. That’s the problem. I didn’t think of that at the time. Over the weeks since then, I have; every last one of those plus some you hadn’t gotten to yet. I’d even have the families that Spectrum knows for help right here. All of that and… and… and I sent her away anyway!”

    Galaxi moved close and hugged the gryphoness, who surprised her by leaning back against her, burying her head against the psychic mare’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Filigree. I misunderstood…”

    “I’m not good at… talking about it,” the gryphoness admitted. “But now… now my little sister is in danger, maybe even dead, and I can’t be there to look for her. Worse, the gryphon I’ve come to care for, maybe even love, is the one out there searching for her instead of me. I’m used to feeling helpless to do anything, but it’s only ever effected me. Now… now it’s affecting so many more. Yes, I miss Chase, it’s a hole in my heart that burns like a hot coal whenever I think about it. He’s out there, somewhere, trying to fix my mistake, and finding out it gets worse and worse.”

    “I’m guessing he sent another missive?”

    Filigree nodded and clenched a claw in the dirt and grass, uprooting some of it. “Yes,” she answered so softly that Galaxi almost missed it, “he’s found nothing. They’re searching one of the most dangerous parts of Equestria, and for what? For me? He’s finding nothing, constantly and consistently. And still he searches… for me.”

    Galaxi opened her mouth to answer, but wasn’t sure how. She settled for patting Filigree’s shoulder as she tried to come up with a way to respond, when she noticed something moving closer. It was hesitant, a tiny figure compared to both of them, its little nose quivering as it approached warily. A slow, unsteady gait, lead the small rabbit closer to what it would normally consider a predator. But something… something powerful steered it towards them, until it could place a small paw on the oversized claw of the gryphoness.

    The gryphoness, forever wired for combat, jumped physically at the touch and her bright blue eyes zeroed in on the offending creature, who in turn squeaked and bolted back several feet before pausing to look back at her. The predator hadn’t moved from her spot, and instead watched the rabbit with intense curiosity. The squeaking of the rabbit’s family tried to call it back into the safety of their burrow, but instead it turned towards the pair again and slowly moved forward. With its heart thumping in its tiny chest, it approached the huntress until it was standing beneath her gaze again. Gently it repeated its gesture, placing its small paw on the larger claw of the gryphoness.

    “I… don’t understand,” Filigree sniffled, watching the rodent closely, “what is this hare doing? Why does it not flee from me?”

    Galaxi watched with combined wonder and wariness, and allowed the psychic sense she kept under strict control to widen, spreading it over the garden. More and more animals came to light under this hunt, but they all struck the same chord, like some great silent orchestra. They were concerned. They cared. Only at the barest edges of her senses did she “hear” a soft voice, gently encouraging as it sung some foal-hood lullaby. Galaxi tried to focus on that sound, that song, but it almost seemed aware it had been noticed and vanished, disappearing as if it never were. A number of the animals seemed to snap out of whatever spell they had been under in that moment, but others stayed close, especially the rabbit at Filigree’s claws.

     “I think,” Galaxi said, swallowing uncertainly, “I think he wants to help.”

    Filigree frowned, and looked back to the nervous rabbit. It cocked its head, and almost bolted when the gryphon lifted her other claw, carefully flexing it as she pondered what she was about to do. The rabbit didn’t move, frozen with fear as she lowered the claw to it… and stroked smoothly over its head. The bunny relaxed almost immediately, seeming to smile up at her. Galaxi looked about as a small number of animals, ones she’d already noted the presence of with her psychic abilities, seemed to materialize from the shadows of the garden and stand along the perimeter. She watched with fascination as an almost childlike smile crossed over the gryphon’s beak, before the hoot of a large owl drew both of their attentions as it landed on a mostly vine covered plaque. A beam of moonlight made it possible to just make out the official name of the garden they had taken refuge in.

    The Fluttershy Memorial Garden.

20

Chapter 20

“Under Fire”

    “You’re up late.”

    The Princess turned slowly to regard her arriving sister. “I just received some troubling news,” Celestia answered, “It seems that there is no slowing of Goldtalon’s mobilization. Within the week we will see war with the gryphons come a reality.”

    The younger sister all but growled at the news, “He doth presume to push us to the brink?!”

    “Voice, Luna.”

    Luna cleared her throat and looked slightly abashed, “Apologies, sister, old habits sometimes return when I grow angry. So he dares to try and push us? What hope does he have of overcoming our forces?”

    “I know not,” Celestia sighed and looked away, shuffling worthless reports along her desk with a hoof. “I think he has an ace we do not yet know of, something other than his pet ‘Godkiller’. He would know that Filigree would pass on any intelligence she gathered during her stay, thus he must have secrets he withheld from her.”

    Luna frowned and lowered her head in thought. She barely saw the richly woven rug, stained in bright oranges and reds and yellows as she began to pace. She avoided the heavy mahogany desk, only regarding the golden lamp upon it for the briefest of moments before moving on, crossing the office before returning again. “Our spies have been watching them as closely as they can. The gryphons most certainly are working on something unseen. Their mage corps is in full swing as well, thus stymieing your unicorn seers as they attempt to scry events. Whatever it is, it’s being done deep within Gryphon held territory. I suspect they might have found their own ‘brilliant’ inventor, and are forcing him or her to build siege weapons the likes of which we have never seen.”

    Celestia smiled wanly back to her sister. “Now see, my guess was on a ‘special’ mage that they were training in secret, especially with the amount of magic we have felt coming from deep within their territory.”

    “That is a possibility as well,” Luna admitted, “but they wouldn’t need to move him or her so deep within their territory if it was that easily hidden.”

    Celestia sighed and shuffled towards the window, “Diplomatic attempts are at a dead end, he is turning away all my ambassadors. Goldtalon wants this war, and only our complete and unconditional surrender will stop him. I do not know what his game-plan is, but he wants this fight.”

    “Then a fight he shall have,” Luna answered flatly, and then moved to her sister, “but that day has not yet arrived. What else troubles you, sister?”

    “Am I that transparent?” the elder princess chuckled. “I do not know, and that is the problem. I feel… something, something coming. Not Goldtalon, he’s a known quantity, but some sort of gathering, like clouds before the storm. I hear the rumble of thunder, but I cannot yet see the lightning. I feel as if our chance to stop it has passed us by, if that makes sense. Something we missed, something we should have known about, and yet…”

    “We presume you mean other than this Kaos character?” Luna slipped in.

    Celestia chuckled a bit, partly in recognition for her past overreaction, “He has been silent. I am starting to view him less as something we may have missed than as a threat that never truly materialized. No, I believe this would be something else…”

    “Celly, you’re not perfect,” her sister noted with a soft tone. “You are as pony as the subjects who worship you as a ruler and a deity, and you remind every pony why you have ruled for the thousands of years after we unseated Discord. You seek to protect the ponies, your little ponies if I might use your affectation, with every fiber of your being. You have remained steadfast in your guardianship over them, even when it meant going to war with your very sister. But you’re not perfect, opportunities will be missed, and chances will slip through your hooves. But you always have had a knack for manipulating events from behind the curtain, if you will. With these gryphons, you have not been given that chance, for they are operating in a completely different manner than you are accustomed too. As you said once before, King Goldbeak had been hard, but reasonable. His daughter, his chosen successor, was tough but fair. King Goldtalon is none of these things, and thus, he is moving in ways we cannot anticipate.”

    “He should at least want to talk!” Celestia cried out, slapping the windowsill with a hoof. “Damn it, Luna, he has to have some purpose! He cannot just want to go to war for no reason at all! So why is he choosing this route? I do not understand! He has made no demands, he has made no threats, and he has not once requested to negotiate! The only words passed between us since this started was his demand that Filigree be returned to him and we surrender unconditionally. Why? Why does he want to hurt my little ponies?!”

    “Has evil ever needed a reason?” Luna asked evenly.

    “Yes, as a matter of fact, it has,” Celestia retorted, ignoring the snort from her younger sister. “Even Sombra had his reasons for assaulting the Crystal Kingdom, and he barely materialized as more than a cloud when he was defeated.”

    “You’re mistaking motivation for reason,” the younger corrected. “Sombra had motivation, but not reason. He was incapable of reason in that form and, if reports from your late student were accurate, he could not even express himself in complete sentences. And then there’s Discord, who never had a reason for anything. He had motivation, mostly revenge against us, but that isn’t a reason. Discord himself would laugh at the very idea that anything he did had a reason.”

    “Sister,” Celestia said in an oddly serious voice, and her piercing gaze bored into the lunar regent, “are you suggesting to me that this could be a Discord level threat?”

    “I’m telling you that we don’t know,” Luna forced herself to answer evenly, her sister’s tone sending shivers down her spine. “We know the gryphons are motivated to attack our little ponies, and we need to make sure they regret that decision. Motivation and reason can be worked out by the historians; we need only to know that the Ponylands need to be protected.”

    Celestia frowned, and closed her eyes, resting her head on her hooves for a moment, “I disagree, but understand what you are saying. If we knew their motivation, their reason, for attacking, we could focus our counterattack on that target.”

    The younger sister chuckled softly, “We already know that, though.”

    “We do…?”

    “Certainly,” Luna answered, grinning darkly. “They want you and me. They all but announced that via Filigree, and their statements about Godkiller. I have no doubt that their attack may include secondary targets, but you and I are a threat to them, and they are going to make us their primary focus. I would hazard a guess that they will spearhead their way into our lands as directly they can towards Canterlot, hoping to catch us off-guard, and will do their level best to destroy us. They will use every point of leverage, including the lives of innocent ponies, to take us on directly. Simply put, Goldtalon wants us dead.”

    “How much of that intelligence should we assume was fed to us intentionally?” Celestia asked softly.

    “That doesn’t matter,” she answered simply, “because if it’s not his true goal, it will be as soon as we make it so. It has been millennia since you and I both donned our war armour, but the time has come to do so again.”

    Celestia looked closely at her sister. “Yours was corrupted by the Nightmare, and became your regalia as Nightmare Moon. I destroyed mine after our final battle; I never wanted to see it again…”

    “It was also quite old, the design ancient,” Luna stated simply. “I had new armour commissioned for us both, integrating spells woven into gems from your own academy, to present us with battle attire suited for the war that confronts us both.”

    The elder sister almost growled as she stomped a hoof, “You know what I think of this, Luna! Why would you go behind my back to do this?”

    “Because your safety is important to all of us, Celly,” came the response, the voice sounding less like a princess and more like an echo of her sister when she was but a foal. “The armor is protection for us both, designed to be purely defensive in nature. It’s not a weapon, no spells from your school could compare to the magic you and I can channel. But if this Godkiller is everything that Goldtalon believes she is, then we need something to protect us if our powers have been nullified. Even if the magic in the armor is gone, the plates will protect us from most attacks. You, especially, must be kept safe.”

    Celestia paused and looked back at her sister and Luna’s pleading eyes met hers. In that instant, she realized that she’d lost this argument before it even began. Luna was right; they would need to be protected. But it felt like an admission of failure to the elder sister, the final realization that any and all attempts to circumvent this war had failed, and that was like a knife right into her heart. Still, one thing her sister said gave her pause. “Why ‘especially’ me?” she asked softly.

    “You’ve proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that you can rule alone,” Luna responded. “While I have no intention of leaving your side again, we must be prepared in case this sacrifice is required. You must continue, at all costs.”

    “No!” Celestia thundered, crossing the distance between her and her sister in barely two steps. “You are not expendable! Not now, not ever!”

    “Celestia,” Luna said with firm resolution, “we may not have that choice. The Nightmare nearly killed me before you and my team finished her off. You are the stronger mare, as you have proven time and time again, and you have a duty to the Ponylands and to Equestria. Once this is finished, you will need to heal this land, both for Gryphons and Ponies alike. They will all look to you, and you need to be there for them. I was gone for a thousand years, and a holy terror for years prior to my banishment. I’m an anachronism, and I know it. I try to fit in, and to an extent I have, but I will never be able to take your place. You, the mare who should have been queen but retained her title of ‘Princess’ in a show of humility. You, the ruler who took up the most powerful magic known in Equestria, if not the world, and made the decision to use it against your own sister for the good of all. You, who have always put the needs to your little ponies ahead of your own. You, Princess Celestia, must survive this encounter and lead Equestria through the darkness. I only bring the night… but you can end the darkness and bring forth the day. Neither of us can fail the Ponylands or Equestria, in this. You are simply too important.”

    “Sister…” Celestia whispered, her eyes widening with horror at the thought.

    “Celly, I promise that I’ll stand by your side for as long as I can. I’ve no intention of perishing in this battle, and nor do I plan to sacrifice myself on a whim,” the younger Princess said with a smile, “but I’ve made my peace with this. You are the heart of the ponies, and you always will be. You have to be here, from now into eternity. It’s not like you’ll be alone, even if this sacrifice must be made.” She motioned back over her shoulder, where Celestia spotted the cyan unicorn framed in the doorway, her body frozen and expression unreadable. How much had she heard?

    Luna smiled as broadly as she could, hiding her own fears and tears behind that façade, and turned to leave, slipping past Trixie easily. The unicorn watched numbly, and let the door close before facing her teacher, her mentor, with wide eyes. For the first time she could remember, the eyes that met hers were every bit as fearful and vulnerable as her own.

    Trixie bolted across the room and hugged her mentor, bracing her before she crumbled.

    It was late when she finally returned.

    Or perhaps it was early, that would depend on your perspective, Clockwork supposed, as the last of her armour was pulled free. She tossed her short mane a bit and stretched, feeling tired but better than she had in weeks, and turned to face her armour even as the robotic arms reassembled it. She spotted no appreciable damage, just a few scratches here and there, and she’d have to tweak the power output on the back left thruster, but otherwise her night out had been moderately successful. No combat, just a few tight squeaks trying to sneak back out of that abandoned warehouse without laughing. Mare-Do-Well was furious, but Clockwork just couldn’t help but find it funny. That entire chain of notes and items and clues they’d been tracking since the night in the rail-yard, all leading to some poor stuffed teddy bear with a simple note taped to it, taunting the heroines for their failure. It had all been a classic red herring, and it sent them on a wild good chase for the past four days, only to realize in the end that the gangsters had them figured out right from the beginning and led them intentionally astray.

    Clockwork smiled as she drew the teddy bear out of a storage compartment on her armour. It was a sad little thing, with dirty matted brown “fur” and sewn on eyes. The thing that made her giggle was that some pony had spent the time to add a tongue to the mouth, making it look like it was sticking it out at them teasingly. That alone had infuriated her “partner”, enough so that Clockwork had barely prevented her from destroying the poor bear on the spot. It had taken a few minutes to calm the masked mare down, but there was a reason to preserve the toy, and why she’d brought it back with her.

    With a wide yawn, she motioned in the air of her lab, and immediately the tiles before her shifted upwards and formed a desk like surface before her, which she set the bear down upon. Holographic displays flickered into existence around her even as she reached a hoof upwards, and a tile from the ceiling dropped out of the way, lowering a number of robotic arms and sensors in easy reach of her hoof. With a tug she pulled down a scope and aimed it at the bear, and paused for a moment to synch it to one of the displays hovering around her. Once it displayed the proper images for her, she started to inspect the stuffed toy under high magnification as well as additional sensor data sent directly to the visual feed.

    In a way, she found it relaxing as she spent far too much time going over every inch of the bear, with the computer tracking her exact progress over the small stuffed form. A number of hairs had been pried from the cloth “fur” of the bear via directed mechanical tweezers and set in a few nearby plastic containers, sorted by color, as she worked. A trio of those hairs had been a sort of silver-gray, while almost a dozen were a coarse blue-black, and finally a pair of long curly strands that were a pinkish-red. She took a few samples of the dirt from various spots on the bear as well, hoping a chemical analysis might give her some clues where the little guy had been. With her examination complete, she set the computer to sweep the toy with low power magical radiation to make sure there was nothing inside the teddy bear that they might have missed, or spells Mare-Do-Well might have overlooked, while she used another display to catalog the hair and dirt she’d recovered. She was pretty sure the hairs were from the stallions and/or mares who might have handled the bear, but she was at a loss how to determine who they belonged to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like she could pull up some sort of large filing cabinet or computer file of known criminals that she could somehow compare these hairs to… but she did hope that she could use the information to get more data from Mare-Do-Well. Who knows? Maybe the masked mare had a way to track the owners magically through the strands. At least the dirt, once analyzed, should provide a few leads.

    For now, however, Clockwork tapped at her displays. She saved her files and, now that the bear was proven innocent, swept up the toy in her hooves while her lab stored the entire set of “evidence” away. The desk before her folded back into the floor as robotic arms carefully capped the containers, and then shifted them to one wall, where they disappeared under a small cube of tiles, where they would be held until she was ready to access them again. She smiled as she regarded the bear in her hoof before tossing it lazily onto her back. “You deserve a nice home, Mr. Bear…” she mused as she trotted out the door of her lab, which chimed softly and dimmed the lights as she left, “...and I know just the foal to help.”

    “Oh? And who’s that?” a familiar voice chimed from her side, making the short mare start. Her eyes narrowed as she examined the golden colored pony standing there, clad in the uniform of the palace servants. For mares, it was a mostly black affair with white lace trim that clung to the torso and flared out in a broad skirt, broken up by a wide apron hanging from her waist. With a cute ruffled cap pinning her mane back, it actually took Clockwork a few moments to recognize her.

    “Honey?” she asked before a broad smile split her face. “By Celestia, it IS you! I suspected that the Princess planned to get you out of that cesspool, but I didn’t realize she was going to hire you on here!”

    Honey chuckled as Clockwork hugged her, and fell in step beside her. “Yeah well… the Princess made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I can’t complain though, even if it means I’m still mostly working the late shift, but it’s a safe new neighborhood and it gets Indigo into the daycare they provide here. They’re far better teachers than I ever was, that’s for sure; they’ve already got her levitating some basic things! I’ve been trying for a year to get her to so much as turn a book’s page, and in just a few weeks they’ve got her lifting small pebbles and toys. There’s even some talk that she might be ‘gifted’ in some way or another.”

    “That’s good! I was worried when I went by your old place and found it emptied out,” Clockwork noted softly, “especially after spending the past week or so hanging out with Mare-Do-Well. She’s got my head so full of the seedy underbelly of Canterlot. I didn’t think, until a few days ago, to look you up in the city directory, and I saw that you moved into one of the nicer districts. I was going to try and swing by your new place today, actually…”

    Honey chuckled softly, “Oh? Any reason in particular?”

    “Well…” Clockwork hedged, her ears splaying as a light blush worked across her cheeks.

    “You got yourself a special some pony, didn’t you?” Honey asked simply as the pair stepped into the elevator. They each flicked their tails, Honey more clumsily than Clockwork, to avoid the closing doors. “I thought the gossip was mildly amusing. Seems you and that other mare… Galaxi was it? Seems you two finally stopped dancing around the whole subject and jumped in. They’ve been joking in the kitchen about how much room service you two have been getting the past week…”

    Clockwork blushed more brightly and dipped her head. “Well, yes.”

    Honey chuckled and looped a foreleg over the other mare’s shoulders for a quick hug, “Good. Just remember the advice I gave you.”

    “Find some pony…” Clockwork started, and the other mare gave a nod.

    “Find some pony to love, and hold on to them with every ounce of strength you have. Don’t even let Celestia herself take them from you,” the other mare said with a smile. “So what did you need me for?”

    “I had an… idea,” Clockwork admitted, rubbing her foreleg sheepishly. “Galaxi admitted how much she loved that make-over you did for me, and… well… I was going to ask for help. I’d never so much as touched make-up before that day, nor had I ever worn heels, and I was hoping you could teach me. I hardly need to be an expert, but I know she likes that sort of thing, and…” She trailed off, blushing even harder as Honey’s smile grew.

    “You want to dress up for her, don’t you?” she asked, and watched the shorter mare nod bashfully. “Is that what the teddy bear is for? A bribe?”

    “What? No!” Clockwork cried, shaking her head quickly. “I got this from an investigation, and I just finished scouring it for any evidence we could use. I even gave it a scan to be sure it was clean of any magic or technological tricks or hazards. It just needs a good wash, but I thought Indigo might like it. Give it a good home, y’know?” Clockwork hoofed it over without a second thought, and Honey studied it with a little half-smile.

    “Cute. I can ask the laundry girls to give it a quick scrub for me and give it to her tonight, she’ll be thrilled that you haven’t forgotten her,” she noted with a smile as the elevator doors parted for them. “As for the rest, sure, I don’t have a problem. Give me a ring on my day off tomorrow, and I’ll see what I can do. Most of it is just practice though, so don’t expect to be perfect overnight.”

    Clockwork waved a hoof lightly. “I know how that goes,” she answered with a smile, “but I’ve got to start somewhere.”

    Honey smiled and gave a quick nod, “That said, I’d better get back to work. It’s almost time for Princess Luna’s dinner, and with only a few hours before sunrise yet, the cooks will want some help getting breakfast ready for Princess Celestia and the day shift.” With a light wave, she turned on her hoof and trotted down the hall, leaving Clockwork to blush and look away. That uniform did nothing to cover the flank, and given her new appreciation for mare’s flanks, she couldn’t help but… appreciate the view.

    It took the short mare almost a full minute after Honey had passed from view to shake off the last vestiges of her flush and head down the hall in the opposite direction. She trotted lightly, only seeing the rare night guard here and there, all of whom nodded their recognition, as she went. It didn’t take long before she found herself in the area for “guest bedrooms”, and the small number of which were set aside for the team, most of which were occupied lately thanks to the Princesses’ concerns of the oncoming conflict with the gryphons. For a long moment she paused at Galaxi’s door, looking at it and thoughtfully chewing her lip. She’d be asleep by now, wouldn’t she? Should she wake her up? That’d be selfish, wouldn’t it? It’s not like they’d be able to do anything, Clockwork was exhausted and needed at least a few hours of sleep, but somehow she didn’t feel right sleeping alone after the past week…

    Clockwork shook her head. She was a grown mare, she could handle sleeping alone in bed for one day, and it’d be rude to wake Galaxi just for this. If she hadn’t been out so long, she might have risked it, but as late as it was… With a sigh, she forced herself to continue past. What she hadn’t accounted for was the occupant of said room, who, in one smooth motion, psychically pulled the door open, wrapped Clockwork in a telekinetic field, yanked the hapless mare inside, and slammed the door shut behind her. Had any other pony been walking by, it would have looked like the scene out of some old horror story…

    “Going somewhere, young mare?” Galaxi asked archly as Clockwork was set on the bed by her…

    “Er… I didn’t want to wake you,” the short mare noted sheepishly, folding her legs under her.

    “You weren’t here,” Galaxi answered, “I was already awake.”

    Clockwork could only think to blush as the other mare hugged her close.

    The air itself felt tense.

    The figure regarded the palace evenly, but could only think that the very air about the place felt charged with electricity, that sense of expectation akin to an oncoming storm. The threat of the gryphons had been looming ever closer, and Canterlot Castle itself felt braced for the approaching conflict. The pony simply shook his head and tugged down the helmet over his mane, securing the golden regalia in place. His stubby horn poked through the available opening on the helm, allowing him to use magic without stripping off the official guard’s uniform and armor, which he checked to make certain was properly secure.

    When satisfied, the pony turned a slow circle, looking about carefully to ensure he was not being observed. But despite the bright noonday sun on this chill early spring day, no one was out and about in the royal gardens. Satisfied, the guard trotted along with purpose, his bright fuchsia eyes scanning the hedges and rows of flowers. In a way, it was a beautiful retreat, but he had business here that dulled any of the inherent beauty to his eyes. Instead he simply surveyed the gardens before him, mentally categorizing each one.

    The Canterlot gardens were rather large, and split into three segments or “sections”. One of these sections constituted the parade field, which presently stood empty. The precision ceremonial guard team would come there frequently for drill practice, and the field’s primary use was for formal situations, outdoor ceremonies, and the occasional garden party. Sitting adjacent to one of the smaller palace ballrooms, it was covered in evenly cut grass, edged with flower bushes in a uniform rotation of yellow and red flowers in alternating groups. Come evening, the night flowers within those bushes would bloom, and bathe the perimeter in a glowing blue that was quite striking to see. The nighttime feature saw only infrequent use, but Princess Celestia insisted on the addition some years ago. The second section seemed, at a glance, to be overgrown and poorly tended. But closer inspection revealed this area was where a number of exotic creatures made their homes, as well as flowers grown for their beauty, variety, and rarity. It was a bit of ordered chaos in that section, admittedly, but most who visited were always left with a sense of peace and serenity. The animals there tended to be a little shy, but usually warmed up to those who appeared frequently or were emotionally distressed. Overgrown signs reminded travelers of the true name of this section, but most in the palace just called it “Fluttershy’s Garden” in reference to all the time the lady spent there when she had been alive. The final segment of the gardens was the hedge maze, well trimmed and extending for acres. The Princesses both stated they found it soothing to trot along its paths, but most ponies assumed they found it far more amusing when individuals got lost within it and needed help to find their way out. The stallion doubted that the Princesses would be that cruel, but they both had a bit of a prankish streak in them, so he supposed it wasn’t beyond them. Still, it was this section that he was the most interested it, but not for the maze…

    No, he was interested in the statuary that surrounded the maze. With frequent glances over his shoulder, the stallion trotted along the line of statues, past a marble mare holding a flag, around a mare and stallion captured mid dance in stone, and beyond the statue of a rearing dragon... scaled down, of course.

    Finally, the guard reached the statue he was seeking. It was positioned in such a way that it could not only be easily seen from the palace, but also so that it looked out into Fluttershy’s Garden. The guard didn’t seem concerned about that, he only worried that someone closer might overhear him. With a final crane of his neck, the stallion sidled closer to the statue, almost brushing it with his hip before glancing up at the terror stricken face. He couldn’t help but feel sad and a bit sorry for the creature captured within the stone. A mismatched web of parts built his body, and yet it was that frozen expression of terror that chilled him. What did this Draconequuis see? What were his final moments like? Had he been in pain?

    The stallion drew a deep breath and looked around himself warily, surveying the surrounding area to ensure his solitude. Only then did his horn begin to glow, lost among the sunlight and his helm. For long moments he focused on this magic, sweat rolling down his brow, seemingly to no avail. He panted from the effort, and frowned. This was supposed to be the easy part!

    A sudden snap made him jump, and then look around self-consciously. Only when he was sure snuck up on him did the stallion regard at the statue to his side. A smile snuck across his face as he regarded the thin crack along the hind leg, in the pony leg ironically, that crumbled slightly along the edges even as he stared at it.

    “It’s almost time,” the guard said, in a voice that sounded more like a mare’s than the stallion he appeared to be, “we move at sundown. Be ready.” The guard trotted away from the statue of Discord and towards the palace, ignoring all else as he ducked through the servant’s entrance. Soon enough, the only sound was the light breeze through the grass and trees around the statue, and the soft grinding as some additional powder fell away from the crack.

    No one was there to hear the dark laughter that emanated from the statue…

    “Have you got all that?”

    “I believe so, ma’am,” the maid responded professionally, “and the cook will have an early dinner prepared for the Princess, to be delivered to her study. I will ensure that it includes an extra slice of cloud cake, should we still have some, which we always do.”

    “I’m not surprised,” Trixie noted with a grin, “any news I need to pass along, Feather Down?”

    “Only word that the pegasus guard, Swan Dive I believe the name was, has been released from the hospital,” the maid answered, checking a small sheet. “She’s still on leave from the guard to recover from her flight, but the Princess asked to be notified.”

    Trixie smiled and tapped a hoof against the carpeted floor, “That’s good news; I will pass that along to her. With any luck it will cheer her up a little bit in these gloomy times. Is there anything else?”

    The lavender colored unicorn shook her head, “No, ma’am, I do believe that’s everything.”

    “Alright then, I’ll let you get back to work,” Trixie said. “Oh, and thank you. I appreciate you agreeing to let me handle the palace staff while the Princesses are occupied with this oncoming ‘problem’ with the Gryphons.”

    The mare smiled sadly and shook out her white and silver streaked mane. “I understand completely, Miss Trixie. The Princesses have their minds on things far above the day to day operations of the palace. Oh, and if you see Princess Luna, please tell her that the new girl is fitting in nicely. While she’s rougher around the edges than I usually prefer, she’s proving to be quite the hard worker, and her daughter is a delight. I’ve only had to pull the ‘scary head maid’ routine twice with Honey, and usually I have to do it a half dozen times the first week on a new hire.”

    “I’m glad to hear she’s fitting in, and I had heard Indigo doing rather well with the new classes,” Trixie chuckled as the pair moved away from her bedroom, where Feather Down had caught up to her there in the “guest wing”. Fortunately there was a small block of rooms designated to house the team, with four rooms on the inner wall and three on the outer. Trixie’s room was on the outer, across from Galaxi and Clockwork’s chambers on the end. Beside her was Flourish, with Skillet beyond her.  Across the hall from the couple Spectrum and Filigree had their rooms. Trixie and Feather Down continued past, hooves barely making a sound in the lush carpet that decorated the halls, and passing the heavy wooden doors that guarded the entrance of each room (and ignoring the gaudy nameplate Flourish felt the need to adorn her door with).

    “Yes,” the maid confirmed as they rounded the corner and moved to the more generic guest rooms, “her tutors are rather impressed how quickly she is picking up magic. It took several attempts for them to ascertain the best teaching method, as the usual memorization techniques didn’t work very well with her, but they think she’ll grow up to be exceptionally talented. Mind you, she is hardly in a position to challenge your talents…”

    “She’s a foal still,” Trixie answered with a smile, “give her time. Anyway, I should pass on that news about Swan Dive to Princess Celestia.”

    “I will get back to work then, Miss Trixie. If anything comes up, I shall inform you.”

    “Thank you,” Trixie answered with a smile, “anything I can do to take some of the stress off the Princesses…”

    The unicorn nodded understandingly and swished her skirts a bit as she passed Trixie and turned the corner. Trixie sighed and was about to follow when she heard the head maid’s voice float about the corner, perhaps a bit louder than normal, “Good afternoon, Miss Key.” Trixie’s heart leapt into her throat and she immediately started to backpedal down the hall. She’d almost made it to the bend when Clockwork rounded her corner, green eyes immediately locking onto her own.

    “Trixie?” she asked, her expression growing cloudy. For a moment, the cyan unicorn thought she might be able to slip away and put off a confrontation to another day. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on her side. “Trixie,” Clockwork said, her voice growing firm, “we need to talk.”

    Trixie tried hard to smile, “Trixie is sorry Clockwork, she’d love to, but she’s terribly busy helping Princess Celestia.”

    “Trixie…” the khaki mare repeated, taking a few steps closer.

    “In fact, Trixie should really get going,” the unicorn noted, panic seeping into her voice. She didn’t want to do this, not now! Clockwork only found some joy with Galaxi, let her enjoy it for a while longer! “In fact, she probably should get this news to the Princess right away,” she lied, and started channeling her magic, getting ready to teleport away…

    Clockwork approached closer. “Trixie…” she said again, her voice taking a pleading tone, “…please…”

    Trixie froze, the magic energies dissipating. That voice had pinned her to the spot as surely as if the other mare had pinned her to the wall. Inwardly she cringed, realizing how bad this was, and how poorly this could go. “Clockwork?” she found herself asking, even as a small portion of her mind screamed at her to flee while she still could.

    “I… I need to know,” the shorter mare answered, her voice so soft Trixie could barely hear her, “I need to know why.”

    Trixie blinked. “Why? That’s easy. Trixie wants you to be happy. You deserve to be happy, and Galaxi does too, so Trixie felt that she should step back and let you enjoy it. Trixie has always wanted you both to be happy, that’s why she kept trying to fix you both up with all those dates in the past. You both insisted you were looking for a stallion, so Trixie looked for stallions that would make you both happy, maybe even give you families. Of course, Trixie has no problem with the arrangement between you both. It makes you happy, and that is the important thing --”

    “You’re avoiding the subject,” Clockwork interrupted softly, and Trixie winced.

    “I d-don’t know what you’re…” she stammered, but the expression in the other mare’s eyes killed the lame excuse even before it passed her lips.

    “Trixie…”

    “Let’s… let’s get out of the hallway at least,” Trixie hedged, and was thankful when Clockwork silently agreed. Fortunately, their bedrooms were right there, and she was able to guide the shorter pony around to her room and opened the door. Sunlight streamed in through the partially drawn curtains, revealing her rather plush bed with all sorts of comforters and pillows she could nest in. The room also held a rather large dresser, as well as a heavy desk situated near the window. Her eyes were drawn momentarily to a stain on the rug, and the memory of Clockwork struggling to apologize for it flitted past her mind’s eye. Trixie jumped slightly when the door was pushed closed, almost forgetting her “shadow” … not that Clockwork seemed much more substantial than that right now.

    “Why?” Clockwork asked again, and Trixie frowned.

    “Why… what?”

    Clockwork didn’t immediately react, and slowly lifted her head to meet the other mare’s gaze. “Why did you lie to me?”

    “Lie to you?” Trixie asked in feigned innocence, even as her stomach twisted. “Trixie wouldn’t lie to you, Clockwork. She merely came across some faulty intelligence is all... There was a belief that… that… Wait, where are you going?”

    “I’m leaving,” Clockwork answered flatly. “I know you lied to me about that, and I know you are lying to me now. Goodbye Trixie…”

    The cyan unicorn could only taste bile in her mouth as her stomach clenched, watching helplessly as the khaki pony made her way to the door. The words pounded against the inside of her mind like a prisoner trying to escape, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. Her head thudded, her very heartbeat ringing in her ears as she saw Clockwork reach for the door handle…

    “I did it so you would be happy!”

    Clockwork stopped with her hoof on the handle to the door. Her voice was hollow when she finally asked, “How in the name of Celestia did you think that lying to me would make me happy?”

    Trixie sniffled and answered in a wavering tone, “Because you were in pain. Your condition was preventing you from seeing the truth, from seeing your friends who were trying to help you. Galaxi and I were both there, just waiting for you to open up, and you wouldn’t. Maybe you couldn’t, I don’t know, but that didn’t change our desire to help! You helped us both out many times, and I…  I missed that Clockwork Key. I just wanted you back…. And then, after talking with Galaxi, I found myself just lying awake and thinking and… I had an idea.”

    Clockwork lowered her hoof, and sat her flank on the carpeting. She still had her back to the other pony, but at least she was listening.

    “I… I had the idea that I could use your nature, your element of Loyalty, to push you to seek help,” the unicorn admitted, wiping her face at the tears that for some reason wouldn’t stop flowing. “So I sought out Princess Celestia and pitched my idea to her. She agreed it might help, and concocted the fake letter for me. I… I just wanted to help! You were there for me right up until winter, but I couldn’t help you….”

    “Galaxi warned me that this might cost us our friendship, she warned me what you might do when you found out, and I believed her. T-that’s why I’ve been avoiding you,” Trixie stammered, wiping a hoof across her nose, her vision so blurred she could no longer see the other pony. “Galaxi found a way to help. You are starting to find a way out of that darkness. You are leaning on each other now, and you even found some pony else outside our team who could help you… So I just got out of the way. I… I’d rather have you happy than…”

    “…than have you as a friend?” Clockwork asked softly.

    “If I had to make that sacrifice, yes,” Trixie whimpered. “I will live forever, or at least until some pony figures out how to kill me. I’m immortal. I’ve seen friends, ponies I knew, leave this mortal coil. I knew ‘The Six’ when they were still alive. I was still a young mare when… when Twilight Sparkle was old and nearing her end. But here I am… the Great and Everlasting Trixie. I didn’t… I don’t want to lose you as a friend, Clockwork. But your happiness was my priority; you won’t live forever and your condition was eating you alive….” The unicorn lowered her head and sniffled again, wiping a hoof over her face. Her body was trembling, drained and weak after the maelstrom of emotions.

    A pair of forelegs slipped about her and hugged gently, much to Trixie’s surprise. She lifted her head just slightly to see Clockwork holding her tightly, tears of her own staining her cheeks. With shaky hooves, Trixie answered in kind and hugged her back.

    Trixie lost track of how long they had clung to each other, but Clockwork finally started to disentangle from her. Her voice was surprisingly strong after all of that, “Trixie, please don’t lie to me like that again.”

    The unicorn nodded quickly and wiped her face again. “Does this mean…?” she started, almost scared to ask.

    “No,” Clockwork answered and lowered her eyes. Trixie would have collapsed on the floor, despondent, had the other mare not continued, “The wound is too fresh for me. It’s too painful to forgive… yet. But I’m not going to turn my back on you, either. You’re still my friend, and I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t give you a chance.”

    Trixie blinked at the other mare. “A… a chance?” she croaked.

    “Yes. My trust was breached here, you lied to me, and then lied again to try and cover for yourself. It’s… going to take some time for me to move past that,” Clockwork answered.

    “I understand,” the cyan unicorn answered. Still, a chance to earn her friend’s trust back! That was more than she had expected, or even dared hope for…

    “Princess.”

    Celestia turned her head slightly to the newly arrived guard and frowned. “Another one?”

    “Yes Princess,” the stallion answered, saluting with a pristine white wing. He was a touch older than most ponies still serving in the guard, but his armor was shined and immaculate. “This is the fifth report we’ve received.”

    Celestia sighed and pressed a hoof to her forehead, “So it’s an epidemic then.” She sighed and looked out the window of her study, and towards the late afternoon sun. It would soon be time for her or her sister to nudge the moon along its nightly path. “Have you conducted your own investigation, Corporal?”

    “I would hardly call it an investigation, Princess,” the guard answered smartly, “but I did send some of my ponies to investigate. At different times during the day they bore witness to a horde of squirrels as they stampeded out of town, birds of every flight and color taking a direct path southward and out of the city, and even the palace gardens lie abandoned. Even natural enemies have put aside their differences; clearly their only concern at this moment is leaving Canterlot.”

    “I see,” the Princess answered in a weary tone. “Have you sent for my sister yet?”

    “That is unnecessary, for we are present,” a new voice answered, and the Night Princess stepped into the room. The long time soldier and corporal gasped and backed up a step, eyes widening at her approach. Celestia’s heart sank as she lifted her gaze to view her sister, wearing the armour she had commissioned for herself.

    Thankfully, the armour was a number of very large steps away from the regalia she once wore as Nightmare Moon. The helm was swept back along the sides of her head, with only a reinforced ring near the base of her horn to both secure the helm in place and protect the obvious weak point. The helm fit along the sides over her head in delicate swept-back curves and arcs that almost resembled a fish’s gills. A grillwork visor rested just below her horn, waiting to be tugged down to protect bright eyes, and reminding Celestia of a little used, ancient design. The armour extended down her neck in overlapping plates, a far cry from the near solid metal helm and neck guard she once used. The neck armour swept about her neck and down her back, offering the maximum protection possible along her saddle and flank, leaving gaps only at her shoulders and hips. On her fore-legs, the gap was more pronounced, allowing her flexibility of motion, but picked up as soon as feasibly possible with heavy overlapping plates starting at the middle of her upper leg, with a reinforced cover at her knees, and finally down and over her hooves in silvery shoes that seemed more like weapons than for walking. A similar design was used over her rear legs, but was complimented by a segmented skirt that swept back and refused even her tail freedom as it covered her flank perhaps even more strongly than the rest of her.

    “You could not wait to break it out, could you?” Celestia accused, but Luna’s expression was rock hard and immobile. Celestia remembered that face, it was the same face that once stared at her from across the field of battle in the days before she was forced to banish her little sister. She prayed to the only forces she could, the Elements themselves, that it would not be the last time she saw that face.

    “Whatever is coming, we will be ready,” Luna answered, standing proudly. She then turned her head to the corporal, “Prepare a perimeter around the castle. If so much as a sparrow breaks through, We want to know. We have already mobilized the rest of the guard, and the mages are preparing their shield spells, so we need your pegasi into the air.”

    The guard blinked widely, not used to taking orders from Luna, and glanced to the elder Princess. She looked weary, older than the guard could ever remember seeing, but the shallow nod she gave was all he needed. “Right away, Princess!” he replied, snapping a salute with his wing before dashing from the room.

    “I thought you didn’t want command of the military back?” Celestia teased gently, hoping to get a smile or a smirk from her sister. She was left disappointed.

    “We must be ready for anything,” Luna reiterated, “and while I would rather defer to you, the threat is coming. We would prefer be prepared and left wanting than to be unprepared and caught with our bare flanks hanging out.”

    Celestia frowned darkly for a moment when a thought drifted past her mind. “She was here last night, wasn’t she?”

    “And this morning,” Luna answered, her gaze wavering a moment. “Perhaps we scolded her too strongly last time she snuck out of the Summerlands to be with the animals, for she hid whenever we came near. She was elusive, and worked far into the morning. Something is coming, and she was evacuating every animal that would heed her warning. She knows what is coming, but because she fled from our presence, we were unable to question her.”

    “Lady Fluttershy always did put her animals before other ponies,” Celestia sighed softly, “but you are correct, this is a warning. Something is coming… something that has her terrified.”

    “We wonder if she has not foreseen the true nature of the secret weapon that King Goldtalon wishes to bring to bear against us.”

    “We… I would not be surprised,” Celestia muttered, and chuckled at herself as she almost got sucked into the old royal “We” herself. “It is nearly sundown.”

    Luna nodded and looked briefly to the window, “It would be the ideal time to launch an attack. Our celestial duties trump even those to our land, and they would fools to pass up this opportunity. Given our dual cycle, one of us is always awake and aware, thus why not hope to use the darkness of night to cover their attack? Gryphons have excellent night-vision, which many of our ponies do not, thanks to their feline heritage.”

    “A valid point, Little Sis --" Celestia started, before her head snapped up, eyes wide.

    Luna’s own eyes met that of her sister’s, the stony expression broken with her surprise of what she felt. “Was that…?”

    “Discord.”

    The Sister Princesses dropped all protocol in that moment, and the window to the study was thrown wide. Celestia launched herself out first, unadorned by the heavy regalia her sister wore, and gracefully swooped down into the garden. Her sister was only moments behind, the scaled metal that covered the outside of her wings slowing her considerably as she came to a stop by her sister. The pair simply stood for a moment and stared at the statue before them, the stone edifice that had been created by Discord’s last defeat. Mismatched in every way, with the look of horror and fear on his face still apparent, he stood there with outstretched arms and twisted serpentine body. And yet they both felt it, the power radiating from the stone prison before them.

    “How is this possible?” Luna breathed, her eyes narrowing. “We bled off his power to make him helpless!”

    “I don’t know, but it’s started,” the elder sister answered, pointing a hoof to one of the statue’s legs, which carried a large crack in it from hoof to hip. Even as they watched, a crumble of stones fell from it, widening the gap further.

    “You should get the armour,” the lunar regent stated firmly, “if this attack is to come, you must be prepared!”

    “Time is of the essence, little sister,” Celestia answered firmly, “Discord must be contained. You must lead the guard while I struggle with the Draconequuis should an attack come. But stay close; I may need your assistance.”

    “The question remains, how is he doing this?” Luna asked. “His magic is bled away; he should be far too weak to do this.”

    “Sheer force of will, Luna,” she answered, and turned to the statue. Celestia’s horn began to glow brightly, lighting herself and the statue she was facing. Luna stepped back, leaving this to her sister unless her intrusion was necessary. She turned to the expectant gaze of the heads of the three guard divisions that trotted up, drawn by the disturbance.

    “We must protect her with our lives, Captains.” Her eyes swept past their salutes and to the northern skies. “When were the anti-teleportation runes recharged?”

    “Just yesterday, Princess,” the unicorn guard, the elder of the three, answered.

    “Good. Prepare your stallions to cast the shield. Triple layer defense, if what we fear is coming arrives, I want it to go up the moment you hear the first word from your scouts,” Luna ordered.

    “Yes, Princess.”

    The guard stallion peered carefully around the corner.

    He smiled thinly to himself as he felt the sudden burst of energy; Discord jumped the gun. Fortunately for him, that worked in his favor. He entered the mystic room situated at the base of one of six spinnerets along the wall of the palace, one of six identical rooms devoted entirely to the protection of the Palace.

    Magic charged the very air, with motes of energy dancing about the dimly lit braziers like moths drawn to the flame. The simple stone room was reinforced heavily against attack, the mortar coated in a cloying smoky film. But the real attraction of the room was sprawled across the floor like the signature of some ancient giant. Scrollwork and heavy lines made up the mystic sigil, white magic flaring along its surface, one of the six anti-teleportation runes of Canterlot Palace. The city was too large to benefit from such protection, but the palace itself…

    The unicorn stallion tapped his chin for a moment, humming to himself in an oddly feminine voice as he considered the rune. More than once he started to reach a hoof towards it, only to stop and reconsider. Finally, he decided on his course of action, and with an armored hoof, dragged it through one of the looping curves of the sigil.

    The sudden release of magic tossed the stallion back against the far wall, dazing him with the intensity of the release. He slowly climbed to his hooves, shaking off the stun and surveying his work. The room stood silent, the faint buzzing of magic now gone, the power now bled off into the ether from which it was drawn.

    Satisfied, the stallion turned and trotted away.

    “It’s time, gentle-stallions.”

    The four males, plus one female appearing unknown, lined up before the pacing figure of Kaos. The zebra seemed agitated, and kept pausing to straighten his tie, but determined as he reached for a nearby box on the table. The monitors about the central meeting room watched with almost eerie silence as Kaos opened the box.

    “Zose are not ze earpiecez I made…” the orange unicorn pointed out.

    “No, they are not,” Kaos confirmed, “they are a special design from the Prince himself. They are necessary to deal with the extreme range involved in this operation, thus the Prince had a custom set made that were more magical than technological. Each of you take one, and we’ll give them a test.”

    Professor Burner frowned as he lifted one in his hoof, studying the orange and brown thing, curved to fit just behind the ear with a ball that would hang down and into the ear itself. A thin wire from it held an even smaller ball near the side of the mouth. “Mine iz built into ze Manticore armour,” he explained patiently to these neophytes, “zis vould not vork vith it.”

    “The Prince checked that it would have clearance for it under your helm, Professor,” Kaos soothed as he watched the rest of the team tug the earpiece on, making sure it fit properly. Zilch found an inordinate amount of amusement by plucking the microphone wire alongside her head (really an unnecessary addition, given the fact she was mute) with her hoof and making it bounce up and down wildly. “I understand that you dislike this change of equipment at the last minute, but the Prince assured me that it was necessary. In addition to the range issue, it uses a custom frequency that the guard won’t be able to track and disable. The Prince has promised that it would only be necessary only for this one mission.”

    With a long suffering sigh, the stallion gripped the earpiece with his magic and tucked it about his ear. He had to admit, it felt nothing like the earpieces he designed. It was warm to the touch, and seemed to adjust its fit about his ear as he flexed it this way and that, keeping the ball centered at all times. He touched the microphone near his mouth with a hoof, close enough to his head to be almost unnoticeable, before speaking into it, “Tezting, vun, two…”

    “Three… four…” Alto picked up on his own microphone. “Hopefully this has a cut-off for when I scream,” he noted worriedly.

    “I assure you, it does,” the Prince purred into all their ears at once, “I have no intention of allowing such a small technical detail to defeat you at this, the eleventh hour. Now then, gentle ponies, and lady, suit up! Let’s get this show on the road, for time is of the essence!”

    It took little more than that to push the team into action. Even Verdigris was caught up in the flurry of activity, helping Bunsen Burner into his armour and running a final system check. A few final tweaks to his tail laser, the overheat problem resolved via a rotating multi-barrel system that allowed it to be fired for rapid bursts without melting. Verdigris was sure there was a better solution that still that eluded her, but it was the best the pair of them could come up with in the final hours. It was tested in every way save for actual live combat… which even the suit had not faced yet.

    “Do or die time,” Kaos noted, as the team began to re-assemble. Gone was the uncertainty in their expressions, the hesitation in their eyes, and the weakness in their postures. Each stood tall and firm in a half circle before the sharply dressed zebra. “Zilch, you know where we are going.”

    The white suited pony nodded her head, and in the flash of white, they vanished.

    “You’re too cute sometimes, you know that?”

    Clockwork Key couldn’t help but blush, splaying her ears even as Galaxi nipped playfully at them. “And you are a horrible tease,” the khaki pony retorted, trying hard to sound offended… and failing miserably.

    “Ah, but you love it…” Galaxi giggled.

    “Not to change the subject, but shouldn’t we be suited up?”

    Galaxi shrugged, “I checked in with the Princess earlier. She’s got the team on standby for the moment, and you brought your rapid deployment sled up here and have it sitting in the corner, so I don’t see the need to be dancing around on the tips of our hooves. If the Princess needs us, she’ll contact me.”

    “You’d never make it as a guard pony,” Clockwork teased, “not that I’d do much better. Waiting was never my strong suit…”

    With a chuckle, Galaxi nuzzled the side of the other pony’s neck, teasing the squirmy khaki pony when the wall opposite from them exploded! Chunks of plaster and wood rained down at them, and each pony instinctively rolled away from the center of the bed mere milliseconds before something large crashed through the canopy, shattering at least one of its supports, and dropped heavily into the space the mares had just vacated.

    A strange silence pervaded the bedroom in the wake of the sudden explosion, as each mare carefully looked over to each other, silently confirming that the other was alright. The wall across from them had been reduced to a haze of rubble and dust, leaving them to wonder what could have caused such damage. However, before either of them could do more than open their mouths, a strong foreleg gripped them both about the waist and pulled them close to what, or more specifically who, had dropped into the bed, which turned out to be a blue pegasus with a wild fire-red mane and a matching half-suit.

    “Well well, some pony’s been a good boy. I only just got to the Summerlands, and already I have a lovely filly on each wing,” the stallion gloated, and swatted their flanks with a hoof. Clockwork’s eyes widened with surprise, but Galaxi’s were already glowing as she grasped the stallion with her telekinesis and hurled him straight upwards, cracking the ceiling with the impact. Her door exploded in a shower of splinters when she hurled the stallion through it for an encore.

    “Next time, you vill vant to bounze Crozzwind’z head off ze zeiling a few more timez…” a familiar voice said through a vocal synthesizer. Clockwork’s eyes widened when she saw a massive power armour of oranges and reds step through the veil of dust. “…hiz zkull iz extremely thick.”

    “Burner…” Clockwork whispered, immediately recognizing the accent. A shiver ran down her spine.

    “Zo glad you remember me, Mizz Key,” the stallion mocked, before waving a mechanical claw. “Get zuited up, I vant to beat you fairly zis time. I vill prove who iz ze better inventor.”

    Clockwork’s eyes never left the other powersuit as she slipped off the bed and skulked towards the deployment sled near one luckily unmolested portion of the far wall. Burner responded in kind, the glowing eyes of his armour following the small mare’s every move with wary interest. He watched as she moved to the sled and wiped some of the dust and rubble from it with her hoof, then tapped at some switches to power it up. But she hesitated before stepping onto the slab of metal, her hoof hovering just over the surface.

    “Vat are you vaiting for, Mizz Key, an engraved invitation?” Burner asked in a mockingly conciliatory tone.

    “I want to know why,” Clockwork insisted in a soft voice. “Why would you invade the palace with Crosswind? Why are you telling me to suit up? Is this still about revenge? You nearly killed an entire village of ponies to just eliminate me, all because my AI impinged upon your reputation. I remedied that situation personally with the Princess and made sure what happened was known, so why are you still coming after me? If you’re looking for an apology, you only needed to have asked…”

    “Zis iz not about your ego, or your apology, Mizz Key,” Burner stated, his voice dipping, “zis iz about ze zecurity and zaftey rizkz you reprezent. You could not control your machine, zo how can you be truzted vith one of ze mozt powerful weaponz in all of Equeztria?”

    “Wouldn’t it be up to the Princesses, if not the Elements themselves, to make that decision?” Clockwork countered. “I don’t believe either one of us had much say in that matter….”

    “I vill have my zay, vether zey like it or not.”

    Clockwork paused and glanced back over her shoulder to Galaxi, who was watching her in return. Their eyes sought out each other’s gaze, and the blind mare gave a slight nod and a thin smile from where she stood by the bed. With a sigh, the short khaki mare stepped up onto her deployment sled. Her eyes pressed closed as mechanical whirring filled her ears, and the metal unfolded beneath her. Robotic arms withdrew the armour, piece by piece, from the storage compartments and fitted them into place, starting with her hooves, then up over her legs and hips. The central torso of the armour, the hardest part to break down due to its inflexibility, was fit about her torso like a series of external ribs before covering her entire body. Her tail was tucked out of the way and she felt her mane flattened down first by the neck plates, and then the draconic helm fitted over her head, the last of her pony features vanishing from sight.

    For a moment, the mechanized pony stood like a statue, the contrasting manticore-like armour watching with an almost palpable sense of anticipation. Then the eyes flared, blue-white light shining from them. The light coursed over the armour, a quartet of energy wings flaring into existence over her back, and some components now glowed with power. The sled, now finished its primary purpose, slid the metal cover back into place. The pony’s hooves came free and she stepped forward, her head angled towards the hulking armour standing before her.

    “Now ve vill zee who ze zuperior mind iz,” Burner said in a voice not unlike a foal eager to show off his new toy.

    “I’m sorry,” the mare answered in a soft voice.

    “I zaid I vas uninterezted in your apologiez, Mizz Key,” he sneered.

    “Not for what I did,” she answered almost sadly, “but for what I am going to do.”

    Galaxi watched in astonishment as Clockwork walked the armour from the room, through the massive hole in the wall, and past the larger armour. Burner seemed shocked, and perhaps a bit unnerved, by the almost regretful tone in her voice before he turned to follow.

    “Y’know, we don’t have to join them,” a voice crooned in her ear, shattering Galaxi’s reverie. She looked flabbergasted at Crosswind, who in turn arched his eyebrows suggestively and looped a foreleg over her shoulders, “We can just stay here and test out the springs of your mattress…”

    Galaxi can’t remember ever trying to shove some-pony’s head through the ceiling before, but she made a valiant effort with Crosswind. Were the pegasus not so fast on the uptake and able to use a well timed whirlwind to bowl her over, she might have actually succeeded. Instead he fled through the now open wall of her room, leaving Galaxi a moment to collect herself, grab her headset, and follow warily. She glanced crossly at the destroyed dresser with her usual bodysuit in it as she trotted past. She’d have to forgo it, this time.

    Galaxi was astounded by the wreckage she encountered. Room after room destroyed and ripped apart, hers just the last in a long line. Clockwork’s room was next over, and it lay in shambles. Her computer sparked and fizzled in the corner, and her bed had been literally crushed under a broken wall panel. It was fortunate she wasn’t in it at the time, given what that would have done to any occupants. Shuddering at the thought, she pushed herself further; crossing into the remains of what she knew was Spectrum’s room. She was surprised to find it littered with a number of small dolls and figurines, most of which were destroyed or crushed. With a hoof, she lifted one of them, holding the delicately molded figurine up for scrutiny before she realized that it was painted, not colored mechanically. Spectrum painted them in her spare time? Galaxi let the figurine drop from her hoof, berating herself for how little she knew about Spectrum’s hobbies. The final room of their row was occupied by Filigree, whose quarters were downright stark and empty even in comparison to Clockwork’s Spartan chambers, but it was not completely featureless. By the bundle of blankets Galaxi assumed was her nest, she was surprised to notice the remains of an excellent stereo system with a top of the line headset connected to it. Records littered the floor by its side, most of them shattered, with titles ranging everywhere along the musical spectrum from classical to contemporary to techno… A touch of melancholy worked its way through Galaxi as she forced herself past it all. Bits and pieces of the lives, which they brought with them to the Palace, now lie crushed under the rubble. In a way it felt prophetic, and not in a way that gave the psychic mare confidence.

    Breaking through the dust with a sweep of her telekinesis allowed her to push straight through quarters usually reserved for guests , each of them done up in a slightly different color scheme and layout, but all hopelessly plain and generic. Still, she was slowly growing more impressed by whatever force managed to hurl the pegasus through all these walls, not to mention Crosswind’s durability to withstand the impact.

    A final wall of dust parted before her, and she realized with a start that she was standing in the central hall and throne room! To get from the bedchambers to the hall was usually something that would usually require a bit of navigation, so Galaxi had never realized before how close together they truly were prior to stumbling into the scene before her.

    She’d seen the main hall many a time in the past, usually in the evenings with Princess Luna, but sometimes for formal gatherings and even the occasional visit with Princess Celestia. She and her team had seen the dome-like chamber all but destroyed completely approximately a year ago, and it had been nearly rebuilt since the Nightmare’s invasion, including some modifications that would have been impossible otherwise.

    Now, it stood once more in rubble. The long hall extended from a massive pair of double doors, which right now looked as if they’d been knocked off their hinges by a battering ram and so firmly wedged in place they would be all but impossible to open again. A red carpet extended from under the door and ran the length of the chamber, effectively bisecting the hall into two halves, but it now lay in tatters, lush crimson thread scattered about like so much dried blood. The walls of the chamber, decorated with delicate filigree, had been scored various pockmarks, scorch marks, cracks, and other types of damage, not to mention the areas where the wall had been broken straight through and into the next room over. All the destruction left so much dust in the air that it clouded the floor from her eyes, disguising the checkerboard marble floor beneath her under a thin coat of white soot. It seemed that the fighting had only preserved two things in the room, the thrones of the Sister Princesses which sat side by side upon the dais. Both sat untouched by anything beyond dust.

    “About time you made it, G!” Flourish called, forcibly dragging the blind mare’s attention from the stage to the players occupying it. At the moment it seemed to be a lull in the fighting as each side paused to recover their breath, one side obviously faring worse than the other… namely her side.

    “Good, both you and Clockwork are here,” Spectrum added from where she stood at Filigree’s wing, “we were worried they might have gotten to you first.” Spectrum looked all the worse for wear, with her white coat heavily smudged and a number of nasty looking bruises forming on her side. Filigree, for her part, was in a cat-like stance with her head and forelegs low to the ground, while her rear stuck upwards and her tail lashed the air as if it were a live snake. She had several bruises forming, and even a bit of blood on her cheek, but otherwise she looked in relatively good shape. Even Trixie seemed to have taken a few bucks, and was limping just slightly as she stepped forward, her expression dour at best. Aside from Clockwork and herself, both of whom had just arrived, only Flourish seemed untouched, but her chest was heaving with the effort of this fight.

    Galaxi slowly turned her gaze to those who would oppose her and her friends, and scowled. She knew three of them by sight, and the fourth she met only a few moments ago. Professor Bunsen Burner and his power armour looked almost as clean as Clockwork did, and the Zebra near him seemed somehow untouched by even the dust, his dark suit jacket meticulously clean even as he straightened his tie with a hoof. Zilch was a mystery, since she technically wasn’t a pony, and thus didn’t show fatigue, damage, or even if she could be hurt or not. Crosswind, on the other hoof, had the start of a black eye beginning to form, but otherwise seemed relatively unhurt, much to her annoyance. The pegasus was flanked by a diamond dog almost as large as Burner’s power armour with slate gray fur and piercingly intelligent eyes. He had a number of bruises as well, but they seemed to heal the longer she watched. Finally, staying mostly behind the others, she caught sight of a startlingly white gryphon that seemed to skulk about as if he were more cat than anything else. Of course, it could also have been the weight of Filigree’s glare, which he looked decidedly uncomfortable about.

    “Sorry about that. I see Burner has made some new friends,” Galaxi joked weakly as she sidled closer to the team, specifically Clockwork.

    “Ah yes, the last of the element bearers. So nice of you to join us, ladies,” the zebra noted with a surprisingly sincere smile, “I apologize for starting without you, but my colleagues jumped upon a perceived opening I fear.”

    The blind mare frowned and opened her mind, plucking psychic impressions from the team opposing them. Burner was focused strongly on Clockwork, as expected, and the other gryphon was indeed trying to avoid Filigree’s gaze. Crosswind was… eeeuw. She did not need THAT mental image, especially not when it included all six of them! Shaking it off, she found the diamond dog guarded in thought, almost as if in a meditative state. Zilch, she knew from experience, was pretty much unreadable. But it was the final member, whom she knew only as Kaos, which surprised her, his glowing amber eyes meeting her gaze from across the room. But that wasn’t the only thing… there was something, or someone, else. She could almost make out…

    ~No peeking~ was all she heard in her mind, as if an unknown reedy voice had just whispered it in her ear, and recoiled from the immense pressure that seemed emanate from the zebra. She staggered for a moment before Spectrum steadied her.

    “You alright?” the rainbow-maned leader of their team asked.

    “Y-yeah,” she answered softly, “I don’t know what the Zebra does, but I can’t read his mind. And… there’s some pony else here too, but I couldn’t begin tell where.”

    “You’ll find my teammates are similarly protected from your mental intrusion now,” Kaos answered with an enigmatic smile, ignoring the slightly surprised look from his own teammates, “and, just to keep it fair, I’ve isolated you from the Princesses as well, just in case the distraction we’ve arranged doesn’t hold their attention.”

    “Wait, you orchestrated this assault with Discord somehow?” Trixie demanded, stepping forward.

    “Not explicitly,” Kaos said with a shrug, “we merely arranged for someone to prepare a distraction for the Princesses so we would not be interrupted.”

    “We don’t need the Princesses to handle the likes of you,” Filigree growled.

    “You may quickly find out otherwise...”

    “Enough with the banter,” Spectrum cut in sharply, “you and your team are in violation of so many laws I can’t even begin to count…”

    “Twenty-seven… wait, no… twenty-six, I counted destruction of royal property twice,” Flourish chirped with a broad smile.

    “…but as duly appointed representatives of the crown, we are giving you exactly one chance to surrender,” Spectrum concluded, pointedly ignoring the gray unicorn.

    “Please, oh please, resist arrest,” Filigree growled, a dark grin crossing her beak.

    “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to disappoint you,” Kaos said, spreading his hooves and answering with a broad smile, and his team spread out to each side of him, “Besides, our targets are right before us. Your reign as element bearers is at an end.”

    “What does that have to do with anything?” Trixie demanded, stomping a hoof.

    “Everything.”

    The word seemed to hang in the air for several long seconds before Spectrum shook her head. “Flourish, is Skillet online yet?”

    “No, he is still busy with that… uh… project,” she replied evasively, eyeing the other team.

    “Understood. Clockwork, set ‘em up, it’s time to take them down.”

    “FINALLY,” Crosswind cried, “all this talking was giving me a rash! I mean, as nice as you girls are to look at, unless we’re going to make use of one of those bedrooms we might as well just get on with the fighting already!” Kaos’ eye twitched and he barely managed not to lose his smile even as the rest of his team groaned and face-hoofed.

    “Maybe Galaxi can hit him on ze head a few more timez,” Burner muttered.

    “He may be a creep, but he is right about one thing,” Spectrum stated, ignoring the outcry from Crosswind, “the time for words is over.” Her own team spread out from behind her at those words, even as Spectrum herself stepped away from Filigree. “You six are under arrest.”

    “Come and get us then…” Kaos answered with that annoying smile.

    “Team,” Spectrum said, her voice dipping dangerously, “let’s make some noise.”

21

Chapter 21

“Head-On Collision”

    The soft glow of her horn dimmed, and finally vanished.

    Luna cracked an eye warily, and was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing had changed. No one had attacked while she was focused on setting the sun and raising the moon. The guards were all still there, most staying by their posts and watching carefully for approaching Gryphons, though a few were shaking off their fascination at watching the Princess perform her celestial duty. The dark alicorn smiled grimly; she truly expected that any attack would have occurred in those moments of sundown. Instead, she was still standing in the parade field, the night flowers starting to glow their gentle blue, unharmed and unmolested. Two of the three guard captains were posted nearby, where they received a constant stream of runners delivering messages to and from hastily assembled posts all over the city.

    For a brief moment, déjà vu overwhelmed the princess. Instead of the guard, she saw soldiers of the Lunar Republic, clad in cobalt blue armour and awaiting her orders. Ancient crests and dragon-inspired designs swam before her in row upon row, and she stood proudly, overseeing the battlefield as its conqueror. Luna shook her head, dispelling the memory of a life long past, of a time when she wore different armour and called herself Nightmare Moon. She may not have been in full command of her faculties while infected by the Nightmare, but she had been a willing participant. All from a time she let her fury with Celestia, who saw success and accolades pile up simply for raising the sun every morning, cloud her vision.

    “Princess, all quarters report clear,” one of the Captains informed her, the unicorn’s voice piercing the lingering fog of her thoughts.

    “Thank you, Captain,” she answered, letting the memory slip from her hooves. It wasn’t important right now.

    “However, I am receiving an odd report from one flyover of the city,” he continued uncertainly. “It might be nothing but… With permission, I’d like to have Captain Storm send a pair of flyers to investigate.”

    “What is it, Captain Light?” Luna asked, and the pegasus captain winged closer to listen himself. Only the earth pony captain was absent presently, and that was because he was overseeing the positioning of some siege weaponry in the field. An unnecessary addition, Luna hoped, but she’d rather be over prepared than under.

    “The runner coming from the far side of the city noted that the city appeared… empty. I’d normally just say that the citizens were becoming aware of the tensions and cleared the streets but he noted a line of ponies leaving from the far gate. It’s just a trickle now, but....”

    “But you’d like to find out what is going on. I understand, Captain. Captain Storm? Please send a pair of your fastest flyers to investigate,” Luna ordered.

    “Yes, Princess!” the pegasus answered smartly, and winged up a few dozen feet to call on a couple of pegasi. Luna only paid attention long enough to notice that he’d tapped two of the Wonderbolts, currently in their guard attire instead of their show-pony suits, for the “mission”. Satisfied it would be handled appropriately, she turned her attention to her sister. Celestia stood rock still before the statue of Discord, her head lowered and eyes tightly closed. Her horn glowed and brow furrowed with intense effort, even as a small crumble of stones fell from the cracked leg of the statue. Discord was still winning, it seemed.

    “The quiet before the storm,” the unicorn guard captain muttered to himself, his eyes carrying an odd, far-away look.

    “We feel it too,” Luna answered, unbidden, “the air itself feels charged. Something is coming, something big. Given our luck, it may already be here.” Luna’s eyes slid back to the statue of Discord, and a shiver ran down her spine.

    It seemed almost prophetic that the wall of the palace behind her would suddenly ring with an echoing boom, as though it were the membrane of some massive bass drum. Mortar and stone showered loose from the wall, and cracks rushed along the surface as the Princess, the Guard Captains, and a large portion of the guard turned to look in surprise and curiosity. Unfortunately, whatever caused that sudden impact decided to repeat the performance, and this time the structure was not up to the task of absorbing it. Cracks turned into openings, and mortar exploded onto the field, stretching outward with long grasping fingers towards…

    “Princess, look out!” the unicorn captain cried, leaping before her as his horn flared, a mystic shield coalescing about him. Luna knew it was too little, too late, and reacted with the speed only her incredible powers allowed her to. She curled her wing and scooped it about the unicorn, sweeping him to the side and out of danger. Her horn flared a cool silvery glow as pure moonlight slashed down and through the incoming mortar. The blade of light bisected the rock easily, barely lasting long enough to register on the eye, before the stone scattered about the Princess harmlessly.

    “No sacrificing thyself this day, Captain,” Luna stated, ignoring the astounded looks directed her way, “Our ponies still need you.” She set the surprised unicorn down and wheeled around, looking for the cause of the now massive hole in the side of the palace, which allowed her to gaze directly into the throne room. Unfortunately, the cause of this new opening hit the ground to her right, a female gryphon who tumbled with the motion as she crashed onto the turf, metallic wings tucking against her back to roll smoothly back to her claws. Filigree hissed and flared her wings, so focused on her battle that she never even noticed those about her. Many guard ponies stared at her in shock, and a number of them readied their weapons.

    A stony gray Diamond Dog clad only in a simple leather vest stepped through the collapsed wall, following the gryphoness. He casually brushed dust from his coat, and then crossed his arms, eyes locked on Filigree. He waited until she recovered fully, oddly patient, before reaching out a hand and motioning with his fingers. He was taunting her, Luna realized, calling for the gryphoness to attack.

    “P-princess?” the Captain asked more than said, even as Luna stared at the tableau before her. She recognized the description of the canine, but how could it be? Filigree didn’t wait for the Princess’ consideration, instead roaring in a way that made a number of guard recoil and launched herself at the Diamond Dog. The moment the first slab of rock launched itself up to block the attack, which crumbled under the ferocity of the gryphon’s assault, Luna was positive of his identity.

    “Junkyard,” she all but spat. “It appears that we were wrong, Sister, Kaos has come, and at a most inopportune time. Captain, form a perimeter. Keep watch for any invaders from outside Canterlot and the Palace, and try to keep these interlopers isolated. Do not engage under any circumstances. Allow our team to handle these interlopers. No offense, but these specials would deplete too much of our resources to make fending off the Gryphons, should the attack come, viable.”

    “Yes, Princess!” the unicorn guard answered, but the pegasus captain frowned.

    “What are you going to do, Princess?”

    “We are going to help our team thrash these upstarts,” she answered flatly, “and We are in no mood for these games.” With a resolute stride, she began to stalk towards where Junkyard and Filigree were locked in a contest of strength.

    “Sister!” an anguished cry sounded, and Luna stopped in her tracks.

    “Celly, you have impeccable timing,” the Princess of the Night sighed. Luna momentarily entertained the thought of ignoring her sister, and coming back to help when she was finished with Junkyard, Kaos, and whoever else the damned Zebra might have with him.

    “Luna, please,” Celestia cried again, pain lancing her voice, “I need your assistance!” Luna sighed at her sister’s tone and realized there was no way Celestia would last, and turned on a hoof.

    “Princess?” the pegasus captain asked cautiously.

    “No change in orders,” she stated as she trod past, “form a defensive perimeter. If you can spare the ponies, use them to place a shield over the fighting to keep their battle isolated. Do not move to assist unless you can do so without calling any attention or danger upon yourselves.”

    “Understood, Princess,” the unicorn captain noted, and watched Luna as she trot over to where her sister stood and, with a sigh, lowered her head, touching her horn to her sister’s. Her body went rigid a moment later. “Stormy? It looks like we’re on our own.”

    The pegasus countered with a rakish half grin, “just like old times, eh?”

    “I wish we were still that young,” the unicorn snorted, before calling to his troops, “Corporal Diamond, Corporal Shell, front and center! I need a shield facing inward to keep those specials fighting in check. We do not want their battle spilling into our ranks! When one tires, the other of you is to take over, and work in that cycle for as long as you can.”

    “Yes sir!” the pair, one mare and one stallion, answered smartly and trotted away a short distance. After a brief discussion between them, the mare stepped forward and began to focus, and a glowing pink shield formed over the palace and a portion of the parade field, separating the specials from the guard.

    “Will that hold?” Captain Storm asked worriedly.

    “I hope so…”

    She didn’t even notice the rock until she struck it with her claw.

    Not that it offered much resistance, despite the fact that the impact would have shattered the claw of a lesser gryphon. To Filigree, it was just a minor pain that she ignored as the force of her blow shattered the rock in question with a loud echoing boom. Another rock leapt up to take the place of its fallen brother, and she reenacted the event with her other fore-claw. In an odd way, it sounded almost like she were beating on a drum as she tried to pummel her way through the constantly replenishing wall of stone that Junkyard defended himself with. She caught tantalizing glimpses of him, silently taunting her to do better, before he’d vanish behind another sheet of rock. But she dare not stop… her side still hurt from the last time he pushed the attack, so it was better to keep the canine on the defensive. Still, she needed a better strategy that to simply keep throwing herself at his defenses while he tried to distract her.

    Filigree casually flicked a wing, bisecting the rock that launched itself at her. She was slowly coming to realize that he required line of sight in one form or another, thus forcing him to keep a wall of defense up was preventing him from launching any sort of close in attack, which forced him to launch rocks from where he could see the ground around her. Fortunately steel trumps rocks, and her wings were easily able to defend against the assaults…

    The sudden urge to smack herself in the head nearly overwhelmed the gryphoness. She was so focused on getting her claws on Junkyard that she ignored the alternative completely! She struck another rock and watched it shatter with her claw, letting her frustration be discharged and clearing her mind. Their eyes met briefly before another rock leapt up before her. Her wing flicked through it, cutting the rock out of the ground near the bottom as she locked her talons into it to heave it upwards.

    “Surprise,” she growled, and hurled the rock into his chest. She couldn’t help but watch in satisfaction at the momentary look of surprise before he was launched back through the opening they had made in the palace wall, disappearing through the haze of dust that acted like a veil over the hole. A sweep of her wings parted that veil, and she could see the throne room again, and the ongoing battle within. She was far enough removed that she could not hear the gasps of those ponies who also watched from beyond the hastily thrown up shield. They could see the destruction and chaos that filled the normally calm and orderly seat of royalty for all of the pony lands…

    Glowing light flickered through the dusty air, blue-white countered by angry red-yellow flashed like lightning. The air itself seemed to shudder as an inequine scream tore across the battle. Glows and colors of multiple types flared through and over the combatants, shielding or attacking as the wieldier commanded. Individuals were lost, even with as few as there were, amidst the ebb and flow of battle. A five on five battle royal, ten ponies that somehow possessed enough power to make the very foundations of the palace shake with their ongoing combat.

    Filigree then took a deep breath and roared. With that announcement she dove in, increasing the count by one, two if you count Junkyard’s forced re-entry. A sweep of her wing deflected a glowing bolt from aimed at her flank, a timely duck under a flying body she didn’t immediately recognize as a teammate, to finally grasp the neck of Zilch and yank her back and out of the portal she was using. The suited mare flailed in mid air as she was easily tossed, hitting the wall hard enough to momentarily stun her. She remained stunned long enough for Filigree to leap at her prone form, but not long enough to prevent Zilch from responding, and she intercepted the gryphoness with another portal, sending her clear across the room and out of her metaphorical mane.

    Pupil-less eyes scanned the chaos surrounding her, mind whirling with ideas and perspectives and half formed concepts. One of those solidified as a series of blue-white bolts lanced out at her, and the white clad pony ducked left and right through her portals to avoid the majority of the hail, only catching the final blast in a portal and re-routing it towards one of the armoured mare’s allies…

    The beam cut through the dust like a hot knife through butter, barely missing enemy and ally alike as it arrowed towards its intended target. Only a lucky glance from the rainbow maned pegasus saved her from a direct impact, twisting in mid-air to avoid it. The move seemed impossible, even to the mare doing it, but her body responded with acrobatic precision as she spun away from the beam, wings flaring as it passed close enough to color her white coat blue.

    Then the instant passed, and Spectrum landed unharmed, but not out of danger. She spun laterally, wings still flared, under a spread of orange-yellow bolts from the large power armour before her. But Professor Burner was a step ahead, and he slammed a foreleg down atop her, forcing her to fall back and catch his power-assisted claw with all four hooves as she struggled to hold it off her. Burner put the armour’s weight atop the leg, forcing it slowly down as the mare struggled to keep him from crushing her. Motors whined, geared cranked, and something hissed almost imperceptibly as Spectrum fought a losing battle to hold back the leg intent on crushing her like a grape.

    An explosion of pink interrupted the armoured stallion’s certain victory, and his clawed leg slammed into the floor, destroying the checkerboard marble beneath. Burner picked the leg up carefully from the newly created hole, tiles falling from the mechanized claw as he regarded his prey’s savoir.  Flourish answered with a broad grin, and promptly vanished in another cloud of smoke. It was all Burner could do but flail about as he tried to catch up with the unicorn while she teleported seemingly at random about him, his shields flaring as she tested her horn’s mystic rapier against them. The result surprised even Flourish, as she watched the armour’s shields struggle to keep up with her attacks, energy coalescing at her last attack point to reinforce it, often a split second too late and weakening his shield to a new attack from another angle. Burner’s flailing attempts to catch her, which only wasted more power, allowed her to duck and weave about the large armour and further frustrate the stallion who built it…

    The shriek of sound caught her off guard and sent the teleporting mare tumbling away. She staggered comically where she did manage to land, shaking her head even as the white gryphon prepared for another blast, only to make a choking squawk as a band of lavender clenched his neck. The avian choked and struggled, scrabbling at the telekinetic band that was choking him, only barely able to twist his head and spot Galaxi’s eyes glowing. Alto offered a weak smile, not at all caring for the much darker grin he got in response.

    Fortunately for him, whatever Galaxi had planned never came to pass when a sudden blast of air sent her tumbling head over hooves across the floor and right into a waiting whirlwind. Galaxi never had the chance to regain her hooves as the mini-tornado whipped her about, staggering her with dizziness that refused to stop even when she cried out, certain she was about to lose her non-existent lunch. Galaxi staggered visibly when the wind released her, only teasing her mane as she tripped over her own hooves and fell hard on her chin. When she felt the wind pick up again, and she clenched her eyes shut and whimpered…

    Thankfully the tornado didn’t materialize when the pegasus controlling the winds was forced to flee. Armour of green and gold fired a series of blasts after him, which Crosswind only just barely avoided. He responded by hurling his wind at her, creating wind shear, and starving her of air… all of which the armoured mare ignored and powered through. This forced the pegasus into an uncommon and uncomfortable defensive role, and he had to use the wind to boost his speed ahead of the pursuing mare. Blue-white plasma screamed through the air about him, stubbornly refusing to be deflected and forcing the pegasus to weave and dodge the incoming fire, cutting tight turns around the one remaining chandelier still clinging to the ceiling over the throne room. But try as he might, she was still gaining!

    Clockwork frowned at her displays. He was fast, fast enough to avoid her fire, but she was starting to identify his habits. He reflexively dodged to the left first then would cut back right. He would make tight sharp corners to the right, but he would duck down slightly when he banked left. He preferred to climb than to dive, which he did with astounding speed thanks to the control in air pressure and wind. She was so engrossed in cataloging her target’s every move that she never noticed the chandelier begin to move when they zipped by it for the second or third time. She was made forcibly aware fourth time they rounded it, for it reached out and grabbed her with limbs far stronger than should have been possible. Golden filigree and soft lights generally couldn’t restrain the Dragonfly armour, but the entire thing had twisted and woven itself into something that resembled a giant spider, and was creating chains that stuck to her like webbing, which it used to drag her in with. She struggled and flared her engines, but that only made her situation worse as it added more of the mystic chains about her, starting to almost literally cocoon her in them!

    Grinning from below, Kaos’ eyes glowed as he controlled the magically altered light fixture to capture one of the more annoying “flies” of the opposing team. It seemed rather fitting, if he could say so himself. He didn’t notice the surge of magic until it was too late, and what looked like a giant flyswatter took aim at the animated chandelier and crushed it against the ceiling, rendering it a useless and twisted series of metal tines and broken lights. Chains returned to normal and, now unable to hold the combined weight of the broken chandelier and armoured mare, broke free of its anchor and plummeted to the floor, making ponies from both teams scatter to avoid it. The zebra, however, turned an annoyed eye to the unicorn mare who bested his creation so easily. His gaze fell on the confident form of Trixie casually wiping a hoof on her coat, and her arrogant smile could only have one response…

    Fortunately, Kaos wasn’t the one who needed to make it. The floor beneath Trixie seemed to come loose under her hooves and rocket her upwards on a growing pillar. Trixie glanced up at the approaching ceiling and cringed, her horn flaring as she barely had the time to create a weak shield before impacting against it, which was easily crushed against the ceiling, the unicorn herself launched into the upper floors of the library over the throne room. Junkyard watched, and waited for the pony to come back down…

    To his surprise, the pillar of stone stopped responding to Junkyard’s control, and tipped towards him like a toppling tree. Marble and wood from the floor suddenly lurched upwards, Kaos’ eyes glowing as he formed it into a giant claw to catch the pillar. The stone then shattered near the base from a sharp impact, the remainder sliding forward through the prop and out over their heads, but Junkyard was fast enough to arch a line of marble stones up to it to reassert control and cause the entire pillar to fall away to their side harmlessly. Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what they wanted…

    The pair were already past Kaos before it even registered upon him that they had passed, first Spectrum, followed by Filigree. The duo caught Junkyard between them, alternating attacks with a series of pounding blows that bounced him back and forth between them. Junkyard was disoriented, and the pair had no intention of letting him recover, forcing Kaos to step in… or he would have if a lavender bubble didn’t appear about him and yank him back towards the far wall at a much higher rate of speed than he was comfortable meeting such a hard object at.

    Spectrum landed one final blow as Filigree ducked her body low, then jumped upwards to land her claw just under his chin, launching Junkyard several feet into the air. With a shared look, both femmes flattened themselves to the floor, and the air above them exploded in a scream of powerful engines as Clockwork caught the canine mid “flight”. She yanked him out the open wall of the palace, and upwards into the air. She took a spiraling flight path that drew the eyes of the wary guards that were trying, and mostly failing, to ignore the battle raging behind them. She came as close as she was willing to the shield and stalled her engines, rolling over backwards in a way that made the diamond dog panic and flail his arms and legs futilely.

    A sudden series of impacts rocked Clockwork’s suit, throwing off her trajectory, and forcing her to lose her grip on the diamond dog… It took her a moment to realize that Burner was rapid firing into Zilch’s portals which aligned his aim into the side of her armour, keeping up the pressure to prevent her from recovering the canine. Alto swooped in easily after that, grabbing the plummeting diamond dog and flaring his wings to level out. He finally dropped Junkyard onto the ground, who in turn stood up to his full height, eyes blazing under his heavy brow.

    “Good,” Filigree said as she stepped through the dust, her eyes locking with his, “we can stop all these games and get to the real fighting.”

    Junkyard let slip a low, guttural, growl, and leaned forward. Filigree responded in kind, her beak low to the ground as she eyed him. Junkyard seemed to positively radiate fury as he took a step forward, dirt and rock clinging to his foot by its own volition. Strangely, it only seemed to make the gryphoness smile wider.

    Suddenly, the diamond dog slammed his fist into the ground, and the firmament heaved under Filigree. Before she could take to the air, a large rock slab arched upward from each of Filigree’s sides, rushing in to crush her between them. The parade field echoed with the impact, and Junkyard’s eyes widened with the realization of what he had just done. Another victim to his rage, another fallen from his anger… he felt ill, and clenched his eyes shut. A low rumbling growl gave him pause, and his eyes slowly opened, then widened in shock. He saw the gryphoness standing between the two stones, forelegs spread and holding them apart, her talons sinking into them. Her body trembled with the effort, her beak gritted as she poured every ounce of strength she had into holding those stones apart. For a moment Junkyard could only watch in surprise, then his resolve strengthened and he clenched his hands into fists, willing the ground beneath her to strengthen, to tighten about her until she was crushed between them. The gryphoness wavered, and the rocky vice slowly began to tighten. Her forelegs were almost folded completely when he saw her eyes pop open. He expected to hear her squawk in defeat when her beak fell open.

    Her roar echoed about the parade field, badly startling some guards and rocking Junkyard back on his heels. Tapping some unknown reserve of strength, her forelegs forced the rocks apart as widely as she could. Her wings separated the rocks from their bases before Junkyard could redouble his efforts, and one after the other, she hurled the slabs at the diamond dog. Junkyard frowned, and deflected the first with his arm, his hand glancing along the side of the stone before his fingers caught on the holes her talons had punched into it. Grasping at the idea he sunk his own fingers into the rock, letting its momentum spin him around so that he could grasp the other stone she’d hurled in the same manner with his other hand. Once more he let the momentum spin him, both stones now clutched in his hands as he evenly regarded the gryphoness leaping for his apparently open chest.

    His growl deepened into a roar of his own, and with a herculean effort he wrenched the massive stones forward. The gryphoness seemed to hover in the air before him, mid leap and steel coated wings spread, only millimeters away from her talons sinking into him. For a brief moment, their eyes met, rage matching rage. Then the stone slabs crashed shut over her, clapped shut like a massive trap. The rocks fell from his hands even as he stumbled back, gasping for breath from the effort.

    “Okay, that hurt,” Filigree rumbled after a moment’s pause and spat some blood from her beak. She sunk one claw into the ground and began to force her way up again, deliberately pushing past the pain as loose gravel fell away from her. Junkyard dropped back a step and answered with a low rumble of his own, leaning forward with anticipation…

    “Clockwork,” a voice shouted over her headset, “get your flank to the center, we need to regroup!”

    Green and gold armour seemed to pirouette in mid air as it avoided another series of blasts from the heavy manticore-like armour. “If you can get Burner off my back for twenty seconds, I’d be happy to oblige.”

    “That’s the problem, we need targets!” Spectrum answered, weathering a blow from Zilch with a grunt even as she lashed out at Kaos, driving him back from his hastily erected barricade of floor tiles. Unfortunately the tiles, upon falling back to the ground, turned into an oversized mouth with checkerboard lips, wooden splinters for teeth, and a whip like tongue that immediately caught one of her wings and began to pull, painfully trying to reel her in.

    There was a sudden surge of magic, and a giant pacifier appeared over the open mouth, dropping down and forcing it to release Spectrum. Both pacifier and mouth vanished in the moment after, Kaos looking mildly annoyed and straightening his tie as he stared intently at the unicorn. Trixie smiled smugly in response, before sharply turning to face the incoming attack from Zilch. The pair’s eyes met through the portal, and gave Trixie just enough time to create a blinding flash of light with her horn, sending Zilch staggering blindly along the far wall before Alto was able to steady her.

    “How did you..?” Spectrum asked, and Trixie tapped her horn.

    “I studied some magic identification techniques after we got back from the Northern Reaches,” she answered smoothly as she ducked a barrage of laser fire, “and so I can identify the magic used in teleporting. Mind you, it doesn’t give me much more than a split second warning, but every little bit helps…”

    “Less talking, more fighting!” Flourish called at them, and soundly bucked Kaos in his side, sending him staggering.

    “Says little miss comeback!” Trixie answered with a comfortable grin, her horn flashing as she sent a series of bolts into Alto’s side…

    “Banter is completely different!” Flourish began, but unfortunately she was grabbed by a sudden curl of wind that twisted her about in place, sending her escape teleport severely off course, and right into Burner’s line of fire. Trixie’s horn flared in an effort to rescue her teammate, but Kaos chose that moment to have the floor beneath her inflate and pop like a giant bubble, flinging her skyward again.

    Fortunately for Flourish, Galaxi was able to create a telekinetic bubble about her. However, she quickly found out the lasers passed right through her psychic shield, and yanked Flourish out of there before she could be hit more than once or twice. “Since when can they shoot through my shields?!” Galaxi demanded, forced to yank a mirror off the wall to protect herself and the gray unicorn.

    “Watch the angle, Galaxi!” Clockwork called as she buzzed overhead. “It looks like his weapon is light based, which means anything light can get to, his attacks can get to.”

    “Which means this mirror…” Galaxi mused, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “Exactly.”

    A smile spread across Galaxi’s face as she held the mirror tightly in her telekinesis, anticipating the next volley of attacks from Burner. Fortunately, he either hadn’t anticipated the problem with mirrors or had discounted it as negligible, and Galaxi was able to bring it to bear. She reflected a series of attacks back to the large armour, whose reflective plates simply deflected most of the attack, splitting the rays far too much to do any damage.

    “Aim more to the left,” Flourish suggested, and Galaxi caught the next volley of shots from the approaching manticore armour and sent them hurtling towards Crosswind, who yelped as he was hit squarely, momentarily falling from the air. Zilch teleported in for the catch, laying the partially conscious pegasus on the floor behind Kaos and Alto.

    Galaxi cheered, but found herself yanked aside and rudely teleported, causing her to stagger as Flourish escaped with her mere milliseconds before the massive armour crashed a foreclaw down through the space they vacated, shattering the mirror.

    “That’s seven years bad luck,” Clockwork interjected, and swooped in to set Trixie down on the ground. Burner growled and turned, the blaster on his tail spinning up for a moment before he abandoned it, opting for a different sort of attack.

    “Enough iz enough,” the professor growled, and the shoulders of his armour shifted, a panel sliding back and other mechanisms pushing forward and locking into place.

    Spectrum frowned at the foam and round membranes that filled the openings. “What is he doing?”

    “Speakers,” Clockwork answered from above, and took a pair of shots, focusing on the forming speaker on the left shoulder, only to find his shield easily able to compensate and keep the newly created structure safe.

    “Clockwork?” Galaxi asked questioningly, remembering the last time the short mare had to deal with speakers and sonic attacks from Burner. To her surprise, Clockwork just chuckled.

    “You laugh?” Burner asked sharply. Clockwork responded by landing, her wings folding… forward? It looked odd to her teammates, but a small panel just behind her wings opened and a post pushed out and upwards from it. When it had extended several inches, the tip extended an arm, which it drew around in a circle and quickly filled with foam of its own. Only when that was finished did her wings return to normal, but Clockwork stayed on the ground.

    “I came prepared, Burner,” she answered evenly.

    There was a moment of hesitation from the orange armour clad unicorn, a brief second of uncertainty, before he hit the switch. A thrum could be felt more than heard across the throne room, and even outside. Dust whipped about as if alive and forced itself flat to the ground from the thrumming vibration that crashed through the room, and every window that was left whole shattered in an explosion of glass powder.

    And yet, his intended target stood steady.

    “I did my homework too, Burner,” she answered with a pained hiss. It wasn’t perfect, she’d have to make some adjustments for next time, but the pain was dull and faded enough that she could deal with it. “Some research found a small deformity in my skull that lets me hear things the way I do. It acts like an echo chamber, magnifying specific pitches and frequencies that would normally be outside of pony range of hearing, and amplifying others that are easily heard but generally so soft they are unnoticeable. But there is a frequency, that frequency, which causes an intensely painful feedback loop. Since I feel it as a vibration, it can’t be blocked out by just stuffing my ears. So I had to develop a counter….”

    “You are ztill in pain, Mizz Key,” Burner retorted, “zo your counter is vorthlezz

    “You brought a bit more power to bear than I expected,” she agreed, “but I’m still functional. All in all, I’d say the first field test of my Frequency Dampener is a success. It creates a counter frequency to the one you are producing, thus nullifying it.”

    “Very clever, Mizz Key, but I have better rezourzez zan you. You vill loze,” Burner noted, arrogance seeping into his voice.

    “If I were alone, you’d be correct,” she hissed. “Flourish, target his hindquarters and tail.”

    “Vat?!” was all Burner managed to get out before the first impact registered on his armour. His hooves flew across the control panel as he tried to rescind the programming he built into the Manticore, but it had already altered the shield frequencies to reinforce the last point of attack. “NO!” His eyes snapped up to confirm his worst suspicion as Clockwork reared up on her hind legs, both the fore-hoof plasma ejectors blazing with power. She fired them simultaneously, the metallic sound echoing about the chamber, and Burner knew exactly what she was targeting.

    He barely heard her second shot as the first powered through the weakened shields, causing them to fizzle out. The shot continued, unhindered, and slammed into the first speaker, decimating it completely. “NO!! You little…!” Burner choked as the sound was nullified.

    “I’m no fool, Burner, I knew you’d use that again,” she growled, and turned away, facing the rest of her team. Unfortunately, the sound she heard from the crazed unicorn was not the ranging anger she had expected, but laughter of his own.

    “You’re not ze only vun vith backup planz, Mizz Key,” Burner said, the suit making him sound positively demonic. Alto seemed to almost materialize by his side, stepping from the shadow of the armour and causing the group of mares to frown.

    Without a word, the gryphon opened his beak and let out a scream… a scream at a very specific pitch. The physical brunt of the attack crashed into the group, scattering them. It caught Clockwork squarely and pinned her to the wall, the counter speaker on her back struggling with the spike in intensity before it gave up the ghost and gave out a series of popping noises, the final one ejecting it altogether from her armour to smolder on the floor to her side. Clockwork screamed herself, and was crushed into the wall by the force of it, unable to move or escape the barrage.

    “Enough of that,” a voice stated, and a purple band appeared about the gryphon’s neck once more, silencing him. Galaxi frowned darkly at the choking gryphon, before she was forced to release him as Kaos hurled parts of fallen chandelier at her, his odd magic changing them to giant staples in mid flight. Thankfully none of the sharp tips pierced anything Galaxi was intimately connected to, but she did find that all four of her hooves, plus her neck, were literally stapled to the wall behind her.

    One quick teleport later, and Flourish extracted Galaxi before she could be choked by the metal bands. Trixie turned her attention to Kaos in that moment, intent on counter-attacking. She was so focused that she almost missed the sensation, and jumped suddenly to the side. But she could only avoid the decoy portal Zilch had set up, and she leapt literally into the suited mare’s bucking hooves, knocking the wind from her.

    “Clockwork! Now would be a good time!” Spectrum shouted over the headset as she swept in to shield Trixie. Flourish was thankfully quick to distract Kaos.

    “Uh… er… I don’t know,” Clockwork answered, her head flicking back and forth and still dazed from the sonic assault. It took her a moment to climb to her hooves and reinitialize the energy wings, as well as get her bearings and take to the air again. “Okay, uh… okay. Trixie, see if you can nullify Kaos… when you’re back on your hooves. Flourish, you’re on Zilch. I’ll take Burner… no wait, I’d better take Crosswind. Galaxi, can you handle Burner? “

    “How the buck did you manage as a coordinator for years?” Flourish teased as she dove at Zilch, who seemed oddly collected and teleported away just as the mare got close.

    “I didn’t do it while I was under fire!” Clockwork cried, exasperated. Further hysterics were cut short as a number of portals opened up around her, and through them she could see Professor Burner’s armour, or more specifically, the tail of his armour. “Oh cra--!”

    Red beams lanced out and through the portals, working through a well practiced rhythm that struck her from all sides before culminating in one final blow, which blasted her out of the air. Her friends rushed to help her up, but were unable to touch the still smoking armour, the heat radiating from her driving them back.

    “We’re not out of the fight yet,” Spectrum hissed, and Galaxi used her telekinesis to start lifting the stunned armoured mare up.

    “We need Skillet, like, right now,” Trixie complained.

    “Now is our chance, gentlestallions” the Prince’s voice purred into the ear of Kaos and his team. “They’re disorganized, so this is the perfect time to single each one out. Burner, hang back, you can pick up Clockwork once the others have been peeled away. Junkyard and the gryphon are already engaged with each other. Is Crosswind on his hooves yet?”

    “I’m up, I’m up,” the pegasus answered, climbing to his hooves. Kaos nodded, watching the mares try to help Clockwork, the psychic mare hovering her slowly to the floor outside of the destruction her impact had made.

    “Good. Crosswind, take out Flourish. Spin her up and keep her disoriented,” the Prince ordered, “Zilch, you are on Galaxi. Push her back and keep her from focusing; the moment you see her eyes glow, hit her with everything you’ve got.”

    Crosswind spared a glance to Zilch, their eyes meeting for but a brief moment. A single nod was shared between them. That wordless moment began the chaos anew, as Crosswind dived at Flourish, forcing her to teleport away and making the group of mares yelp in surprise. Galaxi’s eyes began to glow in an effort to catch the pegasus, when a pair of hooves caught her shoulders and pulled suddenly. The psychic mare vanished from the moment even as Flourish reappeared, only to find the wind whipping about her. She teleported away again, but staggered on arrival, which gave her assailant time to catch her in another whirl of wind…

    “Trixie,” Spectrum ordered, ignoring the burning pain to rap her hoof on Clockwork’s helm, successfully stirring the armored mare, “get the pegasus. Clockwork will relieve you once she’s cooled down…”

    “Alto, on Trixie before she can cast!” the Prince shouted in the gryphon’s ear.

    Sound ripped through the scene, making the dust dance and swirl in a thinning veil before being chased away by the sudden burst of sonic energy. Trixie may have heard it, but far too late to react, and the wall of sound crashed physically into her and drove her tumbling across the destroyed throne room. Trixie could only shake her head to clear it and look at what had halted her tumbling retreat. She couldn’t help but reflect on the irony of colliding with, and using to help climb back to her hooves, the very throne of her mentor. Such irony was lost on Alto, however, as he stalked towards her.

    “Kaos, your turn.”

    Spectrum scowled darkly, her wings snapping out and flaring before she launched herself into the air. Unfortunately she found out quickly that she had a new addition when something began to pull at her tail, a heavy industrial elastic band tied in a firm knot that pulled tighter the further she pulled from where it was anchored… under the hoof of Kaos. She frowned, and flapped harder, intent on simply forcing the band out from under his hoof, but found quickly that was not working, especially when she reached the limits of her wing power. With a snap, the band recoiled, yanking her back with it. Kaos was smart enough to stand aside as she crashed into, and through, the floor. The zebra seemed surprised by the damage, and looked down the hole after the mare. Then, with a wordless smile, he dropped through after her.

    “Hello Mizz Key,” a menacing voice said, and the still addled Clockwork Key turned her head. Thankfully she had enough padding and cooling systems to prevent herself from cooking after the lasers had gotten done super-heating her armour, and all internal systems read nominal. She must have gotten lucky and they must have been tough enough to have resisted melting, but she generally doesn’t trust to luck. Unfortunately, as she looked upon the looming Professor Bunsen Burner and his M.A.N.T.I.-core armour, it was obvious the complete diagnostic she ordered her system to do would not have a chance to finish. That belief was verified only a second later, as a swipe from his oversized tail launched her through one of the side walls of the throne room and into the gardens outside, a number of small fires catching from her still hot armour amongst the flowers. Several rare species were lost in that moment…

    A dozen flashy pegasi circled Flourish, taunting her, as she stumbled. She would have lost any lunch she had were she not so acrobatically capable, not that it showed while she was all but falling over her own hooves. Unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough for her tormentor, who delighted in adding still more spinning to the regimen he assailed her with. Line of sight teleportation, it turns out, isn’t very useful when you’re so dizzy you can’t see straight. It didn’t stop her from trying, but after the third attempt saw her falling about a dozen feet and knocking herself out on the floor that leapt up at her, she decided she wasn’t going to try again.

    “The winner… and still heavyweight cham-peeeeeeeeon of the world… Crosswind!!” the pegasus cried, hovering over his unconscious “victim” and mimicking a cheering crowd with his mouth, all the while posing for non-existent ponies.

    Galaxi fared little better, even as she used shield after shield to try and stop the suited mare, but she moved like a ghost. Her telekinesis threw everything that wasn’t nailed down at the approaching mare, but Zilch simply vanished the moment anything came close. Every time Galaxi tried to shield herself, Zilch would strike from an unprotected angle. Galaxi was getting desperate, and bruised, as the silent mare bucked her side again. She continued to backpedal, clutching her hurt side and unable to quite catch her breath, as Zilch approached in a steady gait.

    A scream ripped through the air between them, forcing Zilch to pause, looking crossly in the direction it originated from. Trixie was covering her head with her hooves, where she had barely ducked under the sonic assault from Alto. Alto looked slightly out of breath, when Galaxi had an idea.

    “Trixie, tag out!” Galaxi called. Three things seemed to happen all at once in the next blink of an eye. A lavender band formed about Alto’s neck, choking off his next scream and yanking him up off the ground. Trixie turned, her eyes wide and horn beginning to glow as she searched for her target. A portal appeared not near Galaxi, but near Trixie’s side, and a white pair of forelimbs reached out and grabbed the unicorn about the neck before she could jump clear. Time seemed to hover there for the merest of seconds, before suddenly resuming, and Trixie was yanked back through the portal. Galaxi didn’t know where she had gone until a heavy weight crashed down on her from above, Trixie having been dropped a significant enough distance to crash down into the psychic mare and almost knocking her unconscious. Trixie fared little better, only barely able to lift her head from where it had collided noisily with the marble floor, and dread filled her as consciousness fled…

    “Get. Away. From. Me,” Spectrum growled as she ducked under another flying frying pan. From the moment she saw Kaos drop down into the kitchen, everything within had come alive. At first the cabinets and shelves swatted and harassed her but, as Kaos asserted more control, items about the kitchen drew inwards to form a creature made completely of pots, pans, and silverware.

    “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Miss Star,” Kaos answered, straightening his tie almost casually. That’s about the time that the frying pan thing decided to swing at her with one of the large iron kettles, creating a mare sized hole in the floor that Spectrum barely managed to avoid. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder about his chosen tools. There were a number of knives and forks and other sharp implements lying about, why focus on bludgeoning her?

    “You’re not trying to kill us,” Spectrum stated with a sudden flash of insight. When Kaos’ eyebrow lifted she knew her guess was right.

    “Why should that matter?” he asked simply, as the golem creature took the heavy kettle and slammed it down over its “head” like an oversized helmet. The thing seemed to grow as more pots and pans joined the mix, and spoons unfolded to form fingers on its “hand”. Of course the first thing it did was try to grab at her with the new appendages, forcing her to dive out of the way. The thing screeched, somehow, in frustration as it missed and grabbed hold of a nearby oven, which it promptly ripped out of the wall and hurled at her.

    The rainbow maned mare ducked around the thrown oven, only to feel something land square on her back between her wings, shoving her to the floor with its weight. She tried to roll to the side, and found she had been blindsided by an old-style wooden stove, which battered at her hooves with its long chimney pipe. It didn’t take her too much work to rip it loose, throwing it to the side in frustration, but she realized very quickly that it was just a distraction.

    “Checkmate,” Kaos said softly, and Spectrum’s eyes grew wide as she looked up. The golem created of pots and pans slammed its “hand” back down on her.

    “Ztand ztill!” the voice roared from behind her, and Clockwork juked to the side, dodging yet another stream of bolts from the pursuing armour. Armour that massive should not be this fast! Clockwork’s mind crashed through formula after formula, trying to sort out how such a feat was possible, or if he’d come across some incredible new power supply. Between the rocket propulsion and bat-like wings, it was able to fly in a straight line every bit as fast as she could… at least short of breaking the Rainboom Barrier. But that wasn’t practical here; she needed to stop him, not run away! But… how?

    For now, that meant simply dodging and weaving, “What’s the matter, Professor? Can’t keep up?” she taunted, even though she didn’t feel as confidant as she sounded. His armour was easily twice the size of hers, so it should be approximately half the speed! How the buck was he keeping up with her so easily?!

    “Maybe…” she muttered to herself as an idea formed in her head, even as she rolled to one side to avoid another blast from the tail of that beast. Her eyes fixed upon the guard mare who was resolutely casting a shield to keep them separate from the rest of the field. Smart move, all things considered. But she’d bet that Burner couldn’t turn that monstrosity on a dime…

    She punched more power into the engines, dismayed that her power reserves were already starting to run low, and here she was stuck in a game of cat and mouse. With no sunlight to recharge her batteries, she needed to end this as soon as possible! Clockwork arrowed herself towards the wall of the shield, ignoring the almost panicked expression from the guard mare as she tried to pump more magic into it, and checked her scanners to make sure that Burner was right on her tail.

    Clockwork shut off her engines at the last second and tumbled her body, landing all four hooves against the shield. She let herself drop down about a foot from that position, flared her wings for stability, and reactivated her engines to rocket her away along the wall of the shield. The guard mare looked relieved, until she saw the beast following the power armour, and she grit her teeth and tried to reinforce the shield spell.

    She wasn’t successful. The mare let out a scream as the Manticore armour plowed into the shield, causing it to crack like glass before shattering apart. The heavy armour hit the ground, having lost too much momentum against the shield to stay airborne, and skidded to a halt. Burner shook himself off and carefully made his way back to a standing position, towering over the guard mare as she passed out from her effort. Her partner rushed over to the mare’s side and valiantly threw a shield over himself and the unconscious guard. The Professor looked down at the pair for a long moment, and the rest of the guard held their breath, at once fearful of and preparing to attack this monstrosity. They almost leapt in to attack when a wide beam from one of armour’s eyes spread out over the prone form. The scanning beam swept over her from hoof to her horn, and only when it was done did he lift his head to regard the guard protecting her. “Zhe’z juzt out cold from ze magical backlash. Zhe vill be fine,” he intoned. He took several steps around the incredulous guard and the mare he protected before turning to pursue Clockwork again. He’d only just gotten airborne again before he was blasted back to the ground by a series of well placed plasma bolts targeting his wings.

    “Blazt it!” Burner swore as the armour crashed to a halt, forcing him to shut off the jet engine and look over the number of warning lights now on his display. The most troubling of which indicated the wings were “offline”, the base joints completely destroyed. With a sigh, he touched a button and the armour jettisoned them, closing a panel over the spot they used to attach. “Zat vas a cheap zhot, Mizz Key, but I am not out of zis fight yet!” he cried into his microphone, and the barrels on his tail tip began to spin, tracking software locking on to that annoying Dragonfly armour before unleashing another volley.

    “Wait, there are rules to this combat now?” Clockwork asked incredulously as she wove her armour about the incoming volley. “No offense, Burner, but my top priority is stopping you and minimizing the damage you can do to any innocents! You almost eliminated an entire village of ponies when we last met; I am not giving you the chance to do it again.”

    “Duly noted, Mizz Key,” he answered with a sneer and reared up on his back legs. A trio of panels opened on the chest of the suit and, with a scream of tiny engines, and a flurry of mini-missiles launched streaked from the open panels.

    “Oh buck…” Clockwork whimpered, ears wilting as her system struggled to lock on to each individual missile. She pulled back, giving her system as much time to work before she came almost to one of the spinnerets arching up from the tower. Only then did she feel confident enough to unleash, changing the firing mode on her plasma ejectors. She swept both hooves before her, solid beams of energy intersecting as many of the little missiles as possible, and creating an arc of explosions before her. Unfortunately their explosive potential was larger than she anticipated, and it slammed her back into the tower. Worse, after ricocheting off the stone tower, Burner unleashed a hail of fire that drove her right back into it again. Her weakened shields and low energy failed under the assault, and metal ground directly against stone, tearing furrows in the pristine white marble. She scraped her way down part of the tower before falling free, warning lights flashing across her helm as she found her flight systems completely offline.

    Burner watched from his position as the dragonfly armour struggled to recover from the long crashing fall, finally breaking its descent with sustained output from her hoof blasters, allowing her to land heavily on the ground. She craned her neck and frowned at the damage on her back, the generators for her wings mangled beyond recognition from the collision. Between the low power and the destroyed flight surfaces… the realization she was grounded left a sour taste in her mouth, especially as she turned to face the larger armour before her.

    “Karma iz a bitch, ya?” Burner asked in a mocking tone. Clockwork reared back to fire her hoof blasters, only to get knocked over backwards by a swipe of Burner’s tail.

    “Mental note,” she groaned to herself as twisted herself away from the massive armour, “shoulder mounted blasters, the hoof ones are a tactical vulnerability in close quarters.” With a groan she got to her hooves and frowned up at the larger armour. “Okay, Clockwork, you handled the Nightmare herself, you can handle this....”

    “I zee ze problem now,” Burner noted almost conversationally, even as he swiped a massive foreclaw of the armour at her, sending the smaller mare skittering back and out of reach, “you came up vith one working verzion, and never innovated beyond zat. Zis iz practically ze zame armour you fought ze Nightmare vith, izn’t it? You ztopped inventing!”

    “I didn’t stop!” Clockwork shot back, shying to one side, than the other, but unable to skirt past the larger armour.

    “I vould hardly call zat little zonic toy ‘innovation’,” he noted, sounding like a professor Clockwork once knew in school.

    “I didn’t stop, I just had… other concerns,” Clockwork admitted, “the Nightmare was gone, so the Dragonfly wasn’t a priority and… and then other things came up that are, frankly, not something I’m going to discuss with you!”

    Burner growled and caught Clockwork along her side, “I zhould humiliate you here and now. I created a veapon to ztop you, to take you on at your bezt. Inztead you mock me by not even taking me zeriouzly az a threat!!” He swiped at Clockwork again, and she once more ducked back, but this time he followed up with a back-claw swing that caught her side and sent the mare tumbling across the field. Clockwork shook her head, and was just starting to rise to her hooves when Burner leapt his power armour at her, landing squarely on her and pinning her to the ground.

    “I’m not out of tricks yet,” she growled in response, and lipped a switch. With a screech of metal, the “jaw” of her helmet fell open, revealing the blazing power crystal at its back.

    “Yez, you are,” Burner answered, and clamped a powerful claw about the jaw of her helm, forcing it closed once more. The power crystal gave a low pitiful whine before shorting out with a pop. A deft twist of his claw, and the helm tore, twisting the “mouth” shut and immobile, and even causing a long tear that exposed the mare beneath. One green eye, not the glowing eye of her armour, but her real eye stared up at him as he raised his claw. “It’z over, Mizz Key,” he told her, ready to crush the life from her. But something… something stopped him… that eye staring at him. It was full of anger, hate and… fear. It reminded him, just for a second, of another eye that once bore through to his soul. The foal, whose corpse had stared through him like a thousand daggers, and now…  He lifted his claw again, intending to strike, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it… to finally end it. Instead he lowered the claw to the ground…

    “It’z over,” Burner said softly and turned his back on the mare.

    A light flared from behind him, Zilch’s teleportation, and brought with her the rest of the team and the mares they defeated. “Damned right it’s over! We whupped ‘em!” Crosswind cried. Burner looked at the pegasus crossly, his rather light-hearted attitude echoing hollowly in the empty chasm his victory left inside him.

    “No, it’s only just beginning,” a voice whispered in their ears. Only the gryphoness and Junkyard continued to fight, trading blows back and forth. Kaos frowned, gathered the mares in one place, and left Burner, Alto, and Crosswind to stand guard over them. Not that they should have any trouble. Flourish was out cold, Trixie and Galaxi would both need some sort of medical attention, Spectrum was still stunned for the moment, and Clockwork’s armour was completely useless in its present state, and he doubted she could move at all. With that settled, Kaos trotted over towards where Filigree and Junkyard fought to a near stand-still.

    “Maybe that match up wasn’t one of my better choices,” the Prince noted thoughtfully.

    “Junkyard, stand down,” Kaos called, catching both combatant’s attention in one call. “Filigree, you have fought well, but your team has lost. I ask you yield; I do not wish to bring my entire team to bear against you.” The gryphoness looked terrible, now that she stood still long enough for him to examine. She was bleeding from her beak, had a black eye, and he was sure that some of the bruises along her coat had left lingering injuries underneath. Junkyard looked deceptively good in comparison, but only because he could heal himself from the earth itself.

    “Buck you…” the gryphoness hissed.

    “Please,” Junkyard said, startling Kaos. “On my honor, you and your teammates will not be harmed.”

    The gryphoness looked sharply at the large Diamond Dog and sucked in a shuddering breath. It was obvious to Kaos that she was in pain, and he turned to regard one of the guard. “Captain,” he called to the watching unicorn, sure he had been just waiting for the opportunity to order the guard to blindside his team. “Do you have a medic you can spare? Some of the fillies were hurt in our combat.”

    The unicorn frowned darkly for a moment, smoothing a hoof over the stylized armour of his position before reaching up and taking off his helm. “Captain Storm, would you take over for me?”

    “This isn’t a good idea,” the pegasus warned, “we can send one of our medical types…”

    “I won’t put one of my ponies in a position that I would not put myself,” he answered simply, and stepped towards the zebra. “I’m an old medic, but my certifications are up to date. I’ll look them over myself.”

    “Are you sure, Captain?” the zebra asked, looking genuinely concerned. “You have other ponies to coordinate.”

    “I’m sure,” he stated simply. “I won’t comment on how honorably your team may or may not have fought, but seeing to the wounds of your opponents is not something that should be ignored.”

    “Very well, we are keeping them over there,” Kaos pointed, and the old soldier just smirked.

    “I know, we all know,” he stated, “and were it not for the Princess’ order, we would be fighting to free them.”

    “I am fully aware of that, Captain. The Princess made a wise decision,” Kaos said softly. “Your forces will be needed very shortly.” The unicorn looked at him curiously for a moment, and then looked past him to Filigree.

    “I’ll need to look you over too, Soldier,” he told her, then turned his back and trotted towards where the fillies were being kept. Kaos followed him, if only to oversee the treatment of the wounded mares. Filigree blinked at the guard’s back, and then moved to follow, much to the relief of Junkyard, who followed himself.

    “You zeem to know more zan you are telling uz,” Burner said to Kaos as the Captain started to check Trixie’s pupils. “Vhat iz it you know?”

    “You will know what the Prince has foreseen shortly,” Kaos said softly, and held up a hoof as a door on the side of the castle burst open. “Right on cue…”

    “We came as soon as we…  What th--?!” came the cry from Professor Relic. He and Quagga braced the ever large Skillet between them, and were followed by a pair of worried looking maids, Honey and Thyme, who happened to be present at the wrong moment and were co-opted to help carry a quartet of orbs...

    “What is going on here?!” Captain Storm demanded, diving down the bodily block them from coming any further. “What are you civilians doing here? What are you prisoners doing here?!”

    “A guard rushed into our chambers,” Quagga answered evenly as the guard captain all but shouted in their faces, “and insisted the Princesses needed us to come immediately to the parade field. She… he… it was difficult to tell, insisted that we must come and bring the orbs we have with us. Your guard even co-opted the maids there to assist. I am sure they would rather have evacuated with the rest.”

    “All the pieces are in place, Kaos,” the Prince whispered into the zebra’s ear, “the guest of honor is due to arrive any minute.”

    The pegasus continued to block the progress of the five newcomers. “And who the buck demanded that?! I’ll have them court marshaled!”

    Captain Light chuckled softly at the other Captain before motioning to Clockwork, “I need you out of that armour before I can look you over.”

    “You’ll need to move the others a few feet away from me then,” she told him. She yelped when she suddenly fell through the ground, but thankfully it wasn’t that far a drop when she landed on the grass some twenty feet away. She glanced up at Zilch standing over her and sighed, realizing what happened. “Push on the helm some, “she instructed the suited pony, “I need to reach a switch, and I can’t with the tear in the helmet.” Zilch frowned, looking up to the others of her team. But something Clockwork didn’t notice went between them and she finally nodded, and started to push on the helm to bend it partially back in place. “A little more… just a bit… got it! Now step back, these could hurt…” Zilch teleported back a few dozen paces.

    For a moment, a few soft whines could be heard from the armour, then nothing. Burner was just about to ask if the system had failed when a series of sharp pops followed by a hiss of escaping air echoed about the field. The mare encased in armour then shook her foreleg, and the armour literally fell off. Step by step she got to her hooves, shaking off the armour as it shed away like so much junk off her body. She finally tugged off the helm and frowned, looking at it almost forlornly. “You can’t protect me from this,” she told it in a soft voice before setting it down with the rest of the fallen metal. The now naked Clockwork was able to trot back to the group, followed by Zilch, who paused to look at the helm curiously.

    “Zat zeemed… draztic,” Burner said as the mare returned.

    “After getting stuck in my armour when fighting the Nightmare, I installed explosive bolts,” Clockwork answered softly, forcing herself not to look at the pile of armour she’d left behind. “Fortunately, I have a second suit still available. Always have a back-up…”

    The unicorn Captain nodded to Clockwork, and after a quick examination of her sighed, “Clockwork seems alright. Trixie has a mild concussion, as best as he could tell, but that doesn’t make sense given what I’ve been briefed on regarding her abilities. Flourish seems unhurt outside of a big lump on her noggin, and should wake up soon. Galaxi will be limping for a while, she twisted her foreleg. I can’t see anything wrong with Spectrum, but she’s not being very cooperative. Filigree… you should be on a stretcher. I believe several of your ribs are broken, and any major exertion runs the risk of puncturing your lung. How you lasted this long, I’ll never know. I’ll need a full team to help you.”

    “I fear we may not have time for that, Captain,” Kaos said softly, and interrupted any attempt to query him with a point of his hoof northward, where a scout was flying back like her tail was on fire.

    “Stormy!” the Captain shouted, interrupting the other Captain’s demanding interrogation of the newcomers on the field. The pegasus turned, angry until he saw the concerned expression on the unicorn. He turned to face where he was pointing, just as the mare hit the turf before them, hooves churning up the grass in a desperate attempt to stop her momentum.

    “Easy there Sergeant,” Captain Storm said and used a foreleg to help stop her, “what’s your report?”

    “T-they’re coming!” she gasped.

    With an uncertain glance back at the zebra, Captain Light yanked his helmet on and began issuing commands. “Teams one and three, you’re up! Get that shield up over the Palace! Team two, set up your inner shield over the Princesses themselves. Everyone on your guard, they’re coming.”

    “N-not just gryphons!” the pegasus managed to squeak out, drawing a questioning look from her two superiors.

    “What do you mean, Sergeant?”

    A roar shook the palace and set every pony’s mane on end. Only the eldest among them knew that sound…

    “T-they’re riding… D-dragons!” she cried, and the clouds over Canterlot seemed to rip away, shredded by dozens of huge scaled forms with gaping maws and broad wings. They were huge, even for dragons, but had stubby and blunted heads and noses that made them look like cruel pugs or dogs, and less like the sleek and angular dragons any pony had seen in the history books. The shield that sprung into existence before the dragons looked positively pitiful by comparison, but the dragons came to a stop before it.

    “By order of King Goldtalon, you will surrender!” a gryphon shouted to them through the shield.

    “Your king’s demands have no place here,” Captain Light answered, his horn glowing to amplify his voice. “Leave these sovereign lands peacefully, by order of the Sister Princesses.”

    “The King does not recognize your Princesses’ authority,” the gryphon answered, to the surprise of no one, “surrender or be destroyed!”

    “You have violated our sovereign lands and we will exercise our right to forcibly remove you,” the Captain answered back, his compatriot already motioning with a hoof. Unicorn archers and rows of Pegasus spear-ponies readied their attack, and the pair could hear the ballistae and catapults being maneuvered into position and aimed. Much as expected, the Gryphon commander did not answer, but what did happen next the ponies didn’t expect. A single white dragon, much smaller than the rest, flew in from behind, carrying a single rider. This gryphoness’ eyes began to glow brightly, and the shields melted away from where she sat, creating a hole the unicorns could not close.

    “FIRE!” Captain Storm bellowed, and a volley of projectiles announced the first shots of the oncoming battle. Those shots never reached their intended targets as a large black dragon dove through the opening, absorbing and knocking a majority of the projectiles from the air as it arrowed over the heads of the ponies, only to extend its claws as its true target became apparent…

    The scream of a Princess echoed about the almost supernaturally quiet field. The black dragon had crashed into and through the shield protecting the Sister Princesses, its massive foreclaws extended to rend at the very flesh of the elder sister, Princess Celestia, and sent her tumbling to the ground with large bloody tears discoloring her pure white coat.

    Her sister screamed, as much from the pain of being wrenched from the spell as the fury of what she saw. Luna’s eyes glowed darkly, and weapons of solid moonlight lanced at and into the dragon, tearing through its scales like paper until the beast itself collapsed onto the parade field, gasping its last breath of air.

    “WHO DARE ATTACK MINE SISTER?!” she bellowed in a supernatural voice that could be heard all the way to Cloudsdayle.

    “I do,” a dark figure answered calmly, standing up from the shadow of the massive dragon. Dark hooves dipped in the blood of the fallen dragon heedlessly as it stepped forward. He had a coat of pure black, with an eye that was a sharp slice of the moon itself. Broad wings flared across his back, and his horn glowed with a dark menace as he approached, his flank decorated with the mark of the sun being eclipsed by the moon.

    “Nightmare,” Luna hissed, and glanced to her team. They were in no position to lend aid, she quickly assessed. She would normally be disappointed that they had been defeated, but right now, a bigger problem stood before her.

    “I’ve chosen to go by Eclipse now. It’s much more fitting, don’t you think?” he asked tauntingly. His eyes swept over the battlefield for a moment, drinking in the array of ponies ready to fight him. “This brings back memories, doesn’t it? All those times we fought your big sister, all those wonderfully bloody and destructive wars…”

    “I do not believe they were very wonderful,” Luna hissed in response. “Now I understand why the gryphons were so bold…”

    “Like it? Stumbling over a well hidden cache of dragon eggs was the real kicker, I must admit,” he shrugged. “I do remember how easily a dragon could best us if they got their claws on you… and your big sister made such a tempting target. Too tempting to pass up, I will confess. It’s a shame I only got a grazing shot, or we might have finished her in a single blow. I suppose that just means I’ll have the pleasure of doing it myself. It’s not like your team could assist much, could they? No repeat performances by the Elements of Harmony…”

    “You underestimate them.”

    “Perhaps, but it looks like their vanquishers are standing right there,” he noted, smiling to Kaos and his team. “I could use some generals for when I take over the Ponylands… what do you say? Join me, and I will make you more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

    The team in question looked surprised by the offer, and they paused to look to one another. The mares they had beaten, those awake to hear the “offer”, groaned softly. Clockwork just frowned darkly, huddled in the grasping leg of a protective Galaxi. Spectrum frowned herself, anticipating the need to renew the battle with the stallions. Filigree hissed softly, flexing a claw as she mentally prepared herself for another round with Junkyard.

    Kaos smiled warmly and took a step towards Ecplise. “I believe the answer would be apparent, Prince Eclipse…” he answered formally, and looked back at his team, giving an almost imperceptible nod to Crosswind.

    “Yeah, I got your answer right here,” the pegasus grinned, “SCREW YOU! You can take your fancy wings and your little horn, and stick ‘em up your flank, ‘cause we are going to kick your ass!”

    Eclipse blinked, taken aback by the coarse rebuff. Luna grinned and the guard exploded with cheers as this unknown group stood firm against this new threat. “Simply because we do not agree with these ponies does not mean we are turning against our homeland,” Kaos added with a smirk. “We will not leave the Ponylands or its Princesses wanting.”

    “This is our home,” Junkyard stated firmly, the ground trembling beneath his feet.

    “Ze Dragonfly iz not ze only technological terror zat can kick your flank,” Burner added, the gun on his tail beginning to spin.

    Zilch stepped forward and simply nodded, unable to voice her thoughts, but eyes glowing with power. Only Alto looked uncertain, and faded back a step nervously.

    “Galaxi, take Trixie, and Flourish and get to Princess Celestia,” Spectrum ordered and pushed past Alto, “Filigree, stay with the Princess and protect her. See if you can get that group of civvies under the shield as well. Clockwork, summon your spare suit and join me as soon as you can, Kaos and his team won’t stand alone.”

    “You DARE?!” Eclipse thundered and swept his wings wide, and a wave of energy drove back those guards closest to him. “No pony shall stand when we are finished! ATTACK!” Shrieks filled the sky as dragons poured through the opening in the shield and down at the parade field of ponies.

    “Chaos,” Celestia whimpered, taking in a pained breath, “it’s all descending into chaos…”

22

Chapter 22

“Throw Down”

    “Is it too late to apologize?”

    Crosswind dove out of the way of an incoming lightning bolt. Only his mastery of air and wind allowed him to move fast enough to avoid the blow, even if his wing feathers still got lightly singed.

    “I vould zay zo,” Burner answered  coolly, the tail of his armour coming up and drawing a line of fire across their opponent’s chest, which seemed to do little more than annoy the dark alicorn. Their fight ignored the larger one swirling about them, as dragons circled and attacked the emplacements below, sending guard ponies scattering from their futile attempts to break the line. Oddly, the dragons and their gryphon riders seemed only focused on the siege weapons that could hurt the mythical lizards, and were otherwise intent to hang back and let Eclipse do the bulk of the work. Not all ponies were content with that, however…

    Lightning gathered about the alicorn’s horn when a sudden blow struck his blind side, sending the bolt careening off into the sky. Eclipse turned his head, furiously looking for who dared to strike him, and his eyes fell on a stout guardsman with a broken lance. “Fool,” he rumbled, and a whip of dark magic lashed out from his horn at the earth pony.

    The cry of pain was music to his ears, and he smiled down at what he expected to be the bloody corpse of the guard pony. To his surprise, Junkyard had interceded, pushing the guard behind him, the lash wrapped about his forearm. The Diamond Dog looked back at Eclipse with a defiant growl, the lash cutting into his flesh and blood seeping down into his fur, but he held his position. Eclipse’ shock turned to fury, and with a yank of his head, pulled the magic sharply.

    There was a moment of resistance before the lash pulled loose, and the howl of pain from the one known as Junkyard gave him a surge of satisfaction. “Stand in my way, cur, and I will sever your neck as well,” he growled, looking back over his shoulder at the canine, whose stance had slumped visibly, his oversized paw covering the stump of his forearm. At his feet rested the severed arm, already rotting from the foul magic that tainted it.

    “Junkyard!” the flyer shouted, and dove for his friend. Eclipse waited, once that pegasus got close enough…. His attention was forcibly removed from the scene as something, or more technically a large number of somethings, stabbed his backside. He simply turned to look back, only mildly surprised to see his flank had been turned into a pincushion by pony archers. A simple wave of his wing, and the arrows fell harmlessly to the ground.

    “Foals!” he shouted. “You cannot harm me! None of you can!”

    “Thy mouth is too big, allow Us to shut it for thee,” a low voice, at once soft and piercing, cut through the din of battle. Eclipse had barely turned when an arc of moonlight slashed down at him, forcing him to canter back a step. Another blade of moonlight struck out at him, only to be intercepted by a curved blade of pure starless night.

    “Ah, Princess Luna,” Eclipse sneered, “I wondered if you’d have the courage to face me.”

    “We hath much to repay thee for,” she answered, lashing out with multiple magic daggers of pure silvery light.

    Eclipse laughed as he deflected her attacks, “I can feel your anger and hatred. Good, let it consume you… it will give me another meal before I slit your throat!” His single, dark blade ripped through Luna’s daggers, pushing the armoured princess back as he pressed the advantage. He swept a wing idly to swat away the annoying fire from the manticore-like armour. A simple shake of his ethereal mane dislodged the shafts of the many arrows raining down on him. Fear danced across his prey’s eyes as he pushed her back, her attacks growing steadily more desperate and less focused.

    It caught him completely by surprise when a hoof slammed into his cheek with enough force that it could have fractured stone. His head snapped with the force of the impact, which caught him just below the patch covering his scarred eye, before swinging his head around to face the source of the impact. Blinding white light accompanied another blow that forced him away from the Princess another step, but he anticipated the third strike and was able to snap his foreleg to catch the attacking hoof and yank the owner to him. He was only mildly surprised when he reeled in Spectrum through the glowing portal, Zilch hanging off her midsection. He grasped the pegasus by the neck before him with a growl, her wings fluttering helplessly as she tried to pull free, magic gathering from his horn as he prepared to obliterate the figure.

    ~NO!~ a voice cried in his head, a voice Eclipse thought was dead, and his shot went askew. Spectrum dropped both her forehooves hard on his nose a millisecond later, driving him back a step to free herself, and the pair vanished into another portal.

    “Attack!” somepony shouted, and a multitude of male and female voices cried out in anger. Some shouted “For the Princess!”, but the majority shouted wordlessly as guard ponies surged past the specials from all directions. Arrows briefly clouded the sky to pepper their target ahead of the wave of ponies from all directions. Lances mounted on earth ponies, unicorns wielding handle-less blades, and pegasi with wing blades, all dove at Eclipse. For a moment, the dark alicorn was lost under the crush of ponies, stallions and mares alike, in their attack.

    A sudden burst of magic sent the ponies flying every way. “INSECTS!” Eclipse bellowed, his form radiating with dark power in the aftermath of the magical wave. “You are not worthy to lay a hoof upon me!”

    “Zilch, Crosswind, catch as many as you can!” Spectrum shouted, even as a series of blasts ripped past her and into the seemingly vulnerable Eclipse. Her wings blurred as she herself rushed to catch at least three guard ponies, but could only watch in dismay as another dozen thudded to the ground around her as she put the trio down. Crosswind managed to soften the ladings of a number of them, and Zilch shortened their trip as much as possible to minimize their impacts, but there was simply no way to save all of them. She winced at some of the more audible crunches on impact…

    The alicorn’s body was little more than a shadow as he charged the armoured stallion. Professor Burner met Eclipse almost eagerly, the clawed forelegs of the armour meeting the alicorn’s hooves with enough force to create a shockwave. Unfortunately the contest of strength was shorter than the orange unicorn might have hoped, as the alicorn physically wrenched the armour off its feet and tossed it a dozen feet or so.

    “Your toys can’t stop me…” Eclipse sneered, stalking towards the recovering stallion.

    “I don’t know, I did a pretty good job last time,” a mechanized voice put in, wrenching Eclipse’ attention from Burner to the hovering green and gold armour.

    “You…!”

    “Me,” she answered, and a stream of fire unleashed from her forehooves at the dark alicorn. The alicorn’s form blurred once again as it dove to attack the armoured mare, but found his approach blocked time and time again by her attacks. “Anytime Burner….”

    “Gladly,” he answered, and from behind Eclipse, unleashed a series of rapid-fire blasts from his tail, drawing his fire over the dark alicorn’s flank. With a roar more of anger than of pain, Eclipse’ horn flared and magically grabbed Burner and his armour, and flung him at the annoying Dragonfly.

    “Why do you persist?!” Eclipse asked tauntingly as he stormed towards the temporarily downed armoured ponies. “You cannot win! Even together, you cannot win! What do you hope to accomplish?”

    “We beat you once,” Spectrum answered from behind, halting his progress, “and even if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t surrender to you now.”

    “Why? Is a quick and painless death so objectionable to you?”

    “Do you really think that will work? I mean, really?” Crosswind asked, perplexed.

    “He tried it last time too,” Flourish put in, appearing in a burst of pink smoke by Spectrum, “and I wondered that very thing too.”

    “Seriously? So you’re saying that this Eclipse character is so dense, that he can’t even learn from his past mistakes?” the stallion asked with a raised eyebrow.

    “I’d have thought that was obvious,” Flourish joked, “after all, this is his second attempt against us.”

    “ENOUGH!” the dark alicorn bellowed, and the ponies scattered to avoid the mystic assault that left the ground scarred. “I will NOT be taunted!”

    “Boy did you pick on the wrong group then,” Crosswind mocked.

    “I am going to tear those wings off your hide and stuff them down your throat,” Eclipse growled, and darkness lashed out at the fast moving pegasus.

    “Oooh, big talk from the scary pony,” the pony called back as he dodged the attack.

    “We need to get coordinated,” Spectrum grumbled softly as Crosswind tore away from the pursuing alicorn. She then noticed Kaos and Junkyard in the backfield, the latter of which was flexing his… severed forearm? She had to look for a moment to realize the Diamond Dog had fused a bit of hard stone to the stump, and molded it into an echo of the one he lost. Admittedly it was a superior solution to trying to recover the severed part, which was a black and rotting lump that was barely recognizable as an arm anymore. Shaking off her curiosity, she dashed over to them, “Kaos, can your headsets be reprogrammed to use our frequency? Or is there a way to set ourselves to your frequency?”

    The zebra blinked as he looked up, and for a moment was oddly hesitant. “No… no they can’t be reprogrammed like that, the signal is extremely long range so that we can gain the assistance of our coordinator. We’re also using a mystic frequency, thus are incompatible with your current design.”

    “Rats… wait, would you have a problem with swapping out headsets mid-fight?” she asked. Kaos frowned, and seemed about to reject the idea when he stopped and touched his headset. Whoever was on the other end countermanded his initial impulse it seemed.

    “The Prince doesn’t have any objection to that idea,” the well dressed zebra answered.

    She nodded, shelving concerns about who the “Prince” might be for now, to touch her own headset. “Flourish, get over here, I’ve got a mission for you”

    “Are you sure this is the right time for that?” the gray unicorn asked, exploding into existence beside Spectrum. “I mean, we kinda have our hooves full here.”

    “Positive. You know where your buckfriend keeps the spare headsets. We need at least six, if not more, all charged and ready to use,” she explained. She could see confusion turn to realization across her teammate’s face.

    “You want to get these colts on the network with us? Can do!” Flourish cried, and vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving Kaos and Junkyard to watch with various levels of confusion etched on their faces.

    “Interesting girl,” Kaos noted first, shaking the stupor off first.

    “You don’t know the half of it,” Spectrum answered with a thin smile. “Come on, we have to buy her some time.”

    “And then what?” Kaos asked softly as Junkyard pushed his way to his feet, his new paw crackling as he clenched it into a fist.

    “I wish I had an answer for that,” Spectrum admitted. “For now, try not to die.”

    “Easier said than done.”

    “Alright now, where did you put them…?”

    The normally orderly room was in disarray from her search. State of the art radio equipment, monitors, scanners, and even radar systems filed the usually darkened room. With the lights off, it was an impressive display of glowing amber and blue lights that looked important and ominous all at once. With the lights on, as they were now, the gear looked like out of date metal husks that were far too big and noisy for their purpose. A number of worn cushions rested about the room as well, far more numerous than similar rooms would usually have, primarily to ensure Skillet was never far from a place he could sit down and rest as needed.

    And yet, despite knowing this is where all the gear they used was kept, the mare was having little luck in finding the elusive headsets.

    “I swear the blasted things are hiding from me!” she cried in frustration, pounding her hooves on a desk.

    “Did you try the drawer to the left there?” a voice asked.

    “Drawer to my… left?” the teleporting mare asked, and reached her hoof over. A quick tug at the handle there exposed a drawer with a number of headsets like she had in her own ear, all ordered and sorted on small racks custom made for it. “Awesome! Thank you!”

    “Uh… sure,” the voice chuckled as Flourish simply took and dumped them all into a small bag, figuring Skillet could sort them out once she got them down. Only then did the gray mare turn to face the owner of the voice. The white gryphon blinked wide amber eyes as she all but bounced up to him and shook his claw.

    “Thanks! Now I gotta get these to my beau and get back to the battle,” she called, and started to trot away… before stopping. “But, y’know… and I hope you don’t mind me askin’ this, why are you here in the palace?”

    “I… er…” the gryphon stammered.

    “I mean, I’m pretty sure your teammates will miss you at the battle there, Alto,” she continued, not turning to face him.

    “I… I don’t know,” he admitted, “I doubt they’d miss me. I was the weak link right from the beginning. I mean, I could handle the idea of fighting you mares, no offense, but going against that… that thing out there? Are you insane?!”

    “Well, probably. I mean, we did chase Nightmare to her hideout on the moon,” Flourish answered, and the gryphon’s eyes bugged out with the admission. “So you’re looking for the way out then?”

    “Y-yeah,” he admitted sheepishly, “but I got lost. That and…”

    “…and?” the unicorn pressed when he faded off.

    “I swear I’m hearing things,” he answered after a moment. “I keep hearing sobs, like a little cub crying, and I keep trying to find it. But it always goes quiet the moment I get close.

    Flourish frowned and perked her ears, trying to catch even a hint of the sound. To her surprise, she heard it, that soft sob and whimper that sounded every bit like a foal. “I hear it… Sounds like, this way?”

    Alto nodded and clicked his beak. “That’s what I thought too, but every time I get close…” Almost as if on cue, there was a soft gasp and whoever owned the childish voice caught their breath and went silent. The mare frowned and, after waving Alto back, began to stalk forward silently, her hooves not even clicking on the hard marble floor. After a moment, the soft voice picked up again, even as Flourish worked her way carefully down the hall, pressing her ear to each door as she snuck along. At the third door, the second one on the left, she pointed her hoof at it. The gryphon wasn’t sure why she’d tell him, but she then opened the door.

    “Everything alright in here?” Flourish asked, keeping her voice as friendly as possible. The room was just a bland meeting room, still in decent shape given all the fighting. She had no idea who used it last, but it was dominated by a large central table surrounded by cushions and chairs. If it weren’t for the fact the large floor to ceiling window on the far wall had been shattered inward, it would have looked downright normal. Flourish ducked her head down to look under the table, and spotted a rather bedraggled looking little filly who had wrapped the curtain about her. She was clutching a teddy bear that, for some reason, had its tongue sticking out. The little purple filly looked at her with wide, tearful, eyes, gasping as she tried to pull further into curtain to hide.

    “Is she alright?” Alto’s voice came from the doorway, causing the little filly to cry out. He looked abashed at the response to his presence.

    “Physically,” Flourish answered, “at least from what I can tell. But I think she’s seen what the gryphons are doing and… she’s probably a bit scared of you.” Alto snorted, but didn’t answer, leaving the mare to slowly move closer to the filly. The little foal inched closer to the burst window, but said nothing, her eyes wide as she stared at the white gryphon, almost not seeming to notice the mare until she carefully wiped some glass away and sat down next to her. “Nice view of the fight from up here, isn’t it? Got a name, sweetie?”

    The young filly sniffled and rubbed a hoof over her nose before answering, “I-indigo.”

    “Indigo… pretty name,” Flourish answered with a gentle smile. “You get lost?”

    “I dropped my teddy and… and then I couldn’t find Momma,” she sniffled, “every pony was running around and... and…”

    “So you just hid here?”

    “No, I found Momma,” she crowed happily, and at the gray mare’s confused look, pointed down at the glowing bubble containing the Princess. Flourish had to squint to see her pointing to the quartet of ‘civilians’ that were with Skillet. “I can’t figure how to get down there… I… I tried but I keep getting turned around. And then the glass burst and…” She held up a hoof with a small shard of glass in it. It was minor, but Flourish winced anyway, the filly managed to cut herself pretty good right in a sensitive spot of the hoof. That had to be painful.

    “Well, fear not, little Indigo, Flourish is here! Y’see that big stallion near your Momma? The one with the really broad chin?” Flourish asked, and waited for the little filly to nod before continuing. “That’s where I’m going. I was fetching something we needed, and was about to go rejoin him when we heard you.”

    “Really?” the filly asked, her ears perking. The look of hope on her face warmed the former guard’s heart, “Can you take me with you?”

    “I don’t see why not! Besides, there are some nice medical ponies down there that can help with that hoof of yours,” she answered with a grin.

    “Thank you!” Indigo cried, throwing a hug about the mare’s middle. Even Alto had to smile from the doorway.

    Given their perspective and the distraction of the hug, the pair of ponies never saw the errant blast coming until it crashed into the wall below them, through the floor behind them, and into the ceiling as it continued on its way. Flourish barely managed a startled shout, pulling Indigo towards her as debris sprayed her.

    “Look out!” Alto cried, but it was too late, and a large chunk of stone interrupted the mare from her attempted teleport, stunning her. She fell over senseless, the little filly screaming as the wall made a rather distressed rumble. To the gryphon’s horror, the entire thing seemed to pull free from the structure, starting a slow tumble forward as it separated from the palace itself.

    Everything seemed to slow to a crawl before his eyes. He could see, clearly, what he could do, what he SHOULD do. How he could rush forward and grab both, leaping through the window and out into the air. The bulk of the debris had fallen; he’d be able to get through safely. His claws twitched, muscles tensing as he almost rushed forward… then another audible crack that sent him skittering back and away from it, ducking fearfully back around the doorway as his mind was suddenly crowded with all the ways it could go horribly wrong.

    He watched with wide eyes as the window and it’s “passengers” slipped further, only the little girl’s screams bringing any attention to their predicament. He realized he could scream too, get help… but his beak refused to open, he just watched with wide eyes as guilt hammered away at him.

    “I have it!” a metallic voice shouted from below, and something thudded into the wall of the palace. It was accompanied by crunching sounds as the heavy Manticore armour scaled the wall with its claws, and physically braced against it, slamming its body and making the little girl scream even more when the leonine head came over the edge. “Relax, little filly, I vill not let you fall.” Only then did he notice Alto.

    “Ah, zere you are. Come, I need your azzizztance,” he called, yet Alto still ducked back in the doorframe. “Alto, I need your help, I can only braze zis for zo long!”

    “I-I can’t…” the gryphon squawked nervously, another crack coming from the wall and showering the crying filly and her would be savior with dust. Fear surged across his features, causing the suited unicorn to frown.

    “Vhat haz gotten into you? You’ve never been zis zkittizh before…” Burner mused, but was interrupted by a sudden alarm and a warning light. His hooves went to work, flying across the controls. “No time, zis vall iz about to give way! Alto! I need your help now, or ve vill all fall!”

    “B-but…” Alto stammered, pushing forward through the doorway, but shying back every time a new crack or crunch sounded from the damaged architecture.

    “NOW!” Burner shouted, making Alto jump visibly. For a moment, Burner thought he pushed too hard and the gryphon would turn tail and run, but to his immense relief, Alto instead rushed forward. It was not lost on the unicorn that his gryphon teammate’s claws were shaking as he gathered up Flourish’s limp form under one foreleg, and the filly’s stiff and terrified body under the other.

    The superstructure gave way under the power armour’s claws, dropping all four of them into the air. The gryphon looked apologetic at the falling unicorn as he flared his wings and took to the air, ducking out of the fall of debris, and barely dodging around several large blocks of stone with his “payload”.

    Burner rolled his armour away from the wall, trying to emulate the motion of a cat as his fore-claws struck ground first. Unfortunately the back half of the armour was too stiff to turn like he was attempting to, and the rear legs caught on their side and sent him down to the ground with a thud. Still, it was far more gentle a landing than he deserved… and then he looked up. Those very stones that Alto had deftly avoided were bearing down on him. He might be able to destroy one or two of them, but the entire thing threatened to bury him!

    A scream shattered the air above him, and the unicorn watched as the sonic wave shattered the stones, leaving only a rain of small pebbles and dust to fall down on him.  Quickly he rolled to his hooves, or at least his armoured claws, and stood up. He watched as Alto pulled up short of the protective shield, setting Flourish down. She was unsteady on her hooves, but was shaking off the effects of her braining, and leaving Alto to guide her through the shield bubble.

    “Kaos, I found Alto, but I zink zomthing iz wrong…”

    “You’re behind all of this, I just know it…”

    The conviction in her voice belied the condition she found herself in. Princess Celestia, the ruler of the Ponylands, and the once ruler the Equestrian nation, now lay helpless and wounded in the battle to determine the fate of the lands she protected. She was destined to be the first casualty of this war, it seemed. It had not been the first shot, that belonged to her ponies, but she was the first wounded. And yet the Princess still had the strength and conviction enough to curse the statue she now rested in the shadow of. How long he would remain a statue, she could not say, but for now she could only lie in repose and attempt to heal.

    The statue was an imposing presence that loomed over her, and Celestia blamed him for every moment of this battle. The Draconequus had been captured in what looked like a writhing contortion, struggling against the slow progression of stone as it had rendered him naught more than a statue. Now that stone surface was cracking, with a large gash in the stone over one leg, and hairline fractures spider-webbing out from it and over his leg and hips. Celestia guessed it would be only hours, if not less, before Discord would be free once more. Maybe he would run rampant over the gryphons if they should win this battle, Celestia mused, managing a pained smile at the thought.

    Celestia ignored the slight sting from the healer’s spell and sucked in a breath. The dragon had narrowly missed a killing blow. She had been mauled and would likely be hours trying to heal the damage, perhaps slightly less with the assistance of her ponies. The dragon technically did far more damage than the Solar Princess would ever admit, if only to prevent worry. She could heal the wound, she was immortal after all, but time was needed. Time was one thing they didn’t have a lot of now, but with her foreleg completely missing and her wing shredded she was in no condition to assist. Every scrap of her magic was taken with the slow process of healing and keeping herself alive, and she could only spare the briefest of spells for anypony other than herself. That angered her perhaps more than the fact she had been injured so easily, that she could not assist her ponies as they fought. It had been many millennia since she had been wounded so severely, perhaps not since the first battle of the Lunar War. Celestia could only suppose she’d grown soft from the years of peace. Maybe Luna was right, she should have worn the armour before rushing to the statue.

    A lavender bubble kept her from the rest of the battle, and the blind pony who created it sat near the edge closest to the battle with an expression the Princess could not read. Galaxi held her foreleg gingerly against her chest, the sprain obviously bothering her, but she did not move from her vigil. Behind her, almost literally on her tail, Trixie lay unconscious still. Attempts to rouse her, to wake her, had failed. Concerns that her injuries might be more severe than the unicorn Captain’s initial assessment were carefully left unsaid, especially given the nature of her immortality. Celestia felt an old pain lance through her heart at the thought of loosing yet another pupil, especially one so recently taken under her wing. Filigree stood near, almost in vigil over the wounded Princess, even though she was obviously in pain herself. Celestia longed to relieve her and tell her to lie down, but she knew the gryphoness would not so long as the battle raged. The medical ponies had used their magic to lessen her pain, but she refused their attempt to put her under to prevent further injury to her ribs, and her blue eyes watched the battle carefully. Towards the back of the bubble Skillet sat attentively, his eyes watching the fight with intense scrutiny as well, and the Princess could see his hoof itch to help in some way. Still, she was thankful he’d taken charge of the “civilians”, even if she did not yet understand who the guard was that felt they were needed there on the field. She of course knew Relic and Quagga, the former looking confused and the latter stoic in the face of battle. Thyme was all but whimpering, the poor cook hardly suited for this sort of excitement, but Honey was keeping her as calm as possible.

    “Delivery!” a new voice cried, and Flourish led a white gryphon carrying a trembling filly into the bubble. He refused to put the filly down, even as Honey rushed forward to hug the little one tightly, almost bursting into tears at the sight of her daughter. A small bit of hope shining in the bleak field of battle, Celestia realized, but little hope is better than none. Flourish corralled one of the medics and pointed out the foals bleeding hoof, and they laid the small girl down and began to extract the shard of glass.

    With Indigo rescued and in the hooves of her mother, Flourish turned to her own beau and, after a quick nuzzle, hoofed over the bag of headsets. The burly stallion smiled broadly when his eyes fell upon them and, after listening to Flourish, nodded his understanding and quickly began testing and sorting which headsets were working. Once sure he was off and running, she quickly kissed his cheek and vanished in a puff of smoke, rejoining the battle.

    It was in that moment the shield opened and allowed another pony to enter. Spectrum quickly trotted across the shielded area, offering the wounded Princess a nod of respect on her way to Skillet. She had been followed by the suited zebra, who paused at the edge of the shield to regard Galaxi through the lavender tinted magic. She didn’t look back, not that her blind eyes could, but the shield seemed to form a bubble on the surface, encompassing him before the shield before him opened to allow him entry. The bubble disappeared after he entered, leaving only the smooth shield behind him.

    “For a moment, I didn’t think you’d allow me access,” Kaos noted with a half smile.

    “I almost didn’t,” the mare responded flatly. Her tone of voice left little doubt what she thought of him, and with an understanding nod, he moved past her. He quickly trotted over to Spectrum, who immediately took the hoof full of headsets from Skillet and handed them to Kaos. The zebra stallion, in turn, called for Zilch over his own headset, who appeared almost instantly, hopping out of her own portal.

    Celestia couldn’t help herself, she stared. Zilch… the very individual she’d searched for years to find, standing almost right before her. The Princess would have reached out a hoof to her, had her leg still been attached, as a wave of sadness washed over her. All those years, those failures she hadn’t been able to apologize for, everything she needed and wanted to say… It all vanished when the suited mare glanced over her shoulder. She had no pupils, like Galaxi, but the Princess could feel her eyes upon her. Then, it was over. The mare shook her head, just the barest of motions, before looking back to Kaos.

    Anger flooded through Celestia, unbidden and yet equally justified. This… this stallion, he dares to turn her beautiful dream into a nightmare! He orchestrated events, even as Discord slowly fought to free himself of his prison, she could only lie beneath him, a helpless sacrifice! To her shock, Kaos stepped away from Zilch, moving near her to sit on his flank, watching as Zilch started to reach through her portals, collecting the oddly shaped headsets his team was using, and replacing it with the more streamlined version Luna’s team used.

    “This is your fault,” she accused. Instead of answering the zebra adjusted his tie. “All of this, you orchestrated it.”

    “No,” he answered after a long pause, “I only followed his orders.”

    “’Him’ who?” she demanded.

    “You will find out shortly, Princess,” a new voice answered. Even Kaos was startled by the new voice, and turned to try and find the very feminine sounding voice. “It will not be long now, I assure you,” the voice continued, but Kaos was surprised to see who spoke it. One of the few guards to stay with the Princess under the shield, a muscular stallion with a shining white coat and wearing the regalia of the Princess’ guard, had the voice of a young mare it seemed.

    “You… I do not know your name,” Celestia said simply, something that caused those guard who had stayed close to bristle, the trio surging forward to form an impromptu barrier between the Princess and this fake. Even the wounded Filigree stepped forward to interpose herself between them, despite the medic’s objection. The stallion just smiled and took off the guard helmet, carefully avoiding his horn, and set it on the ground.

    “There’s little need for further deception at this point,” the “stallion” said, and smiled. His form began to waver, colors surging over the form in oddly random patterns before settling on dark red coat with a warm orange mane and tail. The pony was also now very much a filly. “There, that’s better. It’s so difficult to force what form I take.”

    “Who are you?” Celestia asked simply.

    “The Amazing Mare-Do-Well,” she answered with a smile, “at least, that’s what I go by. I don’t recall what name I used before that anymore. But I do know the Prince is coming.”

    “You know the Prince?” Kaos asked, surprised.

    “Prince who?” Celestia asked almost simultaneously, and then shot a glare at Kaos.

    “The parts of the puzzle are almost complete, Princess,” Mare-Do-Well answered with an infuriating certainty, primping her curled bangs that only barely hid the stub of a horn. “You won’t like the answer, I’m sure, but your enemies will like it even less.”

    “You’re the agent the Prince sent, aren’t you?” Kaos asked simply.

    “No,” she answered simply, “but he did contact me to do some work for him.”

    “Why?” Celestia asked, her voice pained. “You are a hero! You gave hope to those ponies in regions of the city I could not hope to send the guard!”

    The mare’s expression went dark for a moment. “You didn’t even try,” Mare-Do-Well stated firmly, “you and your guard hid in your ivory towers and pretended we didn’t even exist. You turned a blind eye to organized crime, atrocities, and horrors no pony should have to even know existed.”

    Celestia sighed softly, “No, we did not turn a blind eye to it. But I had enacted laws, and those laws apply as much to the enforcers as they do the rest of the populace. To violate that would be to violate the trust my ponies place in me every day.”

    “Pretty words,” the other mare snorted, “but that isn’t much consolation to the mare being pimped out, or the victim of blackmail, or even --”

    “Ladies, please,” Kaos interjected, “now is not the time. We have a battle on our doorstep, and events are accelerating out of control. We’re only just now getting on the same page, and apparently my lost member has now been found. That said, I’m sure this battle could use the help of every pony who is capable.” He looked pointedly at Mare-Do-Well.

    “I’m not sure how much help I’d be,” the mare offered with an apologetic shrug. “Ask me to fight organized crime, no problem, but a villain the power of Eclipse over there? I’m not so sure I’d be up to the task.”

    “One does not have to fight to be of help,” Celestia said softly, “if you know the appropriate spells, we need healers.”

    “Yes, you do,” the mare snarked.

    “No, not for me,” Celestia answered smoothly, “for the rest of the ponies sheltered here. Anything that can be done for them would be welcome.”

    “I’ll… I’ll see what I can do,” Mare-Do-Well answered.

    The Princess and the zebra watched her move away, talking briefly to one of the medical mares, even as the guard slowly relaxed, not that they weren’t carefully watching the fake guard that had snuck in. Their first inclination was to arrest her, but the Princess was still in charge.

    “Kaos,” the Princess said softly, “I may have misjudged you. You have flown to our side when this invasion came, and I fear I am not showing appropriate gratitude.”

    “I wouldn’t have shown me much gratitude either,” the zebra admitted. “We knew this invasion was coming, Princess. The Prince said he sent warnings, and they were ignored, so he took action. He knew your sister’s team could not handle the incoming threat. Technically, we cannot either. But only by freeing one you consider to be the greatest threat could this new threat be stopped.”

    “I see,” Celestia answered, her voice tightly controlled against her roiling emotions, “and how did you know this information?”

    “Your gryphoness will want this knowledge…”

    “Me?” Filigree asked, hobbling forward. “What would this have to do with me?”

    “Now is not the time to go over all the details,” Kaos noted simply, “but my team rescued a young gryphoness who had been tossed into the desert by Eclipse, via a portal of some sort. She carried with her much of Eclipse’ plans, including the clutch of eggs he found, and plans to ally with the gryphons. Said gryphoness goes by the name of Verdigris --“

    “VERDIGRIS!” the gryphoness cried grabbing the zebra painfully on his shoulders and picking her up. “I swear, if you’ve hurt her…” she growled.

    “She is in good health,” Kaos choked out, “but Eclipse left her with a number of wounds. We brought in a healer to handle the worst of it, though she still has a bit of a limp from a sprain. Once we’re done here, I will be happy to reunite you, though I am unsure how happy the reunion will be.”

    “Why is that?” Celestia asked calmly, before Filigree could demand it far more forcefully.

    “We discovered she is a Special as well,” he noted simply, then yelped as he was dropped from the numb claws of Filigree.

    “Thank you,” Celestia said for the stunned gryphoness. “She won’t admit it, but she’s been worried sick about her little sister.”

    “We can save all that for after the fight,” Kaos answered, straightening his tie, “I need to get back out there.”

    Kaos vanished through the opening in the shield before Filigree could recover, possibly a good thing, since the medic ponies had a fit when she whooped and almost literally jumped into the air. Celestia giggled at the exuberant celebration from the stoic gryphon, even as she was forced to lie down, when her eyes fell over Mare-Do-Well, who was tending to Galaxi’s sprain.

    “You shouldn’t exist,” she said softly. For a moment, she didn’t think the mare heard her, but a thin smile told her otherwise.

    “Why is that, Princess?” she asked as she nodded to the psychic mare. Galaxi still couldn’t put the leg down, or put any weight on it, but at least it didn’t seem to pain her as much.

    “There is only a small group of ponies who would know that name,” she answered, “and a majority of them have passed away.”

    “Really? Huh… I could have sworn I read it somewhere,” Mare-Do-Well noted with a frown.

    “Even fewer ponies could make that claim…” Celestia answered, her eyes narrowing.

    Mare-Do-Well shrugged, and started looking over Trixie, letting Celestia stew in her own suspicions…

    She barely heard the explosion over the stinging sensation that gathered in her chest.

    Nor did she hear the shouts, as pain exploded where the tingling started, and hurled her backwards and off her hooves. Her wings felt numb and refused to respond, not that she could tell which way was up, and her sight was still filled with blinding blue-white. It took her mind a second to piece together that was what must have happened, even as she felt the sensation of flight, and of falling. Her mind refused to focus on what she was about to hit.

    “Oof!” someone grunted, and the mare only belatedly recognized the feel of… something catching her. “You need to lay off Skillet’s dinners, you’re gaining weight!” the unknown figure cried, and the mare smiled. It had to be Flourish…

    “Is she alright?” another voice asked, one she didn’t know well, but it had a nice husky sound to it with just a trace of bass. A little too raspy to be a singer, but one of those wonderfully deep voices she could listen to for hours, even if the language was slightly stilted in an odd way.

    “She’ll recover,” the first voice noted and as she was lain down on the ground. She recognized the smell of grass and the cool feel of it against her coat and wings. She tried to move, to shift her head, but only managed a slight spasm… her muscles still refused to respond.

    “We’ve been spotted,” the handsome voice noted, and she found herself wishing that she could see the owner. Maybe he’d be a nice, attractive stallion. “Get down, I’ll warp the ground to shield us. Crosswind! See if you can distract the bastard, Spectrum is down.” She couldn’t hear the answer from Crosswind, but the scent changed, a more earthy scent replacing the grass.

    “Watch after her, I’m gonna try and distract him. It’ll take a few moments for her to recover, I hope. She may be resilient, but a lightning-bolt like that would hurt any-pony,” the other voice said. She heard the stallion agree, followed by what sounded like a sudden inhalation of breath. Only a sweet smell drifted across her nose afterwards, one smelling of peppermint and… something. She couldn’t place it, but it was familiar.

    A hoof pressed gently on her chin, lifting her head up slightly. She tried to open her eyes… wait, they were already open? She tried to focus then, but found it difficult; everything still looking washed out and faded. Still, she could make out some black smudges on him, sort of like stripes. How exotic! Yet that rang a bell somewhere in the depths of her mind, something not so nice or comforting. She wanted to ignore it, but it started to push its way forward, shoving stray thoughts out of the way undeterred.

    “Ka…os?” she managed, her tongue feeling fat and clumsy.

    “Good, you’re starting to come around,” he answered, before a loud thud interrupted him. He shouted something she couldn’t quite make out, the darkness swirling around her for a moment before being drowned out by light… so bright she had to clench her eyes shut.

    Fortunately there was no tingling this time, at least, not the same sort of tingling. She did feel slightly disoriented, and she felt like she was lying on something hard now, but she definitely wasn’t struck by another lightning bolt.

    “Good timing, Zilch,” Kaos said from the side, and she could make out a white blob next to the striped one in the corner of her peripheral vision. Then the white blob seemed to fall through the ground as the other approached her. “We need to get you on your hooves as soon as possible, Miss Star.”

    “Wha… what happened?” she managed to stammer. Her tongue didn’t feel so heavy anymore, but it was still hard to talk.

    “The short version? Eclipse let loose a lightning bolt at point blank range, right into your chest,” he said softly, or maybe worriedly, “I… we half thought he killed you. I’ve never heard of a pony outside of Ultrapony surviving a blast like that.”

    “He wash… was my father,” she answered, and twitched a hoof. Feeling was starting to return to her extremities even as her mind seemed to slowly recover from the attack. “I’m not as powerful as he was but… I’m pretty tough. I think Filigree is probably tougher…”

    “In this case, it’s probably a good thing that she wasn’t out there,” a new voice, metallic and strange sounding, could be heard. Thankfully, it was one she knew. “Those metal wings of hers would’ve acted as a conductor and made it worse, possibly even arcing it to a nearby pony.”

    “What’s your status, Clockwork?” Spectrum asked, finally managing to lift her head a bit and look to the mechanized and armoured pony. She frowned at the flickering eye of Clockwork’s helm.

    “Could be better,” she admitted, “my back-up armour is holding up, but now I remember why I took it offline; it needed repairs.”

    The zebra asked, “Will you be alright for this battle?” That echoed the very question Spectrum had been about to voice.

    “It will protect me,” she answered with certainty, and both Spectrum and Kaos were surprised when the flickering eye blazed to life in full, almost twice as brightly as its twin. Clockwork didn’t give the pair a chance to ask, her wings snapping to life and lifting off in a streak of blue.

    “Your team,” Kaos noted softly as he watched Clockwork streak away, joining Professor Burner in laying down a near constant barrage of fire on Eclipse, “is at once haunted and blessed. I do not know how else to describe it.”

    “Luna’s team,” Spectrum corrected, forcing her shaky legs to support her, and she climbed off the stone bench Kaos had placed her on. “I am just supposedly the field commander.”

    “Supposedly?” Kaos asked carefully.

    Spectrum shook her head, her voice weak, “I haven’t been doing much leading. I just sort of let the Princess and Skillet do all the work.”

    “Now is not the time to start doubting your ability,” the zebra noted with a lopsided smile. “You have gotten us all online with each other, and now is hardly the time to let doubt drag you into the mire. I have been defaulting to you, due to your experience, and Skillet is not on the line. There were not enough headsets for him.”

    Aching wings spread wide, and Spectrum nodded. “You’re right,” she said softly, “my team needs me right now. I can worry about that later…” With a powerful stroke, the wings bore her into the air. She quickly looked over the field of battle, drinking in every detail she could. It was an odd bit of focused action, one that confused her at first. The dragons and gryphons hadn’t attacked beyond taking apart the siege weapons that the Earth Pony battalion had erected in the field. Anything that could potentially do damage to the dragons was systematically torn down and destroyed, but nothing else. Instead, they simply circled above, with two dragons, one white with an odd gryphoness and the other gold with a very imperious looking gryphon watching and hovering above all. She guessed the latter was Goldtalon, and the gryphoness was quite probably “godkiller”, given the way she forced the hole into the shield before. She also noticed that other than the small shield protecting the Princess, the dragons had destroyed any attempt to erect another magic shield. They were focusing on demoralizing the guard.

    “Alright, I have an idea,” Spectrum said into her headset, “listen closely, this will take precise timing…”

    “Go.”

    The order galvanized her, and the engines thrummed as she rocketed forward. Her wings flared wide as she arced herself skyward, bringing all four of her hoof ejectors to bear. Clockwork grinned under the helmet, and using an alternating pattern, she unleashed at his head. Predictably, Eclipse instinctively turned against the flow to protect his face.

    “Junkyard, go.”

    The diamond dog nodded at the command over the headset and surged forward, moving quickly in on the alicorn’s blind side. It didn’t matter that the alicorn’s head whipped back around to face him, the canine felt anger welling up inside him and his newly acquired stone hand cracked as it tightened into a fist… which he slammed right into the face of Eclipse, shattering the stone with the force.

    “Flourish, Zilch, go.”

    With a roar of anger, Eclipse surged forward at Junkyard. The Diamond Dog faded back out of reach and placed his trust in his teammate, and just before the alicorn overtook him, his horn glowing with a horrible light, a glowing white portal appeared and yanked the canine sideways through it, pulling him out of harm’s way…

    …and put Eclipse right into the line of attack from the erratic unicorn known as Flourish, who slashed at the alicorn’s good eye with the glowing blade from her horn. The stallion ducked his head to the side, barely avoiding the strike with an angry snort.

    “Princess…”

    The lunar princess needed little prompting, her moonlight daggers flashing through the air towards the turned head. Eclipse seemed to panic for a split second, his eye growing wide before a wave of magic shattered the daggers and forced both unicorn and Princess back away from him.

    “Burner, open fire. Clockwork, make it rain.”

    The alicorn roared out in anger, wings spread widely. “What do you hope to --“ he started, when the dual line of fire slammed into him, one salvo from above, and the other from in front, and both seeming to aim for his head… his eye.

    “Enough!” he roared, and lightning sprung from his horn, firing upward at the flying armour.

    “That’s your cue, Crosswind.”

    The lightning never reached its intended target, intercepted by the cocky pegasus with a dark cloud that seemed to absorb, bounce the lightning around, and send it back at the caster. Eclipse had to canter back, else take the full brunt of his own lightning bolt.

    “Kaos, Zilch, go.”

    The ground shook as Eclipse stomped his hooves in anger. His horn flashed, finding whatever target happened to first catch his eye. The almost glowing figure of Zilch was the first to attract it, and the dark spell lashed out at her. Zilch ducked sideways, through the portal, and avoided it entirely. He frowned, and tried again, and again, and again! Each attempt drew more of his ire as the filly simply ducked through her portals. In one case she didn’t even MOVE, just intercepted his shot with a portal!

    He growled angrily at the impudent filly, his focus intense as he tried to attack her. He didn’t even notice the others had shifted from his line of sight… or the “thing” above him. A thing made of two nearby statues, a bench, and a hoof-full of flower bushes. The stone flagpole made an interesting weapon for the cobbled together golem, especially when it tried to stab the tip at his eye.

    “My turn…”

    Eclipse cantered back from the golem and turned away from the stabbing flag tip, which was being wielded by the mishmash of statues and parts like a spear. It continued to push him back until Eclipse seemed to remember himself, and his horn glowed when he stomped his hooves, the shockwave shredding the stone and shrubbery alike until it fell useless to the ground.

    With a smirk, the alicorn turned to face Kaos, preparing to turn him into a bloody smear on the grass. That’s when it hit him…

    Technically, that’s when she hit him, and hit him hard. Her hoof caught him across the face with such force he was almost literally spun around. Had he not flinched she would have contacted his eye square on, and even as it was she cut the forehead above the eye with her hoof, and blood dripped down, partially blinding him.

    “You…” he seethed.

    “You’re one eye from midnight,” she answered evenly, “and it’s time to punch your clock.”

    “One eye from…?” Eclipse asked, and barely managed to turn his head when she followed up.

    “Flourish!” she called, and the teleporting unicorn flashed into existence in his face, slashing at him. “One eye from midnight… it’s a gryphon saying. It means you’ve lost an eye… you’re half blind, and at a tactical disadvantage. It means we have a target.”

    Flourish barely managed to duck the riposte, her mystic blade met the alicorn’s horn. A quick twist from the stronger stallion sent her flipping away before she vanished in a cloud of teleportation. She was quickly replaced by Zilch, who struck her hoof at the eye from the safety of her portal.

    “Like that matters,” Eclipse noted with supreme confidence, the wound over his eye vanishing before their eyes, “even if you are lucky enough to blind me, I’d heal quickly enough.” He lashed out a hoof at the next portal that formed, catching the leg that stuck out and bending it in a painfully awkward direction.

    “How long would it take you to heal?” Spectrum asked, and battered his nose with a pair of quick strikes, forcing him to release Zilch. “A minute? Two? How long do you think it would take Princess Luna to destroy you?”

    “What?”

    “You made a big deal the last time we met about how your former connection with Luna weakened her to your attacks,” Spectrum stated, slamming her hoof at his eye again. Eclipse moved, and it caught his cheekbone with enough force it would have shattered the bones of a lesser pony. “I’m willing to bet that the reason you focused on her is because you are as vulnerable to her as she is to you…”

    As if to prove the point, daggers of pure moonlight swept towards Eclipse and forced him to duck, his blade quickly reforming to parry them away. A sudden blow to his gut caused Eclipse to come up short for a moment, cantering back, only to be followed by the pegasus. He barely ducked his head away at the incoming strike.

    “Enough…” Eclipse said, his single eye glowing with fury.

    “No, it’s not,” Spectrum countered, and struck her hoof at his face.

    The shockwave of the impact rocked every pony back on their hooves, Spectrums’ attack blocked by the alicorn’s foreleg. “I said… ENOUGH!” Power burst from the alicorn, his body turning into a streaking shadow as he struck back.

    The dark form flew towards Spectrum, who crossed her forelegs in defense, only to feel the breeze as he passed her and slammed into the heavily armoured form behind her. Burner cried out as he went airborne, then blasted in mid air by a lightning bolt. Unfortunately Clockwork had been trying to stabilize him, so both armours went down at once.

    “You are NOTHING!” Eclipse shrieked, his form darting for Flourish and Zilch. Both began to teleport away from him, being pushed back as the dark form seemed to teleport himself, the shadow vanishing and reappearing at will. Spectrum could only hear the clashes as they fought, the trio of forms nothing but flickers against the sky. Zilch hit the ground first, then was plowed into by Flourish just as she started to get up.

    “You are WEAK!” he bellowed, striking out at Junkyard, rocking the massive canine back on his heels. Then he was a whirlwind surrounding the Diamond Dog, striking him from all sides and bouncing him around even as the dog tried to cover himself with his arm and endure the assault. Finally, the dog simply collapsed to the ground.

    “You are PATHETIC!” His horn glowed with lightning, and he fired it off at Crosswind. The pegasus was quick enough to catch it in the cloud, but before he could send it back, Eclipse sent another, and another, and another. Crosswind struggled to catch the bolts as the streaked at him… until the cloud exploded with lightning. With a scream the pegasus plummeted to the ground.

    “You are nothing but INSECTS!” he raged, and lashed out at Luna this time, his dark blade intercepting her daggers as he lashed out with his hooves, pummeling her with loud clangs against the armour. At first it seemed to do nothing, until the Princess’ eyes widened, and the realization that he was striking the armour and creating shockwaves that penetrated into her. She crumbled to the ground, gasping painfully and hugging her forelegs about her chest.

    Kaos moved forward to try and protect the Princess, but found himself grasped and hurled across the field, getting stuck head first in the shrubbery. Only then did Eclipse turn to face Spectrum.

    “And you… you will DIE!” he screamed, and Spectrum braced herself. She didn’t shrink, she didn’t blink; she met his eye evenly, staring into the rage and fury held there, right from his soul.

    She met him with almost a detached calm as he bore down upon her.

    “It’s time.”

    Almost no one inside Galaxi’s shield heard the statement. Their attention was riveted on Eclipse and what just happened. For one brief, shining moment, it looked as if Spectrum’s plan would work. Then Eclipse turned into a monster, a wraith of the battlefield, and tore through every player with seemingly little effort. He simply destroyed them. Their cheers turned to silent horror.

    Only one heard the voice, and she turned to look. She called herself Mare-Do-Well, but when she woke that morning she knew she was part of something more. Now, those discarded headsets from the stallions all but beckoned to her. Slowly she moved towards them, where she heard the voice come from, her expression one of confused curiosity.

    Celestia’s eyes were drawn from the horrible scene as the shape-shifting mare moved passed her. She recognized the expression, and the answer teased her from the back of her mind. But it wasn’t until she saw one of the headsets move, its earpiece curling almost as if it were a living thing towards the mare’s hoof, that the answer leapt to her mind.

    “No…” Celestia whispered in a tiny voice.

    She screamed.

    It didn’t matter how hard she tried not to, but she couldn’t help it. The pain was too much. Eclipse slammed into her again, driving her down into the ground with his forehooves. The ground seemed to shake with the stomps, but there was no-pony to help her now, she had to fight back.

    “I’m gonna…” she tried to threaten, but another stomp interrupted it.

    “You’re going to do nothing,” he taunted, “because I’m going to kill you. Oh yes, I’m going to kill you slowly, painfully. I’m going to make it last. I’m going to crush each of your legs, one at a time. Break every single bone in each leg before I RIP IT OFF!” he shouted into her face, any hint of sanity lost in his fury and rage.

    She slammed a hoof into his nose, but it was far too weak to push him back. He responded, by batting it wide… and slammed his hoof down on it, forcing another scream from her.

    “I’m going to tear each one of your legs off, like a bug, yes, like a bug. Make you roll around like a damned insect while you can only helplessly watch the blood drain from your body…” he taunted. She struck with her other hoof, which he batted wide again, slamming his hoof down on that leg as well, forcing them spread and leaving her helpless.

    “Why?” she managed to strangle out.

    “Why? I’d think that’s simple…” he noted, and reared back slightly before stamping both legs down on hers, drinking in her pained scream, “I’m the villain.”

    “Why me?” she asked painfully, struggling against the tears and the pain. “You’ve been focusing on me, even ignoring Princess Luna to come after me, why?”

    “Because of HIM!” Eclipse shouted in her face, forcing her to turn away from his putrid breath.

    “Him?”

    “Ultrapony,” he hissed, drawing a startled look from the mare. “Do you know how I survived your little assault last time? I absorb other ponies, and Ultrapony thought he could take me on himself. Even in my injured state, the fool all but gave himself to me, thinking he could control me from the inside. Now the last vestiges of who he was exists still within me, and I’m going to delight in torturing him until he finally is absorbed and perishes. He’s inside me now, screaming at me, shouting at me, almost literally begging me to stop. And his misery only makes me STRONGER!!”

    Spectrum’s eyes widened at the realization. For a moment, the leader and battle worn veteran vanished, and only the eyes of a filly remained. “Daddy…” she whispered, and tears fell from the corners of her eyes… Then she clenched her eyes shut, and with a growl, began to force her legs up, and Eclipse with it.

    “Awww, isn’t that cute, you think you can fight back,” Eclipse taunted, and stomped with his legs again. Spectrum screamed once more, but she started again. “What could you possibly hope to achieve?” he taunted.

    “Get off her!”

    Eclipse recoiled and a streak of lavender impacted his chest, driving him off the prone Spectrum. His eye blazed as he looked up, and limping towards him between the fallen ponies, a single pony approached him. Her coat was pure white and her eyes blank slates, but fury etched her very features and her mane blew in the false wind of her power. Lavender energy coursed over her form, like sparks thrown from a broken piece of machinery, and poured from those blank eyes. The star shaped mark on her forehead glowed even brighter with intense energies, which once more reached out for him.

    Eclipse growled and loosed his own magic back at the lavender tendrils, and darkness met them midway. Both pony and alicorn shuddered with the impact as magic coursed and crashed into each other. One psychic pony versus one magic alicorn, as the powers clashed and fought against one another.

    “G-galaxi?” Spectrum asked, surprised as she looked up at the figure. The other pony paid her no heed, focused entirely on Eclipse.

    “Let us fall back,” another voice told her, and she felt a cool, soothing magic grip her as the pegasus was drawn back. Only then did she spot Luna, still clutching a foreleg over her chest, as she hobbled back towards her sister, levitating Spectrum with her.

    “Over here!” Kaos called, half catching Spectrum as she was set down before rushing to support the Princess. A medic rushed over to the Princess, only to be waved off and redirected to Spectrum.

    “Galaxi can’t hold her off forever,” Clockwork put in as she landed, dropping Zilch and Flourish down to the grass, “I’m going to give her a hand.”

    “Wait…” Spectrum called, “I know who Eclipse is.”

    “I’d have thought zat vaz obviouz,” Burner noted as he came up, supporting Junkyard with his shoulder and an unconscious Crosswind on his back. The Diamond Dog looked more concerned about the pegasus than himself.

    “It’s… it’s more than just Nightmare,” she said softly, “It’s also my father.”

    Dead silence filly the area for several moments as that information sunk in. “Ultrapony?” Luna finally asked. “Eclipse is the Nightmare possessing Ultrapony?”

    “That… that’s bad,” Clockwork said softly. “It also explains why we aren’t hurting him. Ultrapony is damned near invulnerable to everything! If the Nightmare is inside that….” She didn’t have to finish the thought, the ponies present simply shuddered. “Regardless, he can be hurt. I’ve done it once… and Galaxi needs help.”

    “No, hang back,” Spectrum ordered, and let out a cry as the medic managed to seat her dislocated shoulder. It was only by some miracle that they weren’t broken. “I think… my father is still in there, still fighting. Eclipse said my father was inside him, yelling and begging and shouting for him to stop hurting me.”

    “You think you can draw your father out enough to help us fight Eclipse?” Luna asked simply.

    Spectrum yelped as her other shoulder as pushed back into place, and then forced herself to stand up, nudging the medic pony away as she did. “I have to try.” She didn’t wait for a response, instead turning to charge at the larger Alicorn as fast as her exhausted wings could manage.

    Clockwork normally wouldn’t have been able to tear her eyes away from Galaxi, the urge to rush in and help overwhelming, but an odd figure caught the her sensors with an odd surge of unidentifiable energy. “Who’s the mare?” she asked, arching her head towards the partially adorned guard mare.

    “She said she was Mare-Do-Well,” Filigree stated.

    “Mare-Do-Well?” she asked, surprised, and trotted closer to her. “What are you doing --“

    “Clockwork!” Celestia hissed, and the mare saw it too, the headset touching the shape-shifting mare’s hoof.

    “I finally… I know… I remember!” the mare cried out happily. “Clockwork! I finally remember and… and… oh no.”

    “That doesn’t sound good,” the armoured mare stated.

    “That’s because it isn’t,” Celestia answered, “she’s a lie.”

    “She’s lying?”

    “No, she is a lie,” Celestia corrected. “She doesn’t exist, not as her own pony. I should have realized it after she told me that she read about Mare-Do-Well somewhere, but I pieced it together too late. There were only two places she could have done that: in Ponyville’s local paper, or the friendship reports I used to receive from Twilight and her friends, this one written specifically by Lady Dash.”

    “Then you know…” Mare-Do-Well whispered, as she picked up one of the headsets. “She’s right; I’ve been living a lie. I didn’t know it but… but being reunited with a part of myself has allowed me to remember. I mean, I knew what I had to do when I woke up this morning,” she noted, picking up another headset, and another, while she talked, “but I only now know why I knew.”

    “What’s this ‘part of myself’ garbage?” Clockwork asked, a tightness entering into her voice.

    She held up a headset, which curled like a living creature. She wrapped it into her tail and picked up the final headset in her hoof and spoke gently, “Some of you wanted to know who the ‘Prince’ is… but he’s right here. He didn’t send these headsets, he is the headsets. He is….” And with a gasp, she lost the word as the headsets began to glow, blurring the air about her and flowing over her form, stretching and changing it.

    “He is Discord…” Celestia finished.

    “You cannot win.”

    Galaxi shuddered visibly, and finally collapsed onto the ground. She had matched the alicorn stroke for stroke, pitting her psychic power against his mystic one, but in the end it became a contest of endurance. A mere pony could never hope to achieve the sheer dominance of an alicorn, no matter how well trained they were. Magic coalesced about his horn, and he planned to erase one more insect from the world, a thorn in his side. She was, after all, the element of magic. Old wounds twitched with the thought of vengeance…

    “You’re fight is with me!” came the shout, and the hoof caught him across his blind-side. He was really growing annoyed with the abuse of his blind quarter. Still, even through the impact he forced himself to turn into the attack, grinning madly at the pegasus.

    “You again?” he asked, and sidestepped her next attack, slamming a spell into her chest. “Give up already, you cannot win.”

    “You have my father,” Spectrum growled in return. Her white coat smeared with mud and grass and blood. “I won’t give up, not now… not ever.”

    “Have it your way,” he answered, sounding almost bored as he turned and slammed both hooves into the hovering mare, launching her back into a nearby bench, which shattered under the impact. “I enjoy the hard way much more anyway.” His wings spread, and he launched himself at the pegasus, landing his forehooves into her chest.

    “Stop it!”

    “Oh shut it, you had your chance,” Eclipse retorted.

    “You’re hurting my daughter!”

    “That’s the point!” he answered, and stomped his hooves again, grinning satisfied at the scream it forced from his victim.

    “I said stop!”

    “Daddy?” the voice below asked, and suddenly Eclipse realized that for once, the voice wasn’t in his head. Eclipse frowned, his expression darkening.

    “What do you think you’re doing, Sunset Sparkle?” he taunted. “You’re nothing more than a dead stallion by now, this body is mine…”

    “The body was mine,” the stallion known as Ultrapony roared, “and I won’t let you hurt my daughter anymore!”

    “You don’t sound pleased to see me, Celestia.”

    “I’m not,” she hissed and a trio of guard-ponies stood between Celestia and the diminutive figure. His mis-matched eyes and goat like head swiveled to face each of the staring ponies in turn, the long whip-thin neck and mismatched limbs indicated he was exactly who the Princess claimed he was. His scaled tail lashed the air behind him, even as he seemed to be a small copy of the statue that towered over them. In fact, the only difference she could see is that he was slightly shorter than a pony.

    “I’m hurt! No really, I am. I went through all this trouble to try and save your kingdom, and now you turn on me,” he offered in a hurt voice.

    “After what you did to Lady Fluttershy you’re lucky I didn’t have you drawn and quartered!” the Princess growled uncharacteristically.

    To her surprise, the diminutive Discord sighed and looked down, “I never meant to hurt her. When I split myself into copies, as I’d done bazillions of times before, I was caught off-guard by a new wrinkle. Each separate part of who I was housed some part of my personality. It didn’t show immediately, but the longer I was split, the worse it got and… well… In the end, I ended up with me, the low power but smart half, and him, my high power but cruel twin. Maybe I should have given him a goatee or something; you might have noticed he was evil then.”

    “Not to rush things, My Prince, but is now the time for extended introductions and explanations?” Kaos asked, looking worriedly back at Spectrum and Eclipse.

    “No, I suppose it isn’t,” the Draconequus answered. “But, I have to wait until my darker half decides he’s ready to come out. I mean seriously, it’s rude to keep a gentleman waiting.”

    “I’m going to help my friends,” Clockwork growled, and turned her thrusters on.

    Discord watched her rocket away for a moment and sighed, rubbing his feline-like forearm. “If that part of me had known about this, I never would have befriended her…”

    “Yet another Fluttershy,” Celestia noted pointedly, making Discord wince.

    “Get off my friend!”

    Eclipse’ head barely whipped around in time to even see who shouted it. His attempt to flinch away was stymied by what felt like a physical force holding him still, only able to watch the attack home in, the blue white beams filling his vision before slamming into him, knocking him off his hooves.

    “Come on, Spectrum,” Clockwork answered, nodding as Kaos rushed up beside them.

    “Not yet,” she managed to hiss, and somehow her wings bore her aloft again. “That bastard has my father!” She somehow managed to push free of Kaos’ attempt to help and charged Eclipse again. Despite how slow her exhausted body responded, her hoof still caught him across the face, and his blazing turquoise eye fell upon her.

    “You little rat, I’m going to… ARGH!” Eclipse screamed.

    “Rainbow, please, run!! I can’t hold him for… nnggg… long,” the stallion answered in a long familiar voice.

    “Daddy… father… I’m sorry,” she said softly.

    “No offense, but this really isn’t the time!”

    “I may not have another chance…” she said softly, and spun in mid air, bucking Eclipse solidly on the nose, rocking him back on his hooves. “…and I will tear Eclipse apart with my teeth if I must to free you!”

    “And you von’t do it alone…” Burner stated, his armour clomping up behind Clockwork. Junkyard chuffed as he stepped up himself, flexing another replacement forearm. Crosswind fluttered overhead as Flourish and Zilch appeared to flank the group.

    Eclipse/Ultrapony looked over them for a moment, and then smiled. “Do it.”

    “That’s not going to work.”

    “What do you mean?” Celestia asked carefully. Her guards were still positioned between him and her, but he was sitting in the shadow of himself while waiting patiently for himself to break out… a thought which hurt her head just to consider. Still, he’d watched when Clockwork collected Galaxi and brought her back, then dove into the fight with Eclipse, followed shortly by every pony capable. Only those too injured to fight, incapable, and Alto for some reason, still resided near the Princess now that the shield was down.

    “Fighting Eclipse physically won’t work,” he said softly, “but the pieces are not quite in place. Some things are moving too fast and others too slowly.”

    “I would send the Elements against him, but your team knocked Trixie out cold,” Celestia noted pointedly, “and now Galaxi has overstrained herself as well.”

    “Yes, Clockwork brought her back here before jumping in to fight herself. Regardless, it wouldn’t have worked anyway,” he noted simply.

    “Why not? It worked on you…”

    “Pardon me, I misspoke, those elements wouldn’t work. Eclipse absorbed the energy from them once, and you know how that went. You need a similar, but different, energy,” Discord noted.

    Celestia blinked as pieces clicked into place. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”

    “Do you understand now, my dear Celestia? He would have just brushed your little ponies off; you needed Elements he’d never encountered before.”

    “So you… you knew all along? Did you set Relic up too?” she asked, nearly gasping at the scope of his plan, unsure if she should feel awed or sick at the wide net he had cast.

    “Not exactly,” Discord waved a hand, “but I did know some pony would search for them. I set out a few lures, put a few tantalizing clues in some esoteric places that would attract just the right sort of pony… and voila. We got two of them, not just one! And then, I had to make sure the arrogant one got his hooves on the one element….”

    “The missing element,” Celestia noted, closing her eyes. Her eyes opened halfway a moment later as if she could stare into the diminutive draconequus’ soul. “You made sure Eclipse found the Element of Sacrifice.”

    “No, I made sure Ultrapony found the Element, who himself went and in a fit of ego tried to control the Nightmare,” Discord corrected.

    “Why?”

    “Well, you know how uncontrollable Rainbow Dash’s son always was…”

    “Not that,” Celestia corrected, “why did you need him to find the element?”

    “You know I can’t reveal that yet, Celestia,” he winked, tapping the side of his goat-like nose with a gryphon claw hand, “the elements require a measure of innocence for their true natures to work, as I recall.”

    “I am surprised you’d even bother to know that.”

    Discord chuckled softly, “Just because I like to break the rules doesn’t mean I don’t know them.”

    “And what of the gryphons? Please tell me they are not part of your plan,” she begged softly, “I do not think I could forgive you if they were…”

    “No, dear Celestia, I’m afraid not,” he admitted. “I may embody chaos, but that does not mean I cannot be taken by surprise myself at times.”

    A loud “crack” interrupted further conversation. For a moment, the ponies around Celestia thought perhaps it was due to a particularly harsh shot from Junkyard on Eclipse. But instead, it was Discord who saw the truth.

    “Speaking of surprises… Finally! Do you have any idea how long we’ve been kept waiting on you?” the small figure asked his much larger twin, who growled darkly in response as he shook off the now loose fragments of marble.

    “Well well, what a nice little sacrifice for me,” he rumbled, reaching towards the solar princess.

    Discord interceded, throwing his small body in front of the grabbing claw, “Hold up! Stick to the plan! You remember, don’t you? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the plan?”

    The larger discord grabbed the smaller and lifted him up in his clenched fist, “Plan? What plan?”

    “Oh for the love of… the PLAN! What we did all of this for! Come on, you can’t tell me I’m that thick!” the smaller Discord cried in frustration.

    “Oh, that plan,” the larger rumbled, and shrugged, “I gave up on that plan decades ago.”

    The smaller’s jaw fell open with an odd clanging sound in shock, and cried, “What?! How could… how could you just abandon it?”

    “Because you abandoned me!” the larger Discord roared, clutching both hands about the smaller and squeezing harshly. “You left me to rot here, trapped inside a statue!”

    “If you hadn’t --” the smaller one tried to squeak, but his large twin seemed little inclined to listen.

    “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been here?” he demanded, shaking the smaller copy about like a toy. “And now, NOW you want me to stick to the damned plan?! No! The hell with your plan, I’m out. I’m going to take my sacrifice, destroy every pony, gryphon, and other here on this field, and go find something to do for entertainment.”

    “No no no NO! You cannot do --” the smaller screamed, but was interrupted as the larger quite literally bit his head off. The ponies screamed, and Honey hid Indigo, as they stared wide eyed at the dark draconequus. The larger Discord tossed the now limp and blood spraying smaller version of himself into his mouth, chewed noisily before swallowing, and then turned to Celestia.

    Discord growled happily, licking his lips, “Now then, on to that sacrifice.” With blood still painting his face and dripping from his claw, he reached for the Princess, who refused to cringe but turned her head away from him. Only when the claw didn’t grasp her did she look, and was surprised to see Discord’s entire body shuddering. His eyes started to spin for a moment before a small “ding” sound rang out and his eyes fixed upon her in an oddly goofy expression. “Oh… oh! I thought I’d never manage to pull myself together again. I didn’t expect that side of myself to have become quite so… violent. Hello again, Princess, did I miss anything?”

    “Just a rather bloody end to yourself,” she pointed out, frowning up at Discord. “What just happened?”

    Discord scooped up some of the sprayed blood with a feline paw and sniffed it… then licked it. “Hmm, ketchup…. What happened? You mean that you’ve never heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’?”

    Celestia groaned, “I should have known better than to expect a straight answer from you.”

    “You really should have,” he grinned, “but that said, it’s almost time for the main event. Professor Relic, do you have the Elements I asked you to bring?”

    “M-me?!” the unicorn cried, startled.

    “Yes, we have them, Spirit of Chaos,” Quagga answered for his friend.

    “Now there’s a title I’ve not heard in a while,” Discord mused, then clapped his hands together, “get them ready, gentlestallions, it’s almost time.”

    Quagga frowned. “Dare we ask for what?”

    “You’ll see…”

    “This isn’t working!”

    “He heals too quickly,” Kaos pointed out to his pegasus teammate.

    “Yeah, on top of the fact he’s nigh invulnerable, super strong, magic that would make a Princess cry, and… Oh yeah, and the fact he keeps attacking us at random!” Crosswind retorted, barely ducking out of the way of another energy bolt.

    “I’m trying! He’s fighting back and… nnnggg” the alicorn started, his voice changing mid growl, “I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!” Eclipse suddenly twisted, his horn impaling the Manticore armour trying to pummel him down by sheer weight, and with a sharp yank of his head, ripped it open and revealed the pony beneath. “Now I see you!”

    “And now you don’t!” Clockwork shouted, and she landed all four hooves squarely on the top of Eclipse’ head, shoving it down and refocusing his attention.

    “Mizz Key?”

    “Get out of there Burner!” she shouted. “Stick to ranged attacks if the armour can manage it, if not, fall back for emergency repairs!” The orange unicorn nodded, but rather than pull back, grasped for the alicorn’s horn with a large claw and wrenched it aside. Lightning surged along it, lightning that was originally destined for the mare and her armour, instead went up the leg of his armour.

    Pain lanced through him, but he clenched his teeth. Components popped and smoked around him, warnings blared in his ears, but he ignored them. Eclipse fought him, and the pair wrestled over the Alicorn’s horn. He didn’t even notice when his armour left the ground, only to be hurled over his back and landing in a crashed heap of smoking metal behind the alicorn. Eclipse gave a derisive snort and muttered at him before turning back to the fight, “Ponies and their toys.”

    “Burner, are you okay?” he heard call to him.

    “Alto?”

    “Come on, we need to get you out of here!” the gryphon said hurriedly, ducking his head when the alicorn’s attention even showed a hint of turning their way.

    “Ze armour iz offline,” Burner noted softly, “I am trapped.”

    “Hold on,” another voice told him, and be barely caught a glimpse of the rainbow maned pony as she grabbed the edges of the split Eclipse caused in his armour and wrenched, forcing it apart, and enough room for the unicorn to wriggle out. “Alto, get him back over to Celestia.”

    “S-sure thing,” the gryphon said and grabbed the unicorn, pulling him off his hooves as he winged towards the grouping.

    “Vat iz going on?” Burner asked quickly. “And I do not mean ze battle. Vhy are you acting zis vay?”

    “W-what way?” Alto asked hurriedly, though the look in his eyes told the unicorn he knew exactly what was meant.

    “You are acting like a zmall colt zcared of hiz own zhadow,” Burner noted.

    “I… I…,” Alto started, and then his face collapsed and he looked down at the ground, “I know. I just can’t… all those gryphons looking down at us. It’s… I’m… I was almost one of them! I tried to get Filigree’s claw and… and almost became part of Goldtalon’s big invasion. He was going to turn me into a spy!”

    “But zat never happened…?” Burner asked softly, forcing himself not to judge. That was harder than it sounded… which surprised the stallion.

    “It almost did,” Alto said softly, guiltily, “and Verdigris was right, it was my fault she was in chains. All of that was… was my fault. And now, all those gryphons up there, staring down at us… Every last one of them considers me a traitor to our race, and the ponies consider me a traitor as well. I just…  It’s…”

    “Alto,” Burner said softly, “I promized I vould lizten ven you vere ready to talk. I vill honeztly zay zat now iz not ze time for a full confezzion, but know zat ve vill get through zis. But none of zis ztopz you from doing ze right thing.”

    “That’s not exactly what I signed up for,” the gryphon responded softly.

    “Neither did I,” Burner agreed, nudging the gryphon, “but life iz unpredictable.”

    Clockwork screamed as the lightning finally found her, her armour giving several pitiful pops as the systems overloaded once again. She had withstood multiple attacks, but the armour was near giving out from the strain of handling the power surges. That one even bypassed the safeties to shock her! “We can’t take much more of this,” she noted tiredly.

    “Fall back if you must,” Spectrum hissed, “I won’t leave my father to suffer. Not so long as I have breath in my body…”

    “Is that all it will take to stop you?” Eclipse laughed mockingly, and blocked Spectrum’s attack with his foreleg, pushing it aside. His head dipped and shoved forward, the length of his horn impaling into the mare’s chest.

    Time seemed to stop, horror sweeping through every pony and individual watching. Shocked eyes could see the first blood trickle along the spiral groove of the dark alicorn’s horn, beading upon his forehead. They could see the widening maniacal grin on his face, and the pained expression that flowed over Spectrum’s, unable to even cry out.

    “NO!”

    Light gathered from inside Eclipse, spreading along his horn and yanked and pulled and the very darkness that formed the alicorn’s flesh. Eclipse’ gleeful expression turned to one of fear as the horn momentarily vanished and Spectrum dropped to the ground, wings and legs held askew as blood pooled in the grass beneath her. The dark face continued to vanish, peeling back and away as a pure ghostly light shown through, revealing the haggard face of Ultrapony. Anguish was etched across his face, eyes locked upon the prone form of his daughter. “No, sweet Celestia, please….”

    Discord nodded to himself. “Now it’s time.”

23

Chapter 23

“Ghosts of the Past”

    For the first time since the battle began, silence reigned.

    At the center of it all stood the shared form of Eclipse and Ultrapony, the latter of which had pushed to the forefront and was weeping uncontrollably over the figure lying on the ground at his hooves, her life’s blood seeping from her body and painting the flowers and grass beneath her. Spectrum’s breath fluttered in her chest, terribly weak and dangerously shallow, as she clung to life in spite of the thin and deep chest wound made by Eclipse’ horn.

    Surrounding the pair was a lose circle of ponies of a variety of abilities and descriptions, all of whom had stood to battle the horror that was Eclipse and the invasion which he heralded. Their faces betrayed the shock their hearts held, and many of their heads bowed slightly, as if a sudden weight had been placed between their ears.

    An uncounted number of dead and dying ponies that had sacrificed themselves in this battle circled even them, bearing silent witness to events as they unfolded. Princess Celestia sat in repose just beyond them, surrounded by a small group of disparate faces, some of whom should be nowhere near a battlefield.

    Even the hoard of dragons hovering overhead fell silent as they watched down with wide, stupid eyes. Their gryphon riders sat on hastily crafted saddles and waited, each accompanied by a retinue of armored gryphons with dangerous looking weapons. Few stood out amongst the group, including the massive gold dragon that King Goldtalon claimed as his own, and the comparatively tiny white dragon that “Godkiller” sat upon and watched with oddly blank eyes.

    The moment was broken only by the hurried movements of the pair of medics as they rushed to the fallen mare. Their hooves flew as they attempted to staunch the wound, forcing even Eclipse/Ultrapony back a step so as not to crowd them. The large cyclopean turquoise eye embedded within the dark smoke surrounding Ultrapony’s ghostly form watched their desperation with growing delight.

    Only the approach of another after several long minutes stopped the medic’s frantic work, their heads dipping in failure. The Princess of the Night’s horn glowed as she leaned her head down, touching it to the fallen mare’s brow. Silvery light spread over Spectrum’s body, wrapping her gently like an ethereal blanket before dissipating. “That is all I can do,” Luna said softly, her voice tender, “she is stable for the time being, but thy daughter shall not last long.”

    “Please! There must be something you can do!” Ultrapony pleaded, even as the shadowy presence surrounding him laughed.

    Luna turned away, unable to meet his anguished gaze. “I’m sorry, Sunset Sparkle,” she whispered, “but she is beyond even my abilities.”

    “You can’t let my little girl die….”

    “She can, and she will!” Eclipse cried triumphantly, unable to hold back his glee any longer. “Your little girl is dying, and you helped me do it! I couldn’t have planned this better if I tried… Oh such sweet anguish! You will make for one final feast before I devour your essence entirely. No more lurking for you, oh no. No more chance to screw with my plans. No convincing me to spare another pony or gryphon, and all your hiding and pretending you were already dead. Now you really will be!”

    “Isn’t there anything we can do?” Flourish started, looking almost desperately back and forth among the others present, but no one would meet her eyes.

    “We can’t jus’… leave her like that!” Crosswind stated angrily.

    “You can, and you will,” Eclipse taunted.

    Clockwork growled, “Shut up.”

    “She’s dead!” Eclipse continued heedlessly. “She has ceased to be! She is a former pegasus, an ex-pegasus!”

    “SHUT UP!” the armoured mare all but screamed, and reared back to fire. Only a gentle touch on her foreleg stopped her, and she lowered herself to lean into the weak hug from Galaxi, who took the helmet off the short-tempered mare.

    Filigree limped past her friends with solemn purpose, ignoring their questioning gazes. Her claws trembled as she gently began to adjust the pegasus’ body, rolling her onto her back while being careful not to damage her wings. Filigree folded the mare’s forehooves over her chest, intentionally covering the horrible wound. The medical ponies seemed about to object, but were stopped with a single glance from the Princess and took several steps back to allow the gryphoness to work.

    “You don’t have to…” Ultrapony began softly.

    “This is not your tradition, I know” Filigree answered, her voice husky with barely contained emotion, “but Rainbow Star is perhaps my closest friend, and she should see the sky in her final moments, so that her spirit might soar when… when her body fails.” The gryphoness continued her work, carefully picking out the grass and mud that had gotten tangled in her coat and smoothed out Spectrum’s feathers carefully.

    “She can’t die…” Ultrapony sniffled, “there has to be a way!”

    “You can’t save her!” Eclipse cackled, the smoke of his body wrapping tauntingly about the grieving father, clinging closer as his hope began to fade. “No pony can….”

    “I wouldn’t say that,” a new voice cut in, “there is always a solution. The question should be, what are you willing to give for it?”

    “Anything,” Ultrapony whispered, “I would give up anything to save her.”

    “Then,” Discord noted, spreading a hand to the injured pony, “you are looking the wrong direction. You look to the Princesses, or even myself, to save her. Your eyes should be cast inward, Sunset Sparkle. The solution lies in your hooves, and no one else’s.”

    “But I have nothing left to --” the ghostly pony started, and then his eyes went wide. Discord just smiled, tapped the side of his nose, and turned away. Ultrapony’s mouth hung agape as realization spread across his face.

     “What could you possibly have to offer anyway? You don’t even own this body anymore, you gave it to me!” Eclipse taunted.

    “But you stole more than I gave,” came the soft answer, “and I can give that. You took most of me, but you did not take everything, and I still have that to give.”

    A pulse of magic erupted from his breast, and time stood still.

    “Where…?”

    Sunset Sparkle, also known as Ultrapony, felt… whole. He hadn’t felt like that in a very long time, like he was his own pony once again. And yet, it couldn’t be real, could it? He looked around, but saw nothing but empty and open sky, the ground hidden under a layer of white fluffy clouds. The desire to fly overwhelmed him, but flap as hard as he could, his body just wouldn’t lift off. Disappointment crashed through him, and he dejectedly stopped trying…

    “Give anything, eh?” a voice asked from behind, startling the stallion badly. He whipped about to face the source of the voice, and found himself staring into a large standing mirror with a delicate golden frame which he was certain wasn’t there a moment ago. As expected, his reflection in the mirror stared back at him. He turned his head slowly, examining himself for just a moment, taking an odd bit of pride in smoothing back his multi-colored mane. But a movement within the mirror distracted him. With a frown, he looked to the background of the reflection, then to the clouds around him, then back to the reflection. His reflection stood amidst a crumbling and decaying castle, with loose stones tumbling from the wall and falling soundlessly to the cracked marble floor. Somehow, impossibly, it was the darkest of nights in the reflection, and even more impossibly, Sunset Sparkle knew exactly where that was: The Castle of the Sister Princesses, deep in the Everfree Forest. He had to check his surroundings a second time just to make sure he still was among the clouds before looking back to the mirror.

    “What’s the matter, see something you don’t like?” his reflection asked, causing Ultrapony to skitter back several feet. His reflection stayed still, watching him with an unreadable expression that bordered on amusement.

    “Who… who are you?” Ultrapony asked hesitantly.

    “I’m you, in a manner of speaking,” the reflection grinned lopsidedly.

    “…In a manner of speaking,” he echoed slowly.

    The reflection chuckled, “Yup, super powers and all. It’s like I stepped right out of a comic book, isn’t it?”

    “I don’t recall my comic doing very well,” Ultrapony noted softly, rubbing his chin with a hoof.

    “That’s because you’re too strong,” the reflection answered with a smile, “it makes for bad stories when your hero is stronger than any villain, except the one every pony cared about.”

    “The Nightmare,” Ultrapony identified softly, dipping his head. “I messed that one up pretty badly…”

    “That you did.”

    “And I lost… Wait, the orb! You must be the orb!” Sunset Sparkle cried, realizing suddenly who he must be speaking with.

    “My, you’re a quick one…” the reflection teased. Ultrapony stuck his tongue out at him, childish move sure, but it felt right in that moment. Unfortunately, the reflection didn’t respond in kind, his expression growing dark. “…and you delivered me right to the Nightmare, to Eclipse.” A shadow of the evil Alicorn reared up over his reflection within the mirror, making Ultrapony start and check over his shoulder, if only to make sure the shadow hadn’t followed him here.

    Still, the sudden change of tone left him cold, the fierce anger almost palpable from the reflected image of himself. “Y-yeah, that was not… exactly part of my plan,” he stammered weakly.

    “No, you had a poorly conceived plan to try and control the power of a being who once conquered a Princess,” the reflection of himself stated sharply. “What the bloody hell were you thinking?!”

    “I thought….  I…” Ultrapony stammered, trying to defend his actions.

    “Are you really going to try and defend yourself? Are you really going to say it wasn’t a damned fool thing to do?”

    “I… I wish I could,” he finally admitted, lowering his head. “I just wanted to be the big hero! Not part of a team, not even the leader of the team, just me! I just… I just…”

    “You just what?” the mirror pony demanded in a gentler tone when he drifted off.

    “I… I don’t know anymore,” Ultrapony admitted. “When Mom was alive, I always wanted to make her proud of me. She never even knew me as a special before she died and Aunt Twilight started taking care of me. Aunt Twilight always told me how proud Mom would have been of me when I joined the Agency, but Mom was always about bigger and better. She never settled for just doing something well, she had to do it better than any pony else.”

    The reflection looked at him with the wide eyes of a young colt. His ragged multicolored mane fell partially into his eyes, even as those bright amber eyes shone clearly. Small stubby wings flitted impatiently along the sleek white coat of his small body, short trimmed tail flicking with barely restrained energy. Surrounding him were the trappings of a colt’s room, littered with toys and poorly sorted and put away clothing. Bright colors dominated the walls, faded slightly with time. Ultrapony blinked, looking down at the reflection of his younger self, a perfect image of himself when he was just a blank-flanked colt. Even his voice carried that squeaky tone he had when he was younger, before it deepened and strengthened, when he asked, “So you inherited some of her perfectionist streak.”

    Ultrapony gave a weak smile. “Yeah, I suppose I did. She spent her life dreaming of and trying to become one of the Wonderbolts, and she damn near made it! But then the whole ‘Special’ thing stole that dream away from her. They didn’t want any ‘special’ fliers, only those who were ‘normal’. She spent her whole life trying to prove to them she was worthy, and then they turned on her for a bad gust of fate. I don’t think she ever truly recovered from that.”

    The reflected pony asked curiously, “But she was a hero, yes? One of “The Six”?”

    “But she didn’t have a life to return to when she was off duty,” he answered softly. “The others, they had a normal life. Aunt Applejack had her farm until almost the end, and even then still had her family. Aunt Pinkie always had the Cakes and the bakery. Aunt Rarity always had her fashion and designing dreams, not to mention how close her family was, especially her little sister. Aunt Fluttershy always had the animals, and Aunt Twilight still had her books and her magic. But Mom… she got the shaft! The Wonderbolts wouldn’t take her because she was a Special, and because she had to come and go on the Princess’ orders she couldn’t fill in with the weather team, so she only had… well, me.”

    “Except when the Princesses needed her,” the reflection stated softly, “the Princesses came first.”

    “They always came first!” Ultrapony shouted at the mirror, surprising even himself by the anger there. “They always came first…”

    “But what does any of that have to do with the decision you made?”

    “Nothing. Everything. Dammit, I don’t know,” Ultrapony admitted, “it’s just… it’s just… “

    “What about your father?” the reflection prompted.

    Ultrapony snorted, “What father? You mean the empty chair at the table that was filled half the time with Gilda, Aunt AJ, or Aunt Twilight? Mom never admitted it, but I figured it out, piecing it together from the occasional slip from Aunt Pinkie or Gilda, and listening to how all of them spoke when they thought I wasn’t listening. When the rejection from the Wonderbolts came, Mom went and got herself good and drunk to try and forget them, to drown her dream I guess. I guess she forgot a few other things too, because, surprise, she was pregnant! I was an accident. An accident she loved, but an accident none the less. She never even knew who the father was…”

    “Unlike what happened with your own daughter,” the reflection stated pointedly, and Ultrapony winced. The reflection changed again when he looked at it again, and he saw a younger version of his adult self. Full of pride, full of arrogance, and surrounded by the trappings of his decadence. An expensive home, decorated with his newfound wealth and littered with self promotion, items purely designed to reflect and boost his ego. Did he really have so many photographs of himself? He sighed, and tried hard not to meet the eyes of the almost tiny filly with the rainbow mane standing in the background, a filly who looked at him with adoring eyes despite it all.

    “Fair point,” he sighed, “I wasn’t much of a father, was I? I was running around for… for the Princesses, just like my mother had done. I knew the mare who was her mother, at least, but she wasn’t interested in raising a foal. I mostly saw Star as nothing but a burden myself. Thank the Goddesses for Aunt Sparkle, or Star would’ve have been alone so much.” He glanced at the reflection, but unlike what happened so often in his memory, no aging lavender unicorn arrived to escort the filly away. Her piercing gaze remained, which seemed to bore right through him, not accusingly, but adoringly. Somehow, that was worse.

    “Why?”

    Ultrapony blinked at the question and looked at the pony in the mirror. “What was that?”

    “I asked why,” the mirrored pony said, “why did you work for the Princesses? Why would you become the very thing you hated as a child? Why would you actually make it worse for your daughter? What happened to you wasn’t that bad…”

    “Not that Gilda was a very good a babysitter,” he joked wanly, but the smile vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. “I worked for the Princesses because all specials worked for the Agency.”

    “That’s an excuse,” the reflection stated pointedly. “You know as well as I do that the unregistered colonies would have happily welcomed a celebrity like you, and having a child you wished to remove from the fighting would have been seen as a reasonable excuse for leaving the Ponylands. And let’s not forget that the Princesses themselves. They would have happily given you additional time off to raise your daughter, as they had done for many other agents who had children. I wager Princess Luna and the Agency would have milked it for all it was worth too, make you even more famous… somehow.”

    “How… how do you know that?”

    “It’s been a boring year,” the reflected pony shrugged, “and I wanted to know who had picked me up. Let’s be honest here; you really didn’t do anything worthwhile with all that power you possessed. Instead you spent all your time chasing your own self indulgences.”

    Ultrapony smiled sadly. “Yeah, I wasn’t the best pony, was I? I don’t know why I didn’t take time off to be with Star, I think I was just… so absorbed with being this larger than life super pony. I was the first special to truly step out of the shadow my mother and her friends cast, and the only special the public truly accepted after the Fillydelphia Massacre. In one day every pony forgets about all the good my mother and her friends did and turned against us, all because of a hoof full of power hungry idiots with powers and no morals, and yet I was able to overcome it all and get the public to accept me. I think… I think I let it go to my head. I was convinced somehow that I deserved it all. I wonder if that’s what Mom felt sometimes. Maybe that’s why she needed her friends; she needed some pony there to ground her.”

    “Maybe you needed friends to ground you too,” his reflection stated, growing a few years older. The background shifted to a scene that Ultrapony would have rather forgotten, that meeting room where he was first introduced to the team the Princess was assembling. He could see all the individuals she collected there at the table: Thunderhooves, the proud and powerful bison with the gentle voice; Ironjaw, back when he still possessed his steel coat and unshakable grin; Galaxi, her creepy blind eyes staring at everything and nothing all at once; Clockwork Key, the diminutive mare that immediately inspired so much anger in him; and Trixie, the snarky unicorn whom he initially took a shine to. Princess Luna stood at the head of the table, and Princess Celestia hovered like a ghost near the exit. It was within hours of Aunt Twilight’s death, he could still see the damp stains on Clockwork and Celestia’s faces…

    “I… I still don’t know exactly what happened,” he admitted softly. “I just lost control, and then that upstart little...!”

    “She still stokes your anger?” the pony in the mirror asked, surprised.

    “Yes, she does,” he seethed. “The Sonic Rainboom was my mother’s move, and I inherited the secret from her. How dare that little… little… shit steal it?! And with a machine yet! Worse, it was the same foal that sent Aunt Twilight to her death!”

    “She lost her brother in that attack…”

    “I know that!” Ultrapony bellowed, shaking the sides of the mirror in his anger. Then his furor seemed to just dissipate, and the winged pony drooped, staring at his own hooves. “I know that,” he repeated after a moment, “and her brother was celebrated as some sort of damned hero. And for what? I know what he did… he committed suicide in the face of overwhelming odds, and took my aunt with him. That’s not heroic, that’s a coward’s death.”

    “Did you ever think it might have been merciful?” the reflection asked carefully. “The Princess related the details to you. There was an unknown gem found on the battlefield and their resident expert in magic, Twilight Sparkle, was called in to examine it when preliminary scans were inconclusive. It turned out to be a trap and began draining her mind, and would have left her a mindless husk had it completed its job. To stop this, the gem was shattered by Clockwork’s brother, an effort that killed her and severely wounded him. He used an emergency self destruct on his armour moments later.”

    “You don’t have to tell me the story, I remember,” Ultrapony growled, making his reflection recoil. “I know what the Princess told me, and I still think she’s lying to cover some pony’s mistake. Given that Clockwork Key was the coordinator of that mission, the blame rests squarely in her hooves.”

    “So you haven’t forgiven her,” the reflection said softly, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

    “I… No, I don’t think I’ve been able to move past that. I’m not sure I ever will…”

    “And yet, you wronged her in the past,” the reflection pointed out.

    “Yeah… yeah I did,” he admitted softly. “I really didn’t think I was in the wrong that first time, but… but I did hit her. It wasn’t… I wasn’t trying to hurt her! That was an accident…”

    “But you did do it,” his reflection persisted, “and then you did it again. Twice.”

    “I… I…” Sunset Sparkle stammered, momentarily trying to defend himself, and then just seemed to fold in on himself, “I did. She infuriated me so much from the word go, and then that fight…” He didn’t have to say anything as the view in the reflection changed to that of a hospital, his reflection wrapped in some haphazard bandages and his coat smudged with burns and scorch marks.

    “You made her famous, in a way,” the reflection stated with a sardonic smile, “the only pony to ever put you into the hospital.”

    “And she later earned one of the Elements of Harmony…” he whispered softly, his voice trembling, “my mother’s element, the Element of Loyalty. That little… rrrgg.”

    The view in the mirror came full circle, once more placed in that darkened castle, with a perfect image of how he once looked prior to his encounter with The Nightmare, before they merged to become Eclipse. “And so, we come back to where we started, haven’t we? Was that it? The sole reason for all this torturous reasoning was to show up a mare who earned the legacy you felt entitled to? Your primary motivation to go against the very will of Princess Celestia, and you went to find a forbidden power and attempt to overcome an ancient evil, was a single mare and the legacy you felt she stole from you?”

    Ultrapony’s ears splayed, heat washing over him as his very reasons were laid out in such a plain terms. Several times he tried to argue, his mouth opening to refute the claims, but he closed it silently each time as shame draped over him like a heavy woolen blanket. It was minutes before he finally answered, “…Yes.”

    His reflection looked surprised by that answer. “Yes?”

    Ultrapony nodded, staring down at his own hooves. “I never thought about it like that but… yes. I need to be honest with myself; it’s not likely I’ll live too much longer anyway, not once Eclipse realizes I’m weakening. I’m angry, and I’ve spent most of my life angry. I’m angry at Eclipse, The Nightmare, for outsmarting me. I’m angry at Clockwork Key and what she took from me, even if I am the only one who expected those things. I’m angry that Aunt Twilight was taken from me. I’m angry at the war and the damnable Princesses… and I’m angry because they kept taking my mother away from me. I’m just… I think I’m sick of being angry at everything.”

    “You’re not angry at your daughter,” the reflection responded, and the stallion’s gaze snapped up to the mirror. He had the ghostly appearance Ultrapony only managed when he forced his way to the surface of Eclipse, his daughter lying at the hooves of his reflection. Other ponies stood around in a circle, each handling their grief or anger in their own way.

    “She was innocent,” he answered softly, “she still is. You have no idea how proud I was when I heard she earned Aunt Fluttershy’s element, and was installed as leader of that group. And now… now it’s my fault that she’s… dying.”

    “And you are prepared to give everything, to sacrifice everything, to save her?”

    “Yes,” Ultrapony whispered, his eyes locked on the image of his daughter in the mirror. “I have to help, I have to protect her. She’s my little girl, and she’s vastly more important than her failure of a father ever was…” He reached out a hoof to touch the mirror, to stroke lightly where his daughter rested. To his surprise, his hoof passed through the surface, as if it were made of water. The images in the mirror rippled and he yanked his hoof back. Carefully he touched the surface of the mirror again, watching the ripples stretch away from his hoof.

    “Go ahead,” his reflection gently prompted.

    Ultrapony swallowed nervously and nodded, leaning forward to press against the cool surface of the mirror. He closed his eyes, drifting through it with a slight shiver from the cold.

    “Sunset?” a voice from the past called, and his eyes snapped open. Everything looked… bigger, but familiar. He’d seen this scene just moments ago in the reflection, but now… He swallowed nervously as he looked at the toys, HIS toys, scattered about the room. He was never very good at picking them up. He looked down at himself, his small hooves and undeveloped wings, and the short trimmed multicolored tail and the mane that constantly fell into his face. He spun about in a circle, furtively looking at his now blank flank before facing the source of the voice as she all but rushed into the room. “Sunset? Are you… there you are!”

    Words failed him as the cyan blue pegasus with the rainbow mane swooped down at him and lifted him into the air over his bed. She spun him around just like she used to do, their noses rubbing with affection. He should feel joy, but horror instead rushed over him. He knew this day, this was the day that…

    “C’mon Dash, we gotta hustle!” an accented voice called from down below. Aunt Applejack. He couldn’t help it, he burst into tears….

    “Oh, now stop that,” his mother gently admonished, “you know how it is, the Princess needs us. Don’t worry; I’ll be back before you know it, squirt.”

    “Don’t… don’t go…” he whimpered and tried to hold her there with legs that felt far too short to wrap about her, so overwhelmed with emotion that he couldn’t get the words out. He HAD to tell her!

    “You know I have to, kiddo,” she answered smoothly and set him down on the bed. “Don’t worry, Tank will be here to keep you company until Gilda can get her tail over here. Should only be an hour, you can watch Tank all by yourself for that long, can’t you? You’re a big boy, right?”

    “Dash, we can’t wait no longer!” Applejack called up from below, and his mother made a face she quickly hid. She rubbed noses with him once more.

    “Be good for Gilda!” she called, and with a flick of her wings, she tore down the stairs.

    “C’mon, Twilight’s already got th’ portal ready!” the apple-bucking pony said when his mother joined her.

    “Yeah yeah, like you didn’t say goodbye to Apple Bloom…” his mother retorted, but the rest was lost when the door slammed shut. He fell apart in that moment, bawling as he simply stared at the old door to his room. He almost didn’t notice when Tank bumped into him from the side, the anachronism that was Dash’s pet, who ironically outlived his owner. He was a tortoise of large proportions and generally slow wit, but earnest emotions and a strapped on magically powered propeller that allowed him to keep up with his owner, even if he wasn’t the most precise of flyers. Tank died of old age when his daughter was still young. It was one of the few times he was there in her childhood, though he really can’t claim it wasn’t a selfish act. It was a farewell to that final living part of his mother’s life.

    He reached out and hugged the hovering tortoise tightly to his chest, his tears refusing to stop. He knew this day, and he knew what happened next. This was the day his mother never came back from. This was the day Rainbow Dash died…

    “Why…” he demanded through the tears, his voice cracking, “why would you make me relive that?”

    “Because your mother made the same decision then that you are making now,” the reflection answered. In the full length mirror, exactly where he remembered it as a child, stood his adult self, battered and bruised and looking very much the worse for wear. He stood amidst an endless horizon filled with soft fluffy white clouds, which from this perspective looked oddly soothing, and final. “The only difference is that she made the commitment from the day you were born. It didn’t take looking at you dying at her hooves to bring her to that threshold.”

    Words failed him once more, as the reflected pony looked at him with a gentle understanding. With a final hug to the tough tortoise, he let Tank go, who hovered off and promptly bumped into a wall before reaching his favorite perch to sun himself in the window. Sunset Sparkle then turned to face the door once more, and with a slow breath said the one thing he never said before. “Goodbye, Mom.” He turned slowly and walked to the mirror, and walked through its shimmering surface once again.

    “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth,” his reflection told him. Ultrapony turned bloodshot eyes back to him, who now stood as a current reflection of who, and where, he was. The only difference was that in the reflection, the eternal expanse of clouds was in the night, while it was still day for him.

    “I think… I think I understand,” Sunset Sparkle said, rubbing his nose and sniffling lightly. “It was hard to see that again, but I think I understand what the purpose was, at least beyond just showing me all my flaws and failures.”

    “And what purpose is that?” his reflection asked, looking mildly surprised.

    “You don’t really know all that much about me, even after looking through my memories, so you’re trying to see what sort of pony I am,” Ultrapony said softly. “At the end of the day, you’re not me; you’re just a magic orb that has become part of me that is somehow infused with a soul of your own. You’ve existed within me since I found you, and Eclipse recognized what you are. I hate how stupid he makes me feel, but I can’t say I didn’t make a lot of boneheaded choices too. But that’s just it, you didn’t know what I was thinking, just what I did and said. And I had a lot in my past that needed explaining…”

    “You are flawed,” the reflection answered simply, “just as we are. Every pony is flawed, to a different extent, but the capacity to overcome those flaws and become something greater is the important part of who and what we seek. You would essentially be only the second pony to house me for any length of time, and your predecessor failed this regard. He corrupted me, took the power I gave him not to overcome his flaws, but to reinforce them. And then he corrupted the others as well, killing their bearers and taking their orbs for himself. He became a magic so dark and foul that the world nearly didn’t survive his attempt to enslave it.”

    “I somehow suspect you’re not speaking about Sombra,” the stallion noted thoughtfully, “but that’s the only name I know who did massive pony enslavements.”

    “My former bearer’s name has been wiped from the history books,” the reflection answered softly, “that was his first act when he took all six of the elements for himself and successfully corrupted them. He eliminated all memory, written and otherwise, of his true name. Only that name which the world feared remained, and the Elements of Harmony erased that name in punishment when he was defeated and cast into Tartarus. He is truly ‘he who shall not be named’, because every name he may have possessed was erased from existence.”

    “With that sort of history, I’d want to be careful too,” Ultrapony started, then froze for a moment. A sudden inspiration sparked through him and he turned suddenly, his eyes boring in on his reflection, inspecting it carefully. It was there, even if he wasn’t sure what it meant, but he acted. He stepped towards the mirror once again, his eyes locked upon his reflection. For the first time, he saw fear flit over the features of his counterpart.

    “W-what are you doing?!” he demanded, but Sunset Sparkle didn’t listen. Instead he reached around the mirror, his hooves grasping the entire thing. The grip was awkward, but when he was sure he had it in hoof, he pulled the mirror to him. It looked like a hug, in an odd and awkward way, but the fact that his reflection seemed to panic, literally turning tail and running away from the pony he had just spent this long conversing with, told the stallion he was succeeding. His power might have been gone, but Ultrapony squeezed, closing his eyes as he forced himself not to see, not to feel, the mirror but…

    “H-how did you know?” a small voice finally asked, and Ultrapony opened his eyes. The mirror was gone, and in his hooves rested the small form of a colt. It looked like him at a young age, but worse for wear. Emaciated and battered, with a smudged coat and poorly cared for wings and mane.

    “The mirror was never there, was it?” Sunset Sparkle asked, and gathered the small form into a close embrace. “It was just you placing a barrier between us. Just as I did for every pony in my life, you kept me at leg’s reach to ensure you couldn’t be hurt. I had a flash of… inspiration I guess, that I needed to reach past that. The last bearer abused the gifts you gave, by your own admission, and that would make any pony leery.”

    The colt version of himself sniffled and gave a weak nod, “We were barely created when we found our first bearers. We were naïve, trusting, and powerful… not good traits to have. I didn’t see what was happening until it was too late… the near conquering of Equestria, and the enslavement of the world, all because of me. All because I trusted some pony too much.” The colt covered his face and sniffled, his face burning with shame.

    “Thus you are as flawed as we ponies are,” the stallion repeated from before. “I think I understand.”

    “No, you don’t,” the colt said softly, “because you just want to use me too.”

    “But…”

    “You want me to save your daughter, you want to use my power for what is essentially a selfish reason,” the colt accused, stabbing his chest with a stubby hoof. He pushed and wriggled free of Ultrapony’s hug, standing on his own hooves and staring daggers at the stallion.

    “Saving my daughter wouldn’t be selfish. It’s not for me --” Ultrapony started.

    “Ponyfeathers,” the young version of himself spat, “it’s because you feel guilty for hurting her! I… I know that feeling. I remember everything ‘he’ made me do so clearly….”

    “Guilt isn’t the only reason,” Ultrapony said softly, “I’d be lying if I denied guilt was part of it, but she deserves the chance to live. Look at all the good she has done! She’s part of the elements of Harmony, leads the team that beat the Nightmare once in the past, and has protected many other ponies. She still has more good to do…”

    “You’re just trying to convince me to do something for you,” the colt replied stubbornly, sitting down and folding his forelegs across his chest.

    “Fine, forget about my daughter!” Ultrapony finally cried, startling the poor colt as he lowered his head. “Just don’t let her sacrifice be in vain. She sacrificed herself to try and free me, so I am not going to let her just bleed for nothing. Eclipse is a threat, he threatens every pony in Equestria, and potentially The Nightmare could become every bit the threat the pony who corrupted you was, possibly even greater. Once I’m gone, no pony will be able to stop him from getting his hooves on you. We have to stop him. My own stupidity got us to this point, and this is my… this is our one chance to fix it. With or without you, I will give every last breath to fight him.”

    “You were going to die anyway,” the colt pointed out, “that’s hardly a sacrifice.”

    “Then I guess I have nothing left to give,” he answered and sighed, “Eclipse took everything else from me, far more than I was willing to give. He took my body, my existence, and even you, from me. That only leaves one final thing in my possession: my very soul. If that’s what it will take to convince you, then… then I offer you that, dents and all.”

    The colt gasped in surprise, eyes wide, “Your soul? Are you sure?”

    ”Yes,” he answered firmly.

    The colt seemed to chew the inside of his lip for a moment before finally nodding. “Okay. It’s time then…”

    Sunset Sparkle blinked. “It’s time? Time for what?”

    “It’s time to wake my brothers.”

    A single pulse of light exploded outward from Eclipse.

    The ponies on the field gasped, several backing up a single pace as the wave of energy passed harmlessly past them, the only real affect an annoying electric buzz it left in its wake. Celestia, however, understood when she saw it approach her position, and turned her head to look squarely at the small group of civilian ponies who had sheltered with her. She didn’t want to miss this.

    “Showtime,” Discord all but whispered to her, and the elder Princess couldn’t help but smile.

    The ponies she gazed at seemed confused by the sudden attention, even as Honey pulled the more inquisitive Indigo back from the edge of the expanding wave. Some of them closed their eyes as the wave of energy passed harmlessly over them, then seemed to dissipate to nothing. They looked among each other curiously, uncertain what just happened, when a shout from the small filly drew their attention.

    “Mommy! The bags are glowing!” Indigo cried excitedly, pointing her wrapped hoof at the saddlebags the maids had brought up. The dark packs glowed from an internal light, mutedly illuminating the material and pouring from the closed flaps like an overflowing bucket.

    “Professor…” Quagga breathed softly.

    “I see it,” Relic answered. The sandy unicorn edged hesitantly towards the glowing bags, fascinated and afraid all at once. He glanced back briefly to his partner, before stretching a trembling hoof out towards the bags.

    The bags all but exploded open, sending the unicorn back on his flank with a yelp, and the quartet of orbs launched themselves into the air and swirled over the small group. They hovered there for a moment, then reoriented so that they spiraled over Celestia before each rocketed off in turn towards Eclipse.

    “The other elements,” Eclipse breathed, “I should have never doubted you Sunset Sparkle. You brought them to me…” The smoke tried to coalesce even closer to the ghostly stallion, but found himself unable to resume control.

    “Not to you…” Ultrapony said, his voice taking an oddly ethereal tone, “to their new bearers.”

    “What…? WHAT?!” Eclipse screamed, and his misty form roiled about the stoic figure, “I will crush you then and take them for myself! The corrupted weight of the Elements of Justice will… wait…”

    “You know the rules,” Kaos put in with a smirk.

    “The sixth will appear only when the five have been joined…” Relic whispered, unable to help but break away from the group, walking towards the scene in fascination, “My Goddess, Quagga, we might actually be able to witness the elements in action first hand!”

    Eclipse shrieked, “No! They are MINE!!”

    “The Elements will decide that, won’t they?” Luna stated, a thin smile touching her lips. No sooner had she spoken than one of them spiraled upwards, a fierce blue glow emanating from it. “Wit is to be the first, it would seem. Discord, who are your bearers? It only serves to reason that your success be seen to its conclusion.”

    “Kaos has been briefed,” the mismatched figure answered with a smile, “I think I’ll just watch from the outside this time.”

    “Kaos then,” the Princess said, and the zebra swallowed nervously and adjusted his tie, “you and your team have come to the aid of your Princesses in our time of need, and stood against the Nightmare even to this moment. Much as I challenged Twilight Sparkle when the Nightmare possessed me, I challenge you to overcome this final test.”

    Kaos flushed slightly with the significance of the reference, and dipped his head. He took a single step forward and spoke in an even voice as clearly as possible, “Elements of Justice, I have done my utmost to prepare these stallions for your needs and, with assistance, chosen those who would be the most suitable candidates for your host.

    “I call upon you, Crosswind, to stand and receive,” Kaos intoned, ignoring the wind that seemed to spiral about him. “You have been the one who lightened our mood with your words and deeds, choosing to be the ‘clown’ of our team. Always ready with a keen mind and an acerbic tongue, I hearby name you the Element of Wit!”

    To every pony’s surprise, the crystal orb seemed to all but vibrate for a moment, then shattered as unidentified laughter burst from it. The glowing blue streaked across the night sky to the pegasus, surrounding him in a halo of crystal shards. “I can honestly say I was not expecting that…” Crosswind noted with a smirk.

    Another orb spun upwards from its position, and a pulse of orange filled it with light. “Mercy,” Luna identified softly in the same moment that Eclipse shrieked again, momentarily deafening the ponies present. The orb bobbled slightly in the air, but steadied when Kaos began to speak.

    “I call upon you, Professor Bunsen Burner, to stand and receive.”

    “Me?” Burner asked, confused. He shifted a step away from where he and Alto had stood near Discord and Celestia, standing only a foot or so to Relic’s side. “There muzt be zome mistake…”

    “No mistake, Professor,” Kaos added with a smile. “You have learned mercy for those who would stand against you. You spent over a year hunting the one known as Clockwork Key, and yet when you had the opportunity to claim your final victory, a move that would have forever erased her from the face of Equestria, you spared her life. You refused to act, and actively worked with her for the defense of this land. None is so worthy of this title as you.”

    The orb above Eclipse shattered with something that sounded like a sob, and the glowing orange crystals rushed to the professor, surrounding him in a ring of crystal shards. Burner looked uncomfortable by the event, even as Relic peered closely at the turning ring, his curiosity overwhelming his concerns as he tried to poke at the crystals… only to find his hoof rebuffed.

    A third orb leapt into the air above Eclipse, even as the mist tried to envelop it. “MINE!” the shadowy stallion cried, but screamed out in pain a moment later as a red light poured from the crystal and burned away the smoke that would hide it.

    “Discipline,” Luna identified softly.

    “I call upon you, Junkyard, to stand and receive,” Kaos intoned, and was not surprised when the diamond dog stood up straight, his black nose quivering quizzically. Crosswind ducked down to hover by his friend, nudging him conspiratorially as best he could around the ring of crystal fragments surrounding him. “Junkyard, you have stood firm even in our darkest hour. You lost your very arm in this fight, and yet you wordlessly replaced it with my assistance so that you might rejoin the battle. You stood against Filigree, and on your honor offered her protection to have her injuries seen to. You have been the steadfast rock of our group, and the single most disciplined among us. You have personified this element from the first moment I met you.”

    The orb shattered silently, spiraling in air before diving at the large canine, surrounding him in a halo of crystal shards. Junkyard and Crosswind found themselves nudged slightly away from each other by the rings circling them, as if the crystals did not wish to intermix.

    The final orb seemed almost reluctant as it climbed into position over the alicorn. Eclipse roared at it, trying to force the body to reach up for it, and yet it remained unmoving.

    “Courage,” Kaos noted before Luna could, as it was the only one left. He turned to try and spot the one he had planned for this role, only to feel his heart sink as Alto ducked back and away from him. “Oh no…” he whispered softly. With a dry mouth he looked to Discord frantically, panic broiling just beneath the surface. Unfortunately, the draconequus didn’t seem to have an answer for him. “Ah... I… uh…” he stammered.

    The magic faltered. All of them could feel it, and see it, as the crystals fluctuated and seemed to slow in their spinning. Small fragments began to drop out of the glowing halos, and the color seemed to dull as Eclipse began to laugh. “Yes, YES! It failed… the elements will be MINE!!!”

    “Kaos?” Luna asked softly, frowning.

    “I… I’m sorry, Princess,” Kaos finally admitted, “I thought we were ready but…”

    “No! We don’t have a second chance!” Ultrapony cried, then began to cough and choke, the mist that was Eclipse growing tendrils of smoke that sank into the ghostly flesh of his neck.

    “You’re damn right you won’t have a second chance,” Eclipse hissed, as the glow seemed to fade from the crystals, falling to the ground as so much lifeless crystal, only the final orb still hovering above him, “because I won’t give you one!”

    “Professor Relic,” Celestia said, her voice cutting across the battlefield like a blade, “You are the Element of Courage.”

    The sandy unicorn froze, and then slowly turned to face the Princess. “Me?” he squeaked.

    “You,” she answered with a tender smile. “You led your friend Quagga on a mission that stood directly against my stated will. You found these Elements of Justice, thinking it would lead you to your death if I or any of my guard caught you. Even when I knew the truth, you stood and insisted that you bore all the responsibility in order to protect your friend and your workers. You, who risked the wrath of the Regent of the Sun herself, are the very picture of courage.”

    “Professor Relic,” Kaos called, his voice gaining strength, “I call upon you to stand and receive.”

    Unlike the others before it, the orb did not shatter, but instead reduced itself to a spear of light that arrowed directly into the unicorn’s breast. For a moment, Relic recoiled with a startled cry, but he saw no blood, nor felt any pain. A sudden burst of light surrounded him, and the other crystals likewise confirmed the completion of the selections. The fallen crystal halos leapt suddenly to life again, lancing inward into each of the chosen stallions. Burner saw an additional effect, as the orange glow of his new element charged the air around him, reforming his shattered power armour in full repair.

    “And finally,” Kaos answered with a smile to Eclipse, “with these five elements, I summon the final element, the Element of Magic!”

    Light exploded from each of the new bearers, lancing outwards towards Kaos, enveloping him in a blinding light, engulfing him him entirely. The zebra closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the power wash over and gather within him, almost painfully growing in his chest.

    “No, NO, NO!!” Eclipse shrieked, and for the first time stopped trying to take hold of the body he shared with Ultrapony, and actively attempted to pull free. He knew what came next, he’d felt the blow twice in the past! Unfortunately, he found those tendrils he’d bored into Sunset Sparkle in that last attempt to take over refused to pull free. “Let me go!!”

    “No,” Ultrapony whispered in a dangerously soft voice, “You and I are going to stand right here, and we will perish together.”

    “Damn you, Sunset Sparkle, release me!!” he shrieked, the monster’s eyes suddenly drawn to the zebra, who finally had reached the limit and threw his head back. A beam of pure white leapt from his mouth, like a scream made physical, which lanced upwards through the clouds and forced even the gryphons back. It was in that moment, Eclipse’ eyes met those of Goldtalon.

    “Help me!” Eclipse shrieked, reaching a smoky hoof up towards the gryphon king. To his dismay, the royal gryphon simply smiled darkly and shook his head. Fear turned to fury as the misty form roiled and yanked against the body that held him captive. “BETRAYER!!” he screamed so loudly it could be heard for miles around.

    Goldtalon only smiled wider as the energy crashed into his accuser, enveloping Eclipse and his host alike in blinding white energy that poured into the ground with a scream of power. The gryphon’s plan had worked perfectly. Eclipse was so powerful the ponies had to use the elements against him. This would leave the bearers easily identified targets and substantially weakened from the effort. He held his claw up in preparation to start the attack, pausing only briefly when he saw the ghostly pegasus standing where Eclipse had once been.

    “Did it work?” the stallion known as Ultrapony asked, carefully looking out over the field. The mares he knew watched with various expressions, ranging from awe to confusion, even as the new element bearers struggled to recover from where they lay on the ground. Even Junkyard had been knocked flat by the expenditure of energy. Ultrapony gave a small, grim, smile as he looked down, the element he had carried rested at his hooves.

    Any answer to his query was lost when the world exploded.

    Lavender flickered to life and shielded them from the first impact, even as the ghostly pegasus threw himself unnecessarily to the ground. A second attack ripped right through the protection and sent the psychic mare to the ground, exhaustion preventing her from standing again. Her blind eyes could only watch the next fireball approached them…

    Luna, however, stood firm. Silvery light interposed itself and shielded the group from the next wave of fire that was launched at them, and the Lunar Regent frowned. For the entire battle, the gryphons and dragons had remained silent, and now the reason for such was becoming apparent.

    “Fall back,” she ordered over the headset, “gather thyselves at mine sister and defend that position. The fight is not yet over!” Yet, even as she spoke those words, she knew it was a losing fight. While these creatures were but pale shadows of the majesty a true dragon embodied, not to mention the sheer power they possessed, they were powerful enough. This battle would be her last, for these dragons would eventually overwhelm her and her sister, and that discounted the army of gryphons and any specials that might have been included in the mix.

    Clockwork shook her head, standing over the prone form of Galaxi. “We have too many unable to fight still on the field. The guys are still recovering, and we’re down to two, three if you count Filigree or Galaxi.”

    “I got Spectrum over to Celestia,” Flourish called. “Come on, get G over here, and we can focus on the guys.”

    “Filigree, attend to your teammates and defend mine sister,” Luna ordered, shifting her shield aside to lance out with short blades made of moonlight, sinking them into one of the dragons and tearing something vital. It was hardly the sort of precision fighting she had once grown accustomed to, this was a messy affair that churned her stomach.

    “Like hell I’m backing down,” came her answer, and Luna smiled grimly. She should have known that Filigree would force herself to fight; it was the only way she could let the rage and fury and hate at what happened to Spectrum out. But her might would not be enough, given her injuries. Not that any of them had much of a choice right now. The Princess only momentarily saw the gryphoness blindside one of the dragons, literally tearing it out of the air and diving bloodily into it with her serrated wings. Luna was almost thankful when another dragon interposed itself between them, thus sparing her further visions of what Filigree was capable of at her worst.

    Luna fought a slow retreat as more dragons attempted to overwhelm her, and gryphons snuck in their own spears between the gaps. Her shield got more workout than her blades as she struggled to force back the constant press of draconic bodies. She could hear the metallic sound of Clockwork’s plasma ejectors working overtime, peppering the battlefield. It was interspersed with a sound she was not yet used to, but familiar with, as Professor Burner entered the fight and added the quick series of popping sounds that announced his bright and deadly lasers entering the mix. Flourish and Zilch struggled to pick off the stragglers attempting to circle behind them even as Junkyard utilized the ground itself to supplement her shield from behind, using crystals from the mines far below the palace to strengthen it against the incoming fire and fury. Crosswind simply made it tough for any dragons attempting to get above them, but was finding it difficult from a combination of exhaustion and how large the creatures he was trying to force away. At least Alto was rested, and used his sonic scream liberally to drive the dragons back, but he kept running out of breath.

    “We are being overwhelmed,” Kaos called over the din, and Luna was unsure if he even bothered with the headset or not, given the tight knot they were being forced into. “I would suggest a retreat, if you have one.”

    “My apologies, but We doth lack a contingency that accounts for dragons,” Luna answered with a grim smile.

    “We have the vault,” one of the few guards still present, Captain Light, corrected, “we can use one of the teleporters to convey the Princesses there.”

    “And the rest?” Celestia asked, her soft voice somehow cutting through the noise.

    “The survival of the Princesses is our primary mission,” the unicorn stated firmly, “all else is secondary.”

    “I win,” Luna chirped and turned to lance moonlight into a particularly ugly dragon that was gnawing on her shield.

    “How did you…?” Celestia stammered angrily, looking between her sister and the captain of the guard. Finally she settled on the guard pony. “We are not abandoning any pony!”

    “Princess, with all due respect, you don’t have a choice,” the unicorn captain stated flatly, “your magic is occupied just keeping you alive, and you are otherwise helpless. Any one of these dragons could get a lucky shot and end your life at any moment; you must be evacuated!”

    “Before you get too deep into this argument,” Discord cut in, “perhaps maybe I can handle this little invasion problem for you.”

    “Please do, Discord,” Luna stated, “because I know what the Captain plans to do, and I know my Sister would have his rank for it. I’d rather not lose a good pony for doing the right thing.”

    “You do realize I include you in that, Princess Luna, yes?” the Captain asked with a raised eyebrow.

    “Of course, We simply do not think you capable. We may be tired, but we are not lying helpless on the field of battle,” Luna retorted with a smirk, moonlight slicing through the air to drive a pair of surly dragons back.

    “You better do it now,” Galaxi inserted weakly to Discord, “otherwise they’ll be at it for a while.”

    Discord smiled at Galaxi and stepped forward to the edge of the shielded area, a small area of safety amidst the maelstrom around them. Dragons swirled in the air over their head, like vultures waiting for an opening. Hoards of Gryphons filled the field ahead of him, and he grimaced as he saw they were making a point to apply their spears to those guard who fell and littered the field. Most of them may have been dead already, but at least a few cried for mercy upon deaf ears and met their end. For the first time since all this started, Discord felt something akin to anger. It had been so long since he’d been able to feel true fury, split apart as he had been, and here these… A guttural growl collected in the back of his throat, then slid away as a wicked grin crossed his face. He didn’t know what would happen, but now that he had his power back he could truly unleash, allow the chaos to reign and send these foals running. He raised his hand, and it felt like the entire world trembled with anticipation. Gryphons stared, recognizing who he was in that moment, fear touching their eyes, and even the dragons stopped to watch the mismatched figure and his dark gaze. And then, the anticipation was over…

    …Discord snapped his fingers.

    That familiar surge of magic flew through him, so welcoming and chaotic and insane all at once. He was sure he laughed, though given the way his allies cringed, it probably wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring. It didn’t matter, it felt good! When the bubbling laughter had passed, he finally looked out to see what his power had wrought.

    The grass at his feet was now blanketed in pansies. Discord frowned and examined his fingers for a moment, even going so far as to pull the hand off at the wrist and stare into it before replacing it. He snapped his fingers again, the surge of magic flew free and… one dragon sneezed, blowing a spinneret off the wall of the palace. Discord growled and reexamined his fingers as dragons and gryphons alike seemed to lost interest in his display. Magic yanked him back away from the edge as fire enveloped the spot he once occupied, bumping him against Luna as she used her shield to stave off the flames.

    Discord’s eyes went wide, realizing something, and then he physically slumped, eyes half lidded. “You did something to my power, didn’t you?” he demanded of the Princess flatly.

    “After what thou did to Lady Fluttershy, we felt perfectly warranted in our actions,” Luna answered sharply. “Draining off thy power was the least we could have done, we had considered far worse.”

    Discord sighed dramatically, “So much for my big scene,” he grumbled and tossed the script over his shoulder and into a nearby fire.

    “Then I have to commandeer Flourish and Zilch to transport the Princesses to safety,” Captain Light said sharply.

    “I have a better idea,” Discord noted with a smile, “Zilch? I believe it’s time for Plan Z.”

    Goldtalon frowned.

    The king was perched above all upon his dragon, content to let his gryphons take the fight to the Princesses and their allies. The dragons had been performing admirably, but his plan to eliminate the bearers had not gone off as smoothly as he hoped. The Princesses were damnably quick to respond to the shifting situation, and now had all but retreated to a small area they filled with shields and stonework, with the ponies shooting with whatever they had to keep his forces from overwhelming them. While the surprise appearance of Discord had proven fruitless, it bothered him that he had been freed and was assisting the ponies. Things could potentially get out of claw…

    “Godkiller,” he ordered, “get down there. Tear those shields down and nullify every pony standing. Make this their final stand.” The inversely colored gryphoness nodded sharply, and with a touch, guided the relatively tiny white dragon down towards the battle. The small dragon was chosen for its speed and agility, which allowed it to weave in and out between the larger dragons as it neared the shield. Godkiller’s dragon touched down and lowered its head upon her instruction, and the gryphon’s eyes began to glow. For a brief moment, Goldtalon wished he could be down there, if only to see the look of horror that must be washing over the “Princesses” faces right about now.

    The edge of the magic-nullifying zone the gryphoness projected touched the Princess’ shield, and he leaned forward to watch. This was the ultimate test of his pet project, the gryphoness who could nullify even the powers of a Goddess, and couldn’t help but grin when Godkiller’s power melted away the shield where it touched. Dragons surged forward, one of which stuffed its head into the growing opening and exhaled, fire streaming into the shielded area and turning it into a furnace. And yet, in the same moment the dragon exhaled, a white flash filled the shielded area, as well as seemingly random spots upon the field below.

    Goldtalon’s smile froze, his triumph curdling as it transformed into cold fury. He didn’t know how, but he was certain the ponies had escaped. He only barely heard his generals tell him this very information, ignoring them as he focused his eyes on the scene below. Not one pony alive rested on the field below, and he knew it. His generals were talking again, but he ignored them, carefully pushing down his anger and rage and the desire to snap their necks for this failure. His generals finally fell silent as he continued to look upon the field below. The dragons hunted for any ponies left still alive, of which they found none. A number of them took to roasting those deceased ponies that still littered the muddy ground with their fire and eating the remains. The king watched as ponies were consumed, and knew what his next step should be…

    “My liege?” one of his generals finally prompted, growing rightfully concerned about their king’s continued silence.

    “Raze the city,” he commanded finally, “let it sink beneath a sea of fire. Show the world that the Princesses have been deposed, and Equestria is no more. The Princesses may have escaped us, for now, but they are no longer of any concern. The pony empire has fallen to the gryphons, and we have reclaimed our rightful lands. Let the age of the gryphon begin!”

    The order was disseminated quickly among the ranks. Torches were acquired by the rank and file, and the dragons soared over the streets. Architecture that had stood for millennia, beautiful and delicate, was bathed in fire. Ugly squat buildings borne of technology and erected speedily to compensate for the rapid growth of the city were set ablaze. Homes and businesses, gardens and streets, and even the palace itself… all of it swallowed in the devouring flames and reduced to ashes.

    …and Canterlot burned.

24

Chapter 24

“Full Circle”

    Pure chaos.

    Yes, that was the only possible definition, he realized, as he looked over the room stuffed full of ponies. He had even gone so far as to reduce his size to keep from being crushed between two wounded guard ponies that were somehow wedged into the same space he was. Admittedly, Discord had not anticipated quite so many ponies being pulled into the base of operations he had been using, and it impressed upon him the real depth of power the suited mare truly held. Zilch had gone well beyond his intent, which had been to simply withdraw the individuals collected about the Princesses, and teleported every still living pony on the field. Unfortunately, many of them were severely wounded and in dire need of immediate medical attention, which they had a distinct shortage of. By his count they only had two, three if you counted the unicorn guard captain, medical ponies.

    Normally he’d have been thrilled to just drink in the chaotic mess around him, but now was not the time, plus it was difficult to enjoy it with so many ponies pressing in at once. He attempted to teleport across the room, but found the attempt only made his scales itch and sighed. So he was forced to dodge around hooves until he could fly up to the side of the conference table, upon which Princess Celestia and Spectrum had been given a shared position of dubious honor, before resuming his normal size.

    “Now, ponies…” he tried to soothe, attempting to get their attention, only to be drowned out by a shrill cry.

    “Zilch!”

    Flourish was there in a flash, teleporting to the suited mare’s side and catching her before she could collapse fully. Discord frowned, hoping she hadn’t overextended herself. “She used far too much power,” Celestia said softly, echoing his own thoughts.

    The draconequus nodded in agreement. “She went well beyond what I thought she was capable of. Junkyard, take Zilch to her chambers then return here. I have a feeling we’ll need your help further.” The diamond dog nodded and leaned down to scoop up the rather frail looking pony, the suit appearing somewhat deflated, as if someone had let some of the air out. Junkyard carefully carried her from the room, followed by Flourish’s worried gaze.

    “Clockwork!” the mechanized stallion shouted over any other chatter, his massive armour barely having room to turn, much less move. “Ve muzt hurry! It vill not take long for ze gryphonz to begin zere zearch for uz; ve need to prepare defenzes!”

    “Right! Where’s your lab?” the mare called back, and carefully maneuvered her suit towards the room exit. She had taken to hovering over the crush of ponies since she appeared, but she had to be careful not to add to their injuries with the hot plasma jets.

    “Stand down, you two,” Discord interrupted, ducking slightly as Clockwork’s armour came to a stop almost directly over him, “we are not in the desert you think we are. I was not about to risk giving my position away by setting down so close to that ghost town. It was far too close to Appleoosa and Las Pegasus to work properly as a staging area.”

    “Vhy lie to uz about zat?” Burner asked, confused.

    “Same reason he didn’t tell us he was the Prince,” Crosswind piped up, “that plausible deniability thing he brought up before.”

    “You are partially correct,” Discord noted with a smile, “and partly because I did not wish to risk this base of operation to any spying eyes, it has importance beyond just housing us. Besides, if you wandered outside, you’d find the weather most disagreeable. Regardless, we need to set aside a place to stash all these ponies, especially all the wounded. Kaos? Call up our doctor friend and get her out of there before the gryphons reach her. If she objects, just point out how much money she’ll make once the gryphons take full control.”

    “Yes, my prince,” the zebra noted, and trotted from the room.

    “We gonna have room for all these ponies?” Crosswind asked reasonably.

    Discord smiled. “It is far larger here than you suspect. Take the captain with you and find an open area that you can use for a medical wing. Burner, take Clockwork and see if you can pry her out of that suit. I know you have some rudimentary medical training, Professor, and both you and Clockwork have the motor skills and mental focus suitable for the job, so you will need to assist the medics. If you can’t find where they are, swing back around and one of us will direct you. Do you have any medical training, Professor Relic?”

    “I’m afraid not,” the sandy unicorn answered distractedly, “but I think Quagga has some emergency training.”

    “Only first responder training, I fear,” the zebra answered for himself.

    “Right now, that’s good enough,” Captain Light answered simply, “come on. Let’s find a good spot we can start triaging these wounded. Flourish! You’re with us, we’ll need you to ferry the wounded back and forth while Zilch is down!”

    “Yes sir!” she snapped smartly, and trotted up to the Captain. He inspected her for a moment, as if trying to remember her, before shaking his head and leading the small group off. Burner waved a clawed hoof to Clockwork, and clomped the opposite way down the hall, followed closely by the armoured mare.

    “Hard to believe that just this morning he was devoted to killing her,” Discord mused aloud.

    “I must confess that I am impressed by everything you have managed here,” Celestia added softly, “but I do wish you had worked more closely with us. We may have been able to circumvent direct combat with our Element bearers. Had our team been more… capable, we may have fared better.”

    Discord looked down at his mismatched feet, one of them a gray pony leg and heavy hoof and the other a scaled claw resembling that of a dragon, and sighed, “I tried, Celestia    , I really did. You never took me seriously or, even worse, you treated it as if I were making the threat myself. Neither you or your sister took my warning seriously.”

    “I cannot recall any such warnings,” Luna noted, tugging off the heavy helmet she was wearing and thunking it down on the table, careful of the other pony who had been laid there behind Celestia. Spectrum looked almost like she were ready for a casket, given the pose… but that was fixed in short order as Flourish transported her teammate away first for triaging, leaving behind the vain hope that they could find a way to save her.

    “Well, I’ll admit I was a bit new to all that friendship stuff, and dealing with other ponies was never my strong suit,” Discord admitted, “so I may not have come off as plainly as I hoped. Besides, it’s hard to be taken seriously when you’re just as willing to toss whoopee cushions on your thrones as you are to deal with existential questions from beyond the fabric of reality itself.”

    “And here Luna said just a few days hence that you would scoff at the idea of anything you did having a reason,” Celestia joked with a weak smile, her eyes flicking as Flourish appeared and vanished about the room, grabbing two and three ponies at once before teleporting away in a cloud of pink smoke.

    “That I did,” Luna admitted, “I would seem to be mistaken.”

    “If things hadn’t changed… if Fluttershy hadn’t changed me, you would have been correct,” Discord answered with a wan smile. “However, since neither of you saw this threat, I felt the need to act myself. To that end I split myself into two halves, one of which I left in Canterlot, while the other only possessed some rudimentary shape shifting powers so that I could hide among the ponies and search for a solution.”

    “Why would you do that? Disappearing from the palace would hardly be unusual for you,” Celestia asked.

    “You, your sister, or Twilight Sparkle would have eventually noticed, as would many other ponies if I wandered that far afield as I searched for answers,” Discord noted simply. “I’m not so sure it was one of my better ideas, truth be told. As I mentioned before, the longer I stayed split like that, the more different traits of myself became manifest and exaggerated in one copy but not the other. My smaller, wandering, self became more methodical, and… I’m not sure how to phrase it… more gentle? Less antagonistic? It was like all of my anger and aggression was stuck in the version I left in the palace.”

    “That would explain some of what occurred with Fluttershy, and prompted the bearers to lock you away again,” Celestia said softly.

    Discord looked at his feet again and scratched behind an ear. “I wish I remembered what happened, but it’s… hazy. I remember the rest clear as a bell, my time as Mare-Do-Well and the budding friendship with Clockwork, and my time as the Prince as Kaos’ mentor and guide. But that third split… it’s just a blur of red that tastes like blood and… pizza sauce.”

    “You taste memories?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

    “You don’t?” Discord countered with a mischievous smile.

    “I would recommend not pushing the matter,” Celestia slipped in, “you will remember in time, and when you do… I will be here. I have a feeling you will need some pony to talk to.”

    “Perhaps, but for now,” the draconequus said, changing the subject, “we should find the last of these ponies somewhere to stay.”

    “Agreed,” Celestia said, and looked over the few uninjured ponies. She frowned a little at the shell-shocked expressions that met her gaze upon those who should have been innocent to such horrors. The one maid looked about ready to pass out, almost wholly supported by the other and her daughter. But the rather forlorn, almost depressed, look on the sandy unicorn’s face surprised her. “Professor Relic? Are you alright?”

    “I suppose so, Princess,” he sighed a little, “Just a little… put out.”

    “That seems an odd thing to feel,” Luna said, stepping forward, “especially as a the new bearer of --“

    “Of this?” he interrupted, his magic levitating the orb of his element. The Princesses glanced to each other as the stallion continued, “I was thrilled. I mean, this was everything I’d spent my time studying, learning about, both independently and for the crown. And hell, what colt hasn’t fantasized about being the big hero? And yet, after we did the deed, I was somehow… drawn inside it. Like time stood still as I faced a reflection of myself. Some sort of embodiment of the element, I… he… explained. He was nice enough about it… hell, he was downright apologetic, but told me I wasn’t the… I wasn’t the bearer. I was a convenient vessel, the bearer of the moment, but the element was not linked to me. It was… it is waiting until the proper bearer was ready.” Discord winced visibly and Celestia’s expression softened, but it was Skillet who spoke first.

    “Is still honor, yes?” the crippled pony offered. “You and zebra mention something about not knowing how the elements function was important, so maybe you are just knowing to much?”

    “Maybe,” he sighed softly. “Still, to come so close…”

    “Look less upon it as having lost the element,” Celestia suggested, “than looking upon it as a once in a lifetime chance to actually have wielded it in the first place. You can claim something very few ponies can claim, that you once felt the weight of an element upon your soul, and with it you fought the very embodiment of the Nightmare, eliminating it from this world.”

    “Y-yeah, yeah I guess so,” the stallion answered. Discord glanced back to Celestia before herding the small group off. Only Luna hung back in the now large and seemingly empty room, looking to her sister.

    “You cannot believe that the Nightmare is destroyed,” Luna said once the others were out of earshot.

    “I do not,” the elder Princess answered softly, “we were lulled into a false sense of security last time, and We shall not make the same mistake twice.”

    “The royal ‘We’,” the regent of the moon chuckled, “I approve, and concur.”

    “However, until we see evidence to the contrary we shall not voice these concerns to any of our little ponies,” Celestia concluded.

    Luna nodded, and trotted off to catch up to the group, thankfully moving slowly due to Skillet’s handicap. She simplified that by simply lifting him telekinetically and carrying him along to speed things up.

    “Princess LOOOOOoooonaaa!!” Indigo proclaimed, standing on her mother’s back, eyes wide with excitement.

    The Princess of the Moon chuckled and lifted the little filly onto her back with a sweep of her wing, smiling broadly as she trotted along with the rest of the group, doing her best not to show the concerns that ate away at her.

    “Your turn, Princess,” Flourish said, drawing Celestia’s attention away from the group. The pair vanished in a pink cloud a second later, leaving the once overcrowded room empty once again.

    “What time is it?”

    “Late,” came the answer from the stallion who all but collapsed on the floor beside her. The stone floor of the narrow hallway might not have been the most comfortable, but they both were so exhausted that they just didn’t care. Besides, all the beds Flourish and Junkyard could find had gone to the injured and dying.

    Clockwork covered her head with her hooves, “Goddess I’m wasted. It was late when the battle started, and now? It has to be almost dawn.”

    “Actually, dawn was several hours ago,” a warm and familiar voice answered. Both of the ponies struggled to rise as Celestia rounded the corner, hobbling on her newly grown leg, but she quickly waved it off and sat down with them far harder than she intended.

    “I see you are nearly healed, Princess,” the unicorn stallion noted.

    “That I am, Captain Light, I simply needed time to focus my energies. My task is nearly complete, but I must strengthen the new leg and wing, which will take a day or so,” she answered smoothly. “But tell me, what of your other patients?”

    “We should only lose only about half a dozen of the fifty plus guard ponies Zilch managed to rescue,” Captain Light answered, shaking out his naturally red mane, “the worst was rescued while being impaled with a gryphon spear. He’s already passed, but I was at least able to make his last moments comfortable. Another died of a brain hemorrhage, thankfully unconscious the whole time. The others simply lost too much blood before we got to them, and we can’t just magically summon blood bags. Other than that, they should all survive…”

    “Even Spectrum?” Clockwork asked hopefully. The stallion’s expression twisted and Clockwork immediately knew her answer.

    “She lost a lot of blood as well,” he answered softly, “and while we were able to prolong her life, she still hasn’t woken up. I don’t know that she ever will, honestly…”

    “And the rest of her team, Captain?” Celestia asked, even as she noticed Clockwork rest her head back down in a combination of exhaustion and disconsolation.

    “Filigree refused to go under, but she’s out of danger for now that we’ve managed to partially heal that broken rib. What she really needs is to stay off her hooves… claws for at least a few weeks. Trixie should wake up soon. She slipped briefly into a coma last night before we found a small fracture in her horn and focused on healing it. Galaxi had her leg wrapped, but it’s a fairly minor sprain. Still, she needs plenty of sleep, she’s suffering from what I can only describe as magical burnout, which I know isn’t possible because she’s an earth pony and a psychic, but it’s the closest explanation I have.”

    “Given her capabilities, that is an apt description,” she answered softly. “I trust that you are finished?”

    Clockwork snorted, “Not in the way you’re thinking.”

    The captain stifled the urge to berate the mare for her rudeness to the Princess, and sighed instead, “No. We’re down to the final stretch, but we still have a few more hours to go before we could be called finished. Unfortunately, Clockwork and I are starting to make mistakes and need a break. Thankfully those that remain are non-lethal injuries, so we can afford to slow down a bit. I think the real medical types in there are on the verge of tossing both of us, along with that unicorn stallion Burner, out on our flanks. The zebra though, Quagga… he’s a damned machine. He didn’t falter or flag one iota all night.”

    “Yeah, I don’t know how he does it,” Clockwork yawned.

    “Why don’t you go get some sleep, soldier,” Captain Light said, starting to stand up, “I can handle the rest of this. You had to fight the Nightmare before… before all of this.”

    “No, that’s okay,” she sighed, “I couldn’t sleep anyway. I’d just end up hovering by Spectrum’s bed, like Filigree is doing. Even Skillet showed up there sometime during the night, if only to keep Flourish from falling over.”

    “Is the entire team there?” Celestia asked softly.

    “Almost,” the mare noted with a weak smile, “I’m not, and Trixie hasn’t woken up yet.”

    “What do you want to wager the unicorn wakes up now?” Light teased with a grin.

    Clockwork groaned, “She’ll be pissed that she missed beating up Nightmare again.”

    “Oh?” Light asked simply.

    “My student and the Nightmare have a history,” Celestia answered for the short mare. The Princess slowly worked her way to her hooves, the unsteady new leg shaking under the weight before she nudged Clockwork. “Come, we’ll check on my pupil, and then join your team.”

    “You’re coming along too?” she asked, surprised.

    “Yes, there is something I wish to see for myself,” she answered, her gaze far away for a moment.

    “I’ll let you ladies do that,” the captain sighed, “I’m going to rest here for another few minutes and then get back in there.”

    “Do not overwork yourself, Captain,” she told him, and limped towards the open cave-like door that lead into the wide chamber that had served as both operating and emergency room for the past night. The pair of medics, one mare and one stallion, worked tirelessly it seemed, even if the solar regent could tell they were near exhaustion themselves. Still, she flattened her ears against the hoarse cry as the pair set a guard’s broken leg, one using magic to hold it still while the other started wrapping the limb in gauze and splints. They would need medical supplies in a hurry, she realized, not to mention other necessities she had long gotten used to not thinking about. She would have to discuss with Discord about establishing some sort of supply line.

    The chamber itself was an open cavern with a smooth ceiling and a quartet of platforms towards the center of the room. The Princess couldn’t help but wonder at the uniformity of them, but they certainly seemed unnatural. Perhaps Junkyard altered the room to suit, but Celestia didn’t feel the need to question it right now. Instead she hobbled past, almost surprised when Clockwork attempted, then withdrew, from trying to steady her, the poor mare simply too short to be of any help. Celestia still offered her a genuine smile, making sure she knew the effort had not gone unnoticed.

    The pair moved beyond the room and into another long chamber. This likely had once been a connecting hall, but had been turned into an emergency ward, lined with all the beds that had been found. Surprisingly, they had found enough for all the injured, though they were hardly hospital quality, more like thin metal frames and unadorned mattresses. Still, it was more than they had any right to expect, given their present status. A red mare stalked along the length of the chamber like a wraith, checking on the ponies as she went, and ducking out of the way of the Princess when she came close.

    “Odd mare,” Clockwork muttered softly.

    Celestia opted not to opine on the mare as they moved down the line of beds before reaching one that housed a rather familiar cyan unicorn. Her cloak of stars was draped over her like a blanket, and the conical performer’s hat she frequently wore nowhere to be found. The shorter mare moved forward, standing to the side of the bed and touching her friend’s foreleg with her hoof worriedly. Celestia carefully moved alongside the other side, her eyes washing over the form of her apprentice and student. With a trembling touch of her newly formed hoof she brushed the unicorn’s mane from her closed eyes, exposing the heavy bandage wrapped about her horn. To her surprise, the mare’s eyes snapped open…

    “Princess?” Trixie asked weakly, and Clockwork let out a wordless cry, hugging the weak unicorn. She squeaked a bit in surprise, then pet a hoof over Clockwork’s mane in confusion, looking up at Celestia again. “What… what happened? Last I remember was fighting those other ponies, then… then falling.”

    “You fell and struck your horn,” Celestia answered soothingly, “got yourself a nasty little fracture. No pony could wake you.”

    “That explains why my head feels like a troupe of buffalo did a tap dance on it,” she sighed, “but this doesn’t look like Canterlot Memorial…”

    “We’re not in Canterlot,” Celestia said softly, “the gryphons had outside help. They drove us from it.”

    “Damn…” the unicorn whispered softly, “so Kaos and his team were just scouts.”

    “Actually, the stallions helped us fight off the Nightmare,” Clockwork filled in, finally pulling away from Trixie enough to talk, “he was working with the gryphons.”

    “Wait, the Nightmare?” Trixie asked, sitting up suddenly, only to be pushed back down by the Princess’ gentle hoof.

    “The Nightmare,” Celestia confirmed, “though he had joined with Ultrapony and called himself Eclipse.”

    “What?” Trixie asked carefully, looking from one to the other intently as she tried to determine if they were joking. “Okay, I’m lost…”

    “Here, let me bring you up to speed,” Clockwork said, and began to regale the story of the past night to the unicorn. Celestia sat back and only half listened, adding her own input when needed to elaborate on one point or another. Instead, she couldn’t help but feel relief at Trixie’s quick recovery. She would be spared the loss of another student, and that lifted her spirits considerably.

    Trixie’s spirits, conversely, seemed to sink as she listened to the tale. She didn’t ask any questions, instead staring at her hooves with a nearly unreadable expression. Clockwork finally trailed off, and left the trio in a seemingly uneasy silence.

    “Trixie…” Celestia started, uncertain what was bothering her student.

    “So it happened again,” she sighed, her voice tight with frustration and resignation.

    Clockwork shook her head, confused. “Come again?”

    “It happened again. I was just some damsel in distress, lying around helpless to save myself, much less any pony else, while the real heroes did all the work,” she answered sourly.

    “Now wait a moment, you were there when we took on the Nightmare --” Clockwork insisted.

    “Sure, after I spent two months trapped on the moon as she chased my dreams to try and break my spirit,” Trixie interrupted sharply, “and now I spent an entire fight out cold because Zilch dropped me on my damned horn! I’m supposedly the most powerful mage in all of Equestria, if not beyond, and I’ve been removed from almost everything… twice!”

    Clockwork was at a loss, but Celestia slid in smoothly, “You have an ‘Achilles’ Hoof’, my student, and you will need to take care to protect it more in the future. But that does not make you any more or less vulnerable than the rest of your team. Yours has simply been exploited more than the others.”

    “It didn’t used to be a problem,” she groused softly.

    “You also had the Elements impaled on your horn for a long period, not to mention having your entire horn replaced,” Celestia pointed out, “that may have altered the flow of your magic, and thus require you to protect your horn far more than you otherwise would have. If you wish, we can experiment to determine the exact nature of this weakness. But you know you have it now, and that can make all the difference.”

    Trixie sighed softly, “I… you’re right, Princess. I just hate feeling so… useless! I mean, we might have been able to stop the Nightmare before it hurt Spectrum if I was up. We could have used the Elements…”

    Celestia smiled and nuzzled the brow of her student, “I understand your frustration, but it would not have helped. Discord spoke with me briefly about it. While I do not understand all the details yet, he informed me that the Elements of Harmony would have been useless against Eclipse. Do you remember when the Nightmare absorbed the energy in your previous meeting? I suspect that would have happened again, and no amount of swapping around who took point would have helped this time. The use of the alternate Elements, which you were unaware of, was necessary.”

    “Is the Nightmare really gone?” Trixie asked in a small voice. She was hardly mollified when her mentor looked away.

    “Are you in any shape to move around?” Clockwork asked, changing the topic.

    “I’m not sure, why?”

    “We were on our way to visit Spectrum,” Celestia answered, motioning with her head, “I suspect the rest of the team is already there.”

    “I’m well enough to get there,” Trixie said resolutely, but proved far more weak than anticipated. Thankfully Clockwork was there to brace her, and the trio resumed their progress down the hall and through the doorway near the far end. Beyond the entry, a short hall led to a trio of doorways, all three had something hung over the entrance to offer some sort of privacy. One had an old wool blanket hanging over it, so old they couldn’t tell if the gray was due to dirt or if it was originally intended to be that color. Another had some torn sheets hanging over it and reeked of alcohol, and Clockwork quickly informed them that it was where they were cleaning what medical equipment they had when they could. The final entrance had a simple white sheet hanging over it, and it was this that Celestia used her weak hoof to brush open, allowing the ponies to enter before she herself did.

    A number of heads swiveled to face them, puffy eyes recognizing them. Flourish sat near the back wall of the small room, where she leaned heavily on her beau, Skillet. Galaxi was near the entrance, and stood to gently hug Clockwork and Trixie as they entered. Luna stood like a shadow to one side, and nodded to her entering sister. Filigree sat in attentive watch at the bedside, her claw resting on the edge as she struggled to keep her emotions bottled up.

    On the bed itself laid the still and unmoving form of Spectrum. Her white coat stood out against the dull green cot she rested on, her hooves folded over her chest and covering the slim incision made by Eclipse’ horn. Her wings were laid spread, as if she could just take off into the sky from where she was. But aside from her weak fluttering breath, she didn’t move at all.

    There was an air of quiet depression and anticipation that filled the small room, as they each silently watched the dying figure. One final goodbye and the silent prayers for a last minute reprieve.

    “You may stop hiding now,” Celestia said suddenly, causing every pony in the room to jump in surprise. Her gaze, however, was not upon them, but on a spot on the wall, just near the head of the where Spectrum lay.

    “How did you…?” the ghostly voice asked, as the stallion materialized through the wall. Trixie gasped, having not entirely believed that part of Clockwork’s tale, but now witnessed for herself the spirit of Ultrapony.

    Celestia smiled sadly, “I knew you would not abandon your daughter, Sunset Sparkle. I can also sense spirits of those who have passed on as part of my celestial duties is to escort those souls to their final reward, a compulsion I find strangely absent right now.”

    The ghostly pony smiled sadly. “I’m sure that’s just because I have some unfinished business.” Before the Princess could ask, he drew out an orb, which he set on the bed by his daughter. The orb itself pulsed with a gentle inner life and was somehow solid, unlike the figure who placed it there.

    “The Element of Sacrifice,” Luna whispered, “where in Equestria did you find this?”

    “Would you believe it was just lying out in the open?” he asked with a weak smile.

    “Discord’s plan,” Celestia interjected softly, “he told me that he planted it for you to find, but not why. I suppose we know that now.”

    “Maybe,” Sunset Sparkle hedged, frowning as he looked down at his ghostly hooves. “But if he could have predicted what I did, he might have been better served to stop me than to feed my misguided belief I was doing the right thing.”

    “Sunset Sparkle… I feel I must ask,” Luna said in an oddly hesitant voice, not entirely sure she wanted the answer, “how did the Nightmare subdue you so that it might possess you?”

    The stallion’s face twisted and his eyes closed. “She didn’t subdue me,” he whispered.

    “Then how…?”

    “Trixie was right about me,” the stallion said after a moment, nodding to the wide eyed unicorn, “my ego was out of control. I thought… I was such a foal; I thought that I could somehow control the Nightmare. I… I let it possess me.”

    “You… what?!” Luna sputtered.

    “The Nightmare was wounded, badly, after your team hit her with the elements. I was sure that, given that she survived them once before, that she could do it again. I even guessed correctly that she would go hide in the Everfree Forest, in your old palace,” the stallion continued.

    “Which explains why we never found her,” Celestia said softly, “the mystic energies of the Everfree would have hidden her well from our detection spells, especially if the Nightmare kept close reign on her powers and blended with the powerful magicks that ebb and flow through the forest.”

    “The Nightmare arrived wounded and weak, missing a foreleg and wing and intentionally suppressing her own magic so you couldn’t spot where she might have gotten to,” the stallion continued, “and that’s when we met for the first time. Somehow I expected more, to be honest. I’d heard Princess Luna speak about The Nightmare, and of course were all those imps she was sending at us. I always envisioned her as some sort of massive machine of destruction, an overwhelming power that rivaled even Princess Celestia when she was at her full fury. Instead, I got a rather sad and injured alicorn that seemed downright pathetic. I thought it would be easy to simply turn the tables on her and return as a hero…

    “But the conqueror quickly became the conquered. The Nightmare took over so quickly I didn’t even have a chance to second guess myself. That’s how she became Eclipse… and he spent a great deal of time gloating and tormenting me for my failure. He knew, somehow he knew what I planned to do, and he used it against me. I never had a chance… and I only have myself to blame.”

    “I know from personal experience how easy it is to underestimate the Nightmare,” Luna said softly. “the Nightmare held me in thrall for a thousand years, and at times even convinced me that we were one individual, or that she was the real Princess and I was nothing but a shade. Were it not for the kindness of my sister, I never would have recovered once the Elements saved me from it.”

    The ghostly stallion nodded. “I had to learn the hard way, just like I always have. I had to sit and watch while Eclipse planned his moves. How he found the hidden dragon hatchery, how he wrangled a group of gryphons to raise a hoof-full of them to test his theory, and finally his seeking out King Goldtalon to form an alliance. I saw it all, but could do nothing. I was so powerless I barely managed to talk him out of killing the one gryphon cub, and I could do nothing when he threw her into the desert.”

    Filigree sat up at this, her eyes widening. “Verdigris….”

    “Yes,” the ghost confirmed, “that was her name. She was part of a small family of gryphons he stumbled over in the Everfree Forest, and on a whim he recruited them to do the hard labor for him. He disguised himself as a gryphon magus and hypnotized them, in a way. He convinced them he could get them back in good graces with the gryphon clans so long as they raised the dragons for him, essentially doing Eclipse’s dirty work for him. But the little one, Verdigris… she kept shaking it off. Eclipse started to guess she was a special, she was far smarter than a rather sheltered gryphoness her age should have been. He also realized early on that they were your family, Filigree, and thus hoped to use them against you.”

    “That is much the same plan that Goldtalon himself had,” Celestia noted, and watched the gryphoness carefully for a moment before continuing. “Still, I must confess that the dragons were a surprise to me.”

    “They must have been very clever to have hidden such a cache even from us,” Luna interjected.

    The stallion chuckled, “As Eclipse explained it to me, the hatchery was broken, and the spells wouldn’t wake the eggs until a dragon triggered the spell. With no more mature dragons left, the eggs simply remained in stasis, and would have remained that way for all eternity.”

    “Given Eclipse has an expansive knowledge of magic, thanks to our time together,” Luna said simply, “it should not have been overly difficult for him to manipulate and alter such spells.”

    “And the proper spells can accelerate the aging process of a dragon,” Celestia continued, “and as Twilight Sparkle once proved, with the help of Spike, it leads to the sort of snub nosed and animalistic creatures we witnessed this past night. They are ruled entirely by instinct and aggression, not by their potential intelligence.”

    “We will have to be careful to eliminate as few of them as we can,” Luna thought aloud, “otherwise we risk eliminating the race as a whole for a second time. I wish we knew what the balance of male to female survivors was…”

    “It should be easy to return them to their child-like states as well,” Celestia noted, nodding to her sister in agreement, “though a memory spell might be necessary to eliminate the horrors they are being forced to endure and perpetrate.”

    “Definitely,” Luna said with a thoughtful smile, “Plus, if we can --”

    “Not to interrupt your excitement, Princesses,” Trixie cut in, “but if I understand all this correctly, Ultrapony helped the Nightmare return?”

    The stallion shrunk and looked down at his hooves as eight pairs of eyes landed on him, some more accusing than others. He took a slow and steadying breath before nodding. “Yes, it is entirely my fault.”

    The silence was deafening, and he found himself unable to meet any pony’s eyes. This seemed so much easier in his head, but… it still needed to be done, he had to own up to this. In a way, it felt like a weight lifted off his back to finally lay all this out, to admit his failure…

    “So what is this ‘unfinished business’ you mention?” Skillet said, breaking the silence.

    “I thought no pony would ever ask,” Sunset Sparkle said with a relieved smile. “I have two things I have to do before… well before it’s all over, for me at least. First, I need to find a new bearer for the element.” He reached over and patted the orb on the bed, the pulsing glow it put out bathing Spectrum’s face in an odd light.

    “That could be harder than it sounds,” Celestia offered, rubbing her chin with a hoof thoughtfully, “there are only a small number of stallions here that were rescued. We lost access to the larger numbers outside the… well, wherever Discord brought us.”

    The ghostly stallion managed a soft laugh, “You are looking everywhere but the obvious, Princess. The perfect bearer is right here.”

    “But there is only one stallion….” Luna started, before it dawned on her.

    “Well, how about that,” Flourish teased, nudging her beau.

    “Nyet! I am not in condition to carry element!” said stallion objected.

    “Do you think I was?” Sunset Sparkle asked reasonably, and he lifted the element off the bed and carried it over towards the other stallion. Flourish only grinned as she nudged the broad-chinned stallion forward, while the other mares took a step or so back to give Skillet and Sunset Sparkle room. Finally the ghostly stallion stood before the larger, still living, stallion and set the orb down between them.

    “Am thinking I am not good choice…” Skillet grumbled.

    “But you are,” the other stallion countered. “You have sacrificed far more than any pony should ever have to. You sacrificed the very powers that made you a special, perhaps becoming the first and only known special to have no current powers. You sacrificed everything to protect your fellow ponies, and then you got up and continued to give of yourself. You stayed with the team, and you refused to let depression take you. The very fact that you are standing here, surrounded by ponies who care about you, tells me that despite losing everything, you turned it to your favor. Now I have to admit that I don’t know what you did after you got out of the hospital, but you obviously ‘got the girl’, if you’ll pardon my lame joke. Heck, even Eclipse heard tales of your valiant defense of the hospital, coordinating defenses against the Nightmare’s imps while lying wounded in a cart like the leading stallion from some movie. You deserve this far more than I do. I didn’t learn the meaning, what it meant to sacrifice anything until I… until I lost my daughter. You, meanwhile, know what it is to sacrifice and how to keep yourself from spiraling into depression. You… you deserve this far more than I do.”

    “Nyet, Nyet, I…” the big stallion started, but was interrupted by the orb before him launching itself into the air over him. It spun, wobbling slightly as it whirled about faster and faster until it burst apart into a number of glowing shards. The sapphire glowing shards circled Skillet, who looked at the ring suspiciously for a moment. But the orbiting crystals simply continued to surround him in a spinning halo…

    “Isn’t it supposed to do something?” Trixie asked after a moment, confused.

    Celestia just smiled. “It’s waiting for him to accept.”

    “But am not good choice!” Skillet insisted. “There are many other, better, stallions than I, stallions which do not have to be carried by princess, or can walk without pain! I am just old cripple who help out as able…”

    “And that’s what makes you the perfect choice,” Sunset Sparkle put in. “You are even willing to sacrifice your chance at bearing an element because you feel another could do the job better. No, Skillet, no pony could do this better than you can, and no pony could protect the element from corruption better than you could. This element, this is the element who had itself drug through Tartarus and back thanks to ‘he who cannot be named’. This was the element that spawned the corruption in all of the Elements of Justice before, and it is this element that is the most fragile and in need of a stallion who can truly understand what it represents… who can truly understand the burden he must carry. There is no one else who can do this.”

    “But --!”

    “Sweetie,” Flourish added, her voice dripping with honey, “just give it up. You’ve lost this fight.”

    “Trixie would be hard pressed to find fault with this decision herself,” the cyan unicorn added.

    “Skillet, I’ve known you since I was a filly. If there’s ever something you deserve, it’s this,” Clockwork agreed from beside the unicorn.

    Galaxi chuckled softly, “The element seems to agree as well. It’s simply a matter of accepting it.”

    “It is an honor you should not reject,” Filigree offered herself.

    Skillet looked at the mares about him before casting a pleading eye to the Sister Princesses. To his dismay, Luna only smirked slightly while the elder sister spoke, “This is a great honor to be bestowed upon you, Lord Skillet. I can think of none more suited.”

    “Every pony is against me,” the stallion grumbled to himself and dipped his head. With a slow breath he nodded and spoke, “If element wishes me to be bearer, I will be bearer. I still believe other would be better, pony who can walk normal, for instance, but if --”

        The element gave him no more time to equivocate, his words acted upon as the light exploded from the crystals, followed by an oddly satisfied sigh as they arrowed into the large stallion’s breast, causing him stumble comically before Flourish steadied him. Skillet spent the next few moments running his hooves over his chest, checking for perforations in his gray coat…

    “You’ll have the chance to get to know the spirit within the element. He’s a little suspicious but… I’m sure you’ll be able to protect him… it properly. As I said before, I can think of no pony who has sacrificed more. I only sacrificed my life, and that was easy compared to what you have had to do,” the stallion said softly. He paused and took a slow breath before he continued, “A sacrifice which wouldn’t have been necessary if it weren’t for me.”

    “Come again?” Skillet asked, pausing in his search for holes.

    “I didn’t immediately act to stop the Destroyer Imp. I… I could have, but I didn’t. At the time I… I’m sorry,” Sunset Sparkle said, lowering his head. “I don’t know what else I can say or do. I should have acted, I should have moved sooner, I should have --“

    “Nyet,” Skillet interrupted with a crooked grin, “you acted. Is all that need to be said. We all knew risk when we started, we all knew we could be hurt, ya? We sign up to stop imps and save ponies, and we do that. Second guessing does nothing, and you do nothing that need forgiveness from me.”

    “I… Thank you, Skillet, you are a better pony than I. But… you may not think I need forgiveness from you, but I do from others. I… I did so much wrong. I was an arrogant ass, and in the process I wronged many ponies, a small number of which are in this room. I think perhaps the only one I did not wrong is Filigree, and that is only because she took one of the open spots after I left the team,” Sunset Sparkle noted softly. “I harassed and teased Galaxi far more than she deserved. I threatened Trixie physically when she stopped kissing my flank. I was hard on Flourish right from the beginning. Even Princess Luna I made unreasonable demands from. I can only beg forgiveness from each of you….

    “And then… there’s Clockwork Key.”

    The short mare raised an eyebrow at the reference to her name. Her face was set in stone as she glared back at the ghost as he moved to stand before her. Clockwork had been able to ignore that longtime anger she harbored with the ghostly stallion up to this point. After all, he was destined for his eternal “reward”, right? He deserved nothing short of the deepest pits of Tartarus, so there was no point to feeling hatred or anger when the final judgment of his soul was at hoof. But now he was apologizing? Was he trying for a last reprieve? The anger she’d carefully ignored and pushed down threatened to boil over, making her hoof tap irritably on the stone floor where she sat. “What about me?” she asked carefully, hoping the tightness in her voice didn’t betray the roiling emotions within.

    “There’s only one pony in this room I own a larger apology to,” he admitted sadly, “and I don’t know if she will ever wake up again. But I wronged you. I was… hell, I lack the words really. I was out of line, for sure. I struck you; I laid my hooves on you, three different times to my memory. Once when… when you were younger. Yes, it was accidental but… but I still did it. The other two times I let my anger overtake me and cloud my judgment. It was stupid, it was foolish, and I --”

    “Stop,” Clockwork growled, bringing the ghostly stallion up short, “just stop.”

    “I… I don’t understand. I’m just trying to --“

    “SHUT UP!” Clockwork all but screamed, coming to her hooves as if the power of her shout had launched her there. The ponies in the room looked startled at the short mare, and Sunset Sparkle recoiled. “I know what you’re trying to do, and I don’t want any part of it! You’re trying to apologize, you’re begging forgiveness, and once again, this isn’t about any pony other than you, the most selfish pony in the room! You’re trying to slip out of your own fate! You only have one potential place to go right now, and that’s straight to the special little hole in Tartarus with your name on it, especially reserved for bastards like you, and you’re desperately trying to avoid it by begging for forgiveness.”

    “If only that were true,” he admitted ruefully. “That orb I handed over? That was the element of sacrifice, as Princess Luna correctly identified. Did you think I managed to get anywhere without giving up something? It refused to wake the other elements until I offered something, until I sacrificed something. I have no chance to go to the Summerlands, I’m not even destined for Tartarus… I had nothing else to give, so I had to offer my soul to the element. After this, I will cease to exist. I have no chance of a reprieve…”

    The ponies about the room gasped at this news, looking to each other, then upon the ghostly pony with both horror and pity. All except one, whose rage seemed to redouble with the news. “You… you … you ducked out of your punishment?!” she all but screamed, making the ghostly form wince.

    “But it was all I could --“

    “You Celestia damned ass!” she cut him off, stomping forward until she was nose to nose with his transparent form. “You didn’t sacrifice a damned thing! You’ve weaseled out of the punishment you deserve with some clever wording!

    “But I thought you --”

    “So now, everything you did, every pony you screwed over, means nothing! You just get to vanish, poof, cease to exist and never endure the punishment you so richly deserve!” she cried, shouting him down. He literally backed up a step, eyes wide as she continued to close on him. It didn’t matter that he was far taller than he was, he felt no more than two inches tall under the torrent of fury before him. “Do you have a clue what you did to the ponies you screwed over? Do you even have a Celestia damned clue what you put me through?”

    “N-no --“

    “Do you have any idea what sort of hell I had to put up with because you ‘accidentally’ knocked me halfway across a hotel?” she demanded. “Do you? After you were done calling me things I wouldn’t dare repeat in front of the Princesses, you intentionally, not ‘accidentally’ you bastard, INTENTIONALLY slapped me with your hoof. You back-hoofed me. You, one of the strongest specials in Eqeustria, slapped me, a filly only just out of school, hard enough that I got more air than some pegasi! I spent two months in a Celestia damned hospital because of your ‘accident’! I had a black eye and bruising on the bone around my cheek where you nearly shattered my skull! The impact with the dresser at the far end of the hallway dislocated my left shoulder and snapped two ribs! It almost punctured my lung, all because of your ‘accident’!”

    “I-I’m sorry! I --“

    “Can sorry stop you from slapping me?” she shouted in his face. “Can it stop you from telling the Agency how, when I reported the incident, I was just trying to take advantage of your popularity for my own benefit? I spent the next five years, count them, FIVE CELESTIA BUCKING YEARS, having to duck around and be teased by every supervisor I had in the agency, put down and harassed because I tried to ruin the great and all powerful Ultrapony. And the reason for all of this? Because I wouldn’t let you screw me! I turned you down and hurt your big stallion ego when you couldn’t have a toss in the hay with a mare you deigned to give your attention to!”

    “I… I…”

    “And then, just when things are finally getting back to some semblance of normal, you show up in my life again!” she cried, stomping back and forth as she paced, her eyes trapping his. No matter how hard he wanted to, he just couldn’t look away from her. “My brother died, and all you were worried about was your damned ego! You made my life miserable all over again, in person this time instead of by proxy, and did everything in your power to undercut me at every turn. Did you think I would somehow miss all those times you went crying to Luna to try and have me removed from YOUR team? Did you think I somehow didn’t know how you hated the fact I could mimic your mother’s move with my armour? Did you think, for one Celestia damned minute, that I couldn’t feel you staring daggers at me every waking second? You had me trotting on eggshells, scared to so much as sneeze out of line, lest you decide to try for a repeat performance!”

    “N-now I don’t --”

    “So when I finally get sick of your crap, you do it again anyway! Or did you forget that day when you forced Princess Luna to step in and separate us? Did you forget how you shattered my shields, threw me against a wall, and was ready to destroy me and my armour? Did you know that is the reason I always have a back-up now? I made a spare so that when the time came, and you or any pony else wrecked my armour, I would have a back-up ready to go. And guess what, you did do it. Or did you forget the fact you made me famous, again? You… you stuck up arrogant… it had to be about YOU! I wasn’t famous on my own, oh no, I only got famous because of YOU, and the fact I had the balls to stand up to YOU! I was in the hospital for over a month because of you, and you got out after one day, but I was the first pony to hurt you, so YOU made ME famous!” she laughed bitterly.

    “I’m sure that --”

    “And now… now you want to say ‘I’m sorry’ and expect it to all be better?!” she shouted in his face again, and the stallion sat down, his eyes wide. “You expect me to just tell you everything is forgiven? You expect me to pat you on the head and say ‘there there, it’s alright’ in a soothing voice? BUCK YOU! Apology not accepted… you are NOT forgiven! ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cut it. Sorry won’t bring back all those years you took from me. Sorry won’t take away the scars you’ve left me with. Sorry won’t cure me of the limp you left me with. Sorry won’t do a Celestia damned thing!

    “And how many other ponies now have to pay for your sins? You unleashed the Celestia damned Nightmare upon us, with YOUR abilities! How many ponies and gryphons did he terrorize before arriving in Canterlot? How many did he kill tonight alone? While we’re all crying about Spectrum, how many other mares and stallions have friends and relatives that will never return home? How many more will suffer because he handed an army of bucking dragons to Goldtalon! The entire success of the invasion lies on you! Every life a dragon takes is another bloody stain on your hooves. Every pony in the entirety of Equestria is under direct threat of their lives because of YOU! Is sorry going to fix all of that?”

    “But it’s all I can do!” Sunset Sparkle managed to interject, all but crying in frustration.

    “It’s not good enough,” she growled, and turned sharply on her hoof. Not a sound was heard outside of the clop of Clockwork Key’s hooves as she stormed out of the small room. The echo of her hoof beats echoed down the hall for several long moments before finally the room was left in complete silence.

    “Maybe… maybe I really do deserve to go to Tartarus…” the stallion whimpered softly, his spectral form trembling as he looked down at his hooves, almost certain he could see the blood on them.

    “I could have… have told you that wouldn’t… work,” a weak voice managed. Heads shot up and looked at the source of the voice. Spectrum managed a pained smile from where she lay, leaning up just enough that she could see her father. That lasted all of a second before the collected ponies all swarmed her, hugging and cheering and laughing with a sudden surge of relief. Only one hung back, looking with her blind eyes at the exit.

    “Leave her, Galaxi,” Skillet counseled as he hobbled after his marefriend.

    “But…” she started.

    “She need to cool off,” he said simply. “Once she blow off some steam, then we try talking.”

    Galaxi nodded and instead joined the group, now gathered in a tight knot around the bed and the weak Spectrum lying upon it. She smiled weakly to each of them, before looking to her father and repeating herself, “I could have told you it wouldn’t work. Her wounds are too old, too deep. She can’t see past who you were when you caused them.”

    “I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway,” the ghostly stallion answered with a rueful smile, making his daughter wheeze a short laugh.

    “How much did I miss?” she asked softly.

    “Less than I did,” Trixie joked.

    “The stallions got their act together, and your father used the Element of Sacrifice with the rest of their elements to defeat Eclipse,” Filigree put in plainly.

    “He’ll be back,” she wheezed softly. “So did we win?”

    “The gryphons drove us out of Canterlot with their dragons,” Luna said sourly.

    “That explains why they hung back,” Spectrum said softly, “wait until we wipe ourselves out with the elements, then home in and destroy the carriers and every pony else while they recover. It just took a threat big enough to draw us out. Goldtalon is smarter than he looked… So where are we?”

    “Discord’s base of operations,” Galaxi answered.

    “For now, do not concern yourself with these things,” Celestia added with a motherly smile, “you need to focus on recovery.”

    “I will,” she answered, “after I take an opportunity that I thought I was robbed of. Daddy….”

    Sunset Sparkle sniffled, rubbing his nose with his hoof. “I… Rainbow I… I don’t know how I can even ask you to forgive me, so I won’t. Please, I beg of you, to understand how sorry I am. I didn’t understand, I didn’t … Goddess, I’m such a horrible father…” he sobbed.

    “Daddy,” she said softly, reaching a trembling hoof up to try and touch his face. Her hoof passed through his cheek, but she held it there anyway, the slightly cool sensation from his spirit comforting to her. Sunset Sparkle’s words lost coherency as he devolved into tears, blubbering in a heartfelt stream of apologies fueled by guilt, and further sparked by the diatribe he just endured. “Daddy, please stop and listen to me for a moment…”

    It took a noisy sniffle and a wipe of his hoof before he managed to stop and look to his daughter attentively. “I’m listening, Star…”

    “I forgive you, Daddy,” she said softly, “I always forgave you, and I will always forgive you. I knew it was in you, I knew that you could become the hero every pony believed you to be. It was always there, but you drowned it under rage and bitterness…”

    “I think I might have passed that on to another…” he admitted weakly.

    “Maybe, but unlike you, she has a team and friends who care about her. You always isolated yourself from anyone who might have gotten through, even me,” she said.

    “It took almost losing you to wake me up,” Sunset Sparkle added sadly. “’You never know what you’ve got, ‘till its gone’, if I remember the song quote properly.”

    “Exactly,” she answered with a smile, tears just starting to fall from the corners of her eyes. “Thank you, Daddy.”

    “F-for what?” he asked, startled.

    “For proving me correct, for showing me that my faith in you for all those years wasn’t wasted,” she answered tenderly, barely able to see through her tears, “for finally letting yourself be the pony you always had the potential to be… and for coming back so I could say goodbye.”

    “Star I….” he sniffled, lowering his head to try and kiss her brow, “I love you, Rainbow Star. I know I never really said it but… I’m so, so proud of you. I wish I had been the father you deserve. I wish I could be here for you, or even see you again…”

    “I could always come visit you in Tartarus,” she joked weakly.

    “I won’t be there, sweetie. I won’t be anywhere…” he admitted softly, “There was a price to save you and every pony else, one I willingly paid. The ultimate stupidity tax… if I hadn’t been so full of myself, it never would have come to this.”

    “Daddy…  I don’t understand…”

    Sunset Sparkle hung his head and looked down at his hooves, “I had… nothing left to give, to sacrifice...nothing but my soul. For me, there will be literally nothing left of me when I am gone. No Summerlands, no Tartarus, nothing at all…”

    “Ya, about that…” Skillet interrupted with a lopsided grin, “Element tell me it is rescinding that claim.”

    The ghostly stallion looked confused for a moment. ”Why would it…?” he started, but his eyes grew wide and he looked up towards the ceiling suddenly, “M-momma?! But why...” he started, leaving the other ponies to look confused to each other. Only the Princesses smiled at the oddly one sided conversation that continued from the ghostly stallion. “No, I… thank you,” he said sadly, “I never did get to say goodbye all those years ago.” He paused, then laughed ruefully, “Yeah, I guess I was a bit of a crybaby back then. Still, thank you for seeing me off… What do you mean ‘what do I mean’? There’s no way they’d ever take me into the Summerlands… not after all I‘ve done.” He looked pointedly away for a moment, before his attention was yanked back to whatever unseen figure he was speaking to, “Of course! But everything I’ve done…  I really do deserve to go to Tartarus. Clockwork Key was right about me, at least in part… Wait, but Mom, I can’t come with you! What do you mean ‘why not?’? Weren’t you listening?” His face fell a little, and his eyes slid to the side, looking uncomfortably like a young colt put on the spot, and perhaps a little scared. “Mom…  I had to sacrifice my soul to save her. Yes, I mean my daughter, your granddaughter… and every pony else to boot.” He blinked and turned suddenly, anger crossing his face. “What? Buck yes it was a worthwhile trade! What kind of question is… Yes, I’d do it again!” His anger melted away almost as suddenly as it appeared, his eyes widening in surprise, and perhaps a bit of hope. “Wait, what? That… that did?! But… but everything I did, shouldn’t it…?” He fell down on his flank, sitting with shock. “It… did? Really? They would… they’d take me back? They want me back?” He asked, his voice tightening. His spectral form began to glow with a gentle light, and the years and horrors he’d endured begun to melt away…

    “They’d let me try… I can try again?” he asked, his voice steadily growing younger and younger. His appearance passed that of the powerful stallion the ponies surrounding him knew, and he regressed further into childhood. “But what about… what about Star? I don’t want to forget my daughter! Not after taking so long to realize how much she meant to me...” Sunset Sparkle, no more than a young colt now, stood up. His squeaky childish voice filling the room as he nearly cheered, “I’ll be big, AND remember, when she gets there?! Good, cause she’s the bestest daughter ever! So… I can come home now, right?” The colt that was once known as Ultrapony let out a child-like cheer after a moment and leapt into the air, his little wings buzzing, forelegs stretched out to embrace the figure no pony else could see… and vanished into thin air, leaving only the vanishing laughter of a foal in his wake.

    For several minutes, the ponies stared at the rocky ceiling the colt had vanished through, their faces etched with confusion and, in an odd way, happiness. The silence was only broken when Spectrum sniffled, her eyes blurred with tears. "Goodbye, Daddy..."

    Celestia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and spoke, “That… was the narrowest of margins I have ever witnessed. His ultimate fate hung upon every word…”

    “Leave it to one of Lady Dash’s ilk to get away with it,” Luna answered with a wry smile.

    “Out, out!”

    The gryphoness smiled crookedly at the red coated mare as she was shooed from Spectrum’s bedside. Once the shock of seeing Sunset Sparkle vanish had faded, one of the ponies had gone to fetch the medics, and they had looked over the pegasus once more…

    It was declared a miracle by them, but Filigree suspected a bit of intervention on Sunset Sparkle’s behalf, be it from the element or from the unseen spectre of Lady Dash she could not say, but miracle still seemed an appropriate word to her. Rainbow Star was still terribly weak, but she was out of danger now, and would simply need time and patience to recover.

    “Very well, I am ‘out’,” Filigree noted and gave her friend a quick wave of the claw before the sheet was yanked into place to cut her off. “I should look for my little sister anyway. Hopefully she will forgive my delay…”

    “From what I heard, Miss Spectrum nearly died,” a soft voice said, catching the larger gryphon off-guard. The smaller gryphon stepped into the downright tiny antechamber from one of the side rooms, pushing aside the tattered sheet and followed by the acrid smell the alcohol she had been using to clean their medical instruments. She offered a tentative smile to the elder sister and shook her head, “I would have to be heartless to hold that against anyone.”

    Filigree’s face went through several emotions before settling on relief, and she swept forward to hug the smaller gryphoness, causing her to squeak in surprise. Then, almost as suddenly as she had swept her younger sibling into a hug, Filigree released her. “I’m sorry, I am forgetting myself.”

    “It’s… it’s alright,” she answered softly, her eyes sliding to the side and away from her sister. She hadn’t been sure how she would respond in seeing her, and now she still wasn’t sure how she should feel about it.

    “No, it’s not,” the elder sister stated, and for a moment it seemed as if she collapsed to the floor. Verdigris had been about to cry for help, when her eyes widened and she recognized the posture. Filigree’s foreclaws were crossed under her beak, and both were settled on the ground, the traditional position of submission. “There was nothing ‘all right’ about what I did. I made a poor decision, and you paid for it. I left you with our parents, which we both know are less than fit for their job, rather than take you back to Canterlot with me. You begged me to take you, and I did not listen. I allowed my fears to overwhelm me, and I have done nothing but regret every moment since then.”

    Verdigris sucked in a breath when the other gryphon paused, lifting her foreleg as conflicting emotions warred across her face. “Do you… do you know what happened to me?” she asked, her voice tightening. “Do you have any idea what you could have prevented, had you not sent me away?”

    “No,” Filigree responded softly, “but I would ask you tell me. I only know the barest of outlines of how you ended up in this place, and both Kaos and Discord have put me off until things calm down. But now I would ask you, so that I might learn from my mistake, and know the extent of my sin.”

    The younger gryphoness looked down at her claw, watching it shake with repressed emotion. Anger, worry… hurt, she could all but taste it, like acid on the tongue. A bitter pill, but she swallowed anyway, forcing it all down. When she finally did speak, her voice was tiny, almost lost among the soft whistling of the breeze through the hollow stone room, and drained of emotion. “My… our father refused to have anything to do with the gryphons of the town. He insisted they were traitors, turning their tails on the Clans that they should owe their very lives to. On his insistence, he drew all of us from town and into that horrible and chaotic forest they call the Everfree. I was unable to slip away, my mother kept me close, which she and father both insisted was to keep them from corrupting me. Despite my best attempts to delay, I was forced to enter the forest with them.

    “Had I remembered the way back, I would have abandoned them at the first opportunity, but I was quickly lost, as were the rest. Not that father, our stubborn, stubborn father would admit it. By the time we stopped to make a fire, we were lost deeply within the wilds. I climbed a tree and found some fruit, hiding it from them, while father tried, and failed, to start a fire.”

    “It was then that we met Eclipse,” she continued, blue eyes foggy as she witnessed the past in her mind. She had unknowingly set her claw upon her elder sister’s head, and Filigree in turn watched her sister as best she could, the weak weight upon her brow the heaviest she could remember knowing. “He came to us as a black gryphon bearing sweet words and promises. He wove his spell upon all of us, and led us to the place he called home: a reliquary of dragon eggs, hidden from all eyes, where he was stealing their youth and forcing them to grow into animals of war. They were fed the freshest of meats, while we were given only the rancid leftovers in that hellish cave. Fed directly from sulfur vents deep below the surface… it was always hot and dark. And yet, for whatever reason, I constantly saw the cracks in his sweet words. Maybe it was the fact I was assigned to shovel dung, but I like to think it was because the rest of our family was just that blind. I tried to run, but clipped wings and the threat of being hurled out of a high cave to my death made that escape attempt short lived.

    “When the other gryphons came, and I knew I had to run, just like he knew I would. He caught me, threatened to make me his personal slave, to reveal to all his belief that I was a special… and I lashed out at him. My claw caught his eye and I tried to run. He nearly choked me out for my ‘insolence’, the doctor says my voice will always rasp from the damage he did to my throat, and he hurled me through another portal and into the desert to die. I hurt, I couldn’t think straight, and the nullification of his heat damping spell sapped me of all my strength. I barely managed to drag myself to a ghost town I had seen in the distance before I collapsed. It took two days to reach it, but I felt like I was dying every step. I couldn’t even fold my wings, I was just so tired. I was starting to get fatalistic, and the idea of just curling up in the sand and letting the wind sweep me under the dunes started to sound good. Just let me die in peace… I never asked for any of this.”

    Tears splashed down on Filigree’s beak, shed from the other gryphoness. The despair, the hopelessness in her voice was so palatable that she ached to hold her younger sister, to protect her. But the weight on her head held her in place, unable to act upon that desire. “In a way, when that blast shattered the wall of the room I sheltered in, I welcomed the oncoming oblivion. I was ready to give up; I was ready for it all to end. Then entered Kaos and his team. If it weren’t for Zilch and her constant companionship, I would have slid back into depression. She shared her toys, she shared her secret hiding places, and she shared her kindness with me. If it weren’t for her… I don’t know what would have happened.”

    “Then I owe her much thanks,” Filigree said softly. The younger sister blinked, almost as if waking up from a nightmare. It took her a moment to realize what she was doing and recoiled from her sister, lifting the claw from her head.

    “I… I…” she stammered, then wiped a claw over her face.

    The elder sister took that as permission to rise, lifting her head until her blue eyes could meet her sister’s green ones, “I should have been there to protect you. I can only beg your forgiveness, and offer my sincerest promise to never allow anything to happen to you again. This I vow…”

    For a long moment, silence reigned between the pair, their feathers ruffled by the slight breeze that whistled by them. Then, Verdigris turned away, “I’ll take you to the medics, you really need to be seen to.”

    Filigree’s head drooped in defeat and followed.

    “You must think I’m a horrible pony.”

    Celestia shook her head slightly, looking down at the far smaller pony before her. Clockwork Key hadn’t even turned around to face her, sitting at a table in one corner of Bunsen Burner’s rather expansive lab. Her armour stood in the corner like a misbehaving filly, right next to a work table that Clockwork obviously tried to burn out her anger at by working on some widget or another. The solar regent honestly had no clue what the half finished item with the wrench lodged in it was supposed to be. But when she arrived, the short mare had simply been resting her head upon the table, sitting there staring at the blank rock wall. The Princess suspected that stillness hid the frantic whirling of the smaller mare’s mind. “No, I do not,” she answered soothingly.

    “How can you not?” she asked in return, her voice sounding utterly drained and exhausted. “I just unleashed on a dying stallion, technically an already dead stallion, with all barrels. I didn’t even give him a chance to defend himself, just… kablam.”

    “You feel guilty about your anger?” Celestia asked softly.

    “Yes… and no,” Clockwork responded with a sigh. “He deserves to rot in Tartarus. He’s a horrible pony and he’s hurt so many. Yet, everything I threw in his face was just… just selfish. I barely even touched upon what he did to any pony else, just me. How he bucked up my life. How what he did made my life harder. There I am, accusing him of being selfish, and I’m screaming about me…”

    “After you left, he expressed the concern that his anger, his bitterness, may have rubbed off on you,” the Princess said, sitting down and watching the short mare’s back.

    Clockwork snorted, “Now I’m torn between even more guilt and anger.”

    “Explain?”

    “Guilt in that he actually worried about the results of something he did. That means he truly was sorry, instead of why I thought he was apologizing,” she sighed and shook her head. “Anger, because he has the stones to take credit for what I did… again.”

    “It was a deeply rooted thing for him,” Celestia said softly, “before he… left, he was stripped of all that anger and reverted to a young colt. That’s how great the stain left upon his soul was. Stripping it away required taking almost everything he became since he was but a child.” The Princess paused for a few moments to let that sink in before pressing on, “How deeply has that taint sunk into you?”

    Clockwork whirled on much larger mare, eyes blazing with anger. But, for whatever reason, she paused, and the anger bled away, leaving her feeling silly and staring down at her own hooves. Celestia just nodded slowly.

    “Exactly,” the solar regent said with a gentle smile. “Anger can be good. Righteous anger, for instance, which you have channeled appropriately multiple times, can be used for the greater good of all. But bitterness can only poison you, poison your soul. It leaves a stain that is very difficult to remove.”

    “I…  I’ve always been a little angry,” Clockwork admitted, turning back to the work table and nudging the incomplete widget with her hoof, “but I always used it to drive me. I could channel it. Life is unfair, after all. It took my mother from me… I don’t even remember what she looked like. It took my father from me… it took my brother, Widget, from me. Life has a habit of beating me down… and that makes me mad. It infuriates me… it frustrates me. Then I channel it and do everything I can to overcome it. Widget always warned me that if I kept it bottled up, I’d just explode, like a firecracker.”

    Celestia made a face. “That gives a rather unpleasant image.”

    “Yeah, I suppose so,” the mare chuckled softly, then sobered. “But he made his point. Working, inventing, testing, it gets it out of my system. But ever since… ever since winter, it’s just not working. It’s not coming out, it’s not releasing, and I just keep getting more and more frustrated… and more angry.”

    “Clockwork, come here…” the solar matron said softly, and laid down on the stones beneath her. She flared a wing slightly, obviously indicating where she intended the smaller mare to sit. Clockwork was slightly hesitant, but stepped forward and curled around, settling stiffly into place. She was mildly surprised when Celestia tucked her wing over her and used it to tug her close against her side. For a moment, the small mare seemed about to pull away, but forced herself to relax in place. “You rejected something Trixie told you in its entirety when her subterfuge came to light, something I played a role in as well. I thought the revelations within would help you, show you that you are not alone, but you rejected it all. However, I want you to know something, something that has been kept very much a secret for over a thousand of years. Something that my pupil discovered purely by intuition, and what has led me to be the sort of alicorn I have become. I swear to you that what I am about to tell you is the absolute truth, Lady Key.”

    Clockwork Key blinked slightly as she looked to the Princess in confusion. “I… I believe you, Princess.”

    The Princess of the Sun, the solar regent, smiled gently and dipped her head, “You are not alone in the suffering of your condition. My pupil improperly attributed it to the Nightmare in the missive she showed you, which I confess I signed. You saw through this ruse immediately, even if its intent had your best interests at heart. While it was indeed the nightmare that planted this seed inside me, it was not done a year ago, but over a thousand years ago. There is no history of what my sister and I did, how we fought, for a reason. The Lunar Republic she formed as Nightmare Moon nearly won, they nearly swept across Equestria and destroyed the light. Battle after battle I witnessed those I trusted, those ponies I cared for, fall under my sister’s withering attacks and tactical superiority. It was only in pure desperation that I turned to the Elements of Harmony, and they answered my clumsy attempts to use them by imprisoning my sister upon the moon. The ultimate ‘time out’, if you will. But, just like that, the war was over. Thousands of ponies were rounded up, and had to be tried. Their guilt had to be judged. In the end, I only had the heart to condemn a hoof-full of her cruelest commanders, and I pardoned the rest. I bade the ponies to learn from the war and to remember its lessons… and to welcome peace into their hearts.

    “It was not an easy lesson to learn, for them or for me. I oscillated between fury and depression for years after the event. I chased away the palace servants and became a ghost within my own castle. In one fit of rage, I blew out the wall, and that was when I knew I was out of control. I knew something was wrong, but not how to ‘fix’ it. If it weren’t for the friendship of another, I never would have. He showed me how to live with it, how to adapt and learn to deal with these feelings inside me. That I needed other ponies to lean on, and through their support I could find my ‘cure’. Starswirl the Bearded was many things, and wise was one of them. It is to my disappointment that he failed in his final attempts to ascend to the level of Alicorn, but his mark upon my life, and Equestria, is everlasting. And it was through his kindness that I learned to accept every pony as the children I could not bear myself, and every pony became ‘my’ little pony.”

    “Then…” Clockwork squeaked softly, her eyes wide, “you really have the same condition I do?”

    “Yes, Clockwork Key, I do,” she answered with a gentle smile. “You were never alone, and know that you never will be.”

    Words belied the small mare, her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Her green eyes were wide, but hidden behind a veil of tears that she couldn’t control. The wing pulled her closer to the owner, cloaking her in comforting warmth as the mare known as Clockwork Key wept. The only sound for the longest time was the relief that flooded from her, and the gentle humming of the Princess. A lullaby from eons past, from a childhood she barely remembered, but that felt important in that moment.

Afterward

Afterward

May 21, 2013

“This idiot again?”

    And once more, here we are.

    I’d like to thank you, the reader, for sticking with me for this journey. It’s been a long and winding road, for sure, but we made it! This one has taken a long time, almost a year and a half, since I started writing. Easily twice the time it took me to write book one, so it’s a bit of a shock to have finally reached the end of it. I started posting the chapters of book two over a year ago (at the time of this writing), so I’m flattered that so many of you stuck with me for the entire duration. Thank you, both for your faith in me as a writer, and for the constant feedback that helps me improve.

    I want to thank to two people who accompanied me for this ENTIRE journey: my editors, Corwyn and The Mechanic. Corwyn acted as my technical editor, finding as many little oversights, misspellings, and grammatical errors as possible. Yes, as some responders to my stories have noted, some things slipped through the cracks, but trust me when I say it would have been far FAR worse had it not been for Corwyn. As for The Mechanic… I have nothing but gratitude for him. He helped me massage and tweak and work over this story from beginning to end. He helped me with dialog, he helped me with ideas, and occasionally he had to smack me upside the head to realize that some things just wouldn’t work. Some of the most wonderful twists and turns in this story were thanks to his feedback, and he helped me work out the dialog in many places (most notably the final farewell for Sunset Sparkle/Ultrapony). So a huge thanks to these two. Were it not for them, A New Breed wouldn’t have been half the story it was.

    I’d also like to thank my mother. Even though I am long past the stage of living at home (hell, I’m about to turn 40!) she has been supportive of not just my fascination with these little colorful ponies, but encouraging my exploration of the written medium. She has supported me in every creative medium I have ever attempted, even when she doesn’t “understand” it, and her continued support has always been extremely helpful and encouraging. I’d also like to thank my father, who unexpectedly read my story and provided me with rather interesting and detailed feedback. It still amuses me he knew nothing about the show, and yet was able to believe the world as I spun it in my story. I found that to be one of the single biggest compliments of my work. I can only thank both my parents for not being “normal”, and encouraging me to break the mold and forge my own path through life, for good or for ill.

    Of course I MUST thank Lauren Faust, “Sibsy”, Daniel Ingram, and all those from DHX and Hasbro who worked on this silly little show. Thank you for making a jaded forty year old ex-navy man fall in love with these candy colored little ponies, you deserve nothing but thanks and love.

    Now book two here was a big shift from the rather straight forward story I told in the first book. My outline for this one is a huge, convoluted thing with all sorts of back references and arrows pointing every which way. I practically needed a flowchart to follow some of my own ideas! Not surprisingly, a lot of things changed in the process of going from the beginning to the end, some of them necessitated by the show itself. I know more than one reader suggested that I separate myself from the show that inspired me, but I struggled to keep the canon intact for the entire duration. Unfortunately, as astute readers no doubt already guessed, Season 3 blew that idea out of the water. My story cannot go back and encompass “Princess Twilight”, no matter how hard I try. It can’t happen. So, as of Season 3, I have to split myself off from the source material. As you may have guessed, the Season Finale simply cannot work with my tale. I have too many references and moments of regret that Twilight Sparkle was not given an Apotheosis… which is exactly what happened in said finale. In addition, I have to ignore the episode of the Magic Duel, Trixie’s return and subsequent reformation. While one of the better episodes, it goes directly against the canon of the little universe I have defined, where Trixie went and essentially poured herself into the study of magic, always intent on humiliating and overcoming her “rival”, and only when Twilight had passed did she realize the futility of it and become the “Great and Apologetic Trixie”. Beyond that, however, I tried to keep all of the canon intact. I will TRY to keep the canon intact from future seasons, but I highly doubt I’ll be able to, simply because of “Princess Twilight”. No, I’m not going to opine about the decision from the show, this little bit of writing isn’t about that, but it does make a hard dividing line that cannot be crossed from the show to my fiction.

    That said, there were many changes from my original plans to this story as it came out. Some of the ones I think you’d find amusing/interesting ones are:

Originally Mare-Do-Well was going to be Celestia in disguise

Clockwork Key’s downward spiral was originally going to be much more prolonged, and include a period where she went rogue from the team. MDW was going to be the impetus that brought her back into the fold….

Clockwork and Galaxi weren’t going to actually hook up until Book 3

The entire “dead foal” scene for Bunsen Burner nearly caused one of my editors to revolt. Children/foals being killed was one of his big “do not cross” lines. Fortunately he really liked how the scene came out in the end, and offered a bevy of ideas to enhance it.

Qaugga, not Relic, was originally planned to be the element bearer. He was also considered for the element Junkyard earned.

Alto’s original code name was to be “Skytalon”. I ditched that when I realized the whole code name thing was falling apart this book… it worked better in book 1.

Originally the animated suit from Clockwork’s psychotic break was going to play a larger and longer role in Clockwork’s decline.

Celestia having PTSD surprised even me when I first wrote it, it was not pre-planned.

Originally there was going to be a seventh member of Kaos’ team, a disgruntled imp named “Screech”. I removed him early on, but he was going to be a psychic to counter Galaxi.

Honey originally had no name, and was intended to be completely ungrateful for Clockwork’s timely save. The Mechanic convinced me she would be a perfect ear to bend, and Honey was born, with Indigo (her daughter) shortly thereafter.

    There were many other things that changed as I went, of course, but as much of that was simply due to better ideas surfacing as, as well as the characters deciding to speak up and insist on going one way when I had originally planned on a different route. I’ve always heard that’s a sign of a good story, when the characters start telling it to you what they’re doing … and the mares (and a few times the stallions) certainly had a lot to say about their directions in the story. There were times I felt like I was taking dictation more than I was writing original fiction. Yes, I know full well how crazy that sounds...

    And so, we are at the end of Book Two. Book Three will be along in due time, but I need some time to recharge the creative batteries. I’ve been at this book for over a year now (close to a year and a half) and I need a break from writing before I burn out completely. But the girls WILL be back for the next book, which promises to be the conclusion. I never originally intended it to be a trilogy, but it looks like that’s where we’re going, doesn’t it? Celestia knows, I don’t think I’d have the energy for a book four.

    So once more, thank you for sticking with me for this long strange trip, and watch this space, the ponies will return… in due time.

    - Polecat

    PS – Once again I apologize to those who were fooled by my “April Fool’s Day” joke. The story “42” is not dead, but it is in hibernation. I cannot see coming back to it until the completion of New Breed. I do thank Kkat for pointing people my direction when I posted it, and I hope he/she can laugh at (or at least understand) the nature of the joke as I intended it. I do appreciate those readers who stuck around afterwards and supported this fiction.

18

Chapter 18

“Meeting of the Minds”

    “You may rise.”

    Celestia smiled radiantly down at the pair as they stood up from their kneeling. The zebra rose first, squaring his stocky shoulders as he looked up to the Solar Regent. The sandy unicorn that was his constant companion and closest friend rose a moment later, his eyes looking up at the Princess as well. Even at his age, the curiosity of youth and the fire of discovery shone clearly in his eyes, and warmed the Princess’ soul.

    “Welcome back, Princess,” the unicorn said with a slightly nervous smile, “to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

    Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle, “The airs and formality of the court do not suit you, Professor Relic. That said, I have, just outside your door, the pony whom I asked you to consider interviewing and continuing your research with.”

    “Ah, we thought perhaps you had forgotten about that,” the zebra noted, looking to his partner.

    “It did take longer than I anticipated to secure his cooperation,” Celestia answered smoothly, “but I would have notified you both, Quagga, had there been a change in plan. As it were, I had to make a few minor concessions to get him to agree to speak with you.”

    “Concessions?” Relic asked incredulously. “What concessions could the Princess of the Sun possibly be forced to make?”

    Celestia smiled patiently down at the unicorn. “There are a number of special considerations that needed to be taken into account for your guest, including an additional visitor to assist him from time to time. Furthermore, I believe her occasional presence may be helpful in your research, since she herself is a former member of my guard.”

    “Former member?” Quagga asked, glowering darkly. “One does not generally leave the guard unless they are old enough to retire, or committed an unspeakable act…”

    “In this case, neither,” Celestia stated simply, “her powers came to light and she was classified a special. This gave her a sideways promotion from my guard to my sister’s organization.”

    “It didn’t feel very sideways when it happened,” a new voice put in from the door, where a gray coated unicorn leaned against the inside of the closed and locked door, her pink and lavender mane falling in loose curls about her face.

    Celestia looked back with a pained expression, which she quickly hid behind her usually pleasant smile. “There were extenuating circumstances in your case, Lady Thistle, and ones I empathize with. However, you have successfully turned what would have destroyed another pony into the engine and motivation of your success. I could not be prouder that you once served in my guard.”

    The mare laughed and pushed herself off the doorway, “So these two are your ‘above top secret’ project that needs his help?” She moved forward and stood abreast the Princess, looking over both zebra and unicorn with a jaundiced eye.

    “They are,” Celestia responded, “Lady Thistle, meet Professor Relic and Quagga.”

    The mare leaned closer to the duo, her eyes narrowing for a moment before it vanished in a bright smile, “Nice to meetchya. Just, none of that ‘lady’ stuff with me. I’m just Flourish.”

    “Flourish…?” the Professor asked, his eyes widening.

    “Yup, that’s me!” she chirped, then looked distractedly about the room for a moment.

    “As in, the Element of Laughter… that Flourish?”

    The gray unicorn looked slyly at the professor before answering, “Do you know of any others? Oh, hey, are these the Elements you told me about, Princess?” Flourish trotted over to the display table where the four crystal orbs were resting on a quartet of crimson velvet pillows flanking one vacant pillow. “That’s right, you did say you were short one, didn’t you?” she asked as she poked a hoof at the empty pillow.

    “That’s correct,” Celestia answered, stepping towards the smaller mare.

    “Did our elements really look like this at one time? I mean, they’re so… dull,” she said, making a face.

    “Dull?” Relic chipped in, his voice falling instinctively into lecture mode. “Young Lady, they are far from dull! They represent some of the most powerful magic in Equestria, if not the world!”

    “They’re a plain crystal ball with a symbol etched on it,” Flourish responded dryly.

    “Uh, Proffessor?” Quagga tried to interrupt.

    “A plain crystal ball that represents some of the most powerful magic known!” Relic countered, his attention fully on the mare. “Plus, it’s well known that they adopt a form related to their holder. What does your element look like?”

    “Professor…”

    “Hrm, I suppose that’s a fair point,” Flourish answered distractedly, tapping her hoof on the shelf. “However, our elements were the cutie marks of the bearers before us, so why would these revert to a boring old crystal?”

    “Professor!”Quagga finally shouted, and leapt forward to catch the first of the elements as it toppled off the shelf. The others had literally come off their pillows and were rolling away from the gray unicorn while she had been focused on the Professor. Celestia was quick to respond and catch one of the elements herself, while Relic was able to catch the remaining two in his magic.

    “What in the world?” Flourish asked, and trotted towards Quagga for a closer look… only to witness the Zebra physically being pushed away from her, the orb shoving him with enough force to make his hooves skid across the floor.

    “Well, this is interesting,” Celestia said softly, echoing the Professor’s thoughts as he took one of the elements and pushed it closer to the filly. There was resistance, certainly, but he was able to touch it to her coat with little difficulty. Same for the other orb he levitated. Sensing what the Professor was up to, Celestia attempted with her own orb.

    “Same result, there is some resistance, probably just enough to get them rolling, but nothing like what Quagga just experienced,” Celestia noted thoughtfully.

    “Did you feel anything, Miss Flourish?” Relic asked.

    “Just ‘Flourish’, and no, not a thing,” Flourish answered with a frown, and reached out to touch the orb in Celestia’s magic, watching it try to shift away from her. Only then did she turn and try to approach Quagga again, who found the orb shoving him back once more. An impish grin crossed her lips, and she vanished in a cloud of pink… only for Quagga to yelp and lose hold of the orb as it rocketed from his hooves and across the room. Were it not for Celestia’s magic, it would have shattered itself on the spiral staircase at the far side of the room.

    “Well, that’s interesting,” Flourish said from right behind Quagga, who looked back at her crossly.

    “It seems there’s a reaction from the elements to the current Element of Harmony bearers,” Relic noted softly, putting the elements he had gently back on the pillows. Celestia did much the same with hers, even as Flourish kept her distance from the shelving. “But why would they repel each other like that? Like magic usually attracts like magic…”

    “Maybe it’s like a magnet?” Flourish asked with a shrug.

    Relic frowned, but Quagga turned to the Princess, “Do you know?”

    “I am afraid not,” Celestia answered with a sigh, “I was not around to do any real tests with the Elements of Justice. I did not anticipate this reaction.”

    “Princess, Quagga, which element was it that had the greatest reaction?” Relic asked, trotting up to the elements to look them over for any signs of damage.

    “I am, unsure…” Quagga began.

    “Wit,” Celestia answered certainly, “which, of course, is the analog of Laughter.”

    “So either its acting like a magnet, and like is repelling like,” Relic considered, tapping his chin as he watched room through the distortion of the crystal orbs, “or the male and female aspects are repelling each other…”

    “Does it have to be just one?” Quagga asked plainly. “It could be that both of those theories could play a role.”

    “Good point,” Relic sighed, “which only proves we have so much more to learn yet…”

    “Speaking of which,” Flourish spoke up, “we’ve left him standing in the hall for quite a while now.”

    Celestia frowned and nodded. “You are correct, Lady Thistle. I allowed myself to be distracted by my curiosity.”

    Flourish laughed as she ported herself over to the door, “Happens to the best of us, Princess.” She pulled open the door, only to be regaled by a wave of laughter. All the ponies looked curiously to the door as the pair of normally stoic guard ponies were all but falling over in laughter.

    “Is not the best part!” one voice managed to say, a rich booming bass that knew no volume control, coming from a large steel gray stallion facing the pair. He was stout and heavily muscled, with a broad jaw and eyes that twinkled with delight as he wove his story. “In next moment, she stand there staring at me, eyes blazing. Her dress, she is in tatters, her coat and mane scorched by fire, and she stand in middle of smoldering ring of debris. I cannot help but think Princess is going to banish poor stallion to moon. Then, she close her eyes, take a deep breath, and say, ‘If that is what you do for appetizer, I simply cannot wait for main course’!” The stallion grinned broadly to his audience of two howled in laughter.

    Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle; her guards rarely broke from their professional demeanor to so much as flinch or smile. To see them in near hysterics, wiping tears of laughter from their eyes, gave her hope that her ponies have, and will, survive these trials with their spirits intact. “Are you still telling that old story, Lord Skillet?” Celestia asked with a teasing smile. Her guards did their best to snap to attention, their lips quirking as they fought with the laughter bubbling just beneath the surface.

    “Of course!” the large stallion called as he climbed slowly to his hooves. Flourish was there in an instant, the smaller mare having little trouble bracing and helping him stand and haltingly, almost painfully, walk forward and into the room. Despite his light and downright pleasant demeanor, there was an air of dignity and confidence that seemed pour from him. “Is first, and last, time you allow me to use royal kitchen. Am thankful I did not end up in dungeon after.”

    “And yet, despite blowing up a good portion of the royal kitchens, and me, you still made one fine meal. While I know most of the royalty turned up their noses at it, it was a fine traditional goulash. I know my sister and I enjoyed it a great deal… once we had found a place to sit away from the still smoking kitchen,” the Princess teased gently, the smile on her face never wavering. She magically lifted a cushion from a nearby couch and set it on the floor by the stallion as he came abreast of her. He smiled thankfully and plopped his flank down on it a little heavier than he likely intended, before she turned to look at the pair of stallions before her. “Professor Relic, Quagga, allow me to introduce Lord Skillet the Resolute.”

    “Well met, comrades!” Skillet called, waving a broad forehoof to the pair. “Just drop whole ‘sir’ and ‘lord’ thing, ya? ‘Skillet’ is just fine.”

    “Well met… er… nice to meet you… ah… Skillet,” Relic stammered for a moment. “As the Princess said, I’m Professor Relic, and this is my longtime friend, Quagga.”

    “Princess just introduce you both, ya?” Skillet teased, making the older unicorn flush slightly.

    “You have a heavy accent,” the zebra noted, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Stalliongrad, is it not?”

    “Ya! I hail from Stalliongrad, before I join Agency,” Skillet confirmed, shifting a bit on the pillow.

    “Agency…? You’re a special?” Relic asked, then recoiled at the harsh glare from Flourish.

    “Was, comrade… was,” Skillet answered in a melancholy voice, but he quickly shook it off and grinned at the pair. “But that is story another time. You have been to Stalliongrad, maybe?”

    Quagga quickly answered for the pair, “We had a dig up there some years ago, when one of the Imp attacks knocked loose some stones in the St. Fillysberg Cathedral and revealed a previously unknown set of catacombs beneath.”

    “Oh yes, it was such a fantastic discovery!” Relic chimed in almost breathlessly. “The craftponyship was exquisite, especially to have lasted all those millennia. And those ancient engravings, every one perfectly preserved! I made the copies currently on display at the Canterlot Museum of History. Accounts that predated what we thought were the first known sightings of Princess Celestia.” The Solar Regent blushed slightly and turned her head away as the unicorn continued, “Of course we know now that most of their conjectures of the pony queen they named ‘Aurora Borealis’, for how her only glimpsed mane reminded them of that effect, and their idolization of her as the ‘Queen of the Snow and Frost’ were completely inaccurate. Still, how ponies viewed the world in the past fascinates me to no end. Makes me wonder what ponies of the future will be saying about their discoveries of our time!”

    “Of course, there was also a plethora of more mundane knowledge to be had, including burial practices and entire noble lines that could be traced back to those catacombs,” Quagga interjected, tapping his hoof for emphasis. “I do believe it was the Snowberry family that had their claim of royalty affirmed by the discovery of some long missing family members within that tomb.”

    “Ah, that happen almost year after I join Agency,” Skillet offered with a broad smile.

    “As you both perhaps noticed,” Celestia interrupted, steering the topic back to the reason for the grey stallion’s inclusion, “Lord Skillet is quite injured. For reasons that would be best left to him to tell, he suffered a spinal injury that left his rear legs with reduced functionality. It is only by his courage and determination that he can still walk at all. Thus is the reason for the special arrangements with Lady Thistle. Her teleportation will allow her to bring him for your interviews, as well as assist should any medical difficulties pop up. I have made sure the guard posted outside your door knows exactly who and how to contact the proper individuals should a medical emergency rear its ugly head.”

    Skillet snorted and stomped a hoof in annoyance, “Am not wanting to be treated like invalid!”

    Flourish answered simply by kissing her buckfriend’s brow with a grin, “Yes dear.” Skillet playfully growled at her, and she ducked out of range before he could tickle her.

    “That said,” Celestia continued, ignoring the pair, “I am expecting you both to take good care of him. Even as injured as he is, he was instrumental in the defense of Canterlot Memorial Hospital during the imp invasion, and he acts as coordinator for the still active team of current Element bearers.”

    “Impressive resume,” Relic whistled softly.

    “Bah,” Skillet snorted and waved it off. “Ol’ Skillet just works phones and cooks dinner for team, and Princesses when they can escape their duties. I do nothing special. Any other pony would do much the same, ya?”

    “Wrong,” Flourish stated firmly. “I’ve met far too many ponies who would have curled up in a corner and cowered rather than coordinate a bunch of civilians, a majority of them injured, into a respectable defense against the Imps. I know I couldn’t have pulled it off.” Skillet went to wave it off, but was interrupted by his marefriend hugging him, who then pointed a hoof at Relic and Quagga, “That means, should something happen to my beau here, it won’t be Princess Celestia you have to answer to. She’ll get whatever scraps are left of you when I’m finished, got it?” The gaze from the mare turned harsh and cold, making even the stalwart Quagga shiver slightly, and both Relic and the zebra nodded quickly in response. The mare’s expression immediately softened as she was satisfied and she kissed her buckfriend lightly. “Good. I’ll be back for you when you’re done, my shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weetie pony pie,” she giggled before vanishing in a pink explosion.

    “I hate it when she calls me that,” Skillet grumped good-naturedly, prompting a laugh from Celestia.

    “Lady Thistle has the correct idea, however,” the alicorn said with a smile, “it is time I depart as well. I will leave you three to talk and grow more comfortable with each other. I suspect this interview will take far longer than the norm for you, Professor.”

    “I can understand some concern, due to his infirmity,” Relic said curiously, “but why would that slow down the interview process?”

    “Because Lord Skillet is fond of telling stories,” she answered with a smile, ignoring the overdramatic eye-roll from said stallion, “and you may find yourself side tracked easily by his enthusiasm. Have a good afternoon, gentle-stallions” With that, she turned and slipped from the room herself, leaving the trio of stallions to watch as the door was closed behind her, the heavy locks clanking into place in her wake.

    A moment of awkward silence reigned as the three stallions eyed each other with a mixture of wariness and curiosity, only to be broken by Skillet’s deep voice.

    “So… what are you in for?”

    She paused to look herself over and make sure everything was perfect.

    For most mares, that might have involved some contortions, or at least a good mirror or two. But for the psychically inclined Galaxi, she needed no such conveniences. Her mystic sight allowed her to view everything around her, despite the angle or light, perfectly. In fact, its primary drawback seemed to be the inability to see reflections, instead seeing what was beyond the reflective surface, even if it was just another flat surface.

    A light tug here and there made sure the sea-green satin gown hugged her form perfectly. It rested snugly over her flank, the color matching her tail perfectly, before reaching her knees and flaring out in a fall of white and gold lace that brushed the floor as she walked, even in her towering heeled shoes. The saddle was tight, very tight; it had taken an hour of work to get the corset tight enough to fit. The snug bodice and long sleeves ended just over her hooves with another flare of white and gold lace, and offset the puffed shoulders nicely, accenting her form nicely to draw the eyes to all the right places. She had forgone all but the most basic of cosmetics and only wore some light mascara and dark glistening lip-gloss. Her mane was bundled up in a nice coquettish bun with a little strand of pearls wound into it, and a few curls fell teasingly over her left shoulder. Satisfied with the image she presented, she strolled as casually as she could, given the torturous hoofware she chose, down the hall of the palace.

    It was early evening, an hour or so from dinner, so she was hardly an unusual sight from the standard nobles who arrived to show their respects to (or, as Luna often joked, to kiss the hooves and flanks of) the Princesses, but seeing her in such finery was a rarity. She usually would forgo such things…

    But tonight, she had a mission.

    “Hey, Galaxi,” Clockwork said as she trotted past, startling the psychic mare. She had been so focused on her “plan” that she completely missed her intended target strolling up on her!

    “Oh! Er… hello there, Miss Key,” Galaxi recovered, doing her best purring voice, and struck a pose that probably looked far better in her head then in reality. Clockwork only glanced once with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged it off.

    “Princess wrangled you into one of her formal dinners, eh?” the short mare asked, slowing down slightly as Galaxi fell in step with her as best she could, especially given how hard she was trying to sway her hips like she’d seen some ladies do...

    “Well, yes,” Galaxi lied, “but I’m sure I could slip off if you wanted some company...” She tried her best to flutter her lashes, but only managed to look like she had something stuck in her eye. Not that Clockwork noticed…

    “Nah, that’s okay,” Clockwork answered with a sigh, “you’d just ruin your dress tagging along. I’m just doing a few stress tests on the frame of the new chariot before getting into the hard parts, like rigging up the engines. Thankfully Princess Luna authorized use that old factory again, but this is turning into a bigger project than I anticipated, and my armour isn’t as big a help as I’d hoped in some cases. After that, I was thinking of doing a patrol. Get out and stretch my legs a little bit.”

    “Another one?” Galaxi asked worriedly. “You keep going into that cesspool…”

    “Some of those ponies haven’t got any other place to go,” Clockwork answered softly. “Honey showed me there are good ponies living down there, praying to Celestia for somepony they can rely on. I know I’m not that hero, but I’ll be damned if I’m just going to sit around doing nothing! So long as that Mare-Do-Well character I’ve heard about doesn’t complain about some punk foal on her turf, I’ll be fine.”

    “I’m just…  I’m worried about you, that’s all,” Galaxi said softly, resting a hoof on the shorter mare’s shoulder.

    Clockwork smiled. “I appreciate it, Galaxi, but I need to do this. I can’t just… sit around the palace all day going stir crazy. I can’t sit on my flank and just wait for somepony else to help them. If I can help, I will.”

    “And what about… ‘it’?” Galaxi asked softly.

    “This is actually helping a bit, giving me something tangible to focus on,” Clockwork answered, but the psychic mare couldn’t help but feel there was more than was being said. Unfortunately, they reached the newly installed elevator before she could ask, and the brass inlaid doors creaked open. “Catch ya later, Galaxi,” Clockwork said, and stepped in. The blind mare could do naught but to watch the other vanish behind the closing doors.

    Galaxi then said something very unladylike much louder than she intended, startling a nearby guard.

    “My my, what a tongue you have,” a voice teased from a short distance away.

    “Not now, Flourish,” the psychic mare growled, and all but threw off the shoes so she could stop wobbling about like a drunken pony. She lifted the quartet of heels in her telekinesis and glared at them as if they were somehow at fault.

    Undeterred, the other mare hip bumped Galaxi as she came abreast of her, “So what’re you all dressed up for? Trying to impress some stallion? No, that’s not your style…”

    “Flourish…” Galaxi said warningly.

    “I bet you were trying to impress a mare,” and the gray unicorn looped a foreleg over Galaxi’s shoulder, “maybe the one who just got on that elevator, hrm?”

    Galaxi pushed the other mare away and stomped off, only to trip on the long skirt getting underhoof without the heels. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she grumbled, her ears splaying and head lowering with the temporary defeat as she picked herself up and more carefully moved away.

    The teleporting mare wasn’t so easily dissuaded, and trotted up to keep pace with the dejected Galaxi, “You’re thinking about trying another gown, aren’t you?”

    “Well…”

    “Before you go do something crazy, like break out a skimpy maid uniform, let me just point out that it won’t work. You’d attract every stallion, and a number of mares, long before you turned that mare’s head,” Flourish pointed out, making Galaxi flush for a moment. She had indeed considered that exact thing, at least for a moment. Only in the wake of her embarrassment did the rest of what Flourish said register.

    “Wait, what do you mean? Why wouldn’t this turn her head?” she asked more sharply than she intended to. Flourish just gave her a knowing smile that somehow made her blush more.

    “That’s easy,” the gray mare said, hopping slightly as the pair turned the corner and headed towards the bedrooms, “after all, Clockwork was the pony who ranted for almost twenty minutes about how she’d never be caught dead in an outfit like you’re wearing.”

    “She was wearing one just the other day…” Galaxi noted defensively, blushing as she remembered helping her walk back to the palace.

    “Yes, I recall. And I also recall how flushed you were about it, and she was with wearing it,” Flourish noted. “I would say that, despite her objections, the wearing got to Clockwork a bit, but I would hardly doubt seeing you wearing it would mean much to her. If she was arguing against it that much, then it was not something she finds attractive to see. The wearing and the viewing are different matters entirely, so says the voice of experience.”

    Galaxi opened her mouth to argue, only to shut it again as she looked down at the floor for a moment. That made far too much sense for her to dismiss out of hoof. She was only interrupted by a tug on her tail.

    “Quick, in here…” Flourish whispered hurriedly, and ducked into one of the empty guest bedrooms, dragging Galaxi in behind her. Flourish quickly locked it as the psychic mare rubbed her backside.

    “What was that for!” she demanded, only to be shushed by Flourish.

    “Hold your voice down…!” Flourish hissed and pressed her ear to the door. After a few moments of silence, she relaxed, “Okay, I think he’s moved on. I recognized the Stallion prowling around down the hall,” she answered. “That was Hooktail, a pretty infamous naval officer from Baltimare and renowned marechaser. Given your current attire, he’d have never let you be, G.”

    Galaxi flushed and lowered her head further. “Great, just great….” she grumped and sat down disconsolately on the plush carpeting.

    A foreleg looped over the psychic mare’s shoulders and chuckled, “Relax, Auntie Flourish is here to help!”

    “I’m a year older than you,” Galaxi noted crossly.

    “Details details,” the unicorn sniffed and gave her a winning smile, “and the details you’re missing is that getting all fancied up like a lady won’t draw Clockwork’s eye at all. Miss Key is a bit more practical than that. A gown or fancy clothes don’t really serve a purpose in her world, do they? How much of being a “lady” has she really taken into her personal life? Aside from a royal stipend that would make some ponies blush, she’s about the least ladylike of all of us, save maybe Filigree, and that is arguably more due to a difference in Pony and Gryphon culture than anything else. Clockwork instead buries herself in her work. She’s in her lab almost all the time, and just how well do you think one of those gowns would stand up to getting smeared in grease, or oil spilling on it, or getting caught between some gears? Could you grip a wrench or other tool in your hoof wearing those heels? Heck, you could barely balance in them, how do you think you’d manage doing delicate adjustments in them?”

    “You’ve made your point,” Galaxi muttered, then looked at the unicorn archly, “so what would you suggest?”

    “Simple, appeal to her mind,” Flourish noted, tapping the other mare’s head lightly. “Spend time with her, and find out what she does like.”

    “Last time I tried to do that, she asked me to leave…” Galaxi whimpered, lowering her gaze to the floor.

    “Did you ‘tell’ her things, or did you listen?” the unicorn asked, then smiled at the confused reaction it garnered. “Did you tell her you were worried about her, talk about what was happening elsewhere in the palace, and the like? That would work if she were more extroverted, but she’s not. Like you, she’s a little introvert, which means she’s not going to go out of her way for interaction, she’ll wait until it comes to her. More, she’s not going to have the patience for interaction that isn’t somehow relevant to her. You need to listen, not tell. Listen to her talk, ask questions, and show an interest in what SHE is on about. I know you used to do this. Whenever we wanted to find you, we’d just look in her lab. But now, ever since she started having ‘that’ problem, you haven’t been doing it. That’s where your disconnect is, and what you need to remedy. You two were like peas in a pod, the closest of friends, and close enough a few of us speculated that you both might already in a relationship of some sort.”

    “W-what?!” Galaxi sputtered, even as Flourish laughed.

    “Oh come on, you two were practically connected at the hip! Trixie hung out with you both a lot too, but she began spending more and more time with Celestia as her student, which meant you two were alone and unchaperoned,” Flourish teased with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows.

    “B-but it wasn’t --!”

    “It wasn’t like that, I know,” Flourish interrupted with a smile, “and I think we all knew that. But it didn’t stop us from speculating either. It didn’t stop the rumors from some of the maids who saw how often you two were staying in each other’s chambers at night. Hell, Trixie became part of, as some maids gossiped, a kinky ménage a trios.”

    Galaxi flushed a deep crimson and covered her face in a lace frilled hoof, “Oh Goddess, I’ll never be able to show my face….”

    “Oh knock it off, G,” Flourish chuckled and wandered over to the well made princess style bed and the generic white and gold comforter upon it and hopped up to relax. “You’re simply not enough of a drama queen to pull that off. Plus, you’re missing the point.”

    “What is the point?” Galaxi demanded, barely preventing herself from yelling, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Or is humiliating me it?”

    Flourish blinked and hopped off the bed. “G, I’m not trying to humiliate you,” she sighed and leaned close, placing a hoof on the psychic mare’s shoulder, “I’m just trying to prove my point. You had it right before, when you were just being her friend. You were there for her constantly, you took an interest in her work, you were her companion, her sounding board, an ear to bend when she needed to vent, and a shoulder to cry on when the world got too much for her. That was the best thing you could do for her. Right now, you’re acting like a filly with a crush, and you’re going totally the wrong direction. Trixie may have been trying to hook you both up with various eligible stallions, but her success rate is pretty damned low. That’s because you two already found each other, you just hadn’t realized it yet. You now realize you want it, I assume from what happened the other day, and you’re trying to push your tastes onto her. That cannot and will not work. You have to find her tastes. Once that veil is pierced… well, that’s a whole new can of worms.”

    Galaxi glared at the other mare for a moment, then wiped a hoof across her face, staining the sleeve of her dress, before taking a steadying breath. “That’s it?” she asked softly after a moment.

    “Yeah, that’s it,” the unicorn said softly. “Look, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to embarrass you, I didn’t think it’d hit you so badly. I was just trying to use examples to make my point. Everypony already thought you were together, just from the way you hung out. Clockwork is a different sort of mare than a dress like this would attract. It would attract you, which is why you wore it. Because when she wore something like this, it spun your head around, right?” Flourish poked a hoof at the other mare teasingly and got a slight chuckle from her. “Right?”

    “Yeah,” she answered, lightly batting the hoof away and managing a weak smile.

    “But that means Clockwork will have to figure out that it works to turn your head later. But, right now, you need to figure out what draws her eye… if you can draw her eye. You might find success elsewhere,” Flourish considered and gently nudged the mare towards the bed.

    “I don’t understand…?” she asked as she moved to settle on the bed carefully, the skirts making it a slow process.

    “It’s not her eye you want in the end, but her heart,” Flourish said with a smile. “Catching the eye is the usual first step to get there, but it’s definitely not the only way. I’ve known mares who used food to attract a stallion’s attention, a stallion who used poetry to snag his dream mare, another couple who got started with similar tastes in music… the list is infinite. In the end, there’s only one thing that matters, though, and that’s you get past it and to their mind and their heart. You and Clockwork have a decent start on that, you knew each other better than nearly anypony I’ve known, even married couples!”

    “Well, I am psychic…”

    “But now, you have to do it the hard way, assuming I remember your comments on her ‘music’ correctly?” Flourish confirmed.

    “You… you actually paid attention to that?” the psychic mare asked, shocked.

    Flourish giggled and rolled over onto her back, “Just because I look like I’m sleeping, or eating, or bored out of my skull, doesn’t mean I am not paying attention. Hazards of being a former guard; you learn to pay attention to everything around you, and not focus on anything specific at all. Too narrow a focus can miss as much as no focus at all, as my old DI used to say.”

    “Dee eye?”

    “Drill Instructor,” she answered, “the stallion who taught us to be guardponies. A real leg-breaker he was, who swore that his raindrop cutie-mark was born from the tears of those recruits who he’d drummed out. Craziest son-of-a-mare I ever knew. Too bad he died in the Imp assault last year while trying to defend the palace, or I’d have bought him a pint…”

    Galaxi put a hoof on the other mare’s shoulder at the brief moment of melancholy in her voice, which she shook off quickly and smiled broadly. “I learned a lot from that bastard, a lot I didn’t even realize I’d picked up until years later. Anyway, we’re getting off topic...”

    “That’s alright, I think I’ve got the gist of it,” Galaxi answered with a tepid smile. “It’s going to be tough to face those maids again, though…”

    “Eh, all maids will gossip,” Flourish shrugged and hopped off the bed and wandered towards the big wooden door. She placed her ear to the door and listened for several moments before nodding to the other mare. “Hell, last week they were gossiping about how Luna takes her baths with a few dozen rubber duckies…”

    “Seriously?” Galaxi asked with a raised eyebrow, getting to her hooves and picking up the heels she didn’t remember dropping in her telekinesis. “I mean, she has one or two, but…”

    “Maids are maids,” Flourish chuckled and waved it off, “and maids and palace staff will always and forever gossip. It happens, and the best we can do is to take it with a grain of salt and move on.” The unicorn waited until Galaxi was abreast of her before tugging open the door… and was startled to find herself face to face with a well groomed stallion almost a head taller than herself. He had a deep ocean blue coat with a pale blonde mane, and was dressed in a crisp white naval officer’s uniform.

    “Ah, I thought I heard a lady in some distress around here --” he started in a rich baritone, only to be confronted with a wall of pink smoke as one of the mares panicked, grabbed the well dressed mare beside her, and quite literally vanished.

    “My word!” was all he could manage as he tried to wave away the cloying pink smoke.

    “Mister Burner?”

    She received no answer, only the soft and subtle hum of power, a majority of it emanating from the centerpiece of the room, the M.A.N.T.I.Core armour. Multiple lights and cables lead to this singular aspect of the chamber, as if every item within was there for the sole purpose of making the massive armour function. Everything circled that singular point, from large computers to work stations to just tool boxes; they all seemed justified only by the armor at the core. In a way, it reminded Verdigris of ripples in a pond.

    Still, the longer she looked, the more she could see the interruptions in the pattern. A toolbox, where it lay askew and at right angles from the established pattern. A workbench nearly at one wall that held a few small items that was in no way related. Then there was an alcove near the back, completely removed from the magnetism of the project, which constituted the unicorn’s living areas when not hard at work. Breaks in the pattern where small things had broken free of the irrevocable pull of the monster at its core, the black hole at the center of the Professor’s world.

    “Mister Burner, are you in here?” she tried a second time.

    Verdigris carefully stepped forward, her leg flaring with pain, and did her best to avoid the cords lying across the floor. They wound around and over each other, orange and blacks almost like a braid of hair… or a tangle of snakes. Almost the instant she cleared the threshold, she had the feeling of being watched, like the entire room suddenly became aware of her presence. It made the feathers on the back of her neck stand up and sent a shiver back down her spine. Yet, unlike the gaze of those she endured before from Eclipse and King Goldtalon, it was not hostile. It was not angry.

    It was expectant.

    She frowned, her green eyes scanning the room slowly to find the proper owner, or perhaps where she was being watched from, but neither was apparent. The only eyes she could see were the ones on the armor itself, dimly glowing amber orbs that seemed at once asleep and aware.

    A beep from her side caused Verdigris to jump, clutching a claw to her chest as she eyed the machine’s readout with a frown. A simple waveform, but it wasn’t as smooth as it should be. It was arching up, then suddenly falling off to zero, then only to repeat it again. She slowly approached the machine, feeling like some foolish cub from a scary story told about the campfire, and tapped the readout with a single claw.

    Her nervousness skyrocketed when the waveform disappeared, flattening out seemingly in response to her touch. She grit her beak a little and looked around again, and let out a squawk when another chirp sounded from another unit.

    “Okay, this isn’t funny…” she stated in a wavering voice, and slowly stalked towards the location of the chirp. This one, at least, seemed to have a reason for going off. A simple “test completed” shown on the monitor, followed by a long string of complex looking figures and programming speech. She frowned at it, not knowing what to make of the listing, and began to walk past… when something about them caught her eye.

    Verdigris looked closer at the figures and frowned, her eyes flicking back and forth between several lines. Something didn’t add up there… like a wrong answer on a test, it just didn’t ‘look’ right to her eye. She lifted a claw to lightly push aside a piece of paper taped on the edge of the monitor when she realized the back of it was covered in a series of figures as well, many of them matching what she was seeing on the screen. But the ones she identified as being “off” were different than the ones on the paper. The paper had what looked like correct numbers to her…

    “Correct? Incorrect?” the gryphoness suddenly asked herself, shaking her head violently. “How the heck would I know the difference?” she demanded of the empty room. Instead of answering, a buzzer went off nearby, about making the poor gryphon all but jump out of her feathers. She hissed and spun around, searching for it before stumbling from her still injured leg. Still, despite her startle, there was nothing there, save a large workbench covered in sheet after sheet of paper. The gryphoness, her wings still flared, stormed towards the table, and the buzzer, as fast as her injured leg would allow her.

    An irritated slap of her claw shut off the buzzer handily. With that off, she spent a moment smoothing down her feathers before looking at what was actually on the table. Her eyes widened as she almost immediately realized what she was looking at, and she snatched one of the pages up with her claw. Her eyes raced over the figures and sketches, then up at the “centerpiece” of the room, then back to the sheet. With a trembling claw, she held it up so that the paper overlapped half of the Manticore armour… a perfect reflection of what was drawn.

    Verdigris dropped the sheet from her suddenly numb claw, her eyes wide as she stared at the armour. Maybe it was her imagination, but it suddenly felt as though it were staring back at her, watching her like a silent judge.

    With her heart wildly beating in her chest, the gryphoness picked up the paper she had dropped, trying hard to look anywhere but the glowing amber glare of the armour. Her eyes instead roamed the sheet of paper in her trembling claw.

    That was when she noticed it.

    She wasn’t sure exactly what ‘it’ was at first, but she saw it. An inconsistency. A something she couldn’t put her talon on that bothered her. Without even thinking about it, she snatched up another sheet from the table, her eyes racing over the numbers and drawings. Then a third… and a fourth… Within minutes she had dragged a stool over to stand on, spreading the forms out on the table, a pencil grasped awkwardly in her clawtips as she scribbled notes in the margins…

    She quickly lost track of time, her mind a whirl of figures and numbers. She didn’t understand the names assigned to the parts, but she could grasp their reasons and functions. The purpose of the armor may have not been told to her, but she could recognize it was designed to fight. Lasers and ablative armour, even scrapped plans for a flamethrower. But there was a problem, and the more she crunched the numbers, the more apparent it became. There wasn’t enough power. To get any reasonable performance from the massive armour required a massive generator nestled into the armour, far larger than would be feasible. A smaller power supply was in place, but it was insufficient, thus making the armour slow and sluggish. Remove some of the weaponry, and it might work, but then it would take a hit one what seemed to be its primary function.

    Inspiration hit, and her pencil went back to work, scribbling hastily the numbers that came pouring from her mind. She could barely comprehend where they came from, but she understood every one, and where it was leading her to. It was circuitous, it was clever, it was crazy… it was genius.

    “Vat are you doing?!” a cry came from behind her, and the gryphoness squawked in surprise, the pencil flying from her grasp to land halfway across the large chamber.

    “Um… uh…” Verdigris managed intelligently, her mind still a haze of numbers and designs.

    “Thiz iz not zome playground!” the orange unicorn shouted, making the gryphon squeeze back away from him, finding herself trapped against the desk. “Theze are my planz for ze Manticore armour! And you have… have…” the fury faded almost as fast as it appeared, the unicorn’s eyes widening as he scanned the figures she wrote in the margins. “Thiz… thiz iz…”

    “You need to change the frequency you’re using and increase the pulse rate,” Verdigris noted in a trembling voice.

    “Zat would increaze ze routing dependencies, though,” he countered, flipping one of the pages over, “not to mention overheating problemz...”

    Verdigris hesitantly circled the sheet to stand beside him and pointed at a sketch with her claw. “N-not if you synch the power core to it as well. You’d lose some power to your lasers, here and here, but you would increase the firing speed by almost four-hundred percent, and eliminate the overheating almost entirely.”

    “Wait, wait, zat iz impozzible! Unlezz…” Burner considered.

    “…unless you route the heat away from the core…” Verdigris continued…

    “…which vould feed power into ze armaments…”

    “…which would add a thermal charge to a component already using heat…”

    “…which, in turn, vould lesson the power requirements…”

    “…and decrease the load on the power supply and eliminate much of the cooling requirements…”

    “…which would increase overall rezponze time!” Burner finished, his eyes wide as he was almost dancing on his hoof tips. “Verdigris! Thiz iz ingeniouz!!!” he cried, literally hugging the gryphon tight enough to make her wings flare, before dashing off for his tools. The gryphon simply stood there in shock, her eyes wide and wings still spread.

    Burner literally didn’t notice for several long minutes as he gathered up his equipment, throwing them into a pile on the workbench by the power armor. It wasn’t until he turned to the gryphoness did he realize that she was all but frozen in place, her eyes wide and locked on nothing.

    “Verdigris?” Burner asked, a note of concern touching his voice as he stepped around a table towards the gryphon. “Verdigris, are you alright?”

    “It… it’s true…” she barely whispered.

    “Vhat’z true?”

    “I… I came here to see if you could help… help test me,” she snuffled.

    Bunsen Burner frowned and barely managed to tamp down the excitement of finally sorting out the last issue his armour had (so far) in order to sit down by the gryphoness and ask, “Tezt you for what?”

    “I… to see if I’m cursed…” she hissed softly, scrubbing a foreleg across her face, “sorry, a special. Zilch swats me when I call myself cursed….”

    “Would it be a bad zing if you were?” the unicorn asked in a gentle voice that surprised even him. Part of his mind screamed at him to get to work, but for some reason, he ignored it.

    “It means… it means I can never go home,” Verdigris hiccupped. “I… I thought it would be easier to take. I… I didn’t cry when I realized it with Zilch but… but there was a chance I was wrong. Maybe I was just talented at fixing toys? But… but this…”

    “Thiz was my mozt advanced work,” Burner said, the pieces clicking into place, “zis iz one of ze mozt advanzed works of roboticz in all of Equeztria… and you zolved one of itz mozt vexing problemz in only hourz...”

    Verdigris nodded weakly and lowered her eyes, clenching them shut. Burner felt awkward and all hooves, but he finally settled for what felt like the lame gesture of putting a leg about her shoulder. He was outright flabbergasted when the gryphoness leaned into him and sobbed. The unicorn grimaced, unsure what to do now, other than to lightly pat her shoulder and say “there there?” from time to time. At least, until an idea struck him…

    “Verdigris?” he asked loud enough that she would hear.

    “Huh?” she asked, snuffling wetly.

    With a slightly nervous clearing of his throat, he asked, “Vould you like to help me install your fix?”

    “I…  I never actually tried…”

    “Zat vaz not what I azked…” he said with what he hoped was a comforting smile.

    “I… I think I would,” the young gryphoness answered tentatively. “Might as well prove it all the way, eh?” she chuckled weakly.

    “Zat iz ze zpirit,” he answered, and helped her to her claws. “If you are indeed zkilled in zis regard, you might be a great azzet to uz.”

    “I still don’t know who you all are,” Vedigris noted pointedly.

    “Perhapz Kaoz will tell you more if you help uz?”

    She paused for a moment, then closed her beak on the argument she had considered. Maybe he would? Maybe she shouldn’t know? What would it matter at this point? They had been willing to accept her for who and what she is, without question. That’s more than her parents would have done, more than almost her entire race would do… With a sigh, she picked herself up and moved to the tools the stallion had collected. “We need to rip out and recalibrate the power supply first?”

    “Nein, not yet,” he answered, and started to open one of the panels. “We need to ztart by disconnecting ze remote power conduits and begin recalibrating them first. Onze zat iz done, we can adjust ze toleranze levelz in ze unit…”

    “Then we set up the heat venting to your weapon systems!” the gryphoness chirped, understanding it now.

    “Exactly,” Burner answered with a smile. “Let’z get to work, azzizztant!” Verdigris couldn’t help but giggle at the title as they got to work.

    A striped figure in a crisply tailored suit smiled as he watched from the entrance to the cave.

    She dashed around the corner and pressed herself flat against the wall.

    Old bricks bit against her back, the slight dampness from Goddess knows what soaking into her midnight blue coat. To her side, hanging in the muted glow of her magic, was the unicorn’s prize, a small bag that jingled when moved as she pushed it against the wall a little harder. Her ears strained under the close fitting hood, trying to hear any pursuit. She managed to lose the idiot who carried her purse just a little too loosely, and was far too out of shape to keep up with her. Well, that mare’s loss was her gain.

    She took a moment to survey the alley she’d chosen to hide in. It was mostly draped in thick shadows thanks to poor lighting from the nearby shops and homes. A sickly sheen along the ground and some surfaces reflected what little light it could catch, forming strange and twisted silhouettes in the darkness. The alleyway was narrow, barely wide enough for two ponies side by side, and littered along both walls with piles of garbage just waiting for their weekly removal… if the ponies bothered to show up. The “L” shape of the alley turned the routine sounds of the city into a strange and twisted echo of itself, giving a sense of removal from the rest of the city. An odd sense of privacy that was comforting…

    Her breathing finally reached some semblance of normal as she grew more confidant that no-pony had given chase. She reached up with a hoof and yanked off the hood, shaking out her pale pink mane with white streaks and grinned wickedly back in the direction she came from. Coming away from the wall and back to all four hooves, she opened the bag to peer inside.

    “Let’s see… five… ten… Are you kiddin’ me?! Oh for crying out loud,” she groaned, “this wasn’ even worth the risk.” With a dejected sigh, the unicorn stuffed the bits into her own bag and tossed the one she stole onto the ground. She tucked her own bag back into her tail and turned…

    …and found herself face to face with a pair of glowing eyes.

    With a squeak, she backpedaled, her eyes wide as the dim light hid the form she was facing. The large and bulky form stepped forward, its hoof falling with a heavy clank as the light revealed the sharp features of the draconic helmet that carried those glowing blue eyes.

    “I don’t think those bits belong to you,” the mechanized beast growled, sounding all the world like it just clawed its way out from the depths of Tartarus.

    “Who the heck are you s-supposed ta be?” the mare demanded, sounding more confident than she felt.

    The mechanized beast stepped further forward, light glinting off the angled metal. “Doesn’t matter who I am,” the mechanized voice answered, one of its hooves scraping along the ground in a shower of sparks, “what matters is what I’m going to do to you if you don’t turn yourself in for theft.”

    The unicorn smiled uneasily. “Theft? What theft?”

    Rather than answer, the monstrosity used a hoof to scoop up the bit-bag that had been just discarded. With a flick, the bag landed across the mare’s snout, which she shook her head violently to toss off.

    “Unless you got some proof, back the hell off… whatever the eff you’re supposed to be,” the unicorn growled, her eyes flicking down the alley as she tried to determine the odds of fleeing. “You ain’t got nothin’ on me!”

    For as bulky as the monstrosity looked, it moved with a speed she never expected as it caught her in the chest, slamming her back into the brick wall of the alley, one foreleg across her chest, almost on her throat. The thing hissed, as if stifling the urge to turn her into a bloody smear before it spoke again. “Why don’t we find her and ask?” it asked accusingly.

    “She won’t snitch!” the unicorn choked out. She desperately cast about for anything to use against this terror before her eyes lit on something… and an idea hit her.

    “Then maybe --“ the metallic thing started, but the mare ignored her, her magic flaring as she did the only thing she could think of… and rolled the nearby dumpster away from the wall with as much force as she could muster to ram the demonic figure. With an odd “crump” sound, the demonic metal thing was driven back and away from her by the dumpster, which came to a stop only a few feet away, catching on some crack in the cement. The bin teetered for a moment, then toppled over onto the unknown thing with a crash, spilling its contents out along the sidewalk.

    “Heh,” the unicorn managed, catching her breath and calming her shaky nerves, “guess they don’t make demons the same these days.” With trembling hooves, she slowly turned to walk away from the toppled dumpster. She’d made far too much noise, it might attract some nosy foal out to ruin her fun. Besides, if she wanted her cash, she had to earn it! Well, steal it.

    She’d only taken two steps when the sound reached her ears; the screeching sound of metal being torn. Slowly, with wide eyes, the midnight coated mare looked back over her shoulder, her pupils reduced to pinpricks as, with a final burst, the dumpster ripped in two. The demonic pony stood at the center on her hind hooves, one hoof on each side of the now twisted and nigh unrecognizable trash bin, the eyes glowing fiercely with baleful energy.

    The mare couldn’t help herself; she screamed and ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, down the alley and around the corner, stumbling on trash that gave way under her hooves. She scrambled down the alley and surged ahead, careening around another corner and into the lane. She was oblivious to other ponies, careening broadside into one, and crashing into another in her panic. She ignored the shouts after her as she dived around another corner and into an alley she knew.

    The dark familiarity wrapped about the mare as she watched the street with wide, paranoid eyes. But as the minutes ticked on, her adrenaline began to ebb, her heart stopped thudding in her chest, and a sense of relief washed over her.

    “I lost it…” she breathed and wiped a foreleg across her brow. With a sigh she turned to walk further into the alley…

    …and bumped right into the metallic form watching her from behind.

    The metallic form didn’t even give her a chance to recoil this time, and scooped a hoof around to catch the back of her neck, pulling her sharply forward before curling her other foreleg to push, slamming her back into the nearby wall with enough force to make the breath whoosh from her lungs. The metallic monster leaned close, its draconic face looming over her. She struggled reflexively, the pressure growing across her chest as she struggled to breathe. She swore she heard her ribs creaking from the pressure, even as the creature’s other forehoof grew close, the bottom of it glowing like a bright blue lamp hovering inches from her face. She cringed, ducking her head and flattening her ears.

    “So, you gonna just kill her?”

    The monstrosity didn’t blink, seemingly unsurprised by the appearance of another in the proceedings. The mare, however, managed to twist her head just enough to look past the glowing hoof to see the other speaker. If her eyes could have bulged any more, they would have, seeing the unassuming mare leaning against the alley entrance casually. She was clad head to hoof in a purple bodysuit with a wide flaring collar and a matching purple hat. To conceal her identity, a midnight blue hood was pulled over her face and mane, reducing her eyes to a pair of pale moons. A matching blue cape lay over her back and flanks, further securing the image in her mind, and the knowledge of who she was.

    “I was considering it,” the mechanical monstrosity intoned.

    “Over thirteen bits?”

    “It’s the principal of the matter…”

    “Could you hurry it up then?” the suited mare asked flippantly. “I want to know which one of you I’m supposed to deliver to the guard.” The monster of a pony kept the unicorn pinned tightly in place, her hoof still hovering in place as seconds stretched out. The trapped mare shuddered visibly, wondering why the metallic monster was waiting…

    “She’s not an imp,” the masked mare said softly, which caused the mechanical monster-pony to turn its head in surprise, looking at her for a long moment. Them with a creaking slowness, the hoof on the unicorn’s chest pulled back and away from her, allowing breath to sweep into her lungs and leaving her collapsed on the ground as she struggled to reclaim her breath and to keep from pissing all over her leg.

    “Thankyouthankyouthankyou…” she managed to gasp.

    “Don’t thank me yet,” the other mare chuckled, and swept off her hat, revealing a horn of her own, which glowed brightly for a moment. At her command, electrical cords snaked their way out from the garbage and proceeded to bind the hooves of the thief. Only when bound did the mare settle her hat back in place and trot over, using a hoof to relieve the complaining mare of her bit-bag. “After all, I plan to return these to their rightful owners… all of them.”

    “What about the guard?” the mechanical pony asked.

    “What about them?” the mare asked cheekily. “They won’t do anything, there’s insufficient proof. I just do what I can and return these to their rightful owners. It’s all about doing the right thing, isn’t that true, Dragonfly?”

    The mechanized pony didn’t respond for several moments, “I suppose I should be flattered you know who I am, but I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

    “Me?” the mare asked, and stood up on her hind legs and swept her hat off in a massive flourish. “I am the incredible, the amazing, Mare-Do Well!”

    “Incredible?” Clockwork asked incredulously. “Amazing?”

    “What an ego that size--” the captured mare started, before Dragonfly interrupted with a nudge of her hoof. She shut up quickly and went back to sulking.

    The suited mare swept the hat back on and grinned broadly under the hood, “Well, one must pad their own reputation a little bit around here. I keep hoping for a comic book deal.”

    “Keep dreaming,” the armoured mare snorted, “they haven’t been offering any to existing specials since the debacle with Ultrapony.”

    “I suppose that makes sense,” Mare-Do Well considered, then shrugged and turned away. “Regardless, I will bid you adieu, I have some deliveries to make!”

    “Wait!” Clockwork called, before she even realized she had.

    Mare-Do Well paused, not turning around to look. “Yes?”

    “Look I… I’d like to help, if it’s alright with you.” Clockwork felt oddly childish in the request, like some cheesy comic character suggesting they “team up” for the greater good. She almost face-hoofed at the thought. “Uh… never --”

    “Sure,” Mare-Do Well interrupted with a smile, then flicked her cape back with a pair of lavender wings, “if you can keep up with me.”

    Clockwork’s eyes widened under the helm as the mare leapt into the air and took off into the dark. Even for a pegasus, she was quick, and the suited mare had to quickly fire her engines and lift off at maximum speed just to try and catch up.

    The unicorn was then left alone, her eyes wide as the blue glow of the armoured monstrosity’s engines faded from view. She rolled her head back and lifted her hooves, and proceeded to start to bite at the cords binding her legs. With that pair gone there was nothing to keep other ponies from finding her…

    She planned to be long gone before they ever showed up.

    “That should be the last one.”

    “I hope so,” the armoured mare noted, setting the Dragonfly down next to her current companion, the Mare-Do Well she’d heard about in some circles of the seedier side of Canterlot. “I swear that you must have a photographic memory or something. To remember all those ponies…”

    “Not really,” the mare admitted, tipping back her hat, “that last one was a charity service. I just donated the last of it to them in hopes that it would help somepony out.”

    Clockwork nodded with a chuckle, “I suspected as much, but I wasn’t sure that filly didn’t rip them off too. I only got a good look at her last victim, and even then I only was alerted to the area come her… fourth victim I think it was.”

    Mare-Do Well snorted, “You’re still a newbie at this whole ‘stop the criminals’ thing.”

    “Well yes… I am,” she admittedly sheepishly.

    “Good for you,” the suited mare said as she sat her flank down. Her eyes closed partway, shielding them against the distant glare of the lights many stories below them. Up there, on a pony-made cliff of glass and steel and mortar, one could almost imagine they were alone in the world, with just the gibbous moon staring down at them. Aside from the cool stiff wind, there was no pony, and barely even a bird or two, to overhear them. “There’s not enough of you former agents who realize that there are still ponies suffering. Crime is still a problem, and it always will be.”

    Clockwork turned her head away, embarrassed. “It took an accidental meeting to teach me that.”

    “At least you learned it,” Mare-Do Well said simply. Several moments passed, each of them left to their own thoughts, before she spoke again, “So why did you come with me?”

    “I’m sorry?” Clockwork asked, jumping slightly as she was jolted from her own thoughts.

    The suited mare chuckled and folded her forelegs, lying on the rooftop comfortably before repeating herself, “Why did you come with me? You really don’t have a reason, you barely know who I am, you’ve only just barely heard of me, and you only saw me for the first time when I all but threatened to turn you into the guard…”

    “Because I noticed something impossible about you, and I was curious…” Clockwork said, but the other mare continued to look at her. Even with her relaxed posture expression, her eyes shown with an almost knowing glint. Not judging, but knowing. The armoured mare let out the breath she was holding and continued, “…and you said exactly the right thing to snap me out of my own head. I was wondering how you knew.”

    “So I’m ‘impossible’ now?” she considered, seemingly amused by the title. “I like the sound of that. I might have to add that to my litany. But what about me is impossible?”

    “Unless you’re one of the Princesses slumming as a hero,” she noted flatly, “there’s no way you could have both wings and a horn, and yet you used both tonight.”

    “What wings?” the other mare asked teasingly, and flipped up the cape, where, indeed, no wings could be seen. With a swipe of her hoof, she tugged off her hat and scratched the back of her head, “No horn, either. Are you sure you’re not seeing things?”

    “I… uh…  But you… and then you…” Clockwork stammered, only to see the other mare start to giggle.

    “I’m a special, like yourself,” she pointed out, still laughing. “I was gifted with the ability to change my shape at will. There are limits, of course, but I can be any of the three types of pony. The downside is that my original appearance was lost in all of this. I remember each form by feel, but the color of my mane and coat seems randomized. With effort I can force a specific set of colors, and yes I could turn into a stallion if I so chose, but that takes a good bit of effort too. It’s easier just to simply decide I want to be a unicorn or a pegasus and go. The cape and hat are so no one can see the parts grow in, and then I can use them as if I’d been a pony of that type all my life.”

    “Wow, that’s pretty impressive,” Clockwork whistled. “But, I’ve never heard of an agent like you before.”

    “I’m not an agent, and never was,” Mare-Do Well noted softly. “My power surfaced in the invasion of Canterlot, the invasion you helped stop, if I remember correctly. Thanks for that, by the way.” Clockwork flushed under the helmet, ducking her head a bit as the other mare continued, “But when they attacked, something inside me ‘changed’. I don’t know how else to explain it. I was angry they were hurting other ponies. I wanted to help them, to drive back those bullies and… and then it happened. I turned into a unicorn and blasted a hoof-full with magic. Then I turned into a pegasus and flew circles around a few. I was as astounded as anypony; what I was doing was impossible, right? I turned back into an earth pony, but when I looked at myself, I wasn’t me. I wasn’t anypony I’d ever seen before. I then proceeded to buck a few dozen more Imps before reinforcements arrived.”

    “Reinforcements? You mean the guard?” she asked, frowning.

    “The Guard? Down here?!” Mare-Do Well scoffed, “as if they’d dirty their pristine and polished armor to help us.” She snorted and shook her head. “No, the reinforcements were from, of all things, the local criminal organizations and gangs. They brought weapons, they brought fighters, and they brought anypony who was willing to stand against the Imps. It turned into a bloody street war, but we held our own until the end. We were losing, by the way. We lost many ponies then, but I was lucky. I was still alive in the end.”

    Clockwork placed a metal hoof on the other mare’s shoulder, who gave a thin smile under the mask. “I’m sorry we weren’t faster…”

    “Don’t give me that!” the suited mare growled, causing her companion to recoil in surprise. “You did what you needed to do, and you did it as quickly as possible. Don’t you dare apologize for doing things the right way, just because it wasn’t fast enough for some idiot or another! You are your team did it, you defeated the Nightmare. You lifted a curse on these lands that not even the great Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the Infamous ‘Six’, could do. If anything, I should be thanking you for getting it finished in time to keep me alive.”

    “But…”

    “But ponies died, a lot of them,” she sighed softly, her anger dissipating, “and yes, I grieve for them. But I have to believe that, regardless of what they did before that point, their deaths were worth something. They were heroes, even if they aren’t on that fancy wall you have for the agents who passed. They were heroes, and regardless of if they were some two bit mugger, hobo, prostitute, or even crime lord, we all stood shoulder to shoulder against the threat. We held the line, and we did our job so that you could do yours. Don’t apologize to me; you have nothing to apologize for. In a manner of speaking, we were all part of the same large team, and we did the job. In the end, we won, and that’s what matters. It also proves that we can do it again, if needs be. Not just some hero agent. Not the element bearers. But every pony in Canterlot, and perhaps the Ponylands and Equestria… hell, why not the world over? But every pony can stand together against a threat larger than we are. We are stronger united than we are separate.”

    Clockwork smiled weakly under her helm, “You’re starting to sound like a Hearthwarming Day card…”

    “Yeah, I suppose I am,” the other mare chuckled and sat upright, feeling the wind blow over her masked face, “but it’s the truth. Maybe that was the lesson we all failed to learn. Or maybe I’m just waxing stupid with all this time to think.”

    “I dunno, it made sense to me,” the armored mare offered.

    Mare-do Well tugged her hat down slightly. “That’s how I knew what to say to you. We both went through the hell of that invasion. I know there are times that I swear that every damned criminal is another Imp in disguise, if only I could root them out!” She shrugged embarrassingly at her momentary outburst, and continued, “But I think maybe I was brain damaged in all the fighting. It doesn’t happen often, but every now and again I go a little crazy and somepony has to reign me in.”

    Clockwork’s jaw worked for a moment. Another pony suffering as she did? Another who knew what it was, what was happening?! Was that… even possible?

    “We need to get our minds off this maudlin crap,” the masked mare announced suddenly, completely derailing Clockwork’s train of thought, “let’s go find some action.” The Dragonfly’s wings sprung back into existence, flaring to signify her readiness.

    With only a broad grin, Mare-Do Well leapt off the building…

    For the first time, she noticed how empty it felt.

    The small gryphon wound carefully down the hall of the empty aerie. She knew where the team was, Professor Burner had told her yesterday that they would have an all day training session starting at sun-up. She had woken up when Zilch groggily uncurled from where they now shared her hidden bed, and she managed to slip out through her portal before the suited mare could teleport off. She didn’t feel like being stuck in the little hiding spot, not today. She had an entire day, and she was determined to do one thing…

    She was determined to find some answers.

    Her step was slow, thanks to her still injured leg, but certain. She started her trip by swinging by Burner’s lab, seeing if he’d had any brainstorms over the night. He promised that he would tack them up on the board so she could look them over.

    His room felt empty when she got there, like a room missing its purpose. Of course, the reason for that was apparent. The large orange and gold Manticore armour was missing, and thus the room was quiet, waiting on its sole reason for existence to return. Verdigris made her way into this room, through the layers of collected equipment all waiting, as she headed for the board he indicated the night before. She felt oddly like a ghost, an invader, amongst a group of sleepers waiting for their king’s return. The gryphoness shook her head to try and dislodge the sense of invasion, but couldn’t quite slip free of it.

    True to his word, the Professor had indeed left a large sketch tacked to the board. A weapon, if Verdigris’ guess was correct. His scribbled notes seemed to indicate it was for the tail, a single high-pulse laser. It would serve as a primary output for the gathering heat, which she supposed turned it technically into something other than a laser, but didn’t feel the need to quibble the point. Instead, a different concern egged at her. With only one barrel for the discharge, it might overheat… She scribbled a note in the margin, a simple question that might encourage some thought on this later. “What is the melting point of the metal you’re using?” With that, she turned her back and hobbled back out of the chamber as quickly as possible, trying to leave that creepy sense of invasion behind her.

    She headed next for their kitchen, intent on getting herself something to eat. She made a face upon entering from the hall; the kitchen was a complete wreck from the whirlwind of activity and scramble for what breakfast the team could choke down before heading out for practice. There was even some evidence that someone had tried to cook, and another had set up a basket of food for lunch over the duration. She knew Zilch wasn’t up in time to do either of that, so she couldn’t help but wonder who would care enough to even try to pack a lunch for them. She admittedly didn’t know the entire group, but none of them struck her as much of the “pack a lunch” type.

    Still, she managed to find a bowl of seed and some leftover lettuce from someone’s sandwich, which served as a decent enough meal, especially when combined with a bit of milk to wash it down. However, Verdigris was less focused on the meal than she was on the room she ate it in. Very rarely was she able to access the “central chamber” of the aerie, and this was too big an opportunity to pass up.

    She had to admit, she didn’t know what to expect when she went there. The room had a strange vibe to it, one she couldn’t quite bit a talon on. All those monitors surrounding a table far too large for the gathering of individuals who sat at it… all accompanied by the creepy sensation of being watched. She found it easy to gulp her breakfast down and hurry away from the chamber, and away from the shadows she swore she kept glimpsing on the monitors.

    With the central chamber behind her, Verdigris found herself without a specific direction in mind. She’d hoped to get some sort of clue from the main room, but that sense of being watched all but drove her from the chamber with her tail between her legs. It was oddly oppressive, and made her wonder what sort of group she’d fallen in with.

    Finally she simply decided at random, and began to walk. Her pace was slow, but she had little difficulty from the smoothed floors she traversed, other than the habit they had of looping back on themselves. Still, she managed to find a small den that could only belong to Junkyard, and another nearby that belonged to a pegasus she’d only glimpsed but seemed to want no part of her. At least she suspected as much, when she came across a firmly locked door with “Scram!” on a sign hastily hammered in place.

    What surprised her more was how many chambers were completely empty. There were enough rooms in the aerie for a small army, and yet she only knew of seven of them. Six of which made up the team, five she’d met however briefly, and the unknown entity that was “The Prince”. She wasn’t sure she was supposed to even know who he was, but she’d overheard his name mentioned a few times as the coordinator of the team, the driving force that drew these individuals about him, and eager to smooth out their differences into a smooth and cohesive unit before the month’s end. They seemed as in the dark about his motivations as she was… which was saying a lot, considering how little she knew.

    Slowly she directed herself upwards in the aerie, thinking that perhaps this “Prince” might have taken the chambers usually reserved for the gryphon in charge, whatever Baron might have started this before meeting an untimely fate. Her method seemed to bear fruit early on when she was joined by a twisted pair of cables that looped about and over each other in a way that made her think of a pair of playful otters or ferrets. Unfortunately, the cables abandoned her quest shortly there-after, heading into a crack in the wall that went almost straight down. She couldn’t help but wonder where they lead, but there was no way she could possibly follow, and thus continued on her path alone.

    A solid rock wall defeated her mission. There simply was no door. The upper tier of the aerie must have never been hollowed out. With a sigh, she turned her back on it and started to hobble her way back. Her leg was beginning to ache from all the walking, and she wasn’t any closer to discovering what was going on than when she started. So dejected was she that she almost missed the second passage, one that curved away at a truly strange, impossible angle. It curved outward, into what should be through the very side-wall of the peak by her estimation. With a frown, she stepped carefully into the passage.

    The passage that shouldn’t exist curled around and upwards, and the rock slowly gave way to a reflective stone not unlike glass. The closer she looked the more certain she was that there was a thin line of pink amongst the steel blue color, but she couldn’t trust her eyes in the dim light of the passage she walked. Finally, she seemed to reach a pinnacle, which terminated at a door. A large door. An impossibly large door, that couldn’t possibly exist in an aerie like this.

    And it was ajar.

    “This is a stupid idea,” Verdigris told herself, but it didn’t stop her. One claw in front of the other, she pressed her way into the opening of the door, and into the chamber beyond. The chamber, for once, wasn’t shrouded in darkness, and the eyes of the small gryphoness grew wide. She’d heard of this place, even once read about it, this wonderfully impossible place…

    “Wha…?! B-but this is --!”

    “Hello, Verdigris,” a reedy voice interrupted, and the small gryphon spun around. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

    The small gryphon swallowed thickly, moving a single step forward. “Are you…‘The Prince’?”

    “Am I? Yes, I suppose I am,” the voice answered. “I suppose you have questions for me, just as I have answers for you. But first, a word of warning, little gryphon, you will not like all that you discover here. There are hard facts you must understand, and some of them are very bitter pills to swallow. I’ll understand if you turn back around and return to your illusion of where you might have been. You will forget all of this if you do; I cannot afford this information getting out… not yet.”

    “I want answers,” the gryphon said firmly, and sat her flank in place. “I can handle your truths.”

    “I thought you might say that,” he answered, the smile apparent in his voice. “Come then, and join me; there’s no sense being uncomfortable. This will take a while, but I promise to explain everything.”

    The door closed silently behind Verdigris.

25

Epilogue

“Failsafe”

    “Report.”

    The gryphon general saluted and stepped forward, “All dragons accounted for.”

    Goldtalon nodded slowly and continued to stare out of the throne room, his eyes distant and southward, over his new conquest. The cold mountain breeze ruffled his feathers, even as the sun kissed at the glittering snowy tips of the mountains that surrounded his aerie. He carefully ignored the fact that he had a group of the upper caste in his throne room, as well as all his senior generals, in celebration of the successful invasion. Personally, he found it a silly waste of energy, but couldn’t find fault with their desire to celebrate the largest gryphon victory in history. “What of the escaped Princesses?”

    The general blanched slightly and dipped his head, “It is as if they vanished from the face of Equestria.”

    “Gryphia,” Goldtalon corrected, “we will be renaming this land Gryphia. What do you think?”

    “It… it’s perfect, my liege,” he answered.

    “No, it stinks, you’re just kissing my tail,” the gryphon king noted with a smirk. “Is the destruction of the pony capital, Canterlot, complete?”

    “The razing was finished before you left, my lord,” the gryphon said quickly, trying to smooth over his misstep. “Hours later, the dragons finished boring out the base of the rise and managed to collapse it into the crystal mines beneath. It now forms a crescent shaped lake where the mount once stood.”

    “Interesting. Let’s name it… Talon Lake. Yes, I like the sound of that,” the king mused, stalking along the edge of his throne room and crossing behind his own throne. He paused and look at the attentively blank face of his secret weapon, Godkiller, before continuing, “Make sure that the pony newspapers and media know about this, and what we’ve done to their base of power. It will make for a powerful image… reminding them that Canterlot and the Princesses will never return.”

    “As you command, my liege.”

    “How many casualties did we sustain?” Goldtalon asked as he stalked past, moving to stand before his general. The gryphon generally really wasn’t all that impressive, but he was one of the three generals he had, and was appointed to control and care for the dragons. The others had their own specialties, of course, fields of which they reported specifically on.

    “We only lost a claw-full of riders, five in total. We also lost four dragons, and three more are severely wounded. The remaining forty-two dragons have been stabled and fed,” the general answered smartly.

    “For a total of forty-nine dragons?” Goldtalon asked, caught up short. “That seems an odd number. Did we leave any behind when we left for the invasion?”

    “No sir, all dragons left with us,” the general answered carefully.

    “Did we lose an egg when they were first brought in?” the king asked, frowning.

    “Of course not,” the gryphon stated firmly, “I personally whipped any servant who looked so much like they might even come close to dropping one!”

    “So you are telling me that we only brought in forty-nine eggs?”

    “Yes sir,” the general responded smartly, but frowning. The King was seeing something wrong, but what?

    “And you never thought to bring this to my attention?” Goldtalon asked, his voice rising slightly. A hush spread across the throne room, all eyes turning to fall upon the pair.

    “B-but my liege, this was all the eggs that Eclipse provided us with…” he said, drifting off uncertainly.

    “You don’t see what’s wrong, do you?” king demanded, and the other gryphon began to stammer. “It’s going right over your head, isn’t it?”

    “My Liege, I don’t know --”

    “Shut up,” he commanded in a dark growl. He turned away from the guard to look at… anything else, really.

    “Yes, my liege, sorry, my liege,” the general continued, and Goldtalon sighed and pinched the bridge of his beak with a claw.

    “Shadow, silence this fool,” the gryphon king ordered. The next sound anyone heard was a squeak from the general, followed by a choking sound. The gasp rippling through the other ‘guests’ informed him that his servant did indeed do as he ordered. Silently, he turned to face the gryphon again, who was pulled up on his rear legs and scrabbling at the shadowy gryphon behind him. His claws passed completely through the shadow-like gryphon and her glowing amber eyes, but the deadly claws choking out the general were definitely solid enough. Goldtalon smiled and looked to those gryphons gathered in attendance. “Well then, it seems we’re about to have an opening. So, rather than just picking whichever one of you kisses up the best, I’m going to quiz you. What, exactly, did my general get wrong?”

    “He didn’t report everything to you. You need to approve everything!” One large gryphon stated, his expression confident as he stepped forward. At a glance, he would be everything that you would want in a general, large and imposing with a sense of authority just at a glance.

    “Morrow, show him what he’s won,” Goldtalon sighed. Chaos erupted behind the group of “noble” gryphons, and they scrambled away from the disturbance. The confidence slipped from the large gryphon’s face as he turned, his gaze falling upon a bony, underfed looking gryphon. The surprisingly small gryphon shrieked and leapt at the larger, and with supernatural strength, bore him to the ground. The smaller “cursed” gryphon opened his beak wide, exposing a number of very sharp un-gryphon like teeth, which he sunk into the neck of the speaker. One cut off scream later, and the bony gryphon literally drank the blood from the larger one. One of the other gryphons began to scream, but was silenced by a quick thinking neighbor as all bore witness to the bony gryphon the king called “Morrow” leave the massive gryphon nothing more than a desiccated corpse. “That’s two down,” the king noted, glancing at the bugging eyes and lolling tongue of the gryphon the other cursed gryphon choked out, before dropping his lifeless form to the floor. “More’s the pity. I hoped the fool might know the reason he died. Ah well. For the record, I can stand a great deal of things. I can even stand failure, to some extent… but one thing I will NOT stand for is stupidity. Kissing my flank is all well and good, but unless you have some modicum of brains, don’t expect to have a long life expectancy. So, does anyone know what our dead general did wrong? You all know the price of answering incorrectly….”

    “Forty-nine is an odd number,” a gryphon stated from within the group. There was a mass migration from the heavyset gryphon sitting in place, and the two powered gryphons began to circle his corpulent form like sharks. Still, he ignored them, his eyes meeting that of the King’s as he continued, “If Eclipse had brought through every egg, with no casualties, it would be a rounded, even number. Forty-eight would be odd, but believable. Fifty or forty-five would be even better, but forty-nine indicates that there is a dragon missing, an egg that Eclipse held back from the arrangement. As I recall, Eclipse did not reveal the exact location of this hatchery he discovered as well, which means we cannot go back and verify or confirm. Since Eclipse claimed that all eggs survived, and dragons were notoriously meticulous about their numbers, the idea of there being only forty-nine eggs strains credulity.”

    Goldtalon looked carefully at the heavyset gryphon, two of his nine remaining champions circling behind him, each eager to strike. “You are Silverthorn, if my memory serves me.”

    The gryphon in question climbed to his claws and sketched a bow, probably the best he could do with all that weight, “Guilty, as charged.”

    “You orchestrated your own father’s death at the hands of your former servant,” Goldtalon continued, sounding less than pleased with the corpulent gryphon, “and let’s not forget the gryphon who sponsored Eclipse himself so that he would appear in my throne room. You have the stones to speak now?”

    “Why not,” the duke asked with a smile that made Goldtalon long to wipe it off, “after all, you have an obvious opening, and despite what my peers may think of me, I seem to be the only one capable of rational thought.”

    Goldtalon frowned visibly and stalked forward until he was standing just before the much larger, but hardly imposing, gryphon. His two cursed champions stood ready, inching closer and closer in hopes of beating the other out for this kill. Goldtalon suddenly held up a claw and smiled. “You’re correct, that is exactly the reason I was so angry. So tell me, General, what do you think the reason is?”

    “I cannot say,” Silverthorn answered, straightening himself a little with the new title, “but I could guess that Eclipse held one dragon back to use as a fallback of some sort. Given his knack for returning from situations that should have killed him, I would wager that we will see him again, perhaps sooner than we are comfortable with.”

    “Yes, that’s much the same as I was thinking,” Goldtalon mused and stepped away. He then arbitrarily pointed at two of his guests. “You two, clean up this mess,” he ordered, sweeping a claw at the dead gryphons.

    Silverthorn followed as quickly as his heavy form could, smiling coldly.

    “Everything seems to have calmed down, finally.”

    Discord offered a smile and spread his arms. “I can’t complain, this has been the busiest, and most chaotic, it’s been here since… well since I first arrived.”

    “Speaking of which,” Celestia countered, “we still do not know where we are.”

    Discord smiled and stepped around the large desk of the conference room, using one arm to push a monitor out of his way. “You are correct, you don’t. Once your sister arrives, I think it only fair to show you. You wanted to know about supplies, where the supplies we do have are coming from, and even where in the world we are so you can set up supply lines. I’m sure, in due time, you’ll want to regroup and try to retake Equestria back from the gryphons too. But for now, I’m going to preach something that is perhaps totally out of character for me, but I’ve had to learn a lot of over the years: Patience.”

    Celestia snorted, “Indeed, very out of character.”

    “Oh, don’t be like that, Celly,” the draconequus teased, leaning closer to the alicorn, “You know you love it.”

    The alicorn shook her head and smirked. “While I may not bear the weight of a crown anymore, Discord, I’m not the young filly you made swoon with your bad boy act all those centuries ago.”

    Discord snapped his fingers and, much to his pleasant surprise, conjured a pair of sunglasses, which he donned and looked over at the alicorn. “I was never ‘acting’.”

    “Ah, there you are,” a new voice added, and Luna trotted in obliviously, “did I miss anything?”

    “Not yet,” Discord answered with a broad smile, tossing the sunglasses off in a random direction, “I was just discussing the past a bit with your sister while we waited for you.”

    “Ah, so you were flirting with her again,” Luna noted with a smirk.

    “What?! I… pfft… no!” he stammered in response, much to the amusement of both mares in the room.

    “You have kept us in suspense long enough, Discord,” Celestia cut in before her little sister and the draconequus could really get into it, “show us what secret you’re so eager to reveal, but kept from even your own team.”

    Discord smiled crookedly. “I don’t plan to keep it much of a secret after this, though we will have to seal off part of this structure.”

    “Why is that?” Luna asked curiously, falling in line behind her sister as Discord led them from the conference room and up a spiraling passage.

    “Because there are some areas you won’t want disturbed,” Discord answered, “and even if you don’t mind, I don’t want them disturbed. I made a promise.” A curious glance ran between the two ousted Princesses at the oddly melancholy tone in his voice, and they followed quietly. The rocky, cave-like environment didn’t change much as they continued to walk, until they reached what seemed to be a dead end.

    “Did you get lost?” Luna teased.

    Discord just smiled and placed a gryphon claw atop the lunar regent’s head, turning it to face the entry behind her. Celestia turned to look as well, and frowned at what she saw. The hallway curved outward at an impossible angle, one that shouldn’t possibly exist, if one assumed a uniform structure like a mountain. Without a word, Discord led them into this new hall. While he stayed focused ahead, both Celestia and Luna noticed the slow changing of their environment, as rock gave way to an odd blue glass, or…

    “Crystal,” Celestia said breathlessly, her eyes widening as they traced the thread of pink through it, “it cannot be.”

    “Sister?” Luna asked questioningly. She frowned at the same thing Celestia saw, but it only gave her an odd sense of déjà vu, like she had been here before.

    The hallway came to an end at an impossibly big door, one that easily stood twice as tall as Discord himself. And yet it opened to Discord’s touch, and he escorted the alicorn’s into the dimmed room beyond. The room was massive, a wide open space with an antechamber and a large room with a complex looking throne sitting at the head. And yet everything was surprisingly simple, kept open and oddly airy, but the sharp crystalline features made it seem harsh and severe to their eyes.

    “Do you recognize it now?” Discord asked with a smile.

    “The throne room,” Luna whispered.

    “Discord, how… how are we in the Crystal Castle? How are we in Sombra’s throne room?!” Celestia demanded.

    “Simple,” Discord answered, “because we are in the castle. Welcome to the missing Crystal Kingdom, ladies. I’m sure you both have questions. To answer the one about Sombra’s throne room, that’s because Princess Cadance preferred not to use the throne at all, thus had it preserved as a reminder, as much to herself as to the crystal ponies, of what might happen should one let power go to their head. Beyond that, she was still working to decipher Sombra’s secrets, it seems that he had far more hidden away than that long set of stairs and the door at the bottom that Twilight Sparkle once had to deal with.”

    “Where is… where is our niece?” Celestia asked in a softer voice. Discord smiled sadly and motioned with his hand, heading back to the antechamber near the door and taking a side passage. Nothing had changed since the Princesses had visited decades ago, not even dust had intruded upon this trip down the hall of memory. The passage showed much of Cadance’s taste for decoration, as well as the devotion of her subjects, and was lined with beautiful artwork of sculpture and paint. After passing a number of doors, Discord paused and opened a large pair of double doors, leading to the master bedroom.

    The room was easily as big as the largest of bedrooms within the former Canterlot Castle. It was circular in design, with curved walls showing massive windows that were long since snowed over. With the dusky light through the snow they could see that the furniture had been strewn about, quite literally. The room looked like a wrecking ball had gone through it, a stark contrast through the well tended hall they just traversed. And at the center of it all was the massive bed that the sisters had given to Cadance as a wedding present, a bed that could easily hold her and her new husband, Shining Armor, and handle any “bedroom olympics” the pair could manage. Unfortunately, to the Princesses’ dismay, it indeed held Shining Armor, preserved under a thin layer of crystal, as was the figure of Cadance by the bedside, holding his hoof in hers.

    “Shining Armor died in the invasion,” Discord said softly. “His magic shield held for two days, and he did everything he could while Cadance sent message after message to Canterlot to beg for help. None of those missives ever left this kingdom, I found out later, blocked by the Nightmare herself. Finally he fell to exhaustion, and so did his shield. The imps besieged the castle, and targeted both Shining Armor and Cadance. They succeeded in taking his life, and thus here he lies, preserved only minutes after his death.”

    “What… what happened?” Luna asked softly, slightly worriedly given her sister’s fixed gaze upon their eternally grieving niece.

    “One of the places I went after splitting myself was here, to the Crystal Kingdom,” Discord answered, uprighting one of the tipped chairs and settling down on it. “I approached Cadance much in the same way I approached you ladies. Cadance, and especially Shining Armor, were suspicious of me at first, but over the next few months they softened, and I was able to warn them of the things I saw. Cadance was just starting preparations to contact you formally on my behalf when the Imp invasion began, which caught all of us by surprise. The Nightmare moved sooner than I anticipated, and the kingdom wasn’t ready. As such, I was here when Shining Armor died.

    “Now, I knew from talking with her that Cadance had spent much time studying the spells Sombra once used, trying to pry apart their secrets. I offered my help in that regard, and did what I could. However, she understood far more than I thought, and when the Imps killed her husband… in her grief, she enacted the curse Sombra once used upon this land.”

    “She… she buried the Crystal Kingdom?” Celestia asked softly.

    “In a sense,” Discord said softly. “I chose to stay free of it, despite her offer to include me, but the entire kingdom… gone. In one spell, she put all her charges to sleep, the snow came in and buried every last building, and the Crystal Kingdom once more vanished from Equestria. In a flash, only I was left, and I can hide with the best of them. The imps couldn’t destroy the crystal, and even the Nightmare couldn’t drag Cadance away to be her captive, so they left… and I made sure that all future attempts to find it again failed, the only individual who has haunted these walls was myself.”

    “You kept it clean?” Celestia asked softly, stroking a hoof over the crystal cheek of her frozen niece.

    “I promised Shining Armor I would look after her after he was gone,” the draconequus offered with a forced smile and a wavering voice. To Luna, he looked about ready to cry. “So I did, never stopping work on how to oppose the force, the danger, I had seen coming. With the Imps here, I knew I couldn’t convince you that there was a bigger problem coming, so I set about finding my own help. I disguised a large portion of the lower floors of the castle as an old aerie, something that took my weakened magic a few years to do, and hid the entrance to the upper floors with a few suggestion spells that would just cause a pony to look the wrong way for the entrance. I set out my feelers after that, and learned patience the hard way. In the end, I came across Kaos, who became my right hoof in everything I’ve done since.”

    “Who else knows the truth?” Luna asked, placing a hoof on his shoulder. Discord smiled thankfully and took a breath.

    “Kaos knows, of course, I had to guide him here to find me. Zilch also knows, she had to so that she could teleport everyone accurately,” he said softly, “Verdigris figured it out on her own. I suspect that, if either of them had cause to question, Burner or Clockwork would figure it out on their own as well. But I think, with everything that has come to pass, we should tell them the truth. You would be able to remove that ugly rocky exterior I used to cover everything and reveal the truth easily enough and there should be enough supplies in town to survive at least a little while. The concern will be food, and quickly. I had a supply line open, but I don’t think Kaos can just pop by the local grocer for THIS many ponies, especially not with the gryphons hunting for us.”

    “I still have contacts in Fancee,” Celestia said with growing resolution. “Luna, do you still have your friend out in Neighpon? We should still be on good terms with Saddle Arabia as well, and we should put our feelers out to try and get as many who are willing to support us as possible.”

    “We should also speak to the gryphon homeland overseas,” Luna put in, “try and get a feel if they are supporting or standing apart from the Clans. We need to eliminate as many of their avenues for reinforcements and supplies as possible. We also need to extend ourselves to the Northern Reaches as soon as possible and evacuate as many as we can ahead of the gryphons invading.”

    Discord smiled as he stood up. “Good, I was hoping that this loss hadn’t sapped you both of your fighting spirit.”

    “We lost one battle,” Luna said simply, “and while it may be a major blow, we still yet live.”

    “And so long as we live,” Celestia concluded, “it is our duty to protect our little ponies.”

    Silence.

    Glorious silence and warmth flooded over him, a welcome change to the chaos and pain he endured reaching this place… reaching this small recess he hid from all prying eyes when he was stronger. The warmth was soothing, comforting his jagged temper. The small, nescient mind that had been there prior to him would have agreed, had he not devoured it. No chance that this one will challenge him now. It did mean he would have to weave his essence more fully into this tiny form than normal, but he had all the time he needed.

    No one would find him.

    The magic, powerful magic from the spells woven about this place would feed him, grow him stronger and stronger. The wild magic of the Everfree Forest would further fuel him, make him more powerful than anyone, pony or gryphon or dragon, could ever hope to stand against. Every line of this room was covered with spells of his own design, channeling every erg of magic into this tiny form… and with it feeding him, he would grow.

    Gryphon, Pony, Imp, Alicorn, Special, and now Dragon, all merged into one. The eggshell trembled with the power it contained, the warm sulfur vents keeping it prepared for the moment. No, don’t rush it, he chided himself, this body was still too young. He wasn’t ready.

    But soon… soon he would be ready. Soon, this egg would unleash him upon the world once more. Soon he would be free to feast and grow into his power. Soon he would not need to hide. Soon he would be so powerful that no force in Equestria could stop him.

    He tried to rule once, and failed. Now… now he will simply destroy it all. No need for lackeys, he will rule over a land of ruin, command an army of corpses. The end of it all! He grinned and the egg trembled with his excitement. In due time all would know his name…

    And Eclipse will destroy them all.

The End

A New Breed: Book 2