LanternFall

Chapters

Shockwave and Awe
For Your Convenience
Full Effect
Ringpercussions
Ringpercussions (Part 2)
Investigation

Shockwave and Awe

Author's Note

A/N: This is a non-canon offshoot of my other story, The Stallion in the Library. You do not need to know anything about Green Lantern, or Stallion, to understand it. It takes places after Master of the Manor, a chapter from Stallion in the library.

Here is a little bit of background that you’ll need to know to read LanternFall if you haven’t read Stallion in the Library.

Trixie and Twilight are very good friends and practice the magical spells Celestia sends to Twilight together.

The reason that Trixie is around in Ponyville is that she is the secretary of a psychiatrist called Card, who moved to Ponyville a couple weeks after the Nightmare Moon thing.

Card is an earth pony stallion who lives in the Everfree Forest in a house with rooms that never stay in the same place, and is good friends with Twilight and Trixie.

Rainbow Dash doesn’t trust him and Rarity doesn’t like him.

They have all, the mane six plus Trixie, been to his house before, after Rainbow Dash got attacked by a pack of Manticores and Card had the antidote to the poison.

That should be everything you need to know to this story. Please, scroll down to begin.

Shockwave and Awe

“Okay, that’s that spell out of the way,” Trixie said, having successfully turned Spike from purple to yellow. “What’s the next one?” She asked, looking over to where Twilight was reading down the list of spells Celestia had sent for her to study.

“Let’s see, we just did color-shifting so next is... sound amplification and distortion,” Twilight said. “Looks fairly simple. Here are the instructions.” She handed the list over to her friend.

“Okay, what’s the way we’re supposed to test if we’ve learned this one?”

“According to this, it’s when we are able to make a glass of water crack, but not shatter, by altering the sound we get from dropping books on the floor. Spike, we won’t need you for this one.” Twilight lifted the spell from her assistant, bring his scales back their original shade.

“Thanks,” Spike said as he went to take his pre-afternoon nap snooze. “Wake me up when you need me again.”

Once the little dragon had left the room, Trixie turned to face Twilight. “You may have beaten me last time, but I’ll be the one to get this one right first,” She said as she levitated two cups out of the kitchen.

“Oh? Remind me again what the score is right now?” Twilight teased as she filled the cups up with water. “Wasn’t it around seventeen to twelve? Well, eighteen to twelve now.”

“Yeah, well you just watch me.” Trixie said, taking two heavy books off the shelves and giving one to Twilight. “Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“GO!” They said together, both dropping their books and focusing all their concentration on magically attempting to distort the sound.

Twilight and Trixie had been studying the spells Celestia had been sending to Twilight together for the past couple of weeks. Twilight had suggested the arrangement at a sleepover she had had a while ago, in between her getting stunned by a pillow and a certain stallion using lighting to set a picnic table ablaze. With the aid of Trixie, Twilight was able to go through the spells twice as quickly as she had before. They had even started keeping count of who could learn each spell the fastest each day.

While they were trying to figure out how to make the dull thump of a book loud enough and high enough to crack a glass, they were shocked out of their studies by a sudden loud noise.

*KA-BOOM!*

“What was that?” Trixie asked as she picked herself up off the floor.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. Twilight shook herself out of her stunned state and quickly looked out her window. She saw a cloud of dust on the skyline, but the view of where it came from was obstructed by all the buildings in town. She went outside and started walking.

“Where are you going?” Trixie asked

“I’m going to find out what caused that.”

“Well, wait for me.” Trixie quickly brushed herself off and joined her friend.

As they walked along, getting closer to the impact site, they took notice of all the damage the explosion had caused. There were shop with no windows in them anymore, parts of the ground had long spidery cracks in it, there were even some signposts that had fallen over, and it got worse the closer they came. There were buildings reduced to rubble and ponies bleeding in the streets.

“What do you think could’ve caused caused all this?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, before suddenly getting a small grin on her face. “I can tell you what Card would say caused it though.” She lowered her voice to Card’s vaguely bored timbre. “Clearly it was caused by a war between the ants and the bees. The threat that they posed each other lead to them rapidly gaining intelligence until they gained the capability to create gunpowder, thus revolutionizing their understanding of war forever. Hives were set ablaze, whole anthills were leveled in one fell swoop.”

“Seeing the level of destruction the new weapons were creating,” Trixie interrupted, giggling at the story, “A group of rebels from both sides banded to together to stop the war once and for all. They planned to make a show of force so powerful that both sides would agree to a peace treaty out of fear of mutual annihilation. They built a bomb powerful enough achieve this goal, and planned to set it off in the middle of the border between territories, but they miscalculated. The bomb was indeed powerful enough to stop the war, but it stopped it by completely decimating both species. There were no survivors.” Once this story was done, both mares looked at each other solemnly. They then immediately broke into fits of laughter.

“Yeah, he totally would say that,” Twilight said.

“Probably do it all completely serious faced too,” Trixie agreed.

By the time they had finished their story they had reached the edge of town, but could see that they were still pretty far away from the source of the explosion. Now that they were away from any buildings blocking their line of vision, they could clearly see that the smoke cloud was coming from deep within the Everfree forest.

“Of course it’s coming from in there,” Trixie said with a sigh. “You know, we could easily just go back. We don’t have to go in there.”

“Well, we’ve already come this far. Might as well see what it is.” Twilight responded as she headed towards the edge of the forest. Trixie rolled her eyes and followed. As they reached the fringes of the forest, they saw that they weren’t the only ones who had the idea of checking out the disturbance.

“Well, if you’re fine then I see no point in going into that place,” Rarity said to Rainbow Dash.

“Well fine then, why don’t you go back and I’ll just go in.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Hey,” Twilight said as she saw her friends. “What’s going on?” Rarity and Rainbow Dash immediately both started talking at once.

“I saw he-”

“She came t-”

“Stop,” Twilight said as she held up a hoof. “Applejack, what happened here?”

“Well, Ah was working in the orchard and suddenly Ah heard a huge kaboom, and was blown back clear across the farm. A few of our trees even got uprooted. Ah came here to give whatever did that a piece of mah mind,” Applejack said, “When I got here, Pinkie was already here and so was Fluttershy. Then Rainbow Dash came and Rarity followed. Apparently, Rarity actually saw what did it and thought it was Rainbow Dash making a nasty landing.”

“I saw a rainbow fall out of the sky! I thought she might need help,” Rarity said in her defense.

“I thought Rainbow Dash was in trouble too...” Fluttershy whispered out.

“Yeah, well as you can both see, I’m fine,” Rainbow Dash said, “Now then, I’m going in to see what that was that woke me up!”

“And I’m telling you it’s a bad idea!” Rarity responded. “Remember what happened last time you went into the Everfree?”

An awkward silence fell over the group as the mares collectivlly remembered the horrible state Rainbow Dash’s unconscious body was in following her attack by the manticores, along with the nasty sight of her purging the venom on Card’s couch.

Rainbow Dash broke the silence, going on like the last few seconds hadn’t happened. “You know what, if you’re so worried about me, then come follow me.” And with that, Rainbow Dash turned and went into the Everfree forest. Rarity let out an exasperated sigh and followed her, along with the rest of the mares.

As they went into the forest they saw how badly it was effected. Trees were thrown around like snowflakes, grass was blown so far back that the blades had been locked into position facing backwards. The closer they got to the source, the greater the carnage was. Finally, they reached the site.

It was a large crater, almost like an oval in the center. Around it were seven smaller craters, though still fairly big, arranged in a pair of rows with one in the middle at the top.

“Ugh...” Rainbow Dash said as she began to rapidly blink her eyes. “What’s that red light coming from?”

“Red?” Twilight asked. Before she could elaborate, Applejack began yelling.

“Pinkie, what are y’all doing?! Get away from there!”

Pinkie paid Applejack no attention as she began walking towards the only crater without a symmetrical counterpart. She almost seemed to be in a daze, walking until she reached the holes edge where she raised up one of her front hooves.

“Pinkie Pie, that’s dangerous!” Rarity cried out, “You have no idea what kind of- oh.”

Rarity was stopped in her warning by a glowing green light rising out of the crater. Slowly it floated over to Pinkie Pie’s hoof, and then lowered itself onto it.

The light faded, revealing Pinkie's hoof had gained some decoration in the form of a green ring with an image of a lantern.

For Your Convenience

Rarity was the first one to speak. “Pinkie, take that thing off! You don’t know where it’s been.”

“I know exactly where it’s been!” Pinkie said with glee. “First it was in the sky, then it was in the ground, and now it’s on my hoof! Oh, that reminds me!” Pinkie jumped down into the crater.

“Pinkie!” The six mares all rushed over the craters, but when they got within a few feet of them they were all overcome by a sort of daze. Each one of them walked over to a crater and stood in front of it.

From each hole came a ring, each glowing radiantly, each a different color. They settled down on the hooves of their chosen mare’s.

A red ring for Rainbow Dash, a bright orange for A.J. A ring yellow as the stars went to Trixie, followed closely by one blue as the sky for Twilight. A deep indigo went to Rarity, and the final ring, this one a harsh violet, settled down upon the flinching Fluttershy.

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash said. “What was that?”

“Ah don’t know,” said a dazed Applejack, her eyes focused on her newly gained accessory.

“Got it!” a cheerful Pinkie Pie said. She lept out of the hole, biting on the handle of a bright green lantern, in the same design as the one decorating her ring. She put the lantern on the forest floor.

“Where could these have possibly come from?” Twilight asked.

“Weren’t you watching? They came from the sky, silly!”

“But from where?” Twilight and her friends all looked towards the sky, and silence fell over the group as they contemplated the possibilities.

“I think it was aliens!” Pinkie Pie said, shattering the silence and drawing everypony’s attention to herself.

“What?” Trixie asked skeptically. “Aliens? Really?”

Pinkie ignored her skepticism and began waving her hoofs wildly over her head, “I bet they’re really tall, and have triangles for heads, and-”

“Uh, Pinkie?” Applejack asked.

“-And they have really tiny eyes, but really big ears-”

“Darling, I think you should--” Rarity said as she pointed behind the chattering earth pony, who just kept on talking.

“-And they have eight, no, no, seven, and they have seven legs in front, along with-”

“Pinkie Pie, look behind you!” Rainbow Dash yelled. As she yelled, something strange happened. A thin red beam shot out of the ring clasped firmly around Rainbow’s hoof. The beam reached Pinkie, where it suddenly spread out and became a rectangle, pushing on the side of Pinkie’s body and head so hard that it forced her to turn a full hundred-eighty degrees.

Any shock Pinkie may have felt at that was diminished when she saw a twenty foot tall triangle headed being, with tiny little eyes and really big ears along with having seven legs sticking out of it’s front, made entirely out of bright green light. Bright green light, that seemed to be coming out of her ring.

Pinkie gaped at the construct, along with all the other ponies. “Am I doing that?” she said in a disbelieving whisper. She furrowed her brow, concentrating with all her might, and slowly the construct began to move. It rose up and up into the air, then one of its legs started shaking.

“That… IS SO COOOOL!” Rainbow Dash yelled, snapping the mares out of their reverie. “Let me try!” Rainbow Dash concentrated on copying the image the was before her, causing red light to come out of her ring, forming into a somewhat amorphous blob beside Pinkie’s creation. “Aw, come on!” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Work!” The amorphous blob took on a form far closer to that of the green monster. “There we go!”

“How are y’all doing that?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know!” Pinkie cheerfully stated. “Try it!”

“Try what?” Twilight asked. “What are you doing?”

While Twilight was talking, Trixie had noticed the thin strand of light that led from each construct to the rings of the same color. “I think the rings are doing it,” she said. “Let me try something.” Suddenly, a large yellow stick topped with a yellow star materialized out of thin air. “Twilight, it’s just like magic. You just have to focus on the ring.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” Twilight concentrated, and concentrated, and… nothing happened. “It’s not working.”

“Really? I wonder why,” Trixie said. “Hey, Applejack. Could you try?”

“Well shure.” Applejack closed her eyes briefly and a barn sprang up right in front of her, almost offensive in how bright of an orange it was. “That was ea-” A giant red hoof suddenly smashed into the side of it, destroying the construct.

“Ha-ha!” Rainbow Dash laughed as she flew around her friend.

“What was that for?!” Applejack yelled indignantly.

“Oh come on, A.J. You said it yourself, this is easy. Look.” A bright red barn appeared in the same place the orange barn was occupying.

“I must admit, this is quite simple, darling,” Rarity said as she gazed upon an indigo dress. “I do wish there was more than one color though.”

“Yeah, red can get a little boring after awhile,” Rainbow Dash said. “What do you think Fluttershy? Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash came back to the ground and started calling for her friend, a note of worry in her voice “Fluttershy? Where are you?”

A quiet voice came from behind a tree near the edge of the clearing “I’m right here,” it said. Rainbow Dash rushed over to the tree and checked behind it, finding nothing.

“Where?” she called out.

“Here.” A ripple of violet cascaded in the air, followed by a yellow pegasus suddenly appearing right in front of Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry,” she said in a soft voice. “When I saw the monster I tried to hide. Sorry I was so hard to find.”

“You can turn invisible? Awesome!” Rainbow Dash said.

“I wish Angel were here,” Fluttershy whispered. The second she said that, a small purple bunny appeared in front of her.

“Oh cool, you can do that too.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes it everypony except for Twilight,” Trixie said, turning to her friend. “I guess yours is just broken.”

“Maybe,” Twilight said doubtfully.

“WHEE!!!” Pinkie cried, as she figured out that she could make trampolines pop up everywhere and so set herself rocketing around, bouncing at strange angles and always getting faster.

“Pinkie Pie, be careful!” Rarity cried out as the mare nearly crashed into her.

“Don’t worry, I am!” Pinkie called back. She was so caught up in her fun, that she didn’t notice when her ring suddenly lost its glow. She was zooming over to where Twilight and Trixie were huddled up, discussing the possible ways this could be happening. Trixie had her back to the flying mare, and so it was Twilight who happened to see the pink blur rushing at them.

“Duck!” Twilight yelled as she hit the floor, but she could see that Trixie wasn’t reacting fast enough to avoid being hit. Right before Pinkie slammed into Trixie a light blue force field sprang up around her, stopping Pinkie cold and keeping Trixie from being hurt.

Well, it’s not broken. The snarky part of Twilight’s brain thought, while the rest of her rushed over to the pink pile on the ground, along with all the other mares. “Ohmigosh! Pinkie are you okay?”

“No, keep going, no such thing as too much cupcake,” The dazed Pinkie said, before shaking her head vigorously in an attempt to clear it. “I’m okie-dokie. But this isn’t.” Pinkie held up her ring. No longer radiating a bright green light, it was now so dark it was almost black.

“How did that happen?” Trixie asked.

Pinkie shrugged. “Maybe it’s out of battery.” Pinkie moved herself to a sitting position and began to think. “Hmmmmm. Oh!” Pinkie stood up and walked to the edge of the crater.

“Oh? Oh what?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie touched her ring to the lantern she pulled out of the crater. Slowly but surely, the light started to come back to her ring.

“How did you know it would do that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, sometimes when I’m shopping for decorations for my parties, I get these little glow in the dark stickers, and for those to work you need to leave them out in the light or else they go dark,” Pinkie said as though this explained everything.

The others, by now used to Pinkie’s explanations not making any sense, shrugged this one off. “Wait, these doodads can run down?” Applejack asked.

“Evidently, as Pinkie’s just did,” Rarity responded.

“Well, how in tarnation are we gonna fill ‘em back up?”

“Didn’t you see?” Pinkie asked. “At the bottom of each hole, there’s one of these pretty little lanterns.”

The group rushed over to check and, sure enough, in each hole, underneath piles of upturned dirt, lay some very bright lanterns.

“Well that explains why the holes were so big,” Twilight mumbled as the mare’s collected their new decorations. The reminder of the holes brought back into the mare’s mind the reason she came out here in the first place.

“Hey, we should probably get back to town. They might need help.”

“Yeah, the town is pretty wrecked,” Trixie said.

“Well, it’s a good thing we have these!” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “These will make it so much easier.”

“Absolutely, much less sweaty this way,” Rarity agreed.

“I don’t know, we still don’t know anything about these,” Twilight said doubtfully. “They might be dangerous to use in town.”

“Oh lighten up Twi,” Rainbow Dash said. “If they start causing problems, we’ll stop using them.”

“Besides,” Applejack chimed in, “These durn thangs made the mess, they should help clean it up.”

“Good point,” Twilight said. “Still, I think I should send a letter to Princess Celestia, see what she thinks of all this.”

“Whatever makes you feel better,” Rarity said.

“Come on, the town’s not getting any less broken!” Pinkie yelled out, picking up her lantern in her mouth, “Lesh goo!”

After a brief chuckle at their friend’s over-enthusiasm, each mare grabbed her lantern and followed the pink hyperball out of the forest.

Author's Note

A/N: Wow, this story is getting a surprising amount of love over on fimfiction. Still favorites, follows, and likes are not what motivate me, reviews and comments are. Each review/comment I get makes me want to work on this story more. Please let me know you enjoy my work. Thank you.

Full Effect

As the mares came back into the damaged city, they noticed a large crowd in the streets.

“Everypony! Please calm down!” Mayor Mare shouted into her speakerphone. She was standing at the center of the mob, surrounded by bodyguards.

“My house is rubble!” yelled a mare in the crowd.

“Where are the doctors? my husband is unconscious!” shouted a stallion.

“I chipped a tooth!!!” screamed an imbecile.

“Please, we are doing our best to assess the cause and damage of the incident! Until then, please listen to the doctors and fireponies, and do what they tell you! There is a team of builders coming, but they won’t be here until tomorrow and we will begin reconstruction! In the meantime, emergency housing will be provided to all who have been affected! Do not go into your homes until they have been cleared by an inspector! They will work as fast as they can, but they must be thorough! Please settle down, your panic helps no one!” the Mayor desperately yelled. But while some ponies left, the majority remained. Mayor Mare heaved a sigh and began repeating herself. While she did so, Twilight and her friends went far enough away to ignore the sound. They found a quiet space between a caved in wall and one that was still mostly standing, though the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the building.

“This is simply terrible!” Rarity said

“Yeah. Ah didn’t think it was this bad in th’ city,” Applejack said.

“Wow.” Rainbow Dash gazed upon the mounds of rubble inside building with the caved in wall. “What do we do?”

“Isn’t it obvious!” Pinkie said. “We help!!! We have these thingamadoodads now, we can use them to fix it all up!” She held up her ring. Most of mares had forgotten about them upon seeing how bad it actually was, despite the heavy weight of the lanterns on their backs.

“Yeah! Good thinking Pinkie, with these we can fix the city up in no time!” Rainbow Dash started concentrating on her ring as the other mares nodded in agreement.

“No.”

Rainbow Dash’s concentration broke as she, along with the rest of the group, turned to face Trixie.

“I- I mean,” Trixie stammered, “Not right now. Even if we can control these things, if we start rebuilding willy-nilly, we’ll get a lot wrong. Let’s wait until tomorrow when the builders come. We can show them what we can do and they can tell us what we need to do.”

This made sense to the mares, and, despite Rainbow Dash’s slight annoyance at not getting to work right now, they agreed to wait until to tomorrow.

“So, what do we do?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The mares all looked to Twilight, expecting her to have an idea. Before she could think of one though, Fluttershy spoke up.

“I- I’m sorry, I need to leave. I need to check up on the animals. S- sorry.” Fluttershy looked down at the ground.

“No, don’t be,” Twilight said. “You’re right. Today, we need to make sure everything’s all okay. I need to check if Spike’s fine.

Pinkie Pie gasped. “I need to check on Mr- Carrot and Cup! I have to make sure they saved the cupcakes!” Pinkie sped off towards SugarCube Corner, her running making the green lantern on her back bounce back and forth.

“Yea, an’ Ah hav’ tah go make shure that Granny, Big Mac, and Applebloom are all fine.” Applejack said.

“I must go and find Sweetie Belle, then I will have to go and make certain that none of my designs were destroyed. Oh, I don’t what I would do if they were damaged!” Rarity said.

“I need to check on Spike,” Twilight said.

“And I have to go see if my apartment’s still standing,” Trixie added.

“So, it’s agreed then? We all deal with our problems and go see Mayor Mare tomorrow morning?” Twilight asked. The mares all nodded.

“Well, wait,” Rainbow Dash said. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Ah dun’ know, go take a nap, or somethin’,” Applejack said. With that the other mares all went off their separate ways, leaving Rainbow Dash standing alone on the street.

“Nap?” she said to herself. She glanced at her ring, glowing a violent crimson. “Yeah, right.” She took the red lantern off of her back and grabbed the handle between her teeth. She lifted off and flew to her training ground, where she would stay until tomorrow.

Author's Note

A/N: I’m back, Baby!

Ringpercussions

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am happy to hear that reconstruction is going smoothly, and quickly! Even with the power of the rings, I still expected that Ponyville would remain broken for a number of months. It seems that we both underestimated them.

Happy as I am to hear of the quick recovery, I must disagree with you about your friends. As I said, the fixing of Ponyville was expected to take months, not a matter of weeks. With how quickly they are going, they deserve a little time to goof off and experiment with their powers. However, your idea that the lanterns can only recharge the rings so many times does leave me uneasy. I will enclose with this letter instructions on how to do a spell that will allow you to sense the stored energy in a substance, to use on the lanterns. If they do prove to be a limited resource I am sure that your friends will agree that the power should be saved for the work.

I must admit that I am quite jealous of you. Brand new magic, more powerful than any I have ever come across, requiring no spells to use! If given the option I would switch places with you in a wing flap, but alas, my royal duties keep me at bay for another few days. I cannot wait for my visit, if only to see them first hoof.

As for your ring, keep trying. I’m sure that it will work eventually. Perhaps it just got a bit damaged and requires some repair. I will be happy to look at it when I come.

Your loving mentor,

Celestia.

Twilight gently lowered the letter she had been reading onto her bedroom table, picking up the paper that came rolled up with it when it appeared earlier that morning. The small space of time between her setting the letter down and picking the other paper up was enough for Twilight’s mind to start wandering as she considered what she had just read.

So, there are some things that even the Princess doesn’t know about, Twilight thought, not sure how to feel about that fact. Still, I can’t blame her for being so excited. These rings are incredible. Twilight remembered the look on the villagers’ faces when they first saw what the rings could do. Even now, four days after then, most of them still looked up in awe and wonder when they saw the amazing things the rings could do. Well, most of them anyway. Twilight frowned and looked at her ring, taunting her with its gleam as it sat on her desk. Despite Twilight’s best efforts, she had failed to make the blue ring do anything on her hoof except look pretty.

She sighed with a small amount of envy as her mind’s eye pulled up the images of how happy her friends looked as they played around with their rings, and how quickly the looks turned to pity when she mentioned that, no, she had not figured out how to make hers work yet.

Yet, she reinforced. She glared more at the jewelry. I know there’s some way that I can make you work! Her resolve thus strengthened, her thoughts came back to her friends. And I guess she’s right, there’s no reason for them to not have fun as long as-- Oh yeah.

She shook her head, clearing her mind as she recalled why she was levitating the paper. She began committing the instructions to memory, mouthing along with the words as she prepared to practice.

-----After the Practice-----

It had taken her the entire rest of the morning, along with a chunk of midday, but Twilight was now confident that she could cast the spell flawlessly. She stood up from the chair she was occupying while she practiced, and immediately felt lightheaded; understandable, given that she had been sitting long enough that work on the town was now over for the day. Balancing against her desk as she waited for the rush to subside, she was static long enough for her body to force her aware of how hungry she was.

Once she was properly reoriented, she went down to the kitchen to pick up some food, making sure to bring along the batteries she was testing the spell on so she could put them back.

While she was making herself a snack, she noticed the blue lantern that had come with her ring. Given that she hadn’t used it at all she had just placed it the top of her cabinet, covered with a thick blanket to keep the light from getting out and bothering anyone.

She sat down at her kitchen table and levitated the blanket off. Twilight figured that even if she never used it, it could work as a control and give her some idea of how much power the other lanterns had. She cast the spell on it and was immediately forced to balance herself against the table against the massive headache she got. The amount of stored energy she could feel within the lantern was unbelievable. It felt like it could last forever or if not, at least longer than she would be alive.

She dispelled the magic and the headache quickly started lessening. When she could see sharply again, she looked at the lantern still radiating its soft blue light. She sat in shock of just how much was packed into that relatively small container for a good few minutes before remembering what she had to do. She shook off the last dregs of her headache and left to go find her friends and make sure the same was true of all their lanterns as well.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, Twilight thought in a dark humor, levitating a few packets of aspirin out of the kitchen while she walked out the door, if the only one that felt like that was the one we couldn’t use?

Twilight decided to start off with one friend she knew where to find.

-----At the Sweet Apple Acres Produce Stand-----

“Howdy, Twilight,” Applejack said as she saw the lavender mare come walking up the road. “Fancy a drink?” Applejack lifted up a pitcher of apple juice with the light from her orange ring.

“Hi, Applejack,” Twilight said. “Sure, I’ll have a cup.” Twilight set a bit down on the stand.

“Oh, uh, sorry sugarcube, but it’s two bits now.”

Twilight’s brow rose in surprise. “Huh,” she said as she put down another bit. “Why?”

“Well, th’ insurance ain’t gonna cover alla th’ damages.” Applejack scooped up the coins while the light poured out a cup of juice and placed it in front of Twilight.

“I thought Celestia was paying to have all the houses rebuilt?”

“The house, shure. It’s the orchard that’s costing us,” Applejack explained as Twilight drank. “‘Bout a half of the trees are ruined, and the insurance company says our explosion coverage don’t count if’n they’re from space.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Nah, don’t be. It’s not yer fault the insurance company’s full a no-good weasels.” Applejack grimaced briefly before regaining her usual soft look. “Still, ain’t as bad as it coulda been. Least I got this thingy to help out.” She pointed at her ring.

“Actually that’s part of why I came here,” Twilight said.

“Oh? Did yah-”

“No,” Twilight cut her off before she could ask about her ring. “I need to check up on your battery, make sure there’s enough power in it that you can… well…” Twilight gestured at the orange light rearranging the stand.

“Waste it?” Applejack asked gently.

“Yeah.”

Applejack shook her head, “No problem. If these thangs really are limited, then Ah should be usin’ it for summin’ else. Here.” Applejack pulled her orange lantern up from underneath the counter. “Ah keep it nearby in case Ah run out.”

Twilight cast the energy detection spell and was once more struck by the same vastness as she had felt within her lantern. Thanks to that prior experience, she wasn’t struck quite as dumb as before and was able to keep her head more or less clear through the experience. But something threw her off. While the spell was quite simply cast on her lantern, the orange lantern felt like it was resisting her somewhat. Twilight quietly made a mental note of it.

“It seems like you’re all good to go,” Twilight said.

“Great,” Applejack said. “Hey, are yah plannin’ on doing this for all a’ us?”

“Yeah, actually. Better safe then sorry.”

“Well, Fluttershy is at the farm if’n yah wanna go see her.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. “What’s she doing there?”

“After the explosion, Big Mac helped her find alla her lil’ critters an’ she’s been helpin’ us out because a’ it.” Applejack looked up the road and noticed some ponies walking towards her stand. “Looks like Ah’ve got customers Twilight.”

Twilight caught the hint. “No problem. Bye, Applejack.” She left the stand and started walking towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack, busying herself with her customers, didn’t respond.

-----At Sweet Apple Acres-----

Twilight went into the farm grounds, and it wasn’t long before she spotted the telltale pink glow of Fluttershy’s ring. She headed towards it, going through rows of saplings that looked like they had all been freshly planted. Getting closer, she could see the yellow pegasus was using her ring to place trees into holes in the ground next the big red stallion known as Big Mac.

“Uhm, is- is this okay?” Fluttershy asked quietly as she straightened out the sapling she had just finished placing.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac said. From Twilight’s point of view it seemed like he hadn’t even turned to look at Fluttershy’s tree, keeping his attention on the one he was planting.

“Ah- are you sure?” Twilight thought her eyes were playing tricks on her because it almost seemed like Fluttershy had nudged the plant a little to the side. Twilight rubbed her eyes while Big Mac spoke again.

“Eeyup.”

Twilight was starting feel a bit rude just listening in on their conversation, so she decided to do what she came for. “Fluttershy?” she called.

“Eep!” Fluttershy flinched and flashed invisible. She turned around. “Ye- yes? Hi, Twilight.”

“Uhm, hi,” Twilight said. “Listen, would you mind showing me your lantern? I need to check something with it.” Twilight explained the situation to Fluttershy.

“Ohh. Uh, sorry,” Fluttershy said as her pink light lifted up a mound of dirt and poured it into the hole. “I- I don’t have it here. I’m sorry.” She shrunk back a bit from Twilight, breaking eye contact and fidgeting in place. “I- I would go and show it to you, b- but Big Mac needs my help. Sorry.”

Big Mac finally lifted his head. “Eenope,” he said.

“Wh- what?” Fluttershy asked. “A- a- are you sure?”

Big Mac looked at the few holes remaining for him to plant trees in for the day. “Eeyup.”

“O- o- oh.” Fluttershy briefly looked downcast. “Okay then,” she said quietly. She started walking off the farm. “Come on, Twilight. It’s at my house.”

Twilight had to raise an eyebrow at Fluttershy’s strange reaction, but chalked it up to her friend wanting to pay her debt in full. “Kay. Bye, Big Mac.”

Big Mac grunted and waved a hoof in goodbye, his attention fully back on his planting.

-----At Fluttershy’s Cottage-----

“Here it is.” Fluttershy said. She had brought Twilight into the massive room in her house where she kept all of the animals. Which smelled like a room where someone would keep a bunch of animals.

“Why’s it in here?” Twilight asked. Her voice sounded a little strange as she was using her magic to hold her nose shut. She moved carefully around the room, making sure not to step on any animals, or into any of the things animals leave behind.

Fluttershy noticed her friend’s discomfort. “S- sorry. I use it as a nightlight for the animals to help them sleep better.” Pink light sprang from Fluttershy’s ring as she made a hook to bring down the lantern from where she kept it, resting on the ceiling bars.

Twilight focused on casting the spell, a task made much harder than usual because it meant she had to stop holding her nose shut and let in all of the bad smell. Fortunately, Fluttershy noticed.

“S- sorry.” A pink set of clothespins materialized in the air, opening up and closing around her nose.

“Thank you,” Twilight said in her altered voice. Her problem thus fixed, she was easily able to detect the energy in the battery. And immediately regretted it.

The second her spell reached the pink lantern, Twilight’s mind was flooded with its energy. She felt like she was being smothered, the energy grabbing hold of all of her senses and refusing to let go. She pushed against the suffocating vastness, even as it pulled back on her. Finally, she was able to break the spell.

She expected it to feel like breaking the surface of the water after drowning and was prepared to gasp for breath, but she found that she felt fine. She was breathing normally, albeit through her mouth, and her head only had a slight ache. Twilight rubbed her head. What was that? she thought.

“T- Twilight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, derailing Twilight’s train of thought.

“Huh?” Twilight had momentarily forgotten what was happening. “No, no, I’m fine.” She shook her head. “You’re good. Thanks.”

“Oh. Good.” Fluttershy said.

Twilight went back to thinking. The lanterns feel almost alive. I wonder if the others all feel like that.

Fluttershy coughed awkwardly. Twilight had been standing in her house deep in thought for a few minutes. “Do- do you need anything else?” she asked. “Oh, sor-”

“No,” Twilight shook herself out of her mental fog. “No, I’m good. Bye.”

“Goodbye,” Fluttershy softly said to Twilight’s back as the lavender mare left her house, already again deep in her thoughts.

Who should I go to next? Twilight asked herself as she walked around the outskirts of the forest towards Ponyville. Rarity’s always at her house, but I’m going to have to go there again later to pick up Spi-

*Crash*

For the umptillionth time that day Twilight was shaken out of her thoughts. What was that? It sounded like it came from Rainbow Dash’s training ground. Well, that answers who I’m talking to next, I guess, Twilight thought as she walked towards the sound.

-----At Rainbow Dash’s Training Ground-----

Twilight stepped into the large grassy field that served as Rainbow Dash’s practice area.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “I need to see your lant- Whoa.” Twilight stopped dead in her tracks. Rainbow Dash was well known to be a messy flyer, most of her practice sessions ended with more than a few divots dug out in the grass. But she always took care to fix it up afterwards, carefully replacing the dirt and the grass as close to perfectly as she could. It wasn’t unusual to walk in on Rainbow Dash’s practice and find a few holes in the ground and large amount of spots with soil that looked upturned. But what Twilight didn’t see any of that, the grass and the dirt was undisturbed. It was everything else around it that gave her pause.

Trees with their branches brutally ripped off, some with bowling ball sized holes in the trunks that oozed sap. Rocks that Twilight was pretty sure hadn’t been there before littered the ground, some bigger then her, some barely more than pebbles. The smaller ones had rough, jagged edges, as though they had been recently smashed off of something, while the larger ones looked downright mutilated. Massive gouges, a few inches deep, adorned most of them, along with a variety of odd angles that made it clear something had been cut off from them. Twilight saw a number of clusters of rocks that looked like they had once been part of a much bigger stone. She looked at the carnage in fear and confusion.

What did this? she thought. Twilight heard a loud crack. A moment passed and it was followed by a chunk of rock falling from the sky. She looked up and saw Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus was floating in the air, a red aura around her cyan body. There was another large rock floating up there with her, with its own red aura, being smashed into with a massive red hammer. With Twilight’s attention now fully on Rainbow Dash, she could hear a soft thumping coming from the collisions between rock and red hammer. Suddenly, another loud crack rung through the air. From Twilight’s viewpoint she could see Rainbow Dash swing her forehooves violently before the red aura disappeared from the part of the rock that was broken off.

The hammer swung at the, now much smaller, rock a few more times before Rainbow Dash screamed. “Arrgh!” she yelled throatily. The rock went up higher into the air, until it was as far away from Rainbow Dash as Twilight herself. Then, much faster than if it was solely under the influence of gravity, the red-light covered rock slammed into the ground.

*Crash*

So that’s what that was. Why’s Rainbow Dash been doing this? Twilight wondered as she recovered from the shock. Looking up at her friend, Twilight was tempted to leave. Just turn around and walk away, talk to her some other time. Floating up in the air, hunched over with a red aura around her that suddenly reminded Twilight of blood, even without anything for her to hit Rainbow Dash was still a terrifying sight. But Twilight had a job to do. Besides, she reasoned, Rainbow Dash is the element of Loyalty. There’s no way she’ll do anything to me.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight tried calling, but it came out in a voice barely louder than a squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Rainbow Dash,” she said, much more audibly this time. But Rainbow Dash showed no reaction, still hanging motionless in the air.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight was louder this time, but still gained no response. Somewhat frustrated now, she took a deep breath. “Rainbow Dash!” she shouted.

“WHAT!” Rainbow Dash snapped back. There was so much anger in her voice that it made Twilight take a step back, ready to run. Then Rainbow Dash saw who she had just yelled at. “Sorry, sorry,” she said in a much nicer, or at least less angry, tone of voice. The red glow around her dissipated and she spread her wings, gliding to the ground in front of Twilight. “Sorry about that,” she repeated. “You startled me.”

No shit, Twilight thought. Twilight cleared her throat again. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Working out some anger,” Rainbow Dash said.

“What happened to make you this angry?” Twilight asked as she looked again at the massive level of damage Rainbow Dash had wrought. “Did something happen recently?”

“You could say that,” Rainbow Dash said, her gaze suddenly turning into steel. “It was around two weeks ago.”

What happened two weeks ago- Oh. “The manticores?” Twilight remembered seeing the body of her friend laying on the forest, her blue coat marred with ugly purple blotches, her eyes shut tight and her chest heaving. Then, the sight of the two ugly puncture marks, as Fluttershy told the group what they meant with tears in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash slowly nodded. “Yeah.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said. “I know you’re upset, but this isn’t going to fix anything.”

Rainbow Dash exploded, “I KNOW!” making Twilight flinch again. Seeing the fear in her friend’s eyes the pegasus tried to calm down, breathing deeply through grit teeth. “I know,” she said when she felt calm again. “But what should I do? Just forget about it?! Twilight, I nearly died!”

“I don’t know!” Twilight shouted back. Twilight looked around at the mounds of rubble and warped wood again. At least she’s only doing it to rocks and trees, she thought. Twilight took a deep breath. “But, there has to be a better way for you to deal with this,” she said.

Rainbow Dash scoffed. The pegasus tossed her head. “Look, I know you didn’t come out here to lecture me about anger management,” she said. “What can I do for you?”

It took Twilight a moment to remember what she was doing. “I need to see your lantern.” Twilight explained the situation to Rainbow Dash. “I’ve already check Applejack’s, Fluttershy’s, and mine, and they all seem infinite, but I need to check the rest just to make sure.”

“Okay. Wait here.” The ruby light once more surrounded Rainbow Dash, lifting her up into the tallest tree.

“When did you learn to fly?” Twilight asked.

“When I was four,” Rainbow Dash said as she rummaged around in the treetop.

Despite what had just happened, Twilight felt her body rolling her eyes. “Very funny. Seriously.”

“The day after we got these. I tried to go home, and the light picked me up before I could spread my wings.” Rainbow Dash pulled the lantern out from the leaves she had covered it with, allowing its bloody red glow to cover the field, turning the green grass black. She brought it to Twilight.

Twilight concentrated on the lantern and cast the spell. It stayed up just long enough for her to feel the same swirling infinity as she had felt in all the previous lanterns. Then, with a feeling like she had just gotten punched in the jaw by a very angry buffalo, Twilight’s spell ceased through no action on her part, leaving her with a massive headache, the worst one of the day.

At the sight of her friend buckled over, Rainbow Dash’s concern was immediate. Her ring’s red light surrounded Twilight, bringing her head up and steadying her. She asked, “Are you o-” before she was cut off by Twilight lifting a hoof in a gesture clearly meant to ask her to shut up.

Once Twilight’s head stopped feeling like ponies were using it as a taiko drum, dropping to the much more tolerable level of bongo drums, and the rushing of the wind through the leaves stopped sounding like an angry P.E. teacher blowing their whistle into her ear, she spoke. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay now. Thanks. You’re good to go.”

“Are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking sideways at her lantern like it had suddenly turned into a crimson cockroach.

“Yeah,” Twilight said. She moved away from the constructs holding her up, feeling steady enough to let her legs handle the full burden of keeping her up. I really need to let Celestia know about this, she thought. Still, I shouldn’t worry her. I don’t know if it’s a problem or not. “That happened with the other lanterns too,” Twilight lied.

“Okay.” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight noticed that she still looked unsure.

“Seriously, I’m fine.” Twilight tapped on the side of her own head, trying not to flinch.

Rainbow Dash looked at her one more time. Seemly satisfied with what she saw, she relaxed. “Okay.”

“Great,” Twilight said. She turned around towards Ponyville. “I’ve gotta go now, I still have to check on Trixie, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. See you tomorrow?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Yeah. Bye.” Rainbow Dash waved at her friend. When Twilight was out of view, she turned and stared at her handiwork. “And, you’re right,” she mumbled as she twisted her ring around her hoof. “I can think of a better way to deal with this.” Rainbow Dash screwed up her eyes in concentration. A short, thin bar of red light appeared in front of her.

A/N: Cutting it off here because this is way too long. What did you guys think? Please let me know in a comment, it helps my motivation.

I cannot tell you how tempted I was to have “Whoa” link to Keanu Reeves.

Ringpercussions (Part 2)

I need to tell someone about this, Twilight thought as she walked into Ponyville. She wasn’t even sure what ‘this’ was, specifically, but she knew she had to get it off of her chest. Celestia, of course, she has to know, but she won’t be here for a while. I need to talk to someone. But who? Trixie? Maybe, but- no, no if her lantern is what’s causing Rainbow Dash to act like that, then who knows what the other lanterns are doing. Then again, Applejack and Fluttershy both seemed fine. Maybe I should warn Trixie about it. But what if it’s not the lantern? Rainbow Dash did nearly die, maybe she’s just trying to deal with it. How would she feel if I started telling ponies about what she’s doing? But all of the lantern’s felt weird like that. Maybe it is them? I have to tell someone about this.

Twilight realized that her thoughts were in a loop, and getting foggier by the minute. I need to eat something, she thought, recognizing the effects of low blood sugar from her numerous late-night studying binges. This helped her remember that she still had three lanterns to check out. Twilight stopped drifting aimlessly around town and began heading towards the one place where she could achieve both of her goals.

-SugarCube Corner-

“-of triple-double chocolate cookies Button Mash!” Twilight heard as she opened up the door to the bakery. She saw that the tables were almost all packed full with ponies, and the buzz of conversation filled the sweet smelling air of SugarCube Corner. Twilight tried to ignore it and looked towards the counter. She saw Pinkie Pie standing behind the display case, lowering a box to a brown colt. She walked over to Pinkie Pie, bumping into a few tables along the way.

Twilight tried to call out to her. “Hey, Pinki-”

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said, whipping her head around to face her friend as Button Mash walked off with his cookies. “Can you see this?” Pinkie Pie gestured at the packed room, before grabbing a box from underneath the counter. “I’ve never seen this many ponies in here!” she said as she began to fill the box with cherry buns. “Never ever ever ever! Well, not unless I’m throwing a really big party, but I’m not! I thought about throwing a party after the explosion, but Mr. Cake said that it was “in bad taste”, or something, which I don’t understand, I mean, what better then a party to make ponies feel better after something like that, but he was really serious about,” Pinkie Pie placed the last cherry bun into the box. Her attention immediately shifted from Twilight to a mare standing in the corner. “Roseluck, I’ve got your bun box for you!” Pinkie said as she held the box out and waited for the mare to come and take it.

Twilight seized upon the opportunity to talk. “Pinkie Pie, I need your help with som-”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie Pie said, having given the box to Roseluck.

“Really?” Twilight asked as Pinkie Pie pulled another, smaller box out and began filling it with muffins. “You don’t even know what I need you to do.”

“So?” Twilight was at a loss for words. Pinkie continued, “Oh, but can you please wait until I’m done with my shift? I’m almost done here and then Mrs. Cake is coming to take over. Please?”

“Uhm, yeah. Sure,” Twilight said.

“Thanks! You want a little nibble while you wait?” Pinkie Pie asked, reminding Twilight of her secondary objective.

“Yes. Could I get couple chocolate-strawberry cupcakes with buttercream?” Pinkie Pie used the hoof not busy packing muffins to hoof Twilight her cupcakes. Twilight levitated them and walked towards the only empty single-pony table left, hearing Pinkie call out, “Ditzy!” behind her.

Twilight lowered the cupcakes onto the table and took a seat. Now she had nothing to do but wait. And eat. And think. Guess which one she ended up focusing on.

I guess after this I’ll go talk to Trixie, Twilight thought as she absentmindedly bit into one of her cupcakes. That’ll be fun. I mean, I haven’t really talked to Trixie since the explosion. Or seen her really, other than when we’re rebuilding. I wonder what’s been going on with her. Maybe she’s just tired. I wonder if she’s been practicing her magic. I don’t know why she would be, considering her ring actually works! Twilight realized what path her thoughts were going down and took a deep breath. Getting mad at Trixie because her ring randomly didn’t work was just petty. Twilight was better than that. She bit a particularly syrupy part of the cupcake and tried to force her thoughts into a different lane. I wonder how she’ll act when she sees that I’ve mastered the sound distortion and amplification spell. Twilight had taking to practicing the spell whenever she had nothing to work on during the reconstructive periods. When did she say Card usually let her leave work?

Twilight suddenly realized there was one pony whom she hadn’t seen at all since the explosion. Oh Celestia, what about Card! He lives in the Everfree Forest, I wonder how he’s been doing! Twilight’s mind flashbacked to the state she had seen the forest in after the explosion. Trees ripped out by the roots and tossed around like playing cards and every single blade of grass bent over in the direction of the shockwave. Twilight briefly wondered if Card had been hurt, before dismissing the notion outright. It seemed impossible, Card being injured in something as mundane as an explosion caused by seven rings and color-coordinated lanterns falling from space. He must be really busy fixing it all up. I’ll have to ask Trixie how he’s been, she’ll know.

“Okie-dokie, I’m all done!” Pinkie said as she came up to Twilight’s table, startling the unicorn into almost choking. “So, what do you need me to do?”

Twilight swallowed and finished off her last bit of cupcake before standing up. “Can I see your lantern?” she asked.

“Mm-hm. Follow me!” Pinkie said as she grabbed Twilight and dragged her through the door that lead to the residential part of the bakery.

While she was being led through the kitchen, the living room, and up the stairs to Pinkie Pie’s bedroom, Twilight noticed something strange. “Where’s your ring?” she asked Pinkie Pie.

“Oh, it’s somewhere in my room. I think it’s still where I left it, but I don’t wanna assume.” Pinkie Pie opened up the door to her bedroom, making Twilight flinch a little from the evening light streaming in through Pinkie’s windows. “Oh look, there it is!” she said, dropping Twilight’s hoof and pointing at the small green ring on her bedside table, right in front of a small blue mirror. “Gimme a sec!” Pinkie Pie dashed over to her closet and began rooting around in it, leaving a confused mare at the doorway.

“Why don’t you wear it?” Twilight asked.

“Mmh mm, mmhhm,” Pinkie said from inside her closet, her voice obstructed by costumes and toys.

“What?”

Pinkie Pie’s head popped out of the cabinet, her hooves still rooting about inside of it. “I do, sometimes.”

“Why only sometimes?” Twilight asked. “Why don’t you always wear it? Imagine how much help it would be in the shop. You’d be able to give everypony their orders all at once. You wouldn’t even have to stand behind the counter, you could just sit in a chair.”

Pinkie Pie went back to rummaging through her closet, taking care to keep her mouth unblocked. “I tried doing that once, it was no fun at all! I was too far away to talk to anypony, and I wasn’t close enough to see how happy all the ponies were when they got their food. I was sooooooo bored!”

“Okay, so then why don’t you just stay behind the counter and use the ring? You’d still be able to talk and see ponies smile.”

“If I’m already going to be close enough to do that, then why would I use the ring? Besides, it’s more fun to do it by hoof.” Twilight was still confused, but decided that it was up to Pinkie Pie. Besides, the pink mare had just pulled out the green lantern from her closet.

Twilight walked over to the lantern and braced herself against the possibility of a repeat of the red lantern. She closed her eyes, leaned against Pinkie’s bed, cast the spell and found… nothing.

Well, that wasn’t quite right. There was the same mind-blowing energy that she had felt in every lantern, the same sense of insignificance next to the sheer size of it all, but other then that, nothing. Not even her own lantern, which felt like the power inside was sitting around and waiting, felt like this. It didn’t even feel dead, it just felt lifeless. Like she was staring up at a mountain where the peak was beyond her sight. Impressive, but clinical.

Twilight tilted her head at the oddity, but shook it off. She still had two more to go after all, and she felt silly being amazed that a battery actually felt like an inanimate object. “Thanks, Pinkie.”

“No problemo!” Pinkie Pie waved goodbye at Twilight as the unicorn turned to leave. However, out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Pinkie hesitate.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Pinkie Pie hesitated again. “I was wondering if you knew where Card was?”

Why does Pinkie want to know where Card is? Twilight thought, unaware of the fact that Pinkie Pie was Card’s patient. “I haven’t seen him since the incident,” she said. “I think he’s fixing the forest. I was actually going to go look for him tomorrow.”

“Can I come?!” Pinkie asked. “Please?!”

“Uh, sure.” Twilight’s eyebrow lifted at Pinkie Pie’s intensity. “We can meet up at the road to the forest once tomorrow’s clean up is done, okay?”

“Okay!” Pinkie waved goodbye to Twilight. “Thank you! Bye-bye-bye!”

“Yeah, bye.” Twilight finally left SugarCube Corner. What was going on there? Twilight shook her head. I’m sure it doesn’t concern me. Right now, I have to get to Trixie. Twilight smiled as she turned down the road that lead to her best friend’s apartment building.

-At Trixie’s Apartment-

416, 414, 412! Twilight stopped in front of the door. She knocked on the door. Ten seconds passed, with no response. Twilight knocked again, a little louder this time. Ten more seconds, still nothing. That’s weird. Twilight frowned. Trixie never takes this long to answer her door. Maybe she’s not home? The unicorn stood awkwardly in the hallway as she tried to figure out what to do. She lightly kicked her hoof against the ugly, mottled blue-green carpet that covered the floor as she thought, her eyes roaming the undecorated beige walls. I’ll try knocking one more time, she decided. If she doesn’t answer, then I’ll come back later. Twilight knocked a third time, louder than ever, using the spell she had learned to make the sound travel farther.

She was rewarded for her efforts with the sound of movement from behind the door. She breathed a small sigh of relief. The sound of hoofsteps got louder until it was obviously coming from right behind the door. Twilight opened her mouth, ready to greet her friend, but the door didn’t open. An eye appeared from behind the door’s peephole. When she noticed it, Twilight waved. That’s new, she thought as the door swung open.

“Hey, Twilight!” Trixie said, her yellow ring obvious and splendid on her blue hoof. The unicorns embraced. “Sorry I didn’t notice you earlier, I was practicing.”

Twilight let go of the hug and waved Trixie’s comment off. “Should I be jealous?” Twilight asked. “I thought you said I was the only one who visited you.”

“Well, when you’re as famous and renowned as The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie said as she puffed her chest out and placed a hoof over her heart, hamming it up as much as possible, “You can never be too careful.”

Twilight laughed at her friends antics, Trixie briefly playing at being offended before smirking herself. She suddenly seemed to realize where they were. “Oh, what are you still doing out here? Come in, come in.” Trixie waved Twilight into her apartment. Twilight stepped in, hearing Trixie lock the door behind them. Twilight looked around the small area with kitchenette attachment that served as Trixie’s living room. She walked across the wood paneled floor to the old brown couch that she usually sat on whenever she came to visit Trixie.

“You want anything? Tea?” Trixie asked, looking over the small wall that separated the kitchenette from the living room proper.

“Thanks,” Twilight said. Trixie created some yellow ropes, moving them like snakes to pick up the kettle, cups, sugar, and lemon juice, having them carry it all to the small circular table in the middle of the room. While Trixie was setting up the tea, Twilight looked around the room. She immediately noticed something missing. “What happened to your TV?” she asked, looking at the corner TV stand without any TV on it.

“Fell over in the shockwave,” Trixie said as she sat down in her brown recliner near the couch.

“Yikes.” Twilight felt bad for her friend; that TV was the first thing she had bought for the apartment.

“Yeah.” Trixie sighed. “Oh well. How have you been?” she asked as she picked up a teacup. “Your ring work yet?”

Twilight growled as she remembered the frustration that useless hunk of blue metal had caused her.

“I guess not,” Trixie said as she gave Twilight a cup. “Anything else?”

“No, not really. Just helping out with the reconstruction and keeping Princess Celestia up to date on what the rings can do.” Twilight took a sip. “Speaking of, that’s why I’m here.”

“And here I was thinking, you just wanted to visit,” Trixie said, mostly in jest, hiding the small amount of pain she felt at Twilight’s words with the skill of a seasoned entertainer.

Twilight smiled at her friend through the steam coming from her cup. “Celestia showed me how to check the energy levels in an object, so I could go around checking to make sure we weren’t going to run out of power for the rings.”

Trixie’s head shot up from her cup. “What? You think that could happen?” She leaned forward in her seat.

Twilight was taken aback by her sudden reaction. “No…” she said carefully. “I don’t think so, not anymore at least. I’ve checked some of the other lanterns and they all seem bottomless.”

Trixie relaxed back into her chair. “Oh. Good. Sorry about that.”

“No problem,” Twilight said.

The two mares sipped their teas in silence for a little while, both waiting for the other to speak first.

“You know what this reminds me of?” Trixie said. “That spell Celestia was having us learn when the rings fell.”

“Oh, yeah,” Twilight said. “That reminds me, I’ve actually got it down.”

“Wow, really?” Trixie asked. Twilight nodded. “Huh. I guess the score’s nineteen to twelve now.”

“You haven’t been practicing?”

“No, but speaking of magic, I have learned one thing.”

“What?”

“Here, let me show you. Uhh, put your cup down first, though,” Trixie said as she placed her own cup down onto the table. Twilight followed suit and watched Trixie.

The blue unicorn’s eyes closed in concentration an a yellow beam stretched from her ring to her horn. A yellowish-reddish aura surrounded everything in the room not nailed down other than the table that held their drinks. Soon, Twilight felt herself rising as all the objects were lifted into the air. When they were three feet off the floor, Trixie’s eyes opened.

“Well, what do you think?”

“That’s amazing!” Twilight said, her head whipping around to see all the floating furniture. “How are you doing that?”

“The ring can give me more magic power than I’ve ever felt before in my life,” Trixie said, awestruck. “I don’t know how, but it’s like I’ve been super-charged.” Trixie put them down.

“Wow,” Twilight said as she finished her tea.

“I know, right!” Trixie said. She downed the rest of her drink as well. “Come on,” she said as she stood up. “You said you need to check my lantern right?”

Twilight got up and followed Trixie into her bedroom, relinquishing the cup to a yellow tendril that placed it into the sink. Trixie stood next to her twin bed and used her magic, aided by the ring, of course, to pull a safe out from underneath the bed. As she bent down to open it, she looked at Twilight. “Uh, Twilight, would you mind,” she said as she twirled her hoof around.

“Oh! Uh, no, not at all.” Twilight twirled around. “I didn’t know you had a safe.”

“I bought it a couple days ago. You know, just in case,” Trixie said as she finished dialing in the combination. “You can turn back around now.”

Twilight turned and saw the yellow lantern sitting on top of the now-opened safe. She came up to it, not noticing Trixie’s nervous fidgeting, and braced herself as she began to cast the spell.

“Wait!” Trixie said, breaking Twilight’s concentration. “You’re sure this isn’t going to damage it, right?”

Twilight smiled reassuringly. “Yes, I’m sure. Don’t worry.” Twilight cast the spell, this time without interruptions.

It was an odd sensation, feeling infinity try and make itself seem bigger. It didn’t even seem possible, but that was what Twilight felt like the swirling vortex of energy within the lantern was doing. It was vast, and powerful, and desperately waiting for her to leave. It was strange. Twilight almost wanted to keep the spell going a while longer to observe it, but the longer she kept it up, the guiltier it made her feel. Twilight severed the connection.

“Well?” Trixie asked, already placing the lantern back into the safe and slamming it closed.

“It’s fine,” Twilight said. “Use it as much as you want. Thanks for the tea.” Twilight started to leave, but a strange tingling went up her spine. She began to feel anxious. When she tried to pinpoint the cause of the feeling, all she could come with was the search for Card. “Hey, before I forget, have you seen Card anywhere?”

Trixie slumped against the safe, worry coming up in her eyes. “No. Not since the incident. He hasn’t been coming to the office, I’ve had to spend most of my time dealing with upset ponies whose appointments he didn’t show up for. I’m really worried about him. I’ve been thinking about going to look for him, but… the Everfree…” Trixie trailed off.

Twilight understood her. The Everfree Forest was a scary place, even at the best of times. Who knew what it would be like after being torn apart like it was. “Me and Pinkie were thinking the same thing. We were planning to go look for him after tomorrow’s clean up, you want to come with us?”

Trixie’s eyes bounced around the room as she bit her lower lip and twisted her ring around her hoof.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to-”

“No.” Trixie stopped fidgeting and looked straight at Twilight. “No, I should come. I mean, after the shit he’s made me go through covering for him, I deserve a raise and the sooner I get it the better,” Trixie said through an obviously fake smile.

“Thanks,” Twilight said. “I guess I’ll see you then?”

“Yeah. Bye,” Trixie said with a wave of her hoof.

Twilight left the apartment, the strange wave of anxiety still on her. Ugh, what is that? she thought as she rode the elevator down. I- I’ll deal with that later, right now I need to focus on getting to Rarity. Maybe it’ll go away on its own, she hoped as she started the long walk across town to the Carousel Boutique.

-Near the Carousel Boutique-

Thirty minutes and twenty-three blocks later, the last vestiges of daylight had disappeared, surrendering to the night. The light of the sun had been replaced with the moon and streetlamps but the anxiety still persisted, nagging at Twilight like the buzz of a mosquito just out of sight. Twilight had attempted to figure it out, but to no avail. It just seemed to exist. A reprieve came when she noticed that she was around the corner from the Carousel Boutique. Happy that she was near her destination, she sped up, eager to finish up her task and go to bed. After writing a letter to the Princess, of course.

All those thoughts were blown out of her mind when she rounded the corner. The street outside of Rarity’s shop was littered with ponies sitting at sewing machines that seemed to be made out of blue light. Twilight stood there, scratching her head until the novelty wore off. She had a job to do, and she planned to do it. She walked up the block, looking at the ponies working by the light of their machines. Something about them made her feel uncomfortable, and the anxiety was not helping. The closer she got to them, the faster and more rigidly she walked. When she got to the very edge of the group, the pony nearest her spoke.

“Hello,” he said, as he turned to face her. “Have you come to help?” he asked with a big smile on his face.

Twilight was a little creeped out. “N- no, sorry. I ha-”

“That’s a shame,” he said as he turned back to his sewing. “Nothing feels better than helping ponies who need it.”

“Yes, well,” Twilight cleared her throat. “Uh, bye!” she said as she scurried away from him, closer to the entrance of the boutique, taking care not to make eye contact with any of the ponies working at their machines. When she reached the center of the group, the dull indigo light of the constructs was replaced with a far more radiant light emanating from the indigo lantern. The lantern was sitting on the ground next to an actual sewing machine, not a construct, at which sat Rarity.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was pushed to the side by an excited pony running up to Rarity and brandishing a set of trousers at her. Rarity nodded and the pony carefully folded the trousers and placed them onto a stack of clothing, one of the many arranged in a row on the table that also held up Rarity’s sewing machine. The excited pony grabbed some fabric from a basket on the ground and rushed back to their sewing machine, leaving a very disturbed Twilight in their wake.

“Rarity!” Twilight said, somewhat nervously.

“Twilight!” the white unicorn said brightly, pushing her sewing glasses back to the bridge of her nose. “What brings you here, darling? Is it time for Spike to go home already?”

“No, uh, yes, but no,” Twilight began fidgeting. “Listen, could we talk about this inside?”

“Darling, do calm down, you’re going to give yourself wrinkles,” Rarity said. “Here, this should help.” Rarity lifted her hoof and a small indigo light came out of her ring. As it washed over, Twilight she felt all of her anxiety slip away.

“Thanks, Rarity,” Twilight said. She looked around again. There was nothing creepy around, it was just a group of ponies sitting around sewing, helping Rarity with… “So, what’s going on here?”

Rarity face brightened to the point where it seemed the street would have been illuminated even without the lantern. “It was the most marvelous thing! After the explosion, my shop became positively flooded with ponies coming in who had lost some, or most, or all of their clothing as a result of the explosion. Now, I would never be able to live with myself if I had charged my normal prices from these ponies who had already lost so much, but I could hardly give away my standard work for free. Why, I would have put myself out of business.

“So, I got to work making some simple, cheap clothes that would serve until those who had lost everything had regained enough to afford my regular wares. Spike,” Rarity gestured at the small dragon working at a construct sewing machine next to her, “bless his little heart, saw me working and offered to help me, so I made him one of those lovely little machines you see there. Then a pony came along, saw us working, and offered his services to our cause. Then another. And another! There were so many of these lovely, selfless ponies who wished to help that we couldn’t all fit in the boutique!” As Rarity finished speaking, she gazed at the assembled ponies with a smile of Pinkie Pie proportions. “Have you ever seen anything like it? Oh, and look at me. So busy congratulating others I quite forgot to do my part, what am I thinking?” she muttered as she turned her attention back to the shirt she was stitching together.

“Really?” Twilight looked around, impressed. “Wow.” Twilight turned her attention back to Rarity. “Uh, listen, I need to take a look at your lantern.” Twilight explained the situation to Rarity.

“Oh, of course, darling,” Rarity said with a gesture towards the lantern. “By all means.”

Twilight braced herself against the table and cast the spell.

“...”

“..l..ht.”

“Twi..ght.”

“Twilight!” Rarity shouted.

Twilight recoiled like she had just been punched in the gut. “Huh? What?”

“You’ve been standing there for the last minute with staring off into space. Darling, is there something wrong?”

“Huh?” Twilight looked at Rarity as her senses reactivated. “...Oh! No, no, your lantern’s fine. It’s just as infinite as every other one. I-” Twilight yawned “-I guess I’m just tired. It’s been a long day, and your lantern felt so nice, I guess I just fell asleep for a while.” It really did feel nice. Twilight felt like she was being wrapped up in a big, heavy, security blanket.

“Are you sure darling?” Rarity said very carefully.

“Yeah, positive. Speaking of which, I should get home. Come on, Spike,” Twilight said with a nod at her dragon.

“No,” he said.

“Ugh, come on Spike,” Twilight said irritably. “I don’t have time for this. We have to leave now!

“No. Don’t want to leave. Want to stay and help!” Spike said with a pout.

“That’s very sweet of you darling,” Rarity said, bending down to the dragon’s level. “But you need to sleep. You’ll still be able to help me tomorrow.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Spike looked over Rarity before nodding to himself. “Fine. Come on, Twilight. Let’s go home.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and the two of them began heading for the library, maneuvering around the crowd of ponies as they walked. “Good night, Rarity,” Twilight called.

“Good night, you two! Sleep well,” Rarity cried until the pair rounded the corner.

Once the two of them were out of sight, Rarity looked at her lantern with concern. “I think it’s time for us to adjourn for the night, darlings!” she said. Her voice rose above the roar of the crowd as they claimed that, no, really, it was no problem, they could keep going. “I insist darlings! You must watch for your health, after all. Please, we can continue this tomorrow! Now,” raising her voice again as the din grew louder, she constructed an indigo basket and sent it floating around the group, “if you could please place your unfinished work in here.”

-At the Library-

“I can’t believe you made me look bad in front of Rarity,” Spike said as he entered the library.

“Go to sleep, Spike,” Twilight said as she closed the door behind them, ignoring the dragon.

“I could totally have kept wor- wor-.” Spike yawned as he said, “Working.”

“Go to sleep, Spike.”

“Why? You’re not going to sleep! Why can’t I do what you’re going to be doing?”

“You know what, fine. I’m going to be studying the telepathic underwater drinking habits of amphibious cicadas,” Twilight said, pulling some random terms out of her ass, “and you are welcome to join me.”

Spike’s face contorted like he had just smelt something foul. “Ugh, no thanks. Even if I were completely awake, which I totally am, by the way, that sounds like it would put me straight to bed. You enjoy your studying, I’ll go wait for tomorrow.” Spike went up the stairs to his bedroom. Twilight watched him go to bed and, sure enough, he was out like rubber neckties the instant his head hit the pillow.

Feeling certain that her charge was fully asleep, Twilight noticed that she wasn’t exactly at full capacity either. But, of course, she wasn’t quite done with her job yet. So, she went down to the kitchen, poured herself a large glass of ice water, and dumped it over her head.

Her faculties thus injected with renewed vigor, she toweled off and went to her bedroom, pausing only to glare at her lantern. She sat at her desk, got a sheet of paper, lit up a dragonflame candle, inked her quill, and began to, very diligently, glare at each of these things in turn as she struggled to summarize her discoveries for the Princess.

Author's Note

Next chapter is a short little interlude that’ll be up in a couple of days, then Plot! Plot starts to happen! I’m so excited!

Investigation

Why didn’t I bring a fan? Twilight thought to herself as she looked hopefully down the road again. The midday sun was beating down on her head and back, making the lavender mare get much sweatier than she was used to. Twilight Sparkle sighed, wishing she had thought to bring a jug of Applejack’s cider with her as she waited. Do I own a fan? Why don’t I own a fan? Twilight tried to wave the wind towards her face a little. Where are they? she asked herself for the thirtieth time. She had been sitting on the uncomfortable dirt that marked the path considered the entrance to the Everfree Forest, waiting for her friends to come, for fifteen minutes. The good mood she had had when Mayor Mare announced earlier that reconstruction had gone far enough that the civilians didn’t need to help anymore, and in fact weren’t allowed to under union rules, was severely diminished.

Twilight wiped some sweat off of her face and looked down road again, this time seeing a blue image appear down the road. As it got closer, Twilight could make out the profile of Trixie running towards her.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Trixie said as she reached her friend. Twilight looked up at her tiredly. “I would’ve come sooner but Mayor Mare wanted to thank all of us for how big of a help we were and it took forever!” As Trixie rambled a burst of yellow energy came out of her ring and formed into a fan that began flapping vigorously in Twilight’s face.

Twilight let out a long sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said to the mare standing over her. “And don’t worry about, I know how long official ceremonies can be.”

Trixie smiled. “And don’t worry, Pinkie should be here soon. She said she just had to rush home real quick and setup something,” she said.

“Oh good,” Twilight said as she closed her eyes and let the cool air of the fan wash over her, Trixie moving to sit next to her. After a couple of minutes Trixie spoke up.

“There she is.” Trixie pointed at a pink outline rushing towards them. The unicorns stood up, Twilight shaking out her hind legs.

“HI!!!” Pinkie said as she ran up. “Sorry it took me so long, I had to rush home and ask Mr. Cake if I could throw a party to celebrate tonight, but he said no and then I had to get Gummy unstuck from the sink again but once I did I ran right here!” Pinkie Pie, now done with her apology, turned away from the mares and started heading towards the Everfree Forest. “Come on, let’s go!”

Twilight immediately followed her but Trixie hesitated. “Trixie?” Twilight asked.

“So, we’re really doing this? Going into the depths of the Everfree?” Trixie said as she nervously eyed the treeline.

“Yep!” Pinkie said.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight said. “Between your and Pinkie’s rings we’ll be fine.”

Trixie looked down at her ring. “Yeah.” She looked up with a determined look on her face. “You’re right.” Trixie began moving and the three mares entered the Everfree to begin their attempt to find out what happened to Card.

Eventually they began moving among the thick trees, following a narrow path. Twilight was overwhelmed with relief to be in the shade, but once that passed she began to notice something strange. “Hey, look around,” she said.

The other mares didn’t stop moving, but they did glance around. “What?” Trixie asked.

“Remember when we came here a while ago? The place was wrecked, but now it seems just fine.” Twilight said. “What happened?”

Trixie got a thoughtful look on her face but Pinkie immediately spoke up. “It’s the Everfree, silly! The trees fixed themselves!”

“What?” Twilight turned to look at Pinkie over her shoulder.

“It’s possible. All kinds of weird things happen in these woods. In fact,” Trixie said as she began whipping her head around, trying to keep an eye on the entire forest at once, “Pinkie!”

“Huh? What is it?” Pinkie Pie stopped. “Did you see a bear? Or an alligator? Ooh, or a chocolate river?!” Pinkie said with a smile.

“What? Uhh, no,” Trixie said.

“Aww. Are you sure you didn’t see a chocolate river?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

“Sorry.”

“Awwwwww.”

Trixie shook her head. “Pinkie, could you make a shield around us so nothing can attack us? I mean, I’d do it myself but a green shield would be a lot harder to see in the forest than a yellow one,” she rushed out.

“Oh, is that it? No problemo!” A green thread came out of Pinkie’s ring and expanded into a bubble that covered all three of the girls.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, thanks Pinkie,” Twilight said. “Good idea Trixie. Now come on, let’s keep going.”

Under Pinkie Pie’s protective… Uh… Something that starts with P and means shield, the mares continued their long sojourn into the depths of the Everfree.

-----Meanwhile, At the Sweet Apple Acres Produce Stand-----

Fluttershy walked up the roadside stand, muttering under her breath. She stopped muttering, took a deep breath, and got in line behind a stallion who was buying a jug of cider from Applejack.

“Thank yah! Have a nice day!” Applejack said, waving off the customer. “Howdy, Fluttershy. What kin Ah git yah?”

“Hi,” Fluttershy said quietly. “C- can I have an apple, please?”

“Well, shore.” An orange glow manifested around one of the apples behind Applejack and floated over to Fluttershy.

“Thank you.” Fluttershy placed a bit down onto the counter.

“Uhh, sugarcube, it’s two bits now, remember?” Applejack said.

“Oh! Uh, sorry, I- I forgot,” whispered the flustered mare as she took out another bit. “Sorry.”

“Hey, no problem!” Applejack smiled at the pegasus as she scooped up the coins. Fluttershy stood and stared at the apple for a few seconds, chewing on the inside of her mouth.

Applejack noticed this and asked her friend, “Is somethin’ wrong?”

“Huh! Oh, uh, no, I- I was j- just wondering if Big Mac needed anymore help?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yah know, as it turns out he does,” Applejack said. “Darndest thang too. Ah could’ve swore yesterday that we were all done with th’ replanting but I came out this mornin’ and almos’ half the dang thangs had gone an uprooted.”

“R- really?” Fluttershy asked from behind her hair.

“Yea.” Applejack nodded her head. “Ah guess there were some pretty bad winds las’ nigh’ or sumthin’.”

“Yeah, I- I- I- felt it too. When it’s like that I have to come out and change all the animals straw and calm them down and there’s this one little beaver I have to hold because he lost his paw in a storm and so he gets really nervous,” Fluttershy said quickly.

“Huh. You know, it’s weird though,” Applejack said as she placed an elbow on the countertop and propped her head up on her hoof. “Usually if the wind’s real bad this bad shutter we have keeps on slammin’ against the frame, but not tonight.” She humphed and stood back up. “Either way, Big mac’s busy putting alla th’ saplings back inna the ground so firm they’ll snap afore they uproot. Yah could help him with that.”

Fluttershy perked up. “R- really?”

“Shore. It won’ take too long, should be done by tonight,” Applejack said.

Fluttershy said something under her breath.

“Wha’ was that?”

Fluttershy’s eye got wide. “N- nothing!” Fluttershy’s eyes got wide. “I- I’ve gotta go. Sorry, bye!” She spread her wings and a violet energy came out of her ring and began pushing her up and away towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack looked at her friend take off for a second before shrugging and looking down, seeing that the pegasus had left her purchase behind. “Hey!,” she called. “Hey! Yah forgot yer apple!” But Fluttershy didn’t turn around. Applejack looked at the apple on her counter and shrugged. “Well, ifn it’s already been paid for…” She picked up the apple and ate it in three bites.

-----Back in the Everfree-----

By now the mares had managed to get quite deep into the forest, guarded by the mystic power of the green ring and driven by a desire to see their friend.

This drive did nothing to stop them from getting bored by the trip.

“You know,” Twilight said, looking around at the thick, green trees and foliage, “I don’t think we had to walk this long when Card took us to his house.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Trixie said as she looked at the only non-green thing, the path they were walking on. “Pinkie, are you sure you know the way?”

“Abso-posi-tutelutely!” Pinkie said.

The unicorns shrugged. “Well, that’s good enough for me,” Twilight said. “Besides, the first time we went, we were a little preoccupied, remember?”

The mare collectively remembered the sight of one of their friends convulsing, covered in bruises and hardly breathing as they tried to get her to Card’s house before she succumbed to poison.

Shaking the bad memory away, Twilight tried to change the subject. “Anyways, we’re probably almost there.”

“Yep!” Pinkie said.

“Wait!” Trixie said as she suddenly stopped.

The other mares stopped as well. “What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Didn’t you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“...There it is again!” Trixie said as she looked around nervously. Yellow tentacles began extending from her ring. “Don’t you hear it? Listen closely.”

Twilight focused her ears and soon she heard a loud crack and few bashes as well. “Okay, I hear it now,” she said. “What is that?”

“I don’t know, but let’s get moving.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie said as she began moving towards the sounds.

Twilight followed her, certain in the power of the ring to protect her and curious what was making so much noise, eager for anything to break up the monotony.

“Wait, what!” Trixie said. “Where are you going?! Guys? Oh… Fine!” Trixie said as she followed along.

They didn’t go very far before they saw red light. They went towards it and saw a cyan pegasus swinging a red rod made of light at a tree trunk with several deep gouges in it.

Trixie heaved a sigh of relief. “Rainbow Dash!”

The pegasus heard her and turned around, stopping her assault for a moment. “Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?”

“We’re looking for Card,” Trixie said. “What are you doing? I nearly attacked you!”

Rainbow Dash smiled grimly and opened her mouth, but got cut off by Pinkie Pie.

“Dashie, you’re being really, really, loud! I think you’re bothering the animals, because I haven’t seen a single one near here!”

“Huh,” Rainbow Dash said. “You know, Fluttershy said the same thing last night. I was doing this near the outside of the forest and she said that all the sounds were spooking her patients. I was pretty far away from her place though, but I guess sound travels really well on a still night.”

“Yeah.” Pinkie said. The ponies stood around awkwardly until Rainbow Dash made her lightstick disappear.

“It’s about time for me to move anyways. See you all later.” With that, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off.

“...Why aren’t we flying?” Trixie asked. “I mean, Pinkie and I can levitate with these,” she shook the hoof with her ring on it, “and I’m sure we could lift you up, Twilight.”

“I don’t know how to get there from the sky,” Pinkie said. “Besides, the house is right over there.” Pinkie jerked her head to left.

“What?” Trixie asked. Her and Twilight walked over to where Pinkie gestured and walked past a thin line of trees to be greeted by the door to Card’s manor.

“What?” Trixie repeated. “That’s not where it was!”

“Yep!” Pinkie said as she joined the unicorns. “Come on, let’s go in.”

Twilight shrugged and opened up the unlocked door. She walked in first, then Trixie, then Pinkie.

Following a series of open doors, taking care not to close any of them, the group maneuvered through the massive, quiet mansion. However, the quiet didn’t last forever. The mares soon became aware of the sound of someone raspily speaking. As they went through open door after open door, the voice got louder but they were still unable to make out what it was saying, along with the occasional growl and scream.

They reached a point where the source was clearly just around the corner, and they could hear exactly what was being said.

“....Ysoge,ou whhat atveis noout fureof n heasomy re exn theactly o ead i meaxist,don youjusn’t don’tt givgo tse e em hertoup e ndo malreo pleauchady a and thernd lse don’ reall esy nothinget t noherme te f orake yople fun on th ase.is planeu you st anhouldd you have no fn’t exisuc t kbuusjt ddy so I clet man’t ie hamagive yoneu...” the voice rambled, switching between being bored, desperate, and demanding.

The mares all pulled back and looked at each other. Whatever it was wasn’t visible from the doorway. Twilight swallowed hard and peered around the doorframe.

She saw Card, brown jacket and all, leaning against the wall, chest heaving, seemingly using all of his strength to keep himself propped up as the back of his head bounced off of the wall. His eyes were closed but fluttering, but that wasn’t the part of his face that she noticed first. His mouth was moving at a mile a minute, making the rumbling sounds she had been hearing. It seemed to switch its position midway through a letter, bending and curving like it was being pulled by a thousand tiny strings.

In the two seconds since she had first seen him, the steady stream of words had begun to be broken up by heavy gasps as Card’s rocking intensified. Suddenly it stopped entirely and Card peeled off the wall. His eyes screwed up as he began to scream, a pathetic raspy sound coming from a heavily damaged throat. His hooves sprung out of his jacket and clapped over his ears. Hooves decorated by two glowing rings.

One blindingly white, and the other suffocatingly black.