Petrified

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Chapter 1

Applejack stuck her tongue out in concentration as she kept her eyes focused on the apple on her nose. It wobbled, and she moved her head to keep it balanced. A bead of sweat formed on her brow, but she didn't dare flick it away with a hoof for fear it would tip the fruit.

The train car hit a small bump, and the apple wavered. Applejack tried to keep it centered, but it was too late. Almost in slow motion, it fell off of her nose and bounced on the floor.

“Ha!” said Rainbow Dash, still balancing an apple on her own nose. “I win!”

Applejack rolled her eyes and picked her apple off of the floor. She brushed the dust off of it and took a bite. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, nudging Rainbow in the shoulder. “Ya better find some ice fer that swollen head, sugarcube.”

Rainbow Dash smirked, and caught her apple with a wing. “Maybe I'll do that. Want me to get some for your wounded pride while I'm at it?”

An airy laugh came from the other side of the car. Rarity covered her mouth with a hoof as she chatted with Fluttershy. “You found him wearing what, darling?”

Fluttershy sipped from a travel-mug of tea. “It isn't that funny, Rarity. He can wear a tutu if he likes.”

Rarity nodded her head. “Of course, dear. It's just... the image of you walking into his den to find this ten foot tall bear dancing to the tune of the Sugar Plum Fairy...”

Fluttershy hid a small giggle behind her hoof. “Okay, maybe it is a little funny,” she admitted.

“Wait, you're talking about Harry?” Rainbow hovered over to join them.

Fluttershy nodded, smiling. “He's taking ballet lessons from Soft Shoe. He's actually getting very good; I'm so proud of him.”

Dash laughed. “Oh, you gotta tell Twi about it when we get to Canterlot!”

“I reckon she'd get a kick out of it,” Applejack said. “Don't ya think, Pinkie?” There was no answer. “...Pinkie?”

Four pairs of eyes turned to the corner of the car where Pinkie Pie sat. She stared wide-eyed at the table in front of her. She went very still when she inhaled, and shuddered as she exhaled. Her mouth gaped open.

Rarity stood up and stepped closer, concern etching into her face. “Darling, are you all right?”

Pinkie looked up with a start, as though she had only just noticed there were other ponies in the car. The beginnings of tears formed in her eyes. “Girls,” she said, her voice cracking, “I think something really, really bad—”

A harsh screech filled the air as the train's emergency brakes were pulled. Plates crashed and shattered and ponies tumbled over one another as the train jerked to a stop.

The mares picked themselves off of the floor and looked around. They appeared to have stopped just outside the gates of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash poked her head out the window and peered up the tracks. “What the...” Before anypony could stop her, she jumped the rest of the way out of the window. The others shared worried looks and opened the door to follow her.

Other than the fact that Rainbow was already by it, it wasn't immediately apparent what was blocking the tracks up ahead, so they moved closer. As the shape of the obstruction became clearer, Rarity gasped. Fluttershy soon joined her with a horrified squeak.

Applejack's pace slowed to a stumble as her mouth hung open. It looked like one of the many statues that always decorated Canterlot. The only indication that it wasn't a statue was the fact that it was planted in the middle of the tracks, and the fact that no sculptor could ever have made such a close likeness.

“...Twi?”

Twilight Sparkle stood in front of the city gates, baring her horn in an aggressive crouch. Her wings were fully flared. From horn to hoof, she was completely frozen in stone.

Princess Celestia stepped quietly around her, a faraway look in her eyes. She addressed the five of them as they slowly gathered. “I... I am sorry,” she said, hanging her head.

She was bombarded with questions. “What happened?” “Where's Spike?” “What was Twilight doing?” She did not raise her head to respond to any of them, save for one.

Applejack stood up straight. “What can we do?”

Celestia's eyes swept across the five ponies. She took a long time before finally speaking. “I need you to find the Cockatrice King...”

The request hung in the air between the five friends. Of course, all knew that there would be no refusing. Why would they refuse? There was Twilight, a mere statue of the pony they knew and adored. The one who had befriended five very different ponies and led them through both adventures worthy of legends, and smaller, more personal and intimate adversities.

And yet.

And yet, strangely, the silence dragged on. None volunteered to be the voice of the five of them and let the Princess know that yes, of course they would take on this mission.

With a jolt Applejack realized that it was usually Twilight who did just that. Ever the voice of reason and logic. More outspoken than Rainbow Dash, bossier than Rarity—

Applejack chastised herself. She was speaking as if Twilight was dead, and that was a trail of thought she refused to adhere to.

“Of course we’ll find him.”

The words were easy to say, because they were true. Applejack had never had more conviction in anything before. And as she looked at the grim, nodding faces of her best friends in the entire world, she knew that her statement was shared.

Celestia smiled at them. It was forced, but driven forth by a shiny spark of hope and trust. “Come to the castle. There is much for you to learn if this mission is to be a success.”

Applejack buried her face in the open book, using it as a sort of makeshift pillow. The pages smelled old and musty but were well worn and soft against her face. She closed her eyes for just a moment, more of an extended blink to drive away the haze in her vision than an actual attempt to rest them.

“I’m so tired.” Rainbow moaned beside her. Applejack turned her head and laid the side of her face against the book in order to peer at her friend.

“How does Twilight do this all the time?” The pegasus continued, and if she were less tired it would have been a huff, but for now it was borderline whiny.

Applejack did not have a reply.

It was three in the morning. A grand clock from somewhere deeper in the castle had let them know that a couple of moments ago. It was almost comical, but the five of them had started groaning in unison with each other for every clock strike in the distance.

“Come now, darlings,” Rarity soothed, or tried to at least. Her voice came out in a chastising snap, and if she was less tired she would have apologized and tried again. “We need to acquire as much information on our target as we can.”

This is the only way to save Twilight. She didn’t say that part. She didn’t have to. It passed through each and every one of them like a wave from the ocean. Applejack sat up, or rather, raised her head since she was sprawled on her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rainbow straighten up as well, with all the grim conviction of a soldier.

Celestia had given them an outline of a mission. In three day’s time—all of which were to be spent gathering information, she stressed—they would head out on a tracking mission across the entirety of Equestria to search for the Cockatrice King. Celestia assured them that the Cockatrice King would not venture outside of Equestria—she didn’t explain why. Once they found him, they were to contain him if they could, and exterminate him if they couldn’t. Either one would lift Twilight’s enchantment.

And so, after dinner they were sent here—to the Magical Creatures wing of the Canterlot library. Splitting up, the five managed to accrue several books about Cockatrices and started reading.

Rainbow tossed another book to the side carelessly, adding it to the ever-growing pile to her left.

“Books are so repetitive.” She grumbled. She had failed to find any new information since the third book she read, and all the ones so far had only restated what she had already learned.

They were down to general creature encyclopedias now, which only gave them the most basic of facts. Facts that any filly or colt in Equestria could tell them from the ghost stories that surrounded the creatures.

Nevertheless, they pressed on. One by one, the impressive amount of books about the subject disappeared and by quarter past six in the morning the last one sat there.

And the five sat around it, barely awake, with massive headaches and blurry eyes.

“So who’s got this one?” Applejack asked, glaring at the book as if it had morally offended her.

“Buck no.” Rainbow Dash almost squealed, making an exaggerated show of scooting away from the book. Rarity rolled her eyes at the dramatics but said nothing, glancing at the book; she stuck her nose up in the air in refusal.

Applejack almost groaned, and glanced at Fluttershy, who promptly tucked herself behind her long mane and shied away from her eyes.

Just as the farm pony considered relenting and reaching for the book herself, one pink hoof slid it away from her line of sight. Applejack looked up in surprise and slight startled confusion.

Indeed, Pinkie was leaning against the wall and now had the book in her hoofs, but she was some fifteen feet away from where the book had been before. Applejack doubted she had moved anything but her hoof to retrieve it.

Shaking off the logic defying stunt, Applejack took to studying her fellow earth pony. Pinkie worried her—ever since her prediction on the train the pink baker said not another word. Looking at her now, Applejack saw not even a hint of wariness in her, but instead a dour determination. Her blue eyes no longer sparkled with mirth; her mouth did not twitch into a smile. She was a dark shadow of the pony she usually was and it sent all kinds of warning bells inside of the cowpony’s head.

Eventually, Pinkie put the book aside. “Nothing.” She said, and then yawned mightily.

The others exchanged a sigh and one by one got to their hoofs. Celestia had, naturally, reserved bedchambers for them in the castle, and their beds were calling them.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth, partly in annoyance and partly to suppress her yawn. She rubbed her eye with a hoof and then scowled at Princess Luna.

"Where we going?" she grumbled, peering around the Princess but only seeing a normal hallway.

"Patience, Rainbow Dash. All questions will be answered soon." Princess Celestia murmured kindly. Rainbow huffed and rolled her eyes.

Luna led the six of them onward with no further vocal inquiries. The hallway was oppressively slim so they had to walk in single file. After they had been walking for ten minutes, Rainbow glanced around the Princess again, a tad bit nervous.

"My apologies, Princesses," Rarity spoke up with a polite clear of her throat. "But, this corridor seems to be quite... elongated."

"Yeah. It's going on forever!" Rainbow complained.

"Fear not, we are almost there." Luna grunted from the front.

Indeed the end of the corridor was now visible, marked by a single oak door. Luna lit her horn when they stopped in front of it, but the door did not open. Instead, several whirling and popping noises could be heard, and the door jumped and shuddered as if the walls around it were not holding it in place, and it had suddenly come to life. The door shuddered some more, and then calmed down, swinging open silently.

Immediately, sound emitted from the room. It was a song, with a heavy beat and a female singer. She was singing something about milkshakes.

"What." Applejack uttered when the song reached her ears. She stepped into the room with the rest of her friends, seeing her own bewilderment reflected on their face.

The room behind the door was blindingly lit, but there were no lamps or lights of any kind. Instead, the light seemed to just exist in ever nook and cranny of the space.

Magic, 'o course, Applejack thought wryly, and then winced when the song—which was blaring from a rather large phonograph in the corner of the room—continued ringing.

The room was modest and seemed more like a wing of the library than anything else. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases were overstuffed and framed every single inch of wall. On the far side of the room stood a gigantic desk with an equally gigantic, overstuffed, teal-colored leather office chair. Strangely, the office chair seemed to be singing along with the song in a deep bass tone.

"Princess—" Applejack started, but both of the Princesses in the room shook their head.

“Just wait.” Celestia said in a low tone.

The five friends exchanged confused glances, but dutifully waited until the end of the song. The record player made no hesitation to move on to the next tack, which had a loud drum intro.

“How polite for you to wait for my song to be over.”

The office chair swung around.

A rather small unicorn stallion sat on it. Maroon, with a flowing, wavy jet mane pushed away from his forehead and deep-set red eyes. He tutted, jumped out of the chair, and sauntered over to Luna.

“Princess.” He addressed her, bowing. His tone of voice was smooth, with an almost mocking quality to it, as if he was making fun of the Princess.

There was something familiar about him. Applejack could not for the life of her put her hoof on it, but she was nevertheless wary of the new pony.

“Hello, Escuro.” Luna greeted the unicorn stallion, her voice even and dark.

“Have you brought me more music?” Escuro went on conversationally, completely and utterly ignoring the rest of the ponies in the room, even Princess Celestia.

Luna shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

"Mm," Escuro hummed, clearly not amused. "Something better perhaps?"

Celestia stepped towards him, her face hard. "We have a mission for you." she snapped.

The maroon coated stallion looked up at her in vile disinterest. "Hello, Celestia."

"Focus, Shadowborn!" Luna barked. Escuro looked at her for a long moment, face blank.

"Yeeessss," he drawled. "Yes, of course... Your Majesty."

"This mission is your test, Escuro," Celestia went on. "We need you to help find the Cockatrice King."

The small stallion huffed, rolling his eyes. "That guy? What's your beef with a weakling like him?"

"He turned one of our friends to stone!" Rainbow Dash snapped, taking to the air.

Escuro looked at them, then, for the first time since they walked in the room. His gaze was intense and patronizing and felt more like an X-ray than a gaze.

"I see."

Slowly, he moved towards Rainbow Dash, who dropped down to the ground. When he was close enough for a normal conversation, he smirked. His eyes gleamed for a short moment, the whites of them becoming green.

"Loyalty." he said.

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Huh?"

"Your aura is that of the Element. Does it posses you?"

"Escuro." Celestia growled, stepping towards him in warning. The stallion paid her no mind, leaning his face closer to Rainbow's. His eyes flashed again.

"Yes?" Rainbow answered, uncomfortable under the gaze. Her wings flared defensively.

"Interesting," he murmured, and then, in a flash, he pulled away and turned to Luna. "I'll help you." he said, his smirk growing. "I would be honored to help you."

"Whoa. Wait a minute." Applejack interluded. "We're not about to travel with somepony we don't even know."

"Yeah, who even is this guy? And how did he know what aura I had?" Rainbow seconded, scrunching up her face.

"Because I can see it, duh." Escuro answered her, examining his hoof as a show of clear nonchalance about their problems.

"See auras?" Rarity huffed, joining the conversation. "What kind of magic is that?"

"The dark kind." the stallion answered her dryly. "Generosity."

Applejack shook her head. "We can't travel with someone using dark magic!"

Escuro sighed in annoyance and sauntered over to her. "Look, do you want to save your friend or not...?" he looked her up and down. "...Honesty."

"Of course!"

"Then you're just gonna have to put up with me being a stranger who uses dark magic." He shrugged and turned away from her. "I would cut down your search time by decades, though."

"I highly doubt that." Rarity said.

"I know the Cockatrice King. He moves around a bunch and I know all of his little spots. You five would be helpless to track him. He's familiar with dark magic, so I can trace him. Besides, what are you going to do once you find him? Throw rocks at him and fly around in circles? You have only one unicorn with you," he paused and snorted at Rarity. "One who's really not all that strong if her level of magic I'm feeling is anything to go by."

"Enough, Escuro." Luna ordered evenly, putting a hoof on his chest. The unicorn stallion tisked and brushed it off.

"I was done anyway. These guys need me, obviously. Like I said, I'll help you." He walked back over to his office chair and climbed on, swirling around away from them. "Leave me." he ordered as another song came on the phonograph.

Chapter 2

The remaining days flew by in a flurry of half hearted studying, eating, and sleeping. Letters were sent to loved ones in Ponyville, explaining—without too much detail—that the princesses had tasked them with another mission, and that they did not know when they would be back.

Applejack woke up on the third day, as usual, with a nervous since of dread. Every morning was met with a thought of Twilight’s frozen form, and the flashback of Celestia telling them of Spike’s disappearance.

Applejack rubbed her eyes, pressed down on them until she saw specks of color and until the picture was gone from behind her eyelids. The sun was not in the sky yet, and the morning was dull and grey. Perhaps a rain was scheduled today for Canterlot.

The farm pony walked out on the private balcony of her room and breathed in the air. It was cool, much cooler than she was used to it being.

Summer must be endin’, she thought.

“Hey, AJ.” Pinkie Pie sidled up next to her silently. Applejack nodded her consent, not taking her eyes off of the early morning sky.

A few stars still hung in the air, but their brightness was twinkling out, no doubt in preparation for the brighter star to take the stage.

A cool breeze rolled through the air, and Pinkie pressed closer to her almost on instinct.

It had been like this for the last couple of days. Applejack would be joined by her pink friend out on the balcony of her bedroom to welcome the sun into the sky. No words were spoken between them, and the few times Applejack had tried to bring up a conversation, she would be politely shot down with short, robotic answers.

“Guess today’s the day, huh?”

But she continued to try.

“Yup.” Pinkie replied, not taking her eyes off the sky.

“What do you think about that Escuro guy?”

“He’s creepy.” Pinkie shuddered as another wind blew by them, he coat brushing up against Applejack’s in a way that was strangely tantalizing.

“He is.” Applejack agreed, giving up her battle. She glanced at Pinkie, and then stared. For some reason, her eyes refused to budge.

Pinkie lasted nearly two minutes of the stare down before she sighed and met Applejack’s green eyes.

“You really worry me.” Applejack murmured. Pinkie glanced down.

“I know. Sorry.” There it was again—the bare minimum. Applejack gritted her teeth together in frustration.

The sun was in the air now, lighting up the horizon with its magnificence. Applejack swallowed thickly as the village below them lit up. This was the only glance of home she got any more. Three days had felt like a month.

Silently, she turned away once she had looked her fill. “C’mon, Pinkie. The Princesses wanted us in the throne room.”

The throne room was vastly lit by the morning sun when the two earth ponies stepped inside. Celestia was nowhere to be found, strangely, but another figure greeted them instead.

“Heelllloooo, Honesty, Laughter.” Escuro was lounging on the gigantic throne that belonged to Celestia, looking at ease and rather bored.

Applejack growled, still a bit irritated with the Pinkie dilemma of her balcony. “Why do ya call us by our elements?” she barked, folding her ears.

“Because you never told me your names.” Escuro countered wryly, raising a brow.

Applejack paused, feeling her face heat up. “Oh. Well, I’m Applejack, this here’s Pinkie Pie.” She motioned a hoof to her pink friend.

“Enchanted to meet you.” The maroon stallion nearly purred.

“Uh, you too. Where are the Princesses?”

Escuro shrugged. “Don’t know. Luna brought me up and then locked me in here for like an hour. Oh, hello, Generosity!”

Rarity closed the door behind her and trotted up to join her friends.

“Her name’s Rarity.” Applejack corrected dryly. “Good morning, sugar.” She greeted when the mare stopped beside her. Rarity smiled pleasantly back at her.

“Good morning, darlings. Good morning… Escuro.” She added in a decidedly less pleasant tone. She paused then, frowning. “What is the origin of that name, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Escuro smiled cryptically. “It’s an older name, from a language you would not be familiar with. It means ‘dark’. You can call me Shadowborn if that would be easier on the tongue.”

“So, you’re a foreigner?” Rarity inquired, tilting her head.

“You could say that.”

Rarity frowned, but any further inquiry was cut off when Luna and Celestia stepped through the throne room door, flanked by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. In Celestia’s magic, the frozen form of Twilight Sparkle hung in the air, being carried in front of them. Applejack felt her breath catch.

Celestia set the stone Twilight down near her friends as Rainbow and Fluttershy joined them.

“Well lookie what we have here.”

The five of them gasped as the form of Escuro materialized from the ground near the Twilight statue, thin, black tentacles of some material weaving together until they formed the silhouette of the stallion, who rapidly gained back his original coloring. The entire process took less than two seconds.

“Wha—how did you…?” Rainbow sputtered, but was casually ignored as Escuro examined Twilight’s frozen form.

“Oooo.” He shivered. “I can feel the power coming off of this one. She’s something else. Give you a run for your bits, Celestia.” He cackled at the Sun Goddess, who made no indication that she heard him.

Beside her, Applejack heard a tiny noise emanate from Pinkie’s chest. A sort of small, possessive growl. She glanced at Pinkie, but found no indication of her emitting such a sound.

She looked back in time to see Escuro’s horn bubble with a strange purple-hued magic. It surrounded Twilight’s statue, turning the grey coloring of the stone to the same shade and lifting it up off the ground. He held it suspended for several seconds, and then unceremoniously dropped it back to the ground.

“That’s the King, alright.” He huffed, seemingly out of breath. “Any normal cockatrice, I could break the spell. Not the King’s though. Whoo.” He exhaled and slumped back on his hunches. “Damn flankhole put a masking spell on it, too. I won’t be able to track him by magic signature. Gonna have to do it the old fashion way.”

“Thank you for trying, Escuro.” Celestia smiled graciously at him. He waved her off, still huffing.

“What…” Rainbow was the first to break from their collective stupor. “What are you?”

Escuro smiled fetchingly at her. “Just a simple foreigner.”

“Escuro is a shadow being. One thousand years ago his kind, the Dark Forces, aided my rise to power.” Luna explained. She wandered over to one of the windows and looked outside. “They whispered secrets to me, told me what to do, in return I promised them a kingdom of their own.”

“What happened to them?” Rarity asked.

“After my banishment, they disappeared.” Luna shrugged.

“I launched an investigation of over twenty years, but nothing came of it except Escuro.” Celestia added. The stallion in question scowled up at her.

“I was barely even a shade when you caught me. A meager child.”

“Eventually, I had to close the investigation.” Celestia continued, ignoring Escuro. “And then they were never heard from again.”

“Could they still be lurking out there?” Fluttershy peeped.

“Quite possibly, yes. Shadows have a life span of some four thousand years.”

“Great. Cockatrices, shadows. What else will we have to deal with on this trip?” Applejack muttered, flicking her tail.

“At the very least quarray eels, from the Galloping and Ghastly Gorges,” Escuro informed her brightly. “And all the stuff that lives inside the Everfree, since those are two places we’ll have to visit.”

“Where all are we going, anyway?” Rainbow asked.

“The King has several hiding spots. Like, more than a dozen.” Escuro informed them casually. He examined the statue of Twilight with no interest. “Since we’re in Canterlot, we’ll hit up the Everfree first, then the Bog, then make our way to the Gorge, which in turn will lead us into the San Plomino Desert.”

“We’re going to Las Pegasus?” Pinkie inquired, the first words she had spoken since leaving Applejack’s balcony.

“Sure, we can stop there overnight or something.” The shadow being waved his hoof in an almost dismissive manner. “It’ll put us off track, since we’ll go to Macintosh Hills next, but I’m sure I can just teleport us across like, half the desert.”

“That’s not that far from Appleoosa, AJ.” Pinkie nudged her in the side. “We’ll get to see Braeburn.”

“I’ve never heard of an Appleoosa.” Escuro tilted his head.

“It’s fairly new.” Applejack informed him.

“Riiight. Well, after the Hills we’ll go right into the Badlands, which won’t be fun. We’ll cross the mountains, end up right in the Hayseed Swamps, which won’t be fun either. And from then… we’ll kind of play it by ear.”

“What do you mean by that? Don’t you have the rest planned out?” Rarity spoke up, clearly worried. Escuro looked hesitant, rubbed his neck with his hoof.

“The Swamps are very secluded. It would be a three day journey before we got anywhere near civilization—which would be Balimare.” He informed them. He stroked his chest. “I suppose we could skip from Baltimare to Fillydelphia and then go to Foal Mountains and Hollow Shades, but I don’t even know if he has a place in the Shades any more since ponies moved in. He tries to keep to landmarks.”

“Sounds fine to me, I have family down there.” Applejack stated.

“You have family in every corner of Equestria, AJ.” Rainbow snickered.

“Yeah, which means we’ll probably not have to go to inns and hotels for the night.”

Rainbow nodded her consent, as if to say ‘good point’. “So after that, where?”

“Neighagra Falls.”

Rarity squealed. “Oh, how romantic! I’ve always wanted to go!”

“Yeah, well, this time we’ll be hunting a Cockatrice King.” Escuro said wryly, with a raised brow. “Although I’m sure you can snag a random stallion to make out with, or whatever.”

Rarity huffed, but said nothing more when she saw Escuro’s wide, joking smile.

“After that we’ll have to take a train back the Canterlot, unless you all want to trek for nearly four weeks to get to Galloping Gorge, which is our next destination. Then we can hit up Tall Tale, the Smokey, and finally White Tail Woods.”

“The Running of the Leaves.” Rainbow cheered, giving Applejack a wide smile which she returned. Then, seeing Escuro’s confused look, she explained.

“Ah. Interesting. It will be well into fall by the time we get there, maybe we’ll get to see.”

“I wonder if they’ll let me announce again.” Pinkie voiced to nopony particular.

“I want you to take this,” Celestia broke into the conversation, giving a scroll to Applejack. “It’s a sort of free pass to get you out of paying for any establishment you might stop to rest at. All expenses are on the Crown.”

Applejack unrolled the scroll, and frowned at the overly specialized font everything was written in. “How’s anypony supposed to read this?”

“Why do you even need something like that?” Escuro snorted, then, seeing the blank looks he was given he pointed to them incredulously. “You’re the Elements of Harmony. Everypony should treat you like royalty anyway.”

“Yeah, well, they don’t.” Applejack murmured, and then she bowed to Celestia and Luna. “Thank you, Princesses.”

“May your journey make for fruitful results.” Celestia replied as the others, even Escuro, dropped down into bows before her.

“We’ll have to take a train down to Ponyville.” Escuro explained to them as they made their way out of the castle.

The air was only a bit warmer than it was before, but instead of finding it to be daunting, Applejack found her mind refreshed by the slight nip the breeze carried. She shifted a bit and righted her saddle bags.

“Couldn’t y’all just teleport us there? You said you could teleport us across half the Pomino Desert. Ponyville’s just over there.” Applejack pointed at the small town in the distance. “Heck, I can see the clock tower from here.”

“Teleportation needs a visual medium to be able to work. I need to have been able to see the place I’m teleporting to beforehand.” Escuro explained, sounding a bit like Twilight Sparkle.

“Couldn’t you just imagine it?” Pinkie asked.

“In theory, of course.” Escuro smiled thinly, but it was not lacking in warmth. “But I would rather not test that theory when I’ve been tasked to keep you all safe. Magic experimentation is dangerous.”

“Never stopped Twi.” Rainbow Dash muttered from just above their heads, and the rest of them shared a private smile.

The streets of Canterlot were deserted this time of day. As the six of them made their way silently through the city, lights began to appear in several of the windows of the tall apartment buildings, and the streetlamps slowly began to blink out, one by one. By the time they made it to the train station, a couple of ponies were beginning to mill around on the streets.

Early risers, Applejack thought in surprise. Ponyville won’t be up for another hour or so.

The train station was strangely bustling at this time of day, although nothing like it would be later on. It took only a few minutes for them to make it onto a train.

“Trains are a wonderful invention.” Escuro said fondly when they were seated. “Used to be you couldn’t get anywhere without walking, flying, or teleporting, which left the earth ponies at a clear disadvantage. Wanted to go to Manehattan to see your family? Well, it’s a two week journey on hoof, so you best start walking three weeks in advance, and you better be carrying a weapon—lots of bandits on that road.”

“So you’ve really been alive for a thousand years, huh?” Pinkie asked. Escuro nodded.

“Bit more than that. I was like two hundred when Celestia captured me.”

“How old is that is pony years?”

“Well, five hundred is ten years. So I was like, three or four.” He jolted a bit when the train started moving, but righted himself back up and leaned back against his seating.

“How are you so normal?”Applejack asked. “When Luna came back, she was a bit behind on the times.”

“Luna was trapped inside the moon.” Escuro answered wryly, quirking a brow. “I was trapped inside a library. Books are a great reflection of the speech patterns of the time they are written in. Plus, ponies write books about everything under the sun and the moon. If a politician sneezed at some point in the last hundred years, somepony’s bound to have written a book about it. And I probably read it.” He made a face.

“Wow. You and Twi are a match made in heaven.” Rainbow said dryly.

“Said the pony that broke into a hospital because she wanted to know the end of a Daring Doo novel.” Rarity countered, earning a laugh out of all of them.

As the train moved on, there was an extended, albeit comfortable lull in conversation. The train ride between Canterlot and Ponyville lasted less than an hour, no time to do anything like sleep—which is something Applejack sincerely wanted to do, thanks to her earlier than usual waking this morning.

On the thought of this morning, she glanced at Pinkie, finding her in a strangely animated conversation with Escuro. She tried to catch a bit of what they were talking about, but gave up after a while since following Pinkie’s conversation was nearly hopeless, even when she was talking to you.

The corners of Applejack’s mouth tugged themselves into a frown. She did not know if she trusted Escuro yet. A part of her rationally said that he was a decent pony, maybe a bit shifty, what with the whole shadow being and dark magic thing, but overall nothing that sent warning bells in her head. But another part of her strongly felt uneasy about the whole situation. He was a basic stranger, and he would be leading them through extremely dangerous areas of Equestria.

How did they know that he would not just strand them or worse yet, abandon them when they were in the middle of some sort of fight with a magical creature?

Applejack shook off the thought. If the Princesses trusted him, then she should too. Instead, she found herself thinking of home. It would be strange, when the train stopped and they got out, to be only passing through their hometown. Not even visiting, just simply walking through as if this was just another landmark next to their real destination.

The train chugged on, pulling her into a dazed, half awake state for the rest of the ride.

“So, this is where you all live?”

Applejack watched in wry amazement as Escuro darted around the streets of Ponyville, disappearing and materializing once again by the aid of his shadows, at a neck breaking pace that strangely reminded her of Pinkie Pie.

“Yes. This is our home.” Fluttershy answered.

They were walking down Main Street of the town at a leisurely pace, as if afraid to wake up its residents. The sun was still not very high up in the air, and the town was completely deserted so early in the morning. It was strange how it resembled a ghost town at this time of the day, since every one of them were used to seeing it bustling and active.

"So where are your houses?" Escuro materialized in the middle of their group and fell into step with them, finally calming down. Applejack wondered if he would be this way about every city they passed through along the way. She guessed she couldn't blame him, what with being cooped up in that tiny room for more than a thousand years.

"I guess a little detour wouldn't hurt." Rarity muttered. "I'm always up for showing off my boutique. And of course, Sweet Apple Acres are the pride and joy of this town."

Applejack felt herself blush at the compliment and tipped her hat silently at Rarity. "I guess it wouldn't hurt." She admitted. "But y'all got to cut down on the whole shadow traveling thing ya do. Ponies see you doing that here, and they'll shun you from the town."

"No problem. And, it's called shadow stepping." Escuro smiled at her. "Just for future references."

The tour took an extended amount of time, only because Escuro asked several questions during the entire thing. By the end, Applejack was sure he could write all five of their biographies.

Finally, they came upon Sweet Apple Acres.

Escuro whistled. "You're an apple farmer, huh? I think a few of my books mentioned the Apple family. Been around for a while, haven't you guys?"

"As long as there's been land to farm, the Apples have been around to farm it." Applejack replied, reciting an old saying her pa used to always tell her. She shook the thought away.

"It's my brother, sister, granny and I on the farm." She went on, anticipating his next question from having heard it repeated all morning.

"And, how many acres?"

"Seven hundred an' twenty eight."

"Who gets the farm after your granny passes on?'

"Me, I recon." Applejack paused, not entirely comfortable with the question. She thought about it for a while. "Yeah. Most likely me. The other two, my brother an' sister, their hearts aren't into it. They jus' do it cause that's what we were raised to do."

"I see." Escuro looked at her for a long while, almost scrutinizing her. She shied away from the gaze, not liking the way it seemed to pierce her soul. A cold shiver ran down her spine.

"Well, we best get going." the shadow being chirped after he was done staring at her. He turned away from her, and Applejack swore she could breathe better as soon as his eyes left her.

"Everfree's this way." she said, falling into step with him and guiding him and the rest to the edge of town and beyond.

Ponies were out in the streets by now, greeting each other with a casual familiarity that came from living in a town were everypony truly knew everypony. More than once their voices were called out in greeting, accompanied by a 'good morning' or a 'hey'. Escuro was given curious looks as they passed through, and he introduced himself as Shadowborn to anypony who inquired about him.

"Friendly bunch." He commented when they came to the outskirts of the town."If I ever get to rejoin society, I'd like to settle down in a place like this."

Applejack highly doubted that would work out in the long run. Escuro's quirkiness would catch on quickly in a place like Ponyville. They walked in silence for the short remaining distance from the edge of town to the entrance of the forest.

"Well, here we are." Applejack announced once the darkly colored trees of the Everfree loomed over the path in front of them.

Escuro shivered. "Wow. Lot of dark power coming from this area. I can practically see it. I've read about this place, you know. Lots of books say it's been the source of dark magic since the dawn of time. Others say Discord created it during his reign." as he talked, Escuro stepped closer to the trees and breathed in deeply. His eyes flashed green. "Then, once he was defeated, the sisters took over his castle, but his followers destroyed it one night, and put a curse on the area, willing all of Discord's monstrous chaotic creations into it."

"Yeah, we've met something different every time we've gone in there." Rainbow Dash informed him from her place above their heads, scowling at the forest.

"Like what?" Escuro began walking inside, moving his head from side to side as he looked at everything the forest had to offer.

The rest of them followed inside the dark area as Rainbow listed off all the beasts they'd come across. "Lets see. We met a sea serpent, a manticore, several timber wolves..."

"The parasprites came from here." Pinkie pipped up.

"Pinkie made hundreds of copies of herself and unleashed them on Ponyville." Rainbow continued casually, smirking at her best friend. Pinkie stuck her tongue out at the pegasus teasingly.

"I've always questioned the wisdom of making a town near such a place." Rarity murmured.

"It does seem kind of idiotic," Escuro agreed. "If anything should live near a place like this, it should be ponies practicing dark magic. This forest has enough dark power to feed an army of black mages."

They continued to walk on, making casual small talk peppered with Rainbow's and Pinkie's antics, and Escuro's almost encyclopedic knowledge of everything. He was truly like another Twilight, a fountain of information with pinches of dry humor and witty banter. Applejack listened and found herself learning a lot, as opposed to tuning him out like she did Twilight. The thought worried her a bit, but she found herself relaxing and asking questions.

"So where's the actual hiding place in here?" Applejack asked after a while of walking.

"The ruins." Escuro said simply, and seeing their hesitation, he added, "Hey, be glad it's in an actual place. All the others, we'll have to find a specific tree in a forest of trees, and then carve a strange symbol into it or something."

"Well, if we're going to the ruins again, we'll get to see that one sea serpent, Rarity." Rainbow exclaimed, smirking teasingly at the white unicorn.

"Yeah. I wonder if he still wears your tail as a mustache." Pinkie giggled.

Rarity sniffed, but a small smile appeared on her lips even as she turned her nose up. "That was years ago darlings, I highly doubt that—"

The rest of her sentence was cut off in a gasp, because at that moment they came upon the same lake where they met the sea serpent all those years ago. Only this time, the water was not water at all. Applejack could smell the metallic undertones in the air, and could see the rock-like parts where the river of blood had already clotted.

Chapter 3

Applejack stumbled back, a gasp working its way out from her throat. The smell was overwhelming, so much that she dared herself not to breathe. Bile quickly rose up in her throat, burning its way up her esophagus. She took a calming breath and forced in back down, but her throat stung for a short while.

“What the buck is this?” She croaked at nopony in particular. She couldn’t see her friends, having been at the front of the group with Escuro for most of the trip.

“Hold on, everypony just stay calm. Let me try something.” Escuro said loudly. He stepped near the river, and his horn bubbled with that strange magic once more, but nothing happened. The river of blood remained.

“Escuro, what—”

There was a wet, blast-like sound, and Escuro stumbled back as if knocked over. Applejack’s eyes widened in horror as she looked up at the creature rising from the depths of the river. It looked like a shark twisted into the form of scorpion and completely skeletal. Applejack could see its innards through the gaps of its bones. The blood streamed down its body, over its organs. The creature gave a deafening wail, and Applejack’s skin crawled at the unpleasant pitch, like something sharp on a blackboard.

“Run!”

She didn’t know who shouted it; it may very well have been her. All she knew was that she was not going to stick around to find out all the ways the creature could kill her. She turned around, seeing her friends already a distance in front of her.

“AJ, RUN!” Rainbow screamed, glancing behind her and seeing the farm pony frozen in place.

Applejack shook herself out of her stupor and ran. Quickly, she caught up to where Rainbow Dash was, hovering in the air and waiting for her.

“Where’s Escuro?” Rainbow shouted.

Applejack opened her mouth to respond.

But she never got to, because at that moment there was a muted blast, and her vision swam with a dark magic aura. She was picked up and thrown backwards as if she weighed as much as a feather. Her body collided with something solid, most likely the ground, several times. Like a stone being skipped across the surface of the water. Her vision swam as her head slammed against the ground, and then everything was black.

Movement was the first thing Applejack registered when her senses started to come to. Yes, there was something moving against her stomach in a repetitive pattern. Something hard was rubbing itself unpleasantly against her ribs. She scowled and tried to move away from it, aggravated by the disturbance of her sleep.

“Hey, she’s awake!” That was Pinkie Pie. Applejack could recognize that screechy voice anywhere. Idly, she wondered what Pinkie was doing inside her bedroom and then sighed in contentment when the movement against her stomach and ribs stopped.

“AaayyyeeeJaaaayyy.” Pinkie cooed, very close to her ear. Applejack flicked the ear, a small smile coming to her lips against her will. “Get up!” Pinkie chirped, and nuzzled her. Applejack sighed again. That was really nice.

“Just dump her on the ground, Pinks.” That was Rainbow Dash. Applejack scowled.

“Oh, please don’t, she’s suffered an injury.” Fluttershy.

“Y’all quit talking,” she groaned, “’M tryin’ ta sleep.”

“Applejack, darling, you have to get up so that Fluttershy can check you for concussion.” Rarity’s voice told her matter-of-factly.

Concussion?

…Oh.

Memories swam back to her. Twilight, Spike, the Cockatrice King, Escuro, and the shark scorpion.

Finally opening her eyes, Applejack found herself looking at the ground, where a pair of pink hooves stood. It took a while, but her brain finally registered her position: she sprawled across Pinkie’s back like a second skin. The rubbing against her ribs must have been the pink pony’s shoulder blades.

“Hey, uh, lemme down.” She said, startled and embarrassed by the suggestive position. Pinkie made no indication that she felt the same way, wordlessly crouching down until Applejack could slip off her back and onto the ground gently.

Immediately, the faces of her friends clouded her vision. Applejack groaned and closed her eyes, not liking how colorful they all were. Why had she not noticed how colorful they were before?

“You hit your head pretty hard, huh?” Rainbow Dash said, not even masking her worry.

“I’m fine, sugar.” Applejack smiled, not knowing if it was reassuring at all, but looking back at the pegasus found her a bit more calmed.

“Lay still, Applejack,” Fluttershy ordered gently, and set to work checking her for any larger injuries than the brow to her head.

“There was a scorpion, shark, thing.” Applejack gasped out when Fluttershy was done checking her over and allowed her to sit up, declared her mostly unscathed.

“I took care of it.” Escuro was sitting off to the side, away from most of them. He gave Applejack an extremely guilty smile that resembled a wince more than anything else. “I had to use a pretty advanced blasting spell to get rid of it. I’m afraid I contributed to your injury.”

Applejack waved him off. “It’s fine. You got rid of that thing, whatever it was.”

“It was a channelback. A demonic creature created from the souls of ponies who died in a stage of furry.” He informed her, trying not to sound too eager to share his knowledge, then his smile turned into a contemplative scowl. “The river of blood and the channelback were an actualization illusion.”

“What does that mean?” Rainbow asked, only a little impatient.

“It means they were a simple illusion—not real—until they are shown to a certain individual. Or, individuals, in our case. At that point, the illusion becomes real. It means that the Cockatrice King knows we’re after him.”

“Well, yeah.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “He turned our best friend to stone.”

“But there’s another factor to it. When I tested the river for an illusion spell—right before the channelback appeared—I felt somepony else’s magic signature. Somepony else created the actualization illusion.”

“An accomplice?” Rarity gasped.

“Yes. And an extremely powerful one. Actualization illusions are some of the most advanced dark magic there is.”

“Fan-bucking-tastic.” Rainbow groaned, slumping down on her hunches.

“Hey, it’s no problem.” Escuro assured her. “I’m better than anything this mage can put together, so you’ll all be safe with me.” He flashed them a coltish smile.

“Right.” Rarity said flatly, in a rare moment of unladylike dry humor. The rest of them howled in laughter.

Applejack stood up when their giggles subsided, and then stumbled a bit, dropping down on her hunches again as she was hit with a slight case of vertigo. She chuckled and waved Fluttershy off when the other pony started coming towards her with a concerned look on her face.

"Just a bit dizzy, Shy. Nothing to be worried about." She assured her friend, and then stood up to back her claim up. She wobbled a bit on her hoofs, but managed to stay upright. Encouraged, she took a step forward, and then found herself on her hunches again.

"Oh, my, maybe you should rest more, Applejack." Fluttershy suggested. Applejack shook her head.

"I'll be fine." she nearly snapped, frustrated. "We need to help Twilight."

"But we won't get very far if you're hurt, dear." Rarity reasoned.

"Don't y'all know any sort of spell to magically heal me?" Applejack huffed at Escuro.

The maroon stallion shrugged, looking a bit apologetic. "I'm an expert in dark magic. It... focuses on bringing pain, not healing it. But, I'm sure I could find a simple curative spell that I know."

"Great." Applejack said flatly when he didn't move. "Then why don't y'all get on it so we can get a move on? I'm not about to spend the night in the Everfree Forest."

"Oh. Right. Of course." he said, a bit startled, as if he didn't expect her to want to follow through on his offer.

He stepped up to her, and his horn glowed in a familiar way, the way most unicorn's horns did. The aura was a blood red, however, just like his eyes, and didn't exactly put a pleasant feeling in Applejack's gut at how bright it was. The fact that when it surrounded her she felt cold instead of warm and tingly like all the descriptions in the story books she had read as a child didn't put her in an easy state of mind either.

Finally the magic subsided, and she regained warmth and feeling to her body.

"There." Escuro huffed, pleased with himself but out of breath again. "That should do it. I... maybe I should revisit my normal powers once in a while. That took a lot out of me." he seemed strangely embarrassed to admit the fact.

Applejack hopped up, feeling no dizziness. The vertigo didn't return, even when she took a few steps. "Hey. It worked. Thank you kindly, Escuro."

"No problem."

Eventually they climbed up a pile of fallen brickwork and into a chamber roofed by remaining missionary and vines. The vines ran down the sides of columns, rose out of statues of ponies like bizarre mane braids, explored crumbles and cracks and dark ends of holes, looping and twisting like snakes.

Rats filled the chamber, not in a smooth sea but rather in little puddles of brown fur, constantly shifting according to whim.The rats retreated from their groups when the six ponies approached, disappearing into innumerable holes and cracks in a flurry of naked tails.

Light came down from above in a pair of shafts, large and small, through some kind of half clogged well in the roof. In the middle of the remains of the circular room, stood the pillar with it's six arms extended out and empty of the circular orbs it once contained, and a thick mass of moss growing on top like a strange manedo.

It was exactly how Applejack remembered it. Well, maybe except the rats. She didn't remember any rats in her last visit to the crumbled castle of the two princesses.

"Quite the fixer-upper." said Escuro, looking around.

None of them commented on his rather obvious and needless observation. Applejack thought that maybe they were all reminiscing of the events that transpired in their last visit here. She knew she was.

Was it just a few years ago that they stood here, facing Nightmare Moon herself, and, in the process, binding together on a level deeper than normal friendships could ever hope of reaching? So much had happened since then. They'd grown so much as individuals, and as friends.

"So, where's the lair?" Applejack asked, shaking herself out of her evocative stupor.

"In this room. My guess would be that pillar there." Escuro informed her pleasantly.

"Naturally." Applejack muttered under her breath, more about his cheerful demeanor than the obviousness of her answer.

"So how do we open it?" voice Rainbow, trotting up to the structure. The rest of them followed, easing in closer.

"Like this!" Escuro chirped, and his horn shot a ray of darkly colored magic at the large circular tip of the pillar, where the moss rested.

The moss disintegrated, and the tip glowed the same dark color as Escuro's magic, but it was strangely bright and lustrous. The glow spread to the rest of the statue, and Applejack had to step away, flinching from both the brightness and the power of Escuro's magic. A part of her wondered how powerful this unicorn was, exactly. She had never felt Twilight's magic, even when she had casted big spells, and Twilight was one of the most powerful unicorns Applejack knew.

Suddenly, Escuro canceled his magic. The pillar started moving, its six arms folded so that they were pointing up at the ceiling, and it spun where it was, sinking into the ground with every turn until it disappeared and the only thing left of it was a gaping hole.

"What we would do without you, dear." said Rarity appreciatively.

Escuro beamed in return. Rainbow Dash whooped and trotted up to the passage, peering down the hole.

"Cool." she said enthusiastically. Her voice echoed dramatically. "Cool!" she shouted again, like a child discovering echoes for the first time.

Applejack chuckled at her friend's antics, feeling relieved at their first success. Her ear twitched, picking up an unfamiliar sound from somewhere in the room. She paused, listening closer. It sounded like laughter, high pitched and low at the same time, and there was a lot of it. She looked at her friends, seeing them not noticing it yet.

"Do you guys hear that?" She asked in a low voice, folding her ears on instinct. A chill ran down her spine, and the laughter grew more numerous still, louder and louder until the rest of her friends could pick it up and easily.

"What is that?" Fluttershy whispered, trebling. She shifted closer to Pinkie Pie, who stood beside her.

The laughter reached a crescendo then, and a sea of rats poured into the room, moving faster than Applejack was sure rats could move. The rodents were on them before any could blink.

A sharp yelp vibrated, echoing through the room. Applejack turned her eyes toward the sound and found Rarity flaring her front legs. A massive black rat was hanging onto the underside of her neck, it's teeth sunk into the soft flesh there.

Before Applejack could make movements to help her friend, a sharp pain turned her head to her own flank, seeing a brown rat hanging on her. Applejack gritted her teeth and tried to shake off the rodent, but it hung on and sunk it's teeth deeper. Applejack yelped and tried to bite at the rat to get it off, but couldn't quite reach. She felt another bite on her chest and then several more.

The rats attacked her vigorously, jumping on her back and head, clawing at her nose and eyes. The pain was unbearable. And still more rats latched onto her. She screamed, feeling the worst pain yet at her shoulder, and at the corner of her eye she saw a rat rip a thick chunk of flesh off of the area. Blood flowed in a thick, fast stream out of the wound. As if following example, several of the other rats started ripping at her flesh.

Her vision quickly grew blurry, blood loss taking over. She knew she would be out in seconds.

Sorry, Twilight.

Numbly she fell onto her stomach, blackness clouding her vision.

The last thing she heard was the screeching laughter of the rats and the bloodcurdling screams of her friends.

Light.

The first thing that registered with her was light, peaking into the narrow slits of her eyelids, and glowing so brightly that it made her wince uncomfortably, and she didn’t even have her eyes open yet.

Sound.

Sound was the next thing that registered. Her hearing was muffled, like she was underwater. Nevertheless, she heard things. Not many things, granted, but she did hear someone pacing, hoofs briskly clopping on stone.

She groaned and the clopping stopped for a short second, only to pick up once more and louder this time, as the hoofs approached her.

“Hey, Applejack.” She was only vaguely familiar with the voice. Smooth, rich and deeper than even her brother’s, but the owner of the voice obviously knew her name, so they must have been acquaintances or something.

She tried to ask the pony questions, tried to open her eyes, but the only thing she accomplished was another groan.

“You don’t have to wake up yet. Go back to sleep.” The voice cooed.

But… no… there was something… there was something she was trying to accomplish. She had to save—

“Twilight…”

And finally, her mouth formed words. Well, one word, but it was something. A hoof glided through her mane gently.

“Shh.” The voice told her, and she nearly growled. Didn’t this pony understand? She had to get up! She had to save Twilight!

Biting her tongue in concentration, she pried her eyes open. It was bright, and light made her eyes water, but when they adjusted she found a grey ceiling made of masonry and cracked in many places. Vines explored the ceiling, and light streamed in through several gaping holes, revealing blue skies of mid noon.

“Where am…?” words where hard to form, still. Her mouth was so dry, like she hadn’t drunk anything in several days. She tried to sit up and look around, but couldn’t move an inch.

“Hey, easy, Applejack. You’ve lost a large amount of blood. Don’t move too much. Here, drink this.” A figure loomed over her, blocking the sunlight graciously. A stream of water, levitated and surrounded by a blood red aura of magic, hovered in front of her mouth. She opened her chapped lips and the water glided inside easily, and settled in the back of her throat. She swallowed, a tiny part of her uncomfortable with having a pony’s magic inside her mouth.

Once she had drank her full, she focused on the figure. She didn’t know this pony. Had never seen him before in her life. It was a stallion, big and bulky, with a pine green coat and a dull yellow mane falling into his eyes. He wore a doctor’s coat. His blood red eyes shone.

“Escuro?” Applejack asked cautiously. She sat up, feeling her strength return a bit now that she was properly hydrated.

“Oh!” the stallion looked embarrassed. “I forgot to change back.” He smiled at her apologetically, and then the shadow tentacles surrounded him, like he was about to shadow step, but he didn’t sink into the ground. Instead, his form reemerged from the darkness, back to the way he was before, or, usually.

Applejack groaned and closed her eyes. “I’m too tired for your weird shadow powers.” She informed him. “You can change shape and color?” she asked anyway.

“I’m a shadow being. Things like color, shape, and even gender is quite fluid to us.” Escuro’s voice informed her.

“Wonderful.” Applejack growled, not meaning it at all. “What happened?”

“Another actualization illusion.”

“Rats.” She opened her eyes again and looked at the shadow being for confirmation.

“Yes, rats. Ate you up pretty good.” Escuro winced, but in disgust.

Applejack remembered the pain. Remembered the rat taking a chunk out of her shoulder. She looked to her shoulder, seeing it whole and unscratched. Escuro must have healed her up. Had the rats started to eat the others too?

“How’s everypony else?” she nearly gasped, but it came out a whisper.

“They’re fine. Rats didn’t hurt them that bad.” Escuro winced again. “Or, as bad as you.” He corrected.

“How are you unhurt?” she asked sharply, passing her eyes over his body and seeing not a scratch.

“I’m a shadow. Not very substantial.” The stallion shrugged. He made a motion with his hoof. “Fall straight through me.”

Applejack scowled. “But ponies have touched you before. You shook tons of hoofs in Ponyville.”

“I can control how solid I am. Duh.”

“Of course.” Applejack said flatly. “Can I see the others now?”

“Hey, you asked. And I’m not stopping you.” Escuro shrugged again, as he was obviously fond of doing around her. He started to trot away from her, but stopped. “Call me over if they start stirring, alright?”

Applejack nodded absentmindedly, getting up on her hoofs and surveying the area. Everything seemed to be unchanged. The hole of the lair was still present, and the rats were gone, as if they had never appeared in the first place. Her friends were laid out all over the room, probably not moved from where they had fallen.

She trotted over to Rarity, simply because the unicorn was the closest to her, and examined her.

Like Applejack, all of her major wounds had been healed, and she looked as peaceful and relaxed as she did in sleep. Absentmindedly, Applejack ran a hoof through her completely ruined mane with a private smile. There would be more than an hour of complaining and general carrying on about the subject when Rarity woke up, she knew.

Applejack didn’t think. Didn’t allow herself to think, about how close she had come to losing her friends two times today already.

She would have to thank Escuro profusely one of these days. Probably when they’d captured the Cockatrice King and fixed Twilight. No doubt the shadow being would save them several times at each of their destinations, and thanking him repeatedly would sound insincere.

She left Rarity and trotted over to Rainbow Dash next. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Escuro doing round like she was, pausing at Fluttershy’s form and checking her forehead, probably for fever. She reached Rainbow Dash and did the same, frowning at what she found.

But before she could call out to Escuro, Rainbow groaned and stirred, blinking up at her. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out except an alarmingly gurgling, loud cough.

Escuro shadow stepped right next to Applejack, appearing out of the shadows even faster than usual with a concerned look on his face. He checked her forehead, just like she had moments before, and sighed almost to himself.

“Fever. Infection, most likely.” He muttered. “It had to be rats. Those stupid things carry everything.”

He stepped back and his horn glowed red. “I’m going to check you for Lassa fever.” He said to Rainbow Dash, who only moaned in return as she was enveloped in the magical aura. "Go check on the others." he muttered to Applejack, closing his eyes in concentration, beads of sweat already forming on his forehead from the apparent strain of using his normal magic.

She bit back her argument, thinking it not wise to disturb the unicorn when he was working so selflessly to help her friends.

Begrudgingly, she trotted to Pinkie and checked her forehead, finding it a normal temperature. As soon as she took her hoof off of the pink forehead, however, blue eyes opened and looked up at her, catching her gaze in an unbreakable hold.

"Hey, AJ." Pinkie's voice was startlingly gravely and weak, but her eyes twinkled with mirth and an easy happiness like always. Applejack swallowed, feeling her throat dry for some reason.

"Heya, Pinks." she croaked back, smiling weakly.

"I had the weirdest dream." Pinkie continued dreamily, her eyelids falling closed in a seemingly half-aware state. "I was at the dentist. And then, you came, and we talked."

"Oh, really?" Applejack asked, not sure how she should feel about one of her best friends dreaming about her.

"Yeah." Pinkie's brow furrowed. "I was mad at you, for some reason. I don't remember what either of us said, though. I think you said something—"

“Applejack.” Escuro’s voice drifted easily from the small distance away, where he still stood above Rainbow Dash. “Can you c’mere a second?”

Shooting an apologetic smile to a seemingly snoozing Pinkie, the farm pony trotted back to the shadow being, stepping around her friends and trying not to make too much noise.

“What’s the problem?” she muttered when she was close enough to be heard.

Escuro sighed, motioning to Rainbow. “It’s nothing serious, thank Luna. But, it’s also something I can’t really pinpoint, and therefore can’t cure.”

Applejack frowned, gazing at her friend. Rainbow Dash had fallen back asleep, but her breaths were raspy and short, accentuated by a small cough every now and then. She shook where she slept, as if cold. She didn’t look very fine, but then again, Applejack was not at all a medical expert.

“So what do we do?” She asked very slowly.

“We need to move on.” Escuro said, very deliberately. “But Rainbow Dash needs to heal. We’d be carrying dead weight, basically, if she doesn’t. And who knows what other surprises the King has laid out for us down there.” He gazed pointedly at the hole in the ground. He turned back to Applejack. “You’re the leader of this operation, what do you think we need to do?”

Leader?

Applejack blinked at the shadow being. “I ain’t the leader. You’re the one who knows where we’re going.”

“But I have basically no relationship with anyone here. I’m the guide. You’re the leader.” Escuro argued. “So it’s up to you.”

Applejack wanted to argue more, but a pitiful, loud groan from Rainbow Dash followed by a husky cough cut her off. Silently, Applejack moved closer to the athlete and felt her forehead again. Her fur was slick with sweat and clammy to the touch and she muttered incoherently when Applejack touched her.

“Is she gettin’ worse?” Applejack asked, glancing apprehensively at Escuro.

“Most likely. Fever fluctuates like that. It’ll break, probably faster than usual since she’s getting worse so quickly. I’d give it a day or two. She’ll be fine.” Escuro said, with a casualness that grated on Applejack’s nerves. She stroked Rainbow’s brow absentmindedly.

“I really want to move forward.” She admitted. “But it ain’t an option. She needs to get better.”

“This will put us behind.” Escuro argued gently, almost as a reminder.

“I know that.” She snapped, scowling at nothing.

“The King could move again.”

“It don’t matter. We’ll run across him one of these days.”

Escuro held his hoofs up, almost as if saying he gave up. “You’re the boss.”

"My lord."

The connection broke with an overwhelming, almost unbearable pain. He brushed the pain away, and glared at the offensive perpetrator.

“What is it, Worm?” he growled, and then privately chuckled as his voice echoed. He could see why the blue one thought it to be ‘cool’.

“M-my lord, forgive me, but, shouldn’t we be moving?”

He was a nasty thing. Slimy, with a long, snakelike body that bled when nervous, and clear, almost invisible skin, giving view to all of his organs. The trench coat he wore, several sizes too big, slid down his body, not fastened correctly and weighed down by his bloody sweat. His tongue slithered out of his mouth, a long, reptilian thing, and ran over his face like a wipe, cleaning it of the blood.

He scowled in disgust at Worm, but said nothing about that particular subject just yet. Instead, he leaned back in his throne.

“I don’t know, Worm.” He said contemplatively, almost teasingly. “They won’t go anywhere for a while. I rather like it here.”

“But, my Lord!”

“Oh hush.” He snapped, still playful. “Let things sort themselves out. We’ll move soon enough. No need to be so anxious.”

“But, my Lord,” Worm almost whined. “They’re right up there.”

Growing agitated; he reached out with his magic and gripped Worm by the throat, bringing him to hang limply in front of his own face.

“Hush, Worm.” He growled meaningfully.

Worm’s eyes hazed over, turning green. “Yes, my Lord.”

He smacked his lips slightly, feeling around the curves and rough edges of his victim’s mind.

“Your mind is very weak, Worm.” He informed his victim. Growing bored, he dropped Worm from his magic.

The creature, whatever he was, splattered on the ground in a puddle of gore. His heart rolled a few feet away, spewing blood as it continued to beat. Several other organs spilled out too.

Worm didn’t move for a short period of time. Then, the ruined creature picked himself up and inhaled deeply, bringing his gore towards himself. He picked up his partially spilled out intestine casually with his tail—the only limb he had—and stuffed it inside himself again, as if he had no skin at all. He slithered over to his heart, picking it up and blew on it, putting it back in and twisting it around until it was in the correct position.

Nasty, he though with disgust, watching as the creature put himself back together. Fascinating.